Guido da Montefeltro says in the Inferno (xxvii. 75): L'opere mie non furon leonine, ma di volpe—'My deeds were those of the fox, and not of the lion.' Bacon, in a well-known passage, uses a more common figure: 'It is not possible to join serpentine wisdom with the columbine simplicity, except men know all the conditions of the serpent.'—Advancement of Learning, ii. 21, 9.
27 History of Rome, Bk. IV. ch. x. Vol. iii. pp. 380-391 (Eng. Trans.).
28 E.g. Scherer, Etudes Critiques, vi. 102, etc.
29 For this Legation, see Tommasini, i. 242-265. Villari, Bk. I. ch. v. i. 392.
See Machiavelli's picture of the Italian princes, Arte della Guerra, Bk. VII.
30 Gregorovius thinks that there are too many arguments both ways, for us to form a decided opinion.—Lucrezia Borgia, II. c. v. Pastor is confident that it was Roman fever, and goes fully into the medical question.—Gesch. der Päpste, iii. 471-2. Dr. Garnett argues strongly against poison, English Historical Review, 1894, ix. 335-9.—Creighton, iv. 43-4.
31 See Cæsar Borgia. Par Charles Yriarte. Paris, 1889.
The Borgian policy is set out with much reason and force in Bishop Creighton's History of the Popes, Bk. v. ch. xi. vol. iv. pp. 44-53. Also the character of Cæsar Borgia, pp. 64-6. Dr. Pastor, writing from the catholic point of view, does not shrink from a completely candid estimate of Alexander VI.—See Gesch. der Päpste, iii.
32 The saying of Cosmo de Medici, Ist. Fior. Lib. VII., where Machiavelli reports others of his sayings, and gives a vivid account of Cosmo.
Bacon tells us in characteristic language that Henry VII. desired to bring celestial honour into the house of Lancaster, and begged Pope Julius to canonise Henry VI.; but Julius refused, as some said, because the king would not come to his rates, more probably, however, because he knew that Henry VI. was a very simple man,
