He wrote also to the Pope and warned him of his purpose.

The termination of that epistle is noteworthy: 'I can thus have no longer any hope in your Holiness, but must turn to Christ alone, who chooses the weak of this world to confound the strong lions among the perverse generations.

He will assist me to prove and sustain, in the face of the world, the holiness of the work for the sake of which I so greatly suffer: and He will inflict a just punishment on those who persecute me and would impede its progress.
As for myself, I seek no earthly glory, but long eagerly for death.

May your Holiness no longer delay but look to your salvation.' [1] This scheme was by no means utterly unpractical.

The Borgia had only just escaped deposition in 1495 by the gift of a Cardinal's hat to the Bishop of S.Malo.He was hated no less than feared through the length and breadth of Italy.