1906-7. TRANSACTIONS. 53 



And now what of Italj^ in A.D. 1500? With troubles of all 

 sorts everywhere else, what are the circumstances in the more im- 

 mediate vicinity of Florence? 



Central Italy. — On the throne of Peter has been seated for 

 eight years one of the worst of the Popes, Alex. VI (1492-1503) — 

 "memorable," says the Encyclopedia Brit., "as the most charac- 

 teristic incarnation of the secular spirit of the papacy of the 15th 

 century. " Undoubtedly a great man, his ambition was largely 

 for his family and the temporal interests of the church. For these 

 purposes he undertook the displacement of the petty nobility, 

 among whom were parcelled out the States of the Church and who 

 left to him "hardly the shadow of dominion" (a), an enterprise 

 which in the hands of his son, the notorious Cajsar Borgia, de- 

 veloped into the possibility of Caesar being proclaimed King of 

 the Romagna. 



This Caesar Borgia may almost be regarded as the then living 

 exemplar of Machiavellian political morality, save that he ap- 

 plied it not for State benefit but for personal ambition. Made a 

 Cardinal at the age of seventeen, he found in the church too narrow 

 a scope for his activities and great abilities. Resigning it for his 

 soul's health, he entered with zest into the prevailiiig struggle for 

 personal power and territorial aggrandizement. Aided by the 

 influence of his father the Pope; unrestrained by the least sem- 

 blance of morality; undeterred by the enormity of any crime 

 which seemed to be necessary for his advancement; using craft 

 and kindness,- assassination and largesse, he had almost reached 

 the summit of his ambition when his father died and was succeeded 

 by the hereditary enemy of his house, Julius II (1503-1513) who 

 speedily reduced Cassar from would-be King to a place in the 

 prison of St. Angelo. He was killed in 1507. 



Meanwhile Julius by dexterous reconciliation between the 

 two powerful houses of Orsini and Colonna, by diplomatic arrange- 

 ments with France and Germany, and finally by force where 

 diplomacy failed, succeeded in completing the work of Alexander, 

 and in consolidating the temporal power of the Pope in the Ro- 

 magna. All this was going on in Central Italy. 



Northern Italy. — Raised now to secular power Julius 

 "Whose ambition was superior, and his abilities equal, 

 to those of any Pontiff who (6) ever sat on the Papal throne, " 



(a) Prescott: "History of Charles V," Vol. 1, p. 97. 

 (5) Prescott: History Charles V, Vol. 1, p. 90. 



