For as there could happen to him no greater in|felicitie than the aduersitie of his imprisonment (for that with his owne eies he beheld with so great a ruine and destruction the sacke of Rome;Pope Cle|ment more infortunate than fortu|nate. a desola|tion which his fortune suffered him to bewaile with pitie and compassion, but not to turne awaie or re|medie the harme) so also by him mooued the generall desolation of his naturall countrie, to the which by how much more he was bound by perpetuall obliga|tions, by so much greater was his aduersitie to be a chiefe instrument in the ruine of the place where he had taken his first being.
He died hated of all the court, suspected to most princes, and for the discourse of his life, he left behind him a renowme rather hatefull than acceptable: for he was accounted couetous, of little fidelitie, and naturallie farre off from dooing pleasures to men. And in that humor albeit during his time of pope he created one and thirtie cardinals;How manie cardinals he created du|ring his popedome. yet vpon none of them did he impose that dignitie to content himselfe but was drawne as it were by the violent law of ne|cessitie and to please others: yea he called to that dig|nitie the cardinall of Medicis, not of his proper and frée election, but at the contemplation and persuasion of others, and at that time when being oppressed with a dangerous maladie, if he had died, he had left his friends and kindred in the state of beggers and de|priued of all aid. Neuerthelesse he was in counsell verie graue, and in his actions much foreséeing; tou|ching passions and affections a conqueror of him|selfe, and for the facultie of his mind & spirit of great capacitie and power, if timorousnesse had not often|times corrupted his iudgement.
Immediatlie after his death the cardinals going the same night into the conclaue,Creation of pope Paule the third a Roman borne. elected in his place with full voice, Alexander of the familie of Farne|sa, a Roman by nation, and for his time the most an|cient cardinall of the court: in which election their voices seemed conformable to the iudgement and in|stance that Clement had made, the person elected be|ing most woorthie to be preferred before all the other EEBO page image 936 to so souereigne a degrée: for that he was both fu [...]ni|shed with doctrine and good learning, and fullie re|plenished with good apparanees and customes. And for the cardinals, they were so much [...]more for|ward to passe the election in his person, by how much for the greatnesse of his age, being alreadie vpon the thréescore and seuenth yeare, and supposed to beare a weake and vnsound complexion (which opinion he nourished with art) they hoped he would not [...]it long in the seat; whereby the dignitie of the place and pri|ma [...]e might fall to one of them, whose eies looked for the glorie which their hearts lusted, being vtterlie e|stranged from God and godlinesse, as altogither ad|dicted to the wanton desires of temporall delites, that they might passe their daies in delicacie; as one noteth trulie of all that viperous generation, Antith. Christi & papae. pag. 16. saieng:
Omnibus idem animus celsas mirarier arces,Idem animus fluxis est inhiare bonis,
De grege quid fiat nihili gens impia curans,
Spectat magnificas ambitiosa domos:
Elysios horum nullus contendit as agros,
Nil coeleste iuuat, terrea sola placent.]