Lucretia Borgia | Page 5

upon two members of the
Mila family: the Bishop Juan of Zamora, who died in 1467, in Rome,
where his tomb may still be seen in S. Maria di Monserrato, and on the
youthful Juan Luis. Rodrigo Borgia also received the purple in the
same year. Among other members of the house of Mila settled in Rome
was Don Pedro, whose daughter, Adriana Mila, we shall later find in
most intimate relations with the family of her uncle Rodrigo.
Of the sisters of this same Rodrigo, Beatrice was married to Don
Ximenez Perez de Arenos, Tecla to Don Vidal de Villanova, and Juana
to Don Pedro Guillen Lanzol.[1] All these remained in Spain. There is
a letter extant, written by Beatrice from Valencia to her brother shortly
after he became pope.
Rodrigo Borgia was twenty-six when the dignity of cardinal was
conferred upon him, and to this honor, a year later, was added the great
office of vice-chancellor of the Church of Rome. His brother, Don
Pedro Luis, was only one year older; and Calixtus bestowed upon this

young Valencian the highest honors which can fall to the lot of a
prince's favorite. Later we behold in him a papal nepot-prince in whom
the Pope endeavored to embody all mundane power and honor; he
made him his condottiere, his warder, his body-guard, and, finally, his
worldly heir. Calixtus allowed him to usurp every position of authority
in the Church domain and, like a destroying angel, to overrun and
devastate the republics and the tyrannies, for the purpose of founding a
family dynasty, the Papacy being of only momentary tenure, and not
transmittable to an heir.
Calixtus made Pedro Luis generalissimo of the Church, prefect of the
city, Duke of Spoleto, and finally, vicar of Terracina and Benevento.
Thus in this first Spanish nepot was foreshadowed the career which
Cæsar Borgia later followed.
During the life of Calixtus the Spaniards were all-powerful in Rome. In
great numbers they poured into Italy from the kingdom of Valencia to
make their fortune at the papal court as monsignori and clerks, as
captains and castellans, and in any other way that suggested itself.
Calixtus III died on the sixth of August, 1458, and a few days later Don
Pedro Luis was driven from Rome by the oppressed nobility of the
country, the Colonna and the Orsini, who rose against the hated
foreigner. Soon afterwards, in December the same year, death suddenly
terminated the career of this young and brilliant upstart, then in
Civitavecchia. It is not known whether Don Pedro Luis Borgia was
married or whether he left any descendants.[2]
Cardinal Rodrigo Borgia lamented the loss of his beloved and,
probably, only brother, and inherited his property, while his own high
position in the Curia was not affected by the change in the papacy. As
vice-chancellor, he occupied a house in the Ponte quarter, which had
formerly been the Mint, and which he converted into one of the most
showy of the palaces of Rome. The building encloses two courts, where
may still be seen the original open colonnades of the lower story; it was
constructed as a stronghold, like the Palazzo di Venizia, which was
almost contemporaneous with it. The Borgia palace, however, does not
compare in architectural beauty or size with that built by Paul II. In the

course of the years it has undergone many changes, and for a long time
has belonged to the Sforza-Cesarini.
Nothing is known of Rodrigo's private life during the pontificate of the
four popes who followed Calixtus--Pius II, Paul II, Sixtus IV, and
Innocent VIII--for the records of that period are very incomplete.
Insatiable sensuality ruled this Borgia, a man of unusual beauty and
strength, until his last years. Never was he able to cast out this demon.
He angered Pius II by his excesses, and the first ray of light thrown
upon Rodrigo's private life is an admonitory letter written by that pope,
the eleventh of June, 1460, from the baths of Petriolo. Borgia was then
twenty-nine years old. He was in beautiful and captivating Siena, where
Piccolomini had passed his unholy youth. There he had arranged a
bacchanalian orgy of which the Pope's letter gives a picture.
DEAR SON: We have learned that your Worthiness, forgetful of the
high office with which you are invested, was present from the
seventeenth to the twenty-second hour, four days ago, in the gardens of
John de Bichis, where there were several women of Siena, women
wholly given over to worldly vanities. Your companion was one of
your colleagues whom his years, if not the dignity of his office, ought
to have reminded of his duty. We have heard that the dance was
indulged in in all wantonness; none of the allurements of love were
lacking, and you conducted