In the thunderstorm gathering over Rome and the Papacy, he represents that momentary lull during which men hold their breath and murmur.

All the place-seekers, parasites, flatterers, second-rate artificers, folk of facile talents, whom Leo gathered round him, vented their rage against a Pope who lived sparsely, shut up the Belvedere, called statues "idols of the Pagans," and spent no farthing upon twangling lutes and frescoed chambers.

Truly Adrian is one of the most grotesque and significant figures upon the page of modern history.

His personal worth, his inadequacy to the needs of the age, and his incompetence to control the tempest loosed by Della Roveres, Borgias, and Medici around him, give the man a tragic irony.
After his death, upon the 23rd of September 1523, the Cardinal Giulio de' Medici was made Pope.

He assumed the title of Clement VII.