Note 260 — Chapter XVI
Reading edition
The assertion of most historians, that the pretext was Giovanni's impotency, is contradicted by very curious documents in the suit of divorce. A commission having been issued by the Pontiff, empowering two cardinals to examine into the facts, Lucrezia stated to them that in her twelfth year she had been contracted in marriage, by the words "Will you? I will," to Gaspare, son of Giovanni Francesco da Procida, Count of Aversa, but that subsequently she had been induced [quadam facilitate] to marry Sforza, and live with him above three years; but she offered to prove by her own oath, and by the report of obstetrices, that this marriage had never been consummated. Giovanni averred himself ready to affirm on oath that no copula had ever followed, and he adhibited his consent to the divorce. These steps took place towards the close of the year, and on the 18th of December a bull issued dissolving this ill-fated union. Archiv. Dipl. Urb. at Florence.