The case that made St Alphonsus de Liguori turn away from a promising legal career (he’d not lost a single case until then) and also despise the world, was settled with a bribe to the judge by a Cardinal.
In July 1723, Alphonsus prepared his brief carefully on behalf of his client Don Fillipo Orsini the Duke of Gravina against the Grand Duke of Tuscany, Cosimo di Medici, on the Amatrice fiefdom.
A matter that involved 600,000 ducats. (A single Ducat is worth about £105 today).
But, the Austrian Viceroy in Naples, Michael Cardinal Frederick d’Althan, pressurised the judges for a verdict in favour of the Medici, with the connivance of their agent in Naples.
For his efforts, Cardinal d’Althan was gifted a pair of dancing bears. Due piccoli orsi, maschio e femmina.
The pun I think, was intended against the Orsini family.
God however had the final say with the verdict that threw Alphonsus. He became a great saint, a founder of a religious order (now defunct sadly), a Bishop, and the …More