The Life of Cesare Borgia

lasted-as prescribed-nine days; they were concluded on August 5,

rity: Roderigo Borgia, Oliviero Caraffa, Giuliano della Rovere, Battista Zeno, Giovanni Michieli, Giorgio Costa, Girolamo della Rovere, Paolo Fregosi, Domenico della Rovere, Giovanni dei Conti, Giovanni Giacomo Sclafetani, Lorenzo Cib

b of the Prince of the Apostles, and to listen to the discourse "Pro eligendo Pontefice," delivered by the learned and eloquent Bishop

of Cavalieri the ambassador of Modena, the King of France had deposited 200,000 ducats with a Roman banker to forward the election of Giuliano della Rovere. Nevertheless, early on the morning of August 11 it was announced that Roderigo Borgia was elect

he Borgias. Every fresh writer who comes to the task appears to be mainly inspired by a desire to emulate his forerunners, allowing his pen to riot zestfully in the accumulation of scandalous matter, and seeking to increase if possible its lurid

the pages of an able, modern, Italian author, whose writings, sound in all that concerns other matters, are stre

y an utter ignorance of papal history. You have but to compare him calmly and honestly-your mind stripped of preconceptions-wit

orse-measuring achievement by opportunity-is strenuously to be denied. For the rest, that he was infi

eption from what we are justified in supposing from his office must have been the rule. Therefore, that he may be judged by the standard of his own time if he is to be judged at all, if we are even to attempt to under

It is by no means clear that we are concerned to study him as a churchman at all. The Papacy had by this time become far less of an ecclesiastical than a political force; the weapons of the Church were there, but they were being employed for the furtherance not of

nce; and if Alexander aimed at self-aggrandizement and at the founding of a permanent dynasty for his famil

The fact that he succeeded better than any of his forerunners. But are we on that account to select him for the special object of our vituperation? The Papacy had tumbled into a slough of materialism in which it was to wallow even after the Reformation had given it pause and warning

ms it was fast becoming an object of execration, and it is Alexander's mis

his shortcomings, ministers to his self-love by vilifying the great that he may lessen the gap between himself and them.

on what back-stairs or in what servants' hall, circulates currently to the detriment of the distinguished in every walk of life? And the more conspicuously

y of achieving their ends. Since that could not be denied, it remained to inveigh loudly against the means adopted; and with pious uplifting of hands and

filled St. Peter's Chair," and again, elsewhere, echoing what many a writer has said before him from Guicciardini downwards, in utter and diametric opposition to the true facts of the case: "The announcement of his el

not?-a pious, noble soul, horror-stricken at the sight of the Papacy's corruption; a truly sublime figure, whose tears will surely stand to his credit in heaven; a great heart breaking;

so fiendishly brutal that we are compelled to extend him the charity of supposing him to be something less than sane. Let us consider but one of his characteristics. He loved to have his enemies under his own supervision, a

picture of this weeping; it is left to us to conclude that these precious tears were symbolical of

aw from his sorrow. Can we still imagine it-as we are desired to do-to have sprung from a lofty, Christian p

ered in the next chapter, and not at all would it suit him at such a time that such a Pope as Ale

ces to himself of his frustrated opposition of that man's election, may indeed have loosened the tears of this Ferrante who had not even wept at the death of his own children. We say "may" advisedly; for the matter, from

caused him, signified to the queen, his wife, with tears-which were Unusual in him even on t

, "It is well known"-meaning that he had those tears upon hearsay. It is, of course, possible that Ferrante's queen may have repeated what passed between herself and the king; but that would surely have been in con

ty than this should these precious tears of

legends, and, for another, because when history has been carefully sifted for evidence of the "universal dismay with which the election of Roderigo

ere filled with dread and horror by this election, because it had been effected by such evil ways [con arte

-Leo X and Clement VII. If he finds it impossible to restrain his invective against these Pontiffs, who heaped favours and honours upon him, what but virulence can be expected of him when he writes of Alexander VI? He is largely to blame for the flagrant exaggeration of many of the charges brought against t

lled with dismay, horror, or

brother, was the most active worker in favour of Roderigo's election, and that

they welcomed the election, and that from Florence Manfredi-the Ferrarese ambassador-wrot

s election? Surely not, if the superlatively laudatory cong

een found for the Church," since he had proved himself

y not in having been elected,

ate of one who, during forty years, had rendered himse

e attained by a Pope solely upon his merits-"Pervenuto

, and extolled the accomplishments, the

vast, his intelligence was renowned, and had again and again been proved, and his administrative talents and capacity for affairs were known to all. He was well-born, cultured, of a fine and noble presence, and his wealth was colossal, comprising th

e well to moderate the vituperation hurled at him. Charges of that simony are common; conclusive proof there is none. We find Giacomo Trotti, the French ambassador in Milan, writ

ue, the "ignominious and detestable thing" was at least no novelty. Yet Guicciardini, treating of this matter, says: "He gained the Pontificate owing to discord between the Cardinals Ascanio Sforza and Giuliano di San Pietro in Vincoli;

s course, assuming it for the moment to be truly represented, peculia

nst Alexander, and what of those against Sixtus IV? Further, if a simoniacal election was unprecedented, what of Lorenzo Valla's

ankest hypocrisy to make this outcry against Al

sense was made or promised, then unquestionably simony there was. But this, though often asserted, still awaits proof. If the conferring of the benefices vacated by a

reater honour and glory of God. But we are dealing with no such spiritual golden age as that when we deal with the Cinquecento, as we have already seen; and, therefore, all that we can expect of a Pope is that he should bestow the preferment he has vacated upon those among the cardinals whom he believes to be devoted to himself. Considering his election in a temporal sense, it is natural that he should behave as any other temporal prince; that he should remember those to whom he owes the Ponti

t finding him suited to so difficult a charge); to Raffaele Riario went Spanish benefices worth four thousand ducats yearly; to Sanseverino Roderigo's house in Milan, whilst he co

mple; because, corrupt and of an insatiable appetite for riches, he bargained for himself, as the reward of so much turpitude, the Vice-Chancellorships, churche

nio being rewarded by them for his valuable services, and, also-so far as the Vice-Chancellorship was concerned-being suitably preferred. To say that Ascanio received them in conse

io's palace in Trastevere. This is generally alleged to have been part of the price of Ascanio's services. Whether it was so, or whether, as has also been urged, it was merely removed to save

, the narrative of Girolamo Porzio, and the Diarium of Burchard, the Master of Ce

lly conferred, we do not know, nor could they possibly have told us, what s

accuracy of M. Yriarte's statement, Burchard is silent on the subject, for the excellent reason that there is no diary for the period under consider

t that is of no more authority on such a matter th

uch a case would be the actual evidence of such cardinals as might be willing to bear witness to the attempt to bribe them. And he takes it for granted-as who would not at this time of day, and in view

s to consider that, according to the only evidences available-the Casanatense Codices(1) and the dispatches of that same Valori(2) whom M. Yriarte so confidently cites, Roderigo Borgia's election was unanimous. Who, then, were th

utti i cardinali, quasi

solo, crearono lui somm

Alessandro VI. 2 "Fu

mmo Pontefice Alessand

ntentione fu creato omn

's letter to the Otto

o Appendix in E. Thuasn

ar

lf, it betrays them. Had their horror been honest, had it sprung from true principles, had it been born of any but a desire to befoul and bespatter at all costs Roderigo Borgia, it i

ini, de'Medici, and

But they-they sold him their sacred trust, their duty to their God, their priestly honour, their holy vows. For the gold he offered them they bartered these. So much admitted, then surely, in that transaction, those car

lexander's simony for granted-eagerly almost-for the purpose of heaping odiu

e evidence of the fact, as upon the circumstance that it had become almost an established custom to purchase the tiara, and

focus and properly to trim the light in which Roderigo Borgia is to be viewed, to the end that you may see him as he was-neither better nor worse-the creature of his times, of h

taking place in Rome; and, notwithstanding the Cardinal-Chamberlain's prompt action in seizing the gates and bridges, and the patrols' endeavours to mai

y with this lawlessness. He put down violence with a hard hand that knew no mercy. He razed to the ground the house of a murderer caught

risons and four commissioners to administer justice, and that he himself gave audience

had been usual under his predecessor-and the effect of his improved and str

n which Alexander VI showed himself to the applauding Romans; the multitude of richly adorned men, gay and festive; the seven hundred priests and prelates, with their familiars the splendid cavalcade of knights and nobles of Rome; the archers and Turkish horsemen, and the Palatine Guard, with its great halberds and flashing shields; the twelve white horses, with their golden bri

lowers, music and incense, the flash of steel and the blaze of decorations with the Borgian arms everywhere di

r lampoons. The former allude to Borgia as "the Bull," from the majesty and might of the animal that was displayed upon their shield; the latter render it the subject of