Back Pous Alexander VI Afrikaans Aleixandre VI AN Alexander VI Pāpa ANG إسكندر السادس Arabic اسكندر السادس ARZ Alexandru VI AST VI Aleksandr Azerbaijani Аляксандр VI Byelorussian Аляксандар VI (папа рымскі) BE-X-OLD Александър VI Bulgarian
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| Papal styles of Pope Alexander VI | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Reference style | His Holiness |
| Spoken style | Your Holiness |
| Religious style | Holy Father |
| Posthumous style | None |
Pope Alexander VI[Note 2] (born Rodrigo de Borja;[Note 3] c. 1431 – 18 August 1503) (epithet: Valentinus ("The Valencian"))[6] was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 11 August 1492 until his death in 1503. Born into the prominent Borgia family in Xàtiva in the Kingdom of Valencia under the Crown of Aragon, Spain, Rodrigo studied law at the University of Bologna. He was ordained deacon and made a cardinal in 1456 after the election of his uncle as Pope Callixtus III, and a year later he became vice-chancellor of the Catholic Church. He proceeded to serve in the Curia under the next four popes, acquiring significant influence and wealth in the process. In 1492, Rodrigo was elected pope, taking the name Alexander VI.
Alexander's papal bulls of 1493 confirmed or reconfirmed the rights of the Spanish crown in the New World following the finds of Christopher Columbus in 1492. During the second Italian war, Alexander VI supported his son Cesare Borgia as a condottiero for the French king. The scope of his foreign policy was to gain the most advantageous terms for his family.[7][8]
Alexander is one of the most controversial of the Renaissance popes, partly because he acknowledged fathering several children by his mistresses. As a result, his Italianized Valencian surname, Borgia, became a byword for libertinism and nepotism, which are traditionally considered as characterizing his pontificate.
- ^ See inscription on 5 Ducat piece File:Roma, alessandro VI, 5 ducati, 1492-1503.jpg "Alexander VI Pontifex Maximus Borgia Valentinus" ("The Valencian", his epithet indicating his birth in Xàtiva in the Kingdom of Valencia under the Crown of Aragon (now Spain),
- ^ "CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Pope Alexander VI". www.newadvent.org.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
Meyerwas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Hibbert (2008)[page needed]
- ^ Ferdinand Gregorovius (1900). History of the City of Rome in the Middle Ages. Vol. 7, Part 1. London: George Bell. p. 353. ISBN 978-1-108-01509-7.
- ^ See inscription on 5 Ducat piece File:Roma, alessandro VI, 5 ducati, 1492-1503.jpg "Alexander VI Pontifex Maximus Borgia Valentinus" ("The Valencian", his epithet indicating his birth in Xàtiva in the Kingdom of Valencia under the Crown of Aragon (now Spain),
- ^ Weckman-Muñoz, Luis."The Alexandrine Bulls of 1493" in First Images of America: The Impact of the New World on the Old. Edited by Fredi Chiappelli. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press 1976, pp. 201–210.
- ^ Batllori, Miguel, S.J. "The Papal Division of the World and its Consequences" in First Images of America: The Impact of the New World on the Old. Edited by Fredi Chiappelli. pp. 211–220.
Cite error: There are <ref group=Note> tags on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=Note}} template (see the help page).