Alexander VI (real name Rodrigo Borgia) was Pope from 1492 to 1503. He was born in 1431 at Valencia, in Spain, and died in 1503. When he was only twenty-five years of age his uncle, PopeCalixtus III, made him a cardinal, and shortly afterwards appointed him to the dignified and lucrative office of vice-chancellor. By bribery he prepared his way to the papal throne, which he attained in 1492, after the death of Innocent VIII.
In 1493 he issued a bull dividing the non-Christian world into two parts, Spain to have the western half and Portugal the eastern. This line of division was to be a meridian 100 leagues west of the Azores and Cape Verde Islands, but in 1494 was moved to a meridian 370 leagues west of the Cape Verde Islands.
At the time of Alexander's crowning as pope, both the authority and revenues of the popes were much impaired, and he set himself to reduce the power of the Italian princes, and seize upon their possessions for the benefit of his own family. To effect this end he is said not to have scrupled to use the vilest means, including poison and assassination. His policy, foreign as well as domestic, was faithless and base, and his private life was stained by sensuality. He understood how to extract immense sums of money from all Christian countries under various pretexts. He sold indulgences, and set aside, in favour of himself, the wills of several cardinals. His excesses roused against him the powerful eloquence of Savonarola, who, by pen and pulpit, urged his deposition, but had to meet his death at the stake in 1498. Not long after his election Alexander had the honour of deciding the dispute between the kings of Portugal and Castile concerning their respective claims to the foreign countries recently discovered. His son, Cesare Borgia, and his daughter Lucrezia Borgia, are equally notorious with himself. Research Alexander VI
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