It has been said that as Alexander VI. was not an ordinary man he should not be judged by the moral standards of ordinary men. The theory that the great are not subject to the laws which should regulate the conduct of lesser persons is as absurd as it is pernicious. It would be more just to say that the Borgia should be judged, not by the criterions of a later day, but by those of his own age. There is evolution in morals; the standard of right living is higher to-day than it was during the Renaissance, and no man of the character of Alexander VI., were such possible, could now be elected to the Papacy. At that time many thrones were occupied by men who, in this age, could not survive a year. It is, however, exceedingly difficult to judge men of a past age, because, the sphere of morals being a wide one, there may be progress in one field but not in others--in fact, there may be retrogression in some. During the Renaissance there were men who were bad, judged by the criterions of their own day as well as by those of the present, but their contemporaries, ignorant of the laws governing human progress, which include the laws of morality, did not perceive their true status. Surrounded by men of like character, many of the personalities of the Renaissance were blind to their own depravity. Nepotism was the root, if not of all, of most of the evil in Rome, and it steadily increased from the time of Calixtus III., who was succeeded by Enea Silvio Piccolomini--Pius II.--who was no less devoted to the interests of his family than his predecessor had been to those of his kinsmen. Of the four children of his sister Laudomia, he made Antonio a duke, Andrea a castellan in Pescara, and Giacomo a noble of Montemarciano. Niccolò Forteguerra, a kinsman on his mother’s side, he made cardinal; Alessandro Mirabelli Piccolomini, who in partnership with Ambrogio Spannochi conducted a bank in Rome, was made Master of the Palace and Governor of Frascati. Jacopo Ammananti of Siena was made cardinal and Bishop of Pavia. Lolli, a cousin of the Pope, was given an office, and so many natives of Siena were provided with places at the pontifical court that it was a saying that “all Siena had moved over to Rome.” Even Saint Catherine owed her beatification to Pius II., who died August 15, 1464. The conclave for the election of his successor was held August 27th. The Bishop of Torcello, a famous Venetian scholar and humanist, addressed the cardinals, deploring the loss of dignity of the Sacred College and exhorting his colleagues to select a man who would put a stop to the abuses in the Church. At the first scrutiny it was found that the Cardinal of San Marco was unanimously elected. The new Pope, who was born in 1418, was the son of Niccolò Barbo and Polisena Condulmer, a sister of Eugene IV.