e the crimes of his house. It is not strange, however, to find a
descendant of Alexander VI in the garb of a Jesuit, for the diabolic
force of will which had characterized that Borgia lived again in the
person of his countryman, Loyola, in another form and directed to
another end. The maxims of Macchiavelli's "Prince" thus became part of
the political programme of the Jesuits.

In 1550 the Duke of Gandia went to Rome to cast himself at the feet of
the Pope and to become a member of the Order. Paul III, brother of
Giulia Farnese, had just died, and del Monte as Julius III had ascended
the papal throne. Ercole II, cousin of Don Francesco, still occupied the
ducal throne of Ferrara. He remembered the relationship and invited the
traveler to stop at his city on his way to Rome. Francesco spent three
days at the court of Lucretia's son, where he was received by Renee.
Whether Loyola's brilliant pupil had any knowledge of the religious
attitude of Calvin's friend is not known. The presence of this man in
Savonarola's native city and at Lucretia's former residence is, on
account of the contrast, remarkable. Francesco left for Rome almost
immediately, and then returned to Spain. On the death of Lainez, in
1565, he became general,--the third in order,--of the Society of Jesus.
He still held this position at the time of his death, which occurred in
Rome in the year 1572. The Church pronounced him holy, and thus a
descendant of Alexander VI became a saint.[248]

The descendants of this Borgia married into the greatest families of
Spain. His eldest son, Don Carlos, Duke of Gandia, married Donna
Maddalena, daughter of the Count of Oliva, of the house of Centelles,
and thus the family to which Lucretia's first suitor belonged, after the
lapse of fifty years, became connected with the Borgias. The Gandia
branch survived until the eighteenth century, when there were two
cardinals of the name of Borgia who were members of it.

Ercole II did not discover the heretical tendencies of his wife Renee
until 1554, when he placed her in a convent. The noble princess remained
true to the Reformation. As the Inquisition stamped out the reform
movement in Ferrara while her son was reigning duke, she returned to
France, where she lived with the Huguenots in her Castle of Montargis,
dying in 1575. It is worthy of note that the Duke of Guise was her
son-in-law.

Renee had borne her husband several children,--the hereditary Prince
Alfonso Luigi, w