Appendices
Appendix I — About Women
Very little can be said of the women of the Borgian Era; for the simple reason that they as yet had not renounced and abjured the observation of the maxim of Euripides
“Women should stay at home and talk.”
For women, then, to cultivate an intellect was rare. The sacred offices of mother and wife, of comforter and helper, chiefly occupied them. Yet no stupid restrictions were invented to harass and embitter the exceptions to this rule, the freaks, the Sports of Nature, (in modern medical phraseology;) and thus the splenetic self-assertive abnormalities of the twentieth century were avoided. Women, who so willed, were absolutely free; they were admitted to the same intellectual training as men in the universities and colleges140; professorial chairs rewarded talent male or female; and a learned lady was called Virago, in no sarcastic vein but in flattering admiration, the word being used in its scriptural sense. (Vulgate, Gen. ii. 23.)
Of these the most famous were Madonna Vittoria Colonna and Madonna Veronica Gambara. The first was the daughter of Don Fabrizio Colonna, Grand Constable of Naples, (who already has been mentioned as helping the Duchess Lucrezia Borgia’s consort to evade the snare of the Lord Julius P.P. II,) by his wife Madonna Agnesina di Montefeltro, daughter of Duke Federigo of Urbino. She was born in 1490; and married at nineteen in 1509 to Don Ferrando Francisco d’Avalos, who died in 1525. She consecrated the remaining twenty-two years of her life to her husband’s memory and to the duties of religion, residing, for the sake of her reputation, as a parlour-boarder in religious houses at Orvieto, Viterbo, Ischia, and Rome, where she kept a literary salon. Many celebrated men were her frequent visitors, among whom may be mentioned Cardinals Reginald Pole and Giacopo Sadoleto; the poets Marcantonio Flaminio and Pietro Carnesecchi; and Fra Bernardino Ochino the second general of the new religion called Cappuccini, who, after apostatizing to write his Twenty-one Dialogues advocating Polygamy as authorized by the example of the Patriarchs, was in turn expelled by the heresiarchs of Geneva. But by far the greatest of Madonna Vittoria Colonna’s admirers was the sculptor-painter-poet Messer Michelangelo Buonarroti, who respectfully inscribed to her many beautiful sonnets—sonnets which he hewed out of language, as also he hewed statues out of marble, and with the same aloof and rugged majesty. The following is given as a specimen, not only of the style of Messer Michelangelo Buonarroti, but also for the profession of faith contained in the latter half of the sestett—a human document which lends marvellous light to the more secret soul of this true artist and gigantic misanthrope.
| “Per ritornar là donde venne fora | “As one who will reseek her home of light, |
| “L’immortal forma al tuo carcer terreno | “Thy form immortal to this prison-house |
| “Venne com’angel di pietà si pieno | “Descended, like an angel piteous, |
| “Che sana ogn’intelleto, e’l mondo onora. | “To heal all hearts and make the whole world bright. |
| “Questo sol m’arde, e questo m’innamora; | “’Tis this that thralls my soul in love’s delight, |
| “Non pur di fora il tuo volto sereno: | “Not thy clear face of beauty glorious; |
| “Ch’amor non già di cosa che vien meno | “For he who harbours virtue still will choose |
| “Tien ferma speme, in cu’ virtù dimora. | “To love what neither years nor death can blight. |
| “Ne altro avvien di cose altere e nuove | “So fares it ever with things high and rare |
| “In cui si preme la natura; e’l cielo | “Wrought in the sweat of nature; heaven above |
| “E ch’a lor parto largo s’apparecchia. | “Showers on their birth the blessings of her prime: |
| “Ne Dio, suo grazia, mi se mostra altrove, | “Nor hath God deigned to shew Himself elsewhere |
| “Piu che’n alcun leggiadro e mortal velo; | “More clearly than inhuman forms sublime, |
| “E quel sol amo, perche’n quel si specchia. | “Which, since they image Him, alone I love.” |
| Michelangelo Buonarroti. | Translation by John Addington Symonds. |
Madonna Vittoria Colonna herself was a poet, but her literary history is not included in the Borgian Era. It may be mentioned that her descendant and namesake the beautiful Princess Vittoria Colonna married into the patrician House of Sforza-Cesarina, so prominent in these pages, and is the mother of the present Duke Lorenzo.
Madonna Veronica Gambara, the friend and fellow-virago of Madonna Vittoria Colonna was the daughter of Count Gianfrancesco Gambara, and Madonna Alda Pia da Carpi. She was born in 1485, and educated by Messer Pietro Bembo (afterwards Cardinal); married in 1509 to Don Guilberto di Cor Reggio; and widowed nine years later. At her Palazzo Marsili at Bologna, on the occasion of the coronation of Caesar Carlos V in 1530, she received in princely state the scholars of the day, “Bembo, Molza, the witty Francesco Berni, the learned Vida, the stately Trissio, the noble-hearted Marcantonio Flaminio, Paolo Giovio and Francesco Guicciardini.” She lived till 1550, a good mother to her two sons, Ippolito and Girolamo, noble, learned, virtuous, and a poet and woman-of-letters of much distinction.
Appendix II — Creature Unproclaimed, of the Lord Alexander P.P. VI
Query? Whether the Lord Pietro Ciero can be considered a cardinal of His creation?
“Vidi ego, ingint Andreas Victorellus, excriptum diploma fide publica firmatum, datum Romae sub annulo Piscatoris anno 1501 die xvii Aprilis in quo haec verba: Te in cardinalem approbamus, quod tamen sub silentio tenebis, donec tempus idoneum aderit.”
Appendix III — Papal Tribute
The following tribute was used to be paid yearly on the Vigil of St. Peter, xxviii June, in accordance with the rule of the Lord Boniface P.P. IX.
| By the city of | Forrara | Two thousand scudi and a chalice |
| „ „ „ „ | Benevento | „ „ „ „ „ „ |
| „ „ island „ | Sardinia | „ „ „ „ „ „ |
| „ „ city „ | Terracina | A white horse |
| „ „ „ „ | Gallese | A stag |
| „ „ „ „ | Porto | A brace of pheasants |
| „ „ „ „ | Monte Caprello | A dog and a sparrow-hawk |
| „ „ „ „ | Sant’Ippolito | A brace of partridges |
| „ „ College | of Apostolick Scribes | A pyx and one hundred scudi |
| „ „ „ „ | „ Notaries | A silver chalice |
| „ „ Kingdom | of Naples | The “Chinea.” This was a valuable white horse or mule, richly caparisoned, carrying seven thousand ducati d’oro in a splendid coffer. The Prince Colonna, as Grand Constable of Naples, was the official in charge of the “Chinea.” |
Monks and friars belonging to Abbeys which were Papal Peculiars, (—the Abbey of Westminster was a Papal, for five hundred years before it was a Royal, Peculiar,—) instead of paying tribute, pronounced the Holy Name of Jesus, when their names were called at this ceremonial.
Appendix IV — Scholarship in the Borgian Era
One of the most amusing poses of the Borgian Era was the affectation of classical antiquity. This pose was engendered of the revival of learning upon human vanity. Scholars were the favourites of princes and of kings; and they modelled their mental deportment on that plane. The man who called himself Pomponius Laetus (for they Latinized or Hellenized even their names,) was a νόθος of the baronial House of Sanseverini, who revivified certain pagan cults and, with Cardinal Platino and others, solemnly and habitually practised them in secret Catacombs. Really, he was a learned man who owed his learning to his own wits and exertions, and not to the help or influence of his own kin; who, while he was a poor unknown pupil of Messer Lorenzo Valla, refused to acknowledge him. But, when at last he had won fame and was sought by the best society, the Sanseverini, being anxious to have at least the credit of an intellect, made him an overture of friendship, and offered to take him to their arms. His rejoinder is worth preservation as a specimen as well of the effect of megalomania, as of the successful imitation of a classic style. With delicious arrogance he wrote,
“Pomponius Laetus cognatis et propinquis suis salutem.
“Quod petitis fieri non potest.” Valete.
Writers of the Borgian Era curiously translated contemporary terms and titles into their classic phraseological equivalent. The Pope was Pontifex Maximus, and Princeps. The Emperor was Caesar Augustus, and sometimes Princeps. The Cardinals were Senators or Augurs, elders in charge of the lightning (“aliquis senior qui publica fulgura condit.”) Nuns were Vestal Virgins. Excommunication was Dirae. Carnival was the Lupercalia. The Padre Eterno became, by the pen of Bishop Vida of Alba in Piedmont, Superum Pater Nimbipotens and Regnator Olympi. The Santissimo Salvatore was known as Ἥρως; and the Santo Spirito as Ζέφυρος. Madonna was Ἥρα, Ἀφροδίτη, and Ἀθήνη παρθένος upon occasion. The saints were gods, δῖος ἢ δῖα, divus vel diva; St. Christopher was Herakles; St. Sebastian, or St. Michael Archangel, was Φοῖβος Ἀπόλλων; St. Gabriel Archangel was Hermes; St. Raphael Archangel was Asklepios; St. George, St. Maurice, St. Theodore, were Perseus or Theseus according to the taste of the writer. This pose was affected in England as well as in Italy, as may be seen in the following verse from William Caxton’s Boke of Curtesye, A.D. 1477.
“Loke also/ upon Dan John Lydgate
“My maister whylome/ monke at berye
“Worthy to be renomede/ as poete laureate
“I praye to gode in bliss his soul be mercy
“Syngynge Rex Splendens that heuenly kyrye
“Among the Muses Nine celestyalle
“Before the hyest Iubyter of alle.”
The scholarship of the Renascence of learning, however, was not all empty foolishness, not all the merest pose. The extravagances of the Yellow School of the day were inevitable; and, though their unreality soon palls and cloys, they afford ephemeral amusement. But the new learning did much to improve taste; and, in the hand of men of goodwill, was of vast benefit to the purity of letters. The following verses are quoted as additional examples of the style of noted scholars of the Borgian Era.
Angeli Politiani, Monodia in Laurentium Medicem
(Intonata per Arrighum Isae.)
Quis dabit capiti meo
aquam? Quis oculis meis
fontem lacrymarum dabit?
Ut nocte fleam;
ut luce fleam,
sie turtur viduus solet,
sie cygnus moriens solet,
sie luscinia, conqueri.
Neu miser, miser,
O dolor, dolor.
Laurus impetu fulminis,
illa, illa, iacet subito,
laurus omnium celebris
musarum choris,
nympharum choris,
sub cuius patula coma,
et Phœbi lyra blandius,
et vox dulcius insonat.
Nunc muta omnia,
nunc surda omnia.
Quis dabit capiti meo
aquam? Quis oculis meis
fontem lacrymarum dabit?
ut nocte fleam,
ut luce fleam;
sie turtur viduus solet
sie cygnus moriens solet,
sie luscinia, conqueri.
Neu miser, miser,
O dolor, dolor.
Andreae Nangerii (Navagero) Hymnus in Gabrielem Archangelum
Iam caeli reserat fores
aurato e thalamo exiens
Mater Memnonis, et diem
laeto provocat ore.
Nos te maxime Maximi
minister, canimus, Patris:
quo nullus, qui hominum genus
tam praesens iuvet, usquam est.
Tu nostras celer ad preces,
aures protinus an Deum has
defers: nec tenues sinis
evanescere in auras.
Tu dum fers nova nuncia
virgini Ætherio Patri
dilectae, quibus indicas
Magni vota Tonantis;
nobis fers nova nuncia:
queis a faucibus impii
erepti hostis, in aurea
caeli templi vocamur.
Adsis, o bone: et in dies
semper nos propius iuva
nec patrocinio tuo
unquam mitte tueri.
Angeli Politiani, Hymnus in Divam Virginem
O Virgo prudentissima,
quam caelo missus Gabriel,
supremus Regis nuntius,
plenam testatur gratia.
Cuius devota humilitas
gemmis ornata fulgidis
fidentis conscientiae
Amore Deum rapuit.
Te sponsam Factor omnium,
te matrem Dei Filius,
te vocat habitaculum
Suum Beatus Spiritus.
Per te de tetro carcere
antiqui patres exeunt:
per te nobis astriferæ
panduntur aulae limina.
Tu stellis comam cingeris,
tu lunam premis pedibus,
te sole amictam candido
chori stupent angelici.
Tu Stella Maris diceris,
quae nobis inter scopulos
inter obscuros turbines
portum salutis indicas.
Audi Virgo Puerpara,
et Sola Mater Integra,
audi precantes, quaesumus,
tuos Maria servulos.
Repelle mentis tenebras,
disrumpe cordis glaciem,
nos sub tuum praesidium
confugientes protege.
Da nobis in proposito
sancto perseverantiam,
ne noster adversarius
in te sperantes superet:
Sed et cunctis fidelibus,
qui tuum templum visitant,
benigna Mater dexteram
da caelestis auxilii. Amen.
Appendix V — Borgia Documents
The British Museum possesses the following Original Letters by
Alessandro Borgia, Bishop of Nocera, Prince-Archbishop of Fermo viiii Nov. 1717–25
„ „ „ „ „ „ „ „ „ Apr. 1727
Niccolo Borgia, Bishop of Cava, xiii Jan. 1752
„ „ „ „ „ xviii Jul. „
Don Gasparo de Borja y Velasco, Cardinal-Archbishop of Seville and Toledo
„ „ „ „ „ Letter to the Duke of Ossuna 1620
„ „ „ „ „ „ „ „ „ „ „
concerning his embassy in Rome „
„ „ „ „ xx Dec. 1625
Don Juan de Borja, Conde de Ficalho, n.d. Portug. Signed.
Don Carlos de Borja, Cardinal-Patriarch of the Indies. xi Oct. 1711
to viiii Sept. 1724
Stefano Borgia, Cardinal of San Clemente ii June 1801
„ „ „ xvii Jan. 1802
„ „ „ to L. Melini, Rome, xviii Aug. 1770
„ „ „ „ A. da Morona, Padua, xviiii June 1798
„ „ „ „ G. Andrei, Padua, i Sept. 1798
Cesare, detto Borgia. 1. As Cardinal.
To the Catholick King and Queen Don Hernando and Dona Isabella of Spain, on sending a friar with a present, dated 1497, signed C Caral de Valencia.
Very rare.
2. As Duke.
Holograph to Ricardo Cervini, from Cartoceto, dated i Feb. 1500. Eight lines of beautiful precise arrogant and masterly writing, signed Cesar Borgia de Francia dux valentin, with seal.
The Bodleian Library at Oxford has
Indulgences conceeded to the college at Windsor (the chapter of St. George?) by the Lord Alexander P.P. VI. Ashmolean MSS. Gasparo de Borgia, Cardãl, Protestatio in consistorio 1632 nomine Regis Hisp.
Stefano Borgia, Cardãl. Four Latin Letters to C. G. Woide, 1783–7.
Appendix VI — The Borgia as Men of Letters
Alessandro Borgia. Bishop of Nocera. Prince-Archbishop of Fermo.
Bonedicti xiii Romani Pontificis... vita commentario
excerpta etc. Romae. 1741. 4º
Della Cristiana educazione de’ figliuoli. Omelie. Fermo. 1760. 8º
Indulto sopra il Precetto di astenersi dalle opere servili in
alcune Feste. 1752. 4º
Istoria della chiesa e città di Velletri descritta in quattro libri.
Stampatoria Vescovale. Nocera. 1723. 4º
(he also wrote a life of St. Gerald in 1698. Stefano Borgia in De Cruce Veliterna. 222.)
Antonio Borgia. Editor of
Poesie de’ Sig. Alunni e convitori del... Vescovile Seminario... di Frascati, dedicate all’Altezza Reale... del Cardinale Duca d’York, etc.
Romae. 1772. 4º
Alexander Borgia. Teacher of Languages
Case of the Free Italian Church. 1877
Napoleon III. Italy on the eve of Freedom. 1860.
Novena of Meditations on Abuses of the Church of Rome. 1854.
Bartolomeo Borgia.
La sua vita. Milano. 1888. 8º
(He was a shoemaker of Fara Novarese, born 1818, died 1887; was converted to protestantism, and became connected with il Rev. MacDougall and il Dottore Stewart as Colportore della Societa Biblica Scozzese; made himself an evangelical nuisance, collided with the Established Church of the country, wherefore he and his family suffered persecution at the hands of ignorant papists. The book is illustrated by an awful photograph of this Borgia with a bible and a billycock-hat, preaching over a satchel, on a painted background.)
Constantinus Borgia. Son of Don Clemente Borgia, and grandson of Cavaliere Giampaolo Borgia of Velletri: prelate in Rome: died 1878.
De Cathedra Romana Sancti Petri Principis Apostolorum Oratio, etc.
Romae. 1845. 4º
Damiano Borgia.
Free Christian Church in Italy. Rome. 1880
History of the Gospel in Fara Novarese; an episode of reform
in the nineteenth century. Florence. 1879.
Social Ruin, causes and remedies. 1894.
Fabrizio Borgia. Canon of Velletri. Bishop of Ferentino inter Hernicos, and brother of the Prince-Archbishop Alessandro Borgia of Fermo.
An Account of the Translation of St. Gerald. 1714.
Gasparo de Borja, Cardinal.
Ossuniano coniuratio quâ D. P. Gyron Ossunae Dux regnum Neapolitanum... sibi desponderat, etc.: una cum relatione stratagematis quo Illustriss. Card̃lis Borgia... in eam Provinciam sibi aditum... fecerit. 1623. 4º
Girolamo Borgia, detto Seniore. Jurisconsult, Bishop of Massa Labrese, 1544 (Massa Sorrentana?)
Incendium ad Avernum Lacum horribile pridie Kal. Octobr.
MDXXXVIII nocte intempestata exortum. Neapoli. 1538.
Epithalamion. 1606. 12º
Juris Civilis, lib. XX. Bulifon. Naples. 1689 (1678?) fol.
Giuseppe di Lorenzo Borgia.
In morte del Cav. G. di Lorenzo Borgia... avenuta il dì XXX Novembre MDCCCLXXXII. (Parole, etc.)
Noto. 1882. 8º
Niccolo Borgia.
Il concetto della civiltà greca e sua funzione nella storia.
Dissertatione su tema obbligato, etc. Napoli. 1881. 8º
Paulus Borgia.
De Rabie Canina dissertatio inauguralis, etc. Patavii. 1830. 8º
Rosario Borgia.
Poesie in idioma Calabrese. Napoli. 1839. 8º
These innocent little verses valuably preserve the dialect of what was once a Greek colony. The author was a priest of the Oratory of San Filippo Neri; and wrote sonnets
For a seminarist-friend,
To the same on becoming prefect of the seminary-kitchen,
On the Triumph of Christ,
On San Fortunato Martire,
On San Filippo Neri,
On the occasion of the death of his father, Don Francescantonio Borgia, Patrician of Mileto (a city of the commune of Mileto in Calabria, containing 3000 inhabitants,) etc., etc., etc.
Stefano Borgia, Cardinal.
Kalendarium Venetum saec. xj. ex Cod. Membranaceo Bibliotheca S.
Salvatoris Bononiae, a S.B. nunc primum in lucem editum. (Anecdota Literaria etc. II.) 1773. 8º
Fragmentum Copticum ex Actis S. Coluthi... quod nunc primum in lucem profert S.B. (Anec. Lit. IIII.) 1773. 8º
De miraculis Sancti Coluthi et reliquis actorum Sancti Panesnice martyrum... Praeit dissertatio S. Card. B. de cultu S. Coluthi. 1793. 4º
Pii II oratio de bello Tureis inferendo, eruta... et illustrata a S.B. 1774. 8º
Breve istoria del dominio temporale della Sede Apostolica nelle duc Sicilie. S.B. 1788–9. 4º
Difesa del dominio temporale della Sede Apostolica nelle due Sicilie. 1791. 4º
Breve istoria dell’antica città di Tadino nell’Umbria ed esatta relazione della ultime ricerche fatte sulle sue ruine. Romae 1751. 8º
De Cruce Vaticana en dono Justini Augusti in Parasceve maioris hebdomadae publicae venerationi exhiberi solita commentarius; cui accedit ritus salutationis Crucis in Ecclesia Autiochena Syrorum servatus nunc primum Syriaee et Latine editus adnotation ibusque inlustratus auctore S.B. Romae. 1779 fol.
De cruce Veliterna commentarius. Romae. 1780. 4º
Dissertatione filologica sopra un antica gemma intagliata (Caloghiera A. Nuova raccolta d’Opuscoli III.) 1775. 12º
Marmorea monumenta Beatissimo.... Pio VI. Pont. Opt. Mar... a Veliternis... in palatio senatorio dedicata S. Borgia... typis evulgari curavit. Velletri. 1775. 4º
Memorie Istoriche della Pontificia Città di Benevento dal secolo VIII al secolo XVIII, etc. Tom. I. II. III. Roma. 1763–9. 4º
Monumento di Giovanni XVI. illustrato per S.B. Roma. 1750. 8º
Vaticana Confessio Beati Petri Principis Apostolorum, chronologicis tam veterum quam recentiorum scriptorum testimoniis inlustrata. Romae. 1776. 4º
“Improbe facit qui
“in aliquo libro
“ingeniosus est.”
Martiae.
London & Edinburgh
“Cardineo Divus Honore Decoravit Calixtus.”
Obviously the fifteenth century used “Divus” as Tacitus also used it of Julius and Augustus; and as the twentieth century would say “the late ——.”
72.
“Christophori sancti faciem quicunque tuetur
Illa nempe die mala morte non morietur.”
1. Ribadaneira. Life.
2. Cardinal Alvaro Cienfuegos. La heroica vida, etc. del grande San Francisco de Borja. Madrid 1717.
3. Monumenta Historica Societatis Jesu. Madrid 1894–5.
4. Sir James Stephen. Essays in Ecclesiastical Biography.
5. A. M. Clarke. St. Francis Borgia. Lond. 1872 etc. The last was prepared under the auspices of the late Fr. John Morris, S.J.; and is useful in giving the modern English Jesuit point of view.
Used numbers for footnotes, placing them all at the end of the last chapter.
Notes
1. The epithet Most Eminent (Eminentissimo) was granted to cardinals by the Lord Urban P.P. VIII, 1630. Prior to that, they were styled Most Illustrious (Illustrissimo); or, in the case of the Cardinal-Dean and Cardinal-Nephews, Most Honourable and Most Worshipful (Osservantissimo, Colendissimo).
2. They claim descent from the Gens Julia. Their armorials show the Bear (Orsini) chained to the Column (Colonna) with the Imperial Eagle displayed in chief.
3. The kingdoms of Aragon, Naples, the two Sicilies, and Jerusalem.
4. Pater Patrum; the official style of the Roman Pontiff.
5. The process of canonisation of King Ælfred, though initiated by a Majesty of England (himself a saint by acclamation), has not yet been completed by the Court of Rome after four hundred and fifty years.
6. Religion—a gathering together for a pious purpose. It was the fifteenth century equivalent for Order or Society.
7. The Lord Clement P.P. VII (Giulio de Medici), 1523–34, appears on Cellini’s lovely medals in a full beard. Probably, in His case, there was no choice; for, during the Sack of Rome in 1527 by the Lutheran Goths and Catholic Catalans of the Elect-Emperor, Carlos V., His Holiness was holding the Mola of Hadrian, or Castle of Santangelo, and enduring the hard privations of a siege. Afterwards He did not shave; and full beards became the fashion for the clergy. Later, the Lord Alexander P.P. VII (Flavio Chigi), made the Vandyke beard and upturned mustachio the clerical mode; and, later still, the whole face was shaved according to the present rule. But, at the time when the Cardinal of Avignon reflected upon the Cardinal of Trebizond’s beard, there appears to have been a distinct prejudice in favour of a shaven, indeed of a shorn, pope. This may be seen in the medals of popes and cardinals of the fifteenth century (when cleanliness was a mark of gentility), where the large tonsure and shaven faces are very noticeable.
8. In the Acta Consistorialia of the Vatican Secret Archives, this Pope is called Calixtus the Fourth, evidently by the stupidity of some Apostolic Scribe, who happened to know that one John, Abbot of Struma, called himself Calixtus III. (having got himself schismatically and uncanonically elected in the reign of the Lord Alexander P.P. III); and who had not the sense to know that the Holy Roman Church has the habit of ignoring pseudopontiffs and other pretenders.
9. Villanueva (I. 18,181) quotes two Bulls of the Lord Calixtus P.P. III, giving relics to the church at Xativa. On p. 51, Villanueva alludes to him as “Don Alonso de Borja, natural de la Torre de Canals, bautizado en la Iglesia Collegial de Xativa, hoy S. Felipe, electo en 20 de Agosto de 1429 por el Legado de Martin V. Conservo el gobierno de esta Iglesia hasta el año en que murió, sienda yu Papa Calixto III. En 1457 concedió á esta Iglesia un jubileo en el dia de la Asuncion de nuestra Señora, imponiendo para la fabrica la contribucion de diez sueldos.”
10. The pontifical diadem, consisting of a conical cap woven of the plumage of white peacocks and encircled by three crowns of gold. It is sometimes called the Tiara, and must be distinguished from the Mitre.
11. The fiorino d’oro, ducato d’oro, and scudo d’oro were coins worth about half a guinea, which, in the fifteenth century, had a purchasing value of £2 to £2 10s.
12. The first printing-press in Italy did not arrive till October 1465 at Subjaco in the Sabine Hills.
13. The first Pontiff of this name, fifth in succession from the Lord St. Peter P.P., is named in the Canon of the Mass as Xystus [Ξυστός, cf. Xanthus (Ξάνθος)]. The same form Xystus occurs in the Kalendarium, and, in fact, in all officially issued liturgies; and is adopted also in the authorised English version of the Liturgy. The word Sixtus does not appear to be a Latin word at all, and is not in Andrew’s Latin-English Lexicon. It most likely is a debased corruption from Xystus, when Latin liquefied into the Italian Sisto.
14. The business of these Orators (ambassadors) was conducted more by means of florid eloquence than by the writing of despatches; though, of course, the last was not neglected.
15. “... horribilesque ultimosque Britannos.” C. Valerius Catullus XI.
16. Huszar, derived by a roundabout route from Italian cossaro, corsair, freelance (v. Murray).
17. Pragmatic Sanction, term of Byzantine origin, was applied to Imperial Edicts (Τὸ Πραγματικόν) containing decrees issued as Fundamental Laws. The Decrees of the Council of Basilea were embodied in a Pragmatic Sanction by the Diet of Mainz, 1434; but at the Council of Vienna 1448 most of the advantages which it intended to secure for the Church in Germany were abandoned.
18. Sikelian—Greek—Latin.
19. Note his epitaph in the Church of Santa Maria sopra Minerva, recorded by Ciacconi.
20. The Lord Pius P.P. II (Enea Silvio).
21. The saving virtue of a drink of human blood was no new idea. Compare Tertullian Apol. IX. “Item illi qui munere in arena noxiorum iugulatorum sanguinem recentem (de iugulo decurrentem exceptum) avida siti comitiali morbo medentes hauserunt, ubi sunt?”
22. Only one piece of antique silver, a salt-cellar, was possessed by the House of Sforza in the latter years of the last century. All the rest was not recovered from that Don Marino Torlonia, who usurped the Sforza-Cesarini titles and estates from 1832 to 1836, when he was deprived of them by the Ruota, the Supreme Tribunal of the Holy See, in favour of Don Lorenzo Sforza-Cesarini, grandfather of the present duke. The line of the great Francesco Sforza-Visconti, Duke of Milan, to which Cardinal Ascanio Maria belonged, is now extinct. The present House of Sforza-Cesarini descends from Don Bosio Sforza, Count of Santafiora, 1441–1476, brother of the great Francesco, and second son of Don Giovanni Muzio Attendolo, detto Sforza.
23. This paragraph rests entirely upon the gossip and conjectures of Manfredi, Orator of Ferrara at Florence; Stefano Infessura (Ed. Tommasini); Hans Burchard (Ed Thuasne); Bernardino Corio (Storia di Milano).
24. For an English parallel of riotous superlatives, compare the inscription on a picture of Elizabeth in the Hall of the Post-Reformation Jesus College, Oxford.
“Diva Elizabetha Virgo Invictissima Semper Augusta Plus Quam Caesarea Angliæ Franciae et Hiberniae Potentissima Imperatrix Fidei Christianae Fortissima Propugnatrix Literarum Omnium Scientissima Fautrix Immenso Oceani Felicissima Triumphatrix Collegii Jesu Oxon Fundatrix.”
25. Sdegnati di questa collazione contro del Papa, il Re tenne il dì medesimo gran consiglio, dove furono proposte e trattate piu cose contro del Papa in riformatione della chiesa. (Dispatch of 31 Aug. 1493, Canestrini, Négociations avec la Toscane. I. 249.)
26. There is a tale about this personage, that, having allowed himself to be frightened by one of the calumnies of Cardinal Giuliano della Rovere, to the effect that the Pope expected to be paid for the red hat (in addition to the six hundred ducats which every cardinal offers in return for the cardinalitial sapphire ring), he became so nervous on Ash Wednesday, when it was his office to scatter ashes on the head of the Sovereign Pontiff, as to substitute for the formula of administration, “Memento, homo, quia pulvis es, et in pulverem reverteris,” the words “Memento, homo, quia Papa es, et ego pecunias non habeo.”
27. Infessura, in Eccard II. 2015. Alberi, Rel. Ven. Sen. III. 314. Rivista Cristiana II. 261. Ugolini, Storia... d’Urbino II. Doc. 13. Ciacconi, Vitae Pontificum, sub anno. Gregorovius, Geschichts der Stadt VII. 340. Matarazzo, Cron. di Perugia in Archivio Storico xvi. See I. pt. ij. 3.
28. “Aiunt etiam multo vulgo inter illos iactari, regem Roman venturum et statum Romanae Ecclesiae reformaturum. (Letter from Cardinal of Siena to Pope, from Lucca, IIII. Nos. 1494.)
29. Allusion to the five red balls and the lilied bezant in the Medici armorials.
30. A most important inference may be drawn from this, as to the paternity of Cardinal Cesare.
31. The Roman phrase “to go to Santo Spirito” means “to go mad.”
32. “E molto necessaria la provisione de le genti d’ arme contro questi demonii che non fugono per acqua santa.” xvi. ful. 1497.
33. “Commensano nel primo modo offenderse et non dare loco ad mei commandamenti.” xxvii. ful. 1497.
34. “La Sa Va po ben comprendere che tucto lo remedio di questi male in la venuta de la gente d’arme, le quali tardando piu forniscere el paese de Todi da desolare, essendo da la partita miu la cita totalmente derelicta et lassata vacua.” xxx. ful. 1497.
35. “Procedono le cose qui con tanta obedientia et quieta che meglio non si potriano desiderare.” xxx. ful. 1497.
36. “Du becharini homicidi ho facti piglia, et son stati senza tumulto et piacer del populo menati in presione—cosa da bon tempo in qua insolita in questa cita, et questi matina ne è stato appichiato uno.” 11 Aug. 1497.
37. This was quite a common torture. Every patrician had the right to inflict it on his plebeians; and every inventory of palaces begins with “Ropes for the Cord.” In many palaces and castles, iron rings through which the Cord was passed remain to be seen. The witness had his hands tied, hanging loosely behind him. One end of the long Cord was attached to his wrists; the other end was flung over a beam or through a ring and held by the official torturer. Then the witness delicately was drawn up as high as possible. He hung there by his wrists which were strained backward and upward, with his shoulders generally dislocated. Then, with a frightful jerk he was dropped to within a braccia (2 feet 7 inches) of the floor, completing the dislocation with a shock. At this moment, the Question was put; his answer distinguished from his shrieks, and written down. Any stubbornness, or insolence, or reticence, was met by attaching weights to his feet, and subjecting him to fresh elevations and fresh drops, till his arms were torn from the sockets and his sinews strained to the uttermost. Or, as a variant, he was left to hang until his questioner had obtained the information required. Evidence of commoners, without the Question, appears to have been considered by the Fifteenth Century as valueless as evidence unsupported by oath or affidavit and untested by cross-examination at the present day. The nearest modern equivalent to the Torture of the Cord would be the smelling of a greasy testament plus the stratagems of a cross-examining counsel. It was merely a legal form.
38. “Una de las mas principales causas que dava, para que el Cardenal de Valencia dexasse el capelo era, porque siendo a quel Cardenal, mientras en la Iglesia estuviesse, era bastante para impedir que no se hiziesse in reformacion.”—Zurita, 126.
39. But She won a signal and decisive victory there, with the aid of Our Lady of Victory (Νιχή, Poliziano would have said), in 1572.
40. “Mores esse profligatos pietatis studium restinctum, flagitiorum licentiam solutam, sanctissimas pretio indignissimis addici—remque esse in extremum poene discrimen adductam.”—(Osorius De rebus gestis Emanuelis, Op. I. 595.)
41. “Italia tutta aviebbe dimostrato lui non esser vero pontifice.”—(Marino Sanuto in De Leva, 61.) “Que eran notorias las formas que se tuvieron en se eleccion, y quan graves cosas se intentaron, y quan escandalosas.”—Zurita, 159.)
42. Indulgentia = Indulgence, gentleness, complaisance, tenderness, fondness, a remission of punishment or taxation.—(Andrews, Latin-English Lexicon, 1853, p. 789.)
43. De Maricourt.
44. “Il Papa ama ed a gran paura del figliuolo duca.”—Alberi, Relationi III. iii. 10.
45. This title is hopelessly irregular. The Princeps of the Holy Roman Empire only becomes Caesar Romanorum Imperator Semper Augustus mundi totius Dominus universis dominis universis principibus et populis Semper Venerandus by the herald’s proclamation after he has been stripped, anointed, clothed in the consecrated dalmatica, ordained deacon, and crowned with the Iron Crown of Monza and the Gold Diadem of the Empire by the hands of the Supreme Pontiff Himself. The title at present is dormant. If the sovereign is of the Swabian House, precedent demands that he must go to Monza or to Sant’ Ambrogio at Milan for the Iron Crown, and to San Giovanni Laterano at Rome for the Gold Diadem. But Imperial coronations, (the sovereign not being of the Swabian House,) at the Pope’s pleasure have taken place elsewhere. Caesar Friedrich IV was the last Emperor crowned in Rome. Caesar Francis II was the last to wear the imperial crown. He resigned it in 1806, having taken the title of Emperor of Austria in 1804. Before coronation by the Pope the title of “The Elect-Emperor” is used; and that is all which Maximilian can claim.
46. “Non de prefato duca sed de Nobis et dicta muliere soluta.”
47. Gregorovius F., Lucrezia Borgia.
48. The present writer once witnessed the reception, in all amity, by the present Sforza, of the present Pasolini dell’ Onda, who came peaceably to gain information for his book in praise of Madonna Caterina Sforza-Riario. A singular example of the old order changed and giving place to new.
49. “Per dar ad intender a tutti che ’l Signor over Signori hanno appiacer del tradimento, ma non del traditore.” Priuli. xxvi. July 1502.
50. Costabili to Duke of Ferrara. Rome, xi. Aug. 1502.
51. “Aveva il duca gittate assai buoni fondamenti alla potenza sua, avendo tutta la Romagna con il ducato d’ Urbino, e guadagnatosi tutti quei populi, per avere incomminciato a gustare il ben essere loro.” (Machiavelli. Il Principe. Op. i. 35.)
52. “Se ne ha contentare costui, e non il Papa, e per questo le cose che si concludessino del Papa possono bene essere ritrattate da costui, ma quelle che si concludessino da costui non saranno gia ritrattate dal Papa.” (Dispatch from Cesena xiv. Dec. 1502.)
53. Arcuballistarius = cross-bow-man.
54. Arcuballista = cross-bow.
55. “Alcuni lo volevano far Re d’ Italia, e coronarlo, altri lo volevano fa Imperatore, perche ’l prosperava talmente, che non era alcuno li bastasse l’animo d’impedirlo in cosa alcuna.” (xi Jan. 1503.)
56. “Se nella morte di Alessandro fusse stato sano, ogni cosa gli era facile.” (Machiavelli, Principe, Op. I. 39.)
57. Fitzgerald’s Rubaiyat of Omar Khaiyam, xvi.
58. Pastor, L. History of the Popes, edited by Fr. Frederick Antrobus of the Oratory.
59. A comical side-light on this naïve age is given in the Annales Bononiensis, (Muratori xxiii. 890) on the occasion of an outbreak of plague. Penitence, fasting, and flagellation were resorted to. Butchers closed their shops for eight days. And, that sorrow for sin was not confined to respectable people may be gathered from the fact that “meretrices ad concubita nullum admittebant. Ex eis quàdam quae cupiditate lucri adolescentem admiserat, depreheusâ, aliae meretrices ita illius nates nudas corrigiis percusserunt ut sanguinem emitteres.”
60. Here is a specimen of Mgr. Burchard’s or his copyist’s gross inaccuracy. He officially was responsible for the conduct of this function. He intimately should have known, and directed, every movement and every gesture of every assistant. And he names, among the cardinals-assistant, the Lord Giovanni Borgia (detto Seniore) Archbishop of Monreale, Cardinal-Presbyter of Santa Susanna, who had been dead just eighteen days.
61. i.e. in the usual manner, with all the ceremonies required for the obsequies of the pontifical cadaver: not surreptitiously or with maimed rites as some have said.
62. A dead Pope lies in state in the Chapel of the Trinity in St. Peter’s, surrounded by unbleached wax tapers, and with the feet protruded through the screen for the osculations of the faithful.
63. Enea Silvio Bartolomeo de’ Piccolhuomini, 1458–1464.
64. Qy. A concoction of cantharides? Or was it merely a name, like κανθαρίτης οὶνός? (Plin. 14. 7. 9.)
65. M. de Voltaire speaks of Duke Cesare (detto Borgia) as “the son.”
66. Ducato d’oro = half a guinea with four times its purchasing power. A million of gold ducats would equal £2,000,000 sterling.
67. M. de Voltaire speaks of Duke Cesare (detto Borgia) as the Pope’s son; and of the Pope as Duke Cesare’s Father.
68. The Venerable Servant of God, King Ælfred the Great of England, has not yet been styled “The Blessed.” Sir Thomas More, Lord Chancellor of England under Henry VIII Tudor, only was admitted to the rank of “The Blessed” in 1886, by the Lord Leo P.P. XIII. He now publicly may be invoked by name, and his portraits decorated by a halo.
69. The Clerk of the Hanaper is the domestic in charge of the great gallon goblet called the hanaper.
70. “Mercurii xx Nov. fuit data sententia in Rota, contra Sebastianum Pinzonum, scriptorum apostolicum, absentem ob contumaciam, privationis omnium beneficiorum et officiorum” (interesting to notice that, in the reign of the Lord Julius P.P. II, the eternal enemy of Borgia, a convict on the capital charge was merely ruined, and not sentenced to death;) “pro quod eo dominum cardinalem Mutinensem patronum suum veneno interemisset, qui eum de stercore eximerat.”
71. “Fuit facta proba, in tribus animalibus porcinis, de aliquibus venenis, repertis in cancelleria, missis perantea a Vincencia, qua reperta sunt non esse bona.” (Secrets de l’État de Venise, Petersburg, 1884, p. 6.)
73. in Pentade Quaest. latrophilologicarum, p. 122. Ed. Geneva 1647, quoting Juan de Vigo, Lib. II, Chirug. Tract. II, 5.
74. Mgr. Paris de Grassis On Mgr. Hans Burchard is fine indeed!
75. Lamansky. Secrets de l’Etat de Venise. Petersburg. 1884.
76. Cf. Maricourt.
77. Decii Junii Juvenalis, Satura xiii.
78. Have these Bulls been rescinded? If not, it is possible that they form the ground of the dull and bitter and radical animosity of Spain and Portugal to Anglo-Saxondom of the present day. In the light of these Bulls, England and America are usurpers and excommunicate!
79. Ep. II to Cor. ii. 7.
80. Ep. to Eph. i. 21.
81. Ep. to St. Titus ii. 15.
82. Réné, Comte de Maricourt, who quotes M. L’Abbé Morel in L’Univers.
83. When it becomes a question of blaming a priest or a Pope, the principle of proportion demands that the lesser should bear. Two modern Roman Catholics have presumed with “unctuous rectitude” to scold the Holiness of the Pope as follows:
“From a Catholic point of view, it is impossible to blame Alexander too severely.”—(History of the Popes. Pastor + Antrobus. VI. 139.)
This inhuman pronouncement is saved by the “a.” Comment is needless: but there is another “Catholic point of view.”
84. Enea Silvio Bartolomeo de’ Piccolhuomini.
85. Secret Archives of the duchies of Ossuna and Infantado.
86. Symonds, J. A. Renascence, II. 493–5.
87. One bandito, under sentence, or ban, of exile.
88. Observe the chivalrous gentleness of the Borgian Era in regard to women, compared with the bald mercilessness of modern parochial and civil Registers. In these deeds of legitimation, the woman is never named, and not always the man. The weaker party is never punished by eternal gibbeting, by eternal record of her shame by name. She is always permitted to hide under the veil of coniugata, or soluta, “a married woman” or “a spinster.” Still, the Twentieth Century is humane to the wolf’s brother and the hyæna’s cousin; and nourishes a Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals: and perhaps that balances the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries’ humanity and chivalry to sex.
89. Theuli. Bonaventura Abp. Teatro Istorico di Velletri, II. 5.
90. Vit. Synop. Stef. Borgiae S.R.E. Card. Ampliss. (Peter Paul of St. Bartholomew, discalced Carmelite. Rome, 1805, I. 2.)
91. It appears to be a little inconsistent of a Pope, Who wished Messer Rafaele Sanzio to paint Him with a Sword and not a book in His hand, to object to a Cardinal in a Breast-plate: for the sword is the weapon of offence; but the Breast-plate, of defence merely. But many terms in this Bull are simply “corroborative detail calculated to lend an air of verisimilitude to an otherwise bald and unconvincing narrative”—simply words, “full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.”
92. The Twentieth Century may be shocked to notice that, in the Sixteenth, England ranked as the fifth Power in Europe, after Portugal.
93. See Menghini. (C. Canon) Opinion... upon the Question whether... John Carmont D.D. incurred the Major Excommunication, etc. J. Anderson and Son. Courier and Herald Offices, Dumfries. 1886: and leading article in Scotsman, May 11th, 1886.
94. (Verg. Aen. XII. 419.)
95. These two charming personages used a most beautiful handwriting, neat, clear, well-mannered, decisive; as may be seen in the private Brief of the Lord Leo P.P. X, placet et ita motu proprio mandamus; and in the letter of Cardinal Giulio de’ Medici, dated April 1516; which are preserved in the British Museum 23.721.
96. Whistler counts his myopia as his chief talent.
97. Belriguardo. xi Jul. 1516.
98. Oratrice (oratrix) is a rare word = but perfectly classical; and its use shews that the Renascence of Learning had done something to improve ecclesiastical Latin, and, by consequence, Italian also.
99. Authorities for this sketch of Saint Francisco de Borja, General of Jesuits, and sometime Duke of Gandia, etc.
100. Sir James Stephen. Essays in Ecclesiastical Biography, i. 29.
101. A second bastard of Archbishop Don Alonso de Aragona, also called Doña Juana, married Don Felipe of Austria, and became the mother of the Emperor Carlos.
102. Anciently Salduba, colonized by Caius Julius Caesar Octavianus Augustus B.C. 27, who called it Caesaraugasta; afterwards corrupted into Saragossa.
103. A plain gold band, studded with uncut gems, round whose inner rim runs one of the Nails that nailed our Divine Redeemer to the Cross of Calvary hammered into a flat band to press the brows of him who wears the Iron Crown. It may be seen enshrined in the Treasury of the Cathedral at Monza.
104. In Catholic countries one is bound to use the clergy of one’s own parish.
105. Milk and meat were forbidden during Lent, and on every Saturday throughout the year.
106. e.g., one might marry in Lent or Advent.
107. To enable the Borgia ladies sometimes to see their relations in the Monastery of Poor Clares, whose Rule is one of the strictest.
108. The Bull Regimini was not finally sealed till xxvii Sept. 1540.
109. La heroica vida, etc., del grande San Francisco de Borja, by Cardinal Alvaro Cienfuegos. Madrid, 1717, III. i. 115.
110. La heroica vida, etc., del grande San Francisco de Borja, by Cardinal Alvaro Cienfuegos. Madrid, 1717, III. i. 115.
111. This Pontiff once was asked to give an opinion as to who had been the greatest Popes. He answered, St. Peter, St. Sylvester, Alexander VI and Ourself.
112. “Card Zappata ajebat frustra Card. Gasparem Borgia mores componere et a natura recedere, ut Pontificatum assequatur. Quandoquidem a multis annis Spiritus Sanctus non spiret in Hispania, Cubebat nihilominus fidem adhibere inani, et fatuae predictioni bovem tertio murgiturum. Quod assentatores interpretabantur ut post Calixtum III et Alexandrum VI, ipse tertius Pontifex renuntiantur, et famiglia Borgia, bovem in scuto ferens.” (Arnidenio, in Vite m. s.s. de’ Cardinali)
113. It would be very interesting to know how and when this title passed from the line of Prince Gioffredo Borgia into the line of his elder brother Don Juan Francisco de Borja the murdered Duke of Gandia; for Prince Gioffredo, married at fourteen, certainly originated a notable branch of Borgia, which, in the Seventeenth Century intermarried with the Orsini Duke of Gravina. It is most unusual for a title to turn back, as it were, and vest itself in another branch. And what has become of the principalities of Teano and Tricarico, and the counties of Chiaramonte, Lauria, and Cerignola which were held by the murdered Duke of Gandia, his son Don Juan II, and the son of the last St. Francisco de Borja?
114. All from El Blason de España, by Don Augusto de Burgos, III. i. 85–95.
115. Theuli. Teatro Istorico di Velletri. Velletri, 1644. III. 304.
116. Theuli, III. 335.
117. Ricchi, 251.
118. Theuli, III. 312–3.
119. While it indubitably is Christian, this epitaph shews that the modern sophistication, which has destroyed belief in the world to come, already had made its appearance in Italy. Death here is no longer regarded with the calm dignity perceivable in earlier epitaphs, (that of his lineal ancestor Don Pietrogorio Borgia, for example, on p. 434), but as a Horror and an End.
120. The Order of Malta, or of St. John of Jerusalem, was founded by Don Gerardo di Martiquez di Provenza, warden of the Hospital of St. John Baptist for Pilgrims, in 1098. The Hospitallers were dedicated to the service of the poor; and wore a black habit, with an eight-pointed Maltese Cross, in white, on the breast. They took vows of poverty, chastity and obedience. The Regular Foundation was delayed till 1104 when Baldwin I was king in Jerusalem. The Rule was that of St. Aurelius Augustine; and the Order was finally confirmed by the Bull of the Lord Paschal P.P. II in 1113. Its Constitution admitted of Knights of Honour and Brothers of Devotion; the former swore to defend the Faith against all enemies, the latter to minister to pilgrims and afflicted. There were two badges, a cross of six points in gold enamelled white, and a crowned cross of eight points of the same, worn on a black riband. The Order had a Priory in London before the Reformation—St. John of Jerusalem in Clerkenwell—whose original gate and crypt may yet be seen. The present soi-disant Order which occupies this Priory has yet to shew authority for its existence.
121. P. E. Cav. Visconti in Tipaldo.
122. The Sforza-Cesarini, who in the Fifteenth Century intermarried with the Borgia, enjoy the Duchy of Segni at the present day.
123. Coronelli, Bibl. Univ. II. 870.
124. By his last will and testament, Cardinal King Henry IX bequeathed his rights in the English Crown to the descendants of Anna Maria d’Orleans, (daughter of Henrietta Stewart, and niece of King Charles I,) who married Duke Vittoramadeo of Savoja; from whom descends—not the Bavarian Princess of the Order of the White Rose, but—King Vittoremanuele III of Italy.
125. A ring belonging to Cardinal King Henry IX, containing miniatures of his father and mother, King James III and Queen Clementina, has found its way into the Fortnum Collection at the Oxford University Galleries.
126. “Benefices in Spain,” the possession of which is alleged as a crime in the Lord Alexander P.P. VI, appear to be common enough.
127. Miss Clementina Walkinshaw, Countess Alberstorf, the mistress of King Charles III.
128. The word magnanimitá had undergone a change of meaning since the Sixteenth Century, when Messor Niccolo Machiavelli sneered that the Baglioni of Perugia shewed no magnanimitá, because they did not garrote the Lord Julius P.P. II, their guest.
129. Could any hint be more obscurely obvious, more insinuatory of compliment? Cardinal Borgia’s little trick of leaving the initiative(!) to John Bull is a master-stroke of Latin diplomacy, whose strength is, now, and ever, in the pulling of wires.
130. From the Annual Register, 1837, p. 147. “xvii Sept. 1837. At the private chapel of the rt. rev. the bishop Griffiths, (Vicar-Apostolic of the London District) Caroline Shirley, only daughter of Robert Sewallis Shirley, Viscount Tamworth, to Don Lorenzo Sforza, Duca Sforza, only son of the late Don Francisco Sforza, Duca Sforza, of Rome.”
(There is a slight inaccuracy in this notice. Duke Lorenzo should be described as only surviving son of Don Francisco, not as only son; for Don Francisco’s elder son, Don Salvatore, died xix May 1832; and Don Francisco’s daughter Donna Anna, wife to Don Marino Torlonia, egregiously failed, before the Tribunal of the Ruota, to dispossess her younger brother the aforesaid Don Lorenzo, the legitimate son, born on the night between xvii and xviii of March 1807, to the aforesaid Don Francisco Sforza-Cesarini, by his wife the Duchess Geltruda de’ Conti. This hideous law-suit was the excitement of all Rome at the time.)
131. “Io qui mi trovo racchiuso in conclave per l’elezione del nuovo pontifice con trenta quatro Cardli, i quali avendo saputa la generositá Inglese verso dell’ Illustro loro Collega.”
132. It is too early yet to speak about the twentieth.
133. It was Mr. Oakley, heir of Sir Charles Oakley Bart., who was entrusted with this confidential and very delicate mission.
134. It should be said that loyalty to the Stewarts, as it has been here entreated of, implies no shadow of disloyalty to the present Royal House of England. The law of Prescriptive Right by itself would be sufficient to require the most dutiful allegiance on the part of all the subjects of Her Most Sacred Majesty the late Queen-Empress. But it may be said further, that, as far as Roman Catholics are concerned, the most ingeniously scrupulous conscience can have no possible doubt about its obligation, since the Lord Leo P.P. XIII accorded that formal Recognition of the late Queen’s Majesty as Queen, by the presence of an Apostolic Ablegate at the Jubilee of 1887. In the course of this book the immense importance which sovereigns of the Borgian Era attached to this Recognition has been shewn. They were ready to fight for it, knowing that without it they could not hope to stand. In the present instance it was not even asked for; and its spontaneous granting by the Roman Pontiff should emphasize the fact that, what formerly might have been a matter for discussion, is now an imperative religious duty, namely, undeviating loyalty to the Royal and Imperial Dynasty of Queen Victoria.
135. Ἀλκμήνη. It is curious to note the survival of Greek names in the ancient families of Etruria.
136. The Legion of Honour is a French Order founded during the Consulate of Napoleon Buonaparte, 20 Fiorile, An. x: ratified by the Christian King Louis XVIII on VI July, 1814. It is governed by a Grand Master who is the Emperor, King, or President of France according to the fashion. It contains five classes. The Knights and Officers wear silver crosses. The Commanders, Grand Officers and Grand Crosses wear the decoration in gold. The motto is Honneur et Patrie. (Tettoni e Saladini. Teatro Araldico.)
137. The Order of the Two Sicilies were founded by Joseph Buonaparte, XXIV Feb. 1808, to recompense loyalty, courage, and long service. (Tettoni e Saladini. Teatro Araldico.)
138. The Order of St. Gregory the Great was founded by the Lord Gregory P.P. XVI for Merit, Civil and Military, 1 Sept. 1831. There are four classes, viz. First, and Second Grand Cross, Commanders, and Knights. The obverse of the octagonal silver medal bears an eight-pointed cross in red enamel, with a shield in pretence shewing an effigy of the Lord St. Gregory P.P. I the Great (the Pope who sent St. Augustine to convert the English, A.D. 596.) The reverse bears the legend, Pro Deo et Principe Gregorius XVI. P.M. anno I. (Tettoni e Saladini. Teatro Araldico.)
139. On the second of April 1814, M. le Comte d’Artois permitted the National Guard of Paris to wear a silver Fleurdelys suspended from a white watered riband, in recognition of service. On the twenty-sixth of April, a Star was substituted for the Fleurdelys, and a blue border added to the white riband. The Decoration was called the Order of the Lily of France, and all decorés made to swear an oath of fidelity to God, and of obedience to the King, (Tettoni e Saladini. Teatro Araldico.)
140. Burckhardt, Cultur de Renaissance, see 5 ed. 2, p. 312. Gregorovius, Lucrezia Borgia, II 4. Janitschek, Gesellschaft der Renaissance, III.