By this act, which practically gave the proud triregno to his friend, the Cardinal-Vicechancellor put himself into high favour with the new Pontiff, Whose enchanting temperament delighted in the brilliance and aptitude of the Borgia, and made his future the object of especial interest. * * * * * Materials for the history of Cardinal Rodrigo during this reign are but scanty, in the absence of opportunities for original research. In 1459, he went a-holiday-making with the Lord Pius P.P. II, on a triumphal progress through Florence; where the Holy Father chatted with a lovely boy of seven years, called Lionardo da Vinci, bastard of a Florentine notary and a contadina. They visited Siena; and Corsignano, where the Pope’s Holiness was born, which He was pleased to rename Pienza, in honour of His papal name, and to build there a cathedral, an episcopal palace, and the Piccolhuomini palace for His Own family on the three sides of the public square. By way of showing His confidence in the Vicechancellor-Cardinal-Archdeacon (Archdeacon _vice_ Cardinal Prospero Colonna), perhaps, also, to curb, with useful employment, the exuberance of manlihood which had been giving evidence of revolt against the convenances, the Lord Pius P.P. II left the superintendence of these buildings in the hands of Cardinal Rodrigo, who has not scrupled to adorn their façades with the armorials of the House of Borgia, _Or, a bull passant gules on a field flory vert, within a bordure gules semée of flammels, or_. Vicechancellor-Cardinal-Archdeacon Rodrigo had lived the life of a gallant handsome prince and man of the world of the fifteenth century, in no wise differing from his antitype of the twentieth. The Renascence had brought about an age when sensuousness degenerating into sensualism was found in prominent places. It is difficult to see what else was to be expected. “Ye can not serve God and Mammon.” Learning and art essentially, radically, and necessarily are antagonistic to Christianity, hard though that saying may be found. Towards them the Church’s policy always has been a policy of compromise. “You may learn the wisdom of the world, but you may not learn all,” She says; trying to serve God, paltering the while with Mammon. “Nudus, Nudum Christum sequens” went Beato Fra Francesco when he renounced the world; and the Church compromises with St. Sebastian for Phoibos Apollon. Therefore, as long as Grace and Nature are served up on the same dish, it is stupidly unreasonable to hold up holy hands in horror when high ecclesiastical dignitaries happen to comport themselves like human beings. [Illustration: _Fridericus IV. Emperor._]