Alexander VI (Borgia) (1430-1503), a vicious and corrupt ruler who was the most infamous pope of all time. Under his direction, the lands discovered by the explorers were divided into Spanish and Portuguese spheres of influence.
Rodrigo Lenzuoli, who later took the ancient and famous name of his mother's family, the Borgias, was born in Valencia, Spain. He was closely allied with the Spanish monarchs Ferdinand and Isabella. A man of many talents and great culture, who loved both art and science, he was guilty of many crimes, including perjury, murder and poisoning. Corrupt and ambitious, his neglect of the Church while pope contributed to the development of the Protestant Reformation.
As Pope Alexander VI, he has a special importance to the age of exploration, however. After Columbus's discoveries of 1492-93, he issued a papal bull ("Inter Caetera") which declared all discoveries and non-Christian countries west of an imaginary line in the Atlantic Ocean to be Spanish territory.
