Let it be recognised that, in the fifteenth century, Popes acted, and were expected to act, in the letter, as well as in the spirit, of the momentous words which are said by the cardinal-archdeacon to all of Them at Their coronation, _Receive this tiara adorned with three crowns, and know Thyself to be the Ruler of the World, the Father of princes and of kings, and the Earthly Vicar of Jesus Christ our Saviour_. The twentieth century is apt to conceive of the Pope as an uninteresting, far-away, semi-diplomatic species of clergyman, nourishing pretensions of utter insignificance. It will be well to remember that once upon a time the Pope was a Power, Who saw nothing figurative, metaphorical, or extravagant in the exordium just quoted, Who was not by any means a négligeable quantity in the world’s affairs, and Who literally had the unquestioned right of making or unmaking princes and kings or even emperors. Here was a case in point. King Don Alonso was a crowned king; but he perfectly was aware that he was powerless to keep his crown, much less to secure the succession for the offspring of his illicit love, unless he could gain the confirmation, the licence, of the Roman Pontiff—in technical phrase, a sovereign found it to be indispensable that he should be able to add to his style of King By The Grace Of God, _And By The Favour Of The Apostolic See_. Hence the embassage to the Lord Eugenius P.P. IV, headed by Bishop Alonso de Borja, to whose incessant labour and exquisite mastery of affairs was due the treaty, ratified in 1444, by which the Pope’s Holiness of the one part confirmed the crown of Naples, the Two Sicilies, and Jerusalem, to King Don Alonso I. de Aragona, and licensed the legitimation of Don Ferrando; while the King’s Majesty of the other part agreed to defend the Lord Eugenius P.P. IV against His enemies, and especially against Duke Francesco Sforza-Visconti of Milan. As a reward for his skill in the rôle of peacemaker, Bishop Alonso de Borja was raised to the purple on the second of May 1444, as Cardinal-Presbyter of the Title of Santi Quattro Coronati with curial rank; and so King Don Alonso, the Magnanimous, lost his most trusted counsellor. The Bishop’s bastard, Don Francisco de Borja, who will appear later in this history, had been born at Savina, in Valencia, in 1441. * * * * *