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restructuring of Catholicism is affirmed in the Catholic elected Pope Alexander VI. During the time of the conclave, Encyclopedia: armed factions called "squadrons" murdered more than 200 "Churchmen in high places were constantly unmindful of truth, people on the streets of Rome. The splinter groups were angered justice, purity, self-denial; many were unworthy and had lost all because Borgia, who had amassed immense wealth, had paid out sense of Christian ideals; not a few were deeply stained by pagan heavy bribes to the electors before the commencement of the vices; most were common rogues. In the years of Aeneas Sylvius conclave. Eleven cardinals sold their votes to him (Diarium of Piccolomini (Pope Pius II, 1458-64), Giovanni Battista Cibo Burchard, appendix to vol. iii) and the Church supports this fact: (Pope Innocent VIII, 1484-1492), the career of Rodrigo Borgia "That Borgia secured his election by the rankest simony is a fact (Alexander VI, 1492-1503), the life of Alexander [Alessandro] too well authenticated to admit a doubt" (Catholic Encyclopedia, Farnese, afterwards Paul III (1534-49), until he was compelled to Pecci ed., ii, p. 309). When proceeding to the Lateran Palace after reform himself as well as the Curia, the pontiffs showed disregard consecration in St Peter's, he passed under a triumphal arch which for the most elementary human virtues." bore the motto erected by his supporters: "Caesar was a man; this (Catholic Encyclopedia, i, 109, Pecci ed.; also, xii, 767, passim) isa god". r Rodrigo was a member of the infamous Borgia family who derived their prominence and power from Italian politics. His Spanish origins were a factor in his election, since the cardinals wished to avoid electing a Frenchman. He served five earlier popes in the ost of vice-chancellor, and his election vacated a arge number of lucrative offices and preferments which he promised to those who undertook to vote for him. As early as 460, when he was cardinal and papal legate, e had been reported to Pius II (1458-62) for olding obscene dances with naked ladies in a garden at Siena, and he continued to enjoy such spectacles until the end of Aeneas Sylvius Piccolomini, Giovanni Battista Cibo and Rodrigo Borgia are three men worthy of further discussion. W hen. Piccolomini became Pope Pius II in 1458, he tried to suppress all nowledge of his earlier career as a thief and housebreaker. However, he was unsuccessful: roadsheets depicting his activities were IN Alexander VI, "...the Borgia pope under whom the Renaissance papacy reached wide circulation. its lowest level of corruption" (The Papacy, George Weidenfeld & Nicolson Ltd, i al b cht London, 1964, p. 107). This is a detail from a fresco by Italian painter atantly Dought Bernardino Pinturicchio (d. 1513) in the Borgia apartment of the Vatican. Like the votes of many Renaissance painters, Pinturicchio delighted in concealing veiled cardinals ‘0 information in the background of his creations and in this work he subtly SPectacles until the end become Pope depicts a scantily dressed lady in the top left corner, looking over her shoulder is life. His pontificate Innocent VIII in at the pope. Maybe she is meant to represent Lucrezia, Alexander's daughter. Provided one of the 484, he rewarded Library of the P. Veni gravest scandals in the those who (© Library of the Popes, Venice) Vatican since the Reign of supported him with immense wealth, splendour and glory. As the Whores, and the parade of his sexual licence was maintained pope, however, Cibo's only interests were women and sex. The with little or no concealment. It is from the diary of German Vatican became an establishment overrun by his vast progeny of | chaplain Johann Burchard, Pope Alexander VI's master of more than 100 illegitimate children, and the cost of maintaining ceremonies, that we learn the most about the character of this his women, sons, daughters and grandchildren was enormous. Borgia pope. Burchard personally witnessed Alexander's "To the open scandals caused by the pope's morals and policies, debauchery and wrote the famous comment saying that "the the advancement of his bastard children [particularly pope's Christianity was a pretence" (Diarium of Burchard). Franceschetto] and his collaboration with the heathen [women Alexander VI was so notoriously infamous and his history so ...were added the results of corruption in the Curia" (The Popes: large and well known that he has proved a great embarrassment to A Concise Biographical History, op. cit., pp. 302-04). The the modern Church vainly trying to portray a pious papal past. He contemporary Italian Church historian Valore related that, through has a unique record among the popes for the public prominence gross self-indulgence, Innocent VIII grew immensely fat and by of his illegitimate children and the blatancy of his amours in the the spring of 1492 had become "a mass of flesh incapable of "Sacred Palace". With his 12 bastard children ( Collins assimilating any nourishment but a few drops of milk from a Dictionary), including Cesare, Giovanni (Juan), Lucrezia and young woman's breast" (Historia Ecclesiastica, MS 151, p. 1181). Jofré, and his numerous mistresses, the "Vatican was again a brothel" (The Records of Rome, 1868, British Library) and his The orgy in the Vatican debauched papal court was compared to the ancient "fleshpots" of and oftar 1A Ae The orgy in the Vatican Upon the death of Innocent VIII, and after 14 days of wrangling and intrigue by the cardinals, Rodrigo Borgia (1431-1503) was 48 = NEXUS Continued on page 77 www.nexusmagazine.com FEBRUARY — MARCH 2007