Sixtus IV. ranks among the most unprincipled of the Roman pontiffs with respect to his political conduct, which seems to have been governed by no other motive than the passion for aggrandizing his family, and indulging a rapacious disposition. His concurrence in the detestable conspiracy of the Pazzi, and the eagerness with which he fomented the wars which disquieted Italy almost through his whole reign, prove him to have been steeled against all sentiments of public justice and humanity. He has been charged with avarice; and the imputation has been refuted by recounting the splendid edifices, and the numerous charitable and useful establishments, of which he was the founder. In fact, he was liberal and magnificent in his expenditure; and having, like many other princes of that character, exhausted his treasures, he scrupled at no means of replenishing them. In no pontificate were the offices and employments about the papal court more shamelessly set to sale, or the exactions in passing bulls and other official instruments from that court more scandalously augmented. The most favourable light in which he can be viewed is as a munificent encourager of learning. He may almost be regarded as the founder of the Vatican library, for he not only enriched it with books collected from various parts of the world, but caused them to be properly disposed for the convenience of the public, to which he opened the library, placed them under the care of men learned in different languages with competent salaries, and assigned funds for the purchase of new books. Sixtus, whilst a doctor of the church, was the author of some writings in theology and school divinity. Several of his letters are extant, and he published some decrees, one of which had for its object the end of the violent disputes then subsisting relative to the immaculate conception of the Virgin Mary.

INNOCENT VIII., pope, was born at Genoa in the year 1432; at an early age he was sent to the court of Naples, where he lived several years during the reigns of Alphonso and his son Ferdinand, and received substantial marks of favour from both princes. After this he removed to Rome, and obtained considerable church preferment, till at length he was raised to the purple, by the title of cardinal of St. Balbina, in the year 1473. Upon the death of Sixtus IV., in 1484, he was elected his successor, and took the name of Innocent VIII., having been previously known by that of John Baptist Cibo. As soon as he was seated in his government he attempted to procure another crusade, but without success. His efforts, however, contributed to bring much wealth into the apostolic treasury, part of which the pope appropriated to his own use; and the rest he expended on the repair of ancient works of art, or in support of a war, in which he soon became involv

ed with Ferdinand, king of Naples. Innocent spent the concluding years of his pontificate in endeavouring to maintain order and good government in the church, and in cultivating the arts of peace. He cleared the country of robbers and assassins, with which it was at that time much infested; adopted measures for the regular supply of Rome with provisions, and adorned it with many magnificent buildings. He died in the year 1492, aged 60, after he had filled the papal throne nearly eight years. He was possessed of a very moderate share of learning and talents, but secured the attachment of all ranks by the sweetness of his temper, and the gentleness of his manner. His character, in a moral point of view, will not bear examination; he openly acknowledged himself the father of a numerous progeny of natural children, and is said to have been the first of the popes who introduced that new and extraordinary proceeding of owning publicly his spurious issue, heaping upon them riches without measure. He left behind him some letters, and one to Henry VII. king of England, against citing the clerical orders before secular tribunals.

ALEXANDER VI., pope, a scandal to the papal chair, was born in 1431 at Valencia in Spain; his original name was Cæsar Borgia, and his mother, from whom he derived the name, was sister to Callixtus III. Though in his youth exceedingly licentious, he found means to ingratiate himself with his uncle, the pope, and in 1455, obtained the dignity of cardinal. He was afterwards made bishop of Valencia, and vice-chancellor of Rome. This last office was so profitable, that it is said to have brought him in, annually, twenty eight thousand crowns; an income which enabled him to support the state of a prince. Pope Sixtus IV. sent him as his legate to Spain, where he lived in great extravagance and irregularity. At length, when advanced to a considerable age, after having seen the dignity to which he aspired pass, in succession, from his uncle to four pontiffs, by openly professing extraordinary piety and sanctity, and by secretly distributing among the cardinals large presents and liberal promises, Roderic was, on the death of Innocent VIII., in the year 1492, elected to the papal chair. When he ascended this seat of sanctity in his sixty-first year, he had, by his mistress Vanozza, four sons and a daughter, who was named Lucretia, but proved extremely unworthy of the name; for she had the monstrous depravity of not only committing incest with her two brothers, but even of consenting to the brutality of her father; who, in a fit of jealousy killed one of his sons, whom she preferred to him. His favourite son, Francis, the only good character in the family, was murdered by his brother Cæsar.

His father, nevertheless, idolized this monster, and employed every means for his advancement. Alexander VI. in short, made no scruple of any acts of treachery or cruelty, by which he could aggrandize his children and enrich himself. He is at

the same time charged with the utmost licentiousness, and is even accused of incest with his own daughter. In political concerns, this pontiff formed alliances with all the princes of his time, only to break them. He engaged Charles VIII. to come into Italy to conquer the kingdom of Naples, and as soon as that prince had succeeded in the enterprise, he entered into a league with the Venetians, and with Maximilian, to rob him of his conquest. He sent a nuncio to the sultan Bajazet, to entreat his assistance against Charles VIII. king of France; and, after a large remittance from him, delivered up to the king of France, Zizim, the brother of Bajazet, then with the pope. To add hypocrisy to all his other vices, Alexander VI. proposed to the Christian princes a design of putting himself, notwithstanding his great age, at the head of an army against the Turks. This zeal for the honour of the Christian name served as a pretext for certain clauses annexed to the bull issued for a jubilee in the year 1500, which brought him immense sums from all parts of Europe. As a singular example of pontifical arrogance, may be mentioned the bull of this pope, by which he took upon him to divide the new world between the kings of Spain and Portugal; granting to the former all the territory on the west, and to the latter all the territory on the east, of an imaginary line, passing from north to south, at one hundred leagues distant from Cape Verd islands. This pontiff pursued his profligate career till the year 1503, when the poison which he and his son Cæsar had prepared for Adrian, a wealthy cardinal, was, by mistake, taken by the father and the son; thus sharing themselves the fate which they had, in many instances, inflicted upon others. Some writers have questioned the truth of this account of Alexander's death, but it rests upon the authority of several reputable historians, of whom the principal is Guicciardini; and there is nothing in the story inconsistent with the acknowledged character of this pontiff and his son. The talents and accomplishments of Alexander VI., his eloquence and address, and above all his exalted and sacred station, were only aggravations of his crimes. One part of his character, his insatiable avarice, is pointedly expressed in the following lines:

Vendit Alexander claves, altaria Christum.
Vendere jure potest; emerat ille prius.

Christ's altars, keys, and Christ himself,
Were bartered by this pope for pelf;
But who shall say, he did not well?
That which he bought he sure might sell.

PIUS III., whose original name was Francis Todeschini, was a native of Sienna, and born in the year 1429. As he was nephew to pope Pius II., that pontiff permitted him to take the

name of Piccolomini, and to bear the arms of that family. When he was only twenty-two years old, Pius made him a cardinal, and soon after gave him the bishopric of Sienna. He was employed in several legations, by popes Paul II., Innocent VIII., and Alexander VI., to whom he is said to have given entire satisfaction, by the prudence and integrity with which he discharged his commissions. Upon the death of the last-mentioned pontiff, in the year 1503, the city of Rome was thrown into the utmost confusion by the struggle for power between Valentine Borgia, the son of Alexander, and the Orsini and other Roman barons, whom he had deprived of their estates. Daily battles were fought in the streets, by the parties of these rivals, and the cardinals found themselves obliged to raise a body of troops for their defence, while they should be shut up in the conclave. They also applied to the French, Spanish, and Venetian ambassadors, by whose means the heads of the opposite factions were prevailed upon to withdraw from Rome with their troops, till a new pope should be elected. Having thus secured themselves from interruption, the cardinals assembled at the Vatican, and in a short time chose cardinal Piccolomini to the vacant throne, who, out of gratitude to the memory of his uncle, took the name of Pius III. No sooner had the intelligence of his election been conveyed to the hostile factions, than they returned to Rome, and renewed the war within the walls, and again threw the city into the utmost confusion. At length the reinforcements received by the Orsini arrived, which gave them a decisive superiority over Valentine, who was obliged to take refuge in the castle of St. Angelo, which was garrisoned by his party. This change in his affairs soon caused him to be deserted by great numbers of his men, and he was left at the mercy of the pope, who permitted him to retire unmolested wherever he pleased. Pius, by this event, had the happiness to see peace restored to Rome, but he did not long enjoy it, for he died the twenty-sixth day after his election, in the seventy-fifth year of his age, not without suspicion of having been poisoned. He was a person of an unblemished life, and not unworthy of the high dignity to which he had been raised.

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JULIUS II., pope, originally called Julian della Rovere, was the nephew of Pope Sixtus IV., and born at Alvizale, Savona, about the year 1443. He is said to have been of mean extraction, and to have followed for some time the occupation of a waterman; and Bandello relates, that he would often say, that, when a boy, he frequently carried onions from his native city to sell at Genoa. We meet with no farther information respecting him, till we find that he was preferred by his uncle, Pope Sixtus, to the see of Carpentras, and raised to the purple year 1471, by the title of cardinal presbyter of St. Peter

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ad Vincula. He was successively raised to the bishoprics of Albano, Ostia, Bologna, and Avignon, created sub-dean of the sacred college, high penitentiary and apostolic legate at Avignon. Upon the breaking out of an insurrection in Ombria, his uncle gave him the command of the papal troops, which was an employment perfectly suited to his genius. The abilities and vigour he displayed in crushing that rebellion, raised him to high reputation, and to proportionate influence and power at Rome. In the year 1480, he was sent legate into France; and four years afterwards, upon the death of his uncle, by his influence in the conclave, conjointly with that of Cardinal Roderic Borgia, then chancellor, Innocent VIII. obtained the papal chair. While that pontiff lived, he was a favourite at the papal court, but during the pontificate of his infamous successor, Alexander VI., he retired into France, and attended king Charles in his Neapolitan expedition. Upon the death of Alexander, he procured the election of Pius III., and after his short pontificate of twenty-six days, he was elected to succeed him, and took the name of Julius III. No sooner was he seated on the papal throne, than he indulged in the most ambitious projects for the aggrandizement of the Roman see; and as he possessed a bold, intrepid, martial spirit, he determined to extend the temporal empire of the church by force of arms. The republic of Venice, aspiring at the dominion of the province of Romagna, whose governor, Cæsar Borgia, was not able to resist them, they broke unexpectedly into that province, and having taken Rimini and several other places, they besieged Faenza. Upon this the inhabitants sent deputies to Rome to implore the assistance of the pope, who sent a nuncio to remonstrate against their attempting to subject to their dominion a city that belonged to the church. The senate treated the nuncio with the greatest respect, and dismissing him with a declaration of their readiness to pay the small tribute which they maintained, was the only acknowledgment of the subjection of Faenza to the holy see, they directed their commander to carry on the siege, and the place was soon obliged to capitulate. Julius dissembled his resentment for a time, but it was not long before the Venetians had reason to repent that they had provoked his enmity. As some fortresses still held out for Borgia, the pope proposed that they should be delivered up to him to prevent their falling into the hands of the Venetians. Upon Borgia's refusal, Julius ordered him to be arrested; nor was he liberated until those places were given up to the pope. In 1506, Julius resolved to commence the execution of the projects which he had formed, by the reduction of Bologna and Perugia, which were parts of the ancient domains of the apostolic see, but now possessed by John Bentivoglio, and the latter by