Before his death, remembering the kindness of Doria, he bequeathed to him all his possessions. The Papal nuncio seized upon and sequestrated the estates of the bishop, claiming that they belonged by right to the church. Andrea protested against this insult before the Papal court, but Rome, being at once a party to the cause and the judge of it, decided in its own favour and issued a decree despoiling the admiral of all his rights in the property of his relative. Paul III. fearing the vengeance of the admiral of the empire, deputed his nephew Alexander Farnese to offer, as a compensation for the outrage, the power of nominating a successor to the bishop. Doria disdained to render a vassal’s homage to a Farnese and ordered Gianettino to assail and capture the Papal galleys in the port of Genoa. This capture inflamed the wrath of the pontiff, and as an act of reprisal he arrested some Genoese who were in Rome, threatening to confiscate their goods unless his ships were immediately released. The Senate laid the matter before Andrea, who answered that Gianettino had captured the Papal vessels solely because he was stronger at sea than his adversary. Afterwards, in order to avoid complicating the Republic with his private quarrel, he released the galleys of the pontiff, after having satisfied the Farnese that he did not lack the power but the will to revenge himself. The Pope was induced by Charles V. to restore to Andrea his defrauded rights; but the Farnese was deeply chagrined and, not being able to strike openly at the emperor’s favourite, sought secret ways of venting his displeasure. Private ambition, personal mortification and political views united to stimulate the pontiff to humble the emperor, expel the Spaniards and crush the Dorias. As it was obviously vain to oppose Cæsar so long as Genoa, governed by the constitution of Doria, was under the Spanish influence, he naturally fell in with projects which contemplated a revolution in the Republic. It is certain, says a modern writer, that Paul was skilled in mingling modern passions with the administration of his venerable office. He stood between the old world and the new, and he possessed the spirit of both; and if the election of Clement had not deprived him of the pontificate for ten years (as he often lamented) perhaps the fortunes of Italy, which were not yet desperate, might have been saved by his industry or, at least, would not have suffered total shipwreck. At that period several Fieschi families were in a flourishing state, among them that of Ettore, of the Savignone line, who had espoused Maria di Gian-Ambrogio Fieschi. From this marriage were born, Francesco, Giacomo, Nicolò, Paride, Gian-Ambrogio, Urbano and Innocenzio. Ettore having given some of his property in Rome to Giacomo and Nicolò, who as priests were stationed in that city, at the death of the first the father found it necessary to make a journey thither.