The history of the popes, from the close of the middle ages : drawn ...

PIUS IV. AND NEPOTISM. I77
his whole Hfe had been so difficult for him, or had saddened
him so much, as this sentence of death ; he would gladly have
shown mercy had this been possible without breaking the
laws, or if there had been any hope that the Carafa would
change their manner of life. Finally, the Pope added that he
had also been obliged to show severity in order to give a warning
to the relatives of fuiure Popes, so that thej- might not misuse
their great position as the Carafa had done. The explanations
which Pius IV. gave to the Imperial ambassador on March
14th, 1561,^ and which he again repeated later, as in the
consistory on June 8th, 1565, and again a few months before
his death, on October 12th, 1565,2 are in accordance with
Panvinio's statement.
The manner in which Pius IV. justified himself for his action
against the Carafa can be clearly seen from these explanations.
He wished, not only to punish their crimes, but also to stig-
matize the whole system. The judgment of March 3rd, 1561,
was a deadly blow aimed at that form of nepotism which
consisted in founding principalities ; it condemned not only
the Carafa, but also the Borgia, Medici and Farnese. There
was now an end to the elevation of the Pope's relatives to the
rank of sovereign princes. The founding of such states for
the Papal nephews had only too often poisoned the poUtical
activity of the Holy See since the time of Sixtus IV., and had
paralysed its efforts for reform. Paul IV., after he had learned
during the last years of his reign to what nepotism might lead,
had banished the nephews whom his successor had now
destroyed. This was of inestimable value for the success of
the Catholic reformation. The warning was efficacious.^
1 See SiCKFX, Konzil, 184.
2 Concerning the explanations of October see Ancel, Disgrace,
168 seq. ; those of June 8, 1565, hitherto unknown, in the *Acta
consist, card. Gambarae, Corsini Library, Rome, 40—G— 13.
" Discite iustitiam
^ A medal of Pius IV. bears the inscription :
moniti " (Bonanni, I., 274). Concerning the effects of ^he
tragedy of the Carafa on the letterati see Ancel, Disgrace, 159,
n. 4. To this belongs the *Capitolo in rima per
dei Carafa, in Cod. 11 51 of the Trivulzi Library at Milan.
1' esecuzione
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