Page:Historical Essays and Studies.djvu/81

Rh possessed an infallible means of subjugating Alexander by calling a Council. Charles VIII. claimed the crown of Naples, and threatened, if investiture should be refused, to depose the Pope, not by force, but by canonical proof that he was a heretic and an intruder. When Alexander took the side of the house of Aragon, and the French invaded Italy, his prospects seemed hopeless. He expected to be deposed. The Cardinal of Siena, whom he sent to mollify the King of France, could not obtain an audience, and wrote to warn his master of the approaching danger. The French intended to summon a Council at Ferrara to sit in judgment on the Pope, and they believed that the consciousness of his guilt would make him pliable. They occupied Rome without resistance. Alexander shut himself up in St. Angelo, with a small group of faithful prelates; but the majority of the Cardinals were urging the king to depose him. The instrument pronouncing his deposition was drawn