To crush France, overthrow Florence, such were the designs of Julius when he died in 1513, the tenth year of his pontificate. Medals, struck by his order, represent him with the tiara on his head, a scourge in his hand, pursuing the French, and trampling under his feet the crown of France. Julius II. was so much of a temporal prince, that it would be hard to discover the bishop in him; he attended too little to even the forms of the Apostolat; this was the principal deficiency in his policy.²⁹² It was nevertheless in his pontificate that the doctrine of the infallibility of the pope was established. Julius II. according to Guicciardini,²⁹³ did not merit the title of a great man; and he obtains it from those only who, incapable of appreciating the value of words, imagine that a sovereign pontiff becomes less illustrious by setting an example of the pacific virtues, than in extending the domains of the church by the effusion of Christian blood. He was detested even in Italy. Before his death, the inhabitants of Bologna, threw down his statue, the work of Michael Angelo.
²⁹² John Lemaire, a contemporary author, made upon the warlike disposition of Julius II. the following observation: “Still shall we declare another wonderful change it is, the Sultan’s graciousness and tractability towards the Very Christian King, compared with the rigour and obstinacy of this modern pope, who, so martial and quarrelsome in his accoutrements, as if it was a duty of his to cause his terrible and warlike arms to be famous, like the great Tamerlane emperor and sultan of the Tartars, wishes always to be engaged in war, which is as becoming to him as for a dirty monk to dance. Unless he shall make some monstrous world to accord with his own ideas: for hogs will ever feed on acorns.”—Preface to the Treatise on Schisms, p. 5. Julius II.
Leo X. though he reigned but eight years, has given his name to the age in which he lived: the just and invariable effect of liberal protection extended to men of letters, when it is bestowed with equal judgment and generosity. This pontiff loved power still less for its own sake and the vast designs it facilitates, than for the magnificence and gratifications it procures. The son of Lorenzo de Medicis, he especially interested himself in ways of securing to his family a lasting ascendancy in Italy. He destined for his nephew the sovereignty of Tuscany, and to his own brother the kingdom of Naples. Louis XII. absolved from the anathemas with which Julius had loaded him, was pledged to favour the ambition of the Medicis, who, on their part, were to support their pretensions to Milan. This alliance, secretly stipulated²⁹⁴ not having sufficiently speedy effects, Leo purchased the state, of Modena from the emperor Maximilian, which he purposed uniting with those Of Reggio, of Parma, and of Placentia, and possibly Ferrara, to bestow on his brother, or enrich with them the court of Rome.