PLANET NERD

The brain over this iniquity, putting vice before devotion, wealth before faith and authority before holiness were the Pope Alexander VI, known as Rodrigo Borgia and his illegitimate son Cesare.

It was during the 15^th century when the Pope was not only a religious leader, but a powerful political force. No one could refuse him even the strongest kings and princes.

And for centuries, its monopoly on salvation brought corruption for it was the only Christian faith in the entire Europe. It accumulated massive quantity of wealth by charging an excessive cost for forgiveness of sins. It consecrated ruthless killing in crusades against races that worshipped other gods and annihilated all who dared question its edicts about the world and life.

Rodrigo Borgia has always been engaged in intrigues long before he assumed the highest office of the Holy See. In April 1455, his mother’s brother became Pope Calixtus III. Rodrigo was born 24 years earlier at Xativa near Valencia, Spain. And because of his uncle’s influence, he was immediately made a bishop, quickly progressed up to cardinal then to vice-chancellor. He served in the Curia under the authority of five Popes. But behind the portico of faith and holiness, Rodrigo was so occupied seducing young virgins. A fine-looking charmer with an inexorable sex drive, he could not refrain from the temptations of the flesh and one of his barefaced open-air orgies earned him a reprimand from the Pope. In 1470 he began a torrid romance with a 28 year old beauty, Vanozza dei Catanei. She gave him three sons, Giovanni, Cesare and Geoffredo and a daughter Lucrezia.

When Pope Innocent VIII died in 1492, Rodrigo was one of three contenders. He then handled out bribes and promised luxurious palaces and lucrative posts for the delegates if he would be chosen. On August 10, Rodrigo as expected became Pope.

Instantly he showered his illegitimate children with riches. Cesare, aged just 16, was appointed Archbishop of Valencia and became a Cardinal a year later.  But the titles meant nothing to the ambitious teenager. He was furious that his older brother had been given command of the Papal army.  Cesare rode mockingly on all sides of Rome, fully encircled with lovely mistresses at his side. He even canoodled outrageously in public with his sister Lucrezia. And he rivaled his father’s scandalous sexual exploits. When Sanchia, promiscuous young daughter of the King of Naples, arrived at the Vatican as a prospective bride for Goffredo Borgia, both Pope and Cesare made a thorough check on her credentials between the sheets of their own beds.

Rodrigo’s period in office began in a sickening manner. Anyone who stood in their way was pitilessly eliminated.  The Borgias imposed punishments to those who will speak of anything that would humiliate them. The people of Florence rejoiced when Girolamo Savonarola, a puritan monk, was arrested after denouncing the corruption in the Church and welcomed the French King Charles VIII ( Borgias opponent) as a redeemer who arrived to restore Catholicism’s old value. For the Florentines, Savonarola was just a kill-joy cleric that tried to force them abandon their carefree carnivals. He was stretched on the rack 14 times in one day during weeks of persecution before being publicly hanged.

The Pope sent his son Giovanni off with the army to attack the fortress of the Orsini family, who had also collaborated with the French. But he returned to Rome as a hopeless general in disgrace after losing a battle against the foes he was about to punish.

A month after, he dined with his mother and brother Cesare and left separately on horseback. Next morning, Giovanni’s body was hauled from the river Tiber and nine stabs of wounds were found from his body. Giovanni’s assassin was never found and the murder was officially declared a mystery. But for all, they know that one man gained more from the death than most, his younger brother Cesare. He would now become the Pope’s political and military person in command. The Pope was pleased too for he can now send Cesare away from Rome on business and suppress the budding clamor of scandalized gossips.

Cesare went wilder, he found young boys as appealing as girls, and was far more indiscreet about his flings in both sexes. Most embarrassing was his continuing sexual escapade with his own sister. She was placed in a convent when her first husband fled for fear of Cesare’s jealous temper. But six months later, she became pregnant after visits from Cesare and the Pope. A baby boy was born and was made heir to the Borgia fortune.

Cesar’s costly campaigns were funded by the Pope. He took every town from Naples to France and touched as many girls as he could lay his hands on. He sold cardinal’s hat to wealthy aspirants, some of whom died mysteriously only months later leaving their estates to the Vatican.

Rome’s death rate rose every time Cesare returned from his territorial conquests. He answered insults, real or imagined, with murder. Many of his homosexual partners were also found poisoned or dragged from the river Tiber with fatal knife wounds. The Venetian ambassador wrote: ‘Every night four or five murdered men are discovered-bishops, prelates and others-so that all Rome is trembling with fear of being destroyed by the Duke Cesare.’

In 1500 Cesare’s blazing obsession for his sister Lucrezia led to a sensational killing. In the wake of the scandal over Lucrezia’s baby, the Pope had rushed her to the altar with Alphonse, Duke of Bisceglie and eventually Lucrezia had genuinely fallen in love with him. Cesare was so furious. He wanted his sister so madly and still preferred her body more than to those of his wives. In July 1500, a gang of thugs disguised as pilgrims attacked Alphonse with knives. He survived but later found dead at his bed near the Pope’s quarter. Cesare and Lucrezia continued their incestuous liaison until the Pope arranged another match for Lucrezia, with the Duke of Ferraro’s son. On their last night together before she left for the nuptials, Cesare arranged a special treat in his Vatican room – 50 local socialites rolled naked on the floor, scrambling for hot roasted chestnuts tossed to them by the illicit lovers.

On August 1503, the Pope and Cesare both fell ill with malaria after attending a party thrown by a cardinal in a vineyard just outside Rome. Within a week, the 72-year-old Pope died.

Unluckily for Cesare, the old man’s successor was Giuliano della Rovere, who was still bearing a grudge with his defeat by Rodrigo in the election of 1492.

Cesare was arrested and forced to relinquish his Romagna kingdom. He left Rome for Naples, and then under Spanish rule, he was again arrested for disturbing the peace of Italy. He spent two years in jail but escaped in 1506 and sought sanctuary with his brother-in-law, the King of Navarre. But on the 12^th of March 1507, he was wounded leading a siege of the town of Viana during a territorial dispute with Spain. His captors showed him the as much generosity as he had shown his own victims. They stripped him naked and left him to die of thirst.