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
And certainly had it not been, that the _Romans_ did every day look for
the Popes death, there would have happened some revolution, for the
hatred of the people to the _Barbarines_ encreased more and more the
longer the Pope lived; one thing particularly exciting publick envy and
jealousie, which was, that the _Barbariens_ did every day plant their
Armes in some place or another of the City, to eternize their Name and
Family.
One of my friends had the curiosity, to reckon all the Bees (that is, the
_Barbarines_ Armes) that the _Barbarines_ had placed here and there, as
well in the City, as in the State of the Church, and found their number
to be above ten thousand, in Painting, Stone and Marble.
The _Barbarines_ tryed to make themselves great Princes; and trusting to
the great sums of money which they had got together, thought they might
make themselves Masters of a good part of _Italy_: Their first design
was, to put themselves in possession of the Dutchy of _Urbin_, which in
the year 1631. was fallen to the Church, by the death of _Francisco Maria
della Rovere_; but they found the Cardinals very averse, and resolved not
to consent to the alienation of so considerable a part of the Popedom;
they thought therefore that it was better to let it alone, considering
the injuries they had already done to _Venice_, and the great Duke of
_Tuscany_, who without doubt would have crossed their design.
But to be at once revenged of their Enemies, and draw respect from their
Friends, they fram’d a design of driving the _Spaniards_ out of the
Kingdom of _Naples_, and giving the Crown of that Kingdom to _Don Tadeo_;
this they thought, by reason of the decaying State that the House of
_Austria_ was then in, that they might bring to pass with little or no
trouble; but when the business came to be weighed, and discussed, in the
presence of a Prelate, of great esteem and credit, of their party, he
told them, _That the_ Neapolitans _had received such ill impressions of
the Pope and his Family_, _that they would sooner give themselves to the_
Turk, _then to the Barbarines_.
After this, they began to molest _Odoardo Farneze_, Duke of _Parma_, a
Prince who had deserved better from the Church; and their design was, to
deprive him absolutely of _Parma and Placentia_, and give them to _Don
Tadeo_; but they met with greater obstacles then they expected, for the
_Italian_ Princes, his Neighbours, being allarm’d at the _Barbarines_
greatness, opposed them smartly; and the Duke himself, being a noble
couragious Prince, not only made a stout resistance, but drove them and
their Army back to _Rome_; from which place he might have chased and
expelled the _Barbarines_ themselves, if he had been as malicious as
they.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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