l papa bastava solo la mano con la penna e l'inchiostro,
per avere quella somma che vuole.' Cp. Aen. Sylv. Picc. _Ep_.
i. 66: 'Nihil est quod absque argento Romana Curia dedat; nam
et ipsae manus impositiones et Spiritus Sancti dona venduntur,
nec peccatorum venia nisi nummatis impenditur.'

[3] Infessura, _Eccardus_, vol. ii. p. 1941: 'Panis vero qui ex
dicto frumento fiebat, erat ater, foetidus, et abominabilis; e
ex necessitate comedebatur, ex quo saepenumero in civitate
morbus viguit.'

But Christendom beheld in Sixtus not merely the spectacle of a Pope who
trafficked in the bodies of his subjects and the holy things of God, to
squander basely gotten gold upon abandoned minions. The peace of Italy
was destroyed by desolating wars in the advancement of the same
worthless favorites, Sixtus desired to annex Ferrara to the dominions of
Girolamo Riario. Nothing stood in his way but the House of Este, firmly
planted for centuries, and connected by marriage or alliance with all
the chief families of Italy. The Pope, whose lust for blood and broils
was only equaled by his avarice and his libertinism,[1] rushed with wild
delight into a project which involved the discord of the whole
Peninsula. He made treaties with Venice and unmade them, stirred up all
the passions of the despots and set them together by the ears, called
the Swiss mercenaries into Lombardy, and when finally, tired of fighting
for his nephew, the Italian powers concluded the peace of Bagnolo, he
died of rage in 1484. The Pope did actually die of disappointed fury
because peace had been restored to the country he had mangled for the
sake of a favorite nephew.

[1] This phrase requires support. Infessura (loc. cit. p. 1941)
relates the savage pleasure with which Sixtus watched a combat
'a steccato chiuso.' Hearing that a duel to the death was to be
fought by two bands of his body-guard, he told them to choose
the Piazza of S. Peter for their rendezvous. Then he appeared
at a window, blessed the combatants, and crossed himself as a
signal for the battle to begin. We who think the ring, the
cockpit, and the bullfight barbarous, should study Pollajuolo's
engraving in order to imagine the horrors of a duel 'a steccato
chiuso.' Of the inclination of Sixtus to sensuality, Infessura
writes: 'Hic, ut fertur vulgo, et experientia demonstravit,
puerorum amator et sodomita fuit.' After men