The Cardinal of Rovero was then nominated unanimously, and took the title of Julius II. In pursuance of the idea of Italian independence, this warlike pontiff carried on an obstinate struggle against Louis XII., with the view of retaking several towns of Italy which had once belonged to the States of the Church. Unintimidated either by the armies of Louis XII., or by the threats of the councils convoked under the protectorate of the King of France and the Emperor of Germany, he himself assembled a council at Rome, and this inflexible old man, after having brought about wise measures of reform which all Europe applauded, cited the king and the members of his parliament to come and answer for their revolt against the Holy See. But Julius II., worn out by his exertions, died in 1513. His successor, Leo X., who had effected a reconciliation with Louis XII., was obliged to head the Italian league against Francis I. An understanding had been brought about after the battle of Marignano, and the Pragmatic Sanction, which had been the pretext of so many disputes since the days of Philippe le Bel, was given up and replaced by a concordat concluded in 1516 between France and the Holy See. Leo X., continuing the Italian policy of his predecessor, also kept in view the idea of a crusade against the Turks; but this great work of the papacy was only realised half-a-century later under the pontificate of Pius V. The faithful were aroused by his voice; Cyprus had fallen into the hands of the Mussulmans, and the whole of Europe was in imminent peril. The cost of the expedition was divided between the King of Spain, Venice, and the pope; fifty thousand infantry and four thousand cavalry were got together, and the command of the fleet was given to Don John of Austria. It encountered the Turkish fleet, which consisted of two hundred and twenty-four vessels, in the Gulf of Lepanto, on October 7th, 1571. The infidels were annihilated, losing twenty-five thousand men and ten thousand prisoners, while fifteen thousand Christians whom they had chained to their galleys were set at liberty (Fig. 215). Catholic Europe breathed once more, and in its gratitude attributed this prodigious victory to the protection of the Virgin, to whom the faithful told their beads at the hour at which the battle took place, and the memory of this event was perpetuated by a yearly fête on the first Sunday in October. [Illustration: Fig. 216.--A Sitting of the Council of Trent in 1555.--From a Painting by Titian, in the Louvre (Sixteenth Century).] [Illustration: Fig. 215.--Iron shield presented to Don John of Austria by Pius V., in recognition of his services to Christendom by the victory at Lepanto (1571), with an inscription signifying, “Christ has won the victory; it is He who reigns and governs.”--From the “Armeria Real” (Madrid), published by M. Ach. Jubinal.]