The Borgia Family - Dissertation

Discussion

Alexander VI became Pope in 1492 shortly after the death of his predecessor Pope Innocent VIII – many say he bought his way to the papacy (J.B.Darcy, 2011) (Authors, n.d.). Delving deeper into this, however, it appears these claims surely must be false.

J. B Darcy, the author of many historical books, deciphers how these claims of bribery are certainly false. First, however, one must understand what Alexander VI was accused to have done; one claim is that he bribed Cardinal Ascanio Sforza with the promise of becoming Vice-Chancellor - along with his own residence, built by funding from Rodrigo. Another allegation, made by German Protestant historian Ranke, suggests Rodrigo paid Cardinal Gherado of Venice 5,000 ducats for his vote.

For the latter let's look at the characters involved, Leopold Von Ranke was a leading protestant Historian in the 19th century (Vierhaus, 2013). His firm protestant beliefs already provide a motive for concluding evidence that would further tarnish Rodrigo's name, due to clear protestant hatred toward the grandeur and avarice of the Catholic Church. Furthermore the evidence that Ranke provides seems contrary to Gherado whom Darcy describes as 'a most saintly man, having been the Superior General of the Camaldolese Order' (J.B.Darcy, 2011). Additionally Gherado kept a vow of poverty, so much so that when travelling to the conclave he was forced to borrow 2000 ducats from the Venetian government for the expense. Such evidence thusly discredits what Ranke has claimed, due to the severe implausibility that Gherado, so strict in his sanctity, would ever be swayed by a bribe – if Gherado did vote for Rodrigo then it must have been through his faith alone (J.B.Darcy, 2011).

Now, with regards to Cardinal Ascanio Sforza – it is true that he became Rodrigo's Vice-Chancellor after his ascension and also gained property from Rodrigo (J.B.Darcy, 2011). This residence was not built for Sforza however, it was a building previously owned by Rodrigo that had become redundant in his ownership, and would have been better used by Sforza due to his lack of a home in Rome. A problem in clearing Alexander of these charges of simony is that we cannot be certain, due to the way in which one was bribed – which would most likely be in secret, un-documented and un-spoken of.

Darcy once again infers that even though this could be the case, Alexander's unanimous election is proof that he did not bribe his way into the papacy; as one who would have ascended by such means would have only gained the bare minimum of votes (J.B.Darcy, 2011). This theory however seems rather unconvincing, as due to the nature of the election cardinals minds could have changed over the conclave and also Rodrigo was rich enough and powerful enough to bribe the whole of the College of Cardinals.

'They were, for example, undoubtedly guilty of both nepotism and simony' (Lee, 2013).

Nepotism, the act of furthering the fortunes of one's own family, over more worthy candidates - is often common of those with great power; including both Borgia's Popes (Wilde, n.d.). It is of great importance to ensure fellow friends and family are also in positions of power for two reasons; one to ensure the continuation of your legacy and your families power, and two, to decrease the amount of opposition to yourself. In the cases of Callixtus and Rodrigo this was extremely important, as they were both surrounded, in the papacy, by many foes – especially the rival Italian families of Orsini, Medici and Farnese (Hollingsworth, 2014, p. xii).

Callixtus III was elected on April 8th 1455, and thus was the first Borgia pope and far less infamous than his successor Rodrigo however, he too practiced Nepotism. As soon as Callixtus III was elected he, due to his Spanish heritage, had already formed a cluster of opposition to him from the Roman factions of the papacy (Wilde, n.d.). In order to prevent this growing Callixtus III decided to make three of his nephews cardinals including: Rodrigo Borgia and Pedro Luis Borgia (Hibbert, 2011) (Hollingsworth, 2014). This was extremely controversial due to their age, Rodrigo being only 25 - however, were they elected based upon only their relations to Callixtus or did they have clerical merit?