O Pater, O Pastor populorum, O maxime mundi Arbiter, humanum qui genus omne regis; Justitiæ pacisque dator placidæque quietis, Credita cui soli est vita salusque hominum; Quem Deus ipse Erebi fecit Coelique potentem, Ut nutu pateant utraque regna tuo![482] [Footnote 480: 'De Elisabetta Gonzaga canente,' _Carmina_, &c. p. 97. Cf. Bembo's 'Ad Lucretiam Borgiam,' _ib._ p. 14, on a similar theme.] [Footnote 481: _Ib._ p. 95.] [Footnote 482: 'O father, O shepherd of the nations, O great master of the world who rulest all the human race, giver of justice, peace, and tranquil ease; thou to whom alone is committed the life and salvation of men, whom God Himself made lord of hell and heaven, that either realm might open at thy nod.'] When the spiritual authority of the Popes came thus to be expressed in Latin verse, it was impossible not to treat them as deities. The temptation to apply to them the language of Roman religion was too great; the double opportunity of flattering their vanity as Pontiffs, and their ears as scholars, was too attractive to be missed. In another place Castiglione used the following phrases about Leo:-- Nec culpanda tua est mora, nam præcepta Deorum Non fas, nec tutum est spernere velle homini: Esse tamen fertur clementia tanta Leonis Ut facili humanas audiat ore preces.[483] [Footnote 483: 'I do not blame thee for delaying thy return, since neither is it safe nor right for man to set at naught a God's command; and yet so great is Leo's kindness said to be that he inclines a ready ear to human prayers.'--_Ib._ p. 102.] Navagero called Julius II. _novus ex alto demissus Olympo Deus_ (a new God sent down from heaven to earth), and declared that the people of Italy, in thanksgiving for his liberation of their country from the barbarians, would pay him yearly honours with prayer and praise:-- Ergo omnes, veluti et Phoebo Panique, quotannis Pastores certis statuent tibi sacra diebus, Magne Pater; nostrisque diu cantabere silvis. Te rupes, te saxa, cavæ te, Maxime Juli, Convalles, nemorumque frequens iterabit imago. At vero nostris quæcumque in saltibus usquam Quercus erit, ut quæque suos dant tempora flores, Semper erit variis ramos innexa coronis; Inscriptumque geret felici nomine truncum. Tum quoties pastum expellet, pastasve reducet Nostrum aliquis pecudes; toties id mente revolvens Ut liceat, factum esse tuo, Pater optime, ductu; Nullus erit, qui non libet tibi lacte recenti, Nullus erit qui non teneros tibi nutriat agnos. Quin audire preces nisi dedignabere agrestes, Tu nostra ante Deos in vota vocaberis omnes. Ipse ego bina tibi solenni altaria ritu, Et geminos sacrâ e quercu lauroque virenti Vicino lucos Nanceli in litore ponam.[484]