In the conclave which assembled August 6, 1471, for the selection of his successor Cardinal Bessarion just missed the throne, being defeated by Francesco della Rovere, who owed his success to Borgia, Orsini, and Gonzaga, and also to the zeal of his attendant in the conclave, Fra Pietro Riario. In return for his support Borgia received the commendam of Subiaco; Gonzaga, the abbey of S. Gregorio; and Orsini, famous and wealthy, was appointed camerlengo. Francesco della Rovere, born in Savona in 1414, was the son of a poor fisherman and a Greek woman, Lucchesina Mugnone. He was created cardinal in 1467 and assumed the title of San Pietro ad Vincula. He had been general of the Minorites and was famous for his scholarship and his skill in controversy. On his election he took the name Sixtus IV., and he was crowned by Rodrigo Borgia August 25, 1471. With Sixtus the head of the Church rapidly lost his priestly character and became a temporal prince. Thenceforth St. Peter’s successors were Italian sovereigns, and when they possessed the sacred character it was wholly accidental. The life they led compelled them to resort to mundane expedients--the sale of offices and indulgences and the promotion of the interests of their kinsmen. Never before had such shameless nepotism been displayed, and it now became the mainspring of every act of the Pope. Illegitimate sons of the Popes appeared with every change in the Papacy; they conducted themselves in the Vatican like princes; they terrorised Rome and endeavoured by force to obtain possession of the various Italian principalities. Generally their careers came to an abrupt end with the death of the Pope to whom they owed their advancement, and to whom they were frequently valuable aids, the Pontiff’s desire for temporal supremacy often finding expression through them. The Popes, in their struggle with the cardinals, frequently found these satellites highly useful. Their power, however, did not extend far beyond the boundaries of the States of the Church as they were bitterly opposed by the older dynasties. Under Calixtus III. Rome had been a Spanish state, in the reign of Pius II. a Sienese, and during the papacy of Sixtus IV. it was a Ligurian monarchy, and the domain of St. Peter had now reached its greatest territorial expansion. Within its boundaries, however, there still remained a number of feudal families and republics to be destroyed. These the papal favourites, anxious to change the States of the Church into an hereditary monarchy, were eager to crush. December 15, 1471, Sixtus made Pietro Riario, his putative nephew, but probably his son, Cardinal of San Sisto, and Giuliano della Rovere, son of his brother Raffaele, Cardinal of San Pietro ad Vincola, thus breaking his oath. Both these young men were of low origin and no education, and the Sacred College little suspected that one of them, Giuliano, was destined to become the famous Julius II.