Editing Pope Alexander VI (section)

== Legacy ==
{{Too few opinions|section|date=April 2022}}
[[File:A Glass of Wine with Caesar Borgia - John Collier.jpg|thumb|300px|''A Glass of Wine with Caesar Borgia'' (1893) by [[John Collier (Pre-Raphaelite painter)|John Collier]]. From left: [[Cesare Borgia]], [[Lucrezia Borgia]], Pope Alexander VI, and a young man holding an empty glass. The painting represents the popular view of the treacherous nature of the [[House of Borgia|Borgias]]—the implication being that the young man cannot be sure that the wine is not poisoned.]]
[[File:Alexander VI - Pinturicchio detail.jpg|thumb|right|Detail of fresco ''Resurrection'' in the Borgia Apartments, showing Alexander VI humbly in prayer<ref>{{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20140408224643/http://www.thecatholicdormitory.com/2014/01/11/paintings-of-a-pope/ Paintings of a Pope]}}. Publisher: The Catholic Dormitory.</ref>]]
Following the death of Alexander VI, his rival and successor [[Julius II]] said on the day of his election: "I will not live in the same rooms as the Borgias lived. He desecrated the Holy Church as none before."<ref name="NC2">{{harvp|Cawthorne|1996|p=219}}</ref> The [[Borgia Apartments]] remained sealed until the 19th century.<ref name="NC2" />

Catholic apologists of Alexander VI have argued that the behaviors he receives criticism for were not atypical of the period. [[Joseph de Maistre|De Maistre]], in his work ''Du Pape'', "The latter are forgiven nothing, because everything is expected from them, wherefore the vices lightly passed over in a [[Louis XIV of France|Louis XIV]] become most offensive and scandalous in an Alexander VI."<ref>{{cite book|publisher=[[Knights of Columbus]] Catholic Truth Committee|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=THEqAAAAMAAJ|title=The Catholic Encyclopedia: an international work of reference on the constitution, doctrine, discipline, and history of the Catholic Church|volume=1|date=1907|page=294}}</ref>

Alexander VI had sought reforms of the increasingly irresponsible Curia, putting together a group of his most pious cardinals in order to move the process along. The planned reforms included new rules on the sale of Church property, the limiting of cardinals to one diocese, and stricter moral codes for clergy, though these were not implemented.{{#tag:ref|"As part of his proposed new reforms, Alexander now nominated a commission of six of the most pious cardinals, and less than two months later a draft Bull of Reformation had been prepared. The pope was banned from selling benefices and from transferring Church property to laypersons. As for the cardinals, who were to be drawn from all the nations, none should possess more than one bishopric; their households were limited to eighty people and thirty horses; they were banned from hunting, theaters, carnivals, and tournaments; and their funeral expenses were not to exceed 1,500 ducats. The lesser clergy were similarly reined in: they must refuse all bribes and put away their concubines."<ref>{{harvp|Norwich|2011|pp=268–269}}</ref>|group=Note}}

Alexander VI was known for his patronage of the arts, and in his days a new architectural era was initiated in Rome with the coming of [[Donato Bramante|Bramante]]. [[Raffaello Santi|Raphael]], [[Michelangelo]], and [[Pinturicchio]] all worked for him.<ref name="Villari" /> He commissioned Pinturicchio to lavishly paint a suite of rooms in the Apostolic Palace in the Vatican, which are today known as the [[Borgia Apartments]]. He took a great interest in theatrics, and he even had [[Plautus]]'s ''[[Menaechmi]]'' performed in his apartments.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://archive.org/stream/historyofthepope05pastuoft#page/124/mode/2up |title=Ludwig von Pastor, ''History of the Popes'', Vol. 5, p. 124 |year=1899 |quote="Under Alexander VI. the taste for theatrical representations made great progress. Plays, for the most part of an extremely objectionable character, were a prominent feature in all court festivities, and also in the Carnival amusements, in which Alexander took a great interest. In 1502 the Pope had the Menaechmi performed in his own apartments."}}</ref>

In addition to the arts, Alexander VI also encouraged the development of education. In 1495, he issued a [[papal bull]] at the request of [[William Elphinstone]], Bishop of Aberdeen, and [[James IV of Scotland]], founding [[King's College, Aberdeen]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.abdn.ac.uk/about/campus/kings-58.php |title=King's College: About |publisher=University of Aberdeen |access-date=20 June 2020 }}</ref> King's College now forms an integral element of the [[University of Aberdeen]]. Alexander VI also, in 1501, approved the [[University of Valencia]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.uv.es/uvweb/college/en/university/us/history-1285853103887.html|title=History of the UV|website=www.uv.es}}</ref><ref>{{cite web| url = http://www.valencia.edu/~cultura/e/edificilanau02fundacioing.htm| title = La Nau Building – Foundation of the ''Estudi General''}}</ref>

Alexander VI, whom papal rival and successor [[Giuliano della Rovere]] alleged without evidence was a [[marrano]], demonstrated relatively benign treatment of Jews. After the 1492 [[expulsion of the Jews from Spain]], some 9,000 impoverished [[Iberian Jews]] arrived at the borders of the [[Papal States]]. Alexander welcomed them into Rome, declaring that they were "permitted to lead their life, free from interference from Christians, to continue in their own rites, to gain wealth, and to enjoy many other privileges". He similarly allowed the immigration of [[Expulsion of the Jews from Portugal|Jews expelled from Portugal]] in 1497 and from Provence in 1498.<ref>{{harvp|Carroll|2002|pp=363–364}}</ref>

[[Bohuslav Hasištejnský z Lobkovic]], a [[Bohemia]]n [[humanism|humanist]] poet (1461–1510), wrote a hostile epitaph on Alexander in Latin:<ref>Bohuslav Hasištejnský z Lobkovic: ''Carmina selecta'', Praha 1996, p.14</ref>

{{verse translation
|'''Epitaphium Alexandri Papae'''

{{Poetically break lines|Cui tranquilla quies odio, cui proelia cordi
et rixa et caedes seditioque fuit,
mortuus hac recubat populis gaudentibus urna
pastor Alexander, maxima Roma, tuus.
Vos, Erebi proceres, vos caeli claudite portas
atque Animam vestris hanc prohibete locis.
In Styga nam veniens pacem turbabit Averni,
committet superos, si petat astra, poli.}}
|'''Epitaph to Pope Alexander'''

{{Poetically break lines|One who hated peace and quiet,
and who loved battles, strife, murder, and treason,
Lies in this urn as all peoples rejoice,
Alexander, thy shepherd, o greatest Rome.
Ye prelates of [[Erebus]], close the doors of Heaven
and prohibit this Soul from your realm.
If it enters [[Styx]], it will disrupt the peace of [[Avernus]],
and if it seeks heaven it will set the inhabitants of the sky against each other.}}
}}

Despite Julius II's hostility, the Roman barons and Romagna vicars were never again to be the same problem for the papacy and Julius' successes owe much to the framework laid by the Borgias.<ref>{{harvp|Mallett|1981|p=265}}</ref> Unlike Julius, Alexander never made war unless absolutely necessary, preferring negotiation and diplomacy.<ref>{{harvp|Mallett|1981|loc=passim}} {{Page needed|date=May 2017}}</ref>

Alexander Lee argues that the crimes attributed to the Borgias were exaggerated by contemporaries because they were outsiders expanding their holdings at the expense of the Italians, that they were Spaniards when it was felt that Spain had too much control on the Italian peninsula, and that after the death of Alexander the family lost its influence and therefore any incentive for anyone to defend them.<ref>{{cite web| url = https://www.historytoday.com/alexander-lee/were-borgias-really-so-bad| title = Lee, Alexander. "Were the Borgias Really So Bad?", ''History Today'', 1 October 2013}}</ref>

On the other hand, two of Alexander's successors, [[Sixtus V]] and [[Urban VIII]], described him as one of the most outstanding popes since [[Saint Peter]].<ref>{{harvp|Mallett|1981|p=9}}</ref>