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 against sudden whirlwinds which are want
to arise in the midst of a calm, and to blow up the storm-cloud