The Most Corrupt Pope
بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ The Catholic Church has an excellent pope, a man of God, in Pope Francis. It has not always been so, particularly in the era of the Papal States. Pope Alexander VI was born Roderic Borgia, on the 1 st January. He was Pope from the 11 th August 1492 until his death. He is one of the most controversial of the Renaissance popes, partly because he acknowledged fathering several children by his many mistresses, themselves the wives of other men. Therefore, his Italianised Valencian surname, Borgia, became a byword for libertinism and nepotism, characterising his pontificate. This was in the periods when the Catholic Church was corrupted as an institution. Contemporary accounts suggest that Rodrigo was a handsome, intelligent man with an appreciation for the arts and sciences. He was a “political priest”. He was a gifted speaker, extremely eloquent, and “so familiar with Holy Writ...