I. Background.

During the thirteen year reign of Sixtus IV, the College of Cardinals underwent the most remarkable change of the fifteenth century with the exception of the creations of Eugenius IV in 1439. Consequently, it is of the utmost importance to examine in great detail the alterations in personnel which took place during the reign if we are to undertake an examination of the College which elected Alexander VI in 1492, for that College was, in virtually every respect, the College as Sixtus IV chose to mold it.

Since both Pius II and Paul II had created more Italian than non-Italian cardinals than had their predecessors, transalpine influence in the College was substantially reduced. The transformation of the College from a body of churchmen working together for the betterment of the condition of the Church into a group of European royal ministers under Eugenius IV seriously weakened the estimation in which the College was held in Europe. Sixtus IV further damaged it by adding to the College the faculty of being a senate of Italian princes solely devoted to the political interests of their families and city-states, and the families and city-states of their allies. The precedent for such a transformation can be found in the creation of Giovanni Castiglione at the behest of Francesco Sforza, duke of Milan, by Calixtus III, and even more by the elevation of Francesco Gonzaga by Pius II. Subsequently every Italian prince with pretensions to anything more than local power sought to have some member of his family or some devoted retainer in the Apostolic Senate. Sixtus IV and Innocent VIII, in particular, yielded all too frequently to importunities in this regard. For a half-century, from the reign of Sixtus IV to that of Paul III, the membership in the College came from three distinct and identifiable sectors of European society. First, the members of the families of the popes themselves; second, the statesmen and diplomats of the European monarchs; and third, the representatives of the Italian nobility. Such a composition left very little room for pious churchmen, skilled theologians, or proficient canonists.

Sixtus IV was more independent and forthright in his relations with the College of Cardinals than either Pius II or Paul II had been. While both the latter popes had difficulty creating new cardinals during the early months of their reigns, and sought plausible excuses to advance to the College in support of their desire, such as the recent deaths of many members of the College or the need to placate various monarchs, Sixtus eschewed all diplomacy and subterfuge in these matters. In the first two years of the Sistine age, only one cardinal died, Joannes Bessarion on November 18, 1472, (1) yet during that time Sixtus elevated no fewer than ten cardinals. The first of these was Pietro Riario, son of the pope's sister, Bianca; (2) then came Giuliano della Rovere, son of the pope's brother, Raffaele. (3) Both were elevated on December 16, 1471. Like Calixtus III, Sixtus IV hastened to add members of his family to the College and, like his predecessor, he created them secretly; but while Calixtus had to wait seven months for an appropriate time to reveal what he had done Sixtus published the names of his cardinal-nephews after only six days. (4)

Early in May, 1473, Sixtus created eight more cardinals, almost all of whom received the red hat at the wish of a crowned or coroneted head. The desires of Rene d'Anjou, titular king of Naples, were acceded to in the nomination of Philippe de Levis de Caylus. (5) Auxias Despuig, a counsellor of Juan II of Argon, became a cardinal not only to honor his king but also as a favor to Rodrigo de Lançol y Borgia, his cousin. (6) The nomination of an Aragonese could not fail to be accompanied by the naming of a Castillian, if some balance were to be maintained in the Church's relations with the Iberian monarchs and, consequently, Pedro Gonsalvez de Mendoza was elevated on the recommendation of Henrique IV of Leon and Castille, whose chancellor the new cardinal was. (7) Giovanni Arcimboldi, once the Milanese ambassador in Rome, received the red hat in response to requests from Galeazzo Maria Sforza, duke of Milan. (8) The Burgundian diplomat, Philibert Hugonet, was elevated on the demand of Charles the Bold. Two members of the papal bureaucracy, the datarius, Giovanni Battista Cibo, and the man who had served the College as governor of Rome during the last conclave, Stefano Nardini, were also elevated, as was the papal diplomat Antonio Giacomo Venier. (9) All those created in this consistory had their names published at once, with the exception of Hugonet, whose name was withheld for three days, for unknown reasons. (10) For the next three and a half years, Sixtus created no new cardinals. In that time, eight cardinals died, six of those created by his predecessors and two of his own, including the cardinal-nephew, Pietro Riario, who died January 5, 1474. The others were Jean Jouffroy, who died before December 7 (possibly November 24), 1473; Niccolo Forteguerri, December 21, 1473; Alain de Coëtivy, May 3, 1474; Philippe de Levis de Caylus, November 11, 1475; Bartolommeo Roverella, May 3, 1476; Amico Agnifilo, November 9, 1476; and Filippo Calandrini, who died July 18, 1476. (11) Of these eight, five were Italian, but when Sixtus held his next cardinalitial consistory, at Christmastide, 1476, only one of the five new cardinals came from Italy. At this moment, it seemed that the non-Italian statesmen cardinals were about to regain some of the predominance they had lost during the pontificates of Pius II and Paul II. One of the cardinals created at this time was Pedro Ferriz, who had already been created secretly by Paul II but whose nomination had lapsed when that pope had died without having formally published his name. (12) Giorgio da Costa, first minister of Portugal, was created to satisfy the desire of Afonso V. (13) Louis XI was responsible for procuring the red hat for Charles de Bourbon, as a reward for aiding the king in the negotiation of the treaty of Picquigny. (14) Pierre de Foix le Jeune was elevated because he was the great-nephew of the older cardinal of the same name, who had held the full respect of the French, indeed the Catholic, Church during fifty years of the cardinalate, and because the younger prelate was a nephew of Louis XI as well as the friend of the king of Naples. (15) The only Italian created, Giovanni Battista Mellini, bishop of Urbino, was elevated to honor the duke of Urbino, Federico II da Montefeltro. (16) All those created at this time were published two days afterwards, on December 20, 1476.

Sixtus's packing of the College was far from over. As early as March 24 of the following year, the pope began discussions with the cardinals concerning the elevation of still others to the purple. (17) So many objections were raised against the proposal that negotiations were protracted throughout the summer and autumn. The strong-minded Sixtus eventually wore down the opposition and on December 10, 1477, he created seven more cardinals, even though during the year only one cardinal had died-Latino Orsini, on August 11. (18) The cardinals in Rome eventually accepted all the names that the pontiff had proposed, with the exception of Ascanio Maria Sforza-Visconti. Moreover, three of those elevated at this time, Cristoforo della Rovere, Girolamo Basso della Rovere, and Raffaele Sansoni Riario, were relatives of the pope, a greater number of cardinal-nephews elevated at one time than had ever occurred before in the history of the Church. (19) Pietro Foscari, one of the secret creations of Paul II, was renominated at this time. (20) The Emperor Frederick III was honored in the elevation of his counsellor and ambassador to France, Georg Hesler von Wurzburg, (21) and Matthias Corvinus, king of Hungary, saw one of his state counsellors, Gabriele Rangoni di Modena, also made a cardinal. (22) The gift of the cardinalate to Giovanni d'Aragona, an illegitimate son of Ferrante, king of Naples, was made as part of Sixtus's ongoing program of concessions to the Neapolitan monarch in order to maintain peace on the southern flank of the States of the Church. (23) This last creation was, however, the first occasion on a man who was known to be of illegitimate birth was elevated to the College, and his promotion served to further tarnish the public image of the cardinalate.

As had become usual with the cardinalitial creations of Sixtus, a brief span of time was allowed to pass between the formal creation and the publication of the cardinals, in this case two days. The creation of so many cardinal-nephews at one time was not the principal shock the College had to withstand at this creation, for Raffaele Riario was born May 3, 1461, and was made cardinal December 10, 1477, at the age of sixteen years, two hundred twenty-one days. He was the first of those exceptionally young cardinals created by the popes during the closing years of the fifteenth century. Indeed, every other cardinal raised at this time was old enough to have been Riario's father. While cardinals had been created in their twenties on several occasions, Raffaele was the first teenager to be elevated. (24)

On February 1 of the following year, Cristoforo della Rovere suddenly died. On the day after his funeral, February 10, Sixtus, without prior consultation with the College, filled Cristoforo's place his brother, Domenico della Rovere. (25) During the course of 1478, three other cardinals died-Angelo Capranica, on July 3; Giovanni Battista Mellini, on July 24; and Pedro Ferriz, on September 25; and another three passed away during 1479-Berardo Eruli, on April 2; Antonio Giacomo Venier, on August 3; and Giacomo Ammanati-Piccolomini, on September 10. (26) While the deaths of these prelates did not begin to lower the membership in the College to anything like the number it was at Sixtus's election, it did greatly reduce the Italian strength in the Church's senate. Of the thirty living members of the College at the close of 1479 only sixteen were Italian, excluding Rangoni who represented Hungarian interests. Moreover, by now none of the sovereign princely families of Rome, central, or northern Italy were represented, except Gonzaga of Mantua. In order to remedy this situation, Sixtus proceeded to yet another creation of cardinals on May 15, 1480. At that time the last of Paul II's still living secret creations, Ferry de Clugny, chancellor of the Order of the Golden Fleece, was renominated. (27) All the remaining cardinals elevated were Italian. Giovanni Battista Savelli came of the Roman princely family which had given the Church Honorius III and Honorius IV. (28) At the same time the traditional places in the College reserved for representatives of the Colonna and the Orsini were filled. Giovanni Colonna was the son of Antonio, Prince of Salerno, and the nephew of the late cardinal Prospero Colonna. (29) Cosimo Migliorati Orsini was the great-nephew of Latino Orsini and was, on his mother's side, a relative of Innocent VII. (30) The Roman baronage was willing to forgive much of the nepotic activity of Sixtus on the occasion of the raising of members of their three most notable families to the College. The remaining cardinal created at this time was Paolo Fregoso, archbishop of Genoa. The brother of a doge, Paolo had filled that high office himself twice before, in the 1460's, and would occupy the dogal chair once again.

The twenty-eight cardinals created by Sixtus IV in the first nine years of his reign demonstrate that this pope was far more ambitious in this regard than any of his predecessors since Innocent III (1198-1216), saving only Urban VI. The total of thirty-four cardinals elevated by Sixtus in his entire reign is likewise greater than the number elevated by any other pope since Innocent III, again with the exception of Urban VI, who had to replace the entire College with men of his own choosing. (31)

The multiplicity of cardinals named by Sixtus through 1480 was so great that after the elevation of the Roman barons it might have been thought that no more would be created for some time to come, if indeed, for the remainder of the reign, but such was not to be the case. In 1481, only one cardinal died, Cosimo Migliorati Orsini, on November 21; and in the following year another, Georg Hesler von Wurzburg on September 21; but in 1483 no fewer than five were carried away, two of whom were Sistine creations-Guillaume d'Estouteville, on January 22; Jean Rolin, on June 22; Auxias Despuig, on September 2; Ferry de Clugny, on October 7; and Francesco Gonzaga, on October 21. (32) The loss of these seven, particularly Orsini after so short a cardinalate, gave Sixtus the opportunity to create still more cardinals, this time without too much opposition from a College now packed with his nominations. In November, 1483, Sixtus created Giovanni Conti di Valmontone, a member of the family of Innocent III, Gregory IX, and Alexander IV. (33) At the same time the purple was bestowed on Giovanni Battista Orsini, son of Lorenzo, lord of Monte Rotondo, and nephew of Cardinal Latino Orsini. (34) Of course, Giovanni Battista Orsini received the red hat so that his family might be represented in the College, now that Cosimo Migliorati Orsini was dead. These appointments meant that each of the four greatest Roman noble families, whose roots extended back into the early middle ages, were represented in the College of Cardinals. In addition to these nobles, Sixtus elevated two more crown cardinals on this occasion; Juan Moles de Margarit, chancellor of Aragon, and Elie de Bourdeille, who had survived the disgrace of his first patron, Cardinal Jean Balue, to become confessor to Louis XI and a councillor of France. (35) The last cardinal raised in this consistory was Giangiacomo Sclafenati, bishop of Parma, and secretary to the College. (36)

For all of the last years of the reign of Sixtus, Ludovico il Moro, regent of Milan, had been agitating for the elevation of his brother, Ascanio Maria Sforza-Visconti. Sixtus had proposed his name during the negotiations with the College in 1477 but the cardinals had rejected him roundly at the time. But the persistance of the Sforzeschi was rewarded when, on March 6, 1484, Sixtus again placed his name before the College, and eleven days later he was created a cardinal. (37) In the first seven months of 1484, death claimed two members of the College-Teodoro de Monferrato on January 21, and Elie de Bourdeille on July 5 (38) -and on August 12 claimed Sixtus himself.

II. Conclave and Election.

At the death of Sixtus, there were thirty-two living cardinals, a greater number than at any time since the close of the twelfth century, saving only for the divided College of the Great Schism. Of the thirty-two, only three cardinals survived from pontificates before Paul II, the Borgian cardinal-nephews of Calixtus III, Rodrigo and Luis; and the cardinal-nephew of Pius II, Francesco di Nanni Todeschini de' Piccolomini. Six cardinals survived from the creations of Paul II: Thomas Bourchier, Oliviero Caraffa, Marco Barbo, Jean Balue, Giovanni Battista Zeno, and Giovanni Michiel. All the remaining twenty-three were made cardinals by Sixtus IV: Giuliano della Rovere, Stefano Nardini, Pedro Gonsalvez de Mendoza, Giovanni Battista Cibo, Giovanni Arcimboldi, Philibert Hugonet, Giorgio da Costa, Charles de Bourbon l'Ancien, Pierre de Foix le Jeune, Girolamo Basso della Rovere, Gabriele Rangoni, Pietro Foscari, Giovanni d'Aragona, Raffaele Sansoni Riario, Domenico della Rovere, Paolo Fregoso, Giovanni Battista Savelli, Giovanni Colonna, Giovanni Conti, Juan Moles de Margarit, Giangiacomo Sclafenati, Giovanni Battista Orsini, and Ascanio Maria Sforza-Visconti. Only ten of the thirty-two were non-Italian: four French: de Bourbon, de Foix, Hugonet, and Balue; four Spanish: the Borgia cousins, Moles de Margarit, and Mendoza; da Costa from Portugal, and Bourchier from England.

The great number of cardinals promoted by Sixtus seemed to indicate that the popemaker in the coming conclave would be that pontiff's chief surviving cardinal-nephew, Giuliano della Rovere, for the cardinals created in any pontificate traditionally looked to the manager of papal affairs in the reign just ended to provide leadership to their number in the conclave. This expectation was most unexpectedly fulfilled in 1484. Seven of the cardinals were wholly absent from the electoral activities, leaving twenty-five men whose task it was to provide leadership for the Church. The absentees were Luis Juan del Mila y Borja, in retirement in Spain; Gonsalvez de Mendoza, the first-minister of Ferdinand and Isabella; Pierre de Foix and Charles de Bourbon, in France; Paolo Fregoso, serving a term as doge of Genoa; Thomas Bourchier, in England; and Jean Balue, also in France as legate to the young Charles VIII. Thus twenty-one of the twenty-five cardinal-electors were Italian-only Rodrigo de Lançol y Borgia, Juan Moles de Margarit, Giorgio da Costa, and Philbert Hugonet were not.

The politics of the conclave was overshadowed by the difficulties of Italian peninsular politics to the exclusion of all other factors. The adherence of Sixtus IV to the Peace of Bagnolo and the consequent isolation of Venice was thought to be an important policy by most of the non-Venetian Italian cardinals. It was to be a policy to be maintained at almost any cost.

The city of Rome had more civil disturbances during this vacancy than it had during any other conclave of the century, exacerbated by the ongoing feud between the Colonna and the Orsini, and by a strong popular rejection of the family of Sixtus. In fact, the conclave only met with any degree of security at all thanks to the exertions of Marco Barbo, who succeeded in bringing about a truce among the Roman baronage and in obtaining the withdrawal from Rome of Girolamo Riario in return for a payment of 8,000 ducats. (39)

When the conclave began on August 25, the first task of the cardinals was to prepare, and subscribe to, the election capitulation. As with other such documents in former times, the cardinals tried once more to diminish the autocratic nature of the papacy and to ensure greater political power and greater wealth for the College. (40)

The two parties in the conclave were those which strongly favored the continuation of the Italian League, and those who felt the preservation of the Peace of Bagnolo was of lesser importance than the positive advancement of papal power, particularly in terms of the Kingdom of Naples. The leader of the first party was Rodrigo de Lançol y Borgia, who began to campaign vigorously early in the vacancy. To Giovanni d'Aragona, he offered the office of vicechancellor which he had held since his uncle's time, and to Giovanni Colonna, Borgia offered the sum of 25,000 ducats and the abbey of Subiaco in commendam. He made a similar offer to Giovanni Battista Savelli. (41) Though d'Aragona joined the Borgian party, the only other cardinals firmly in league with the dean were Ascanio Maria Sforza-Visconti and Raffaele Riario. The leader of the second party was Giuliano della Rovere, who numbered among his adherents Savelli, Colonna, Cibo, and both Domenico and Girolamo Basso della Rovere. Surprisingly, none of the other creations of Sixtus were clearly attached to his party. The support of Colonna for Giuliano meant that Orsini leaned towards the Borgian faction.

All the complex jockeying and negotiation which preceded the actual balloting availed the party leaders little at first. Indeed, it appeared that all their efforts would be set at naught, for on the first scrutiny, on the morning of August 28, Marco Barbo received at least ten votes, and perhaps eleven or twelve. The reaction to this sudden development was sharp. It was decided not to hold the accessus after the scrutiny. The cardinals then retired to re-assess their positions. The election of the personally austere Barbo was unthinkable to the worldly, powerful cardinals of the Borgian and Sforzescan class. Seeing that his own candidature was an obvious impossibility, Borgia thought seriously of advancing Moles de Margarit, whose advanced age presaged another election in the near future. (42) At some subsequent conclave, Borgia might stand a better chance than in the electoral meeting of 1484. The candidate of Giuliano della Rovere was Giovanni Battista Cibo. During the remainder of August 28, Giuliano worked at a feverish pace to obtain the tiara for him. A personal triumph for the cardinal-bishop of Ostia e Velletri came when Giovanni Battista Orsini joined his party, of which Giovanni Colonna was already a member. The two pillars of the Borgian adherents, Ascanio Maria Sforza-Visconti and Raffaele Riario, were then won over. Ascanio then discussed with Borgia the advisability of coming over to the cause of Cibo. The vicechancellor did so, and brought with him Giovanni d'Aragona. Other cardinals now began to join for reasons of political expediency, or in search of favors from what had become the winning party. Archimboldi went with Sforza, Conti sided with the other noble Romans, Moles de Margarit followed the lead of Borgia. By the late evening Giuliano could count on thirteen votes. Throughout that night, Cibo sat awake in his cell signing petitions for favors from the other cardinals. For example, we can be fairly sure that Giangiacomo Sclafenati, Giovanni d'Aragona, and Giorgio da Costa were among those who adhered to Cibo in the last scrutiny, because all three opted from poorer cardinalitial titles to better endowed ones shortly after Innocent became pope. They would only have been able to do this with express papal permission. Giorgio da Costa exchanged the title of Santi Marcellino e Pietro, the traditional Portugese title Church, for that of Santa Maria in Trastevere on November 8, 1484. Santa Maria in Trastevere had become vacant with the death of Stefano Nardini on October 22. Giangiacomo Sclafenati received Innocent's own former title church of Santa Cecilia on November 17, 1484, while retaining his old title of Santo Stefano al Monte Celio in commendam. Giovanni d'Aragona received Santa Sabina on September 20, 1484, in exchange for San Lorenzo in Lucina, while retaining the latter in commendam. In each case the increase in revenue would have been substantial. These options do not appear to have been considered before in relation to the favors granted by Cibo at the close of the conclave. (43)

By the following morning, Cibo was assured of election with eighteen of twenty-five votes. Nearly all those who voted for the Genoese on the final scrutiny can be determined with accuracy. He had all the votes of the cardinal-nephews of Sixtus, of all the Roman barons, Borgia, d'Aragona, Sforza, Moles, Sclafenati, da Costa, Nardini, and, surely, that of Caraffa, a Neapolitan who almost certainly acceded to the wishes of his king's son. The Venetians, Barbo, Zeno, Michiel, and Foscari, were certainly not of the party which brought about the Cibo's elevation to the throne; and Cibo himself would not have risked all by the easily discoverable tactic of voting for himself, which might have canonically invalidated the scrutiny. To determine, then, which of the remaining three cardinals gave the eighteenth vote to Cibo is virtually impossible, but Rangoni is slightly more likely to have done so than either Hugonet or Piccolomini, because Rangoni's master, Matthias Corvinus, was the son-in-law of Ferrante of Naples and an avid supporter of Neapolitan policy in Italian affairs.

The new pope, a man of genial and kindly disposition, was cut from a mold far from that which had produced the strong Sixtus IV and Paul II. The cardinals realized at once that their position had been measurably improved by the change of pontiffs. As was the case in former reigns, Innocent VIII, for that was the name Cibo chose, soon wished to add members of his own selection to the College, but, unlike Sixtus and Paul, he was unable to overcome the usual strong opposition of the College to the elevation of new prelates. The authority of Giuliano della Rovere, and to a lesser extent of Rodrigo de Lançol y Borgia, was everywhere felt because these two cardinals had worked to have the tiara fall to Innocent. The pope wished to do nothing to offend either of these two powerful politicians. It was in the interest of both della Rovere and Borgia to reduce the membership in the College while they solidified support for themselves in the next conclave, however far in the future that might be.

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

Archivi
Archivi d'Italia e Rasega internazionale degli archivi. Periodico della Bibliotheque des Annales institutorum.

Burchard
Burchard, Johannes, Johannis Burchardi Argentinensis capelle pontificie sacrorum rituum magistri diarium, sive Rerum urbanarum commentarii (1483-1506). Edited L. Thuasne. 3 vols. Paris: E. Leroux, 1883-1885.

"Essai"
"Essai de Liste General des Cardinaux," Annuaire Pontifical Catholique. Annually serialized 1925-1939. Paris: Maison du Bonne Press. 1898-1939, 1946-48.

Eubel
Eubel, Conradus, Gauchat, Patritium, et alii, Hierarchia Catholica medii et recentioris ævi, 8 vols. Padua: Il Messaggero di S. Antonio, 1960.

Pastor
Pastor, Ludwig von, The History of the Popes from the close of the Middle Ages. Translated by Frederick Ignatius Antrobus and Ralph Kerr. 40 vols. Saint Louis: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1949.

Stokvis
Stokvis, Anthony Marinus Hendrik Johan, Manuel d'Historie, de Genealogie et de Chronologie de tous les Etats du Globe, depuis les temps les plus recules jusqu'a nos jours. 3 vols. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1887-1893.

Roo
de Roo, Peter, Material for a History of the Pope Alexander VI, his relatives and his time. 5 vols. Bruges: Desclee, De Brouwer & Co., 1924, Vol. 2: Roderic de Borgia, from the cradle to the throne.

Gams
Gams, Pius Bonifacius, Series Espiscoporum Ecclesiæ Catholicæ. Regensburg: Verlag Josef Manz, 1873.

Cristofori
Cristofori, Francesco, Storia de' Cardinali di Santa Romana Chiesa. Rome: Tipografia de Propaganda Fide, 1888.

NOTES:

(1) "Essai" (1932):137.

(2) Eubel, 2:16.

(3) Eubel, 2:16. For his papal reign as Julius II, see Pastor, 4:208-606.

(4) Cf. "Essai" (1933):126-27 & l45-47.

(5) Eubel, 2:16.

(6) Eubel, 2:17.

(7) Eubel, 2:17.

(8) Eubel, 2:17.

(9) Eubel, 2:17.

(10) Cf. "Essai" (1933):150.

(11) Calandrini did not die on July 24 (Pastor, 4:408). For the date of his death, see "Essai" (1932):148; Eubel, 2:11, 11 n. 4. For the others, see Eubel, 2:11-16.

(12) Eubel, 2:17, 251, 251 Tirasonen n. 1.

(13) Eubel, 2:17.

(14) Eubel, 2:17.

(15) Eubel, 2:17. For the career of the elder Pierre de Foix, see "Essai" (1931):161-62.

(16) Eubel, 2:17.

(17) Pastor, 4:411.

(18) Eubel, 2:11.

(19) Eubel, 2:18.

(20) Eubel, 2:18.

(21) Eubel, 2:18.

(22) Eubel, 2:18.

(23) Eubel, 2:18.

(24) "Essai" (1933);155.

(25) Eubel, 2:18.

(26) Eubel, 2:14, 17.

(27) Eubel, 2:15 n. 6, 19.

(28) Eubel, 2:15.

(29) Eubel, 2:19.

(30) Eubel, 2:19.

(31) Eubel, 2:19. An alternate and older spelling of this cardinal's surname is Campofregoso.

(32) Eubel, 2:1-19.

(33) Eubel, 2:1-19.

(34) Eubel, 2:19.

(35) Eubel, 2:19.

(36) Eubel, 2:20.

(37) "Essai" (1933):162.

(38) Eubel, 2:1-19.

(39) For details of these and other services by Marco Barbo, see Pastor, 5:232.

(40) Provisions of the election capitulation of 1484 are discussed in Pastor, 5:233-34. For a full account of the conclave see Pastor, 5:229-39.

(41) Pastor, 5:235.

(42) This ploy is described in Pastor, 5:237, where the author cites the reports of several ambassadors reprinted by L. Thuasne in his edition of Diarium by Johannes Burchard. However, Roo, 2:239-42 makes no mention of this activity by Borgia, though his bias in favor of that cardinal is everywhere noticeable. "Essai" (1933):161, also makes no mention of Moles de Margarit having been Borgia's candidate for the throne. Yet the factor advanced by Pastor, the extreme age of this Spanish prelate, makes it likely that Borgia's sally, as he reports it, has some foundation in fact. It is worth noting that this sponsorship was seemingly unambitous, because Moles de Margarit was seventy-nine or eighty, and also in poor health.

(43) Pastor, 5:238. Roo, 2:240-42, makes no mention of this, but his bias in favor of Borgia, who received many favors from Innocent VIII, prevents him from citing Burchard's Diarium, the principal account of the conclave, which is Pastor's source. See also Eubel, 2:17-19, 47, 61-62, 63-65.

©1998-2021 Salvador Miranda.