POPES TO 1503
[1458-1503 A.D.]
Nicholas’ successor, Alfonso Borgia (Borja), a Spaniard, whose pontifical name was Calixtus III, performed nothing great or splendid, if no account be taken of his anxiety to urge Christian princes upon a war against the Turks. He died in the year 1458. Much more celebrated was his successor, Æneas Sylvius Piccolomini, bishop of Siena, who ascended the papal throne in 1458, and took the name of Pius II, a man of superior genius, and renowned both for his achievements and for his various writings and publications.
Yet posterity would have accounted him a much greater man, if he had not been guilty of gross inconsistency. For after strenuously maintaining the rights of councils against the pontiffs, and boldly defending the cause of the Council of Bâle against Eugenius IV, upon being made pontiff, he apostatised from himself; and January 18th, 1460, denied that a council is superior to a pontiff, and severely prohibited appeals to councils; and in the year 1461 obtained from Louis XI, king of France, the abrogation of the pragmatic sanction, which was favourable to councils; and finally, April 26th, 1463, he expressed a public disapproval of all that he had himself written in favour of the Council of Bâle, and decreed that Pius II was to be heard and obeyed, but that Æneas Sylvius was to be condemned. A short time after making this declaration he fell ill and died in the month of July, 1464.
Paul II, previously Pietro Barbo, a Venetian, who was raised to the chair of St. Peter in 1464, and died in 1471, performed some acts not unworthy of commendation, at least according to the views of that age; but he also did many things that are scarcely excusable, if they are so at all, among the least important of which is that he made a jubilee year come once in every twenty-five years, in 1470. Hence his reputation with posterity has remained equivocal.
The subsequent pontiffs, Sixtus IV, previously Francesco Albescola della Rovere, who died in 1484, and Innocent VIII,[108] previously Giovanni Battista Cibo, a Genoese, who died in 1492, were of the middle kind, being distinguished as popes neither for great virtues nor for great faults. Each, fearing for Italy and for all Europe, from the power of the Turks, both prepared himself for a war upon them and very earnestly urged one on the kings of Europe. But each met with such obstacles as disappointed an object so dear to his heart. Nothing else was done by them with much pretension to true greatness.
The pontifical series of this century is closed by Alexander VI, a Spaniard, whose true name was Rodrigo Borgia. He may not improperly be called the Nero of pontiffs. For the villainies, crimes, and enormities recorded of this man are so many and so great as to make it seem clear that he was destitute, we will not say of all religion, but even of decency and shame. Among the things charged upon him, though some may be false and others overstated, by his enemies, yet so many remain which are placed beyond all dispute as are sufficient to render the memory of Alexander execrable in the view of all who have even a moderate share of virtue. A large part of his crimes, however, originated from his excessive partiality for his children; for he had four sons by a concubine, among whom was the notorious Cesare Borgia, infamous for his enormous vices, and likewise one daughter named Lucrezia; and he was intent solely on bringing forward and enriching these, without regarding honesty, reason, or religion.[c]
ALEXANDER VI, THE BORGIA
[1492-1503 A.D.]