With such a shifty message went M.de Seyssel to make it quite clear to Bentivogli what his position was.

And on the heels of it came, on September 2, a papal brief citing Bentivogli and his two sons to appear before the Pontiff within fifteen days for the purpose of considering with his Holiness the matter of the pacification and better government of Bologna, which for so many years had been so disorderly and turbulent.

Thus the Pope's summons, with a menace that was all too thinly veiled.
But Bentivogli was not taken unawares.

He was not even astonished.

Ever since Cesare's departure from Rome in the previous spring he had been disposing against such a possibility as this--fortifying Bologna, throwing up outworks and erecting bastions beyond the city, and levying and arming men, in all of which he depended largely upon the citizens and particularly upon the art-guild, which was devoted to the House of Bentivogli.
Stronger than the affection for their lord--which, when all is said, was none too great in Bologna--was the deep-seated hatred of the clergy entertained by the Bolognese.