The Papacy in the Late Middle Ages
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| Pope Alexander VI |
Pope Alexander VI (1492-1503)
Very possibly the worst and most notorious of all the Renaissance popes, Rodrigo Borgia can find almost no one who has a good word to say about him. Corrupt, ambitious, worldly and pleasure-seeking, Pope Alexander VI would have been considered a rake even as a secular lord. As the leader and embodiment of western Christendom, he can only be called a scandal.
Yet, he was not a bad pope, notwithstanding that he received star billing in E.R. Chamberlin's book, The Bad Popes. That is to say, he ruled the temporal Church reasonably well in rather difficult times. Two years into his pontificate, the French invaded Italy: and an incompetent pope might well have ended with the Papal States overrun by foreign powers. He did not let that happen, though he was very nearly deposed by the French.
He was a patron of the arts, as were all these Renaissance popes, and like them all he gained praise for his liberality. In fact, it's worth noticing that in his day Alexander received comparatively little censure. Much of his more notorious personal flagrancies occurred while he was younger and still a cardinal. In his eleven years as pope, he did not come under nearly so much general, public criticism as, say, Clement VI had. Certainly in his offices prior to becoming pope he acquitted himself with competence.
He tangled with Savonarola and managed to keep that fiery personality in check. Or, at least, simply kept up a screaming match between the two. Neither man thought much of the other.
And that pretty much exhausts what there is positive to be said about him. As to his faults, it's difficult to know where to begin. Some basic facts will at least provide context.
His uncle was Pope Calixtus III, who created his career for him. There's no sign that the young Rodrigo had any particular ambitions. He hadn't attended much school, hadn't entered into the clergy, was not in politics. But Calixtus packed him off for a year of law school and then made him a cardinal, and that was that. From 1457, at the age of twenty-six, Rodrigo was Vice-Chancellor of the Curia. This was a great deal of power to give to one without much background, but it's typical of Calixtus' nepotism to place more value on blood relationships than on credentials. In any case, it turned out that he was a good chancellor.
He acquired wealth and connections, not least by holding a great number of offices. This was a typical abuse of the late medieval church, and Rodrigo was pre-eminent among the abusers: a clergyman might be bishop of this place but also be abbot of that monastery and priest in this parish. Obviously he could not perform the duties of all these offices at once, so he appointed a vice-priest to serve in his stead, meanwhile—and this was the key point—enjoying the revenues of all those places. Rodrigo was not only cardinal but archbishop, bishop and abbot in a long list of sees and monasteries.
He had at least four children while he was cardinal. He acknowledged them openly and did not hesitate to keep his mistresses in Rome and even in the papal palace. They were all married, of course, so that appearances could be preserved, but everyone knew the truth. Mostly, the Romans joked about it. They were more angry that as pope, Alexander gave out valuable privileges and lands to his Spanish kindred instead of to Roman families. It was not the corruption to which they objected, but that they were not benefiting from it as they felt entitled.
Two of Alexander's children are well-known even today: Lucrezia Borgia and Cesare Borgia. Both were used for Alexander's politics, though Lucrezia was manipulated more heartlessly. It was Cesare's career that was the more important, however. Alexander focused much of his energies on making sure Cesare was successful. And he was. Cesare became the temporal ruler of the Papal States and nearly succeeded in becoming the King of Naples.
His success was entirely dependent upon his father, though. When Alexander died in 1503, Cesare's career soon tumbled.
In the end, Alexander accomplished very little except to make the Romans determined not to suffer another Borgia. There was no question of church reform under a man like Alexander. As far as he was concerned, the system worked just fine; it was only a matter of using it to one's profit. Coming on the heels of the rampant nepotism of Innocent VIII and of Calixtus III, the papacy was rapidly becoming just another worldly court, focused on court politics and family ambitions.