The  state,  too,  was  convulsed  by  a  violent  storm.  Francesco  Maria,
Duke  of  Urbino,1  who  had  been  driven  out  of  his  territory,  had  returned,
and  had  set  on  foot  a  war,  the  result  of  which  long  kept  the  pope  in  a
state  of  mingled  exasperation  and  shame  :  gradually,  however,  he  mastered
this  opposition  also  ;  the  war  swallowed  up  streams  of  gold,  but  means
were  found  to  raise  it.
The  position  which  the  pope,  now  absolute  lord  of  Florence  and  master
of  Siena,  occupied,  the  powerful  alliances  he  had  contracted  with  the  other
powers  of  Europe,  and  the  views  which  his  family  entertained  on  the  rest
of  Italy,  rendered  it  absolutely  indispensable  for  him,  in  spite  of  the  prodi-
gality of  a  government  that  knew  no  restraint,  to  be  well  supplied  with
money.  He  seized  every  occasion  of  extracting  extraordinary  revenues
from  the  church.
The  Lateran  council  was  induced,  immediately  before  its  dissolution
(15th  of  March,  15 17),  to  grant  the  pope  a  tenth  of  all  church  property
throughout  Christendom.  Three  different  commissions  for  the  sale  of
indulgences  traversed  Germany  and  the  northern  states  at  the  same
moment.
These  expedients  were,  it  is  true,  resorted  to  under  various  pretexts.
The  tenths  were,  it  was  said,  to  be  expended  in  a  Turkish  war,  which  was
soon  to  be  declared  ;  the  produce  of  indulgences  was  for  the  building  of
St.  Peter's  Church,  where  the  bones  of  the  martyrs  lay  exposed  to  the
inclemency  of  the  elements.  But  people  had  ceased  to  believe  in  these
pretences.
