It is to excite envy; and as envy no seed can raise up such a crop of hatred.
Does this need labouring?
Have we not abundant instances about us of the vulgar tittle-tattle and scandalous unfounded gossip which, born Heaven alone knows on what back-stairs or in what servants' hall, circulates currently to the detriment of the distinguished in every walk of life?
And the more conspicuously great the individual, the greater the incentive to slander him, for the interest of the slander is commensurate with the eminence of the personage assailed.
Such to a great extent is the case of Alexander VI.

He was too powerful for the stomachs of many of his contemporaries, and he and his son Cesare had a way of achieving their ends.

Since that could not be denied, it remained to inveigh loudly against the means adopted; and with pious uplifting of hands and eyes, to cry, "Shame!" and "Horror!" and "The like has never been heard of!" in wilful blindness to what had been happening at the Vatican for generations.
Later writers take up the tale of it.

It is a fine subject about which to make phrases, and the passion for phrase-making will at times outweigh the respect for truth.

Thus Villari with his "the worst Pontiff that ever filled St.Peter's Chair," and again, elsewhere, echoing what many a writer has said before him from Guicciardini downwards, in utter and diametric opposition to the true facts of the case: "The announcement of his election was received throughout Italy with universal dismay." To this he adds the ubiquitous story of King Ferrante's bursting into tears at the news--"though never before known to weep for the death of his own children." Let us pause a moment to contemplate the grief the Neapolitan King.