Instead of controlling the arbiters of Italy, a Pope could only play off one against another.
[1] 'Fatale instrumento e allora e prima e poi de' mali d'Italia,' says Guicciardini, _Storia d'Italia_, vol.i.p.

84.
'Der Retter des Papstthums,' says Burckhardt, p.

95.
Leo X.succeeded Julius in 1513, to the great relief of the Romans, wearied with the continual warfare of the old _Pontifice terribile_.

In the gorgeous pageant of his triumphal procession to the Lateran, the streets were decked with arches, emblems, and inscriptions.

Among these may be noticed the couplet emblazoned by the banker Agostino Chigi before his palace: Olim habuit Cypris sua tempora; tempora Mavors Olim habuit; sua nunc tempora Pallas habet.
'Venus ruled here with Alexander; Mars with Julius; now Pallas enters on her reign with Leo.' To this epigram the goldsmith Antonio di San Marco answered with one pithy line: Mars fuit; est Pallas; Cypria semper ero: 'Mars reigned; Pallas reigns; Venus' own I shall always be.' This first Pope of the house of Medici enjoyed at Rome the fame of his father Lorenzo the Magnificent at Florence.