Burchard, recording the crimes and scandals of the Vatican under Alexander VI., has been compared with Procopius flaying the vices of the Court of Justinian--but the comparison is inapt. Burchard himself had bought the office of Papal Master of Ceremonies, and he had no sense of shame. Alexander tolerated him and Caesar evidently did not think him worth putting to death. As Master of Ceremonies he was minute, trivial, exact, indispensable; to him the salvation of a thousand souls was far less important than the proper donning of a vestment or the swinging of a censer. As a recorder of what was going on about him he was matchless because he was utterly passionless; fearless he undoubtedly was--perhaps because of his stupidity; he was a mere piece of mechanism; his function was to record, to chronicle everything--fact and rumour--and not to judge, not to analyse. As complacently as a modern newspaper reporter describes the reception given by a pork packer, he depicts the banquet of harlots given by Alexander VI. in the Vatican--and with much less opulence of adjective. That Christ’s Vicar on earth should go about the apartment pouring confetti in the bodices of the women, whom he had just entertained with “certain obscene comedies,” did not seem to the Master of Ceremonies worthy of any special comment. He merely records; never does he show surprise, contempt, hate; he never criticises, never censures. He is entirely different from Infessura, who, as an Italian and a patriot, betrays his hatred of the Papacy on every page. Burchard, the Alsatian, apparently had little, if any, personal concern with Italian politics, and it is precisely his lack of feeling that renders his diary the most valuable authority extant on the pontificate of Alexander VI. Burchard was born about the middle of the fifteenth century; he was early intended for the priesthood, but soon abandoned his theological studies to take up the law; he appeared in Rome in 1481 and immediately secured a position as apostolic prothonotary. He decided to purchase the office of Master of Ceremonies, when a vacancy should occur, and with this end in view engaged in a long course of study. In 1483 he attained his ambition. * * * * * Alvisi, E. Cesare Borgia, Duca di Romagna, Imola, 1878. Auton, Jean d’, Chroniques, Paris, 1834. Balbo, Cesare, Storia d’Italia, Firenze, 1856. Baldi, Bernardino, Vita e Fatti di Federigo di Montefeltro, Roma, 1824. Bembo, Pietro, Opere, Milano, 1808. Biancardi, Bastian, Le Vite de’ Re di Napoli, Venezia, 1737. Brantôme, Œuvres Complètes, Paris, 1838. Brosch, Moritz, Papst Julius II. und die Gründung des Kirschenstaates, Gotha, 1878. Bryce, James, The Holy Roman Empire, N.Y., n.d. Burchard, Johann, Diarium sive Rerum Urbanarum Commentarii (1483–1506), Ed. by Thuasne, Paris, 1883. Burckhardt, Jakob, The Civilisation of the Renaissance in Italy, London, 1892.