ed College to twenty-two, thus assuring him a
constant and certain majority.

The first requirement of the pope's policy was to clear away from the
neighbourhood of Rome all those petty lords whom most people call vicars
of the Church, but whom Alexander called the shackles of the papacy. We
saw that he had already begun this work by rousing the Orsini against
the Colonna family, when Charles VIII's enterprise compelled him to
concentrate all his mental resources, and also the forces of his States,
so as to secure his own personal safety.

It had come about through their own imprudent action that the Orsini,
the pope's old friends, were now in the pay of the French, and had
entered the kingdom of Naples with them, where one of them, Virginio, a
very important member of their powerful house, had been taken prisoner
during the war, and was Ferdinand II's captive. Alexander could not let
this opportunity escape him; so, first ordering the King of Naples
not to release a man who, ever since the 1st of June, 1496, had been
a declared rebel, he pronounced a sentence of confiscation against
Virginio Orsini and his whole family in a secret consistory, which sat
on the 26th of October following--that is to say, in the early days of
the reign of Frederic, whom he knew to be entirely at his command, owing
to the King's great desire of getting the investiture from him; then,
as it was not enough to declare the goods confiscated, without also
dispossessing the owners, he made overtures to the Colonna family,
saying he would commission them, in proof of their new bond of
friendship, to execute the order given against their old enemies under
the direction of his son Francesco, Duke of Gandia. In this fashion he
contrived to weaken his neighbours each by means of the other, till such
time as he could safely attack and put an end to conquered and conqueror
alike.

The Colonna family accepted this proposition, and the Duke of Gandia was
named General of the Church: his father in his pontifical robes bestowed
on him the insignia of this office in the church of St. Peter's at Rome.

CHAPTER VII

Matters went forward as Alexander had wished, and before the end of
the year the pontifical army had, seized a great number of castles and
fortresses that belonged to the Orsini, who thought themselves already
lost when Charles VIII came to the rescue. They had addressed themselves
to him without much hope that he could be of real use to