Lucrezia bore him four children, all sons, Angelo, Ridolfo, Silla, and Igino.  The first three died in early manhood, after showing themselves in some sort heirs of their father’s genius:  in the second book of his motets Palestrina has included some of their compositions.  The last son, Igino, outlived his parents and his own welfare; he was “un’ anima disarmonica" After his father’s death he attempted to complete and market an unfinished and rejected composition of his father’s, but he was legally restrained.  He lost some of his father’s unpublished works, while certain noddings of genius, better lost, and refused even by the Pope, Palestrina dedicated them to, still remain, with a dedication to yet another Pope, put on them by the scapegrace Igino.

A certain writer Pitoni, by a bit of careless reading, multiplied Palestrina’s wives by two, and divided his sons by the same number, claiming that Lucrezia, the first wife of Palestrina, was the mother of Angelo, that after her death he married one Doralice, and that she was the mother of Igino.  But Baini exposes Pitoni’s carelessness, proves the existence of Ridolfo and Silla by the inclusion of their works in the father’s book, and shows that Doralice was the wife of Palestrina’s son Angelo.

It being established, then, that Palestrina was married but once, and it being assumed that he was happily married, it is strange to see how this happy marriage came near proving fatal to him.  Palestrina, who was, like Michelangelo, intimate with various Popes, dedicated in 1554 his first printed book of masses to Pope Julius III.  As a reward, the careless pontiff made him one of the singers of his Sistine Chapel, omitting the usual severe examination, and overlooking as a small matter the fact that Palestrina was so far from being a priest that he was very much married and very much the father, and furthermore had no voice.  But Palestrina resigned his post as maestro at Saint Peter’s and entered the chapel.  The Pope died shortly afterward and was succeeded by a cardinal who was a patron of Palestrina’s and continued his favour as Pope Marcellus II.  Three weeks later this Pope also died, and was followed by Paul IV.

Unfortunately for Palestrina, the new Pope was a strict constructionist, and he found it “indecent that there should be married men (ammogliati) interfering in holy offices.”  In spite of the action of the two previous pontificates, he determined to expel the three Benedicks who had entered the choir, Leonardo Bare, Domenico Ferrabosco, and Palestrina, “uomini ammogliati, e chi con grandissimo scandalo, ed in vilipendio del divin culto, contro le disposizioni dei sagri canoni, e contro le costituzioni e le consuetudini della cappella apostolica cantano i medesimi tre ammogliati imitamente ai capellani cantori.”  He then declares that, after mature deliberation, “cassiamo, discacciamo, e togliamo” from the list of chappellary singers these three, and that they ought to be “cassati, discacciati, e tolti dalla cappella,” and that after the present order they “cassino, discaccino, e tolgano.”  And excommunication was threatened if any more married men (uxorati) were received in the chapel.