Often, such appointments were a means of continuing a papal "dynasty". Several popes elevated nephews and other relatives to the cardinalate. Since the Middle Ages and until the late 17th century, some Catholic popes and bishops – who had taken vows of chastity and, therefore, usually had no legitimate offspring of their own – gave their nephews such positions of preference as were often accorded by fathers to sons. The term comes from Italian word nepotismo, which is based on Latin root nepos meaning nephew.
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