Word: borgia
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...names of the actors too linger like legendary godfathers and godmothers. Among them: Lorenzo ("the Magnificent") de' Medici, Ludovico ("the Moor") Sforza and Lucrezia Borgia, a victim of tabloid history's sensational headlines. Reports that Lucrezia was a sexual adventurer who mixed a heavy drink have never been adequately substantiated...
Even the villainous Alexander VI (1492-1503), who won election by bribery, reputedly hired assassins and fathered the even more villainous Cesare and Lucrezia Borgia, gets good marks as an administrator and patron of the arts. It was he who persuaded Michelangelo to undertake the grand rebuilding of St. Peter...
...condition of the Catholic Church during the Renaissance papacies is enough to leave Jews, Moslems and Protestants snickering and to send Catholics scurrying for their rosary beads. The indulgences of Innocent VIII, the depravity of Alexander VI (Rodrigo Borgia bought himself the papacy and used it to benefit his illegitimate children), and the wars of Julias II left Rome bankrupt. When Cardinal Giovanni d'Medici became Pope Leo X, declaring "God has given us the papacy--now let us enjoy it", he was desperate for money and decided to sell the only thing he could--pardons. Full-scale simonry continued...
...country. The six Renaissance Popes Tuchman puts to the knife are old and easy targets, always diverting to re-examine for some moments of low humor or lofty dudgeon. The author may be a bit extravagant in her criticism, as when she says that Alexander VI, the infamous Borgia Pope, was "as close to the prince of darkness as human beings are likely to come." What then of Caligula? Or Stalin? Or Hitler? But she correctly upbraids the Pontiffs for squandering the papacy's moral standing in Christendom. Whether they "provoked" the Protestant revolt, as Tuchman says, or only...
...Reagan tersely fired Rita Lavelle, the EPA official who oversaw hazardous waste programs, after she refused to resign at Gorsuch's request. Lavelle's ouster provided a glimpse into the bizarre infighting and bitter policy battles that have given the agency under Gorsuch the ambience of a Borgia palace on the Potomac. Appalled by allegations of perjury, conflict of interest and manipulation of federal funds, three more House subcommittees and a Senate committee joined in the EPA probe. "They're smelling blood," said one Democratic House staff member. "They're smelling all kinds of shenanigans...