attend to the business himself, sent Don Micheletto, his chief bravo, to seize the pope's treasures before the death was publicly announced. The next day the body was exhibited to the people and clergy of Rome, but was covered by an "old tapestry" ("antiquo tapete"), having become greatly disfigured by rapid decomposition. According to Raphael Volterrano: "It was a revolting scene to look at that deformed, blackened corpse, prodigiously swelled, and exhaling an infectious smell; his lips and nose were covered with brown drivel, his mouth was opened very widely, and his tongue, inflated by poison, ... therefore no fanatic or devotee dared to kiss his feet or hands, as custom would have required." The Venetian ambassador stated that the body was "the ugliest, most monstrous and horrible dead body that was ever seen, without any form or likeness of humanity". Ludwig von Pastor insists that the decomposition was "perfectly natural", owing to the summer heat. Commentaries attribute the pope's death to malaria, then prevalent in Rome, or to another such pestilence. One contemporary official wrote home that there was little surprise that Alexander and Cesare had both fallen ill, as the bad air had led to many in Rome, and especially in the Roman Curia, becoming sick. After a short stay, the body was removed from the crypts of St. Peter's and installed in the less well-known Spanish national church of Santa Maria in Monserrato degli Spagnoli. Legacy Following the death of Alexander VI, his rival and successor Julius II said on the day of his election: "I will not live in the same rooms as the Borgias lived. He desecrated the Holy Church as none before." The Borgia Apartments remained sealed until the 19th century. Catholic apologists of Alexander VI have argued that the behaviors he receives criticism for were not atypical of the period. De Maistre, in his work Du Pape, "The latter are forgiven nothing, because everything is expected from them, wherefore the vices lightly passed over in a Louis XIV become most offensive and scandalous in an Alexander VI." Alexander VI had sought reforms of the increasingly irresponsible Curia, putting together a group of his most pious cardinals in order to move the process along. The planned reforms included new rules on the sale of Church property, the limiting of cardinals to one diocese, and stricter moral codes for clergy, though these were not implemented.