fought, until at last the peace of Bagnolo
was concluded in August of 1484, and the opposing armies withdrew from
Ferrara.

The news of it literally killed Sixtus. When the ambassadors declared
to him the terms of the treaty he was thrown into a violent rage, and
declared the peace to be at once shameful and humiliating. The gout from
which he suffered flew to his heart, and on the following day--August
12, 1484--he died.

Two things he did during his reign to the material advantage of
the Church, however much he may have neglected the spiritual. He
strengthened her hold upon her temporal possessions and he enriched the
Vatican by the addition of the Sistine Chapel. For the decoration
of this he procured the best Tuscan talent of his day--and of many
days--and brought Alessandro Filipeppi (Botticelli), Pietro Vannuccio
(Il Perugino), and Domenico Bigordi (IL Ghirlandajo) from Florence to
adorn its walls with their frescoes.(1)

1 The glory of the Sistine Chapel, however, is Michelangelo's "Last
Judgement," which was added later, in the reign of Pope Julius II
(Giuliano della Rovere).

In the last years of the reign of Pope Sixtus, Cardinal Roderigo's
family had suffered a loss and undergone an increase.

In 1481 Vannozza bore him another son--Giuffredo Borgia, and in the
following year died his eldest son (by an unknown mother) Pedro Luis de
Borgia, who had reached the age of twenty-two and was betrothed at the
time of his decease to the Princess Maria d'Aragona.

In January of that same year, 1482, Cardinal Roderigo had married his
daughter Girolama--now aged fifteen--to Giovanni Andrea Cesarini, the
scion of a patrician Roman house. The alliance strengthened the bonds of
good feeling which for some considerable time had prevailed between the
two families. Unfortunately the young couple were not destined to many
years of life together, as in 1483 both died.

Of Cesare all that we know at this period is what we learn from the
Papal Bulls conferring several benefices upon him. In July 1482 he was
granted the revenues from the prebendals and canonries of Valencia; in
the following month he was appointed Canon of Valencia and apostolic
notary. In April 1484 he was made Provost of Alba, and in September
of the same year treasurer of the Church of Carthage. No doubt he was
living with his mother, his brothers, and his sister at the house in the
Piazza Pizzo di Merlo, where an ample if not magnificent establis