When Gianpaolo Baglioni held Julius II.

in his power in Perugia, he respected the Pope's freedom, though he knew that Julius would overthrow his tyranny.

Machiavelli condemns this as cowardice, but it was wholly consistent with the sentiment of the age.

'It cannot have been goodness or conscience which restrained him,' writes the philosopher of Florence, 'for the heart of a man who cohabited with his sister, and had massacred his cousins and his nephews, could not have harbored any piety.

We must conclude that men know not how to be either guilty in a noble manner, or entirely good.