Besides, in those daies the Nephews of _Popes_ remain’d at home, and did not come to _Rome_; if they did, they brought not with them that insatiable avarice which Nephews bring (or have brought hitherto) when they enter into possession of the _Vatican_. I mean not therefore to speak of those Families, which have been in great esteem as well since they have had _Popes_ of them, as before. None of these is advanc’d by the Papacy, but remains in the same manner without growth in Ambition, Riches, or Glory.
Particularly, the House of _Colonna_ (which is at present one of the most considerable, not of _Rome_ only, but of all _Italy_) hath so little valu’d the Papal Grandeur in its lot, that they have often persecuted it, only to let the World see that the _Colonneses_ pretended not to glory in the Treasures of the Church, but in the merit of the persons, exemplified in the valour of so many illustrious men, who have spent much of their bloud for the service of the _Popes_ themselves.
’Tis certain, that by two _Popes_ issu’d out of the House of _Colonna_, the _Colonneses_ have had so little advantage, either in dignity or wealth, that they may say that the _Popes_ were taken out of their Family, and that they have the honour to be _Colonneses_ of the House of _Colonna_, but not _Colonneses_ of the House of _Popes_. But there are many other Families, whose glory it is to have had their rise from the fortune given them by _Popes_, without which they would never have been any thing considerable; and these are the Families of which I am to speak.
The Family of _Rovere_, from which _Sixtus_ the fourth was descended, of it self was very noble, and had liv’d so for above two Ages in _Lombardy_, but by various changes and accidents it was declin’d to such a degree that the chief branch was remov’d to _Savona_, and there remain’d many years in a mediocrity of fortune amongst the principal Citizens, till _Sixtus_, being made _Pope_, determin’d to revive it to a greater fortune at the cost of the _Vatican_, and the publick Treasury.
All the glories of this House, though dispersed here and there by _Pope Sixtus_, yet in a little time became confined to the sole possession of the Dutchy of _Urbin_, which indeed the House of _Rovere_ possessed, but not without great persecutions for the space of 150 years and more, beginning from 1475 till 1631. When the said House was extinguished by the death of _Francesco Maria_, the last Duke, or of _Guido Ubaldo_, if I remember right; there remaining no other Heirs save _Donna Vittoria della Rovere_, married to _Ferdinand_ the second great Duke of _Tuscany_.