[1] He would have given it to Giuliano, but Giuliano was an honest man and remembered what he owed to the della Rovere family.  See the ‘Relazione’ of Marino Giorgi (Rel.  Ven. ser. ii. vol. iii. p. 51).

It has often been remarked that both Julius and Leo raised money by the sale of indulgences with a view to the building of S. Peter’s, thus aggravating one of the chief scandals which provoked the Reformation.  In that age of maladjusted impulses the desire to execute a great work of art, combined with the cynical resolve to turn the superstitions of the people to account, forced rebellion to a head.  Leo was unconscious of the magnitude of Luther’s movement.  If he thought at all seriously of the phenomenon, it stirred his wonder.  Nor did he feel the necessity of reformation in the Church of Italy.  The rich and many-sided life of Rome and the diplomatic interests of Italian despotism absorbed his whole attention.  It was but a small matter what barbarians thought or did.

The sudden death of Leo threw the Holy College into great perplexity.  To choose the new Pope without reference to political interests was impossible; and these were divided between Charles V. and Francis I. After twelve days spent by the Cardinals in conclave, the result of their innumerable schemes and counter-schemes was the election of the Cardinal of Tortosa.  No one knew him; and his elevation to the Papacy, due to the influence of Charles, was almost as great a surprise to the electors as to the Romans.  In their rage and horror at having chosen this barbarian, the College began to talk about the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, seeking the most improbable of all excuses for the mistake to which intrigue had driven them.  ’The courtiers of the Vatican and chief officers of the Church,’ says an eyewitness, ’wept and screamed and cursed and gave themselves up to despair.’  Along the blank walls of the city was scrawled:  ‘Rome to let.’  Sonnets fell in showers, accusing the cardinals of having delivered over ’the fair Vatican to a German’s fury.’[1] Adrian VI. came to Rome for the first time as Pope.[2] He knew no Italian, and talked Latin with an accent unfamiliar to southern ears.  His studies had been confined to scholastic philosophy and theology.  With courts he had no commerce; and he was so ignorant of the state a Pope should keep in Rome, that he wrote beforehand requesting that a modest house and garden might be hired for his abode.  When he saw the Vatican, he exclaimed that here the successors, not of Peter, but of Constantine should dwell.  Leo kept one hundred grooms for the service of his stable; Adrian retained but four.  Two Flemish valets sufficed for his personal attendance, and to these he gave each evening one ducat for the expenses of the next day’s living.  A Flemish serving woman cooked his food, made his bed and washed his linen.  Rome, with its splendid immorality, its classic art and pagan culture, made the same impression