"Verbum incarnatum." "Her Highness, Lucrezia Borgia, regent of the one true Church, calls to order a meeting of the consistory on this eighth day in the month of January, in the year of our Lord, fourteen ninety and five." "I will not be dragged in shackles up the Vatican stairs to dance like a monkey for that foul-smelling Catalan." "Vitelli, de Lorqua, for these past three months, we have laid siege upon Forli, surrounding the city and cutting off all supplies and all escape." "Yet now, instead of engaging in battle with the armored bitch, Caterina Sforza, we do nothing but watch Cesare play with that chest of vipers." "My Spaniards whisper that the duke uses those snakes to determine whether fate favors him." "On the day one does not bite him, we will attack." "No, he takes his time to formulate the perfect plan to conquer Forli." " Cesare Borgia is a genius." " Or inept." "Or insane." "Or perhaps we do not know what Cesare Borgia is." " Shall we sup?" " Wait." "Who is that with di Naldo?" "Some laborer?" "Cesare would rather talk to a common laborer than us." "I have worked the walls for many years..." "Vice Chancellor, please rise." "Prince Alfonso di Calabria tells me you employ in the name of His Holiness spies." "Living in the households of all the cardinals in the Curia." "I am not comfortable conducting the duties of my office in such a way." "Princess, every pope since Sergius the Third has hired informants." "After your father was almost assassinated..." "Pope Alexander is aware of this?" "Yes, but he worried the good chancellor was also spying on him." "We do not spy on the pope." "If you refuse to believe me, ask the author of the idea." "El Pequeno?" "What say you?" " Yes, I conceived the plan." " And I order its abortion." "Each of us has a right to our own thoughts." "Even if those thoughts could mean the destruction of Holy Mother Church?" "Cousin, I am very disappointed in you." "The Church has survived because of her moral precepts, not deceit." "I want the spying stopped immediately." "Remarkable." "A Borgia criticizing a Borgia... in public." "You, halt." "Holy Father, you have returned." " We are cured, Francesc." " Holiness." "Cured of our sick lust and have renewed our purpose." "We must, in the time left, secure the strength of the papacy and the fortunes of our family." " "The time left"?" "Are you dying?" " No." "But every groaning muscle and creaking bone reminds us that we will die." "So we have refocused our discipline." "And demand that same discipline from those around us, including you." "Be gone." "I already paid him." " Da Vinci, what is going on?" " You will find out soon enough." " And there are only six layers of bricks?" " Yes." " We attack." " A snake did not bite you?" "It did, but died of the venom inside me." "Leonardo has constructed this model so accurately that sprites could live within." "Here is the mason charged with maintaining the rocca's walls." "He informs me that the support structure is weakest right here." " You trust a peasant?" " Caterina Sforza is feared, not loved." " To die for her is to die for nothing." " He speaks true." "We will direct the total of Vitelli's fierce cannons at this section of wall only, battering without pause, until the bricks crumble." "Then we will rush into the breach, kill all who resist." "Except Caterina Sforza." "That whore is mine." "Fire!" "Ready..." "Fire!" "Fire!" " Caterina Sforza is trapped in there?" " Barricaded." " Batter the door." " This is the gun powder storage room." "If we enter, she threatens to light a flint and blow up the rocca with all of us inside." "Dearest Caterina, I am not afraid to die." "But you, if you die, you will have no chance to revenge yourself and take back your duchy, a Sforza triumph!" "Avanti!" "The age of chivalry is not dead, Madama." "Let me do the honors." "Stop!" "Laudis tibi, Domine, hostias immolamus in tuorum commemoratione sanctorum." "The Holy Ghost appears." "Holiness, what an unexpected joy." "Brethren in Christ." "A clean soul is easiest to achieve in a monastery where the walls are quiet and God is ever present." "Purity is more difficult in the factual world where vice and pleasure compete to occupy the heart." "And most difficult here, amongst you, where we all silently agree to ignore each other's sins." "But no longer." "We have been convening with the Virgin Mary." "She has restored our spirit." "Rodrigo Borgia saved by a virgin, that is a miracle." "In the interim, our regent has brought a new sense of morality to the Church, one that we ourselves will emulate." "Therefore, we appoint Lucrezia Borgia as chief papal counselor." "Is that not good news, Vice Chancellor?" "You are wrong, D'Archambaud." "We need to take a port city." "Holiness, Highness, Signory." "If next we attack Ravenna, the peninsula of Italy will shake in terror and awe." "To attack is easy, to defeat is not." "True." "Venetians have sworn to safeguard Ravenna even though the city owes allegiance to Rome." "Better first to attack and defeat a city less heavily armed and more strategically prized." "If we owned the port of Pesaro, Holy Father, we could easily confront Venetian ships." "Otherwise, we are left helpless to what the tides bring in." "If I may." " Why Florence?" " Because we can." " Florence is too well fortified." " But still we can." "My cannons..." "Florence is not among the Papal States, therefore, not included in your mandate." "Here is the mandate." "My brother was a condottiere hired by the Florentines to suppress the rebels in Pisa." "When he failed, the signory tortured and beheaded him." "This is what remains of Paolo's face." "A tooth for a tooth." "Vitellozzo, revenge is not an excuse for war." "When my brother Juan besieged Bracciano, you fought bravely against him, defeating him, yet here we stand, comrades." "And when Juan's throat was slit, you should have done more to find his killer and avenge his death." "Each of you prepare a plan of attack." "Ravenna, Pesaro, and Florence." " Yes, Your Grace." " Yes, Your Grace." "Go to Vitelli, soothe his anger." "I do not want to lose those cannons." " Six of those are worth 5,000 soldiers." " Yes, Your Grace." "Your eyes." "You do not know fear." "Read the end of the letter again." ""We must finally settle the tempest between us."" ""Settle." I do not like this word." "Still, you must go to the Vatican." "Fill Borgia's nostrils with your perfume, his eyes with your luster." "Chase him until he chases you." "No, mother, I am done chasing." "I have one child," "I do not need another, even if the second one is pope." "Guglielmo, speak to her." "I've been away from Rome so long, I do not know this pope's mind, but when Lucrezia divorced her first husband, rumors arrived in Istanbul saying that the Holy Father was bedeviled with desire for his daughter." "This gossip is beneath you, cousin." "I prosecuted the annulment." "Giovanni Sforza is impotent." "Not gossip, conjecture." "Borgia has come to realize you do not cause him to transgress, but keep him from transgression." "His lust for Lucrezia is the reason he disappeared." "Now he returns." "Let him see what he has missed." "I will throw a bacchanal more decadent than those of Nero." "Not in my house." "The best of Rome will be invited, except Rodrigo." "And the celebration will honor our conquering hero, Cesare Borgia." "Cesare Borgia, we can ask our Savior to send us none finer than you to be he who holds our image to the world." "We appoint you prefect of Rome and gonfalonier of the Universal Church." "Wherever you travel, God will be with you." "You shall protect us in concept as well as in body." "I, Cesare Borgia, swear that I will faithfully submit to the Holy Roman Church and to you, my Most Supreme Pontiff, Alexander the Sixth." "I will subjugate the mutinous cities inside the Papal States." "Cities which are a nursery for the worst crimes known to man." "Crimes caused by the wickedness of dukes who feed off their subjects in order to live as rich men." "These so-called leaders pass laws which they then violate, claiming they do so to calm an angry populace, an anger the dukes themselves have created." "The capture of Caterina Sforza trumpets this warning:" "bend to Borgia or be destroyed." "Receive this most precious flower, the Golden Rose which to true believers reveals beauty and to heretics thorns." "Gracias, mi padre." "All I am, all I will ever be, I dedicate to you." "Caterina Sforza is only the first triumph." "When the northern snows have melted," "I will march boot-step by boot-step through Italy, creating a second, more glorious Roman Empire." "And I will appoint only cardinals who at the next conclave will elect a subservient pope." "Do not speak of the next conclave, Father." "You will live forever." " Only through you and Lucrezia." " Holiness." "Cesare." "I would like you to meet my friend Simon d'Auxere." "The Holy Father and I are in the midst of a vital discussion." "Take your friend and go." "Fool." "Cesare." "We hear you have been invited to a feast at Palazzo Farnese." "I have been invited several times and have refused." "Yet we would ask you to attend." "I know you love or have loved Giulia, but her only passion is to torment you with jealousy." "Since we cannot have her love, we will take the torment." "Let us know how she is." "Every detail, every word." "So much for your refocused discipline." "We meant what we said." "To defy one's desires is to defeat them." "The same goes for one's hate." "Summon Cardinal Colonna." "He will dine with us tonight." "Giulia wants a party." "Let us scare her with our ways." "Your Grace, you need to change your clothes." "Our clothes are fine." "We will not be wearing them for long." "What in Holy Hell is this?" "Men dressed as women, women dressed as..." "Is that you, Di Calabria?" " Finally you come." "You seem shocked." " I am amused." "Well then, join the fun." "Change your clothes." "Giovanni, the time has come to bury ancient enmity." "Let us together promote the wealth and happiness of the child we share in common, Italy." "King Louis remains intent on wearing the crown of Naples." "Yes, but we wonder if France deserves to be our most favored ally." "Does France not supply Cesare with an army?" "Have you not already bestowed Louis with the duchy of Milan?" "You will now, mid-race, change horses?" "France's economy is the past." "This is the future from the New World." "Tobacco will enrich King Ferdinand's treasury." "Spain will outgrow France within our lifetimes." "It is God's will." "And who are we to fight the mind of the Almighty?" "I feel this taste." "My head... my lungs." "Have you poisoned me?" "Borgia has poisoned me!" "Giovanni, breathe." "You will be fine." " You aim to humiliate me." " Oh, good Lord." "You act as if you are constantly wronged." "The very reason no Colonna has ever been seriously considered for the papacy!" "That went well." "Cesare." "Remember me?" "Guglielmo Farnese, Giulia's cousin." "Yes, of course." "You left Rome when Alessandro and I were students in Pisa." "I have returned, with, uh... many treasures." "The seeds of immortality." "Enjoy." "Portugal's new king has expelled the Jews." "Like the Hebrew exiles of Spain, they will come to Rome." "Yes, we must order hostels and hospitals in order to provide them with a safe, healthy haven." "Is that wise?" "The Judaeorum borgo is already overcrowded." "Our city is plagued by their presence." "I am well aware that congestion breeds contagion." "The contagion is spiritual." "The Judaeorum borgo should be leveled and the Roman Jews banished along with the Portuguese." "Eminence, I invited you to my home in hopes of easing the tensions between us, but your intolerance is intolerable." "Rome has always been a sanctuary for the refugees of the world." "Diversity has been our strength." "Would you turn away Jesus because he was a Jew?" " No, I am the man." "I lead." " And so where will you lead me?" "There are rumors that you have the French disease." " Oh?" " Or that you did and are cured." "I am clean." "Pope Giulia, who is your greatest enemy?" " The hourglass." "Who is yours?" " Where is Alessandro?" "You fear my brother?" "The only person worthy of being my enemy is me." "Oh, I hate you too." "Quite a party." "Sorry you went to bed." "Guglielmo, you must not encourage Giulia's wanton ways." "Her facade is marble, but underneath Giulia is soft clay." "Your sister needs comfort, not judgment." "Where were you?" "Where was I not?" "You suicidal cunt!" "When Pope Alexander hears of this, he will excommunicate, then execute the whole of us." "What would you have of me, Alessandro?" "I am a cunt?" "Rodrigo has left me with no husband, no standing in society, no hope." "All I have is money and these instant sensations which must be satisfied." "Fuck." "You are a putana, and I a Fregnese." "Alessandro Cardinal Farnese." "Leave us!" "When your father finds out what you and Giulia have done, your grand illusions will be smothered." " Not if I tell him myself." " Are you mad?" "You cannot!" "If I do, His Holiness will lay another laurel upon my head, but wipe the name Farnese from the Earth." "I will tell my father, in a day, a month, a year." "Live with fear, Alessandro." "Live every day of your woeful life in fear of death at its most painful and horrifying." "Giulia was wearing a gown made of the richest Aquitaine cloth." "She served comet wine and pheasant basted in gold flakes." "The forks were gold as well, the dishes a Moroccan glaze." "Her entire world is a sorry imitation of life here with you." "Let La Bella spend every ducat we gifted her." "When she needs more, she will beg and then she will pay." "Was she... with a man?" "I could stomach neither the overcooked pheasant nor the overpreening crowd." "So, almost as soon as I arrived, I departed." " Niccolo, you are in Rome?" " Yes." "To see Cesare." "But his secretary says that the duke is preoccupied, which means that he refuses to meet with me." "I was hoping that you would intercede." "Cesare Borgia is no longer welcome in this house." "Like the French disease, he festers, he infects." "Florence is far from healthy." "Our wells are dry, our bellies empty." "Famine rules where once beauty did." "And now Cesare consorts with our sworn enemy, Vitellozzo Vitelli." "We need Cesare's sword defending us, not shoved into our backs." "Da Vinci, the artist, he's a fellow Florentine, yes?" " Mm-hmm." " Perhaps he misses the smell of lilies and will speak to Il Valentino on your city's behalf." "From the first moment we met, Cesare demonstrated a natural acumen and an intellectual curiosity beyond compare." "He's generous." "Funding my research, acquiring any book or tools I require." "And he's enjoyable to be with, free from all prejudice against one's sexual appetites." "He's fascinated by exceptional men." "We share a similar outlook on life and art and politics and the common herd and petty dukes and grim chancellors." "He'll do anything to root out a villain or to support a friend." " Which is Florence?" "Which am I?" " I advise you to play sick." "If Cesare thinks you're at death's door, he will appear by your side." "Or leave you to die." "But at least you will know where you stand." "I've drafted three attack stratagems against Florence." "So, Chancellor, you had better start dying." "Who is there?" "A physician, sent by Cesare Borgia." "Enter." "What ails you?" "My cough sprays blood and my pores leak fluid." "I do not know whether to light a fire or jump in the Tiber." "Your signory slanders my name, labeling me a rogue and a murderer then begs me not to retaliate." "If they want peace, then I demand 300,000 ducats, a contract as condottiere and unrestricted military movement throughout your republic." "I will need to discuss..." "Then rise from your sickbed and hurry home before my troops beat you there." "Your government is not to my liking." "Change it or I will." "When the Medici ruled Florence, they were my friends." "They still are." "This book, this romantic epic, Orlando Innamorato it's quite different from any story that we have ever read." " Who is the author?" " Oh, uh, Matteo somesuch." " A male cry." " A female one." " Two ducats says I am right." " Three says I am." " A boy." " A girl." "A boy." " And Lucrezia?" " Oh, beaming." "Holy father, we will name him Rodrigo." "Rodrigo Borgia di Calabria." "Wonderful." "Another Rodrigo." "In nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti." "Zachariah Ben-Hamath, Pope Alexander, pontifex maximus, finds you guilty of stealing three carrots from the bin of Angelo Rodi." " Three carrots, three lashes." " Sire, I am like you, foreign-born." "I fled Portugal with my family." "We came to Rome for a better life." "We escaped the rack of Inquisition to find the torture of starvation?" " My babies are dying!" " Stop!" "Holiness, a question:" "What is most fair, to punish or to provide?" "The answer is both." "After the three lashes, you will be gifted three ducats." "Antonio Internicola." "We admire your mercy and are open to your advice, but before we dispense judgment." "Once we have spoken, all that remains is action." "Anything else undermines our sovereignty." "Papa, what is a small generosity to us can change another's life." "What is our ruling is our ruling and is our ruling." "He calls Lucrezia his chief counselor, but then resists her counsel." " Prince Alfonso" " Guglielmo." "My friend, Simon d'Auxere." "Guglielmo Farnese, a trader of goods and services." "What are you trading today?" "Power." "Please, follow me." "And then, Guglielmo led me to a meeting with ten cardinals, including Savelli, who believe that your father's return is a slide backwards into corruption, and that only you can save Holy Mother Church." " A coup?" " A correction." "Your father would perform only religious ceremonies." "You would rule as regent, controlling civic matters and foreign policies." "I already sit at the pope's right hand." "When is the last time that hand did not wave you away?" "He has restored the spy system." "They do not want to murder or exile the pontiff, only to declaw him." "And Cesare?" "He will continue as gonfalonier and maintain order in the Papal States." "Husband, I cannot tell whether you're suggesting that I go along or if I should expose this conspiracy." "As always, my brilliant Lucrezia, I merely present the facts." "You, in your wisdom, must decide." "You will leave Rome soon?" "That was my original plan." "But our enemies expect me to attack now that spring blossoms." "So to confuse them, I delay." "Surprise is a more effective weapon than a cannon." "Just so." "I need your counsel." "Why me?" "Where is your husband?" "A cabal of cardinals led by Savelli, as well as and Guglielmo Farnese, aim to remove the pope from office." " Is Alessandro involved?" " No." "Neither Alessandro nor Giulia are aware of what their cousin is plotting." " Another attempt to destroy us Borgia." " Not quite." "They want to replace our father with me." "How did you respond?" "Papa himself has said that I am a better pontiff, even as he falls back on old habits, clutching to power as a baby does a rattle." "And you come to see if I will react harshly to this conspiracy, then take action to free you of making a decision." "No." "I will make the decision." "I ask for your help." "You would relish the return to the papal throne, yet your betrayal would crush Rodrigo Borgia." "As for me, I already bow too low to you." "If I have to bend even more, I may break." " Cesare..." " Your goal of late has been to preserve and strengthen our family." "Think before you agree to this coup." "The damage to the family you cherish will be irreparable." "Then again, the benefit to Rome and the church will be immeasurable." "We will clear the shacks that litter the way between the Tiber and St. Peter's Basilica, creating an avenue four roads wide, the Via Alexandrina." "For the glory of the Blessed Virgin, Queen of Heaven." "The consistory is concluded." "Verbum incarnatum." "Holy Father, I must speak." "Discontent sits among us." "This is only natural." "When people come together to discuss how best to fight evil, there is disagreement." "To stifle a voice because the voice opposes one's own opinion brings disaster." "I denounce such deeds." "Seize the traitors." "Why Savelli?" "What could he have done?" " Farnese, you are under arrest." " I've done nothing wrong." "Catullus, great poet: "I will fuck you in the ass and you will suck my dick."" " Take him." " Yes, Your Grace." "All who truly believe that the Almighty rules absolutely know that we rule absolutely." "All who deny us, deny the Risen Christ." "You are sentenced to Hell via the Jaws of Anguish." " Holiness!" " Mercy!" "Mercy!" "Your wealth will be confiscated, the money used to secure a lasting peace in the Papal States." " Rodrigo!" "Rodrigo!" "Please..." " Giulia." "Please, Rodrigo, spare my cousin." "Bury Guglielmo in the tomb of prison forever, but do not kill him." "Think of our family." "Please think of us." "Think of me." "Finally you come." "Rodrigo, Rodrigo." "Rodrigo, I am..." "I am sorry!" "I am sorry, Rodrigo!" "Let me go!" "Let me go!" "I am sorry, Rodrigo." "Let me go!" "Guglielmo Farnese, step forward." "Any last lies?" "Come, let us leave." "Papa, I did not know you would execute them so horribly." " What would you have done?" " Shown mercy." "A virtue." "But in circumstances such as these, mercy would be perceived as weakness, as fear." "Yet we must examine this treason to see if there is truth in the rebels' accusations." "Tell us, Lucrezia, and be brave in your honesty." "Should we step down?" "I could never have sent a man to such a death." "Without an iron will and a cruel confidence," "I would not be a better sovereign than you." "This is true, my daughter." "But you are a better person." "I want you to teach me all of your black arts." "I want the power to place the evil eye on whomever I choose, be he peasant... or pope." "Mama, I will miss your meals when I am back in the battlefields." "Yes, and her baccala, unrivaled." "My husband loves food almost as much as you love war." "Cesare, where will you next attack?" "That remains my secret." "I would like to join your war effort." "You'd be away from your family for months, years." "You could die." "I do not care." "I will do anything for you, Cesare, even strap the spurs onto your boots." "And would you lick my boots as well?" " Bertrand de Blois." " I'm sorry to interrupt..." "Bertrand?" "What brings you from France?" "You have news of Charlotte?" "She is well." "The baby is born." "You have a daughter who looks exactly like you." "I will name the child Luisa in honor of the king." "Fortuna continues to shine upon me." "A daughter!" " A girl." "A little girl." " Cesare." "Cesare." " Leonardo." "Leonardo, my friend." " What, sir?" " I have a daughter." " A daughter." "This is fantastic news." "The news came at dinner." " Hey, why the noise?" " This thing shoved me." "I did not." "But of course the Parisian takes even the slightest accident as a slight." " I will teach you what a Parisian can do." " Grab your man." " Diable!" " I am going to kill you!" "Fine, then kill him fair." "A duel." " I accept." " How I kill you matters not." "I accept." "I have known Bertrand de Blois since my days at the court of King Louis." "He is no fighter, but he is a fine man, who does not deserve to die." " Ten thousand ducats." " Ten thousand ducats" " to withdraw from the duel?" " This is the cross of Saint Andrew." "Worth twenty thousand ducats." "Counterattack." "Do not retreat!" "Bertrand!" "Have you no respect?" "A man has died." "Oh, do not play the spoilsport." "If Simon were dead, you would be laughing." "You are a worm, Alfonso." "If I am a worm, then every night I make your sister my apple." " Regardez." "I am not laughing." " Cesare..." " You plotted this out." " I did not!" "You arranged for an altercation, then a duel, with the sole purpose of humiliating me, out of vengeance because I would not let you shine my armor." "And because you yourself have not the courage to face me." "I am ready to fight." "Here I am, sword in hand." "All you need to do is stand." "No." "Go." "Crawl away on your belly, like the worm that you are." "My dearest Charlotte will cry when she hears of her friend's meaningless death." "And I will not be there to comfort her." "You must talk to your brother." "You must tell Cesare that he needs to treat me with more respect." " What happened?" " The specifics do not matter." "I have warned you not to antagonize Cesare." "He must not antagonize me." "Why not just avoid him?" "You have known Cesare since Naples and have witnessed his wild behavior." "If you decide to deal with him, you must also accept the consequences, be they joy or fear." "Highness, you look like a man who needs a shoulder to lean upon." "My wife loves her brother more than she loves me." "Hardly a surprise." "Yet as long as you are profiting from the marriage in other ways..." "When Lucrezia was in power, I took full advantage." "Now..." "Be my eyes and ears in the Borgia apartments." "When I am pope, you will be prefect of Rome." "And Cesare?" "His fate I leave to you." "Today we celebrate the Sanctae Familiae, an opportunity to reflect on our own family." "Cesare will ride in this tournament, but his mother, his sister, and I will be by his side, just as he is always by ours." "And so with Rome, we Borgia are Rome, now and for eternity." "In nomine Patris et Filii et Spiritus Sancti." "Cesare!"