elds, the twelve riderless white horses with golden bridles, which
were led along, and all the other pomp and parade!" Weeks would be
required for arranging a pageant like this at the present time; but the
Pope could improvise it in the twinkling of an eye, for the actors and
their costumes were always ready. He set it in motion for the sole
purpose of showing himself to the Romans, and in order that his majesty
might lend additional brilliancy to a popular holiday.

Ferno depicted the Pope himself as a demi-god coming forth to his
people. "Upon a snow-white horse he sat, serene of countenance and of
surpassing dignity; thus he showed himself to the people, and blessed
them; thus he was seen of all. His glance fell upon them and filled
every heart with joy. And so his appearance was of good augury for
everyone. How wonderful is his tranquil bearing! And how noble his
faultless face! His glance, how frank! How greatly does the honor which
we feel for him increase when we behold his beauty and vigor of body!"
Alexander the Great would have been described in just such terms by
Ferno. This was the idolatry which was always accorded the papacy, and
no one asked what was the inner and personal life of the glittering
idol.

On the occasion of his coronation Alexander appointed his son Caesar, a
youth of sixteen, Bishop of Valencia. This he did without being sure of
the sanction of Ferdinand the Catholic, who, in fact, for a long time
did endeavor to withhold it; but he finally yielded, and the Borgias
consequently got the first bishopric in Spain into their hereditary
possession. Caesar was not in Rome at the time his father received the
tiara. On the twenty-second of August, eleven days after Alexander's
election, Manfredi, ambassador from Ferrara to Florence, wrote the
Duchess Eleonora d'Este: "The Pope's son, the Bishop of Pamplona, who
has been attending the University of Pisa, left there by the Pope's
orders yesterday morning, and has gone to the castle of Spoleto."

The fifth of October Caesar was still there, for on that date he wrote a
letter to Piero de' Medici from that place. This epistle to Lorenzo's
son, the brother of Cardinal Giovanni, shows that the greatest
confidence existed between him and Caesar, who says in it that, on
account of his sudden departure from Pisa, he had been unable to
communicate orally with him, and that his preceptor, Juan Vera, would
have to represent him. He recommended his trusted fam