Admitted that this was to Cesare's benefit and advancement, it is still to be remembered that those fiefs must be governed for the Church by a Vicar, as had ever been the case.
That being so, who could have been preferred to Cesare for the dignity, seeing that not only was the expulsion of the tyrants his work, but that the inhabitants themselves desired him for their lord?
For the rest, granted his exceptional qualifications, it is to be remembered that the Pope was his father, and--setting aside the guilt and scandal of that paternity--it is hardly reasonable to expect a father to prefer some other to his son for a stewardship for which none is so well equipped as that same son.

That Imola and Forli were not free gifts to Cesare, detached, for the purpose of so making them, from the Holy See, is clear from the title of Vicar with which Cesare assumed control of them, as set forth in the Bull of investiture.
In addition to his receiving the rank of Vicar and Count of Imola and Forli, it was in this same month of March at last--and after Cesare may be said to have earned it--that he received the Gonfalon of the Church.

With the unanimous concurrence of the Sacred College, the Pope officially appointed him Captain-General of the Pontifical forces--the coveting of which position was urged, it will be remembered, as one of his motives for his alleged murder of the Duke of Gandia three years earlier.
On March 29 Cesare comes to St.Peter's to receive his new dignity and the further honour of the Golden Rose which the Pope is to bestow upon him--the symbol of the Church Militant and the Church Triumphant.
Having blessed the Rose, the Pope is borne solemnly into St.Peter's, preceded by the College of Cardinals.

Arrived before the High Altar, he puts off his tiara--the conical, richly jewelled cap, woven from the plumage of white peacocks--and bareheaded kneels to pray; whereafter he confesses himself to the Cardinal of Benevento, who was the celebrant on this occasion.

That done, he ascends and takes his seat upon the Pontifical Throne, whither come the cardinals to adore him, while the organ peals forth and the choir gives voice.