Pope Alexander VI

Pope Alexander VI
Papacy began	11 August 1492
Papacy ended	18 August 1503
Predecessor	Innocent VIII
Successor	Pius III
Previous post(s)	Cardinal-Deacon of San Nicola in Carcere (1456–1471) Administrator of Gerona (1457–1458) Cardinal-Deacon of Santa Maria in Via Lata (1458–1492) Administrator of Valencia (1458–1492) Cardinal-Bishop of Albano (1471–1476) Cardinal-Bishop of Porto e Santa Rufina (1476–1492) Administrator of Cartagena (1482–1492) Administrator of Mallorca (1489–1492) Administrator of Eger (1491–1492) Archbishop of Valencia (1492)
Orders
Ordination	1468
Consecration	30 October 1471
Created cardinal	17 September 1456 by Callixtus III
Personal details
Born	Roderic Llançol i de Borja (Rodrigo Borgia) (1431-01-01)1 January 1431 Xàtiva, Kingdom of Valencia, Crown of Aragon
Died	18 August 1503(1503-08-18) (aged 72) Rome, Papal States
Buried	Santa Maria in Monserrato degli Spagnoli, Rome
Nationality	Aragonese
Denomination	Catholic (Roman Rite)
Parents	Jofré Llançol i Escrivà Isabel de Borja
Children	Cesare (or Cesar) Giovanni (or Juan) Lucrezia Gioffre (or Giuffre, Jofré in Valentian, Goffredo)
Coat of arms
Other popes named Alexander

Pope Alexander VI, born Roderic Llançol i de Borja (Catalan pronunciation: [roðeˈɾiɡ ʎanˈsɔɫ i ðe ˈβɔɾdʒa], Template:Lang-es [roˈðɾiɣo lanˈθol i ðe ˈβorxa]; 1 January 1431 – 18 August 1503) was Pope from 11 August 1492 to his death on 18 August 1503. He is one of the most controversial of the Renaissance popes, and his Italianized Valencian surname, Borgia, became a byword for libertinism and nepotism, which are traditionally considered as characterizing his papacy. His reputation is mostly drawn from his enemies, the Italian prelates and barons whose power he subverted. Two of Alexander's successors, Sixtus V and Urban VIII, described him as one of the most outstanding popes since St. Peter.

Birth and family

Roderic Llançol was born on 1 January 1431, in the town of Xativa near Valencia, Spain, one of the component realms of the Crown of Aragon, in what is now Spain. His parents were Jofré Llançol i Escrivà (died bef. 24 March 1437) and his Aragonese wife and distant cousin Isabel de Borja y Cavanilles (died 19 October 1468). His family name is written Llançol in Catalan (Valencian) and Lanzol in Castillian (Spanish). Rodrigo adopted his mother's family name of Borja in 1455 following the elevation to the papacy of maternal uncle Alonso de Borja (Italianized to Alfonso Borgia) as Calixtus III.

Education

Rodrigo Borgia studied law at Bologna where he graduated, not simply as Doctor of Law, but as "the most eminent and judicious jurisprudent." After the election of his uncle as Pope Callixtus III, he was ordained deacon and created Cardinal-Deacon of San Nicola in Carcere at the age of twenty-five in 1456. The following year, he was appointed vice-chancellor of the Holy Roman Church. Both nepotistic appointments were characteristic of the age. Each pope during this period inevitably 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. In 1468, he was ordained to the priesthood and, in 1471, he was consecrated bishop and appointed Cardinal-Bishop of Albano. Having served in the Roman Curia under five popes – Calixtus III, Pius II, Paul II, Sixtus IV and Innocent VIII – Rodrigo Borgia acquired considerable administrative experience, influence and wealth.

Personality

Rodrigo Borgia was an intelligent man with an appreciation for the arts and sciences and an immense amount of respect for the Church. He was capable and cautious, considered a "political priest" by some. He was a gifted speaker and great at conversation. Additionally, he was "so familiar with Holy Writ, that his speeches were fairly sparkling with well-chosen texts of the Sacred Books."

Plaque outside the Archbishop's Palace, Valencia.

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 and he became the first archbishop of Valencia. When Rodrigo de Borja was elected pope as Alexander VI following the death of Innocent VIII, it was the turn of his son Cesare Borgia to "inherit" the post as second archbishop of Valencia. The third and the fourth archbishops of Valencia were Juan de Borja and Pedro Luis de Borja, grand-nephew and brother of Alexander VI.

Translation of the plaque on the side of the Archbishop's Palace of Valencia:

ALEXANDER VI
The 9th July 1492, the Pope Innocent VIII, at the request of Cardinal Borja and the Catholic Monarchs, raised the Valencian See to the rank of metropolitan, becoming Rodrigo of Borja the first Archbishop of Valencia
1492 - 1503

Mistresses and family

• 
  Giovanni Borgia, 2nd Duke of Gandia.
• 
  Presumed portrait of Lucrezia Borgia by Bartolomeo Veneto
• 
  Gioffre Borgia (1482–1522) Prince of Squillace.
• 
  Ercole II d'Este, Duke of Ferrara
• 
  Francis Borgia, 4th Duke of Gandía
• 
  Luisa de Guzmán, Queen consort of Portugal

Vannozza dei Cattanei Giovanna de Candia, Countess of Gattanei

Of Alexander's many mistresses the one for whom passion lasted longest was a certain Vannozza (Giovanna) dei Cattani, born in 1442, and wife of three successive husbands. The connection began in 1470, and she bore him four 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). Three of his other children, Girolama, Isabella and Pedro-Luiz, were of uncertain parentage. His son Bernardo, a product of his liaison with Vittoria (Victoria) Sailór dei Venezia in 1469, is much less known because his father kept him in hiding, most likely due to shame, for he was a cardinal, who aspired to become the pope. He gave up hiding his many children after he fathered four more. Therefore, Bernardo received the least amount of attention of his siblings. When he became older, he grew bitter of his father and fled for his mother.

Alexander VI kneeling in front of the Madonna, said to be a likeness of Giulia Farnese.

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 la 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 lauded them with every honour. The atmosphere of Alexander's household is typified by the fact that his daughter Lucrezia lived with his mistress Giulia, who bore him a daughter, Laura, in 1492.

He is an ancestor of virtually all royal houses of Europe, mainly the southern and western ones, for being the ancestor of Dona Luisa de Guzmán, wife of King John IV of Portugal, of the House of Braganza.

Election

Papal styles of Pope Alexander VI
Reference style	His Holiness
Spoken style	Your Holiness
Religious style	Holy Father
Posthumous style	None

Main article: Papal conclave, 1492

There was change in the constitution of the College of College during the course of the fifteenth century-especially under Sixtus IV and Innocent VIII. Of the twenty-seven cardinals alive in the closing months of the reign of Innocent VIII no fewer than ten 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.

On the death of Pope Innocent VIII on 25 July 1492, the three likely candidates for the Papacy were the sixty-seven year old Borgia, 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. Although this was portrayed in the Showtime TV series The Borgias (2011) it is a popular falsehood about Pope Alexander. 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. 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. Borgia was elected on 11 August 1492, assuming the name of Alexander VI (due to confusion about the status of Pope Alexander V elected by the Council of Pisa).

Coat of Arms of Alexander VI – Castel Sant'Angelo, Rome.

Giovanni di Lorenzo de' Medici (later Pope Leo X) is rumored to have sharply criticized the election and issued the much quoted warning: "Now we are in the power of a wolf, the most rapacious perhaps that this world has ever seen. And if we do not flee, he will inevitably devour us all".

This is a popular misquotation. What Medici is actually said to have stated is: "Flee, we are in the clutches of the world".

Such a criticism, particularly by the very youthful Giovanni, is believed to be highly unlikely: "Precocious though he was, the cardinal would scarcely have made this observation when sixteen years of age." Even if he did make the comment, though, Michael de la Bédoyère says that it would be "unintentionally complimentary as coming from a representative of one of the leading Italian States about a Pope whose aim it would be to save Italy in defiance of the prejudices and jealousies of its petty rulers."

Cesare Borgia

In contrast to the preceding pontificate, Pope Alexander VI adhered initially to strict administration of justice and orderly government. Before long, 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 Ferdinand I, King of Naples, into conflict with Pope Alexander VI, who was also opposed by 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 Pope Alexander VI formed a league against Naples (25 April 1493) and prepared for war.

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. Pope Alexander VI, in the bull Inter Caetera, 4 May 1493, divided the title between Spain and Portugal along a demarcation line. This was known as the Treaty of Tordesillas and was ratified by Spain on 2 July 1494 and Portugal on 5 September 1494. (This and other related bulls are known collectively as the Bulls of Donation.)

French involvement

Italy 1494

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, the husband of his granddaughter Isabella, Alexander VI encouraged the French king in his plan for the conquest of Naples.

But Pope Alexander VI, 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. In order to dominate the Sacred 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). Charles VIII of France now advanced formal claims on the Kingdom of Naples. Pope Alexander VI 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 the 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 Lodovico 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).

Pope Alexander VI 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. Pope Alexander VI now feared that Charles might depose him for simony, and that the king would summon a council to nominate a new pope. Pope Alexander VI was able to win over the bishop of Saint-Malo, who had much influence over the king, with a cardinal's hat. Pope Alexander VI 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.

The 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 between the Pope, the emperor, Venice, Lodovico il Moro and Ferdinand of Spain. 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 allies at Fornovo, and after a drawn battle 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.

Castel Sant'Angelo in Rome

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.

Then occurred a major domestic tragedy for the house of Borgia. On 14 June, the Duke of Gandia, lately created Duke of Benevento, disappeared; the next day, his corpse was found in the Tiber.

Pope Alexander VI, overwhelmed with grief, shut himself up in Castel Sant'Angelo. 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, and suspicion fell on various highly placed people. Enquiries suddenly ceased without explanation. Cesare was suspected but not until much later and he was never named in the immediate aftermath, nor would there have been any particular reason for him to commit such a crime. The Orsini, against whom the Duke had been involved in the recent campaign, were the principal suspects at the time. The Duke had many other enemies. Ascanio Sforza, for example, had had a terrible row with him just a few days before the murder. No conclusive explanation was ever reached, and it may be that the crime was simply as a result of one of the Duke's sexual liaisons.

Crime and Savonarola

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. (When cardinals died, their wealth automatically reverted to the Church.) The only contemporary accusations of poisoning were from some of the servants of the Borgias, extracted under torture by Alexander's bitter enemy and successor, Julius II.

Girolamo Savonarola

The debased state of the curia was a major scandal. Opponents such as the powerful demagogic 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. The hostility of Savonarola seems to have been political rather than personal, and the friar sent a touching 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." But eventually the Florentines tired of the friar's moralising and the Florentine government condemned the reformer to death (23 May 1498). The houses of Colonna and Orsini, after much fighting between themselves, allied against the Pope, who found himself unable to maintain order in his own dominions.

Family Aggrandizement

It is important to keep in mind that, in Italy at the time, the Spanish were looked down upon. Thus, the prominent Italian families looked down on the 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.

In these circumstances, Pope Alexander VI, feeling more than ever that he could only rely 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 counter-claim that Pope Alexander VI and Cesare indulged in incestuous relations with Lucrezia, in 1497. And, 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. Cesare, after resigning his cardinalate, was sent on a mission to France at the end of the year, bearing a bull of divorce for the new French king Louis XII, in exchange for which he obtained the duchy of Valentinois (a duchy chosen because it was consistent with his already known nickname of Valentino), a promise of material assistance in his schemes to subjugate the feudal princelings of papal Romagna, and a marriage to a princess of Navarre.

Pope Alexander VI 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 the 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, Pope Alexander VI 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. This door lasted until 1618, when another door was installed in the new basilica.

In a ceremony similar to today’s, Pope Alexander VI 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 118:19-20 Psalm 118:19–20. 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.

Pope Alexander VI 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) completed the seal, placing specially-minted coins and medals inside the wall.

Slavery

While the enterprising explorers of Spain and Portugal were quick to enslave the indigenous peoples they met in Africa and the New World, some popes spoke out against the practice. In 1435, Pope Eugene IV had issued an attack on slavery in his papal bull Sicut Dudum, which included the excommunication of all those who engaged in the slave trade. 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. The bulls issued by Pope Alexander VI: Eximiae devotionis (3 May 1493), Inter Caetera (4 May 1493) and Dudum Siquidem (23 September 1493), granted similar rights to Spain with respect to the newly discovered lands in the Americas as Pope Nicholas V had previously conferred with the bulls Romanus Pontifex and Dum Diversas. Morales Padron (1979) concludes that these bulls gave power to enslave the natives. Minnich (2005) asserts that this "slave trade" was permitted to facilitate conversions to Christianity. Other historians and Vatican scholars strongly disagree with these accusations and assert that Pope Alexander VI never gave his approval to the practice of slavery. Other later popes, such as Pope Benedict XIV in Immensa Pastorium (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 Requerimiento 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. 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.

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. 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 for some reason 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.

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

The tomb of Pope Alexander VI

Jacopo Pesaro being presented by Pope Alexander VI to Saint Peter, painting by Titian

Cesare was preparing for another expedition in August 1503 when, after he and his father had dined with Cardinal Adriano da Corneto on 6 August, they were taken ill with fever a few days later. Cesare, whose skin allegedly peeled off 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:

Saturday, the 12th of 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 the 15th of August thirteen ounces of blood were drawn from him and the tertian ague supervened. On Thursday, the 17th of 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.

The pope was 72 years old.

As for his true faults, known only to his confessor, Pope Alexander VI apparently died genuinely repentant. The bishop of Gallipoli, Alexis Celadoni, spoke of the pontiff's contrition during his funeral oration to the electors of Alexander's successor, pope Pius III:

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. Cesare, too ill to attend to the business himself, sent Don Michelotto, 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, fell out upon his chin; therefore no fanatic or devotee dared to kiss his feet or hands, as custom would have required." 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."

It has been suggested that, having taken into account the unusual level of decomposition, Alexander VI was accidentally poisoned to death by his son, Cesare, with cantarella (which had been prepared to eliminate Cardinal Adriano), although some commentaries doubt these stories and attribute the Pope's death to malaria, then prevalent in Rome, or to another such pestilence. The ambassador of Ferrara wrote to Duke Ercole that it was no wonder the Pope and the duke were sick because nearly everyone in Rome was ill because of bad air ("per la mala condictione de aere").

After a short stay, the body was removed from the crypts of St. Peter's and installed in a less well-known church, the Spanish national church of Santa Maria in Monserrato degli Spagnoli.

Legacy

Detail of fresco Resurrection in the Borgia Apartments, showing Alexander VI humbly in prayer.

Following the death of Alexander VI, 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. He usurped the papal power by the devil's aid, and I forbid under the pain of excommunication anyone to speak or think of Borgia again. His name and memory must be forgotten. It must be crossed out of every document and memorial. His reign must be obliterated. All paintings made of the Borgias or for them must be covered over with black crepe. All the tombs of the Borgias must be opened and their bodies sent back to where they belong – to Spain." The Borgias' apartments remained sealed until the 19th century.

Sometimes overlooked is the fact that Alexander VI set about reforms of the increasingly irresponsible Curia. He put together a group of his most pious cardinals in order to move the process along. Planned reforms included new rules on the sale of Church property, the limiting of cardinals to one bishopric, and stricter moral codes for clergy. Had he stayed in office longer, the pontiff may have had more success in the enactment of these reforms.

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. 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 the Menaechmi performed in his apartments.

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 King James IV of Scotland, founding King's College, Aberdeen. King's College now forms an integral element of the University of Aberdeen.

Alexander VI, allegedly a marrano according to papal rival Giuliano della Rovere, distinguished himself by his 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.

It has been noted that the alleged misdeeds of Alexander VI are similar in nature to those of other Renaissance princes, with the one exception being his position in the Church. As De Maistre said 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."

Bohuslav Hasištejnský z Lobkovic, a Bohemian humanist poet (1461–1510) dedicated one of his Latin poems to Alexander:

Epitaphium Alexandri Papae

Epitaph to Pope Alexander

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.

Who sacrificed quiet to hatred, with a warrior heart, who did not stop at quarrels, struggles and slaughters, is lying here in the coffin for all people to rejoice, thy supreme pontiff Alexander, oh, capital Rome. Ye prelates of Erebus and Heaven, close your doors and prohibit the Soul from entering your sites. He would disrupt the peace of Styx and disturb Avernus, and vanquish the Saints, if he enters the sphere of stars.

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 foundations laid by the Borgias. Unlike Julius, Alexander never made war unless absolutely necessary, preferring negotiation and diplomacy.

In popular culture

Books

• The contemporary politician, political theorist and author Niccolò Machiavelli wrote his book of power politics The Prince in 1513, in which he refers to Alexander VI as an astute politician who did much to strengthen the power of the Church. "Alexander VI, more than any other pontiff who has ever lived, showed how much a pope could achieve with money and armed force. ... Although his aim was the aggrandizement of [his son Cesare], not of the Church, none the less what he did increased the greatness of the Church; and after his death ... the Church inherited the fruits of his labours. Then came Pope Julius [II]. He found the Church already great ... as a result of Alexander's vigour"
• E. R. Chamberlin's 1969 book The Bad Popes documented the lives of eight of the most controversial popes, including Alexander.
• Alexander is one of six Popes of the Renaissance era profiled unfavorably by historian Barbara Tuchman in The March of Folly.
• Frederick Rolfe ("Baron Corvo") wrote Chronicles of the House of Borgia. This was a revisionist account, in which he argued that the Borgia family was unjustly maligned and that the accounts of poisoning were a myth.
• Alexander VI and his family are the subjects of Mario Puzo's final novel The Family, as well as Robert Rankin's humorous and fictionalized novel The Antipope.
• The Borgia Bride (2005) is a historical fiction by Jeanne Kalogridis, told from the perspective of Sancha of Aragon, married to the Pope's youngest son Gioffre Borgia.
• In March 2005, Heavy Metal published the first of a three-part graphic novel biography of Alexander VI entitled Borgia, written by Alexandro Jodorowsky with art by Milo Manara. The story focuses mostly on the sexual indiscretions and acts of violent backstabbery carried out by the corrupt papal figure. The second part was released in July 2006 and the third in July 2009.
• Gregory Maguire makes strong references to Alexander VI and specifically his daughter in the 2003 novel, Mirror, Mirror.
• Spanish author Javier Sierra writes of Pope Alexander VI in his novel, The Secret Supper.
• French author Alexandre Dumas' The Count of Monte Cristo mentions murder of Cardinal Spada by Alexander VI and his son. This is told by Abbé Faria to Edmond Dantes in the prison in relation to a treasure belonging to Cardinal Spada.
• Italian authors Rita Monaldi and Francesco Sorti depict a totally different image of Pope Alexander VI in The Doubts of Salaì (2007). They reference sources which quote Alexander as an integral, hard-working functionary in the Roman Catholic Church. His infamous reputation would be largely attributed to falsified documents and the slander of his opponents.
• German author Friedrich Schiller refers to Borgia in "Der Verbrecher aus verlorner Ehre" referring to his less than favourable reputation, 'Stünde einmal, wie für die übrigen Reiche der Natur, auch für das Menschengeschlecht ein Linnäus auf, welcher nach Trieben und Neigungen klassifizierte, wie sehr würde man erstaunen, wenn man so manchen, dessen Laster in einer engen bürgerlichen Sphäre un in der schmalen Umzäugnung der Gesetze jetzt ersticken muss, mit dem Ungeheur Borgia in einer Ordnung beisammen fände.'
• Pope Alexander's diplomatic correspondence and intrigues with the Ottoman Turks, as well as Charles VIII's invasion of Italy, are depicted in the historical novel The Sultan's Helmsman.
• Blood & Beauty by Sarah Dunant is an historical novel, well reached and woven into a story of the Borgia family with focus on Pope Alexander including his children and rise to the papacy in the late 15th century.
• The introduction to The Bad Catholic's Guide to Good Living, by John Zmirak and Denise Matychowiak, is attributed to Pope Alexander, writing in 2005 from "The Seventh Terrace of Purgatory". In a postscript to the introduction, "Alexander" requests additional prayers for the sake of himself and several other popes stuck in Purgatory.

Plays

• Barnabe Barnes' 1606 play The Devil's Charter, performed at the Globe by the King's Men, dramatizes the life of Pope Alexander VI and his daughter Lucretia Borgia. In Barnes' play Alexander sells his soul to the devil in exchange for the papacy. Lucretia binds, gags, and stabs her husband onstage and later dies poisoned by her own cosmetics.
• Cesare and Lucrezia Borgia, a play by Robert Lalonde

Film

• In the 1922 German silent film, Lucrezia Borgia, Alexander VI is played by Albert Basserman.
• Alexander is played by Lluís Homar in the 2006 Spanish film, Los Borgia.
• A Young Roderic de Borgia during the 1458 Conclave is played by Manu Fullola in the 2006 Canadian movie "The Conclave."
• In the 1935 French movie, Lucrezia Borgia, Alexander is portrayed by Roger Karl.
• The last of Walerian Borowczyk's Contes Immoraux (Immoral Tales) shows Jacopo Berenizi as Alexander VI, enjoying incest with Lucrezia and Cesare while Savonarola is arrested and burned.
• In the series of short films Assassin's Creed: Lineage, Rodrigo Borgia starts a conspiracy to destroy the Medici dynasty. In the first short film, he hires some assassins to kill the Duke of Milano, Galeazo Maria Sforza. He is played by Manuel Tadros.

Television

• The papacy of Alexander VI was dramatized in the 1981 BBC series The Borgias, starring the veteran Italian actor Adolfo Celi as Pope Alexander.
• The Canadian sketch comedy History Bites parodied Pope Alexander VI by portraying him and his family as The Osborgias (done as a parody of The Osbournes).
• In the popular TV show, Alias, the character Milo Rambaldi was said to be Alexander VI's "chief architect."
• French premium-pay TV Canal+, Atlantique Productions and EOS Entertainment broadcast the series Borgia in 2011, recounting the infamous family's rise to power and subsequent domination of the Vatican. John Doman stars as Rodrigo Borgia. A second season followed in 2013. Season 3 is currently in post-production.
• Showtime's The Borgias (2011 - 2013) stars Jeremy Irons as Pope Alexander VI.
• In the 2012 season of the BBC children's series Horrible Histories, Alexander VI was dramatized by actor Jim Howick. The show parodied Pope Alexander as a mafia crime boss, and later as the father of an Addams Family-style dynasty of the Borgias. (The Addams Family theme song was also parodied, being renamed The Borgia Family.)

Video games

• In Assassin's Creed II (2009), Rodrigo Borgia is the main antagonist of the game, secretly associated with the Knights Templar. The protagonist (Ezio Auditore da Firenze) tried to kill Alexander VI before ascending the papacy. His character in the game is voiced by and modeled on Canadian actor Manuel Tadros.
• In Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood (2010), Rodrigo Borgia has a smaller role than his son, Cesare Borgia, the game's main antagonist. He is killed by Cesare, who after becoming aware of his father's plot to assassinate him (due to Cesare's campaigning in Romagna resulting in declining Borgia influence in Rome) forces his own poisoned apple in his mouth.

See also

• Banquet of Chestnuts
• Cardinals created by Alexander VI
• List of popes from the Borgia family
• Route of the Borgias
• Birthplace of Alexander VI
• List of sexually active popes

Bibliography

• Loughlin, James Francis (1913). "Pope Alexander VI" . In Herbermann, Charles (ed.). Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
• This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Villari, Luigi (1911). "Alexander (popes)". In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
• John Burchard, 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)
• Peter de Rossa, Vicars of Christ: The Dark Side of the Papacy (Corgi, 1989)
• Encyclopædia Britannica, 11th edition.
• DIARIO BORJA BORGIA (Spanish)
• "That the world may believe: the development of Papal social thought on aboriginal rights", Michael Stogre S.J, Médiaspaul, 1992, ISBN 978-2-89039-549-7
• "The Historical Encyclopedia of World slavery", Editor Junius P. Rodriguez, ABC-CLIO, 1997, ISBN 978-0-87436-885-7
• "Black Africans in Renaissance Europe", Thomas Foster Earle, K. J. P. Lowe, Cambridge University Press, 2005, ISBN 978-0-521-81582-6
• "A violent evangelism", Luis N. Rivera, Luis Rivera Pagán, Westminster John Knox Press, 1992, ISBN 978-0-664-25367-7
• "Indigenous peoples and human rights", Patrick Thornberry, Manchester University Press, 2002, ISBN 978-0-7190-3794-8
• John Julius Norwich, Absolute Monarchs: A History of the Papacy, Random House, 2011, ISBN 978-1-4000-6715-2

External links

• Diario Borja - Borgia Template:Es icon
• 1494: How a Family Feud in Medieval Spain Divided the world in Half
• Borja - Wikipedia, la enciclopedia libre Template:Es icon
• Borgia - Wikipedia, la enciclopedia libre Template:Es icon
• Borja o Borgia Template:Es icon
• Francisco Fernández de Bethencourt - Historia Genealógica y Heráldica Española, Casa Real y Grandes de España, tomo cuarto Template:Es icon
• 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 Template:Es icon
• http://libros.webuda.com/boletin-RAMHG-75.pdf BOLETÍN DE LA REAL ACADEMIA MATRITENSE DE HERÁLDICA Y GENEALOGÍA Template:Es icon
• Thirty-Two Years with Alexander VI, The Catholic Historical Review, Volume 8, no. 1, April, 1922, pp. 55–58.[16] [17]