The same charge
was brought against Lodovico il Moro. 'The blood of the slain, and the
misery of the prisoners in the hands of the Turks, cry to God for
vengeance against him,' says the State historian. In Venice, where the
government was informed of everything, it was known that Giovanni
Sforza, ruler of Pesaro, the cousin of Lodovico, had entertained the
Turkish ambassadors on their way to Milan. The two most respectable
among the Popes of the fifteenth century, Nicholas V and Pius II, died
in the deepest grief at the progress of the Turks, the latter indeed
amid the preparations for a crusade which he was hoping to lead in
person; their successors embezzled the contributions sent for this
purpose from all parts of Christendom, and degraded the indulgences
granted in return for them into a private commercial speculation.
Innocent VIII consented to be gaoler to the fugitive Prince Djem, for a
salary paid by the prisoner's brother Bajazet II, and Alexander VI
supported the steps taken by Lodovico il Moro in Constantinople to
further a Turkish assault upon Venice (1498), whereupon the latter
threatened him with a Council. It is clear that the notorious alliance
between Francis I and Soliman II was nothing new or unheard of.
Indeed, we find instances of whole populations to whom it seemed no
particular crime to go over bodily to the Turks.
Pages:
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123