Pope alexander 6th biography of william

Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. April Learn how and when to remove this message. French in retreat [ edit ]. Crime [ edit ]. This section's factual accuracy is disputed. Please help to ensure that disputed statements are reliably sourced. Savonarola [ edit ]. Familial aggrandizement [ edit ]. The Jubilee [ edit ]. Personal life [ edit ].

Giovanni Borgia , 2nd Duke of Gandia. Portrait of a Gentleman Cesare Borgia. Presumed portrait of Lucrezia Borgia attributed to Dosso Dossi , c. Gioffre Borgia — Prince of Squillace. Slavery [ edit ]. Last years [ edit ]. Death [ edit ]. Legacy [ edit ]. The examples and perspective in this section may not include all significant viewpoints.

Please improve the article or discuss the issue. See also [ edit ]. References [ edit ]. Notes [ edit ]. This article contains too many or overly lengthy quotations. Please help summarize the quotations. Consider transferring direct quotations to Wikiquote or excerpts to Wikisource. September See G. Meyer, [ 3 ] Christopher Hibbert, [ 4 ] and Ferdinand Gregorovius.

By the middle of the 15th century, this reconquest was almost complete, but Spain was still a hodgepodge of competing principalities and, because of its constant state of warfare, still a very backward country. In Italy, on the other hand, the Renaissance, which had hardly begun in Spain, had reached its high point and the Italians, in general, did not look kindly on a citizen of this backward country being elevated to the highest post in the Church.

Remember, too, that the pope at the time, besides his spiritual powers, was a sovereign political power with large areas of the peninsula, nominally, at least, under his control. Italy was, politically, in a worse state than Spain. In the south, Naples was a fief of the pope, but its ruler, King Ferrante, refused to acknowledge the pope's authority.

In the north of the peninsula, many small principalities vied for dominance and were often at war with one another, changing alliances as rapidly as opportunity invited. In the Papal States themselves, noble families, such as the Orsini and the Colonna, acted as petty tyrants in the cities and areas which they controlled, grinding down the people and constantly seeking to achieve their independence from their sovereign, the pope.

These Roman families even sought to control the Papacy itself. It was probably only because they could not agree on an Italian successor to Nicholas V that the elderly Callistus had been elected; one who, in all probability, would not live long Callistus III was acknowledged by all as religious and austere, though severely criticized for his largesse to his family.

But he was surrounded by enemies both within the Church and among the rulers of Europe. When elected, he did what all leaders do, he surrounded himself with people whom he believed he could trust. A Spaniard in Italy, he was hard-pressed to find such trustworthiness except from members of his own family; hence his patronage of them, though it is not to be denied that it was probably also for personal reasons.

Alexander opened the first holy door in St. Peter's Basilica on Christmas Eve, , and papal legates opened the doors in the other three patriarchal basilicas. For this occasion, Pope Alexander had a new opening created in the portico of St. Peter's and commissioned a door, made of marble, 3. It lasted until when another door was installed in the new basilica.

The door, in turn, was replaced in by the bronze door, which is still in use. In a ceremony strikingly similar in many ways to today's ritual opening of a holy door, Alexander was carried in the gestatorial chair to the portico of St. He and the members of his retinue, bearing long candles, processed to the holy door, as the choir intoned Psalm — "Open for me the gate of Yahweh, where the upright go in.

Thus, Pope Alexander, a lover of pomp and ceremony, formalized the rite of opening a holy door and began a tradition that continues, with few variations, to this day. Similar rites were held at the other patriarchal basilicas. Alexander was also the first to institute a special rite for the closing of a holy door. On the feast of the Epiphany, 6 January , two cardinals — one with a silver brick and the other with a gold one — symbolically began to seal the holy door.

Basilica workers known as sanpietrini completed the task, which included placing small coins and medals, minted during the holy year, inside the wall. The pope himself performed this ceremony on Christmas Eve, , having taken pains to settle all the details beforehand with his Master of Ceremonies. The ceremonial observed on these occasions was no modern invention, but, as the Bull of Indiction expressly says, was founded on ancient rites and full of symbolic meaning.

According to Burchard, the crowd which assisted at these solemnities numbered , persons. Although this may be an exaggeration, still it is certain that, in spite of the troubles of the times and the insecurity in Rome itself, the numbers attending this Jubilee were very large. Peter's Basilica. On a similar claim: "Without any solid evidence Giulia is said to have been the model for Pinturicchio's 'Virgin and Child' surrounded by angels in the Borgia Apartments of the Vatican.

Et fuit tediosa et longa oratio. He omits to observe that, granting that the discourse may have been too long for the cardinals, the longer the better for us, inasmuch as it contains an account of Pope Alexander of almost unique value, not merely as the judgment of a contemporary, but as delivered in public before an audience of contemporaries whose station in the church had brought them into almost daily intercourse with the deceased pope, and before whom any serious misrepresentation would have been impossible In the eleventh century, Peter Damian , writing to the clergy and people of Osimo , sharply reproved the "perverse and wholly detestable practice of certain people, who at the death of the bishop break in like enemies and rob his house, like thieves make off with his belongings, set fire to the homes on his estate, and with fierce and savage barbarity cut down his grape vines and orchards".

The pope was banned from selling benefices and from transferring Church property to laypersons. As for the cardinals, who were to be drawn from all the nations, none should possess more than one bishopric; their households were limited to eighty people and thirty horses; they were banned from hunting, theaters, carnivals, and tournaments; and their funeral expenses were not to exceed 1, ducats.

The lesser clergy were similarly reined in: they must refuse all bribes and put away their concubines. Citations [ edit ]. Meyer The Borgias: The Hidden History. ISBN History of the City of Rome in the Middle Ages. London: George Bell. Edited by Fredi Chiappelli. Isabella: The Warrior Queen. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. Archived from the original PDF on 26 April Retrieved 22 December The Borgias: history's most notorious dynasty.

OCLC Pietro sino ai nostri giorni , vol. International law in historical perspective. Martinus Nijhoff Publishers. The Rise of Modern Diplomacy — London: Longman. New York: Bantam Books. Juan de Albret y Catalina de Foix o la defensa del Estado navarro — Rorate Caeli. Retrieved 25 March Catholic Culture. Retrieved 4 June Latin American Studies.

Glaser, tr. Brown, New York, p. MacManamon, S. Letters 31—60 , Owen J. New York: John Lane. Translated by Hamilton, Annie. London: G. Publisher: The Catholic Dormitory. Knights of Columbus Catholic Truth Committee. Under Alexander VI. Plays, for the most part of an extremely objectionable character, were a prominent feature in all court festivities, and also in the Carnival amusements, in which Alexander took a great interest.

But the rest of the clan still held out, and the papal troops sent against them under Guidobaldo duke of Urbino and the duke of Gandia were defeated at Soriano January Peace was made through Venetian mediation, the Orsini paying 50, ducats in exchange for their confiscated lands; the duke of Urbino, whom they had captured, was left by the pope to pay his own ransom.

The Orsini still remained very powerful, and Alexander could count on none but his Spaniards. His only success had been the capture of Ostia and the submission of the Francophile cardinals Colonna and Savelli. Now occurred the first of those ugly domestic tragedies for which the house of Borgia remained famous. On the 14th of June the duke of Gandia, lately created duke of Benevento, disappeared; the next day his corpse was found in the Tiber.

Alexander, overwhelmed with grief, shut himself up in Castle St Angelo, and then declared that the reform of the church would be the sole object of his life henceforth--a resolution which he did not keep. Every effort was made to discover the assassin, and suspicion fell on various highly placed personages. Suddenly the rumour spread about that Cesare, the pope's second son, was the author of the deed, and although the inquiries then ceased and no conclusive evidence has yet come to light, there is every probability that the charge was well founded.

No doubt Cesare, who contemplated quitting the church, was inspired by jealousy of Gandia's influence with the pope. Violent and revengeful, he now became the most powerful man in Rome, and even his father quailed before him. As he needed funds to carry out his various schemes, the pope began a series of confiscations, of which one of the victims was his own secretary, in order to enrich him.

Pope alexander 6th biography of william

The process was a simple one: any cardinal, nobleman or official who was known to be rich would be accused of some offence; imprisonment and perhaps murder followed at once, and then the confiscation of his property. The disorganization of the Curia was appalling, the sale of offices became a veritable scandal, the least opposition to the Borgia was punished with death, and even in that corrupt age the state of things shocked public opinion.

The story of Alexander's relations with Savonarola is narrated under the latter heading; it is sufficient to say here that the pope's hostility was due to the friar's outspoken invectives against papal corruption and to his appeals for a General Council. Alexander, although he could not get Savonarola into his own hands, browbeat the Florentine government into condemning the reformer to death May 23, The pope was unable to maintain order in his own dominions; the houses of Colonna and Orsini were at open war with each other, but after much fighting they made peace on a basis of alliance against the pope.

Thus further weakened, he felt more than ever that he had only his own kin to rely upon, and his thoughts were ever turned on family aggrandizement. He had annulled Lucrezia's marriage with Sforza in , and, unable to arrange a union between Cesare and the daughter of Frederick, king of Naples who had succeeded Ferdinand II. Cesare, who renounced his cardinalate, was sent on a mission to France at the end of the year, bearing a bull of divorce for the new king Louis XII, in exchange for which he obtained the duchy of Valentinois hence his title of Duca Valentino and a promise of material assistance in his schemes to subjugate the feudal princelings of Romagna; he married a princess of Navarre.

Alexander hoped that Louis's help would be more profitable to his house than that of Charles had been and, in spite of the remonstrances of Spain and of the Sforza, he allied himself with France in January and was joined by Venice. In order to consolidate his possessions still further, now that French success seemed assured, the pope determined to deal drastically with Romagna, which although nominally under papal rule was divided up into a number of practically independent lordships on which Venice, Milan and Florence cast hungry eyes.

Cesare, nominated gonfaloniere of the Church, and strong in French favour, proceeded to attack the turbulent cities one by one. But the expulsion of the French from Milan and the return of Lodovico Sforza interrupted his conquests, and he returned to Rome early in This year was a jubilee year, and crowds of pilgrims flocked to the city from all parts of the world bringing money for the purchase of indulgences, so that Alexander was able to furnish Cesare with funds for his enterprise.

In the north the pendulum swung back once more and the French reoccupied Milan in April, causing the downfall of the Sforzas, much to Alexander's gratification. But there was no end to the Vatican tragedies, and in July the duke of Bisceglie, whose existence was no longer advantageous, was murdered by Cesare's orders; this left Lucrezia free to contract another marriage.

The pope, ever in need of money, now created twelve new cardinals, from whom he received , ducats, and fresh conquests for Cesare were considered. But while a crusade was talked of, the real object was central Italy, and in the autumn Cesare, favoured by France and Venice, set forth with 10, men to complete his interrupted enterprise. The local despots of Romagna were dispossessed and an administration was set up, which, if tyrannical and cruel, was at least orderly and strong, and aroused the admiration of Machiavelli q.

On his return to Rome June he was created duke of Romagna. Louis XII, having succeeded in the north, determined to conquer southern Italy as well, and concluded a treaty with Spain for the division of the Neapolitan kingdom, which was ratified by the pope on the 25th of June, Frederick being formally deposed. French-Papal Alliance. In Alexander planned serious plans for the reform of the Church, but his irregular life and the ambitions of Cesare, who resigned the cardinalate in and took up politics in a practical way, frustrated his good intentions.

It was further characterized by the abandonment of the Kingdom of Naples to its fate, and by the plan to unify the Romagna, Emilia, Umbria, and the Marches, the four feudatories at least nominally of the Holy See. Cesare, then Duke of Valentinois, accompanied Louis XII in the occupation of Milan , and later undertook the conquest of central Italy, a campaign comparable to that waged by Alexander in Rome against the feudal nobility Orsini and colonna.

The Renaissance plan for greater cohesion in the states of the church shows Alexander's political ability, but its execution is open to serious criticism, e. Although Cesare's rule of the Romagna vanished with the pope's death, and feudal anarchy returned, the later conquests of Pope julius ii and his reorganization of the States of the Church were made possible by the internal collapse of those provinces in the wake of Cesare's conquests.

Amid such fighting, however, the holy year of could still be celebrated with splendor. After fruitless talks in Rome with ambassadors of various European states, Alexander — as had his uncle Callistus III — published a bull proclaiming a crusade against the ottoman turks June 10, But only Venice and Spain took part, conquering the islands of Cephalonia and Leukas.

When the two kings disputed over the border, Alexander sided with Louis, for whom Cesare campaigned in Naples. During Cesare's domination of central Italy, Lucrezia married Alfonso d' este, firstborn of Ercole I, Duke of Ferrara, as a guarantee of the independence of the duchies. In August Alexander and Cesare both fell ill during an epidemic in Rome.

The pope died after confessing and receiving Viaticum and Extreme Unction. Despite his dissipated life, both as cardinal and pope, Alexander can be credited with several achievements during his pontificate. Better educated and more refined than Callistus III, he entrusted the decoration of the main floor of the vatican palace to Pinturiccio, restored the Castel Sant' Angelo, and provided a new building for the University of Rome.

Peter's Basilica. The Monumental Apostolic chancery palace was built during his pontificate. In the evangelization of the New World, his actions conformed to the best papal traditions: he promoted the re-Christianization of greenland, supported Portuguese missionary work, and with his alexandrine bulls, ensured peace between Portugal and Castile in both the Far East and the Americas, as well as the spread of the Gospel.

Criticism of the bulls has, perhaps, not always taken into account the political rights claimed by popes from the Middle Ages or the interplay of ecclesiastical, papal, and family policies involved in their concession. Alexander's piety seems to have been more sincere than his life would indicate. Still, any overall judgment of him and his pontificate from an ecclesiastical and religious point of view remains negative, even though his enemies have often calumniated him through exaggeration.

Recent uncritical excesses of those seeking naively to vindicate him have provoked a reaction, frequently as unrestrained as that of the revisionists. Bibliography: Sources. Only four cardinals were present at the funeral, and his successor, Pius III, prohibited masses for the repose of his soul. Contact About Privacy. Alexander VI. Igumen Timofey.

Benedictus VI. Robert Harold Schuller.