Cibo was a handsome and imposing man, but he possessed neither wealth nor brains. He had numerous progeny by a certain Neapolitan woman. It was his son, Franceschetto Cibo—reputed to be his nephew—who married Maddalena, daughter of Lorenzo de’ Medici, January 20, 1488, in the Vatican amid great pomp, and in return for this honour, Giovanni de’ Medici, then thirteen years of age—the future Leo X.—was created cardinal.
To the cardinals Innocent made all sorts of promises which he never kept—promises made by the man might be broken by the Pope. He was the first of Christ’s Vicars publicly to acknowledge his children, of whom he had seven. He was a loathsome individual, avaricious, vicious, and venal, and completely under the control of his favourites. At Rome he established an office for the sale of pardons whose revenues went to himself and his son Franceschetto. During his reign crime held high carnival throughout the Campagna.
Innocent continued and extended the evil practices of his predecessors. The traffic in offices was conducted on a scale hitherto unknown, for he constantly created new ones solely for the profit to be derived from their sale. He sold the right to collect the customs to certain individuals and bankrupted the State. Rome was a sink of crime and corruption, a market where all the world might purchase indulgences.
Innocent’s nepotism was different from that of some of the other Popes. With him it was based on no political idea or purpose, but simply upon avarice and vulgar greed. He founded no principalities for his sons because he himself was entirely devoid of force and political acumen, and they had neither the ambition nor the ability to make themselves powerful in the State. The county of Cervetri and Anguillara had been given to Franceschetto, but on the death of his father he sold it to Virginio Orsini, and wisely, because he could not have held it.
Infessura tells us that when the wretched Innocent VIII. was on his death-bed his Jewish leech sought to prolong his life with the blood of three young boys who were purchased for a ducat apiece, and who promptly died, whereupon the physician fled and the Pope expired, July 25, 1492.
The conclave for the election of his successor began in the Sistine chapel, August 6th. Twenty-five cardinals were present. The Sacred College was dominated by Ascanio Sforza, Lorenzo Cibo, Raffaele Riario, Giuliano della Rovere, and Rodrigo Borgia. It is said that the King of France contributed 200,000 ducats and Genoa 100,000 to secure the election of Della Rovere, whose most dangerous rival was Ascanio Sforza, for whom Rodrigo Borgia cast his vote, knowing that he could not be elected.
When Sforza saw that he himself could not win the great prize, he set about securing—with the help of Riario and Orsini—the election of the Borgia, and at the proper moment cast his vote for him. Although Ascanio Sforza was enormously wealthy he had his price and he was bought. In Rome it was said that before the conclave Rodrigo Borgia had sent him four mules laden with silver, and also that he had promised him, in the event of his own election, his palace and its contents, and also the great office of Vice-Chancellor of the Church. Orsini was satisfied with Monticelli and Soriano, while Colonna and his family were pleased to accept Subiaco and its castles in perpetuity. Cardinal Michiel was promised the Bishopric of Porto; Sclafenati was presented with Nepi, and Cardinal Savelli with Civita Castellana. Others preferred cash. The Patriarch of Venice, then ninety-five years of age, was given 50,000 ducats to provide for him until he should enter into paradise. The few who could not be bought were Piccolomini, Zeno, Della Rovere, and Caraffa.
When the Borgia found he was elected he was overcome with joy and exclaimed: “Now I am Pope, Pontiff, Christ’s Vicar!”—but the youthful Cardinal de’ Medici leaned over and whispered in Cibo’s ear: “Let us escape before the wolf gets us into his maw!”
Borgia, fearing that by some mischance the office might still slip through his fingers, hastily donned the papal robes and directed the Master of Ceremonies to distribute cards bearing the words, “We have as Pope, Alexander VI.” Early the next morning the window was thrown open, the cross put forth, and in the silence of early dawn the name of the new Pope was announced: Alexander VI.!
Alexander’s dissolute life was known of all men; and when we remember that this was an age of libertinism, when men expected no more of the clergy than they did of the laity, the fact that the Borgia’s conduct excited any comment shows to what depths of immorality he had descended. He was freely accused of the unmentionable vices which Tacitus and Suetonius lay to the charge of the earlier Roman emperors.