Not only did he not dare to prolong the
maltreatment of the Pope, but he was absolutely compelled, even apart
from all considerations of foreign politics, to be reconciled with the
Papacy, which he had so grievously wounded. For the temper of the
German people, which certainly pointed to a different course, seemed to
him, like German affairs generally, to afford no foundation for a
policy. It is possible, too, as a Venetian maintains, that the memory
of the sack of Rome lay heavy on his conscience, and tended to hasten
that expiation which was sealed by the permanent subjection of the
Florentines to the Medicean family of which the Pope was a member. The
'nipote' and new Duke, Alessandro Medici, was married to the natural
daughter of the Emperor.
In the following years the plan of a Council enabled Charles to keep
the Papacy in all essential points under his control, and at one and
the same time to protect and to oppress it. The greatest danger of all-
-secularization--the danger which came from within, from the Popes
themselves and their 'nipoti,' was adjourned for centuries by the
German Reformation. Just as this alone had made the expedition against
Rome (1527) possible and successful, so did it compel the Papacy to
become once more the expression of a world-wide spiritual power, to
raise itself from the soulless debasement in which it lay, and to place
itself at the head of all the enemies of this reformation.
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