ll and without reward." Would the deed
have been so very much against the will of one who went about publishing
his hatred of the dead cardinal by the slanders he emitted?

Upon such evidence as that the accusation of the Pope's murder of
Cardinal Michieli has been definitely established--and it must be
admitted that it is, if anything, rather more evidence than is usually
forthcoming of the vampirism and atrocities alleged against him.

Giustiniani, writing to his Government in the spring of 1503, informs
the Council of Ten that it is the Pope's way to fatten his cardinals
before disposing of them--that is to say, enriching them before
poisoning them, that he may inherit their possessions. It was a wild and
sweeping statement, dictated by political animus, and it has since grown
to proportions more monstrous than the original. You may read usque
ad nauseam of the Pope and Cesare's constant practice of poisoning
cardinals who had grown rich, for the purpose of seizing their
possessions, and you are very naturally filled with horror at so much
and such abominable turpitude. In this matter, assertion--coupled with
whorling periods of vituperation--have ever been considered by the
accusers all that was necessary to establish the accusations. It has
never, for instance, been considered necessary to cite the names of the
cardinals composing that regiment of victims. That, of course, would be
to challenge easy refutation of the wholesale charge; and refutation is
not desired by those who prefer the sensational manner.

The omission may, in part at least, be repaired by giving a list of
the cardinals who died during the eleven years of the pontificate
of Alexander VI. Those deaths, in eleven years, number
twenty-one--representing, incidentally, a percentage that compares
favourably with any other eleven years of any other pontificate or
pontificates. They are:

Ardicino della Porta . . In 1493, at Rome
Giovanni de'Conti. . . In 1493, at Rome
Domenico della Rovere . . In 1494, at Rome
Gonzalo de Mendoza. . . In 1495, in Spain
Louis Andre d'Epinay . . In 1495, in France
Gian Giacomo Sclafetano. . In 1496, at Rome
Bernardino di Lunati . . In 1497, at Rome
Paolo Fregosi. . . . In 1498, at Rome
Gianbattista Savelli . . In 1498, at Rome
Giovanni della Grolaye . . In 1499, at Rome
Giovanni Bor