THE LEONINE CITY
Growth of the Papacy--Popes gain territory and wealth--Gregory the
Great--Boniface subsequently erected the chapel of St. Angelo--Rome
the centre of conflict--The Leonine city and Leo IV--Castle
frequently changed hands--Theodora and Marozia--Romans, maddened by
misgovernment, entrust power to Crescentius--He is murdered--Three
popes in Rome at the same time--Cencius--Castle much
strengthened--Constant fighting for St. Angelo--Rome a prey to
violence and crime--An epidemic of murder--Pope Alexander VI--A
reign of terror--St. Angelo the scene of dire atrocities.
The growth of the papacy steadily progressed as the empire declined and
a long hierarchy of elected priests, beginning with St. Peter, occupied
the episcopal chair from generation to generation. The first popes were
the chiefs of a secret society of believers in a new cult which was to
transform the world, and by their undying courage, willing martyrs to
their faith, fought on till the Christian Church won an independent
position as the spiritual leader of many peoples. Their pious converts
continually endowed the Church with estates and treasures until the
bishop of Rome became the largest landowner in the empire, and as early
as the fifth century began to exercise material influence in the city.
While the city of Rome was impoverished, the Church grew more and more
wealthy and the pope-bishop was far richer than the patriarch of
Constantinople or Alexandria. The head of the Church in the West was a
personage of much authority. His power was also extended to the East; he
was backed by the Gothic kings of Italy and was by degrees recognised as
the head of all Catholic Christendom. When the right of arbitration
between clergy and laity was conceded to the pope, the political power
of the papacy was finally established.
The election of Gregory, called the Great, at the end of the sixth
century, came at a time when Rome was at her lowest ebb and opened the
way to the consolidation of the temporal power of the popes. Gregory was
a faithful steward of the revenues of the Church and his charities were
unceasing to all classes, noble and pauper. The city was ravaged by
famine and pestilence, but the latter was averted, says tradition, by
the pious intercession of Gregory. The answer came to him from heaven as
he headed a vast penitential procession. The whole populace joined,
divided into seven groups according to age and class, each starting from
their own quarter, abbots and monks and presbyters, nuns and widows, all
bound for the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore. As they marched through
the ruins of the deserted city, they filled every echo with their solemn
chants, while the pestilence still raged and deaths occurred on the
road. When passing the mausoleum of Hadrian, so the legend runs, the
Pope looked up and saw the figure of the Archangel Michael, surrounded
by the holy choir, with a flaming sword which he sheathed significantly
as he alighted upon the pinnacle of the monument. Gregory interpreted
the heavenly vision as a promise that the plague would cease, and indeed
it presently began to abate. The incident was of special interest to the
monument, for in gratitude, another pope, Boniface, probably the fourth,
founded a chapel on the highest part of the mausoleum, which he
dedicated to St. Michael, and it was afterward known as the chapel of
St. Angelo, _inter nubes_, or _inter caelos_. Of course the whole story
is purely apocryphal and it is not mentioned by either of the pope’s
biographers. A bronze statue of St. Michael, erected by Pope Benedict
XIV, about 1740, to this day hovers over the castle with outstretched
wings.
The energy and pertinacity with which the early popes asserted their
dignity and authority won the respect and devotion of the inhabitants of
Rome, who relied upon them as their best protectors and defenders
against the incursive barbarians. To this the papacy owed its strong
position as the years went on, and its power to hold its own was more
fully recognised by the nominal rulers of the people. Kings and emperors
further endowed it with cities; Pepin gave it Rimini, Ravenna, and
Urbino; Charlemagne, his son, was no less liberal; the Normans enlarged
the papal dominions, and before the end of the thirteenth century many
free states acknowledged the papal authority.
As the centuries passed Rome was still a constant centre of conflict.
Other invaders, both Franks and Vandals, had succeeded to the Goths. The
Lombards, in the eighth century, besieged the castle of St. Angelo, but
the city was preserved by the defences of Gregory the Great. Next, the
Saracens attacked it but recoiled before the fortifications of Pope Leo
IV, who created the Leonine city by enclosing the Vatican with a long
wall, which began at St. Angelo and ran round St. Peter’s, turned then
to the left and completed the circuit by regaining the river below the
gate of S. Spirito. The wall was forty feet high and nineteen feet
thick, built with forty-one towers. It was pierced by three gates, a
small one near St. Angelo, a larger one, the St. Peregrini, afterwards
the Porta Vindaria, and a third at S. Spirito. The castle itself was
reconstructed and strengthened and became the key to the whole line. It
was closed at one end by an iron chain across the Tiber. When finished,
the work was solemnly dedicated to heaven and the blessings of all the
angels and apostles were invoked upon the new Rome, with a fervent
prayer that it might be preserved ever pure and impregnable.
This Leonine city was to become the stronghold of the popes, a constant
bone of contention, fought for by many masters and passing through many
hands. Its history has been stirring and eventful, and it would be
interesting, were it possible, to record the many strange vicissitudes
through which it passed, and to describe at length the notable persons,
famous and infamous, who ruled it from time to time. A very cursory
glance will suffice to indicate their leading characteristics, their
rare virtues and vices; the good they did, and also the evil; their
great ambition for the Church and themselves, which frequently led them
to take desperate measures to gain their ends. Factions and dissensions
were ever rife; rivals forever struggled for the supreme power,--such as
the renegade pope, Stephen VI, who dared to produce the corpse of his
deceased predecessor, Formosus, for trial on a trumped-up charge. The
body was disinterred eight months after burial, dressed in pontifical
robes and publicly arraigned for usurping the See of Rome. As there
could be no defence, sentence was passed in default, the corpse was
decapitated, the three fingers of the right hand used in consecration
were cut off and the remains cast into the Tiber. Stephen himself was
soon called to account after a brief reign of three months, was
dethroned and cast into prison.
At this period the papal city fell under female rule, that of the
mysterious, but undoubtedly notorious Theodora, who wielded the power
gained by her beauty, wealth and cleverness, of absolute queen of Rome.
Her husband was a certain Theophylactus, a consul, senator and patrician
of Rome, and she had two daughters, Marozia and Theodora, both of whom
emulated their mother in wickedness. The chief interest attaching to
these infamous women is that they made St. Angelo their chief residence
and the principal theatre of their misdeeds. The elder daughter,
Theodora, after the death of her husband, favoured a young ecclesiastic
whom she brought to Rome; and eventually she procured his election as
pope, bequeathing him the castle of St. Angelo at her death. Marozia
hated him, drove him forth, became chatelaine and in her turn ruler of
Rome. When Marozia lost her first husband she married a second, Guido,
duke of Tuscany, associated with whom she was guilty of many crimes. She
had two sons; one she made pope as John XI, and the other, Alberic,
conspired against her. Being by this time a widow, she married a third
husband, Hugo of Provence, king of Italy, and the nuptials were
celebrated with great pomp in St. Angelo, in the vault where the
porphyry sarcophagus of the Emperor Hadrian still stood. Alberic soon
quarrelled with his stepfather and summoning the Roman people to his aid
he upbraided them for submitting to the tyranny of a woman and stranger;
he incited them to storm the castle, whence Hugo escaped by letting
himself down by a rope from the walls and Marozia fled to a convent
where she died.
The original purport of the castle was all but forgotten, and it was to
serve for centuries as a fortress, the very strongest part of Rome. It
is described at this period by a contemporary writer as “of marvellous
workmanship and strength, standing at the very entrance to Rome,
commanding the splendid bridge over the Tiber, over which all must pass
with the goodwill of the garrison if they desire to enter or leave the
city.” It was still an imposing edifice and retained most of its first
marble panelling; the inscriptions to the buried emperors were still
legible, although few of the fine statues and stately colonnades
remained. Pope John XI, Marozia’s son, administered the affairs of the
Church with wisdom and justice, and he was succeeded by John XII,
Alberic’s son, who assumed the tiara at eighteen years of age and lived
to earn the reputation of being one of the most infamous popes who had
ever reigned. John entered into an alliance with Otho, Emperor of
Germany, broke all his pledges and was attacked by Otho in the castle,
which fell into the enemy’s hands, while he himself escaped. Although
absent he was put upon his trial before the council of cardinals and
charged with a long list of terrible crimes. “You have been accused,”
said the indictment, “of homicide, perjury, sacrilege, incest: you have
drunk to the health of the devil; when playing at dice you have implored
the help of Jupiter, Venus and various demons.” John refused to answer
to these charges and threatened to excommunicate any one who should
attempt to nominate a new pontiff. He was, however, deposed, but
waiting his opportunity, surprised the castle when it was weakly
garrisoned, took possession of it and revenged himself. He cut off the
right hand of one cardinal deacon; he mutilated several other great
ecclesiastics by slicing their noses, cutting out their tongues and
depriving them of their forefingers. A violent death, however, soon
overtook him: he was stabbed just outside the gates when concerned in
some intrigue.
When Roffredo, prefect of Rome, seized and imprisoned Pope John XIII and
the scale presently turned, the emperor, at the pope’s request, took
summary vengeance on Roffredo and after his death, disinterred the body
and flung the corpse into the drains. The reigning prefect was handed
over to the pope, who ordered that his beard should be cut off, that he
should be hung by his hair to the statue of Marcus Aurelius, and that he
should then be stripped, mounted backwards on an ass and driven
ignominiously through the streets. The two successive popes, Boniface
VII and John XIV, alternately disputed the throne; Boniface cast John
into the dungeons of St. Angelo, where he was either strangled or
starved to death, while Boniface himself, after a short reign, was
overthrown and his dead body subjected to nameless indignities.
At last the Romans, maddened by misgovernment, chose a noble citizen of
high character, by name Crescentius, to act as consul and for some few
years the city enjoyed peace and tranquillity. Again the wheel turned,
and when Crescentius nominated another pope, John XVI, the emperor
seized the wretched pontiff and barbarously misused him by tearing out
his eyes and tongue and cutting off his nose. Crescentius himself was
besieged in St. Angelo but made so stout a resistance that the place
could only be gained by treachery. He had little prospect of beating off
Otho but was sturdily defiant when summoned to surrender. The castle
with its many towers and innumerable battlements was deemed impregnable,
but siege was laid in due form and the attack assisted by the huge
military engines or wooden towers in use at the time. Eventually it was
taken by assault, Crescentius was beheaded on the battlements, and his
remains, after horrible mutilation, were thrown down and hung on a
gallows below Monte Mario. He left a widow Stephania who vowed to avenge
her husband even at the cost of becoming Otho’s mistress, whom she
presently put to death by administering poison to him.
This was the saddest period of ecclesiastical history; pope followed
pope, all ineffectively striving to maintain order and St. Angelo was
sometimes their sanctuary, sometimes their prison house. One or two of
the popes who were most unworthy to wear the sacred insignia may be
mentioned, such as Benedict IX, who was elected at the callow age of
ten. Another pope writing of him fifty years later said, “I have horror
to describe the life of Benedict, how shameful, corrupt and execrable it
was.” After he had long tormented the Romans by his injustice and
cruelty, they would no longer tolerate him, but rose and expelled him
from the pontifical seat. He soon returned, and deposing his successor,
sold the throne to an archpriest, who took the name of Gregory VI.
Benedict thereupon retired into St. Angelo. There were then three popes
in Rome, and the emperor appearing on the scene, nominated a fourth. A
conflict at once arose with the emperor, Henry IV, and his nominee was
attacked, but saved by Cencius, the son of the prefect, who now held St.
Angelo and who kept him there safely for two years.
Cencius built a high tower on the bridge opposite St. Angelo and made
all who would pass it pay toll to him; but the pope, the famous
Hildebrand who was Gregory VII, excommunicated him. He was forcibly
seized at the altar and imprisoned until the people came to his rescue.
Gregory next fell foul of the emperor and there was a fresh struggle in
which the Countess Matilda of Tuscany, a powerful princess, sided with
and supported the pope. In the end Henry triumphed, Gregory withdrew
into St. Angelo, and from its battlements saw the city sacked and set on
fire. Several popes and antipopes then held the castle in turn; it was a
constant bone of contention between the powerful factions, and its
fortifications were continually strengthened so that whoever was in
possession generally dominated the city.
Toward the end of the twelfth century a pure spirit, that of Arnold of
Brescia, arose to denounce the outrageous misconduct of many of the
clerical hierarchy, from the supreme head down to the lesser members of
the priesthood; and he exposed in vigorous language their profligacy,
reckless ambition and tyranny. The high character and unimpeachable
virtue of Arnold gave him much influence and the Church rallied all its
weight to crush him, but for some time in vain. He fought strenuously
for the revival of the old liberties and to exclude the popes from civil
government, but the Emperor Frederick with his army made Arnold
prisoner, and he was cast into the dungeon of St. Angelo to leave it
only to be hanged in the square before the castle. A fierce struggle now
ensued between the emperor and the praetors of the Roman senate recently
reconstituted. The battle ground was the Leonine city, in front of and
around St. Angelo. Victory inclined in turn to each side.
At this epoch Rome was terrorised by the nobles. Issuing from their
strongholds--the palaces which they had converted into fortresses--they
robbed and pillaged on all sides and forcibly seized citizens whom they
held for ransom. The city was depopulated; whole districts lay in ruins,
vineyards and vegetable gardens were planted round the Pantheon and the
Porta del Popolo. Every one fought for his own. The senate barricaded
itself in the Capitol; the pope was not safe outside his castle of St.
Angelo; the great nobles, representing powerful families, claimed their
independence and relied upon their strength. The Frangipani were
established upon the island in the Tiber and held the Colosseum, the
arches of Titus, Constantine and Janus, and the Circus Maximus; the
Orsini were masters of the quarter surrounding the Vatican; the Savelli
held the district where the Cancelleria now stands; the Pierleoni
occupied the theatre of Marcellus and the quarter of the Gheto; the
Colonna were supreme in the district between the Piazza del Popolo and
the Quirinal and were also fortified in the mausoleum of Augustus; on
the slopes of the Quirinal were the Pandolfi, the Capocci and the Conti.
The cruel oppression and lawlessness of the nobles at last moved the
Romans to entrust absolute power to one strong hand acting in their
defence. A certain Brancaleone was appointed senator and dictator, with
absolute power to insure the peace and quiet of the city by the stern
repression of all law-breakers. He governed justly but with a strong,
firm hand. He attacked the turbulent nobles in their fortresses and
brought them into submission, visiting them with prompt penalties when
they dared to set his authority at defiance. Many he hung from their
windows or threw over their battlements. He brought the pope himself
into subjection, and when he fled from the city, summoned him
peremptorily to return to the Holy See of which he was the pastor and
“wander no more like a vagabond and proscribed person”; and the pope
humbly obeyed the order.
It is worthy of note that throughout this long period of dissension and
unrest the papal power steadily increased and wielded an authority which
was widely respected and obeyed abroad however much it might be resisted
at home. The pope never abated his pretensions, and claimed a
sovereignty on equal terms with that of the emperor. It often cost him
serious reprisals. The pope for the time being might find himself
deposed and imprisoned, his life might be endangered and no safety
appear but in flight and voluntary exile, but he steadfastly maintained
his claims and, in the end, made emperors and kings bow before him,
helpless and submissive in face of the formidable weapons of
excommunication and interdiction. The pope was “God’s vicegerent upon
earth to whom was entrusted the government not only of the whole church
but of the whole world;” whose power was based upon divine right and by
whose delegation and permission alone all other rulers held their
authority. The pope settled disputed titles, decided between the rival
pretensions of claimants to thrones; his fiat was accepted, his opinion
deemed final.
The culminating period of this extensive and unquestioned sovereignty
was in the thirteenth century during the first half of which the pope’s
supremacy was universally acknowledged in Europe. But evil days were at
hand. The bitter struggle began between the pope and the emperor,
Frederick II, who was the first to shake the foundations of the papal
throne. The downward movement began with Boniface VIII in 1294, who was
cruel and tyrannical and one of the chief causes contributory to the
Reformation, through his misuse of the indulgences. After him the power
of the popes declined. Benedict IX, his successor, was unable to
vindicate the independence of the Holy See against France. The papal
court was removed to Avignon, where a succession of popes reigned, while
a second set of popes were still elected in Rome, exercising only
nominal rule and constantly the prey of contending factions.
The Roman pontiff at this time was without authority, and nothing
existed in the city that could fairly be called a government. Warring
families still distracted Italy with their dissensions; the Orsini and
Colonne continually fought with each other inside Rome and the Guelfs
and the Ghibellines beyond it. A brief truce was patched up between
parties from time to time, but hostilities were always renewed at every
fresh papal election. Anarchy prevailed in Rome and the surrounding
country. Robbers and freebooters infested the Campagna, industry and
commerce were at a standstill. Week after week St. Angelo was attacked
by one party or another. This was the moment when the celebrated
tribune, Rienzi, began his remarkable career, ruling at first with
moderation and justice but soon aiming at supreme power and usurping all
the attributes of a king. He conducted himself with so little decency,
and wasted so much time in idle shows and ceremonies, that he disgusted
his followers and his influence crumbled away. With a small but devoted
band of men he took refuge in St. Angelo, where he entrenched himself
and held the fortress for six months. Then he fled to Civita Vecchia, to
return for a brief space and conceal himself in the castle, whence he
again fled to Naples. Once more he returned to Rome and was at first
received with enthusiasm, but sedition soon broke out, and he was
attacked on all sides. A crowd surrounded him and some one plunged a
pike into his breast so that he fell fatally wounded. The wild mob
rushed upon his corpse and barbarously mutilated it; his head was cut
from his body, which was dragged through the streets. At last his
lifeless remains, having suffered every indignity, were carried to the
mausoleum of Augustus and there burned to ashes.
When the papal court finally left Avignon and was reëstablished in Rome
in 1377, the keys of St. Angelo were formally handed to the pope, then
Gregory XI. He died within the year and the conclave for the next
election met at the castle. The choice fell upon Cardinal Prignani, a
Neapolitan, who became Urban VI. The people wanted a Roman and at first
opposed him. The conclave, however, persisted in naming Urban VI, whom
the people finally accepted, and who was formally installed at the
Vatican. Whereupon the French cardinals in opposition elected an
anti-pope and put a Frenchman with a French garrison in charge of St.
Angelo. There was now a fierce conflict between the papal and anti-papal
party. The French at St. Angelo were reinforced and withstood a sharp
siege, holding out for a whole year against an attack, supported by
artillery,--the first time that guns were used against the fortress. But
it fell at last under the pressure of famine. It was in a sorry plight;
immense damage had been done during the siege; some parts had been
utterly demolished and all its marbles destroyed. The Roman people,
furious at the long resistance it had offered, now wished to raze it to
the ground, determined that it should be no longer a refuge for their
enemies. Already its earlier decorations had disappeared and the outer
casing of marble was torn off, but the solid interior of massive
peperino resisted all attempts at destruction. A contemporary writer
describes it as impossible to demolish. Ten years later another pope,
Boniface IX, more a soldier than a priest, fully convinced of its value,
set himself to repair and fortify it anew. An edict was issued
forbidding the removal of stone and building material from “Hadrian’s
Mole,” and Boniface, backed up by the fortress, secured order and
obedience in the city for some years.
In the first half of the fifteenth century St. Angelo constantly changed
hands--now it was retained, now lost, by succeeding popes. The
turbulence of the people was uncontrollable and fresh fighting broke out
every few weeks. The clash of arms was outdone by the fury of the
elements: the tremors of earthquakes shook the city; fierce tempests
ravaged it; and great rains fell, followed by disastrous inundations;
the peoples’ hearts failed them for fear; eclipses, comets, and other
sky portents were frequently to be seen, and close in the wake of these
terrors came the dreadful scourges of famine and pestilence. The first
ray of hope dawned upon the once splendid city, now little more than an
insignificant village, when Pope Nicholaus V was elected in 1447. The
annals of the time bear witness to his energy in restoring and
embellishing the ruined city of Rome. He cleared out many of the
shattered houses, erected churches and palaces, founded the Vatican
library, and more particularly devoted himself to the strengthening of
St. Angelo. The round towers added to the three angles of the ancient
square foundation were his work. He began the brickwork curtain of the
circular part of the castle; he gave flanking defence to the entrance of
the castle from the bridge of St. Angelo, and he made good the damage
done to that bridge by the pressure of the crowd on the occasion of the
jubilee commemoration in 1450. Other popes carried on the work; among
them Calixtus III, the first of the Borgias, who came to the papal chair
in 1455, and Sixtus IV, who employed the celebrated architect and
military engineer Antonio da Sangallo to convert the castle into an
important and almost impregnable stronghold. Plans and drawings are
still extant showing it as it was then, encircled by bastions and
massive towers with a line of works joining the defences of the bridge.
A fine picture by Carpaccio in the Academy of Fine Arts in Venice has
preserved, no doubt faithfully, the aspect of the castle at this time.
“Above the circle of the ancient tomb rises a high machicolated square
tower occupying almost its entire diameter, and again above this is a
second and smaller tower, also machicolated, on the top of which is the
figure of the winged angel, the whole surrounded by massive walls, with
round towers at each corner. Along the bastions soldiers are blowing
trumpets, and flags are flying from the towers. Behind the castle is
seen a tall spiral column, on the summit of which stands a naked figure,
with a spear and shield, and near it is an octagonal church, surmounted
by a narrow dome, both of which, if they ever had an existence out of
the mind of the artist, have since utterly disappeared. Ships are also
seen lying beyond in the Tiber, from which, apparently, the train of St.
Orsola and her bridegroom have just landed. It is marching from them in
procession to the broad terrace in front, where the noble couple are
kneeling to receive the benediction of the pope who stands in the
foreground under his baldacchino, his robes held up behind by his
acolytes, and his train of cardinals and bishops, in white mitres,
stretching behind him, the last of them just issuing from a tall
turreted gateway in the walls.”
Some of the popes of this early period were men of violent and
vindictive temper, such as Urban VI, who kept the dungeons full, and
when he suspected his cardinals of treachery, put them on the rack to
extort confession; or, like Sixtus II, whose chief pleasure was to see
his soldiers fight out a challenge to the death; or like Innocent VIII,
who was manifestly ill-named. The condition of Rome continued to be
dreadful. There were daily turmoils; the soldiers entered the city by
night and carried off with violence the most respectable maidens and
young married women--taking the latter from their husbands; they poured
in and attacked the castle of St. Angelo, plundered it, killed the
garrison and abducted labourers employed upon it; again they went forth
in battle array and returned with their prisoners taken in fight or
seized on suspicion, and all alike were put to the torture. There is no
crime with which the annals of the time do not abound. The record is one
of perpetual violence, murder, rape and battle. “The whole city,” says
Infessura, “is filled with villains ... and the homicides of which they
are guilty are considered as nothing. On the Tor di Nona, close by the
castle, bodies of persons are constantly found suspended, of whom nobody
knows the names, or cares to know. Executions within the castle are of
constant occurrence and they occasion neither surprise nor remark....
Every now and then an arm, a hand, a foot, a head, a leg, or some part
of a corpse, is nailed up on the wall of the castle to mark the fact of
an execution performed; but this is so common that nobody pays any
attention to it, unless, indeed, it relate to a person of importance, or
to some one engaged in a popular crime,--as was the case of Macrino di
Castagno, who agreed with Bajazet to poison his brother Zemi in Rome,
and, having been discovered, was executed, quartered and nailed outside
the wall.” Any one who committed such an ordinary crime as murder, rape
or parricide had only to pay and go free. One instance is related by
Infessura, which he witnessed, of a man brought before the
vice-chamberlain accused of having killed his two daughters and a
servant, who was immediately set free by the vice-chamberlain on
condition that he should pay a ransom.
It is recorded that 220 people were assassinated between the date of the
death of Innocent VIII in 1492 and the accession of his successor
Rodrigo Borgia, who took the name of Alexander VI. The clergy under
Innocent were wicked beyond measure, as may be gathered from the edict
issued against them, prohibiting them from keeping shambles, inns,
gaming houses and low resorts of the worst kind. Innocent himself was
responsible for a triple murder. The treatment last prescribed for him
by his Jewish physician was the transfusion of the blood of three young
boys of ten years of age into his unwholesome veins, a cruel operation
which did not save him and killed the poor children.
Alexander VI gained his election by bribery. Being possessed of immense
wealth from the offices he held under his uncle Calixtus III he bought
up nearly the whole college of cardinals and overcame all opposition in
the conclave. He was weak, irresolute, and cowardly in character; and
the condition of Rome, far from improving under his guidance, sank if
possible into more complete degradation. There was no safety anywhere
from assassination and debauchery, and the state was tormented by
constant war. It was a reign of terror. The castle of St. Angelo was
crammed with unhappy prisoners, arbitrarily seized, and its walls echoed
constantly with their shrieks while undergoing torture, or when put to
death by strangulation, poisoning, decapitation and quartering.
“There is nothing so wicked or so criminal,” says a contemporary writer
in 1502, “as not to be done publicly at Rome.” Alexander had no policy
but that dictated by vacillation; he first sought the aid of the French
King, Charles VIII, then formed a league against him; and when the king
appeared in person, bent upon taking Rome, the pope tried conciliation
again. Once more, however, he changed front, and treacherously seized
the king’s envoys, whom he threw into the prison of the castle. Charles
steadily continued to advance upon Rome and entered it in triumph at the
head of a grand army, horse, foot and many guns. The pope fled for his
life and took refuge in the castle of St. Angelo. King Charles summoned
him to surrender and brought his artillery to bear upon the castle. At
last the city rose in tumult, the pope yielded, conditions of peace were
arranged and the French king kissed the pope’s hands at the Vatican,
after which he withdrew with his army to Naples. Alexander VI was
outdone in wickedness by his son Cæsar Borgia, the notorious duke of
Valentino, handsome and capable, of determined character and many
resources, but withal cruel, treacherous, vicious, hypocritical and
totally unprincipled. Between father and son there was little safety in
Rome. Unjustifiable arrest was followed by secret poison or the rope.
Cardinals and great nobles were done to death, and in the midst of this
St. Angelo was almost destroyed as though by the act of God. One day a
flash of lightning struck one of the powder magazines which instantly
exploded, shattering the upper part of the fortress, blowing the great
marble angel from the top and flinging great pieces of the ruin to a
considerable distance. It was once more necessary to repair the castle
and Alexander undertook it, recalling the same famous architect
Sangallo to execute the work.
Alexander completely restored, if he did not entirely rebuild, the
rotunda of the keep upon its ancient masonry; and on the summit he
erected a square tower, which still remains, though much hidden. Besides
these restorations, he completed the passage, about three thousand feet
in length, leading to the Vatican, which had been begun many years
before by John XXIII and left unfinished. He also strengthened the
fortifications of the castle in other ways, adding bulwarks of
travertine between it and the bridge, cutting ditches and making it
stronger than before the explosion. Sangallo also opened the inclined
passage within the round central chamber, which led to the upper story
opening into the so-called Oil Court. Close to this Alexander VI had
constructed five formidable prison cells, using them at times as
repositories for grain and oil, and a cistern, all of which are still in
existence. He likewise began the erection of the papal apartment,
completing some of the rooms with the assistance of Pinturicchio. A deep
fosse was cut around the castle, which so increased its strength that
Cæsar Borgia and his adherents were enabled to withstand an attack of
the Roman barons and people who sought to slay him during the vacancy of
the pontifical see.
Pope Alexander and his son Cæsar fell victims to a snare they had laid
for another. They invited a cardinal to supper at a garden near the
Vatican, meaning to poison him while entertaining him hospitably. Cæsar
entrusted the poisoned wine to an attendant with orders to take it to
the garden but to allow no one to touch it until he came. The pope
arrived before the appointed time, and being overcome with heat and
thirst, asked for wine. The attendant gave him that supplied by Cæsar
Borgia, conceiving that as it was especially fine, it was intended for
the pope’s drinking. The duke on arrival also consumed a quantity of it,
without suspicion. He escaped the fatal effects of the poison, but the
pope succumbed in great agony.
It was the age of poisoning. Pius III, a Piccolomini, Alexander’s
successor, was poisoned within twenty-five days of his election. Leo X,
the next pope, nearly fell a victim to a supposed conspiracy by which
his surgeon was induced to poison an ulcer while dressing it. Leo
escaped then but died five years later of poison, as it was strongly
believed. This dastardly crime was greatly practised in Italy and was
always much facilitated and encouraged. To a somewhat later date belongs
the deadly _acquatofana_ so much used in Naples, and later throughout
Europe to terrorise and ravage society. This fatal poison was invented
by an old beldame in Naples, who was at last discovered and put to
death. Akin to the infamous “succession powder,” the noxious drug was
especially dear to great ladies tired of their husbands, and lay on
their
[Illustration: _Lucrezia Borgia Dancing_
The beautiful and gifted daughter of Pope Alexander VI, was also
the sister of the infamous Cesare Borgia, who murdered her husband
(his brother-in-law), Alfonso of Bisceglia. She was a patron of
learning and the arts and was long accused of the gravest crimes
but more recent writers have somewhat cleared her memory. Her three
marriages were arranged to satisfy the ambitions of her father.
]
dressing tables beside their perfumes and cosmetics, ready for instant
administration. During the pontificate of Alexander VII there existed an
association among ladies of quality in Rome, pledged to make away with
their husbands by poison. Although proofs existed in plenty, the law did
not dare to touch such high and mighty dames as the Princess
Vitelleschi, the Duchess of Ceri and many others. By and by this system
of poisoning extended even to the lower orders, and five women were
hanged for having prepared bottles of distilled water containing arsenic
by means of which many persons had poisoned their husbands and parents.
Several of these were punished by being walled up alive in the dungeons
of the Inquisition, and others were publicly beheaded. On the day of the
execution a vast crowd gathered in the Campo di Fiori to see the
horrible sight. One of the women, a certain Cecilla Bossi Verzellini,
who had incited her daughter to poison her husband, was accompanied to
the scaffold by a prince Barberini as a member of the confraternity of
St. Giovanni Decollato, which confraternity had the sad privilege of
attending the condemned in their last moments and of carrying out their
last wishes. The prince, pitying the woman, urged the executioner to
make haste, whereupon the man replied insolently that perhaps the prince
could discharge the task better than he. The execution was left to an
assistant, and the hangman was arrested immediately by order of the
governor of Rome, whipped round the city and sent to the galleys. The
severe measures used finally effected the suppression of this atrocious
crime, if not its abolishment.