refuse to arouse by any deceit the stern rigour of His judgments. One
sole hindrance could have power to shake our good intentions, and that
might happen should we feel too keen an interest in your fortunes.
Therefore are we armed beforehand against our love, and therefore have we
prayed to God beforehand that we stumble not because of you; for in the
path of favouritism a pope cannot slip without a fall, and cannot fall
without injury and dishonour to the Holy See. Even to the end of our
life we shall deplore the faults which have brought this experience home
to us; and may it please Gad that our uncle Calixtus of blessed memory
bear not this day in purgatory the burden of our sins, more heavy, alas,
than his own! Ah, he was rich in every virtue, he was full of good
intentions; but he loved too much his own people, and among them he loved
me chief. And so he suffered this love to lead him blindly astray, all
this love that he bore to his kindred, who to him were too truly flesh of
his flesh, so that he heaped upon the heads of a few persons only, and
those perhaps the least worthy, benefits which would more fittingly have
rewarded the deserts of many. In truth, he bestowed upon our house
treasures that should never have been amassed at the expense of the poor,
or else should have been turned to a better purpose. He severed from the
ecclesiastical State, already weak and poor, the duchy of Spoleto 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