This marriage was more prejudicial than can easily be imagined to the interests of Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain; so they sent ambassadors to Alexander to lodge a complaint against a proceeding of this nature, especially as it happened at the very moment when an alliance was to be formed between the house of Aragon and the Holy See.

Alexander understood the complaint, and resolved that all should be set right.

So he denied all knowledge of the papal brief though he had as a fact received 60,000 ducats for signing it--and accused the Archbishop of Cosenza, secretary for apostolic briefs, of having granted a false dispensation.

By reason of this accusation, the archbishop was taken to the castle of Sant' Angelo, and a suit was begun.
But as it was no easy task to prove an accusation of this nature, especially if the archbishop should persist in maintaining that the dispensation was really granted by the pope, it was resolved to employ a trick with him which could not fail to succeed.

One evening the Archbishop of Cosenza saw Cardinal Valentino come into his prison; with that frank air of affability which he knew well how to assume when it could serve his purpose, he explained to the prisoner the embarrassing situation in which the pope was placed, from which the archbishop alone, whom His Holiness looked upon as his best friend, could save him.
The archbishop replied that he was entirely at the service of His Holiness.
Caesar, on his entrance, found the captive seated, leaning his elbows on a table, and he took a seat opposite him and explained the pope's position: it was an embarrassing one.