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642 JV. Miller monwealth. In the following year, the town of San Marino was thoroughly fortified by one of its most distinguished citizens, Giam- battista Belluzzi, author of a work on fortifications, and the present town walls are memorials of his skill. Encouraged by these evidences of their own strength and by the ducal protection, the Sammarinesi indignantly rejected the summons sent to their cap- tains to appear before the papal throne to answer charges made against them by one of their fellow-citizens. We have already mentioned that the statutes forbade the appeal of a citizen to any foreign power, and, on the present occasion, the government of the republic not only punished the appellant, but firmly declined to ad- mit any rights of jurisdiction outside of their own frontiers. The latter half of the sixteenth century began, however, to mark a decHne in the fortunes of the republic. The public spirit of the community became weaker, the administration of justice was defective, and the great famine of 1591 added a final blow to the sorely tried state. The members of the Council of Sixty neglected their duties to such an extent that a quorum was frequently lack- ing, and the delays in drawing up a new and much-wanted code of laws were so flagrant that, weary of waiting, the government gave binding force to a compilation, made by a learned Sammarinese, Camillo Bonelli, who, like the most eminent citizens of that period, sought for a wider field for his abilities abroad. There were able men, even in that dark age, who sprang from the soil of Monte Titano, but their talents were usually devoted to the service of other governments. Characteristically enough, as the republic de- clined in moral force, it added to the splendor of its titles. The Council of Sixty began at this time to style itself // Principe and to describe itself as " most illustrious," and the custom of confer- ring the honorary citizenship upon foreigners, a custom still preva- lent, was introduced. Thus in i 568 we find Antonio Cerri admitted as an honorary citizen, while literary merit was thus rewarded in the person of Zuccoli, author of a quaint dialogue on San Marino, called // Belljizzi, or Delia Citta Felice ; for, despite its decline, San Marino still seemed a " happy city " to outsiders in that distracted age. The seventeenth century opened with the dark prospect that ere long the republic would lose its traditional allies by the death of Francesco Maria II. of Urbino without an heir and the consequent lapse of his duchy to the Holy See. The last duke did not, indeed, die till 1 63 1, but before his death negotiations were made with Urban VIII., who took the republic under his protection, at the same time guaranteeing its liberty and respecting its jurisdiction. From this date San iMarino was surrounded on all sides by papal