Buried Sinner

"I sometimes think," sang the Poet Omar, "that never blows so red the rose as where some buried Caesar bled." Few, if any. roses bloomed in the church of Spain's highland town of Viana where lethal and licentious Cesare Borgia was buried in March 1507. But over his remains, bled white by assassins' knives, rose a fine sarcophagus bearing the legend: "Here in little earth lies he who was feared by all, who held peace and war in his hand."

Like Cesare himself, whose violent life came to a violent end at 32, the tomb was not long for this world. In 1527, a touring bishop of Calahorra. whose family had long been persecuted by Rome's ruthless Borgias, caught sight of it and howled at the outrage of such a sinner as Cesare being buried in church ground. The sarcophagus was demolished forthwith. The remains of Cesare Borgia, illegitimate son of Pope Alexander VI and himself a cardinal at 18, an accomplished murderer at 25, and military conqueror of a good part of Italy at 27, were carried into the street and buried beneath the cobblestones and the dung of passing cattle. For 400 years the villagers of Viana avoided the unmarked grave, particularly on the night of March 11, when Cesare's ghost is said to be abroad and thirsty for vengeance. For generations the city fathers of Viana urged Cesare's reburial inside the church; for generations the priests of Viana resisted them.

In 1945 workmen overhauling the town sewer solved part of the problem by inadvertently digging up Cesare. The disinterred Borgia bones were shrouded in a casket of silver and oak and placed in the town hall, while the ancient debate raged with new fury. Time passed; an old priest died, and a younger priest took' over; an old mayor died, and a younger mayor took his office; both agreed that it was time to end the ancient rift and to give Cesare a decent burial.

One day last week as the villagers of Viana lined the streets, the casket bearing all that remained of Cesare Borgia was carried at last from the town hall and laid to rest once again in Santa Maria Church, with the full blessing of the see of Calahorra. In Viana it was felt that everyone would sleep better from now on.

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