The English novelist William Somerset Maugham used to say…
The value of money is that with it we can send anyone to hell. It is the sixth sense that allows you to enjoy the other five.
And so Innocent VIII must have thought when he agreed to receive money from the infidels...
In 1481 the Ottoman sultan Mehmed II died and, as was normal in those parts, his sons Bayezid and Djem they disputed the throne of the Sublime Porte . Djem was defeated and fled to the island of Rhodes where the knights of the Military and Hospitaller Order of Saint John of Jerusalem had settled. when they were expelled from San Juan de Acre and Cyprus. Pierre d'Aubusson , Grand Master of the Order, made an agreement with Bayezid II that they would receive an annual payment of 40,000 ducats if he kept Djem away from his domain.
The Knights defending San Juan de Acre in 1291.
Pierre decided to send him away and sent him to France where he was confined in a prison with all the privileges. Although he was under the protection of the Order, many kings began to take an interest in the hostage as a means of destabilizing the Ottoman Empire. Pierre D'Aubusson decided to take advantage of the precious treasure and, to keep it out of the reach of his predators, he offered the entire lot (Djem and the 40,000 annual ducats) to Pope Innocent VIII … for the small price of making him a cardinal. It's money, wherever it comes from. Said and done.
Bayezid II
The Pope received a handsome sum and Djem was still in another luxury prison... until he came to the throne of Saint Peter the Pope Alexander VI . He tried to use that valuable hostage to eliminate one of his worst enemies:the King of France Charles VIII . He made Bayezid II believe that the French king had sent an army to Rome to free his brother and dispute the throne -Charles VIII did not care about Djem, he only wanted to depose the Pope-. Bayezid II did not want any more problems with his brother and offered the Pope 300,000 ducats if he would kill him. When the Pope was already making accounts of everything he could do with that money, Charles VIII took Rome and took Djem with him. Months later he was found dead and business was over for everyone.
Source:«Of the human and the divine«