pure, and being likewise enfeebled by age, died in the course of the same evening.

It is proper to add, that there are two other accounts of this transaction, differing from that which is here given on the general agreement of numerous authorities. One is that of Pietro Martiri d'Angleria, a councillor of Ferdinand, of whom an epistle is extant, in which the Pope is exculpated from all participation in the crime, and the whole guilt thrown upon the duke. And this has been received by some writers as the more probable, through consideration of the general hatred then subsisting against Alexander, and the prevalent disposition to propagate and believe any evil rumour respecting him; but we are not aware that it rests on any other original testimony. The other account is extracted by Raynaldus (ann. 1503, sect. xi.), from a manuscript journal of the house of Borgia*; and herein we are entertained by a circumstantial description of the last natural illness of Alexander, the character of the fever, the practice of the physicians, the piety of the departing pontiff, the reverence with which he received the last sacrament, the demeanour of the cardinals and others who were present at the edifying scene. But this family narrative, being at variance with the less partial accounts of the same transaction, may be rejected without much hesitation.

4

Such, then, was the probable end of Alexander VI.: he was poisoned by the cup prepared for his own guest by his own hand, or, at least, by the hand of a beloved son, whose notorious crimes he had long endured and fostered, and whom he seems to have loved for those very crimes; so that, in respect to his general character, it imports not very much, whether he was an accomplice or not in that last offence, of which he was the deserving victim. All Rome (says Guicciardini) rushed to St. Peter's to behold his corpse with incredible festivity; nor was there any man who could satiate his eyes with gazing on the remains of a serpent, which, by his immoderate ambition and pestiferous perfidy, and every manner of frightful cruelty, of monstrous lust and unheard-of avarice, trafficking indiscriminately with things sacred and profane, had impoisoned the whole world.' Yet the world still continued to acknowledge the vicegerent of Christ, and to bow before the throne of St. Peter. The cup was not yet full; some few remaining iniquities were still to be accomplished; the arm of vengeance was still suspended, and Luther, the mitatem, peperisset-hilariori scilicet in cœna dum ad umbrosum Vaticani fontem venenum bibunt, lagena pocillatoris errore commutata, quam dira fraude opulentis aliquot senatoribus honoris specie paravissent. Mortuo Alexandro, et Cæsare exquisitis antidotis vel in ipso juventæ robore veneni impetum vix sustinente, Comitia sunt habita,' &c. &c. The same author describes the same event (De vita Magni Consalvi, lib. ii.) with little variation, but with the following addition :—' Accepi ego ab Adriano Cardinale Cornetano, in cujus villa conabatur, se eodem mortifero poculo petitum ita exarsisse eo subito viscerum fervore, ut obortæ caligines oppressis sensibus sibi rationem excuterent, sese in solium frigida plenum mergere cogeretur, neque prius perustis interaneis ad vitam rediisse, quam ei extrema cutis in exuvias abiens toto corpore decideret.' Raphael Volaterranus, in his life of Alexander VI., likewise mentions the illness of the cardinal, simultaneous with that of the Pope. Voltaire disbelieves the whole story, owing to its extreme improbability; while he allows that the father and son were 'les deux plus grands scélérats parmi les puissances de l'Europe.' Is the story, then, so very improbable? But if it were, mere probability is a very faithless test of historical truth. Things contrary to all calculation are happening every day, and have always happened.

Sismondi likewise refers to the Letters of the Ambassador of the House of Este,' and to Muratori, Anuali d' Italia, tom x. p. 15. According to Guicciardini (lib. vi.), the death of Alexander took place on August 17, 1503,-' e il giorno seguente è portato morto secondo l'uso dei Pontific inella Chiesa di San Piero, nero, infiato e bruttissimo segni manifestissimi di veleno,'

destined instrument, had not yet commenced his noviciate among the Augustinian Mendicants.

After the funeral honours had been duly paid to the departed pontiff, eight and thirty cardinals entered into Conclave to choose

a successor. The unusual number of the electors may Election and be one reason why the present election was not charged Death of Pius III. with simony; but it presented a scene of treacherous

intrigue, scarcely less shameful, in which Julian della Rovera was the principal actor-for as no man was more daring in warfare, so was not any one more astute in duplicity, than he. By the success of his machinations, a sick and feeble old man, the nephew of Pius II., was raised to the pontificate on September 22, 1503; and scarcely had he received the ordination to the priesthood, (which, though a cardinal, he had not previously received,) and undergone the ceremony of coronation, and assumed the name of Pius III., when he died-six and twenty days after his election. Great expectations were excited by his reputed virtues and piety, and his ardently expressed desire for a reformation of the Church; and it may be fortunate for his memory that they were disappointed by his death, rather than by some act of apostacy, by which he might not improbably have imitated so many of his predecessors.

Julian celebrated the mass at his obsequies; and scarcely was that office performed when he re-opened his former intrigues in the design, on this occasion, of procuring his own election. He gained the Julius II. leading cardinals; he gained the Duke de Valentinois, who directed the Spanish party in the conclave, by magnificent promises, and the confidence that they would be observed. On the very first scrutiny, Julian della Rovera was unanimously raised to the chair of Alexander VI. We should here mention that, before the election of Pius III., the cardinals in conclave had bound the future Pope, among other conditions, to convoke a council general for the reform of the Church, within two years from the time of his election, and to make the assembly of such councils, hereafter, triennial. It appears that Julian, on his elevation, gave his assent to the same stipulations*.

His military character.

He took the name of Julius II., thereby intending, as many suppose, to avow his preference of the military to the sacerdotal character, and to declare his greater disposition to imitate the glories of Pagan, than of Christian, Rome. Assuredly his whole pontificate was directed by such motives; and if the ten years, through which it extended, are not wholly destitute of events properly appertaining to ecclesiastical history, those events did scarcely ever originate with the Pope, and were unconnected with the principles of his government. It was not that he neglected, in the progress of his negotiations and campaigns, to carry on his lips the name of St. Peter, to whet the material upon the spiritual sword, and to thunder forth bulls and anathemas with all the majesty of former days; but it was in this respect only that he was distinguished from the other temporal sovereigns, with whom he leagued or contended.

After so long a course of pontifical degeneracy, in the hands of a Pope so absolutely secular as Julius, it might have been expected that those

*The form of the oath deserves to be cited in its very words. 'Præmissa omnia et singula promitto, voveo et juro observare et adimplere, in omnibus et per omnia, purè et simpliciter et bona fide, realiter, et cum effectu perjurii et anathematis, a quibus nec me ipsum absolvam, nec alieni absolutionem committam. Ita me Deus adjuvet, &c.' It appears in Beausobre, Hist. Reform. liv. i.

bolts had lost their force and their terrors; and that the bishop of Rome, having descended to the policy of a secular prince, would have been treated by his brother princes with no superior reverence. Yet was it otherwise; the fetters of the inveterate prejudice were not yet wholly unloosed, and the spiritual weapon was still an object of apprehension even to the king of France. So late as the year 1510, Louis XII.*, being deeply embroiled with the Pope, and struck with the sentence of excommunication, assembled a council of his clergy at Tours, and formally demanded their opinions on such points as these:- Whether the Pope had a right to make war, when neither the interests of religion, nor the domains of the Church were in danger? Whether a prince might seize the ecclesiastical states, in case the Pope were his declared enemy, and keep temporary possession of them, until he should have humbled his adversary? Whether, under the same circumstances, a subtraction of obedience, under certain restrictions, were lawful? Whether a prince might defend another prince-his ally-against the pontifical arms?' Such were the scruples which still were felt even in the court of France. They were removed by the loyalty of the episcopal assembly: nevertheless, even after their removal, enough remained to distinguish the apostolical from all other governments; and as those distinctions were founded on popular opinion, fostered by priestly influence, it was not very easy to counteract their effect, or foresee their termination.

His successes.

Julius II. knew better than any one the advantage which he thus possessed, and he likewise knew the precise extent of it, so that in using it constantly, he seldom abused it; and thus it proved that he was successful beyond all expectation in the accomplishment of his most difficult designs. When he ascended the throne, he found the Duke de Valentinois in possession of many cities in the Romagna, which the latter had usurped during the reign of Alexander, and of which he appropriated the revenues. Him, the most dissembling of men, Julius in some measure supplanted by dissimulationt. From another nobleman (Paolo Baglioni) he recovered the city of Perugia by singular audacity; he suddenly entered the hold of his enemy with his cardinals only, attended by no escort, and in such guise reclaimed and recovered his rights of sovereignty. He compelled the Venetians to restore several places which they had conquered from the Holy SeeRimini, Faenza, Ravenna, Cervia; and before the end of his pontificate, he had established a direct authority over all the cities which constitute the ecclesiastical states. Even in Milan he was almost paramount, while Modena, Reggio, Parma, Piacenza, were held in the name of the Church‡. And some have supposed, that, had his reign been prolonged for a very few years, the whole extent of Italy would have been united under the sceptre of St. Peter.

The object, however, which he more openly professed, and which was at least honourable to his patriotism, was the expulsion of all foreigners

* The same who caused a coin to be struck, bearing the inscription, Perdam Babylonis

nomen.

Alexander VI., who detested Julian, always admitted that he had one, though only one, redeeming quality: it was veracity. This reputation, Guicciardini says, gave him great opportunities of lying with advantage. Nevertheless, in this case, having the Duke's person entirely in his power, he certainly did not treat him so ill as the principles of his enemies, and even of his age would have justified, nor nearly so severely as many expected and hoped.

See Denina, Rivol. d' Ital., lib. xix. cap. vii. and lib. xx. cap. i., ii, iii.

(Barbari) from the soil of Italy. The measures, by which he pursued that object, belong to civil history, as well as the splendid reputation which they acquired for him. The talents and the qualities of Philip and Alexander are described by the panegyrists of Julius, as combined in him: even in their vices he resembled them-anger and intemperance. Respecting the particulars of his policy, it is recorded that he never would listen to any proposal of peace, so long as war, with any promise of success, was open to him; yet that he so conducted war, as to be in perpetual negotiation. Enemies, as well as friends, were made to serve his designs, and distant, as well as neighbouring, powers. He was so fierce and indefatigable a warrior, that at an age almost decrepit he did not shrink, when necessary, from sharing the severest toils of the meanest soldiers; but, at the same time, no one ever wielded the spiritual weapon with more imposing authority than Julius. His energy in the Vatican was scarcely surpassed by his bravery in the field; and he dictated a bull with the same energy with which he commanded an army. It was, moreover, particularly remarked, that he directed the ecclesiastical functions, and mingled in the holy services, with wonderful decorum and solemnity: thus under no circumstances forgetting the advantages to be derived from his sacred office, nor ever failing to make it the means of raising his personal dignity, or advancing his political purposes.

His patronage of the Arts.

Another proof of the expanded mind of Julius II. was, his patronage of the arts of peace, which had suffered in the general degradation of the preceding pontificates. Many celebrated masters flourished during his reign, and his encouragement was never wanting to animate, nor his liberality to support them. The foundations of St. Peter's, after being designed by Nicholas V., were finally laid by Julius; and to prove the value which he attached to that undertaking, he placed the first stone with his own hand. The accumulation of so many and such various qualities in one character leaves no space to doubt his extraordinary capacity. And could we be contented to consider him only as a secular prince-could we forget that he was really the chief of the Church of Christ, and that he professed to be his vicegerent-the homage which is extorted by his genius, his audacity, and the ambitious grandeur of his spirit, however qualified by his political immorality, would be offered with less reluctance.

Some Cardinals convoke a Council at Pisa.

But the Popes, even during this their season of licentiousness, had not wholly forgotten the lessons inculcated at Constance and Basle; and among the various dangers to which they were liable, the name which ever filled them with the deepest apprehension, was that of a general Council. And thus, when Julius engaged* to convoke such an assembly within two years from his election, nothing was farther from his intention than to keep his faith, and in effect he constantly eluded every proposition tending to that end. The king of France saw the advantage thus given him; and as there was also a party in the sacred college, which, through an honest regard for the Church, or a personal displeasure against the Pope, (for Julius II., by an ungracious and disdainful manner, frequently offended even those whom he intended to oblige,) boldly clamoured for

Raynaldi, Annales, 1503, s. i., &c. It should, perhaps, be mentioned, that Julius published, in 1506, a severe edict against the simoniacal election of Popes. He pronounced Popes so elected to be Heresiarchs, and consequently degraded and deposed. The decree was confirmed in the Lateran Council which followed.

the redemption of his pledge, Louis at length prevailed upon them to summon the council on their own authority. They were nine in number; and the city which they appointed for the assembly was Pisa; it was a place convenient to the French and Italian prelates, and it contained, in its own history, the precedent of a general council, summoned by cardinals. The emperor Maximilian gave only a cold assent to these proceedings. Julius exerted every nerve to crush the project: nevertheless, the prelates met together, and the council was formally opened on the 1st of November, 1511. Presently some tumults between the French and Florentine soldiers alarmed the fathers; and after the third session they retired to Milan, where they were entirely under French protection. During that winter and the following spring they held five other sessions; and then, as the German bishops had never joined them, and as the emperor had at length withdrawn even the equivocal countenance hitherto vouchsafed to them, they retired, for the second time, from Milan to Lyons. But on this last removal, notwithstanding the efforts of Louis to give dignity and power to the refugees, the council became virtually extinct.

It is unnecessary to particularize the respective acts of the eight sessions of that assembly, not only because they were never carried into effect, but because they were entirely directed to one subject-the relative authority of the council and the Pope. Julius, on his side, thundered from the Vatican; he excommunicated all the members; he degraded and deprived the cardinals. They, on their part, after some verbose declarations, summoned the Pope into their presence, declared him contumacious, and finally suspended him. But this was their last effort, and the signal, as it were, for their extinction; and the blow thus impotently dealt by the expiring assembly was not felt on the Throne of St. Peter*. Nevertheless, this short-lived council in some measure achieved its professed purpose. Julius, in the first instance, really The Fifth feared it; and he then saw no effectual method of Lateran Council. crushing it, except the convocation of a rival council. He therefore issued a summons to the Catholic hierarchy, to assemble at Rome, in April, 1512, for the celebration of the fifth Lateran council; and on the 3rd of May he opened it in person, with extraordinary dignity and solemnity. Fifteen cardinals, and about eighty archbishops and bishops were present; but it must not be forgotten, that almost all were Italians. During the nine following months five sessions were held, in which no subject of any ecclesiastical importance was proposedt, except the Pragmatic Sanction; and this was treated in a spirit of such undisguised hostility to the French court and Church, as to show very clearly what were the uses to which Julius intended to turn his council. But he was interrupted by a fatal sickness. On the night of February 20, 1513, he died; and it was the last recorded act of his life, to refuse the cardinal's hat to an undeserving claimant. When the Pope was on the point of death, the boon was earnestly solicited by a very near relative,

* The contest, literally speaking, did not cease here. Julius pursued his adversaries into France, and laid the kingdom which harboured them under an interdict. But though some fresh controversies then arose on the old subject-the comparative auferibility of a council and a Pope,-it was clearly the king, who was now fighting the battle, not the

council.

+ The confirmation of Julius's former decree against the simoniacal election of Popes, should, perhaps, be considered as important, though there could be no great hope of its efficacy-not, at least, till the constitution of the sacred college was wholly changed.