Early in the eighteenth century Father Aleson, then in Viana, found nothing left of the monument but two stones which had been inserted in the base of the main altar. In the “Antequedades de Navarra” Yanguez Miranda says the destruction of the sepulchre was, according to oral tradition, which he gathered from some of the inhabitants of Viana, due to the order of a fanatical bishop who felt that the church was desecrated by the presence of Caesar’s ashes. The Church of Santa Maria de Viana underwent extensive repairs about the end of the seventeenth century, and probably it was at that time that the tomb was removed. Its destruction may have been connected with an incident which occurred long before. In 1498 Pedro de Aranda, Bishop of Calahorra and Superior of the diocese of Viana, was examined by Alexander VI. on the charge of heresy and was condemned and imprisoned in the Castle of St. Angelo, where he was held a long time. As a result of his confinement the bishop died. It is highly probable that the prelates of the diocese of Viana, which had been dishonoured in the person of its bishop by the Borgia, continued to feel resentment toward the family and that one of Pedro de Aranda’s successors revenged them by removing Caesar’s remains from the church. What could have been more natural than for the officiating priest to have desired to have removed from his sight all reminders of the recalcitrant cardinal, the degenerate son of Alexander VI. whose memory was already blasted by history? This much is certain--a bishop did destroy the tomb. Following Paul Jovius and Tomaso Tomasi, later historians have placed Caesar’s burial at Pamplona; but Father Aleson, who continued Moret’s “Annals of Navarre,” and who lived in Viana, says: “_Asi lo llevaron a Viana, no a Pamplona, como algunos quisieron decir; y lo depositaron en la yglesia parocchia de Santa Maria_”--Thus they took the body to Viana, not to Pamplona as some say, and placed it in the parochial church at Santa Maria. Then follows a description of the tomb and the epitaph and the fact of the removal of the monument. In 1523, only sixteen years after Valentino’s death, Antonio de Guevara, the Bishop of Mondoñedo, described the tomb and copied the epitaph in his “Lettres Morales.” Tradition indicated that the final resting-place of Caesar’s remains was just in front of the steps in the _Calle de la Rua_, leading to the terrace upon which the Church of Santa Maria de Viana stands, and M. Charles Yriarte induced the alcalde of the town, Don Victor Cereceda, to make an excavation at the place. The investigation brought to light a perfectly preserved skeleton--were these the mortal remains of the son of Alexander VI.? There was nothing to prove that they were; the bishop may have wished to consign them to everlasting oblivion and so placed no mark upon the tomb. With the skeleton were other bones, which may have been removed from the church at the same time, when it was being restored.