Therefore, it is suggested that, knowing of the proclivities of Cardinal Rodrigo, being in truth his firm friend, desirous that he should live up to the obligations of his rank, and, above all, actuated by a sense of duty as Christ’s Vicar, the Pope’s Holiness set him to supervise the buildings at Pienza—to keep him out of mischief. In 1460 was born Don Pedro Luis de Borja, bastard of the said Cardinal-Archdeacon and a spinster (soluta). The child was openly acknowledged and honourably reared. About this time the Lord Pius P.P. II wrote a letter, to remonstrate with Cardinal Rodrigo and with the Lord Giacopo Ammanati, Cardinal-Presbyter of the Title of San Crisogono, concerning their divergences from ecclesiastical discipline. It is a genial and paternal letter, in which frank hatred of Sin is displayed with affection for the sinners. Cardinal Rodrigo replied, correcting some mis-statements of fact: but, that the Pope’s Holiness was not satisfied, appears from a second letter of a firmer and more admonitory nature. Much has been made of this correspondence by some writers, whose pose is to think ungenerously of ecclesiastics. It should be noted, however, that the Lord Pius P.P. II took exception to certain long visits which those cardinals paid to ladies of their acquaintance, and to nothing more. Apparently there was nothing more of which to complain; and the fact that the Pope’s Holiness should deem these visits to be indiscretions on the part of ecclesiastics, goes to prove rather the extreme and strict solicitude of the Holy Father for the spiritual welfare of his flock, than any dissolute conduct of the two cardinals. But the defamers of Cardinal Rodrigo misrepresent the said visits in the worst possible light, as nocturnal orgies and debaucheries; and long night visits obviously would constitute a grave and serious scandal. The misrepresentation very likely is due to careless ignorance. The fact is, that the Italian method of computing time in the fifteenth century is deceptive to the superficial student. Something is known of the dials of Italy which count the hours up to 24 o’clock; and when it is said that Cardinal Rodrigo paid visits to ladies in their gardens “from the 17th to the 22nd hour,” instantly cynical carelessness predicates nocturnal orgies. But when it is understood that, in the fifteenth century, the first hour began at half an hour after sunset, and that the visits took place in time of summer, it will be realised that Cardinal Rodrigo simply went to the mid-day dinner, and left his friends an hour and a half before sunset: which may have been indiscreet, but certainly was not essentially criminal, as some would have us believe. But when the careless or wilful calumniator sets out to ruin a reputation, he finds it an easy thing to twist a fault into a crime.