Pope Alexander VI
.jpg){kind=link}
Pope Alexander VI (Italian: Alessandro VI, Valencian: Alexandre VI, Spanish: Alejandro VI; born Roderic de Borja y Llançol [4] epithet: Valentinus ("The Valencian");[5] c. 1431 – 18 August 1503) was head of the Catholic Church and leader of the Papal States from 11 August 1492 until his death in 1503.
Born into the prominent Borja family in Xàtiva in the Kingdom of Valencia under the Crown of Aragon (in present-day Spain), he was known as Roderic de Borja, and he is commonly referred to by the Italianized form as Rodrigo Borgia. He studied law at the University of Bologna. He was ordained deacon and made a cardinal in 1456 after the election of his uncle as Pope Callixtus III, and a year later he became vice-chancellor of the Catholic Church. He proceeded to serve in the Roman Curia under the next four popes, acquiring significant influence and wealth in the process. In 1492, Rodrigo was elected pope, taking the name Alexander VI.
Alexander's papal bulls of 1493 confirmed or reconfirmed the rights of the Spanish crown in the New World following the finds of Christopher Columbus in 1492. During the second Italian war, Alexander VI supported his son Cesare Borgia as a condottiero for the French king. The scope of his foreign policy was to gain the most advantageous terms for his family.[6][7]
Alexander is one of the most controversial of the Renaissance popes, partly because he acknowledged fathering several children by his mistresses. As a result, his Italianized Valencian surname, Borgia, became a byword for libertinism and nepotism, which are traditionally considered as characterizing his pontificate.
Birth and family
Roderic de Borja was born c. 1431, in the town of Xàtiva near Valencia, one of the component realms of the Crown of Aragon, in what is now Spain.[8] He was named for his paternal grandfather, Rodrigo Gil de Borja y Fennolet. His parents were Jofré Borja y Llançol i Escrivà (died bef. 24 March 1437) and his Aragonese wife and distant cousin Isabel de Borja y Cavanilles (died 19 October 1468), daughter of Juan Domingo de Borja y Doncel.[9] He had a younger brother, Pedro. His family name is written Borja y Llançol in Valencian and Lanzol in Castillian. In 1455 following his uncle's elevation to the papacy Alonso de Borja was Italianized to Alfonso Borgia as Callixtus III.[10] in addition at this time that would change their spelling from Borja to Borgia. His cousin Callixtus's nephew Luis de Milà y de Borja became a cardinal.
Gerard Noel writes that Rodrigo's father was Jofré de Borja y Escrivà, making Rodrigo a Borja from his mother and father's side.[11] However, Cesare, Lucrezia, and Jofre were known to be of Llançol paternal lineage. G. J. Meyer suggests that Rodrigo would have likely been uncle (from a shared female family member) to the children, and attributes the confusion to attempts to connect Rodrigo as the father of Giovanni (Juan), Cesare, Lucrezia, and Gioffre (Jofré in Valencian), who were surnamed Llançol i Borja.[12]
Appearance and personality
Peter de Roo gives a flattering summary of contemporary descriptions of Alexander, relating him to have been "of a medium complexion, with dark eyes and slightly full lips, of robust health"; in later life, he reports that "his aspect [was declared] to be venerable and far more august than an ordinary human appearance", and that he was "so familiar with Holy Writ, that his speeches were fairly sparkling with well-chosen texts of the Sacred Books".[13]
Career
Overview
Roderic de Borja's career in the Church began in 1445 at the age of 14, when he was appointed sacristan at the Cathedral of Valencia by his influential uncle, Alfons Cardinal de Borja, who had been appointed a cardinal by Pope Eugene IV the previous year.[14] In 1448, de Borja became canon at the cathedrals of Valencia, Barcelona, and Segorbe. His uncle, Cardinal de Borja, persuaded Pope Nicholas V to allow young de Borja to perform this role in absentia and receive the associated income, so that de Borja could travel to Rome.[15] While in Rome, Rodrigo Borgia (as his name was usually spelled in Italian) studied under Gaspare da Verona, a humanist tutor. He then studied law at Bologna where he graduated, not simply as Doctor of Law, but as "the most eminent and judicious jurisprudent."[13]
The election of his uncle, Alfons Cardinal de Borja, as Pope Callixtus III in 1455 enabled Borgia's appointments to other positions in the Church. These nepotistic appointments were characteristic of the era. Each pope during this period found himself surrounded by the servants and retainers of his predecessors who often owed their loyalty to the family of the pontiff who had appointed them.[16] In 1455, he inherited his uncle's post as bishop of Valencia, and Callixtus appointed him Dean of Santa Maria in Xàtiva. The following year, he was ordained deacon and created cardinal-deacon of San Nicola in Carcere. Rodrigo Borgia's appointment as cardinal only occurred after Callixtus III asked the cardinals in Rome to create three new positions in the College of Cardinals, two for his nephews Rodrigo and Luis Juan de Milà, and one for the Prince Jaime of Portugal.[17]
In 1457, Callixtus III assigned the young Cardinal de Borja (or Borgia in Italian) to go to Ancona as a Papal legate to quell a revolt. Borgia was successful in his mission, and his uncle rewarded him with his appointment as vice-chancellor of the Holy Roman Church.[18] The position of vice-chancellor was both incredibly powerful and lucrative, and Borgia held this post for 35 years until his own election to the papacy in 1492. At the end of 1457, Rodrigo Cardinal Borgia's elder brother, Pedro Luis Borgia, fell ill, so Rodrigo temporarily filled Pedro Luis' position as captain-general of the papal army until he recovered.[19] In 1458, Cardinal Borgia's uncle and greatest benefactor, Pope Callixtus, died.
In the papal election of 1458, Rodrigo Borgia was too young to seek the papacy himself, so he sought to support a cardinal who would maintain him as vice-chancellor. Borgia was one of the deciding votes in the election of Cardinal Piccolomini as Pope Pius II, and the new pope rewarded Borgia not only with maintaining the chancellorship but also with a lucrative abbey benefice and another titular church.[20] In 1460, Pope Pius rebuked Cardinal Borgia for attending a private party which Pius had heard turned into an orgy. Borgia apologized for the incident but denied that there had been an orgy. Pope Pius forgave him, and the true events of the evening remain unknown.[21] In 1462, Rodrigo Borgia had his first son, Pedro Luis, with an unknown mistress. He sent Pedro Luis to grow up in Spain.[22] The following year, Borgia acceded to Pope Pius's call for cardinals to help fund a new crusade. Before embarking to lead the crusade personally, Pope Pius II fell ill and died, so Borgia would need to ensure the election of yet another ally to the papacy to maintain his position as vice-chancellor.
On the first ballot, the conclave of 1464 elected Borgia's friend Pietro Barbo as Pope Paul II. Borgia was in high standing with the new pope and retained his positions, including that of vice-chancellor. Paul II reversed some of his predecessor's reforms that diminished the power of the chancellory. Following the election, Borgia fell ill of the plague but recovered. Borgia had two daughters, Isabella (*1467) and Girolama (*1469), with an unknown mistress. He openly acknowledged all three of his children.[23] Pope Paul II died suddenly in 1471.
While Borgia had acquired the reputation and wealth to mount a bid for the papacy in this conclave, there were only three non-Italians, making his election a near-impossibility. Consequently, Borgia continued his previous strategy of positioning himself as kingmaker. This time, Borgia gathered the votes to make Francesco della Rovere (the uncle of future Borgia rival Giuliano della Rovere) Pope Sixtus IV. Della Rovere's appeal was that he was a pious and brilliant Franciscan friar who lacked many political connections in Rome.[24] He seemed to be the perfect cardinal to reform the Church, and the perfect cardinal for Borgia to maintain his influence. Sixtus IV rewarded Borgia for his support by promoting him to cardinal-bishop and consecrating him as the Cardinal-Bishop of Albano, requiring Borgia's ordination as a priest. Borgia also received a lucrative abbey from the pope and remained vice-chancellor.[25] At the end of the year, the pope appointed Borgia to be the papal legate for Spain to negotiate a peace treaty between Castile and Aragon and to solicit their support for another crusade. In 1472, Borgia was appointed to be the papal chamberlain until his departure to Spain. Borgia arrived in his native Aragon in the summer, reuniting with family and meeting with King Juan II and Prince Ferdinand. The pope gave Cardinal Borgia discretion over whether to give dispensation for Ferdinand's marriage to his second cousin Isabella of Castile, and Borgia decided in favour of approving the marriage. The couple named Borgia to be the godfather of their first son in recognition of this decision.[26] The marriage of Ferdinand and Isabella was critical in the unification of Castile and Aragon into Spain. Borgia also negotiated peace between Castile and Aragon and an end to the civil wars in the latter Kingdom, gaining the favour of the future King Ferdinand - who would go on to promote the interests of the Borgia family in Aragon.[27] Borgia returned to Rome the following year, narrowly surviving a storm that sank a nearby galley that was carrying 200 men of the Borgia household.
Back in Rome, Borgia began his affair with Vannozza dei Cattenei which would yield four children: Cesare in 1475, Giovanni in 1474 or 1476, Lucrezia in 1480, and Gioffre in 1482. In 1476, Pope Sixtus appointed Borgia to be the cardinal-bishop of Porto. In 1480, the pope legitimized Cesare as a favour to Cardinal Borgia, and in 1482, the pope began to appoint the seven-year-old to church positions, demonstrating Borgia's intention to use his influence to promote his children. Contemporaneously, Borgia continued to add to his list of benefices, becoming the wealthiest cardinal by 1483.[28] He also become Dean of the College of Cardinals in that year. In 1484, Pope Sixtus IV died, necessitating another election for Borgia to manipulate to his advantage.
Borgia was wealthy and powerful enough to mount a bid, but he faced competition from Giuliano della Rovere, the late pope's nephew. Della Rovere's faction had the advantage of being incredibly large as Sixtus had appointed many of the cardinals who would participate in the election. Borgia's attempts to gather enough votes included bribery and leveraging his close ties to Naples and Aragon. However, many of the Spanish cardinals were absent from the conclave and della Rovere's faction had an overwhelming advantage. Della Rovere chose to promote Cardinal Cibo as his preferred candidate, and Cibo wrote to the Borgia faction wanting to strike a deal. Once again, Borgia played kingmaker and conceded to Cardinal Cibo who became Pope Innocent VIII.[29] Again, Borgia retained his position of vice-chancellor, successfully holding this position over the course of five papacies and four elections.
In 1485, Pope Innocent VIII nominated Borgia to become the Archbishop of Seville, a position that King Ferdinand II wanted for his own son. In response, Ferdinand angrily seized the Borgia estates in Aragon and imprisoned Borgia's son Pedro Luis. However, Borgia healed the relationship by turning down this appointment. Pope Innocent, at the urging of his close ally Giuliano della Rovere, decided to declare war against Naples, but Milan, Florence, and Aragon chose to support Naples over the pope. Borgia led the opposition within the College of Cardinals to this war, and King Ferdinand rewarded Borgia by making his son Pedro Luis the Duke of Gandia and arranging a marriage between his cousin Maria Enriquez and the new duke. Now, the Borgia family was directly tied to the royal families of Spain and Naples. While Borgia gained the favour of Spain, he stood opposed to the pope and the della Rovere family. As a part of his war opposition, Borgia sought to obstruct an alliance negotiation between the papacy and France. These negotiations were unsuccessful and in July 1486, the pope capitulated and ended the war.[30] In 1488, Borgia's son Pedro Luis died, and Juan Borgia became the new duke of Gandia. In the following year, Borgia hosted the wedding ceremony between Orsino Orsini and Giulia Farnese, and within a few months, Farnese had become Borgia's new mistress. She was 15, and he was 58.[31] Borgia continued to acquire new benefices with their large streams of income, including the bishopric of Majorca and Eger in Hungary. In 1492, Pope Innocent VIII died. Since Borgia was 61, this was likely his last chance to become pope.
Archbishop of Valencia
When his uncle Alonso de Borja (bishop of Valencia) was elected Pope Callixtus III, he "inherited" the post of bishop of Valencia. Sixteen days before the death of Pope Innocent VIII, he proposed Valencia as a metropolitan see and became the first archbishop of Valencia. When Rodrigo Borgia was elected pope as Alexander VI following the death of Innocent VIII, his son Cesare Borgia "inherited" the post as second archbishop of Valencia. The third and the fourth archbishops of Valencia were Juan de Borja and Pedro Luis de Borja, grandnephews of Alexander VI.[32]
Election to the papacy
There was change in the constitution of the College of Cardinals during the course of the 15th century, especially under Sixtus IV and Innocent VIII. Of the 27 cardinals alive in the closing months of the reign of Innocent VIII no fewer than 10 were cardinal-nephews, eight were crown nominees, four were Roman nobles and one other had been given the cardinalate in recompense for his family's service to the Holy See; only four were able career churchmen.[16]
On the death of Pope Innocent VIII on 25 July 1492, the three likely candidates for the Papacy were the 61-year-old Borgia,[16] seen as an independent candidate, Ascanio Sforza for the Milanese, and Giuliano della Rovere, seen as a pro-French candidate. It was rumoured but not substantiated that Borgia succeeded in buying the largest number of votes and Sforza, in particular, was bribed with four mule-loads of silver.[33] Mallett shows that Borgia was in the lead from the start and that the rumours of bribery began after the election with the distribution of benefices; Sforza and della Rovere were just as willing and able to bribe as anyone else.[34] The benefices and offices granted to Sforza, moreover, would be worth considerably more than four mule-loads of silver. Johann Burchard, the conclave's master of ceremonies and a leading figure of the papal household under several popes, recorded in his diary that the 1492 conclave was a particularly expensive campaign. Della Rovere was bankrolled to the cost of 200,000 gold ducats by King Charles VIII of France, with another 100,000 supplied by the Republic of Genoa.[35]
The leading candidates in the first ballot were Oliviero Carafa of Sforza's party with nine votes, and Giovanni Michiel and Jorge Costa, both of della Rovere's party with seven votes each. Borgia himself gathered seven votes. However, Borgia convinced Sforza to join with his camp through the promise of being appointed vice-chancellor as well as bribes that included benefices and perhaps four mule-loads of silver. With Sforza now canvassing for votes, Borgia's election was assured. Borgia was elected on 11 August 1492 and assumed the name of Alexander VI (due to confusion about the status of Pope Alexander V, elected by the Council of Pisa). Many inhabitants of Rome were happy with their new pope because he was a generous and competent administrator who had served for decades as vice-chancellor.[36]
Early years in office
In contrast to the preceding pontificate, Pope Alexander VI adhered initially to strict administration of justice and orderly government. Before long, though, he began endowing his relatives at the Church's and at his neighbours' expense. Cesare Borgia, his son, while a youth of seventeen and a student at Pisa, was made Archbishop of Valencia, and Giovanni Borgia inherited the Spanish Dukedom of Gandia, the Borgias' ancestral home in Spain. For the Duke of Gandia and for Gioffre, also known as Goffredo, the Pope proposed to carve fiefs out of the Papal States and the Kingdom of Naples. Among the fiefs destined for the duke of Gandia were Cerveteri and Anguillara, lately acquired by Virginio Orsini, head of that powerful house. This policy brought Alexander into conflict with Ferdinand I of Naples as well as with Cardinal della Rovere, whose candidature for the papacy had been backed by Ferdinand. Della Rovere fortified himself in his bishopric of Ostia at the Tiber's mouth as Alexander formed a league against Naples (25 April 1493) and prepared for war.[37]
Ferdinand allied himself with Florence, Milan, and Venice. He also appealed to Spain for help, but Spain was eager to be on good terms with the papacy to obtain the title to the recently discovered New World. Alexander, in the bull Inter caetera on 4 May 1493, divided the title between Spain and Portugal along a demarcation line. This became the basis of the Treaty of Tordesillas.[38]
French involvement
Pope Alexander VI made many alliances to secure his position. He sought help from Charles VIII of France (1483–1498), who was allied to Ludovico "il Moro" Sforza (the Moor, so-called because of his swarthy complexion), the de facto Duke of Milan, who needed French support to legitimise his rule. As King Ferdinand I of Naples was threatening to come to the aid of the rightful duke Gian Galeazzo Sforza, the husband of his granddaughter Isabella, Alexander encouraged the French king in his plan for the conquest of Naples.
But Alexander, always ready to seize opportunities to aggrandize his family, then adopted a double policy. Through the intervention of the Spanish ambassador, he made peace with Naples in July 1493 and cemented the peace by a marriage between his son Gioffre and Doña Sancha, another granddaughter of Ferdinand I.[35] In order to dominate the College of Cardinals more completely, Alexander, in a move that created much scandal, created 12 new cardinals. Among the new cardinals was his own son Cesare, then only 18 years old. Alessandro Farnese (later Pope Paul III), the brother of one of the Pope's mistresses, Giulia Farnese, was also among the newly created cardinals.
On 25 January 1494, Ferdinand I died and was succeeded by his son Alfonso II (1494–1495).[35] Charles VIII of France now advanced formal claims on the Kingdom of Naples. Alexander authorised him to pass through Rome, ostensibly on a crusade against the Ottoman Empire, without mentioning Naples. But when the French invasion became a reality Pope Alexander VI became alarmed, recognised Alfonso II as king of Naples, and concluded an alliance with him in exchange for various fiefs for his sons (July 1494). A military response to the French threat was set in motion: a Neapolitan army was to advance through Romagna and attack Milan, while the fleet was to seize Genoa. Both expeditions were badly conducted and failed, and on 8 September Charles VIII crossed the Alps and joined Ludovico il Moro at Milan. The Papal States were in turmoil, and the powerful Colonna faction seized Ostia in the name of France. Charles VIII rapidly advanced southward, and after a short stay in Florence, set out for Rome (November 1494).
Alexander appealed to Ascanio Sforza and even to the Ottoman Sultan Bayazid II for help. He tried to collect troops and put Rome in a state of defence, but his position was precarious. When the Orsini offered to admit the French to their castles, Alexander had no choice but to come to terms with Charles. On 31 December, Charles VIII entered Rome with his troops, the cardinals of the French faction, and Giuliano della Rovere. Alexander now feared that Charles might depose him for simony, and that the king would summon a council to nominate a new pope. Alexander was able to win over the bishop of Saint-Malo, who had much influence over the king, by making him a cardinal. Alexander agreed to send Cesare as legate to Naples with the French army; to deliver Cem Sultan, held as a hostage, to Charles VIII, and to give Charles Civitavecchia (16 January 1495). On 28 January Charles VIII departed for Naples with Cem and Cesare, but the latter slipped away to Spoleto. Neapolitan resistance collapsed, and Alfonso II fled and abdicated in favour of his son Ferdinand II. Ferdinand was abandoned by all and also had to escape, and the Kingdom of Naples was conquered with surprising ease.[2]
French in retreat
A reaction against Charles VIII soon set in, for all the European powers were alarmed at his success. On 31 March 1495 the Holy League was formed among the pope, the emperor, Venice, Ludovico il Moro and Ferdinand of Spain.[39] The League was ostensibly formed against the Turks, but in reality it was made to expel the French from Italy. Charles VIII had himself crowned King of Naples on 12 May, but a few days later began his retreat northward. He met the League at Fornovo and cut his way through them and was back in France by November. Ferdinand II was reinstated at Naples soon afterwards, with Spanish help. The expedition, if it produced no material results, demonstrated the foolishness of the so-called "politics of equilibrium", the Medicean doctrine of preventing one of the Italian principates from overwhelming the rest and uniting them under its hegemony.
Charles VIII's belligerence in Italy had made it transparent that the "politics of equilibrium" did nothing but render the country unable to defend itself against a powerful invading force. Italy was shown to be very vulnerable to the predations of the powerful nation-states, France and Spain, that had forged themselves during the previous century. Alexander VI now followed the general tendency of all the princes of the day to crush the great feudatories and establish a centralized despotism. In this manner, he was able to take advantage of the defeat of the French in order to break the power of the Orsini. From that time on, Alexander was able to build himself an effective power base in the Papal States.
Virginio Orsini, who had been captured by the Spanish, died a prisoner at Naples, and the Pope confiscated his property. The rest of the Orsini clan still held out, defeating the papal troops sent against them under Guidobaldo da Montefeltro, Duke of Urbino and Giovanni Borgia, Duke of Gandia, at Soriano (January 1497). Peace was made through Venetian mediation, the Orsini paying 50,000 ducats in exchange for their confiscated lands; the Duke of Urbino, whom they had captured, was left by the pope to pay his own ransom. The Orsini remained very powerful, and Pope Alexander VI could count on none but his 3,000 Spanish troops. His only success had been the capture of Ostia and the submission of the Francophile cardinals Colonna and Savelli.
On 14 June, Alexander's son, Juan, the Duke of Gandia– who had recently been made Duke of Benevento and had a "questionable" lifestyle– disappeared.[40] On 16 June, his corpse was pulled from the Tiber River.[37] Alexander, overwhelmed with grief, shut himself in his chambers and did not eat, drink, or sleep for several days.[41] He declared that henceforth the moral reform of the Church would be the sole object of his life. Every effort was made to discover the assassin. No conclusive explanation was ever reached,[42] and it may be that the crime was simply as a result of one of the Duke's sexual liaisons.
Crime
Mallett asserts that there is no evidence that the Borgias resorted to poisoning, judicial murder, or extortion to fund their schemes and the defense of the Papal States. He also stated that the only contemporary accusations of poisoning were from some of their servants, extracted under torture by Alexander's bitter enemy Della Rovere, who succeeded him as Pope Julius II.[43]
Savonarola
The debased state of the Curia was a major scandal. Opponents, such as the powerful Florentine friar Girolamo Savonarola, launched invectives against papal corruption and appealed for a general council to confront the papal abuses. Alexander is reported to have been reduced to laughter when Savonarola's denunciations were related to him. Nevertheless, he appointed Sebastian Maggi to investigate the friar, and he responded on 16 October 1495:
We are displeased at the disturbed state of affairs in Florence, the more so in that it owes its origin to your preaching. For you predict the future and publicly declare that you do so by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit when you should be reprehending vice and praising virtue.... Prophecies like these should not be made when your charge is to forward peace and concord. Moreover, these are not the time for such teachings, calculated as they are to produce discord even in times of peace let alone in times of trouble.... Since, however, we have been most happy to learn from certain cardinals and from your letter that you are ready to submit yourself to the reproofs of the Church, as becomes a Christian and a religious, we are beginning to think that what you have done has not been done with an evil motive, but from a certain simple-mindedness and a zeal, however misguided, for the Lord's vineyard. Our duty, however, prescribes that we order you, under holy obedience, to cease from public and private preaching until you are able to come to our presence, not under armed escort as is your present habit, but safely, quietly and modestly as becomes a religious, or until we make different arrangements. If you obey, as we hope you will, we for the time being suspend the operation of our former Brief so that you may live in peace in accordance with the dictates of your conscience.[44]
The hostility of Savonarola seems to have been political rather than personal, and the friar sent a letter of condolence to the pope on the death of the Duke of Gandia; "Faith, most Holy Father, is the one and true source of peace and consolation.... Faith alone brings consolation from a far-off country."[45] But eventually the Florentines tired of the friar's moralising and the Florentine government condemned the reformer to death, executing him on 23 May 1498.[46]
Familial aggrandizement
The prominent Italian families looked down on the Spanish Borgia family, and they resented their power, which they sought for themselves. This is, at least partially, why both Pope Callixtus III and Pope Alexander VI gave powers to family members whom they could trust.[47]
In these circumstances, Alexander, feeling more than ever that he could rely only on his own kin, turned his thoughts to further family aggrandizement. He had annulled Lucrezia's marriage to Giovanni Sforza, who had responded to the suggestion that he was impotent with the unsubstantiated counterclaim that Alexander and Cesare indulged in incestuous relations with Lucrezia, in 1497.[48] Unable to arrange a union between Cesare and the daughter of King Frederick IV of Naples (who had succeeded Ferdinand II the previous year), he induced Frederick by threats to agree to a marriage between the Duke of Bisceglie, a natural son of Alfonso II, and Lucrezia. Alexander and the new French king Louis XII entered a secret agreement; in exchange for a bull of divorce between the king and Joan of France (so he could marry Anne of Brittany) and making Georges d'Amboise (the king's chief advisor) the cardinal of Rouen, Cesare was given the duchy of Valentinois in France (chosen because it was homophonous with his nickname, Valentino, derived from his father's papal epithet Valentinus ("The Valencian", as seen on his coins[49] denoting his origin in the Kingdom of Valencia, Spain), military assistance to help him subjugate the feudal princelings of papal Romagna,[50] and a princess bride, Charlotte of Albret from the Kingdom of Navarre.[51]
Alexander hoped that Louis XII's help would be more profitable to his house than that of Charles VIII had been. In spite of the remonstrances of Spain and of the Sforza, he allied himself with France in January 1499 and was joined by Venice. By autumn Louis XII was in Italy expelling Lodovico Sforza from Milan. With French success seemingly assured, the Pope determined to deal drastically with Romagna, which although nominally under papal rule was divided into a number of practically independent lordships on which Venice, Milan, and Florence cast hungry eyes. Cesare, empowered by the support of the French, began to attack the turbulent cities one by one in his capacity as nominated gonfaloniere (standard bearer) of the church. But the expulsion of the French from Milan and the return of Lodovico Sforza interrupted his conquests, and he returned to Rome early in 1500.
The Jubilee (1500)
In the Jubilee year 1500, Alexander ushered in the custom of opening a holy door on Christmas Eve and closing it on Christmas Day the following year. After consulting with his Master of Ceremonies, Johann Burchard, Pope Alexander VI opened the first holy door in St. Peter's Basilica on Christmas Eve 1499, and papal representatives opened the doors in the other three patriarchal basilicas. For this, Pope Alexander had a new opening created in the portico of St. Peter's and commissioned a marble door.[52][53]
Alexander was carried in the sedia gestatoria to St. Peter's. He and his assistants, bearing candles, processed to the holy door, as the choir chanted Psalm 118:19–20.[54] The pope knocked on the door three times, workers moved it from the inside, and everyone then crossed the threshold to enter into a period of penance and reconciliation. Thus, Pope Alexander formalized the rite and began a longstanding tradition that is still in practice. Similar ceremonies were held at the other three basilicas.[55]
Alexander instituted a special rite for the closing of a holy door, as well. On the Feast of the Epiphany in 1501, two cardinals began to seal the holy door with two bricks, one silver and one gold. Sampietrini (basilica workers)[56] completed the seal, placing specially-minted coins and medals inside the wall.[55]
Personal life
Of Alexander's many mistresses, one of his favourites was Vannozza dei Cattanei, born in 1442, and who was married to three different men. The relationship began in 1470, and she had four children whom the pope openly acknowledged as his own: Cesare (born 1475), Giovanni, afterwards duke of Gandia (commonly known as Juan, born 1476), Lucrezia (born 1480), and Gioffre (Goffredo in Italian, born 1481).
Rodrigo only legitimized his children after becoming pope. He had pretended that his four children with Vannozza were his niece and nephews and that they were fathered by Vannozza's husbands.[57] G. J. Meyer argued that the birth dates of the four children in comparison with Alexander's known whereabouts preclude him from having fathered any of them. His "acknowledgement" merely consisted of addressing them as "beloved son / daughter" in correspondence (while applying the same address to, e.g., Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile in the same letter).[12]
Another mistress was the beautiful Giulia Farnese ("Giulia la Bella"), wife of Orsino Orsini. Giulia was mother of Laura Orsini, born in 1492, probably daughter of Alexander. However, he still loved Vannozza and his children by her. Caring for them proved the determining factor of his whole career. He lavished vast sums on them. Vannozza lived in the Palace of a late Cardinal, or in a large, palatial villa. The children lived between their mother's home and the Papal Palace itself.[37]
Six other children, Girolama, Isabella, Pedro-Luiz, Giovanni the "Infans Romanus", Rodrigo and Bernardo, were of uncertain maternal parentage. His daughter Isabella was the great-great-grandmother of Pope Innocent X, who was therefore descended in a direct line from Alexander.[58]
Slavery
While the explorers of Spain imposed a form of slavery called "encomienda" on the indigenous peoples they met in the New World,[59] some popes had spoken out against the practice of slavery. In 1435, Pope Eugene IV had issued an attack on slavery in the Canary Islands in his papal bull Sicut dudum, which included the excommunication of all those who engaged in the slave trade with native chiefs there. A form of indentured servitude was allowed, being similar to a peasant's duty to his liege lord in Europe.
In the wake of Columbus's landing in the New World, Pope Alexander was asked by the Spanish monarchy to confirm their ownership of these newly found lands.[60] The bulls issued by Pope Alexander VI: Eximiae devotionis (3 May 1493), Inter caetera (4 May 1493), and Dudum siquidem (23 September 1493), granted rights to Spain with respect to the newly discovered lands in the Americas similar to those Pope Nicholas V had previously conferred on Portugal with the bulls Romanus Pontifex and Dum Diversas.[61] Morales Padrón (1979) concludes that these bulls gave power to enslave the natives.[62] Minnich (2010) asserts that this "slave trade" was permitted to facilitate conversions to Christianity.[63] Other historians and Vatican scholars strongly disagree with these accusations and assert that Alexander never gave his approval to the practice of slavery.[64] Other later popes, such as Pope Paul III in Sublimis Deus (1537), Pope Benedict XIV in Immensa Pastorum (1741), and Pope Gregory XVI in his letter In supremo apostolatus (1839), continued to condemn slavery.
Thornberry (2002) asserts that Inter caetera was applied in the Spanish Requirement of 1513, which was read to American Indians (who could not understand the colonisers' language) before hostilities against them began. They were given the option to accept the authority of the pope and Spanish crown or face being attacked and subjugated.[65][66] In 1993, the Indigenous Law Institute called on Pope John Paul II to revoke Inter caetera and to make reparation for "this unreasonable historical grief". This was followed by a similar appeal in 1994 by the Parliament of World Religions.[65]
Last years
A danger now arose in the shape of a conspiracy by the deposed despots, the Orsini, and of some of Cesare's own condottieri. At first, the papal troops were defeated and things looked bleak for the house of Borgia. But a promise of French help quickly forced the confederates to come to terms. Cesare, by an act of treachery, then seized the ringleaders at Senigallia and put Oliverotto da Fermo and Vitellozzo Vitelli to death (31 December 1502). When Alexander VI heard the news, he lured Cardinal Orsini to the Vatican and cast him into a dungeon, where he died, rumored to be poisoned on the orders of the pope.[67] His goods were confiscated and many other members of the clan in Rome were arrested, while Alexander's son Goffredo Borgia led an expedition into the Campagna and seized their castles. Thus the two great houses of Orsini and Colonna, who had long fought for predominance in Rome and often flouted the pope's authority, were subjugated and the Borgias' power increased. Cesare then returned to Rome, where his father asked him to assist Goffredo in reducing the last Orsini strongholds; this he was unwilling to do, much to his father's annoyance; but he eventually marched out, captured Ceri and made peace with Giulio Orsini, who surrendered Bracciano.[37]
The war between France and Spain for the possession of Naples dragged on, and the pope was forever intriguing, ready to ally himself with whichever power promised the most advantageous terms at any moment. He offered to help Louis XII on condition that Sicily be given to Cesare, and then offered to help Spain in exchange for Siena, Pisa and Bologna.
Death
Cesare was preparing for another expedition in August 1503 when, after he and his father had dined with Cardinal Adriano Castellesi on 6 August, they were taken ill with fever a few days later. Cesare, who "lay in bed, his skin peeling and his face suffused to a violet colour"[68] as a consequence of certain drastic measures to save him, eventually recovered; but the aged Pontiff apparently had little chance. Burchard's Diary provides a few details of the pope's final illness and death at age 72:[69]
Saturday, 12 August 1503, the pope fell ill in the morning. After the hour of vespers, between six and seven o'clock a fever appeared and remained permanently. On 15 August thirteen ounces of blood were drawn from him and the tertian ague supervened. On Thursday, 17 August, at nine o'clock in the forenoon he took medicine. On Friday, the 18th, between nine and ten o'clock he confessed to the Bishop Gamboa of Carignola, who then read Mass to him. After his Communion he gave the Eucharist to the pope who was sitting in bed. Then he ended the Mass at which were present five cardinals, Serra, Juan and Francesco Borgia, Casanova and Loris. The pope told them that he felt very bad. At the hour of vespers after Gamboa had given him Extreme Unction, he died.
As for his true faults, known only to his confessor, Pope Alexander VI apparently died genuinely repentant.[70] The bishop of Gallipoli, Alexis Celadoni, spoke of the pontiff's contrition during his funeral oration[71] to the electors of Alexander's successor, Pope Pius III:[72][73]
When at last the pope was suffering from a very severe sickness, he spontaneously requested, one after another, each of the last sacraments. He first made a very careful confession of his sins, with a contrite heart, and was affected even to the shedding of tears, I am told; then he received in Communion the most Sacred Body and Extreme Unction was administered to him.
The interregnum witnessed again the ancient "tradition" of violence and rioting.[74] Cesare, too ill to attend to the business himself, sent Don Micheletto, his chief bravo, to seize the pope's treasures before the death was publicly announced. The next day the body was exhibited to the people and clergy of Rome, but was covered by an "old tapestry" ("antiquo tapete"), having become greatly disfigured by rapid decomposition. According to Raphael Volterrano: "It was a revolting scene to look at that deformed, blackened corpse, prodigiously swelled, and exhaling an infectious smell; his lips and nose were covered with brown drivel, his mouth was opened very widely, and his tongue, inflated by poison... therefore no fanatic or devotee dared to kiss his feet or hands, as custom would have required."[75] The Venetian ambassador stated that the body was "the ugliest, most monstrous and horrible dead body that was ever seen, without any form or likeness of humanity".[75] Ludwig von Pastor insists that the decomposition was "perfectly natural", owing to the summer heat.[76]
Commentaries attribute the pope's death to malaria, then prevalent in Rome, or to another such pestilence.[77] One contemporary official wrote home that there was little surprise that Alexander and Cesare had both fallen ill, as the bad air had led to many in Rome, and especially in the Roman Curia, becoming sick.[78][79]
After a short stay, the body was removed from the crypts of St Peter's and installed in the lesser known Spanish national church of Santa Maria in Monserrato degli Spagnoli.
Legacy
Following the death of Alexander VI, his rival and successor Julius II said on the day of his election: "I will not live in the same rooms as the Borgias lived. He desecrated the Holy Church as none before."[80] The Borgia Apartments remained sealed until the 19th century.[80]
Catholic apologists of Alexander VI have argued that the behaviors he receives criticism for were not atypical of the period. De Maistre, in his work Du Pape, "The latter are forgiven nothing, 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."[81]
Alexander VI had sought reforms of the increasingly irresponsible Curia, putting together a group of his most pious cardinals in order to move the process along. The planned reforms included new rules on the sale of Church property, the limiting of cardinals to one diocese, and stricter moral codes for clergy, though these were not implemented.[82]
Alexander VI was known for his patronage of the arts, and in his days a new architectural era was initiated in Rome with the coming of Bramante. Raphael, Michelangelo, and Pinturicchio all worked for him.[37] He commissioned Pinturicchio to lavishly paint a suite of rooms in the Apostolic Palace in the Vatican, which are today known as the Borgia Apartments. He took a great interest in theatrics, and he even had Plautus's Menaechmi performed in his apartments.[83]
In addition to the arts, Alexander VI also encouraged the development of education. In 1495, he issued a papal bull at the request of William Elphinstone, Bishop of Aberdeen, and James IV of Scotland, founding King's College, Aberdeen.[84] King's College now forms an integral element of the University of Aberdeen. Alexander VI also, in 1501, approved the University of Valencia.[85][86]
Alexander VI, whom papal rival and successor Giuliano della Rovere alleged without evidence was a marrano, demonstrated relatively benign treatment of Jews. After the 1492 expulsion of the Jews from Spain, some 9,000 impoverished Iberian Jews arrived at the borders of the Papal States. Alexander welcomed them into Rome, declaring that they were "permitted to lead their life, free from interference from Christians, to continue in their own rites, to gain wealth, and to enjoy many other privileges". He similarly allowed the immigration of Jews expelled from Portugal in 1497 and from Provence in 1498.[87]
Bohuslav Hasištejnský z Lobkovic, a Bohemian humanist poet (1461–1510), wrote a hostile epitaph on Alexander in Latin:[88]
Epitaphium Alexandri Papae
Cui tranquilla quies odio, cui proelia cordi
et rixa et caedes seditioque fuit,
mortuus hac recubat populis gaudentibus urna
pastor Alexander, maxima Roma, tuus.
Vos, Erebi proceres, vos caeli claudite portas
atque Animam vestris hanc prohibete locis.
In Styga nam veniens pacem turbabit Averni,
committet superos, si petat astra, poli.
Epitaph to Pope Alexander
One who hated peace and quiet,
and who loved battles, strife, murder, and treason,
Lies in this urn as all peoples rejoice,
Alexander, thy shepherd, o greatest Rome.
Ye prelates of Erebus, close the doors of Heaven
and prohibit this Soul from your realm.
If it enters Styx, it will disrupt the peace of Avernus,
and if it seeks heaven it will set the inhabitants of the sky against each other.
Despite Julius II's hostility, the Roman barons and Romagna vicars were never again to be the same problem for the papacy and Julius' successes owe much to the framework laid by the Borgias.[89] Unlike Julius, Alexander never made war unless absolutely necessary, preferring negotiation and diplomacy.[90]
Alexander Lee argues that the crimes attributed to the Borgias were exaggerated by contemporaries because they were outsiders expanding their holdings at the expense of the Italians, that they were Spaniards when it was felt that Spain had too much control on the Italian peninsula, and that after the death of Alexander the family lost its influence and therefore any incentive for anyone to defend them.[91]
On the other hand, two of Alexander's successors, Sixtus V and Urban VIII, described him as one of the most outstanding popes since Saint Peter.[92]
See also
- Banquet of Chestnuts
- Birthplace of Pope Alexander VI
- Cardinals created by Alexander VI
- List of popes from the Borgia family
- List of sexually active popes
- Route of the Borgias
- Spanish Empire
From the 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia
Pope Alexander VI, (Rodrigo Borgia), b. at Xativa, near Valencia, in Spain, 1 January, 1431; d. 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 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, marvelous 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 Leporello; 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, Cæsar, 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 in 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 "Præfectus 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, 449–452). 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 Cæsar 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 Cæsar, now eighteen years old, to the Archbishopric of Valencia; but Cæsar 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. Cæsar 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 Cæsar'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 Cæsar'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, Cæsar, no longer a cardinal, but designated Duke of Valentinois and Peer of France set out 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 Cæsar 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 much needed 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 Cæsar had carried on his campaign so 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 grievously wounded him. Convinced that Cæsar was the instigator of the deed, he made an unsuccessful attempt, on his recovery, to kill his supposed enemy, and was instantly dispatched by Cæsar's bodyguard. The latter, having completed, in April, 1501, the conquest of the Romagna, now 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 Naples was partitioned between Spain and France.
Alexander's motive in thus reversing his former policy 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 short-sighted 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. Cæsar, 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 Cæsar 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, Cæsar 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 more 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 Cæsar 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, He 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, Ægidius 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 he would not interfere with the lives of his electors. Mansi, the scholarly Archbishop of Lucca editor and annotator of Raynaldus, says (XI, 415) that it is easier to keep silence than to write write moderation about this Pope. The severe judgment of the late Cardinal Hergenröther, 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 Cantù 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 Hergenröther (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 siècles" (I, 41–46), and by Chantrel, "Le Pape Alexandre 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 Hergenröther 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 hærede 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).
The contemporary diaries of Johann Burchard and Stefano Infessura are to be read with great caution, says Von Reumont, Kirchenlex., I, 490–491. Burchard, Diarium sive rerum urbanarum commentarii (1483–1506), in Eccard, Corpus Hist. SS. Medii Ævi. II, ed. by Gennarelli (Florence, 1854); Thuasne (Paris, 1883, 3 vols.); Infessura, Diario della città di Roma, in Eccard, loc. cit., and in Muratori, SS. Rer. Ital., III, II, 1112–1252, ed. by Tommasini (Rome, 1890).—The principal events of his pontificate are related in Raynaldus, Ann. Eccl. ad ann. 1492–1503.—Among modern writers the reader may consult the Catholic historians, Von Reumont, Geschichte der Stadt Rom (Berlin, 1868), II, i, 199–249, also his article in Kirchenlex., I, 483–491, and Pastor, History of thee Popes since the Close of the Middle Ages (London, 1898), V, 375 sqq.; among Protestant writers Gregorovius, Geschichte der Stadt Rom (Stuttgart, 1890), VII. 299–494, and his Lucrezia Borgia nach Urkunden und Corrispondenz (ibid,, 1870); also Creighton, History of the Popes during the Reformation (London, 1887 ), III, IV. See also Zöpffel-Hauck, in the Realencyclopadie f. prot. Kirche u. Theologie (3d ed., Leipzig, 1896), I, 347–349, and J. Paquier, in Vacant, Dict. de théol. cath. (Paris, 1900), I, 724–727. The important Relazioni of the Venetian ambassadors to their senate are found in the collection of Albèri (Florence, 3d series. 1839–55). The reader is also referred to the valuable contemporary Diarii of the Venetian Marino Sanuto (Venice, 1879), I–XV. The Roman dispatches of Giustiniani to the authorities of Florence were edited by Pasquale Villari (Florence, 3 vols., 1876). The statements of Macchiavelli in Il Principe, in the Lettre Famigliari, ed. by Alvisi (Florence, 1883), and elsewhere, are discussed by Pastor, op. cit., 15 sqq. For Cæsar Borgia see Alvisi, Cesare Borgia, Duca di Romagnola (Imola. 1878). There is an exhaustive bibliography of Alexander VI in Chevalier, Bio-Bibliographie, 2d ed. (Paris, 1905—). The fairest treatment of Alexander by a non-Catholic is that of Richard Garnett in the Encyclopædia Britannica and in the Cambridge Modern History.
References
- Back to citation See inscription on 5 Ducat piece File:Roma, alessandro VI, 5 ducati, 1492-1503.jpg "Alexander VI Pontifex Maximus Borgia Valentinus" ("The Valencian", his epithet indicating his birth in Xàtiva in the Kingdom of Valencia under the Crown of Aragon)
- Back to citation occurrence 2.0 Back to citation occurrence 2.1 "CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Pope Alexander VI". www.newadvent.org.
- Back to citation Claims of paternity and numbers of children are disputed. See G. J. Meyer, G. J. Meyer (2014). "Background: The paternity question: An apology". The Borgias: The Hidden History. Bantam. pp. 239–247. ISBN 978-0-345-52692-2. Christopher Hibbert, Hibbert (2008) and Ferdinand Gregorovius. Ferdinand Gregorovius (1900). History of the City of Rome in the Middle Ages. Vol. 7, Part 1. London: George Bell. p. 353. ISBN 978-1-108-01509-7. There are claims about Cesare, Giovanni, Lucrezia, Gioffre (or Goffredo), Girolama (or Jeronima), Isabella, Pier Luigi (or Pedro Luis), Bernardo, Rodrigo, Giovanni Infans Romanus, and Laura.
- Back to citation Valencian: Roderic Llançol i de Borja [roðeˈɾiɡ ʎanˈsɔl i ðe ˈbɔɾdʒa, -dʒɔ]; Spanish: Rodrigo Lanzol y de Borja [roˈðɾiɣo lanˈθol i ðe ˈβoɾxa]; Italian: Rodrigo Borgia [roˈdriːɡo ˈbɔrdʒa]
- Back to citation See inscription on 5 Ducat piece File:Roma, alessandro VI, 5 ducati, 1492-1503.jpg "Alexander VI Pontifex Maximus Borgia Valentinus" ("The Valencian", his epithet indicating his birth in Xàtiva in the Kingdom of Valencia under the Crown of Aragon (now Spain)
- Back to citation Weckman-Muñoz, Luis."The Alexandrine Bulls of 1493" in First Images of America: The Impact of the New World on the Old. Edited by Fredi Chiappelli. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press 1976, pp. 201–210.
- Back to citation Batllori, Miguel, S.J. "The Papal Division of the World and its Consequences" in First Images of America: The Impact of the New World on the Old. Edited by Fredi Chiappelli. pp. 211–220.
- Back to citation Downey, Kirstin (28 October 2014). Isabella: The Warrior Queen. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. ISBN 978-0-385-53412-3.
- Back to citation Mallett 1969, p. 61, 83.
- Back to citation Catherine B. Avery, 1972, The New Century Italian Renaissance Encyclopedia, Appleton-Century-Crofts, ISBN 0-13-612051-2 ISBN 978-0-13-612051-3 p. 189.
- Back to citation Noel (2006)
- Back to citation occurrence 12.0 Back to citation occurrence 12.1 G. J. Meyer (2014). "Background: The paternity question: An apology". The Borgias: The Hidden History. Bantam. pp. 239–247. ISBN 978-0-345-52692-2.
- Back to citation occurrence 13.0 Back to citation occurrence 13.1 Monsignor Peter de Roo (1924), Material for a History of Pope Alexander VI, His Relatives and His Time, (5 vols.), Bruges, Desclée, De Brouwer, volume 2, p. 29. "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 26 April 2012. Retrieved 22 December 2011. volumes 1–5
- Back to citation Hollingsworth, Mary (2014). The Borgias: history's most notorious dynasty. London. p. 17. ISBN 978-1-78206-944-7. OCLC 868380201.
- Back to citation Hollingsworth 2014, pp. 17–19
- Back to citation occurrence 16.0 Back to citation occurrence 16.1 Back to citation occurrence 16.2 "The Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church – Papal elections – XV Century".
- Back to citation Hollingsworth 2014, p. 36
- Back to citation Hollingsworth 2014, p. 43
- Back to citation Hollingsworth 2014, p. 45
- Back to citation Hollingsworth 2014, p. 55
- Back to citation Hollingsworth 2014, p. 60
- Back to citation Hollingsworth 2014, p. 65
- Back to citation Hollingsworth 2014, p. 81
- Back to citation Hollingsworth 2014, p. 82
- Back to citation Hollingsworth 2014, p. 85
- Back to citation Hollingsworth 2014, p. 95
- Back to citation Hollingsworth 2014, p. 87
- Back to citation Hollingsworth 2014, p. 100
- Back to citation Hollingsworth 2014, p. 106
- Back to citation Hollingsworth 2014, p. 111
- Back to citation Hollingsworth 2014, p. 114
- Back to citation Gaetano Moroni, Dizionario di Erudizione Storico-Ecclesiastica da S. Pietro sino ai nostri giorni, vol. 6, p. 50 (in Italian)
- Back to citation de Rossa (1989), p. 144
- Back to citation Mallett 1969, pp. 123–126.
- Back to citation occurrence 35.0 Back to citation occurrence 35.1 Back to citation occurrence 35.2 Johann Burchard, Diaries 1483–1492 (translation: A.H. Matthew, London, 1910)
- Back to citation Hollingsworth 2014, p. 126
- Back to citation occurrence 37.0 Back to citation occurrence 37.1 Back to citation occurrence 37.2 Back to citation occurrence 37.3 Back to citation occurrence 37.4 Villari (1911)
- Back to citation Verzijl, Jan H. (26 September 1979). International law in historical perspective. 10. Martinus Nijhoff Publishers. ISBN 90-286-0158-9 – via Google Books.
- Back to citation Anderson, M. S. (1993). The Rise of Modern Diplomacy 1450–1919. London: Longman. p. 3. ISBN 0-582-21232-4.
- Back to citation Burchard, Johann; Glaser, F. L. (1921). Pope Alexander VI and his court; extracts from the Latin diary of Johannes Burchardus. The Library of Congress. New York, F. L. Brown. pp. 88–90.
- Back to citation Burchard, Johann; Glaser, F. L. (1921). Pope Alexander VI and his court; extracts from the Latin diary of Johannes Burchardus. The Library of Congress. New York, F. L. Brown. pp. 92–93.
- Back to citation Mallett 1969, pp. 162–166.
- Back to citation Mallett 1969, pp. 236.
- Back to citation de la Bédoyère (1958), pp. 154–155
- Back to citation de la Bédoyère (1958), p. 24
- Back to citation de la Bédoyère (1958), passim
- Back to citation "The Spaniards had been trying to take back their country from the Moors for almost 800 years. By the middle of the 15th century, this reconquest was almost complete, but Spain was still a hodgepodge of competing principalities and, because of its constant state of warfare, still a very backward country. In Italy, on the other hand, the Renaissance, which had hardly begun in Spain, had reached its high point and the Italians, in general, did not look kindly on a citizen of this backward country being elevated to the highest post in the Church. Remember, too, that the pope at the time, besides his spiritual powers, was a sovereign political power with large areas of the peninsula, nominally, at least, under his control. Italy was, politically, in a worse state than Spain. In the south, Naples was a fief of the pope, but its ruler, King Ferrante, refused to acknowledge the pope's authority. In the north of the peninsula, many small principalities vied for dominance and were often at war with one another, changing alliances as rapidly as opportunity invited. In the Papal States themselves, noble families, such as the Orsini and the Colonna, acted as petty tyrants in the cities and areas which they controlled, grinding down the people and constantly seeking to achieve their independence from their sovereign, the pope. These Roman families even sought to control the Papacy itself. It was probably only because they could not agree on an Italian successor to Nicholas V that the elderly Callistus had been elected; one who, in all probability, would not live long...Callistus III was acknowledged by all as religious and austere, though severely criticized for his largesse to his family. But he was surrounded by enemies both within the Church and among the rulers of Europe. When elected, he did what all leaders do, he surrounded himself with people whom he believed he could trust. A Spaniard in Italy, he was hard-pressed to find such trustworthiness except from members of his own family; hence his patronage of them, though it is not to be denied that it was probably also for personal reasons." J.B. Darcy, What you don't know about the Borgia Pope: Alexander VI (1492–1503).
- Back to citation "As for her reputation, there is absolutely no evidence for the rumors of incest with one or more of her brothers – or indeed with her father – apart from that given by her first husband, Giovanni Sforza, during the divorce proceedings, during which several other baseless accusations were leveled in both directions." Norwich (2011), p. 272
- Back to citation See inscription on 5 Ducat piece File:Roma, alessandro VI, 5 ducati, 1492-1503.jpg "Alexander VI Pontifex Maximus Borgia Valentinus" ("The Valencian", his epithet indicating his birth in Xàtiva in the Kingdom of Valencia under the Crown of Aragon (now Spain)
- Back to citation Machiavelli, Niccolò (1981). The Prince and Selected Discourses (Bantam Classic ed.). New York: Bantam Books. p. 127. ISBN 0-553-21227-3.
- Back to citation Adot Lerga, Álvaro (2005). Juan de Albret y Catalina de Foix o la defensa del Estado navarro (1483–1517). Pamplona/Iruñea: Pamiela. pp. 164–65. ISBN 84-7681-443-7.
- Back to citation "The holy year 1500 definitively ushered in the custom of opening a holy door on Christmas Eve and closing it the following year on Christmas Day. Alexander opened the first holy door in St. Peter's Basilica on Christmas Eve, 1499, and papal legates opened the doors in the other three patriarchal basilicas. For this occasion, Pope Alexander had a new opening created in the portico of St. Peter's and commissioned a door, made of marble, 3.5 meters high and 2.2 wide. It lasted until 1618 when another door was installed in the new basilica. The door, in turn, was replaced in 1950 by the bronze door, which is still in use. In a ceremony strikingly similar in many ways to today's ritual opening of a holy door, Alexander was carried in the gestatorial chair to the portico of St. Peter's. He and the members of his retinue, bearing long candles, processed to the holy door, as the choir intoned Psalm 118:19–20: "Open for me the gate of Yahweh, where the upright go in." The pope knocked thrice on the door, it gave way (assisted from within by workers), and everyone then crossed the threshold to enter into a period of penance and reconciliation. Thus, Pope Alexander, a lover of pomp and ceremony, formalized the rite of opening a holy door and began a tradition that continues, with few variations, to this day. Similar rites were held at the other patriarchal basilicas. Alexander was also the first to institute a special rite for the closing of a holy door. On the feast of the Epiphany, 6 January 1501, two cardinals – one with a silver brick and the other with a gold one – symbolically began to seal the holy door. Basilica workers known as sanpietrini completed the task, which included placing small coins and medals, minted during the holy year, inside the wall." Allen Duston, O.P., and Roberto Zanoli, 2003, Saint Peter and the Vatican: The Legacy of the Popes, Art Services Intl., ISBN 978-0-88397-140-6, pp. 158–159.
- Back to citation "[A]ll the clergy of the city were invited to the opening of the [1500] Jubilee. The pope himself performed this ceremony on Christmas Eve, 1499, having taken pains to settle all the details beforehand with his Master of Ceremonies. The ceremonial observed on these occasions was no modern invention, but, as the Bull of Indiction expressly says, was founded on ancient rites and full of symbolic meaning. According to Burchard, the crowd which assisted at these solemnities numbered 200,000 persons. Although this may be an exaggeration, still it is certain that, in spite of the troubles of the times and the insecurity in Rome itself, the numbers attending this Jubilee were very large." "How awful was Catholic life under those immoral Renaissance Popes!". Rorate Caeli. Retrieved 25 March 2014.
- Back to citation Psalm 118:19–20
- Back to citation occurrence 55.0 Back to citation occurrence 55.1 Allen Duston, O.P., and Roberto Zanoli, 2003, Saint Peter and the Vatican: The Legacy of the Popes, Art Services Intl., ISBN 978-0-88397-140-6, pp. 158–159.
- Back to citation "The permanent group of skilled workers and artisans, in every trade, who with their assistants take care of St. Peter's Basilica." "Dictionary: Sampietrini". Catholic Culture. Retrieved 25 March 2014.
- Back to citation Darcy, J.B. "What You Don't Know About the Borgia Pope: Alexander VI (1492–1503).(FEATURE ARTICLE)(Biography)." Catholic Insight 19.8 (2011): n. pag. Print.
- Back to citation Williams (2004), p. 70
- Back to citation "Encomienda or Slavery? The Spanish Crown's Choice of Labor Organization in Sixteenth-Century Spanish America." (PDF). Latin American Studies.
- Back to citation Stogre (1992), pp. 69–70
- Back to citation Raiswell, p. 469; Minnich (2010), p. 281; Rivera (1992), pp. 25–28
- Back to citation cited by Rivera (1992), p. 28
- Back to citation Minnich (2010), p. 281
- Back to citation Patrick Madrid, "Pope Fiction"
- Back to citation occurrence 65.0 Back to citation occurrence 65.1 Thornberry (2002), p. 65
- Back to citation Rivera (1992), p. 37
- Back to citation "ORSINI, Giovanni Battista - Enciclopedia".
- Back to citation The Borgias, 1981, Georgina Masson, Marion Johnson, Penguin, ISBN 0-14-139075-1 ISBN 978-0-14-139075-8, p. 179.
- Back to citation Johann Burchard, 1921, Pope Alexander VI and His Court: Extracts from the Latin Diary of Johannes Burchardus, F. L. Glaser, tr., N.L. Brown, New York, p. 179.
- Back to citation "[T]here is every reason to believe," writes the Dublin Review, that Pope Alexander VI died "in sentiments of piety and devotion." Nicholas Patrick Wiseman, ed., 1858, The Dublin Review, London, Thomas Richardson & Son, vol. 45, p. 351.
- Back to citation The historical value of Bishop Celadoni's funeral oration is said to be immense: "On 16 Sept 1503 Burchardus records in his diary that Alexius Celadenus or Celadonius, bishop of Gallipoli, delivered a discourse to the cardinals about to enter into conclave for the election of a successor to Pope Alexander VI. Et fuit tediosa et longa oratio. Burchardus's most recent editor, Thuasne, states that this oration exists in manuscript in the Bibliothèque Nationale... He omits to observe that, granting that the discourse may have been too long for the cardinals, the longer the better for us, inasmuch as it contains an account of Pope Alexander of almost unique value, not merely as the judgment of a contemporary, but as delivered in public before an audience of contemporaries whose station in the church had brought them into almost daily intercourse with the deceased pope, and before whom any serious misrepresentation would have been impossible..." "A Contemporary Oration on Pope Alexander VI", The English Historical Review, 1892, vol. 7, p. 318. See also The Oration of Alexis Celadoni, in The Ideal Renaissance Pope: Funeral Oratory from the Papal Court, John M. MacManamon, S.J., Archivum Historiae Pontificiae, 1976, Vol. 14. pp. 54ff.
- Back to citation Peter de Roo, 1924, Material for a History of Pope Alexander VI, vol. 5, p. 89, note. 112. (Word frequency and page number of specific words and phrases for all 5 vols. at HathiTrust)
- Back to citation Latin text: "Dum graviter aegrotaret, factorum conscientia punctus contrito dolentique animo ad lachrymas ut audio fusus, sacrosanctum communionis corpus sua sponte, dilutis prius diligentissima confessione peccatis, petierit, et alia sacramenta..." Alexis Celadoni (Alexius Celadonius, Celadeni, 1451–1517), Bishop of Gallipoli, Italy (1494–1508), Alexii Celadeni Episcopi Gallipolitani Oratio ad sacrum cardinalium senatum ingressurum ad novum pontificem eligendum, Publisher: Rome: Johann Besicken, 1503.
- Back to citation "Throughout the Middle Ages a 'tradition' or 'custom' involving pillaging was attached to the death and election of high-ranking prelates." Joëlle Rollo-Koster, 2008, Raiding Saint Peter: Empty Sees, Violence, and the Initiation of the Great Western Schism (1378), Leiden; Boston: Brill, ISBN 90-04-16560-6 ISBN 978-90-04-16560-1, Introduction, p. 1. And as early as 633, "the Fourth Council of Toledo condemned the violence of the interregnum." Bertelli (2001), p. 41 Nor were the Romans alone guilty of such misbehavior. In the eleventh century, Peter Damian, writing to the clergy and people of Osimo, sharply reproved the "perverse and wholly detestable practice of certain people, who at the death of the bishop break in like enemies and rob his house, like thieves make off with his belongings, set fire to the homes on his estate, and with fierce and savage barbarity cut down his grape vines and orchards". Letter 35, Easter Synod, 1050. Letters 31–60, Owen J. Blum (Translator), 1990, Catholic University of America Press, ISBN 0-8132-0707-X ISBN 978-0-8132-0707-0, p. 61.
- Back to citation occurrence 75.0 Back to citation occurrence 75.1 Cawthorne (1996), p. 218
- Back to citation "In consequence of the simultaneous illness of both the Pope and his son, and the rapid decomposition of the body, which, considering the heat of the weather, was perfectly natural, the cry of poison was raised at once; but on 19 August the Mantuan Envoy writes that there was no sort of ground for supposing this." "Ludwig von Pastor, History of the Popes, Vol. 6, p. 135". 1899.
- Back to citation Norwich (2011), p. 273
- Back to citation Sabatini, Rafael (1914). The Life of Cesare Borgia: Of France, Duke of Valentinois and Romagna, Prince of Andria and Venafri, Count of Dyois, Lord of Piombino, Camerino, and Urbino, Gonfalonier and Captain-general of Holy Church: A History and Some Criticisms. New York: John Lane. pp. 407. “per la mala condictione de aere.”
- Back to citation Gregorovius, Ferdinand (1900). History of the City of Rome in the Middle Ages. Vol. 7, part 2. Translated by Hamilton, Annie. London: G. Bell & sons. p. 519.
- Back to citation occurrence 80.0 Back to citation occurrence 80.1 Cawthorne (1996), p. 219
- Back to citation The Catholic Encyclopedia: an international work of reference on the constitution, doctrine, discipline, and history of the Catholic Church. Vol. 1. Knights of Columbus Catholic Truth Committee. 1907. p. 294.
- Back to citation "As part of his proposed new reforms, Alexander now nominated a commission of six of the most pious cardinals, and less than two months later a draft Bull of Reformation had been prepared. The pope was banned from selling benefices and from transferring Church property to laypersons. As for the cardinals, who were to be drawn from all the nations, none should possess more than one bishopric; their households were limited to eighty people and thirty horses; they were banned from hunting, theaters, carnivals, and tournaments; and their funeral expenses were not to exceed 1,500 ducats. The lesser clergy were similarly reined in: they must refuse all bribes and put away their concubines." Norwich (2011), pp. 268–269
- Back to citation "Ludwig von Pastor, History of the Popes, Vol. 5, p. 124". 1899. “Under Alexander VI. the taste for theatrical representations made great progress. Plays, for the most part of an extremely objectionable character, were a prominent feature in all court festivities, and also in the Carnival amusements, in which Alexander took a great interest. In 1502 the Pope had the Menaechmi performed in his own apartments.”
- Back to citation "King's College: About". University of Aberdeen. Retrieved 20 June 2020.
- Back to citation "History of the UV". www.uv.es.
- Back to citation "La Nau Building – Foundation of the Estudi General".
- Back to citation Carroll (2002), pp. 363–364
- Back to citation Bohuslav Hasištejnský z Lobkovic: Carmina selecta, Praha 1996, p. 14
- Back to citation Mallett 1969, pp. 265.
- Back to citation Mallett 1969, passim.
- Back to citation "Lee, Alexander. "Were the Borgias Really So Bad?", History Today, 1 October 2013".
- Back to citation Mallett 1969, p. 9.
Bibliography
- Bertelli, Sergio (2001). The King's Body: Sacred Rituals of Power in Medieval and Early Modern Europe. Pennsylvania State University Press. ISBN 978-0-271-02102-7.
- Carroll, James (2002). Constantine's Sword. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. ISBN 978-0-395-77927-9.
- Cawthorne, Nigel (1996). Sex Lives of the Popes. Prion.
- de la Bédoyère, Michael (1958). The Meddlesome Friar and the Wayward Pope. London: Collins.
- Hibbert, Christopher (2008). The Borgias and Their Enemies. Harcourt. ISBN 978-0-15-101033-2.
- Minnich, Nelson H. (2010). "The Catholic Church and the pastoral care of black Africans in Renaissance Italy". In Earle, T. F; Lowe, K. J. P. (eds.). Black Africans in Renaissance Europe. Cambridge University Press. pp. 280–300. ISBN 978-0-521-17660-6.
- Mallett, Michael (1969). The Borgias: The Rise and Fall of a Renaissance Dynasty. Barnes and Noble, Inc.
- Meyer, G. J. (2013). The Borgias: the Hidden History. Random House. ISBN 978-0-345-52693-9.
- Noel, Gerard (2006). The Renaissance Popes. Robinson. ISBN 978-1-84529-343-7.
- Norwich, John Julius (2011). Absolute Monarchs: a History of the Papacy. Random House. ISBN 978-1-4000-6715-2.
- Reston, James (2006). Dogs of God: Columbus, the Inquisition, and the Defeat of the Moors. New York: Anchor Books. ISBN 978-1-4000-3191-7.
- Rivera, Luis N. (1992). A Violent Evangelism: the Political and Religious Conquest of the Americas. Louisville, KY: Westminster/John Knox Press. ISBN 978-0-664-25367-7.
- de Rossa, Peter (1989). Vicars of Christ: the Dark Side of the Papacy. Corgi.
- Stogre, Michael (1992). That the world may believe: the development of Papal social thought on aboriginal rights. Médiaspaul. ISBN 978-2-89039-549-7.
- Thornberry, Patrick (2002). Indigenous peoples and human rights. Manchester University Press. ISBN 978-0-7190-3794-8.
- Tuchman, Barbara (1984). The March of Folly. Alfred A. Knopf. ISBN 978-0-394-52777-2.
- Villari, Luigi (1911). "Alexander (popes)". In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
- Williams, George L. (2004). Papal Genealogy: the Families and Descendants of the Popes. McFarland. ISBN 978-0-7864-2071-1.
Further reading
- Batllori, Miguel, S.J. "The Papal Division of the World and its Consequences" in First Images of America: The Impact of the New World on the Old. Edited by Fredi Chiappelli. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press 1976, pp. 211–220.
- Burchard, John. Diaries 1483–1492 (translation: A.H. Matthew, London, 1910)
- Burkle-Young, Francis A., "The election of Pope Alexander VI (1492)", in Miranda, Salvador. Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church
- Eamon Duffy, Saints & Sinners: A History of the Popes (Yale Nota Bene, 2002)
- Encyclopædia Britannica, 11th edition.
- The Historical Encyclopedia of World slavery, Editor Junius P. Rodriguez, ABC-CLIO, 1997, ISBN 978-0-87436-885-7
- Loughlin, James Francis (1913). "Pope Alexander VI". In Herbermann, Charles (ed.). Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
- von Pastor, Ludwig (1902). The History of the Popes, from the close of the Middle Ages, third edition, Volume V Saint Louis: B. Herder 1902.
- von Pastor, Ludwig. The History of the Popes, from the close of the Middle Ages, second edition, Volume VI Saint Louis: B. Herder 1902.
- Weckman-Muñoz, Luis. "The Alexandrine Bulls of 1493" in First Images of America: The Impact of the New World on the Old. Edited by Fredi Chiappelli. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press 1976, pp. 201–210.
- Diario Borja Borgia (in Spanish)
- 1494: How a Family Feud in Medieval Spain Divided the world in Half Archived 4 September 2012 at the Wayback Machine (in Spanish)
- Thirty-Two Years with Alexander VI, The Catholic Historical Review, vol. 8, no. 1, April 1922, pp. 55–58. Thirty-Two Years with Alexander VI The Catholic Historical Review
- Grandes de España, tomo cuarto Archived 1 April 2019 at the Wayback Machine (in Spanish)
- Una rama subsistente del linaje Borja en América española, por Jaime de Salazar y Acha, Académico de Número de la Real Academia Matritense de Heráldica y Genealogía Archived 12 April 2012 at the Wayback Machine (in Spanish)
- Boletín de la Real Academia Matritense de Heráldica y Genealogía (in Spanish)
External links
- Francisco Fernández de Bethencourt – Historia Genealógica y Heráldica Española, Casa Real y Archived 1 April 2019 at the Wayback Machine (in Spanish)
- Literature by and about Pope Alexander VI in the German National Library catalogue
- "bishop/bdeborjar". Catholic-Hierarchy.org. David M. Cheney.
- "Alexander VI." in the Ecumenical Lexicon of Saints
- Duque de Gandía at the Wayback Machine (archived 18 January 2012) (in Spanish)
- Works by Pope Alexander VI at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)
- Objects related to Alexander VI in the Urus: Techniques and Reception of Graphic Art in Central and Eastern Europe (15th–18th centuries) database