Story of Civilization ~ Will & Ariel Durant

[Brian]

"I want to know what were the steps by which
man passed from barbarism to civilization (Voltaire)"

What are our origins? Where are we now? Where are we headed? Share your thoughts with us!

  Volume Five (The Renaissance)

       
"Four elements constitute Civilization -- economic provision, political organization, moral traditions, and the pursuit of knowledge and the arts. "
  
"I shall proceed as rapidly as time and circumstances will permit, hoping that a few of my contemporaries will care to grow old with me while learning. "
        
"These volumes may help some of our children to understand and enjoy the infinite riches of their inheritance."
        
"Civilization begins where chaos and insecurity ends."

In this volume the  term "Renaissance" refers only to Italy. Will Durant studies the growth of industry, the rise of banking families like the Medici, the conflicts of labor and capital and considers the reasons why Italy was the first nation, and Florence the first city in Italy, to feel the awakening of the modern mind. He follows the cultural flowering from Florence to Milan, Mantua, Ferrata, Verona and Venice, Padua and Parma, Bologna, Rimini, Urbino, Perugia, Siena, and Naples.  

In each city of Italy we witness a colorful pageant of princes, queeens, dukes, or doges -- of poets, historians, scientists, and philosophers -- of painters, sculptors, engravers, illuminators, potters, and architects -- of industry, education, manners, morals, crime, and dress -- of women and love and marriage -- of epidemics, famines, earthquakes, and death.

Dr. Durant draws vivid vignettes -- of Petrarch, Boccaccio, Cosimo de' Medici, Fra Angelico, Donatello, Beatrice and Isabella d'Este, Leonardo da Vinci, Piero della Francesca, Signorelli, Perugino, Giovanni Bellini, Giorgione, Aldus Manutius, Correggio, Alexander VI, Caesar and Lucrezia Borgia, Julius II, Leo X, Raphael, and Michelangelo.

The Renaissance, by recalling classic culture, ended the thousand year rule of the Oriental mind in Europe.

This volume, then, is about YOU. Join our group daily and listen to what Durant and the rest of us are saying. Better yet, share with us your opinions.

SeniorLearn Contact: JoanK & Discussion Facilitator: Trevor
 

JoanK - - -  Justin did not say, and I did not ask him.  
I got the feeling that he was "very busy" and decided to let him be.
I don't think he will be posting for quite a while.

Brian

[JoanK]

Hopefully, we'll be able to read the book when it comes out.

I'm just transferring our heading to new pages, but not trying to keep it up to date as Robby did. Should I just get rid of the part that tells us where we are?

[Brian]

Should I just get rid of the part that tells us where we are?

JoanK - - -  if it was my choice, I would leave it in, as it gives
a place for people to focus in on our progress in reading the book.

What does anyone else think ?  Trevor ?

Brian

[mabel1015j]

I agree Brian, perhaps just the "green" section, but not the explanations?.......jean

[JoanK]

If we want to leave it in, someone will else will have to update it, or tell me what to put.

[3kings(Trevor)]

Robby had left the heading at the top of the pages unchanged for quite some time. Where he left, and I began, we had reached Pius II and Paul II. That's quite a way on from Savonarola, in Robby's last heading. I think the green part of the main heading can be dropped from now on, but keep the rest of it.

I will continue to give the chapter and page numbers from the volume at the top of each post I enter. That places where we are. And I follow on in sequence through the Volume.++ Trevor.

[JoanK]

Savonarola is gone, but not the long description following. I just reread it, and was struck by this sentance:

"The Renaissance, by recalling classic culture, ended the thousand year rule of the Oriental mind in Europe".

Did the "Oriental mind" rule in Europe for 1000 years? Is that referring to the Bible? We probably discussed it at te time, but I don't remember.

[mabel1015j]

Joan - two points seem to be exaggerated in that statement,"Europe" and "a thousand yrs".

Of course, i'm not sure what "the Oriental mind" means.

But Muslims or Moors were in control of some parts of Spain from the 700's to 1492. Ferdinand and Isabella famously united Spain under their rule in 1492. Spain, of course, is not all of Europe and 700 yrs is not a thousand.

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islam_in_Spain

But thank goodness for the Muslims preserving much of the Greek and Roman knowledge and bringing it to Europe,  because the "Dark Ages" of Europe had wiped out much of that
knowledge. The philosophers, mathematicians, artists, scientists and writers of the Renaissance could piggy- back the knowlegde carried by the Moors thru the Iberian Penninsula or thru the " Near East", both the Greco-roman knowledge and that of the Arab/Islam history.

Jean
Jean

[3kings(Trevor)]

Durant's  SoC
The Roman Renaissance 1378-1512

Chapter XVI The Borgias
Alexander VI   Pages 406-408.



The choice of the conclave was also the choice of the people. Never had any papal election brought so much rejoicing., never had a coronation been so magnificent. The poulace delighted in the panoramic cavalcade of white horses, allegorical figures, tapestries and paintings, knights and grandees, troops of archers and Turkesh horsemen, seven hundred priests, cardinals colourfully clad, and finally Alexander himself, sixty-one years old but magestically straight and tall, overflowing with health and energy and pride, “serene of countenance and of surpassing dignity,” said an eyewitness, and looking like an emperor even while blessing the mutitude. Only a few sober minds, like Giuliano della Rovere and Giovanni de’ Medici, expressed some apprehension lest the new Pope, known to be a fond father, would use his power to aggrandize his family rather than to cleanse and strengthen the Church.

He began well. In the thirty-six days between the death of Innocent and the coronation of Alexander there had been two hundred and twenty known murders in Rome. The new Pope made an example of the first captured assassin; the culprit was hanged, his brother was hanged with him, and his house was pulled down. The city approved this severity; crime hid its head; order was restored in Rome, and all Italy was glad a strong hand was at the helm of the Church.

Art and literature marked time. Alexander did considerable building in and out of Rome; financed a new ceiling for Santa Maria Maggiore with a gift of American gold from Ferdinand and Isabella; remodeled the Mausoleum of Hadrian  into the fortified Castle of Sant’ Angelo, and redecorated its interior to provide cells for papal prisoners and more comfortable quarters for harassed popes.

He built between the Castle and the Vatican a long covered corridor, which gave him refuge from Chales VIII in 1494, and saved Clement VII from a Lutherian noose in the sack of Rome. Pinturicchio was engaged to adorn the Appartamento Borgia in the Vatican. Four of these six rooms were restored and opened to the public by Leo XIII. A lunette in one of them contains a vivid portrate of Alexander--  a happy face, a prosperous body, gorgeous robes. In another room a Virgin teaching  a child to read was described by Vassari as a portrait of Giulia Farnese, an alleged mistress  of the Pope. Vasari adds that the picture  also contained “ the head of  Pope Alexander adoring her,”  but no picture of him is there visible.

He rebuilt the University of Rome, called to it several distinguished teachers, and paid them with an unheard-of regularity. He liked drama, was pleased to have the students of the Roman Academy stage comedies and ballets for his family festivals.. He preferred light music to heavy philosophy . In 1501 he re-established censorship of publications by an edict requiring that no book might be printed without the approval of the local archbishop. But he allowed a wide freedom of satire and debate. He laghed off the bites of the town wits, and rejected Caesar Borgia’s proposal that such snipers should be disciplined. “Rome is a free city, “ he told the Ferrarese ambassador, “ where everyone can say or write whatever he pleases. They say much evil of me, but I don’t mind.”

His administration of Church affairs was, in the early years of his pontificate, unusually efficient. Innocent VIII had left a debt in the treasury; “it needed all the financial ability of Alexander to restore the papal finances"; it took him two years to balance the budget. The vatican staff was reduced, and expenses were curtailed, but records were strictly kept, and salaries were promptly paid. Alexander performed the laborious religious ritual of his office with fidelity, but with the impatience of a busy man.

His magister ceremoniarum was a German, Johann Burchard, who helped to perpetuate the fame and infamy of his employer by recording in a Diarium nearly all he saw, including much that Alexander would have wished unseen. To the cardinals the Pope gave as he promised in the conclave, and he was even more generous to those who, like Cardinal de’ Medici, had longest opposed him. A year after his accession he created twelve new cardinals. Several were men of real ability; some were appointed at the request of political powers that it was wise to conciliate; two were scandlously young --  Ippolito d’Este, fifteen, and Caesar Borgia, eighteen; one of them, Alessandro Farnese, owed his elevation to his sister Giulia Farnese, who was believed by many to be a mistress of the Pope.

The sharp tounged Romans, not forseeing that one day they would  acclaim Alessandro as Paul III, called him ’il cardinale della gonnella-- the cardinal of the pettycoat. The strongest of the other cardinals, Giuliano della Rovere, was displeased to find that he, who often ruled Innocent VIII, had little influence on Alexander, who made Cardinal Sforza his favourite counselor. In a huff Giuliano retired to his episcopal see at Ostia, and formed a guard of armed men. A year later he fled to France, and besought Charles VIII to invade Italy, summon a general council, and depose Alexander as a shamelessly simoniacal pope.          

[Emily]

Art and literature marked time. Alexander did considerable building in and out of Rome; financed a new ceiling for Santa Maria Maggiore with a gift of American gold from Ferdinand and Isabella

That gold would not have come from North America, but from South America. It most likely came from the Inca that the Spainsh had invaded and murdered their leader. He offered them a room full of gold to appease them, but they wanted more.

The Vatican coffers will be filled with the blood of the Inca in the form of gold.

Behind every great fortune, a crime.

Emily

[Emily]

remodeled the Mausoleum of Hadrian  into the fortified Castle of Sant’ Angelo, and redecorated its interior to provide cells for papal prisoners and more comfortable quarters for harassed popes.

He built between the Castle and the Vatican a long covered corridor, which gave him refuge

It seems strange to think of a 'church' taking prisoners, but the Vatican had never really operated as a 'church', but more like the King or Emperor over its subjects as they ruled Rome as did Caesar. They made war, condemed prisoners to die, collected taxes and did all the things a ruler does, no matter his title.

Didn't their spiritual founder say and I paraphrase, 'render unto Caesar that which is Caesar's, and unto god that which is gods.'

The church had become Caesar now wearing the Papal crown probably made of stolen gold.

Emily

[Emily]

An aside on the American gold that financed the new ceiling for Santa Maria Maggiore.

In Cuzco in 1589, Don Mancio Serra de Leguisamo — the last survivor of the original conquerors of Peru — wrote, in the preamble of his will, the following (in parts):

We found these kingdoms in such good order, and the said Incas governed them in such wise [manner] that throughout them there was not a thief, nor a vicious man, nor an adulteress, nor was a bad woman admitted among them, nor were there immoral people.

The men had honest and useful occupations. The lands, forests, mines, pastures, houses and all kinds of products were regulated and distributed in such sort that each one knew his property without any other person seizing it or occupying it, nor were there law suits respecting it… the motive which obliges me to make this statement is the discharge of my conscience, as I find myself guilty.

For we have destroyed by our evil example, the people who had such a government as was enjoyed by these natives. They were so free from the committal of crimes or excesses, as well men as women, that the Indian who had 100,000 pesos worth of gold or silver in his house, left it open merely placing a small stick against the door, as a sign that its master was out. With that, according to their custom, no one could enter or take anything that was there.

When they saw that we put locks and keys on our doors, they supposed that it was from fear of them, that they might not kill us, but not because they believed that anyone would steal the property of another. So that when they found that we had thieves among us, and men who sought to make their daughters commit sin, they despised us.

So who is the heathen here?

Emily

[JoanK]

"The Vatican coffers will be filled with the blood of the Inca in the form of gold."

And Spain would pay too. That gold was used to fill coffers, decorate churches, and fight losing wars, not to build the economy of Spain. Spain has suffered ever since.

[Emily]

His magister ceremoniarum was a German, Johann Burchard, who helped to perpetuate the fame and infamy of his employer by recording in a Diarium nearly all he saw, including much that Alexander would have wished unseen.

Another diary keeper who was with the Pope through his rule. In the following link (it's short) Burchard writes of the death of Rodrigo Borgia aka Pope Alexander. This may be jumping ahead but will at least give some insight into the personal coffers of the Pope. All those running to get the 'silver, gold, and jewels' the Pope had stashed away.

Didn't the new testament have an admonition against storing up 'gold and silver' for themselves while on earth. The Pope must have missed that sermon.

Johann Buchard purchased his position in the Vatican for money.

http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/alexanderVI.htm

Emily

[bookad]

hi, its Deb here

Emily your post about the last remaining conqueur who gained a conscience in his last remaining years, really touched me....the horrors they committed upon the people they came into contact with in the Americas, truly sad...is your source for this quote from the web site you listed?

Trevor, I have to thank you for when you post book excerpts listing the page reference.  I had so much trouble much earlier when following and occasionally getting the book from the library finding where the group was in the book. 

It will certainly be interesting to find where the catholic church did an about face on what was acceptable for their religious leaders..... though imagine it won't be in this book, or even the next perhaps...

just touching base with you guys, very hot day in Brownsville today, windy as usual...

Deb

[JoanK]

Hi, Deb. Glad you checked in.

What an interesting account. Such a mixture of wealth and lack of esteem!

[Emily]

Deb, I did not give a link to the story of the last remaining survivor and his will. I simply forgot.

Here is the site from Wikipedia. Scroll down to 'Society' and it is the first article.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inca_civilization

Emily

[bookad]

thank you Emily,

I find all these little 'extras' so interesting...I had thought this excerpt might be from the 'eyewitnesstohistory.com' site...and was wondering how to pursue it's location...history becomes more dimensional and humanizing especially with journals & diaries

interesting tonight on the news about the roman catholics changing of heart revolving condom use ...though it sounded like only in certain situations of health concerns...

Deb

[Emily]

It was written that Rodrigo Borgia was one of the richest Cardinals in the 1500 year history of the church before he reached the throne at St. Peters. He had spent thirty five years making himself rich off the church.

A small group of men controlled the church, and through the appointment of teenage cardinals they could expect to control it in perpetuity. We continue to read of teenagers being simply given the office of 'cardinal' in the church. The former Pope Innocent gave it to a thirteen year old in exchange for a deal with Lorenzo de' Medici.

Now we read of Rodrigo Borgia doing the same by appointing several teenagers to 'Cardinals', one of which would become Pope himself. I see this group of men as a 'cabal' that had nothing to do with religion and everything to do with 'greed' and a 'power trip'. They are all beneath contempt imo.

Emily

[3kings(Trevor)]

DURANT'S SoC
The Renaissance
The Borgias  Pages 408-409

Meantime Alexander was facing the political problems of a papacy caught between the millstones of scheming Italian powers. The Papal States  hed again fallen into the hands of local dictators who, while calling themselves vicars of the church, had snatched the opportunity provided by the weakness of Innocent VIII to re-establish the practical independence that they or their predecessors had lost under Alboronz or Sixtus IV.

Alexander’s first task then was to bring these states under a centralized papal rule and taxation, as the kings of Spain, France, and England had subdued the feudal lords.This was the mission that he assigned to Caesar Borgia, who accomplished it with such speed and ruthlessness as made Machiavelli gape with admiration.

Closer to Rome, and more immediately harassing, was the turbulent autonomy of the nobles, theoretically subject, actually hostile and dangerous, to the popes. The temporal weakness of the papacy since Boniface VIII (d. 1303) had allowed these barons to maintain a medieval feudal sovereignty on their estates, making their own laws, organizing their own armies, fighting at will their private and reckless wars, to the ruin of the order and commerce in Latium.

Soon after Alexander’s accession Franceschetto Cibo sold to Virginio Orsini, for 40,000 ducats, estates left him by his father Innocent VIII. But this Orsini was a high officer in the Neapolitan army; he had received from Ferrante most of the money for the purchase; in effect Naples had secured two strategic strongholds in papal territory. Alexander reacted by forming an alliance with Venice, Milan, Ferrara,  and Siena, raising an army, and fortifying the wall between Sant’ Angelo and the Vatican. Ferdinand II of Spain, fearing a combined attack upon Naples would end the Aragon power in Italy, persuaded Alexander and Ferrante to negotiate. Orsini paid the Pope 40,000 ducats for the right to retain his purchases; and Alexander betrothed his son Giofre, then thirteen, to Sancia, the pretty granddaughter of the Neapolitan king. ( 1494)

In return for Ferdinand’s happy mediation, Alexander awarded him the two Americas. Columbus had discovered the “Indies” some two months after Alexanders succession, and had presented them to Ferdinand and Isabella. Portugal claimed the New World by virtue  of an edict of Calixtus III (1479), which confirmed her claim to all lands on the Atlantic coast. Spain retorted that the edict  had in mind only the eastern Atlantic. The states were near war when Alexander issued two bulls ( May 3 and 4, 1493) allotting to Spain all discoveries  west, and to Portugal all those east,of an imaginary line drawn from pole to pole a hundred  Spanish leagues west of the Azores and Cape Verde Islands, in each case on condition that the lands discovered were not already inhabited by Christians, and that the conquerors would make every effort to convert their new subjects to the Christian faith.

The “grant” of the Pope, of course, merely confirmed a conquest by the sword, but it preserved the peace of the peninsular powers. No one seems to have thought that non-Christians had any rights to the lands in which they dwelt.

[mabel1015j]

One could teach a world history titled "Arrogance and Self-aggrandizement" and hit all the important periods and people..........tic............Durant has made a good start of it. Do you remember if, in the first volumes,  he talked of anything/other than power people?......jean

[Emily]

Hi Jean. We are currently in the fifth volume of Durant's SOC, and already a month into our tenth year of discussion.

In all the books of course those in power were the one's written about so naturally they are the ones discussed. The average man or woman did not have a written record. Most were uneducated and therefore incapable of recording their lives. The oral tradition left songs, verse, and stories that sometimes was written about but with no attribution.

I recognize from Durant's writing some of the Noble names who still have wealth and position in the church today, such as the Orsini. Many of the Nobel families in Europe became very rich from their dealings with the church.

We learn in Trevor's latest posting that Pope Innocent has left his son several estates that he quickly sells to Orsini. The new Pope Alexander prepares to get them back through war if necessary. Instead Orsini makes him an offer of 40,000 ducats to keep them and Pope Alexander agrees.

Anything could be bought, even the Pope.

Emily

[JoanK]

JEAN: it used to be in the heading, but seems to be gone. Durant goes through each period a number of times emphasizing different aspects. Politics is one of them, art and culture another, economics the third. What else -- someone help me out here someone.

We seem to be mired in the politics (or does this come under "religion"?

As a sociologist, I. too, want to here more about how regular people lived. We get closest to that when he discusses the economy. How do all the people the church is ripping off get their money? Primarily agriculture? Trade? Foreign conquest?

In ancient Rome, most ordinary Roman men were either farmers or soldiers -- if you didn't have land, you went to war. Thus, a lot of people ready to be organized into armies to fight for whomever. Is this still the case? Maybe D will tell us later.

[3kings(Trevor)]

Joan asks  "As a sociologist, I. too, want to here more about how regular people lived. We get closest to that when he discusses the economy. How do all the people the church is ripping off get their money? Primarily agriculture? Trade? Foreign conquest?"

In support of Durant, I can only say that the "regular" people left no record of their lives. It was only by about 1600 that education began slowly to spread among regular folk, until then their was really no middle class to leave any record.  The only written records available from those times are those of the Church and possibly the Army.

Durant's volumes are full of references to the written records available. If you like, I could list all Durant's references, but few if any such are regularly available to folk like you and me.
 I can readily list them at the end of each post, if you wish ++ Trevor 

[mabel1015j]

From my perspective there is no need to list the references. My thinking was that in the first half if the 20th century, when the Durant's were writing this book, there was more social history being researched and written, so i was thinking that maybe they had included some of that research in these volumes. I think i'm just tired of the popes, they all seem to have a similar story.....altho i did like some of what Nickolas and Sixtus did. I was probably also responding to chuzpah of kings and popes to assume that the Americas were their's to do w/as they wished, to "give" away, Christianity used as the excuse. That part of the history of western civilization just infuriates me.

Thanks for the reminder about the categories, Joan, i had forgotten that heading and those categories.......jean

[JoanK]

TREVOR: "I can readily list them at the end of each post, if you wish ++ "

Heavens no! Then I would feel I had to follow up on them, or rather, feel guilty that I hadn't.

[PatH]

JoanK is computerless.  Hers has died, and it will be at least a few days before she has a temporary solution, so she won't be in here until then.

[Frybabe]

Bummer! Hope Joan's computer is fixed soon. I know I feel at a loss when mine goes down. I really spend too much time on this thing. Just love it.

[3kings(Trevor)]

Durant's  SoC
The Renaissance
cont.   Alexander VI
The Sinner  Pages 411-417



Deferring fuller consideration of alleged poisonings, by Alexander or Caesar Borgia, of high eccleiastics who took too long to die, we may provisionally accept the conclusion of recent research -- that “there is no evidence that Alexander VI poisoned anybody.” This does not quite clear him; he may have been too clever for history. But he could not escape the satirists, pamphleteers and other wits who sold their deadly epigrams to his opponents.

Alexander, as part of his campaign against the Campagna nobles, issued in 1501, a bull detailing the crimes and vices of the Savelli and the Colonna. Its exaggerations were bettered in Mancione’s famous “ Letter to Silvio Savelli,” retailing the vices and crimes of Alexander and Caesar Borgia. This document was widely circulated and did much to create the legend of Alexander as a monster of perversions and cruelty. Alexander won the battle of the sword, but his noble foes, unchecked by Julius II, won the battle of the word, and transmitted their picture of him to history.

He paid too little attention to public opinion, and rarely answered the slanders that so mercilessly multiplied the reality of his faults. He was resolved to build a strong state, and thought that it could not be done by Christian means. His use of the traditional tools of statecraft -- propaganda, deception, intrigue, discipline, war -- was bound to offend those who preferred a Christian Church to a strong one, and those to whose advantage it was that the papacy and the Papal States should be disorganized and weak among the nobles of Rome and the powers of Italy.

Occasionally Alexander stopped to examine his life by evangelical standards, and then he admitted himself to be a simoniac, a fornicator, even -- through war -- a destroyer of human lives. Once when his lucky star seemed suddenly to fall, and all his proud and happy world seemed shattered, he lost his Machiavellian amoralism, confessecd his sins and vowed to reform himself and the Church.

He went on: “We on our part are resolved to amend our life and to reform the Church.... Henceforth benefices shall be given only to deserving persons, and in accordance with the votes of the cardinals.
We renounced all nepoptism. We will begin the reform with ourselves, and so proceed through all the ranks of the Church till the whole work is accompished.”

A comittee of six cardinals was appointed to draw op a program of reform. It laboured earnestly, and presented to Alexander a bull of reform so excellent that if its provisions had been put into effect, they might have saved the Church from both the Reformation and the Counter Reformation. But when Alexander faced the question of how the revenues of the papacy, without the fees paid for ecclesiastical appointments, could finance the papal government, he found no acceptable answer.

Meanwhile Louis XII was preparing a second  French invasion of Italy, and soon Caesar Borgia proposed to recapture the Papal States from their recalcitrant “vicars”. The dream of a powerfull political structure  that would give the Church a physical and financial leverage in a rebellious and fluent world absorbed the spirit of the Pope; he deferred the reforms from day to day; at last he forgot them in the exciting successes of a son ( Caeasr ) who was conquering a realm for him and making him every ounce a king.

[JoanK]

What an epitaph "he didn't actually poison anybody." Sigh.

[bookad]

is history mainly about the 'wrongs'

when do we get to -the church able to withstand temptations to put itself first', and truly caring for the 'little man on the street', which not being religious myself I had thought was foremost in the church's endeavour

Deb

[Emily]

Joan, it is good to see you posting again. I hope your computer problems are fixed.

is history mainly about the 'wrongs'

Rodrigo Borgia aka Pope Alexander admitted the following.....Occasionally Alexander stopped to examine his life by evangelical standards, and then he admitted himself to be a simoniac, a fornicator, even -- through war -- a destroyer of human lives.

He swore he would change his ways, but money and power were too enticing and in the end he did nothing. This is his 'history', his record is in the Vatican.

Borgia was unfit to hold any position in the church. He was the exact opposite of everything the church proclaimed to be and he got his position there by buying it like many others.

He had a chance to change his ways but in the end he was what he was........a power mad megalomaniac. We need to study and read about these types because they are in our own time and can affect our lives by gaining power.

Emily

[JoanK]

"Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely."

My computer is working again, but I don't know for how long.

[mabel1015j]

"Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely"

My thots exactly, Joan. The interesting thing to me about all these popes is that they all did good things too, but the scandals and hypocrisy seem to overshadow the good they did, from our position of looking back on them now. Did the populous actually see the scandals and schemes, at the time? No 24/7 news, most people couldn't read and even if they could there no newspapers, who knew what was going on besides the "in-group"?

Jean

[JoanK]

Good point. I wonder how much I would have known if I'd been a "plebe" in Rome? In the countryside? In the far reaches of Catholic Europe? Rumor and gossip.

[Emily]

The Vatican today is much more constricted in size and scope than in the day of Pope Alexander (Borgia). During Borgia's reign the church controlled much of central Italy through the Papal States.

In looking for stats on the number of people it takes to run the current Vatican here is what I found.

When he was once asked how many people worked in the Vatican, Pope John XXIII (1958-63) is said to have replied: “About half, I think.”

Pope Benedict XVI, perhaps aware of this gibe, has decided to offer the first financial rewards and corporate-style incentives to Vatican employees who are thought to be “doing a good job”. The bonuses, which will apply to the 3,000 people who work in the Vatican, from the highest cardinal to the humblest cleaner, will be awarded on the basis of “dedication, correctness, professionalism and productivity”.

Around 1,000 people live in the Vatican mostly clergy and nuns but also the Swiss guard and a few non clergy.

Most of the 3,000 people who work there live outside the Vatican in Rome.

So there are estimated to be 4,000 people within this small area daily.(a little over 100 acres) It would seem to me to be very hard to keep anything secret very long in that setting.

But that is today's set-up and during Borgia's reign it would be reasonable to think that many more were needed to carry out the rule over a large territory such as he had to contend. There was even a position called the 'office of the horse'. Just cooking and feeding those living there would have taken an army of servants.

About a year ago I wrote about an article I read on Princess TNT of Austria and her girlfriend from one of the old Roman royalty who went to the Vatican to have dinner with Pope Benedict (he was from the same town in Austria as TNT). She said that the nuns cooked and served them dinner.

Since nuns hold no position of authority within the Vatican, they seem be used as servants to the men.

I don't know how many people were living in the Vatican palace at the time of Borgia, but with all his wheeling and dealing it's a good bet that the palace was full, and that it took an army of workers to keep the place livable.

They did not need a publishing house to know some of what went on there, it was transmitted as it had been from the beginning of time, word of mouth. 

If you have a secretary, someone to care for your clothes, make your bed, clean your rooms, carry out the chamber pot, serve your meals, and on and on.........you have no secrets.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article2926098.ece

Emily

[Emily]

An article by AP today about the Vatican bank being in trouble again with authorities. It seems they are accused of money laundering this time. Back in the 80's they had a banking scandal that cost the Vatican millions.

In the 80's scandal two Vatican bank leaders wound up dead. One poisoned in prison and another hanged on a bridge with rocks and money stuffed in his pockets. They seem to keep their old traditions of poison and murder alive and well even in our own time.

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2010/12/11/world/europe/AP-EU-Vatican-Gods-Bankers.html?ref=aponline&pagewanted=all

Emily

[Emily]

Durant tells us that Rodrigo Borgia aka Pope Alexander liked to be entertained at the Holy See and he brought in actors to perform comedy and light plays. He seemed to prefer this fare over religious pagents. He also staged a real Spanish bullfight there.

While watching the news yesterday a video of Pope Benedict being entertained by acrobats was shown. It had been edited of course for showing and is very short.

In case some missed it here is a short clip from a British newspaper. A commercial comes on first but only lasts about five seconds and then the edited video.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/video/shirtless-acrobats-entertain-pope-benedict/article1838737/

Emily

[Emily]

I was curious as to who was sitting next to the Pope at yesterday's performance so I looked for the number two man in the Vatican. According to a British newspaper who is printing some of the Wikileaks documents, it is Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone. In some of the Diplomatic cables he is referred to as a 'yes man'.

While on my search I saw that Pope Benedict had appointed 24 new Cardinals in November of this year. I went to the newspaper from Egypt (one of the new Cardinals was Egyptian) and found the list. This is a very informative piece and tells much about how cardinals are selected and handled today.

I learned that Cardinals over 80 cannot vote in the election of a new Pope, and that today Cardinals retire instead of drinking the poison. The newly appointed Cardinal from Washington D.C. brought 400 people with him for the ceremony in Rome.

http://thedailynewsegypt.com/religion/pope-creates-24-new-cardinals-amid-cheers-dp1.html

Emily

[3kings(Trevor)]

Durant's SoC
The Borgias
Ceasar Borgia Pages 417-419



Alexander had many reasons to be proud of his now oldest son. Caesar was blonde of hair and beard, as many Italians wanted to be; keen of eye, tall and straight, strong, and a stranger to fear. Of him, as of  Alexander Leonardo, the story was told that he could twist a horseshoe in his bare hands. He rode with wild control the spirited horses collected for his stable; he went to the hunt with the eagerness of a hound sniffing blood.

During the jubilee he astonished the crowd by decapitating a bull with one stroke in a bull baiting contest in a Roman square; on January 2, 1502, in a formal bullfight  arranged by him in the Piazza San Pietro, he rode into the enclosure with nine other Spaniards, and attacked singlehanded, with his pike, the more ferocious of two bulls let loose there; dismounting, he played Torre for a while; then, having sufficiently proved his courage and skill he left the arena to the professionals. He introduced the sport into the Romagna as well as at Rome; but after a few amateur matadors had been gored it was sent back to Spain.

To think of him as an ogre is to miss him widely. One contemporary called him “a Young man of great and surpassing cleverness and excellent disposition, cheerful, even merry, and always in good spirits”; another described him as “ far superior in looks and wit to his brother the Duke of Gandia.” Men noted his grace of manner, his simple but costly garb, his commanding glance, and air of one who felt he had inherited the world. Women admired but did not love him; they knew that he took them lightly and lightly cast them aside.

He had studied  law in the University of Perugia, enough to sharpen the natural shrewdness of his mind. He spared little time for books or culture, though like everybody he wrote verses now and then; later he flaunted a poet on his staff. He had a discriminating appreciation of the arts; when Cardinal Raffaello Riario refused to buy the work of an unknown Florentine youth, Michelangelo Buonarroti, Caesar gave a good price for it.

He was clearly not made for an ecclesiastical career, but Alexander, having bishoprics rather than principalities at his disposal, made him archbishop of Valencia ( 1492 ), then cardinal (1493). No one took such appointments as religious; they were means of supplying income to youths who had influential relatives, and who might be trained for the practical management of ecclesiastical property and personnel. Caesar took minor orders, but never became a priest.

Since cannon law excluded  bastards from the cardinalate, Alexander, in a bull of September 19, 1493, declared him the legitimate son of Vanozza, and d’Arignano. It was inconvenient that in a bull of August 16, 1482, Sixtus IV had described Caesar as the son of “Rodrigo, bishop and vice-chancellor.” The public winked, and smiled, accustomed to see legal fictions veil untimely truths.

In 1497, shortly after Giovanni’s death, Caesar went to Naples as a Papal legate, and had the thrill of crowning a king. Perhaps the touch of a crown stirred his blood. On his return to Rome he importuned his father to let him renounce his ecclesiastical career. There was no way of releasing him from it except through Alexander’s frank admission to  the college of cardinals that Caesar was his illegitimate son; it was so done, and the appointment of the young bastard to the cardinalate was duly declared invalid ( August 17, 1498). His illegitimacy restored, Caesar turned with zest to the game of politics.

Alexander hoped that Federigo III, King of Naples, would accept Caesar as husband for his daughter Carlotta, but Federigo had different tastes. Deeply offended, the Pope turned to France, hoping to secure its help in reclaiming the Papal States. An opportunity came when Louis XII asked for the annulment of a marriage that had been forced upon him in his youth, and which, he claimed, had never been consummated. In October, 1498, Alexander sent Caesar to France bearing a decree of divorce for the King, and 200,000 ducats with which to woo a bride.

Pleased with the divorce, further pleased by a papal dispensation to marry Anne of Brittany, widow of Charles VIII, Louis offered Caesar the hand of Charlotte d’Albert, sister to the king of Navarre; moreover, he made Caesar the duke of  Valentinois and Diois, two French territories to which the papacy had some legal claim., In May, 1499, the new Duke -- Valentino, as he was henceforth called in Italy-- married the good, beautiful, and wealthy Charlotte; and Rome told the news by Alexander, lit bonfires of rejoicing over the marriage of their prince. The marriage committed the papacy to an alliance with a king who was openly planning to invade Italy and take Milan and Naples.