nitely worse was that of Innocent--a sordid,
grasping sensualist, without even the one redeeming virtue of strength
that had been his predecessor's. Nepotism had characterized many
previous pontificates; open paternity was to characterize his, for he
was the first Pope who, in flagrant violation of canon law, acknowledged
his children for his own. He proceeded to provide for some seven
bastards, and that provision appears to have been the only aim and scope
of his pontificate.

Not content with raising money by the sale of preferments, Innocent
established a traffic in indulgences, the like of which had never been
seen before. In the Rome of his day you might, had you the money, buy
anything, from a cardinal's hat to a pardon for the murder of your
father.

The most conspicuous of his bastards was Francesco Cibo--conspicuous
chiefly for the cupidity which distinguished him as it distinguished the
Pope his father. For the rest he was a poor-spirited fellow who sorely
disappointed Lorenzo de'Medici, whose daughter Maddalena he received
in marriage. Lorenzo had believed that, backed by the Pope's influence,
Francesco would establish for himself a dynasty in Romagna. But father
and son were alike too invertebrate--the one to inspire, the other to
execute any such designs as had already been attempted by the nepots of
Calixtus III and Sixtus IV.

Under the weak and scandalous rule of Innocent VIII Rome appears to
have been abandoned to the most utter lawlessness. Anarchy, robbery, and
murder preyed upon the city. No morning dawned without revealing corpses
in the streets; and if by chance the murderer was caught, there was
pardon for him if he could afford to buy it, or Tor di Nona and the
hangman's noose if he could not.

It is not wonderful that when at last Innocent VIII died Infessura
should have blessed the day that freed the world of such a monster.

But his death did not happen until 1492. A feeble old man, he had become
subject to lethargic or cataleptic trances, which had several times
already deceived those in attendance into believing him dead. He grew
weaker and weaker, and it became impossible to nourish him upon anything
but woman's milk. Towards the end came, Infessura tells us, a Hebrew
physician who claimed to have a prescription by which he could save the
Pope's life. For his infusion(1) he needed young human blood, and to
obtain it he took three boys of the age of ten, and gave them a ducat
apiece fo