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

4 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
had given him equal rights with the Cardinal Camerlengo^
during the time of the vacancy in the Holy See, found that he
could make no use of these rights. At his first attempt to do
so, he met with strong opposition from the Cardinal Camer-
lengo, Sforza, of whose opposition the Sacred College fully
approved. 2 It was Sforza, too, a violent opponent of the
Carafa, who on August 23rd read to the assembled Cardinals
a letter of Ascanio della Corgna, containing bitter accusations
against the late Pope and his nephews,^ and it would seem that
not a single voice was raised in favour of the Pontiff who had
barely closed his eyes in death.
A fresh incentive was given to the hatred against the Carafa
when, just at this moment, news wa'^ spread of the shocking
occurrences which had taken place in the family of the Duke
of Paliano. Giovanni Carafa had, on the confession, under
torture, of a supposed paramour of his wife, killed him with
twenty-seven thrusts of a dagger. On August 29th the
wretched wife followed her supposed seducer into death ;
spite of her pregnancy, she was strangled by her own brother
and another relative. The Roman people saw in this family
tragedy a Divine judgment on the Duke, who had had so little
reverence for the honour of women.
Under such circumstances, a speech which Ascanio della
Corgna made on the Capitol on August 30th against the Carafa^
was bound to make a doubly deep impression. On the follow-
ing day, August 31st, a popular vote declared the whole of
the Carafa family, with the exception of the two Cardinals,
deprived of their civil rights as Roman citizens, and begged,
in the presence of the former mighty Carlo Carafa, permission
of the Sacred College to drive the Duke of Paliano, Giovanni
iC/. Vol. XIV. of this work, p. 216.
2 GuiDUs, 607 ;
Massarelli, 336.
* Panvinius in Mf.rkle, II., 335, n. 2.
* Cf. *Avviso di Roma dated August 12, 1559 (Urb. 1038,
p. Gob, Vatican Library). See details concerning tliis case infra
cap. IV.
5 Panvinius in Merkle, II., 337.
^
in