§ 52. SIXTHS IV. 1471-1484. 429
gayeties of carnival week are mentioned races for young men, for old men and for Jews, as well as races between horses, donkeys and buffaloes. Paul looked down from St. Mark's and delighted the crowds by furnishing a feast in the square below and throwing down amongst them handfuls of coins. In things of this kind, says Infessura, the pope had his delight.^ He was elaborate in his vestments and, when he appeared in public, was accustomed to paint his face.
The pope's death was ascribed to his indiscretion in eating two large melons. Asked by a cardinal why, in spite of the honors of the papacy, he was not contented, Paul replied that a little wormwood can pollute a whole hive of honey. The words belong in the same category as the words spoken 300 years before by the English pope, Adrian, when he announced the failure of the highest office in Christendom to Satisfy all the ambitions of man.
§ 52. Sixtus IV. 1471-1484.
The last three popes of thelSth century, Sixtus IV . , Innocent VIII. and Alexander VI., completely subordinated the interests of the papacy to the advancement of their own pleasure and the enrichment and proiiiotion_of^ their^Jc^^ The
avenues of the Vatican were filled with upstarts whose only claim to recognition was that they were the children or the nephews of its occupant, the supreme pontiff.
The chief features of the reign of Sixtus IV., a man of great decision and ability, were the insolent rule of his numerous nephews and the wars with the states of Italy in which their intrigues and ambitions involved their uncle. At the time of his election, Francesco Rovere was general of the order of the Franciscans. Born 1414^ he had risen from \hs lowest obscurity, his father being a fisherman near Savona. He took thejdactor's degree iii theology at Padua, and taught
1 Et di quests cose ltd si pigliava piacere, p. 69.
2 Den ndchst-folgenden Trdgern der Tiara schien dieselbe in erster Linie ein Mittel zur Bereicherung und Erhohung ihrer Familien zu sein. Diesem Zioecke wurde die ganzepdpstUche Macht in riicksichtslosester Weise dienstbar gemachi, Hefele-Knopfler, Kirchetigesch. , p. 483.
430 THE MIDDLE AGES, A.D. 12!<4-1517.
successively in Bologna, Pavia, Siena, Florence and Perugia. Paul JL__a£pointfi^ liJjJL cardinal. In the conclave strong support is said to have come to him through his notorious nephew, Peter Riario, who was active in conducting his canvas and making substantial promises for votes.
The effort to interest the princes in the Turkishcrus^ide was renewed, but soorTahandbhedT Cardinals were despatched to the various courts of Europe, Bessarion to France, Marco Barbo to Germany, and Borgia to Spain, but only to find these governments preoccupied with other concerns or ill-disposed to the enterprise. In 1472, a papal fleet of 18 galleys actually set sail, with banners blessed by the pope in St. Peter's, and under the command of Cardinal Caraffa. It was met at Rhodes by 30 ships from Naples and 36 from Venice and, after some plundering exploits, returned with 25 Turkish prisoners of war and 12 camels, — trophies enough to arouse the curiosity of the Romans. Moneys realized from some of Paul XL's gems had been employed to meet the expenditure.
Sixtus' relatives became the leading figures in Rome, and in wealth and pomp they soon rivalled or eclipsed the old Roman families and the older members of the sacred college. Sixtus was blessed or burdened with 16 nephews and grandnephews. All that was in his power to do, he did, to give them a good time and to establish them in affluence and honor all their days. The Sienese had their day under Pius IJ., and now it was the turn of the Ligurians. The pontiff's two brothers and three, if not four, sisters, as well as all their progeny, had to be taken care of. The excuse made for Calixtus III. cannot be made for this indulgent uncle, that he was approaching his dotage. Sixtus was only 56 when he reached the tiara. And desperate is the suggestion that the unfitness or unwillingness of the Roman nobility to give the pope proper support made it necessary for him to raise up another and a complacent aristocracy. ^
Sixtus deemed no less than five of his nephews and a grandnephew deserving of the red hat, and sooner or later eight
^ Hergenrother-Kirsch, II. 970. These most reputable Catholic historians intimate rather than emphasize this consideration.