Prophecy (Vaticinium)

To run, to hunt, and to stir up fierce battles,
To suffer all things, and to expose himself to various perils,
So that he might be the thunderbolt of war, and might be able to protect
The faith of Christ from the enemy with ever-victorious arms.
Who, after he received the scepter and the diadem, suddenly
Conceived great courage, and rejoiced to appear greater,
And already revolves Herculean columns in his mind,
And his spirit brings to bear the subduing of monsters, and to equal the labors
Of Alcides, and he strives to follow in the footsteps of great
Charlemagne, and to avert the plagues hostile to the lands,
So many faces of crime, and so many instruments of evil,
And he burns now to destroy the Mahometan nations,
And the race of Turks, the Persians, and the swift Geloni,
And to restore the world to peace, with the prodigies slain.
To him, in such an undertaking of affairs, the Venetians first
Came forth in spirit, and entered the recesses of his heart,
By whose counsels and auxiliary arms
He might now subject the Parthenopean and Insubrian scepters due to him,
And might be able to succor fallen affairs.
For he knew how holy the counsels of the Venetian Senate
Had always been; then he held in his mind
How great their love of truth, how great their reverence for the right,
And how great their prudence always in all affairs,
And how great their excellence in sudden events, how great
The undaunted virtue of this [Senate] in adverse Mars,
How vast its power on the sea, how great on land,
And how often it has overcome the enemies of the faith in war,
And how often it has raised up the falling faith with its arms.