Concerning the Pope, the Ferrarese ambassador wrote to his master in 1495 as follows: He partakes of but a single dish, though this must be a rich one.
It is, consequently, a bore to dine with him.

Ascanio and others, especially Cardinal Monreale, who formerly were his Holiness's table companions, and Valenza too, broke off this companionship because his parsimony displeased them, and avoided it whenever and however they could.[45] The doings in the Vatican furnished ground for endless gossip, which had long been current in Rome.

It was related in Venice, in October, 1496, that the Duke of Gandia had brought a Spanish woman to his father, with whom he lived, and an account was given of a crime which is almost incredible, although it was related by the Venetian ambassador and other persons.[46] [Illustration: SAVONAROLA.
From a painting by Fra Bartolommeo] It was not long before Donna Sancia caused herself to be freely gossiped about.

She was beautiful and thoughtless; she appreciated her position as the daughter of a king.

From the most vicious of courts she was transplanted into the depravity of Rome as the wife of an immature boy.
It was said that her brothers-in-law Gandia and Caesar quarreled over her and possessed her in turn, and that young nobles and cardinals like Ippolito d'Este could boast of having enjoyed her favors.
Savonarola may have had these nepot-courts in mind when, from the pulpit of S.Marco in Florence, he declaimed in burning words against the Roman Sodom.
Even if the voice of the great preacher, whose words were filling all Italy, did not reach Lucretia's ears, from her own experience she must have known how profligate was the world in which she lived.