Rodrigo de Borja y Doms (Italian: Rodrigo Borgia) was the Spanish-born 214th Pope who was raised to the papal chair as Pope Alexander VI. He is one of the most controversial figures in the history of papacy. He hailed from the house of Borgia which was a prominent and powerful Italo-Spanish noble family during the Italian Renaissance with several members who served in administrative positions in the Catholic Church. Under the supervision of his uncle, Alonso de Borgia, the Bishop of Valencia, Rodrigo studied law and graduated as a doctor of ecclesiastical law. After Alonso’s election as Pope Callixtus III, he was ordained successively as a bishop, cardinal, and vice-chancellor of the Church. He served under four other pontiffs, amassing immense power and wealth. In 1492, following the death of Pope Innocent VIII, Borgia emerged as the Pope with an unprecedented show of coercion and corruption, and held the office until his death in 1503. Despite working tirelessly for the unification of the Christendom, his reforms of the Curia, and the diligent patronage of art and education, his legacy has been marked by venality, nepotism, libertinism, and quite a few accusations of murder. Historians often attribute the subsequent rise of Protestantism to his disregard of the spiritual inheritance of the Catholic Church.