While the French were marching on Naples there arose a hostile coalition which compelled them to beat a hasty retreat— the Holy League of March 1495. All their conquests were lost ; and the pope now determined to chastise the Orsini family, whose treachery had thrown him into the hands of the French. The project miscarried, and on Jan. 25, 1497, the papal forces were defeated.
In June occurred the mysterious assassination of the duke of Gandia, which appeared for a while to mark the turning-point in Alexander's life. For some time he entertained serious thoughts of reformation ; but the matter was first postponed and then for gotten. The last state now became worse than the first, as Alexander fell more and more under the spell of the infamous Cesare Borgia. One scandal followed hard on the other, and opposition naturally sprang up. Unfortunately, Savonarola, the head of that opposition, transgressed all bounds in his well-meant zeal. He refused to yield the pope that obedience to which he was doubly pledged as a priest and the member of an order. of ter his excommunication (May 12, 1497) he continued to exercise the functions of his office, under the shelter of the secular arm. In the end he demanded a council for the deposition of the pope. His fall soon followed, when he had lost all ground in Florence; and his execution on May 23, 1498, freed Alexander from a formidable enemy (see SAVONAROLA).
After the death of Charles VIII. Alexander entered into an agreement and alliance with his successor, Louis XII. The fruits of this compact were reaped by Cesare Borgia, who resigned his cardinal's hat, became duke of Valentinois, annihilated the minor nobles of the papal State, and made himself the true dictator of Rome. His soaring plans were destroyed by the death of Alexander VI., whq met his end on Aug. 18, 1503.
The only bright pages in the dark chapter of Alexander's pope dom are his efforts on behalf of the Turkish war (1499-1502), his activity for the diffusion of Christianity in America, and his judicial awards (May 3-4, 1493) on the question of the colonial empires of Spain and Portugal, by which he avoided a bloody war. It is folly to speak of a donation of lands which did not belong to the pope, or to maintain that the freedom of the Ameri cans was extinguished by the decision of Alexander VI. The expression "donation" simply referred to what had already been won under just title: the decree contained a deed of gift, but it was an adjustment between the Powers concerned and the other European princes, not a parcelling out of the New World and its inhabitants. The monarchs on whom the privilegium was conferred received a right of priority with respect to the provinces first discovered by them. Precisely as to-day inventions are guarded by patents, and literary and artistic creations by the law of copyright, so, at that period, the papal bull and the pro tection of the Roman Church were an effective means for ensuring that a country should reap where she had sown and should main tain the territory she had discovered and conquered by arduous efforts ; while other claimants, with predatory designs, were warned back by the ecclesiastical censorship. In the Vatican the memory
of Alexander VI. is still perpetuated by the Appartamenta Borgia, decorated by Pinturicchio with magnificent frescoes, and since restored by Leo XIII.