The State of Venice resented this attack upon their servant as though it had been directed against the majesty of the Republic.  A proclamation was immediately issued, offering enormous rewards for the capture or murder of the criminals, especially so worded as to insinuate the belief that men of high position in Rome were implicated.  The names of the chief conspirators were as follows:  Ridolfo Poma, a broken Venetian merchant; Alessandro Parrasio of Ancona, outlawed for the murder of his uncle; a priest, Michele Viti of Bergamo; and two soldiers of adventure, Giovanni di Fiorenza and Pasquale di Bitonto.  Having escaped to the Lido, they took ship for Ravenna and arrived in due course at Ancona, where they drew 1000 crowns from the Papal Camera, and proceeded to make triumphal progress through Romagna.  Their joy was dashed by hearing that Fra Paolo had not been killed.  The Venetian bando filled them with fears and mutual suspicions, each man’s hand being now set against his comrade, and every ruffian on the road having an interest in their capture.  Yet after some time they continued their journey to Rome, and sought sanctuary in the palace of Cardinal Colonna.  Here their reception was not what they had anticipated.  Having failed in the main object and brought scandal on the Church, they were maintained for some months in obscurity, and then coldly bidden to depart with scanty recompense.  All this while their lives remained exposed to the Venetian ban.  Under these circumstances it is not strange that the men were half-maddened.  Poma raged like a wild beast, worshiping the devil in his private chamber, planning schemes of piracy and fresh attacks on Sarpi, even contemplating a last conspiracy against the person of the Pope.  He was seized in Rome by the sbirri of the government, and one of his sons perished in the scuffle.  Another returned to Venice, and ended his days there as a vagrant lunatic.  Poma himself died mad in the prison of Civita Vecchia.  Viti also died mad in the same prison.  Parrasio died in prison at Rome.  One of the soldiers was beheaded at Perugia, and the other fell a victim to cut-throats on the high road.  Such was the end of the five conspirators against Fra Paolo Sarpi’s life.[146] A priest, Franceschi, who had aided and abetted their plot, disappeared soon after the explosion; and we may rest tolerably assured that his was no natural removal to another world.

It is just to add that the instigation of this murderous plot was never brought home by direct testimony to any members of the Papal Court.  But the recourse which the assassins first had to the asylum of the Nuncio in Venice, their triumphal progress through cities of the Church, the moneys they drew on several occasions, the interest taken in them by Cardinal Borghese when they finally reached Rome, and their deaths in Papal dungeons, are circumstances of overwhelming cumulative evidence against the Curia.  Sarpi’s life was frequently attempted in the following years.  On one occasion, Cardinal Bellarmino, more mindful of private friendship than of public feud, sent him warning that he must live prepared for fresh attacks from Rome.