The Family - Mario Puzo [9]
Though he had done his duty to his three earlier children by courtesans, Rodrigo Borgia focused his future aspirations on the children he’d had with Vanozza. Cesare, Juan, and Lucrezia. He had a much more difficult time establishing a strong connection to his youngest son, Jofre. Then to excuse himself for this lack of fatherly affection, he would attempt to reason. It was then that he would wonder if this youngest boy was his own. For who can truly know what secrets lie hidden in the heart of a woman?
Cardinal Borgia had been vice-chancellor, or papal lawyer, for several Popes. He had served the reigning Pope, Pope Innocent, for eight years, and during that time he had done everything possible to increase the power and legitimacy of the papacy.
But when poor Pope Innocent lay dying, not even fresh mother’s milk or transfusions of blood from three young boys could save his life. The boys had been paid one ducat each, but when the medical experiment failed and led to disaster, they were rewarded by elaborate funerals and their families were given forty ducats each.
Unfortunately Pope Innocent had left the papal treasury empty, and the Holy Church bare to the insults of the Catholic king of Spain and the most Christian king of France. Papal finances were in such disorder that the Holy Father himself had been forced to pawn his miter, or sacred hat, in order to buy palms to distribute on Palm Sunday. Contrary to the advice of Rodrigo Borgia, he had allowed the rulers of Milan, Naples, Venice, Florence, and the other city-states and fiefdoms to delay their tributes to the church treasuries, and he himself had squandered fortunes preparing for Crusades on which no one wished to venture.
Only a mastermind of strategy and finance would be able to restore the Holy Catholic Church to its former glory. But who would that be? Everyone wondered. Yet it was only the sacred college of cardinals, guided by the Holy Ghost and inspired by the divine, that would be left to decide. For a Pope could be no ordinary man, he must be one sent from the heavens.
On August 6, 1492, in the great hall of the Sistine Chapel, with a Swiss Guard, Roman noblemen, and foreign ambassadors to protect them from influence or intruders, the conclave of the college of cardinals began to do the work of electing the new Pope.
According to tradition, once Pope Innocent had died, all the princes of the church, the twenty-three members of the sacred college, gathered to elect the God-man who would serve as the Keeper of the Keys, the successor to Saint Peter, the Holy Vicar of Christ on Earth. He must be not only the spiritual leader of the Holy Roman Catholic Church, but also the earthly leader of the Papal States. As such he must possess enormous intelligence, the ability to lead men and armies, and the talent to negotiate to his advantage with the rulers of the local provinces as well as foreign kings and princes.
The Holy Tiara of the Pope carried with it the prospect of vast riches as well as the responsibility to unify or fragment even further that conglomeration of feudal city-states and provinces that made up the center of the Italian peninsula. And so, even before Pope Innocent had died, deals had been made, properties and titles had been promised, and certain loyalties had been negotiated in order to ensure the election of particular cardinals.
Within the select group of cardinals considered papable, there were only a few who were worthy: Cardinal Ascanio Sforza from Milan, Cardinal Cibo of Venice, Cardinal