“The Court of Rome,” writes Soranzo, “is no longer what it used to be either in the quality or the numbers of the courtiers. This is principally due to the poverty of the cardinals and the parsimony of the popes. In the old days, when they gave away more liberally, men of ability flocked from all quarters. This reduction of the Court dates from the Council; for the bishops and beneficed clergy being now obliged to retire to their residences, the larger portion of the Court has left Rome. To the same cause may be ascribed a diminution of the numbers of those who serve the Pontiff, seeing that since only one benefice can now be given and that involves residence, there are few who care to follow the Court at their own expense and inconvenience without hope of greater reward. The poverty of the cardinals springs from two causes. The first is that they cannot now obtain benefices of the first class, as was the case when England, Germany, and other provinces were subject to the Holy See, and when, moreover, they could hold three or four archbishoprics apiece together with other places of emolument, whereas they now can only have one apiece. The second cause is that the number of the cardinals has been increased to seventy-five, and that the foreign powers have ceased to complement them with large presents and benefices, as was the wont of Charles V. and the French Crown.” The consequence can be readily realized. There was the old demand for pictures and sculptures. But quick returns rather than sound accomplishment were required by the artists and their patrons. A delayed commission would stand but a poor chance of payment. For it would not fulfil its main purpose—the aggrandizement of a prince or cardinal whose term of power depended upon the life of the Pope or the tenure of office by such a ruler as one of the Medicean tyrants of Florence.