d to pay instead of being punished,
answer: 'God wills not the death of a sinner, but rather that
he should pay and live.' Dominico di Viterbo, Apostolic Scribe,
forged bulls by which the Pope granted indulgences for the
commission of the worst scandals. His father tried to buy him
off for 5,000 ducats. Innocent replied that, as his honor was
concerned, he must have 6,000. The poor father could not scrape
so much money together; so the bargain fell through, and
Dominico was executed. A Roman who had killed two of his own
daughters bought his pardon for 800 ducats.

[3] Guicciardini, i. 1., points out that Lorenzo, having the
Pope for his ally, was able to create that balance of power in
Italy which it was his chief political merit to have maintained
until his death.

[4] It is only by reading the pages of Infessura's Diary
(Eccardus vol. ii. pp. 2003-2005) that any notion of the mixed
debauchery and violence of Rome at this time can be formed.

Meanwhile the Cardinals had not been idle. The tedious leisure of
Innocent's long lethargy was employed by them in active simony. Simony,
it may be said in passing, gave the great Italian families a direct
interest in the election of the richest and most paying candidate. It
served the turn of a man like Ascanio Sforza to fatten the golden goose
that laid such eggs, before he killed it--in other words, to take the
bribes of Innocent and Alexander, while deferring for a future time his
own election. All the Cardinals, with the exception of Roderigo
Borgia,[1] were the creatures of Sixtus or of Innocent. Having bought
their hats with gold, they were now disposed to sell their votes to the
highest bidder. The Borgia was the richest, strongest, wisest, and most
worldly of them all. He ascertained exactly what the price of each
suffrage would be, and laid his plans accordingly. The Cardinal Ascanio
Sforza, brother of the Duke of Milan, would accept the lucrative post of
Vice-Chancellor. The Cardinal Orsini would be satisfied with the Borgia
Palaces at Rome and the Castles of Monticello and Saviano. The Cardinal
Colonna had a mind for the Abbey of Subbiaco with its fortresses. The
Cardinal of S. Angelo preferred the comfortable Bishopric of Porto with
its palace stocked with choice wines. The Cardinal of Parma would take
Nepi. The Cardinal of Genoa was bribable with the Church of S. Maria in
Via Lata. Less influential m