hastened to Florence, where he was permitted to assume almost autocratic
control of State affairs. Possibly he was regarded in the light of
Regent for Lorenzo's only legitimate child, Caterina. He had undoubtedly
personal fitness for the post of Chief of the Republic. During the
brief period, barely five months, of his administration, he did very
much to place public interests upon a firm and practical basis.

Very adroitly he played off the "_Ottimati_," under Pietro de' Ridolfi,
against the "_Frateschi_," led by Giacopo de' Salviati, without
identifying himself with either party. Recalled to Rome on the death of
Leo X., he left Cardinal Silvio Passerini of Cortona his deputy: a man
useful as a tool but of no ability or judgment. Adrian VI., who
succeeded to the Papacy, was a weak pontiff, and Rome became a hot-bed
of intrigue and villainy.

A plot to assassinate Cardinal de' Medici failed, and, in 1523, he was,
after many weeks of wrangling, elected Pope, with the title of Clement
VII. In the Vatican, that "refuge for bastards and foundlings," room was
found for two boys, cousins, each the offspring of a Medici father, but
illegitimate. They were brought up under the immediate eye of the Pope,
indeed one of them, the younger, was said to be the son of Clement.

Ippolito, just fourteen years old, was the bastard son of Giuliano de'
Medici, Duke of Nemours. His mother was a noble lady of Urbino, Pacifica
Brandini, but she permitted her child to be exposed in the streets, in a
basket, where he was rescued, and taken into the foundling ward of the
Confraternity of Santa Maria di Piano d'Urbino. There the kindly
Religious gave him the name of "Pasqualino," indicative of the Church
season of Easter, when he entered surreptitiously upon the world's
stage.