From The Lives of the Popes from the Time of our Saviour Jesus Christ to the Accession of Gregory VII. Written Originally in Latin by B. Platina, Native of Cremona, and translated into English (from an anonymous translation, first printed in 1685 by Sir Paul Rycaut), Edited by William Benham, Volume I, London: Griffith, Farran, Okeden & Welsh, [1888, undated in text]; pp. 260-261.
The Lives of the Popes,
BY
B. Platina
Volume I.
JOHN XV.
A.D. 985-966.
JOHN, the Fifteenth, a Roman, son of Leo, a priest, born in the ward of Gallina Bianca, being got into the Popedom,1 hated the clergy strangely, and was, deservedly, for the same mutually hated of them, and more especially because whatever he could get either of things sacred or profane he gave to his kindred and relations without any regard to the glory of God or the honour of the Church, and this evil humour has descended to his successors, even to our own times, than which naughty custom nothing can be more pernicious, when our clergy seem not to seek the Popedom for the sake of religion and the worship of God, but that they may with the profits of it satisfy the luxury and avarice of their brethren, nephews, or domestics. They write that a comet appeared about this time, portending the coming calamity, for there 261 followed a long pestilence and famine, and both Beneventum and Capua suffered much by an earthquake, and these were generally looked upon as judgments for the pride and rapacious temper of the Pope, and his contempt of God and man.
FOOTNOTE
1 [He succeeded Boniface VII.]
Previous Pope: 142. John XIV. 143. John XV. Next Pope: 144. Gregory V.