R. A. Scotti by Basilica: The Splendor, the Scandal: Building St. Peter's

that was paternalistic and forgiving:
    Michelangelo, the sculptor, who left us without reason, and in mere caprice, is afraid, we are informed, of returning, though we, for our part, are not angry with him, knowing the humors of such men of genius. In order then that we may lay aside all anxiety, we rely on your loyalty to convince him in our name, that if he returns to us, he shall be uninjured and unhurt, retaining our Apostolic favor in the same measure as he formerly enjoyed.
    Caught between two towering tempers, Piero Soderini, the leader of the Signoria, tried to soothe them both. While urging Julius to “show the artist love and treat him gently,” he warned Michelangelo that his insolence was on a scale that “not even the King of France would dare against the Vicar of Christ.” Negotiations between the two camps continued with no resolution. By the end of summer, the soldier-pope was on the warpath.

    The highlighted areas show the territory claimed by the papacy.

CHAPTER EIGHT
ONWARD CHRISTIAN SOLDIERS
    I n August 1507, il pontefice terribile strapped on his armor and led an army north into the Papal States of Umbria and Romagna, lost when the popes were in Avignon. Local princes and condottieri had taken advantage of the power vacuum to usurp control, and Julius was determined to retake the pivotal territory.
    Although the unholy sight of the Vicar of Christ leading a battle charge appalled many devout believers, Julius’s military campaigns were not motivated solely by a warlike disposition. While he relished every battle, military, political, and personal, it was prudence of a sort that drove him to war. The Papal States were strategic territory on the land route between Europe and the East, and if he could bring them to heel, they would once again be a lucrative source of income to replenish the Vatican treasury.
    Julius had inherited a bankrupt Church. His predecessor, Alexander VI, the most carnal of all the popes, had lived in open adultery and plundered the Vatican treasury, squandering an inordinate sum of money and time on his profligate brood. At his death, the behavior of the clergy was raising alarms even in liberal, humanistic circles. The Papal States were going their own way. Only one of the ancient aqueducts was still functioning, which meant that most Romans were drinking dirty river water, and there wasn’t enough money in the treasury to meet even half the basic administrative costs of the Church and the city.
    In contrast with his often impulsive behavior, Julius was a fiscal conservative. He needed to balance the budget and create a firm financial basis for the future.
    The Church of Rome was the first huge international enterprise. It was a global company centuries before the word globalization was coined, and like any global organization today, it had multiple sources of revenue. While money flowed in from so many directions that one English king complained, “The successor of the Apostles was commissioned to lead the Lord’s sheep to pasture not to fleece them,” the prime revenue sources were real estate, religion, and natural resources.
    As far back as Gregory the Great, popes had invested in property throughout Europe. By the sixteenth century, they also controlled a sizable chunk of the Italian peninsula. This included an area known as the Patrimony of Peter, which encompassed the city of Rome and the surrounding region, and also the Papal States—Umbria, the Marches, and the Romagna. The Holy See had acquired the Papal States in two gifts—one in the eighth century, from Pepin the Short, the conquering king of the Franks and father of Charlemagne, the other in the eleventh century, from Countess Matilda of Tuscany. *
    At some point between receiving these two generous gifts, a document known as the Donation of Constantine turned up, purportedly signed by the emperor and confirming the pope’s dominion over Rome. Once Constantine moved the