Chapter XVI: Book II: , speaks for the fact that venom was feared, and therefore likely (5)

Restored to health in 1561, he was summoned to Rome and named Vicar-General of the Company of Jesus. Let it never be forgotten that, while the Borgia Pontiffs paved the way for, Padre Francisco de Borja governed the Jesuits throughout the world while the General Padre Jago de Laynez was present at, the Œcumenical of Trent. The connection between the House of Borgia and the Tridentine Decrees is of enormous significance. Here, at last, was the General Council for the Reformation of the Holy Roman Church, summoned and legally constituted by lawful authority. For years, self-seeking malcontents, ecclesiastical and royal, had howled for it. Now, it was come: but the German schism was an accomplished fact. The cry had gone through Christendom that Rome was effete, corrupt, on the verge of decay and dissolution. And lo, She arose in Her strength, and cut away the parasitic ulcers that long had blurred with open wounds Her contours; refurbished spiritual arms long rusted; set Her house in order; and was ready again, like a giant refreshed, for Her interminable affray. The Barque of Peter went into dock. The Garden of Souls was weeded. The Council of Trent reformed the Holy Roman Church: and a Borgia, as General’s deputy, was ruling the Company of Jesus in all the world.

During four years, Padre Francisco was Vicar-General in Rome. He preached often in the Spanish church of San Giuseppe on Via del Monserrato. The Religion of Padre Iñigo de Loyola endured one of its numerous phases of attack. In this world, things being as they are, to such an institution a liability to disesteem is inevitable. Persecutors and calumniators arose; and Padre Francisco showed a talent for successful defence. Having completely crushed himself, he could bring to his cause an amount of irresistible force of which the ordinary man, distracted by the whimsy interests of this and that, is altogether unaware.

His behaviour, in one of those cases with which the Holy Roman Church occasionally shocks the world, is quite remarkable. His son Don Alvaro de Borja, who was about the age of twenty-seven years, and Ambassador of Spain in Rome, desired to marry Doña Laniparte de Almansa y Borja, daughter of his own sister Doña Juana, and of the age of about fourteen years. Padre Francisco refused to countenance a marriage between his grand-daughter and his son, between uncle and niece: refused to ask the Pope’s Holiness for the necessary dispensation. Whereupon, Don Alvaro approached the Lord Pius P.P. IV directly, in his capacity of ambassador, and obtained the dispensation; while the Pope scolded Padre Francisco for his conduct in the matter.

In 1565 Padre Jago Laynez died. Deliberately shutting their ears to his appeals, the Jesuits elected Padre Francisco de Borja Prepositor-General of the Company of Jesus on the second of July. With the single exception of the Roman Pontiff, he now was the most powerful ruler in Christendom, general of an army unrivalled in discipline, utterly reliable, because voluntarily enlisted and morally ruled. Yet he gave no sign of pride or pleasure. He was a perfect Jesuit, humanely sensitive, completely self-distrustful. He said “It is evident that our Lord has condescended to assume the government of this Company since He sees fit to use so deplorably unworthy an instrument.” What words could express more sincerely abject and unworldly humility than those?

_Aut pati aut mori_ was his motto. As General, he relaxed not one of the stern rigorous austerities with which he kept under his body and brought it into subjection. Every passion and appetite of his human nature he deliberately killed. He slept little. He ate little. He had freed himself from every earthly love.

What he might have been!

What he was!

A brilliant and gracious duke, master of territories and boundless wealth, father of a noble family allied with the bluest blood of Spain, honoured by his sovereign, reverenced by his equals, loved by his kin, adored by his dependants.

A sinister shadow of a man, wracked with continual pain, deliberately apart from all his kind, feared, disliked, distrusted, alone, suffering,—alone.

Every day he systematically meditated during five hours on superhuman things. Every morning and every night, he subjected his conscience to rigorous examination, and confessed even every impulse to evil thought. He prayed without ceasing. Once, when travelling in Spain with Padre Bustamente, the two slept side by side on the bare floor of a loft, because there was no room for them in the inn. Padre Bustamente, being asthmatic, spat all night long, unknowingly on the face of his companion, who never moved. In the morning light, he was horrified to see what he had done: but Padre Francisco consoled him, saying that in all the world no more suitable place could have been found. He had been very urgent with his sister Doña Juana, Abbess of the Poor Clares at Gandia, that she should persevere in penance and mortification till her life’s end. Has there ever been a case of a consistent Roman Catholic who has committed suicide from religious melancholomania? Rarely; if ever: for the Church, wisely recognising that peculiar temperament, has provided a system where voluntary mortification has its places, its rules, and may be practised by whoever will.

Padre Francisco had the gifts of intuition and of clear-seeing, which generally are found developed respectively in women and brute beasts. He knew when a house was about to fall some time before it fell. He knew, on seeing a courier from his eldest son, that an heir was born to the Duke Don Carlos of Gandia. The courier did not relish this intuition, thinking that he deserved reward for his good news: of which disgust, also, Padre Francisco was aware; and gave reward. _The greater the detachment from the world, over worldly things the greater power is gained._ People who saw Padre Francisco during his generalship, saw rays of mysterious light playing round his head. The phenomenon of the electric aura now is well-known; and the camera will show it on occasion. Often, in his trances of prayer, he was seen floating above the ground.

In 1566 the Lord Pius P.P. IV died; and, succeeding Him, the Lord Pius P.P. V. stopped his coronation procession at the Jesuit House in Rome, that He might pay His respects to the holy General. In 1569 Padre Francisco again was stricken with fever. Recovering, he made a pilgrimage to the Holy House of Nazareth, which angels carried over the sea from Palestine and set down at Loreto by Ancona. In 1571 the Pope’s Holiness sent an embassage to France and Spain and Portugal, to rouse the sovereigns of Christendom against the Muslim Infidel. The ambassadors were the Papal Nephew, the Lord Michele Bonello, son of Madonna Gardina the Pope’s sister, born at Boschi near Alessandria, who at his august Uncle’s first creation in 1566 had been named Cardinal-Presbyter of the Title of Santa Maria _sopra Minerva_ with the cognomen Alessandrino; and Padre Francisco de Borgia, Prepositor-General of the Company of Jesus. The two left Rome in 1571. In Barcelona, they settled a long-standing dispute between the government and the cathedral chapter; for Padre Francisco was ever a peacemaker. In the province of Cataluna, which was not unmindful of him who had been its viceroy, the ambassadors were received with the highest honour.

The record of this journey, through the scenes of his youthful glory, is one of the most pathetic things in human history. This sinister emaciated phantom shabbily robed in thread-bare black, whose thin lips bit perpetual pain; this great and narrow spirit with eyes tardy and grave, furtively, drowsily, reluctantly, regarding earthly things, having seen the heavenly; this mendicant, whose companion was a prince of the church sumptuous in ermine and vermilion,—he was no stranger in Cataluna, where aforetime as marquess, duke, and imperial viceroy he had exercised despotic and sovereign rule. Now he thought no place low enough, foul enough, for his deserts. He was in, but not of, the world.

At Valencia, his children and his grandchildren knelt to kiss his way-worn feet. They prayed him to visit his duchy of Gandia. He refused. He was no longer of the world.

He preached for the last time in the cathedral of Valencia—Valencia the shrine of the House of Borja. Here, a century and a half earlier, Canon Alonso de Borja had been raised to the bishopric. The Bishop of Valencia became cardinal. The Cardinal of Valencia became the strenuous Lord Calixtus P.P. III. From Xativa by Valencia sprang Don Rodrigo de Lançol y Borja, Bishop of Valencia, Cardinal of Valencia, the magnificent invincible Lord Alexander P.P. VI. The splendid Don Cesare (detto Borgia) also was Bishop of Valencia and Cardinal, before he renounced the purple for the French duchy of Valentinois. Three huge personalities had borne the name that now was represented by this obscure wan figure whose voice, whose magic pleading fading voice, thrilled in the aisles of Valencia’s fane. Here, in Valencia, the fire was kindled; hence, from Valencia, blazed the all-devouring flame; here, in Valencia, the cresset glowed with steady brilliant light, so shining before men that they might see good works, and glorify the Father which is in heaven. Padre Francisco de Borja preached for the last time in the cathedral of Valencia.

In France, the ambassadors met with no success. That miserable country was in the throes of the Huguenot Rebellion; and the Queen Dowager, Madame Caterina de’ Medici, ruled the maniac King. After travelling through France in the winter, gaining converts and confirming the churches, but failing in the object of their journey, the ambassadors reached Turin; and became guests of the Duke of Savoy. Padre Francisco, utterly worn out with exertion and anxiety, his vital forces being on the verge of exhaustion, fell ill on the second of February, Candlemas Day 1572. The exigencies of courtly etiquette bored him to distraction; and he hurried on. Low Sunday found him in Ferrara. Here, having concluded his ambassadorial duties, the last remains of his strength departed. His nephew, the Duke of Ferrara, gave him a royal escort, and a royal litter, as he was too weak to ride, and sent him onward to Rome. During this last journey, it was noticed that, though he lay still, more like a corpse than a man, his characteristic gesture of command remained with him to the very end.

He attained the Flaminian Gate of Rome on the twenty-eighth of September. All the Company of Jesus were there to receive their dying General. He was carried to the Jesuit House, and the last Sacraments of Unction and Viaticum fortified his soul.

On the Festival of St. Michael Archangel, he lay a-dying. The next day, his speech departed. His last words, the last words of the sometime gracious and brilliant duke, the last words of the Jesuit General, were the words of a simple little Christian child, “I long for Jesus!”

He had done with the Latin of the Church. He had gone back to his mother-tongue, “A Jesus quiero.”

On the first of October 1572, he died of a decline, being of the age of two and sixty years.

* * * * *

Instantly, the pious opinion was entertained that Padre Francisco de Borja had died In The Odour of Sanctity.

It was found impossible to undress the corpse. Among others, his brother Don Tommaso de Borja, the Viceroy of Aragon, made an attempt to perform the last duties, but all without success. This same Don Tommaso, who afterwards became Archbishop of Saragossa, wrote a detailed history of this phenomenon which he calls miraculous. Various explanations are given of the sudden and complete _rigor mortis_, which, however, are mystical, not practical ones. It is said that modesty prevented the disrobing, or that it was intended to hide the scars of long-practised austerities, or that the greatest reverence was due to the body which had been the temple of the Holy Spirit.

His family, and all who in his life had known him, looked upon Padre Francisco de Borja as a saint: as such, they privately venerated his fragrant memory, and invoked the aid of his intercession. No public honours were accorded, for his right to these had not yet been made clear: but it was alleged that these private invocations produced marvellous results. Two shall be named. The physicians attending the Duchess of Uzeda in child-bed found themselves unable to effect delivery owing to congenital malformation. After the invocation of the dead Jesuit, instant safe and painless delivery took place with perfect health to mother and child. Queen Doña Margarita, wife of King Don Felipe III of Spain, endured puerperal fever. The invocation of Padre Francisco brought a cure. Then, and with these credentials, the Company of Jesus formally petitioned the Papal Nuncio in Spain, Monsignor Decio Carafa afterwards Cardinal, to order an enquiry into the virtues and miracles of the Servant of God, their departed General. Five tribunals were found at Valencia, Madrid, Barcelona, Saragossa, and Recanati; multitudes of witnesses were examined and cross-examined. Padre Ribadaneira, confessor of the deceased, confirmed on oath his book on the life of Padre Francisco de Borja. From this book, many of the foregoing facts are taken. In 1615, after thirty-seven years’ labour, the proceedings of the five tribunals in writing were sent to Rome, where Spain’s ambassador presented them to the Lord Paul P.P. V with recommending letters from King Don Felipe III, the Grandees and Hidalgos of Spain, archbishops and bishops, cathedral chapters, municipalities, and universities.

The Supreme Pontiff was pleased to refer the matter to the Sacred Congregation of Rites, the Roman tribunal competent to deal with such a case. Before this court, all evidence was verified; and a decree was issued attesting the orthodoxy of the teaching of the Venerable Servant of God, his sanctity of life, and the authenticity of the alleged miracles, satisfactorily to have been proved; and granted permission to proceed to Beatification. The Lord Paul P.P. V confirmed this decree; and named three Apostolic Commissioners to carry on the cause in Spain. The proceedings of a Royal Commission are so well understood, that it merely is necessary to say that the business of an Apostolic Commission is to search for information, to hear and weigh evidence, and to compile a report on a given subject.

Meanwhile, the claims of Spain to possess the remains of her renowned son were recognized; and on the twenty-third of February 1617, the body of the Venerable Francisco de Borja, (except an arm retained at the Gesù in Rome,) was translated to the chapel of the Jesuit House in Madrid.

In 1623, the eight years labours of the Apostolic Commission were concluded; and brought to the usual scrutiny in Rome. Later, the verdict was given to the effect that the sanctity and miracles of the Venerable Francisco de Borja fully had been established; and that, therefore, he was worthy of Beatification: which decision duly was confirmed by the Lord Gregory P.P. XV.

Thirty-one years later, on the thirty-first of August 1654, a decree in accord with this decision was issued by the Sacred Congregation of Rites, and ratified by the Lord Urban P.P. VIII[111], Who, on the twenty-fourth of November, published the Bull of Beatification with the Office and Mass in honour of the Blessed Francisco de Borja for the Universal Church.

Another seventeen years of public prayers and legal action passed; and on the eleventh of April 1671, the Lord Clement P.P. XI solemnly canonized Saint Francisco de Borja, adding to the Roman Martyrology, which is the official roll of sanctitude, the three lines, in which the Holy Roman Catholic Church delivers Her authoritative judgment, and of which the following is a literal translation: “_Sixth day of the Ides of October. This day, at Rome, is kept the festival of Saint Francisco of Borja, Repositor-General of the Company of Jesus, memorable, having abdicated secular things and refused dignities of the Church, by asperity of life, by the gift of prayer._

In 1680, the reliques of the saint were translated to the gorgeous church in Madrid which the Duke of Lerma built A.M.D.G. To the Greater Glory of God, and of his ancestor St. Francisco de Borja. So, a century after his death, a Borgia was numbered with the Saints.

Rational human judgment may be glad to stand aside before the sober judgment of the Church, so far removed from bias, from ecstatic extravagance, so calmly judicially personal. She has divined all, and is reticent. She has settled his key, She has struck his note, and is sufficient. She has shewn him in an _Ideal Content_. He “left all”; and for that She honours him: and She has Scriptural Warrant.

“An accomplished courtier, a clever diplomatist, a brilliant and gracious viceroy, a perfect religious.

“A masterful imperious character—in breaking his own will he broke himself.

“A magnified non-natural man.

“Saint Francisco de Borja—Memorable—By asperity of life—By the gift of prayer.

“Memorable.

Ashes

“_A fire, that is kindled, begins with smoke and hissing, while it
lays hold on the faggots; bursts into a roaring blaze, with raging
tongues of flame, devouring all in reach, spangled with sparks
that die; settles into the steady genial glare, the brilliant
light, that men call fire: burns away to slowly-expiring ashes_;—

From the birthday to the Life eternal of St. Francisco de Borja, the Spanish Branch of the House in his direct descendants increased and multiplied; intermarried with the grandest names in Spain; and decreased in importance, until its extinction in the penultimate decade of the last century. Four only, of these, need be mentioned here.

Don Gaspard de Borja was a great-grandson of the Saint, and son of Duke Don Francisco de Gandia by his wife Doña Juana de Velasco Tovar. He studied at the Complutensian University, becoming a Laureate in Theology and Dean of the University. He was the first Grandee of Spain to occupy the Chair of Professor and Public Lecturer. At the instance of the Catholic King, he obtained a Canonry at the Metropolitan Cathedral of Toledo; and here he began to nourish the enormous ambition of becoming the third Pope of the House of Borgia.[112]

On the seventeenth of August 1611, he was named Cardinal-Presbyter of the Title of Santa Croce _in Gerusalemme_, being then a youth; “invenis,” says Ciacconi; twenty-two years of age, says the exact and uniquely well-informed Moroni. On the fifteenth of May 1630, he was raised to the Cardinal-Bishopric of Albano, and named Archbishop of Seville. In Rome, he was on the Sacred Congregation of the Holy Office, and ambassador of the Catholic King to the Holy See. In the Kingdom of Naples, he was Viceroy. He bought, (Mr. Henry Harland wittily says that one may buy such things,) the additional title of “Father of the Poor,” by distributing annually in charity ten thousand crowns; and he exchanged his archbishopric of Seville for that of Toledo. In 1641, he held a diocesan synod over which his Vicar-General presided as his proxy, and governed his archdiocese, while he was cultivating his ambition in Rome. He was an unwilling assistant at the two Conclaves, which elected the Lord Gregory P.P. XV and the Lord Urban P.P. VIII. And in November 1645, while England was in the throes of the Great Rebellion, he died at Madrid, after fifty-six years of life, and thirty-four of cardinalate, a disappointed man, and was buried in the metropolitan cathedral of Toledo.

* * * * *

Don Francisco de Borja, great-great-grandson of the Saint, son of Duke Don Carlos de Gandia by his wife Doña Maria Ponce de Leon, was born on the twenty-seventh of March 1659. He was a man of singular and extraordinary piety and learning, Archdeacon of Calatrava and Canon of Toledo. By his proved fidelity he gained the favour of the Catholic King Don Carlos II, who made him Councillor of Aragon. From Rome, he received the bishopric of Calagurita; and (on the fourteenth of November 1699, according to Moroni, or on the twenty-first of June 1700, according to Guarnacci,) the scarlet hat of the cardinalate and the archbishopric of Burgos. He died on the fourth of April 1702, undistinguishable from other ecclesiastics of his rank.

* * * * *

Don Carlos de Borja was brother to the foregoing. Born at Gandia his family’s fief on the thirtieth of April 1653 (Moroni), or 1663 (Guarnacci,) he studied theology at the college of Sant’ Ildefonso, and succeeded his brother as Archdeacon of Calatrava and Canon of Toledo. On the death of Archbishop Don Pedro de Portocarrero, the Lord Clement P.P. XI named him Archbishop of Tyre and Trebizond _in partibus infidelium_; a see held at the present moment by an Englishman who is the ornament of the “Black” drawing-rooms of Rome. From Tyre and Trebizond, Archbishop Don Carlos de Borja rose to the Patriarchate of the Indies, continuing to reside in Spain where he shewed piety and zeal as chaplain and almoner to the Catholic King Don Felipe V. On the thirtieth of September 1720, he was raised to the Sacred College; and in his capacity of cardinal, hurried to Rome for the Conclave of 1721. There, he found already elected and crowned, the Lord Innocent P.P. XIII, who named him Cardinal-Presbyter of the Title of Santa Pudenziana, and placed him on the Sacred Congregations of The Index of Prohibited Books, of Indulgences, of Signaturae Gratiae. He died at the Royal Villa of Sant’ Ildefonso near Madrid on the eighth of August 1733, and honourably was buried there. He has left nothing of his personality, save a physically effete but beautiful gentle generous shadowy visage, in his portrait painted by Procaccini, and engraved by Rossi in Guarnacci II. 357–8.

* * * * *

So the Senior Branch, in the line of the direct descendants of the murdered Duke of Gandia, bastard of the Lord Alexander P.P. VI, withered in sumptuous obscurity; heaping up secular titles and estates by marriage, heaping up ecclesiastical dignity and preferment by the enchantment of the Borja name added to personal merit, until its final extinction only eighteen years ago. The names and titles of the last of the Spanish Borja, here recorded, will shew what that House had accumulated in a bare four hundred years—three principalities, seven duchies, ten marquessates, sixteen counties, and one viscounty, besides knightly orders and decorations.

His name was

Don Mariano Tellez-Giron y Beaufort Spontin Pimentel de Quiñones
Fernandes de Velasco y Herrera Diego Lopez de Zuñiga Perez de
Guzman Sotomayor Mendoza Maza Ladrón de Lizana Carroz y Arborea
Borja y Centelles Ponce de Leon Benavides Enriquez Toledo
Salm-Salm Hurtado de Mendoza y Orozco Silva Gomez de Sandoval y
Rojas Pimentel y Osorio Luna Guzman Mendoza Aragon de la Cerda
Enriquez Haro y Guzman.

His titles were

Prince of Squillace[113], Eboli, Melito;

Duke of Osuna, Infantado, Benevente, Plasencia, Béjar, Gandia, Arcos
de la Frontera, Medina de Rioseco y Lerma;

Marquess of Tavara, Santillana, Algecilla, Argüesco, Gibraleon,
Zahara, Lombay, Peñafiel, Almenara y Cea;

Count of Benevente, Plasencia, Béjar, Gandia, Arcos de la Frontera,
Medina de Rioseco y Lerma, Real de Manzanares, La Oliva,
Belaleazar, Ureña, Casares, Melgar, Baiten, Mayorga y Fontenar;

Viscount of La Puebla de Alcocer.

He was Ten Times Grandee of Spain of the First Class, Knight of the Orders of Calatrava, of St. John of Jerusalem, of the Golden Fleece, Knight Grand Cross and Collar of the Orders of Carlos V, of St. Hermenegild, of St. Alexandra Newski, of the Christ of Portugal, of the Crown of Bavaria, of the Legion of Honour, etc., etc., etc.,

He died without issue on the second of June 1882.[114]

=Book the Fourth=

A Flicker from the Embers

_A fire, that is kindled, begins with smoke and hissing, while it lays
hold on the faggots; bursts into a roaring blaze, with raging
tongues of flame, devouring all in reach, spangled with sparks
that die; settles into the steady genial glare, the brilliant
light, that men call fire: burns away to slowly-expiring ashes;
save where smouldering embers flicker, and nurse the glow_,—

While St. Francisco de Borja was his contemporary in the Spanish Branch, Don Pietro Borgia, (the great-grandson of that Don Pietrogorio Borgia who was the Trusty familiar of Duke Cesare de Valentinois della Romagna and Viceroy of the Abruzzi,) was living in Velletri on the frontier of the Regno, the little Volscian city where his family had been settled since Don Niccolo Borgia was its Regent in 1417. He married Madonna Filomena—_gentildonna molto pia_, is the sweet breath of her, which Archbishop Bonaventura Theuli has preserved for us,[115]—and had three children:

(α) The youngest son, Don Polidoro Borgia, died in his youth, the year
before St Francisco de Borgia died General of Jesuits in Rome.
His epitaph, in the porch of Santa Maria del Trivito at
Velletri, is as follows

D . O . M .
POLIDORO BOR-
-GIAE INVENI VIR-
-TUTIBUS ET
MORIB. ORNAT-

ISS. FILUMENA
MATER HECTOR
I.V.D. ET HORAT-
IUS BORGIA FR.
B.P . VIX . A . XXII
OB . A . M.D . LXXJ
DIE XII
OCTOB.[116]

(β) The second son, Don Orazio Borgia, became commander of a squadron
of Pontifical Cavalry; and fell gloriously fighting in the
Crusade of Hungary 1597.[117]

(γ) The eldest son, Don Ettore di Pietro Borgia, married Madonna
Porzia Landi, who bore him two sons:—The younger, Don Alessandro
Borgia became Dean of the cathedral chapter of his native city.
The elder, Don Camillo Borgia, became Governor of Velletri,
married the Noble Madonna Constantia Gallinella, and died in
1645. His epitaph,[118] in the chapel of the Visitation of the
Παρθενομητηρ (the patron-saint of the Veliternian Borgia) in the
cathedral of San Clemente at Velletri, is as follows

D. T. V.
CAMILLO BORGIAE NOBILI
VELITERNO
HECTORIS I.C. ET D. PORTIAE LANDAE
FILIO NON MINUS CELEBRI
AVORUM TOGA ET ARMIS INSIGNIUM
CLARITUDINE ILLUSTRI
IN PATRIAE REGIMINE
CONSULI JUDICI ET RECTORI
VIGILANTISSIMO
VITAE CANDORE MORUM SUAVITATE
UBIQ. CLARO OMNIBUS CHARO
ANNO AET. SUAE LV ET MEN. IV
EXTINCTO
DIE XXVI. SEPT. A PARTU VIRGINIS
M. DC. XLV
ALEXANDER I.V.D. ET HUIUS CATHED.
CANONICORUM DECANUS FRATER

HECTOR I.V.D. EX NOBILI CONSTANTIA
GALLINELLA FILIUS
EXTREMUM AMORIS
MONUMENTUM
MŒSTISS . POSUERE[119]

Don Camillo Borgia left three sons,

(α) The youngest, Don Giampaolo Borgia, was a canon of Velletri:

(β) The second, Don Ettore Borgia, was a celebrated Jurisprudent, who
held governorships of pontifical cities, and was auditor-general
and familiar of Prince Savelli, the Hereditary Marshal of the
Holy Roman Church:

(γ) The eldest, the Noble Don Clemente Erminio Borgia, Roman
Patrician, and Governor of Velletri, who married Madonna Cecilia
Carboni, by whom he had seven children at the least.

Five of these children of Don Clemente Erminio Borgia have been traced.

They were

(α) Madonna Angela Caterina Borgia, who became a nun in a convent of
Santa Lucia _in Silice_ at Rome, and who died In The Odour Of
Sanctity:

(β) Don Fabrizio Borgia, born 1689, studied ten years with his uncle
Canon Giampaolo Borgia, became Bishop of Ferentino in 1729, and
died in 1754:

(γ) Don Cesare Borgia, was a Knight-Commander of the Order of St. John
of Jerusalem of Malta in 1703:[120]

(δ) Don Alessandro Borgia, born 1682, studied with his brother Don
Fabrizio under their uncle Canon Giampaolo; won the laurel
wreath of the Archgymnasium of Sapienza at Rome; in 1706, was
attached to the Secret Nunciature of Monsignor Bussi at
Cologne;[121] in 1716, became Bishop of Nocera, and in 1723,
Prince-Archbishop of Fermo. [In _Museum Mazzuchelliana_ (Tom.
II. Tab. CXCIV, p. 382–3) there is an engraving of a medal of
this prince-archbishop, which was struck to commemorate the
consecration by him of his nephew, (the son of one of his
sisters whose name remains to be discovered,) Don Pierpaolo
Leonardi, as Prince-Bishop of Ascoli. The obverse of the medal
shews three bishops sitting and one kneeling, with the
legend A. BORGIA ARCHIEP. ET PRINCEPS FERMANUS P. PAULUM
LEONARDUM EP. ET PRIN. ASCULAN. INUNGIT. The reverse shews the
θεοτόκος in Assumption blessing two churches, with the legend
UTRIUSQUE ECCLESIAE PATRONA FIRMI ET ASCULI A.D. M.D.CCLV.]
Prince-Archbishop Alessandro Borgia died in 1764.

(ε) the heir Don Stefano Camillo Borgia, of the Supreme Magistracy,
who married Madonna Maddalena Gagliardi, and had issue,

(α) Cavaliere Giampaolo Borgia, general in the Pontifical Army;

(β) The Noble Don Stefano Borgia, in whom the embers of the House of
Borgia flickered a hundred years ago.

* * * * *

Don Stefano Borgia was born at Velletri on the third of December 1731. His early education was conducted in that little Volscian city where his House had been established certainly since 1417, and probably since the Document of Donation of the Lord Lucius P.P. III, 1181–1185. (_Ricchi._) Later, he went to his uncle the Prince-Archbishop Alessandro Borgia of Fermo, with whom he lived, and under whom he studied, till the latter’s death in 1756. The nature of this education can be judged from Don Stefano’s after-life in which he cut so noble a figure as ecclesiastic, diplomatist, ruler, scholar, archæologist, man of letters, and Christian gentleman.

At the age of nineteen years, he had written a learned little treatise on the monument of the Lord John P.P. XVI; and a Short History of the ancient city of Tadino in Umbria, with an exact account of the latest researches among its ruins, two octavo volumes published in Rome 1750–1: so that when he arrived in the Eternal City after his uncle’s death, he found himself appreciated not only for his illustrious name, but also for the crescent ability of which he had given evidence. Three years later, in 1759, he was named Governor of the city and duchy of Benevento, the pontifical fief formerly occupied by another Borgia, the murdered Duke of Gandia. Here he wrote his Historical Memorials of the Pontifical City of Benevento from the Eighth to the Eighteenth Century, in three quarto volumes published in Rome 1763–9. In 1764 he was secretary to the Sacred Congregation On Indulgences. In 1765, at the age of thirty-four years, his hands were anointed and he received the order of priesthood. In 1770 he was named Secretary _a secretis_ to the Sacred Congregation of the Propagation of the Faith, (v. title-page of his _De Cruce_.)

His career was now well-begun; and he had time to pursue his favourite occupations of letters and archæology. Writing under his initials S. B., he published in 1773 his discovery of a Venetian Kalendar of the Eleventh Century from a vellum MS., and a Koptic and Latin Fragment of the Acts of St. Koluthus. In 1774, he published an edition of the Lord Pius P.P. II’s (Enea Silvio) work, _Against the Turks_. In 1775 the Signor Abbate Stefano Borgia addressed to the Etruscan Academies of Cortona and Florence, a duodecimo Philological Dissertation on an antique gem-intaglio, “la pregiabile vetusta agata—la bella e rara gemma—Gemma Borgiana—”; which the celebrated and learned antiquary Martinello, in a letter to Padre Ignazio della Croce a sandalled Augustinian, calls _most scholarly and precious_. In 1776 he produced a work in quarto on the Shrine of St. Peter in the Vatican Basilica. In 1779, he published a folio on the curious Cross of the Vatican which is venerated on Good Friday, with the Syriac Rite of Salutation of the Cross, all most learnedly set forth and illustrated with notes and commentaries.

He did not forget his House, or his native city of Velletri: for he established there the Borgia Museum of Antiquities, which chiefly was famous for the Mexican Codex of his presentation, lately found worthy to be produced in facsimile in Rome with a splendour and importance unapproachable by English publishers.

In 1780, he brought out his quarto on the Ancient Cross of Velletri, “a cross-full of reliques conserved in the cathedral with much decency.” (_Theuli II._ 158.) It is a curious and luscious work, which relates the history of the Cross, a fine gold piece encrusted with large single pearls (unionibus) and other gems, from the middle of the Thirteenth Century, when it was given to the Veliternian Cathedral of St. Clement by the Lord Alexander P.P. IV, who, before His election was known as the Lord Rainaldo de’ Conti di Segni,[122] Cardinal-Bishop of Ostia and Velletri.[123] The year 1788, saw the issue of a new quarto from his gifted pen, being a Short History of the Temporal Dominion of the Apostolic See in the Two Sicilies; which went into a second edition the following year.

But at this point, the year of the French Revolution, the fortunes of the Abbate Stefano Borgia took a signal turn opening limitless possibilities. The Lord Pius P.P. VI named him Cardinal-Presbyter of the Title of San Clemente, in the Consistory of the thirtieth of March 1789; and promoted him from the secretariate of Propaganda to the Prefectures of the Sacred Congregation of Index and of the Pontifical Gregorian University of Rome.

The cardinalitial scarlet is the proper setting for this noble personage. The Most Eminent Lord Stefano Cardinal Borgia becomes at once a type of the huge and sumptuous princes of the church, to whom letters and the fine arts lend their glamour. “Quest’ Amplissimo Porporato,” as his friend and biographer the sandalled Carmelite Fra Pietro Paolino da San Bartolomeo calls him, had the two marks whereby the perfect gentleman and scholar universally may be known. He had a pretty taste for letters, a habit of acquiring rare books and manuscripts; and was himself a writer of extreme distinction. He had also a passion for collecting beautiful and singular things, especially engraved gems. The magic of carven precious stones enchanted him, as camei and intaglii ever have enchanted men of delicate and powerful mental mould. The times in which he lived were not convenient for the cultivation of these exquisite tastes: but it is in no case desirable that they should be cultivated. They lead nowhere, neither to heaven, nor to hell. Essentially they have no relation to the work of life, or death; and it is not well that they should usurp attention—for there are greater things. But the possession of these tastes is an imperative necessity to him who would do those greater things; for they bring, as nought else brings, the habit of discrimination, of selection, of appreciation; they refine and temper and grace the steel with which the greater deeds of life, and death, are done: and, so, their only end is served; while he who has them in the nature of him, not laboriously acquired but congenitally possessed, is the better man, the more capable man, the more enduring, skilful, potent, and triumphant man, and, correlatively, the happier man. Cardinal Stefano Borgia, then, having this gentle generous love for books and precious stones, most naturally became one of the most distinguished ecclesiastics of his age.

In 1791, he published as a supplement to his Short History, a learned quarto in Defence of the Temporal Dominion of the Apostolic See in the Two Sicilies. To this, he added, in 1793, a treatise on two Koptic saints, Koluthus and Panesnice, whose original Acts were in his possession. But it chiefly was as cardinal of the Curia, as Protector of Religious, as Ruler and Governour, as Proprefect of Propaganda (to which he was appointed in 1798,) that he manifested his ability and sterling worth. When the armies of Revolutionary France invaded Italy, engaging in those extravagant monstrosities of turpitude which habitually disgrace the French toward the close of every century, His Eminence allowed nothing of war or tumult to disturb the serene and strenuous performance of his multifarious offices. In those horrid times, when another or lesser man would have been paralysed, he retired with superb dignity from Rome to Padua, whence he continued to administer and govern not his own estates only, but all the foreign dioceses and missions throughout the world which were subject to Propaganda. And it was here in Padua that he quietly found time to do a beautiful and noble deed, by which alone, had he done nothing else, he would have prepared for himself a more illustrious name.

At this time, the College of Cardinals contained a certain August Personage, an Englishman of paramount importance.

When, in the Revolution of 1688, King James II Stewart had been driven from his kingdom of England by the Prince of Orange, His Majesty took refuge in France. His son Prince James, vulgarly called the Old Pretender, unsuccessfully warred for his rights in 1715; and, on the death of his father, assumed in exile his birthright with the style, James III D.G. of Great Britain France and Ireland King F.D. King James III had two sons,—observe the admirable insouciant carriage of head on their medals as boys. The elder, Prince Charles Edward, as Prince of Wales, vulgarly called the Young Pretender, advanced his father’s claim to the crown of England by force of arms in 1745. The result was the Massacre of Culloden Moor. The younger, Prince Henry Benedict, the Duke of York, was a priest. Hunted from France by Hanoverian diplomacy, King James III found refuge in Rome, where, at length, he died; the Prince of Wales succeeding him as King Charles III. Prince Henry Benedict meanwhile rose in ecclesiastical rank through the Cardinal-Bishopric of Ostia and Velletri (Cardinal Borgia’s city), to the Cardinal-Bishopric of Tusculum and the Vicechancellorship of the Holy Roman Church. His medal, by Filippo Cropanesi, dated 1766, shows his royal Stewart profile, still with the admirable high carriage of head, and the legend

HENRICUS M.D. EP. TUSC. CARD. DUX. EBOR S.R.E.V. CANC.

In 1788, his brother, King Charles III, died at Rome; and was buried with his father in the crypt of the Vatican Basilica. As he left no legitimate heirs, his rights in the Majesty of England devolved upon Cardinal Henry Benedict Stewart, who was known as His Royal Highness the Cardinal-Duke of York. This Personage combined with transcendent beauty and truly royal demeanour, rare and solid virtue and the extreme of good sense. Nothing could have been more perfectly kingly than his easy and ready realization of his situation. He was aware, as well of his hereditary rights, as of the fact that his subjects, having settled down under an usurping dynasty, had disowned and would disown his claims on their allegiance. He had seen war in his path. He had no insatiable craving for a crown. He arrived at a decision absolutely luminously wise. That the rights of his dynasty should suffer no diminution, by renunciation on his part, he made a technical assertion of his sovereignty, proclaiming his accession in such a way that the usurpation of his throne by the Elector of Hanover, (vulgarly called George III) should be undisturbed, _except by England’s Will_. He caused a medal to be struck, bearing on the obverse His Majesty’s effigy in a cardinal’s habit with zucchetto and the pectoral-cross of his episcopate,—the kingly head is drooping now—; with the legend

HENRY THE NINTH, OF GREAT BRITAIN FRANCE AND IRELAND KING, DEFENDER OF
THE FAITH, CARDINAL-BISHOP OF TUSCULUM.

The reverse shows a design of Faith, at whose feet are the cardinalitial hat and kingly crown, and who turns from the Lion to the Cross; with the legend

NOT BY THE DESIRES OF MEN BUT BY THE WILL OF GOD.

At the same time was struck a touch-piece, for distribution among the few loyal English who had not bowed the knee to Hanoverian Baal, and for curing those afflicted with struma or _kings evil_; an occult power which died with this last Stewart. The obverse bears a design of a frigate with the legend

HENRY THE NINTH, OF GREAT BRITAIN FRANCE AND IRELAND, KING BY THE GRACE
OF GOD, DEFENDER OF THE FAITH, CARDINAL-BISHOP OF TUSCULUM.

The reverse shows St. Michael Archangel overcoming the Dragon, with the legend

TO GOD ALONE BE GLORY.

And that was all,—an enduring record, carven in perennial bronze, that the King’s Majesty had come to the inheritance of his ancestors. He believed in his Divine Right, the right implied in his existence, his existence by the Sanction of Him by Whom kings do reign; and he simply affirmed his Right, waiting for his people to recognize him as their lawful sovereign, to do their part as he had done his. Could anything be more superbly, more contemptuously kingly than this distinction of the parts of sovereign and subject? Cardinal King Henry IX was happy in his lot, for he had a goodly heritage,—in the Holy Roman Church. Had His Majesty desired, the Supreme Pontiff could have released him from his ecclesiastical estate and obligations by a stroke of the pontifical pen, to enable him to prosecute his indubitable right. But he did not so desire. He had chosen the better part—peace—and the happiness of the subjects who were his, but who never would own him as their liege lord and sovereign. No more splendid and disinterested example of self-sacrifice exists in human history than the spectacle of this King of England who scorned to seek to compel unwilling homage. It was indeed the act of a king.

After the technical assumption of sovereignty, His Majesty made no further claim.[124] He did not hesitate to use his regal style on monuments which he erected in his Sub-Urban Diocese, or in similar places: but he was content to be called the Cardinal-Duke of York, as before, though all the world knew him as he really was, and invariably accorded the respect due to him as a prince of the church. There was, however, one notorious exception. The chivalrous nation of France, which formerly had revenged itself on the Lord Alexander P.P. VI by attacking Madonna Giovanna de’ Catanei and Madonna Giulia Orsini nata Farnese, was just as ready now to strike at the old and helpless; and it is to the shameful atrocities of France that England owes the noble action of a Borgia in regard to the last of the Royal House of Stewart.

It has been said that Cardinal Stefano Borgia was at Padua in the autumn of 1799 while the regicidal armies of the French Consulate were earning infamy by ravaging the pontifical states. From Padua His Eminence indited a private letter, dated the fourteenth of September 1799, addressed to an English baronet, one Sir John Coxe Hippisley, at Grosvenor Street, London, which will tell a tale. The Cardinal wrote as follows, in beautiful Italian with the incorrect spelling of a gentleman born:

“The friendship with which you honoured me in Rome encourages me to
lay before you a case worthy of your most mature reflection: which is,
that, among the other cardinals who have taken refuge in Padua, here
is also the Cardinal-Duke; and it is greatly afflicting to me to see
so great a Personage, the last descendant of his Royal House, reduced
to such distressed circumstances, having been barbarously stripped by
the French of all his property” (_dai Francesi barbaramente spogliato
di tutto_;) “and, if they deprived him not of life also, it was
through the mercy of the Almighty, Who protected him in his flight
both by sea and land, the miseries of which, nevertheless, greatly
injured his health, at the advanced age of seventy-five; and produced
a very grievous sore in one of his legs.

“Those who are well-informed of this most worthy Cardinal’s affairs,
have assured me that, since his flight, having left behind him his
rich and magnificent valuables, which were all sacked and plundered
both at Rome and Frascati, he has been supported by the silver plate
which he had taken with him, and of which he began to dispose at
Messina; and, I understand, that in order to supply his wants during a
few months in Venice, he has sold all that remained.

“Of the jewels[125] that he possessed, very few remain, as the most
valuable had been sacrificed in the well-known contributions (_forced
levies_ would be a juster word than the gentle Cardinal’s meek
_contributions_) “to the French our destructive plunderers; and, with
respect to his income, having suffered the loss of forty-eight
thousand Roman crowns annually by the French Revolution, the remainder
was lost also by the fall of Rome; namely, the yearly sum of ten
thousand crowns assigned to him by the Apostolic Chamber, and also his
particular funds in the Roman Bank.

“The only income which he has left is that of his benefices in
Spain,[126] which amount to fourteen thousand crowns: but this, as it
is only payable in paper at present, is greatly reduced by the
disadvantage of exchange; and even that has remained unpaid for more
than a year, owing, perhaps, to the interrupted communication with
that kingdom.

“But here it is necessary that I should add that the Cardinal is
heavily burdened with the annual sum of four thousand crowns for the
dowry of the Countess of Albany his sister-in-law; three thousand
crowns for the mother[127] of his deceased niece; and fifteen hundred
for divers annuities of his father and brother: nor has he credit to
supply the means of acquitting these obligations.

“This picture, nevertheless, which I present to your friendship, may
well excite the compassion of every one who will reflect upon the high
birth, the elevated dignity, and the advanced age of the Personage
whose situation I now sketch in the plain language of truth, without
resorting to the aid of eloquence. I will only entreat you to
communicate it to those distinguished persons who have influence with
your government; persuaded as I am that English Magnanimity[128] (_la
Magnanimitá Inglese_) will not suffer an Illustrious Personage of the
same nation to perish in misery.

“But here I pause, not wishing to offend your national delicacy, which
delights to act from its own generous disposition, rather than from
the impulse and urgency of others.[129]

“We have here (Padua) not only the Cardinal-Duke, but other cardinals,
namely, the two Doria, Caprara, and Livizzani; and perhaps very soon
they will all be here, as it is probable that the Conclave will be
held in this place; for it has pleased God to deliver from all His
labours the so eminently unfortunate Lord Pius P.P. VI, Who cherished
for you the most tender affection, and Who was pleased when He was in
the Carthusian convent (_Certosa_) at Florence to invest me with the
charge of the Proprefecture of the Congregation of the Propagation of
the Faith.

“My paper fails me, but I shall never fail of being

“Your true friend and servitor (_servitore_)
“STEFANO, CARDINAL BORGIA.”

That letter was written in September 1799. It is not clear by what route Cardinal Borgia’s courier carried it to England, nor how long was occupied by the journey. It manifestly is probable that the frightful disorders in France closed the short road through that country; and the short road in time of peace was not traversed in less than three weeks. An English lady[130] who married Don Lorenzo Sforza-Cesarini Duca di Segni, etc., (they were the grand-parents of the present Duke Lorenzo,) made the journey with post-horses in the autumn of 1837; and described it in detail to the present writer a few years ago, incidentally mentioning that, between London and Rome, it was necessary to pass in and out of the Pontifical States no less than five times, with the usual custom-house inconveniences. What then would the journey have been in 1799, when France, internally distracted, was inimical to all and sundry, especially to England and England’s friends! Further the journey from Vienna to Venice occupied a fortnight, as may be seen from the dates of succeeding letters on a later page. These considerations are necessary to explain the fact that three months elapsed before Cardinal Borgia was able to acknowledge Sir John Coxe Hippisley’s reply; for, during those three months, the journey—the long journey—had to be made twice over by the courier, going and returning; which would leave little time for action between.

It is curious to think that these events occurred only a hundred years ago; and that this intimate view of the private and secret history of the last royal Stewart, and the last illustrious Borgia, should have been suffered to remain obscure. Had there been any disgraceful element in the transaction, concealment could be understood: but contrariwise, the very greatest credit is reflected upon all concerned, on Borgia, on Stewart, on Englishmen, and—to give the devil his due—on the Elector of Hanover, vulgarly called George III. The indiscretions, the human weaknesses of the earlier Borgia are the things by which they are remembered:

“The evil, that men do, lives after them;
The good is oft interred with their bones.”

Here, then, is a good deed of a Borgia, which incontinently shall be translated from its inadequate sepulchre, ostended for the veneration of the faithful, and enshrined anew more worthily. Upon receiving Cardinal Borgia’s enchanting letter, Sir John Coxe Hippisley sent to his Eminence a draft for £500, begging him to offer this to the August Personage, “for the exigencies of the moment”; and promising to air the matter in a proper quarter.

The meticulous precautions which invariably are taken to secure the freedom of the Conclave for the election of a Pope, already have been described here. On the death of the Lord Pius P.P. VI alluded to in Cardinal Borgia’s letter, when Rome was in the hands of the French and all Italy distracted by foreign occupation, the Sacred College made its way by slow degrees and amid infinite peril to Venice, where it assembled in the convent on the Island of San Giorgio, and enclosed itself in Conclave with all formality. This means, among other things, that no cardinals were allowed to receive or to send out letters, unless these were subjected to a rigorous examination by the Cardinal-Censors; the object of which is to prevent the voting from being influenced by secular and external Powers or considerations.

On the fourth of January 1800, the said Cardinal-Censors on the Island of San Giorgio permitted the egress of a letter from Cardinal Borgia to Sir John Coxe Hippisley, acknowledging the receipt of the £500, speaking of the gratitude and satisfaction of the August Personage at knowing what was being done on his behalf. “I find myself shut up here in Conclave for the election of a new pontiff, (says Cardinal Borgia,) with thirty-four cardinals, who, when they heard of the English generosity to their Illustrious Colleague,”[131]—and he describes the many kindly complimentary and genuinely admiring sentiments which these Italian Cardinals, in common with Italians of all epochs and of all ranks, (excepting cardinals of the Nineteenth Century)[132] always felt and feel for England and the English. The letter is subscribed in the politely respectful third person,

“Suo servitore cordialissinio ed Amico
“S. CARD. BORGIA.”

On the twenty-sixth of February 1800 a second letter was allowed to pass out of the Conclave from Cardinal Borgia to Sir John; a short note, in fact, which said that an English gentleman[133] had just been permitted to enter the Conclave, being the bearer of “a very polite letter from Lord Minto” to the August Personage. This “very polite letter” is given in its original form, as well for its own sake, as for an example of the French of English diplomacy a hundred years ago. It is addressed to the Cardinal-Duke of York.

“DE VIENNA, _9 Feb. 1800_.

“MONSEIGNEUR,

J’ai reçu les Ordres de Sa Majesté le Roi de la Grande Bretagne de
faire remettre à Votre Eminence la somme de deux mille livres
Sterling, et d’assurer V.E. qu’en acceptant cette marque de l’interêt
et de l’estime de S.M. elle lui fera un sensible plaisir. Il “m’est en
même terns ordonné de faire part à V.E. des intentions de SM. de lui
transmettre une pareille somme de £2000 Sterling au mois de Juillet si
les circonstances demeuraient telles que V.E. continuât à la desirer.

“J’ai donc l’honneure de la prevenir que la somme de £2000 Stg. est
déposée à la maison de Messieurs Coutts et Cie., Banquiers à Londres à
la disposition de Votre Eminence. En executant les Ordres du Roi mon
Maitre, V.E. me rendra la justice de croire que je suis infiniment
sensible à l’honneur d’être l’organe des sentiments nobles et
touchants, qui ont dicté a S.M. la démarche dont elle a daigné me
charger, et qui lui ont été inspirés d’un coté par ses propres vertus,
et de l’autre tant par les qualités éminentes de la Personne Auguste,
qui en est l’object, que par son désir de reparer partout où il est
possible, les desastres dans lesquels de fleau Universel de nos jours
a paru vouloir entrainer par préférence tout ce qui est le plus digne
de Vénération et de Respect.

“Je prie V.E. d’agreer les assurances de mes hommages respectueux et
de la Vénération profonde avec laquelle

“J’ai l’honneur d’être
“De Votre Eminence
“Le très humble et très obeissant Serviteur
“MINTO

“_Env. Ex. et Min. Plen. de S.M.B.
“à la Cour de Vienne._”