The manner, however, in which
father and son practiced this occupation must have led sooner or later
to a final catastrophe--the dissolution of the State. If Sixtus had
filled his treasury by the sale of spiritual dignities and favours,
Innocent and his son, for their part, established an office for the
sale of secular favours, in which pardons for murder and manslaughter
were sold for large sums of money. Out of every fine 150 ducats were
paid into the papal exchequer, and what was over to Franceschetto.
Rome, during the latter part of this pontificate, swarmed with licensed
and unlicensed assassins; the factions, which Sixtus had begun to put
down, were again as active as ever; the Pope, well guarded in the
Vatican, was satisfied with now and then laying a trap, in which a
wealthy misdoer was occasionally caught. For Franceschetto the chief
point was to know by what means, when the Pope died, he could escape
with well-filled coffers. He betrayed himself at last, on the occasion
of a false report (1490) of his father's death; he endeavored to carry
off all the money in the papal treasury, and when this proved
impossible, insisted that, at all events, the Turkish prince, Djem,
should go with him, and serve as a living capital, to be advantageously
disposed of, perhaps to Ferrante of Naples. It is hard to estimate the
political possibilities of remote periods, but we cannot help asking
ourselves the question if Rome could have survived two or three
pontificates of this kind.
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