“He kept up a regal estab− “lishment, had his tables magnificently served, a great “train of knights and equerries, and a numerous “stud of horses, which he often mounted for amuse− “ment. He took great pleasure in aggrandizing his “relations; he purchased extensive lands in France “for them, and made many of them cardinals; but “some of them were too young, and of too scanda− “lous a life. He also made some at the request of “the king of France, who were many of them also “too young. In these promotions, he had regard “to neither learning nor virtue. He himself had a “moderate share of learning; but his manners “were gallant, and unbecoming an ecclesiastic.— “When an archbishop, he preserved no restraint “with women, but went further than the young no− “bles; and when pope, he neither knew how to “refrain nor correct his conduct in this way. Great “ladies, as well as prelates, visited his apartments; “among othes a Countess of Turenne, on whom “he conferred numerous favours. When he was “sick, it was the ladies who waited on him, as female “relations take care of seculars.” ²⁶⁸ Eedw. Hiat 1,96, a. 13, A short time before his death, Clement received a letter written, they say, by the archbishop of Milan, John Visconti, and of which the following are lines:²⁶⁹ “Leviathan, prince of darkness, to Pope Clement “his vicar........Your mother, the haughty, salutes “you; Avarice; Lewdness, and your four other “sisters, thank you for your good will, which has “caused them to thrive so well.’ It was during this pontificate that the Romans saw a man of low rank, Cola Rienzi, raise himself to a high degree of power. Deputed to Clement VI., to invite him to return to Rome, and not being able to prevail on him, Rienzi returned to plant the standard of liberty on the capitol, proclaimed himself tribune, and governed for several months the ancient capital of the universe. ²⁶⁹ Fleury’s Eccles. Hist. 1. 9 6,n.9. The emperor Charles IV. had promised to renounce all claim of sovereignty over Rome and the ecclesiastical domains; these were the conditions on which Clement VI. had raised him to the empire; Charles kept his word. When in 1355 he resumed the imperial crown, he acknowledged the absolute independence of the temporal power of the popes, and swore never to put his foot in Rome, nor on any spot belonging to the Holy See, without the permission of the holy father, annulling all the contrary acts of his predecessors, and obliging his successors, under penalty of deposition, to the maintenance of the engagement entered into by him. This is the first authenticated act which elevated the pope into a temporal sovereign, an independent monarch: till this period he had been but a vassal of the empire. Innocent VI., who reigned in 1355, profited by this event to enrich his family.²⁷⁰