FOOTNOTES

[1107] [For an account of the origin of the order of Templars and its destruction see the previous history of the Crusades.]

2[108] See Muratori,[e] _ad ann._ 1478. Innocent VIII had lived so shamefully before he mounted the Romish throne that he had sixteen illegitimate children to make provision for. Yet on the papal throne he played the zealot against the Germans, whom he accused of magic, in his bull _Summis desiderantes affectibus_, etc., and also against the Hussites, whom he well-nigh exterminated.

3[109] [Though Von Ranke[f] and others believe that Alexander VI was poisoned, Dr. Garnett[g] says: “His decease became the nucleus of a labyrinthine growth of legend and romance. Modern investigation has dispelled it all and left no doubt that his death was natural.”]