The unfortunate Moors and Jews, who elsewhere in Europe were being persecuted by the Holy Inquisition and burnt at the stake as an act of faith for the good of their souls and the greater honour and glory of God, found in Alexander a tolerant protector and in Rome a safe shelter.
These circumstances concerning him are not sufficiently known; it is good to know them for their own sake.

But, apart from that, they have a great historical value which it is well to consider.

It is not to be imagined that such breadth of views could be tolerated in a Pope in the dawn of the sixteenth century.

The times were not ripe for it; men did not understand it; and what men do not understand they thirst to explain, and have a way of explaining in their own fashion and according to their own lights.
A Pope who did such things could not be a good Pope, since such things must be abhorrent to God--as men conceived God then.
To understand this is to understand much of the bad feeling against Alexander and his family, for this is the source of much of it.

Because he did not burn witches and magicians it was presently said that he was himself a warlock, and that he practised black magic.