From the evidence accumulated on the subject of the murder it appeared that Cesare had planned it; whether, as some have supposed, out of a jealousy of his brother too dreadful to describe, or, as is more probable, because he wished to take the first place in the Borgia family, we do not know exactly.

The Pontiff in his rage and grief was like a wild beast driven to bay.

He shut himself up in a private room, refused food, and howled with so terrible a voice that it was heard in the streets beyond his palace.

When he rose up from this agony, remorse seemed to have struck him.

He assembled a Conclave of the Cardinals, wept before them, rent his robes, confessed his sins, and instituted a commission for the reform of the abuses he had sanctioned in the Church.