The Life of Cesare Borgia

horoughly accomplished fact, and the French rested upon their victory,

to be played. He had a valuable ally in Venice, which looked none too favourably on the French and was fully disposed to g

nst him went forward; on March 26 his Holiness sent the Golden Rose to the Doge, and on Palm Sunday the league was solemnly proclaimed in St. Peter's. Its terms were vague; there was nothing in it that was directly menacing to Charles; it was s

tpensier as Viceroy and d'Aubigny as Captain-General, he set out for Rome with his army, intent upon detaching the Pope from the leag

0 foot, supplied by Venice. At Orvieto, on June 3, the Pontiff received an ambassador from the Emperor, who had joined the league, and on the 4th he refused audience to the ambassador of France, sent to

ily, and left behind him most of his precious artillery, his tents and carriages, and the immense Neapolitan booty he was taking home, with which he had loaded (says Gregorovius) twenty thousand mules. All this fell into the hands of the Italian allies under Gonzaga of Mantua, whilst from Fornovo Charles's retreat was more in the nature of a flight. Thus

is not without importance to students of his character, and

therine of Siena, Colomba da Rieti by name. You will find some marvellous things about her in the Perugian c

to a degree second only to that of those who quote him as an authority. When he deals with matters that, so to speak

to Perugia (which happened in 1488), as she was Crossing the Bridge of St. Gianni some young men attempted to lay hands upon her, for she was comely and be

e would quiver and come to herself again, and prophesy the future, and threaten disaster. And again: "One morning two of her teeth were found to have fallen out, which had

the brothers of St. Francis had little faith in her. Nevertheless, the community built her

with a little naked boy in her lap, the centre of an excited, frenzied crowd, which was proclaiming loudly that the child had been dead and that she had resurrected him. This was a statement which the Prior of the D

were preaching her fame from convent to convent. In December of 1495 Charles VIII heard of her at Siena, and was stirred by a curiosity which he accounted devotional-the same curiosity

so in a critical spirit. Accompanied by Cesare and some cardinals and gentlemen of his following, he went to the Church of St. Do

nts, when at last she timidly arose. Alexander set her some questions concerning the Divine Mysteries. These she answered readily at first, but, as his questions grew, she faltered, became embarrassed, and fell sil

onverted. At this stage Cesare came to his aid, bearing witness, as he could, that he himself had seen the Prior discredit her when others were already hailing her as a saint, wherefore, if he now was convinced, he must have

nstance, he heard that the stigmata were alleged to have appeared upon the body of Lucia di Narni he did what might be expec

eady to become the prey of any impostor. It argues a breadth of mind altogether beyond the times in which he had his being. Witches and warlocks, who elsewhere-and even in much later ages, and in Protestant as well as Catholic States-were given to the fire, he contemptuously ignore

it is well to consider. It is not to be imagined that such breadth of views could be tolerated in a Pope in the dawn of the sixteenth century. The times were not ripe for

a good Pope, since such things must be a

tly said that he was himself a warlock, and that he practised black magic. It was not, perhaps, wanton calumny; it was said in good faith, for it was the only reason the times could think of

dubbed him Moor and Jew, and the rabid fanatic Savonarola screamed that he w

el, and no crime was too impossible to be fastened upon the ma

It is certainly wrong to assume-and this is pointed out by l'Espinois-that a private life which seems to ignore the commandments of the Church must preclude the possibility of a public life devoted to the se

contained in a Portuguese rhyme

ther Thoma

he does; do

ne without practising the privations which it entails, or may save you from dyspep

, as we are justified in concludi

ld employ the dominion accorded her over the New World for the purpose of propagating the Christian faith and the conversion and baptism of the heathen. This is strictly enjoi

r invented th

arly enjoined that he should contrive that the name of the Saviour be adored there, and the Catholic fait

nces as to those who fought in the Holy Land, and he aided the kings of Spain an

St. Francis, as apostles to preach the Faith

proceeded similarly against the "Picards" and "Vaudois." Against the Lombard demoniacs, who had grown bold, were ban

nners, and, above all, to the Catholic Faith or anything that should give scandal to the faithful. He threatened the printers of impious works with excommunication should they persist, and enlisted secular weapons to punish them

nvented the Inde

f his extreme devotion to the Blessed Virgin-in whose honour he

w that his public career was other than devoted to t