Il nipotismo di Roma, or, The History of the Popes Nephews: from the time of Sixtus IV. to the death of the last Pope, Alexander VIILeti, Gregorio
History
Il nipotismo di Roma, or, The History of the Popes Nephews: from the time of Sixtus IV. to the death of the last Pope, Alexander VII
Leti, Gregorio
Nepotism; Papacy -- Early works to 1800; Papacy -- History
But this is the difference: ’tis one thing for _Popes_ to issue from a
Noble Family, and another for Families to rise from the _Popes_. The
foresaid Houses received not their Splendour, Nobility, and Wealth from
the Papal Grandeur, but it may rather be said, that the Papal Grandeur
received splendour from those Families.
Besides, in those daies the Nephews of _Popes_ remain’d at home, and did
not come to _Rome_; if they did, they brought not with them that
insatiable avarice which Nephews bring (or have brought hitherto) when
they enter into possession of the _Vatican_. I mean not therefore to
speak of those Families, which have been in great esteem as well since
they have had _Popes_ of them, as before. None of these is advanc’d by
the Papacy, but remains in the same manner without growth in Ambition,
Riches, or Glory.
Particularly, the House of _Colonna_ (which is at present one of the most
considerable, not of _Rome_ only, but of all _Italy_) hath so little
valu’d the Papal Grandeur in its lot, that they have often persecuted it,
only to let the World see that the _Colonneses_ pretended not to glory in
the Treasures of the Church, but in the merit of the persons, exemplified
in the valour of so many illustrious men, who have spent much of their
bloud for the service of the _Popes_ themselves.
’Tis certain, that by two _Popes_ issu’d out of the House of _Colonna_,
the _Colonneses_ have had so little advantage, either in dignity or
wealth, that they may say that the _Popes_ were taken out of their
Family, and that they have the honour to be _Colonneses_ of the House of
_Colonna_, but not _Colonneses_ of the House of _Popes_. But there are
many other Families, whose glory it is to have had their rise from the
fortune given them by _Popes_, without which they would never have been
any thing considerable; and these are the Families of which I am to
speak.
The Family of _Rovere_, from which _Sixtus_ the fourth was descended, of
it self was very noble, and had liv’d so for above two Ages in
_Lombardy_, but by various changes and accidents it was declin’d to such
a degree that the chief branch was remov’d to _Savona_, and there
remain’d many years in a mediocrity of fortune amongst the principal
Citizens, till _Sixtus_, being made _Pope_, determin’d to revive it to a
greater fortune at the cost of the _Vatican_, and the publick Treasury.
All the glories of this House, though dispersed here and there by _Pope
Sixtus_, yet in a little time became confined to the sole possession of
the Dutchy of _Urbin_, which indeed the House of _Rovere_ possessed, but
not without great persecutions for the space of 150 years and more,
beginning from 1475 till 1631. When the said House was extinguished by
the death of _Francesco Maria_, the last Duke, or of _Guido Ubaldo_, if I
remember right; there remaining no other Heirs save _Donna Vittoria della
Rovere_, married to _Ferdinand_ the second great Duke of _Tuscany_.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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