I am given to think that for his model of a
Pope's bastard this Giovio has taken the wretched Farnese rogue, and
attributed to the son of Alexander VI the vices and infamies of this son of
Paul III.
"Even to attempt to draw a parallel is to insult the memory of the Borgia;
for he, at least, was a great captain and a great ruler, and he knew how to
endear to himself the fold that he governed; so that when I was a lad--
thirty years ago--there were still those in the Romagna who awaited the
Borgia's return, and prayed for it as earnestly as pray the faithful for
the second coming of the Messiah, refusing to believe that he was dead.
But this Pier Luigi!" He thrust out a lip contemptuously. "He is no
better than a thief, a murderer, a defiler, a bestial, lecherous dog!
And with that he began to relate some of the deeds of this man; and his
life, it seemed, was written in blood and filth--a tale of murders and
rapes and worse. And when as a climax he told me of the horrible, inhuman
outrage done to Cosimo Gheri, the young Bishop of Fano, I begged him to
cease, for my horror turned me almost physically sick.1
1 The incident to which Agostino here alludes is fully set forth by
Benedetto Varchi at the end of Book XVI of his Storia Fiorentina.
"That bishop was a holy man, of very saintly life," Galeotto insisted, "and
the deed permitted the German Lutherans to say that here was a new form of
martyrdom for saints invented by the Pope's son.
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