God forgive that scandalous resolution of _Sixtus_ the fourth to introduce (I will not say the _Nipotismo_, but) the Insolence, Vanity, Ambition, Avarice, and the too great Liberty of the _Nipotismo_: For the Church had formerly seen _Pope’s_ Nephews in the _Vatican_, but not till then the Vices in their Nephews, which peradventure (if not without all peradventure) were brought in by the aforesaid _Pope_ by means of the conniv’d-at Liberty which he suffered his Relations to take, and for that having no regard to the future, but minding wholly the present, he went in the direct road to the destruction both of Church and State. This was that _Pope_, who made war against the _Colonneses_, quarrell’d the _Venetians_, and committed several other exorbitances, for no other reason but the sake of his Kindred; who, during his thirteen long years Popedom, were never any one of them the Authors of least advantage to the Church, but altogether addicted to spend and spoil, to waste and poure out their Prodigalities at her cost. More might be said, but to what purpose is it to rub old sores whilst every day produces new and fresh occasions of grief and trouble? Where are those Primitive times, when the lives of the Ecclesiasticks were solely dedicated to the publick good, and they possess’d nothing as their own; but whatever was surplus to what was necessary to sustain Nature, was all disposed of to the poor, with so holy and overflowing Zeal from the true fountain of perfect Charity that it refresh’d even the very sight of the beholders? One of the greatest evils which the _Nipotismo_ hath constantly caus’d hath been their little regard to do good to the poor. The _Romans_ do and ever have observ’d (and would to God they had not observ’d throughout all ages) that the least charity is that which comes from the houses of the _Pope’s_ Nephews, who themselves have nothing but what they receive as it were by a general Alms; which is no sooner got into their clutches but it becomes transformed into hereditary Principalities, and into a Revenue not temporal, but perpetual and eternal. But methinks they ought at least to cover these substantial wickednesses with an appearance of good, by giving the poor the remains of their superfluities; and not suffer them to clamour at their Palace doors, from whence they are so often driven by the violence of their servants. But the truth is, the _Romans_ give so little credit to the good they should do, having been witnesses themselves to so much of their ill; that it is not possible for them to believe that what they give in Alms proceeds from a good and charitable heart, but from hypocrisie and design.