§ 54. POPE ALEXANDER VI — BORGIA. 1492-1503. 465
the personality of its occupants, and cannot lose its dignity or gain essential worth by the worthiness or unworthiness of its occupants. Peter sinned deeply, and yet the supreme pastoral office was committed to him. It was from this standpoint that Pope Leo the Great declared that the dignity of St. Peter is not lost, even in an unworthy successor. Petri dignitas etiam in indigno hieredo non deficit.'''' Leo's words Pastor adopts as the motto of his history.
In such reasoning, the illustrations beg the question. No matter how clean or unclean the hands may be which handle it, lead remains lead, and no matter whether the setting be gold or tin, an opaque stone remains opaque which is held by them. The personal opinion of Leo the Great will not be able to stand against the growing judgment of mankind, that the Head of the Church does not commit the keeping of sacred truth to wicked hands or confide the pastorate over the Church to a man of unholy and lewd lips. The papal theory of the succession of Peter, even if there were no other hostile historic testimony, would founder on the personality of Alexander VI., who set an example of all depravity. Certainly the true successors of Peter will give in their conduct some evidence of the fulfilment of Christ's words "the kingdom of heaven is within you." Who looks for an illustration of obedience to the mandates of the Most High to the last pontiff of the 15th century ! i
1 Pastor, in the course of prolonged estimates, Gesch. der Papste, III. pp. vi, 501 sq., etc., says : " The life of this voluptuary — Genussmenschen — a man of untamed sensuality, contradicted at every point the demands of him he was called upon to represent. With unrestrained abandon, he gave himself up to a vicious life until his end." Ranke thus expresses himself. Hist, of the Popes, Germ, ed., I. 32. " All his life through, Alexander was bent on nothing else than to enjoy the world, to live pleasurably, to satisfy his passions and ambitions." The estimate of Gregorovius, City of Borne, VII. 525, is this: "No one can ever discover in Alexander's history any other guiding principle than the contemptible one of aggrandizing his children at any cost. To the despicable objects of nepotism and self-pre.servation he sacrificed his own conscience, the happiness of nations, the existence of Italy and the good of the Church." Bishop Creighton, IV. 43-49, lays such elaborate emphasis upon Alexander's knowledge of politics, firmness of purpose and affability of manners that one loses the impression of the baseness of his morals and the sacrilege to which he subjected h is office and himself. He seems to have been influenced by Roscoe's presentation of Alexander's "many great qualities," I. 195. 2h
466 THE MIDDLE AGES. A.D. 1294-1617.
§ 55. Julius II., the Warrior-Pope. 1503-1513.
Alexander's successor, Pius III., a nephew of Pius II., and a man of large family, succumbed, within a month after his election, to the gout and other infirmities. He was followed by Julian _Rovere, Alexander's old rival, who, as cardinal, had played a conspicuous part for more than 30 years. He proved to be the ablest and most energetic pontiff the Church had had since the days of Innocent IlTTancrGregory IX. in the 13th century.
At Alexander's death, Caesar Borgia attempted to control the situation. He afterwards told Machiavelli that he had made provision for every exigency except the undrearaed-of conjunction of his own and his father's sickness. ^ Consternation ruled in Rome, but with the aid of the ambassadors of France, Germany, Venice and Spain, Cresar was prevailed upon to withdraw from the city, while the Orsini and the Colonna families, upon which Alexander had heaped high insult, entered it again.
The election of Julian Rovere, who assumed the name of Julius^ II., was accomplished wiULiifiaGatcli October 31, 1503, after bribery had been freely resorted to. The Spanish cardinals, ll in numberlind still in a measure under Ctesar's control, gave their votes to the successful candidate on condition that Caesar should be recognized as gonfalonier of the church. The faithful jxipal master-of-ceremonies, whose Diary we have had occasion 1 o draw on so largely, was appointed bishop of Orta, but died two years later. Born in Savona of humble parentage and appointed to the sacred college by his uncle, Sixtus IV., Julius had recently returned to Rome after an exile of nearly 10 years. The income from his numerous bishoprics and other dignities made him the richest of the cardinals. Though piety was not one of the new pontiff's notable traits, his pontificate furnished an agreeable relief from the coarse crimes and domestic scandals of Alexander's reign. Itis true, he had afamily of three daughters, one of wliom, Felice, was married into the Orsini family in 1506, carrying with her a splendiddowry of 15,000ducats. But the marriage festivities were not appointed for the Vatican, nor 1 The Prince, ch. VII.