§ 48. LITERATURE AND GENERAL SURVEY. 405
ent VII., and in 1517 three more nephews, one of them the bastard son of his brother, also Alfonzo of Portugal at 7, and John of Loraine, son of the duke of Sicily, at 20. This is an imperfect list.^ Bishoprics, abbacies and other ecclesiastical appointments were heaped upon the papal children, nephews and other favorites. The cases in which the red hat was conferred for piety or learning were rare, while the houses of Mantua, Ferrara and Modena, the Medici of Florence, the Sforza of Milan, the Colonna and the Orsini had easy access to the Apostolic camera.
Thejiardiiials vied with kings in wealth and luxury, and their palaces were enriched with the most gorgeous furnishings and precious jDlate, and filled with servants. They set an example of profligacy which they carried into the Vatican itself. The illegitimate offspring of pontiffs were acknowledged without a blush, and the sons and daughters of the highest houses in Italy, France and Spain were sought in marriage for them by their indulgent fathers. The Vatican was given up to nuptial and other entertainments, even women of ill-repute being invited to banquets and obscene comedies performed in its chambers.
The prodigal expenditures of the papal household were maintained in part by the great sums, running into tens of thousands of ducats, which rich men were willing to pay for the cardinalate. When the funds of the Vatican ran low, loans were secured from the Fuggers and other banking houses aad the sacred things of the Vatican put in pawn, even to the tiara itself.. The amounts required by Alexander VI. for marriage
1 Among other youthful appointments to the dignity of cardinal are Jacinto Bobo, afterwards Coelestine III., at 18, by Honorius III., 1126 ; Peter Roger, afterwards Gregory XI., at 17, Hercules Gonzaga, by Clement VII., at 22 ; Alexander Farnese, by his uncle, Paul III., at 14, who also appointed his grandsons, Guida Sforza at 16 and Ranucio Farnese at 15 ; two nephews, at the ages of 14 and 21, by Julius III., d. 15r)0, and also Innocent del Monte at 17 ; Ferdinand de' Medici at 14, by Pius IV., d. 1565 ; Andrew and Albert of Austria, sons of Maximilian II., at 18, by Gregory XIII., and Charles of Loraine at 16 ; Alexander Peretti at 14, by his uncle, Sixtus V., d. 1590 ; two nephews at 18, by Innocent IX., d. 1591 ; Maurice of Savoy at 14, and Ferdinand, son of the king of Spain, at 10, by Paul V., d. 1621 ; a nephew at 17, by Innocent X., d. 1655 ; a son of the king of Spain, by Clement XII., d. 1740.
406 THE MIDDLE AGES. A.D. 1294-1517.
dowries for his children, and by Leo X. for nephews, were enormous.
Popes, like Sixtus IV. and Alexander VI., had no scruple about involving Italy in internecine wars in order to compass the papal schemes either in the enlargement of papal domain or the enrichment of papal sons and nephews. Julius II. was a warrior and went to the battle-field in armor. No sovereign of his age was more unscrupulous in resorting to double dealing in his diplomacy than was Leo X. To reach the objects of its ambition, the holy see was ready even to form alliances with the sultan. The popes, so Dollinger says, from Paul II. to Leo X., did the most it was possible to do to cover the papacy with shame and disgrace and to involve Italy in the horrors of endless wars. ^ The Judas-like betrayal of Christ in the highest seat of Christendom, the gayeties, scandals and crimes of popes as they pass before the reader in the diaries of Infessura, Burchard and de Grassis and the despatches of the ambassadors of Venice, Mantua and other Italian states, and as repeated by Creighton, Pastor and Gregorovius, make this period one of the most dramatic in human annals. The personal element furnished scene after scene of consuming interest. It seems to the student as if history were approaching some great climax.
Three events of permanent importance for the general hjstory of mankind also occurred in this age, the overthrow of the Byzantine empire, 1453, the discovery of the Western world, 1492, and the invention of printing. It closed witli a general council, the Fifth Lateran, whicli adjourned only a few months before the Reformer in the North shook the papal fabric to its base and opened the door of the modern age.