CRISTO RAUL.ORG

READING HALL

THE DOORS OF WISDOM

CHAPTER XXII.

The Close of the Pontificate of Clement VII.—His Position towards Literature and Art.

When in December 1533 Clement VII returned from Marseilles to Rome, a Milanese envoy reported that the Holy Father was in such good health that he looked as if he had only come back from an excursion to his villa on Monte Mario. No one suspected, at that moment, that the life of this man of fifty-three was nearing its end. Least of all did it occur to the French party that all the far-reaching schemes interwoven with the marriage of Catherine de’ Medici were destined to come to nothing. On the Imperialist side this alliance had been looked upon with the greatest suspicion. Both before and during the conference at Marseilles, Vergerio, the resident Nuncio at the court of Ferdinand I, “had sent reports of his distrust”—a distrust which grew although Clement laboured to counteract it. The Nuncio found his position one of increasing difficulty. Little fitted for diplomacy, this representative of the Pope was surrounded by the worst feelings of suspicion and by bitter animosity against Clement himself.

Vergerio’s communications on German affairs were a source of grave anxiety. In the very first despatch sent to Rome after his arrival in Vienna he had to report the advance of Lutheranism and the evil plight of the Catholic Church in Germany. The anti-Papal feeling which had taken possession even of circles loyal to the old faith was intensified by various ill-sounding rumours concerning the Marseilles conference. “It is my belief,” he wrote on the 18th of November 1533 to the Papal private secretary, Carnesecchi, “that here not only the Pope and Italians, but also the Catholic faith and Jesus Christ, have many enemies; but in Rome they have no real notion how corrupt the minds of almost all men here have become.”  From Prague, whither he had followed the court, he sent on the 28th of December to Rome a despatch of a very agitating character. “Listen,” he appealed to Carnesecchi, “to the state of the Church of Christ in this country. In the whole kingdom of Bohemia at this time only six priests have been ordained, and these are quite poor men to whom, on account of their necessity, I gave gratuitously the dispensations enabling them to receive their orders from any bishop. The Bishop of Passau told me that in his entire diocese within four years only five priests have been ordained. The Bishop of Laibach said that out of his diocese in eight years only seventeen had become priests. The reports of benefices standing empty on account of this lack of clergy are quite incredible. But this is not the case merely in schismatical Bohemia, but in the whole of Austria and the whole of Germany.”

With his reports on the existing decline of the Catholic faith in Germany, Vergerio combined urgent representations that efforts should be made in Rome to supply so many endangered souls with the needed succour; he recommended especially the support of the literary champions who, like Eck in Bavaria, Cochlaus in Saxony, Nausea on the Rhine, and Faber in the Austrian patrimonial states, were courageously defending the Catholic faith. The behaviour of Clement in this particular matter is only too significant of his ecclesiastical policy. Already in 1530 Campeggio, and in 1532 Aleander, had called attention to the necessity of giving substantial help to . these writers who were, for the most part, men of very slender means. Cardinal Cles had discussed the matter personally with the Pope at Bologna and received the best assurances; nevertheless, by the spring of 1533 practically nothing had been done. Cles therefore made serious representations to Vergerio, and the Nuncio himself left nothing undone to advance the matter at Rome. He was even ready, he said, to spend 200 ducats from his own pocket on these learned men, if he could entertain the hope of being repaid. The attitude of the Curia also was a strange one. There was certainly no attempt to deny the necessity of supporting the Catholic men of learning, but a warning was given not to exceed the strictest economy in so doing, since the finances were in a very distressed condition; Ferdinand I, it was suggested, could do something much more easily. It is stranger still that even when the opportunity arose of contributing to the support of these scholars it was not made use of. In conformity with an evil custom of long-standing, rich livings continued to be given to men who had no need of them. Thus in October 1533 a man who had already an income of 4000 ducats received 1000 ducats more in rents by the transference of some German benefices. Vergerio protested against this with justice; such a proceeding would give occasion of fresh complaint to numerous enemies of the Church, and drive the few deserving Catholic scholars to despair in their con­tinual supplications for benefices. Nevertheless, the Curia withheld any adequate support. In the following spring Vergerio could still report that the poor Catholic scholars were being starved to death; still, something might be done for them in Rome, for in Germany there were no benefices to dispose of; the few that were vacant he had bestowed upon them, but on account of certain reservations they were of no use. It was therefore urgently requisite that the Pope should supply them with support in hard cash; no guarantee for such was given. Further, the Nuncio himself was so badly paid that he was not in a position to give pledges to any great extent.

All this proves how lacking in earnestness Clement VII was as regards duties of an essentially ecclesiastical kind, and at the same time it shows how greatly he underestimated the danger with which the Papacy was threatened from the side of Germany. In this he was encouraged by the crafty King of France, who succeeded in producing the impression in Rome that the leaders of the Lutheran cause were dependent on France, and that French media­tion would easily bring about an agreement with them.

How little Clement appreciated the full significance of the politico-religious tendencies in Germany and how blindly in this respect he trusted in Francis I, is shown by his behaviour in a matter of great moment to the existence of the Church in southern Germany. In the spring of 1534 the Landgrave of Hesse, who received French support, began war for the restoration of the Protestant Duke Ulrich of Würtemberg to his duchy. Francis I managed to conceal so cleverly from the Pope that the successful issue of this conflict would be the surrender of Würtemberg to Protestantism that Clement looked upon the Landgrave’s whole enterprise as merely a counter-stroke to the private interests of the Hapsburgs, involving no danger to the Church. The Ambassadors of Ferdinand I sought in vain to turn him from this erroneous view, and in vain appealed to him for help. Clement assured them of his sympathy, but excused himself on the score of his exhausted treasury. The war, the Pope considered, misled by French misrepresentations, was a personal contest in which he could not interfere unless the Landgrave did something against the Catholics; also, without the consent of the Sacred College, no such support as he was called upon to give would be possible. But among the Cardinals Francis had secured a certain majority by means of liberal pensions, thus preventing any help being given to Ferdinand.

Accordingly, in a Brief of the 16th of June 1534, any support of Ferdinand was flatly refused. This inexcusable conduct called forth not merely at the courts of Charles and his brother, but also among the most loyal adherents of Rome in Germany, strong expressions of disapproval. Finally came Clement’s behaviour in the question of the Council. In accordance with the engagements made at Marseilles the Pope had already, in March 1534, officially declared his determination to defer, until a more propitious and peaceable season, the Council announced in the previous year. In a letter from Duke George of Saxony to Vergerio the clearest expression is given to the bitterness aroused in the German Catholics at this fresh postponement by the Pope, under the influence of fear and his French sympathies. In this document the most Catholic of all the Catholic princes of Germany complains with vehemence that the Pope, in the question of the Council, has allowed himself to be befooled by Francis, the inveterate enemy of Germany. If the Roman Church, he exclaims in his indignation, were to lose 10,000 ducats of her revenues, excommunications would be hurled and swords drawn and all Christendom called upon for aid; but if a hundred thousand souls, through the fraud of the devil, are brought to ruin, the Chief Shepherd listens to the counsels of him who is continually bent on injuring and enslaving Christendom. Utterances such as these, the violence of which could hardly be surpassed, were dictated by a genuine anxiety for fatherland and religion.

Under these circumstances it must be considered fortunate for the Church that the Pope’s days were numbered.

In June 1534 Clement VII was taken ill; this was attributed to the agitation caused by the senseless conduct of his nephew Ippolito de’ Medici. After a short improvement his condition changed for the worse, and gave rise to great anxiety. The doctors were uncertain as to the nature of the malady ; some thought that the Pope had been poisoned on his journey from Marseilles, and accusations were not wanting in which the Florentines on one hand and the French on the other were charged with the crime. In reality his complaint was probably a gastric one, perhaps of a malignant character. As the doctors were unable to agree, Clement lost confidence in them; his condition meanwhile underwent extraordinary changes. At the beginning of July he seemed to have recovered, but then followed a relapse of such a dangerous kind that he was reported to be dead, but this rumour, in consequence of which all Rome had taken to arms, was premature ; the strong constitution of the Pope was once more victorious, and by the beginning of August he showed a marked improvement. On the 30th of July he had made his will, by which Florence was left to Alessandro and all his remaining possessions to Cardinal Ippolito.

Rome was not then in a healthy condition, and many deaths occurred in the ranks of the Sacred College. On the 19th of July 1534 Enkevoirt died; on the 4th of August he was followed by Cardinal della Valle. The renowned Cajetan was also stricken with grievous illness, and died in the night of the 9th or early on the 10th of August. It was the wish of this high-minded and learned Cardinal to be buried in the simplest manner.

The Pope, meanwhile, continued to improve, although he was still very weak. On the 18th of August, while the Romans were filled with alarm at the news of the sack of Fondi by the pirates employed by Chaireddin Barbarossa, the city was moved to its depths by the announcement that the Pope was lying between life and death owing to a renewed attack of fever and sickness. On the following day Clement’s condition seemed so dangerous that on the evening of the 24th of August he received Extreme Unction. The day after that death seemed certain; fever was exhausting his strength, and as he lay writhing in cramp he rejected all nourishment. But again, in the beginning of September, there was another sudden change for the better. Notwithstanding their patient’s great exhaustion, the doctors believed that he would make another rally. The vital crisis lasted until the 8th of September; after that his condition daily became more hopeful. Giberti visited the sick man, whose delight at seeing his old and trusted friend was intense. “The improvement continues,” reported Ferdinand’s Ambassador on the 21st of September: “The Pope talks with those about him and laughs over the manoeuvres and ambition of the Cardinals. He still has a certain amount of fever; the court oscillates between hope and fear; but the former predominates so greatly that all conclave intrigues have ceased.”  But on this very 21st of September there came a permanent change for the worse. The fever increased in intensity and day by day his strength ebbed away. On the 25th of September, three hours after midday, Clement VII was released from his sufferings after hovering for a month between life and death.

Many troubles had combined against him during his last days. While corsairs were plundering his coasts and filling Rome with terror, his own position between Francis I and Charles V was one of acute anxiety. Then a dangerous quarrel threatened to break out in his own family; Cardinal Ippolito, whose dissolute life had already caused him many hours of care, wished to renounce the purple in order to expel Alessandro de’ Medici from Florence. In order that this “foolish devil”, as Clement once called his nephew, might be otherwise employed he bestowed upon him, on the 5th of September 1534, the Legation of the Marches, which Accolti was obliged to vacate. In the delirium of fever Clement was still occupied with the prospects of his nephews, and one of the last briefs of the dying Pope, addressed on the 23rd of September to the Emperor, contained, besides the entreaty that he should care for the interests of Italy and the Church, a warm recommendation of Ippolito and Alessandro. The trusted Carnesecchi was to be the bearer of the letter.

The mortal remains of Clement VII were at first laid in St. Peter’s and afterwards transferred to S. Maria sopra Minerva. There on the right side of the choir, opposite the tomb of Leo X, Baccio Bandinelli, from plans drawn up by Sangallo, erected a monument to Clement VII in the form of an antique triumphal arch in white marble that might be mistaken for the monument of his cousin. In the central niche is a seated statue of Clement, sculptured by Nanni di Baccio Bigio, surmounted by a relief representing the coronation of Charles V. In the niches on either side are statues of St. Jerome and St. John the Baptist; the reliefs above show the former saint in the desert, and the Baptist in the act of preaching There is hardly another spot in Rome conducive to more serious reflection than these tombs of the two Popes of the house of Medici. Differing widely in character and fortunes they were both, in their pontificates, of momentous import to the Church.

Clement has been called the most unlucky of all the Popes. This verdict is justified not merely as regards his reign but as regards his memory. It was astonishing how quickly he was forgotten in Rome. The Romans remembered only the misfortunes of his reign, his financial disasters, and his heavy taxation; they no longer recalled the judicious regulations of the deceased Pope for the commissariat of the city.

Clement VII has had no biographer, and almost all the historians of his time, with Guicciardini and Giovio at  their head, pass severe judgments upon him. Even those who recognize his praiseworthy qualities, his piety, purity of life, and indefatigable love of work, blame “ the coldness of his heart, his indecision, his weakness coupled with duplicity, his pettiness of spirit.” To judge with fairness it ought to be borne in mind that Clement in many instances had to expiate the sins of his predecessors, that only too often he was the victim of circumstances for the existence of which he was not responsible. Terrible was the retribution brought on him for the introduction of the Spaniards into Naples by Alexander VI. Vettori has already pointed out that “Clement VII was not cruel, nor proud, nor a simonist, nor avaricious, nor dissolute, but temperate, simple, pious, zealous in the fulfilment of his religious duties—nevertheless, upon him and Rome came dire calamity, and others who were full of vices lived and died happily as far as this world goes.”

Even granting that this eulogy is just, yet the second Medici Pope cannot escape the reproach that during his eleven years’ pontificate he never showed himself competent to deal with the difficulties of the situation. Incapable of large calculations, he allowed himself to be led by petty considerations when great interests were at stake. Timid in the extreme, he only arrived at a decision slowly and then was easily induced to alter it, for he was only too prone to substitute for every good plan some other that he considered better. With him “the fresh hues of determination were sicklied o’er with the pale cast of thought.” He was entirely wanting in masterly initiative and courageous decision. What the reign of so irresolute a personality must inevitably produce has been hit off to perfection by Berni in an epigram of excessive bitterness:

Un papato composto di rispetti

Di considerazioni e di discordi,

Di piu, di poi, di ma, di si di forsi

Di pur, di assai parole senza effetti.

The most regrettable feature of Clement’s pontificate was his absorption in politics and family interests, whereby he was blinded to the specially spiritual tasks of the Papacy, the most essential thing of all. Consequently he must undoubtedly bear a share of the blame for the loss of great portions of Germany to the Church. Clement was not sufficiently informed on German affairs, and therefore did not realize the momentum with which events were developing. If Germany was the central point of the interest of Adrian VI, the very reverse was the case with Clement VII. At first greatly disturbed by Luther’s success, he was too much a Medici to allow anxiety for Germany to take precedence of political and Italian preoccupations. By making himself the centre of resistance to Charles V he allowed the politico-ecclesiastical upheaval in the German Empire to have full scope. Later on he swung between two extremes, between plans of forcible suppression of the reformers and plans of mutual agreement. A temporizer by nature, he was incapable of a strong, clearly defined course of action, all the more so as the King of France cleverly kept him deceived as to the dangers in Germany.

His conduct in English affairs is also open to objection. The charge that the Pope, by his precipitate sentence of excommunication on Henry VIII, made himself responsible for the separation of England from the Holy See is certainly without justification. On the other hand, it does not admit of doubt that he was wanting in the necessary resolution to intervene firmly and, before it was too late, place an imperative alternative before Henry VIII. As the King had come forward decidedly against Luther his threats of apostasy had not been taken seriously at Rome where, hoping against hope, it was thought that time would cool the adulterous passion which had reached a pitch almost of frenzy. The Pope therefore adopted a dilatory policy, did not speak out at once and unmistakably, made unintelligible concessions, and even consented to the elevation to the episcopate of opponents of the Holy See. While the Curia still clung to the empty expectation that sooner or later some settlement must be reached, Henry was paving the way towards separation. However much Clement’s weakness may admit of explanation from the point of view of human nature, it was inconsistent with the ideal of the high office with which he was invested, and did injury to the interests of the Church.

Clement had no greater success in his European policy than he had in Church affairs. Employing with restless activity all the arts of a diplomatist of the Renaissance and conducting all his undertakings with cleverness and acumen, he yet achieved nothing. His constantly shifting policy, the outcome of over-subtlety and a lack of courage and stability, could produce only small results. In all great questions his policy completely broke down, and involved him in incessant discomfiture. Clement VII dug the grave of Italian freedom, while the great political authority of the Papacy moved steadily to its downfall. Nothing but misfortune attended Clement’s purely political machinations, so much so that one might be tempted to see therein a sign that Providence was bent on once more leading back the Papacy to its special vocation. This much was evident when Clement passed away; all his political schemes had come to nothing; the road along which he had travelled was henceforth closed. A radical change was necessary if the Church was not to lose still more than she had already lost within the last few years.

The ill-fortune which set its stamp on the pontificate of Clement VII also threw its shadow over his relations to literature, science, and art.

True to the traditions of his family, the Pope, during his Cardinalate, had already gathered round him a throng of poets and men of letters. To this day the Vatican Library preserves an imposing series of works dedicated to him at this period

It is easy to imagine the delight with which, on the death of the unsympathetic Adrian VI, the election of such a man as Giulio de’ Medici was hailed in literary circles. Amid eulogies of the house of Medici, always the patron of the learned, the return of the golden age was proclaimed in prose and verse, and many voices began to celebrate the events of the new reign.

Clement VII had every wish to continue the traditions of Leo X. In spite of the misfortunes of the time he did more in this respect than is commonly supposed. Among his secretaries names of note appear early: Angelo Colocci, Blosio Palladio, Evangelista Tarasconio, Giovanni Battista Sanga, Sadoleto. The latter, however, returned in April 1527 to his diocese of Carpentras. Pietro Bembo also had friendly relations with Clement VII through letters and dedications, and saw the Pope during the Jubilee year of 1525, and afterwards at the first meeting of the latter with Charles V at Bologna. On this occasion Romolo Amaseo delivered before the Emperor and Pope his oration on the Latin language which excited an admira­tion that is hardly intelligible at the present day.

The attention bestowed by Clement VII on the Vatican Library is shown remarkably in this; that, following in the steps of Leo X he took measures, notwithstanding the necessitous times, to increase the printed and manuscript treasures of this collection Thus, in the year 1526, Johann Heitmers, who had already been entrusted with a literary mission in 1517, was again sent to the North to make fresh discoveries. He was assisted by the Dominican Wilhelm Carnifex, whose activity Clement sought to encourage in every way. The Pope on this occasion was not merely recalling the exertions of Leo X; he bore expressly in mind those of Cosimo, Giuliano, and Lorenzo de’ Medici in finding out new Greek, Latin, and Hebrew manuscripts. If the Pope hoped by these searches after manuscript treasures to confer an advantage also on religion in the hour of danger, this may be explained by the fact that a clue was supposed to have been found to the existence of a valuable manuscript of St. Paul’s Epistles. From the Gonzaga, Clement borrowed a manuscript of Eustathius to which Lascaris had called his attention. The Pope, who was also interested in the reform of the calendar, is entitled to special honour for the attitude he assumed towards the new system of Nicolas Copernicus; in 1533 he ordered the learned Johann Albert Widmanstadt to explain it in the gardens of the Vatican.

Clement VII also had friendly relations with Erasmus, who tactfully greeted the Pope on his accession by presenting him with a copy of his paraphrase of the Acts of the Apostles; he also wrote a very respectful letter in which he apologized for the imprudent tone of his earlier writings by saying that at that time he could not have anticipated the outbreak of the religious divisions. Clement VII thanked him in a very kind letter on the 3rd of April 1524, accompanied by a present of 200 gold gulden; he exhorted Erasmus to place his talents at the service of the Church, and assured him that his enemies would be ordered to hold their peace. On this friendly footing they continued to stand, all the more so when Erasmus, in the autumn of 1524, attacked the heart of the Lutheran doctrine in its denial of the freedom of the will. Clement so highly appreciated the outspoken opposition of Erasmus to Luther that in 1527 he imposed silence on the Spanish opponents of the former, and kept silence himself regarding Erasmus’ own attempts to bring about a reconciliation, which were in part not easy to understand, and the objections to which had been brought before the Pope’s notice. If Clement had hitherto always kept himself aloof from the learned controversies between the friends and foes of Erasmus, he now thought it a counsel of expediency that such a man should be spared as much as possible and that he should express himself satisfied with his assurances of loyalty.

Among the poets to whom Clement VII extended his favour, Sannazaro and Vida hold the first place. The former dedicated to the Pope, in the autumn of 1526, his celebrated poem on the Nativity of Christ, to the appearance of which Leo X had looked forward so eagerly. Seripando had the honour of presenting the work to the Pope, who, in a Brief composed by Sadoleto, thanked the poet, for whom he foretold an immortality of renown. The Pope’s invitation to come to Rome was declined by Sannazaro on account of the period of calamity which had begun to break over the Eternal City. He remained in Naples, where he found his resting-place in the church of his own foundation, S. Maria del Porto on the Mergellina. His monument, the work of Giovanni Angelo Montorsoli, does not discredit the pupil of Michael Angelo. The tomb is flanked by marble statues of Apollo and Minerva; inscriptions added by a later hand have  transformed these figures into a David and a Judith. Strange as is the admission into a Christian church of these two pagan deities, they are yet strikingly appropriate in the case of a poet like Sannazaro, who in his works indulged to excess in illustrations drawn from heathen mythology.

Vida, still at work on his Christiade, begun under Leo X, was made Bishop of Alba by Clement VII. However fitting this post may have been for the poet, the bishopric of Nocera de’ Pagani was certainly not the place for Paolo Giovio the historian, appointed in 1528. Giovio badly requited the favour shown to him by Clement.

Early in 1524 Francesco Guicciardini was made President of the Romagna, where a very bad state of things prevailed; he succeeded, although his task was often made difficult from Rome, in restoring order. The part taken by him in the campaigns subsequent to the League of Cognac has been already narrated. After a short interval of rest he re-entered the Papal service in 1530 and gave valuable assistance towards the restoration of the Medicean rule in Florence. From June 1531 Guicciardini was Vice-Legate of Bologna, and not merely here but in other directions also, especially against Ferrara, he rendered most important services to the policy of the house of Medici.

Machiavelli visited Clement VII in 1525 in order to present him with the five books of his Florentine history. His reception was gracious, and a gift of 100 ducats was accorded him. He made use of this occasion to recommend to the Pope his old plan of a national militia. Clement for a moment seemed disposed to enter into the scheme, but he very soon drew back from the dangerous undertaking.

In spite of their dissolute lives Agnolo Firenzuola and Francesco Berni received tokens of favour from the Pope. From 1524 Berni was secretary to the Datary Giberti, who with extraordinary patience and certainly with too great indulgence put up for a considerable time with the eccentric behaviour of the highly talented poet: but at last he had to be dismissed. At a later date Berni attached himself to the court of Ippolito de’ Medici, of all the Cardinals the most devoted to pomp, enjoyment, and secularly.

Berni’s irreconcilable enemy appears in the person of Pietro Aretino, the master of the art of scandalous pasquinade, of which he considered himself to have the monopoly. The friction between the two dated from the very beginning of Clement’s reign, into whose favour Aretino had already insinuated himself. Berni liked Giberti as much as Aretino detested him. Although Giberti’s opponents, Girolamo da Schio and Schonberg, took sides with Aretino, whose pen inspired fear, the latter got the worst of it and had to fly from Rome at the end of July 1524; but he was back again in November, now singing the praises of Clement and receiving rewards for so doing. On a night in July in the following year Aretino was implicated in a stabbing affair and was wounded in several places. As his assailant was in Giberti’s service and went unpunished, Aretino attacked the Datary in the bitterest terms and finally went on to revile the Pope also. The scandal was so great that he left Rome and joined Giovanni “delle Bande Nere.” After the death of the latter he lived at the court of the Marquis of Mantua, from whence he launched forth such biting invectives against the Pope and the Roman court that Clement’s confessor com­plained to the Mantuan envoy.6 Meanwhile Aretino had found a safe refuge in Venice. Here he displayed a most remunerative industry, for, by sending his poisoned shafts in every direction, he extorted huge sums of money from those highly placed in the world and the Church. The sack of Rome gave Aretino an opportunity for composing a touching elegy and a pasquinade of savage ferocity. The latter was of such a tenor that Clement flung it to the ground exclaiming, with tears: “Is it to be borne that a Pope should be spoken of in such cruel terms!”. This time Clement’s displeasure lasted longer. Aretino’s attempts, through influential persons, to obtain pardon were unavailing. It was only when no less a personage than the Doge Gritti himself applied to the Pope that he succeeded, in September 1530, in obtaining an official reconciliation. But the banishment from Rome continued in force, and so for a long time to come did the feelings of rancour and hatred in the mind of Aretino.

The great throng of literati of all sorts, poets and men of learning, who since the days of his Cardinalate had been associated with Clement, would form a catalogue too long to enumerate. The following only may be mentioned: Zaccaria Ferreri, Bernardo Accolti, Giangiorgio Trissino, Giovanni Rucellai, Fra Sabba da Castiglione, Pietro Alcionio, Giglio Gregorio Giraldi, Andrea Fulvio, Maria Fabio Calvo, Pierio Valeriano, Johann Eck, Santes Pagnino, Cardinal Cajetan, Cristoforo Marcello, Antonio Pigafetta, Achille Bocchi, Stefano Joanninense, Giovanni Gennesio Sepulveda Albert Pighius, Giano Lascaris, and many others.

The sack of Rome brought ruinous loss to all men of letters living there, while many perished. The humanist Pierio Valeriano described the fate of individuals in his well-known treatise “On the Misfortunes of the Learned.” The Roman University was completely ruined. Clement VII had shown the greatest interest in its erection, and gave orders that the buildings should be restored. He failed, indeed, in securing the services of Erasmus, but was successful in his invitations to many other scholars. The Papal archives and the Vatican Library also suffered badly in the year of misfortune 1527, but Clement VII made vigorous efforts to make good the losses.

The consequences of the sack were perhaps more disastrous for art than for literature. Not merely had the whole brilliant group of painters, sculptors, and goldsmiths been scattered in all directions, and many of their works destroyed, but the exhaustion of the finances was injurious, for it made all work impossible for a great length of time, and then, when the worst difficulties had been overcome, no one was able to come forward as a general patron of the arts. In this respect, too, Clement VII differed from  his cousin Leo X. The heedless prodigality of the latter was as foreign to Clement as his rich versatility of culture; dry, earnest, sparing of his purse, he was not the man to act the Maecenas for whom the world of art had been hoping; they were soon to undergo a great disappointment.

On the announcement of the election of Clement VII most of the artists who had been driven from Rome by the death of Leo X and the pontificate of Adrian VI at once returned. Their recollections of the reign of the first Medici filled them all with the most pleasing hopes for the future. To have survived the day of the “barbarian” Pope and of the plague filled the joyous band with fresh spirit. “Friends sought each other out again,” says Benvenuto Cellini, “and embraced and greeted with cheering words those whom they once more met alive. Painters, sculptors, and goldsmiths, the best in Rome, drew closer together in a society founded by the jovial Michael Agnolo of Siena, and held joyous festas in which Giulio Romano and Penni also took part.” What Cellini tells us of these festas makes it clearly evident that the austere Adrian VI would have nothing to do with such folk. Clement VII himself was soon obliged to take steps against Marcantonio Raimondi for having made copper­plates of some obscene drawings of Giulio Romano; had the latter not already made his way to Mantua, the anger of the Pope would have fallen upon him heavily.

In spite of the financial difficulties which Clement VII had to contend with from the first, in spite of the political embarrassments and the unprecedented blows of fate which were so soon to overwhelm him, he had set on foot many works of importance, while in another direction his pontificate saw the development in Rome of artistic activity on no small scale. The most remarkable work of painting belonging to this reign was undoubtedly the decoration of the great hall leading to the Stanze, then called the Papal Hall, and later the Hall of Constantine; for the victorious entry of Christianity into universal history under that Emperor is there depicted.

The programme of this monumental work was, as regards essentials, settled under Leo X. But as yet nothing had been executed, except the general division of subjects and the figures of Virtue and Justice which Raphael’s pupils, Giulio Romano and Penni, had painted in oil on the wall; besides this the background of the Battle of the Milvian Bridge had been begun. This, however, was taken down when Clement gave orders for the resumption of the work interrupted by his cousin’s death. The new method of painting chosen out of consideration for the co-operation of Sebastiano del Piombo was now given up and the customary use of fresco retained. In this great undertaking Giulio Romano executed the “Apparition of the Cross” and the battle-piece, while the “Baptism” and “Donation” of Constantine fell to Penni.

These great frescoes are painted apparently in the style of vast tapestries stretched along the walls, an evidence how fashionable this kind of decoration had become since the production of Raphael’s famous hangings. Only the incomparable “Battle of Constantine” was sketched by the great master himself, and it was his thought that placed in the centre of this colossal picture, at the head of the band of horsemen pressing forward in the irresistible onset of victory, the youthful Emperor mounted on a noble white charger, with lance in poise, while the angels hovering over him point to his opponent Maxentius, who falls head­long into the rushing Tiber. The turning-point in this world-famed battle is thus most happily indicated. All around rages the turmoil of battle with its thrilling episodes represented with vivid fidelity to truth.

The results of the victory, the “Baptism” and “Donation ” of Constantine, were painted by Penni; in both frescoes St. Sylvester is represented with the features of Clement VII. The former event takes place in the baptistery of the Lateran; the “Donation,” which by a stroke of genius is symbolized by the presentation of a golden figure of Rome, gives an admirable sketch of the interior of the old church of St. Peter.

Between these two powerful frescoes are throned in painted niches under baldachini the figures, larger than life size, of famous Popes of the early Church, among whom Clement I and Leo I bear the traits of the two Medici Popes. Around these likenesses of the predecessors of Clement VII are grouped angels and allegorical figures, whose crudely realistic forms as well as the almost nude mythological figures on the pilasters are characteristic of the age. Giulio’s pupils, Giovanni da Lione and Raffaello del Colle of Borgo San Sepolcro, executed the ornaments and arabesques which border the frescoes as well as the caryatides with the badges of the Medici on the brackets.

According to the account books the above-named painters were engaged for the greater part of the year 1524 in the Hall of Constantine, which might perhaps be better named after St. Sylvester. The last instalment of the stipulated 1000 ducats was paid on the 3rd of July 1525, but the work, in all essentials, was finished as far back as September 1524. Giulio Romano thereupon left Rome in October 1524, for no more work of importance was to be expected there. Clement VII was not merely struggling with his money difficulties, but politics were making increasing claims on his attention; thus it was that Penni and Giovanni da Udine also came to be engaged on tasks of only a trivial character, the painting of banners in particular.

The catastrophe which befell the artistic world in the sack of Rome was so terrible that it must once more be considered. The few, such as Benvenuto Cellini and the sculptors Lorenzo Lotto and Rafifaello da Montelupo, who were able to find occupation as gunners on St. Angelo, were to be counted lucky. The remainder underwent the hardest experiences. The painter Maturino died of the plague; Perino del Vaga, Marcantonio Raimondi, Giulio Clovio, and many others were tortured and robbed of all they had. Those who could took refuge in flight, and the school of Raphael was completely broken up. Although Clement VII, after 1530, made strenuous efforts to restore the patronage of art, the life-blood of art itself had been drained. The gifted Giovanni da Udine was now extensively employed. He restored, in 1531, the mosaics in the apse of St. Peter’s, and painted, two years later, the ceiling of the sacristy of S. Lorenzo in Florence ; the glass windows of the Laurentian Library are, probably rightly, also attributed to him. The artistic activity of Sebastiano del Piombo was affected by his appointment in 1531, by Clement VII, to be a “Bullarum plumbator” or medallist of Papal Bulls, a remunerative function. After that this distinguished painter confined himself almost entirely to portraits.

Clement VII. had always taken a special interest in the art of illumination. He ordered several specimens to be executed for the choir books of the Sixtine Chapel. But in the account books, which, to be sure, are not in com­plete preservation, the name of Giulio Clovio, the greatest illuminator of the age, does not appear.

The troubles of the time were the principal cause why Clement, in the domain of architecture, had to restrict himself to what was absolutely necessary. The reconstruction of St. Peter’s had a prior claim to anything else. One of the Pope’s first acts of administration was the appointment of a commission of sixty members for the special purpose of seeing that the money collected for this purpose was not diverted to other objects. To raise the necessary sums, the right application of which was a matter of such extreme importance with the Pope, the same measures were used as under Leo X; but the same difficulties had also to be met. As the clumsy machinery of the College of Sixty proved unsuccessful, a special congregation of the “Fabbrica di S. Pietro” was afterwards appointed. The seal of the Fabbrica was the work of Benvenuto Cellini. The accounts from 1525 have been preserved, and afford a good survey of the slow progress of the work, the completion of which, as the Venetian Ambassador remarked in 1523, would hardly be seen by the generation of their grandchildren. Giuliano Leno continued to be master of the works under Clement VII. Before the sack Baldassare Peruzzi had been appointed architect of St. Peter’s for life; during the catastrophe he saved his life with difficulty, and on the 1st of July 1531 Clement VII renewed his former appointment.

Although the nomination in this instance also was for life, Peruzzi withdrew himself from Rome for a long time, so that in April 1533 Clement VII had to summon him back.

In the palace of the Vatican Clement VII completed the court of St. Damasus. Here as well as in the castle of St. Angelo many minor works and improvements were carried out. In the castle, the defences of which were strengthened, two chambers are shown at the. present day, one of which served as the Pope’s bedroom. The most recent restorations have also brought to light the Pope’s bathroom; it contains mythological scenes from the life of Venus very characteristic of the licence which marked the spirit of the age. The decoration also of the Papal villa on the eastern slope of Monte Mario, which was  partly destroyed by fire during the sack, was purely mythological in character.

In Rome itself, besides the rebuilding of the Mint (now Banco di S. Spirito) restorations were undertaken by Clement in the baptistery’ of the Lateran, in S. Agostino, S. Maria sopra Minerva, S. Pietro in Montorio, S. Pietro in Vincoli, S. Maria Maggiore, S. Matteo in Merulana, S. Gregorio de’ Muratori, S. Maria in Domnica, and in the cloister of S. Maria in Ara Coeli. On S. Giovanni de Fiorentini, Jacopo Sansovino was employed. On the northern portion of the Campo Marzio Clement VII in 1525 finished Leo X’s construction of the three streets leading to the Porta del Popolo. The Pope also did a great deal for the improvement of traffic in Rome. The sack, which had reduced the population from 55,000 to 32,000; the plague, and the great inundation of the Tiber in 1530 had done heavy damage to the Papal capital.

Notwithstanding these calamities Rome had revived with comparative alacrity, and at the time of Clement’s death the condition of the city was fairly satisfactory. For fortifications in Rome and elsewhere throughout the States of the Church Clement VII availed himself of Antonio da Sangallo and Michele Sanmicheli. The former, at his orders, constructed at Orvieto the great well (Pozzo di San Patrizio) which, after the cathedral, the inhabitants look upon as the second wonder of their city. In Fano the reconstruction of the harbour, and in Loreto the erection of the apostolic palace were undertaken. In Florence in 1533 the erection of the citadel of S. Giovanni Battista was set on foot.

Clement VII was too true a Medici to neglect the adornment of the Vatican with noble tapestries, costly faience, carved doors, and gold and silver vessels. Here also the sack caused serious losses, but it was not long before the work of restoration began. This was especially the case with regard to the goldsmiths’ art, which under Clement VII was in a most flourishing condition. As soon as to any extent his finances permitted it, the Pope began to renew his personal appointments. His principal commissions were for the golden roses, swords of honour and other Papal gifts, and for articles of ecclesiastical use. Besides Caradosso, who died in 1527, his most famous workmen were Benvenuto Cellini, Valerio Belli, and Giovanni Bernardi da Castel Bolognese. In the accounts many other names occur of more or less note.

This brilliant coterie of artists does not, perhaps, always appear in the most favourable light; fierce, reckless characters predominate, and acts of violence were frequent. The well-known autobiography of Benvenuto Cellini reveals with a startling fidelity to nature the sharp contrasts between culture and savagery, faith and superstition, the fantastic mixture of outward splendour and moral laxity which gave the tone to these artistic circles. In June 1529 Clement bestowed on this versatile genius the post of an engraver in the Roman Mint. Vasari considers that no such beautiful coinage had ever been designed for the Popes before; the pieces that have been preserved are certainly splendid works of art. The bust of Clement reproduces with remarkable fidelity his cold though handsome features; many of the designs drawn by Cellini for Papal coins are uncommonly original. Thus on a gold doubloon the Pope and Emperor are represented upholding the cross together; on the reverse side of a silver piece a very effective composition shows the Saviour rescuing Peter from the waves, with the inscription, “Wherefore hast thou doubted?” A medal with Moses bringing water from the rock refers to the well made by Clement at Orvieto; another medal of 1534 celebrates the then prevailing peace.

As a medallist Giovanni Bernardi da Castel Bolognese held an even more distinguished place than Cellini. In the art of “intaglio” Valerio Belli of Vicenza surpassed all his contemporaries. Distinguished also as a medallist, this artist executed for Clement VII the costly crystal reliquary presented to the basilica of S. Lorenzo in Florence. But his most famous work was the magnificent casket of which the principal adornment was scenes from the life of our Lord cut in crystal; this, executed on the occasion of the marriage of Catherine de’ Medici, is now an object of admiration in the galleries of the Uffizi.

The best-known work of sculpture in Rome, belonging to the reign of Clement VII, is Lorenzetto’s not very successful statue of St. Peter placed, at the Pope’s command, in 1530, alongside of Paolo Romano’s statue of St. Paul at the lower end of the bridge of St. Angelo. For the fortress, Raffaello da Montelupo executed a new angel of colossal size to take the place of the bronze effigy which had been melted down. At Monte Cassino the sepulchral monument of Pietro de’ Medici was begun in 1531 and only completed in 1559. At Loreto, Sansovino made progress with work on the Holy House remarkable for beauty and truly Christian feeling; as early as 1523 he had finished the relief of the Annunciation, which is conspicuous for its dramatic movement; the relief of the Adoration oi the Shepherds with its noble group of angels, set up in 1528, is full of sincerity; the Adoration of the Kings, the Birth and Espousals of Mary, already begun by Sansovino, were finished by his pupils after his death in 1529; to his drawings is also to be referred the panel of the Visitation. Of the statues placed in the twenty niches, that of Jeremias belongs for the most part to Sansovino; all the others came from his pupils. The latter also carried out the subordinate decoration of the structure. Tribolo, Sangallo, and Montelupo have here left work which is very effective. The lions’ heads, eagles and festoons of Mosca are especially good, and the same can be said of the panels with pictorial decorations introduced at the sides and at the foot of the doors. The former contain the arms of the Medici, and the latter ornamental figures of angels praying, tritons, sphinxes, birds, vases, and candelabra

The Pope’s predilection for Baccio Bandinelli was unfortunate. The latter, ambitious and self-seeking, tried to enter into a discreditable competition with Michael Angelo which was only productive of unpleasing creations. Bandinelli’s best work was the copy of the Laocoon executed for Leo X and placed, under Clement VII, in the second court of the Palazzo Medici at Florence. It is now in the Uffizi. On the right of the principal entrance of the Palazzo Vecchio stands Bandinelli’s marble group of “Hercules slaying Cacus,” as a pendant to Michael Angelo’s “David.” The satirical wit of the Florentines soon made a butt of this pompous composition. Another work entrusted to Bandinelli, the Archangel Michael triumphing over the seven deadly sins, and intended to adorn the castle of St. Angelo, was never executed.

Like Bandinelli, Giovanni Angelo Montorsoli had an apartment set apart for him in the Belvedere. Montorsoli was accounted a master in the art, then coming into repute, of restoring antique statues by additions which were often the result of a correct calculation. At Clement’s bidding he added the left arm to the Belvedere Apollo and the right to the figure of Laocoon. The Pope, who liked to visit the Belvedere in the morning when saying his office, took great interest in the progress of this work.

Like many other artists, even the greatest of all saw in the elevation of Clement to the Papacy ground for far-reaching expectations. “You will have heard,” wrote Michael Angelo on the 25th of November 1523 to a friend, “that Medici is chosen Pope. This, it seems to me, has been a matter of general congratulation, and I believe we shall see great things.” Clement VII had, in fact, throughout the whole of his pontificate a strong appreciation of the worth and greatness of this unique genius. The letters in particular of Sebastiano del Piombo and Giovan Francesco Fantucci bear eloquent testimony to this feeling. In the letters of the latter we have often verbatim reports of the conversations he had with Clement VII. Full of kind feeling, the Pope bore with truly astonishing patience the rudeness and ill-temper of the irascible artist. On one occasion he asked him to remember two things; first, that he is not able to make everything himself; and secondly, that we have only a short time to live. The thought that Popes do not for the most part have long reigns was recalled by Clement on another occasion in a postscript written in his own hand, in which he begged that he would make as much speed as possible in the execution of some work on which he was-

Three tasks of great magnitude were entrusted by Clement to Michael Angelo : the construction of the Medici memorial chapel (Sagrestia Nuovo) of S. Lorenzo, the execution of the monuments to be placed therein, and the erection of the Laurentian Library in Florence. At first Michael Angelo devoted himself with all his energy to this new and fascinating work, but the political events between 1527 and 1529 deprived him of all artistic capacity. Inflamed with love of the freedom of his native city, he flung chisel and hammer aside and undertook the indispensable service of providing defences for Florence, especially for the protection of San Miniato. When the Medici finally prevailed Michael Angelo was in very great danger; but Clement not only shielded him from the injuries instigated by a pitiless party hatred, but preserved unimpaired the old terms of intercourse. With what deep sorrow and anger Michael Angelo once more grasped his chisel can be seen clearly in the immortal verses laden with despondency which he composed for his statue of Night. At the end of his reign Clement had in his mind yet another work to be executed by Michael Angelo in Rome: the painting of the Last Judgment. It was certainly his greatest service to art that he should have suggested this magnificent subject for the display of the great painter’s Titanic power.