The Life of Cesare Borgia

, is not altogether true. Politically, at least, Sixtus did much to strengthen the position of the Holy See and of the Pontificate. He was not long in giving the Roman factions a taste of his stern

stinguished following already in 1453 had attempted the overthrow of the pontifical authority, inspire

whose secretary he ultimately became. Some years later he attacked the Temporal Power and urged the secularization of the States of the Church. "Ut Papa," he wrote, "tantum Vicarius Christi sit, et non etiam Coesari." In his De falso credita et ementita Constantini Donatione, he showed that the decretals of the Donation of Constantine, upon which rests the Pope's claim to the Pontifical States, was an impudent forgery, that Co

lla had afforded. Never was the temporal power of the Church in such danger, and ultimately it must inevitably have succumbed but for

paign to reestablish and support the papal authority. This simony of his, says Dr. Jacob Burckhardt, "grew to u

cate, a measure of justification (political if not ecclesiastical) might be argued in his favour. Unfortunately, ha

s and their aggrandizement were the particular objects of his attentions, and two of these-a

became Pope, was given the Archbishopric of Florence, made Patriarch of Constantino

been displayed by our forefathers or that can even be imagined by our descendants"; and Macchiavelli tells us(2) that "although of very low origin and mean rearing, no sooner had he obtained the scarlet hat than

er to Franc

ie Flor

one year or less he should have dissipated 200,000 florins,

with Duke Galeazzo Maria that the latter should become King of Lombardy, and then assist him with money and troops to master Rome and ascend the

ses and debaucheries, say some; of poison administered by the Venetians, say others-leaving a mass of debts, co

n addition to this he received from his Holiness the City of Forli, to which end the Ordelaffi were dispossessed of it. Here again we have a papal attempt to

ing mark in history was Giuliano della Rovere. He was raised by his uncle to the purple with the title of San Pietro in Vinc

ities. As at the election of Pius II, so at the election of Sixtus IV it was Cardinal Roderigo who led the act of accession which gave the new Pope his tiara, and for this act

iovanna Catanei, or Vannozza Catanei, as she is styled in contemporary documents-Vannoz

Italy. And just as we have no sources of information upon her origin, neither have we any elements from which to paint her portrait. Gregorovius rests the probability that she was beautiful upon the known characteristics and fast

at she was born on July 13, 1442, this fact being ascertainable by a simple calculati

V d. XII Objit anno

her circumstances were when she caught the magnetic eye of Cardinal Roderigo de Lanzol y Borja

ia, he caused false witness to be borne to the fact that Cesare was the legitimate son of one Domenico d'Arignano, to whom he, t

ria d'

icles concerning the Borgias-the assumption is straightway stated as a fact. But there were other ways of circumventing awkward commandments, and, unfortunately for the accuracy of these statements of Infessura and Guicciardini, another way was taken in this instan

t to the Appendix o

hard's

er husband is not to be ascertained. All that we know is that he was so in 1480, and that she was living with him in that year in a house in Piazza Pizzo di Merlo (now Piazza Sforza Cesarini) not

as much a fictio

ura's

hich you will hesitate to accept. If we know our Cardinal Roderigo at all, he was never the man to pursue his pleasures in a hole-and-corner fashion, nor one to bethink him of a cloak for his amusements. Had he but done so, scandalmongers would have had less to fasten upon in their work of playing havoc wit

Borgia (afterwards Cardinal of Valencia and Duke of Valentinois), the cen

documentary evidence before

come impossible to establish beyond reasonable doubt which was the firstborn; and this in spite of the documents discovered by Gregoro

re credible since they happen to agree and corroborate one another; still, not so utterly and absolutely reliabl

e mentions Cesare Borgia as being sixteen to seventeen years of age at the time. But the very manner of writing-"sixteen to seventeen years"

f something which his Holiness told the writer. It is in the post-scriptum that this ambassador says: "The Pope gave me to understand that the said Duch

the epsa Duchessa é di

o Aprile; in el qual te

fornirá ann

An error would easily be possible in so far as the age of Cesare is concerned. In so far as the age of Lucrezia is concerned, an error is not only possible, but has actually been committed by Sar

act never

ucrezia completed her twelfth year on April 19, 1491,(3) which defini

ue dita Dona Lucretia

rá in edat d

April 18, 1480, extraordinary considering that he made it apparently with this very protocol under h

gorovius in support of his contention that the latter was the elder and born in 1474; b

legal character are the Ossuna documents, given in the Supplement

, dispensing Cesare from proving his legitimacy. In this he i

in the matter of April being the month of Cesa

or of Cesare's benefices. In this he is mentioned as being seven years of age (i

h of Carthage. In this he is mentioned as in his ninth year-"in nono tuo aetatis anno

ion in his diary under date of September 12, 1491, that Cesare was then s

an positively assert is that he was born between the years 1474 and 1476, and we cannot, we

ni Borgia; but just as the same confusion prevails with regard to his exact age, so is

ost important in this connection is that of the

JUFFREDO SCYLATII, ET LUCRETIA FERRARIAE DUCIB. FILIIS

why does his name come second? If Cesare was her second son,

death of Pedro Luis-Cardinal Roderigo's eldest son, by an unknown mother. But that does not follow inevitably; for it is to be remembe

, until his ambition to increase his dominions had

to remove a formidable obstacle to his family's advancement, the Pope inspired the Pazzi conspiracy against the lives of the famous masters of Florence. The conspiracy failed; for although Giuliano de'Medici fell stabbed to

munication against the Florentines. Naples took sides with the Pope. Venice and Milan came to the support of Floren

he mainland, and upon a pretext of the pettiest themselves declared war upon Ferrara. Genoa and some minor tyrannies were drawn into the quarrel on the one side, whilst on the other Florence, Naples, Mantua, Milan, and Bologna stood by Ferrara. Whilst the papal forces were holding in check the Neapolitans who sought to pass north to aid Ferrara, whilst the Roman Campagna wa

s, of which they availed themselves to convey supplies to Ferrara and neutralize the siege. At

thout any decisive battle fought, until at last the peace of Bagnolo was c

y he was thrown into a violent rage, and declared the peace to be at once shameful and humiliating.

ossessions and he enriched the Vatican by the addition of the Sistine Chapel. For the decoration of this he procured the best Tuscan talent of his day-and of many days-an

tine Chapel, however,

added later, in the

o della

ixtus, Cardinal Roderigo's family had su

his eldest son (by an unknown mother) Pedro Luis de Borgia, who had reached the age of

the scion of a patrician Roman house. The alliance strengthened the bonds of good feeling which for some considerable time had preva

s of Valencia; in the following month he was appointed Canon of Valencia and apostolic notary. In April 1484 he was made Provost of Alba, and in September of the same year treasurer of the Chu

he air and vigour of a man in his very prime, which, no doubt, he owed as much as to anything to his abstemious and singularly sparing table-habits. He derived a stupendous income from his numerous ab

at, or crown was equal

a purchasing power of

quipment of his beds, the trappings of his horses, and other similar furnishings in gold, in silver, and in silk. In short, he

and of a great intelligence. A ready speaker, and of distinction, notwithstanding his indiff

he took a second husband, possibly at the instance of Roderigo Borgia, who did not wish to leave her unprotected; that, at least, is the general inference, although there is very little evidence upon

ed a villa with its beautiful gardens and vine-yards in the Suburra near S. Pietro in Vincoli. She is also known to have been the proprietor of an i

nce with Adriana Orsini (née de Mila) at the Orsini Palace on Monte Giordano. She was a cousin of Roderigo's, and the widow of Lodovico Orsini, by whom she had a son, Orso Orsini, who fr

een immortalized by Pinturicchio and Guglielmo della Porta. She sat to the former as a model for his Madonna in the Borgia Tower of th

den-headed Giulia, some forty years his junior. To the fact that she presently became his mistress-somewhere about the same time that she became Orso Orsini's wife-is due the sudden rise of the House of Farnese. Th

only one of Roderigo's children

ake posession of the Duchy of Gandia, which the power of his father's wealth and vast influenc

are to believe the praises of him uttered by Pompilio, he was already revealing his unusual talents and a precocious wit. In the preface of the Syllabica

had Giovanni Vera of Arcilla, a Spanish gentleman who was later created a cardinal by Cesare's father. There in Pisa Cesare ma

, the most rated lecturer on canon law of his day, were such as peculiarly to fit him for that end and for the highest honours the Church might have

turbances in Rome, and they certainly were not wanting on this occasion. The Riario palaces were stormed and

e city. The cardinals besought the Count to surrender the castle to the Sacred College, withdraw his troops, and deliver R

lli, Istori

oceeded to the creation of a new Pontiff, and a Genoese, Giovanni Battista

vanni d' Aragona (brother to the King of Naples) and Ascanio Sforza (brother of Lodovico, Duke of Milan) are said to have disposed of their votes

ng sensualist, without even the one redeeming virtue of strength that had been his predecessor's. Nepotism had characterized many previous pontificates; open paternity was to characterize his, for he was the first P

ndulgences, the like of which had never been seen before. In the Rome of his day you might, ha

low who sorely disappointed Lorenzo de'Medici, whose daughter Maddalena he received in marriage. Lorenzo had believed that, backed by the Pope's influence, Francesco would establish for himself a d

robbery, and murder preyed upon the city. No morning dawned without revealing corpses in the streets; and if by chance the mur

nt VIII died Infessura should have blessed t

nd came, Infessura tells us, a Hebrew physician who claimed to have a prescription by which he could save the Pope's life. For his infusion(1) he needed young human blood, and to obtain it he took three boys of the age of ten, and gave them a ducat apiece for as much as he might require of them. Unfortunately he t

ion of this afforded by

nsfusion of blood-silly

ng of the circulation o

exp

eathed his last