Ronciere and others in the Bibliotheque des Ecoles francaises
d'Athenes et de Rome, Paris, 1895 ff. (W. W. R.*)
ALEXANDER V. (Peter Philarges), pope 1409-1410, was born
in Crete of unknown parents and entered the order of St
Francis, for which, as for the other mendicant orders,
he later manifested his affection in a striking manner.
He was a member in turn of the universities of Oxford and
Paris, and finally settled in Lombardy, where, thanks to the
favour of Gian Galeazzo Visconti, he became bishop, first of
Piacenza, then of Vincenza, then of Novara, and afterwards
archbishop of Milan. On being created cardinal by Innocent
VII. he devoted all his energies from 1408 onwards to the
realization of the union of the church, in spite of the two
rival popes. He was one of the promoters of the council of
Pisa, and after that assembly had declared Gregory XII. and
Benedict NIII. deposed, the cardinals assembled in conclave
thought they could not do better than crown with the tiara
this cosmopolitan prelate, who had an equal mastery of the
Latin and Greek languages, and was renowned not only for
his learning in theology but for his affability (June 26,
1409). As a matter of fact, the only effect of this election
was to aggravate the schism by adding a third to the number
of rival pontiffs. During his short reign of ten months
Alexander V.'s aim was to extend his obedience with the
assistance of France, and, notably, of the duke Louis II. of
Anjou, upon whom he conferred the investiture of the kingdom
of Sicily, together with the title of gonfalonier of the
church. He proclaimed and promised rather than effected a
certain number of reforms: the abandonment of the rights of
``spoils'' and ``procurations,'' the re-establishment of the
system of canonical election in the cathedral churches and
principal monasteries, &c. But death came upon him almost
without warning at Bologna, in the night of the 3rd-4th May
1410. A rumour went about that he had been poisoned by the
cardinal Baldassare Cossa, impatient to be his successor, who
succeeded him in fact under the name of John XXIII. The crime
has, however, never been proved, though a Milanese physician, who
performed the task of dissecting the corpse of Peter Philarges,
seems to have thought that he found traces of poison. (N. V.)
ALEXANDER VI. (Rodrigo Borgia) (1431-1503), pope from 1492
to his death, is the most memorable of the corrupt and secular
popes of the Renaissance. He was born (January 1, 1431) at
Xativa, near Valencia in Spain, and his father's surname was
Lanzol or Llancol; that of his mother's family, Borgia or
Borja, was assumed by him on the elevation of his maternal
uncle to the papacy as Calixtus III. (April 8, 1455). He
studied law at Bologna, and after his uncle's election he
was created successively bishop, cardinal and vice-chancellor
of the church, an act of nepotism characteristic of the
age. He served in the Curia under five popes and acquired
much administrative experience, influence and wealth,
although no great power; he was economical in his habits;
on occasion he displayed great splendour and lived in a fine
palace. His manners were agreeable and his appearance
fascinating, but, like many other prelates of the day, his
morals were far from blameless, his two dominant passions
being greed of gold and love of women, and he was devotedly
fond of the children whom his mistresses bore him. Although
ecclesiastical corruption was then at its height, his
riotous mode of life called down upon him a very severe
reprimand from Pope Pius II., who succeeded Calixtus III. in
1458. Of his many mistresses the one for whom his passion
lasted longest was a certain Vannozza (Giovanna) dei Cattani,
born in 1442, and wife of three successive husbands. The
connexion began in 1470, and she bore him many children whom
he openly acknowledged as his own: Giovanni, afterwards duke
of Gandia (born 1474), Cesare (born 1476), Lucrezia (born
1480), and Goffredo or Giuffre (born 1481 or 1482). His other
children--Girolamo, Isabella and Pier Luigi--were of uncertain
parentage. Before his elevation to the papacy Cardinal
Borgia's passion for Vannozza somewhat diminished, and she
subsequently led a very retired life. Her place in his
affections was filled by the beautiful Giulia Farnese (Giulia
Bella), wife of an Orsini, but his love for his children by
Vannozza remained as strong as ever and proved, indeed, the
determining factor of his whole career. He lavished vast sums
on them and loaded them with every honour. A characteristic
instance of the corruption of the papal court is the fact that
Borgia's daughter Lucrezia (see BORGIA, LUCREZIA) lived with
his mistress Giulia, who bore him a daughter Laura in 1492.
On the death of Pope Innocent VIII. the three likely candidates
for the Holy See were Cardinals Borgia, Ascanio Sforza and
Giuliano della Rovere; at no previous or subsequent election
were such immense sums of money spent on bribery, and Borgia
by his great wealth succeeded in buying the largest number of
votes, including that of Sforza, and to his intense joy he
was elected on the 10th of August 1492, assuming the name of
Alexander VI. Borgia's elevation did not at the time excite
much alarm, except in some of the cardinals who knew him, and
at first his reign was marked by a strict administration of
justice and an orderly method of government in satisfactory
contrast with the anarchy of the previous pontificate, as
well as by great outward splendour. But it was not long
before his unbridled passion for endowing his relatives
at the expense of the church and of his neighbours became
manifest. For this object he was ready to commit any crime
and to plunge all Italy into war. Cesare, then a youth
of sixteen and a student at Pisa, was made archbishop of
Valencia, his nephew Giovanni received a cardinal's hat,
and for the duke of Gandia and Giuffre 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 Cervetri and Anguillara, lately acquired by Virginio
Orsini, head of that powerful and turbulent house, with the
pecuniary help of Ferdinand of Aragon, king of Naples (Don
Ferrante). This brought the latter into conflict with
Alexander, who determined to revenge himself by making an
alliance with the king's enemies, especially the Sforza family,
lords of Milan. In this he was opposed by Cardinal della
Rovere, whose candidature for the papacy had been backed by
Ferdinand. Della Rovere, feeling that Rome was a dangerous
place for him, fortified himself in his bishopric of Ostia at
the Tiber's mouth, while Ferdinand allied himself with Florence,
Milan, Venice, and the pope formed a league against Naples
(April 25, 1493) and prepared for war. Ferdinand appealed
to Spain for help; but Spain was anxious to be on good terms
with the pope to obtain a title over the newly discovered
continent of America and could not afford to quarrel with him.
Alexander meditated great marriages for his children. Lucrezia
had been married to the Spaniard Don Gasparo de Procida,
but on her father's elevation to the papacy the union was
annulled, and in 1493 she was married to Giovanni Sforza. lord
of Pesaro, the ceremony being celebrated at the Vatican with
unparalleled magnificence. But in spite of the splendours
of the court, the condition of Rome became every day more
deplorable. The city swarmed with Spanish adventurers,
assassins, prostitutes and informers; murder and robbery were
committed with impunity, heretics and Jews were admitted to
the city on payment of bribes, and the pope himself shamelessly
cast aside all show of decorum, living a purely secular and
immoral life, and indujging in the chase, dancing, stage
plays and indecent orgies. One of his boon companions was
Jem, the brother of the sultan Bayezid, detained as a hostage.
The general political outlook in Italy was of the gloomiest,
and the country was on the eve of the catastrophe of foreign
invasion. At Milan Lodovico Sforza (il Moro) ruled,
nominally as regent for the youthful duke Gian Galeazzo,
but really with a view to making himself master of the
state. He made many alliances to secure his position, but
fearing himself isolated he sought help from Charles VIII. of
France, and as the king of Naples threatened to come to the
aid of Gian Galeazzo, who had married his grand- daughter, he
encouraged the French king in his schemes for the conquest of
Naples. Alexander carried on a double policy, always ready
to seize opportunities to aggrandize his family. But through
the intervention of the Spanish ambassador he made peace with
Naples in July 1493 and also with the Orsini; the peace was
cemented by a marriage between the pope's son Giuffre and Dona
Sancha, Ferdinand's grand-daughter. In order to dominate
the Sacred College more completely he created twelve new
cardinals, among them his own son Cesare, then only eighteen
years old, and Alessandro Farnese, the brother of Giulia Bella,
one of the pope's mistresses, creations which caused much
scandal. On the 25th of January 1494 Ferdinand died and
was succeeded by his son Alphonso II. Charles of France now
advanced formal claims on the kingdom, and Alexander drew
him to his side and authorized him to pass through Rome
ostensibly on a crusade against the Turks, without mentioning
Naples. But when the French invasion became a reality he was
alarmed, recognized Alphonso as king, and concluded an alliance
with him in exchange for various fiefs to his sons (July
1494). Preparations for defence were made; a Neapolitan
army was to advance through the Romagna and attack Milan,
while the fleet was to seize Genoa; but both expeditions
were badly conducted and failed, and on the 8th of September
Charles crossed the Alps and joined Lodovico il Moro at
Milan. The papal states were in a turmoil, and the powerful
Colonna faction seized Ostia in the name of France. Charles
rapidly advanced southward, and after a short stay in Florence
set out for Rome (November 1494). Alexander appealed to
Ascanio Sforza for help, and even to the sultan. He tried
to collect troops and put Rome in a state of defence, but his
position was most insecure, and the Orsini offered to admit
the French to their castles. This defection decided the
pope to come to terms, and on the 31st of December Charles
entered Rome with his troops and the cardinals of the French
faction. Alexander now feared that the king might depose him
for simony and summon a council, but he won over the bishop of St
Malo, who had much influence over the king, with a cardinal's
hat, and agreed to send Cesare, as legate, to Naples with
the French army, to deliver Jem to Charles and to give him
Civitavecchia (January 16, 1495). On the 28th Charles departed
for Naples with Jem and Cesare, but the latter escaped to
Spoleto. Neapolitan resistance collapsed; Alphonso fled and
abdicated in favour of his son Ferdinand II., who also had
to fly abandoned by all, and the kingdom was conquered with
surprising ease. But a reaction against Charles soon set
in, for all the powers were alarmed at his success, and on
the 31st of March a league between the pope, the emperor,
Venice, Lodovico il Moro and Ferdinand of Spain was formed,
ostensibly against the Turks, but in reality to expel the
French from Italy. Charles had himself crowned king of Naples
on the 12th of May, but a few days later began his retreat
northward. He encountered the allies at Fornovo, and after a
drawn battle cut his way through them and was back in France
