(Innocent VIII.)

Innocent VIII, created pope in the year 1484, was of Genoa, and his name was John Baptist Cibo. Authors are not agreed about the illustriousness or the obscurity of his family; but it is acknowledged that he was sent to the court of Naples in youth,

and that he served king Alphonso. He was afterwards one of the cardinal Bologna's domestics at Rome, which I think was of some use to him, in order to be promoted to the bishopric of Savona. Pope Sixtus IV, who was much his friend, bestowed on him the bishopric of Melfi, and afterwards a cardinal’s cap. One of the first actions of Innocent VIII, after his advancement to the pontificate, was to conspire with the grandees of the kingdom, against Ferdinand king of Naples; he sent for Robert Sanseverino to give him the command of the troops in the expedition against that king; but not being satisfied with the conduct of this general, he turned him out of that post, and made peace with Ferdinand. The conditions of the treaty were, that the king of Naples should pardon the rebels, and pay to the holy see the tribute that he owed: he performed neither the one nor the other, and frustrated the pope’s designs, who endeavoured to revenge that infraction. Afterwards Innocent VIII thought no more of war, and applied himself to make Rome enjoy the fruits of peace. We shall see how difficult it is to exercise the papacy; for if the popes are blamed for meddling with the politic affairs of Europe, they are also blamed when they do not concern themselves with them, and it is then said that they are useless to the public good, and Guicciardini gives this idea of Innocent VIII. It is true, he adds something that softens his censure; for he observes, that the indolence the pope fell into, produced this advantage, that nobody feared his giving any disturbance to Italy. This matter of fact is to be found in the following words, with a parenthesis of a Protestant divine. “Guicciardini describes Innocent VIII in these words, that his life in other respects useless to the public good (an excellent quality for a pope) was at least useful in this, that having suddenly laid down his arms which he had unfortunately taken up in the beginning of his pontificate against Ferdinand, at the instigation of several barons of the kingdom of Naples, and afterwards turned his mind to idle pleasures; he had neither for himself, nor for those who belonged to him, any thoughts that tended to disturb the repose of Italy.’' Those who shall consider the parenthesis, will perceive, that the reason why I quote Rivet’s reply, rather than the original words of Guicciardini, is because the passage of Rivet serves me for a proof. Would to God there were no other faults committed but such as contribute to the public peace.

Innocent procured a great plenty and cheapness of provisions, and caused robbers to be severely punished. He created new offices, the sale whereof brought him a great deal of money, and he was the first pope who gloried in having bastards, and loaded them with, wealth.

Volaterranus speaks of it in this manner. “He was the first of the popes who introduced that new and extraordinary proceeding of owning publicly his spurious issue, and without any respect to the ancient discipline, heaping upon them riches without measure.” He mentions but one son, and one daughter of this pope, and he says, that the one obtained of his father some towns in the neighbourhood of Rome, and the advantage of being son-in-law to Lorenzo de Medicis, and that the daughter was married with a prodigious fortune to a Genoese. Moreri has stumbled here; he says, “that Innocent VIII left two rich sons, which he had before his pontificate.” This is an error both as to the sex, and the number of these bastards. They were sixteen, eight sons and eight daughters; whence this epigram:

Quid quæris testes, sit mas an fœmina Cibo,
Respice natorum, pignora certa, gregem:
Octo noceus pueros genuit, totidemque puellas,
Hunc merito poterit dicere Roma patrein.

Of Cibo’s sex, if you full proofs require,
Look on the pledges he has left below,

Eight lads, eight lasses, own him for their sire,
The stile of father well might Rome bestow.

Innocent was a handsome man, obliging even to excess, but covetous, ignorant, and of little wit. I will quote a Catholic writer, because a Protestant would be suspected. “Innocent was tall, well made, and of a fine person, but slow of understanding, and had no learning.” He died in July 1492, at the age of sixty.—Art. Innocent VIII.