in accordance with his taste. Pope Calixtus sent for him to Rome, and gave him the archbishopric of Valencia; and in 1456 made him cardinal-deacon, and afterwards vice-chancellor of the church, a post of great dignity, with a large revenue attached. Hitherto his life, which had been most dissolute (he had five illegitimate children by Rosa Vanozza, whose mother had previously been his mistress), had escaped detection; and inflamed with the ambition of one day sitting on the throne of St. Peter, he outwardly conducted himself in the most decorous manner, so as to win golden opinions from all, both as a preacher and a man. Little is known of him during the pontificates of Pius II. and Paul II., but we find him sent as legate by Sixtus IV., to negotiate the Spanish and Portuguese affairs. He left the court of Lisbon without accomplishing his mission, having offended the king by his dissolute habits; and on his return to Rome Sixtus was dead, and Innocent VIII. was pope. He now contrived to bring his mistress to Rome, and lodged her close to St. Peter's, where, under pretence of friendship for her reputed husband, he constantly visited her. Innocent died 1492, and it was soon seen, on the assembling of the conclave, that their choice was limited to two candidates, Roderic Borgia, the nephew of Calixtus III., and Julian della Rovera, the nephew of Sixtus IV. Borgia, the more unscrupulous and the more wealthy of the two, by lavish distributions of money and promise of offices, carried the day, and was elected pope. He assumed the title of Alexander VI., and his first act was to discharge his obligations to the cardinals, the whole of whom, save five, were said to be in his pay, though eventually he managed to dispose of all to whom he was under obligations. It is impossible, in a narrative like this, to trace at any length the political transactions in which the pope took part; we can therefore only notice briefly the league he formed with Bajazet the Second, emperor of the Turks, against Charles VIII., king of France, who claimed the kingdom of Naples. Charles invaded Italy, 1494, with twenty thousand men, and carried everything before him, taking possession of Rome itself, and forcing Alexander to take refuge in the castle of St. Angelo. The pope, driven to extremities, made terms with Charles, and granted all his demands; among others, surrendering to him the person of Zizim, Bajazet's brother, who had been detained in a kind of honourable captivity at Rome, and whom Charles wished to have in his power as an instrument against Bajazet. It is commonly said that Alexander, mindful of his obligations to the sultan, had previously given him a slow poison. Certain it is, that Zizim died very shortly after he was surrendered to the king. Charles, in return, treated the pontiff with studied courtesy and respect, waited upon him, and kissed his feet. He thus continued his march to Naples, and easily obtained possession of his prize, Alphonso II., the king, fleeing at his approach. The alliance, however, between Charles and Alexander did not last long. It did not suit Alexander's views to have the French at Naples, and aided by his son, Cæsar Borgia, the duke of Valentino, he formed a league against Charles with the republic of Venice, Ludovico Sforza, duke of Milan, and other Italian princes, the Emperor Maximilian, and Ferdinand of Spain. The battle of Fornovo decided the Italian question in favour of the allies, and Charles found he had lost his conquests as easily as he had gained them. Freed now from the presence of the French, Alexander was at liberty to devote himself to his main designs, the enlargement of the patrimony of St. Peter, and the aggrandizement of his son Cæsar. Under his rule, everything was unblushingly put to sale. His chief agent and confidant was his son, the notorious Cæsar Borgia; and after the death of the duke of Gandia, his elder son (who is said, but without proof, to have been assassinated by order of Cæsar, who was jealous of his intimacy with their common sister, Lucretia), all Alexander's affections were centered in Cæsar and Lucretia. Unscrupulous and insatiable, he removed by poison or the dagger all who were in his way, and the papal treasury was enriched by the effects of many members of the sacred college, whose deaths were commonly suspected to have taken place by foul means. It is not surprising, therefore, to find Alexander, hitherto the chief opponent of the French, forming an alliance with Louis XII., who had succeeded Charles VIII., 1498, and who was anxious to obtain a divorce from his wife Joan, and to marry his predecessor's widow, Anne of Brittany, whom he had loved as duke of Orleans. The pope consented on condition of Louis exerting his interest to bring about the marriage of Cæsar with Charlotte, the daughter of the king of Naples. The lady, however, refused, and Louis declared he would not force her. He accordingly negotiated a marriage for Cæsar with a daughter of the king of Navarre, and a papal bull was issued which set Cæsar free from his priestly vows, and allowed him to marry. Alexander and his son now entered heartily into the schemes of Louis against the duchy of Milan, and Cæsar rode in the French king's train to Milan, whence he set out for the subjugation of the Roman nobles, who were plundered, imprisoned, spoiled of their domains, or assassinated, as the interests of the wretched father and son seemed to require. Rome itself was the centre of the most iniquitous proceedings, neither life nor property were secure; and if elsewhere a voice like Savonarola's was raised against the prevailing sins, it was silenced at the stake. Meanwhile Alexander disregarded even common decency, and celebrated the marriage of Lucretia with her third husband, Alfonso, son of the Duke d'Este, with the most shameless licentiousness and abominable orgies. In vain the oppressed nobles appealed to Louis; the pope was always ready to gratify him, and cruelty and oppression prevailed at Rome till the death of Alexander. His end was worthy of his life. It is said that he and his son drunk of poisoned wine, which they had intended for Cardinal Corneto, whose estates they were anxious to inherit. Cæsar escaped with his life, but Alexander died August 2, 1503, aged sixty-two. The most profligate pontiff that ever sat on the apostolic throne,—we may almost say the most profligate man in history,—he has left behind him a name which is a "proverb of reproach." Anxious as he was to uphold the authority of the Roman see, nothing weakened it more than his wicked life; and Luther's preaching would not have met with the success it did, had it not been for the gross practical corruptions of morals at the very centre of the church. We may mention here, that Alexander conferred upon the court of Castile the whole of the territory discovered by Columbus.—J. B., O.
ALEXANDER VII. was born at Sienna in 1599, his original name being Fabio Chigi. Of his early life very little has been recorded. He held the office of vice-legate at Ferrara, represented the pope as nuncio at the congress of Münster at the conclusion of the thirty-years' war, was appointed cardinal-minister, and in 1655 succeeded Inocent X. in the popedom, having, by his diplomatic tactics, completely blinded a powerful faction who were opposed to his pretensions. Several events of importance occurred during his pontificate. In 1656 the ex-Queen Christina of Sweden having renounced protestantism, was received into the Romish church with great pomp. The same year the states of the church were ravaged by a pestilence, which is said to have carried off nearly 200,000 of the population. Alexander, about the same time, fulminated a bull against the Jansenists. The duke de Cregin, ambassador of Louis XIV., having been insulted by the papal guards, and due satisfaction not being made, the French king seized upon the town and district of Avignon, which had up to this time belonged to the popes, and prepared to invade Italy. At the same time the Sorbonne gravely questioned the infallibility of the pope in matters temporal and spiritual. Alexander was obliged to submit, and to give up some most important places to the duke of Parma, whereupon Louis restored to him the town of Avignon. Alexander levied very heavy taxes from his subjects, and expended the money thus amassed partly in adorning Rome, and partly in enriching his own family. He built an arsenal at Civita Vecchia, decorated the gate del Popolo, cleared the square of the Pantheon, and made many other improvements. He was a friend of art and literature, and was not without poetical talent. He died in 1667, and was succeeded by Clement IX.—J. W. S.
ALEXANDER VIII. (Ottoboni) was born at Venice in 1610, studied at Padua and Rome, became successively bishop of Brescia and Frascati, and in 1689, succeeded Innocent XI. as pope. He assisted the Venetians with money, troops, and ships, in their wars with Turkey. He combated the jesuits, and condemned several of their doctrines. He added the splendid collection of books and MSS. of the ex-Queen Christina of Sweden to the Vatican library, and died in 1691.—J. W. S.
ALEXANDER, Saint, bishop of Jerusalem in the third century. He succeeded Narcissus a.d. 212; and after rendering most important services to the church, died a martyr in 251.
ALEXANDER, Saint, bishop of Alexandria, in which see he succeeded Achilles, a.d. 313. He was famous as having begun the controversy with Arius. Of his seventy epistles on that controversy, only two are extant. He died in 326.
