not sufficiently known; it is
good to know them for their own sake. But, apart from that, they have
a great historical value which it is well to consider. It is not to be
imagined that such breadth of views could be tolerated in a Pope in the
dawn of the sixteenth century. The times were not ripe for it; men
did not understand it; and what men do not understand they thirst to
explain, and have a way of explaining in their own fashion and according
to their own lights.

A Pope who did such things could not be a good Pope, since such things
must be abhorrent to God--as men conceived God then.

To understand this is to understand much of the bad feeling against
Alexander and his family, for this is the source of much of it. Because
he did not burn witches and magicians it was presently said that he
was himself a warlock, and that he practised black magic. It was not,
perhaps, wanton calumny; it was said in good faith, for it was the only
reason the times could think of that should account for his restraint.
Because he tolerated Moors and Jews it was presently said by some that
he was a Moor, by others that he was a Jew, and by others still that he
was both.

What wonder, then, if the rancorous Cardinal Giuliano della Rovere
venomously dubbed him Moor and Jew, and the rabid fanatic Savonarola
screamed that he was no Pope at all, that he was not a Christian, nor
did he believe in any God?

Misunderstood in these matters, he was believed to be an infidel, and no
crime was too impossible to be fastened upon the man who was believed to
be that in the Italy of the Cinquecento.

Alexander, however, was very far from being an infidel, very far from
not being a Christian, very far from not believing in God, as he has
left abundant evidence in the Bulls he issued during his pontificate.
It is certainly wrong to assume--and this is pointed out by
l'Espinois--that a private life which seems to ignore the commandments
of the Church must preclude the possibility of a public life devoted to
the service of the Church. This is far from being the case. Such a state
of things--such a dual personality--is by no means inconsistent with
churchmen of the fifteenth, or, for that matter, of the twentieth
century.

The whole truth of the matter is contained in a Portuguese rhyme, which
may roughly be translated:

Soundly Father Thomas preaches.
Don't do as he does; do as he teaches.

A debauchee may preach virtue with salutary