[4] P. 338.

    [5] P. 339.

The election of Adrian is attributed by Vettori to the mutual hatred and jealousy of the Cardinals.[1] He ascribes the loss of Rhodes to the Pope’s want of interest in great affairs, adds his testimony to his private excellence and public incapacity, and dismisses him without further notice.[2]

    [1] P. 341.

    [2] Pp. 343, 347.

What he tells us about Clement is more interesting.  In the dedication to the Sommario he apologized in express terms for the high opinion recorded of this Pope.  Yet the impression which he leaves upon our mind by what he writes is so unfavorable as to make it clear what Clement’s foes habitually said against him.  He remarks, as one excuse for his ill-success in office, that he succeeded to a Papacy ruined by the prodigality in war and peace of Leo.[1] As knight of Rhodes, as governor of Florence, and as Cardinal, Clement had shown himself an able man.  Fortune heaped her favors on him then.  As soon as he was made Pope, she veered round.  ’From a puissant and respected Cardinal, he became a feeble and discredited Pope.’  His first care was to provide for the government of Florence.  In order to arrive at a decision, he asked council of the Florentine orators and four other noble burghers then in Rome, as to whether he could advantageously intrust the city to the Cardinal of Cortona in guardianship over Ippolito and Alessandro, the young bastards of the Medici.[2] ‘All men nearly,’ says Vettori, ’are flatterers, and say what they believe will please great folk, although they think the contrary.  Of the thirteen whom the Pope consulted, ten advised him to send Ippolito to Florence under the guardianship of the Cardinal of Cortona.’  The remaining three, who were Ruberto Acciajuoli, Lorenzo Strozzi, and Francesco Vettori, pointed out the impropriety of administering a free city through a priest who held his title from a subject town.  They recommended the appointment of a Gonfalonier for one year, and so on, till a member of the Medicean family could take the lead.  Clement, however, decided on the other course; and to this cause may be traced half the troubles of his reign.

    [1] P. 348.

    [2] P. 349.  They were 14 and 13 years of age respectively.

The greater part of what remains of the Sommario is occupied with the wars and intrigues of Francis, Charles, and Clement.  Vettori, it may be said in passing, records a very unfavorable opinion of the Marquis of Pescara, who was, he hints, guilty of first turning a favorable ear to Moroni’s plot and then of discovering the whole to his master.[1] A few days after his breach of faith with the Milanese, he fell ill and died.  ’He was a man whose military excellence cannot be denied; but proud beyond all measure, envious, ungrateful, avaricious, venomous, cruel, without religion or humanity, he was born to be the ruin of Italy; and it may be truly said that of the evil she has suffered and still suffers, a large part was caused by him.’