Innocent's immediate successor, Alexander VI (1492-1503), centered his efforts on his family, the Borgias, rather than on the Church. Despite all his efforts, his son Cesare failed to attain the office the father had so thoroughly defiled. Like his son, Alexander indulged in legendary sins, was responsible for sundry murders and carried perfidy to a new low. As a rake whose conduct firmly established the doctrine of papal fallibility, his disastrous reign marked the nadir of the Renaissance papacy.

Julius II (1503-1513) was a crusader who missed the Crusades. Europe was dismayed by the role he played in 1506 in instigating wars and stunned by the sight of the Pope riding at the head of his army. Although his behavior was otherwise not scandalous and he did enlarge the papal domain, everyone and especially the Church ended up paying for his militarism. He defeated the French but at the price of inviting the Spanish to dominate Italy. Both his costly wars and patronizing of artists (like Michelangelo and Raphael) increased the financial burden on the papacy, and although these monetary problems were certainly severe, the basic problem he posed was that his ends were simply incompatible with Christian means and ideals. Probably his idea of Heaven was a one of riches gained through military might.

If stupidity is the obstinate attachment to a disfunctional goal, Julius was indeed stupid. His goal was personal glory, which he somehow believed would bestow glory upon the Church. He pursued this goal with an absolute disregard for both obstacles and methods. His disregard of obstacles made him a successful warrior, but his disregard of methods—the means to his worldly ends—made him a menace to the Church and God he was allegedly serving.

The unasked question Julius posed was: "What price glory?" His answer was, apparently, "Any!", and he was happy to have the Church pay it for his glory in life and death. In life, he needed money to support his chief instrument of papal policy in Italy—troops. In death, he needed it to be housed in a tomb whose cost exceeded papal revenues. The price of

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