This is a famous letter cited from bibliographies in which the cardinal, Alessandro & nbsp; Mattei, & nbsp; writes to the commissioner of the executive power of Ferrara, then under French occupation; all citizens should have taken an oath to the Republic, but the cardinal & nbsp; Mattei & nbsp; refused with this letter writing his reasons and following this choice he was exiled.
There is a print version, edited by & nbsp; Antonio & nbsp; Zatta in January 1798, but it is slightly different from the present. Important witness of the perennial State-Church conflict, in the pre-Napoleonic age. & nbsp;