A Roman who had killed two of his own daughters bought his pardon for 800 ducats.
[3] Guicciardini, i.1., points out that Lorenzo, having the Pope for his ally, was able to create that balance of power in Italy which it was his chief political merit to have maintained until his death.
[4] It is only by reading the pages of Infessura's Diary (Eccardus vol.ii.pp.

2003-2005) that any notion of the mixed debauchery and violence of Rome at this time can be formed.
Meanwhile the Cardinals had not been idle.

The tedious leisure of Innocent's long lethargy was employed by them in active simony.

Simony, it may be said in passing, gave the great Italian families a direct interest in the election of the richest and most paying candidate.

It served the turn of a man like Ascanio Sforza to fatten the golden goose that laid such eggs, before he killed it--in other words, to take the bribes of Innocent and Alexander, while deferring for a future time his own election.