280 ALEXANDER (POPES) ALEXANDER (RUSSIA) Vanozza, by whom he had five children, one of whom was Caesar Borgia, and another Lucretia, afterward duchess of Este. When his uncle became pope, Rodrigo was summoned to Rome. He went with reluctance ; but whatever unwil- lingness he may have felt to abandon his pleas- ures in Spain was overcome by the generosity of the pontiff, who hastened to appoint him archbishop of Valencia, cardinal deacon, and vice chancellor of the church, and gave him a revenue of 28,000 crowns a year. Without breaking off his connection with Vanozza, he now assumed an exterior of piety and humility, visited the hospitals, gave much to the poor, and acquired a reputation for extraordinary virtue. Under Popes Pius II. and Paul II., who wore the tiara after Calixtus, little is known of his life. He was high in the favor of Sixtus IV., who sent him as legate to Aragon and Portugal; but he is said to have caused some scandal at the court of Lisbon by his licentious behavior. After the accession of In- nocent VIII. (1484) he brought his mistress secretly to Rome, and furnished her with an ostensible husband, in the person of a Spaniard who had been her majordomo. Under the protection of this pseudo count, the cardinal was enabled to visit Vanozza without suspi- cion. On the death of Innocent in 1492 he bought the suffrages of the adherents of Cardi- nals Stbrza, Orsino, Riario, and Colonna, and, having been thereupon elected to the pontifi- cate, delivered an edifying discourse in which he urged the sacred college to reform their lives, and denounced with especial severity the crimes of avarice and simony. His eldest son, Francesco, was appointed commander of the papal troops ; his second son, Crosar, was made archbishop of Valencia, and a year later cardi- nal. The Papal States were at this time in a very disturbed condition, and Alexander's first care was to strengthen the temporal power by crushing the turbulent lords of Ferrara, Bolo- gna, Rimini, Faenza, Ostia, and Urbino, forming a league against Naples with Venice and Milan, and then a league with Naples against France. Unable to prevent the invasion of Italy by Charles VIII., he made his peace with the French king at an interview in the Vatican ; and after Charles had taken possession of Na- ples he instigated a new confederation against him, composed of the republic of Venice, the duke of Milan, and the other princes of Italy, and succeeded at last in ridding the peninsula of the invaders. He allied himself with Charles's successor, Louis XII., in an attack upon Milan, granted the king a divorce, and obtained for kis son Caesar a splendid position at the French court. He was a party to the treachery by which Ferdinand of Spain first betrayed the cause of his relative Frederick of Naples by partitioning that kingdom between Louis XII. and himself, and then betrayed Louis by seizing the whole conquest. Caesar had accompanied the French to Milan, and thence waged incessant war upon the Italian princes, the pope's purpose being not only to consolidate his own temporal power, but to elevate his family to the dignities of the dispos- sessed barons. Vile as the means were by which he accumulated wealth, he spent it in such a way within his dominions, restoring order and reviving trade, that he was popular with his subjects. He carried simony to a point never before dreamed of, and a contem- porary pasquinade began with the lines, Vendit Alexander claves, altaria, Christum ; Vendere jure potest, emerat llle prius. The crimes of wholesale poisoning and other murders commonly laid to his charge are not all supported by sufficient evidence, but enough is known to entitle him to remembrance as the worst of all the popes. His death is said by some historians to have been caused by poison which he intended for a large party of cardi- nals whom he had invited to a banquet. VII. I'altio < hiiri. born of an illustrious family at Siena, Feb. 13, 1599, elected April 7, 1655, died May 22, 1667. Before his election he filled several of the highest offices of the Ro- man church with credit. During his pontifi- cate he was zealous in the reformation of dis- cipline. He confirmed the bull of Innocent X. against the five propositions of Jansenius, and prescribed a formulary condemning the prin- ciples of Jansenism, which all persons con- cerned were required to sign. He finished the college of Sapienza, commenced by Leo X. after designs of Michel Angelo, and constructed the beautiful colonnade in the piazza of St. Peter's. VIII. Mareo Ottoboni, son of the grand chancellor of Venice, where he was born, April 19, 1610, elected Oct. 6, 1689, died Feb. 1, 1691. He studied at Padua and Rome, was successively bishop of Brescia and Frascati, and cardinal. He condemned the four articles of the Gallican assembly, and assisted the empe- ror Leopold I. and the Venetians with large sums in the wars against the Turks. He pos- sessed a high degree of prudence, moderation, and political sagacity, and was very benevolent to the poor, but too much inclined to favor his own relations. ALEXANDER I., PavloYiteh, emperor of Russia, eldest son of Paul I. and Maria Feodorovna, princess of Wurtemberg, born Dec. 23, 1777, died Dec. 1, 1825. His grandmother, Catharine II., designed to place him on the throne in prefer- ence to his father, and intrusted the care of his education to Count Nicholas Soltikoff, drawing up the plan of his instruction with her own hand. Every possible branch was taught ex- cept music and singing. In 1783 Count Solti- koff selected as his tutor Frederic Cesar de la Harpe, who inculcated in the mind of his pupil the ruling liberal ideas of the 18th century.. Toleration, philanthropy, and love of truth were from his childhood familiar to the future czar. Sometimes he dreaded the task before him, and wished to escape with his youthful friend Prince Czartoryski to America, and to live there as a private citizen. At the age of
