re: cr8 Something along those lines. Perhaps this will...

re: cr8 Something along those lines. Perhaps this will help.

Popes Victims of its Ravages

"It was during the siege of Naples (15th century) that the venereal disease is said to have made its first appearance…….No class seems to have been exempt from it. Sextus della Rovere, nephew [?] of Sextus IV., one of the wealthiest and most debauched ecclesiastics of the age, was 'rotten from his middle to the soles of his feet.' Even the haughty and majestic Julius II., [1503-13], would not expose his fee to the obeisance of the faithful because they were discolored by syphilis. Leo X., his accomplished and munificent successor, was said to have owed his elevation to the fact that he was in such a depraved state of body as to render necessary a surgical operation in the Consistorium while the election [for pope] was proceeding, the Cardinals selecting the most sickly candidate for the papal tiara." [7]