POPE ALEXANDER VI
215th Pope (1492-1503)
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Rodrigo Borgia, born at
Xativa, near Valencia, in Spain, 1 January, 1431; died in Rome, 18 August,
1503. His parents were Jofre Lançol and Isabella Borja, sister of Cardinal
Alfonso Borja, later Pope Callixtus III. The young Rodrigo had not yet
definitely chosen his profession when the elevation of his uncle to the papacy
(1455) opened up new prospects to his ambition. He was adopted into the
immediate family of Callixtus and was known henceforward to the Italians as
Rodrigo Borgia. Like so many other princely cadets, he was obtruded upon the
Church, the a,question of a clerical vocation being left completely out of
consideration. , After conferring several rich benefices on him, his uncle
sent him for a short year to study law at the University of Bologna. In 1456,
at the age of twenty-five, he was made Cardinal Deacon of St. Nicolo in
Carcere, and held that title until 1471, when he became Cardinal-Bishop of
Albano; in 1476 he was made Cardinal-Bishop of Porto and Dean of the Sacred
College (Eubel, Hierarchia Catholica, II, 12). His official position in the
Curia after 1457 was that of Vice-Chancellor of the Roman Church, and though
many envied him this lucrative office he seems in his long administration of
the Papal Chancery to have given general satisfaction. Even Guicciardini
admits that "in him were combined rare prudence and vigilance mature
reflection, marvellous power of persuasion, skill and capacity for the conduct
of the most difficult affairs". On the other hand, the list of
archbishoprics, bishoprics, abbacies, and other dignities held by him, as
enumerated by the Bishop of Modena in a letter to the Duchess of Ferrara
(Pastor) History of the Popes, V, 533, English tr.) reads like the famous
catalogue of Leparello; and since, notwithstanding the magnificence of his
household and his passion for card-playing, he was strictly abstemious in
eating and drinking, and a careful administrator, he became one of the
wealthiest men of his time. In his twenty-ninth year he drew a scathing letter
of reproof from Pope Pius II for misconduct in Sienna which had been so
notorious as to shock the whole town and court (Raynaldus Ann. eccl. ad. an.
1460, n. 31). Even after his ordination to the priesthood, in 1468, he
continued his evil ways. His contemporaries praise his handsome and imposing
figure, his cheerful countenance, persuasive manner, brilliant conversation,
and intimate mastery of the ways of polite society. The best portrait of him
is said to be that painted by Pinturicchio in the Appartimento Borgia at the
Vatican; Yriarte (Autour des Borgia, 79) praises its general air of grandeur
incontestable. Towards 1470 began his relations with the Roman lady, Vanozza
Catanei, the mother of his four children: Juan, Caesar, Lucrezia and Jofre,
born, respectively according to Gregorovius (Lucrezia Borgia 13) in 1474,
1476, 1480, and 1482.
Borgia, by a bare two-thirds
majority secured by his own vote, was proclaimed Pope on the morning of 11
Aug.,1492, and took the name of Alexander VI. [For details of the conclave see
Pastor, "Hist. of the Popes", (German ed., Freiburg, 1895), III,
275-278; also Am. Cath. Quart. Review, April, 1900.] That he obtained the
papacy through simony was the general belief (Pastor, loc. cit.) and is not
improbable (Raynaldus, Ann. eccl. ad an. 1492, n. 26), though it would be
difficult to prove it juridically, at any rate, as the law then stood the
election was valid. There is no irresistible evidence that Borgia paid anyone
a ducat for his vote, Infessura's tale of mule-loads of silver has long since
been discredited. Pastor's indictment, on closer inspection, needs some
revision, for he states (III, 277) that eight of the twenty-three electors,
viz. della Rovere, Piccolomini, Medici, Caraffa, Costa, Basso, Zeno, and Cibò,
held out to the end against Borgia. If that were true, Borgia could not have
secured a two-thirds majority. All we can affirm with certainty is that the
determining factor of this election was the accession to Borgia of Cardinal
Ascanio Sforza's vote and influence, it is almost equally certain that
Sforza's course was dictated not by silver, but by the desire to be the future
Pontiff's chief adviser.
The elevation to the papacy
of one who for thirty-five years had conducted the affairs of the Roman
chancery with rare ability and industry met with general approbation, we find
no evidence of the "alarm and horror" of which Guicciardini speaks.
To the Romans especially, who had come to regard Borgia as one of themselves,
and who predicted a pontificate at once splendid and energetic, the choice was
most acceptable; and they manifested their joy in bonfires torchlight
processions, garlands of flowers, and the erection of triumphal arches with
extravagant inscriptions. At his coronation in St. Peter's (26 Aug.), and
during his progress to St. John Lateran, he was greeted with an ovation,
"greater", says the diarist, "than any Pontiff had ever
received". He proceeded at once to justify this good opinion of the
Romans by putting an end to the lawlessness which reigned m the city, the
extent of which we can infer from the statement of Infessura that within a few
months over two hundred and twenty assassinations had taken place. Alexander
ordered investigations to be made, every culprit discovered to be hanged on
the spot and his house to be razed to the ground. He divided the city into
four districts, placing over each a magistrate with plenary powers for the
maintenance of order; in addition, he reserved the Tuesday of each week as a
day on which any man or woman could lay his or her grievances before himself
personally; "and", says the diarist, "he set about dispensing
justice in an admirable manner." This vigorous method of administering
justice soon changed the face of the city, and was ascribed by the grateful
populace to "the interposition of God." Alexander next turned his
attention to the defence and embellishment of the Eternal City. He changed the
Mausoleum of Adrian into a veritable fortress capable of sustaining a siege.
By the fortification of Torre di Nona, he secured the city from naval attacks.
He deserves to be called the founder of the Leonine City, which he transformed
into the most fashionable quarter of Rome. His magnificent Via Alessandrina,
now called Borgo Nuovo, remains to the present day the grand approach to St.
Peter's. Under his direction, Pinturicchio adorned the Appartimento Borgia in
the Vatican, pointing the way to his immortal disciple, Raphael. In addition
to the structures erected by himself, his memory is associated with the many
others built by monarchs and cardinals at his instigation. During his reign
Bramante designed for Ferdinand and Isabella that exquisite architectural gem,
the Tempietto, on the traditional site of St. Peter's martyrdom. If not
Bramante, some other great architect, equally attracted to Rome by the report
of the Pope's liberality, built for Cardinal Riario the magnificent palace of
the Cancellaria. In 1500, the ambassador of Emperor Maximilian laid the
cornerstone of the handsome national church of the Germans, Santa Maria dell'
Anima. Not to be outdone, the French Cardinal Briconnet erected SS. Trinità
dei Monti, and the Spaniards Santa Maria di Monserrato. To Alexander we owe
the beautiful ceiling of Santa Maria Maggiore, in the decoration of which
tradition says he employed the first gold brought from America by Columbus.
Although he laid no great
claim to learning, he fostered literature and science. As cardinal he had
written two treatises on canonical subjects and a defence of the Christian
faith. He rebuilt the Roman University and made generous provision for the
support of the professors. He surrounded himself with learned men and had a
special predilection for jurists. His fondness for theatrical performances
encouraged the development of the drama. He loved pontifical ceremonies, to
which his majestic figure lent grace and dignity. He listened to good sermons
with a critical ear, and admired fine music. In 1497, Alexander decreed that
the "Praefectus Sacrarii Pontificii", commonly called
"Sacristan of the Pope", but virtually parish-priest of the Vatican
and keeper of the Pope's conscience, should be permanently and exclusively a
prelate chosen from the Augustinian Order, an arrangement that still endures.
Alexander earned the enmity of Spain, the obloquy of many narrow minded
contemporaries, and the gratitude of posterity, by his tolerant policy towards
the Jews, whom he could not be coerced into banishing or molesting. The
concourse of pilgrims to Rome in the Jubilee year, 1500, was a magnificent
demonstration of the depth and universality of the popular faith. The capacity
of the city to house and feed so many thousands of visitors from all parts of
Europe was taxed to the utmost, but Alexander spared no expense or pains to
provide for the security and comfort of his guests. To maintain peace among
Christians and to form a coalition of the European Powers against the Turks
was the policy he had inherited from his uncle. One of the first of his public
acts was to prevent a collision between Spain and Portugal over their
newly-discovered territories, by drawing his line of demarcation, an act of
truly peaceful import, and not of usurpation and ambition [Civiltà Cattolica
(1865), I, 665-680]. He did his best to dissuade Charles VIII of France from
his projected invasion of Italy; if he was unsuccessful, the blame is in no
slight degree due to the unpatriotic course of that same Giuliano della Rovere
who later, as Julius II, made futile efforts to expel the
"barbarians" whom he himself had invited. Alexander issued a wise
decree concerning the censorship of books, and sent the first missionaries to
the New World.
Notwithstanding these and
similar actions, which might seem to entitle him to no mean place in the
annals of the papacy, Alexander continued as Pope the manner of life that had
disgraced his cardinalate (Pastor, op. cit., III, 449 152). A stern Nemesis
pursued him till death in the shape of a strong parental affection for his
children. The report of the Ferrarese ambassador, that the new Pope had
resolved to keep them at a distance from Rome, is quite credible, for all his
earlier measures for their advancement pointed towards Spain. While still a
cardinal, he had married one daughter, Girolama, to a Spanish nobleman. He had
bought for a son, Pedro Luis, from the Spanish monarch the Duchy of Gandia,
and when Pedro died soon after he procured it for Juan, his oldest surviving
son by Vanozza. This ill-starred young man was married to a cousin of the King
of Spain, and became grandfather to St. Francis Borgia, whose virtues went a
great way towards atoning for the vices of his kin. The fond father made a
great mistake when he selected his boy Caesar as the ecclesiastical
representative of the Borgias. In 1480, Pope Innocent VIII made the child
eligible for Orders by absolving him from the ecclesiastical irregularity that
followed his birth de episcopo cardinali et conjugatâ, and conferred several
Spanish benefices on him, the last being the Bishopric of Pampeluna, in the
neighbourhood of which, by a strange fatality, he eventually met his death. A
week after Alexander's coronation he appointed Caesar, now eighteen years old,
to the Archbishopric of Valencia; but Caesar neither went to Spain nor ever
took Orders. The youngest son, Jofre, was also to be inflicted upon the Church
of Spain. A further evidence that the Pope had determined to keep his children
at a distance from court is that his daughter Lucrezia was betrothed to a
Spanish gentleman, the marriage, however, never took place. It had already
become the settled policy of the popes to have a personal representative in
the Sacred College, and so Alexander chose for this confidential position
Cardinal Giovanni Borgia, his sister's son. The subsequent abandonment of his
good resolutions concerning his children may safely be ascribed to the evil
counsels of Ascanio Sforza, whom Borgia had rewarded with the
vice-chancellorship, and who was virtually his prime minister. The main
purpose of Ascanio's residence at the papal court was to advance the interests
of his brother, Lodovico il Moro, who had been regent of Milan for so many
years, during the minority of their nephew Gian Galeazzo, that he now refused
to surrender the reins of government, though the rightful duke had attained
his majority. Gian Galeazzo was powerless to assert his rights; but his more
energetic wife was granddaughter to King Ferrante of Naples, and her incessant
appeals to her family for aid left Lodovico in constant dread of Neapolitan
invasion. Alexander had many real grievances against Ferrante, the latest of
which was the financial aid the King had given to the Pope's vassal, Virginio
Orsini, in the purchase of Cervetri and Anguillara, without Alexander's
consent. In addition to the contempt of the papal authority involved in the
transaction, this accession of strength to a baronial family already too
powerful could not but be highly displeasing. Alexander was, therefore, easily
induced to enter a defensive alliance with Milan and Venice; the league was
solemnly proclaimed, 25 April, 1493. It was cemented by the first of
Lucrezia's marriages. Her first husband was a cousin of Ascanio, Giovanni
Sforza, Lord of Pesaro. The wedding was celebrated in the Vatican in the
presence of the Pope, ten cardinals, and the chief nobles of Rome with their
ladies, the revelries of the occasion, even when exaggerations and rumours are
dismissed, remain a blot upon the character of Alexander. Ferrante talked of
war, but, through the mediation of Spain, he came to terms with the Pope and,
as a pledge of reconciliation, gave his granddaughter, Sancia, in marriage to
Alexander's youngest son Jofre, with the principality of Squillace as dower.
Caesar Borgia was created Cardinal 20 September. Ferrante's reconciliation
with the Pope came none too soon.
A few days after peace had
been concluded, an envoy of King Charles VIII arrived in Rome to demand the
investiture of Naples for his master. Alexander returned a positive refusal,
and when Ferrante died, January, 1494, neglecting French protests and threats,
he confirmed the succession of Ferrante's son, Alfonso II, and sent his
nephew, Cardinal Giovanni Borgia, to Naples to crown him. The policy of
Alexander was dictated not only by a laudable desire to maintain the peace of
Italy, but also because he was aware that a strong faction of his cardinals,
with the resolute della Rovere at their head, was promoting the invasion of
Charles as a means towards deposing him on the twofold charge of simony and
immorality. In September, 1494, the French crossed the Alps; on the last day
of that year they made their entry into Rome, needing no other weapon in their
march through the peninsula, as Alexander wittily remarked (Commines vii, 15),
than the chalk with which they marked out the lodgings of the troops. The
barons of the Pope deserted him one after the other. Colonna and Savelli were
traitors from the beginning, but he felt most keenly the defection of Virginio
Orsini, the commander of his army. Many a saintlier pope than Alexander VI
would have made the fatal mistake of yielding to brute force and surrendering
unconditionally to the conqueror of Italy; the most heroic of the popes could
not have sustained the stability of the Holy See at this crucial moment with
greater firmness. From the crumbling ramparts of St. Angelo, the defences of
which were still incomplete, he looked calmly into the mouth of the French
cannon; with equal intrepidity he faced the cabal of della Rovere's cardinals,
clamorous for his deposition. At the end of a fortnight it was Charles who
capitulated. He acknowledged Alexander as true Pope, greatly to the disgust of
della Rovere, and "did his filial obedience", says Commines,
"with all imaginable humility"; but he could not extort from the
Pontiff an acknowledgment of his claims to Naples. Charles entered Naples, 22
February, 1495, without striking a blow. At his approach the unpopular Alfonso
abdicated in favour of his son Ferrantino, the latter, failing to receive
support, retired to seek the protection of Spain. Whilst Charles wasted over
two months in fruitless attempts to induce the Pope by promises and threats to
sanction his usurpation, a powerful league, consisting of Venice, Milan, the
Empire, Spain, and the Holy See, was formed against him. Finally, on 12 May,
he crowned himself, but in the following July he was cutting his way home
through the ranks of the allied Italians. By the end of the year the French
had re-crossed into France. No one wished for their return, except the
restless della Rovere, and the adherents of Savonarola. The story of the
Florentine friar will be related elsewhere, here it suffices to note that
Alexander's treatment of him was marked by extreme patience and forbearance.
The French invasion was the
turning point in the political career of Alexander VI. It had taught him that
if he would be safe in Rome and be really master in the States of the Church,
he must curb the insolent and disloyal barons who had betrayed him in his hour
of danger. Unfortunately, this laudable purpose became more and more
identified in his mind with schemes for the aggrandizement of his family.
There was no place in his programme for a reform of abuses. Quite the
contrary; in order to obtain money for his military operations he disposed of
civil and spiritual privileges and offices in a scandalous manner. He resolved
to begin with the Orsini, whose treason at the most critical moment had
reduced him to desperate straits. The time seemed opportune; for Virginio, the
head of the house, was a prisoner in the hands of Ferrantino. As commander of
his troops he selected his youthful son Juan, Duke of Gandia. The struggle
dragged on for months. The minor castles of the Orsini surrendered, but
Bracciano, their main fortress, resisted all the efforts of the pontifical
troops. They were finally obliged to raise the siege, and on 25 January, 1497,
they were completely routed at Soriano. Both sides were now disposed to peace.
On Payment of 50,000 golden florins the Orsini received back all their castles
except Cervetri and Anguillara, which had been the original cause of their
quarrel with the Pope. In order to reduce the strong fortress of Ostia, held
by French troops for Cardinal della Rovere, Alexander wisely invoked the aid
of Gonsalvo de Cordova and his Spanish veterans. It surrendered to the
"Great Captain" within two weeks. Unsuccessful in obtaining for his
family the possessions of the Orsini, the Pope now demanded the consent of his
cardinals to the erection of Benevento, Terracina, and Pontecorvo into a duchy
for the Duke of Gandia. Cardinal Piccolomini was the only member who dared
protest against this improper alienation of the property of the Church. A more
powerful protest than that of the Cardinal of Sienna reverberated through the
world a week later when, on the sixteenth of June, the body of the young Duke
was fished out of the Tiber, with the throat cut and many gaping wounds.
Historians have laboured in vain to discover who perpetrated the foul deed,
but that it was a warning from Heaven to repent, no one felt more keenly than
the Pope himself. In the first wild paroxysm of grief he spoke of resigning
the tiara. Then, after three days and nights passed without food or sleep, he
appeared in consistory and proclaimed his determination to set about that
reform of the Church "in head and members" for which the world had
so long been clamouring. A commission of cardinals and canonists began
industriously to frame ordinances which foreshadowed the disciplinary decrees
of Trent. But they were never promulgated. Time gradually assuaged the sorrow
and extinguished the contrition of Alexander. From now on Caesar's iron will
was supreme law. That he aimed high from the start is evident from his
resolve, opposed at first by the Pope, to resign his cardinalate and other
ecclesiastical dignities, and to become a secular prince. The condition of
Naples was alluring. The gallant Ferrantino had died childless and was
succeeded by his uncle Federigo, whose coronation was one of Caesar's last,
possibly also one of his first, ecclesiastical acts. By securing the hand of
Federigo's daughter, Carlotta, Princess of Tarento, he would become one of the
most powerful barons of the kingdom, with ulterior prospects of wearing the
crown. Carlotta's repugnance, however, could not be overcome. But in the
course of the suit, another marriage was concluded which gave much scandal.
Lucrezia's marriage with Sforza was declared null on the ground of the
latter's impotence, and she was given as wife to Alfonso of Biseglia, an
illegitimate son of Alfonso II.
Meanwhile, affairs in France
took an unexpected turn which deeply modified the course of Italian history
and the career of the Borgias. Charles VIII died in April, 1498, preceded to
the tomb by his only son, and left the throne to his cousin, the Duke of
Orleans, King Louis XII, who stood now in need of two papal favours. In his
youth he had been coerced into marrying Jane of Valois, the saintly but
deformed daughter of Louis XI. Moreover, in order to retain Brittany, it was
essential that he should marry his deceased cousin's widow, Queen Anne. No
blame attaches to Alexander for issuing the desired decree annulling the
King's marriage or for granting him a dispensation from the impediment of
affinity. The commission of investigation appointed by him established the two
fundamental facts that the marriage with Jane was invalid, from lack of
consent, and that it never had been consummated. It was the political use made
by the Borgias of their opportunity, and the prospective alliance of France
and the Holy See, which now drove several of the Powers of Europe to the verge
of schism. Threats of a council and of deposition had no terrors for
Alexander, whose control of the Sacred College was absolute. Della Rovere was
now his agent in France. Ascanio Sforza was soon to retire permanently from
Rome. Louis had inherited from his grandmother, Valentina Visconti, strong
claims to the Duchy of Milan, usurped by the Sforzas, and he made no secret of
his intention to enforce them. Alexander cannot be held responsible for the
second "barbarian" invasion of Italy, but he was quick to take
advantage of it for the consolidation of his temporal power and the
aggrandizement of his family. On 1 October, 1498, Caesar, no longer a
cardinal, but designated Duke of Valentinois and Peer of France set outs from
Rome to bring the papal dispensation to King Louis, a cardinal's hat to his
minister D'Amboise, and to find for himself a wife of high degree. He still
longed for the hand of Carlotta, who resided in France, but since that
princess persisted in her refusal, he received instead the hand of a niece of
King Louis, the sister of the King of Navarre, Charlotte D'Albret. On 8
October, 1499, King Louis, accompanied by Duke Caesar and Cardinal della
Rovere made his triumphal entry into Milan. It was the signal to begin
operations against the petty tyrants who were devastating the States of the
Church. Alexander would have merited great credit for this muchneeded work,
had he not spoiled it by substituting his own family in their place. What his
ultimate intentions were we cannot fathom. However, the tyrants who were
expelled never returned, whilst the Borgian dynasty came to a speedy end in
the pontificate of Julius II. In the meantime Caesar had carried on his
campaign 80 successfully that by the year 1501 he was master of all the
usurped papal territory and was made Duke of Romagna by the Pope, whose
affection for the brilliant young general was manifested in still other ways.
During the war, however, and in the midst of the Jubilee of 1500 there
occurred another domestic murder. On 15 July of that year the Duke of Biseglia,
Lucretia's husband was attacked by five masked assassins, who grievousiy
wounded him. Convinced that Caesar was the instigator of the deed, he made an
unsuccessful attempt, on his recovery, to kill his supposed enemy, and was
instantly dispatched by Caesar's bodyguard. The latter, having completed, in
April, 1501, the conquest of the Romagna, no v aspired to the conquest of
Tuscany; but he was soon recalled to Rome to take part in a different
enterprise. On 27 June of that year the Pope deposed his chief vassal,
Federigo of Naples, on the plea of an alleged alliance with the Turks to the
detriment of Christendom, and approved the secret Treaty of Granada, by the
terms of which the Kingdom of Na ples was partitioned between Spain and
France.
Alexander's motive in thus
reversing his formerpolicy with respect to foreign interference was patent.
The Colonna, the Savelli, the Gaetani and other barons of the Patrimony had
always been supported in their opposition to the popes by the favour of the
Aragonese dynasty, deprived of which they felt themselves powerless.
Excommunicated by the Pontiff as rebels, they offered to surrender the keys of
their castles to the Sacred College, but Alexander demanded them for himself.
The Orsini, who might have known that their turn would come next, were so
shortsighted as to assist the Pope in the ruin of their hereditary foes. One
after another, the castles were surrendered. On 27 July, Alexander left Rome
to survey his conquest; at the same time he left the widowed Lucrezia in the
Vatican with authority to open his correspondence and conduct the routine
business of the Holy See. He also erected the confiscated Possessions of the
aforesaid families into two duchies, bestowing one on Rodrigo, the infant son
of Lucrezia, the other on Juan Borgia, born to him a short while after the
murder of Gandia, and to whom was given the latter's baptismal name (Pastor,
op. cit., III 449). Lucrezia, now in her twenty-third year, did not long
remain a widow; her father destined her to be the bride of another Alfonso,
son and heir of Duke Ercole of Ferrara. Although both father and son at first
spurned the notion of a matrimonial alliance between the proud house of Este
and the Pope's illegitimate daughter, they were favourably influenced by the
King of France. The third marriage of Lucrezia, celebrated by proxy in the
Vatican (30 December, 1501), far exceeded the first in splendour and
extravagance. If her father meant her as an instrument in her new position for
the advancement of his political combinations, he was mistaken. She is known
henceforth, and till her death in 1519, as a model wife and princess, lauded
by all for her amiability, her virtue, and her charity. Nothing could well be
more different from the fiendish Lucrezia Borgia of the drama and the opera
than the historical Duchess of Ferrara. Caesar, however, continued his
infamous career of simony, extortion, and treachery, and by the end of 1502
had rounded out his possessions by the capture of Camerino and Sinigaglia. In
October of that year the Orsini conspired with his generals to destroy him.
With coolness and skill Caesar decoyed the conspirators into his power and put
them to death. The Pope followed up the blow by proceeding against the Orsini
with greater success than formerly. Cardinal Orsini the soul of the
conspiracy, was committed to Castle St. Angelo- twelve days later he was a
corpse. Whether he died a natural death or was privately executed, is
uncertain Losing no time, Caesar returned towards Rome, and so great was the
terror he inspired that the frightened barons fled before him, says Villari
(I, 356), "as from the face of a hydra". By April nothing remained
to the Orsini except the fortress of Bracciano and they begged for an
armistice. The humiliation of the Roman aristocracy was complete; for the
first time in the history of the papacy the Pope was, in the fullest sense,
ruler of his States.
Alexander, still hale and
vigorous in his seventy-third year, and looking forward to many mere years of
reign, proceeded to strengthen his position by repleting his treasury in ways
that were more than dubious. The Sacred College now contained so many of his
adherents and countrymen that he had nothing to fear from that quarter. He
enjoyed and laughed at the scurrilous lampoons that were in circulation in
which he was accused of incredible crimes, and took no steps to shield his
reputation. War had broken out in Naples between France and Spain over the
division of the spoils. Alexander was still in doubt which side he could most
advantageously support, when his career came to an abrupt close. On 6 August,
1503, the Pope, with Caesar and others, dined with Cardinal Adriano da Corneto
in a villa belonging to the Cardinal and very imprudently remained in the open
air after nightfall. The entire company paid the penalty by contracting the
pernicious Roman fever. On the twelfth the Pope took to his bed. On the
eighteenth his life was despaired of; he made his confession, received the
last sacraments, and expired towards evening. The rapid decomposition and
swollen appearance of his corpse gave rise to the familiar suspicion of
poison. Later the tale ran that he had drunk by mistake a poisoned cup of wine
which he had prepared for his host. Nothing is more certain than that the
poison which killed him was the deadly microbe of the Roman campagna [Pastor,
op. cit., III, 469-472; Creighton, Hist. of the Papacy (London 1887), IV, 44].
His remains lie in the Spanish national church of Santa Maria di Monserrato.
An impartial appreciation of
the career of this extraordinary person must at once distinguish between the
man and the office. "An imperfect setting", says Dr. Pastor (op.
cit., III, 475), "does not affect the intrinsic worth of the jewel, nor
does the golden coin lose its value when it passes through impure hands. In so
far as the priest is a public officer of a holy Church, a blameless life is
expected from him, both because he is by his office the model of virtue to
whom the laity look up, and because his life, when virtuous, inspires in
onlookers respect for the society of which he is an ornament. But the
treasures of the Church, her Divine character, her holiness, Divine
revelation, the grace of God, spiritual authority, it is well known, are not
dependent on the moral character of the agents and officers of the Church. The
foremost of her priests cannot diminish by an iota the intrinsic value of the
spiritual treasures confided to him." There have been at all times wicked
men in the ecclesiastical ranks. Our Lord foretold, as one of its severest
trials, the presence in His Church not only of false brethren, but of rulers
who would offend, by various forms of selfishness, both the children of the
household and "those who are without". Similarly, Ho compared His
beloved spouse, the Church, to a threshing floor, on which fall both chaff and
grain until the time of separation. The most severe arraignments of Alexander,
because in a sense official, are those of his Catholic contemporaries, Pope
Julius II (Gregorovius, VII, 494) and the Augustinian cardinal and reformer,
Aegidius of Viterbo, in his manuscript "Historia XX Saeculorum",
preserved at Rome in the Bibliotheca Angelica. The Oratorian Raynaldus (d.
1677), who continued the semi-official Annals of Baronius, gave to the world
at Rome (ad an. 1460, no. 41) the above-mentioned paternal but severe reproof
of the youthful Cardinal by Pius II, and stated elsewhere (ad an. 1495, no.
26) that it was in his time the opinion of historians that Alexander had
obtained the papacy partly through money and partly through promises and the
persuasion that ho would not interfere with the lives of his electors. Mansi,
the scholarly Archbishop of Lucca editor and annotator of Raynaldus, says (XI,
4155) that it is easier to keep silence than to write write moderation about
this Pope. The severe judgment of the late Cardinal Hergenroether, in his
"Kirchengeschichte", or Manual of Church History (4th. ed., Freiburg,
1904, II, 982-983) is too well known to need more than mention.
So little have Catholic
historians defended him that in the middle of the nineteenth century Cesare
Cantu could write that Alexander VI was the only Pope who had never found an
apologist. However, since that time some Catholic writers, both in books and
periodicals, have attempted to defend him from the most grievous accusations
of his contemporaries. Two in particular may be mentioned: the Dominican
Ollivier, "Le Pape Alexandre VI et les Borgia" (Paris, 1870), of
whose work only one volume appeared, dealing with the Pope's cardinalate; and
Leonetti "Papa Alessandro VI secondo documenti e carteggi del tempo"
(3 vols., Bologna, 1880). These and other works were occasioned, partly by a
laudable desire to remove a stigma from the good repute of the Catholic
Church, and partly by the gross exaggerations of Victor Hugo and others who
permitted themselves all licence in dealing with a name so helpless and
detested. It cannot be said, however, that these works have corresponded to
their authors' zeal. Dr. Pastor ranks them all as failures. Such is the
opinion of Henri de l'Epinois in the "Revue des questions historiques"
(1881), XXIX, 147, a study that even Thuasne, the hostile editor of the Diary
of Burchard, calls "the indispensable guide of all students of Borgia
history". It is also the opinion of the Bollandist Matagne, in the same
review for 1870 and 1872 (IX, 466-475; XI, 181-198), and of Von Reumont, the
Catholic historian of medieval Rome, in Bonn. Theol. Lit. Blatt (1870), V.
686. Dr. Pastor considers that the publication of the documents in the
supplement to the third volume of Thuasne's edition of the Diary of Burchard
(Paris, 1883) renders "forever impossible" any attempts to save the
reputation of Alexander VI. There is all the less reason, therefore, says
Cardinal Hergenroether (op. cit., II, 583), for the false charges that have
been added to his account, e. g. his attempt to poison Cardinal Adriano da
Corneto and his incestuous relations with Lucrezia (Pastor, op. cit., III,
375, 450-451, 475). Other accusations, says the same writer, have been dealt
with, not unsuccessfully, by Roscoe in his "Life of Leo the Tenth";
by Capefigue in his "Eglise pendant les quatre derniers siecles" (I,
41-46), and by Chantrel, "Le Pape Alexandro VI" (Paris, 1864). On
the other hand, while immoral writers have made only too much capital out of
the salacious paragraphs scattered through Burchard and Infessura, there is no
more reason now than in the days of Raynaldus and Mansi for concealing or
perverting the facts of history. "I am a Catholic", says M. de
l'Epinois (loc. cit.), "and a disciple of the God who hath a horror of
lies. I seek the truth, all the truth, and nothing but the truth Although our
weak eyes do not see at once the uses of it, or rather see damage and peril,
we must proclaim it fearlessly." The same good principle is set forth by
Leo XIII in his Letter of 8 September, 1889, to Cardinals De Luca, Pitra, and
Hergenroether on the study of Church History: "The historian of the
Church has the duty to dissimulate none of the trials that the Church has had
to suffer from the faults of her children, and even at times from those of her
own ministers." Long ago Leo the Great (440-461) declared, in his third
homily for Christmas Day, that "the dignity of Peter suffers no
diminution even in an unworthy successor" (cujus dignitas etiam in
indigno haerede non deficit). The very indignation that the evil life of a
great ecclesiastic rouses at all times (nobly expressed by Pius II in the
above-mentioned letter to Cardinal Rodrigo Borgia) is itself a tribute to the
high spiritual ideal which for so long and on so broad a scale the Church has
presented to the world in so many holy examples, and has therefore accustomed
the latter to demand from priests. "The latter are forgiven
nothing", says De Maistre in his great work, "Du Pape",
"because everything is expected from them, wherefore the vices lightly
passed over in a Louis XIV become most offensive and scandalous in an
Alexander VI" (II, c. xiv).
JAMES F. LOUGHLIN
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