Chapter XVII: Book II: , speaks for the fact that venom was feared, and therefore likely (6)

Stripped of polite verbiage this letter conveyed to Cardinal King Henry IX the offer of an annuity of £4000 for so long as he might please to need it. It is ungracious to say with some Scots that, after all, the Elector of Hanover only offered to the Majesty of England a calf of his own cow. The situation was fraught with difficulty. The essentials and the accidentals of his birth combined to make Cardinal Henry Benedict Stewart the only rightful King of England. He could not help that; any more than any man can help being the son of his father and mother, born in lawful wedlock; and King-ship, being of Divine origin, can only be conferred or transferred or confirmed by the Divinity acting through His Earthly Vicegerent, the Roman Pontiff. With these principles to guide him, and the circumstances being as they were, Cardinal Henry grandly decided to be king only in name. His mere existence, however, made the tenure of the occupant of the English Throne to some extent uncertain: for an alien dynasty can never feel entirely comfortable while any of the dispossessed remain. The old order had changed, and had given place to new: but the New could not know that the Old would accept—would condescend to accept—help in its private necessity. It was a most delicate position. On the other hand, it was out of the question that the King’s Majesty should make known to Englishmen his desperate plight, for Cardinal Henry was every inch a King. But the good heart and clever pen of Cardinal Stefano Borgia solved that difficulty, by invoking on grounds of private friendship the intervention of Sir John Coxe Hippisley.

The method of relief, when relief was seen to be required, was a task for the wits of diplomacy. When the English choose to change their sovereign dynasties, they at least should secure their nation against the disgrace of seeing, perishing in indigence, one who truly could say _My grandfather formerly wore the Crown, touched for the king’s evil on the steps of St. Winifred’s Well, and reigned as King in England_. The spectacle of the blind beggar of Constantinople, crying “Date obolum Belisario” is shameful enough for one continent, and can be spared the disgrace of repetition. A pension on the Civil List would have met the needs of the case: but it would have had many disadvantages. It would necessitate publicity; it would have been most disagreeable to the gentle pride of the August Personage whose life and character commanded nothing but respect.

At the present day, one is accustomed to hear members of a certain class of Scot, desirous of shining at least in a reflected light, boasting that their forbears were “out in the ’15” or “out in the ’45.” One does not so often hear an Englishman congratulating himself on his descent from heroes who endured confiscation, attainder, in the self-same cause—but in 1688. The English resist aggression at the outset; they are used to, are glad to, make sacrifices for, not bargains of, their sovereigns; and, needing no reflected light, they are not good boasters. There is no doubt that a great deal of Scots flesh was given in 1715 and in 1745 for the House of Stewart. There is no doubt that some Scots gold was offered on the same account. But one has not heard that the loyal Scots—loyal, as they say, to the Stewarts,—ever attempted to minister to the necessities of their liege Lord, the Cardinal King Henry the Ninth. Ethics, derived from Master John Knox, whose iconoclastic ardour stopped at the “saxpence” and made it the idolatrous object of supreme worship of dulia and hyperdulia and latria, no doubt mitigated the sentiment of loyalty in regard to a king who happened to be a prelatical papist. A national fund, a fund raised by the adherents of the Stewarts, to provide a yearly income for their exiled sovereign, would have been graceful and acceptable. It is the duty of a people to maintain its monarch; and it is not beneath the dignity of monarchy to accept such maintenance offered in loyalty. Peter’s Pence is nothing but a fund of yearly offerings instituted by King Ælfred the Great of England for the maintenance of the Sovereign Pontiff. In the case of Cardinal King Henry the Ninth, however, no such guaranteed annuity was forthcoming from the nation of which no inconsiderable part admitted his right to rule. Loyalty to the Stewarts—practical living loyalty—was confined to individuals, few in number; and it became necessary to seek another method of solving the difficulty.

Private munificence, towards the King _de jure_, on the part of—let it be said, for Cardinal Henry himself said it, and none had more right to decide than he—on the part of the King _de facto_, King George the Third, the official representative of the English nation, was the only possible method, which was likely to be agreeable or acceptable. Therefore, an annuity of £4000 was offered, not from the Civil List, not from the Nation, but from the Privy Purse, from King George to Cardinal Henry—from one English Gentleman to another. The delicate tact and straightforwardness with which the Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary of His Britannic Majesty at the Court of Vienna made the offer; the complimentary terms of his letter to the “August Personage;” his guarded denunciation of the French robbers of the Cardinal as “the Universal Plague of our time which seems to design the destruction of all that is most worthy of Veneration and Respect;” his proffered homage;—all these qualities egregiously deserved Cardinal Stefano Borgia’s epithet “very polite,” and made the proposal one which honourably and gratefully could be accepted. At least the Cardinal-Duke of York was pleased to think so, as the two letters following here will shew. It may be observed that they are written in incoherent and peculiar English. Let it be remembered that they were written by a very old gentleman, under circumstance of extreme agitation; in a language of appalling difficulty which, though his native tongue, was altogether strange to him; for he had not lived in England, and, in his life-long exile, he used nothing but Latin with his clergy or Italian with his friends.

He wrote from the Conclave on the Island of San Giorgio on the twenty-sixth of February 1800; and the letters are sealed with the Royal Arms of England and France surmounted with the Cardinalitial Hat instead of the Crown.

(I. To Lord Minto.)

“With the arrival of Mr. Oakley who has been this morning with Me, I
have received by his discourse, and much more by your letters, so many
Tokens of your regard, singular consideration, and attention for My
Person, that oblige Me to abandon all sort of ceremony, and to begin
abruptly to assure you My dear lord, that your letters have been most
acceptable to Me in all shapes and regards. I did not in the least
doubt of the noble way of thinking of your generous and beneficent
Sovereign; but I did not expect to see in writing so many and so
obliging expressions that well calculated by the Persons who receive
them and understand their force, impressed in their minds a lively
sense of tenderness and gratitude which, I own to you, obliges me more
than the generosity spontaneously imparted.

“I am in reality at a loss to express in writing all the sentiments of
My Heart, and for that reason leave it entirely to the interest you
take in all that regards My Person to make known in an energetical and
convenient manner all I fain would say to express My thankfulness
which may easily be by you comprehended after having perused the
contents of this letter.

“I am much obliged to you to have indicated to Me the way I may write
unto Coutts the Court Banker, and shall follow your friendly
insinuations. In the meantime I am very desirous that you should be
convinced of My sentiments of sincere esteem and friendship with which
My dear lord with all My heart I embrace you.

“HENRY CARDINAL.”

(II. To Sir John Coxe Hippisley.)

“Your letters fully convince me of the cordial interest you take in
all that regards My Person, and am happy to acknowledge that
principally I owe to your friendly efforts, and to them of your
friends, the succour generously granted to relieve the extreme
necessities into which I have been driven by the present dismal
circumstances. I cannot sufficiently express how sensible I am to your
good heart: and write these few lines in the first place to contest to
you these My most sincere and grateful sentiments and then to inform
you by means of Mr. Oakley an English Gent^n arrived here last week, I
have received a letter from Lord Minto from Vienna, advising Me that
he had orders from his Court to remit to Me the sum of £2000 Sterling,
and that in the month of July I may again draw, if I desire it, for
another equal sum. The letter is written in so extremely obliging and
genteel a manner, and with expressions of singular regard and
consideration for Me, that, I assure you, excited in Me most
particular and lively sentiments, not only of satisfaction for the
delicacy with which the affair has been managed, but also of gratitude
for the generosity with which has been provided for my necessity.

I have answered Lord Minto’s letter, and gave it saturday last to Mr.
Oakley who was to send it by that evening’s post” (the ambassadorial
courier) “to Vienna, and have written in a manner that I hope will be
to his lordship’s satisfaction. I own to you that the succour granted
to Me could not be more timely, for, without it, it would have been
impossible for Me to subsist on account of the absolutely irreparable
loss of all My income, the very funds being also destroyed; so that I
would otherwise have been reduced during the short remainder of My
life to languish in misery and indigence. I would not loose a moment’s
time to apprize you of all this, and am very certain that your
experimented good heart will find proper means to make known in an
energical and proper manner, these sentiments of My grateful
acknowledgment.

“Your best of friends,
“HENRY CARDINAL.”

Of the remaining history of H.R.H. The Cardinal-Duke of York it is not necessary to speak here. He died in 1807, and was honourably buried in the Vatican Basilica with his father and his brother, in a tomb which bears their names and styles, James III, Charles III, Henry IX, last of the Royal House of Stewart, three kings “who paid three crowns for a mass,” who sacrificed the crowns of Great Britain, France, and Ireland, rather than their religious convictions. May they rest in peace.[134]

* * * * *

The action of Cardinal Stefano Borgia which just has been described, was not the only evidence of nobility of soul that he exhibited during the long Conclave of 1799–1800. He did, or rather he did not do, another deed; the neglect of which suffices to win him high renown.

It already has been manifested here, that the tide of human ambition runs at its highest in the Conclave for the election of a Pope. At different periods of history, the papacy has been regarded as an appanage of the empire, or of the great Italian baronies, Crescenzi, Colonna, Orsini, Savelli, Medici. The House of Borgia, not without reason of a kind, desired to rank with these; and cardinals of that House complacently expected election. There already had been two Borgia Popes, the strenuous Lord Calixtus P.P. III. and the invincible Lord Alexander P.P. VI. The great-grandson of St. Francisco de Borja, Cardinal Don Gaspero, publicly hoped to be the third, and was disappointed. Now, in the last year of the Eighteenth Century, was enclosed in another Conclave another Borgia Cardinal, the noble Cardinal Stefano, and it confidently was expected that he would emerge therefrom not Stefano, but Peter, crowned with the Triregno, the pontifical diadem made of feathers of white peacocks encircled with three crowns of gold.

Humanly speaking his chance of election was not chance but certainty. He was admitted on all hands to be _facile Princeps_ of the Sacred College. His learning, his dominant power, his simple piety, his universally sympathetic personality, assured him of an unanimous majority, had he chosen to enter the ranks of the cardinals-competitors, that is to say, of the cardinals who were eligible and also willing.

When a man is aware of his own ability to do certain legitimate and beneficent deeds, the world is wont to call him fool as well as knave when he neglects to seek the situation, the opportunity, for exercising his peculiar talent. In this matter, the world is not ill-advised. Then, if an ecclesiastic is convinced that, in a certain position of authority, he can do God-service, why should he be deterred from seeking that position by craven terror of the inevitable scowls, rhodomontades, and lampoons of envious incompetent venal mediocrity? The Lord Pius P.P. II was not afraid. He knew His own powers. He was convinced of the purity of His intentions; and, as Cardinal Enea Silvio Bartolomeo de’ Piccolhuomini, he met the schemes of Cardinal Guillaume d’Estoutville in the Conclave of 1458 with counter-schemes, and accomplished His Own elevation to the pontifical throne. There is another and more intimate example, nearer home, and no later than the last century: the example of a provost of a metropolitan cathedral chapter, who knew his power, who knew the lawfully designated successor of the archbishop to be unfitted for the responsibilities of office, who kept an agent at the Vatican to urge his candidature when the see was vacant, until the Lord Pius P.P. IX, declaring it to be _un colpo-di-stato di Domeniddio_, transformed the convert-provost into Westminster’s Archbishop. It cannot be alleged that Cardinal Henry Edward Manning became inglorious by giving practical evidence of his contempt for the ridiculous and wicked doctrine which is preached by vicious degenerates, that _the Almighty intends much of His Good Work to be wasted_. It cannot be alleged that Cardinal Manning was actuated by personal arrogance, or by desire for personal aggrandisement. His whole life of saint-like self-sacrifice, of intensest humility, of ascetic mortification, of ceaseless toil for the spiritual and temporal welfare of all men without distinction of creed, has proved the contrary. By the same token, on this score, there would have been no stain on the noble character of Cardinal Stefano Borgia had he desired to exert himself to compass his own election to the Throne of Peter.

But he did not so desire. Indeed, he shewed himself unwilling to be elected; and the Sacred College made choice of the next Most Eminent Lord, the Benedictine Cardinal Gregorio Luigi Barnabo Chiaramonte, whose accession was proclaimed under the name of the Lord Pius P.P. VII. So Christendom still lacks the third Borgia Pontiff,—a lack unlikely soon to be made good; seeing that, since Cardinal Stefano, no Borgia wears the scarlet hat; yet by no means irremediable, seeing that the House of Borgia is living, and not dead.

Little remains to be written of the last pre-eminent Borgia. On the death of Cardinal Gerdil, Cardinal Stefano was promoted from the Proprefecture to the Prefecture of Propaganda Fide.

In 1804, while attending the debile Lord Pius P.P. VII to Paris, (whither His Holiness had been summoned for the coronation as emperor of the Corsican upstart Consul Napoleon Buonaparte,) Cardinal Stefano Borgia died, at the age of seventy-three years, on the Festival of St. Clement the twenty-third of November, at Lyons, and was buried there in the cathedral. It is worth noting that he had been baptized in the cathedral of St. Clement at Velletri in December 1731; that he derived his cardinalitial Title from the church of St. Clement in Rome; and that on the Festival of St. Clement 1804, he died. His friend, Fra Pietro Paolino da San Bartolomeo, a sandalled Carmelite, wrote his biography. The celebrated Cancellieri composed his elegy, which has been republished by Bodoni. The Borgia Museum of Antiquities which he established in Velletri, and whose elaborate catalogue is the work of his uncle Don Filippaurelio Visconti, in chief part is in the Royal Museum of Naples; the College of Propaganda has the lesser part, and also his splendid library.

* * * * *

The House of Borgia continues to flourish in the descendants of Cardinal Stefano’s brother, the CAVALIERE GIAMPAOLO BORGIA OF VELLETRI, a general in the pontifical army; who married the representative of two of the most important houses of the Romagna, often mentioned in these pages as having been subdued by the splendid Duke Cesare (detto Borgia) di Valentinois della Romagna, in the campaigns of 1499 and 1501–2,—the Countess Alcmena[135] Baglioni-Malatesta of Perugia. Eighteen children were the issue of this marriage. The names of five have been recovered at the date of writing, viz., the eldest, Cavaliere Camillo; Don Clemente; Don Alessandro; Don Cesare; and the youngest Don Francesco.

(α) THE CAVALIERE CAMILLO BORGIA, born 1777, was Adjutant-General
and Field-Marshal under King Joachim Murat of Naples;
Aulic-Counsellor and Chargé d’affaires of the King of Denmark
in Rome; Knight of the Legion of Honour,[136] and of the Order
of the Two Sicilies.[137] Distinguished in arms by his
military talent, he was not less renowned in the kingdom of
Letters. After his retirement from the army, he travelled much
in Northern Africa to study Latin antiquities. At least one of
his works has achieved fame—the _Planisfero Borgiano_. He
married Mdlle. Adelaide Quaison, (who died in 1865); and he
died in 1817, leaving issue

DON ETTORE BORGIA, born at Velletri in 1802, a Roman Patrician,
Knight of Honour and Devotion of the Order of St. John of
Jerusalem of Malta, Knight-Commander of the Order of St.
Gregory the Great,[138] Gonfalonier of Velletri, National
Representative of Velletri in the Roman Parliament of 1848,
and Provisional Governour of Velletri in 1871. He departed
this life, in 1892, at Melazzo in Sicily, being of the age of
ninety years; and his death without issue extinguished the
Veliternian Branch of the House of Borgia.

(β) DON CLEMENTE BORGIA OF ROME, who married Donna Luisa Calderoni,
and died in 1852, leaving issue,

(α) Don Adriano, who died unmarried:

(β) Don Tito, who died unmarried:

(γ) Don Costantino, a prelate, (author of _De Cathedra Romana Sancti
Petri Principus Apostolorum Oratio_, etc. a quarto published at
Rome in 1845;) died unmarried in 1878:

(δ) DON AUGUSTO, a prelate, born 1820. His death, on the second of
September 1900, without issue, extinguished the Roman Branch of
the House of Borgia.

(γ) DON ALESSANDRO BORGIA, born 1788, Balì of the Order of St. John of
Jerusalem of Malta, died 1872.

(δ) DON CESARE BORGIA, was a Knight-Commander of the Order of St. John
of Jerusalem of Malta; and followed the profession of a man of
letters in Ferrara, (the city of which his kinswoman, Madonna
Lucrezia, formerly had been the sovereign duchess,) until his
death in 1861.

_(Here should be inserted the names of thirteen children of the Cavaliere Giampaolo Borgia and his wife the Countess Alcmena Baglioni-Malatesta of Perugia, which, at present are not accessible. The eighteenth and youngest son of the said Cavaliere Giampaolo was,)_

(ε) THE NOBLE FRANCESCO BORGIA, born 1794; Knight of Honour and
Devotion, and Hereditary Commandant of the Order of St. John of
Jerusalem of Malta; Knight of the Order of the Lily of
France[139]; Knight of the Order of the two Sicilies; Patrician
of Rome: who married the Noble Luigia Ferrari di Cremona,
Dowager-Countess Cassera (died 1855); and established the House
of Borgia in Milan on his marriage with a Milanese lady in 1822.
He died in 1861 leaving issue,

(α) THE NOBLE ALCMENA, married to the Marquess Paolo Litta-Modignani
of Milan:

(β) THE NOBLE CESARE BORGIA, (_the present Head of the Illustrious
House of Borgia_); Knight of Honour and Devotion and Hereditary
Commandant of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem of Malta;
Patrician of Rome, (which patriciate gives its holder the right
to the title of Count;) born at Milan on the twenty-seventh of
January 1830; married in 1856 Donna Clementina Tarantola (who
died in 1884) and has issue,

(α) DON FRANCESCO BORGIA, born in 1863; married in 1885 the
Marchioness Eugenia Litta-Modignani di Menzago e Vinago,
Patrician of Milan; and has issue,

(α) DON CESARE BORGIA, born 1886:

(β) DON ALESSANDRO BORGIA, born 1898:

AD MULTOS ANNOS

* * * * *

“A FIRE, THAT IS KINDLED, BEGINS WITH SMOKE AND HISSING, WHILE IT LAYS
HOLD ON THE FAGGOTS; BURSTS INTO A ROARING BLAZE, WITH RAGING TONGUES
OF FLAME, DEVOURING ALL IN REACH, SPANGLED WITH SPARKS THAT DIE;
SETTLES INTO THE STEADY GENIAL GLARE, THE BRILLIANT LIGHT, THAT MEN
CALL FIRE; BURNS AWAY TO SLOWLY-EXPIRING ASHES; SAVE WHERE SMOULDERING
EMBERS FLICKER, AND NURSE THE GLOW, UNTIL PROPITIOUS BREEZES BLOW IT
INTO LIFE AGAIN.”

APPENDICES

Appendix I
ABOUT WOMEN

Very little can be said of the women of the Borgian Era; for the simple reason that they as yet had not renounced and abjured the observation of the maxim of Euripides

“_Women should stay at home and talk._”

For women, then, to cultivate an intellect was rare. The sacred offices of mother and wife, of comforter and helper, chiefly occupied them. Yet no stupid restrictions were invented to harass and embitter the exceptions to this rule, the freaks, the Sports of Nature, (in modern medical phraseology;) and thus the splenetic self-assertive abnormalities of the twentieth century were avoided. Women, who so willed, were absolutely free; they were admitted to the same intellectual training as men in the universities and colleges[140]; professorial chairs rewarded talent male or female; and a learned lady was called Virago, in no sarcastic vein but in flattering admiration, the word being used in its scriptural sense. (_Vulgate_, Gen. ii. 23.)

Of these the most famous were Madonna Vittoria Colonna and Madonna Veronica Gambara. The first was the daughter of Don Fabrizio Colonna, Grand Constable of Naples, (who already has been mentioned as helping the Duchess Lucrezia Borgia’s consort to evade the snare of the Lord Julius P.P. II,) by his wife Madonna Agnesina di Montefeltro, daughter of Duke Federigo of Urbino. She was born in 1490; and married at nineteen in 1509 to Don Ferrando Francisco d’Avalos, who died in 1525. She consecrated the remaining twenty-two years of her life to her husband’s memory and to the duties of religion, residing, for the sake of her reputation, as a parlour-boarder in religious houses at Orvieto, Viterbo, Ischia, and Rome, where she kept a literary salon. Many celebrated men were her frequent visitors, among whom may be mentioned Cardinals Reginald Pole and Giacopo Sadoleto; the poets Marcantonio Flaminio and Pietro Carnesecchi; and Fra Bernardino Ochino the second general of the new religion called _Cappuccini_, who, after apostatizing to write his Twenty-one Dialogues advocating Polygamy as authorized by the example of the Patriarchs, was in turn expelled by the heresiarchs of Geneva. But by far the greatest of Madonna Vittoria Colonna’s admirers was the sculptor-painter-poet Messer Michelangelo Buonarroti, who respectfully inscribed to her many beautiful sonnets—sonnets which he hewed out of language, as also he hewed statues out of marble, and with the same aloof and rugged majesty. The following is given as a specimen, not only of the style of Messer Michelangelo Buonarroti, but also for the profession of faith contained in the latter half of the sestett—a human document which lends marvellous light to the more secret soul of this true artist and gigantic misanthrope.

“Per ritornar là donde venne fora “As one who will reseek her home of
light,
“L’immortal forma al tuo carcer “Thy form immortal to this
terreno prison-house
“Venne com’angel di pietà si pieno “Descended, like an angel piteous,
“Che sana ogn’intelleto, e’l mondo “To heal all hearts and make the
onora. whole world bright.
“Questo sol m’arde, e questo “’Tis this that thralls my soul in
m’innamora; love’s delight,
“Non pur di fora il tuo volto “Not thy clear face of beauty
sereno: glorious;
“Ch’amor non già di cosa che vien “For he who harbours virtue still
meno will choose
“Tien ferma speme, in cu’ virtù “To love what neither years nor
dimora. death can blight.
“Ne altro avvien di cose altere e “So fares it ever with things high
nuove and rare
“In cui si preme la natura; e’l “Wrought in the sweat of nature;
cielo heaven above
“E ch’a lor parto largo “Showers on their birth the
s’apparecchia. blessings of her prime:
“Ne Dio, suo grazia, mi se mostra “Nor hath God deigned to shew
altrove, Himself elsewhere
“Piu che’n alcun leggiadro e mortal “More clearly than inhuman forms
velo; sublime,
“E quel sol amo, perche’n quel si “Which, since they image Him, alone
specchia. I love.”
MICHELANGELO BUONARROTI. TRANSLATION BY JOHN ADDINGTON
SYMONDS.

Madonna Vittoria Colonna herself was a poet, but her literary history is not included in the Borgian Era. It may be mentioned that her descendant and namesake the beautiful Princess Vittoria Colonna married into the patrician House of Sforza-Cesarina, so prominent in these pages, and is the mother of the present Duke Lorenzo.

Madonna Veronica Gambara, the friend and fellow-virago of Madonna Vittoria Colonna was the daughter of Count Gianfrancesco Gambara, and Madonna Alda Pia da Carpi. She was born in 1485, and educated by Messer Pietro Bembo (afterwards Cardinal); married in 1509 to Don Guilberto di Cor Reggio; and widowed nine years later. At her Palazzo Marsili at Bologna, on the occasion of the coronation of Caesar Carlos V in 1530, she received in princely state the scholars of the day, “Bembo, Molza, the witty Francesco Berni, the learned Vida, the stately Trissio, the noble-hearted Marcantonio Flaminio, Paolo Giovio and Francesco Guicciardini.” She lived till 1550, a good mother to her two sons, Ippolito and Girolamo, noble, learned, virtuous, and a poet and woman-of-letters of much distinction.

Appendix II
CREATURE UNPROCLAIMED, OF THE LORD ALEXANDER P.P. VI

Query? Whether the Lord Pietro Ciero can be considered a cardinal of His creation?

“Vidi ego, ingint Andreas Victorellus, excriptum diploma fide publica
firmatum, datum Romae sub annulo Piscatoris anno 1501 die xvii Aprilis
in quo haec verba: _Te in cardinalem approbamus, quod tamen sub
silentio tenebis, donec tempus idoneum aderit_.”

Appendix III
PAPAL TRIBUTE

The following tribute was used to be paid yearly on the Vigil of St. Peter, xxviii June, in accordance with the rule of the Lord Boniface P.P. IX.

By the city of Forrara Two thousand scudi and a chalice „ „ „ „ Benevento „ „ „ „ „ „ „ „ island „ Sardinia „ „ „ „ „ „ „ „ city „ Terracina A white horse „ „ „ „ Gallese A stag „ „ „ „ Porto A brace of pheasants „ „ „ „ Monte Caprello A dog and a sparrow-hawk „ „ „ „ Sant’Ippolito A brace of partridges „ „ College of Apostolick Scribes A pyx and one hundred scudi „ „ „ „ „ Notaries A silver chalice „ „ Kingdom of Naples The “Chinea.” This was a valuable white horse or mule, richly caparisoned, carrying seven thousand ducati d’oro in a splendid coffer. The Prince Colonna, as Grand Constable of Naples, was the official in charge of the “Chinea.”

Monks and friars belonging to Abbeys which were Papal Peculiars, (—the Abbey of Westminster was a Papal, for five hundred years before it was a Royal, Peculiar,—) instead of paying tribute, pronounced the Holy Name of JESUS, when their names were called at this ceremonial.

Appendix IV
SCHOLARSHIP IN THE BORGIAN ERA

One of the most amusing poses of the Borgian Era was the affectation of classical antiquity. This pose was engendered of the revival of learning upon human vanity. Scholars were the favourites of princes and of kings; and they modelled their mental deportment on that plane. The man who called himself Pomponius Laetus (for they Latinized or Hellenized even their names,) was a νόθος of the baronial House of Sanseverini, who revivified certain pagan cults and, with Cardinal Platino and others, solemnly and habitually practised them in secret Catacombs. Really, he was a learned man who owed his learning to his own wits and exertions, and not to the help or influence of his own kin; who, while he was a poor unknown pupil of Messer Lorenzo Valla, refused to acknowledge him. But, when at last he had won fame and was sought by the best society, the Sanseverini, being anxious to have at least the credit of an intellect, made him an overture of friendship, and offered to take him to their arms. His rejoinder is worth preservation as a specimen as well of the effect of megalomania, as of the successful imitation of a classic style. With delicious arrogance he wrote,

“_Pomponius Laetus cognatis et propinquis suis salutem.
“Quod petitis fieri non potest.” Valete._

Writers of the Borgian Era curiously translated contemporary terms and titles into their classic phraseological equivalent. The Pope was _Pontifex Maximus_, and _Princeps_. The Emperor was _Caesar Augustus_, and sometimes _Princeps_. The Cardinals were _Senators_ or _Augurs_, elders in charge of the lightning (“aliquis senior qui publica fulgura condit.”) Nuns were _Vestal Virgins_. Excommunication was _Dirae_. Carnival was the _Lupercalia_. The Padre Eterno became, by the pen of Bishop Vida of Alba in Piedmont, _Superum Pater Nimbipotens_ and _Regnator Olympi_. The Santissimo Salvatore was known as Ἥρως; and the Santo Spirito as Ζέφυρος. Madonna was Ἥρα, Ἀφροδίτη, and Ἀθήνη παρθένος upon occasion. The saints were gods, δῖος ἢ δῖα, divus vel diva; St. Christopher was _Herakles_; St. Sebastian, or St. Michael Archangel, was Φοῖβος Ἀπόλλων; St. Gabriel Archangel was _Hermes_; St. Raphael Archangel was _Asklepios_; St. George, St. Maurice, St. Theodore, were _Perseus_ or _Theseus_ according to the taste of the writer. This pose was affected in England as well as in Italy, as may be seen in the following verse from William Caxton’s _Boke of Curtesye_, A.D. 1477.

“Loke also/ upon Dan John Lydgate
“My maister whylome/ monke at berye
“Worthy to be renomede/ as poete laureate
“I praye to gode in bliss his soul be mercy
“Syngynge _Rex Splendens_ that heuenly kyrye
“Among the Muses Nine celestyalle
“Before the hyest Iubyter of alle.”

The scholarship of the Renascence of learning, however, was not all empty foolishness, not all the merest pose. The extravagances of the Yellow School of the day were inevitable; and, though their unreality soon palls and cloys, they afford ephemeral amusement. But the new learning did much to improve taste; and, in the hand of men of goodwill, was of vast benefit to the purity of letters. The following verses are quoted as additional examples of the style of noted scholars of the Borgian Era.

ANGELI POLITIANI, MONODIA IN LAURENTIUM MEDICEM.

(Intonata per Arrighum Isae.)

Quis dabit capiti meo
aquam? Quis oculis meis
fontem lacrymarum dabit?
Ut nocte fleam;
ut luce fleam,
sie turtur viduus solet,
sie cygnus moriens solet,
sie luscinia, conqueri.
Neu miser, miser,
O dolor, dolor.

Laurus impetu fulminis,
illa, illa, iacet subito,
laurus omnium celebris
musarum choris,
nympharum choris,
sub cuius patula coma,
et Phœbi lyra blandius,
et vox dulcius insonat.
Nunc muta omnia,
nunc surda omnia.

Quis dabit capiti meo
aquam? Quis oculis meis
fontem lacrymarum dabit?
ut nocte fleam,
ut luce fleam;
sie turtur viduus solet
sie cygnus moriens solet,
sie luscinia, conqueri.
Neu miser, miser,
O dolor, dolor.

ANDREAE NANGERII (NAVAGERO) HYMNUS IN GABRIELEM ARCHANGELUM.

Iam caeli reserat fores
aurato e thalamo exiens
Mater Memnonis, et diem
laeto provocat ore.
Nos te maxime Maximi
minister, canimus, Patris:
quo nullus, qui hominum genus
tam praesens iuvet, usquam est.
Tu nostras celer ad preces,
aures protinus an Deum has
defers: nec tenues sinis
evanescere in auras.

Tu dum fers nova nuncia
virgini Ætherio Patri
dilectae, quibus indicas
Magni vota Tonantis;
nobis fers nova nuncia:
queis a faucibus impii
erepti hostis, in aurea
caeli templi vocamur.
Adsis, o bone: et in dies
semper nos propius iuva
nec patrocinio tuo
unquam mitte tueri.

ANGELI POLITIANI, HYMNUS IN DIVAM VIRGINEM.

O Virgo prudentissima,
quam caelo missus Gabriel,
supremus Regis nuntius,
plenam testatur gratia.
Cuius devota humilitas
gemmis ornata fulgidis
fidentis conscientiae
Amore Deum rapuit.
Te sponsam Factor omnium,
te matrem Dei Filius,
te vocat habitaculum
Suum Beatus Spiritus.
Per te de tetro carcere
antiqui patres exeunt:
per te nobis astriferæ
panduntur aulae limina.
Tu stellis comam cingeris,
tu lunam premis pedibus,
te sole amictam candido
chori stupent angelici.
Tu Stella Maris diceris,
quae nobis inter scopulos
inter obscuros turbines
portum salutis indicas.
Audi Virgo Puerpara,
et Sola Mater Integra,
audi precantes, quaesumus,
tuos Maria servulos.
Repelle mentis tenebras,
disrumpe cordis glaciem,
nos sub tuum praesidium
confugientes protege.
Da nobis in proposito
sancto perseverantiam,
ne noster adversarius
in te sperantes superet:
Sed et cunctis fidelibus,
qui tuum templum visitant,
benigna Mater dexteram
da caelestis auxilii. Amen.

Appendix V
BORGIA DOCUMENTS

_The British Museum possesses the following Original Letters by_

ALESSANDRO BORGIA, _Bishop of Nocera, Prince-Archbishop of Fermo_
viiii Nov. 1717–25
„ „ „ „ „ „ „ „ „ Apr. 1727

NICCOLO BORGIA, _Bishop of Cava_, xiii Jan. 1752
„ „ „ „ „ xviii Jul. „

DON GASPARO DE BORJA Y VELASCO, _Cardinal-Archbishop of Seville and
Toledo_
„ „ „ „ „ Letter to the Duke of Ossuna 1620
„ „ „ „ „ „ „ „ „ „ „
concerning his embassy in Rome „
„ „ „ „ xx Dec. 1625

DON JUAN DE BORJA, _Conde de Ficalho_, n.d. Portug. Signed.

DON CARLOS DE BORJA, _Cardinal-Patriarch of the Indies_. xi Oct. 1711
to viiii
Sept.
1724

STEFANO BORGIA, _Cardinal of San Clemente_ ii June 1801
„ „ „ xvii Jan. 1802
„ „ „ to L. Melini, Rome, xviii Aug. 1770
„ „ „ „ A. da Morona, Padua, xviiii June 1798
„ „ „ „ G. Andrei, Padua, i Sept. 1798

CESARE, DETTO BORGIA. _1. As Cardinal._

To the Catholick King and Queen Don Hernando and Dona Isabella of
Spain, on sending a friar with a present, dated 1497, signed C
CAR^{AL} DE VALENCIA.

Very rare.

_2. As Duke._

Holograph to Ricardo Cervini, from Cartoceto, dated i Feb. 1500. Eight
lines of beautiful precise arrogant and masterly writing, signed CESAR
BORGIA DE FRANCIA DUX VALENTIN, with seal.

_The Bodleian Library at Oxford has_

Indulgences conceeded to the college at Windsor (the chapter of St.
George?) by the Lord Alexander P.P. VI. Ashmolean MSS. Gasparo de
Borgia, Cardãl, Protestatio in consistorio 1632 nomine Regis Hisp.

Stefano Borgia, Cardãl. Four Latin Letters to C. G. Woide, 1783–7.

Appendix VI
THE BORGIA AS MEN OF LETTERS

ALESSANDRO BORGIA. Bishop of Nocera. Prince-Archbishop of Fermo.

Bonedicti xiii Romani Pontificis ... vita commentario
excerpta etc. Romae. 1741. 4º

Della Cristiana educazione de’ figliuoli. Omelie. Fermo. 1760. 8º

Indulto sopra il Precetto di astenersi dalle opere servili in
alcune Feste. 1752. 4º

Istoria della chiesa e città di Velletri descritta in quattro libri.

Stampatoria Vescovale. Nocera. 1723. 4º

(he also wrote a life of St. Gerald in 1698. _Stefano Borgia in De Cruce Veliterna. 222._)

Antonio Borgia. Editor of

Poesie de’ Sig. Alunni e convitori del ... Vescovile Seminario ... di
Frascati, dedicate all’Altezza Reale ... del Cardinale Duca d’York,
etc.

Romae. 1772. 4º

Alexander Borgia. Teacher of Languages

Case of the Free Italian Church. 1877

Napoleon III. Italy on the eve of Freedom. 1860.

Novena of Meditations on Abuses of the Church of Rome. 1854.

Bartolomeo Borgia.

La sua vita. Milano. 1888. 8º

(He was a shoemaker of Fara Novarese, born 1818, died 1887; was
converted to protestantism, and became connected with il Rev.
MacDougall and il Dottore Stewart as Colportore della Societa
Biblica Scozzese; made himself an evangelical nuisance, collided
with the Established Church of the country, wherefore he and his
family suffered persecution at the hands of ignorant papists. The
book is illustrated by an awful photograph of this Borgia with a
bible and a billycock-hat, preaching over a satchel, on a painted
background.)

Constantinus Borgia. Son of Don Clemente Borgia, and grandson of
Cavaliere Giampaolo Borgia of Velletri: prelate in Rome: died 1878.

De Cathedra Romana Sancti Petri Principis Apostolorum Oratio, etc.

Romae. 1845. 4º

Damiano Borgia.

Free Christian Church in Italy. Rome. 1880

History of the Gospel in Fara Novarese; an episode of reform
in the nineteenth century. Florence. 1879.

Social Ruin, causes and remedies. 1894.

Fabrizio Borgia. Canon of Velletri. Bishop of Ferentino _inter
Hernicos_, and brother of the Prince-Archbishop Alessandro Borgia
of Fermo.

An Account of the Translation of St. Gerald. 1714.

Gasparo de Borja, Cardinal.

Ossuniano coniuratio quâ D. P. Gyron Ossunae Dux regnum
Neapolitanum ... sibi desponderat, etc.: una cum relatione
stratagematis quo Illustriss. Card̃lis Borgia ... in eam
Provinciam sibi aditum ... fecerit. 1623. 4º

Girolamo Borgia, detto Seniore. Jurisconsult, Bishop of Massa Labrese,
1544 (Massa Sorrentana?)

Incendium ad Avernum Lacum horribile pridie Kal. Octobr.
MDXXXVIII nocte intempestata exortum. Neapoli. 1538.

Epithalamion. 1606. 12º

Juris Civilis, lib. XX. Bulifon. Naples. 1689 (1678?) fol.

Giuseppe di Lorenzo Borgia.

In morte del Cav. G. di Lorenzo Borgia ... avenuta il dì XXX Novembre
MDCCCLXXXII. (Parole, etc.)

Noto. 1882. 8º

Niccolo Borgia.

Il concetto della civiltà greca e sua funzione nella storia.
Dissertatione su tema obbligato, etc. Napoli. 1881. 8º

Paulus Borgia.

De Rabie Canina dissertatio inauguralis, etc. Patavii. 1830. 8º

Rosario Borgia.

Poesie in idioma Calabrese. Napoli. 1839. 8º

These innocent little verses valuably preserve the dialect of what was
once a Greek colony. The author was a priest of the Oratory of San
Filippo Neri; and wrote sonnets

For a seminarist-friend,

To the same on becoming prefect of the seminary-kitchen,

On the Triumph of Christ,

On San Fortunato Martire,

On San Filippo Neri,

On the occasion of the death of his father, Don Francescantonio
Borgia, Patrician of Mileto (a city of the commune of Mileto in
Calabria, containing 3000 inhabitants,) etc., etc., etc.

Stefano Borgia, Cardinal.

Kalendarium Venetum saec. xj. ex Cod. Membranaceo Bibliotheca S.

Salvatoris Bononiae, a S.B. nunc primum in lucem editum. (Anecdota
Literaria etc. II.) 1773. 8º

Fragmentum Copticum ex Actis S. Coluthi ... quod nunc primum in
lucem profert S.B. (Anec. Lit. IIII.) 1773. 8º

De miraculis Sancti Coluthi et reliquis actorum Sancti Panesnice
martyrum ... Praeit dissertatio S. Card. B. de cultu S. Coluthi.
1793. 4º

Pii II oratio de bello Tureis inferendo, eruta ... et illustrata a
S.B. 1774. 8º

Breve istoria del dominio temporale della Sede Apostolica nelle duc
Sicilie. S.B. 1788–9. 4º

Difesa del dominio temporale della Sede Apostolica nelle due
Sicilie. 1791. 4º

Breve istoria dell’antica città di Tadino nell’Umbria ed esatta
relazione della ultime ricerche fatte sulle sue ruine. Romae
1751. 8º

De Cruce Vaticana en dono Justini Augusti in Parasceve maioris
hebdomadae publicae venerationi exhiberi solita commentarius;
cui accedit ritus salutationis Crucis in Ecclesia Autiochena
Syrorum servatus nunc primum Syriaee et Latine editus adnotation
ibusque inlustratus auctore S.B. Romae. 1779 fol.

De cruce Veliterna commentarius. Romae. 1780. 4º

Dissertatione filologica sopra un antica gemma intagliata
(Caloghiera A. Nuova raccolta d’Opuscoli III.) 1775. 12º

Marmorea monumenta Beatissimo.... Pio VI. Pont. Opt. Mar ... a
Veliternis ... in palatio senatorio dedicata S. Borgia ... typis
evulgari curavit. Velletri. 1775. 4º

Memorie Istoriche della Pontificia Città di Benevento dal secolo
VIII al secolo XVIII, etc. Tom. I. II. III. Roma. 1763–9. 4º

Monumento di Giovanni XVI. illustrato per S.B. Roma. 1750. 8º

Vaticana Confessio Beati Petri Principis Apostolorum, chronologicis
tam veterum quam recentiorum scriptorum testimoniis inlustrata.
Romae. 1776. 4º

“IMPROBE FACIT QUI
“IN ALIQUO LIBRO
“INGENIOSUS EST.”
MARTIAE.

Printed by BALLANTYNE, HANSON & CO.
London & Edinburgh

-----

Footnote 1:

The epithet _Most Eminent_ (Eminentissimo) was granted to cardinals by
the Lord Urban P.P. VIII, 1630. Prior to that, they were styled _Most
Illustrious_ (Illustrissimo); or, in the case of the Cardinal-Dean and
Cardinal-Nephews, _Most Honourable_ and _Most Worshipful_
(Osservantissimo, Colendissimo).

Footnote 2:

They claim descent from the Gens Julia. Their armorials show the Bear
(Orsini) chained to the Column (Colonna) with the Imperial Eagle
displayed in chief.

Footnote 3:

The kingdoms of Aragon, Naples, the two Sicilies, and Jerusalem.

Footnote 4:

_Pater Patrum_; the official style of the Roman Pontiff.

Footnote 5:

The process of canonisation of King Ælfred, though initiated by a
Majesty of England (himself a saint _by acclamation_), has not yet
been completed by the Court of Rome after four hundred and fifty
years.

Footnote 6:

Religion—a gathering together for a pious purpose. It was the
fifteenth century equivalent for Order or Society.

Footnote 7:

The Lord Clement P.P. VII (Giulio de Medici), 1523–34, appears on
Cellini’s lovely medals in a full beard. Probably, in His case, there
was no choice; for, during the Sack of Rome in 1527 by the Lutheran
Goths and Catholic Catalans of the Elect-Emperor, Carlos V., His
Holiness was holding the Mola of Hadrian, or Castle of Santangelo, and
enduring the hard privations of a siege. Afterwards He did not shave;
and full beards became the fashion for the clergy. Later, the Lord
Alexander P.P. VII (Flavio Chigi), made the Vandyke beard and upturned
mustachio the clerical mode; and, later still, the whole face was
shaved according to the present rule. But, at the time when the
Cardinal of Avignon reflected upon the Cardinal of Trebizond’s beard,
there appears to have been a distinct prejudice in favour of a shaven,
indeed of a shorn, pope. This may be seen in the medals of popes and
cardinals of the fifteenth century (when cleanliness was a mark of
gentility), where the large tonsure and shaven faces are very
noticeable.

Footnote 8:

In the Acta Consistorialia of the Vatican Secret Archives, this Pope
is called Calixtus the Fourth, evidently by the stupidity of some
Apostolic Scribe, who happened to know that one John, Abbot of Struma,
called himself Calixtus III. (having got himself schismatically and
uncanonically elected in the reign of the Lord Alexander P.P. III);
and who had not the sense to know that the Holy Roman Church has the
habit of ignoring pseudopontiffs and other pretenders.

Footnote 9:

Villanueva (I. 18,181) quotes two Bulls of the Lord Calixtus P.P. III,
giving relics to the church at Xativa. On p. 51, Villanueva alludes to
him as “_Don Alonso de Borja, natural de la Torre de Canals, bautizado
en la Iglesia Collegial de Xativa, hoy S. Felipe, electo en 20 de
Agosto de 1429 por el Legado de Martin V. Conservo el gobierno de esta
Iglesia hasta el año en que murió, sienda yu Papa Calixto III. En 1457
concedió á esta Iglesia un jubileo en el dia de la Asuncion de nuestra
Señora, imponiendo para la fabrica la contribucion de diez sueldos._”

Footnote 10:

The pontifical diadem, consisting of a conical cap woven of the
plumage of white peacocks and encircled by three crowns of gold. It is
sometimes called the Tiara, and must be distinguished from the Mitre.

Footnote 11:

The _fiorino d’oro_, _ducato d’oro_, and _scudo d’oro_ were coins
worth about half a guinea, which, in the fifteenth century, had a
purchasing value of £2 to £2 10_s._

Footnote 12:

The first printing-press in Italy did not arrive till October 1465 at
Subjaco in the Sabine Hills.

Footnote 13:

The first Pontiff of this name, fifth in succession from the Lord St.
Peter P.P., is named in the Canon of the Mass as XYSTUS [Ξυστός, _cf._
Xanthus (Ξάνθος)]. The same form XYSTUS occurs in the Kalendarium,
and, in fact, in all officially issued liturgies; and is adopted also
in the authorised English version of the Liturgy. The word SIXTUS does
not appear to be a Latin word at all, and is not in Andrew’s
Latin-English Lexicon. It most likely is a debased corruption from
XYSTUS, when Latin liquefied into the Italian SISTO.

Footnote 14:

The business of these Orators (ambassadors) was conducted more by
means of florid eloquence than by the writing of despatches; though,
of course, the last was not neglected.

Footnote 15:

“... horribilesque ultimosque Britannos.” C. Valerius Catullus XI.

Footnote 16:

_Huszar_, derived by a roundabout route from Italian _cossaro_,
corsair, freelance (v. Murray).

Footnote 17:

Pragmatic Sanction, term of Byzantine origin, was applied to Imperial
Edicts (Τὸ Πραγματικόν) containing decrees issued as Fundamental Laws.
The Decrees of the Council of Basilea were embodied in a Pragmatic
Sanction by the Diet of Mainz, 1434; but at the Council of Vienna 1448
most of the advantages which it intended to secure for the Church in
Germany were abandoned.

Footnote 18:

Sikelian—Greek—Latin.

Footnote 19:

Note his epitaph in the Church of Santa Maria _sopra_ Minerva,
recorded by Ciacconi.

“Cardineo Divus Honore Decoravit Calixtus.”

Obviously the fifteenth century used “Divus” as Tacitus also used it
of Julius and Augustus; and as the twentieth century would say “the
late ——.”

Footnote 20:

The Lord Pius P.P. II (Enea Silvio).

Footnote 21:

The saving virtue of a drink of human blood was no new idea. Compare
Tertullian Apol. IX. “_Item illi qui munere in arena noxiorum
iugulatorum sanguinem recentem (de iugulo decurrentem exceptum) avida
siti comitiali morbo medentes hauserunt, ubi sunt?_”

Footnote 22:

Only one piece of antique silver, a salt-cellar, was possessed by the
House of Sforza in the latter years of the last century. All the rest
was not recovered from that Don Marino Torlonia, who usurped the
Sforza-Cesarini titles and estates from 1832 to 1836, when he was
deprived of them by the Ruota, the Supreme Tribunal of the Holy See,
in favour of Don Lorenzo Sforza-Cesarini, grandfather of the present
duke. The line of the great Francesco Sforza-Visconti, Duke of Milan,
to which Cardinal Ascanio Maria belonged, is now extinct. The present
House of Sforza-Cesarini descends from Don Bosio Sforza, Count of
Santafiora, 1441–1476, brother of the great Francesco, and second son
of Don Giovanni Muzio Attendolo, detto Sforza.

Footnote 23:

This paragraph rests entirely upon the gossip and conjectures of
Manfredi, Orator of Ferrara at Florence; Stefano Infessura (Ed.
Tommasini); Hans Burchard (Ed Thuasne); Bernardino Corio (Storia di
Milano).

Footnote 24:

For an English parallel of riotous superlatives, compare the
inscription on a picture of Elizabeth in the Hall of the
Post-Reformation Jesus College, Oxford.

“Diva Elizabetha Virgo Invictissima Semper Augusta Plus Quam Caesarea
Angliæ Franciae et Hiberniae Potentissima Imperatrix Fidei Christianae
Fortissima Propugnatrix Literarum Omnium Scientissima Fautrix Immenso
Oceani Felicissima Triumphatrix Collegii Jesu Oxon Fundatrix.”

Footnote 25:

Sdegnati di questa collazione contro del Papa, il Re tenne il dì
medesimo gran consiglio, dove furono proposte e trattate piu cose
contro del Papa in riformatione della chiesa. (Dispatch of 31 Aug.
1493, Canestrini, Négociations avec la Toscane. I. 249.)

Footnote 26:

There is a tale about this personage, that, having allowed himself to
be frightened by one of the calumnies of Cardinal Giuliano della
Rovere, to the effect that the Pope expected to be paid for the red
hat (in addition to the six hundred ducats which every cardinal offers
in return for the cardinalitial sapphire ring), he became so nervous
on Ash Wednesday, when it was his office to scatter ashes on the head
of the Sovereign Pontiff, as to substitute for the formula of
administration, “Memento, homo, quia pulvis es, et in pulverem
reverteris,” the words “Memento, homo, quia Papa es, et ego pecunias
non habeo.”

Footnote 27:

Infessura, in Eccard II. 2015. Alberi, Rel. Ven. Sen. III. 314.
Rivista Cristiana II. 261. Ugolini, Storia ... d’Urbino II. Doc. 13.
Ciacconi, Vitae Pontificum, sub anno. Gregorovius, Geschichts der
Stadt VII. 340. Matarazzo, Cron. di Perugia in Archivio Storico xvi.
See I. pt. ij. 3.

Footnote 28:

“Aiunt etiam multo vulgo inter illos iactari, regem Roman venturum et
statum Romanae Ecclesiae reformaturum. (Letter from Cardinal of Siena
to Pope, from Lucca, IIII. Nos. 1494.)

Footnote 29:

Allusion to the five red balls and the lilied bezant in the Medici
armorials.

Footnote 30:

A most important inference may be drawn from this, as to the paternity
of Cardinal Cesare.

Footnote 31:

The Roman phrase “to go to Santo Spirito” means “to go mad.”

Footnote 32:

“E molto necessaria la provisione de le genti d’ arme contro questi
demonii che non fugono per acqua santa.” xvi. ful. 1497.

Footnote 33:

“Commensano nel primo modo offenderse et non dare loco ad mei
commandamenti.” xxvii. ful. 1497.

Footnote 34:

“La S^a V^a po ben comprendere che tucto lo remedio di questi male in
la venuta de la gente d’arme, le quali tardando piu forniscere el
paese de Todi da desolare, essendo da la partita miu la cita
totalmente derelicta et lassata vacua.” xxx. ful. 1497.

Footnote 35:

“Procedono le cose qui con tanta obedientia et quieta che meglio non
si potriano desiderare.” xxx. ful. 1497.

Footnote 36:

“Du becharini homicidi ho facti piglia, et son stati senza tumulto et
piacer del populo menati in presione—cosa da bon tempo in qua insolita
in questa cita, et questi matina ne è stato appichiato uno.” 11 Aug.
1497.

Footnote 37:

This was quite a common torture. Every patrician had the right to
inflict it on his plebeians; and every inventory of palaces begins
with “Ropes for the Cord.” In many palaces and castles, iron rings
through which the Cord was passed remain to be seen. The witness had
his hands tied, hanging loosely behind him. One end of the long Cord
was attached to his wrists; the other end was flung over a beam or
through a ring and held by the official torturer. Then the witness
delicately was drawn up as high as possible. He hung there by his
wrists which were strained backward and upward, with his shoulders
generally dislocated. Then, with a frightful jerk he was dropped to
within a braccia (2 feet 7 inches) of the floor, completing the
dislocation with a shock. At this moment, the Question was put; his
answer distinguished from his shrieks, and written down. Any
stubbornness, or insolence, or reticence, was met by attaching weights
to his feet, and subjecting him to fresh elevations and fresh drops,
till his arms were torn from the sockets and his sinews strained to
the uttermost. Or, as a variant, he was left to hang until his
questioner had obtained the information required. Evidence of
commoners, without the Question, appears to have been considered by
the Fifteenth Century as valueless as evidence unsupported by oath or
affidavit and untested by cross-examination at the present day. The
nearest modern equivalent to the Torture of the Cord would be the
smelling of a greasy testament _plus_ the stratagems of a
cross-examining counsel. It was merely a legal form.

Footnote 38:

“Una de las mas principales causas que dava, para que el Cardenal de
Valencia dexasse el capelo era, porque siendo a quel Cardenal,
mientras en la Iglesia estuviesse, era bastante para impedir que no se
hiziesse in reformacion.”—Zurita, 126.

Footnote 39:

But She won a signal and decisive victory there, with the aid of Our
Lady of Victory (Νιχή, Poliziano would have said), in 1572.

Footnote 40:

“Mores esse profligatos pietatis studium restinctum, flagitiorum
licentiam solutam, sanctissimas pretio indignissimis addici—remque
esse in extremum poene discrimen adductam.”—(Osorius De rebus gestis
Emanuelis, Op. I. 595.)

Footnote 41:

“Italia tutta aviebbe dimostrato lui non esser vero
pontifice.”—(Marino Sanuto in De Leva, 61.) “Que eran notorias las
formas que se tuvieron en se eleccion, y quan graves cosas se
intentaron, y quan escandalosas.”—Zurita, 159.)

Footnote 42:

Indulgentia = Indulgence, gentleness, complaisance, tenderness,
fondness, a remission of punishment or taxation.—(Andrews,
Latin-English Lexicon, 1853, p. 789.)

Footnote 43:

De Maricourt.

Footnote 44:

“Il Papa ama ed a gran paura del figliuolo duca.”—Alberi, Relationi
III. iii. 10.

Footnote 45:

This title is hopelessly irregular. The _Princeps_ of the Holy Roman
Empire only becomes _Caesar Romanorum Imperator Semper Augustus mundi
totius Dominus universis dominis universis principibus et populis
Semper Venerandus_ by the herald’s proclamation after he has been
stripped, anointed, clothed in the consecrated dalmatica, ordained
deacon, and crowned with the Iron Crown of Monza and the Gold Diadem
of the Empire by the hands of the Supreme Pontiff Himself. The title
at present is dormant. If the sovereign is of the Swabian House,
precedent demands that he must go to Monza or to Sant’ Ambrogio at
Milan for the Iron Crown, and to San Giovanni Laterano at Rome for the
Gold Diadem. But Imperial coronations, (the sovereign not being of the
Swabian House,) at the Pope’s pleasure have taken place elsewhere.
Caesar Friedrich IV was the last Emperor crowned in Rome. Caesar
Francis II was the last to wear the imperial crown. He resigned it in
1806, having taken the title of Emperor of Austria in 1804. Before
coronation by the Pope the title of “The Elect-Emperor” is used; and
that is all which Maximilian can claim.

Footnote 46:

“Non de prefato duca sed de Nobis et dicta muliere soluta.”

Footnote 47:

Gregorovius F., _Lucrezia Borgia_.

Footnote 48:

The present writer once witnessed the reception, in all amity, by the
present Sforza, of the present Pasolini dell’ Onda, who came peaceably
to gain information for his book in praise of Madonna Caterina
Sforza-Riario. A singular example of the old order changed and giving
place to new.

Footnote 49:

“Per dar ad intender a tutti che ’l Signor over Signori hanno appiacer
del tradimento, ma non del traditore.” Priuli. xxvi. July 1502.

Footnote 50:

Costabili to Duke of Ferrara. Rome, xi. Aug. 1502.

Footnote 51:

“Aveva il duca gittate assai buoni fondamenti alla potenza sua, avendo
tutta la Romagna con il ducato d’ Urbino, e guadagnatosi tutti quei
populi, per avere incomminciato a gustare il ben essere loro.”
(Machiavelli. Il Principe. Op. i. 35.)

Footnote 52: