§ 56. Leo X. 1513–1521.

§ 56. Leo X. 1513–1521.

§ 56. Leo X. 1513–1521.

The warlike Julius II. was followed on the pontifical throne by the voluptuary, Leo X.,—the prelate whose iron will and candid mind compel admiration by a prince given to the pursuit of pleasure and an adept in duplicity. Leo loved ease and was without high aims. His Epicurean conception of the supreme office of Christendom was expressed in a letter he sent a short time after his election to his brother Julian. In it were these words, "Let us enjoy the papacy, for God has given it to us."⁸⁴⁶  The last pontificate of the Middle Ages corresponded to the worldly philosophy of the pontiff. Leo wanted to have a good time. . The idea of a spiritual mission never entered his head. No effort was made, emanating from the Vatican, to further the interests of true religion.

Born in Florence, Dec. 11, 1475, Giovanni de’ Medici, the second son of Lorenzo the Magnificent, had every opportunity which family distinction, wealth and learned tutors, such as Poliziano, could give. At 7 he received the tonsure, and at once the world of ecclesiastical preferment was opened to the child. Louis XI. of France presented him with the abbey of Fonte Dolce, and at 8 he was nominated to the archbishopric of Aix, the nomination, however, not being confirmed. A canonry in each of the cathedral churches of Tuscany was set apart for him, and his appointments soon reached the number of 27, one of them being the abbacy of Monte Cassino, and another the office of papal pronotary.⁸⁴⁷

The highest dignities of the Church were in store for the lad and, before he had reached the age of 14, he was made cardinal-deacon by Innocent VIII., March 9, 1489. Three years later, March 8, 1492, Giovanni received in Rome formal investment into the prerogatives of his office. The letter, which Lorenzo wrote on this latter occasion, is full of the affectionate counsels of a father and the prudent suggestions of the tried man of the world, and belongs in a category with the letters of Lord Chesterfield to his son. Lorenzo reminded Giovanni of his remarkable fortune in being made a prince of the church, all the more remarkable because he was not only the youngest member of the college of cardinals, but the first cardinal to receive the dignity at so tender an age. With pardonable pride, he spoke of it as the highest honor ever conferred upon the Medicean house. He warned his son that Rome was the sink of all iniquities and exhorted him to lead a virtuous life, to avoid ostentation, to rise early, an admonition the son never followed, and to use his opportunities to serve his native city. Lorenzo died a few months later.⁸⁴⁸  Forthwith the young prelate was appointed papal legate to Tuscany, with residence in his native city.

When Julius died, Giovanni de’ Medici was only 37. In proceeding to Rome, he was obliged to be carried in a litter, on account of an ulcer for which an operation was performed during the meeting of the conclave. Giovanni, who belonged to the younger party, had won many friends by his affable manners and made no enemies, and his election seems to have been secured without any special effort on his part. The great-grandson of the banker, Cosimo, chose the name of Leo X. He was consecrated to the priesthood March 17, 1513, and to the episcopate March 19. The election was received by the Romans with every sign of popular approval. On the festivities of the coronation 100,000 ducats, or perhaps as much as 150,000 ducats, were expended, a sum which the frugality of Julius had stored up.

The procession was participated in by 250 abbots, bishops and archbishops. Alfonso of Este, whom Julius II. had excommunicated, led the pope’s white horse, the same one he had ridden the year before at Ravenna. On the houses and

[picture with title below]

Pope Leo X

on the arches, spanning the streets, might be seen side by side statues of Cosmas and Damian, the patrons of the Medicean house, and of the Olympian gods and nymphs. On one arch at the Piazza di Parione were depicted Perseus, Apollo, Moses and Mercury, sacred and mythological characters conjoined, as Alexander Severus joined the busts of Abraham and Orpheus in his palace in the third century. A bishop, afterwards Cardinal Andrea della Valle, placed on his arch none but ancient divinities, Apollo, Bacchus, Mercury, Hercules and Venus, together with fauns and Ganymede. Antonio of San Marino, the silversmith, decorated his house with a marble statue of Venus, under which were inscribed the words—

Mars ruled; then Pallas, but Venus will rule forever.⁸⁴⁹

As a ruler, Leo had none of the daring and strength of his predecessor. He pursued a policy of opportunism and stooped to the practice of duplicity with his allies as well as with his enemies. On all occasions he was ready to shift to the winning side. To counteract the designs of the French upon Northern Italy, he entered with Maximilian, Henry VIII. and Ferdinand of Spain into the treaty of Mechlin, April 5, 1513. He had the pleasure of seeing the French beaten by Henry VIII. at the battle of the Spurs⁸⁵⁰ and again driven out of Italy by the bravery of the Swiss at Novara, June 6. Louis easily yielded to the pope’s advances for peace and acknowledged the authority of the Lateran council. The deposed cardinals, Carvajal and Sanseverino, who had been active in the Pisan council, signed a humiliating confession and were reinstated. Leo remarked to them that they were like the sheep in the Gospel which was lost and was found. A secret compact, entered into between the pontiff and King Louis, and afterwards joined by Henry VIII., provided for the French king’s marriage with Mary Tudor, Henry’s younger sister, and the recognition of his claims in Northern Italy. But at the moment these negotiations were going on, Leo was secretly engaged in the attempt to divorce Venice from the French and to defeat the French plans for the reoccupation of Milan. Louis’ career was suddenly cut short by death, Jan. 1, 1515, at the age of 52, three months after his nuptials with Mary, who was sixteen at the time of her marriage.

The same month Leo came to an understanding with Maximilian and Spain, whereby Julian de’ Medici, the pope’s brother, should receive Parma, Piacenza and Reggio. Leo purchased Modena from the emperor for 40,000 ducats, and was sending 60,000 ducats monthly for the support of the troops of his secret allies.

At the very same moment, faithless to his Spanish allies, the pope was carrying on negotiations with Venice to drive them out of Italy.

Louis’ son-in-law and successor, Francis I., a warlike and enterprising prince, held the attention of Europe for nearly a quarter of a century with his campaigns against Charles V., whose competitor he was for the imperial crown. Carrying out Louis’ plans, and accompanied by an army of 35,000 men with 60 cannon, he marched in the direction of Milan, inflicting at Marignano, Sept., 1515, a disastrous defeat upon the 20,000 Swiss mercenaries.⁸⁵¹  At the first news of the disaster, Leo was thrown into consternation, but soon recovered his composure, exclaiming in the presence of the Venetian ambassador, "We shall have to put ourselves into the hands of the king and cry out for mercy."  The victory, was the reply, "will not inure to your hurt or the damage of the Apostolic see. The French king is a son of the Church." And so it proved to be. Without a scruple, as it would seem, the pope threw off his alliances with the emperor and Ferdinand and hurried to get the best terms he could from Francis.

They met at Bologna. Conducted by 20 cardinals, Francis entered Leo’s presence and, uncovering his head, bowed three times and kissed the pontiff’s hand and foot. Leo wore a tiara glittering with gems, and a mantle, heavy with cloth of gold. The French orator set forth how the French kings from time immemorial had been protectors of the Apostolic see, and how Francis had crossed the mountains and rivers to show his submission. For three days pontiff and king dwelt together in the same palace. It was agreed that Leo yield up Parma and Piacenza to the French, and a concordat was worked out which took the place of the Pragmatic Sanction. This document, dating from the Council of Basel, and ratified by the synod of Bourges, placed the nomination to all French bishoprics, abbeys and priories in the hands of the king, and this clause the concordat preserved. On the other hand, the clauses in the Pragmatic Sanction were omitted which made the pope subject to general councils and denied to him the right to collect annates from French benefices higher and lower.

The election of a successor to the emperor Maximilian, who died Jan., 1519, put Leo’s diplomacy to the severest test. Ferdinand the Catholic, who had seen the Moorish domination in Spain come to an end and the Americas annexed to his crown, and had been invested by Julius II. in 1510 with the kingdom of Naples, died in 1516, leaving his grandson, Charles, heir to his dominions. Now, by the death of his paternal grandfather Maximilian, Charles was heir of the Netherlands and the lands of the Hapsburgs and natural claimant of the imperial crown. Leo preferred Francis, but Charles had the right of lineage and the support of the German people. To prevent Charles’ election, and to avoid the ill-will of Francis, he agitated through his legate, Cajetan, the election of either Frederick the Wise, elector of Saxony, or the elector of Brandenburg. Secretly he entered into the plans of Francis and allowed the archbishops of Treves and Cologne to be assured of their promotion to the sacred college, provided they would cast their electoral vote for the French king. But to be sure of his ground, no matter who might be elected, Leo entered also into a secret agreement with Charles. Both candidates had equal reason for believing they had the pope on their side.⁸⁵²  Finally, when it became evident that Francis was out of the race, and after the electors had already assembled in Frankfurt, Leo wrote to Cajetan that it was no use beating one’s head against the wall and that he should fall in with the election of Charles. Leo had stipulated 100,000 ducats as the price of his support of Charles.⁸⁵³  He sent a belated letter of congratulation to the emperor-elect, which was full of tropical phrases, and in 1521, at the Diet of Worms, the assembly before which Luther appeared, he concluded with Charles an alliance against his former ally, Francis. The agreement included the reduction of Milan, Parma and Piacenza. The news of the success of Charles’ troops in taking these cities reached Leo only a short time before his death, Dec. 1, 1521. For the cause of Protestantism, the papal alliance with the emperor against France proved to be highly favorable, for it necessitated the emperor’s absence from Germany.

In his administration of the papacy, Leo X. was not unmindful of the interests of his family. Julian, his younger brother, was made gonfalonier of the Church, and was married to the sister of Francis I.’s mother. For a time he was in possession of Parma, Piacenza and Reggio. Death terminated his career, 1516. His only child, the illegitimate Hippolytus, d. 1535, was afterwards made cardinal.

The worldly hopes of the Medicean dynasty now centred in Lorenzo de’ Medici, the son of Leo’s older brother. After the deposition of Julius’ nephew, he was invested with the duchy of Urbino. In 1518 he was married to Madeleine de la Tour d’Auvergne, a member of the royal house of France. Leo’s presents to the marital pair were valued at 300,000 ducats, among them being a bedstead of tortoise-shell inlaid with mother-of-pearl and precious stones. They took up their abode at Florence, but both husband and wife died a year after the marriage, leaving behind them a daughter who, as Catherine de’ Medici, became famous in the history of France and the persecution of the Huguenots. With Lorenzo’s death, the last descendant of the male line of the house founded by Cosimo de’ Medici became extinct.

In 1513 Leo admitted his nephew, Innocent Cibo, and his cousin, Julius, to the sacred college. Innocent Cibo, a young man of 21, was the son of Franceschetto Cibo, Innocent VIII.’s son, and Maddelina de’ Medici, Leo’s sister. His low morals made him altogether unfit for an ecclesiastical dignity. Julius de’ Medici, afterwards Clement VII., was the bastard son of Leo’s uncle, who was killed in the Pazzi conspiracy under Sixtus IV., 1478. The impediment of the illegitimate birth was removed by a papal decree.⁸⁵⁴  Two nephews, Giovanni Salviati and Nicolas Ridolfi, sons of two of Leo’s sisters, were also vested with the red hat, 1517. On this occasion Leo appointed no less than thirty-one cardinals. Among them were Cajetan, the learned general of the Dominicans, Aegidius of Viterbo, who had won an enviable fame by his address opening the Lateran council, and Adrian of Utrecht, Leo’s successor in the papal chair. Of the number was Alfonso of Portugal, a child of 7, but it was understood he was not to enter upon the duties of his office till he had reached the age of 14. Among the other appointees were princes entirely unworthy of any ecclesiastical office.⁸⁵⁵

The Vatican was thrown into a panic in 1517 by a conspiracy directed by Cardinal Petrucci of Siena, one of the younger set of cardinals with whom the pope had been intimate. Embittered by Leo’s interference in his brother’s administration of Siena and by the deposition of the duke of Urbino, Petrucci plotted to have the pope poisoned by a physician, Battesta de Vercelli, a specialist on ulcers. The plot was discovered, and Petrucci, who came to Rome on a safe-conduct procured from the pope by the Spanish ambassador, was cast into the Marroco, the deepest dungeon of S. Angelo. On being reminded of the safe-conduct, Leo replied to the ambassador that no one was safe who was a poisoner. Cardinals Sauli and Riario were entrapped and also thrown into the castle-dungeons. Two other cardinals were suspected of being in the plot, but escaped. Petrucci and the physician were strangled to death; Riario and Sauli were pardoned. Riario, who had witnessed the dastardly assassination in the cathedral of Florence 40 years before, was the last prominent representative of the family of Sixtus IV. Torture brought forth the confession that the plotters contemplated making him pope. Leo set the price of the cardinal’s absolution high,—150,000 ducats to be paid in a year, and another 150,000 to be paid by his relatives in case Riario left his palace. He finally secured the pope’s permission to leave Rome, and died, 1521, at Naples.

One of the sensational pageants which occurred during Leo’s pontificate was on the arrival of a delegation from Portugal, 1514, to announce to the pope the obedience of its king, Emmanuel. The king sent a large number of presents, among them horses from Persia, a young panther, two leopards and a white elephant. The popular jubilation over the procession of the wild beasts reached its height when the elephant, taking water into his proboscis, spurted it over the onlookers.⁸⁵⁶  In recognition of the king’s courtesy, the pope vested in Portugal all the lands west of Capes Bojador and Non to the Indies.

The Fifth Lateran resumed its sessions in April, 1513, a month after Leo’s election. The council ratified the concordat with France, and at the 8th session, Dec. 19, 1513, solemnly affirmed the doctrine of the soul’s immortality.⁸⁵⁷  The affirmation was called forth by the scepticism of the Arabic philosophers and the Italian pantheists. A single vote recorded against the decree came from the bishop of Bergamo, who took the ground that it is not the business of theologians to spend their time sitting in judgment upon the theories of philosophers.

The invention of printing was recognized by the council as a gift from heaven intended for the glory of God and the propagation of good science, but the legitimate printing of books was restricted to such as might receive the sanction of the master of the palace in Rome or, elsewhere, by the sanction of the bishop or inquisitors who were charged with examining the contents of books.⁸⁵⁸  The condemnation of all books, distasteful to the hierarchy, was already well under way.

The council approved the proposed Turkish crusade and levied a tenth on Christendom. Its collection was forbidden in England by Henry VIII. Cajetan presented the cause in an eloquent address at the Diet of Augsburg, 1518. Altogether the most significant of the council’s deliverances was the bull, Pater aeternus, labelled as approved by its authority and sent out by Leo, 1516.⁸⁵⁹  Here the position is reaffirmed—the position taken definitely by Pius II. and Sixtus IV.—that it is given to the Roman pontiff to have authority over all Church councils and to appoint, transfer and dissolve them at will. This famous deliverance expressly renewed and ratified the constitution of Boniface VIII., the Unam sanctam, asserting it to be altogether necessary to salvation for all Christians to be subject to the Roman pontiff.⁸⁶⁰  To this was added the atrocious declaration that disobedience to the pope is punishable with death. Innocent III. had quoted Deut. 17:12 in favor of this view, falsifying the translation of the Vulgate, which he made to read, "that whoever does not submit himself to the judgment of the high-priest, him shall the judge put to death." The council, in separating the quotations, falsely derived it from the Book of the Kings.⁸⁶¹

Nor should it be overlooked that in his bull the infallible Leo X. certified to a falsehood when he expressly declared that the Fathers, in the ancient councils, in order to secure confirmation for their decrees, "humbly begged the pope’s approbation."  This he affirmed of the councils of Nice, 325, Ephesus, Chalcedon, Constantinople, 680, and Nice, 787. 214 years before, when Boniface VIII. issued his bull, Philip the Fair was at hand to resist it. The French sovereign now on the throne, Francis I., made no dissent. The concordat had just been ratified by the council.

The council adjourned March 16, 1517, a bare majority of two votes being for adjournment. Writers of Gallican sympathies have denied its oecumenical character. On the other hand, Cardinal Hergenröther regrets that the Church has taken a position to it of a stepmother to her child. Pastor says there was already legislation enough before the Fifth Lateran sat to secure all the reforms needed. Not laws but action was required. Funk expresses the truth when he says, what the council did for Church reform is hardly worth noting down.⁸⁶²

In passing judgment upon Leo X., the chief thing to be said is that he was a worldling. Religion was not a serious matter with him. Pleasure was his daily concern, not piety. He gave no earnest thought to the needs of the Church. It would scarcely be possible to lay more stress upon this feature in the life of Louis XIV., or Charles II., than does Pastor in his treatment of Leo’s career. Reumont⁸⁶³ says it did not enter Leo’s head that it was the task and duty of the papacy to regenerate itself, and so to regenerate Christendom. Leo’s personal habits are not a matter of conjecture. They lie before us in a number of contemporary descriptions. In his reverend regard for the papal office, Luther did Leo an unintentional injustice when he compared him to Daniel among the lions. The pope led the cardinals in the pursuit of pleasure and in extravagance in the use of money. To one charge, unchasteness, Leo seems not to have exposed himself. How far this was a virtue, or how far it was forced upon him by nature, cannot be said.

The qualities, with which nature endowed him, remained with him to the end. He was good-humored, affable and accessible. He was often found playing chess or cards with his cardinals. At the table he was usually temperate, though he spent vast sums in the entertainment of others. He kept a monk capable of swallowing a pigeon at one mouthful and 40 eggs at a sitting. To his dress he gave much attention, and delighted to adorn his fingers with gems.

The debt art owes to Leo X. may be described in another place. Rome became what Paris afterwards was, the centre of luxury, art and architectural improvement. The city grew with astonishing rapidity. "New buildings," said an orator, "are planted every day. Along the Tiber and on the Janicular hill new sections arise." Luigi Gradenigo, the Venetian ambassador, reports that in the ten years following Leo’s election, 10,000 buildings had been put up by persons from Northern Italy. The palaces of bankers, nobles and cardinals were filled with the richest furniture of the world. Artists were drawn from France and Spain as well as Italy, and every kind of personality who could afford amusement to others.

The Vatican was the resort of poets, musicians, artists, and also of actors and buffoons. Leo joined in their conversation and laughed at their wit. He even vied with the poets in making verses off-hand. Musical instruments ornamented with gold and silver he purchased in Germany. With almost Oriental abandon he allowed himself to be charmed with entertainments of all sorts.

Among Leo’s amusements the chase took a leading place, though it was forbidden by canonical law to the clergy. Fortunately for his reputation, he was not bound, as pope, by canon law. As Louis XIV. said, "I am the state," so the pope might have said, "I am the canon law." Portions of the year he passed booted and spurred. He fished in the lake of Bolsena and other waters. He takes an inordinate pleasure in the chase, wrote the Venetian ambassador. He hunted in the woods of Viterbo and Nepi and in the closer vicinity of Rome, but with most pleasure at his hunting villa, Magliana. He reserved for his own use a special territory. The hunting parties were often large.⁸⁶⁴  At a meet, prepared by Alexander Farnese, the pope found himself in the midst of 18 cardinals, besides other prelates, musicians, actors and servants. A pack of sixty or seventy dogs aided the hunters. Magliana was five miles from Rome, on the Tiber. This favorite pleasure castle is now a desolate farmhouse. In strange contrast to his own practice, the pope, at the appeal of the king of Portugal, forbade the privileges of the chase to the Portuguese clergy.

The theatre was another passion to which Leo devoted himself. He attended plays in the palaces of the cardinals and rich bankers and in S. Angelo, and looked on as they were performed in the Vatican itself. Bibbiena, one of the favorite members of his cabinet, was a writer of salacious comedies. One of these, the Calandria, Leo witnessed performed in 1514 in his palace. The ballet was freely danced in some of these plays, as in the lascivious Suppositi by Ariosto, played before the pope in S. Angelo on Carnival Sunday. Another of the plays was the Mandragola, by Machiavelli, to modern performances of which in Florence young people are not admitted.⁸⁶⁵  An account given of one of these plays by the ambassador of Ferrara, Paolucci, represented a girl pleading with Venus for a lover. At once, eight monks appeared on the scene in their gray mantles. Venus bade the girl give them a potion. Amor then awoke the sleepers with his arrow. The monks danced round Amor and made love to the girl. At last they threw aside their monastic garb and all joined in a moresca. On the girl’s asking what they could do with their arms, they fell to fighting, and all succumbed except one, and he received the girl as the prize of his prowess.⁸⁶⁶  And Leo was the high-priest of Christendom, the professed successor of Peter the Apostle!

Festivities of all sorts attracted the attention of the good-natured pope. With 14 cardinals he assisted at the marriage of the rich Sienese banker, Agostino Chigi, to his mistress. The entertainment was given at Chigi’s beautiful house, the Farnesina. This man was considered the most fortunate banker of his day in Rome. The kings of Spain and France and princes of Germany sent him presents, and sought from him loans. Even the sultan was said to have made advances for his friendship. His income was estimated at 70,000 ducats a year, and he left behind him 800,000 ducats. This Croesus was only fifty-five when death separated him from his fortune. At one of his banquets, the gold plates were thrown through the windows into the Tiber after they were used at the table, but fortunately they were saved from loss by being caught in a net which had been prepared for them. On another occasion, when Leo and 18 cardinals were present, each found his own coat-of-arms on the silver dishes he used. At Agostino’s marriage festival, Leo held the bride’s hand while she received the ring on one of her fingers. The pontiff then baptized one of Chigi’s illegitimate children. Cardinals were not ashamed to dine with representatives of the demi-monde, as at a banquet given by the banker Lorenzo Strozzi.⁸⁶⁷  But in scandals of this sort Alexander’s pontificate could not well be outdone.

With the easy unconcern of a child of the world, spoiled by fortune, the light-hearted de’ Medici went on his way as if the resources of the papal treasury were inexhaustible. Julius was a careful financier. Leo’s finances were managed by incompetent favorites.⁸⁶⁸  In 1517 his annual income is estimated to have been nearly 600,000 ducats. Of this royal sum, 420,000 ducats were drawn from state revenues and mines. The alum deposits at Tolfa yielded 40,000; Ravenna and the salt mines of Cervia, 60,000; the river rents in Rome, 60,000; and the papal domains of Spoleto, Ancona and the Romagna, 150,000. According to another contemporary, the papal exchequer received 160,000 ducats from ecclesiastical sources. The vendable offices at the pope’s disposal at the time of his death numbered 2,150, yielding the enormous yearly income of 328,000 ducats.⁸⁶⁹

Two years after Leo assumed the pontificate, the financial problem was already a serious one. All sorts of measures had to be invented to increase the papal revenues and save the treasury from hopeless bankruptcy. By augmenting the number of the officials of the Tiber—porzionari di ripa — from 141 to 612, 286,000 ducats were secured. The enlargement of the colleges of the cubiculari and scudieri, officials of the Vatican, brought in respectively 90,000 and 112,000 ducats more. From the erection of the order of the Knights of St. Peter,—cavalieri di San Pietro,—with 401 members, the considerable sum of 400,000 ducats was realized, 1,000 ducats from each knight. The sale of indulgences did not yield what it once did, but the revenue from this source was still large.⁸⁷⁰  The highest ecclesiastical offices were for sale, as in the reign of Alexander. Cardinal Innocent Cibo paid 30,000 ducats or, at; another report went, 40,000, for his hat, and Francesco Armellini bought his for twice that amount.⁸⁷¹

The shortages were provided for by resort to the banker and the usurer and to rich cardinals. Loan followed loan. Not only were the tapestries of the Vatican and the silver plate given as securities, but ecclesiastical benefices, the gems of the papal tiara and the rich statues of the saints were put in pawn. Sometimes the pope paid 20 per cent for sums of 10,000 ducats and over.⁸⁷²  It occasions no surprise that Leo’s death was followed by a financial collapse, and a number of cardinals passed into bankruptcy, including Cardinal Pucci, who had lent the pope 150,000 ducats. From the banker, Bernado Bini, Leo had gotten 200,000 ducats. His debts were estimated as high as 800,000 ducats. It was a common joke that Leo squandered three pontificates, the legacy Julius left and the revenues of his successor’s pontificate, as well as the income of his own.

For the bankers and all sorts of money dealers the Medicean period was a flourishing time in Rome. No less than 30 Florentines are said to have opened banking institutions in the city, and, at the side of the Fuggers and Welsers, did business with the curia. The Florentines found it to be a good thing to have a Medicean pope, and swarmed about the Vatican as the Spaniards had done in the good days of Calixtus III. and Alexander VI., the Sienese, during the reign of Pius II., and the Ligurians while Sixtus IV. of Savona was pope. They stormed the gates of patronage, as if all the benefices of the Church were intended for them.⁸⁷³

Leo’s father, Lorenzo, said of his three sons that Piero was a fool, Giuliano was good and Giovanni shrewd. The last characterization was true to the facts. Leo X. was shrewd, the shrewdness being of the kind that succeeds in getting temporary personal gain, even though it be by the sacrifice of high and accessible ends. His amiability and polish of manners made him friends and secured for him the tiara. He was not altogether a degenerate personality like Alexander VI., capable of all wickedness. But his outlook never went beyond his own pleasures. The Vatican was the most luxurious court in Europe; it performed no moral service for the world. The love of art with Leo was the love of color, of outline, of beauty such as a Greek might have had, not a taste controlled by regard for spiritual grace and aims. In his treatment of the European states and the Italian cities, his diplomacy was marked by dissimulation as despicable as any that was practised by secular courts. Without a scruple be could solemnly make at the same moment contradictory pledges. Perfidy seemed to be as natural to him as breath.⁸⁷⁴

At the same time, Leo followed the rubrics of religion. He fasted, so it is reported, three times a week, abstained from meat on Wednesday and Friday, daily read his Breviary and was accustomed before mass to seek absolution from his confessor. But he was without sanctity, without deep religious conviction. The issues of godliness had no appreciable effect upon him in the regulation of his habits. Even in his patronage of art and culture, he forgot or ignored Ariosto, Machiavelli, Guicciardini and Erasmus. What a noble substitution it would have been, if these men had found welcome in the Vatican, and the jesters and buffoons and gormandizers been relegated to their proper place!  The high-priest of the Christian world is not to be judged in the same terms we would apply to a worldly prince ruling in the closing years of the Middle Ages. The Vatican, Leo turned into a house of revelling and frivolity, the place of all others where the step and the voice of the man of God should have been heard. The Apostle, whom he had been taught to regard as his spiritual ancestor, accomplished his mission by readiness to undergo, if necessary, martyrdom. Leo despoiled his high office of its sacredness and prostituted it into a vehicle of his own carnal propensities. Had he followed the advice of his princely father, man of the world though he was, Leo X. would have escaped some of the reprobation which attaches to his name.

There is no sufficient evidence that Leo ever used the words ascribed to him, "how profitable that fable of Christ has been to us."⁸⁷⁵  Such blasphemy we prefer not to associate with the de’ Medici. Nevertheless, no sharper condemnation of one claiming to be Christ’s vicar on earth could well be thought of than that which is carried by the words of Sarpi, the Catholic historian of the Council of Trent,⁸⁷⁶ who said, "Leo would have been a perfect pope, if he had combined with his other good qualities a moderate knowledge of religion and a greater inclination to piety, for neither of which he shewed much concern." Before Leo’s death, the papacy had lost a part of its European constituency, and that part which, in the centuries since, has represented the furthest progress of civilization. The bull which this pontiff hurled at Martin Luther, 1520, was consumed into harmless ashes at Wittenberg, ashes which do not speak forth from the earth as do the ashes of John Huss. To the despised Saxon miner’s son, the Protestant world looks back for the assertion of the right to study the Scriptures, a matter of more importance than all the circumstance and rubrics of papal office and sacerdotal functions. Not seldom has it occurred that the best gifts to mankind have come, not through a long heritage of prerogatives but through the devotion of some agent of God humbly born. It seemed as if Providence allowed the papal office at the close of the mediaeval age to be filled by pontiffs spiritually unworthy and morally degenerate, that it might be known for all time that it was not through the papacy the Church was to be reformed and brought out of its mediaeval formalism and scholasticism. What popes had refused to attempt, another group of men with no distinction of office accomplished.

 Among other youthful appointments to the dignity of cardinal are Jacinto Bobo, afterwards Coelestine III., at 18, by Honorius III., 1126; Peter Roger, afterwards Gregory XI., at 17, Hercules Gonzaga, by Clement VII., at 22; Alexander Farnese, by his uncle, Paul III., at 14, who also appointed his grandsons, Guida Sforza at 16 and Ranucio Farnese at 15; two nephews, at the ages of 14 and 21, by Julius III., d. 1555, and also Innocent del Monte at 17; Ferdinand del Medici at 14, by Pius IV., d. 1565; Andrew and Albert of Austria, sons of Maximilian II., at 18, by Gregory XIII., and Charles of Loraine at 16; Alexander Peretti at 14, by his uncle, Sixtus V., d. 1590; two nephews at 18, by Innocent IX., d. 1591; Maurice of Savoy at 14, and Ferdinand, son of the king of Spain, at 10, by Paul V., d. 1621; a nephew at 17, by Innocent X., d. 1655; a son of the king of Spain, by Clement XII., d. 1740.

 Papstthum, p. 192.

 Pastor heads his chapter on Nicolas with the caption Nicolas V., der Begründer des päpstlichen Maecenats.

 Pastor, I 417 sq., emphasizes these consequences of the Jubilee Year.

 Infessura, p. 48; Platina, II. 242; Aeneas: Hist. Frid. 172; Ilgen’s trans., I. 214.

 Infessura, p. 52, says that language could not exaggerate Leonora’s beauty, bella quanto si potesse dire. Aeneas, Hist. Frid., 265, speaks of her dark complexion, jet-black and lustrous eyes, her soft red cheeks, her intelligent expression, and her snow-white neck, "in every particular a charming person."

 Hist. Frid., 294; Ilgen, II. 84 sq. Aeneas gives the alternate reason for the hospitality shown to his master.

 The crown used on the occasion was reputed to be the one used by Charlemagne which Sigismund had removed to Nürnberg. Aeneas, with his usual journalistic love of detail, noticed the Bohemian lion of Charles IV. engraven on the sword, which also was brought from Nürnberg.

 Aeneas, p. 303, who is scrupulous in stating from time to time that Frederick and Leonora lodged in different palaces or tents, now gives a detailed account of the circumstances attending their first lodging together as man and wife in Naples. The account is such as we might expect from Boccaccio and not from a prelate of the Church, but Aeneas’ own record fitted him for entering with pruriency into realistic details. They are characteristic of the times and of Spanish customs.

 Pastor, I. 588 sqq., devotes much space to an attempt to show that Nicolas made an effort to help the Greeks. Infessura blames him for making none.

 Aeneas wrote, July 12, 1453, to the pope: "Historians of the Roman pontiffs, when they reach your time, will write, ’Nicolas V., a Tuscan, was pope for so many years. He recovered the patrimony of the Church from the hands of tyrants, he gave union to the divided Church, he canonized Bernardino, he built the Vatican and splendidly restored St. Peter’s, he celebrated the Jubilee and crowned Frederick III.’ All this will be obscured by the doleful addition, ’In his time Constantinople was taken and plundered by the Turks.’ Your holiness did what you could. No blame can be justly attached to you. But the ignorance of posterity will blame you when it hears that in your time Constantinople was lost." Gibbon makes the observation that "The pontificate of Nicolas V., however powerful and prosperous, was dishonored by the fall of the Eastern Empire," ch. LXVIII. It was not within Nicolas’ power to avert the disaster.

 His epitaph is given by Mirbt, p. 169.

 Mansi, XXXII. 159 sq.

 Pastor, I. 747, says ein solches Verfahren war unerhört, it was an unheard-of procedure.

 Enea ist seiner Tage nie gegen den Strom geschwommen. Haller In Quellen, etc., IV. 83.

 London he found the most populous and wealthy city he had seen. Scotland he described as a cold, barren, and treeless country.

 Libellus dialogorum de generalis concilii auctoritate.

 Aeneas aided Chancellor Schlick in some of his love adventures, and described one of them in the much-read novel, Eurialus et Lucretia. His letters from 1444 on, show a desire to give up the world. He declared he had had enough of Venus, but he also wrote that Venus evaded him more than he shrank from her. He seems to have passed into a condition of physical infirmity, and to have been forced to abandon his immoral courses. He, however, also indicates he had begun to be actuated by feelings of penitence, whether from motives of policy or religion cannot be made out. Gregorovius, VII. 165, combines the inconsistent passages from Pius, letters when he says that, after long striving to renounce the pleasures of the world, exhaustion and incipient disease facilitated the task.

 The election was by the accessus, that is, after the written ballot was found to be indecisive, the cardinals changed their votes by word of mouth. See Hergenröther, Kath. Kirchenrecht, p. 273.

 Mansi, XXXII. 207-222.

 Gregorovius, VII. 184. His tract Admonitio de injustis usurpationibus paparum rom. ad imperatorem ... sive confutatio primatus papae, and other tracts by Heimburg, are given in Goldast, Monarchia. See art. Gregor v. Heimburg, by Tschackert in Herzog, VII. 133-135, and for quotations, Gieseler.

 A full translation of the letter is given by Gregorovius in Lucrez. Borgia, p. 7 sq.

 Mansi, XXXII. 259 sq.; Mirbt, p. 169 sq.

 Mansi, XXXII. 195-203. Gieseler quotes at length. Aeneas had written a letter to the rector of the Univ. of Cologne with the same import, Oct. 13, 1447.

 The same time that Pius issued his bull of retractation, Gabriel Biel, called the last of the Schoolmen, issued his tract on Obedience to the Apostolic see, taking the same ground that Pius took.

 Pastor, II. 233-236, and Creighton, II. 436-438, give elaborate accounts of this curious piece of superstition.

 Creighton, II. 491. Pastor, II. 28-31, makes a belabored effort to remove in part this stigma, and excuses Pius II. by the lack of funds from which he suffered and his engrossment in the affairs of the papacy. Pius chartered the universities of Nantes, Ingolstadt and Basel.

 Hist. rerum ubique gestarum cum locorum descriptione non finita, Venice, 1477, in the Opera, Basel, 1551, etc.

 Voigt and Benrath are severe upon Pius II., and regard the religious attitude of his later years as insincere and the crusade as dictated by a love of fame. Gregorovius’ characterization is one of the least satisfactory of that impartial historian’s pen. He says, "There was nothing great in him. Endowed with fascinating gifts, this man of brilliant parts possessed no enthusiasms," etc., VII. 164. Pastor passes by the failings of Aeneas’ earlier life with a single sentence, but gives, upon the whole, the most discriminating estimate. He sees only moral force in his advocacy of the crusade, and pronounces him, with Nicolas V., the most notable of the popes of the 15th century.

 The document Is given by Raynaldus and Gieseler.

 Pastor, II. 307, fully justifies Paul for setting aside the pact on the ground that every pope gets plenary authority directly from God.

 Hergenröther: Kath. Kirchenrecht, p. 299

 Jacob Volaterra in Muratori, new ed., XXIII. 3, p. 98.

 Pastor, II. 358 sqq., makes a heroic effort to exempt Paul from the guilt of neglecting the crusade against the Turks. In a letter written by Cardinal Gonzaga, which he prints for the first time (II. 773), the statement is made that Paul was quietly laying aside one-fourth of his income to be used against the Turks. There is no mention of any sum of this kind among the pope’s assets.

 Patritius in Muratori, XXIII. 205-215.

 Pastor, II. 347, tries to show that Paul had some mind for humanistic studies. During his pontificate, 1467, the German printers, Schweinheim and Pannarts, set up the first printing-presses in Rome, but not under Paul’s patronage.

 Infessura, p. 167.

 A quotation given by Gregorovius, VII. 226, probably exaggerates when it states he filled his house with concubines—ex concubina domum replevit.

 Et di queste cose lui-si pigliava piacere, p. 69.

 Den nächst-folgenden Trägern der Tiara schien dieselbe in erster Linie ein Mittel zur Bereicherung und Erhöhung ihrer Familien zu sein. Diesem Zwecke wurde die ganze päpstliche Macht in rücksichtslosester Weise dienstbar gemacht, Hefele-Knöpfler, Kirchengesch., p. 483.

 Hergenröther-Kirsch, II. 979. These most reputable Catholic historians intimate rather than emphasize this consideration.

 A useful genealogical tree of the Rovere is given by Creighton, III. 100. Pastor takes no pains to hide his righteous indignation at Sixtus’ exhaustive provision for his relatives,—seine zahlreiche und unwürdige Verwandten, as he calls them.

 Diario, p. 77. At the chief banquet, the menu comprised wild boars roasted whole, bucks, goats, hares, pheasants, fish, peacocks with their feathers, storks, cranes, and countless fruits and sweetmeats. An artificial mountain of sugar was brought into the dining-chamber, from which a man stepped forth with gestures of surprise at finding himself amid such gorgeous surroundings.

 Sixtus reared to him a splendid monument in the Church of the Apostles. Peter and his brother Jerome are represented as kneeling and praying to the Madonna. See Pastor, II. 294 sq.

 So Pastor, II. 535, Gregorovius, VII. 239, Karl Müller, II. 130 and Creighton, III. 75. They all agree that Sixtus knew the details of the plot, and approved them, except in the matter of the murder, which, however, he did not peremptorily forbid.

 See the account of the legate of Milan, publ. by Pastor, II. 785 sq. Of Sixtus’ connivance at the plot against the Medici, Pastor, II. 541, says, "It calls for deep lament that a pope should play a part in the history of this conspiracy."

 Infessura, p. 86.

 Pastor, II. 610 sqq., is very cautious in his remarks on the subject of Sixtus’ indulgences, almost to reticence.

 Mansi, XXXII. 374 sqq., gives the bull on the immaculate conception dated Sept. 5, 1483; also Mirbt, p. 170.

 In quo felicissimo die, etc., pp. 155-158.

 This charge, which Infessura elaborates, Creighton, III. 115, 285, dismisses as unproved; Pastor, II. 640, also, but less confidently. Infessura was a friend of the Colonna, to whom Sixtus was bitterly hostile. Burchard, I. 10 sqq., gives a very detailed account of Sixtus’ obsequies. He spoke from observation as one of the masters of ceremonies. Pastor makes a bold effort to rescue Sixtus from most of the charges made against his character by Infessura.

 Pastor, III. 178.

 Burchard, I. 33-55

 Infessura, p. 177. The Augustinian was thrown into prison for making the remark. Infessura returns again and again, pp. 237 sq., 243, 256 sq., to the reign of crime going on in the city.

 Infessura gives the case of a father who, after committing incest with his two daughters, murdered them and was set free upon the payment of 800 ducats. Gregorovius, VII. 297, says of the Italian character of the last 30 years of the 15th century that "it displays a trait of diabolical passion. Tyrannicide, conspiracies and deeds of treachery are universal, and criminal selfishness reigns supreme."

 Funk, Kirchengesch., 373, says, In Rom. schien alles käuflich zu sein.

 · For the details, see Burchard, I. 365-368.

 So Marullus in his epigram—

Octo nocens pueros genuit totidemque puellas,

Hunc merito poterit dicere Roma patrem.

Illegitimately he begat 8 boys and girls as many.

Hence Rome deservedly may call him father.

Burchard, I. 321, calls Franceschetto bastardus.

 Burchard, I. 323, 488. In 1883, the Berlin Museum came into possession of a bust of Theorina bearing the inscription,"Teorina Cibo Inn. VIII. P. M. f. singuli exempli matrona formaeque dignitate conjuaria."

 Infessura, p. 259 sq. Pastor, III. 269, pronounces Infessura’s statement altogether incredible,—gänzlich unglaubwürdig,—and blames Infessura’s editor, Tommasini, for allowing the statement to pass in his edition without note or comment. Pastor, in his 1st ed., III. 252, had pronounced the statement of the Roman diarist eine ungeheuerliche Behauptung.

 Totam ab omnibus ejus lateribus lingua sua lambivit. Infessura, p. 263. For the letter of the painter Mantegna to the duke of Mantua and its curious details, June 15, 1489, see Pastor, 1st ed., III. 218. The picture of the Disputation of St. Catherine in the sala dei santi in the Vatican contains a picture of Djem riding a white palfrey. Infessura and Burchard enter with journalistic relish into the details of Djem’s appearance and treatment In Rome.

 Infessura p. 224, and especially Burchard, I. 482-486, and Sigismondo, II. 25-29, 69, give extended accounts of the honors paid to the piece of iron, the sacratissimum ferreum lanceae. The sultan’s representative, Chamisbuerch, who was also present, was reported to have handed the pope a package containing 40,000 ducats. Sigismondo uses the word spicula, little point, for the lance.

 Burchard, I. 444 sqq.

 The harrowing story was told that, at the suggestion of a Jewish physician, the blood of three boys was infused into the dying pontiff’s veins. They were ten years old, and had been promised a ducat each. All three died. The Jewish physician lied. The story is told by Infessura and repeated by Raynaldus. It is pleasant to have Gregorovius, VII. 338, as well as Pastor, III. 275 sq., give it no credence.

 Pastor, III. 278, says that, "from the moment he received priestly consecration to the end of his life, he was a slave to the demon of sensuality." Hefele-Knöpfler, Kirchengesch., p. 485, speaks of his career before he reached the papal office as having been "very dissolute"—sehr dissolut. Prof. Villari, Machiavelli, I. 279, calls Alexander the worst of the popes, whose "crimes were sufficient to upset any human society." Gregorovius and Pastor have carried on the most notable researches in this period, and rivalled one another in the brilliant description of Alexander’s reign and domestic relations.

 P. 281. In his despatch to the duchess of Este, published by Pastor, 1st ed., III. 879, Giovanni Boccaccio, bishop of Modena, gives an estimate of Borgia’s ability to pay for the tiara, the vice-chancellorship worth 8,000 ducats, the cities of Nepi and Civita Castellana, abbeys In Aquila and Albano, each worth 1,000 ducats a year, two large abbeys in the kingdom of Naples, the abbey of Sabiaco, worth 2,000 a year., abbeys in Spain, 16 bishoprics in Spain, the see of Porto, worth 1,200 ducats, and numerous other ecclesiastical places.

 The letter of Cardinal Sforza to his brother, dated 1484, and publ. by Pastor, III. 876, gives a description of his associate’s palace.

 Sigismondo, II. 53, ascribes to Alexander majestas formae.

 Burchard, I. 577.

 Seine Kinder zu erhöhen war sein vorzüglichstes Ziel is the statement of the calm Catholic historian, Funk, p. 373.

 They are given in Burchard, Supplement to vol. III, and dated Oct. 1, 1480, and Nov. 4, 1481.

 See W. H. Woodward, Two Bulls of Alex. VI., Sept., 1493, in Engl. Hist. Rev., 1908, pp. 730-734.

 Vanozza outlived Alexander 15 years, dying 1518. Her epitaph formerly in S. Maria del Popolo reads, Vanotiae Cathanae, Caesare Valentiae, Joane Candiae, Jufredo Scylatii et Lucretiae Ferrariae, ducibus filiis, etc. See Creighton, III. 163, Pastor, III. 279. Pastor says that to deny the authenticity of this inscription as Ollivier does is nothing less than ridiculous—geradezu lächerlich. On Ollivier’s attempt to rehabilitate Alexander, see Pastor’s caustic words in 1st ed., I. 589. Burchard constantly calls Lucretia papae filia, II. 278, 386, 493, etc., and Joffré and the other boys his sons. So also Sigismondo II. 249, 270, etc. The nativity of Pedro Ludovico is not absolutely certain, but it is highly probable that Vanozza was his mother.

 Gregorovius, Lucrezia Borgia, p. 19, and Appendix, Germ. ed., where the marriage contract of Girolama is given.

 These two bulls, extant at Mantua and first published by Gregorovius, Lucr. Borgia, Appendix, 76-85, were issued the same day. Burchard, III. 170, calls the child’s mother quaedam Romana. Following Burchard, Gregorovius and Pastor have no doubt that it was Alexander’s own child. Pastor, III. 475, says that the bull is unquestionably genuine. A satire of the year 1500 ascribes to Alexander 3 or 4 children by Julia Farnese. According to Villari, Life of Savonarola, p. 376, note, the Civilta cattolica, the papal organ at Rome, March 15, 1873, acknowledged the existence of Giovanni, as Alexander’s sixth or seventh child.

 These letters are given in full by Burchard, II. 202 sqq. Alexander’s letters Gregorovius pronounces to be genuine beyond a doubt. The sultan’s are matter of dispute. Ranke discredited them, but Gregorovius regards their contents as genuine, though the form may be spurious. Creighton, III. 300 sqq., gives reasons for accepting them.

 Dictum Gem levare facere ex angustiisistius mundi et transferre ejus animan in aliud seculum ubi meliorem habebit quietem, Burchard, II. 209.

 The French left behind them a terrible legacy in the disease which they are said to have carrried during the Crusades and again a century ago, under Napoleon, to Syria, and known as the French disease. See Pastor, III. 7.

 Burchard’s account of the tragedy, II. 387-390. Gregorovius, VIII. 424, confidently advocates the theory of fratricide. This explains why Alexander dropped the investigation two weeks after it was begun, and why he and Caesar in the first meetings after the event were silent in each other’s presence. However, it is almost too much to believe that Alexander would at once begin to heap honors upon Caesar, as he did, if the father believed him to be the murderer. Roscoe, I. 153 sq., and Pastor discredit the theory of fratricide, to which Creighton, III. 388, also inclines. Don Juan was the only one of the Borgias that founded a family.

 Burchard, II. 280, 493, filia clarissima, filia jocosa et risoria.

 Infessura, p. 286 sq., closes his account by saying he would not tell all, lest it might seem incredible. The account of Boccaccio, ambassador of Ferrara, who was present, is given by Gregorov., Lucr. Borgia, pp. 59-61.

 Alexander had courteously attended a mass for the repose of the soul of his old enemy, Charles, in the Sistine chapel, Burchard, II. 461.

 Burchard, II. 591-593.

 Rodrigo, who was baptized in St. Peter’s, Nov. 1, 1499, the 16 cardinals then in Rome, many ambassadors and other dignitaries being present. In 1501 he was invested with the duchy of Sermoneta. Burchard, II. 675, 578; III. 170.

 Infessura, p. 293.

 Burchard, III. 236.

 So Pastor, though with some hesitation, III. 491. Even Creighton, IV. 40, is unwilling to dismiss the charge as groundless. But in another place, p. 265, he seems to contradict himself.

 Burchard, III. 161 sq.

 The letter is given in Gregor., Lucr. Borgia, p. 212.

 The question of whether or no poison was the cause of the pope’s death must be regarded as an open one. This is the view taken by Gregorovius, Roscoe, I. 193 sq., Reumont, Pastor, III. 499. Creighton, IV. 43, and Hergenröther, III. 987, are against the theory of poisoning. Neither Burchard nor the ambassador of Venice speak of poison. The ambassador of Mantua, writing on the 19th, denies the charge, which was freely made on the streets. Ranke, D. röm. Päpste, p. 35, distinctly decides for poisoning. So also Hase, Kirchengesch., III. 353. Many contemporary writers pronounced for poisoning, Guicciardini, Cardinal Bembo, Jovius, Cardinal Aegidius, etc. Alexander’s physician gave as the immediate cause of death apoplexy. Against the theory of poisoning is the fact that Cardinal Hadrian was also taken sick. On the other hand is the evidence that Alexander’s body immediately after death was bloated and disfigured and his mouth was filled with foam, and that Caesar was taken sick at the same time with the same symptoms, a fact which Gregorovius, VII. 521, pronounces the strongest evidence for the theory of poisoning.

 There is one exception, the address made in the conclave after Alexander’s death by the bishop of Gallipolis. See Garnett’s art. Engl. Hist. Rev., 1892, p. 311 sq., giving the text of the British Museum, the only copy in existence.

 The duke of Mantua, whose camp was near Rome, wrote to his duchess that seven devils appeared in the pope’s room at the moment of his death, that the body swelled and was dragged from the bed with a cord. Gregorovius, Lucr. Borgia, p. 288.

 Bishop Creighton, IV. 44, lays stress on the fact that hypocrisy was not added to Alexander’s other vices.

 Infessura, p. 287.

 Burchard, III. 167, who reports the wild scene, was reticent about many of the evil happenings in the papal palace. The other authorities for the orgy may be seen in Thuasne’s ed. of Burchard. See also Villari, Machiavelli, I. 538. When we are taken to the square of St. Peter’s, where the pope and the cardinals watched a feat of tight-rope walking, an expert walking with a child in his arms, we may easily applaud or tolerate the recreation, Burchard, III. 210; but the dark furies of evil seem at will to have had mastery over Alexander’s soul.

 Burchard, III. 110.

 Mansi, XXXII. 533 sq.

 Calvin spoke of having been taken as a child by his mother to the abbey of Ourscamp, near Noyon, where a part of St. Anna’s body was preserved, and of having kissed the relic.

 Decretum de libris non sine censura imprimendis, 1501. Reusch, Index, p. 54.

 , De nostra mera liberalitate ... auctoritate omnip. Dei, nobis in beato Petro concessa, ac vicariatus J. Christi, qua fungimur in terris. For the bull, see Mirbt, pp. 174-176. Also Fiske, Disc. of Am., I. 454-458; II. 581-593.

 Pastor, III. 520, seeks to break the force of the charge that Alexander’s gift was a short-sighted piece of work by putting the unnatural interpretation upon donamus et assignamus, that it referred only to what Portugal and Spain had already acquired. But the very wording of the bull makes this impossible, for it is distinctly said that all islands and continents were given to Spain and Portugal which were to be discovered in the future, as well as those which were already discovered—omnes insulas et terras firmas inventas et inveniendas, detectas et detegendas. For the bull of Sept. 26, 1493, giving India to Spain, see Davenport in Am. Hist. Rev., 1909, p. 764 sqq.

 Hergenröther-Kirsch, II. 987.

 III. 503

 Pastor, in the course of prolonged estimates, Gesch. der Päpste, III. pp. vi, 601sq., 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 Rome, 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-preservation 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 his office and himself. He seems to have been influenced by Roscoe’s presentation of Alexander’s "many great qualities," I. 195.

 The Prince, ch. VII.

 The statue was placed in front of St. Petronio in Bologna. The left hand held neither book nor sword, but the keys. Pastor, III. 569, says,in einer derartigen Persönlichkeit lag mehr Stoff zu einem Könige und Feldherrn als zu einem Priester.

 The Prince, written in 1515, was dedicated to Leo X.’s nephew, Lorenzo de’ Medici, at a time when it was contemplated giving Lorenzo a large slice of Italian territory to govern. See Villari: Machiavelli, III. 372-424. Also Louis Dyer: Machiavelli and the Modern State, Boston, 1904. Caesar Borgia had his laureate, who sung his praises in 12 Latin lyrics, Peter Franciscus Justulus of Spoleto. Jupiter, who is represented as about to destroy the world for its wickedness, perceives that it contains at least one excellent young man, Caesar, and sends Mercury to urge him to take up arms for the world’s deliverance. Engl. Hist. Rev., Jan., 1902, pp. 15-20.

 The letter is given by Gregorovius, Lucr. Borgia, p. 319.

 The expedition is described by de Grassis, the new master of ceremonies at the papal palace, who accompanied the expedition, and also by Aegidius of Viterbo,

 Pastor, III. 643, contents himself with the simple mention of the absolution of the Venetian’s, and omits all reference to the humiliating conditions. The Venetian scribblers let loose their pens against Julius and, among other charges, made against him the charge of sodomy. Pastor, III. 644, Note.

 Zwingli’s friend, Thomas Platter (1499-1582), in speaking in his Autobiography of his travels in Germany as a boy to get knowledge and begging his bread, mentions how willing the people were to give him ear, "for they were very fond of the Swiss." At Breslau a family was ready to adopt him partly on this ground. After the defeat of Marigano, 1515, it was a common saying, so Platter says, "The Swiss have lost their good luck." On one occasion near Dresden, after a good dinner, to which he had been treated, he was taken in to see the mother of the home, who was on her death-bed. She said to Platter and his Swiss companions, "I have heard so many good things about the Swiss that I was very anxious to see one before my death." See Whitcomb, Renaissance Source-Book, p. 108; Monroe, Thos. Platter, p. 107.

 Mansi, XXXII. 555-559.

 Creighton, IV. 123, unguardedly says that Julius was the first pope who let his beard grow. Many of the early bishops of Rome, as depicted in St. Peter’s, wore beards. So did Clement VII. after him, and other popes.

 See the pope’s letter granting it, Mansi, XXXII. 554.

 Pastor, III. 725.

 Hefele-Hergenröther, VIII. 520.

 See Mansi, XXXII. 570.

 A pamphlet war was waged over the council. Among the writers on the papal side was Thomas de Vio Gaeta, general of the Dominican order and afterwards famous as Cardinal Cajetan, who had the colloquies with Luther. His tracts were ordered burnt by Louis XII. He took the ground that no council can be oecumenical which has not the pope’s support. An account of this literary skirmish is given by Hefele-Hergenröther, VIII. 470-480.

 Tu pastor, tu medicus, tu gubernator, tu cultor, tu denique alter Deus in terris, Mansi, XXXII. 761. Hefele-Hergenröther VII. 528-531, pronounce this expression, God on earth, used before by Gregory II., a rhetorical flourish and nothing more. See also Pastor, III. 725.

 De Grassis reports the rumors abroad concerning the pope’s mortal malady. One of them was the Gallic disease, and another that the pope’s stomach had given way under excessive indulgence. He also speaks of the great number who went to look at the pope’s corpse and to kiss his feet. Döllinger, III. 432.

 A satire, called Julius exclusus, which appeared after the pontiff’s death, represented him as appearing at the gate of heaven with great din and noise. Peter remarked that, as he was a brave man, had a large army and much gold and was a busy builder, he might build his own paradise. At the same time the Apostle reminded him he would have to build the foundations deep and strong to resist the assaults of the devil. Julius retorted by peremptorily giving Peter three weeks to open heaven to him. In case he refused, he would open siege against him with 60,000 men. This recalls a story Dr. Philip Schaff used to tell of Gregory XVI., with whom, as a young graduate of Berlin, he had an audience. Gregory had a reputation with the Romans for being a connoisseur of wines. At his death, so the Roman wits reported, he appeared at the gate of heaven and, drawing out his keys, tried to unlock the gate. The keys would not fit. Peter, hearing the noise, looked out and, seeing the bunch of keys, told his vicar that he had brought with him by mistake the keys to his wine cellar, and must return to his palace and get the right set.

 Guicciardini pronounces Julius a priest only in name. A letter dated Rome, Feb. 24, 1513, and quoted by Brosch, p. 363, has this statement, hic pontifex nos omnes, omnem Italiam a Barbarorum et Gallorum manibus eripuit, an expression used by Aegidius and Marcello before the Lateran council. See also Paris de Grassis-in Döllinger, p. 482. Pastor, III. 732, and Hergenröther, Conciliengesch., VIII. 535, justify Julius’ attention to war on the ground that he was fighting in a righteous cause and for possessions he had held as temporal prince ever since the 8th century. The right of a pope to defend the papal state is inherent in the very existence of a papal state. Even a saint, Leo IX., urges Pastor, p. 741, followed the camp.

 See Ranke: Hist. of the Popes, I. 35.

 Pastor, III. 575, condemns Julius under this head, tadelnswerth erscheint dass das Ablassgeschäft vielfach zu einer Finanzoperation wurde.

 An original cartoon of this portrait is preserved in the Corsini Florence. In 1889 I met Professor Weizsäcker of Tübingen in Florence standing before Julius’ portrait and studying it. I had been with him in his home before he started on his journey, and he told me that one of the chief pleasures which he was anticipating from his Italian trip was the study of that portrait of one of the most vigorous—thatkräftig —of the popes.

⁸⁴⁶  These words are upon the testimony of the contemporary ambassador, Marino Giorgi, and cannot be set aside. Similar testimony is given by a biographer of Leo in Cod. Vat., 3920, which Döllinger quotes, Papstthum, p. 484, and which runs volo ut pontificatu isto quam maxime perfruamur. Pastor, IV. 353, while trying to break the force of the testimony for Leo’s words, pronounces the love of pleasure a fundamental and insatiable element of his nature—eine unersättliche Vergügungssucht, etc. Hefele-Knöpfler, Kirchengesch., p. 488, speak in the same vein when they say, Des neuen Papstes vorzüglichstes Streben galt heiterem Lebensgenuss, etc.

⁸⁴⁷  See Vaughan, p. 13 sq.

⁸⁴⁸  The famous letter is given by Roscoe, Bohn’s ed., pp. 285-288, and Vaughan, p. 23 sqq.

⁸⁴⁹  See Schulte, p. 198 sq., and Reumont, III., part II., p. 67. In front of the house of the banker, Agostino Chigi, were seen two persons representing Apollo and Mercury, and two little Moors, together with the inscription—

 Olim habuit Cypria sua tempora, tempora Mavors

 Olim habuit, sua nunc tempora Pallas habet.

 The goddess of Cyprus had her day and also Mars,

 But now Minerva reigns.

⁸⁵⁰  August 15, 1513. The Scotch king, James IV., who had married Henry’s sister, Margaret, joined the French. The memorable defeat at Flodden followed, Sept. 9, 1513. James and the flower of the Scotch nobility fell. Leo recognized Henry’s victories by conferring upon him the consecrated sword and hat which it was the pope’s custom to set aside on Christmas day.

⁸⁵¹  The battle is vividly described by D. J. Dierauer, Gesch. der schweizerischen Eidgenossenschaft, 2 vols., Gotha, 1892, vol. II. 451 sqq. On the second day of the battle, the arrival of the Venetian troops gave victory to the French. Of the 12,000 left on the field dead, the most were Swiss. Before entering the battle, as was their custom, the mountaineers engaged in prayer, and the leader, Steiner of Zug, after repeating the usual formula of devotion unto death, threw, in the name of the Trinity, a handful of earth over his fellow-soldiers’ heads.

⁸⁵²  Pastor, IV. 185 sq., strongly condemns Leo’s two-tongued diplomacy, doppelzüngiges Verhalten. Leo’s brief, authorizing Francis to make a promise of red hats to the two archbishops, is dated March 12, 1519.

⁸⁵³  One-half was to be paid in cash and the other half to be deposited with the Fuggers, Schulte, p. 196.

⁸⁵⁴  The investigation, started by Leo, resulted in making it appear that Julius’ mother, Floreta, and his father had agreed to regard themselves as married, though a formal service was wanting.

⁸⁵⁵  Silvio Passerini, one of the fortunate candidates, was a prince of benefice-hunters. Pastor, IV. 139, gives fifty-five notices of benefices bestowed on him from Leo’s Regesta. He calls the list of the places he received as wahrhaft erschreckend, "something terrifying."

⁸⁵⁶  The elephant became the subject of quite an extensive literature, poets joining others in setting forth his peculiarities. See Pastor, IV. 52, Note.

⁸⁵⁷  The concordat met with serious resistance in France both from parliament and the University of Paris on the ground that it set aside the decisions of the Councils of Constance and Basel on the question of conciliar authority, and thus overthrew the Gallican liberties. The rector of the university forbade the university printer issuing the document, but he was brought to time by Leo instructing his legate to pronounce censure against him and the university, who "thinking themselves to be wise, had become fools."

⁸⁵⁸  Perpetuis futuris temporibus, nullus librum aliquem seu aliam quamcunque scripturam tam in urbe nostra quam aliis quibusvis civitatibus et diocesibus imprimere seu imprimi facere praesumat, Mansi, XXXII. 912 sq. Also in part in Mirbt, p. 177.

⁸⁵⁹  Sacro concilio approbante. Döllinger, Papstthum, p. 185, affirms that, in far-reaching significance, no other rule ever passed in a Roman synod equals this bull.

⁸⁶⁰  Mansi, XXXII. 968; Mirbt, p. 178. Solum Rom. pontificem auctoritatem super omnia concilia habentem et conciliorum indicendorum transferendorum ac dissolvendorum plenum ius et potestatem habere ... et cum de necessitate salutis existat omnes Christi fideles Romano pontifici subesse, etc.

⁸⁶¹  Petri successores ... quibus ex libri Regum testimonio ita obedire necesse est, ut qui non obedierit, morte moriatur.

⁸⁶²  Kirchengesch., p. 383.

⁸⁶³  III., part II., p. 128

⁸⁶⁴  Pastor, who gives eight solid pages, IV. 407-415, to an account of Leo’s hunting expeditions, speaks of his passion for the chase as his leidenschaftliche Jagdliebhaberei.

⁸⁶⁵  Vaughan, p. 177.

⁸⁶⁶  See Reumont, III, Part II., 134 sq.

⁸⁶⁷  Sanuto, as quoted by Pastor, IV. 384. For some of the entertainments given by Cardinal Riario Cornaro, see Vaughan, p. 186 sqq. At one of the banquets given by Cardinal Cornaro, sixty-five courses were served, three dishes to each course, and all served on silver. Such devices as a huge pie, from which blackbirds or nightingales flew forth, or dishes of peacocks’ tails, or a construction of pastry from which a child would emerge to say a piece,—these were some of the inventions prepared for the amusement of guests at the tables of members of the sacred college.

⁸⁶⁸  Vettori, a contemporary, as quoted by Villari, IV. 4, says, "It was no more possible for his Holiness to keep 1,000 ducats than it is for a stone to fly upwards of itself." Villari, IV. 45, gives a list of Leo’s enormous debts.

⁸⁶⁹  These two lists of figures are taken from the Venetian ambassadors, Giorgi and Gradenigo. Schulte, Die Fugger, p. 97 sq., gives many cases of the payment of annates and the servitia through the Fuggers.

⁸⁷⁰  Schulte, I. 174, 223 sqq.

⁸⁷¹  Pastor, IV. 368, has said, Um Geld herbeizuschaffen schreckte man vor keinem Mittel zurück. Döllinger, Papstthum, p. 485, quotes a contemporary as saying ea tempestate Romae, sacra omnia venalia erant, etc.

⁸⁷²  These figures are given by Schulte, I. 224-227, upon the basis of Sanuto and other contemporary writers. The iII odor of usury was avoided by representing the charges of the bankers as gifts.

⁸⁷³  Pastor, IV. 371, in his striking way says,Der Zudrang der Florentiner in der ersten Zeit dieses Pontificats war ein enormer. Die Begehrlichkeit dieser Leute war grenzenlos. The Fuggers, who carried on the most extensive dealings with the papal treasury and the sacred college, had been firmly established in Rome since the beginning of Alexander VI.’s pontificate. They came originally from Langen to Augsburg, where they started business as weavers, and then branched off into trading in spices and other commodities reaching Europe through Venice, and in copper and other metals, under the name of Ulrich Fugger and Brothers (George and Jacob), and their capital, estimated by the taxes they paid, increased, between 1480 and 1501, 1,634 per cent. Schulte, p. 3. After its transfer to Rome, the house became the depository of the papal treasurer and cardinals, and was the intermediary for the payment of annates and servitia to the papal and camera treasuries. The amounts, as furnished in the ledger entries, are given by Schulte.

⁸⁷⁴  See Pastor’s terrific indictment, IV. 359 sq.

⁸⁷⁵  Quantum nobis nostrisque ea de Christo fabula profuerit, satis est omnibus saeculis notum. The words, said to have been spoken to Cardinal Bembo, were noted down for the first time by Bale in his Pageant of the Popes, ed. 1574, p. 179. Bale, bishop of Ossory, had been a Carmelite.

⁸⁷⁶  I: 1.

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