turn paid
him homage. So he thought the time had now come for founding a mighty
family; and for this he relied upon the Duke of Gandia, who was to hold
all the highest temporal dignities; and upon Caesar Borgia, who was to be
appointed to all the great ecclesiastical offices. The pope made sure of
the success of these new projects by electing four Spanish cardinals, who
brought up the number of his compatriots in the Sacred College to
twenty-two, thus assuring him a constant and certain majority.

The first requirement of the pope's policy was to clear away from the
neighbourhood of Rome all those petty lords whom most people call vicars
of the Church, but whom Alexander called the shackles of the papacy. We
saw that he had already begun this work by rousing the Orsini against the
Colonna family, when Charles VIII's enterprise compelled him to
concentrate all his mental resources, and also the forces of his States,
so as to secure his own personal safety.

It had come about through their own imprudent action that the Orsini, the
pope's old friends, were now in the pay of the French, and had entered
the kingdom of Naples with them, where one of them, Virginio, a very
important member of their powerful house, had been taken prisoner during
the war, and was Ferdinand II's captive. Alexander could not let this
opportunity escape him; so, first ordering the King of Naples not to
release a man who, ever since the 1st of June, 1496, had been a declared
rebel, he pronounced a sentence of confiscation against Virginio Orsini
and his whole family in a secret consistory, which sat on the 26th of
October following--that is to say, in the early days of the reign of
Frederic, whom he knew to be entirely at his command, owing to the King's
great desire of getting the investiture from him; then, as it was not
enough to declare the goods confiscated, without also dispossessing the
owners, he made overtures to the Colonna family, saying he would
commission them, in proof of their new bond of friendship, to execute the
order given against their old enemies under the direction of his son
Francesco, Duke of Gandia. In this fashion he contrived to weaken his
neighbours each by means of the other, till such time as he could safely
attack and put an end to conquered and conqueror alike.

The Colonna family accepted this proposition, and the Duke of Gandia was
named General of the Church: his father in his pontifical robes bestowed
on h