“The most grievous danger of any Pope [or power figure] lies in the fact that encompassed as he is by flatterers, he never hears the truth about his own person and ends by not wishing to hear it.”* (Pope Alexander VI, 1492-1503 to a consistory of cardinals during a brief period of remorse in a reign of depravity.)
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* AD:1400s—Pope Alexander VI: Quoted by B.W. Tuchman, The March of Folly, p. 85)
Pope Alexander VI (born Rodrigo de Borja; Valencian: Roderic Llançol i de Borja ... 1 January 1431 – 18 August 1503), was pope from 11 August 1492 until his death in 1503. ... Born into the prominent Borgia family in Xàtiva in the Crown of Aragon (now 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 is considered 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.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Alexander_VI
