RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Alexander
and continued his journey toward Naples, where he was able to be crowned on May 12, Alfonso II. having fled. Alexander, however, joined the league founded at Venice (March 31) to drive him out of Italy and to support the house of Aragon in reconquering Naples. In return Alexander asked the hand of Carlotta, Princess of Naples, for his son Cesare, whom he had made archbishop of Valencia immediately after his own elevation and cardinal a year later. It was necessary to divorce Lucrezia from her husband Giovanni Sforza and marry her to a natural son of Alfonso II., the Duke of Bisceglia, which was accomplished in 1498. Cesare's marriage fell through, however; and, after resigning as cardinal, he married Charlotte d'Albret, sister of the King of Navarre, being made Duke of Valentinois by Louis XII., who received in return permission to divorce his wife.
Cesare went on with designs for an extensive temporal lordship by fair means and foul. The ruling families of the Romagna having been expelled or assassinated, Alexander gave him the title of Duke of Romagna in 1501. The hatred of father and son for the house of Aragon went further. Lucrezia's second husband was murdered by Cesare's orders in 1500; and a year later Alexander joined the league of Louis XII. and Ferdinand of Spain for the division of the kingdom of Naples between them. The years 1502 and 1503 mark the height of this dominion founded on blood. Alexander was already thinking of asking the emperor for Pisa, Sienna, and Lucca for his son and making him king of Romagna and the Marches, when death cut short his plans, through an attack of malarial fever (Aug. 18, 1503).
Of what his contemporaries thought Alexander capable may be seen from the story, long believed, that he was the victim of poison prepared by his orders for one of the cardinals whose estates he coveted. In recent years Alexander has been regarded by some as an unselfish pioneer of the unification of Italy, and attempts have even been made to represent him as a true follower of Christ; but his unworthiness is generally admitted, even by Roman Catholic writers. (A. Hauck.)
Bibliography: Creighton, Papacy, iv. 183-end, v. 1-57 (very full, valuable appendices of documents); Pastor, Popes, v. 375-523, vi. 1-180 (the Romanist side, with appendices of documents); A. Gordon, The Lives of Pope Alexander VI. and Caesar Borgia, 2 vols., London,
III (haS apPendix °f documents); Bower, Popes, iii. ^59-277; J. Fave, fitudes critiques sur I'histoire d' Alexandre VI., St. Brienc, 1859; M. J. H. Ollivier, Le Pape Alexandre VI., Paris, 1870; F. Gregorovius, Lucrezia ima™' J* Vols" Stutt«art. 1875, Eng. transl., London, JHU4 Kaiser, Der vielverleumdete Alexander VI., Ratis- 187Q- T b V' Nemec' PaPst Alexander VI., Klagenfurt, «'»; J. Burchard, Diarium sive rerum urbanarum commenlarn, 3 vols., Paris, 1883-85 (consult Index); Hefele, ^oncihengeschichte, viii. 300; C. G. Robertson, Ccesar tforma, London, 1891; Ranke, Popes, i. 35-36; F. Corvo, ^hromcles of the House of Borgia, New York, 1901. On ib S ^ COnsult F- Gregorovius, Lucretia Borgia,
Alexander VII. (Pabio Chigi): Pope 1655-67.
ne was nuncio in Cologne from 1639 to 1651, and
took part ln the negotiations which led up to the
peace of Westphalia, but declared that he would
into no communications with heretics, and
protested against the validity of the treaties of Miinster and Osnabriick. Innocent X. took a similar view, and on his return from Germany he made Chigi cardinal and finally secretary of state. It was due to the influence of Chigi that Innocent condemned the famous five propositions alleged to have been extracted from the Augustinus of Jansen. Innocent died Jan. 7, 1655, and a strong party in the conclave favored Chigi as one who would be likely to be free from the reproach of nepotism; but, though Spain supported him, the opposition of France (Mazarin had been for years his personal enemy) delayed the election until Apr. 7. Alexander VII. had the satisfaction of seeing the daughter of Gustavus Adolphus, Christina of Sweden, enter the Church, though her prolonged residence in Rome became a burden to him later. He was a consistent supuorter of the Jesuits, whom he succeeded in restoring to Venice, from which city they had been excluded since the conflict with Paul V He took their side wholly in the struggle with the Jansenists (see Jansen, Cornelius, Jansenism). He became embroiled with Louis XIV., first through the refusal of the French ambassador in Rome, the Duke of Crequi, to pay certain conventional civilities to the relatives of the pope, and then through an attack on the ambassador's servants and palace made by the Corsican guards of the pope. Louis was already displeased with Alexander for his consistent support of Cardinal de Retz against Mazarin, and for his retention, in spite of Louis's intercession in their behalf, of certain possessions to which the Farnese and Este families laid claim. In such a mood he took up the Corsican affair hotly, and wrote to Alexander of a breach of the law of nations, a crime whose parallel could hardly be found among barbarians. The papal nuncio was obliged to leave Paris, and French troops occupied Avignon and the Comtat Venaissin and threatened to invade the Italian states of the Church. Alexander, unable to find any allies, saw himself compelled to accede to the most humiliating demands of France in the treaty of Pisa (1664). He was obliged not only, by a special mission of two cardinals to Paris, to beg the king's pardon, but also that of the Duke de Crequi, and to erect a pyramid in a public place in Rome, with an inscription declaring the Corsicans incapable of serving the Holy See.
Since Alexander, like his predecessor, was closely allied with Spain, he was obliged to carry Innocent's policy still further when a struggle with Portugal arose. Innocent had refused to recognize Portugal as an independent monarchy when in 1640 it broke away from Spain under the house of Braganza; and had declined to confirm the bishops nominated by King John IV Alexander took the same course in regard to the bishops; the king accordingly allowed the bishoprics to remain vacant, and divided their estates and revenues among his courtiers, even thinking at one time of the extreme measure of an absolute breach with Rome and the establishment of a national Church, whose bishops should need confirmation from no one but the metropolitan. The conflict was finally settled by Clement IX. in 1669.
Alexander