§ 55. JULIUS II., THE WARRIOR-POPE. 1503-1513. 471
nounced.i The next time Venice was laid under the papal ban, the measure failed.
Julius' plans were next directed against the French, the impudent invaders of Northern Italy ^nd claimants of sovereignty over it. Times had changed since the pope, as cardinalJulian Rovere, had accompanied the French army under Charles VIII. The absolution of Venice was tantamount to the pope's withdrawal from the alliance of Cambrai. By making Venice his ally, he hoped to bring Ferrara again under the authority of the holy see. The duchy had flourished under the warm support of the French.
Julius now made a far-reaching stroke m.secu;^mg-4be- help of the Swiss, who had been fighting under the banners of France. The hardy mountaineers, who now find it profitable to entertain tourists from all over the world, then found it profitable to sell their services in war. With the aid of their vigorous countryman, Bishop Schinner of Sitten, afterwards made cardinal, the pojDC contracted for 6,000 Swiss mercenaries for five years. The localities sending them received 13,000 gulden a year, and each soldier 6 francs a month, and the officers twice that sum. As chaplain of the Swiss troops, Zwingli went to Rome three times, a course of which his patriotism afterwards made him greatly ashamed. The descendants of these Swiss mercenaries defended Louis XVI., and their heroism is commemorated by Thorwaldsen's lion, cut into the rock at Lucerne, ^iss guards, dressed in yellow suits, to this day patrol tlie approaches and hallsjoi the. . YaticaiiL. ^
1 Pastor, III. 643, contents himself with the simple mention of the absolution of the Venetians, and omits all reference to the humiliating conditions. The Venetian scribblers let loose their pens against Julius and, among other charges, made against him the charge of sodomy. Pastor, III. 644, Note.
2 Zwingli's friend, Thomas Platter (1499-1582), in speaking in his Autobiography of his travels in Germany as a boy to get knowledge and begging his bread, mentions how willing the people were to give him ear, "for they were very fond of the Swiss." At Breslau a family was ready to adopt him, partly on this ground. After the defeat of Marignano, 1515, it was a common saying, so Platter says, " The Swiss have lost their good luck." On one occasion near Dresden, after a good dinner, to which he had been treated, he was taken in to see the mother of the home, who was on her death-bed. She said to Platter and his Swiss companions, " I have heard so many good things about the
472 THE MIDDLE AGES, A.D. 1294-1517.
Tlie French king, Louis XII. (1498-1515), sought to break Julius' power by adding to the force of arms_±he^ weight of_aL. religious assembly and, at his instancet,the French bishops met in council at Tours, September, 1510^ and declared that the pope had put aside the keys of St. Peter, which his predecessors had employed, and seized the sword of Paul. They took the ground that princes were justified in opposing him with force, even to withdrawing obedience and invading papal territory. i As in the reign of Philip the Fair, so now, moneys were forbidden transferred from France to Rome, and a call was made by 9 cardinals for a council to meet at Pisa on Sept. 1st, 1511. This council of Tours denounced Julius as " the new Goliath," and Louis had a coin struck off with the motto, I will destroy the name of Babylon — perdam Bahylonisnomen. Calvin, in the year of his death, sent to Renee, duchess of Ferrara, one of these medals which in his letter, dated Jan. 8, 1564, he declared to be the finest present he had it in his power to make her. Renee was the daughter of Louis XII. Julius excommunicated Alfonso, duke of Ferrara, as a son of iniquity and a root of perdition. Thus we have the spectacle of the supreme priest of Christendom and the most Christian king, the First Son of the Church, again engaged in war with one another.
At the opening of the campaign, Julius was in bed with a sickness which was supposed to be mortal ; but to the amazement of his court, he suddenly arose and, in the dead of Winter, January, 1511, betook himself to the camp of the papal forces. His promptness of action was in striking contrast to the dilatory policy of Louis, who spent his time writing letters and summoning ecclesiastical assemblies wlien he ought to have been on the march. From henceforth till his death, the pope wore a beard, as he is represented in Raphael's famous portrait."^ Snow covered the ground, but Julius set an example by enduring all the hardships of the camp. To accomplish the defeajj)f the
Swiss that I was very anxious to see one before my death." See Whitcomb, Renaissance Source-Book, p. 108 ; Monroe, Thos. Platter, p. 107.
1 Mansi, XXXII. 556-559.
2 Creighton, IV. 128, unguardedly says that Julius was the first pope who let hisbeardgrow. Many of tlio early bishops of Kouie, as depicted in St. Peter's, wore beards. So did Clement VII. after him, and other popes.