Alexander VI

“ In regard to the expe­ diting of the bull see Vander Linden, "Alexander VI. and the Demarcation of the Mari­ time and Colonial Domains of Spain and Portugal ", American Historical Review, XXII. 3-7. ↑ Doc. 5. ↑ The following text is from an official copy, made in 1515, and preserved in the Archives of the Indies, Patronato, 1-1-1, no. 4. ↑ A bull of Sixtus IV. creating the collegiate church of Saint Antolin is printed in C. Pérez Pastor, La Imprenta en Medina del Campo ( 1895) , pp. 183 ff. ↑ The words juribus et are struck out. They appear in the Vatican text, but not in Solorzano. ”

“ Doubtless the very aspect of death begets sadness; for we behold in a dead man the face changed, the figure dead, the body shrunk up with emaciation, the mouth silent, the skin cold, the carcase prostrate on the ground, the eyes sunken, the limbs immoveable, the flesh wasted away, the veins congealed, the bones whitened, the joints dissolved, all parts of him reduced to dust, and the man no longer existing. ”

“ He is the Mediator between God and man; He is the resurrection and the salvation of all; He is the Guide of the erring, the Shepherd of men who have been set free, the life of the dead, the charioteer of the cherubim, the standard-bearer of the angels, and the King of kings, to whom be glory for ever and ever. ”

“ We have indeed learned that you, who for a long time had intended to seek out and discover certain lands and islands remote and unknown and not hitherto discovered by others, to the end that you might bring to the worship of our Redeemer and profession of the Catholic faith their residents and inhabitants, having been up to the present time greatly engaged in the siege and recovery of the kingdom itself of Granada, were unable to accomplish this holy and praiseworthy purpose ”

“ Moreover we command you in virtue of holy obedience, that, employing all due diligence in the premises, as you also promise--nor do we doubt that you will act in accordance with your devoted loyalty and royal greatness of spirit--you should appoint to the aforesaid countries and islands worthy and God-fearing, learned, skilled, and ex­ perienced men to instruct the aforesaid inhabitants and residents in the Catholic faith, and to train them in good morals. ”

“ Wherefore inasmuch as by the favor of divine clemency, we, though of insufficient merits, have been called to this Holy See of Peter, recognizing that as true Catholic kings and princes, such as we have known you always to be, and as your illustrious deeds already known to almost the whole world declare, you not only eagerly desire but with every effort, zeal, and diligence, without regard to hardships, expenses, dangers, with the shedding even of your blood, are laboring to that end ”

“ I remember him so well on that August afternoon, facing the multitude assembled to greet him as its Czar and leader, and I remember, too, the thought which swept through my mind, that it was a thousand pities it was not his father who stood there in his place. Alexander III. would have known how to address Russia in an hour of national danger. He was neither a brilliant nor an extremely intelligent man, but he was a man and a Sovereign, who realized the duties of a Monarch and of a man. ”

“ Among other works well pleasing to the Divine Majesty and cherished of our heart, this assuredly ranks highest, that in our times especially the Catholic faith and the Christian religion be exalted and everywhere increased and spread, that the health of souls be cared for and that barbarous nations be overthrown and brought to the faith itself. ”

“ When the present German emperor, William II, succeeded to the throne, he attempted to make friends with the czar by dismissing Prince Bismarck, in 1890, but Alexander could neither forgive nor forget. It was chiefly owing to this that Russia and France drew closer together until it ended in an alliance.
Strong, self-willed, and masterful, Alexander did love his people in his own way. In January, 1884, he ordered the poll-tax to be abolished, and thereby relieved the peasants of a heavy burden; he also compelled the landowners to sell to their former serfs the land cultivated by (p. 247) them. ”

“ He left as his heiress Margaret, the Maid of Norway, daughter of Eric of Norway, and of Alexander's daughter, Margaret. Under him Scotland enjoyed greater prosperity than for generations afterwards.
Alexander I, Emperor of Russia, son of Paul I and Maria, daughter of Prince Eugene of Würtemberg, was born in 1777, and died in 1825. On the assassination of his father, in 1801, Alexander ascended the throne, and one of his first acts was to conclude peace with Britain, against which his predecessor had declared war. ”

“ He will make the autocracy so beneficent that men will love it. A comparatively simple thing, the young man thought. But the tragedy of the life of Alexander II is that it was during his reign that Nihilism arose, dagger in hand, and he himself fell by the bomb of an assassin who represented “the people.”
Russian funds rose in the European market when Alexander II mounted the throne. He was well known: an amiable, kindly man, gently punctilious about etiquette, very sober in meat and drink, very cold to flatterers. Europe looked to him for peace ”

“ Every adventurer in the army became suddenly rich; all the means and materials for luxury which the long civilization of the East had discovered and employed, were suddenly thrown into the hands of comparatively rude and even barbarous soldiers. It was a prey such as the Spaniards found in Mexico and Peru, but had a far stronger civilization, which must react upon the conquerors. And already Alexander showed clear signs that he regarded himself as no mere Macedonian or Greek king, but as the Emperor of the East, and successor in every sense of the unfortunate Darius. ”

“ Another element in his character discovered itself when in 1801 he mounted the throne over the body of his murdered father: a mystic melancholy liable at any moment to issue in extravagant action. At first, indeed, this exercised but little influence on the emperor’s life. Young, emotional, impressionable, well-meaning and egotistic, Alexander displayed from the first an intention of playing a great part on the world’s stage, and plunged with all the ardour of youth into the task of realizing his political ideals. ”

“ That such a youthful prince should be selected by so powerful a confederation of nations as their leader in such an enterprise as they were about to engage in, indicates a most extraordinary power on his part of acquiring an ascendency over the minds of men, and of impressing all with a sense of his commanding superiority. Alexander returned to Macedon from his expedition to the southward in triumph, and began at once to arrange the affairs of his kingdom, so as to be ready to enter, unembarrassed, upon the great career of conquest which he imagined was before him. ”

“ And the men of that place answered him: “Truly, O king, this man was Anectanabus, once king of all this land; yet because he was bidden of the gods he left us, and the writing below tells us that he shall come again and free us from the Persians, and make us a great people. And some men say that it shall be a son of his that shall do these great things.” Then Alexander knew that this was that same Egyptian who had been his fosterer, and he said to the men of the place: “I knew the man, and for his sake I will make ye free from all men, rich and happy shall ye be.” ”

“ Russia, under the system that Nicholas pursued, could not have seen Austria absorb Italy without resisting the process at any cost; but Alexander IV., [Footnote: I call the present czar Alexander the Fourth, as there have been three other Alexanders sovereigns of Russia; but he is generally styled Alexander the Second.] a wiser man than his father was, never would have gone to war to prevent it, his views being directed to those internal reforms the success of which is likely to create a Russian People, and to place his empire in a far higher position than it has ever yet occupied. ”

“ From Europe the king sailed over the great sea into Africa, and many days he sought an enemy and found none, for the fame of him had gone before him. On a day he sought a temple of the god Ammon [42] with his earls and mighty men, and there happed on the way a marvel. For it fell as he was going, that a hart with a huge head leaped forth before them; hardly had man ever seen so noble a beast. Then said Alexander: “Lo, the emperor of harts, slay him ere he escape.” And all men shot, but so fleet was the hart that none could reach him. ”

“ Moscow, of course, was the scene. All that barbaric pomp and European luxury could combine, was to be seen in the displays of the double coronation of the Czar and Czarina. Alexander, disdaining the royal habit of being drawn in a carriage, however gilded; or remembering that he was the monarch of a nation of horsemen, King of the Tartar world, moved in the midst of his great lords and cavalry, mounted on a fine English charger, and was received every where with boundless acclamations.
The memory of kings is seldom long-lived in despotic governments. ”

“ The marvel is their harmony of thought. Their ends and their antagonisms are the same. The outcome of their mental efforts and their pious faith is seen in the result. Alexander was their product, and Athanasius (bringing all their sheaves to the Church’s garner, winnowed and harvested) is the perpetual gnomon of the Alexandrian school. Its testimony, its prescription, its harmony and unity, are all summed up in him.
It is extraordinary that many truly evangelical critics seem to see, in the subordination taught by Origen, [2] something not reconcileable with the Nicene orthodoxy. ”

“ What beast save the goat could characterise Alexander and his reign? He was the son of Philip of Macedon, born 356 b.c., and died in 323. He began his reign at twenty years of age, and closed it in twelve years and eight months. No man in the same time ever fought so many battles, won so many victories, and subdued so many people. No man, before or since, ever ruled over so many people and such a kingdom. Queen Victoria is in these things his only rival. ”

“ In Russia they are ministers. Truly, Alexander the Amiable merits his name. He is amiable—very—towards his fathers’ murderers!”
The Duchess seemed to resent this disparagement of Alexander.
“Consider his position,” she answered. “Is he to begin his reign by degrading the men who have put him on the throne? They who slew one Czar may slay another.”
“And can a man die better than in the attempt to avenge his father’s murder? If fear of the assassin’s dagger keeps Alexander from doing an act of justice then have the Russians a Czar, but scarcely a hero.” ”

“ A few hours after the death of the Czar Nicholas, his son, heir, and successor, Alexander II., ascended the throne and the officers of the imperial house took the oaths of allegiance. The new Emperor in his manifesto to his subjects says—as his father devoted himself incessantly for the welfare of his Empire, “so do we also on ascending the throne of Russia, and of Poland and Finland, inseparable from it, take a solemn oath before God to regard the welfare of our Empire as our only object. ”

“ The pressure of the Continental System on the material resources of Russia, the growth of the Napoleonic despotism, the existence and aggrandizement of the Duchy of Warsaw, were utterly opposed to Alexander's theories and to his sense of sound Russian policy. At length in 1812 a rupture ensued, and Napoleon's Grand Army entered Russia, only to be destroyed in the retreat from Moscow. Alexander threw himself into the struggle of Europe against the French Emperor, and raised an army of nearly 900,000 men. ”

“ The life of the Russian emperor was a cloudy one. The external splendour of royalty naturally captivates the eye, but the realities of the diadem are often melancholy. It would be scarcely possible to conceive a loftier preparative for human happiness than that which surrounds the throne of the Russias. Alexander married early. A princess of Baden was chosen for him, by the irresistible will of Catherine, at a period when he himself was incapable of forming any choice. ”

“ To other popular historians I need not refer the student, save, by anticipation, to the list of authorities which will be furnished in the concluding volume of this series. [3]
Let us reflect, then, upon the epoch to which we have now come. The intense sufferings, labours, and intellectual as well as moral struggles, of the three heroic centuries, are closing, and Alexander of Alexandria is the grand figure of the period. Diocletian is preparing to let loose upon the sheep of Christ the ferocious wolves of the tenth persecution. ”

“ Meanwhile the King of Portugal had sent Ruy de Sande to the Spanish sovereigns to entreat them (among other things) to prohibit their subjects from fishing south of Cape Bojador till the limits of the possessions of both kingdoms should be fixed, and to make these limits the parallel of the Canaries, leaving the navigation south of this line to the Portuguese. [3] In the middle of August the Portuguese ambassadors, Pero Diaz and Ruy de Pina, arrived in Barcelona, and an attempt at settlement was made. ”

“ We trust in Him from whom empires and governments and all good things proceed, that, should you, with the Lord's guidance, pursue this holy and praiseworthy undertaking, in a short while your hardships and endeavors will attain the most felicitous result, to the happiness and glory of all Christendom. ”