78 
interval, to the still more outrageous and unnatural crimes of 
Alexander VI. 
Sixtus was the uncle of Julius II., who succeeded Alexander 
VI., whose predecessor, Innocent VIII., a Cibo, was the uncle 
of the Cardinal Cibo, who, under Leo X., a Medici, succeeded 
Adrian as Papa! secretary, and to whom his house in the 
Nuovo Borgo was given. 
Sixtus IV. had also planned the conspiracy of the Pazzi 
against the Medici. 
Small wonder then that Savonarola and Politiano ful- 
minated at Florence against the state of society, and carried 
away by his elevation to the position of legislator and judge, 
overstepped the bounds of prudence. 
The town of Pisa, and Sforza, Duke of Milan, uncle of 
Cardinal Ascanius, were fighting against Florence. Venice 
was plotting against both, while Maximilian, France, and 
Spain regarded them as pawns in the contest between 
themselves. 
In 1503, the Romagna, Urbino, and Piombino were ruled by 
Czsar Borgia, Pisa, Siena and Florence were under his in- 
fluence, and Venice called herself his friend. 
To all these men and States Adrian was known as the 
Papal Minister, but no word of hostility to him is to be found 
in their archives, and it is from these we can form our judgment 
of Adrian ; from letters which have come ‘neath the public eye, 
only in recent times, and whose authors never expected they 
would be read save by those to whom they were addressed. 
In all these not one word of jealousy or hint of wrong-doing 
is to be found against Adrian when he was in power, and 
those which were written after his disgrace are marked b. a 
tone of sympathy for the misfortune which had _ befallen 
one who had continuously held high office under men whom 
he had known both as exiles and pontifts. 
he tale of the Pope being poisoned in Adrian’s garden, 
though current at the time, must be viewed with suspicion. 
To endeavour to sweep away four or five Cardinals by such an 
act seems incredible even when related of a Borgia, and the 
state of Rome at that time would account for much. 
A terrible epidemic raged. One man wrote: “ All the 
courtiers, especially those who are in the palace, are in the 
same state by reason of the unwholesome conditions of the 
air which there they breathe.” Penitence, fasting, and flagella- 
tions were universal. Butchers closed their shops for eight 
