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 THE SACK OF ROME

witches and witchcraft. The German inquisitors who composed this treatise had previously succeeded in eliciting the Papal Bull, and with it solemn recognition of the sanity of their madness. Canonists, in- quisitors and executioners joined in receiving the blessing of Inno- cent VIII. These horrors ran their course while the Pope was helping his children to make brilliant marriages. He wedded his son Frances- chetto to a daughter of his new ally Lorenzo di Medici, and as part payment for this favour made a thirteen-year-old son of the Medici House (the future Pope Leo X) a Cardinal. The marriage of his daughter Teodorina in Aragon sealed the dearly bought peace with the Ferranti of Naples. Both marriages took place in the Papal pal- ace. Prince Dschem, a Vatican prisoner, furnished the sums which the Pope needed for himself and his family. This unfortunate pre- tender to the Turkish throne was kept under arrest; and in return for the service thus rendered, his brother and rival Sultan Bajazet paid a large annual tribute to Innocent.

The Conclave of 1492 was the unhappiest in Papal history. When Lorenzo Medici died the situation in Italy became chaotic. Inside the College of Cardinals the Milanese party under Ascanio Sforza opposed the Neapolitan party under Giuliano della Rovere. The leaders of both factions considered themselves still too young to wear the tiara and therefore pushed instruments of their policy into the fore- ground for the time being. It was masterly intrigue and shameless vote-buying which brought the victory to the richest of all the Cardi- nals, Rodrigo Borgia, who was the candidate of the Milanese camp. Elected unanimously, this sixty-year-old Pontiff called himself Alex- ander VI (14921503). Out of his adulterous union with a Roman noblewoman, Vannozza dei Catani, whom he loved better than any other woman who had bestowed her favours upon him, four children Cesare, Juan, Jofre and Lucrezia were born. His policy was based on nepotism; and after Cesare, who had been appointed a cardi- nal in 1493, resigned from the sacred College in 1498, the Pope de- voted himself completely to the task of building up a central Italian kingdom under the Borgia dynasty. Unstable, chaotic, he made and then dissolved amateurish alliances which brought both himself and Italy to the brink of despair. By making common cause with Milan,

ALEXANDER