men on whom he casts his eyes are charmed to
love him, and he moves them in a wondrous way, more powerfully than the
magnet influences iron;" but this seduction in his manner cannot be
considered as merely an innocent result of his great personal beauty,
because his lustful disposition is well proved, and sensuality was
always his greatest vice. Symonds makes the statement that within the
sacred walls of the Vatican he maintained a harem in truly Oriental
fashion; and here were doubtless sent, from all parts of the papal
states, those daughters of Venus who were willing to minister to the
joys of His Holiness. To cap the climax, imagine the effrontery of a
pope who dared, in the face of the ecclesiastical rule enjoining
celibacy upon the priesthood, to parade his delinquencies before the
eyes of all the world, and seat himself in state, for a solemn pageant
at Saint Peter's, with his daughter Lucrezia upon one side of his
throne and his daughter-in-law Sancia upon the other! It was once said
by a witty and epigrammatic Italian that Church affairs were so corrupt
that the interests of morality demanded the marriage rather than the
celibacy of the clergy, and it would appear that this remark has a
certain pertinency anent the present situation. To illustrate in what
way such delinquency was made a matter of jest, the following story is
related. At the time of the French invasion, during the early days of
Alexander's pontificate, Giulia and Girolama Farnese, two members of
what we perhaps may call the pope's domestic circle, were captured,
together with their duenna, Adriana di Mila, by a certain Monseigneur
d'Allegre, who was in the suite of the French king. He came upon them
near Capodimonte and carried them off to Montefiascone, where they were
placed in confinement; while Alexander was notified of the occurrence
and told that he must pay a ransom, the sum being fixed at three
thousand ducats. This amount was paid instanter, and the captives were
at once released. As they approached Rome, they were met by Alexander,
who was attired as a layman, in black and gold brocade, with his dagger
at his belt. When Ludovico Sforza heard what had happened, he remarked,
with a smile, that the ransom was much too small, and that if the sum of
fifty thousand ducats had been demanded it would have been paid with
equal readiness, as these ladies were known to be "the very eyes and
heart" of the Holy Father.

It was in the midst of this