(θ) the Lord Don Jaime Casanova, Apostolic Prothonotary; Cardinal-Presbyter of the Title of San Stefano _in Monte Celio_: (ι) the Lord Don Francisco Iloris, Apostolic Treasurer, Cardinal-Deacon of Santa Maria Nuova. Why a learned Catholic historian[58] should go out of his way to call this a simoniacal creation, and his English editor to repeat the calumny, is hard to say. It is bad policy to cry stinking fish, at all times; it is especially silly to do so when the fish are fresh. The Bull _De Simoniaca Electione_ directed against Simony was not issued until 1505, in the reign of the Lord Julius P.P. II; and it was not retrospective. In 1503, the Lord Alexander P.P. VI was actually a temporal sovereign, “an Italian Despot with certain sacerdotal additions.” The cardinals were the highest degree of His peerage. No doubt they paid for their promotion in the usual way; fees to officials, the crusade tax on the revenues of their Titles, perhaps even a handsome contribution to the Treasury: but why call this Simony, when it was not Simony _stricte dicte_ till two years later? A Red Hat no more can be bought than Strawberry Leaves. A man may use his gold to recommend himself for these head-gears. A man may present £25,000 to the best of all princesses’ Hospital Fund, or land worth a quarter of a million to the proletariat; he may “bang a saxpence” in fees to officials for his knighthood, he even may pay pounds sterling in fees to officials for his barony: but he righteously would be enraged if people said that he had bought his knighthood or his barony. The word Simony must be taken as belonging to the Genus _Blessed_, (_e.g._, Mesopotamia;) or as the bark of a dog who dare not bite. Either it is a mere incantation; or a war-whoop “full of sound and fury signifying nothing.” In sober logical earnest, it is inapplicable here. * * * * * As the heat of summer increased, the Lord Alexander P.P. VI, now of the age of seventy-two years, used to sit and take the air in the shady gardens of the Vatican, and amuse Himself by watching two little boys at play. They were His bastard and his grandson; Duke Giovanni Borgia of Nepi and Camerino, of the age of five years; and Duke Roderico of Sermoneta, Madonna Lucrezia’s son, of the age of four years. * * * * * When the sun entered the constellation of Leo—Sol in Leone, the dog-days—the heat became abnormal; and plague and fevers appeared in Rome.[59] The Orators of the Powers promptly made arrangements to quit the City, for a cool and wholesome villegiatura.