Pagina 88 di 310

Pope Julius came afterwards and found the Church strong,

possessing all the Romagna, the barons of Rome reduced to

impotence, and, through the chastisements of Alexander, the

factions wiped out; he also found the way open to accumulate

money in a manner such as had never been practised before

Alexander's time. Such things Julius not only followed, but

improved upon, and he intended to gain Bologna, to ruin the

Venetians, and to drive the French out of Italy. All of these

enterprises prospered with him, and so much the more to his

credit, inasmuch as he did everything to strengthen the Church

and not any private person. He kept also the Orsini and Colonnesi

factions within the bounds in which he found them; and although

there was among them some mind to make disturbance, nevertheless

he held two things firm: the one, the greatness of the Church,

with which he terrified them; and the other, not allowing them to

have their own cardinals, who caused the disorders among them.