If one reads over the popes lives, we shall be fully convinced that these holy fathers were no enemies to wine. Alexander the Fifth was a great drinker, and that too of strong wines, says his own historian, Theoderic de Neim. If one may give any credit to the letters of the king of Spain’s ambassador to his master, Sixtus Quintus was a terrible drunkard[1].
And Pope Boniface instituted indulgencies for those who should drink a cup after grace (called since St. Boniface’s cup). A plain argument that his sanctity did not hate wine.
This puts me in my mind of what I have formerly read, though the author’s name is now slipped out of my memory, that when cardinal Pignatelli, afterwards Innocent the Twelfth, was advanced to the papacy, his name signifying little pots or mugs, three of which he bore for his arms; and whose mother was of the house of Caraffa, which signifies a jug, a Frenchman made these lines:—
“Nous devons tous boire en repos
Sous le regne de ce saint pere
Son nom ses armes sont des pots
Une Caraffe etoit sa mere.
Celebrons donc avec eclat
Cet auguste Pontificat.”
Under this holy father’s reign