Meanwhile the Cardinals had not been idle.  The tedious leisure of Innocent’s long lethargy was employed by them in active simony.  Simony, it may be said in passing, gave the great Italian families a direct interest in the election of the richest and most paying candidate.  It served the turn of a man like Ascanio Sforza to fatten the golden goose that laid such eggs, before he killed it—­in other words, to take the bribes of Innocent and Alexander, while deferring for a future time his own election.  All the Cardinals, with the exception of Roderigo Borgia,[1] were the creatures of Sixtus or of Innocent.  Having bought their hats with gold, they were now disposed to sell their votes to the highest bidder.  The Borgia was the richest, strongest, wisest, and most worldly of them all.  He ascertained exactly what the price of each suffrage would be, and laid his plans accordingly.  The Cardinal Ascanio Sforza, brother of the Duke of Milan, would accept the lucrative post of Vice-Chancellor.  The Cardinal Orsini would be satisfied with the Borgia Palaces at Rome and the Castles of Monticello and Saviano.  The Cardinal Colonna had a mind for the Abbey of Subbiaco with its fortresses.  The Cardinal of S. Angelo preferred the comfortable Bishopric of Porto with its palace stocked with choice wines.  The Cardinal of Parma would take Nepi.  The Cardinal of Genoa was bribable with the Church of S. Maria in Via Lata.  Less influential members of the Conclave sold themselves for gold; to meet their demands the Borgia sent Ascanio Sforza four mules laden with coin in open day, requesting him to distribute it in proper portions to the voters.  The fiery Giuliano della Rovere remained implacable and obdurate.  In the Borgia his vehement temperament perceived a fit antagonist.  The armor which he donned in their first encounters he never doffed, but waged fierce war with the whole brood of Borgias at Ostia, at the French Court, in Romagna, wherever and whenever he found opportunity.[2] He and five other Cardinals—­among them his cousin Raphael Riario—­refused to sell their votes.  But Roderigo Borgia, having corrupted the rest of the college, assumed the mantle of S. Peter in 1492, with the ever-memorable title of Alexander VI.

[1] Roderigo was the son of Isabella Borgia, niece of Pope Calixtus III., by her marriage with Joffre Lenzuoli.  He took the name of Borgia, when he came to Rome to be made Cardinal, and to share in his uncle’s greatness.

[2] The marriage of his nephew Nicolo della Rovere to Laura, the daughter of Alexander VI. by Giulia Bella, in 1505, long after the Borgia family had lost its hold on Italy, is a curious and unexplained incident.

Rome rejoiced.  The Holy City attired herself in festival array, exhibiting on every flag and balcony the Bull of the house of Borgia, and crying like the Egyptians when they found Apis:—­

  Vive diu Bos!  Vive diu Bos!  Borgia vive! 
    Vivit Alexander:  Roma beata manet.