Pope Alexander VI and his court: extracts from the Latin diary of Johannes Burchardus;

POPE ALEXANDER VI

AND HIS COURT

HISTORICAL MINIATURES

A SERIES OF MONOGRAPHS
Edited by Dr. F. L. Glaser

VOL. I — SCENES FROM THE

COURT OF PETER

THE GREAT

Based on the Latin Diary of John
G. Korb, a secretary of the Austrian
Legation at the Court of Peter the
Great.

VOL. II — POPE ALEXANDER
VI AND HIS COURT

Based on the Diary of Johannes
Burchardus, Master of Ceremonies to
Pope Alexander VI.

VOL. Ill — LIFE IN PARIS
UNDER LOUIS XV

Extracts from the Diary of Simeon
Prosper Hardy, publisher and book-
seller.

POPE ALEXANDER VI

AND HIS COURT

EXTRACTS FROM THE LATIN DIAET OF

JOHANNES BURCHARDUS

>ti

BISHOP OF OSTA AND CIVITA CASTELLAN A,
PONTIFICAL MASTER OF CEREMONIES

EDITED BY

DR. F. L. GLASER

NICHOLAS L. BROWN
NEW YORK MCMXXI

717

ma

COPYRIGHT, 1921

BY

NICHOLAS L. BROWN

CONTENTS

CHAPT

EH

PAGE
y

I

DEATH AND FUNERAL OF SIXTUS IV

1

II

THE CONCLAVE WHICH CHOSE INNOCENT
VIII

11

III

FIRST YEARS OF THE REIGN OF INNOCENT
VIII

19

IV

LAST YEARS OF INNOCENT VIII ....

35

V

ACCESSION OF ALEXANDER VI ....

53

VI

CORONATION OF THE KING OF NAPLES .

67

VII

KING CHARLES VIII IN ROME ....

77

VIII

ALEXANDER AND His FAMILY

85

IX

LIFE IN ROME UNDER THE BORGIAS .

95

X

THE AGGRANDIZEMENT OF THE BORGIAS .

105

XI

THE YEAR OF THE JUBILEE

119

XII

FEASTS AND FEUDS IN ROME

143

XIII

CLOSING YEARS OF ALEXANDER'S REIGN .

157

XIV

DEATH AND FUNERAL OF ALEXANDER .

179

APPENDIX . .189

INTRODUCTION

" My dear Son : — We have learned that your
Worthiness, forgetful of the high office with which
you are invested, was present from the seventeenth
to the twenty-second hour, four days ago, in the
Gardens of John de Bichis, where there were several
women of Siena, women wholly given over to worldly
vanities. Your companion was one of your col-
leagues whom his years, if not the dignity of his
office, ought to have reminded of his duty. We have
heard that the dance was indulged in, in all wanton-
ness. None of the allurements of love were lacking,
and you conducted yourself in a wholly worldly man-
ner. Shame forbids mention of all that took place,
for not only the things themselves but their very
names are unworthy of your rank. In order that
your lust might be all the more unrestrained, the
husbands, fathers, brothers and kinsmen of the young
women and girls were not invited to be present. You
and a few servants were the leaders and inspirers of
this orgy. It is said that nothing is now talked of
in Siena but your vanity which is the subject of
universal ridicule. Certain it is that here at the
baths, where churchmen and the laity are very nu-
merous, your name is on every one's tongue."

viii INTRODUCTION

The words are taken from an admonitory letter of
Pope Pius II to Cardinal Rodrigo Borgia — better
known to the world as Pope Alexander VI — written
in June, 1460, when the young cardinal had not yet
reached the thirties, and reproving him for having
arranged a bacchanalian feast in Siena. No words
could better characterize the personality of Alexan-
der VI, for they show him as the man of the world
he was as Cardinal Borgia and remained after he
had become Pope Alexander.

The limelight of history has played in a rather
oblique and unkind way on the Borgias. Pope Alex-
ander^s personality has been distorted until he
became a perfect monster; yet his greatest weak-
ness was an easy freedom from moral scruples, and
this might not have blurred his personal charm at all
had he not become the tool of his son Cesare. More
unjust still were most historians to his daughter Lu-
cretia, who has been depicted as a kind of Messalina,
although she was at the best the " indifferente "
among the great women of her time, and at her
worst a beauty without any will of her own. If it is
the historian's task to distribute praise and blame,
some of the latter may fall on Alexander's favorite
son Cesare. Even if he was not such a perfect vir-
tuoso of crime as he has been described, he certainly
was not much better than some of the worst of his
more prominent contemporaries.

Thus in considering the rise and fall of the Borgia

INTRODUCTION ix

family one ought to keep in mind that the Borgias
were after all the creatures of an epoch, rich in ex-
traordinary personalities as few others in human his-
tory have been. Before rendering judgment con-
sideration must be given to the remarkably complex
personalities of the Renaissance. The men and
women of that epoch of transformation from the
middle ages to modern times were so constituted that
it was easily possible for them to turn from cruelty
and crime and vice, from corruption and treachery,
to religion with a fervid and impassioned sincerity.
The Borgias, as will be seen, did not differ greatly
from many of their contemporaries. To make them
the scapegoats of their times shows, perhaps, a just
indignation at their crimes, but little understanding
of the conditions under which they lived.

Bearing in mind these conditions and the remark-
able rise of the House of Borgia, one will be better
prepared to understand the personality of Pope
Alexander who with all his faults was certainly not
without redeeming features. " Of his ability, of his
genius even," says Bishop A. H. Mathew, one of his
recent biographers, " there can be no two opinions ;
indeed if vigor of body and mind were all that was
required of a pope, Alexander VI would have been
among the greatest. He had a remarkable capacity
for hard mental work, and his buoyant, jovial nature
enabled him to bear his burden of vice and crime with
a lightness impossible to a man of a less sanguine

x INTRODUCTION

disposition." Such was the complex personality of
this typical man of the Renaissance.

A fair estimate of Alexander VI must include in
addition to his personal gifts and the complexities
of his character a consideration of the remarkable
rise of his family. It was from this source that he
received a further impetus toward that most seduc-
tive of all human temptations — the abuse of power.
The Borgias like the Bonapartes three centuries later
in France were neither an old nor a native family.
They had come from Spain where their ancestors had
participated in the expulsion of the Moors in the
thirteenth century, their family name being derived
from their native place of Borjia on the borders
of Aragon, Gastile and Navarre.

But with the election of one of their family, Alonzp
Borgia, as Pope Calixtus III, in the middle of the
fifteenth century, they became prbminent in the af-
fairs of the European world just at the moment
when Italy, then the most advanced country of that
continent, had cast off the fetters of mediaeval en-
velopment and entered upon the most brilliant period
of its cultural development. Calixtus III had been
a professor of jurisprudence in Lerida in Spain,
where he won the reputation of being one of the
foremost jurists of his time. He had come to Rome
as a legal adviser to King Alphonso of Naples.
His knowledge and character and his extreme age
which made it certain that he would not be long in

INTRODUCTION xi

the way of other aspirants to the papal tiara finally
secured his elevation to the highest place in Christen-
dom.

In contrast to the other papal elections of the
time the nomination of Calixtus III was not accom-
panied by the sneering remarks which such occa-
sions usually called forth. Although his reign lasted
only three years he managed to secure a firm foot-
ing for the Borgia family in the Roman hierarchy.
He may indeed be considered as one of the initiators
of nepotism in the papacy, and the first ruler of
the Roman church, who founded a kind of family
dynasty through the promotion of his nephews.
Two of these, Luis and Rodrigo Borgia (later Pope
Alexander VI) became cardinals, while a third who
was not a priest was promoted to the captaincy-
general of the papal state and created duke of Spo-
leto. The latter, as prefect of Rome, had also to
keep in check the old families of the Colonna and
Orsini, the traditional enemies of the papal rule in
the Holy City.

While Calixtus III kept on the defensive against
his enemies in the city of his residence, he followed
the papal tradition of crusading against the Turk.
The latter had just taken possession of Constanti-
nople and made it his capital. The power of the
Turkish empire was spreading in South-Eastern
Europe, and to war against it Calixtus brought
great sacrifices, selling the jewels of the papal treas-

xii INTRODUCTION

ury and other possessions of the Church. For an-
other and greater phenomenon of his time, the
Renaissance in Italy, Pope Calixtus had no under-
standing. The humanists complained that he never
gave them a helping hand, and that he even sold the
precious golden bindings of Greek manuscripts in
order to finance his expeditions against the Turks.
The successors of Calixtus III held other views.
Literature and the arts flourished under their pat-
ronage. Painters and sculptors, writers and sav-
ants, thronged the papal Court. This intrusion of
scantily disguised agnosticism into the heart of the
church frightened the pious and the conservatives
who heard the first rumblings of the Reformation.
Paul II restored the pagan monuments of Rome, and,
after the Medici of Florence, was the greatest col-
lector of the time. The successor of Paul, Sixtus
IV, went even further. The principal result of his
reign was £he secularization of the papacy. For
Sixtus IV was a worldly prince in the full sense of
the word. The aim of his policy was not even the
extension of the power of the Holy See, but primarily
the enrichment of his relatives and favorites. With
his approval the Medici were murdered by the Pazzi
family, a design which could not be accomplished
completely and which finally reacted to the disad-
vantage of the Pope himself. There was an in-
creasing demand for a council which should depose
this ruler of the church " without religion and con-

INTRODUCTION xiii

science who was called the Pope " ; a pious poet of
the time wailed over the fact that everything was at
sale in Rome : " Temples, priests, altars and even
prayers, heaven and God." In August, 1484, Sixtus
died, at the age of seventy, a martyr to gout and
worn out with rage at the news of the peace which
had been made between the Duke of Ferrara and the
Venetians without his consent.

In the eyes of the critics of the Holy See the reign
of Innocent VIII (1484-1492) was no improve-
ment. He was the first Pope who dared to acknowl-
edge his son in public, and one of his chief aims
was to procure him wealth and position. If Sixtus
had secured money through the sale of spiritual
indulgences and dignities, Innocent and his son ob-
tained it through a bank of secular pardons where
amnesty for murder could be had at high fees. A
hundred and fifty ducats of every fine went to the
papal treasury, the rest to the Pope's son, Frances-
chetto Cibo. Special traps were set in Rome to
catch the criminals who were able to pay the Pope
for their misdeeds. In the meantime Innocent
looked on complacently from his well-guarded palace
at the increasing criminality in Rome. This Fran-
ceschetto had only one aim in life, and this was to
get the papal treasure-chests in his hands as soon
as his father died. When in 1490 a false rumor
spread that the Pope had died, he attempted in fact
to carry off all the available cash of the papal

xiv INTRODUCTION

Camera. He even tried to take along the Turkish
Prince Zizim who lived as a prisoner at the papal
court, hoping to sell him at a high price to one of
the many foreign rulers who were anxious to get pos-
session of him.

Rodrigo Borgia, who succeeded Innocent VIII
two years after this incident, was born at Xativa,
Spain, in 1431, and became a priest in 1468. The
man of the world, who was so admired in his later
life, was foreshadowed in the boy, for at the age of
scarcely eight years he was conspicuous in the streets
of his home town for the grace and gallantry of his
bearing. After having been educated at Valencia,
he studied at the University of Bologna, and on his
return to Spain he practiced successfully as an advo-
cate. In 1456 Calixtus III bestowed the cardinal's
purple upon his nephew, and a year later the impor-
tant office of vice-chancellor of the Church of Rome
was conferred on him.

By the historian Gasparino of Verona the young
Cardinal is thus described : " He is handsome ; of
a most glad countenance and joyous aspect, gifted
with honeyed and choice eloquence. The beautiful
women on whom his eyes are cast he lures to love
him, and moves them in a wondrous way, more
powerfully than the magnet influences iron." It
appears, however, that only three women played a
prominent role in his life. The first was Vanozza
dei Catanei, and in his later life the beautiful Giulia

INTRODUCTION xv

Farnese is openly mentioned as his mistress. In
the intervening period his niece, Hadriana Orsini,
seems to have had relations with him, but she
patiently effaced herself when any other intimate
acquaintance of Alexander was concerned. He
never forgot Vanozza, whom he had met in his earlier
life; she was born in 1442 and died in 1518, and was
the mother of his dearest children. She always lived
in magnificence, and enjoyed the possession of the
various palaces which her lover had given her.

At the time when he was still practicing law Rod-
rigo Borgia made the acquaintance of a widow and
her two daughters. He entered into intimate rela-
tions with the mother, and after her death became
guardian of the girls. One of these he sent to a
convent; the other he made his mistress. This was
Vanozza, who is described by contemporaries as a
combination of voluptuous beauty, amiability, and
shrewdness. He had five children by her, but he did
not recognize them openly until after he became
Pope. The oldest was Pedro Luis, first Duke of
Gandia, who was born about 1467 ; Giovanni was
born in 1474 and assassinated 1498 (see p. 89), and
Cesare in 1476. The other two children were Donna
Lucretia, born in 1480, and Don Jofre, born in
1481. About 1480 Cardinal Borgia in order to
cover up his relations with Vanozza and to lighten
his own burden found a husband for her. He ob-
tained a position as apostolic secretary for him from

xvi INTRODUCTION

Pope Sixtus IV. This is the only marriage men-
tioned.

None of Vanozza's contemporaries have given any
clue as to the gifts that enabled her to hold the
pleasure-loving cardinal so securely and to obtain
for her recognition as the mother of several of his
acknowledged children. She was of Roman origin
and came from a middle-class family. " We may
imagine her," says the historian Gregorovius, " to
have been a strong and voluptuous woman like those
still seen about the streets of Rome. They possess
none of the grace of the ideal woman of the Umbrian
school, but they have something of the magnificence
of the imperial city — Juno and Venus are united
in them. They would resemble the ideals of Titian
and Paolo Veronese but for their black hair and
dark complexion, — blond and red hair have always
been rare among the Romans. But without doubt
Vanozza was of great beauty and ardent passions;
for if not, how could she have maintained her rela-
tions with the cardinal ? "

Rodrigo Borgia secured his accession to the Holy
See by buying the necessary majority through prom-
ises and bribery. A short while before the meeting
of the Conclave, for instance, he had sent four mule-
loads of silver to Cardinal Sforza's house on the pre-
text that it might be more safely guarded there.
After his election in 1492 he hurried on the same
night to St. Peter's for the inaugural ceremonies. A

INTRODUCTION xvii

contemporary, Sigismondo de' Conti, said of the hew
Pope : " Few people understand etiquette so well as
he did; he knew how to make most of himself, and
took pains to shine in conversation and to be dignified
in his manners. In the latter point his majestic
stature gave him an advantage. Also he was just
at the age (about sixty) at which Aristotle says that
men are wisest. Robust in body and vigorous in
mind, he was admirably well equipped for his new
position. He was tall and powerfully built, and,
though his eyes were blinking, they were penetrating
and lively ; in conversation he was extremely affable ;
he understood money matters thoroughly." An-
other contemporary, Hieronymus Portius, describ-
ing him in 1 493, says : " Alexander is tall and neither
light nor dark, his eyes are black and his lips some-
what full. His health is robust, and he is able to
bear any pain or fatigue. He is wonderfully elo-
quent and a thorough man of the world." The
celebrated Jason Mainus of Milan calls attention to
his elegance of figure, his serene brow, his kingly fore-
head, his countenance with its expression of generos-
ity and majesty, his genius, and the heroic beauty
of his whole presence.

It was a happy combination of mind and body,
and its power lay in the perfect balance of all its
faculties. It was a personality which radiated
serene brightness, for the picture often drawn of
this Borgia, as a sinister monster, is not true to life.

xviii INTRODUCTION

Quite on the contrary, and unlike his son Cesare, says
Bishop A. H. Mathew in his biography of Rodrigo
Borgia, Alexander does not appear to have been
wantonly inhuman although the prevalent belief that
he poisoned * his cardinals when his treasury needed
replenishing can neither be proved nor disproved
(see p. 178). But he did not revel in cruelty as
cruelty though he certainly never let any humane
scruples stand in the way of his own advancement.
He was not a tyrant in the ordinary sense of the
word, being preserved from that vice as a rule by his
natural geniality.

The advancement of his family became, as the
years of his reign went on, more and more the domi-
nant passion of Alexander, but at the same time the
organization of the Roman Curia was improved and
the salaries of officials were paid punctually. The
latter had not always been a custom under former
Popes. The administration of justice in Rome and
the Papal State was also made more effective, and in
time of famine the poor were helped with supplies of
corn from Sicily. " Nevertheless," admits Mathew,
" the populace detested their Pope with a deadly
loathing, and the fact that Rodrigo Borgia was
permitted to occupy the throne of St. Peter for a

1 The famous slow and effective white powder used by the
Borgias was arsenic, and they probably used it more success-
fully and perhaps more frequently than others of that period.

INTRODUCTION xix

space of ten years affords remarkable proof of the
strength of the later mediaeval Papacy."

In every day life Alexander VI is described of
being genial and pleasant and fond of talking, so
much so that he was almost incapable of keeping a
secret. He was impetuous, but he rarely bore malice,
and he had but little sympathy with the vindictive
spirit constantly displayed by his son Cesare. Nat-
urally unreserved and expansive, he never hid his
joy at the success of his schemes. To inferiors he
showed himself affable, and it is said that he " liked
to do unpleasant things in a pleasant manner." Al-
though religious formalities meant nothing to him,
he was much concerned in ceremonies when they
served his purpose. But to the rules of Lenten
abstinence he paid little regard and at the solemn
mass sung on the arrival in Rome of King Charles
VIII of France he confused all the ceremonies.
Nevertheless he cherished a particular devotion for
the Blessed Virgin and in her honor he revived the
custom of ringing the bells during the recantation of
the Angelus thrice a day. One of his greatest de-
lights was to watch beautiful women dancing. When
Lucretia and the ladies of her court were engaged
in this art, he was careful to summon the ambassa-
dors of Ferrara so that they might watch his daugh-
ter's grace, for he was anxious to see her married
to the son of the duke.

xx INTRODUCTION

This plan he achieved in the year 1501 when Lu-
cretia was married to Alphonso d'Este. After this
marriage and until her death in 1519 Lucretia seems
to have lived a comparatively quiet and happy life.
During her earlier life she was much maligned and
accused of many crimes ; as a matter of fact, she was
always the tool of her father and brother. In 1493,
at the age of thirteen years, she had been married to
Giovanni Sforza, and a gorgeous banquet was given
to celebrate the event. After spending a happy and
careless year at her husband's beautiful estate of
Pesaro, her marriage took a bad turn because the
house of Sforza was fast losing its former prestige.
Giovanni's life was threatened if he did not give up
the Pope's daughter. In 1497 the final divorce was
pronounced. Lucretia's attitude in the whole affair
became the subject of much satire and criticism.
But in the following year she entered into a second
marriage with Alphonso Bisceglia, a natural son of
King Alphonso II of Naples. Her husband was con-
sidered " one of the most beautiful men of Italy,"
and was seven years younger than she. Threatened
by the open hatred of Cesare Borgia, Alphonso flew
from Rome during the following year, but returned
a few months later with Lucretia, who was passion-
ately enamored of her handsome husband. In the
summer of 1500 Alphonso was wounded mortally by
assassins who probably acted under orders of the
Orsini family. Alphonso considered Cesare as the

INTRODUCTION xxi

real instigator of the assault, and shot at him as he
left his house after calling on him and was cut to
pieces by Cesare's guards.

Lucretia was only a tool of the Borgias, father
and son, but Cesare was the pride and center of
the family. From 1497 on he was the real ruler
of the Pontifical State, and Alexander frequently
seems to have submitted to his will against his own
better judgment. The crown of Italy was Cesare's
ambition. The plottings of the Pope with the Kings
of France and Naples and other Italian rulers had
their origin in this wish, which burned more violently
in the breast of this gifted and demonic son of
Alexander than in that of other Italian tyrants of
the time. Working toward this end the Borgias
decided upon the annihilation of the prominent
Italian families. The Gaetani and the Orsini were
thus exterminated (see p. 171); the Colonnas and
others were driven from their possessions. In the
midst of this slaughter and assassination stood
Cesare, and Alexander put all the money and influ-
ence of the church at his disposal.

Pope Sixtus IV already had favored young Cesare.
Scarcely seven years old he received from him the
income of the Cathedral of Valencia, two years later
he was made provost of Abar; at the age of fifteen
Innocent VIII created him Bishop of Pamplona.
After the coronation of his father he became Arch-
bishop of Valencia and a few years later a cardinal.

xxii INTRODUCTION

From the bishopric of Valencia Cesare drew an
annual income of 16,000 ducats. But even under the
then existing conditions he found priesthood too
great an obstacle for his political ambitions, and he
resigned the cardinalate to devote himself to his
military and political plans.

Before his excesses and the disease resulting from
them disfigured him and forced him occasionally to
wear a mask, he possessed great beauty and strength.
He could cut off a bull's head with one stroke, he
bent an iron bar and broke a horseshoe with his
hands, and he tore a new rope. His strong body was
graceful, and he was admired as an accomplished
dancer and horseman. He loved precious clothes
and rare weapons which are described at length in
the diplomatic reports of the time; his sword was
known as the king of swords. He remained always
a Spaniard, preferring the Spanish tongue and pre-
serving the proud senstitiveness of a Spanish grandee
even in respect to the written word touching his per-
sonality. The more jovial personality of Alexander
permitted a remarkable freedom of expression, but
Cesare persecuted all criticism directed against him
with savage cruelty. When Alexander remarked
that Rome was a free city where every one could
write and say what he pleased, Cesare replied that
he would make repent those who did so. If he suc-
ceeded in seizing one who had written a Pasquinade
against him he had his tongue sliced with a red-hot

INTRODUCTION xxiii

dagger and both his hands cut off. He frequently
indulged in needless cruelty. One day he had six
men brought in the street before St. Peter's, and
they were hunted like game with crossbows in the
closed street. Many murders were ascribed to him
by his contemporaries ; a few of these have been
proven to have been the deeds of others. Thus he
was held responsible for the murder of his brother,
Cardinal Giovanni Borgia, but it is more likely that
this mysterious assassination was an act of revenge
on the part of an offended husband.

On account of his magnificent physique Cesare at-
tracted women, but they played a much smaller role
in his life than many of the sensational biographies
would have us believe. Only one real love adventure
is reported, and that was during the winter of 1500
when he had his Spanish horsemen seize the wife of
one of the captains of the Republic of Venice. The
Republic sent a formal protest to Pope Alexander,
who regretted the incident. But no word of protest
was heard from Dorotea, the abducted wife, who a
few years later wrote to the Republic of San Marco
that she was willing to return to her husband in case
good treatment would be assured her. There is also
mentioned a strong and beautiful woman companion
during one of his campaigns. Women may have been
a certain distraction in his hours of leisure, but they
meant little in his life. His marriage with Charlotte
d'Albret, a sister of the King of Navarre, had lasted

xxiv INTRODUCTION

scarcely four months, when Cesare returned to Rome.
He never saw his wife again nor did he ever see his
daughter Louise born in 1500. His style of life
was considered peculiar even in that time for he sel-
dom rose before three o'clock in the afternoon and
went to bed at the twilight of the morning.

After the death of Pope Alexander the star of
Cesare declined. A few weeks after Cardinal Giuliano
Rovere had become Pope Julius II, Cesare was ar-
rested and taken to Rome. He was set at liberty
soon afterward, however, without the knowledge of
the Pope and escaped to Naples, where he was seized
again and sent to Spain. There he was kept under
strict confinement in various castles, and his only
recreation was flying his falcons and watching
them as they seized upon their prey and tore it to
pieces. In 1506 he again escaped and fell in battle
the same year as the commander of an army of his
brother-in-law, the King of Navarre.

Thus ended the Borgias, father and son. Their
graves are unknown. Their crimes have been exag-
gerated, but the works of artists they encouraged and
patronized are still extant. Raphael, Michelangelo,
and Pinturicchio worked for the Borgias, and Coper-
nicus lectured in Rome during the year of the jubilee
on his new theory of the motion of the heavenly
bodies. If this Pope has been called the most char-
actertistic incarnation of the secular spirit in the
papacy of the fifteenth century, it should be remem-

INTRODUCTION xxv

bered that the secularization of the papacy had be-
gun with Sixtus IV and that it was as conspicuous
under Innocent VIII as under Alexander VI.

The minute descriptions in Burchard's Diary help
us to understand the contradictory elements in the
many-sided character of Alexander VI, and show it
in its relations with politics, war, government, love,
and religion. Of the description of Alexander's
court in this Diary, Gregorovius, one of the fore-
most authorities of the period, says : " Never did
any chronicler describe the things about him so
clearly and so concisely, so dryly, and with so little
feeling — things that were worthy of the pen of
Tacitus. That Burchard was not friendly to the
Borgias is proved by the way his diary is written.
It is, however, absolutely truthful. This man well
knew how to conceal his feelings, if the dull routine
of his office had left him any. He went through
the daily ceremonies of the Vatican mechanically and
kept his place there under five popes. Burchard
must have appeared to the Borgias as a harmless
pedant ; for if not, would they have permitted him to
behold and describe their doings and yet live? Even
the little he did write in his Diary concerning events
of the day would have cost him his head had it come
to the knowledge of Alexander or Cesare. It ap-
pears, however, that the diaries of the masters of
ceremonies were not subjected to official censorship.

xxvi INTRODUCTION

Cesare would have spared him no more than he did
his father's favorite, Pedro Calderon Perotto, whom
he stabbed, and Cervillon (se p. 117), whom he killed
— both of whom frequently performed important
parts in the ceremonies of the Vatican. Nor did
Cesare spare the private secretary, Francesco
Troche, whom Alexander VI had often employed in
diplomatic affairs. There is no doubt that he was
one of Lucretia's most intimate acquaintances. In
June, 1503, Cesare had this favorite of his father
strangled." This fate would have awaited the
author of the present Diary had its existence ever
come to the knowledge of the Borgias. Johannes
Burchardus (or Burchard) was born near Strasburg,
in Alsace, in the middle of the fifteen century. Des-
tined for the Church, he was educated from his earli-
est childhood in an ecclesiastical environment.
Instead of following a course of theology which then
required ten years' close study to obtain the Doctor's
degree, Burchard, practical man that he was, chose
an easier way, that of the law, where the course of
study was only four years, and the hope of honor
and fortune equally sure. Four years after having
received his Doctor's cap he indeed succeeded with
the help of friends in reaching Rome. Here advo-
cates found a lucrative income in the numberless law-
suits that were incessantly before the ecclesiastical
courts. The pursuit of benefices, characteristic of
the time, gave rise to numerous acts of injustice, and

INTRODUCTION xxvii

owners turned out of their rightful possessions did
not give them up without a protest.

Opportunity soon knocked at the door of the
young lawyer at the Papal court. Agostino Pa-
trizzi, assistant master of ceremonies and a friend of
Burchard, longed to retire. Supported by Patrizzi's
recommendation it was an easy matter for Burchard
to secure the appointment, and in December, 1463,
he was installed as a Clerk of the Ceremonies. As
soon as he entered upon his office, Burchard resolved
to note down all details relating to his duties, so as
to have a guide for precedents of conduct. At first
he confined himself to entering notes of little general
interest. Later, seeing how much advantage there
was in fuller accounts, he expanded his notes. The
Diary really begins with the death of Sixtus IV, in
August, 1484, and a striking account is given how
the Pope was left dead and naked upon a table, while
the officials and servants of his palace were carrying
off everything upon which they could lay their hands.

Innocent VIII, his successor, was at once besieged
with petitions from the cardinals who had given him
their votes. He signed everything without question,
and in the wholesale distribution of grants and
favors Burchard took care that he was not over-
looked. Although a sceptic with regard to every-
thing outside his own office, Burchard showed all the
passion of a pedant in his observance of the cere-
monial for which he was responsible. Lapses of eti-

xxviii INTRODUCTION

quette caused him acute annoyance. But it is just
this pedantry which makes his diary especially valu-
able. It is just the lymphatic, egotistic, unimagina-
tive qualities in a man like Burchard that give his
detailed narrative the stamp of truth, and there is
little doubt that he is one of the most trustworthy
contemporary witnesses.

This is especially true of the outside dealing with
the court of Alexander VI, for during this period
he devotes increasing attention to political incidents
and anecdotal sidelights. The part of the Diary cov-
ering the reign of Innocent VIII has, of course, an
interest and value for the special student of history,
but it would scarcely have rescued the author's name
from obscurity.

The Diary not only gives an account of many of
the important political events of the reign of Alex-
ander, but also glimpses into the intimate daily life.
There is the story of the supper which Cesare Borgia
gave to fifty courtesans in his apartments at the
Vatican in the presence of the Pope himself and his
sister Lucretia. That this banquet actually took
place cannot be doubted, for the Florentine orator,
Capello, wrote a few days after the feast to the
"Seignory : " The Pope has not been to St. Peter's of
late, for the feast of All Saints, nor for All Souls,
nor the chapel. They say that he has taken cold,
but that fact did not hinder him on Sunday evening,

INTRODUCTION xxix

All Saints Eve, from sitting up until midnight with
the Duke, who had invited courtesans and public
women to the Vatican. They spent the night in
dancing and rioting."

Pius III had made Burchard Bishop of Orta and
Civita Castellana, and other honors and offices were
conferred on him under Julius II. But his health
began to fail and the entries in the Diary became
more condensed. On November 16th, 1505, he wit-
nessed the marriage of Laura Orsini, the daughter of
Giulia Farnese and Pope Alexander, with Nicholas
della Rovere, nephew to Pope Julius II. " The adul-
terous wife," says Paris de Grassis, a colleague of
Burchard, " the mistress of Pope Alexander VI, the
butt of all the satirists of Rome and Italy, now
entered the Vatican as the most distinguished woman
in the Roman aristocracy, for the purpose of uniting
her daughter with the Pope's nephew. The late
Pope seemed thereby absolved from all his crimes."

In March, 1506, Burchard went to Viterbo to take
the waters, where the famous spring of Bulicame at-
tracted the fashionable society of the neighborhood
and the great prelates of the Roman Court. It was,
moreover the resort of the demimonde of Rome, the
" honest courtesans," as Burchard calls them in his
Diary. His office soon called him again and he
superintended the ceremony of laying the foundation
stone of the Basilica of St. Peter, and in May, 1506,

xxx INTRODUCTION

he died. " His end was melancholy " was the com-
ment of a friend who added a few lines to the Diary
whose last entry was made on April 27th, 1506.

This Diary remains, as Bishop A. H. Mathew
points out, the most valuable record we possess of the
history of the Popes at the end of the fifteenth cen-
tury and the beginning of the sixteenth. The his-
torians of the sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth
centuries used it as the main source of their informa-
tion, but up to the second half of the nineteenth cen-
tury only extracts of the Diary, from manuscripts
in various libraries, were published. One of these
extracts was brought out in 1696 by the philosopher
Leibnitz under the title: Specimen Historiae Ar-
canae, sive anecdota de vita Alexandra VI Papae.
In 1854 Achille Gennarelli published in Florence an
account of the pontificate of Innocent VIII and the
first two years of that of Alexander VI. But the
obstacles placed in his way by the government of
the Grand Duke of Tuscany and the annoyances to
which he was subjected, forced him to abandon the
publication of the Diary, which had been copied as
far as May 15th, 1494.

In the years 1883-1885 L. Thuasne brought out
in Paris the first complete Latin edition of Bur-
chard's Diary in three volumes, based on the manu-
scripts in the libraries of Paris, Rome and Florence.
This edition was used in part for the English trans-
lation of Burchard's Diary by Bishop A. H. Mathew

INTRODUCTION xxxi

of which, however, only the first volume, covering the
years 1483-1492, has appeared (London, 1910).
But even this translation is not absolutely complete,
for in order to make the work not too cumbersome,
minor details, such as long lists of names, or weights
and sizes of wax candles or repetitions in documents
and the like, were omitted.

In the present volume the omissions had to be made
on a much larger scale, and all unessentials had to be
eliminated. To give as comprehensive a picture of
the times as possible some of Burchard's entries dur-
ing the reigns of Sixtus IV and Innocent VIII have
been included, and in these use has been made of
Bishop A. H. Mathew's translation.

The editor's aim throughout has been to make
available to a larger public the treasures hidden
away in the endless details of the diary, and he hopes
that in the passages selected he has succeeded in con-
veying to the reader the characteristic features of a
remarkable period and its complex personalities as
recorded by a contemporary.

F. L. GLASER.

New York, March, 1921.

POPE ALEXANDER VI
AND HIS COURT

THE DEATH AND FUNERAL OF POPE
SIXTHS IV

QJEEING that it behooves a Master of the Cere-
^-J monies to pay heed to individuals, I, John
Burchard, Clerk of the Ceremonies in the chapel of
His Holiness our Lord the Pope, will note below the
things which happened in my time and appeared to
be connected with ceremonies, together with, at least,
some external affairs, so that I may the more read-
ily give account of the office entrusted to me.

On the fourth Sunday in Advent, on the 21st of
December, 1483, the feast of St. Thomas the
Apostle, I was received as Master of the Ceremonies
by the Reverend Father in Christ, Lord Adriano,
Bishop of Ardicino della Porta. But I was ad-
mitted to the conduct of the ceremonies much later,
that is on the 26th day of the month of January,
1484, by the authorities of the Apostolic Church,

1

2 POPE ALEXANDER VI AND HIS COURT

in place of the Reverend Father in Christ, Lord
Agostino Patrizi Piccolomini, Canon of Siena, who
was afterwards appointed to the churches of Pienza
and Montalcino, and who retired from this post and
office ; and when his resignation was accepted, I was
prepared for the post by these same authorities,
through the most Holy Father and Lord in Christ,
Sixtus IV, Pope by Divine Providence.

And for this I paid the aforesaid Lord Bishop
of Pienza, together with the attendant expenses,
a total of about 450 ducats, in gold of the Camera.

On Sunday, the 30th of May, 1484, the Lord Giro-
lamo Riario, Count and Captain-general of the
Holy Roman Church, and Gentilio Orsini, together
with their men to the number of 3,000 or there-
abouts, during the night surrounded the residence
of the Very Reverend Father and Lord in Christ,
Lord Giovanni of Santa Maria in Aquiro, com-
monly known as Cardinal-Deacon Colonna. The
Cardinal's men who were within, bravely defended it
for the space of about two hours. At length over-
come by the count's men, who rushed in from the
back and sides, they fled from the house. The
count's men entered and plundered the house com-
pletely stripping it of all that was in it, even to the
doors and windows. Finally they set fire to it and
burned the residence and chambers of the cardinal,
taking prisoner the Lord Lorenzo Colonna, prothon-
otary of the Apostolic See, together with several

THE FUNERAL OF POPE SIXTUS IV 3

others, whom they brought to the Castle of San
Angelo, where they kept them until they died.

On the same evening Pietro Valle and all his peo-
ple fled from their houses and left them empty.

On Wednesday, the 1st of June, 1484, the Rever-
end Father and Lord the Prothonotary de Albergati
of Bologna, governor of the city, together with
Giovanni Francesco, the sheriff, and a great com-
pany of armed men and Lombards, appeared before
the houses of the de Valle, where by order of the
governor, the Lombards climbed to the roofs and
stripped them off one after the other. With the
exception of two they broke them all in. Some of
the houses they practically razed to the ground,
others were less injured, but none remained whole
after these attacks.

On Wednesday, the 30th of June, 1484, the Rev-
erend Father, Lord Lorenzo Colonna, prothonotary
of the Apostolic See, who was in Holy Orders and
in about the fortieth year of his age, was beheaded
in the morning in the court within the first wall of
the Castle of San Angelo. The Counts Girolamo
and Gentile Virginio, so they say, stood and watched
from the balcony of the castle. The corpse was then
placed into an open wooden chest, in which it was
to be buried, and the head was placed in position.
The corpse was borne from the aforesaid castle to
the Church of Santa Maria in Transpontina, where
it could be reviewed by all who wished. Afterwards,

4, POPE ALEXANDER VI AND HIS COURT

during the night, it was brought to the Church of
the Twelve Apostles, and given over to the Church
for burial.

On Friday, the 2nd of July, 1484, in the morning,
Giromalo, Count and Captain of the Church, to-
gether with his men, artillery, two large battering-
engines and several small ones, went forth from the
city to pitch his camp on the lands of the Colonna
in order to besiege them, and he inflicted great
injury upon them.

At the same time the Lord Domenico de Alber-
gatis, prothonotary of Bologna, governor of the
city, died from grief, it was said, at the downfall
of the house of the Valle. The obsequies were per-
formed in the Church of Santa Maria del Popolo.

On Thursday, the 12th of August, 1484, between
the fourth and fifth hour of the night, or thereabouts,
in the Vatican at St. Peter's, in an upper chamber,
above the court in front of the library, there died
our Most Holy Father and Lord in Christ, Lord
Sixtus IV, Pope by Divine Providence. May the
Almighty of His goodness deign to have mercy on his
soul. Amen !

After his death, all the Most Reverend Lords, the
Cardinals, who were present in the city, came to the
palace, and passed through the chamber, wherein
the deceased was lying on the bed, wearing a vest-
ment over his cassock, a crucifix on his breast, his
hands clasped together.

THE FUNERAL OF POPE SIXTUS IV 5

They paid profound respects to the deceased, such
as are due from the cardinals ; then they entered the
great court near the said chamber, for the purpose
of discussing what should be done.

The Bishop of Ceuta was appointed Captain, or
Governor of the Capitol; the Bishop of Cervica,
Captain of the Gate of the Palace of St. Peter; to
each of the City Gates were appointed apostolic
scriveners, together with solicitors and Roman citi-
zens, and it was decided that all the princes, coun-
tries and officials should be informed of the Pope's
decease.

Certain cardinals were appointed to guard the
palace, and to transact any business which might
present itself. After the fifth hour, Giovanni Maria,
my colleague, called upon me at my house, and I
went with him to the aforesaid palace to make
the necessary arrangements for the burial of the
deceased. But, prior to this, the Most Reverend
Lord Vice-Chancellor had arrived at the palace, and
according to custom he broke the seal used for the
papal bulls, on which was engraved the name of
the deceased pope. Then, when the cardinals had
assembled in the aforesaid place, they stopped up
the mouth, nostrils, ears and anus of the deceased
with silk, dipped in balm. And, with the assistance
of the regular penitentiaries of the Basilica of St.
Peter, who meanwhile chanted the office for the dead
in subdued, but distinct tones, standing round the

6 POPE ALEXANDER VI AND HIS COURT

corpse, they bore it away from this chamber to the
lesser papal chamber, wrapped in the covering of
the bed and in a certain cloth which formerly hung
from the bed before the door of the aforesaid cham-
ber, and there, about the tenth hour, they placed
it naked in their midst, on a long table. The Abbot
of San Sebastiano, the sacristan, had arranged a
bier with torches, although that belonged rather to
our office.

All the other rites were performed immediately, so
to speak, as soon as the deceased had been borne
away from the chamber; for, from that hour, until
the 6th, despite all my diligence, I could not obtain
one towel, linen cloth, or any vessel in which to
place the wine and water and fragrant herbs for
cleansing the deceased Pontiff, nor could I find
drawers or a clean shirt in which to clothe him,
although I several times besought the Cardinal of
Parma, Pietro of Mantua, Lord Accorsio, Gregorio
and Bartolommeo della Rovere, Giorgio his private
sweeper, and Andrea his barber, who were all his
private chamberlains, and of his household, and who
had received the best of treatment at his hands. At
length the cook furnished me with hot water and a
cauldron in which he was wont to heat the water for
washing the dishes, and the aforesaid Andrea, the
barber, sent for the basin from his shop.

Thus the pope was washed, and since there was
no linen cloth wherewith to dry him, I caused him

THE FUNERAL OF POPE SIXTUS IV 7

to be dried with the shirt in which he had expired,
torn in twain. I could not change the drawers in
which he died, and in which he was washed, for there
were no others. He was clothed in a doublet without
a shirt, and a pair of shoes of pink cloth, furnished
by the Bishop of Cervica, who was also his groom
of the bed-chamber, and, unless my memory fails
me, a damask vestment, either red or white. In this
I erred, for he should have been buried in the habit
of St. Francis, to whose Order he belonged, worn
over the holy pontifical vestments. And, since he
had no rochet, we placed on him the holy vestments
over the aforementioned things ; — the sandals, amice,
alb, girdle, and the stole crossed over his breast
(because I could not procure a pectoral cross), the
tunic, dalmatic, gloves, the precious white chasuble,
the pallium, the simple mitre, and the signet-ring
with its valuable sapphire which the sacristan said
was worth 300 ducats. Thus vested, we laid him on
the bier which we arranged on the aforementioned
table, with cushions at his head, and a pall of bro-
cade, in the midst of the aforesaid chamber. There
he remained until the hour of burial.

In the meanwhile, I entreated for wax candles, and
with great difficulty about the fourteenth hour, these
were produced to the number of twenty. When
these had been brought, without any office having
been said round the corpse, the crucifix and the
acolytes going first, the penitentiaries and the cham-

8 POPE ALEXANDER VI AND HIS COURT

berlains carried the deceased as far as the first large
court, that is to say, of the palace. Here were the
canons and the beneficiaries and the clergy of the
Basilica of St. Peter; from that place the aforesaid
canons bore the deceased to the high altar. The
procession passed over the staircase and through the
court, the way by which the cardinals are wont to
descend when they go out through the principal gate
of the palace to the central court-yard ; thence, turn-
ing in the direction of the steps of the Basilica, we
entered the church.

The deceased was placed before the altar on the
first step, next his head was placed towards the altar,
and his feet outside the iron rails, in order that those
who wished might kiss them, and the gates of the
rails were closed.

These were afterwards opened for a short time,
and the deceased was placed nearer the altar, so
that all could freely enter and depart, and some
guardians were stationed there, lest his ring or any
other possession should be stolen. He remained in
that place until the first hour of the night, or there-
abouts, when the shield-bearers bore him away, and
we walked in front with the aforementioned twenty
wax candles. Only eight cardinals followed. After
them came the prelates, and the ambassadors, and a
great many others.

After the deceased had been carried, as stated,

THE FUNERAL OF POPE SIXTUS IV 9

into the church, the cardinals withdrew; some went
to the aforementioned palace, while others went to
their homes.

When they had partaken of a refection, the car-
dinals entrusted to me the ordering of a coffin in
which to bury the pope, and the arrangement for his
burial in his new chapel of the choir of the canons
and clergy of the aforesaid Basilica, which the de-
ceased himself had ordered to be built in the same
Basilica, about the middle of the same chapel, facing
the principal altar, in the center, as they declared
that the deceased had himself chosen this place for
his burial. I did this as I was ordered.

About the first hour of the night of Friday, 13th
August, the body of the deceased was borne from the
choir of the principal altar by the clergy of the said
Basilica in a procession to the place of burial, and
it was buried with all the vestments, precious ring
and chasuble aforesaid. There, as it lay in the
tomb, in a long, wide coffin of nut-wood, which I had
ordered, Lord Achilles, Bishop of Cervica, who was
the only prelate there, together with a few clergy,
chanted the Miserere and a prayer. He sprinkled
the deceased and the tomb with holy water, and we
immediately covered the corpse with the pall. Then,
according to the command and express injunction of
the College of the Most Reverend Lords the Cardinals,
I forbade the canons and the clergy of the aforesaid

10 POPE ALEXANDER VI AND HIS COURT

Basilica, under penalty of being deprived of their
benefices, to allow any man to touch the deceased,
or to remove the said signet-ring, or the chasuble, or
anything else.

II

THE CONCLAVE WHICH CHOSE
INNOCENT VIII

ON the last days (of August, 1484) the Very
Reverend Lords, the Cardinals, wishing to ap-
point four suitable persons as guardians of the
palace and of the conclave, as is the custom, com-
manded me through the Very Reverend Lord Vice-
Chancellor to write down the names of the prelates
of the Court and the ambassadors of the different
nations, and to present the list to them, those whom
they wished to have as guardians. And this I did.

But we will briefly add how the arrangement of
the food and drink of the Very Reverend Lords, the
Cardinals, was managed, together with a description
of certain other things which were done in the con-
clave.

On behalf of the Very Reverend Lords, the Car-
dinals, before they entered the conclave, places situ-
ated near the palace, in which the conclave was to
be held, were chosen and arranged. In these places
were the masters of the courts and the cooks of the
cardinals themselves, who prepared each meal.

Moreover, about the hours of luncheon and supper

11

12 POPE ALEXANDER VI AND HIS COURT

the magistri domorum, the treasurers, came to the
above-mentioned places from the houses of the car-
dinals, bringing wines, and with them came some of
the chaplains, shield-bearers, and others, who were
guarding the palaces of the cardinals. Then, when
the hour had come, the shield-bearers walked in front,
two by two, and the chaplains followed in their order,
with stable-boys, one before and the other behind,
who bore between them on their shbulders wooden
vessels slung on a stick, containing the food and
drink and bread of the cardinals.

When they arrived at the door of the second watch
of the palace, the shield-bearers and the chaplains
remained there together with the major-domo, and
the stable boys with the wooden vessels went up the
staircase as far as the third or fourth watch, and
there, outside the door of the conclave, they set down
the wooden vessels. This kind of wooden vessel has
a lid with two keys, the one like unto the other; of
these, the master of the court kept one, and the other
was in the possession of those in the conclave who
attended upon each Very Reverend Lord Cardinal.

The former, when he had placed the food and
wine in the wooden vessel, having first made a list
of each thing, closed the wooden vessel with the key,
and, in the manner above described, despatched it
to the conclave. There were two of these wooden
vessels of which one was sent in the manner above
described, and the other which was in the conclave

INNOCENT VIII 13

was returned, and in this all the things taken out
from the one that remained outside were placed, these
things having been handed into the conclave through
the hatch, and then each vessel was replaced in the
chamber of the cardinal to whom it belonged.

I, or my colleague, summoned the members of
the conclave of that cardinal to whom the wooden
vessel belonged, and, when they approached with his
empty wooden vessel, I opened the hatch of the
door from within, and those of the fourth watch
opened it from without, and the members of the con-
clave themselves from within, held out the wooden
vessels to the custodians, who, when they had opened
each wooden vessel, drew out everything from it and
placed it upon the small table which stood in readi-
ness there, near the door of the conclave; and there
one of the custodians, appointed for this purpose by
the others, inspected each, turning over the middle
of the loaves and the soup, cutting open the fowls,
tearing asunder the joints, the loaves and the tarts,
whenever it seemed good to them, and looking through
the glass bottles or decanters of wine. For the
wine was sent or carried in uncovered glass bottles,
not in flasks or any other vessel. But the soup was
sent in as small jars as possible.

When they had carefully inspected each of the
vessels the guardians themselves handed them to us
clerks of the ceremonies through the hatch of the
door. Moreover, we on receiving them placed them

14 POPE ALEXANDER VI AND HIS COURT

on our great sideboard, where the members of the
conclave who were waiting received them, each plac-
ing them in his wooden vessel which he held in readi-
ness there, wherein each of them carried the victuals
to his chamber. When the food for supper arrived
in the evening, the members of the conclave set forth
vessels of silver and glass which they had taken in
the morning upon our sideboard in the conclave and
I returned them empty to the stable-boys who were
waiting from without. But we clerks of the cere-
monies placed the bread and the wine and the salt
meats, and other things that would keep in our ves-
sels which we had brought to the conclave for this
purpose. Moreover, I had brought a small bottle
in which to collect the wine, and a big basket for the
bread and the like, and this I placed in the chamber
of the doctors, which led to the privies in the corner
near the door of the conclave. But the other
things, that is to say, the soups, joints or fresh fish
and the like, which were left over, we gave to the
aforesaid custodians, and I did the same in the morn-
ing with regard to the vessels received in the eve-
ning.

The stable-boys or the other servants of the car-
dinals waited near the second watch in the morning
and in the evening, and they were informed by us
and by the custodians at what hour the food should
be brought, and when they had been informed they
brought it, and not before ; for a fixed time could not

INNOCENT VIII 15

be assigned to them because the cardinals dispatched
their business sometimes sooner, sometimes later.
The aforesaid custodians did not deal with the said
food in any given order, but he who came first with
the food was the first to be released, whether he were
first or last in importance or whether he were the
familiar of any cardinal whatsoever. The same cus-
todians appointed between themselves every day, two
of the fourth watch, one for lunch and the other
for supper, to examine the food in the fashion de-
scribed above, whilst the others assisted him. No
member of the conclave at any time, or for any cause
whatsoever, was admitted to the hatch, whether this
were open or closed, even for the purpose of speaking
to any one from without, except with the express leave
of the college. If any letters camfc to the college,
which could not be received through the opening of
the hatch, we opened the hatch, and having taken ,th^
letters we quickly closed it again. But we gave thfi X
letters, I, or my colleague, to the College of Car-
dinals, if they were all assembled together, or we tolds **V ,^
two or three of the senior cardinals that we had,
letters for the college, and that, if it pleased them,
we could give them to the Dean of Cardhials.

But, if any one from outside desired to send infor- '"*.
mation within, he spoke with the hatch closed, and*
one of us two, having heard what he^ had to say*/ . •*'
referred it to the Dean of the Cardinals^ and to three
or four of the other cardinals, he being also notified*

K

16 POPE ALEXANDER VI AND HIS COURT

of this. When the hatch was opened to take in the
food and to send forth the vessels, he took great
care to prevent any member of the conclave, not only
from approaching the hatch, but also from making
any sign, which would be received from any one from
without. When the sacristan celebrated a public
mass, all the members of the conclave, or those who
wished, might hear the said mass, but they must
stand outside the doors of the smaller chapel in
which mass was celebrated, which doors led into the
first and second court of the conclave, and, whilst
mass was being celebrated, no man knocked at the
door of the conclave. Likewise, whilst the votes were
being examined, when mass was over, and when the
stools had been arranged for each of the cardinals
with a folio of papyrus, paper, and reed-pen, ink
and two or three small candles, all returned to the
larger chapel, in which they were all confined by us,
the clerks of the ceremonies, the cardinals being in
congregation. I guarded the door of the first court,
so that, between the third court, in which the con-
gregations were held, and myself, there was the
second middle court, and, when they wished to sum-
mon me, one or other of the cardinals rang the bell;
some took their meals alone in their cells, others
with two, three, or four others, or several together.
When luncheon was over, on the aforesaid Satur-
day, August 28th, various intrigues were set on foot,
and at length the votes of about seventeen of the

INNOCENT VIII 17

Very Reverend Lords, the Cardinals, were given in
favor of the Very Reverend Lord Cardinal of Mol-
fetta, who, the following evening, before the sixth
hour of the night, began, at the request of certain
of the cardinals, to sign petitions in his chamber;
having knelt down on one knee, he signed the petitions
placed before him on a certain small box; some of the
cardinals who were asking and waiting for these sig-
natures stood round; while this was happening, the
Very Reverend Lord Cardinal of Siena came up,
and seeing this, he said, with a smile : " This is an
inversion of the right order of things ; the Pope is
signing petitions on his knees, and we, the petitioners,
stand upright."

On Tuesday, the 29th of August, the day of the
Decollation of Saint John the Baptist, very early in
the morning, the Very Reverend Lord Cardinal of
San Marco, from motives of piety, celebrated a
public mass "in the small chapel, as indeed he did on
the two following days ; thereupon, about the tenth
hour, when all the cardinals were standing in order
in the aforementioned small chapel in their capes
and with their croziers as on the day before, our
sacristan celebrated the mass of the Holy Ghost with
commemoration of the faithful departed, as on the
day before, and, when this was over, we prepared a
small table and stools with their appurtenances, as
on the day before, and we all went out of the same
chapel, leaving the cardinals there alone, and all the

18 POPE ALEXANDER VI AND HIS COURT

members of the conclave were confined in the larger
chapel. And, meanwhile, the latter put their posses-
sions together, asked for their chambers, and each
one collected all his things, with the exception of the
members of the conclave of the Cardinal of Molfetta,
who left the chamber of their lord with the posses-
sions of the members of the conclave. The cardinals
in the small chapel made examination of the votes as
on the day before, but there was no mention made of
the accession.

When the examination of the votes was over, it
was found that the Very Reverend Lord Giovanni,
of the title of Santa Cecilia, Cardinal-priest of Mol-
fetta, had sufficient votes. Therefore, unanimously,
by all the cardinals, and by the whole college
of the said cardinals without any protest, he
was admitted and received as Supreme Pon-
tiff of the Holy Roman and Catholic Church, and
as a sign of his admittance, the cardinals laid down
their croziers before him, and invested him with the
cape over the rochet. And they placed him in the
magnificent seat of the chamber between the altar
and the aforesaid small table, and they placed upon
his finger the signet-ring of Pope Sixtus IV, of
blessed memory, which ring the sacristan had in
readiness for this purpose; and when he had been
received as Pope, thus seated, he himself chose for
himself the name of Innocent VIII, Pope.

m

THE FIRST YEARS OF THE REIGN OF
INNOCENT VIII

ON Sunday, the Fifth of Lent, the 20th of March,
1485, the Pontiff, who was lying sick in bed
in the room in which he generally slept, and clothed
over his shirt in a robe reaching to the arms only,
was visited by all the cardinals, by the Count of
Dauphine, the Ambassador to the French King, and
by Giovanni Maria, my colleague, and by me, and
the private chamberlains, but by no other. When
we were stationed in his presence, the Pope, holding
the Rose 1 in his right hand, gave it to the Count of
Dauphine aforesaid, who was kneeling by the bed,
with these words from the book : " Accipe rosam,"
etc., as at the ceremonial. This done, the Count
kissed the Pope's hand, but not his foot, because the
Pope's feet were covered. The count then withdrew,
and with him all the cardinals who further attended
him as far as his lodging, that is, to the palace of the
Orsini, in the Campo dei Fiori, he riding behind, as
usual, between the two chief cardinal-deacons.

iThe Golden Rose (Rosa Aurea), a rose made of gold and
consecrated by the Pope, which is presented to such princes
as have rendered special services to the church.

19

20 POPE ALEXANDER VI AND HIS COURT

On Thursday, the 17th of November, 1485, the
Reverend Father in Christ, Achille Marescotto of
Bononia, Bishop of Cervia, who on the preceding
Saturday, the 12th of this month, had returned in
health and spirits to the city, and on the preceding
Tuesday, the 15th, had fallen ill of the plague, on
the night of this day breathed his last. On the same
night he was in the Basilica of St. Peter handed
over for ecclesiastical burial with no ceremonies.
May his soul rest in peace.

On Friday, the 22nd of September, 1486, before
the hour of the consistory, on the space above the
steps, before the Basilica of St. Peter, upon a plat-
form erected for the purpose, were assembled the
following persons: the Reverend Father Tito, Lord
Bishop of Castres in the Patrimony, vested in amice,
alb, girdle, stole, red cope and plain mitre, seated
on a folding-stool; the Reverend Father Pietro di
Vicentia, Lord Auditor of the Apostolic Chamber of
the Court of Causes; N. di Parma, fiscal procurator;
and several others, with Friar Gabriel di Fontaria of
Piacenza, a professed religious of the Order of the
Canons Regular of St. Augustine, one who has re-
ceived all the orders, up to and including that of
priest. Wearing his vestments, and standing facing
the people, the Lord Giacomo, the notary, read the
summary of the process against the said Gabriel, and
the sentence pronounced against him, and the com-
mission for his degradation. When these had been

FIRST YEARS OF INNOCENT VIII 21

read, the said Lord Bishop degraded him, in accord-
ance with the order given in the Pontifical, upon the
strength of the commission given.

After he had been degraded, the apparitor led
him away to the Castle of Soldano, and on Saturday,
23rd September, about one o'clock, the said degraded
person was hanged in the Campo dei Fiori, suffering
the death penalty with great patience and devotion,
as the witnesses reported. At the head of the cord
by which he was hanged was fastened gold foil, as a
sign that he was a noted robber.

The same morning, in the Campidolio, was hanged
for theft a certain Jew, who had become a Christian.
He refused to have the cross before him, or a Chris-
tian to comfort him in the faith of Christ, but wished
to die in Judaism, and thus he was hanged and died.
His accomplice, another Jew, also in prison, ought
to have been hanged with him, but he threw himself
into the sewer, from which he was taken out alive
on the same day, and then was also hanged.

On the Second Sunday in Advent, 10th December,
1486, in the larger chapel the Reverend Father in
Christ, Lorenzo, Lord Archbishop of Benevento,
celebrated the solemn mass in cardinal's vestments,
as was done at the first Sunday. The Pope and the
cardinals were present. Four prayers were recited:
the first, of the day; the second, Deus, qui salutis,
etc. ; the third, against the heathen ; the fourth, for
the Pope.

22 POPE ALEXANDER VI AND HIS COURT

The Procurator of the Order of Friars Minor
preached the sermon, concerning which there was a
great dispute between him and the Master of the
Palace. For the Master of the Palace had told me
not to allow him to preach, because he had not shown
him the sermon first. He excused himself, saying
that he had only returned to the city in the evening
of the day before yesterday, and this morning, when
he sought him at his house, he could not find him.
The Cardinal of S. Pietro in Vincoli, protector of
the Order of Minors, said to the Master of the
Palace that the procurator was an approved man,
allow the procurator to preach. The master afore-
said had previously, however, come over to this view,
and therefore he ought not to trouble. At length I
asked our Most Holy Lord, who said that I should
in the opinion of the Most Reverend Lord Cardinal
aforesaid, although he did not give his consent. All
the other observances were as usual.

I think that the procurator did not show his ser-
mon to the master because of what he intended to
say; for he said in it that the Blessed Virgin Mary
was conceived without original sin, which is in ac-
cordance with the doctrine of the Scotists, but con-
trary to that of the Thomists, to which latter party
the Master of the Palace belongs.

On the Fourth Sunday in Advent, the Vigil of the
Nativity of Our Savior, 24th December, I486, the
Pope came to the chapel with only four cardinals,

FIRST YEARS OF INNOCENT VIII 23

the Cardinal of Naples and three deacons. The Car-
dinal of Naples held the boat for the incense, as there
was no priest. Then the priests came and there
were all the usual observances. The cardinals made
the reverence, and wrongly, for they were to make
it the same evening, and it ought not to be made
twice in a day ; it was done, however, inadvertently.
There was no sermon. The mass ended, because I
was hindered with the pax, and my colleagues did
not notice. No indulgence was asked for, nor was
one granted by the Pope. No one noticed, however,
and therefore there was no blame nor scandal what-
ever.

On Thursday, 24th May, 1487, the Feast of the
Ascension of Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Most Rev-
erend Lord Cardinal of St. Clement performed the
office in the Basilica of the chief of the Apostles in
white vestments, the Pope being present. The Duke
of Ferrara bore the borders of the Pope's cope to
the steps of the palace, where the Pope ascended his
chair, and was carried in state to the Basilica afore-
said in the usual way.

Before the entrance of the aforesaid Basilica were
kneeling naked two citizens of Bononia. One of
these, several months before, when Officer of Justice
of the State of Bononia, had caused two priests,
one secular, the other a regular, member of the Order
of St. Francis, who were condemned to die by his
sentence, to be taken and hanged for their crimes.

24 POPE ALEXANDER VI AND HIS COURT

Because they were not under his jurisdiction our
Most Holy Lord had deprived him of this and all
his offices, and had caused his officials to be punished
with fitting penalties. Of these, four have recently
done penance, and one was here with his superior
this morning. Around these two men there stood,
vested in priestly vestments, all the penitentiaries
of the aforesaid Basilica, holding rods or staves in
their hands, and smiting them whilst reciting the
psalm, Miserere mei Deus, to the end. When it was
ended one of these penitentiaries admonished them
in the usual words. Then our Most Holy Lord laid
upon the aforesaid penitents, as a penance, that of
their own personal estate they should found in Bo-
nonia one chapel, and endow it for one benefice, and
sufficiently for one priest who should celebrate on
each Sunday and Feast a mass in the chapel; this
mass the first citizen should hear and be present at
from beginning to end, kneeling and holding a lighted
candle in his hand, and should pray and entreat God
for the souls of the two priests whom, as told above,
he had had hanged. This penance he accepted.

On Thursday, the 28th of June-, 1487, the Vigil
of the Apostles Peter and Paul, there were solemn
pontifical vespers in the Basilica of the chief of the
Apostles. The cardinals and all the clergy came
from the robing-room to the said Basilica in their
vestments, and wrongly, for they ought to have come
in their capes, and after the cardinals had made the

FIRST YEARS OF INNOCENT VIII 25

reverence in their capes they and the clergy ought
then to have taken their vestments.

But the cardinals desired to come in this way. I
could not prevent this, but I would not allow them
to bear the baldacchino over the Pontiff until they
carried the censer and the candlesticks into the
Basilica. The cardinals only made the reverence,
and not the clergy, in the usual way. After the rev-
erence, the Pope began the vespers. The other ob-
servances were conducted as usual, except that some
of the cardinals wished to come in their vestments
and to escort our lord, so that from the one unfit-
ting circumstance several others resulted. They
came outside the Basilica, and there they laid aside
their vestments and took their capes, and wrongly.
Though I saw it I could not resist their pleasure
and passed the matter over in silence.

On Friday, the 29th of June, 1487, the Feast of
the Apostles Peter and Paul, our Most Holy Lord
came to the church in procession under the baldac-
chino in the morning, escorted by the cardinals and
clergy in their vestments and by the officials in white.
This and everything else was carried out this morn-
ing in the usual way. Water was brought to the
Pontiff for washing his hands : firstly, by one of the
ambassadors of the King of England; secondly, by
a senator; thirdly, by the Count of Tendilla, the
ambassador of the King of Spain; fourthly, by the
Emperor of Constantinople.

26 POPE ALEXANDER VI AND HIS COURT

On Monday, the 4?th of February, 1488, there was
a public consistory in the first and larger hall of the
Apostolic Palace at which the four ambassadors of
the Most Serene King Maximilian did homage and
reverence to our Most Holy Lord in the name of
the king and his son Philip, for the dukedoms of
Austria and Burgundy, and other of his principali-
ties and dominions.

This done, the two deacon-cardinals came to assist
our Most Holy Lord while all the other cardinals and
clergy remained in their places. There then entered
the consistory and passed on to the second hall about
a hundred Moors, each with large iron rings on their
necks, and all bound together with a long chain and
ropes, and dressed all in the same costume. These
were followed by an ambassador of the King and
Queen of Spain, who knelt before our Most Holy
Lord, kissing his foot only, and presented the letters
of the aforesaid king and queen, written in the Span-
ish tongue. The Reverend Father Antoniotto, Lord
Bishop of Auray, the datary, read these letters
aloud, to the effect that the King and Queen of Spain
were sending to His Holiness a hundred Moors, a
part of the spoils taken in their victory of the pre-
ceding summer over the King of Granada, which
Moors they presented as a gift to His Holiness, and
offered, moreover, to send others should it so please
His Holiness.

FIRST YEARS OF INNOCENT VIII 27

On Tuesday, the 10th of March, 1489, the Rever-
end Jean, Lord Bishop of Aubusson, Cardinal of
Angers, with others brought it about that Zizim,1
brother of the great Turk, came to Rome. This
Zizim, fleeing from the wrath and persecution of
his brother, came to the Island of Rhodes in the
year 1480, or thereabouts, under the safe conduct of
the Grand-Master of the Knights of Jerusalem.

Hence, for his own greater safety, because his
brother had sought in many ways and was daily seek-
ing to take his life, Zizim had been sent into France
by the Reverend Lord Pierre of Ghent, grand-master
of the knights aforesaid, first to Bouillon, then to
Bourgneuf, the castle which he had inherited from
his father. Thence, under the escort of his nephew,
Guido de Blanchefort, Prior of Alvernia, the prince
came to Rome.

On Friday, the 13th of March, 1489, about eight
o'clock, Zizim, brother of the Sultan of Turkey,
entered the city on one of the white horses called
chinei. By command of the Pope he was met by the
households of the cardinals without the clergy, that
is to say, the chaplains and esquires only. In the
same way the Pope's household came with only the
chamberlains and esquires. Within the gate they
all received him in their midst, removing and immedi-
ately replacing their caps. But the Turkish prince,
i See Appendix.

28 POPE ALEXANDER VI AND HIS COURT

who had his head covered after the fashion of his
people with a large white turban, uncovered to no-
body, but merely bowed slightly.

The first of the household of each cardinal re-
ceived him in some such words as these : — " The Most
Reverend My Lord the Cardinal by command of our
Most Holy Lord the Pope, has sent this his house-
hold, to meet Your Highness, rejoicing at your
safe arrival," except the Lord Pietro, Spanish cauda-
tory to the Most Reverend, the Lord Cardinal of
San Marco, who welcomed him in some such form of
words as this : — " Most Serene Prince, the Most
Reverend My Lord the Cardinal of San Marco, was
filled with joy when he learned that your Highness
was to come to the city : wherefore, to show the pleas-
ure which he feels, he has sent his household to honor
your entry. His Reverend Lordship prays God, the
all-good, all-great and all-powerful, that Your
Majesty's coming here may be happy and prosper-
ous, and may have such result as all good men desire,
and to this end he congratulates Your Highness upon
your safe arrival, and at the same time places himself
and all that he has, at your free disposal."

After this reception, the Turkish prince afore-
mentioned, rode between Francesco Cibo, son of our
Most Holy Lord the Pope, who was on his right
hand, and the Prior of Alvernia, nephew of the new
cardinal, on his left ; and although a senator and
several lay ambassadors, namely the ambassadors of

FIRST YEARS OF INNOCENT VIII 29

King Ferdinand, Venice and others, also kinsmen
of the Pontiff, received the said Turkish prince, yet
because the Prior of Alvernia, who claimed to be the
ambassador of the King of France and to have charge
of the said prince, would not give place to the senator
and ambassadors, they all withdrew except the sena-
tor, who rode before us. In this order we came to
the Apostolic Palace, where the prince was enter-
tained in the Apostolic apartments in which the
emperor and kings and other great princes are re-
ceived. The route was over the Bridge of Barto-
lommeo, or the Island by the Ghetto, across the
Campo dei Fiori straight to the aforesaid palace. A
great crowd of people stood around and watched his
entry.

First rode the households of the cardinals, then
the households of the knights, and the knights who
had escorted the Turkish prince from France; the
household of the prince, about ten in number, exclud-
ing his other retainers, the chief of whom had at his
right hand, the ambassador of the Sultan, of whom
we shall speak below; the esquires of the Pope, the
senator with certain nobles, the men-at-arms, the
herald of the French king and of the masters of
ceremonies. On my left was the interpreter of the
Turkish prince, and the prince himself, who rode
between Francesco Cibo and the prior aforesaid, the
Turchopellerius of Rhodes, four of the nobles
in the household of the prince, the Pope's cham-

30 POPE ALEXANDER VI AND HIS COURT

berlains, and all the Rhodians after the cham-
berlain.

The prince dismounted in the court of the palace,
where the cardinals pass, and from there he went up
through the great hall, and was conducted to the
aforementioned apartments where he was entertained
and guarded by the troops aforesaid.

During the past months there came to the city an
ambassador from the Grand Turk sent to the Pope
on account of the Turkish prince received to-day.
When he learned that the prince would make his
entry into the city to-day, he went on horseback to
meet him outside the Porta Portese, with his house-
hold on foot, of whom there were about ten. For
the Turkish prince was waiting on horseback near
the city walls and the river outside the said gate for
the hour appointed for his entry. The prior and
Turchopellerius aforesaid went to meet this ambas-
sador, who was waiting outside the said gate to pre-
vent his approaching the prince; but when Fran-
cesco Cibo learned that the ambassador wished to
approach the prince, he gave orders that he should
be allowed.

Thereupon the prior and TwrchopeUerius afore-
said commanded the retainers of the ambassador, who
were holding their bows taut, though not with arrows
to them, to lay aside their bows and so to approach
unarmed, which they did. Then they came up, the
ambassador on horseback and his men on foot, and

FIRST YEARS OF INNOCENT VIII 31

when he was within sight of the prince and about
forty paces away, the ambassador got down from
his horse, and with a very noble carriage, approached
to within fifteen paces. Then coming forward about
five paces, he bowed himself to the ground, touching
it with his head upon the right side; then rising
and coming forward three or four paces more, he
knelt upon his right knee, touched the ground with
his right hand, and then kissed his own hand. Then
rising again and coming as many paces forward to
the prince, he knelt before him and embraced his
horse by the right or left foot, and the prince by his
right foot, and at the same time he kissed the prince's
foot. Then rising he kissed his right knee thrice,
and when the prince stretched out his right hand to
his neck he kissed his garments in the same way.
All this the ambassador appeared to do so sincerely
that he seemed to all to be weeping. But the prince
made him no sign, but waited for him as a prince
unmoved, and neither spoke a word to the other, but
when the ambassador had made his salutations in
a single word as he stood there before him, the
prince bade him mount his horse ; his own horse
was first brought for him to mount, and then he
retired a whole pace from the prince to mount, and
returned on horseback before the prince. Mean-
while there came one of the prince's household, who
embraced in turn each member of the ambassador's
household, while they knelt one by one before the

32 POPE ALEXANDER VI AND HIS COURT

prince, touched the ground with the right hand, and
kissed their right hand ; then kneeling they embraced
the horse's foot, and the prince's right foot; then
kissed first his foot and afterward his knee. In the
fewest possible words, the Turkish prince and the
ambassador made peace, and thus afterward the
prince made his entry into the city in the order
described above.

On Saturday, the 14th of March, 1489, notice
was given of a public consistory to be held in the
first great hall of the Apostolic Palace at one o'clock.

Escorted by Francesco Cibo' and the Prior of
Alvernia, preceded by men-at-arms and followed by
his fourteen servitors and soldiers, the Turkish prince
came to the consistory into the presence of the
Pontiff. Now though it was said that the prince
would do reverence to the Pontiff in the Turkish
fashion by touching the ground with his hand and
then kissing his hand, he refused to do so. Indeed
he merely bowed his covered head very slightly to
the Pontiff, so slightly that the bow could scarcely
be seen or recognized as such. He went up to the
Pontiff and, standing erect, embraced him and kissed
him lightly upon the right arm, all the time keeping
his head covered. Then, standing before the Pontiff,
he said, by means of an interpreter, that he was glad
to have come into the presence of the Pontiff, and
asked him to be mindful of the fact and to afford
him protection; adding that when a time and place

FIRST YEARS OF INNOCENT VIII 33

were appointed, he would tell him of other matters in
private. The Pontiff replied that he had already
taken the measures for his safety and welfare where-
with his Highness had been brought to Rome, and that
his Highness ought in no wise to mistrust, but to
dwell in peace, seeing that all things were ordered
for a wise end. For these words the prince thanked
His Holiness, stating that he felt full confidence in
them.

Then the prince withdrew from before the Pontiff
and embraced all the cardinals as they stood in their
places and kissed them on or near the right shoulder.
Meanwhile the other members of his household came
into the presence of the Pontiff, and one after the
other in turn, knelt upon the throne, and touching
the ground with the right hand kissed it; they then
embraced the feet of the Pope, as well as his cope
and vestments, and on bended knee kissed these and
followed the prince, their patron. He, having em-
braced all the cardinals except the two who remained
with the Pontiff to assist him, without bearing him-
self in any other fashion, or making any other sort
of salutation to the Pontiff, returned to his apart-
ments, escorted as before. Then the Pontiff rose
and returned to his apartment in the usual way.

IV

THE LAST YEARS OF THE REIGN OF
INNOCENT VIII

ON Wednesday, the 25th of March, 1489, the
Feast of the Annunciation of the Blessed Vir-
gin Mary ; in the morning I had a long conversation
with the Pontiff. I told him it was not right to wear
a white cape, but he ought properly to wear a red
cape with a violet stole, not a red one, also that
the cardinals should follow, and not precede His
Holiness. But His Holiness said that Sixtus IV,
his predecessor, used to ride at this season with a
white cape, and the Lord Vice-Chancellor, listening
to no argument, said the cardinals should precede.
And this was done, although not fittingly.

On Saturday, the 27th of June, 1489, the Noble
Lord Nicola Orsino, Count of Pitigliano, Siena, and
Nola, who was to be Captain-General of the Holy
Roman Church, and to make his entry into the city
with his household and intimate friends, but not with
the households of the cardinals, entered the Apostolic
Palace by the viridario to see our Most Holy Lord,
by whom he was graciously received. Then the said

count who by studying the stars had conceived the

35

36 POPE ALEXANDER VI AND HIS COURT

idea that he might assume the insignia of his cap-
taincy under favorable auspices to-day, sought and
obtained from our Most Holy Lord permission for
the said insignia to be given to him.

On the Sunday night, 15th September, 1489, Sig-
nor Domenico Gentile of Viterbo, apostolic writer,
Francesco Maldente, canon of Forli and Conrado,
also Battista of Spell, notary of the Apostolic
Camera, Lorenzo Signoretto, writer in the Register
of Bulls, and Bartolommeo Budello, procurator of
the Penitentiary, were successively taken and de-
tained in the Castle of San Angelo on a charge of
forging apostolic letters. The Lord Domenico
aforesaid confessed that he had forged about fifty
apostolic letters or bulls, containing various matters,
in the following way : — The Lord Francesco would
discover matters to be despatched and agree with the
parties upon the sum which they were to pay after
the despatch of letters. When the agreement had
been made and a bank named by the party for paying
the sum agreed upon to be paid when the letters
were presented to the bank, then he would despatch
one that was expected, or some matter that would
pass easily through all the offices by the royal way.
When this was done, the Lord Domenico aforemen-
tioned washed out all the writing of the bull, or that
part which he did not want, with a certain fluid,
restored the paper with flour and stiffened it again.
Afterward he wrote on it the matter concerning

LAST YEARS OF INNOCENT VIII 37

which Francesco had agreed with the party, leaving
in the bull the names of the rescribendary, compu-
tators, and other officials. More often he changed
the stamp, and put on another, according to the
nature of the matter. He also used different inks.
That with which he wrote the first matter to be
despatched in the proper way was made of gum or
some other material, but was certainly indelible.
But the other, which he used to write over the bull
that had been erased, was ordinary ink. In this way
they gave forged bulls to the parties.

Within about two years they had despatched
divers matters, for example, dispensations to one or
two benefices for Friars of the Orders of Mendicants,
unions of many benefices to the incomes of certain
abbots with permission to rule these in an order
changeable at pleasure, a dispensation for a certain
priest of the Diocese of Rouen, who had married a
wife, to the effect that he might lawfully keep her
and many others for which they had received some-
times a hundred, two hundred, two hundred and fifty,
and two thousand ducats, as is related in the process
instituted against them.

The said Francesco also made confession, and on
Sunday, the 18th of October, at about nine in the
evening, they both were led from the castle aforemen-
tioned to the Castle of Soldano, and before they
reached that place they believed they were condemned
to death. For the auditor of the Camera, the

38 POPE ALEXANDER VI AND HIS COURT

Bishop of Cesena, and the Lord Bartolommeo Deol-
pito, first apostolic notary and governor of the city,
who in their official capacity had prosecuted them,
told the said Francesco that if he named his fellow-
accomplices our Most Holy Lord would be pleased
to bestow the office of abbreviator upon him and set
him at liberty, and he believing that he would do this
accused the abovenamed and several others. On be-
half of the Lord Domenico, his father who had at-
tended our Most Holy Lord in the first illness of his
pontificate, and his two brothers interceded most
earnestly with the cardinals and other influential men
in the city for his life. But no one could prevail
upon our Most Holy Lord. So, after they had
been established in the said castle, they were told
that they were to die on the morrow; and therefore
were bidden to take heed to the salvation of their
souls, and priests were sent to them to hear their
confession and strengthen them in the faith.

On Monday, the 19th of October, 14*89, there was
a consistory and the auditor of the Camera aforesaid
with the governor came to the Castle of Soldano
where they passed definite sentence against the said
Domenico and Francesco, degraded them, deprived
them of office and emoluments, and handed them over
to the secular court. Then mass was celebrated in
the said castle, at which the said Domenico and Fran-
cesco were present, and at the close they received
the holy communion from the hands of the celebrant ;

LAST YEARS OF INNOCENT VIII 39

after this they were led to the Piazza di San Pietro,
where a platform had been erected in a space not far
from the lowest step, four rods long, three wide, and
one high, or thereabouts. There the said Francesco
who was a priest was robed in full vestments in the
usual way. Then the summary of the case was read
by the notary, Antonio of Paimpol. After the read-
ing of it, Francesco was degraded and given over
to the secular court into the hands of Ambrosino,
the apparitor.

After he had been given over, Domenico who had
only the first tonsure was robed in a surplice and
degraded from that rank by the Father Pietro Paolo,
Lord Bishop of Santa Agata, who vested himself in
stole and cope upon the platform, and put on in
front a plain alb over the rochet. After his degra-
dation Domenico was given over to the court and
the said apparitor. Their heads were not shaved
otherwise than they had been before, nor were they
stripped of the clothes in which they came from the
castle, because of their office and because such was
the pleasure of the Bishop of Cesena, the auditor.

After this the aforesaid having been degraded
were placed upon a chariot which stood ready there,
Domenico on the right and Francesco on the left.
In front of them were seated a friar of the Order
of Minors, their confessor, in accordance with the
observance in parts of France, and another of the
society of the Misericordia who held a crucifix and

40 POPE ALEXANDER VI AND HIS COURT

was robed in the garb of that society with his face
covered. Behind the degraded ones were erected two
rods, and to the top of them cords were fastened,
on which were hung four of the bulls despatched
and forged by them. In this way they were con-
ducted by the Bridge of San Angelo past the Castle
of Soldano and hard by the house of the Cardinal of
Ascanio, past the Hospital of the Germans, close
to the house of the Lord Falco by the Pario straight
to another street, thence by the bridge to the Campo
dei Fiori, where near the corner by the steps and
the Taberna Vacca, so-called, the place of execution
had been prepared in the form of a hut, having a
wooden pillar erected in the center, and surrounded
by piled-up faggots. To the upper part of the
column had been fixed two ropes. Below the ropes
two stools were placed upon the ground for the ac-
cused and another on the other side of the column
for the lictor, and around the shed outside many
piles of logs.

When the aforementioned degraded persons
reached the said place of execution, they got down
from the cart, and entered the hut, where in the
guise and clothes in which they were brought there,
they ascended the two stools prepared for them.
The lictor put ropes upon their neck of which they
were scarcely conscious, for the confessor and the
other friar who bore the crucifix were continually

LAST YEARS OF INNOCENT VIII 41

strengthening them in Christ. When the ropes had
been placed in position, the lictor's assistants drew
away the stools from beneath their feet and thus
they were hanged and gave up the ghost. After they
were dead they were taken down from the pillar,
stripped to their shirts and placed in a sitting posi-
tion upon the said stools, propped against the pillar,
and bound to the column with the chain beneath their
arms. Then the fire was kindled and their bodies
burned. The lictor heaped up the logs many times
until after the hour of vespers, that the bodies might
be entirely consumed, and thus the fire lasted until
the following morning.

On the following day, about the hour of vespers,
ashes, in which many of the bones were still found,
Avere collected by certain of the society of Miseri-
cordia with a broom, placed in a sack in a new chest,
and with the cross and the usual procession was
borne by the said society to the church appointed for
the purpose and buried.

On Wednesday, the 19th of May, 1490, the Vigil
of the Ascension of Our Lord Jesus Christ, there
were pontifical vespers in the larger chapel of the
Apostolic Palace, the Pope being present and per-
forming the office. When the cardinals had made
the usual salutation to him there arose a contention
between the ambassadors of the Kings of Naples and
of Scotland, and of Venice, Milan and the Kingdom

42 POPE ALEXANDER VI AND HIS COURT

of Florence on the other hand, who said they ought
not to be divided or separated from the ambassador
of the Duke of Milan and the ambassadors of Otho,
Albert, and George, Dukes of Bavaria, who stationed
themselves above the Venetian ambassadors, whereat
the Venetian and Florentine ambassadors straight-
way withdrew in wrath. The ambassadors of Ferdi-
nand, King of Naples, and of the King of Scotland
still persisted in the dispute and by special command
of the Pope I ordered them both to leave the chapel,
which they did immediately.

The vespers ended, His Holiness spoke with the
cardinals, whom he called round him in a circle in
the said chapel, upon the precedence of the person-
ages aforesaid. Then he instructed me to notify
the ambassadors of the Kings of Scotland and Ba-
varia not to come to the chapel on the morrow, and
to inform them that on the next Friday His Holi-
ness would bring this question of precedence before
the consistory.

On Friday, the 28th of May, 1490, our Most
Holy Lord, learning that the ambassador of the King
of Naples was preparing to come to the vespers on
the Vigil of Pentecost and take his place by armed
force, instructed me to report this to the Lord Car-
dinals of Angers, Lisbon, San Angelo, Siena, and the
Vice-Chancellor that they might consider what should
be done in the matter and what course to pursue with
regard to the ambassadors in this question of pre-

LAST YEARS OF INNOCENT VIII 43

cedence, and that they should come to deliberate
with His Holiness on the morrow in his chamber be-
fore the vespers. This I did.

Therefore on Saturday, the 29th of May, 1490,
the Vigil of Pentecost, a private meeting of the car-
dinals was held in the presence of the Pontiff in
his chamber from before eight till nine in
the evening, and finally by the Pope's instructions
given in the said meeting, the ambassadors of the
King of Scotland and of the Dukes of Bavaria were
asked by the Bishop of Tournai to withdraw on that
evening, and to leave the other ambassadors undis-
turbed and that on the morrow the Pope would give
them a place. The ambassadors of Scotland and
Bavaria, however, refused altogether to accept this
arrangement unless the other ambassadors withdrew
with them, which was done; and they all withdrew,
both citramontanes and ultramontanes, and were all
bidden to absent themselves from the chapel on the
morrow, and this they all observed.

On Tuesday, the 10th of April, 1492, before morn-
ing, a knight from Florence came to the Cardinal
de' Medici with letters from Pietro announcing sad
tidings. They reported that on Sunday, about four
in the morning, Lorenzo de' Medici, citizen of Flor-
ence, father of the said cardinal, had breathed his
last at Careggi, an estate belonging to the said
Lorenzo, distant about twelve miles from Florence.
The cardinal had been informed of his father's death

44 POPE ALEXANDER VI AND HIS COURT

by the Lord Falco, treasurer-general of our Most
Holy Lord the Pope, who, upon learning of the death
of the said Lorenzo, visited the cardinal in the morn-
ing. He had all ornaments and all coverings re-
moved from his walls and couches and ordered black
caps to be given to all the members of his household.
The cardinal himself put on a tunic of dark violet
and had all seats of brocade and velvet removed
from his apartments, retaining only those covered
with red leather and the usual stools. He had a
valise made of dark violet cloth without arms upon
it, and he kept upon his tables as well as upon the
buffet and the couches, only coverings of rascia.
All his servants he had dressed in black.

Friday, the 4th of May, 1492, there their Most
Reverend Lordships the Vice-Chancellor, and the
Cardinals assembled in the papal chamber of the
Apostolic Palace at St. Peter's.

The Sultan of Constantinople sent by his ambas-
sador who had just reached Ancona on his mission,
the head of the spear with which it was said that
the side of our Lord Jesus Christ was pierced as He
hung upon the cross. At the close of the congrega-
tion aforesaid the cardinals proceeded to consider
with what ceremonies and observances this spear-
head should be received, and they agreed that the
question should be referred to our Most Holy Lord.

In the congregation various points were brought
,up and touched upon in relation to this matter. For,

LAST YEARS OF INNOCENT VIII 45

while some were of the opinion that the gift should
be received with all solemnity and reverence, and in
the same manner as the head of St. Andrew the
Apostle in the time of Pope Pius II of happy mem-
ory, others asserted on the contrary that they had
seen the point of the said spear in Nuremberg1, where
it was exposed each year on the day which is the
Feast of the Spear, and others in other States, as
in Paris, for example, where it was kept in the king's
chapel. The latter, therefore, thought that it should
be received from the hands of the ambassador bring-
ing it by our Most Holy Lord in his own apartment,
in presence of all or some of the Most Reverend
Lord Cardinals, without any solemnity, and that we
should be sent to Nuremberg, Paris and elsewhere to
ascertain the truth, and examine the documents at
Paris, and also at Nuremberg, if they happen to
have any apostolic letters there, from which the truth
of the matter may be learned. From some chron-
icles it appears that the spear-point was given in
pledge by Baldwin II, then Emperor of Constanti-
nople, to the Venetians, and with their consent to
Louis IX, King of France; in others, that, from
some very old chronicles, it appeared that the spear-
head was kept at Constantinople, and preserved there
until this day, public honored and venerated by all,
and that there are several witnesses, still living, who
had seen it there before the siege of Constantinople
and since. They averred that the Venetians sent

46 POPE ALEXANDER VI AND HIS COURT

with all diligence to the house of a certain citizen
in Constantinople, who had received the spear-head
during the siege of the town, and offered him fifteen
thousand ducats for it. Then again they sent to
the Grand Turk who had received it from the said
citizen, and offered him seventy thousand ducats for
it, but still were not able to get it. Others again
said that in the receiving of this relic, three points
should be considered, namely, the gift, the recipient,
and the giver, who is the arch enemy of our faith,
and that it would be more natural to suppose that
this was done in a spirit of mockery and derision,
than from any other motive.

All these and many other remarks upon the sub-
ject were duly considered and the majority of the
cardinal-priests inclined to the opinion that the
spear-head aforesaid should be received by our Most
Holy Lord from the Turkish ambassador without any
solemnity, and that the truth should then be in-
quired into, at Nuremberg or at Paris, as to whether
it were the true spear-head or some other. Then, if
this fact should be satisfactorily settled, it could be
announced, and the relic conveyed in procession with
all veneration and solemnity to some church, at the
pleasure of our Most Holy Lord ; while, on the other
hand, if perhaps this relic should be received in a
solemn manner, and it were afterwards discovered
that the true spear-head was elsewhere, the Apostolic
See might be involved in contumely or confusion.

LAST YEARS OF INNOCENT VIII 47

However, our Most Holy Lord determined and or-
dained that the relic be solemnly received. And for
this purpose he deputed Lord Nicola Cibo, Arch-
bishop of Aries, the Bishop of Foligno and his
domestic clergy to go to Ancona, and there receive
the relic from the hands of the Turkish ambassador,
and bring it thence to Rome with a procession drawn
from the several states and territories lying along
the route. That this might be the more conveniently
done, they were given a casket of crystal from the
Pope's sacristy and a horse, together with a covered
chest and other trappings in which the Host is borne
when the Pope rides out in full pontificals, with a
lantern to carry a light perpetually before it.

On the 29th of May, 1492, about the hour of
Vespers, the Count of Pitigliano, captain of the
Church, Francesco Cibo, the Pope's son, and the
Roman nobles left the city by the Porta Viridarii
and hastened by way of the meadows towards the
Ponte Milvio to meet the Turkish ambassador, but
he in the meantime had crossed the bridge aforesaid
and was riding towards the Porta del Popolo.

When I saw the captain's mistake, I made the
ambassador wait halfway between the bridge and the
gate aforesaid, and the captain and Francesco, with
their nobles, came up from behind and welcomed the
ambassador, the captain saying, " Welcome. Our
Lord and the cardinals send their households to do
you honor. Welcome."

48 POPE ALEXANDER VI AND HIS COURT

The households of the cardinals were scattered in
both directions, so that the ambassador could not see
them at the time, but he overtook them and they each
joined his train but said nothing to him.

The ambassador had only five retainers, and with
him was the Lord Giorgio Bucciardo, cousin of the
Bishop of Aries, also his interpreter with two serv-
ants. This Giorgio repeated the captain's words to
the ambassador, and then replied in his name. The
ambassador rode between the captain on his right,
and the Pope's son on his left, from the aforesaid
place to his place of entertainment. There also went
outside the gate to meet the ambassador the lay
ambassadors of the King of Poland, of the Seignory
of Venice, and of the Dukes of Milan, of Florence
and Siena.

During these past days I was summoned to the
Lord Cardinals of Benevento and Santa Anastasia
to arrange for the reception of the said relic, and
I found there with them Giovanni Pietro, Lord
Bishop of Urbino. Many things relative to the cere-
mony were spoken of, among others that on account
of the ill health of our Most Holy Lord the spear-
head should be conveyed by way of the meadows to
the palace of the Spinelli outside of the Porta Viri-
darii and should be borne thence in procession by
way of the aforesaid gate to the castle. This would
be the most convenient route for the procession in
the extreme heat of this season or in the case of mud

LAST YEARS OF INNOCENT VIII 49

if the rain falls o.n that day as it has for many days
past.

On Sunday, the third of June, 1492, in the first
chamber beyond the hall of the Pontiffs above the
garden a low chair of gold brocade was placed ready
against the wall with one step leading up to it, and
above it a golden canopy was spread, and around the
chair on either side many velvet-covered stools were
set in preparation for the marriage of the Pope's
nephew which was to be celebrated there. As the
hour drew near at about two in the afternoon, the
Cardinals of Benevento and Santa Anastasia accord-
ing to the instructions of our Most Holy Lord went
to the Prince of Capua and escorted him between
them from his apartments into the presence of the
Pontiff who was accompanied by his princes and
barons. When he had come to the Pontiff, the ladies
were awaited, and after their coming the Pontiff
came out to the chamber aforesaid and took his
seat upon the said chair.

On his right were the Lord Cardinals of San Pietro
in Vincoli and Santa Anastasia, on his left Benevento,
and next to him the Prince of Capua. Next to
Santa Anastasia with a moderate space between upon
similar stools sat Teodorina, the Pope's daughter,
and Peretta, her daughter, Battistina, the bride, also
her daughter Maddalena, the daughter of the late
Lorenzo de' Medici, wife of the Pope's son, and many
ladies after her. Next to the Prince of Capua, that

50 POPE ALEXANDER VI AND HIS COURT

is to say, on the left of the Pope, stood Aloysio of
Aragon, Marquis of Gerace, the bridegroom, the
Duke of Amalfi, Francesco Cibo, the Pope's son, and
many other nobles to the number of about forty.
After silence had been secured, the Reverend Lord
Giovanni, Archbishop of Ragusa, the Datary, kneel-
ing before our Most Holy Lord at a proper distance
of two Cannes or thereabouts made a brief oration in
which he expounded the institution of the sacrament
of matrimony and its dignity.

Thereupon he rose and stood in the same place,
and turning to the Illustrious Lord Alfonso of
Aragon, the half-brother of the Prince of Capua,
spoke these or similar words : " Most Illustrious Lord
Luigi of Aragon, will you take the most Illustrious
Lady Battistina Cibo, here present, to be your lawful
spouse and wife? ". And he straightway replied, " I
will." Then, turning to Battistina, the archbishop
said : " Most Illustrious Lady, will you take the Most
Illustrious Lord Luigi of Aragon, here present, to be
your lawful spouse and husband? " To these words
she made no reply, but after the archbishop had re-
peated the words, she replied, " I will." The bride
and bridegroom then approached the Pontiff, and
kneeling before him, the bridegroom placed the wed-
ding-ring upon the third finger of the bride's left
hand, and then many rings upon the other fingers of
that hand, and upon the other, the right hand of the
bride, which Giovanni Fcatano, the chief secretary

LAST YEARS OF INNOCENT VIII 51

of the Most Serene King of Naples, extended to him.
Next, the bridegroom first and then the bride kissed
the Pope's foot, and the bridegroom arose and kissed
the bride. She then returned to her place, and the
bridegroom sat beside her. The Pontiff then rose and
returned to his apartment, and all the others separ-
ated and went their own ways.

On Thursday, the 14th of June, 1492, at about
seven in the evening, the Reverend Father in Christ,
John, Lord Bishop of Durham, ambassador of the
King of England, entered the city by the Porta Vir-
idarii. He was received by the household of the
Pope and those of all the cardinals and by those
princes who were then in the city, and was escorted
by them in the usual order to the house of the late
Giacomo Biqueto which was prepared as his resi-
dence. There was a dispute between the ambassa-
dors of the King of Spain, the Bishops of Beja and
Astorga on the one hand, and the Lord Giovanni
Gilio of Lucca, formerly ambassador of the king of
England, on the other, upon the question of prece-
dence, and I was persuaded by the said bishops to
give a seat on the right of the Bishop of Durham to
Giovanni, Archbishop of Ragusa, the first of the
palace clergy, and that on his left to the aforesaid
Lord Giovanni Gilio.

On the following day the Pope fell ill, and through
fear of his death Prospero Colonna and Giovanni
Jordano, son of Vergineo Ursine, who were staying

52 POPE ALEXANDER VI AND HIS COURT

with the Cardinal of San Pietro in Vincoli, came
with many other barons and Roman citizens to the
palace of the conservators, and stated and made
known to the said officials and citizens that they, the
barons, were of one mind with the Roman people
whom they dearly loved, and forthwith they offered
themselves and their castles and their goods to the
Roman people for their welfare and goodwill, and
asked them, if the death of the Pontiff should chance
to come, that they would join with them for their
aid; on their part the conservators and citizens of-
fered them whatever could be offered.

On the 25th of July, 1492, St. James' day, about
six or seven o'clock in the morning, Pope Innocent
VIII died. May his soul rest in peace!

THE ACCESSION OF ALEXANDER VI

IN the year of the Lord 1492, on Saturday, the
llth of August, at noon, Roderigo Borgia, vice-
chancellor and the nephew of Calixtus III, was cre-
ated Pope and named Alexander VI.

On the 27th of August Alexander was crowned in
St. Peter's. Then he went in the customary manner
to the Church of St. John Lateran while the greatest
honor was done to him throughout the city by the
Roman people with triumphal arches and with more
than there was ever done to other Popes.

And in the first consistory he held, he created the
Archbishop of Mount Royal, his nephew from a sis-
ter, a cardinal.

After his coronation it was brought to his knowl-
edge that from the day of the last illness of Innocent
until his coronation more than two hundred and
twenty men had been assassinated in various places
and at various times. It was also brought to his
knowledge who the murderers were and the reasons
and success they had had. Of all this that had gone
on in Rome he received full knowledge.

On the 3d of September of the year 1492 Salva-
53

54 POPE ALEXANDER VI AND HIS COURT

tor, the son of Tutio del Rosso, insulted Domenico
Beneacceduto, his enemy, on the Campo dei Fiori,
with whom he was under a pledge of five hundred
ducats to keep the peace. He stabbed him twice
with a dagger, inflicting a mortal wound of which
he died forthwith. On the 4th the pope dispatched
his vice-chamberlain with the magistrates who pro-
ceeded thither attended by a throng to destroy his
house, which was done. On the same day the
brother of the aforesaid Salvator, one Hieronymus,
was hanged on the instigation of Domenico. Thus
assuredly by the will of God, on a single day justice
was accomplished. The fine was collected from the
guarantors by the Pope.

In the same month Alexander appointed prison
inspectors in addition to four commissaries to hear
complaints in Rome. Furthermore he appointed his
officials for the administration of Vignola, fixed an
audience for Wednesday for all citizens, men as well
as women, received the complaints himself and began
to administer justice in an admirable way.

On Monday, the 10th of December, 1492, I rode
at daybreak to Marino to instruct the noble Lord
Federigo of Aragon, Prince of Altamura, second son
of King Ferdinand of Sicily and Jerusalem, with re-
gard to the ceremonies at his reception before his
arrival in Rome. The royal ambassador in Rome,
Giacomo Pontano, who declared that he had received
a special letter about this matter from his master,

THE ACCESSION OF ALEXANDER VI 55

had asked for me the evening before at about eleven
o'clock. I found there the prince whom I instructed
in detail with reference to the order and arrangement
of the entry and reception as well as of his own de-
meanor.

On Tuesday, the llth of December, 1492, about
two o'clock in the afternoon the cardinals Carafa
and Piccolomini went out beyond the second mile-
stone before Rome in order to meet the prince as
their special friend. They greeted him with the
usual honors and he rode then between them until
they came to the road that leads through the Porta
Latina, where the cardinals took leave of him. The
prince continued on his way with his suite until he
reached the Church of St. John Lateran and its main
portal, firstly, in order to avoid the mud, and then
because two cardinals who were to meet him at the
gate of St. John Lateran had not yet arrived.

In the meantime the suites of all the cardinals and
princely ambassadors in Rome came to -meet him;
further, one after the other, Giulio Orsini, the
brother of Cardinal Orsini, Gerardo Usodimare, Do-
menico Doria and other noblemen who dismounted
from their horses and were for making obeisance to
the prince. He did not allow it, however, until they
had remounted their horses. The prince waited
about an hour before the portal of the aforemen-
tioned basilica for the arrival of the two cardinals
who had been despatched and wftq arrived finally

56 POPE ALEXANDER VI AND HIS COURT

after six o'clock, namely Juan Borgia and Ascanio
Sforza. They received him in the usual way and
escorted him in their midst.

After the arrival at the place of San Giovanni in
Laterano where one sees the bronze statue of a
horseman there came the prelates of the palace with
the suite of the Pope which also greeted the prince
in the usual way, although the major-domo of the
Apostolic palace, Bartolommeo Marti, had made his
speech as a prelate. Together with the prince seven
other ambassadors had been sent to swear the oath
of loyalty to the Pope. I assigned every one his
place in due order of precedence and in this order
we rode straight on passing to the right of the col-
iseum to Santa Maria Nuova, along by the Hospital
of the Consolation and the house of the Savelli,
through the Peschiera, the square of the Jews, the
dei Fiore meadows to the Apostolic palace near St.
Peter's. I assume that the reason that the cardinals
were so late was that the Pope endeavored in this
way to prevent the prince from continuing on the
same day to the palace and to divert him to the inn
Ad Apostolos where he was supposed to take his
quarters. Behind the barons, nobles and the whole
retinue of the prince rode the shield-bearers of the
Pope and our barons with the captain of the palace.
There were two pages before the armed men of the
prince and six before those of the Pope: The first
with cross-bow and quiver of gilded silver in French

THE ACCESSION OF ALEXANDER VI 57

dress and on a French horse, the second in Turkish
dress on a Berber horse, the third clad in Spanish
fashion with a long lance on a small Spanish hack,
the fourth with the rain-coat of his master, the fifth
with a valise of a crimson color, the sixth with a
sword sheathed in its scabbard with a handle studded
with pearls and precious stones estimated at six
thousand ducats in value. There were several rid-
ers mounted on very magnificent horses, dressed in
gold brocade and wearing jewels of great value on
their breasts and in their hats and barrets. The
prince wore a garment of violet velvet, a chain of
pearls and jewels, worth six thousand ducats, and
a belt with a sword of the same value. His bridle
was studded all over with pearls and precious stones,
worth three thousand ducats, and the whole harness
was gilded before and behind.

The suite was preceded by two hundred sumpters
all covered with red cloth and the whole suite in-
cluded seven or eight hundred people as I was told.
When we passed through a somewhat narrow alley,
Cardinal Juan Borgia rode first, followed by the
prince, and after him came Ascanio Sforza, which
was improper. The other two Cardinals, Carafa
and Piccolomini, behaved differently, for in the same
alley they stayed behind him, which was more
proper.

Having arrived at the palace they went up to the
Pope who awaited the prince in the last of the nine

58 POPE ALEXANDER VI AND HIS COURT

chambers besides the secret chamber. Five cardi-
nals were with him, namely Carafa, Domenico delle
Rovere, Antoniotto Gentile Pallavicini, the Cham-
berlain Orsini and Piccolomini. After the prince
there entered the aforementioned ambassadors and
all barons and nobles of the suite of the prince.
After Federigo had been permitted by the Pope to
kiss his foot, his hand and his mouth, they too kissed
the foot of the Pope while the prince was kneeling
on a cushion at the left of the Pope. For the Cardi-
nal Ascanio Sforza had decided that the prince
should be allowed to sit down only after all of the
cardinals had taken their seats, while I more cau-
tiously preferred that he should wait kneeling there
instead of taking a seat that was not proper for
him. For he should have had a seat after the last
deacon-cardinal if not further to the front and be-
fore most of the deacons. Sforza, however, wanted
to place him even behind the cardinals in order to
favor his own duke of Milan.

After this reception the prince, accompanied by
Carafa and Piccolomini, rode to the inn Ad Apos-
tolos and to the palace of Cardinal Giuliano delle
Rovere where he was to take up his quarters. After
him came the prelates of the palace, the ambassa-
dors, and the other prelates in the same order as
they had come from the Lateran church to the Apos-
tolic palace. Before the portal of the palace the
prince was about to take leave of the cardinals with

THE ACCESSION OF ALEXANDER VI 59

thanks but they accompanied him still farther to
the entrance of the garden where they stopped.
Only at that point did they part from him and with-
out being able to thank he could not express his
thanks to every one in the accustomed manner be-
cause it was night and because they had accom-
panied him there contrary to the rules of precedence.

We Avent from the Vatican to the inn Ad Apos-
tolos through the Via Del Papa. The numerous
drivers of the sumpters did not come to the Apos-
tolic palace first but they went by the aforemen-
tioned way to the bridge of San Angelo, keeping on
this side of the river, and turned later to the right
towards the palace of the Cardinal of Parma, Scla-
fenata, and thence straight on to Ad Apostolos.

Before the Pope left his chamber this morning,
the 21st of December, he called together all the car-
dinals and sent for us two clerks of the ceremonies,
Giovanni Maria de Podio and myself, to inquire what
measures were to be taken to-day for the reception of
Federigo of Aragon, who was to swear the oath of
loyalty that day at the consistory and what place
was to be assigned to him among the cardinals or be-
hind them. I replied to his Holiness:

When Francesco of Aragon came to swear al-
legiance to Pope Innocent VIII of blessed memory
in the name of his royal father whose fourth son he
was, two cardinals had been sent as far as the Apos-
tolic chamber to meet him and they accompanied him

60 POPE ALEXANDER VI AND HIS COURT

from there to the Pope. The same procedure there-
fore might be followed this time, although not quite
fittingly because such escort was not customary for
those who had been sent to swear allegiance but on
other occasions only for sons of kings and great
princes. As for the second point the seat before the
second last deacon-cardinal, namely Francesco Sev-
erino, was to be assigned to him.

The Pope added to this that Federigo had indeed,
as the Governor of Rome had recalled to him, had
his seat when he was in the city in the times of Paul
II; before the deceased cardinal of Mantua, who
then was the last deacon-cardinal. Concerning my
answer the Pope asked for the opinions of the cardi-
nals standing around him while we were kneeling
down before the Pope in their midst. The cardinals
Michaeli, Pallavicini, Orsini and Sforza declared ex-
pressly that as far as they could remember Fran-
cesco, the brother of Federigo, had had his seat
after all the deacon-cardinals. I considered this an
error but did not say anything. They objected,
however, saying that Francisco had been the fourth
son while Federigo was the second, and that there
was therefore a great difference between the two.
Ascanio Sforza asked whether Federigo or the Duke
of Milan was higher in rank. I answered that ac-
cording to our ceremonies Federigo was much higher
in rank than the Duke for as the son of a king he
had precedence not only over the Duke of Milan but

THE ACCESSION OF ALEXANDER VI 61

also over the electors. Cardinal Zeno before giving
his vote remarked that this ought not to be done in
our presence. But when the Pope answered that we
ought to hear it because it concerned our duties, he
voted that he would accept the decision of Agostino
Patrizzi, and he sent for him but he could not come
as the Cardinal Piccolomini had sent him to accom-
pany Federigo. Nevertheless Zeno did not want to
forestall him with his vote and declared that he
would not vote.

Finally the Pope decided on the basis of a mere
majority of votes that the two younger deacon-
cardinals should accompany Federigo to the pres-
ence of the Pope and that the seat before the last
deacon-cardinal should be assigned to him, because
he had had the same seat once before, and also be-
cause on this day he ought not to sit with the cardi-
nals on account of swearing allegiance, but ought to
stand together with those who had been sent with
him behind the cardinal-presbyters at the usual
place.

Now when Federigo came to the palace, in order
not to lose any time, there went out to meet him as
far as the staircase of the floor of the Apostolic
chamber those assigned for his escort, the vice-chan-
cellor Ascanio Sforza, San Severino and the two last
deacon-cardinals as well as several assistants of the
Pope.

The prince was first permitted to kiss the foot,

62 POPE ALEXANDER VI AND HIS COURT

hand and mouth of the Pope, and after him the eight
others who had been delegated with him. Then the
prince submitted the credentials from his father, the
King of Naples, with the remark that his illustrious
father was laying himself humbly at the feet of his
Holiness. Then they took up their places again
while the two cardinals accompanied the prince to
the end but not beyond the benches of the cardinals.
Paulus de Planca made his speech and the Pope an-
swered.

Then Cardinal Podocatoro read the royal letter
which said that he, the king, sent his dearest son,
the illustrious Duke of Andria, Prince of Altamura
and Admiral of the Kingdom, together with all his
other co-ambassadors to swear allegiance. Zeno,
the bishop of San Marco, delivered the oration.
The consistory ended, the prince carried the edge of
the posterior end of the papal pluviale. The cardi-
nals Piccolomini and Orsini assisted the Pope during
the entire time. Also they stood up during the
whole reception taking seats only afterward on their
bench.

Laying off his robes the Pope ordered the cardi-
nals Cibo and Colonna to escort the prince between
them in the usual way to the inn " Ad Apostolos,"
which was done. Where the way narrowed down,
they let the prince precede and quite correctly, for
this was the proper way, even if Ascanio Sforza be-
haved differently with San Severino and the other

day with Juan Borgia, gratifying his special mood.

Lord Fedcrigo came to-day to the palace in great
magnificence with his whole retinue, three pages in
German dress, crimson colored and adorned with
gorgeous pearls and jewels riding before on horses
that had been bridled in the German way.

During the previous days the several cardinals
had made their calls upon Federigo which he an-
swered to-day and on the following days. It would
have been more proper, of course, if the calls had
been made and returned after allegiance had been
sworn, but since Carafa and Piccolomini as per-
sonal friends of the prince, as I believe, had called
on him immediately after his arrival and together
with them Rovere, Cibo and Colonna, they all suc-
cumbed to the same mistake.

On Monday, the 24th of December, the day be-
fore Christmas, the Pope who had been adorned with
the usual robes in the third of the new chambers,
went through the two halls, the new one and the
large old one, and down the stairs into the court
where the cardinals usually dismount from theii
horses. From there he proceeded by way of the
Basilica to St. Peter, the cardinals going before in
their usual dress and the suite of prelates also in
their customary coats. In the Basilica the cardinals
and prelates after having made their obeisance put
on their robes in unseemly disorder and without wait-
ing until all had completed the obeisance, for only

64. POPE ALEXANDER VI AND HIS COURT

then were they supposed to robe themselves as were
those of the elder deacons who were to assist them.

At the request of the Pope our sacristan had hung
old Greek paintings around below the tribune on
three sides above the main altar of the Basilica, as
was the custom in the times of Paul II. Two large
crystal lamps were also hung at the entrance.

After the vespers were ended the Pope was borne
back in the customary way to the palace passing
through the old halls to the Camera Papagalli,
where he laid off the blessed garments and assigned
the new chambers to the prince to retire there for
the night. The chambers were adorned magnifi-
cently, the third, fourth and fifth being hung with
Alexandrine velvet in cerulean blue with curtains of
gold brocade while in the second chamber stood the
bed of crimson colored velvet.

The 27th of December, 1492. — About ten days
ago the news came from Barcelona that King Ferdi-
nand of Spain had been severely wounded in his neck
by a peasant on the steps of his palace on the 7th of
December, so that six stitches had to be applied.
The criminal had received two wounds from the men
of the King and had been seized. A few days later
the additional news arrived that the King was out
of danger and that the peasant had acted under a
vision from the devil. The devil had appeared to
him twenty years ago in the form of an angel and

THE ACCESSION OF ALEXANDER VI 65

had commanded him to kill the King in order to be-
come king himself, but he had forbidden him to tell
anybody of this. After that he had appeared to
him again and again urging him on. The peasant
had been forced to a confession by the promise of
reward. Then the scales fell from his eyes as it
were, and he had repented immediately from the
depth of his heart and considered himself worthy of
the most cruel death. Whereupon he was con-
demned to be executed after the following manner,
namely, that all his limbs or extremities of every limb
should be cut off one after the other and at inter-
vals of time but on one and the same day. In order,
however, that he should not be driven to despair he
was given at the beginning a heavy blow on the head
by order of the queen so that he might die more
quickly and would suffer less while his limbs were be-
ing cut off by his consciousness. being dimmed.

All this was made known to the Pope on the 27th
of December through a royal letter that was brought
to him by the bishops of Bajadoz and Astorga as
ambassadors. The Pope decided to have a mass
said in honor of the glorious Virgin Mary for the
recovery of the King on Saturday, the 29th of De-
cember, in the chapel of Maria delle Febbri besides
the Basilica of St. Peter. Afterwards the face of
Our Lord and the spear should be shown to the
people and the day should be celebrated as a feast

66 POPE ALEXANDER VI AND HIS COURT

day by all craftsmen and others. And he ordered
that all this ought to be proclaimed in public and he
made known through placards in the various quar-
ters of the city.

VI

THE CORONATION OF THE KING OF
NAPLES

FOR the carnival (14*93) nine prizes in the races
were offered, three as usual on the first Sun-
day of Lent for Berber horses, steeds and horses, the
six others for the Jews, the boys, the young men and
the old men, the donkeys and the buffaloes, as it had
been done in former years and was customary.

On Wednesday, the 27th of February, 1493, the
Pope heard mass in his own chamber and decided
thereupon that he would go to Santa Maria Mag-
giore where he would first hold a short consistory
and then after a prayer at the altar would examine
how far the construction of the church, that is to
say of the canopy of the altar, had advanced. He
asked me whether it was right to pronounce the
benediction to the people after the prayer. I an-
swered no, and that it was an extraordinary proced-
ure because nothing, neither mass nor vespers,
should precede the benediction. I further explained
to his Holiness that there was a good and regular
rule that the Pope should ride without a mitre, the
cardinals to follow him. Also it would not be quite

67

68 POPE ALEXANDER VI AND HIS COURT

proper that the Pope should ride during Lent in a
•white cowl and an adorned surplice, but rather in a
red cowl and a violet surplice. He answered that
he had decided that the cardinals should ride before
him and not after him, also that he intended to wear
a white and not a red cowl and not a violet surplice
but a gorgeous one adorned with pearls. Accord-
ing to his decision he was adorned in his private
chamber and went then to the Camera Papagalli,
where he held a consistory of one hour's duration.
Then he mounted a white horse covered with cloth
and adorned with crimson velvet. Preceded by the
cross and the cardinals and followed as usual by the
privy chamberlains, the assistants and prelates, he
went through the Campo dei Fiori and the Square
of the Jews and passed the house of Cardinal Sav-
elli, the church of Santa Maria de Consolazione and
St. Adrian and went then to Santa Maria Mag-
giore where he was received at the portal by the
clergy in procession.

The arch priest of the Basilica, Cardinal Savelli,
gave him the cross to kiss and the clergy sang:
Ecce sacerdos magnus, etc. The Pope pronounced
a prayer on the folding-chair before the altar and
then stepped up to the altar and kissed it, deposit-
ing thereon ten gold ducats as I had reminded him
to do. Then, turning to the crowd, he blessed the
people as he had decided to do. During the cere-
mony the cross was held lower than is the custom in

St. Peter's. Then he went up to the palace saying
a prayer before the image of the Virgin Mary and
the picture of St. Luke. He inspected the work
that had been done, returning afterward to the Bas-
ilica. Then he went home on horseback, passing St.
Basilius and San Marco, through the Via Polliciaria
near the Casa Massimi and the palace of Cardinal
Carafa, and thence through the Parione Square to
the palace.

An extraordinarily large number of armed men
took part in this mounted procession which was not
exactly approved by everybody. For our proces-
sion, that is to say, the baggage of the cardinals,
was preceded by several crossbow-bearers and bands
of soldiers and in the same way several men with
lances and in full armor followed, the prelates rid-
ing behind the Pope. The governor of the city with
the magistrates and a few of the district-wardens
and the Bargello * and many men on horseback and
on foot presented themselves to the Pope at various
corners and places. He ordered therefore that the
captains of the Church and of the portal of the pal-
ace should proceed between him and the cardinals,
and that the Lords of Sermoneta and Corrigia and
many other leaders of the soldiers should follow him
after the physicians and before the assisting pre-
lates, as was done while they passed over the whole
square of St. Peter as far as about the house of

i The chief of police.

70 POPE ALEXANDER VI AND HIS COURT

Cardinal Soderini. When I noticed the inverted or-
der, I told the Pope that this would be quite un-
seemly and tried to persuade him to permit me to as-
sign them their places. He answered me I should
arrange them before the captains and after all the
cardinals. But when he heard that this would be
most objectionable to the cardinals, he ordered me
to place them before the cross after the armed men
on foot who marched along in quite extraordinary
large numbers with long lances, bare swords, cross-
bows and other arms. This I did.

On the 10th of June, 1493, Alexander, the son
of the Lord of Pesaro, arrived in Rome with a large
suite of bishops, and on the very day of his arrival
was bethrothed to the illegitimate daughter of Pope
Alexander. While still a cardinal, the Pope had
married her to a Spaniard. As Pope, however, he
wished to improve the position of his daughter and
therefore dissolved the marriage, bestowing three
thousand ducats upon the Spaniard as compensa-
tion. Now he married her to the aforementioned
Lord,1 while her first husband was still living, but the
latter kept his mouth shut on account of the money
and yielded.

On Wednesday, the 7th of May, 1494, a marriage
was contracted between Gofredo Borgia, son of Alex-
ander VI, and Sancia of Aragon, the illegitimate
daughter of King Alphonso II of Sicily,
i His real name was Giovanni Sforza.

CORONATION OF KING OF NAPLES 71

On Thursday, the 8th of May, 1494, the day of
the Ascension and the feast of the Apparition of the
Archangel Michael, on which day the coronation of
King Alphonso was to be held, I went before day-
break into the cathedral of Naples and made all
necessary preparations. In the early morning there
was a violent storm and a heavy fall of rain which
ceased, however, when the coronation started and
was succeeded by the most beautiful weather all day
long and also during the following day. From the
royal treasure chamber were brought first, the royal
crown in a vessel of gilded silver. The crown was
adorned with pearls and precious stones and lined
with a cap of white damask from which hung down
two silken ribbons that were brought together be-
neath the chin with a button, — for the King did not
wear another cap under the crown. Then the sword
was brought in its scabbard, studded with pearls and
precious stones from the end to end, then the silver
scepter with a gilded lily at the upper end, about
two and a half spans long and somewhat thinner
than my little finger. Then came the round gilded
imperial globe at the top of which stood a small
gilded cross of silver while beneath there was a metal
ring with a silken cord so that the globe could be
fastened to the left finger of the king in order that
it might not fall from his hand. All that I placed
on the altar, one beside the other. When the legate
in pontificalibus took his seat upon his folding-chair

72 POPE ALEXANDER VI AND HIS COURT

before the altar in the middle he was approached by
order of the King by his secretary, Giovanni Pon-
tano, and another who stated that the kings of
Aragon did not usually kneel down while they were
receiving the royal insignia, also that it was not
the custom that they swore or read personally the
oath during their coronation and installation, but
that some one else did this in their name. Only after
the oath had been read would they swear it them-
selves on their knees. Although they had heard
from me that the King had to kneel down during the
swearing in and had to read personally, Pontano was
for reading the oath in the presence of the King as
he was seated, whereupon the King would rise, kneel
down on a cushion, and with his hand on the Evan-
giles would swear to keep what had been read.

The legate called me nearer and I said that the
procedure ought not to be in any case as suggested
but that it was customary that the one who kneeled
down should swear his oath into the hands of the
legate as the deputy of the Holy Roman Church, the
Apostolic See and His Holiness, the Pope, and that
the King had to swear it himself. The legate agreed
with me. In order not to appear completely unsuc-
cessful in their endeavors, Pontano and the other
secretary asked the legate to grant that the King
should at least kneel down on a cushion and that the
secretary should read before the King from the book
and that the King should repeat it. This was per-

CORONATION OF KING OF NAPLES 73

mitted by the legate because we explained that it
would not be in contraction with the usual ceremonies
and that it only required more time.

About eleven o'clock, while it was still raining,
the King appeared in the church with his courtiers
and barons. He wore over a close-fitting garment
of black satin a larger one of crimson colored bro-
cade, lined with flounces of ermine and with this a
barret with a pendant of three pearls and one pre-
cious stone worth about ten thousand ducats. He
kept the barret on his head until he received the
crown. He proceeded as far as the middle of the
choir of the canons. There the Archbishop of
Naples and the Patriarch of Antiochia came forward
to meet him. They saluted and escorted him, the
prelates rising to salute him while the King himself
made a bow and then he took his seat.

After the bull had been read by Stephanus de
Narnia the King knelt down on a cushion before
the legate. At his left knelt his secretary, Giovanni
Pontano, who held in writing in his hands the oath
to be sworn by the King and read it. King Alphonso
repeated it word for word. After he had spoken the
words, Et haec sancta Dei evangelia, the legate took
the opened missal and held it so on his knees that he
had the image of the Crucified at his right before
him. At the left side I had had laid a chart with
the beginning words of the four Evangiles. The
King then laid his right hand on the Evangiles and

74 POPE ALEXANDER VI AND HIS COURT

his left on the Crucified and swore the oath. There-
upon the legate invested the King by handing him
over the banner and introduced him into its posses-
sion with the words : " By virtue, of Apostolic author-
ity." There had been a long discussion about these
words the day before.

After having been invested the King handed the
banner over to the chancellor of the kingdom, who
stood prepared to receive it, between his two assist-
ing prelates. The notary Stephanus de Narnia
called upon those standing around to be witnesses
of the investiture, but the treasurer of the King said
nothing. When the legate, in reading the litany,
came to the royal blessing, he pronounced twice by
inattention in the tune of the litany : ut hunc electum
in regem coranaclum benedicere dignetur. He re-
peated, therefore, and added at the third time: et
consecrare. All prayers, and so forth, were read by
the legate with the proper voice.

While the legate after the blessing of the King,
was confessing with his assistants, the deacon and
subdeacon, the King knelt before his folding-chair1
turning with the footstool toward the corner of the
Evangiles of the altar. He confessed with his two
chief chaplains and remained on his knees until the
legate had censed the altar and read near his folding-
chair the introitus and the epistle and had sat down
— an arrangement I had made in order to be able
to be of greater assistance to the King.

CORONATION OF KING OF NAPLES 75

After having made a bow the King then entered
the sacristy where the Apostolic Subdeacon Ber-
nardius Gambara dried his arms and shoulders.1
Before this he had laid down the long garment which
the legate considered as a perquisite that was by cus-
tom due to him as he had performed the consecra-
tion. He had told me, therefore, when he sat down
in his folding-chair after the introitus and the Kyr'ie
Eleison and before I led the King to the sacristy,
that I should have it brought to him.

The King was then dressed with another garment
of black satin with a long outer garment reaching
down to the floor of the crimson-colored satin with
narrow sleeves, then with sandals and shoes over the
black stockings, and with everything else as it had
been arranged according to the program. The black
barret he kept on and advanced thus to the throne.
There he spoke the introitus and the rest kneeling
down before the throne together with his chief chap-
lains.

In the meantime the legate spoke the Pax vobis
turning to the altar through the inattention of him-
•self and his associates. Before the King left the
sacristy, he sent out one of his pages with the afore-
mentioned garment of brocade in order that I should
hand it over to the legate who accepted it grate-
fully. As a matter of fact this garment and the
small one of black satin which the King had on was
iThe King has been anointed.

76 POPE ALEXANDER VI AND HIS COURT

due to me as a gift. But out of modesty I did not
ask for the small one and did not want to resist the
request of the legate. He also told me to have
presented to him as a due gift the barret of the
King with the pendant. I answered that it would
certainly be modest if I requested it for myself, but
that if he insisted, I would do as he wished. I did
not do so, however.

The King was then crowned in the proper order
and the royal insignia were handed over to him as
aforementioned. But neither during this ceremony
nor before during the anointment could all the pre-
lates form the prescribed circle behind the King on
account of the great throng of people composing the
royal and princely suites, the barons, courtiers, and
ambassadors, who crowded the prelates by pushing
forward.

After the coronation the King stepped up to the
seat of the throne and sat down while the populace
cheered repeatedly shouting: Viva re Alphonso!

VII
KING CHARLES VIII IN ROME

ON the 10th of December, 1494, the ambassa-
dors of the King of France who had repeatedly
demanded an open letter from the Pope during these
days in regard to the passage through his territory
and concerning supplies, again made representations
to his Holiness on this matter. The Pope replied
to them after the consistory that in no case would
he grant free passage and supplies to the King and
that they could inform the King of this according to
their pleasure.

On Thursday, the 18th of December, all the pos-
sessions of the Pope were packed up for departure
with the exception of the bed and the ordinary side-
board. In addition the paraments of the sacristy
of the Apostolic chapel and the whole furnishings of
the palace and other papal belongings were sent to
the castle San Angelo. All the cardinals were pre-
pared for departure with freshly shod horses and
mules in readiness.

In former days as well as at this time, that is,
on the 19th, 21st, 22nd and 23rd of December, the
men of the French King organized raids over the

77

78 POPE ALEXANDER VI AND HIS COURT

Monte Mario as far as San Lazaro and the adjoining
meadow of San Angela. They also decided to fall
upon the city by stealth on one of these nights, the
French through one gate and the Coloraiese through
the other. For aid and assistance a thousand
Frenchmen were to come up by ship from Ostia.
But the wind rose1 so strongly against them that
they could not complete their program. Otherwise
they woulcl have carried their evil designs and
broken into the city through the Porta San Paolo,
setting fire, pillaging and doing much mischief.
Some pointed out as the author of this plan the
Cardinal de Gurck who had come, as the report went,
in his own person to the vicinity of the city gate
during that night, but had withdrawn again as the
result of the adverse wind.

In any case he was the main cause for the advance
of the King against Rome. For he had caused the
inhabitants of Aquapendente and of other lands of
the Church to admit the King of France by praising
to the skies the honesty and worth of himself and
his men with the assurance that they would pay in
full and in coin for every fowl and every egg or even
for the smallest trifle. He asserted also the Pope
himself had promised him access to and passage
through the lands of the Church. In this way he
induced the population to let in the King and his
men against the decided will of the Pope. And in
order to win over also the curials of German nation-

KING CHARLES VIII IN ROME 79

ality he wrote an open letter which he had sent to
us who were most prominent.

On Friday, the 26th of December, 1494, on the
feast of St. Stephen, the first martyr, Cardinal Cibo,
celebrated the solemn mass in the main chapel of the
palace in the presence of the Pope. After the Pope
had entered there came also three ambassadors of
the King of France, who had arrived during the
night before, namely the grand-marshal of France,
Jean de Ganay, first president of the Parliament of
Paris, and a third one, all laymen. To the first I
assigned a seat on the steps of the throne before and
above the senator, the two others were assigned to
the bench of the lay ambassadors, where there were
seated already two ambassadors of the King of
Naples. These would not have anything to do with
the newcomers, explaining that they were not aware
that they were ambassadors, and they left their
seats. By special order of the Pope I informed them
that those were ambassadors of the King of France,
whereupon they yielded and returned to their seats.
Many Frenchmen had appeared with the three am-
bassadors, a large number of whom pushed them-
selves forward without any consideration near the
prelates and sat down on their benches. When I
showed them away and assigned them to their proper
seats, the Pope summoned me and said angrily that
I had ruined his intentions, and that I should permit
the Frenchmen to remain where they wanted to. I

80 POPE ALEXANDER VI AND HIS COURT

replied to his Holiness that for God's sate he should
not get excited as I now knew his intentions, and
would not say anything more to them wherever they
should stand. On Wednesday, the 31st of Decem-
ber, 1494?, I rode out by order of the Pope quite
early in the morning to meet the King of France in
order to explain to him the arrangements of the
reception according to the ceremonial and to receive
his decision and carry out his Majesty's orders.

Near Galera, after two miles' journey, we met the
Cardinals Giuliano delle Rovere, Gurck and Savelli,
to whom I made obeisance without dismounting from
my horse. Soon afterwards came the King, to whom
we also made our obeisance without dismounting on
account of the dirt and the rain as well as his fast
approach. The Bishop of Nepi executed the com-
mission with which he had been charged by the Pope
concerning the reception of the King, and I also
explained to his Majesty what I had been charged
with by the Pope. The King replied he wished to
come to Rome without any display whatever. I
received his answer and after me Hieronymus Porca-
rius, in the name of the Roman authorities, placed
the citizens and their possessions at the disposal of
the King. The King replied in a few words without
entering into this matter. The Romans withdrew
and the King called me at his side, and conversed
with me for about four miles continuously, asking me
about the ceremonies, the condition of the Pope, the

KING CHARLES VIII IN ROME 81

rank and position of Cesare Borgia, and a number
of other things, so that I found it almost impossible
to give proper answers to every particular question.
Near Borghetto two ambassadors of Venice came
to meet the King. They dismounted and kissed their
own hands before they offered them to the King.
They did not kiss the hand of the King, however.
Behind them came Cardinal Sforza, who greeted the
King bareheaded without dismounting from his mule.
The King too bared his head and greeted the car-
dinal. Then they covered their heads and Sforza,
riding at the left of the King, escorted him into
the city over the Ponte Molle as far as the Palace
San Marco, the usual residence of the Cardinal Cibo.
The whole way to the palace was one mud and puddle.
In all the streets from the palace of the Cardinal
Costa near the Church San Lorenzo in Luzina as
far as San Marco there was an illumination of fires
and torches at eleven o'clock in the evening and all
shouted: Francia! Francia! Colonna! Colonna! Vm-
cula! Vmcula! When we had arrived before the
Palace San Marco, Cardinal Sforza did not dis-
mount from his mule but baring his head took leave
from the King, with his permission, before he en-
tered the portal. Nor did delle Rovere nor any
other of the cardinals accompany the King. To-
day before the entry of the King into Rome the
keys to the gates of the Viridarii, of Belvedere, of
the middle gate and of all other gates of the city

82 POPE ALEXANDER VI AND HIS COURT

were entrusted to the grand-marshal of France, the
above-mentioned ambassador of the King, upon his
request and with the consent of the Pope. For the
Frenchmen said — and this was true — that the keys
had been surrendered the other day to the Duke of
Calabria when he was in Rome and that the King of
France was not inferior to him.

On Monday, the 12th of January, 1495, the King
sights. He was accompanied only by the Cardinal
of France rode alone through the city to see the
of St. Denis, Jean de Villiers de la Groslaye, who
rode with a few nobles at a distance behind the King.
Between him and the King there rode a captain of
the body-guard that marched with the King looking
after the men as they marched along. The cardinal
followed them with the other nobles.

On Thursday, the 29th of January, 1495, there
arrived from France 18,000 ducats in barrels on
mules for the French King and on the next day 4000
more were brought for the expenses that the King
and those with him had every day.

On Friday, the 30th of January, 1495, it was
reported to the Pope that Cesare had fled from
Velletri in the disguise of a royal groom. He had
left the King already before arriving there and had
slept during that night in the house of the auditor
of the Rota, Antonio Flores. When he departed to-
gether with the King, Cesare had taken along with

KING CHARLES VIII IN ROME 83

him from Rome quite openly nineteen sumpters with
his baggage under precious covers, amongst these
two which were laden with his vessels of credence.

These remained behind already on the first day
while the King and the cardinal were riding to Ma-
rino, and returned in the evening to Rome. The
servants of the cardinal pretended at the court that
the sumpters had been robbed and pillaged. The
other seventeen went to the court of the King, who
confiscated them after the flight of the cardinal.
When he had the bales opened, there was nothing in
them. This has been told to me, but I think it is a
lie.

On Wednesday, the 25th of February, 1495, Djem,
alias Zizim,1 brother of the Grand Turk, whom his
Holiness had surrendered recently by reason of a
treaty with the King, died in Naples, that is to say,
in Castro Capuano, through eating or drinking some-
thing disagreeable to which his stomach was not
accustomed. His corpse was then sent to the Grand
Turk at his urgent request together with all the
household of the deceased. The Grand Turk is said
to have paid or given a large sum of money on this
account, and to have received this household with
favor.

On the 15th of March, 1495, the Neapolitan Cas-

tell dell' Ovo surrendered to the King of France.
i See Appendix.

84 POPE ALEXANDER VI AND HIS COURT

Performances were given before him by his men with
French humor of tragedies and comedies representing
the Pope, the King of Spain and the Doges of Venice
as concluding a league and alliance with each other.

VIII
ALEXANDER AND HIS FAMILY

ON Friday, the 20th of May, 1496, at six o'clock
in the afternoon an entry was made into Rome
through the Lateran gate by one Gofredo Borgia of
Aragon, a son of the Pope, about fourteen years old
and his wife, Sancia of Aragon, with about six ladies
of her household. There went out to meet them the
captain of the squadron with his men-at-arms, about
two hundred of them, the suites of all the cardinals
and the papal prelates. For every single cardinal
had been requested that morning by papal runners
at the instigation of Cesare to send their chaplains
and men-at-arms to meet his brother Gofredo, upon
his entry into the city. This they all did and dis-
patched their men as far as beyond the aforemen-
tioned gate, and here Lucretia Sf orza, also a daugh-
ter of the Pope, and wife of Giovanni Sforza, Lord
of Pesaro and sister of Gofredo met them with twelve
other women. Two pages preceded her bearing two
cloaks and riding on two horses one of which was
covered with precious gold brocade, the other with
crimson velvet. She greeted her brother and his wife
with affection.

85

86 POPE ALEXANDER VI AND HIS COURT

When we had come to the palace, the Pope went
to the hall of the Pontiffs and sat down on an ele-
vated seat that had been prepared for him there in
the center of the left wall with a green carpet before
it on which was depicted the Savior laying His
fingers on the side of St. Thomas. Another similar
carpet was laid over the seat. Eleven cardinals
were standing around in their coats. We entered
the hall through the three ordinary halls, the cham-
ber of paraments, the Camera Papagalli and the
others. Before the footstool of the Pope there stood
a small stool on which lay a cushion of brocade, and
before it four larger cushions of crimson velvet cross-
wise on the floor. Gofredo made obeisance to the
Pope in the customary way and kissed his foot and
hand. The Pope took the head of Gofredo between
both his hands bowing his head over him but without
kissing him. There followed Sancia, who in the same
way kissed the foot and hand of the Pope and whose
head he took in the same way between his hands.
Also Lucretia was thus received by the Pope. After
this Gofredo approached every cardinal beginning
with Pallavicini and kissed their hands, whereupon
each of them gave him a kiss upon the mouth.
Sancia too kissed the hands of the cardinals and
these took her head between their hands as if they
wanted to kiss it. During this the daughter of the
Pope stood before her father. Then Gofredo placed
himself between the cardinals Sanseverino and Cesare

ALEXANDER AND HIS FAMILY 87

Borgia, his brother. Lucretia sat down on a cushion
on the floor at the right of the Pope, Sancia on
another one at the left of the Pope, and the other
ladies approached to kiss the papal foot. The Pope,
Sancia and Lucretia exchanged together a few hilari-
ous remarks.

After this Gofredo, Sancia, and Lucretia and all
the others went away while the Pope remained in the
hall, and in the same order as we had come we rode
to the house of the former Cardinal della Porta,
where Gofredo and Sancia found quarters and re-
ception. At the entrance they thanked those who
had escorted them in the proper way ; then Gofredo,
Sancia, and Lucretia entered, where they were greeted
by many Roman ladies who were awaiting them
there.

On Whitsunday, the 22nd of May, 1495, the
Pope went to St. Peter's under the mitre without
the canopy and there Cardinal Cibo celebrated
solemn mass in his presence. The sermon was
preached by a Spaniard, a chaplain of the Bishop
of Segorbe, who was rather wordy and wearisome, to
the disgust of the Pope and all the others. He an-
nounced a full indulgence which the Pope granted
from the beginning of the mass until he should be
carried out again from the church. Lucretia and
Sancia were standing on the marble staircase, on
which the canonics usually sing the epistle and the
Evangile, as well as many other ladies, and they

88 POPE ALEXANDER VI AND HIS .COURT

occupied the whole stairway and the floor around it
which aroused great disgust and scandal among us
and the populace.

On Wednesday, the 14th of June, 1497, Cesare
Borgia and Juan Borgia, Duke of Aragon, the Cap-
tain General of the guards, the favorite sons of the
Pope, dined at the house of Donna Vanozza, their
mother, who lived in the neighborhood of the Church
of Saint Peter in Chains. Their mother and various
other people were present at the dinner. After the
meal, when night had fallen, Cesare urged his brother
to return to the Apostolic palace. And so they both
mounted the horses or mules with a few attendants,
as they had not many servants with them, and rode
together until they approached the neighborhood of
the palace of the Vice-chancellor Ascanio Sforza,
which the Pope had erected and usually occupied
during his tenure of the office of Vice-chancellor.

At this point the duke declared that he would like
to find entertainment somewhere and took leave of his
brother, the Cardinal. He dismissed all his servants
except one and retained further a masked man who
had already presented himself before the dinner and
had visited him in the Apostolic palace almost every
day for a month. The duke took him up behind
him on his mule and rode to the Square of the Jews,
where he dismissed the one groom and sent him back
to the palace. He instructed him, however, that
he should wait for him about eight o'clock in the

ALEXANDER AND HIS FAMILY 89

square, and if he had not appeared at the end of an
hour he should return to the palace. Thereupon
the duke departed from the groom with the masked
man behind him on the back of the mule and rode
no one knows whither and was murdered.

The corpse was thrown into the river at the point
besides the fountain where the refuse of the streets
is usually dumped into the water, near or beside the
Hospital of Saint Hieronymus of the Slavonians on
the road which runs from th.e Angel's Bridge straight
to the Church of Santa Maria del Popolo. The
groom who had been dismissed on the Square of the
Jews was hurt seriously and wounded unto death.
He was mercifully taken into the house of some one
unknown to me and cared for. Unconscious as he
was he could tell nothing about his instructions and
the expedition of his master.

When the duke did not return to the palace on the
next morning, which was Thursday, the 15th of
June, his trusted servants became uneasy and one
of them carried to the Pope the news of the late
expedition of the duke and Cesare and the vain watch
for the return of the former. The Pope was much
disturbed at the news, but tried to persuade himself
that the duke was enjoying himself somewhere with a
girl and was embarrassed for that reason at leaving
her house in broad daylight, and he clung to the
hope that he might return at any rate in the evening.
When this hope was not fulfilled, the Pope was

90 POPE ALEXANDER VI AND HIS COURT

stricken with deadly terror and set on foot all pos-
sible inquiries through a few of his trusted men.

Among those who were questioned was a Slavonian
dealer in wood by the name of Georgio, who had un-
loaded his wood on the bank of the Tiber near the
above-mentioned fountain and who had spent the
night on his boat guarding his wood to prevent it
being stolen. The question was put to him whether
he had seen anything thrown into the river during
the middle of the night just past, to which he made
answer that at about two o'clock in the morning two
men came out of a lane by the hospital on to the
public road along the river. They looked about
cautiously to see whether any one was passing and
vhen they did not see anybody they disappeared again
in the lane. After a little while two others came
out of the lane, looked about in the same way and
made a sign to their companions when they dis-
covered nobody. Thereupon a rider appeared on
a white horse who had a corpse behind him with the
head and arms hanging down on one side and the legs
on the other and supported on both sides by the two
men who had first appeared. The procession ad-
vanced to the place where the refuse is thrown into
the river. At the bank they came to a halt and
turned the horse with its tail to the river. Then
they lifted the corpse, one holding it by its hands and
arms, the other by the legs and feet, dragged it down

91

from the horse and cast it with all their strength into
the river.

To the question of the rider if it was safely in,
they answered, " Yes, Sir ! " Then the rider cast
another look at the river and, seeing the cloak of the
corpse floating on the water, asked his companions
what that black thing was floating there. They
answered, " the cloak," whereupon he threw stones
at the garment to make it sink to the bottom. Then
all five, including the other two who had kept watch
and now rejoined the rider and his two companions,
departed and took their way together through an-
other lane that leads to the Hospital of Saint James.

The servants of the Pope asked Giorgio why he
had lodged no information of such a crime with the
governor of the city, to which he answered : " In
my day I have seen as many as a hundred corpses
thrown into the river at that place on different nights
without anybody troubling himself about it, and so
I attached no further importance to the circum-
stance."

After this fishermen and boatmen were summoned
from all Rome and ordered to drag the corpse out
of the river with the assurance of a large reward for
their pains.

Three hundred fishmen and boatmen, as I have
heard, came together and dragged the bed of the
river, and finally brought up the corpse of a man.

92 POPE ALEXANDER VI AND HIS COURT

It was just before vespers when they found the duke
still fully clad, with his stockings, shoes, coat, waist-
coat and cloak, and in his belt there was his purse
with thirty ducats. He had nine wounds, one in the
neck through the throat, the other eight in the head,
body and legs. The duke was laid in a boat and was
carried into the castle of San Angelo, where his cloth-
ing was removed. The corpse was then washed and
clothed in princely raiment. Everything was done
at the order of my colleague, Bernardino Gutieri,
cleric in charge of ceremonies.

On the evening of this day, at nine o'clock the
corpse of the duke was brought by his noble retain-
ers, if I remember rightly, from the castle of San
Angelo to the church of Santa Maria del Popolo,
preceded by 120 torchbearers and all the prelates of
the palace, together with the papal servitors and
pages. With loud lamentations and weeping they
proceeded without any orderly formation. The
corpse was borne upon a bier with pomp and cere-
mony in public view and looked more as if sleeping
than dead. In the aforementioned church it was
consigned to the vault, where it reposes up to the
present day.

When the Pope was informed that the duke had
been murdered and thrown into the river like refuse
and there discovered, violent grief overcame him, and
in his deep sorrow he locked himself in his chambers
and wept bitterly. Only after long pleading, per-

ALEXANDER AND HIS FAMILY 93

suasion and solicitation before his door did the Car-
dinal Bartolommeo Marti finally succeed after several
hours in being admitted with a few attendants. The
Pope took no food or drink from the evening of
Wednesday, the 14»th of June, until the following
Saturday, and he let no sleep come to his eyes from
the morning of Thursday until the next Sunday.
Upon varied and ceaseless appeals of his trusted
friends he admitted himself to be won over and
finally began to conquer his grief as well as he could.
This he did also out of consideration for the risk and
danger to his own person.

IX
LIFE IN ROME UNDER THE BORGIAS

ON the evening of the 28th of October, 1497, the
secretary of the Pope, Bartolommeo Florid o,
formerly Archbishop of Cosenza, who had recently
been deprived of all his honors, dignities, rank and
livings in the Castle of San Angelo, was forced to lay
off all his vestments. A cowl of coarse white cloth
which hung down half a span below the knee was put
on over his shirt instead of his tunic. He received a
pair of shoes of the roughest leather, a coat of green
cloth which almost reached the ground and was also
very coarse and thick, and a coarse white cap. In
his hands he was given a rather large wooden crucifix.
In this attire he was brought from the chamber in
which he had until then been held prisoner to the
burial vault of the Emperor Hadrian called San
Marocco, which had been designated as his life-long
prison.

There stood for him a common wooden bed with
a canopy to protect his head from the moisture of
the stone walls. Upon the bed lay a straw pallet

and a mattress with two coarse blankets. He was

95

86 POPE ALEXANDER VI AND HIS COURT

given a breviary, a Bible, and the letters of Saint
Peter. Furthermore he received a keg of water,
three loaves of bread, a cup of oil and a lamp for
lighting. There he was incarcerated for the term
of his life.

The Pope, as I was told, has given the order that
the warden of the castle or his deputy should visit
the prisoner every day or every three days and
that bread and water should be portioned out to him
for his maintenance and oil for his light. May
Almighty God in all his mercy and loving kindness
bestow upon this most miserable man the gift of
patience and grant him grace that he may save his
soul.

The report was that before this the Pope had daily
dispatched to the imprisoned Florido in the castle
of San Angelo the suffragan bishop of Toul, John
Marades, the archdeacon de Bacchis, Petrus de Solis,
and a few others of his trusted servants to play
dice and chess with him and to lead him through
proper persuasion to the confession that he had
drawn up various breves without the order of the
Pope. For the Pope thought thus to obtain for-
giveness for other breves that had been drawn upon
his order and had offended the King and Queen of
Spain on the plea that they had been issued without
his foreknowledge. If Florido would admit this, the
Pope would raise his rank and reward him with
higher offices. At their repeated instigation he had

LIFE IN ROME UNDER THE BORGIAS 97

confessed, and thereafter neither Marades nor the
others had ever visited him again.

On Sunday, the 29th of October, at 11 o'clock in
the morning', the main tower of the castle of San
Angelo was struck by lightning where the powder
for the defense of the castle was stored. The ex-
plosion scattered far and wide the whole upper part
of the tower together with the walls and the great
marble angel, part of which fell near the house of
Cardinal Michaeli beside the church of Saint Celsus
and the near the house of the merchants Spannocchi.
About fifteen guards of the castle were injured, but
none of them mortally.

On Wednesday, the 14«th of February, 1498, there
was found in the river the papal groom of the cham-
ber, Petrus Caldes, with the surname Peritto, who
had fallen involuntarily into the Tiber on Thursday
last, the 8th of February, during the night, an event
which aroused much comment in Rome.

On Wednesday, the 21st of February, the car-
dinals and Cesare Borgia rode for their pleasure in
French layman's garments from Rome to Ostia on
the mouth of the Tiber, and returned to Rome in
the same garments on the 24th.

At the carnival of this year no feast or public
amusement was held in Rome or in Agone or in
Testaccio, nor did any masked procession take place.

Last Sunday, the 18th, Giulio Vitelli of Corneto,
a servant of Cardinal Domenico delle Rovere, was

98 POPE ALEXANDER VI AND HIS COURT

just attending mass in the convent church of the
Dominicans sopra Minerva, when some one entered
the church with about ten companions in arms carry-
ing concealed crossbows and bearing long and short
swords, lances and round shields. They rushed into
the Chapel of Crucifixion, toward Giulio and his
brothers and wounded them, and of these wounds
Giulio and two of his brothers died within a few
days.

After breakfast time on Sunday the governor rode
with a large suite to the house of the aforesaid.

On Ash Wednesday, the 28th of February, 1498,
the Pope pronounced the benediction over the ashes
in the main chapel of the palace. First the offici-
ating Cardinal Groslaye strewed ashes upon him, then
he on the cardinal, and then on the others in the
accustomed manner. Guglielmo Serra of the order
of the Minorites in surplice and pluviale without a
mitre, preached the sermon, and kissed the foot of
the Pope because he was not yet an ordained bishop.
The rest of the ceremony proceeded in the usual
manner.

Cardinal Cesare Borgia did not attend the mass
and service. After the mass in response to my re-
quest the Pope granted to us, the masters of cere-
mony, to all the singers and to the other members
of the papal chapel the permission for every one
of us to choose a confessor to absolve us from all

LIFE IN ROME UNDER THE BORGIAS 99

sins, even from those which could be forgiven by the
Holy See alone.

Through daily worship at the main altar of Saint
Peter's we were also to obtain the indulgence of the
stations in the city. While the Pope was laying off
the sacred vestments in the Camera Papagalli, he
ordered the Datarious Giovanni Ferrari, Bishop of
Modena, that he should inscribe me on the preferen-
tial list of his confidential men of long standing and
give me equal rank with my colleague, Bernardino
Gutteri.

A few days before, at the beginning of April, 1498,
a courtesan, that is, an honest prostitute, named
Cursetta, had been thrown into prison because she
had a Moor as a friend who went around in women's
clothing under the name of the Spanish Barbara,
and had relations with her. Both of them, therefore,
as a punishment for this outrage, were led around
together through the city, she clad in a loose black
velvet dress open from neck to ankle, the Moor in a
woman's dress which was taken up to the shirt, that
is to the navel, in order that everybody might see
his private parts and recognize the fraud he had
perpetrated. During this his arms were tightly
bound together above the elbows behind his back.

After the procession in public Cursetta was let go,
but the Moor was put in prison, and finally led out
on Saturday, the 7th of April, from the prison of

100 POPE ALEXANDER VI AND HIS COURT

Torre di Nona together with two other brigands with
a Sbirre riding before them on an ass carrying on
the point of a stick two testicles, which had been cut
out from a Jew because he had had intercourse with
a Christian woman. They were brought to the Flora
field where the two brigands were hanged. The
Moor was placed on a pile of wood, and was killed
on the pole of the gallows, a rope being tied about his
neck whereby he was strung fast to the pole. Then
the pile was lighted, but on account of a downpour
of rain it did not burn well and only his legs were
charred.

On the 21st of April, 1498, in the evening or
during the night the major-domo of the Apostolic
palace, the Bishop of Calahorra, Petrus de Aranda,
was locked up in his chamber in the palace and a
guard was placed before his door until the 26th of
April, on which day he was conducted before the
Pope. After a conversation with him he was brought
into the chambers between the two secret gardens
of the Pope, not far from the covered walk that
leads from the palace to the castle of San Angelo.
There he was guarded carefully by the grooms of the
Pope and others until about the middle of September.
The reason for his imprisonment was that the bishop
was being suspected of heresy, being a marano, and
similar offenses.

On Sunday, the 29th of July, 1498, a large and
spacious platform was erected before two porticos

of St. Peter's Church. There a hundred-and-eighty
maranoes 1 were admitted in order to be reconciled
to the faith. There they were cowering down on
the floor in their everyday garments and there sat
also the Archbishop of Reggio and Governor of
Rome, Pietro Isuagli, the ambassador of the King
and Queen of Spain, Juan Ruiz de Medina, the
Bishop Octavius de Monte Marano, referendary of
the Pope, the auditors Dominicus Jacobatius and
Jacobus Dragnatius, the professors of theology, Paul
de Modia of the order of the Predicants, and Jo-
hannes de Malcone of the order of the Minorites,
both papal penitentiaries in St. Peter's church for
the Spanish nation, also in their everyday garments.
A master of theology of the order of the Predicants
preached a sermon on the faith in Italian and re-
proached the maranoes, who were all Spaniards,
among them a Franciscan monk, for their errors
in faith, reprimanding and instructing them. After
the sermon the maranoes asked for a remission of sins
and absolution. Thereupon Paul de Mondia admon-
ished them in a Latin address to adhere to the right
faith and to lead a righteous life, and told them of
the punishment they all deserved. This admonition
he explained to them in a few words in Spanish.
Then while they were all down on their knees, he

i Maranoes were called those Jews and Moors who, during
the persecution by the Spanish Inquisition, professed to be
Catholics while secretly adhering to their own religion.

102 POPE ALEXANDER VI AND HIS COURT

pronounced the punishment upon them, namely, that
they should walk two and two to the church of St.
Peter in a garment prescribed and worn for this
purpose. There they should pray and then go in
the same order to the church of the convent of Santa
Maria sopra Minerva, where every one of them might
lay down the garment and return to his home. The
magisters Paul and John announced the absolution
to all, whereupon they started on their way to the
church. The Pope observed all that was going on
from the new chambers and gave them the benedic-
tion.

The garment in which the maranoes were clad
looked as follows: over their every day clothes they
wore coverings of red and peacock-blue cloth which
were hung down over the shoulders up on the breast
and down to the legs behind, with a yellow cross four
fingers in width and of the length of the cloth. Be-
fore the altar in Santa Maria sopra Minerva every
one put down his cloth. The monks then hung up
the cloth in the church in memory of the event.

In this year, 1499, all the feasts of the Roman
carnival were celebrated. On Sunday in Lent, the
3rd of February, the Jews held their race from the
Campo dei Fiori to the castle San Angelo near the
Borgo-Gate for the price of a red cloth, which, how-
ever, was not handed over on that day as the start
was bad, as has been reported.

LIFE IN ROME UNDER THE BORGIAS 103

Therefore they ran another time on Monday, the
4*th of February, after vespers from the Campo dei
Fiori, that is to say from the corner between the
houses of the Vice-chancellor and the Lord Coronato
de Planca, as far as the place of St. Peter.

On Tuesday, the 5th of February, the young men
ran after dinner for a rose-colored cloth from the
aforementioned corner to the place of St. Peter.

On Wednesday, the 6th, the old men ran for a red
cloth from the chapels to the place.

On Thursday, the 7th, there was a fete on the
Agone which was well prepared according to Roman
custom. Even the papal privy Chamberlain, John
Marades, had masked himself and sat on the back of
a horse which knocked slightly against some Romans,
whereupon he came into danger of being wounded,
unknown as he was, had not those who stood around
intervened. It was prohibited, thetrefore, on the
following day to mask oneself, but this was not ob-
served by any one.

On the same Thursday or Friday there was also
a Spanish priest killed by masked men. The same
priest had killed the brother of one of the masks in
Spain. This priest resembled me in his clothes per-
haps or in some other way. Several cardinals, Car-
afa, San Giorgio, Caravajal, Piccolomini and Farnese
made inquiries whether the rumor was true, as did
also many other curials. The rumor about me cir-

104 POPE ALEXANDER VI AND HIS COURT

culated for three days. May Almighty God in His
eternal kindness preserve me from such and all other
dangers !

On Friday, the 8th of February, 1499, the bulls
were caught and distributed over the various dis-
tricts of the city, and on Saturday evening they were
brought in the usual way to the Capitol.

On Sunday, the 10th of February, there was held
a race of the Berber steeds, the Spanish saddle horses
and the mares after dinner in Testaccio for the usual
prizes. The first and third Cardinal Sanseverino
received, and he would also have won the second had
not a rider fallen down. The second prize was re-
ceived by John Franciscus Mutus. Then the feast
of the bulls and pigs was celebrated in the customary
way and without uproar and scandal.

On Monday, the llth, after dinner the race of the
donkeys was held, with a sky blue cloth as a prize,
from the Campo dei Fiori to the Place of St. Peter,
and Shrove Tuesday, the 12th, in the same way the
race of the buffaloes for a red cloth.

THE AGGRANDIZEMENT OF THE
BORGIAS

\7ESTERDAY, the 16th of February, 1499,
•*• Donna Lucretia, the daughter of the Pope,
went for walk in the arbor, fell down in a faint and
as a result had a miscarriage of a female child with
which she was pregnant.

On Saturday, the 20th of April, 1499, the Pope
received a letter from France advising him that the
marriage contract had been concluded by the former
Cardinal Ccsare Borgia and the Lord d'Albret in
the name of his daughter, by which, as was reported,
and as it was in fact set down in the contract, the
Pope was to give a dowry of 200,000 ducats, and
the marriage was not to be performed until his
Holiness had nominated the brother of the bride a
cardinal.

On the 23rd of May, 1499, a courier arrived from
France with the report for the Pope that his son
Cesare, the former cardinal, had contracted the mar-
riage with the Lady d'Albret, on Sunday, the 12th
of May, and had performed it and did take her eight

times, one after the other. Another messenger an-

105

106 POPE ALEXANDER VI AND HIS COURT

nounced, the King of France had received the duke
on Pentecost, the 19th of May, into the Fraternity
of St. Michael which is royal and very glorious.
Therefore by the order of the Pope numerous fires
were lighted in the city on the evening of the 23rd
of May, namely before the houses of the Cardinals
Orsini and Groslaye, of Lucretia and many Span-
iards, as a sign of joy, but a great shame and scan-
dal for the Pope and the Holy See.

On Saturday, the 20th of July, at eight o'clock in
the evening, the Pope received a report, that the
major-domo of Cesare Borgia, Jacobus, who on Fri-
day, the 12th of July, had walked apparently quite
unconcerned through the halls of the palace while
the secret consistory was being held, and who had
secretly mounted his horse after the consistory was
over in order to betake himself as fast as possible
through the gates in the name of the Pope with
secret messages for his master, had been seized and
searched by the Duke of Milan and all his secret
despatches surrendered. The Pope, frightened at
the news, had the gates of the city closed and
guarded, and no one was let out without the per-
mission of the governor. The servants of the Vice-
chancellor Ascanio Sforza, and the ambassador of
the Duke of Milan had been informed of this, how-
ever, through a letter of the duke that had arrived
in the morning. Therefore all his servants and the
prelates fled from the house of the Vice-chancellor.

AGGRANDIZEMENT OF THE BORGIAS 107

Their belongings they brought out already in the
morning. The Archbishop of Sutri, Alatri, the
Prothonotaries Marini and Sforza took refuge in the
house of Cardinal Colonna. A certain Bartholomeus,
the chamberlain of the Vice-chancellor, was seized
and brought into the castle of San Angelo, but he
was not hurt and was soon set at liberty again. The
Pope in his excitement sent the Governor of Rome
to Cardinal Colonna and with him his secretary, the
Prothonotary Adriano, with the request that the
cardinal should send the prelates, the Prothonotaries
Marini and Sforza, to his Holiness, a request which
the cardinal, however, politely refused. Thereupon
ensued an exchange of views for many hours between
the cardinal and the governor, the answer of the car-
dinal being reported to the Pope and that of the lat-
ter to the cardinal. Finally, when he saw that there
was perhaps danger threatening, he left the house
secretly with the prelates and the others, who had
fled to him, while the governor and Adriano were
in his room, and departed from the city for his castle
at two o'clock in the night.

When the governor and Adriano had waited for
some time for the decision of the cardinal, they real-
ized that they had been deceived and returned to the
Pope, who became excited and at about or after mid-
night summoned the chief of the Apostolic Chancery
and the deputy of the Vice-chancellor, Bishop Aloy-
sius of Pesaro, and upon his arrival had him placed

108 POPE ALEXANDER VI AND HIS COURT

under detention in the room of the Datary Ferrari,
Bishop of Modena, and guarded by the datary him-
self. Finally on Sunday after dinner he set him free
and sent him back to his house. On the same Sunday
in the morning the governor went by order of the
Pope with all his men to the house of the Vice-chan-
cellor and searched it. After about two hours he
went away again without having disturbed anything
there.

On the same Saturday evening before seven o'clock
the Bishop of Aquina, Baptista Buffallus, was re-
turning home on horseback from the house of the
Cardinal Orsini, when one of his enemies assaulted
him not far from Monte Giorgdano and wounded
him with his sword. It was rumored, thereupon, that
the bishop had been killed. He finally arrived, how-
ever, only slightly hurt, at his own house.

On Tuesday, the 23rd of July, 1499, the Vice-
chancellor, Cardinal Ascanio, boarded at the Colon-
nese Neptuno Castro a ship of King Federigo of
Naples, which was lying ready for him there and
under the escort of three other royal ships set his
course for Piombino in order to go to Milan. He
then left the ship in the territory of Siena and wrote
from there to the Pope and the Holy colleague ask-
ing for leave and stating the reasons of his de-
parture.

On Friday, the 2nd of August, 1499, before day-
break, Alphonso of Aragon, Duke of Bisceglia, the

AGGRANDIZEMENT OF THE BORGIAS 109

husband of Lucretia Borgia, departed secretly from
Rome in order to reach the Colonnese territory.
From there he went to the King of Naples, and this
without the permission, knowledge or consent of the
Pope.

On Thursday, the 8th of August, 1499, Lucretia
Borgia departed from the city through the Porta del
Popolo, to go to the Castle of Spoleto, of which she
had been appointed governor by the Pope. She was
accompanied by Don Gofredo Borgia of Aragon, her
brother, who rode at her left, and sent many laden
sumpters in advance which the Pope inspected from
the loggia. When she and her brother had mounted
their horses or mules in the place of St. Peter at
the foot of the steps of the church, they made a very
reverential obeisance from their horses to the Pope,
who stood above, and took their last leave of him.
After the Pope had blessed them from the window
for the third time they rode away. Before them
there marched in good order the whole palace guard
of the Pope and the governor of Rome with his men.
In the train was also a mule which had been laden
with a stretcher and mattress, a crimson cover
strewn with flowers, two pillows of white damask and
a beautiful canopy so that Donna Lucretia could rest
there in case she was tired from riding. Another
mule bore a saddle upon which was erected a silk
covered and magnificently adorned arm-chair with
back and footstool, in order that Donna Lucretia

might sit in it from time to time and travel more com-
fortably. From the place of St. Peter as far as the
bridge of San Angelo she was escorted on her right
by the ambassador of the King of Naples and later
by the governor of Rome, while there followed after,
two by two, the prelates and a large crowd in honor
and praise of the Holy See.

On the 1st of November, 1499, at six o'clock in the
morning, Donna Lucretia was .delivered of a boy.
This was announced by order of the Pope to all the
cardinals and ambassadors and to his other friends
even before daybreak in their residences. The mes-
sengers received for this from every cardinal and
ambassador two ducats, more or less, according to
the mood of the giver.

On the feast of St. Martin, Monday, the llth of
November, the son of Lucretia, Rodrigo, was chris-
tened by Cardinal Carafa in the chapel of Pope
Sixtus IV in St. Peter's. On the day before the
chapel of the Cardinal Zeno in St. Peter's had been
put in readiness for the event and adorned with two
large rugs which covered the wall at the right and
left as well as the bench and floor before the bench.
The altar had no decoration, only a plain and rather
soiled and tattered cover. In this chapel gathered
all the cardinals present in Rome, sixteen in number.

The house of Cardinal Zeno, where the lady in
childbed resided, was also adorned magnificently: the
two portals were completely gilded, the whole court-

yard, the lower staircase and the first hall were cov-
ered with cloth and carpets, the first chamber with
sky-blue velvet, the bed with crimson. Everywhere
there were carpets on the floor and benches were
standing around. In this house there gathered the
prelates of the palace and the ambassadors. In
the meantime about sixty Roman ladies called on the
lady in childbed. Those who were present at the
christening included the Imperial Ambassador Phili-
bertus Naturelli, the ambassador of the King of
England, Silvester, the ambassadors of Naples,
Venice, Savoy, Florence and Siena.

When all the cardinals had assembled they pro-
ceeded from the chapel, where they had met, to the
Sixtine chapel, the tribune of which was adorned
with cloth of gold brocade. The monument of Sixtus
was covered with the same cloth and there were large
carpets everywhere. The child to be christened, as
it had not yet been prepared, was brought from the
house of St. Peter's up to the railing of the Sixtine
chapel by special permission and dispensation of the
Pope and in the following order: there marched first
the papal shield-bearers and behind them all the
chamberlains in pink garments as on Corpus-Christi
day. Then there came drummers with pipes and
other instruments. There followed two papal shield-
bearers of whom the one at the right carried a golden
basin with a goblet and in the basin was a golden
salt cellar with salt and a box with musk soap and

112 POPE ALEXANDER VI AND HIS COURT

a towel ; the other one at the left carried a large
candle of white wax, weighing about thirteen pounds
adorned with gold and very magnificent workman-
ship. These were followed by Juan Cervillon of
Catalonia, formerly captain of the papal soldiers,
who carried the child on his right arm. It was
covered with brocade lined with ermine as one usually
covers children to be christened. At the right
walked the governor of Rome and at the left the
Imperial Ambassador Philibertus all two by two, and
a numerous crowd closed the procession. At the en-
trance of the Sixtine chapel Juan Cervillon handed
over the child to the Archbishop of Cosenza, Fran-
cesco Borgia, who took him on his right arm that
is in the silken cloth magnificently interwoven with
gold which Juan had carried slung around his neck.
Cardinal Juan Carafa came to the entrance of the
chapel and catechized the child and then had it
brought into the chapel to the space between the
altar and the monument of Sixtus IV. There in the
center on a stool covered with a rug stood the large
Sixtine baptismal vessel of silver, partly gilded. On
this spot the afore-mentioned silk cloth was put
around the shoulders of the governor of Rome, who
thereupon took the child to be christened upon his
right arm from the hands of the Archbishop of
Cosenza. The cardinal moistened the head of the
child and baptized it and did everything in the usual
way while the secretary Podocatoro and the Datary

AGGRANDIZEMENT OF THE BORGIAS 113

Ferrari held their hands over the child as god-
fathers.

After the child had been baptized and the Cardinal
Carafa and the godfathers had washed their hands
as usual, Paolo Orsini put the silk cloth around his
neck and took over the child from the governor upon his
right arm and returned with it to the house of Cardinal
Zeno. Even before he had come to the entrance
of the chapel the child began to cry miserably, while
before this, from its mother's bed to the chapel and
throughout the baptismal ceremonies it had patiently
submitted to everything without showing displeasure.
On the returning from the church, however, there
was such a noise from trumpets and other instru-
ments that one could not even hear the sound of his
own voice.

They returned in the same order as they had come.
After them the cardinals also left the church,
mounted their mules at the foot of the stairs of the
church and returned home. On the way to the
christening a crowd of Roman women, old men, young
men and maidens gathered and followed behind the
prelates who sat down here and there in the Sixtine
chapel on the seats higher up.

On Monday, the 18th of November, 1499, Cesare
Borgia returned secretly through the Porta Caval-
legieri to Rome with a chamberlain and the brother
of the deceased John Marades and stayed with the
Pope in the palace until Thursday, the 21st. On

the morning of this day he departed and rode away
secretly with an escort of papal soldiers to the city of
Imola, which he took over soon afterward by force
together with the castle. The Lords of the city, the
sons of the deceased Count Girolamo Riario, nephew
of Cardinal Riario, were robbed with violence.

On the same Thursday after dinner the Cardinal
Riario rode out with his household to hunt. When
he was near the " castrum Jubilei " he sent his cham-
berlain Cardilla back to Rome with the greater num-
ber of his suite, while he himself rode on with a few
attendants to Monte Rotondo.

In the evening of the same day a papal musician,
Thomasius of Forli, was arrested with his accom-
plices and incarcerated in the castle of San Angelo.
This Thomasius had come to Rome with a poisoned
letter which he put into a reed to give it to the Pope,
pretending that he came from the community of
Forli which wanted an agreement with the Pope.
Had the Pope accepted the letter, he would have been
poisoned and would have fallen down dead within a
few days or hours. In order to obtain access to
the Pope, he approached a friend, Thomasius of
Forli, a musician of Juan Borgia, the prince of
Squillace, and then bribed a guard of the portal
of the papal palace, whom he initiated into his under-
taking. This came to the knowledge of the Pope
and they were imprisoned by his orders as has been
told. When questioned they immediately admitted

AGGRANDIZEMENT OF THE BORGIAS 115

everything. The leader was especially questioned as
to whether he had thought that he could ever get
away with his life after having perpetrated such a
misdeed. He answered that he had had the firm hope
that through the death of the Pope, Imola and Forli
might be freed from the blockade of Cesare and that
peace and tranquillity might thus be restored to the
ruler of these cities, the widow of Count Girolamo,
his patroness, who had aided him from his youth.
If he could die for her ten times, he would be ready
to suffer death and would not be afraid.

On Friday, the 29th of November, 1499, Donna
Lucretia left the house for the first time after the
birth of the child and visited the church of St.
Peter's. The Bishop of Carignola, Petrus Gamboa,
conducted her by the left arm to and from the church
and celebrated the mass for her. I have also heard
that Donna Lucretia spent the previous evening in
the company of her father, the Pope.

During the night from Sunday to Monday, the
23rd of December, 1499, the noble knight, Juan
Cervillon of Catalona, formerly captain of the papal
soldiers, who lived with many in hostile relations,
had ordered a meal in the house of the nobleman
Elisaeus de Pignatello of Naples, a knight of the
order of St. John. The house stood opposite the
residence of Cardinal Ascania Sforza, in an alley
through which one came straight to the place past
Ascanio's stable. Cervillon had spent the evening

116 POPE ALEXANDER VI AND HIS COURT

before the meal in the house of Cardinal Carvajal,
who knew much about his feuds and admonished him
in a fatherly way that he should not leave more his
house this evening. Also he ordered his servants
they should not let out Cervillon. Nevertheless, as
Pignatello, who was waiting for him, had sent for
him several times up to twelve o'clock, he left the
house of Cardinal Carvajal at about that hour, and
repaired to the house of Pignatello, where he ate.
In addition to these two, Cervillon and Pignatello,
there partook of the meal a nephew of Cervillon, one
of their friends, and a lady of the papal court.
After the meal Cervillon was for leaving the house
again but Pignatello objected with all his might.
When he found that all his arts of persuasion were
of no avail he besought him that at least his nephew,
who was armed, and a few of his servants should
escort him, but Cervillon firmly declined and said
that he desired no escort. They urged him to per-
mit at least that some one should go out before him
to look around and see if there was any suspicious
person passing or lying in wait. Even this he would
not permit but he wanted to go out free and un-
accompanied. So he fared forth from the house
about one o'clock in the night, armed only with his
sword and paused not far from the entrance. As he
stood there, two men approached him and asked:
" Who goes there ? " He answered " Good friend ! "
When they asked in a more pressing manner : " What

AGGRANDIZEMENT OF THE BORGIAS 117

good friend? " he added, " Juan Cervillon." As soon
as he had said this they jumped at him and one
sword while the other severed his head with one blow,
and both escaped.

When the nephew and the others within the house
heard the voice of Cervillon and the clash of swords,
they ran out to see what had happened. They found
Juan Cervillon lying on the wall and his head a short
distance off on the ground but no trace of those who
had committed the deed. On the following morning
the incident was reported to the Pope by the gover-
nor of Rome, who on the very night of the murder
of Cervillon had displayed the greatest energy upon
receiving the news and had questioned Pignatello as
well as all the other inhabitants of the house with
the greatest care about everything that had hap-
pened. This he reported to the Pope in my presence
and added that when the nephew and the others had
rushed out and had found Cervillon dead and no one
in the street, they had hurried farther along the
street and had presently met a boy of whom they
inquired if he had seen anybody. He answered, no,
only two men, who had walked through the alley and
had fled over the large open place before the stable
of the Vice-chancellor. Thus ended poor Cervillon
with a bitter death. His body was soon afterward
brought by his servants to the church of Santa Maria
Transpontina and there buried without pomp.

XI

THE YEAR OF THE JUBILEE

T71EBRUARY, 1500. In former days the major-
A domo of the papal palace, Petrus de Aranda,
Bishop of Calahorra, had been arrested as suspected
of heresy, and brought to the castle San Angelo,
where he was imprisoned. The governor of Rome,
Cardinal Isuagli, and the Bishop of Cesena, Pietro
Menzi, as deputy-auditors of the papal camera, had
been charged with the investigation and procedure.
To justify himself Aranda brought up, as I was later
informed, a hundred witnesses who, however, all with-
out exception gave evidence against him. It was
ascertained that he asserted and maintained among
other things that the Mosaic law had only one prin-
ciple, while the Christian had three, Father, Son and
Holy Ghost, that Christ had not suffered as a real
God, and that he had in praying said " Gloria Patri "
leaving away " Filio " and " Spiritu sancto," that
he had eaten before celebrating the mass and had
eaten meat on Good Friday and other forbidden days,
that he had stated that indulgences were void and
inefficacious and had been invented by the fathers

119

120 POPE ALEXANDER VI AND HIS COURT

for their own advantage, and that there was no hell
or purgatory but only paradise, and many other
things.

On the 25th of February, 1500, a papal letter
was posted at the doors of St. Peter's and the Lat-
eran Church which stated that the roads and inns for
the pilgrims to Rome ought to be safeguarded dur-
ing the year of the jubilee and that the vassals of the
Church would be held responsible for damage sus-
tained and that reprisals would be made against
them.

On Monday, the 26th of February, 1500, by order
of the Pope it was urged upon all the cardinals that
they should send their suites on this day at four
o'clock in the afternoon out to the Porta Santa
Maria del Popolo to meet Cesare Borgia as he ap-
proached the city and furthermore upon all ambassa-
dors, conservators and officials of Rome as well as
upon the abbreviators, clerics, etc., of the Roman
Curia that they should go out personally to meet him.
On the previous Friday, the 21st, Cardinal Orsini
had gone to meet the Duke Cesare as far as Castello ;
and there followed him on Saturday, the 22nd, the
Cardinal Farnese. On this morning the Cardinal
Lopez, with my colleague in his suite, went out to
meet him about three to four miles beyond the Ponte
Molle. All the ambassadors also rode out beyond
the bridge as far as the meadows to await the duke
there. When it had sounded the hour of four Car-

THE YEAR OF THE JUBILEE 121

dinal Pallavicini went on horseback from the palace
to the residence of Cardinal Orsini who awaited him
there outside on his mule. They rode together to the
church of Santa Maria del Popolo to receive the
duke there. He entered through the gate between
seven and eight o'clock and was greeted by all the
ambassadors, retainers and officials of the said car-
dinal. When they heard that the duke was outside
the gate, they mounted their mules and awaited him
at the said place before the gate, where they saluted
him with bared heads while he thanked them also in
the same manner. Then he rode between them to the
Vatican.

In the train of the duke there came first in good
order a hundred sumpters provided with new black
covers and then about fifty others without any order.
I could not arrange the escort in proper order as
there were about a thousand ducal soldiers on foot,
Swiss and Gascons, who marched in their own order
in five sections and under five banners with the
ducal arms, and took no heed of our order. There
were also papal soldiers marching on foot to meet
the duke and lansquenets with the flag of St. Andrew.
The Swiss wanted the lansquenets to roll up their
banner but they would not consent and a great
quarrel started among them. But the conflict was
settled by the duke with little effort. The Swiss
and Gascons marched first with their banners, be-
hind them came the lansquenets with theirs, and

122 POPE ALEXANDER VI AND HIS COURT

then about fifty noblemen of the duke. He himself
had a hundred men around him of whom every one
bore a new halberd and wore a coat of black velvet
and shoes of black cloth.

He had also many trumpeters wearing his arms
as well as two heralds of his own and one of the King
of France, who wanted to march under all conditions
behind the soldiers. The duke, however, when ap-
pealed to, decided that he ought to precede them,
which he did only with great reluctance. By order
of the duke the trumpeters and the other musicians
did not play.

Behind them rode the Duke of Bisceglia at the
right and the Prince of Squillace, the son of the
Pope, at the left. Then came the duke between the
aforementioned cardinals, behind them the Arch-
bishop of Ragusa, de Sachis, at the right and the
Bishop of Treguier, Robert Guibe, Ambassador of
the King of France, at the left, the Bishop of Zamora
at the right and the ambassador of the King of Spain
at the left, and so on, the others according to their
rank. Two ambassadors of the King of Navarre got
into a quarrel with the ambassadors of the Kings of
Naples and of England, who retorted in a very hot-
headed manner. The two ambassadors of Navarre
had to give in and departed. There were also pres-
ent the ambassadors of Florence, Venice, Savoy, and
others. Behind them followed a large crowd in such
confusion that the prelates were not able to take their

THE YEAR OF THE JUBILEE 123

places and the majority of them therefore departed.

The Pope stood in the loggia of the chamber above
the portal of the palace, and with him were the Car-
dinals Juan Borgia, San Giorgio, Lopez, Cesarini and
Farnese. When the duke came to the chamber of
paraments, the Pope entered the Camera Papagalli,
bringing with him five cushions of gold brocade,
one of which he had laid on the elevated seat where
he himself sat, another one under his feet and the
three others upon the floor before his footstool. The
door to the Camera Papagalli was opened and there en-
tered the noblemen of the duke and after them, between
the cardinals, the duke himself, who knelt down before
the Pope and made a short speech in Spanish wherein
he thanked the Pope that he had deigned to do him
during his absence such a — I do not know what.
The Pope replied to him in the same idiom, which I
did not understand. Then the duke kissed both feet
of the Pope as well as his right hand and was al-
lowed also to kiss his mouth. After the duke the
noblemen also approached at their pleasure to kiss the
foot.

The castle of San Angelo was splendidly decorated
and I never saw such pomp and triumph as from
this castle.

On Thursday, the 27th of February, 1500, there
was a festive procession in the Agone with the cus-
tomary gorgeous display, twelve triumphal chariots
and the victory of Julius Cassar, who sat on the last

124 POPE ALEXANDER VI AND HIS COURT

chariot. All these chariots were taken to the palace
and back again with the exception of the last one
with Julius Caesar, which remained there. The duke
rode from the palace to the Agone where the festivi-
ties of the Romans were held in the customary way.

On Thursday, the 5th of March, Cesare Borgia
began with his calls on the cardinals. He had no
bishop or prelate with him but was only accompanied
by one of his retainers. When calling on Cardinal
Piccolomini he went with him from the chamber down
to the foot of the stairs walking on his left side, as
he did not want to take the right one in any case,
although the cardinal offered it to him with eager
insistency. As I hear, he did the same with the
other cardinals but I do not know how far the car-
dinals went to meet him when he arrived and there-
fore I could not put it down.

On the fourth Sunday of Lent the Pope, with the
intention of making Cesare Borgia Captain-General
and Gonfaloniere of the Roman Church, decided to
bestow upon him the Golden Rose.1 On Sunday
Laetare, therefore, the fourth of Lent and the 29th
of March, 1500, the Pope had come into the small
audience room in the morning at the usual hour with
the cardinals, who had assembled in the Camera
Papagalli, and decided with their consent to bestow
the aforesaid Rose on Cesare Borgia of France, Duke

of Valentinois, his dearest son, and to nominate him
i See page 19.

THE YEAR OF THE JUBILEE 125

Captain-General and Gonfaloniere of the Holy Roman
Church. From there the Pope went with the car-
dinals into the chamber, blessed the Rose in the cus-
tomary way, and went in procession on his portable
chair with the Rose in his left hand to the church of
St. Peter. Immediately before him walked a papal
shield-bearer in a garment of frilled brocade which
came down to his knees. He walked before the cham-
berlains and carried over his arm a new garment,
that is a coat and barret, the insignia of the dignity
of a Gonfaloniere. The barret was of crimson, two
spans high, and lined with ermine. In the middle
there was a small piece of gold brocade with four
large buttons, that is to say pearls of the size of
ordinary nuts. At the four corners and inside there
was a stripe of ermine fur about five fingers broad
and above there was attached a dove composed of
pearls, four fingers wide and adorned with many
pearls. While the Pope was still sitting in his por-
table chair, Cardinal Cibo appeared, who was offic-
iating in the church, and dressed himself as usual
in the sandals and the holy garments. After arriv-
ing at the main altar the Pope took down the mitre
and prayed in his folding-chair; then he made the
confession of faith together with the celebrant.

In the meantime the duke stepped up to the papal
throne and placed himself at the right side. After
the obeisance of the cardinals the duke in his short
tunic stepped before the Pope and kneeled down

126 POPE ALEXANDER VI AND HIS COURT

before him at the last step above. He was joined
by the Cardinal delle Rovere as an assistant of the
Pope, who now with the mitre in his hand rose and
said : " Our assistance in the name of the Lord who
made heaven and earth. The Lord be with you and
with your spirit. — Let us pray : ' God, who Thou
has promised to be an aid to Thy servants assembled
in Thy name, grant to this Thy servant Cesare, our
Gonfaloniere, the mercy that has been granted to
Abraham at the burnt offering, to Moses with his
legions, to Elia in the desert, to Samuel in the tem-
ple. Give, O Lord, the unity, that Thou gavest to
the patriarchs, that Thou hast preached to the
peoples, that Thou hast handed down to the
Apostles, that Thou hast ordered to the victors.
Bless, 0 Lord, we ask Thee, this our Gonfaloniere,
who has been given to us certainly for the welfare of
our people. Let him grow rich in years, let him be
blooming and healthy in vigor of body until a ripe
old age and let him arrive finally at a blessed end.
May the trust remain with us that he will receive
the same compassion in favor of his people that
Aaron received in the sanctuary, Elisha by the
stream, Ezekiel on his bed and the old Zachary in
the temple. May the force and power of dominion
be granted to him as Joshua possessed it in the
camp and Gideon in battle, and as Peter received it
with the keys and Paul used it in doctrine. Thus the

127

care of the shepherds may be a blessing to the sheep
as Isaac prospered in his fruits and Jacob in his
herds. This grant us mercifully the One who lives
and reigns with the Father and the Holy Ghost in
eternity.' '

After these words the Pope put the mitre on his
head and sat down again. I took the coat from the
hands of that shield-bearer, and handed it over to
the assisting Cardinal delle Rovere who took off the
coat of the duke. I received it and had it sent
quickly through my servant to my house before any-
thing further was said about it. For it was worth
about four hundred ducats. The Pope took the
coat from the hands of Cardinal delle Rovere and
hung it around the duke, so that the clasp was lying
on the right shoulder of the duke, with the following
words : " May the Lord clothe you with this gar-
ment of blessing and wrap you in the garb of joy,
in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy
Ghost. Amen."

Then the same cardinal took from my hands the
aforementioned crimson barret and handed it over to
the Pope, who put it on the head of the duke with
these words : " Receive the sign of the dignity of
the Gonfaloniere that is being put on your head by
us in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy
Ghost, and remember that from now on you are
pledged to defend the faith and the Holy Church.

128 POPE ALEXANDER VI AND HIS COURT

That success may be true to you, may be granted
to you mercifully by Him that is blessed in all
eternity."

A cleric of the Camera brought the Rose from the
altar, and the Pope took it from the hands of the
Cardinal delle Rovere and handed it over to the
duke who knelt before him with the following words :
" Receive from our hands as we are, although un-
deservedly God's representative on earth, as a symbol
of the joy of Jerusalem triumphant as well as of the
church militant. To all who believe in Christ it
means the most precious flower as it is the joy and
crown of all saints. Receive it, my most-beloved
son, you who are of secular nobi! _y, powerful and
rich in virtue, in order that you may win furthermore
the nobility of every virtue in Christ, the Lord, simi-
lar to the Rose that has been planted on the bank
of many waters. This favor may grant you in its
overflowing kindness the One who is the triune in
eternity. Amen."

The duke took the Rose in his right hand and
kissed first the hand then the foot of the Pope.
Both rose, the duke covered himself with the barret,
and with the Rose in his right hand, walked, for the
entire time, before the Pope. The holy handkerchief
was shown as usual and the cardinals besides the
duke accompanied the Pope as far as the courtyard,
where the cardinals usually ride away. From there
the Pope went up to his palace after he had dis-

THE YEAR OF THE JUBILEE 129

missed the duke and the cardinals, who then all
mounted their horses. The older cardinals rode first
and last between Piccolomini and Cesarini, the duke
still wearing the barret of the Gonfaloniere on his
head. The Rose, however, he did not bear in his
hand all the way, but he had it carried most of the
way by one of his servants, of whom he had only six
or eight around himself while the others followed.

In riding back the usual order was observed, the
banners were carried by those two armed men on
horseback, both Spaniards of the lower class. They
rode behind all the ambassadors, preceded by eight
trumpeters and before these four drummers. After
the trumpeters there came three heralds, after these
the armed men, then all the cardinals and among the
last of these the cardinal with all his servants.
There followed the prelates and the men of the duke
in a crowd as this could not be helped. In this order
we rode to the residence of Cardinal Sclafenata,
where the duke intended to have dinner. Before the
entrance the duke thanked with bared head every one
of the cardinals, who had stopped here and there.
Finally he turned around once again before the door
to the cardinals who then departed.

On Tuesday, the 12th of May, 1500, a certain
Baron Rene d'Agrimont, ambassador of the King of
France, while on his way to Rome with his sumpters
and about thirteen horses and servants was robbed
completely by twenty-two highwaymen and brigands

130 POPE ALEXANDER VI AND HIS COURT

in the mountains of Viterbo. One of his noblemen
together with a servant was wounded severely.

The ambassador entered Rome on the 13th May
without pomp and escorted only by his men. The
Pope, indignant at the incident, sent out the
Bargello to capture the malefactors, and wrote
numerous breves to Fabrizio Colonna, from
whose territory the brigands had come, and to oth-
ers in order that they should send the highwaymen
to the city. Fifteen, of themj were apprehended
and brought to Rome.

On Wednesday, 27th May, 1500, the day before
Assumption, eighteen men were hanged at noon while
the cardinals passed over the bridge of San Angelo,
nine on each side of the bridge. The hanged men
fell down with the gallows on the bridge but were
immediately set up again so that the cardinals when
they returned from the palace could see all of them
hanged.

The first of the eighteen was a doctor of medicine,
physician and surgeon to the hospital of St. John
Lateran, who had left the hospital every day early
in the morning in a short tunic and with a crossbow
and had shot every one who happened to cross his
path and pocketed his money. It was also said that
the confessor of the hospital communicated with
the physician when a patient confided to him during
confession that he possessed any money, whereupon
he gave an efficacious remedy to the patient and they

THE YEAR OF THE JUBILEE 131

divided the money between them. Thirteen belonged
to the twenty-two who had robbed Baron d'Agri-
mont. The four others had committed various mis-
deeds.

After vespers, on the 28th of May, 1500, the
eighteen hanged men were taken down, laid on carts,
and brought to the chapel by the society of Miseri-
cordia, where they were buried in the usual way.

On Wednesday, the 24th of June, 1500, the feast
of St. John, the place of St. Peter was railed in by
beams on all sides from the corner of the house of
the palace-guard to the fountain of Innocence and
from there to the corner of the house St. Martinelli,
as well as both approaches of the Via Sancta to-
wards the church of St. Peter. After dinner a bull-
fight was held in this enclosure with five or six bulls.
Cesare on horseback and several others administered
numerous thrusts to them until they were dead.

On Wednesday, 15th July, 1500, the Duke Al-
phonse of Aragon, the husband of Lucretia Borgia,
was suddenly attacked on the steps of St. Peter be-
fore the outer entrance about ten o'clock at night
and severely wounded in the head, the right arm,
and the leg. The assailants fled down the stairs of
St. Peter, where about forty men on horseback were
waiting for them and they rode out with these
through the Porta Pertusa.

On Tuesday, 18th August, 1500, Alphonso of
Aragon, who had been brought after his recent in-

132 POPE ALEXANDER VI AND HIS COURT

juries to the new tower above the papal cellar in the
main garden of the Vatican, and had been carefully
guarded, was strangled in his bed at four o'clock in
the afternoon, as he did not die of his wounds. In
the evening at ten o'clock the body was carried to
the church of St. Peter and buried in the chapel of
Maria delle Febbri. The archbishop of Cosenza,
Francesco Borgia, the treasurer of the Pope, accom-
panied the body with their suites.

The physicians of the deceased and a hunchback
who had nursed him almost all the time were ar-
rested and brought to the castle of San Angelo
where an investigation was started against them.
They were set free later on as they were found not
guilty, a fact that was very well known to those
who had made out ffie'wlirrahts.

The same day and almost at the same hour Lucas
de Dulcibus, the chamberlain of Cardinal delle Ro-
vcre and master of the Register of Papal Decrees,
was wounded to death on the back of his mule before
the house of the Roman citizen Domenico de Mas-
simi, and his membrum virile was cut off by a man
of Reiti whose wife he had kept as a concubine. He
was brought into the house of the said Domenico
where he died after three or four hours. In the
evening he was carried to the church of Maria
Transpontina and the next morning, Wednesday, the
19th, the body was transferred to the church of
Santa Maria del Popolo with the suite of the Car-

THE YEAR OF THE JUBILEE 133

dinal delle Rovere and many others in the funeral
procession. May he rest in peace!

On Sunday, 23d August, 1500, there arrived in
Rome, Lord Lucas de Villeneuve, Baron de Trans,
chamberlain of the King of France and his ambas-
sador. To the inn of Domcnico Attavanti, where
the ambassador stayed, near the hospital of St. Laz-
arus, a masked rider came in great haste, accom-
panied by a man on foot. He dismounted, embraced
the ambassador with the mask over his face and had a
conversation with him. After a short while the mas-
ked person returned to the city. It has been said
that it was Ccsarc Borgia.

The ambassador mounted his horse and rode to
the city. The suite of the Pope and of all the car-
dinals present in Rome went to meet him as well as
the ambassadors of the Kings of Spain and Naples,
who said to him : Be welcome ! I asked them if
they wanted to say anything more. They an-
swered: No. The ambassador who head this,
added: Who does not want to say anything else
does not expect an answer. He rode then between
the Archbishop of Cosenza, the governor of the city,
and the Archbishop of Ragusa through the Via
Papae to the inn of the Holy Apostles where he took
up his quarters.

On Monday, 31st of August, 1500, Lucretia, once
of Aragon, the daughter of the Pope, betook herself
from the city to Nepi accompanied by six hundred

134 POPE ALEXANDER VI AND HIS COURT

on horseback in order to find some consolation and
rest after the grief and consternation in which she
had been thrown by the recent death of her husband,
Alphonse of Aragon.

On 20th December, 1500, a bull was posted on the
doors of St. Peter, concerning the prolongation of
the jubilee year until the coming feast of Epiphany
in favor of those abroad. The Pope granted to
Italy the unlimited indulgence until the next feast
of Pentecost and nominated for this purpose as
commissaries the Minorities of the strict observance
through an Apostolic letter.

After the beginning of the last year of the jubilee
the penitentiaries of St. Peter saw from cases that
came before them in confession that the rights of in-
dulgence granted to them were not broad enough.
In the course of a conversation I had with one of
them I asked him to let me hear some of the cases
that were submitted daily to his colleagues. He
told me that there were varied and curious cases
reported to them but that he could not retain all of
them in his memory. He told me, however, a few he
remembered.

Some one had concluded matrimony with a virgin
and after he had slept with her and had had inter-
course with her for a certain time, he had deserted
her in order to contract a marriage with a second
and a third one. The same he did with a fourth one
and had thus four wives living at the same time.

THE YEAR OF THE JUBILEE 135

The same case he told me of a woman who married
four men one after the other without any one of
them having died.

A monk of the order of the Benedictines who had
been ordained as a priest contracted a marriage
with a woman and consummated it through cohabi-
tation. They lived together for about thirty years
and had six children. After the death of the woman
he contracted another marriage and lived and slept
with his second wife for about seven years. Then
he came to the jubilee and acknowledged his error
himself. Another one, who had married and had
consummated the cohabitation, let himself be or-
dained as a priest and contracted another marriage
although he had been ordained.

One had had intercourse with a woman and then
married her daughter. He came to the jubilee and
acknowledged his error.

A priest slept with his niece who became pregnant
through him and bore him a son. The priest father
christened him after his birth, then killed him im-
mediately and buried him in the stable. Neverthe-
less he had celebrated mass for eighteen years after
this without dispensation or rehabilitation for his
deed.

Another one had taken monastic vows and entered
the order of the Franciscans of the strict observance.
Still within the first four months of the year of pro-
bation he left the convent, threw off the cowl and

136 POPE ALEXANDER VI AND HIS COURT

contracted a marriage with a married woman whom
he later deserted after intercourse. Now he entered
another order which he left within the probationary
year in order to contract a marriage with another
married woman. When he heard after cohabitation
with her that she was the wife of some one else he
left her and married another free woman with whom
he also cohabited. He ran away from this one too
and married a fourth one with whom he also co-
habited. Finally he deserted the fourth one also
and entered the order of Santa Ma.ria of the Teu-
tons, of which he confessed to be a member. When
the fourth one heard of this she went to the convent
in the belief that he was her husband and demanded
his surrender. He fled before the imminent danger
and came to Rome with the request to render him
appropriate aid. It was said that the case was
known in Strasburg.

The two principals of a merchant firm in Provins,
Pierre and Jean, had both beautiful wives. Pierre,
acting on information from his servants, told his
wife, that he would go on a certain day to Bruges
so that she could make an appointment with Jean.
On that day Pierre pretended to set forth on a
journey but went instead to the house of a friend
and arranged with his servants that they should let
him know as soon as Jean had shut up himself with
his wife. This they faithfully did. Pierre then
went to his house and knocked violently at the door.

THE YEAR OF THE JUBILEE 137

The frightened wife locked the naked Jean into a
chest in her room. Pierre was admitted, went to his
wife's chamber and sent immediately for Jean's wife,
who appeared soon afterwards. He asked her about
her husband and she answered she did not know
where he was. He often left the house early in the
morning and returned in the late evening. Often he
would stay away for one or two days. Pierre said:
" Your husband is locked up in this chest here and
he has often slept with my wife, although you are
much more beautiful than she is. I give you the
choice, either you surrender yourself to me on the
top of this chest or you will see your husband cruelly
murdered." The woman asked her husband in the
chest what she should do. He answered from the
chest that one could more easily compromise with
decency than with death. So Pierre took Jean's
wife on the top of the chest, then he let him out and
they were the best friends. The incident had been
kept secret for years.

A similar case happened in Liibeck. Philip had a
very beautiful sister, and Anton whom she loved very
much slept with her. She climbed through the win-
dow of her chamber over the roof and went to the
room of her lover. When Philip found out that his
sister had gone to Anton he sent for the sister of
Anton who came to his room without any hesitation.
Philip said to her : "Your brother Anton has often
slept with my sister and now they are lying together

138 POPE ALEXANDER VI AND HIS COURT

again. I decided to lie with you or your brother
Avill die an evil death." She consented in order to
free her brother. After he had lain with her, he
sent her back to her house through the window over
the roof the same way by which his sister usually re-
turned. When Anton heard of it, he came to an
understanding with Philip that the matter should
be kept secret. Nevertheless it came finally to our
knowledge.

When Angelo went through a church at noon, he
cast a glance into the chapel of St. Florence situated
in a corner. There he saw how Grada was lying
under Paolo and how they amused themselves to-
gether. For this Angelo later on reproached Paolo
in public. Paolo denied the incident stubbornly,
and as Angelo did not cease his pointed remarks, he
sued him for libel before the magistrate. Proceed-
ings were started against Angelo and his insults
were proven while he could not justify his accusa-
tion. Judgment was rendered therefore against
Angelo that he had to recant his abuse and libellous
speeches publicly in the church from the pulpit and
to restore the good reputation of Paolo. When
therefore, on a Sunday, the principal of the church
came down from the pulpit after the sermon, Angelo
stepped up and told before all the people of his trial
before the magistrate and of the decision rendered
and recanted the abuse and libellous speeches by ad-
mitting his error in appropriate words. Then, how-

THE YEAR OF THE JUBILEE 139

ever, he added at the end: " But as a matter of fact,
my dear co-citizens, when I saw that woman lying
on the floor and Paolo above her and her nakedness
exposed and what they were doing together just as
one is acting usually in performing the fleshly act,
then I was firmly convinced that they had performed
this act." So this last error proved to be still
worse for Paolo then the one before.

On Whitsunday, 30th May, 1500, the Pope ap-
peared wearing the tiara under the canopy in the
procession in St. Peter's. Before the rails of the
main altar all the prelates laid down their vestments
and put on their coats as did likewise the cardinals
after the Pope had said the creed together with the
officiating cardinal. The Pope ascended the throne
and the cardinals in their coats made the obeisance
in the usual way. Cardinal Pallavicini celebrated
the mass. The Pope had ordered the evening before
that the procession of the clergy should pass before
the railing. Since, however, the Cardinal Carafa
had told the Pope this morning that at the election
of the former master of the order of the Predicants
and of another of the Minorites during the time of
Pope Sixtus IV the procession of the order with the
elected general had come to the main altar, the Pope
allowed it on this day also.

After the beginning of the epistle the procession
of the others who preceded the aforesaid order, had
passed the railing and had turned on its way to the

140 POPE ALEXANDER VI AND HIS COURT

Vatican. The procession of the brethren, however,
passed through the railing and around the main al-
tar between the cardinal who was officiating and the
other bishops and cardinals. Then they passed out
through the side door towards the Vatican. Many
of the brethren threw themselves down between the
altar and the Pope and, turning towards the latter,
they kissed the floor after the manner of the Turks.
As I considered this improper, I intervened in order
to prevent the others from doing so. The Pope
however disapproved of my intervention and ordered
that I should let them kiss the floor, which I did.
The new general of the Predicants together with
many provincial brethren of his order went up to the
Pope, and with him Cardinal Carafa, who recom-
mended his cause to the Pope. All the brethren
kissed the foot of the Pope and then joined the pro-
cession again, the remainder of which did not pass
through the railing after the general but turned to-
ward the Vatican.

In the meanwhile Petrus of Vicenza, auditor of
the Camera and Bishop of Cesena, donned a red
pluviale and the plain mitre and went up to the altar
to the Pope and kissed his knees. He asked, with-
out mentioning the benediction, for the plenary in-
dulgence which the Pope granted to all those pre-
ent. After having received the indulgence he
mounted the pulpit and announced in an oration the
alliance between the Pope, the King of Hungary and

THE YEAR OF THE JUBILEE 141

the Signory of Venice against the Turks. He did
not enter, however, into a specification and an-
nouncement of the various points. Immediately af-
ter this oration he announced the indulgence ob-
tained from the Pope. The latter rose immediately
from his throne and began without the mitre Te
Deum laudamus in a clear voice which was continued
to the end by the choir.

Then the Pope, still standing, recited the Lord's
prayer as well as the verses and two prayers that
have been provided for in the ceremonial at the an-
nouncement of an alliance against the infidels.
Then he administered the benediction to the people
as usual, stepped down and after a prayer before the
altar took up the tiara and left the railing. He
looked at the iron of the spear of Christ and then
at the Lord's image and returned as usual to the
palace.

In the evening the main bell of the Capitol was
rung and bonfires were lighted throughout the city.
By order of the Pope it was announced publicly in
the city on the 3rd or 4th of June that all bandits
and those outlawed on account of murder, theft, or
other crimes could enter the city free and without
punishment.

XII
FEASTS AND FEUDS IN ROME

ON Thursday, the 17th of June, 1501, Cardinal
Borgia entered Rome about one o'clock in the
night through the Porta del Popolo. His own
brother, who did not belong to the clergy but was
captain of the portal of the papal palace, had rid-
den out about two miles beyond the Milvian bridge
to meet him. He did not dismount, however, when
he offered him his hand. Furthermore Cardinal Lo-
pez went out for a mile to meet him. The letter
wanted Borgia to ride on the rig*ht side which was
quite against the wish of Borgia. So Lopez rode on
the right side and Borgia on the left, which was im-
proper. Before the steps of the church del Popolo,
Lopez remained mounted on his mule, took leave from
Borgia and returned to the palace.

Borgia went into the church and from there to
the rooms prepared for him. There I wanted that
the barber cut his hair that hung two fingers broad
over his ears and enlarged his tonsure which was
small and badly done. The cardinal replied that
his hair and tonsure were in order. I did not want
to reply anything. As I saw his indignation, I left

143

144 POPE ALEXANDER VI AND HIS COURT

him as he was and went away before Cardinal Lopez
came to him. In the meadows we took off from the
cardinal the cape and the violet cloak of rather
thick cloth which we appropriated for ourselves as
usual.

On the same evening, about twelve o'clock in the
night, Cesare Borgia came secretly to Rome and
took up his quarters in the Vatican without being no-
ticed by anybody.

On the following Friday, 13th June, 1501, I went
quite early in the morning to Santa Maria del Po-
polo, and as the chapel in the convent was too damp
and close, I decorated the chapter before the chapel
with a few orange branches as well as I could. For
the stewards had not sent anything although they
had been requested to. The cardinals of the palace
appeared first, and when all had assembled, Carafa
desired that we should start immediately which was
done accordingly and we mounted our horses.
There appeared still the Cardinals Orsini and
Medici, and when we had reached the hospital of the
Slavonians, Cardinal Sanseverino. Cardinal Castro
was with the Pope in the palace. The new cardinal
had come alone in a coat of crimson-colored camlet
while all the others were in violet ones. He rode in
the last rank between Piccolomini at the right and
Medici at the left. I did not send the two deacons
in advance to the Pope to dress him because I
doubted that he had arisen. The new cardinal re-

FEASTS AND FEUDS IN ROME 145

mained with Piccolomini and Farnese in the little
chapel which was decorated with tapestry but had
no carpets on the floor. When the Pope came from
his chamber in the Camera Papagalli to don the
paraments, he reproached me for having come with
the others in such a hurry from Maria del Popolo.
I answered truly that it was after nine o'clock.

The Pope in his robes appeared at the public con-
sistory which was held in the third hall. Four re-
ports were given, the first by Justinus, the second
one by Burgundus. During this I conducted the
Cardinal Medici to the small chapel and sent Far-
nese back to the consistory. The latter bowed be-
fore the Pope and took his seat. Soon afterwards
appeared the new one with the two old cardinals at
the session. First Piccolomini, behind him the new
cardinal, rendered to the Pope the usual obeisance.
Medici remained below before the throne of the Pope.
Piccolomini and the new cardinal then stepped down
again, and the new one was greeted by all the cardi-
nals with the kiss on the mouth. He took his seat
behind Farnese. Burgundus continued his report,
then Alphonsus Ricenas made the third and Fran-
ciscus Gerona the fourth one. After this the two
assisting cardinals went up again with the new one
to the Pope, who received also the retainers of the
new cardinal in the ceremony of kissing his foot,
while all the cardinals and prelates were sitting
around in their seats as before. Then the Pope rose

146 POPE ALEXANDER VI AND HIS COURT

and returned to the Camera Papagalli where he laid
off the sacred robes. On this occasion the Cardi-
nal Pallavicini asked me in the circle why the new
cardinal alone was wearing the red coat and I an-
swered that he did so in order not to look as if he
were of a religious order. For Cardinal Borgia is a
knight of St. John. Carafa and Pallavicini smiled
as they knew about this. Finally all the cardinals
accompanied the new cardinal to the room of the
treasurer prepared for him and took leave of him.

On the same day after dinner it was announced
in Rome : that under penalty of a fine of a hundred
ducats all orders of the twenty-six so-called pro-
visors appointed by the Pope had to be obeyed.
Their task was to procure supplies for the French
soldiers who had come to conquer the kingdom of
Naples and had been quartered outside the walls.
Whoever had carts or sumpters or mules must notify
the governor of Rome in order that they could be
used to transport these supplies. Under penalty of
two hundred ducats and forfeiture of the object no
one should dare to buy anything from the soldiers.
This was done because the latter during their ad-
vance had stolen horses, donkeys, corn and grain and
anything they could lay hands to.

On the following Saturday, 19th June, 1501, an-
other proclamation was issued in Rome according to
which all the men of the King of France, who did not
receive pay from him or the Pope or from Cesare

FEASTS AND FEUDS IN ROME 147

Borgia, and the other soldiers in Rome who were not
under the leadership of any of the afore-named
should leave the city during Saturday. Whoever
should be found afterwards in Rome would be pun-
ished through judgment of the governor with prison,
torture, and finally also to permanent servitude at
the galleys.

On the same day Monsignore de Allegri entered
the city but was not received with public honors.

A place near Aqua Traversa, beyond the Milvian
Bridge, was designated as a camp for the French.
There pens were erected and numerous arbors clad
with foliage, hundred-fifty barrels of wine were put
up, provision had been made for bread, meat, eggs,
cheese, fruit and everything necessary as well as for
sixteen prostitutes for the requirements of the sol-
diers. Tradesmen and artisans of every description
were ordered there for work. The governor issued
the order to the Florentine merchants who dwelt on
the bridge that they should according to the size of
their houses prepare quarters for two, three or four
mounted noblemen of the forces. The merchants
wanted to get rid of this burden and gave the gov-
ernor two hundred ducats which he took gladly.
But when the soldiers entered the city he forced the
merchants nevertheless to receive the persons desig-
nated without giving back the two hundred ducats.

On Tuesday, the 22nd of June, 1501, Cardinal
Francesco Borgia went from Rome into the terri-

148 POPE ALEXANDER VI AND HIS COURT

tory of the Colonna in order to take possession of
Rocca di Papa and all the lands and castles of the
Colonna in the name of the Pope. He had Papal
commissaries and soldiers with him and took posses-
sion of everything without any protest or resistance.

On Wednesday, the 23rd of June, 1501, the Arch
deacon of Aquila, Franciscus Lucentinus, was at-
tacked near Pellegrino and mortally wounded by
four men of Hiernoymus Gaglioffi of Aquila, his mor-
tal enemy, of whom one had himself warned Fran-
ciscus a few days before that he would slay him with
his associates if it had to be even in the house of
Cardinal Piccolomini. There the dying man was
brought on the same day and expired after vespers.
In the evening he was, carried to the church of the
Saint Maria de Consolazione where he had desired
to be buried and there he was interred. May he
rest in peace. Amen!

On the same day the Knight Berauld Stuart
d'Aubigny, Captain of the French soldiers made his
entry into Rome from the direction of the meadows
and was greeted in the usual way by the suites of
the Pope and of all the cardinals. He rode between
the Bishops Valdoes of Zamora and Pistachio of
Conversano straight to the Vatican where he met
the Pope in the Camera Papagalli, together with the
Cardinals Pallavicinia, San Giorgio, Lopez, Fer-
rari and the referendaries. There he was admitted
by the Pope to the ceremony of kissing his foot and

FEASTS AND FEUDS IN ROME 149

after him ten or twelve of his suite. The Pope
jes'ted with him for a short while and dismissed him
then whereupon he, accompanied by Archbishop Sac-
chis of Ragusa and the Bishop Valdoes and the oth-
ers who had received him, rode back to the house of
the Vice-chancellor where quarters had been pro-
vided for him. There were also present the French
ambassador, Bishop Gube of Treguier, the English
ambassador, and the ambassadors of the duke of
Savoy and of Venice and Florence who kept no or-
der as the Savoyard who rode at the left of the
English ambassador was quarreling with the Ve-
netian who rode at his right. I did not want to in-
tervene and everything else was as usual.

On the 25th or 26th of June, 1501, in the early
morning it was publicly proclaimed in the city by
order of the Pope or the governor that all those who
were not in pay of the Pope, the King of France, or
of Cesare Borgia should leave the city within three
hours and should not enter again. There was fur-
thermore a proclamation issued in the name of the
Lord Captain d'Aubigny, that all soldiers under the
command of the King of France should stay during
the whole day in the camp assigned to them near
Aqua Traversa under penalty.

On Monday, the 28th of June, 1501, all the sol-
diers camping near Aqua Traversa marched through
the meadows into the Borgo Petri by order of the
Pope. There they met with all the other soldiers of

150 POPE ALEXANDER VI AND HIS COURT

the King of France in Rome and when all were to-
gether they marched in rank and file over the bridge
of San Angelo towards Naples in execution of their
orders. The Pope was in the castle of San Angelo
in the rooms adjoining the garden or in the loggia
from which he viewed them with great pleasure while
they marched past. Those on foot were twelve
thousand men strong, the cavalry, two thousand.
After the soldiers there came twenty-six carriages
with thirty-six bombards.

On Tuesday, the 6th of July, 1501, a Spanish
prostitute, Ludovica, who had her quarters near the
White Fountain, was arrested, brought to the Sa-
bellian jail where she was immediately subjected to
torture and strung up within an hour. She had
robbed her visitors as best she could and had had
several stabbed to death. She was arrested because
a Frenchman from whom she had stolen twelve Scudi
quarreled with her in public on that account just
as the governor was passing and complained about
her to the governor.

On the 26th of July, 1501, about the fifth hour of
the night the Pope received the news of the capture
of Capua by the Duke of Valentinois. The capture
of this city was achieved through treason by a cer-
tain Fabrizio, a citizen of Capua, who let the men
of the Duke enter in secret. But Fabrizio himself
was the first one to be killed by them and after him
there were about three thousand soldiers on foot and

FEASTS AND FEUDS IN ROME 151

two hundred horsemen slain as well as citizens,
priests, monks and nuns in churches and covents,
and women as many as there were found of them,
without any pity. And the girls that were captured
were given as a prey to the soldiers who treated
them with great cruelty. The number of all that
were killed has been estimated at about four thou-
sand.

On the morning of the 27th July, 1501, the Pope
went from Rome to Sermoneta and the places of the
Colonnas with fifty horsemen and a hundred soldiers
on foot, in the midst of all his confidential retainers
and the cardinals who accompanied him. With him
rode the Cardinals Serra and Borgia, each of them
with tw'elve servants, who are comprised in the afore-
said hundred-and-fifty. The Pope took luncheon in
the castle Gandolfo and afterwards went down to
the lake where he amused himself during the whole
day in a gondola while his men shouted continuously
Borgia! Borgia! firing off their blunderbusses.

On the following Thursday the Pope rode to
Rocca di Papa and returned in the evening during a
heavy rain-storm to the castle Gandolfo. On Fri-
day, the 30th of July, he went again through tor-
rents and storm to Genzano. On Saturday, the last
of July, he proceeded in the same weather from Gen-
zano to Sermoneta. Before leaving Rome he handed
over his room, the whole palace, and the current af-
fairs to his daughter Lucretia, who also occupied the

152 POPE ALEXANDER VI AND HIS COURT

papal rooms during his absence. He charged her
also to open the letters sent him, and, in case any
difficulty should arise, to consult Cardinal Costa and
the other cardinals whom she might call upon for
that purpose.

It is said that at one occasion Lucretia sent for
Costa and explained the order of the Pope and a
pending case. Costa considered the case as being
without importance and said to Lucretia that when
the Pope brought up these affairs before the consis-
tory there was the Vice-chancellor or another cardi-
nal who kept the record for him. It would be
proper therefore if there were some one present who
would note down the conversation. Lucretia an-
swered : " I understand quite well how to write ! "
Costa asked: "Where is your pen?" Lucretia un-
derstood the meaning and joke of the cardinal. She
smiled and they brought the conversation to an end
in good humor. I was not consulted about these
matters.

On Friday, the 13th of August, 1501, early in the
morning a placard was hung upon the statue of
Master Pasquino at the corner of the house of
Carafa announcing the death of the Pope if he
should leave the city. This spread immediately
throughout Rome and the same morning similar
posters were hung up in various parts of the city
containing the following words:

FEASTS AND FEUDS IN ROME 153

I said to you before, O Pope, you were an ox;

I tell you now, you die, if you go out;

The wheel will follow him who drove the ox.1

On Saturday, the 4th of September, 1501, about
vespers the news came from Ferrara of the conclu-
sion of the marriage contract between Alphonso, the
first-born of the Duke of Ferrara and Lucretia Bor-
gia. Therefore bombards were set off continuously
from the castle of San Angelo from then until into
the night. On the following Sunday after break-
fast Lucretia rode from the palace where she resided
to the church Santa Maria del Popolo, dressed in a
robe of golden brocade accompanied by about three
hundred on horseback. Before her rode four
bishops, namely Hieronymus de Porcarris, Vincenz
Pistachio, Petrus Gamboa, and Antonio Flores, two
by two. Then followed Lucretia alone and after her
her suite and servants. In the same way she re-
turned to the palace.

On the same day the main bell of the Capitol was
rung from the hour of supper until the third hour in
the night. Numerous fires were lighted in the castle
of San Angelo and over the whole city. The tow-
ers of the castle and the Capitol and others were il-
luminated in order to excite everybody to joy,
though shame would have been more fitting.

1 The ox is an allusion to the Borgia arms, a bull pasant on a
field, and the wheel to the arms of the Cardinal of Lisbon.

154 POPE ALEXANDER VI AND HIS COURT

On the following Monday two jugglers, to one of
whom on horseback Donna Lucretia had given her
new robe of brocade worn only once on the previous
day and worth three hundred ducats, went through
all the main streets and alleys of Rome with the loud
cry : " Long live the noble Duchess of Ferrara,
long live Pope Alexander ! Long may they live."
And then the other one on foot to whom Donna Lu-
cretia had also given a robe went along with the
same cry.

On Thursday, the 9th of September, 1501, there
was hung at the wall of the Torre di Nona a woman
who had stabbed her husband to death with a knife
during the previous night.

On Saturday, the 25th of September, the Pope
went early in the morning to Nepi, Civita Castellana,
and to the other places in the neighborhood, and
with him Cesare Borgia and the Cardinals Serra,
Francesco and Ludovico Borgia with a small suite.
Donna Lucretia remained in the chamber of the Pope
in order to guard it and with the same orders as
upon the previous absence of the Pope. He re-
turned to Rome on Saturday, the 23rd of October,
1501.

On the evening of the last day of October, 1501,
Cesare Borgia arranged a banquet in his chambers
in the Vatican with fifty honest prostitutes, called
courtesans, who danced after the dinner with the at-
tendants and the others who were present, at first in

FEASTS AND FEUDS IN ROME 155

their garments, then naked. After the dinner the
candelabra with the burning candles were taken from
the tables and placed on the floor, and chestnuts
were strewn around, which the naked courtesans
picked up, creeping on hands and knees between the
chandeliers, while the Pope, Cesare, and his sister
Lucretia looked on. Finally prizes were announced
for those who could perform the act most often with
the courtesans, such as tunics of silk, shoes, barrets,
and other things.

On Monday, the llth of November, 1501, there
entered the city through the Porta Viridarii a peas-
ant leading two mares laden with wood. When these
arrived in the place of St. Peter the men of the Pope
ran towards them and cut the saddle-bands and
ropes, and throwing down the wood they led the
mares to the small place that is inside the palace
just behind the portal. There four stallions freed
from reins and bridles were sent from the palace and
they ran after the mares and with a great -struggle
and noise fighting with tooth and hoof jumped upon
the mares and covered them, tearing and hurting
them severely. The Pope stood together with
Donna Lucretia under the window of the chamber
above the portal of the palace and both looked down
at what was going on there with loud laughter and
much pleasure.

XIII

ON the evening of the 5th of January, 1502, as I
have been told, the Pope counted out a hun-
dred thousand ducats in minted gold in the presence
of the brothers of the bridegroom, Ferdinand and
Sigismund, as a dowry for Donna Lucretia, which
he paid over to them in coined money. While count-
ing out the money he received a letter from France
according to which the French King had restored
full liberty to the cardinal Ascanio Sforza.

To-day, on the 6th of January, Donna Lucretia
started on her journey from the Vatican to her hus-
band in Ferrara. She rode straightway to the
Bridge of San Angelo, from there to the left past
the house of the former Cardinal of Parma through
the Porta del Popolo. In her retinue she had about
six horses, and she wore no luxurious garments.
The order of the outriders was the usual one includ-
ing the armed guards. Behind them rode the Car-
dinal Francesco Borgia whom the Pope had recently
named papal legate de latere in order to conduct
Donna Lucretia through the territory of the
Church. He rode between Don Ferdinand at the

157

158 POPE ALEXANDER VI AND HIS COURT

right and Don Sigismund at the left. Then came
Donna Lucretia between the Cardinal d'Este at the
right and Cesare Borgia at the left, and behind them
their men in rank and file. There was no bishop,
prothonotary or abbot in the train, but instead the
papal shield-bearers and Roman nobles, who accom-
panied Lucretia on their own account. They all
had on new garments of gold and silver brocades
and divers silken stuffs made for the occasion. Fur-
thermore the Pope had during these days requested
the cardinals through my colleague that each of
them should lend three horses or mules and he had
also asked many bishops, more than twenty in num-
ber, that they should each put one stallion or one
steed at the disposal of the escort of Lucretia to
Ferrara which they did. A few cardinals, however,
contributed only a single horse or mule and none of
the borrowed animals was ever returned.

The other day, before the Cardinal d'Este came
to Rome with his suite, the Pope bethought him of
his own will to honor those who had appeared with
him in addition to his servants, and were to make
the journey to Ferrara with Donna Lucretia, and
distributed the new arrivals with their attendants
among the houses of those who belonged to the curia.
To each cleric of the Camera he assigned twelve per-
sons and twelve horses and the same number to the
clerics of the collegium, and to the other officials a
certain number, to each alike. Every one had to

CLOSING YEARS 159

bear the whole expense of entertaining the guests
who were quartered upon him except for the partial
contribution that the Pope or the Apostolic Camera
made per man and beast. Furthermore it was said
that the Pope extended the carnival in Ferrara to
the eve of Laetare Sunday, so that they could eat
meat in the meantime without penance, and could
hold celebrations and make merry in honor of the
arrival of Donna Lucretia.

During the night of Friday, the 27th of January,
1502, the brother of Signor Giovanni Lorenzo of
Venice was arrested, who is said to have translated
into Latin and sent to Venice a pamphlet against the
Pope and Cesare Borgia written in Greek by the said
Giovanni. During this night his whole goods and
belongings, including those Giovanni had left behind,
books and other things were dragged out of his house
and nothing was left within. This was reported im-
mediately to the Signoria of Venice, which wrote
back and instructed its ambassador to make repre-
sentations to the Pope with a view to his liberation.
In pursuance of this instruction the ambassador pre-
sented the letter together with the request for his
liberation to the Pope on Monday, the 31st of Janu-
ary.

The Pope is said to have answered that he had not
realized that this matter was one of such great inter-
est to the Signoria and consequently it was a matter
of regret to him to be unable to grant their request

160 POPE ALEXANDER VI AND HIS COURT

for the reason that he for whom they petitioned had
already been disposed of. For according to report
he had been strangled as the Pope came back to
Rome and thrown into the Tiber.

On the 1st of March, 1502, the Pope and his son,
Cesare Borgia, had gone on a pleasure trip, each on
his own ship with his suite.

On Sunday, the 5th of March, the two ships con-
tinued their journey in spite of the stormy sea and
weather to Corneto in the neighborhood of which
they put in. The Duke, apprehending greater dan-
ger, left the ship at the dinner hour, entered a small
boat and rowed for the shore. There he sent to
Corneto for horses and rode to the city. The Pope,
however, was not able to make the harbor with his
ship, whereupon all on board were stricken with fear,
and frightened by the stormy sea cast themselves
down here and there on the floor of the boat.

The Pope alone remained sitting firm and un-
afraid in his armchair on the quarterdeck and looked
on at everything, and when the wild seas dashed
against the ship, he said : " Jesus ! " and crossed
himself. He frequently addressed the sailors, order-
ing them to prepare food for the meal. But they ex-
cused themselves on the plea that they were unable
to make any fire on account of the disturbed sea and
the continuous tempest. When after a time the sea
had subsided somewhat they fried fishes which the
Pope ate. On the evening of this Saturday the Pope

CLOSING YEARS 161

returned by ship with his whole retinue to Porto
Ercole and sent the same night to Corneto for riding
accommodations which arrived on the following Sun-
day.

On Thursday, the 9th of June, 1502, there was
found in the Tiber strangled with a cross-bow around
his neck the Signer of Faenza, a young man of about
18 years, and of such handsome figure and appear-
ance that his like could hardly have been found
among a thousand young men of his age. There
were also found two young people bound to each
other by the arms, the one fifteen years of age and
the other twenty-five years, and with them a woman
and many others.

On Sunday, the 3rd of July, 1502, a strong rope
was stretched in that court of the Vatican where the
Cardinals usually dismount from their horses, four
or five rods above the ground and ten to twelve rods
long. Upon this rope a man-at-arms of Alphonso
d'Este, the husband of Lucretia, gave a performance
carrying a boy on his shoulders and exhibited vari-
ous other feats of rope-dancing. The Pope looked
on with many cardinals, prelates and others as spec-
tators.

On the same' Sunday at about seven o'clock there
passed away in the convent of Minerva at the age of
almost hundred years a friar, George Alemanus of
Steiermark, of the third order of the Dominicans.
The monks give numerous examples of his praise-

162 POPE ALEXANDER VI AND HIS COURT

worthy and religious life, asserting that he went
straight to heaven. They laid him in his cowl on
a bier before the high altar of the church of the con-
vent. And there he lay stretched out straight while
during his lifetime he had gone around bowed over
and very bent. He lay in this state the following
Monday and Tuesday until vespers when he was
lifted up on the bier before the altar. The people
trooped by in masses and there was a mighty throng.
Many friars stood near the bier around the altar as
a guard against the crowd. I also saw him. He
was well preserved and had no odor of putrefaction.
Many miracles are said to have been worked on the
lame and the sick, whom he restored to health, but I
could not discover anything reliable. When the
Pope heard of the matter he ordered him to be
buried during the night of Wednesday, which took
place in the presence of the bargello of the city.

On Wednesday, the 6th of July, 1502, at nine
o'clock in the morning a cleric of the diocese of Basle
by the name of Hieronymus was placed with the cap
of infamy on his head on a wooden ladder which was
propped against the columns of benediction on the
steps of Saint Peter before the place of audience.
He had confessed that he had signed and dated
eleven petitions with the name of the Cardinals
Pallvicini and San Giorgio and with the inscription
on the back : " Registrata," and furthermore with
the book and page of the register of promotions for

CLOSING YEARS 163

the holy ordinations. He had also added the name
of the cleric of the camera as though they had been
admitted by him to the ordinations.

Thus the auditor of the Camera told to me and
many others the same morning. At his feet a peas-
ant was stationed also with a cap of disgrace for
having borne false witness. And so they stood until
the end of the consistorium and the audience which
lasted about five hours.

On Tuesday, the 12th of July, the Cardinal
d'Albret and Fra^ois Troches returned to Rome
with their mistresses as secretly as they had de-
parted, without having executed their order to ap-
prehend the Cardinal Giuliano delle Rovere because
the Lord protected him from the hands of the im-
pious.

On Wednesday, the 20th of July, 1502, at nine
o'clock Giovanni Battista de Ferrari, Cardinal of
Modena and Capua, delivered his soul to the guard-
ian of Orcus in his apartment in the Vatican. He
was taken sick on Sunday, the 3rd of July, and did
not allow himself to be bled nor to have an enema
administered, nor did he take any syrups, pills or
any other medicine. Instead on the fourth or fifth
day of his sickness he had a bread soup made with a
cup of the best Corsican wine. He ate this and
drank the wine.

On Wednesday, the 10th of July, 1502, he made
confession and received the sacrament of the Eucha-

164 POPE ALEXANDER VI AND HIS COURT

rist. On this day a fever resulting from two in-
termittent fevers which was very violent and which
he had in addition to his constant fever, stopped and
only appeared again on Saturday, the 16th. He
had several capable physicians who visited him con-
stantly but they could not persuade him to take any
medicine until Sunday, the 17th, when he took one-
sixth or eighth of the medicine prescribed which
only served to hurt more than help him. Nor did
he want to make any will or choose any burial place
or make any bequests or gifts to his servants. On
the morning before his death, perhaps in the de-
lirium, he complained that somebody with whom he
had made arrangements for a petition had cheated
him to the extent of ten ducats. Two monks were
present who remarked this. They brought him back
to consciousness, held the crucifix before him and
said : " Venerable Lord, do not worry about ar-
rangements, but take your refuge to this, entrust
yourself to Him who will redeem you from all fraud
and deception." Thereupon he kissed the crucifix,
touched his lip and made the sign of contrition.
Soon afterwards he breathed forth his spirit. May
he rest in peace!

The same morning a secret consistorium was held,
at which the Pope transferred the church of Capua
which had become vacant through the death of Fer-
rari to the Cardinal d'Este. As the head of the
church of Modena he appointed the brother of the

CLOSING YEARS 165

deceased, Don Francesco de Ferrari, an uncouth
man and a layman, who had come to Rome on Mon-
day, the 18th, at the news of the illness of his
brother, the Cardinal. In order to receive the
church of the deceased Cardinal he had spent all his
own money in bribery for this purpose and had also
renounced the whole estate of his brother.

The elected was clothed, immediately after the
conclusion of the consistorium, in the ecclesiastical
robes in which he appeared to us like a monster. On
account of my former acquaintance with him I gave
him my hand in order to congratulate him. He
took it and was for kissing it if I had not withdrawn
my hand.

The Pope charged my colleague and ordered that
the same arrangements should be made for his fu-
neral as had been made upon the death of the Cardi-
nal of Capua, who had died on the 15th of August of
the previous year. In his anteroom we prepared a
bier, on which we laid the dead at six o'clock adorned
with all the priestly vestments which had been newly
made for him from violet taffeta. At the right and
the left six torches were set up. Here he lay until
nine o'clock. Neither the Cardinals nor their suites
nor other clerics were invited into the palace. The
clergy of Saint Peter's awaited him with the cross in
the outer hall of the church. The beneficiaries of
Saint Peter's bore the dead from his chamber to the
place of the burial, preceded by thirty torch-bear-

166 POPE ALEXANDER VI AND HIS COURT

ers. The Responsorium was sung in the customary
manner in the center of the church. He was then
carried to the chapel of Santa Maria delle Febbri
where he was to be interred.

All torches were taken away and I retained but
one with difficulty to lighten the funeral. One of
his confidential men threw himself upon the corpse
and drew a ring off his hand, which the dead Cardi-
nal had bought for two carlines. He also took an
old wallet from him which was worth hardly two
carlines and which the same confidential man had
received from the papal sacristy with the promise to
give it back again.

The coffin was somewhat too small; therefore a
carpenter kneeled on the corpse to force it in. He
was buried barely two spans deep below the floor be-
sides the wall and the outer pavement between the
altar of Santa Maria delle Febbri and the altar of
Pope Calixtus III. For a few days the place of
burial was without a sign nor were there any torches
placed on it as was the custom with cardinals.

Finally this was done by the beneficiaries of Saint
Peter's, to whom fifty carlines were paid according
to agreement for carrying the corpse. The tomb
looked for a few days like the grave of one who had
been hanged, for some rascals had scratched two
gallows on it and had engraved above the one from
which a rope hung down, the words : " The Lord
will demand the intercessions from your hands and

CLOSING YEARS 167

you will have to account for them. If you cannot
you will be tortured with eternal punishment."

Because he was severe against the poor and alto-
gether too cruel and frequently of the utmost hard-
ness toward all, and sold the livings and offices as
dearly as he could in order to please the people, he
had brought upon himself general despite and con-
tempt. Several people had therefore made epitaphs
to his inglorious memory, twenty-seven of which
came into my hands.1

I was also told that there had been found one
morning a placard affixed at the outer door of the
apartments of the deceased cardinal in the Vatican
upon which were inscribed the words : Bos bona,
terra corpus, Styx animam. (" The ox the goods,
the earth the body, the Styx the soul." ) Further-
more it was said, that a Frenchman had told the
following story in the servants' room of the Arch-
bishop Sacchis de Ragusa. Ferrari appeared be-
fore the portal of heaven and knocked, petitioning
to enter the realm of God. Peter asked then:
*' Who is knocking there ? " He answered : " He
from Modena." Whereupon Peter replied : " If
you do not pay a thousand ducats, you cannot en-

iThe following is a specimen of one of these pasquinades:

Iron-made was my family called, but golden

through me,
And the cause of this was not virtue but

robbery.

168 POPE ALEXANDER VI AND HIS COURT

ter the realm of God." Modena. answered : " I
have no money." Thereupon Peter : " Then give
me five hundred." The answer was : " I have
neither thousand nor five hundred. Poor I departed
from life, robbed of all my possessions, livings,
money, gold and silver vessels, and all my riches have
been taken by the Pope. Naked I come ; in the name
of God have pity upon me." Peter went down step
by step from five hundred to one ducat, which he
wanted to levy as admission from him. But when
Ferrari continued to advance the pretext of his
poverty, Peter told him : " If you cannot even pay
one ducat, go to the devil and stay poor with him to
all eternity."

The Frenchman thus alluded to the life and con-
duct of Ferrari who extorted money from the poor
with great cruelty. He had pity for none, but sent
the poor always to the devil, to enjoy eternal pov-
erty with him. That is also why Peter above con-
signed him to the eternal fire of hell. So Ferrari
comes to hell and knocks there. The doorkeeper
asks who knocks. He receives the answer : " He
from Modena." The doorkeeper bargains in .the
same way about the price. And as Ferrari was not
ready to pay anything, he drove him away and as-
signed him a place aside where he should be tor-
mented with eternal punishment.

I feel deeply grieved in soul that he had been so
cruel to the poor and had bethought himself so little

CLOSING YEARS 169

of the welfare of his soul, while he showed toward me
only munificence, generosity and appreciation.
May Almighty God have mercy upon his soul. He
is reported to have left thirty thousand double
ducats in coined money, ten thousand in other coin,
and gold and silver vessels to the value of ten thou-
sand ducats. That he left so many ducats, I hardly
believe.

On the first day of Christmas, 1502, thirty masked
men with long thick noses in the form of enormous
phalli preceded after dinner to the place of Saint
Peter. Before them a cardinal's chest was borng,
to which was affixed a shield with three dice. Then
came the masked fellows and behind them some one
rode in a long coat and an old cardinal's hat. The
fellows rode also on donkeys, some of them on such
small ones that their feet touched the ground and
that they walked thus astride together with the don-
keys. They went up to the little place between the
portal of the palace and the hall of audience, where
they showed themselves to the Pope who stood at the
window above the portal in the Loggia Paulina.
Then they made a procession through the whole city.

At two o'clock on the night of the 3rd of Janu-
ary, 1503, the Pope made known to the Cardinal
Orsini and to Jacobus de Santa Croce that Cesare
Borgia had now taken the Castle of Sinigaglia.
Therefore, in order to congratulate the Pope, the
cardinal rode in the morning to the Vatican, and

170 POPE ALEXANDER VI AND HIS COURT

with. him the governor of the city who made as if
he accompanied him by accident. After the cardinal
had alighted in the palace, all his horses and mules
were brought to the papal stables and he found him-
self suddenly surrounded by armed men in the
Camera Papagalli and fainted. He was brought im-
mediately to the Torre di Nona prison, behind the
garden or arbor of the Pope into the room of the
Bishop Gamboa and with him afterwards the Pro-
tonotary Orsini, Jacobus de Santa Croce, and the
Abbot Bernardo de Alvino who were all kept there in
confinement.

The secretary and treasurer of the Pope, Adriano
Castelli, who had on the preceding night read the let-
ter of Cesare to the Pope in which he notified the
Pope that he should arrest the Cardinal Orsini and
Jacobus in the morning, did not want to leave the
papal chamber that night so that if the Cardinal
Orsini should be warned, the Pope might not suspect
that he had done it.

The same Adriano sent for the Archbishop Rin-
aldo Orsini of Florence on the morning that the
cardinal rode to the Vatican and had him arrested
and placed under guard in his room in the Vatican.
After the arrest of the cardinal the governor rode
with all his men to his house on the Monte Giordano,
locked it, placed guards before it and took up his
residence there himself. While this was happening

CLOSING YEARS 171

in Rome, Cesare had apprehended in Sinigaglia,
Vitelozzo Vitelli, Paolo Orsini, Don Francesco, Duke
de Gravina . . . and Liberotto . . . de Ferma,1
and of these he caused Vitelozzo and Liberotto to be
strangled within a few hours by Michelotto ; the
Duke de Gravina, Paolo and Don Francesco he kept
under strict guard.

The son of Paolo, Fabio Orsini, prudently fled
with all possible haste, when he saw the arrest of
his father and the others. After the apprehension
of the Cardinal Orsini, the rumor spread in Rome
that the Pope was dead and that Naples had been
taken by the Spaniards, but there was nothing in
it. When the Cardinal Cesarini heard of the arrest
of the Cardinal Orsini, he had his bell rung as a
signal for riding away, and without delay he
mounted his mule and rode in all haste through high-
ways and byways to the Vatican. He remained
there a short while but soon wearied of this he re-
turned to his residence as he had come.

This day and the following night Carlo Orsini
was held a prisoner in the chamber of the Torre di
Nona. The next day he was brought into the rooms
above the main chapel and kept there under guard
until vespers of the next Thursday. Then he was
transferred to the Castle San Angelo where the ma-
jor-domo received him in his room. The prothono-
1 The dots indicate gaps in the manuscript.

172 POPE ALEXANDER VI AND HIS COURT

tary and the abbott were brought there soon after the
arrest. Jacobus de Santa Croce was kept a prisoner
in the Vatican.

Cesare Borgia had seized the prisoners mentioned
above in the following way. When he was lying be-
fore the Castle of Sinigaglia with Vitelozzo, Paolo
and the others he pretended that he did not want
yet to advance against the castle, but preferred
rather to take a meal first and he invited those men-
tioned to partake with him. The Duke entered the
house followed by Paolo, to whom he had extended a
special invitation. Then came Vitelozzo, whom
Paolo had caused to be called, and the others came
behind them. When they were all within the court-
yard, the Duke went into one of the rooms, where-
upon Michelotto and many others surrounded Vi-
telozzo as well as Paolo, with the words : " You
are under arrest." Thereupon Vitelozzo snatched
out his dagger and wounded several who had thrown
themselves upon him. This was in vain, for he and
others were put into prison and treated as has been
told.

On Wednesday, the 4th of January, Jacobus de
Santa Croce engaged himself to the Pope to report
at any time and place that he should desire. For
this he pledged himself and his property as a bond
for the fines of the papal chamber. Several citizens
took a guaranty of twenty thousand ducats upon
themselves and he was set at liberty on the same day

CLOSING YEARS 173

and returned to his residence soon after vespers.
In the evening of the same day the governor stayed in
the apartment of the Archbishop Orsini of Florence
and after dinner he had all possessions of the Car-
dinal Orsini and of the Archbishop brought in their
carriages and other vehicles to the Vatican or to his
own house according to his pleasure. Many things
were also taken by the soldiers and others and car-
ried away.

On Thursday, the 5th of January, 1503, the sun
shone through the clouds early in the morning and
then retired behind them. It did not rain until ves-
pers, but then rain fell during the whole night and
the next day.

The same morning Jacobus de Santa Croce rode
with Prince Goffrcdo, the son of the Pope, to Monte
Rotonca and in the name of the Pope took posses-
sion of it as well as of all land of the Orsini and also
of the Abbey of Farfa.

At the usual hour the papal vespers were said in
the main chapel. Mass was conducted with the
Cardinal San Giorgio officiating. The Pope was not
present. After this the cardinals went to the Pope
to intercede for the Cardinal Orsini. The Pope told
them of the conspiracy of Vitelozzo, of the Orsini,
of Baglioni and Pandolfo and their accomplices for
the assassination of Cesare Borgia, who wanted to
take revenge on them. Their intercession was of no
avail.

174 POPE ALEXANDER VI AND HIS COURT

The same day the city of Perugia surrendered to
the Pope. Its tyrant Giovanni Paolo had previously
fled to Pandolfo in Siena.

On the 6th of January, 1503, after dinner the gov-
ernor rode to the residence of the auditor of the
camera, Bishop Petro Menzi of Cesena, summoned
him to his presence, sick as he was, and brought him
to the Castle San Angelo where he had him locked
up and placed under guard. Then he went to the
Vatican and from there to the residence of Andrea
Spiriti of Viterbo, prothonotary of the Apostolic
See and cleric of the papal camera, with whom he
proceeded as he had done with Menzi. When the
prothonotary realized that he had been arrested, he
threw the keys of his library and his money chest
into the sewer, for what reason I do not know.

The following Saturday the governor ordered all
the possessions of the bishop auditor as well as of
the prothonotary to be carried from his residence to
the Vatican. It was said that only very little had
been found in the house of the prothonotary.

Alarmed by the arrest of the auditor and the
prothontary, Spiriti, the Bishop of Chiusi, Sinoflo of
Castle Lotario, cleric of the Apostolic camera and
papal Secretary, contracted the fever and made his
will on Saturday, the 4th of January, and as execu-
tors he designed the Cardinals Pallavicini and Pic-
colomini. To the Pope he bequeathed a hundred

CLOSING YEARS 175

ducats. Soon afterward he gave up the ghost.
May he rest in peace. Amen.

When the Pope heard of his demise, he sent my
colleague, Bernardino Gutterii, and one of the ushers
of his chamber to the residence of the deceased to
guard the house and the property within. There
appeared also the Bishop Petrucci de Soana in the
name of one of the executors, Piccolomini. All ec-
clesiastical paraments were of purple cloth newly
made for the deceased. The governor came also,
and he alone was admitted by the two emissaries of
the Pope, but he did not touch anything.

On Wednesday, January the 18th, 1503, the Duke
of Gravina, Paolo Orsini, and the Knight Orsini, who
had been taken prisoner recently in Sinigaglia, were
strangled by Michelotto and Marco Romano by or-
der of Cesare Borgia at the Castle della Pieve in the
territory of Siena.

On Wednesday, the 23rd of January, 1503, the re-
port was circulated in Rome that Cesare had
brought under his rule recently Chiusi and Pienza as
well as the places of Sarteano, Castle della Pieve and
Santo Quirico, where only two old men and nine old
women were found. The men of the Duke hung them
up by the arms and lighted fires beneath their soles,
in order to force them through tlu's torture to con-
fess where property had been hidden. But they
could or would not confess and perished under the

176 POPE ALEXANDER VI AND HIS COURT

torture. The villainous band tore the roofs from
the houses, the beams, windows, doors, chests and
barrels, from which they had let the wine run out,
and set fire to everything. They took with them
whatever they could plunder in the places they
passed through, as well as in Aquapendente, Monte-
fiascone, Viterbo, and everywhere else.

In the evening of the 1st of February, 1503, a
corpse was found in the river near the Ponte Nuovo
without clothing and with scarlet stockings. Dur-
ing these days Antonio de Pistorio and his associate
were forbidden to see the Cardinal Orsini to whom
they were accustomed to bring every day the food
and drinks sent by his mother. This was done, as it
has been said, because the Pope had requested from
the cardinal two thousand ducats which a relative of
the cardinal had deposited for the sale of a large
pearl to him. The pearl had been bought by the
cardinal himself for the price of two thousand ducats
from a certain Virgilio Orsini or his heirs. In order
to come to the assistance of her son, the mother of
the cardinal, when she heard of it, paid the Pope the
two thousand ducats, and the mistress of the cardi-
nal, who had the said pearl, procured admission to
the Pope in male attire and presented him the pearl.
Possessed of the pearl and the money, the Pope gave
the order that the two should be allowed again as be-
fore to bring the cardinal food and drink. The
cardinal had, however, in the meantime, as the people

CLOSING YEARS 177

said, emptied the cup that had been prepared for him
by order and direction of the Pope.

On Thursday, the 2nd of February, 1503, the
feast of Purification, the Pope blessed and dis-
tributed the candles in the main chapel without any
crowding. Nevertheless he had around himself the
wooden railing. Two conservators held the candles
for the Pope. Cardinal Castro celebrated the sol-
emn mass in the chapel. All this was done in the
usual and customary manner.

On Monday, the 13th of February, 1503, it was
said in Rome, that Giangiordano Orsini had sur-
rendered to the Pope and Cesare without any condi-
tion, that furthermore, Pandolfo Petrucci of Siena
and Gian Paolo Baglioni of Perugia had been taken
prisoners on Florentine territory.

On Wednesday, the 15th of February, 1503, the
Cardinal d'Este departed from Rome after the con-
sistory in which he had taken part, in order to re-
turn to Ferrara on account of the resentment Cesare
Borgia bore toward him because he loved the princely
sister-in-law of Cesare and had had intercourse with
her as also had had Cesare.

On Thursday, the 16th of February, the Pope
sent bombards to Cesare from the Castle San Angelo
to aid in reducing Bracciano.

On Monday, the 20th of February, a secret con-
sistory was held during which the Pope told the
cardinals that the Orsini were planning to invade

178 POPE ALEXANDER VI AND HIS COURT

Rome by stealth and to pillage the houses of the
cardinals. He, therefore, warned the cardinals that
every one of them should lay in a store of provisions
for himself in his house and protect it with artillery.
He complained of Cesare that hitherto he had not
been willing to obey his orders concerning the con-
quest of Bracciano and the other strongholds of the
Orsini, but that he preferred to listen to the King of
France, although he was captain of the church. He
declared he would insist in any case on the capture
of Bracciano and the other places. Furthermore,
Cardinal Orsini had offered him 25,000 ducats for
his release. He had consoled and admonished him
to be of good cheer and before all to take good care
of his health, since everything was of secondary
importance, and he had ordered all the physicians
to take the greatest care of the welfare of the car-
dinal.

On Wednesday, the 22nd of February, the Car-
dinal Orsini died in the Castle of San Angelo. May
his soul rest in peace ! Amen !

The Pope commanded my colleague, Bernardino
Gutterii, to arrange the funeral of the deceased. I
will not, therefore, attend the ceremony myself nor
have anything to do with it, as I have no wish to learn
aught that docs not concern me.1

i It is highly probable that the cardinal was poisoned by
order of the Borgias.

XIV

THE DEATH AND FUNERAL OF
ALEXANDER

S~\N 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 super-
vened.

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.

There were present, in addition, only the datary
and the papal grooms. Cesare, who was lying sick
in bed, sent Michelotto with many men, who locked

179

180 POPE ALEXANDER VI AND HIS COURT

all doors at the entrance to the residence of the
Pope. One of them drew a dagger and threatened
Cardinal Casanova, if he did not give him the keys
and the money of the Pope, he would stab him and
throw him out of the window, whereupon the fright-
ened cardinal surrendered the keys to him. One
after the other they entered the room behind the
chamber of the Pope and took all the silver they could
find as well as two chests with 100,000 ducats each.
At eight o'clock they opened the doors again and
the death of the Pope became known. In the mean-
time his servants had appropriated whatever was left
in the wardrobes and they left nothing but the papal
armchairs, a few cushions, and the rugs on the
walls. Cesare did not appear during the whole ill-
ness of the Pope and not even at his death. Nor
did the Pope mention him or Lucretia with one word.

After seven o'clock my colleague arrived at the
Vatican, and was recognized and admitted. He
found the Pope dead and had him washed by the
servant of the sacristy, Balthasar, and a papal serv-
ant. Then they put on him all his everyday gar-
ments and a white coat without a train which he
had never worn -while alive. Over this they put a
surplice. And thus they laid him on a bier in the
ante-chamber of the hall, where he had died, with a
crimson silk and a beautiful carpet over him.

After eight o'clock my colleague sent for me and
I came. The cardinals in the city had not yet re-

THE FUNERAL OF ALEXANDER 181

ceived any announcement, but during the time that I
went to the Vatican, it was communicated to them.
But none of them made any move nor did they meet
anywhere else. I suggested to Carafa that he ought
to prepare for imminent dangers and after nine
o'clock he notified all the cardinals, through his sec-
retary, that they should deign to appear the next
morning in Santa Maria Minerva. There, in the
middle of the sacristy, four benches were placed for
the cardinals in a quadrangle. When I came to the
Pope I dressed him in red robes all of brocade, with
a short fanon, a beautiful chasuble, and with stock-
ings. And as there was no cross on the shoes, I
put on instead his daily slippers of crimson velvet
with the golden cross which I bound with two strings
to the back of the heels. His ring was missing and
I could not recover it. Thereupon we carried him
through the two rooms, the hall of the Pontiffs,
and the audience room, to the Camera Papagalli,
where we prepared a beautiful table of one rod in
length with a crimson cover and a beautiful rug
over it. We obtained four cushions of brocade and
one of crimson velvet. The one of old crimson vel-
vet we did not use, but of the others we laid one
under the shoulders of the Pope, two besides and one
beneath the head and over this an old carpet. And
so he lay throughout the night with two torches,
quite alone, although the prothonotaries had been
invited to read the burial service.

182 POPE ALEXANDER VI AND HIS COURT

I returned to the city during the night, after
twelve o'clock, accompanied by eight palace-guards.
In the name of the Vice-chancellor I ordered the run-
ner Carlo, together with his companions, under pen-
alty of the loss of his office, to inform the whole
clergy of Rome, both regular and secular, that they
should be at the Vatican on the morrow at nine
o'clock in the morning to escort the body from the
main chapel to St. Peter's. Two hundred torches
were prepared for the escort of the Pope.

On the following Monday, the 19th of August,
1503, I had the coffin brought to the Camera Papa-
galli and laid the body in it. The subdeacon, in his
cloak, stood ready to carry the cross, but we could
not find the papal cross. The shield-bearers and a
few servants of the chamber were called together to
bear forty-three torches as well as four penitentiaries,
namely the Bishop of Milopotamo, Claudius, Cata-
leni, Andreas Frisner, and Arnold de Bedietto of the
order of the Minorites. During the night they sung
the requiem, sitting on the window-bench and laying
their hands on the bier of the Pope, which was then
carried by the poor who stood around in order to
see the Pope. I then put a double mattress into
the coffin and over it a beautiful new bishop's cloak
of brocade of pale mauve with two new veils on
which were embroidered the arms of Pope Alexander.
I then laid the Pope on this and covered him with
an old rug and placing an old pillow beneath his

THE FUNERAL OF ALEXANDER 183

shoulders and two cushions of brocade beneath his
head. Two new crimson hats with golden strings I
took home with me. The body thus wrapped up
was borne by our servants, but they became appre-
hensive that they would not be able to carry it out
of the palace which they were quite well, and they
left it to the chaplain of the palace, the Bishop of
Sessa, to guard him.

We brought the Pope to the main chapel, where
the regular, clergy of Rome, the clergy of St. Peter's,
and the canons with the cross assembled. Then he
was carried from the main chapel to the center of
St. Peter's. First came the cross, then the monks of
St. Onofrio, the Paulist Fathers, the Franciscans,
Augustinians and Carmelites, three brethren only of
the Order of the Predicants together with the clergy
of St. Peter's and the chamberlain of the Roman
clergy in stole and pluviale with a few priests.
About a hundred-and-forty torches were borne for
the most part by the "clerics and beneficiaries of St,
Peter's and by servants and retainers of the Pope.
Then came the body. The beneficiaries and clerics
surrounded the coffin without any order, and it was
carried by the poor who had stood around it in the
chapel, while four or six canons went beside them with
their hands on the bier. Only four prelates followed
the coffin, two by two, namely, the major-domo,
Bishop Deza of Zamora, his vicar Gamboa, and the
bishops of Narni and Sessa,

184 POPE ALEXANDER VI AND HIS COURT

When the coffin was deposited in the center of the
church, the Ncm intres in judicium, etc., should have
been recited, but there was no book there. While
we were waiting for it in vain, the clergy intonated
the responsorium : Libera me, Domine. During the
singing some soldiers of the palace-guard attempted
to appropriate several torches. The clergy de-
fended itself against them and the soldiers turned
their weapons against the clergy, who left their
singing and fled to the sacristy. And the Pope was
left lying there almost alone. I took up the bier
together with three others and we carried him up
to the main altar and the papal throne and placed
him with the head towards the altar, closing the choir
behind the coffin. The bishop of Sessa feared that if
the people came near to theidead, there might be a
scandal, that is, some one whom the dead had injured
might take revenge upon him. Therefore he had
the coffin taken away again and had it deposited at
the entrance of the chapel between the stairs, the feet
so near to the rails and the door that one could touch
them easily with the hand through the railing.
There it remained the whole day through behind the
well-closed railing.

In the meantime sixteen cardinals had assembled
in Sta. Maria Minerva after nine o'clock. They
appointed Archbishop Sachis of Ragusa as governor
of Rome and assigned two hundred soldiers to him.
The office of the chamberlain they handed over to

THE FUNERAL OF ALEXANDER 185

Cardinal Vera. And to these two they entrusted
the supervision of the gates of Rome and of the
populace and the clergy. The leaden seal of Alex-
ander VI was broken before them in their presence
by the plumbators, and they ordered that the papal
ring should be handed over to the datary, which
was done by Cardinal Casanova, while Pallavicini
and Borgia charged themselves with the task of tak-
ing an inventory of the possessions of the Pope in
his chamber. The congregation ended about three
o'clock.

After dinner the cardinals before named, together
with the clerics of the Camera, took an inventory of
the silver and costly furnishings. They found the
papal crown and two precious tiaras, all the rings
which the Pope used at the mass, and the whole
service of vessels used by the Pope when officiating,
as much as could be packed into eight large chests.
There were furthermore silver vessels in the first
chamber behind the papal apartment, which Michel-
otto Neri had overlooked, and a box of Cyprus wood
which was covered with a green cloth and had also
not been discovered. In this box were precious
stones and rings to the value of about twenty-five
thousand ducats, many papers, among them the oath
of the cardinals, the bull of investiture of the king-
dom of Naples and various other documents.

The cleric of the chamber, Fernando Ponzetto,
made arrangements during my absence with the car-

186 POPE ALEXANDER VI AND HIS COURT

penters, Michaele and Buccio, for a catafalque in
the middle of the church of St. Peter fifteen spans in
length, twelve spans in width and six spans in height ;
furthermore, for a railing in the aisle, besides the
catafalque to hold fifty torches and a hundred-and-
fifty torchholders, also for benches for the mourners
and a hundred prelates — everything for the price
of a hundred-and-fifteen ducats, the ducat at ten
carlines. He also arranged for a credence for the
celebrant and that they should execute the catafalque
and everything else during the whole of the follow-
ing day.

Meanwhile the Pope, as has been told before, stood
between the rails of the main altar and beside him
there burned four torches. The decomposition and
blackness of his face increased constantly so that
he looked at eight o'clock, when I saw him, like the
blackest cloth or the darkest negro, completely
spotted, the nose swollen, the mouth quite large, the
tongue swollen up, doubled so that it started out of
his lips, the mouth open, in short so horrible that
no one ever saw anything similar or declared to know
of it.

In the evening after nine o'clock he was brought
from there to the chapel of Santa Maria delle Febbri
and deposited in the corner on the wall at the left of
the altar by six porters who made jokes and allu-
sions to the Pope all the while. The two carpenters
had made the coffin too narrow and too short. They

THE FUNERAL OF ALEXANDER 187

laid the mitre by his side, covered him with an old
carpet and helped with their fists to fit him into the
coffin. All this without torches or any other illumi-
nation, without a priest or any person who took
care of his body ! Thus told me Lord Chrispolit of
St. Peter.

Hardness and falseness, madness and hate, rage, lustful

desire,
Thirsty for blood and for gold, a sponge that can never

be filled,

Alexander the sixth, here I lie; Roma rejoice thee
Free now at last; for my death was to mean new life

for you.

Alexander the sixth has smothered the world in carnage,
Pius revives it again, worthy in name and in deed,
Alexander has sold the altars and crosses and Christum:
What he had gotten before, now he distributes again.

APPENDIX

CHARLES VIII. — Philip de Comines, a contemporary
of the French King, describes him as lacking in intelli-
gence, and as being capricious and easily influenced,
while Guiccardini, also a contemporary, had a much
better opinion of him. Charles was short of stature
and short-necked, with a parrot-like nose of enormous
dimensions, a fiery birth-mark around his left eye, and
twelve toes on his feet, hidden in splayed shoes, which
set the fashion in foot-gear for the end of the fifteenth
century in Italy.

INNOCENT VIII. — A good description of Innocent is
contained in a report of the ambassador of Florence
to his ^government: " He is a man," the ambassador
writes, " of rather more than medium height, of fair
culture, pleasant and kindly as a cardinal, more so than
the dignity of a cardinal requires ; he appears to be a
man of peaceable disposition, but I doubt whether, in
time, his office may not change his mind. He has an
illegitimate son, who is now at Naples, a man of more
than twenty years of age, and some married daughters,
who themselves have sons ; he has a brother and nephews
besides, one of whom is a priest, a canon of St. Peter's,
Messer Lorenzo by name, and it is thought that he will
make him a cardinal at his first election of cardinals.
Filippo di Nerone has a niece of his as his mistress,
who was the wife of Stoldo Altovite, and when the Pon-

189

190 POPE ALEXANDER VI AND HIS COURT

tiff was a cardinal he held him in high esteem. He is
naturally rather stout, fifty-three years of age, very
prosperous, and an admirer of learned men."

Another contemporary, the historian Infessura, has
this of him to say: " The vicar of the Pope in Rome
and neighborhood, watchful of his flock as befits an
honorable man, published an edict forbidding clergy as
well as laics, whatever their position might be, to keep
mistresses either openly or in secret. The penalty for
so doing would be excommunication and confiscation of
their benefices, for it was a practice which redounded
to the discredit of priestly dignity and divine law.
When the Pope heard this, he summoned the vicar and
commanded him to annul the edict, saying that the prac-
tice was not forbidden. And indeed, such was the life
led by the clergy that there was hardly one who did not
keep a mistress. The number of harlots at that time
living in Rome amounted to 6800, not counting those
who practiced their nefarious trade under the cloak of
concubinage and those who exercised their arts in
secret."

ZIZIM (or DJEM). — He was the younger son of Ma-
homet II and was defeated by his brother, Bajazet,
when he attempted to drive him from the throne. He
then took refuge with the knights at Rhodes. Sultan
Bajazet used in turn both promises and threats to get
the fugitive into his power. For greater safety Zizim
went to France, where the Bishop of Aubusson under-
took, on consideration of a pension of 45,000 ducats
of gold, payable on the first of August in each year, to
defray all the prince's expenses, and prevent his flight

APPENDIX 191

to re-open the struggle against his brother. In violation
of his pledged word, the bishop treated the young prince
not as his guest but as a prisoner. Several European
princes insisted that Zizim should be delivered to them,
especially Matthias of Hungary, who wished to make
him serve his own designs against Bajazet II. The
grand-master of the knights at Rhodes refused, and
excused himself for his inability to deliver up Zizim,
whom he was detaining in the Pope's name. Upon the
representations of Innocent VIII, the King of France
permitted the prince to be taken to Rome. Thereupon
Turkish ambassadors came to Paris and made the most
alluring offers to Charles VIII, if he would undertake
to keep Zizim a prisoner. The king would not go back
upon his word, and the Turkish ambassadors withdrew.
Zizim died in 1495 and the general opinion of con-
temporaries was that the prince had been poisoned.
Money rewards for his death had indeed been offered
repeatedly by Sultan Bajazet. It seems more likely,
however, that the Turkish prince died a victim of the
very irregular life he led and the five heavy meals he
used to consume every day. It is very probable, though
not proven, that Alexander VI received a bribe of 300,000
ducats for the return of Zizim's dead body, which was
embalmed and shipped to Constantinople, where Bajazet
received it with great pomp and a parade of mourning.
An intercepted letter from the Sultan to the Pope men-
tioning this offer of money was delivered by Giovanni
della Rovere to his brother, the Cardinal, who, detesting
Alexander, promptly laid it before Charles VIII.

DG

797

B97M

SROBA