In the beginning of this Pope’s Reign, the Murthers, Rapes, Violences, Robberies, Cheats, Injustices, and a thousand other Enormities and Vices, which surrounded the Ecclesiastical State, to the damage of all Christendom, were attributed to the Pope, who had set up his Kindred in Rome; whom after the Pope had banished the City, his Holiness’s Reputation seem’d to revive in the hearts of the Catholicks, who had been scandalized at him, and now saw, that all the Mischiefs were to be attributed to the Pope’s wicked Relations.
’Tis a strange thing, That amongst so many Nephews great and small of the House of Caraffa, into whose hand the Pope had put the Government of the Church, there should not be one into whose head ever came so much as a single thought to do any manner of good to the Church, to Christendom, or to the afflicted State Ecclesiastical.
The mischief which the Nephews of Pope Caraffa brought to the Church, or rather to the whole World, was so great, that to this present day the People of Rome retain a certain impression of hatred against all that bear the Name of Caraffa, however Noble Gentlemen; it not being possible for any so much as to behold one of them, without regret and aversion.
Cardinal Caraffa was twice in danger (I say, in danger; for in him the Papacy would have been endanger’d) to be Pope; Once at the time of the Election of Innocent, and before at that of Urban; But at both times he was excluded, for the sole consideration of his being of the Family of Caraffa; the very Name whereof, in remembrance of the Nephews of Paul the Fourth, remains extremely odious both to small and great.
Otherwise, the Cardinal in himself was a Person of merit, and vertue sufficient, to enable to ascend to such a Dignity, as well as those others that have ascended in his place. Some excluded him, because they doubted lest the Caraffi would turn once again to the Sicut erat, that is, to aggrandize themselves at the cost of the Church, and the damage of all Christendom; and so much the more, in regard the number of the said Cardinal’s Nephews was so great, that even himself could hardly count them; notwithstanding that he did what he could to make it believed, that he was wholly free from personal interest, as well as that of blood.
Long would the discourse be, and infinite the words, if I were obliged to give account of the Nephews of all the Popes, one after another (according to the order begun) down to Sixtus the fourth: to whom, as being the Introducer, not of the Nipotismo it self into Rome, but of the Pride and boundless Authority thereof, may be justly attributed all the Evil, which, for the two last Ages, the Nephews of Popes have caused to the Church.
Wherefore, I will for the present omit to make a distinct survey of the mischiefs of the other; partly, because I know not readily how to discover the good of any; and partly, because my heart will not suffer me to view, without tears, the Evil of all; which is the more grievous, because irremediable.
What might I say of Marcellus the second, who lived but a short time, and gave no authority to his Nephews? Or what of Julius the third, who minded nothing else but Feasting, sometimes with one, sometimes with another; and kept his Kindred at Rome, rather to accompany him to Entertainments, than to assist him in the Government of the Church, which he little heeded?
What Discourse shall I make of Paul the Third, who would have had the Farnesian Lillies turned the State of the Church into one sole Garden for their own use? Or of Clement the Seventh, who out of a Capriccio lost the Kingdom, by refusing to grant Henry the Eighth of England a Divorce from Catherine, and a Licence to marry Anne Bouillon, with whom he was in love? What praise shall I attribute to Adrian the Sixth, a great Enemy to his own Relations, and perpetually averse from the introducing of a Nipotismo?
What shall I say of Leo the Tenth, of the most Noble Family of the Medici? Where shall I find the good which he did to the Church, spoiling other Princes of their States, to transfer them to his own House? What Title shall we give to Julius the Second, of whom it was not known whether he were inclin’d to the hatred or love of his Relations? What shall I say of Pius the Third, who liv’d not long enough to receive the Visits of his Kindred?