But what a strange Sacrilegious opinion is that which is maintained by the Divines of the Church of Rome? viz. That one who has got his riches by Extortions, and oppressing of the poor, and any wicked way, is not obliged to a restitution to the poor: But it is enough if when he dies he leaves his Estate to some Church, founds a Monastery, or an Hospital; as if it were lawful to transgress the Law of God, and bring ones self into a state of damnation to satisfie that covetous and insatiable humour of the Church-men.
If the Walls of Rome could speak, and the Fabricks of so many stately Cloysters had mouths to make themselves heard; if those vast Palaces of the Nipotismos were animated; Oh! How many tender-hearted Christians would be fain to forsake the City, and retire into desarts, that they might not hear the stones complain for the poor, and lament their misfortune?
Ferdinand, Second Duke of Toscany, having a great deal of reason to complain of the Barberins proceedings towards him, said one day to one who was about to go in Pilgrimage to Rome: That the holiest Temple that he should see there would be the Barberins Palace, for that it was cemented and built with the bloud of many Martyrs.
If any body in Rome should steal but the value of six pence in his greatest necessity from a Priest, without doubt the Nipotismo, who has the Government of the City in their hands, would cause him to be hang’d immediately: and yet they that rob and spoyl the Church go off free, and without any punishment.
Every day there comes out some new Order from the Datary-Office for the reformation of the abuses committed by Church-men in their employments; and the Popes do give often particular Commissions to This and That Cardinal to enquire into the lives of the Monks, and take away those Scandals which do every day encrease: And yet for all this the Romans observe, that the more the Decrees of Reformation are, the more are the Vices multiplied; the disease being so stabborn and inveterate, that it grows worse when the Physician goes about to apply remedies to it.
The Pope’s subjects curse the Nipotismo for their Tyranny and Extortions. Christendom is scandalized to see that they little believe that Religion of which they make so great Profession. The Church weeps and sheds tears to see its bowels gnawn and torn by the Nipotismo. The State, weakned by so many Taxes and Oppressions, sends its cries to Heaven against them. The Monks exclaim, seeing that the Nipotismo’s Avarice deprives them of their Profit, and makes them contribute towards the maintenance of their Grandeur. Princes and Embassadours retire discontented from Rome, not being able to endure the Nipotismo’s insolence. The Altars themselves are often forsaken and stand empty, the Nephews refusing to grant Indulgences without money.
Certainly these abuses, these disorders, these scandals should drive the Popes out of Rome. That Gardener that does only cut the top of the Weeds, and not root them out, is but an ill Gardener. But how can the Popes reform the abuses of the Church, if they do not begin with their Nephews? For it would also else be a very preposterous Reformation that should begin with the Effect, and leave the Cause untouched. Some say, that the Popes are holy in the Reformations of the Breviary, and the chastizing of the Romans for their faults: But they are devils in leaving the crimes of their Nephews unpunished; for they trusting to their Uncles Indulgence, do slack the Reins, which should curb the natural inclination which we all have to do ill.
But it is now time to enter into a particular Narration of the good and hurt the Church has received from the Nipotismo; and as we begun their History at Sixtus the fourth, and continued it down to Alexander the seventh now reigning: So we will now begin at Alexander, and trace it backwards up to Sixtus the fourth.
The first mischief, and indeed the most considerable one, caused by the Nipotismo of Alexander, was the change made by them in the Pope; whom from godly, pious, and inclin’d to mortification, they have made sensual and ambitious.
Alexander in the first months of his elevation to the Popedom had so taken upon him the profession of an Evangelical life, that he was wont to season his meat with ashes, to sleep upon a hard Couch, to hate Riches, Glory, and Pomp; taking a great pleasure to give audience to Embassadours in a Chamber full of dead mens skuls, and in the sight of his Coffin, which stood there to put him in mind of his death.