In 1492 Pope Alexander VI, a member of the Borgia family, had artfully bribed his way to the Papacy, despite having several mistresses and at least seven known illegitimate children. Forty years earlier, Duke Amadeus VIII of Savoy had managed to get his eight-year-old son appointed as the Bishop of Geneva. If the higher clergy were lacking in any sense of moral virtue, the lower clergy were of ten illiterate, uncouth and ignorant. Little wonder that huge resentments had built up against Papal power.
