Editing Pope Alexander VI (section)

== Death ==
[[File:Tomb of Popes Borja ( Callisto III and Alessandro VI).jpg|thumb|[[List of extant papal tombs#15th century|The tomb of Pope Alexander VI]]]]
[[File:Kmska Titiaan - Jacopo Pesaro bisschop van Paphos voorgesteld door paus Alexander VI Borgia aan de heilige Petrus - 28-02-2010 13-56-55.jpg|thumb|''[[Jacopo Pesaro being presented by Pope Alexander VI to Saint Peter]]'', painting by [[Titian]] ]]

[[Cesare Borgia|Cesare]] was preparing for another expedition in August 1503 when, after he and his father had dined with Cardinal Adriano Castellesi on 6 August, they were taken ill with fever a few days later. Cesare, who "lay in bed, his skin peeling and his face suffused to a violet colour"<ref>''The Borgias'', 1981, [[Georgina Masson]], Marion Johnson, Penguin, {{ISBN|0-14-139075-1}} {{ISBN|978-0-14-139075-8}}, p. 179.</ref> as a consequence of certain drastic measures to save him, eventually recovered; but the aged Pontiff apparently had little chance. [[Johann Burchard|Burchard's]] ''Diary'' provides a few details of the pope's final illness and death at age 72:<ref>Johann Burchard, 1921, ''Pope Alexander VI and His Court: Extracts from the Latin Diary of Johannes Burchardus'', F. L. Glaser, tr., N.L. Brown, New York, p. 179. [https://archive.org/details/PopeAlexanderVIAndHisCourt/page/n215 <!-- quote="12th of August, 1503, the Pope fell ill in the morning". -->]</ref>

<blockquote>Saturday, 12 August 1503, the pope fell ill in the morning. After the hour of vespers, between six and seven o'clock a fever appeared and remained permanently. On 15 August thirteen ounces of blood were drawn from him and the [[tertian ague]] supervened. On Thursday, 17 August, at nine o'clock in the forenoon he took medicine. On Friday, the 18th, between nine and ten o'clock he confessed to the Bishop Gamboa of Carignola, who then read Mass to him. After his Communion he gave the Eucharist to the pope who was sitting in bed. Then he ended the Mass at which were present five cardinals, Serra, Juan and Francesco Borgia, Casanova and Loris. The pope told them that he felt very bad. At the hour of vespers after Gamboa had given him Extreme Unction, he died.</blockquote>

As for his true faults{{clarify|date=May 2024}}, known only to his confessor, Pope Alexander VI apparently died genuinely repentant.{{#tag:ref|"[T]here is every reason to believe," writes the ''[[Dublin Review (Catholic periodical)|Dublin Review]],'' that Pope Alexander VI died "in sentiments of piety and devotion."<ref>[[Nicholas Wiseman|Nicholas Patrick Wiseman]], ed., 1858, ''The Dublin Review'', London, Thomas Richardson & Son, vol. 45, p. 351. [https://books.google.com/books?id=IdAsAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA351]</ref>|group=Note}} The bishop of [[Roman Catholic Diocese of Gallipoli|Gallipoli]], Alexis Celadoni, spoke of the pontiff's contrition during his funeral oration{{#tag:ref|The historical value of Bishop Celadoni's funeral oration is said to be immense: "On 16 Sept 1503 Burchardus records in his diary that Alexius Celadenus or Celadonius, bishop of Gallipoli, delivered a discourse to the cardinals about to enter into conclave for the election of a successor to Pope Alexander VI. ''Et fuit tediosa et longa oratio''. Burchardus's most recent editor, Thuasne, states that this oration exists in manuscript in the Bibliothèque Nationale&nbsp;... He omits to observe that, granting that the discourse may have been too long for the cardinals, the longer the better for us, inasmuch as it ''contains an account of Pope Alexander of almost unique value,'' not merely as the judgment of a contemporary, but as delivered in public before an audience of contemporaries whose station in the church had brought them into almost daily intercourse with the deceased pope, and before whom ''any serious misrepresentation would have been impossible''&nbsp;..."<ref>"A Contemporary Oration on Pope Alexander VI", ''The English Historical Review'', 1892, vol. 7, p. 318.</ref><ref>See also ''The Oration of Alexis Celadoni'', in ''The Ideal Renaissance Pope: Funeral Oratory from the Papal Court'', John M. MacManamon, S.J., ''Archivum Historiae Pontificiae,'' 1976, Vol. 14. pp. 54ff.</ref>|group=Note}} to the electors of Alexander's successor, [[Pope Pius III]]:<ref>Peter de Roo, 1924, ''Material for a History of Pope Alexander VI'', vol. 5, p. 89, note. 112. [http://www.attomelani.net/?page+id=143] (Word frequency and page number of specific words and phrases for all 5 vols. at [[HathiTrust]]) [http://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/001925194]</ref>{{#tag:ref|Latin text: "Dum graviter aegrotaret, factorum conscientia punctus contrito dolentique animo ad lachrymas ut audio fusus, sacrosanctum communionis corpus sua sponte, dilutis prius diligentissima confessione peccatis, petierit, et alia sacramenta&nbsp;..."<ref>Alexis Celadoni (Alexius Celadonius, Celadeni, 1451–1517), Bishop of Gallipoli, Italy (1494–1508), ''Alexii Celadeni Episcopi Gallipolitani Oratio ad sacrum cardinalium senatum ingressurum ad novum pontificem eligendum'', Publisher: Rome: Johann Besicken, 1503. [https://books.google.com/books?id=NUk-AAAAcAAJ&q=sponte&pg=PP7]</ref>|group=Note}}

<blockquote>When at last the pope was suffering from a very severe sickness, he spontaneously requested, one after another, each of the last sacraments. He first made a very careful confession of his sins, with a contrite heart, and was affected even to the shedding of tears, I am told; then he received in Communion the most Sacred Body and Extreme Unction was administered to him.</blockquote>

The [[interregnum]] witnessed again the ancient "tradition" of violence and rioting.{{#tag:ref|"Throughout the Middle Ages a 'tradition' or 'custom' involving pillaging was attached to the death and election of high-ranking prelates."<ref>Joëlle Rollo-Koster, 2008, ''Raiding Saint Peter: Empty Sees, Violence, and the Initiation of the Great Western Schism (1378)'', Leiden; Boston: Brill, {{ISBN|90-04-16560-6}} {{ISBN|978-90-04-16560-1}}, ''Introduction'', p. 1. [https://books.google.com/books?id=fOrzTh-Fca0C&dq=%22In+the+words+of+various+narrators+throughout+the+Middle+Ages%22&pg=PA1]</ref> And as early as 633, "the [[Fourth Council of Toledo]] condemned the violence of the [[interregnum]]."<ref>{{harvp|Bertelli|2001|loc=[https://books.google.com/books?id=dSmdjGuP6SEC&dq=%22in+633+the+Fourth+Council+of+Toledo+condemned+the+violence+of+the+interregnum&pg=PA41 p. 41]}}</ref> Nor were the Romans alone guilty of such misbehavior. In the eleventh century, [[Peter Damian]], writing to the clergy and people of [[Osimo]], sharply reproved the "perverse and wholly detestable practice of certain people, who at the death of the bishop break in like enemies and rob his house, like thieves make off with his belongings, set fire to the homes on his estate, and with fierce and savage barbarity cut down his grape vines and orchards".<ref>Letter 35, Easter Synod, 1050. ''Letters 31–60'', Owen J. Blum (Translator), 1990, Catholic University of America Press, {{ISBN|0-8132-0707-X}} {{ISBN|978-0-8132-0707-0}}, p. 61. [https://books.google.com/books?id=3PkYNcU0k94C&pg=PA61]</ref>|group=Note}} Cesare, too ill to attend to the business himself, sent [[Micheletto Corella|Don Micheletto]], his chief ''bravo'', to seize the pope's treasures before the death was publicly announced. The next day the body was exhibited to the people and clergy of Rome, but was covered by an "old tapestry" ("antiquo tapete"), having become greatly disfigured by rapid decomposition. According to [[Raffaello Maffei|Raphael Volterrano]]: "It was a revolting scene to look at that deformed, blackened corpse, prodigiously swelled, and exhaling an infectious smell; his lips and nose were covered with brown drivel, his mouth was opened very widely, and his tongue, inflated by poison, ... therefore no fanatic or devotee dared to kiss his feet or hands, as custom would have required."<ref name="NC">{{harvp|Cawthorne|1996|p=218}}</ref> The Venetian ambassador stated that the body was "the ugliest, most monstrous and horrible dead body that was ever seen, without any form or likeness of humanity".<ref name="NC" /> [[Ludwig von Pastor]] insists that the decomposition was "perfectly natural", owing to the summer heat.{{#tag:ref|"In consequence of the simultaneous illness of both the Pope and his son, and the rapid decomposition of the body, which, considering the heat of the weather, was perfectly natural, the cry of poison was raised at once; but on 19 August the Mantuan Envoy writes that there was no sort of ground for supposing this."<ref>{{cite web| url = https://archive.org/stream/historyofthepope06pastuoft#page/134/mode/2up| title = Ludwig von Pastor, History of the Popes, Vol. 6, p. 135| year = 1899}}</ref>|group=Note}}

Commentaries{{who|date=June 2021}} attribute the pope's death to [[malaria]], then prevalent in Rome, or to another such pestilence.<ref name="poison1">{{harvp|Norwich|2011|p=273}}</ref> One contemporary official wrote home that there was little surprise that Alexander and Cesare had both fallen ill, as the [[Miasma theory of disease|bad air]] had led to many in Rome, and especially in the [[Roman Curia]], becoming sick.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/cu31924028319956|quote=per la mala condictione de aere.|title=The Life of Cesare Borgia: Of France, Duke of Valentinois and Romagna, Prince of Andria and Venafri, Count of Dyois, Lord of Piombino, Camerino, and Urbino, Gonfalonier and Captain-general of Holy Church: a History and Some Criticisms|last=Sabatini|first=Rafael|publisher=John Lane|year=1914|location=New York|pages=[https://archive.org/details/cu31924028319956/page/n412 407]|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kW1OAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA519|title=History of the City of Rome in the Middle Ages|last=Gregorovius|first=Ferdinand|publisher=G. Bell & sons|year=1900|volume=7, part 2 |location=London|page=519|language=en|translator-last=Hamilton|translator-first=Annie}}</ref>

After a short stay, the body was removed from the crypts of St. Peter's and installed in the less well-known Spanish national church of [[Santa Maria in Monserrato degli Spagnoli]].