The plague, which then was prevalent in
Rome, was ascribed to him; Berni and others sketch the environment of
the Pope with the same sparkling untruthfulness with which the modern
_feuilletoniste _turns black into white, and everything into anything.
The biography which Paolo Giovio was commissioned to write by the
cardinal of Tortosa, and which was to have been a eulogy, is for anyone
who can read between the lines an unexampled piece of satire. It sounds
ridiculous at least for the Italians of that time--to hear how Adrian
applied to the Chapter of Saragossa for the jawbone of St. Lambert; how
the devout Spaniards decked him out till he looked 'like a right well-
dressed Pope'; how he came in a confused and tasteless procession from
Ostia to Rome, took counsel about burning or drowning Pasquino, would
suddenly break off the most important business when dinner was
announced; and lastly, at the end of an unhappy reign, how be died of
drinking too much beer--whereupon the house of his physician was hung
with garlands by midnight revellers, and adorned with the inscription,
'Liberatori Patriae S.P.Q.R.' It is true that Giovio had lost his money
in the general confiscation of public funds, and had only received a
benefice by way of compensation because he was 'no poet,' that is to
say, no pagan. But it was decreed that Adrian should be the last great
victim.
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