The old factions of Colonna and Orsini, which Sixtus had scotched, but which had raised their heads again during the dotage of Innocent, were destroyed in his Pontificate.

In this way, as Machiavelli observed,[2] he laid the real basis for the temporal power of the Papacy.

Alexander, indeed, as a sovereign, achieved for the Papal See what Louis XI.

had done for the throne of France, and made Rome on its small scale follow the type of the large European monarchies.

The faithlessness and perjuries of the Pope, 'who never did aught else but deceive, nor ever thought of anything but this, and always found occasion for his frauds,'[3] when combined with his logical intellect and persuasive eloquence, made him a redoubtable antagonist.