The Basilica of S.Peter's, that materialized idea, which remains to symbolize the transition from the Church of the Middle Ages to the modern semi-secular supremacy of Papal Rome, was his thought.

No nepotism, no loathsome sensuality, no flagrant violation of ecclesiastical justice, stain his pontificate.

His one purpose was to secure and extend the temporal authority of the Popes; and this he achieved by curbing the ambition of the Venetians, who threatened to absorb Romagna, by reducing Perugia and Bologna to the Papal sway, by annexing Parma and Piacenza, and by entering on the heritage bequeathed to him by Cesare Borgia.

At his death he transmitted to his successors the largest and most solid sovereignty in Italy.

But restless, turbid, never happy unless fighting, Julius drowned the peninsula in blood.