recorded by the latter ; he assuredly would not accept what is gravely testified in the Beatification of Ximenes, that he stopped the sun at Oran, so that several Moors, seeing the prodigy, asked to be baptized. But his reluctance to rely on common gossip is justified by the rank growth of myths in the journals of the cinque cento Grevilles. On the death of the Venetian Cardinal Michiel in April 1503, Priuli writes: "Fù discoperto, come qui sotto appar, che 'l detto Cardinal fù attossicato per intelligenza del Duca Valentino per haver li danari, e fù squartato et abbruciato questo tale, che era Cameriere del detto Cardinale." In August the same story is repeated : "Morse da morte repentina un Cardinale nepote del Pontefice, chiamato il Cardinale Monreale, huomo di grandissima auttorita, in due giorni, al qual fu trovato tra argenti e denari 120 M. ducati, e si diceva, e giudicavasi per certo, il detto povero Cardinale esser stato avvelenato dal Duca Valentino per li suoi danari, che al1' hora era consueto ammazzare le persone c' havevano danari a Roma da questo Duca." The news of the pope's illness suggests the following reflections : "Si dubitava assai che 'l detto Pontefice non dovesse da questa infermita morire, perche, ut vulgo dicebatur, questo Pontefice havea dato 1' anima et il corpo al gran Diavolo dell' Inferno ; e pero che non potesse morire ancora per far delli altri mali." Another relates that an ape was caught in the apartments of Alexander, who exclaimed, "Lasolo, lasolo, che il diavolo." Sanuto has a detailed account of the supper party, according to which there was no mistake ; but Hadrian, knowing his danger, gave the butler a heavy bribe to make the exchange. "El Cardinal, che pur havia paura, se medicino e vomito, et non have mal alcuno." A ghastly tale is told in the life of a man who, fifty years later, rose to the summit of power and dignity and historic fame, but who was then an obscure prelate about the court. When Alexander came to the villa of Cardinal Hadrian, it was found that the box containing a consecrated host, which he wore as a protection, had been forgotten. The prelate, who was
