lled him.

To no such flagitious lengths as these can it be shown that Alexander
carried the "sale" of the indulgences he dispensed. He had no lack of
precedent for the practice, and, so far as the actual practice itself
is concerned, it would be difficult to show that it was unjustifiable or
simoniacal so long as confined within certain well-defined bounds, and
so long as the sums levied by it were properly employed to the benefit
of Christianity. It is a practice comparable to the mulcting of a civil
offender against magisterial laws. Because our magistrates levy fines,
it does not occur to modern critics to say that they sell pardons
and immunity from gaol. It is universally recognized as a wise and
commendable measure, serving the two-fold purpose of punishing the
offender and benefiting the temporal State against which he has
offended. Need it be less commendable in the case of spiritual offences
against a spiritual State? It is more useful than the imposition of the
pattering of a dozen prayers at bedtime, and since, no doubt, it falls
more heavily upon the offender, it possibly makes to an even greater
extent for his spiritual improvement.

Thus considered, this "sale" of indulgences loses a deal of the
heinousness with which it has been invested. The funds so realized go
into the coffers of the Church, which is fit and proper. What afterwards
becomes of them at the hands of Alexander opens up another matter
altogether, one in which we cannot close our eyes to the fact that he
was as undutiful as many another who wore the Ring of the Fisherman
before him. Yet this is to be said for him: that, if he plunged his
hands freely into the treasury of the Holy See, at least he had the
ability to contrive that this treasury should be well supplied; and the
circumstance that, when he died, he left the church far wealthier and
more powerful than she had been for centuries, with her dominions which
his precursors had wantonly alienated reconsolidated into that powerful
State that was to endure for three hundred years, is an argument to the
credit of his pontificate not lightly to be set aside.

Imola and Forli had, themselves, applied to the Pontiff to appoint
Cesare Borgia their ruler in the place of the deposed Riarii. To these
was now added Cesena. In July disturbances occurred there between
Guelphs and Ghibellines. Swords were drawn and blood flowed in the
streets, until the governor was constrained to summon Ercole Be