Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: June 25, 2025
At the outset of his pontificate he had set his small private patrimony apart from the rich patrimony of St. Peter, refusing to take aught from the latter for the purpose of assisting his relatives. Never had pontiff displayed less nepotism: his three nephews and his two nieces had remained poor in fact, in great pecuniary embarrassment.
They had been severally raised to power during the second half of the thirteenth century by the nepotism of Nicholas III., Honorius IV., and Nicholas IV. This nepotism bore baneful fruits in the future; for during the exile at Avignon the houses of Colonna and Orsini became so overbearing as to threaten the freedom and safety of the Popes.
But he was son-in-law to Barneveld, and although the Advocate was certainly not free from the charge of nepotism, he shrank from the reproach of having apparently removed Aerssens to make a place for one of his own family. Van der Myle remained to bear the brunt of the late ambassador's malice, and to engage at a little later period in hottest controversy with him, personal and political.
He was alone in the bar of Barbazon's Hotel except for one person the youngest of the officials who had been retired from the offices of the railways when Ingolby had merged them. This was a man who had got his position originally by nepotism, and represented the worst elements of a national life where the spoils system is rooted in the popular mind.
The princes, as well as the republicans of Italy, at least those whose possessions were close to the sphere of action of the Holy See or were its vassals, studied every new pope with suspicion and fear, and also with curiosity to see in what direction nepotism would develop under him.
The Muti family counts Mutius Scævola among its ancestors. This nobility, whether authentic or not, is at all events very ancient, and is of independent origin. It has not been hatched under the robes of the Popes. The second category is of Pontifical origin. Its titles and fortunes have their origin in nepotism.
A corruption so universal might sooner or later bring disastrous consequences on the Holy See, but they lay in the uncertain future. It was otherwise with nepotism, which threatened at one time to destroy the Papacy altogether. Of all the 'nipoti, Cardinal Pietro Riario enjoyed at first the chief and almost exclusive favour of Sixtus.
Proved efficiency, plus popularity, would be the road to success. Industrial power would be conferred, directly or indirectly, by popular vote; business would be recognized as a public affair, and nepotism and hereditary advantage banished from it as they have been from politics. The risk of bankruptcies, with all their attendant evils, would be done away with entirely.
That comedy young Rondelet must have seen acted. The son of a druggist, spicer, and grocer the three trades were then combined in Montpellier, and born in 1507, he had been destined for the cloister, being a sickly lad. His uncle, one of the canons of Maguelonne, near by, had even given him the revenues of a small chapel a job of nepotism which was common enough in those days.
This view does not commend itself to my mind. I know of no more difficult practical problem than the discovery of a method of encouraging and supporting the original investigator without opening the door to nepotism and jobbery.
Word Of The Day
Others Looking