Lehal Library

their factions. He also found a new way of increasing Church income which had never been used before.* Julius not only followed Alexander’s lead, but went further. He aimed to take Bologna, defeat the Venetians and push the French out of Italy. In the end all three goals were achieved and Julius’s credit was the greater because he did it for the glory of the Church, not out of private interest. He kept the Orsini and Colonna factions in the same reduced state he found them in, and, though one or two of their leaders tried to change things, two obstacles held them back: the first was the Church’s power, which unnerved them, and the second was the fact that they had no cardinals. Cardinals are always a cause of internal division; when they have their own cardinals, these factions are never quiet, because the cardinals feed party animosity both inside and outside Rome and the barons are forced to come to their party’s defence. So it’s the ambition of the cardinals that prompts hostility and conflict between the barons. On Julius’s death, his Holiness Pope Leo found the papacy in an extremely strong position and it is to be hoped that while his predecessors made the Church great by armed force, he can make it even greater and more praise- worthy thanks to his goodness and many, many other virtues. a permanent Church appointment * The sale of Church benefices and indulgences.