Pope Alexander VI (Catalan: Alexandre VI, Spanish: Alejandro VI, or Alexander Sextus), born Roderic Llançol i de Borja (Castilian Spanish: Rodrigo Lanzol; 1 January 1431 – 18 August 1503) was pope (bishop of Rome) from 1492 until his death in 1503. He is one of the most controversial of the Renaissance popes, and his Italianized surname Borgia became a byword for libertinism and nepotism, which are traditionally considered as characterizing his papacy. However, his reputation is mostly drawn from his enemies, the Italian prelates and barons whose power he subverted. Two of Alexander's successors, Sixtus V and Urban VIII, described him as one of the most outstanding popes since St. Peter. His reputation rests more on his considerable skills as a diplomat, politician and civil administrator rather than as a pastor, although regarding the latter he was no more or less effective than any of the other renaissance pontiffs.
Read more about Pope Alexander VI: Birth and Family, Mistresses and Family, Education, Archbishop of Valencia, Election, French Involvement, The French in Retreat, Crime and Savonarola, Slavery, Last Years, Death, Legacy
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“Then say not Man’s imperfect, Heav’n in fault;
Say rather, Man’s as perfect as he ought:”
—Alexander Pope (1688–1744)
“Take the serious side of Disney, the Confucian side of Disney. It’s in having taken an ethos ... where you have the values of courage and tenderness asserted in a way that everybody can understand. You have got an absolute genius there. You have got a greater correlation of nature than you have had since the time of Alexander the Great.”
—Ezra Pound (1885–1972)