poleto and
other wealthy properties, that he might make them fiefs to us; he
confided to our weak hands the vice-chancellorship, the vice-prefecture
of Rome, the generalship of the Church, and all the other most important
offices, which, instead of being monopolised by us, should have been
conferred on those who were most meritorious. Moreover, there were
persons who were raised on our recommendation to posts of great dignity,
although they had no claims but such as our undue partiality accorded
them; others were left out with no reason for their failure except the
jealousy excited in us by their virtues. To rob Ferdinand of Aragon of
the kingdom of Naples, Calixtus kindled a terrible war, which by a happy
issue only served to increase our fortune, and by an unfortunate issue
must have brought shame and disaster upon the Holy See. Lastly, by
allowing himself to be governed by men who sacrificed public good to
their private interests, he inflicted an injury, not only upon the
pontifical throne and his own reputation, but what is far worse, far more
deadly, upon his own conscience. And yet, O wise judgments of God! hard
and incessantly though he toiled to establish our fortunes, scarcely had
he left empty that supreme seat which we occupy to-day, when we were cast
down from the pinnacle whereon we had climbed, abandoned to the fury of
the rabble and the vindictive hatred of the Roman barons, who chose to
feel offended by our goodness to their enemies. Thus, not only, we tell
you, Caesar, not only did we plunge headlong from the summit of our
grandeur, losing the worldly goods and dignities which our uncle had
heaped at our feet, but for very peril of our life we were condemned to a
voluntary exile, we and our friends, and in this way only did we contrive
to escape the storm which our too good fortune had stirred up against us.
Now this is a plain proof that God mocks at men's designs when they are
bad ones. How great an error is it for any pope to devote more care to
the welfare of a house, which cannot last more than a few years, than to
the glory of the Church, which will last for ever! What utter folly for
any public man whose position is not inherited and cannot be bequeathed
to his posterity, to support the edifice of his grandeur on any other
basis than the noblest virtue practised for the general good, and to
suppose that he can ensure the continuance of his own fortune otherwise
than by taking all precautions ag