cal intellect and persuasive eloquence, made him a
redoubtable antagonist. All considerations of religion and morality were
subordinated by him with strict impartiality to policy: and his policy
he restrained to two objects--the advancement of his family, and the
consolidation of the temporal power. These were narrow aims for the
ambition of a potentate who with one stroke of his pen pretended to
confer the new-found world on Spain. Yet they taxed his whole strength,
and drove him to the perpetration of enormous crimes.

[1] It is but fair to Guicciardini to complete his sentence in
a note: 'These good qualities were far surpassed by his vices;
private habits of the utmost obscenity, no shame nor sense of
truth, no fidelity to his engagements, no religious sentiment;
insatiable avarice, unbridled ambition, cruelty beyond the
cruelty of barbarous races, burning desire to elevate his sons
by any means: of these there were many, and among them--in
order that he might not lack vicious instruments for effecting
his vicious schemes--one not less detestable in any way than
his father.' _St. d'It._ vol. i. p. 9. I shall translate and
put into the appendix Guicciardini's character of Alexander
from the _Storia di Firenze_.

[2] In the sentences which close the 11th chapter of the
_Prince_.

[3] Mach. _Prince_, ch. xvii. In the Satires of Ariosto (Satire
i. 208-27) there is a brilliant and singularly outspoken
passage on the nepotism of the Popes and its ruinous results
for Italy.

Former Pontiffs had raised money by the sale of benefices and
indulgences: this, of course, Alexander also practiced--to such an
extent, indeed, that an epigram gained currency: 'Alexander sells the
keys, the altars, Christ. Well, he bought them; so he has a right to
sell them.' But he went further and took lessons from Tiberius. Having
sold the scarlet to the highest bidder, he used to feed his prelate with
rich benefices. When he had fattened him sufficiently, he poisoned him,
laid hands upon his hoards, and recommenced the game. Paolo Capello, the
Venetian Ambassador, wrote in the year 1500: 'Every night they find in
Rome four or five murdered men, Bishops and Prelates and so forth.'
Panvinius mentions three Cardinals who were known to have been poisoned
by the Pope; and to their names may be added those of the Cardinals of
Capua and of Verona.[1] To be a prince of the Chur