and versatility in negotiation and intrigue, and of morals which opposed no impediment to any means of compassing any purpose. . . . Julian possessed more powerful talents, and, though his habits had been chiefly military, a much less exceptionable character. But he was younger; his preferment was not nearly so valuable, and the private wealth at his disposal bore no proportion to that of his competitor. The College was principally composed of the creatures of the two last Popes, Sixtus and Innocent, educated in those principles, on which the morals of the Roman Court were at this time founded. ... Accordingly the election was not long doubtful; indeed, Borgia had taken a sure precaution to preclude hesitation, by placing two mules laden with gold at the disposal of a faithful Cardinal, to be bestowed as occasion might require. * Alexander VI. immediately proceeded, after the example of his predecessor, to fulfil the conditions privately stipulated with election. the cardinals, who had simoniacally elected him. On Manner of his Ascagna Sforza he conferred the profitable dignity of vicechancellor; to Cardinal Orsini he, ceded his palace at Rome, together with two other mansions; to Cardinal Colonna he gave an abbey, with numerous dependencies; to the cardinal of St. Angelo, the bishopric of Porto, together with his furniture and a cellar of delicious wines; to others, churches or towns; to others, undisguised gold. Five only in the whole college-one of whom was Julian, his rival-are believed to have resisted all these varieties of corruption. In the mean time, the Roman people, as if they gloried in the iniquity of their rulers, hailed the decision of the Conclave with unusual expressions of satisfaction. On no other occasion had the holy city arrayed herself in such festive splendour, or descended to such loathsomeness of adulation †, as on that, when she placed in the apostolical chair the most profligate of mankind, and offered the last insult-we say not to the name of Christ, for that had long been scorned,-but to a Church which still called itself Christian, and to the nations which still recognized that Church. In early life, during the pontificate of Pius II., Roderic Borgia, already a cardinal, had been stigmatized by a public censure for his unmuffled debaucheries. Afterwards he publicly cohabited with a Roman matron named Vanozia, by whom he had five acknowledged children. Neither in his manners nor in his language did he affect any regard for morality or for decency; and one of the earliest acts of his pontificate was, to celebrate, with scandalous magnificence, in his own palace, the marriage of his daughter Lucretia. Those cardinals, who had conspired for his elevation, could not pretend either surprise or offence at this outrage. But Julian della Rovera refused his countenance to those festivities, and shut himself up in the fortress of Ostia. * Some say, four mules laden with silver. The difference, in a moral point of view, is not important. The following distich was published on this occasion: Cæsare magna fuit, nunc Roma est maxima; Sextus This was the serious flattery of the day: some other verses, published after some little experience of the Pope's divine administration, are less discreditable to the city of Cæsar and Pasquin. Vendit Alexander Claves, Altaria, Christum. De vitio in vitium, de flammâ transit in ignem ; Sextus Tarquinius, Sextus Nero, Sextus et iste- Negotiations with Bajazet. At this period in the annals of papacy, the spiritual exertions of the See were so very insignificant, compared with its struggles for temporal objects, and these struggles were now so interwoven with the general politics of Europe, that to trace, with any accuracy, the exploits of Alexander, or Julius II., would be to transcribe the civil history of Italy, France, and Germany. Such a task is consistent neither with the limits of this work, nor its design; and since the various vices, which peculiarly distinguished this Pope, are chiefly exemplified in his political transactions, we must refer the reader to the circumstantial narratives of Sismondi, or Guicciardini-contented in our more contracted course to mention such incidents, as are more closely connected either with the religion of Christ, or the economy of the Church, or the pretensions of the Apostolical See. Thus shall we not pass unnoticed the celebrated project of alliance against Charles VIII. of France, which was proposed by Alexander VI. to Bajazet, emperor of the Turks. The Pope appeared, on this occasion, as the Suzerain Lord of Naples; and in his overtures he represented to the Sultan, that that kingdom was menaced by foreign invasion; that it was the design of Charles to subject it to his authority, and then to turn his arms into Thrace, against the walls of Constantinople; that the French king was full of ambition, and careless about the means of indulging it ; while for himself he had nothing more at heart, than the repose of the Turk, in consideration of the good-will and mutual friendship subsisting between them. . . . . The nature of the engagements, into which Bajazet consequently entered, does not certainly appear, but when the crisis arrived, he took no measures to fulfil them; and the Vicar of Christ, after having invoked the Mahometan arms into the heart of Europe against a Christian prince, was pursued by the additional, and to him more bitter, reflexion, that he had incurred that infamy in vain. On the return of Columbus to Spain, Ferdinand and Isabella announced Donation of the to the Pope, their compatriot, the success of his expedition. Alexander VI. hastened to avail himself of so newly discovered magnificent an occasion to exhibit the plenitude of his Regions. authority: accordingly, he conferred upon the crown of Castille the full right to possess all that had been discovered, and all that might hereafter be discovered, whether islands or continents, whether situated in the Indies or in any other region. In a succession of bulls published on this subject, in the year 1493, at a season when the power of the See bore no proportion to its ancient grandeur, and when the character of the prelates, who administered it, was not, certainly, such as to redeem its degradation, Pope Alexander drew a line along the map, from the north to the south, and gave away, by a stroke of his pen, half the habitable world. And so much seriousness did he affect to attach to his donation, that he descended to specify the exact distance from his line, at which the rights of Spain should begin, and those of other nations end. * We shall cite the words in which this author has drawn the character of Alexander VI. 'In Alessandro Sesto fù solerzia e sagacità singolare, consiglio eccellente, efficacia a persuadere maravigliosa, e a tutte le faccende gravi sollecitudine e destrezza incredibile-ma erano queste virtù avanzate di grande intervallo da' vizii-costumi oscenissimi, non sincerità, non vergogna, non verità, non fede, non religione, avarizia insaziabile, ambizione immoderata, crudeltà più che barbara, e ardentissima cupidità di esaltare in qualunque modo i figliuoli, i quali erano molti; e tra questi qualcuno.. non meno detestabile in parte alcuna del padre. "Storia d' Italia, lib. i. Guicciardmi was ten years old when Borgia was raised to the pontificate, and his history begins with that year. It is proper to add, that the Portuguese contested the validity of the act. Let us inquire, then, on what ground did they rest their opposition? Did they dispute the authority by which the edict had been issued? Far otherwise; only they maintained that, by a similar act, Eugenius IV. had previously bestowed the same rights upon themselves. It was no contest between the king of Portugal and the See of Rome, but only a question, whether a Pope could confer upon one prince, what a preceding Pope had already bestowed upon another. And in this dispute, between a living and a departed pontiff, after many assemblies had been held, and new boundaries delineated, and great violence displayed, Alexander persisted, and succeeded, in defiance of every right and every semblance even of pontifical justice. In the year following, Africa became the subject of a very similar dispute; but on this occasion the Pope showed thus much respect to the authority of Pius II., who had conferred the contested provinces upon Portugal, that he confined the conquests of Ferdinand and Isabella to the kingdoms of Algiers and Tunis, leaving Fez and the contiguous regions to the possession of Portugal. We may smile at the arrogance of a declining despotism; nor shall we be astonished by the obsequiousness of those who found their interest in obsequiousness. At the same time, if the right of the See was not disputed, the motives which it pretended were certainly such as to justify the exercise of its right. For it was expressly stipulated in the act of donation, that holy and pious missionaries should be despatched forthwith, for the conversion of the newly conquered tracts, and the extension of the kingdom of Christ, and of the Catholic Church. Charles VIII. at Rome. When Charles VIII. entered Rome, in the year 1494, Julian della Rovera (as well as some other cardinals) was in his suite, and shared in his counsels*. From the determined hostility of Julian; from the wish for refor mation, which had so often been manifested by the court and people of France; from the undue estimate then formed of the character of the actual king, Alexander felt reason to apprehend the accomplishment of the menace so frequently repeated,-the assembly of a general council; and he easily foresaw, that the first act of that council would be, to depose himself. From the castle of St. Angelo he opened negotiations with the conqueror; but, whether it had never been the intention of Charles to press the Holy See to any extremities, or whether, as is believed by the best writers, Alexander found means to corrupt the most intimate advisers of the king by largesses and promises, the designs of Julian were frustrated, and the dignity of the Pope was preserved by a favourable convention. He returned to the pontifical palace; he resumed his former state; he gave the king a formal reception at St. Peter's, with the usual solemnities; and the king did not disdain to submit to the usual humiliation. He bent his knees, and kissed the pontiff's foot and hand; and, subsequently, on the celebration of the pontifical mass, took his seat below the first cardinal, and ministered water to the hands of the Popet. Such were the marks of deference which had long Guicciardini (lib. i. cap. iii.) does not hesitate to ascribe the accomplishment of Charles's designs against Italy to this Cardinal-' fatale instrumento è allora, è prima, è poi de 'mali d'Italia.'-The King at one moment certainly relaxed in his zeal, and was reanimated by the authority and vehemence of Julian. + Guicciardini mentions, that the Pope, to preserve the memory of these ceremonies to all posterity, caused them to be represented in painting, in one of the chambers of the castle of St. Angelo. _It is to be remarked, that they were the formal ceremonies following been exacted by Popes, and paid by Sovereigns; but never, till now, had they been prostituted so gratuitously-never, till now, had they been tendered in the place of chastisement and infamy, by a powerful and victorious prince, to a pontiff as destitute of strength, as he was notoriously polluted with crimes. There was one article in the above treaty which leads to the mention of a singular episode in papal history. The Sultan BaZizim the brother jazet had a brother named Zizim, or Jem, (like himself, of Bajazet. the son of Mahomet II.,) whose popularity, courage, and ambition, made him dangerous to the throne. The morals of the Seraglio permitted the destruction of such rivals; and Zizim, fearing that fate, had escaped to Rhodes, and placed himself in Christian hands. From Rhodes he was carried to France, and thence he passed into the custody of Pope Innocent VIII. It was then that Bajazet, availing himself of the avarice of the vicars of Christ as the means of preserving the concord of an empire hostile to the Christian faith, engaged to pay to the See a yearly sum of forty thousand ducats-nominally, for the keeping and entertainment of his brother; really, to make it the interest of the Vatican to secure the prisoner at Rome, and not to resign him to any enemy of the empire*. The money was faithfully paid, and Zizim remained a safe and profitable captive at the apostolical court. Charles VIII., who seems at that time to have really harboured some ulterior designs against the Turkish power, stipulated with Alexander for the possession of Zizim. The pontiff observed his engagement; but the prisoner carried with him from his confinement the seeds of a mortal disorder. He died very soon afterwards; and there seems some reason to believe, that the cause of his death was a slow and subtle poison administered under the superintendence of Alexandert. The Duke Valentino. Cæsar Borgia was the second, and favourite, and worthy son of Alexander VI. He commenced his career as a Churchman; but in 1498, he found it more politic at once to throw off that profession; and he then received the title, which he has rendered one of the most famous in history. As Duke Valentino, or Valentinois, he took the field in Romagna, the temporal champion of the Holy See, for the destruction of its enemies, the confirmation of its authority over the city, and the enlargement of its territories. Supported by the talents and resources of his father, he succeeded in these designs to an extent attained in no preceding age, and by means which are known to every reader. But, in seeking thus to advance the interests of the Church, Alexander had, in truth, no other design than to aggrandize his son; nor did Valentino toil through such a mass of crimes with any more distant object, than to erect a principality for himself. To this end he had calculated, as seemed to him, every a the reconciliation of the parties. On their first meeting, which was not thoroughly official, some of the most humiliating were dispensed with. The Capitula Conventionis Papæ et Regis Francia, &c.,' are cited from the Diary of Burchard,' by Roscoe, Life of Leo X., Appendix, No. xxxv. *Guicciard, lib. i. cap. iii. Of course this fact is not, nor could it well have been, undisputed. Raynaldus (ann. 1495, s. 8, &c.) refers to Burchardus to prove that the captive died from a change of diet. The words of Burchardus are- 15 Feburier, le fils du grand Ture mourut a Naples-ex esu sive potu non convenienti naturæ suæ et consueto At the same time, Raynaldus mentions the vulgar account, which is affirmed by Guicciardini. See Roscoe, Life of Leo X., chap. iv. "Yet what he did (says Machiavel) turned to the Church's advantage; which, after possible contingency; by much daring, great address, and an entire contempt of every scruple, of all faith, and of all shame, he had already accomplished much: and, to secure the stability of his power, he had employed every expedient within the reach of human foresight-when the realization of his schemes was put to an unexpected trial, by the death of his father, and his own dangerous sickness. 'Death of Alexander VI. The following are the circumstances relating to the death of Alexander, which stand on the most extensive evidence :-The Duke Valentino, being greatly in want of money to pay his troops, applied to his father for assistance; but the apostolical treasury was exhausted, and neither resources nor credit were then at hand to replenish it. On which the duke suggested to the Pope an easy, and, as it would seem, not very unusual method of supplying their wants. The Cardinal Corneto, as well as some others of the sacred college, had a great reputation for wealth; and it was then the practice at Rome for the property of cardinals to devolve, on their decease, to the See. He proposed to get rid of this Corneto. The Pope consented; and, accordingly, invited the cardinals to an entertainment, which he prepared for them in his vineyard of Corneto, for it was near the Vatican. Among the wines sent for this occasion, one bottle was prepared with poison; and instructions were carefully given to the superintendant of the feast respecting the disposal of that bottle. It happened that, some little time before supper, the Pope and his son arrived, and, as it was very hot, they called for wine. And then, whether through the error or the absence of the confidential officer, the poisoned bottle was presented to them. Both drank of it, and both immediately suffered its violent effects. Valentino, who had mixed much water with his wine, and was, besides, young and vigorous, through the immediate use of powerful antidotes*, was saved. But Alexander having taken his draught nearly the death of the Pope, and the removal of the Duke, became the heir of all his pains." The partiality of this writer to the public character of the Duke (with whom he was personally acquainted) is known to every one. Yet there is a passage (in the Prince, chap. vii.) which is worth citing. Having thus collected all the Duke's actions, methinks I could not well blame him, but rather set him as a pattern to be followed by all those who, by profane and other means, have been exalted to an empire..... Whoever, therefore, deems it necessary, on his entrance into a new principality, to secure himself from his enemies, and gain his friends; to overcome, either by force, or by cunning; to make himself beloved or feared of his people; to be followed and reverenced by his soldiers; to root out those that can hurt him, or owe him any hurt; to change the ancient orders for new ways; to be severe, and yet acceptable, magnanimous, and liberal; to extinguish the unfaithful soldiery, and create new; to maintain to himself the amities of kings and princes, so that they shall either with favour benefit, or be wary how they offend him— cannot find more fresh and lively examples than in the actions of this man.' In a separate narrative, usually published in the same volume, Machiavel relates at length (what is, no doubt, one of those lively examples) the methods which the Duke employed to rid himself of certain enemies-Vitellozzo Vitelli, Oliverotto of Fermo, Paul, and the Duke of Gravina; and a more black and scandalous tissue of perfidy, cruelty, and villany cannot possibly be imagined. That he was the author of the assassination of his elder brother, the Duke of Gandia, is believed by most historians; and that the motive was an incestuous jealousy respecting their common sister is a further imputation advanced by many, and not rejected by Sismondi; but there is no sufficient evidence to establish either of these charges. He is said to have been inclosed in the belly of a living mule, and so preserved..... The following is the brief account given by Paul Jovius of this transaction, in the beginning of lib. ii., De Vita Leonis X. "Nam Pontifex inopia metu rapax atque illo immani ingenio sævus, ut Cæsari filio magnos alenti exercitus et regio luxu liberalitatem passim ostendenti pecuniam suppeditaret, ditissimum quemque Cardinalium veneno sustulerat, haud dubie in reliquos aulæ sacerdotiis atque opibus insignes hæreditatis spe sæviturus, nisi admirabili deorum providentia homo in religionis causa probrosus et quod omnium fortunæ interfuit, ad exitium Italiæ natus, sibi mortem, supremam vero Cæsari filio cala |