His sins, great and scandalous in themselves, were swelled by popular rumour, under the spur of malice, to monstrous and incredible proportions.

As they had exaggerated and lied about the manner of his life, so--with a consistency worthy of better scope--they exaggerated and lied about the manner of his death, and, the age being a credulous one, the stories were such that writers of more modern and less credulous times dare not insist upon them, lest they should discredit--as they do--what else has been alleged against him.
Thus when, in his last delirium, the Pope uttered some such words as: "I am coming; I am coming.

It is just.

But wait a little," and when those words were repeated, it was straightway asserted that the Devil was the being he thus addressed in that supreme hour.

The story grew in detail; that is inevitable with such matter.