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england_n	christendom_n	flourish_a	great_a	14	3	2.1077	3	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A47954	Il nipotismo di Roma, or, The history of the popes nephews from the time of Sixtus the IV to the death of the last Pope Alexander the VII in two parts / written originally in Italian in the year 1667 ; and Englished by W.A.; Nipotismo di Roma. English	Leti, Gregorio, 1630-1701.; Aglionby, William, d. 1705.	1669 (1669)	Wing L1335; ESTC R2244	180,003	346

they least thought of it He did much affect this sort of Generosity or rather Soverainty for he never suffered any of his Relations to put their hands into his Coffers nay he was so absolute that once he banished a Kinsman of his because he found his House better furnished than it could be by those Gratifications which he had received from the Pope who used no more words with him but these We have given you so much and you have so much How came you by the rest And so without delay he banish'd him and divided his Fortune amongst his other Relations If the Nephews of other Popes become rich it is by the abuse they make of that Authority which they usurp in the Pope's Name But it was not so with the Nipotismo of Sixtus for he never gave blindly but with his eyes open and discreetly And if there were any Error committed in their growing rich it was the Pope that was the Author of it and not they who were meerly passive and did but receive their Uncles Liberalities There is no doubt but that under this Pope the Church received much more benefit than damage for the Nipotismo having no Power could not be otherwise than good and innocent and the Pope himself was so wise and vertuous a Prince that there were few Miscarriages in his time if we except that only occasion in which Sixtus by his too hasty Excommunication of King Henry the Third of France brought the Church in danger of losing for ever so noble and flourishing a part of Christendom as it had hapned already by the rashness of one Pope that the Kingdom of England was entirely lost only because Clement the Seventh would not yield a little of his Authority And indeed I think the greatest blemish upon the Reputation of Sixtus is that he suffer'd himself to be so far transported with anger as to Excommunicate Henry the Third of France for having caused the Cardinal of Guise to be killed and the Cardinal of Bourbon to be shut up in a close Prison with the Archbishop of Lyons who were indeed all three Traytors to the Kingdom and Conspirators against the Royal Person of Henry The Consistory of Cardinals did oppose this violent Resolution of Sixtus by remonstrating to him the terrible consequence of it and the danger that all the Church would incur by the loss of so noble a Christian Kingdom But the Pope laughing at all this answered the Cardinals in this manner If therefore you will have it so we will bring it to pass that from henceforward you shall be neither honour'd nor reverenc'd by Princes nor Kings but despis'd vilified and exposed to the hands both of the Oppressor and the Executioner Certainly if the killing of Cardinals be conniv'd at and pass'd over without resentment and chastisement it may very easily become the Case of every one of you However we will rather do that which Justice requires though you little care that Reason be done for the Violence committed not so much against you as the Sacred Purple Nevertheless the Pope was wary not to precipitate things so suddenly but suffered five Months to pass after the death of the Cardinal of Guise during which interval he made by Letters several Admonitions to the King all which proved to no purpose the King being resolute not to free the Cardinal out of Prison which the Pope so vehemently urged Whereupon seeing he could not prevail he thundered out the greater Excommunication with all the accustomed Forms against the King and against all those who in the said matter should afford Counsel to or in any manner whatsoever assist him Besides which he also cited the said King to make his personal Appearance at Rome within the term of seventy days there to give account of the Death of the Cardinal of Guise and the Imprisonment of the Cardinal of Bourbon The King conceived great indignation upon this proceeding of the Pope and began to advise with the Prelates Bishops and Counsellors of greatest trust with him how to ward off such a Storm and things were carried so far that the Council-Royal seem'd resolv'd to create a Patriarch in France particularly for the Gallicane Church who should not in any wise be subject to or have so much as the least Communication with the Church of Rome And 't is likely the French who affect Novelties would not have been backward to close with this Resolution But whilst Matters went on in this manner it so came to pass that the King as he lay with a great Army at S. Cloud two Leagues from Paris was on the first day of August in the year 1569. wounded in the belly with a two-edged Knife by a Dominican Fryar named Jaques Clement Native of the City of Lans and of the age of twenty three years as he was receiving Letters from the hand of the said Friar who was upon his knees of which Wound he died within fourteen hours in regard his Entrals were pierc'd having imploy'd this short in ordering such things as concerned his Soul This Murder hapned seventy eight days after the Summons by the Pope for his Appearance at Rome within seventy days and his Holiness rejoyced not a little at it since hereby the displeasure which the Consistory of Cardinals the People and Nobility had conceiv'd against him as one that car'd not much to see the destruction of a Kingdom which would breed disturbance to the common quiet of Italy from Age to Age both by Sea and Land Great were the Stirs which succeeded in France after the King's death inasmuch as Henry King of Navar next Heir to the Crown began to ende●vour the possession thereof by warring against the Lords of the Ligue who were back'd and upheld by the Spaniards by whom the Succession of Henry was infinitely opposed In these Commotions and Broils of France the Pope gave not those Assistances to the Ligue which they expected and required and this upon several accounts but especially because he would not condescend to the Instances of the Cardinals and the Spaniards who much solicited him giving them this Answer When we were against the dead Henry all you were our Opponents Now that you would persecute the living Henry we will not side with you for the sake of our own Interest It was not a little displeasing to the King of Spain that the Pope did not succour the Ligue nor declare Excommunicate those Princes and Prelates that followed the side of Navar so that the King resolv'd to make some Protestations to the Pope concerning this Tergiversation But his Holiness wanted not Pretexts to fence with and in a manner made sport with those Spanish Cardinals who importun'd him either to unite with the Ligue or send considerable Assistance to it Gregory the Thirteenth had Nephews who did not degenerate from the Name of Buoncompagno that is to say they little car'd to do good and less to do evil Nevertheless according to the Instinct which

seems natural to Pope's Nephews this Family of Buoncompagno could not restrain it self from disgusting some of the principal Persons of the City by the death of two Gentlemen pretended to be slain by accident through the indiscretion of the Sbirri or Serjeants A Policy observed by all Nephews to colour their vindicative Outrages upon all occasions From hence it may be gathered That the intention of the Buoncompagni propended more to Evil than to Good and accordingly they fail'd not to give Instances of the former though 't is hard to find any of the latter But if Nephewship ever did good in Rome 't was in the time of Pius the Fifth when all the Proceedings of the Nephews were directed to Good in regard they wanted Spirit to gainsay the good intention of this Pope who could not endure to see them in Rome out of a jealousie that being fatned with the Treasure of the Church they might fall into the same wicked Road which had been trodden out by so many others Paul the Fourth for there is not much to be said of Pius the Fourth took not the same course for he advanc'd a Nephew who for the space of neer five years knew not how to do any thing but evil and evil so enormous that his Unle was forced to drive him out of Rome and his Successor to put him to death in Rome 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 'T is 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 Vrban 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 But if there be not much to be said of the forementioned Popes there is a super-abundance of matter to be said of Alexander the Sixth whose very memory raises horror in the breasts of the Romans even to this day It seems God Almighty thought fit to chastise Christendom with the barbarity of this Pope who not contented with his own cruel covetous and insatiable nature introduc'd a Nipotismo not degenerating from the manners of their Uncle Amongst the other Popes and their Nephews was seen though in the midst of much ill some spark and glimmering of good whereas in the Person of Alexander and his Nephews was never perceptible the least ray of good amidst a vast Ocean of evil deplorable even by future Ages not only to those which were so unhappy as to see him living Some strongly believed That this Barbarian Pope had sworn himself and caus'd his Kindred likewise to swear Never to do good to the Church And they had reason to think so whilst no sort of Reason prevailed with him or any of them who acted all things with an Authority not otherwise limited than by their own

unbridled Passion He would not allow that the City of Rome should enjoy certain holy priviledges peculiar to it alone and therefore in the year 1500 having publish'd an Universal Jubile he granted more Indulgences to those that staid at home than to those who as the custom is came to visit the Churches of Rome ordain'd for that purpose Nevertheless some were willing to think that he did this out of good policy as doubting lest all the people of Christendom being already offended with the wicked carriage of his Sons there might happen at Rome amidst the variety and confusion of sundry Nations some resolution to the prejudice of all his House But such reasons had no place in his mind for those that came to Rom● were led thither by devotion and the diversity of Nations hinders the Union of a People that would take Arms against their Lord. The principal cause lay in his own humour which was cruel and totally averse from doing good to any others besides his own Relations And whereas by so great a concourse the Romans were likely to gain something by the traffick of holy Merchandise to wit Medals Crowns and other consecrated works besides the Rent of Lodgings and sale of Provisions He would not that they should enjoy this benefit although the hindrance of it was accompanied with loss both to himself the Church of St. Peter and the Office of the Datary All the good he did to the Church was that he shew'd himself very liberal to Writers and Learned men of all sorts not out of any natural inclination towards them but only to oblige them to write well of himself and his Kindred And accordingly there were some infamous Writers as I may deservedly call them who made comparison between his Raign and that of Alexander with a parallel of the qualities of these two persons Amongst the rest one made a Book intituled The glories of the Papacy of Alexander the Sixth and the Borgian Family God give a thousand ill years to such Writers who flatter falsly and at their pleasure make Angels of Devils and Saints of Tyrants An other good thing which this Pope seem'd to do to the City of Rome was that there being a great dearth in the State he caused great plenty of corn to be brought from Sicily and by this means render'd the City very plentifully stored But 't was not any affection for the people that induc'd him to it but he did it out of consideration of great profit to himself for he sold corn at Rome for double the price it cost in Sicily trading with the Churches money and putting the gain into the purse of his Bastards Whence it may be concluded that he never had any intention to do good to the publick Innocent the eighth of the house of Cibo was as benign and inclin'd to do good as Alexander was cruel and addicted to do evil The truth is Innocent who gave neither Offices nor Riches to his Relations but with moderation as I have said in due place was a Pope worthy of that time when Christendom seem'd to be threatned with most heavy calamities This man studied from morning to night how to procure benefit to the Church ease to the People and comfort to the Catholicks so that no sooner was any thing mention'd to him but he presently answer'd So be that it bring good to the Publick From whence it may easily be gather'd that all his motions tended to do good and were far from the design of doing evil He rewarded all those Cardinals who had nominated and promoted him to the Papal Chair To the Monastick Orders he granted particular favours and priviledges especially to that of St. Dominique and St. Francis He lightned the Church and likewise the Palace and Court of all superfluous expenses He us'd great charity towards the Poor He lov'd his Country and caus'd most ample satisfaction to be given to the Genoeses who had been ill treated during the vacancy of the See He honour'd and requir'd others to honour all extraneous Nations of the World insomuch that the Turk himself sent an Embassadour to him with some Presents meerly because he had understood this generous demeanour of the Pope amongst which Presents was the Title of the Holy Cross and the Spear which pierc'd the side of our Saviour Thus the Romans report and believe and accordingly I write it He readily pardon'd injuries receiv'd provided his Pardon were desir'd with humility and he receiv'd Embassadours with so great curtesies that in those days the Princes of Christendom knew not how to do a greater favour to a deserving Officer of State than to send him Embassadour to Rome to negotiate with so worthy and good a Pope He re-bless'd the Venetians who had been interdicted by his Predecessor and although a Genoese yet he omitted not to bestow divers favours on the Senate being wont to say That Popes may receive great honour by keeping good correspondence with the Republick and great shame by breaking with it Whence during his Government he entred into League with the Venetians not in order to raise war against any but only for procuring an Universal peace and the tranquillity of all Christendom He suppress'd all those Tyrants who in several places tyrannis'ed over the State Ecclesiastical He reduc'd unto friendship the disunited hearts of the Romans particularly the Families of Colonna Orsini Margoni and Santa Croce which were all embroil'd together in civil feuds and he commanded all Governours of the State to use their utmost endeavour for extinguishing all other intestine combustions He reduc'd all the Kings and Princes of Europe to an Universal Peace and believe me 't is little less than a miracle to unite together so many disunited minds And indeed since the daies of Augustus Caesar never was there seen in Europe so great a peace and concord between all Princes who attributed this blessed tranquillity to the pious intention and good conduct of the Pope He brought to pass that three the most powerful Armies that ever appeared in the world were rais'd for the destruction of the Turk two by Land whereof one was commanded by the Emperour the other by the King of Hungary and the third was a very mighty Fleet commanded by the Pope in Person accompanied with the Kings of France Spain and England besides part of the Colledge of Cardinals and a great number of Princes But whilst all things were putting in order and eight months of the year allotted for preparation already elapsed this great Pope fell sick and his death shortly ensuing hindered Christendom from the most glorious expedition that ever was or perhaps will be undertaken against Asia and so much the more in that Alexander the Sixth was his Successor These examples are alledged by me to shame those Popes who are so infinitely strangers to the spirit and qualities of Innocent The Church indeed much needs in these daies such a Pope as he to remedy the innumerable disorders and