Archbishop-designate of Pisa, and again the Florentines objected--being
joined by the Pisans, who conspired to prevent him taking possession.
The Archbishop was, according to Agnolo Poliziano--the devoted historian
and poet-laureate of Lorenzo il Magnifico--"An ignorant man, a contemner
of all law--human and divine--a man steeped in crime, and a disgrace to
his family and the whole State."

Count Girolamo de' Riari, accounted a nephew of Sixtus, was, like his
elder brother Piero and Caterina his sister, a natural child of the
Pope. The three were treated with parental affection by the pontiff, and
had their home in his private apartments, being waited upon by their
unrecognised mother in the guise of nurse and guardian.

Piero de' Riari was created a Cardinal when a spoilt boy, and became, as
a man, infamous for his debauchery and villainy. Sixtus had the
effrontery to select him as successor to Archbishop Orsini in Florence,
but his action was prompted by a motive, which was firmly fixed in his
heart. This was nothing less than the supplanting of Lorenzo de' Medici
by Piero or Girolamo! So far, however, as Cardinal de' Riari was
concerned, Sixtus' ambitions were wholly disappointed by his sudden
death, due to violent excesses of all kinds.

Like his brother, Count Girolamo, the offspring of illicit lust, and
brought up in the depraved atmosphere of the Papal court, was a
reprobate; but Sixtus' vaulting ambition stopped not at character and
reputation. He was bent upon the permanent aggrandisement of all the
branches of the Delle Rovere family. Casting about for territorial
dignity, the Pope set his heart upon the Lordship of Imola, where Taddeo
Manfredi of Faenza, being in financial difficulties, had surrendered the
fief to the Duke of Milan.