124 A HISTORY OF THE BORGIAS

lor:—Cardinal-Deacon of San Ciriaco die

Terme Diocleziane.1

The vigour of this deed struck Cardinal Giuliano della
Rovere and his friend King Don Ferrando into frantic
silence. By a mere act of His Sovereign Will the Holiness
of the Pope immensely had increased His Own potential-
ity. Two of the new creatures were scions of reigning
dynasties, whose loyalty thereby was secured. The virtue
and eloquence of the English cardinal were as twin towers
of strength. The two French creatures were as a sop to
France. The minor diaconate conferred on Don Cesare
(detto Borgia) gave him a standing, from which the splen-
dour of his youth might do great things. And the other
cardinals were proved adherents, who, by being made to
owe their promotion to the Lord Alexander P.P. VI,
became bound (in so far as human foresight went) to His
interests by the bond of gratitude, It was a most paralys-
ing and disheartening stroke for the enemies of the
Sovereign Pontiff; and the year 1493 ended amid renewed
demands for a General Council from Cardinal Giuliano
della Rovere, and renewed invectives from the Majesty of
Naples.

On the twenty-fifth of January 1494, King Don Fer-
rando I died, in the seventieth year of his age and the thir-
ty-fifth of his reign. He was a cautious and experienced
politician; and, since the Lord Pius P.P. II, Lorenzo de'
Medici, and the great Duke Francesco Sforza-Visconti,
the greatest secular statesman of his century. His policy
was directed to the preservation of Italy from French in-
vasion, and to the destructon of the Papal States. He was
1 Infessura, in Eccard II. 2015. Alberi, Rel. Ven. Sen. Ill 314.
Rivista Cristiana II. 261. Ugolini,. Storia . . . d'Urbino II. Doc. 13.
Ciacconi, Vitae Pontificum, sub anno. Gregprovius, Geschichts de
Stadt VIL 340. Matarazzo, Cron. di Perugia in Archivio Storico
xvi. See I. pt. ij, 3.