You may have to Search all our reviewed books and magazines, click the sign up button below to create a free account.
Features Pope Innocent VIII (1432-1492), presented by Kevin Knight as part of the Catholic Encyclopedia. Discusses his succession, his rule, his activities as pope, and his stance against witchcraft.
My dear Son:- We have learned that your Worthiness, forgetful of the high office with which you are invested, was present from the seventeenth to the twenty-second hour, four days ago, in the Gardens of John de Bichis, where there were several women of Siena, women wholly given over to worldly vanities. Your companion was one of your colleagues whom his years, if not the dignity of his office, ought to have reminded of his duty. We have heard that the dance was indulged in, in all wantonness. None of the allurements of love were lacking, and you conducted yourself in a wholly worldly manner. Shame forbids mention of all that took place, for not only the things themselves but their very names are unworthy of your rank. In order that your lust might be all the more unrestrained, the husbands, fathers, brothers and kinsmen of the young women and girls were not invited to be present. You and a few servants were the leaders and inspirers of this orgy. It is said that nothing is now talked of in Siena but your vanity which is the subject of universal ridicule. Certain it is that here at the baths, where churchmen and the laity are very numerous, your name is on every one's tongue."
Single folio on paper, Rome, dated 7 October "anno quarto" (1487). The document is mutilated on the right side with substantial loss of text. The lines "Fiat ut petitx si me videntem. I." and "Fiat ut [remainder torn away]" appear to be written in Pope Innocent VIII's own hand. First line is in a large, narrow script, with decorated initial.