The moral sense of the Italians expressed itself after Alexander’s death in the legend of a devil, who had carried off his soul.  Burchard, Giustiniani, Sanudo, and others mention this incident with apparent belief.  But a letter from the Marquis of Mantua to his wife, dated September 22, 1503, gives the fullest particulars:  ’In his sickness the Pope talked in such a way that those who did not know what was in his mind thought him wandering, though he spoke with great feeling, and his words were:  I will come; it is but right; wait yet a little while.  Those who were privy to his secret thought, explained that, after the death of Innocent, while the Conclave was sitting, he bargained with the devil for the Papacy at the price of his soul; and among the agreements was this, that he should hold the See twelve years, which he did, with the addition of four days; and some attest they saw seven devils in the room at the moment that he breathed his last.’  Mere old wives’ tales; yet they mark the point to which the credit of the Borgia had fallen, even in Italy, since the hour when the humanists had praised his godlike carriage and heroic mien upon the day of his election.

Thus, overreaching themselves, ended this pair of villains—­the most notable adventurers who ever played their part upon the stage of the great world.  The fruit of so many crimes and such persistent effort was reaped by their enemy, Giuliano della Rovere, for whose benefit the nobles of the Roman state and the despots of Romagna had been extirpated.[1] Alexander had proved the old order of Catholicity to be untenable.  The Reformation was imperiously demanded.  His very vices spurred the spirit of humanity to freedom.  Before a saintly Pontiff the new age might still have trembled in superstitious reverence.  The Borgia to all logical intellects rendered the pretensions of a Pope to sway the souls of men ridiculous.  This is an excuse for dwelling so long upon the spectacle of his enormities.  Better than any other series of facts, they illustrate, not only the corruption of society, and the separation between morality and religion in Italy, but also the absurdity of that Church policy which in the age of the Renaissance confined the action of the head of Christendom to the narrow interests of a brood of parvenus and bastards.

    [1] Cesare, it must be remembered, had ostensibly reduced the
    cities of Lombardy, Romagna, and the March, as Gonfalonier of
    the Church.

Of Pius III., who reigned for a few days after Alexander, no account need be taken.  Giuliano della Rovere was made Pope in 1503.  Whatever opinion may be formed of him considered as the high-priest of the Christian faith, there can be no doubt that Julius II. was one of the greatest figures of the Renaissance, and that his name, instead of that of Leo X., should by right be given to the golden age of letters and of arts in Rome.  He stamped the century with the impress of a powerful personality.  It is