John Bond

“ Rome is full of dark and distressing memories but nowhere more so than where the Tiber makes its historic elbow toward the Gianicolo.
Almost within the shadow of the grim castle was committed the blackest of all the crimes of the house of Borgia—the one crime that shook even the remorseless soul of Alexander VI to its depths and drove him in fear and trembling from his chambers in the Vatican into the gray and dismal silence of this refuge in his favorite fortress. The crime itself is one of the unsolved mysteries of the ages. ”

“ In that he failed, nor could any artist have succeeded. Being honest with his artistic conscience he produced the finest type of Venus to be found in Rome to this day, the many classic creations all included. Had he done nothing else, this speaking statue of Borgia's last and most beautiful concubine would entitle him to rank high among the sculptors of any age. He has made the "Venus of the Vatican" breathe and live and cast her spell on every beholder, even the pious pilgrims who gaze at the sight in wonder and in absolute, if blessed, ignorance of the facts. ”

“ A head of intoxicating beauty but altogether sensual; the limbs perfect in their rounded symmetry. What a mockery to label this figure as the symbol of Justice. The flame in her right hand is well placed, she holds it daintily as if it were a bouquet of flowers, but the emblem of Justice seems to fall from her grasp because so shockingly misplaced. No other figure of Justice in all the allegorical sculpture of the world lies thus languidly and longingly on a couch. Thus she probably lay in Borgia's bed—one cannot help thinking that this was the picture in the artist's mind. ”

“ Few women in history have exercised so great a fascination on her contemporaries and on later generations as Lucrezia Borgia, who only required wider opportunities to become a second Cleopatra. The figure of the pope's daughter between her terrible father and brother, in part their tragic victim, in part a seductive siren and lastly a penitent Magdalen, exercises a charm on the imagination by the mystery which surrounds her and in the obscurity of which guilt and innocence struggle for supremacy, while in the background stands the ever interesting spectacle of the Vatican. ”

“ The Protestant Reformation dealt the first great blow to the blasphemous claims of the popes. The loss of their temporal power checked but did by no means destroy the political ambitions and projects of the Vatican. The nature of the Papacy has not changed—it cannot change. The blighting influence is still a tremendous and fearful reality. In His own time God will blot all its works from the face of this afflicted world and consign it to infamy first and to oblivion afterwards. In the meantime the greatest weapon against this enemy of mankind is the light of publicity. ”

“ A wild-eyed shouting mob surged about old St. Peter's, gesticulating with heads, hands and arms. The eager thousands pressed on toward the Sistine Chapel. All eyes were turned in the direction of the dimly lighted windows. Nothing could be seen there but a shadowy figure now and then moving about in deepest silence. What a curious contrast with the animation of the scenes below. Every corner of the square was black with humanity. The "pilgrim" stairs in front of the old basilica were covered with men and women who sought a little rest on its well-worn steps. ”

“ The funeral took place at night—the uncoffined corpse, ghastly pale in the glare of the torches that led the way, was carried to Santa Maria del Popolo, the favorite church of the Borgia Pope, who had built an altar in the sacristy when the church was in his charge as cardinal. There in the grave of his mother's family the poor youth was laid to rest, and up into the middle of the Eighteenth Century masses continued to be said there for the repose of his soul and that of his mother, who was buried in the same tomb many years later. ”

“ Their skill and knowledge of the terrible art died with them; they have left to history the name of their dreaded poison, "cantarella," but the secret of its preparation and the manner of its use are buried with them. Modern science has evolved toxicology, a special knowledge of poisons, but the "cantarella" of the Borgia Pope has baffled even the experts in toxicology. We can only guess at its composition by the symptoms of its victims. ”

“ The man stepped close to the ledge of the window, held up his hand to command silence, and then shouted something to the mob.
"Habemus papam," he cried with all the power of his lungs. "We have a pope."
The crowds had been waiting for these words for eight and forty hours and now abandoned themselves to a perfect frenzy of joy. Their self-control was gone in an instant. As crowds will on such occasions, they acted like very foolish human beings. ”

“ The pursuit of money and worldly power, simony in one form or another, enrichment of their progeny or their relatives, the perpetuation of fraudulent practices can be proven against almost every pope who really existed and whose name is more than a myth. It has never been pretended that there is, or ever can be, the slightest warrant for such an institution as the Papacy in the revealed Word of God. ”

“ The cunning political genius of Cesare Borgia had maneuvered the pope into a position of great advantage. France and Spain were bidding for the support of Alexander, who through his son now controlled a not inconsiderable portion of Italian territory. All indications pointed to a further increase of Cesare's conquests and to a corresponding augmentation of the papal power in the politics of Europe. It is not too much to say that the Borgia were on the road to absolute dominance of the world when they plotted to poison and rob the aged Cardinal Adrian of Corneto. ”

“ All the underground prisons with secret traps leading to the Tiber were constructed by Alexander. During his reign the frightful holes were always filled with his victims. It is worthy of note that none of his successors ever dispensed with these hideous torture chambers, but kept on using them even unto the day of Rome's final liberation from the papal yoke. Everywhere the Borgia coat-of-arms is in evidence. ”

“ No name could have been more welcome to the motley bands, for Borgia was by far the richest man in the College of Cardinals. With a rush like that of the whirlwind the crowds sped toward the Borgian palace and seized every movable thing to be found within its chambers. The cardinal, sure of his victory at the conclave, had removed every thing of great value but there was enough left to satisfy the savage plunderers.
In all the history of popedom there had never been an election like this which placed Roderigo Borgia on the so-called throne of St. Peter. ”

“ They followed their martyred countryman, John Hus, who was burned at the stake as a heretic for daring to repudiate the absurd claims of the Papacy to universal dominion. They, too, recognize the distinction between Catholicism as a religious creed and Popery as a fraudulent and un-Christian institution. Our warfare is directed not against Catholics, whether they are of the Roman or the Greek or any other persuasion-it is directed solely and wholly against the Neo-Caesarism of the popes. ”

“ The dominant note is one of fear and distrust. "He who drinks of the water in the Vatican will die soon," is a saying that is heard to this day. "Tasting the cup of the Borgia" means the sudden or mysterious passing out of this world into the next. Proverbs are not only crystals of wisdom but often reflections of history. The history of the Roman church has been altered more than once by poison skillfully prepared and cunningly administered. In the biographies of popes and cardinals the tale of poisoning is not unfamiliar. Not all the poison in the Vatican, however, was made by hands. ”

“ The mother of the Infant of Rome must have been a woman who had extended her favors to both the Borgia, the pope and his son Cesare. This circumstance alone eliminates Julia Farnese as the possible mother of the boy. It has also been maintained that the pope in providing two putative fathers for the boy merely sought to shield his daughter Lucrezia, who gave birth to an illegitimate male child in the time between the annulment of one marriage and her entry into another. ”

“ Every emperor has left some vestige of his power, and so has every pope. The yesterdays of Rome may be taken almost literally.
Numerous are the souvenirs of the Borgias. Of some of them I have spoken in other chapters, but all of them are interesting and valuable to the historian. Next to the Borgia apartments in the Vatican, mentioned elsewhere at some length, the one building richest in Borgia memorials is the famous Castel Sant' Angelo. Alexander, though he had not even a conscience in embryo, never ceased to dread the Roman populace. ”

“ These women were recognized socially by the customs of the time, their meretricious character was well known but their "affairs" and "romances" with eminent men in all walks of life were tolerated and often made the theme of poetry and song. What distinguished Cardinal Borgia from his contemporaries and colleagues in holy office were two things
First, the boldness with which he flouted the injunction of the church to be discreet and careful even if immoral and licentious and second, a curious and sinister delight in the degradation rather than in the mere possession of women. ”

“ Juan Borgia, Duke of Gandia, and Cesare Borgia were the guests of their mother Rosa Vannozza, the avowed mistress of Alexander. The third in the company was, like Cesare a prince of the Church and a cousin of the other two—Cardinal Morneale. Young Gandia, raised to his ducal dignity by the Spanish monarch at the earnest prayer of Alexander, had just completed his twenty-fourth year. No human being of his time seemed to have a brighter future. ”

“ No doubt the brush of the artist has idealized the young girl just past twenty and a wife of two years. Although Borgia's intimacy with her antedates her marriage, she still has preserved a touch of shame or shyness in her facial expression, of which the painter made the most. The artist who many years later fashioned her classic form in marble used for his model a very fine picture of Julia which, together with other portraits of her, is still preserved in the Farnese Palace. He was true to his art and true to his model.
His task was to use that model for a statue representing Justice. ”

“ He addressed a note of reproach and admonition to the cardinal, describing as particularly reprehensible the party at Siena, into the details of which he entered quite freely. The young cardinal's answer was little better than a polite sneer. It amounted to this: Even cardinals must sow their wild oats, when they are young, wealthy and full of virility. Borgia kept on with his dissolute life, provoking one public scandal after another and drew other rebukes from the pope, which he persistently ignored. ”

“ No modern reader will care to wade through the huge volumes of indifferent Latin, in which the observations of Burckard are so minutely recorded. As a monument of biographical literature the diary of the papal master of ceremonies will always occupy a place of high distinction. ”

“ Paganism and the devil triumphed with. the triumph of Popery. If Borgia was a criminal every one of the purpled dignitaries that were present when he ascended the papal throne was his fellow criminals.
The cardinals showered their congratulations on him and Sforza, the man whose vote had fetched the highest price, solemnly declared amid the murmured approval of his colleagues in the purple that the election had manifestly been "the work of God, who had chosen the worthiest among the cardinals to represent Him and to guide His Church." For once in his life Borgia played the hypocrite. ”

“ A vicious and fraudulent institution cannot produce good men. Of course, I do not mean to say that all popes have been common criminals, such as could have been prosecuted under the provisions of the penal code, but I do mean to say that the taint of fraud was upon every one of them and that wittingly or unwittingly they were instruments for the debasement of Christian ideals. ”

“ Indeed, the man who, after a few months, followed him on the papal seat, Julius II, would not even live in his apartments because he was sick of seeing the face of "that wretch, that circumcised Jew," on the walls. ”

“ An attempt has been made to harmonize the Venus of the Vatican with her austere and sacred surroundings by hiding her gorgeous nakedness in a blanket of grey lead. A fig leaf would have been far more decent, far more artistic, and far less suggestive. ”

“ Was there not even a spark of Christian manhood among these cardinals? Did not one of them open his mouth and tell their criminal colleague that he was not the Vicar of Christ but the Anti-Christ? Was there not even enough courage in that "sacred college" to have at least one man seek to shelter his self-respect behind the protest of silence. ”

“ Only the facts themselves are eloquent and from them we must piece out our theories as to the guilty and their motives and as to the last moments of the victim. Let then the facts speak for themselves. ”

“ Arsenic in its pure form, unless taken in large doses, rarely kills outright. Indeed the human system has shown itself capable of absorbing small doses of arsenic regularly without any apparent evil effect. There is a province in Austria known for its "arsenic eaters." They are hardy mountaineers who after years of regular use of the drug, even in quantities far beyond a medicinal dose, seem to enjoy excellent health. The attempt to kill a human being with one dose of arsenic in its pure form results in symptoms at once distressing and characteristic. ”