A World Lit Only by Fire – Part I
It was a time, Tom Hanks wrote describing the end of the Middle Ages, when dukes and serfs paid popes to keep from going to hell. The Holy Roman Empire was not holy, not Roman, and not an empire.
He’d read A World Lit Only by Fire, William Manchester’s last book, five times.
Popes hid in catacombs in Rome during the 1st century – by the 15th century popes had more power than they ever dreamed of, more power than kings.
Selling church offices, forgiveness for evils, pardons, they lived like Roman emperors. When pardoning murderers raised eyebrows a cardinal shrugged, God would rather a sinner live and pay than die.
Money, pride, power fueled old temptations: Harlots, brothels flourished – a chronicler reported sodomy, prostitution, and adultery were almost universal. An abbot wrote monks spent all day in filthy talk, play and gluttony, pursuing fleshly lusts. A monk said convents were a lot like brothels.
By the end of the Middle Ages the capital of Christendom had turned into the capital of sin.
Round cheeks, poked out lips, a lecher, after becoming a cardinal Roderigo Borgia invited beautiful women but not their husbands to a celebration in Siena. An orgy. The pope – Pius II – chastised him. It would be a century before another pope agreed with Pius.
Borgia had an affair with an older woman, had sex with her teenage daughter. Mistresses gave birth to his illegitimate sons and daughters – bribing cardinals, buying votes, sending one cardinal four mules laden with boxes of gold ingots, he got himself elected pope; as pope made his bastard son Cesare, 3 nephews, 2 cousins, cardinals.
He had his illegitimate daughter Lucrezia marry a noble, about-facing called her husband impotent, annulled her marriage – her husband said Borgia wanted his daughter in his own bed.
Lucrezia had affairs with both her brothers – one, stabbed nine times, was found floating in Tiber River; people whispered her other brother – Cesare – killed him. Lucrezia gave birth to an illegitimate son at eighteen; admitting secretly the child was his Borgia made him a duke, arranged another marriage for Lucrezia – Cesare murdered the groom. At a banquet Borgia watched prostitutes dance naked, guests stripped, another orgy.
A friar from Florence, Girolamo Savonarola, denounced Borgia for turning the Vatican into a house of prostitution – holding out a bribe, to silence him, Borgia offered to make him a cardinal. The friar said no.
Borgia growled he’d excommunicate every living soul in Florence, sending them to hell, burned Savonarola at the stake.
*****
To be continued – Part II: Pope Leo de Medici
A World Lit Only by Fire – Part I
It was a time, Tom Hanks wrote describing the end of the Middle Ages, when dukes and serfs paid popes to keep from going to hell. The Holy Roman Empire was not holy, not Roman, and not an empire.
He’d read A World Lit Only by Fire, William Manchester’s last book, five times.
Popes hid in catacombs in Rome during the 1st century – by the 15th century popes had more power than they ever dreamed of, more power than kings.
Selling church offices, forgiveness for evils, pardons, they lived like Roman emperors. When pardoning murderers raised eyebrows a cardinal shrugged, God would rather a sinner live and pay than die.
Money, pride, power fueled old temptations: Harlots, brothels flourished – a chronicler reported sodomy, prostitution, and adultery were almost universal. An abbot wrote monks spent all day in filthy talk, play and gluttony, pursuing fleshly lusts. A monk said convents were a lot like brothels.
By the end of the Middle Ages the capital of Christendom had turned into the capital of sin.
Round cheeks, poked out lips, a lecher, after becoming a cardinal Roderigo Borgia invited beautiful women but not their husbands to a celebration in Siena. An orgy. The pope – Pius II – chastised him. It would be a century before another pope agreed with Pius.
Borgia had an affair with an older woman, had sex with her teenage daughter. Mistresses gave birth to his illegitimate sons and daughters – bribing cardinals, buying votes, sending one cardinal four mules laden with boxes of gold ingots, he got himself elected pope; as pope made his bastard son Cesare, 3 nephews, 2 cousins, cardinals.
He had his illegitimate daughter Lucrezia marry a noble, about-facing called her husband impotent, annulled her marriage – her husband said Borgia wanted his daughter in his own bed.
Lucrezia had affairs with both her brothers – one, stabbed nine times, was found floating in Tiber River; people whispered her other brother – Cesare – killed him. Lucrezia gave birth to an illegitimate son at eighteen; admitting secretly the child was his Borgia made him a duke, arranged another marriage for Lucrezia – Cesare murdered the groom. At a banquet Borgia watched prostitutes dance naked, guests stripped, another orgy.
A friar from Florence, Girolamo Savonarola, denounced Borgia for turning the Vatican into a house of prostitution – holding out a bribe, to silence him, Borgia offered to make him a cardinal. The friar said no.
Borgia growled he’d excommunicate every living soul in Florence, sending them to hell, burned Savonarola at the stake.
*****
To be continued – Part II: Pope Leo de Medici