“TO THE MAGNIFICOS, OUR HONOURABLE AND ESPECIAL FRIENDS,--You doubtless have already learned from letters of the Reverend Cardinal, Vice-Chancellor of the Church, that, the Episcopal See of your city having become vacant in consequence of the death of the Reverend Señor Don Alfonso Carillo of blessed memory, his Holiness, the Pope, and the Reverend Seniors constituting the Sacred College, unanimous in their choice, have promoted us to this dignity, and have placed in our hands the bulls and briefs which we hereby tender for your examination. Solicitous for the future good government of the bishopric, spiritual as well as temporal, we send to you the venerable Mossen Martin Zapata, the beloved and esteemed canon and treasurer of Toledo, as our representative, duly empowered to decide all matters in our stead. We have specially instructed him to confer with you regarding a number of matters, and we urge you to trust him in all things and to show him all confidence. I expect you also of your own goodwill to aid and serve him. Should anything special arise affecting your noble city and the general welfare of yourselves and the community you may rest assured that we will give it the same attention that we would bestow on any affair of our own. I have only to add that I pray the Lord to take your honourable and noble persons under his protection. “From Soriano the xvii day of September, MDLXXXXI. Ever yours to command, “CESAR DE BORGIA, “_Elector of Pamplona_.” In the latter half of the fifteenth century, when boys were married at sixteen, made cardinals at seventeen, and commanded armies at twenty, children were precocious, and Caesar, a student in Pisa, could not have been blind to the vast opportunities presented to him by his father’s elevation to the Papacy in August, 1492. By the immediate bestowal of high offices on his favourites and kinsmen Alexander showed that he did not intend to hold himself aloof from nepotism. His uncle, Calixtus III., having set the example, the evil had grown, and Alexander was destined to be its supreme exponent. Caesar did not attend the elaborate fêtes given on the occasion of his father’s coronation. His Holiness doubtless thought it wise not to bring his son forth into public gaze thus early in the drama. Caesar was in Spoleto at the time, and, being a shrewd youth, he must have appreciated the scandalous means by which his father secured his election. The coronation took place August 26, 1492, and in honour of the happy event Alexander made his son, Caesar, Bishop of Valencia, an office he himself had held, and which carried with it the dignity of Primate of Spain. [Illustration: FACSIMILE (REDUCED) OF A LETTER WRITTEN BY CAESAR BORGIA TO FERDINAND OF SPAIN, ROME, 1497. To face p. 80.]