s admonition of Roderigo was dictated purely by his personal
affection for him?

In this same year 1460 was born to Cardinal Roderigo a son--Don Pedro
Luis de Borja--by a spinster (mulier soluta) unnamed. This son was
publicly acknowledged and cared for by the cardinal.

Seven years later--in 1467--he became the father of a daughter--Girolama
de Borja--by a spinster, whose name again does not transpire. Like Pedro
Luis she too was openly acknowledged by Cardinal Roderigo. It was widely
believed that this child's mother was Madonna Giovanna de' Catanei, who
soon became quite openly the cardinal's mistress, and was maintained by
him in such state as might have become a maitresse en titre. But, as we
shall see later, the fact of that maternity of Girolama is doubtful in
the extreme. It was never established, and it is difficult to understand
why not if it were the fact.

Meanwhile Paul II--Pietro Barbo, Cardinal of Venice--had succeeded Pius
II in 1464, and in 1471 the latter was in his turn succeeded by
the formidable Sixtus IV--Cardinal Francesco Maria della Rovere--a
Franciscan of the lowest origin, who by his energy and talents had
become general of his order and had afterwards been raised to the
dignity of the purple.

It was Cardinal Roderigo de Lanzol y Borja who, in his official capacity
of Archdeacon of Holy Church, performed the ceremony of coronation and
placed the triple crown on the head of Pope Sixtus. It is probable that
this was his last official act as Arch-deacon, for in that same year
1471, at the age of forty, he was ordained priest and consecrated Bishop
of Albano.

CHAPTER II. THE REIGNS OF SIXTUS IV AND INNOCENT VIII

The rule of Sixtus was as vigorous as it was scandalous. To say--as has
been said--that with his succession to St. Peter's Chair came for the
Church a still sadder time than that which had preceded it, is not
altogether true. Politically, at least, Sixtus did much to strengthen
the position of the Holy See and of the Pontificate. He was not long in
giving the Roman factions a taste of his stern quality. If he employed
unscrupulous means, he employed them against unscrupulous men--on the
sound principle of similia similibus curantur--and to some extent they
were justified by the ends in view.

He found the temporal throne of the Pontiffs tottering when he ascended
it. Stefano Porcaro and his distinguished following already in 1453 had
attempted the overthrow of the pontif