For Niccolo Machiavelli, Pope Julius II was the model Renaissance prince. He was highly intelligent. He was skilled at diplomacy, politics, and war. He was a visionary patron of the arts. Julius was also, according to those who served him, intensely vindictive. He was moody, humorless, and coarse, with a violent temper. He had a gift for making enemies and alienating the less worldly and more committed Christian faithful. And the result was predictable.

A year after his death in 1513, the tract Julius Exclusus (”Julius Excluded From Heaven”) made its debut in Europe. It was an instant hit, both fiercely satirical and massively popular. In it, the deceased Julius shows up at the gates of heaven and tries to bully his way in by listing all of his achievements, his papal authority, and his earthly accolades. St. Peter is unimpressed and turns him away. Julius leaves, blustering. …

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