n.

Nevertheless, King Ferdinand congratulated the Lord of Pesaro upon his
marriage. He looked upon him as a kinsman, and Sforza had likewise been
accepted by the house of Aragon. June 15, 1493, the king wrote to him
from Capua as follows:

ILLUSTRIOUS COUSIN AND OUR DEAREST FRIEND: We have
received your letter of the twenty-second of last month, in which
you inform us of your marriage with the illustrious Donna Lucretia,
the niece of his Holiness our Master. We are much pleased, both
because we always have and still do feel the greatest love for
yourself and your house, and also because we believe that nothing
could be of greater advantage to you than this marriage. Therefore
we wish you the best of fortune, and we pray God, with you, that
this alliance may increase your own power and fame and that of your
State.[27]

Eight days earlier the same king had sent his ambassador to Spain a
letter, in which he asked the protection of Ferdinand and Isabella
against the machinations of the Pope, whose ways he described as
"loathsome"; in this he was referring, not to his political actions, but
to his personal conduct. Giulia Farnese, whom Infessura noticed among
the wedding guests and described as "the Pope's concubine," caused
endless gossip about herself and his Holiness. This young woman
surrendered herself to an old man of sixty-two whom she was also
compelled to honor as the head of the Church. There is no doubt whatever
about her years of adultery, but we can not understand the cause of her
passion; for however powerful the demoniac nature of Alexander VI may
have been, it must by this time have lost much of its magnetic strength.
Perhaps this young and empty-headed creature, after she had once
transgressed and the feeling of shame had passed, was fascinated by the
spectacle of the sacred master of the world, before whom all men
prostrated themselves, lying at her feet--the feet of a weak child.

There is also the suspicion that the cupidity of the Farnese was the
cause of the criminal relations, for Giulia's sins were rewarded by
nothing less than the bestowal of the cardinal's purple on her brother
Alessandro. The Pope had already designated him, among others, for the
honor, but the nomination was delayed by the opposition of the Sacred
College, over which Giuliano della Rovere presided. King Ferdinand also
encouraged this opposition, and on the very day on which Lu