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BOOK VII
SIXTUS IV.
A.D 1471-1484.
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1. SIXTUS IV. 2. Rapid Elevation of the Members of the
Families of La Rovere and Riario.—The Cardinal of San Sisto. 3. Christian, King
of Denmark and Norway, and Federigo of Urbino in Rome.— The League of the 2nd
November, 1474. 4. The Jubilee Year, 1475.—King Ferrante visits Sixtus IV.—The
Fall of Caffa and the War with the Turks. 5. Beginning of the Rupture of Sixtus
IV with Lorenzo de' Medici. 6. The Conspiracy of the Pazzi, 1478. 7. The Tuscan
War.—French Intervention in Favour of the Florentines. 8. Turkish Expeditions
against Rhodes and Otranto. 9. Sixtus IV and Venice at War with Ferrara and
Naples.— The Battle at Campo Morto 10. The Pope’s Struggle with Venice and the
Colonna.—The Peace of Bagnolo and the Death of Sixtus
IV. 11. Character of Sixtus IV as Spiritual Ruler. 12. Sixtus IV as the Patron
of Art and Learning.—(a.) Refounding and Opening of
the Vatican Library—The Capitoline Museum—The Frescoes of the Sistine Chapel.
CHAPTER I.
SIXTUS IV
The death of Paul II had occurred at a most critical
moment. Steadily, like an advancing flood, the Turks streamed on to overwhelm
the distracted West. It was not Italy alone which now found all barriers swept
away between her coasts and the enemy. The defenceless frontiers of the Holy
Roman Empire were overrun by these barbarian hordes, carrying rapine, murder,
and devastation in their train as they pressed through Croatia into Styria. The
terrible tidings of the destruction which threatened Italy and Germany alike,
were well calculated to startle the most slothful from their slumber.
Nevertheless, at the Diet which met at Ratisbon, under the influence of the
Turkish panic, next to nothing was accomplished; the Papal Legate, Piccolomini,
preached to deaf ears. Italy, like Germany, was rent by internal dissensions :
no one seemed to realise the serious character of the times. As wave follows
wave upon a storm-swept sea, so one political combination was perpetually
giving way to another in a restless, aimless succession. This everlasting
change of relations, this possibility of being at once mutually friendly and
hostile; the impossibility of having any clear certainty of the position, at
any given moment, of any State towards its neighbour, became more and more the
characteristic of Italian political life.
During the vacancy of the Holy See in 1471, the
Province of Romagna, always more or less unquiet, gave special cause for
anxiety. Considerable excitement also prevailed in Rome. Immediately after the
death of Paul II, the Secular Canons of the Lateran had, with the assistance of
their Roman friends, driven out the Regular Canons introduced by the deceased
Pontiff. On the 28th July a deputation from the people of Rome appeared in
front of the Minerva, where the Cardinals had assembled, demanding, amongst other
things, that, for the future, benefices in Rome should be conferred on none but
Romans, and that the income destined for the Roman University should no longer
be diverted to other objects. The Cardinals answered in a conciliatory manner,
whereupon an order was issued that all should lay down their weapons, and that
the outlaws should leave Rome. This did much to soothe the popular feeling.
Other concessions were also made to the Romans. On the morning of the 29th,
forty prisoners, confined in the Capitol for minor offences, were set at
liberty. The Cardinals released two citizens of Ascoli and a Baron suspected of
heresy, who were imprisoned in the dungeons of St. Angelo, on condition that
they should not depart from Rome before the Coronation of the new Pontiff.
The City continued tolerably quiet during the ensuing
days. Sixteen Cardinals were in Rome when Paul II died. Of those who were
absent, none but Roverella and Gonzaga were able to reach the City in time for
the Election. Roverella, Legate of Perugia, arrived on the 1st, and Gonzaga on
the 4th August. Many persons expected that the latter would be Pope, others
thought the election of Cardinal Forteguerri more probable. A Milanese
Ambassador insists on the importance of the Turkish question in regard to the Election;
he mentions the persons apparently best fitted to bring about its solution, in
connection with the two parties, the Puschi and Pauleschi, already existing in the Sacred College. Of the
former, he names in the first place, Forteguerri, then Eroli,
Ammanati, and Roverella. Among the Pauleschi he looks
upon Amicus Agnifilus and Francesco della Rovere as
the most likely candidates.
The preponderance of the Italian element on this
occasion was very remarkable. Of the eighteen electors, all but three
(Bessarion, d'Estouteville, and Borgia) were Italians. The thirteen years which
had elapsed since the Conclave Pius II had brought great changes, and the
ascendancy of the foreign Cardinals was at an end. Foremost among the aspirants
to the Tiara were Cardinals d'Estouteville and Orsini. The former eagerly
endeavoured to secure the support of the powerful Duke of Milan. A confidential
person was employed to inform him that his brother, Ascanio Sforza, would
receive the red hat, and that he himself might be the wearer of a royal crown
in the event of d'Estouteville's success. The wealthy
Cardinal Orsini, a man of great capacity for business, was equally energetic in
his efforts to obtain the supreme dignity. His brothers and relations had
assembled in the neighbourhood of Rome, and it was reported that the former had
determined to procure his elevation to the Papal Throne, whether by fair means
or foul, and that the King of Naples favoured their design. The Ambassador of
Mantua confirms this statement, and adds that Orsini, if his own cause seemed
hopeless, would espouse that of Forteguerri and Eroli.
Even before the beginning of the Conclave, serious differences occurred between
Cardinals Orsini and Bessarion; the latter declared that he would not, under
any circumstances, suffer the Election to be carried out in the same way as the
last had been. Controversies also arose regarding the admission of Cardinals
Savelli and Foscari, who had not yet been published. Orsini desired their
exclusion, and his opinion prevailed.
On the morning of the 6th August, after the solemn
obsequies of Paul II had been concluded, the Mass of the Holy Ghost was sung,
and the College of Cardinals went in procession into the Conclave in the
Vatican. There were seventeen present, and on the following day Cardinal
Ammanati, who had been delayed by indisposition, was added to the number.
On the morning of the 9th August, Francesco della
Rovere, Cardinal of S. Pietro in Vincoli, was elected Pope. As the Conclave had
commenced on the feast of Pope Sixtus II, the new Pontiff assumed the name of
Sixtus IV.
A number of fresh documents regarding the proceedings
of the Conclave are now before us; they do much to complete the scanty details
hitherto known, but leave some important matters still obscure. By far the most
valuable of these are in the State Archives at Milan. They consist of two lists
of the Electors, with an exact account, on the one hand, of which candidate
each Cardinal voted for, and on the other of the number of votes received by
each, with the names of the voters.
The faithful and capable Nicodemus de Pontremoli
managed to procure these lists for the Duke, his master, who had expressed a
great desire for trustworthy Reports of the Conclave. The Ambassador himself
was far from over-estimating their value, and, in order at the present day to
appreciate them fairly, it is necessary to bear his observations in mind. After
dwelling on the difficulty of obtaining these lists, he draws attention to the
fact that most of the Cardinals in the Conclave voted for those whose votes
they hoped by this means to win, and not for those whose Election they really
desired; some few, he adds, reserved their votes to conceal secret engagements.
According to these lists, which, unfortunately, do not enable us clearly to
distinguish the several scrutinies, Roverella and
Calandrini were at first seriously thought of in the Conclave, each of them
receiving seven votes; Bessarion and Forteguerri followed next, each with six;
d'Estouteville had only four in all, and Orsini but two. The same authority
informs us that Cardinals Giovanni Michele, Teodoro of Montferrat, Battista
Zeno, Roverella, Forteguerri, Agnifilus, Bessarion,
Calandrini, and Orsini gave their votes for Francesco della Rovere; Borgia,
d'Estouteville, and Barbo afterwards adding theirs.
The omission of the name of Cardinal Gonzaga from
among the supporters of Rovere in the report of Nicodemus is very strange, for
all the other accounts are unanimous in asserting that his Election was chiefly
due to Orsini, Borgia, and Gonzaga, and that they were liberally rewarded for
their share in securing it. Ample testimony exists in proof of the part taken
by Cardinal Gonzaga. A Despatch from the Ambassador of Mantua to his mother
details the reasons which had induced him to espouse the cause of Rovere. In
the first place, there was the hope of winning the favour of the future Pope;
secondly, Rovere was a person acceptable to the Duke of Milan; and thirdly,
d'Estouteville had no prospect of success. Accordingly, says the Ambassador,
our most gracious Lord Cardinal has taken the greatest trouble on behalf of
Cardinal della Rovere, so that it may be said that he, more than any one, has
made him Pope. His Holiness has shown his gratitude by confirming him in his
appointment as Legate, and authorising him, if he chooses, to perform his
duties by proxy. Moreover, the Abbey of S. Gregorio in Rome has been conferred
on the Cardinal, and I believe that he will also have the Bishopric of Albano.
The Ambassador then expressly says that the tenth vote for Rovere was given by
Cardinal Gonzaga, the eleventh by Barbo, and the twelfth by d'Estouteville. The
Duke of Milan's share in securing the election of Sixtus IV is confirmed by so
many other authorities that we may look upon it as clearly established.
No mention, however, is made in the Ambassadorial
Despatches of the part which, according to two chroniclers, the Franciscan
Pietro Riario had in the election. Cardinal della Rovere brought him into the
Conclave, where he was very useful to his patron in winning for him many
undecided votes. The Election Capitulation, to observe which Sixtus IV was
obliged solemnly to bind himself, is also only alluded to in these Despatches.
The election of Cardinal Francesco della Rovere caused
great joy throughout Rome, especially, Nicodemus informs us, because the
well-known piety and holiness of his life led all to hope that he would be an
excellent Pastor for the Church and for the Christian Faith everywhere.
Francesco, like Nicholas V, owed his elevation to the purple to his reputation
as a learned theologian and a man of blameless life. He belonged to an ancient,
but impoverished, Ligurian family, and was related to the Piedmontese Rovere,
Lords of Vinovo. His father, Leonardo, lived in
modest circumstances in the little village of Abezzola,
not far from Savona. To escape from an infectious disease which broke out
there, he and his wife, Luchina Monleone, migrated to
Celle on the sea-coast, and here Francesco was born.
In consequence of his repeated sicknesses, Francesco's
pious mother consecrated him by vow to St. Francis; and, in spite of the
opposition of some worldly-minded relations, entrusted him, when nine years of
age, to the care of the Minorite, Giovanni Pinarolo.
Under the guidance of this excellent religious, the gifted boy learned to know
and esteem the monastic life to which he was destined to devote himself. Later,
he went to the High School of Chieri, and finally to
the Universities of Pavia and Bologna, where he studied philosophy and
theology. His talent for dialectics was displayed for the first time in the
General Chapter of his Order held at Genoa when he was only twenty. On that
occasion he acquitted himself so well in the Latin disputation, that the
General, Guglielmo Casale, embraced him. After he had completed his
philosophical and theological studies at Padua he undertook the duties of
Professor, and taught with great success at Padua, Bologna, Pavia, Siena,
Florence, and Perugia. The attendance at his lectures was so great that
Johannes Argvropulos and Bonfrancesco Arlati subsequently declared that every learned man
in Italy had been a disciple of Rovere’s. Cardinal Bessarion is expressly
mentioned as having been among his hearers, and ever after having held him in
the greatest esteem. So much was this the case, that from that time he would
not publish any of his works until the great Franciscan philosopher and
theologian had revised and corrected them.
Francesco was also a distinguished preacher, and was,
on many important occasions, a support to the General of his Order. He was
afterwards called to fill the post of Procurator in Rome. When the General,
Jacopo de Sarzuela, felt the burden of office too
heavy for his advanced age, he chose Francesco as his Vicar for the whole of
Italy, and made him Provincial of the Ligurian Province of the Order, where he
was very successful in carrying out measures of monastic reform.
He won yet greater renown by the part which he took in
the disputation regarding the Precious Blood, held in December, 1462, in the
Vatican before Pius II. The learning and controversial ability which he then
manifested doubtless had a share in bringing about his Election to the
Generalate, at the great Chapter of the Franciscans held at Perugia in May,
1464. He at once determined vigorously to undertake the reform of his Order. A
violent fever laid him low for a time, but did not hinder the accomplishment of
his purpose. The skill and care of Ambrosius Grifus brought him safely through, and he hardly gave himself time to recover before
beginning the work of visitation and reformation in the Franciscan Convents and
the educational establishments connected with them.
Francesco so ably defended the privileges of the
Institute over which he presided that Pope Paul II abstained from the measures
he had intended to take against the whole Order. A General Chapter was
consequently held at Florence in 1467. In the summer, the General went to his
home to recruit his health, which had been impaired by his sojourn in Rome; he
then visited Pavia, and meant to proceed thence to Venice, and there to give
theological lectures during the winter. He was ready to start on the journey, when,
at the end of September, a letter from Cardinal Gonzaga, accompanied by another
from Bessarion, informed him that he had been created Cardinal on the 1 8th
September, 1467, by Paul II.
On the 15th November, 1467, the new member of the
Sacred College reached Rome, where he received the red hat, and had S. Pietro
in Vincoli assigned to him as his titular Church. The condition of the
Cardinal's Palace adjoining this venerable Basilica was so dilapidated that
Francesco was at once obliged to restore it, a work which his poverty would
have rendered impossible, had it not been for the assistance of his colleagues.
In the purple, the Cardinal of S. Pietro in Vincoli, as he was styled, continued
to be a simple Franciscan; in his house, which overlooked a great part of the
ancient and of the modern City, questions of scholarship and ecclesiastical
affairs were discussed, but no politics. Whatever leisure his new dignity
allowed him was devoted to learned pursuits, and, during the four years of his
Cardinalate, he published a number of works which brought him more and more
into notice.
In the first place the Cardinal again took up the
disputed question regarding the Precious Blood; his work on the subject,
dedicated to Paul II, was printed in Rome in 1470, together with a treatise On
the power of God. A philosophical and theological dispute in the University of
Louvain was the occasion of a writing entitled De futuris contingentibus. A work on the Immaculate
Conception bears witness to that devotion to the Blessed Virgin which continued
unabated after his elevation to the Papal throne. With a view of composing the
frequent disputes between the Dominicans and the brethren of his own Order, in
which the one party appealed to Duns Scotus and the other to St. Thomas
Aquinas, he endeavoured to show that the two authorities, although differing in
words, were really of one mind. In the midst of these labours the voice of his
colleagues summoned him, at the age of fifty-seven, to fill the Chair of St.
Peter.
A portrait from the hand of his Court-painter, Melozzo
da Forli, which is still preserved, represents the new Pope as a man of middle
stature and strong, compact frame. The features are regular, the nose and
forehead forming an oblique line, with a gentle curve between them. The
powerful head impresses us with an idea of uncommon energy and force, which
difficulties could not daunt; while the lines on the brow bear witness to a
life of hard and unremitting toil.
Sixtus IV commenced his reign by conferring favours on
the Cardinals, and in this proceeding formed such a contrast to his
predecessor, that, as an Ambassador wrote, every one felt as if they were in a
new world. In the first place, those who had brought about his Election were
rewarded. Cardinal Borgia received the Abbey of Subiaco in commendam, and Gonzaga that of S. Gregorio, while
Orsini was made Camerlengo, and as such took the oath as early as the 12th
August. The position of Legate to the Marches was promised to Cardinal
Forteguerri, but report said that he declined it, preferring to remain at the
Court; it was accordingly conferred on Roverella, and Ammanati was sent to
Perugia.
On the 13th August the Pope gave a banquet to the
Cardinals at St. Angelo. After its conclusion, the money and valuables
collected by Paul II were inspected. Great interest was at this time felt
regarding these treasures, which had hitherto been so carefully preserved, and,
in conformity with the Election Capitulation, were to be expended on the cause
of the Faith. The Pope and the Cardinals were occupied for the whole day in
examining these precious stores. One of the Cardinals told the Duke of Milan's
Ambassador that they had found, in the first place, fifty-four silver shells,
filled with pearls, valued at 300,000 ducats. These were sealed up by all the
Cardinals, and were to be sold to defray the expenses of the war with the
Turks. Next were seen the jewels and the gold belonging to the two tiaras which
Paul II meant to have had rearranged, worth about 300,000 ducats. A magnificent
diamond, estimated at 7000 ducats, was pledged to Cardinal d'Estouteville for
monies which he had advanced to the deceased Pontiff. The amount of gold,
silver, jewels, precious objects, and other ornaments filled them with
astonishment, and their value was deemed to be a million ducats. “But”, the
Ambassador adds, “the worth of these things depends on the opinion of those who
will buy them”. The money found amounted only to 7000 ducats, and was chiefly
in the form of carlini. Deposits of 100,000,
60,000, 80,000, and 30,000 ducats were entered in a note laid up in a chest.
The place where these sums were concealed could not at first be discovered; but
their actual existence was certified by the fact that Paul II, in a Consistory
held not long before his death, had spoken of half a million of ducats which he
would expend on the war if the Christian Princes would undertake an expedition
against the enemies of the Faith. All these treasures, which the new Pope had
sworn not to touch, were sealed up by the Cardinals, and placed in the custody
of the Castellan of St. Angelo.
After Sixtus IV had been consecrated Bishop, his
solemn Coronation took place on Sunday, the 25th of August. The tribune where
the Pope received the tiara of St. Gregory the Great from the hands of Cardinal
Borgia was so lofty that all the people could witness the ceremony. According
to ancient custom, he then proceeded to take possession of the Lateran. In the
splendid procession were to be seen the Despot of the Morea and Skanderbeg’s
nephew. A tumult occurred in front of the Lateran; the Pope himself was in
danger, and Cardinal Orsini had much difficulty in appeasing the excited
populace. The impression made on Sixtus IV by this untoward event was such that
he returned to the Vatican at the first hour of the night.
The letters by which the Pope made his elevation known
to the temporal powers are dated on the day of his Coronation; in these he begs
for the support of fervent prayers that he may rule the Church to the praise
and glory of God, and the salvation of the people committed to his care.
When the tiara first rested on the brow of Sixtus IV
the figure of Nicholas V, amongst his immediate predecessors, must have
presented itself most vividly to his mind, for he also was a native of Liguria,
and like Sixtus himself, but unlike Pius II and Paul II, had risen from a
modest position. Again, he was by nature a scholar, and only after his
elevation had developed the princely magnificence whose traces were visible
wherever ruined Rome bore the aspect of a new city. That the new Pontiff should
resolve to follow in his steps, and with the good fortune of the Rovere, to
carry out the work begun by his energetic countryman, was but natural. But he
had not the clear start from the first that Nicholas had. Nicholas V had been
freely elected, his actions were untrammelled. Sixtus, in order to be elected,
had permitted himself to be bound, and the conditions of the Papal power also
had undergone a complete change in the interval.
In Italy itself the Apostolic See had no trustworthy
friends. Sigismondo de' Conti tells us that the excessive obstinacy of Paul II
had almost everywhere provoked distrust and hatred. The jealous fears of
Italian politicians in presence of the increasing power of the States of the
Church may have exercised a yet more potent influence. Sixtus IV at once sought
to establish friendly relations on all sides. Under Paul II the disputes with
Naples and Venice seemed to be interminable. Sixtus IV at once came to an
understanding with these two powers, although at the cost of considerable
sacrifice on his own part. Without any great trouble Ferrante obtained the
satisfaction of seeing the rich Abbey of Monte Casino conferred upon his
youthful son, while the Protonotary Rocha was made Archbishop of Salerno.
“This Pope evidently intends to be on good terms with
every one”, wrote the Marquess of Mantua’s Ambassador, briefly describing the
beginning of Sixtus IV’s pontificate.
Before he had an idea of being Pope, or even Cardinal,
Sixtus IV had had amicable relations with the Duke of Milan, and this in a
measure explains the warm interest taken by Galeazzo Maria Sforza in promoting
the election. After it had been carried, he was one of the first to
congratulate the new Pope. Sixtus IV replied at once on the 16th of August by
an autograph letter of the most flattering character. He began by recalling
their former relations, praised the Duke's piety and devotion to the Holy See,
of which he had given proof in the Romagna during the vacancy of the Chair of
St. Peter, and finally assured him that his pontificate should bring the Duke
nothing but happiness and blessing.
The bond between the new Pope and the Florentines was
even closer. He looked upon the Medici, the patrons and friends of the modest
Thomas of Sarzano, as his natural allies. This was
made very apparent when the Florentine Embassy, headed by Lorenzo de' Medici,
arrived in Rome to pay homage on behalf of the Republic. Its reception was most
cordial and honourable. Two antique marble busts were presented to Lorenzo, and
he was allowed to acquire gems and cameos from the collection of Paul II at a
very moderate price. The Pope's confidence and good-will were also manifested
in other very substantial ways. The financial affairs of the Papacy were
confided to the Roman Bank of the Medici, by which arrangement a rich source of
wealth was opened to Lorenzo and to his uncle Giovanni Tornabuoni.
Further concessions in regard to the alum works were granted to him. Emboldened
by so many favours, the practical-minded Medici at last took courage to remark
that he had but one desire unfulfilled, and that was to see a member of his
family admitted into the Sacred College. To this request Sixtus IV also lent a
favourable ear, for he was unwilling to refuse Lorenzo anything. The latter
soon left the Eternal City, laden with all possible tokens of the Pope's
good-will, which was soon to be repaid with ingratitude.
For a time indeed Filippo de' Medici, Archbishop of
Pisa, endeavoured to maintain good feeling between Florence and Rome. “The Pope
has shown me such honour”, he wrote on the 15th November, 1471, from Rome to
Lorenzo de' Medici, “that a hundred tongues would fail me to express it. He
told me to rest assured that I might dispose of Sixtus IV as I would. Had you
not yourself been here I would write yet more particularly regarding His
Holiness' affection for our house, but as you know it, I think it unnecessary”.
On the 28th November the Venetian Envoys appeared in
Rome. One of them, Bernardo Giustiniani, made an elaborate speech in the Pope’s
presence, the principal subject of which was the unspeakably deplorable
condition of the East. It was not indeed necessary to remind Sixtus IV of this,
for he had already turned his attention to the terrible danger with which the
steady advance of Islam threatened Christian civilisation. He aimed at the
formation of a league of the European powers, to be directed exclusively against
the Turks. A great Congress was to carry the idea into effect. During the days
which immediately followed his Election, it was rumoured that, in accordance
with the Capitulation, the Pope intended as soon as possible to convene such an
Assembly. Cardinal Gonzaga at the same time endeavoured to have his paternal
city chosen as the place of meeting, and his proposal was favourably received,
although Cardinal Orsini exerted himself on behalf of Florence. Piacenza and
Pavia were also spoken of. On the 30th of August the matter was discussed in
Consistory. Bessarion and others among the older Cardinals sought to deter the
Pope from leaving Rome, and to induce him to hold the Congress in the Lateran;
others again preferred Mantua or Pisa. No definite decision was yet arrived at.
A letter was now received from the Emperor, who asked that Udine might be
selected, but the Duke of Milan and other Italian Princes declared against this
city. Sixtus IV accordingly proposed, first Mantua and then Ancona, but all in vain;
the Princes neither understood nor sympathised with the aims of the Holy See,
and all proposals were wrecked on the rocks of their indifference and private
interests.
Sixtus IV was not as much distressed by this failure
as he otherwise might have been, because at this moment a dangerous enemy was
threatening Turkey in the rear. The Turcoman Prince, Usunhassan,
with the hope of completely supplanting the Sultan, seemed disposed to make
common cause with European Christendom. At the time of Sixtus IV's accession
the conflict between Mahomet and Usunhassan in Caramania appeared to be tending to a great catastrophe,
while the relations between Mocenigo, the Doge of
Venice, and Usunhassan were such that they seemed
only to need to be drawn a little closer to make the position of the Turks
absolutely hopeless. The Turkish question might thus be said to have become a
matter of worldwide importance, and accordingly the Pope inaugurated his action
in it with a certain magnificence.
On the 23rd December a Secret Consistory was held, and
five Cardinals were appointed Legates ad latere, with the object, as the Consistorial Acts declare, of calling upon the whole
Christian world to defend the Catholic Faith against the Turk, the enemy of the
name of Jesus. Bessarion was sent to France, Burgundy, and England; Borgia to
Spain, Angelo Capranica to Italy, and Marco Barbo to Germany, Hungary, and
Poland, while Oliviero Carafa was to command the naval forces which were to be
assembled with the assistance of the King of Naples.
A few days later the Pope issued a solemn Bull, in
which he described the Turkish preparations for the conquest of Christendom,
and called on the powers to take common measures of defence. The aged Bessarion
was certainly the most worthy of all the Legates. Although he feared that the
burden would be beyond his strength, yet in the hope of being able, at least,
to effect something, he had resolved to accept it. On the 20th April, 1472, he
left Rome, but instead of directly proceeding to France, he remained some time
longer in Italy. According to Ammanati, he lingered from dread of undertaking
the arduous task; other accounts attribute his delay to the fact that Louis XI
kept him waiting a long time for a letter of safe conduct. When once he had
received it, he travelled as rapidly as his infirm health permitted. On the
15th August he wrote from Saumur to the French King, exhorting him to peace,
and, on the same day, he also sent letters to the Dukes of Brittany and
Burgundy.
Shortly before this time an understanding had been
arrived at, by direct negotiations with Rome, in regard to the abnormal
condition of ecclesiastical affairs in France, but this agreement met with
violent opposition in some quarters. There can be no doubt that the Greek
Cardinal touched on these matters in his interviews with the King. He also
tried to obtain the release of La Balue, but his
efforts proved unsuccessful, as did also those which he made to reconcile the
French Monarch with Charles the Bold of Burgundy, and to win him for the
Crusade. Sick and disheartened, he started on his homeward journey. When he
reached Ravenna, his illness assumed a dangerous character, fever came on and
soon consumed the little strength which yet remained to him, and on the 18th
November, 1472, he died. His mortal remains were borne to Rome, where they
arrived on the 3rd December, and were deposited in the Church of the Holy
Apostles Sixtus IV was present at the obsequies.
Cardinal Borgia, who had been appointed Legate for the
whole of Spain and the neighbouring islands, was not more successful in
advancing the cause of the Crusade. On the 15th May, 1472, he went to Ostia,
there to embark for his native land. His task was no easy one, for the
Peninsula was at this time in a state of great agitation and disorder. Ammanati
speaks most unfavourably of Borgia’s proceedings in Spain. He says that he
showed himself everywhere vain, luxurious, ambitious, and greedy. Yet, in a letter
which is still extant, this same Ammanati writes to Borgia in the most
flattering terms, and praises the way in which he had carried out his Spanish
mission. Such a writer has no claim to our credit. It is. however, extremely
probable that Borgia considered a Cardinal Legate as a very important person,
and acted accordingly; in fact, treated his countrymen to a considerable amount
of Spanish pride. A recent historian, by no means prejudiced in Borgia's
favour, speaks of the discharge of his diplomatic duties in terms which form a
complete contrast to Ammanati’s account. “The
Legate”, he says, “had, as far as lay in his power, fulfilled his mission to
Spain. It was time for him to return to Rome, and render an account to the Pope
of the state of things which he had found on his arrival, of that which
prevailed during his sojourn in the country, and of the result of his efforts.
Matters had certainly improved in Aragon; in Castille the situation depended on
factors which were entirely beyond the sphere of a Legate's authority, and
which were working themselves out independently of him. His task was fulfilled
when he had done what he could in helping to direct affairs along the only path
which could lead to peace and quiet”.
On the 11th September, 1473, Cardinal Borgia made his
will, and began his return journey. Off the coast of Pisa he encountered a
fearful storm; one of his galleys sank before his eyes, and the ship in which
he himself sailed almost met the same fate. More than 200 of his suite were
drowned, and amongst them three Bishops; the loss of property was estimated at
30,000 florins, and was aggravated by the depredations of wreckers on the
coast.
There can be no doubt that the task entrusted to
Cardinal Barbo was undoubtedly the most difficult of all, while at the same
time the most important, for, with regard to the Turkish war, nothing was more
indispensable than the aid of Hungary, Poland, and Bohemia, and these were
involved in almost hopeless discord. Barbo’s zeal is evidenced by the fact that
he left Rome on the 21st February, 1472, his instructions directing him to
proceed in the first place to the Emperor. Until the autumn of 1474, the Cardinal
Legate’s labours in Germany, Poland, and Bohemia were unremitting. Even those
who judge him most severely, highly praise his persevering efforts for the
restoration of peace; success, however, was not granted him. The internal
dissensions of the European nations had reached such a pitch that it was beyond
the power of any individual to allay them. Frederick III, who, from the point
of view of that day, was the natural leader, was extremely slow in his
decisions, especially in cases where a pecuniary sacrifice was in question.
Unbounded egotism prevailed among laity and clergy; their attitude towards the
great danger in the East was one of almost absolute indifference.
Sixtus IV, however, did not permit the indifference of
the great European powers to damp his zeal in regard to the war. During the
earlier months of 1472 he was engaged in negotiations for the restoration of
peace in Italy, and particularly in the equipment of galleys. Repeated letters
were addressed to all the Faithful, urging them to contribute towards these
warlike preparations; and at the same time the Pope made repeated efforts to
awaken the interest of individual Princes in the cause.
Sixtus IV was all the more dependent on extraneous
contributions for the naval preparations on account of the deplorable state in
which he found the Papal finances at his accession. The general belief that
Paul II had left large sums of money had soon proved to be a delusion. Treasure
and jewels were not wanting, but of actual coin there was not more than 7000,
or, according to other accounts, 5000 florins. The Cardinal-Camerlengo put the
officials of the Treasury in prison, but nothing could be extracted from them.
Creditors of previous Popes took the opportunity of coming forward and
demanding payment. Sixtus IV had to sell many of the gems and works of art,
handed down by his predecessors, to satisfy them. Some few of the Cardinals,
amongst them d'Estouteville, now presented old claims.
Notwithstanding these difficulties, the arming of the
fleet proceeded. The account-books show that in 1471-72 144,000 golden ducats
in all were devoted by Sixtus IV. to this object. A treaty was entered into
with Venice and Naples, in accordance with which both these States equipped a
fleet for the war. The Pope himself furnished twenty-four galleys and 4700
soldiers, who embarked at once on the Adriatic. Four ships came up the Tiber
for Cardinal Carafa. On the Feast of Corpus Christi, the 28th May, 1472, he
sang a solemn High Mass at St. Peter's, in presence of the Pope and the whole
Court. Sixtus IV then blessed the banners for the fleet, which were presented
to him on his throne by the Ambassadors. In the afternoon, a new and unwonted
spectacle was witnessed; the Pope on horseback, accompanied by all the
Cardinals, went in procession from the Vatican to the ships, which lay at
anchor in the Tiber below S. Paolo. Sixtus went on board the Legate's galley,
and, from a platform at the stern, blessed the ships, the commanders with their
followers, and the crews. He then bestowed a farewell embrace upon his
lieutenant, and left him in the ship, himself returning to the Vatican as the
sun was declining.
The Cardinal-Admiral Carafa is described as a man “of
resolute character and full of good-will”. He went by way of Naples, where he
was most honourably received, to Rhodes. Having appeased some internal
dissensions among the Knights of St. John, he joined the Neapolitan and
Venetian ships. The whole fleet now numbered eighty-seven galleys, to which
were added two from Rhodes. In a Council of War, it was determined that an
attack should, in the first instance, be made on the port of Satalia on the coast of Caramania.
The southern coast of Asia Minor was selected, on account of the alliance which
existed between the Caramanian Princes and Usunhassan, who was also on very friendly terms with the
Venetians, and with the Pope. Another reason for commencing operations here was
the opportunity it afforded for showing the strength of the Crusaders' fleet to
their Asiatic allies. The chains which defended the harbour of Satalia were burst, and serious injury was inflicted on the
Turks by the destruction of its rich warehouses and suburbs, but the city
proper, with its strong fortifications, successfully resisted the attack.
Jealousies between Naples and Venice soon reached such a point that the
Neapolitan fleet returned home, yet it was resolved that the war should be
carried on. The wealthy city of Smyrna was taken by surprise. Carafa wished to
preserve it as an important basis of operations, but the Venetians were of a
different opinion, and it was given up to plunder, and then set on fire. This
dispute broke up the friendly relations which had existed between the Papal
forces and their Venetian allies, and, when winter began, the fleet of the
Republic retired to the harbours of Modone and Napoli
di Romania, while Carafa returned to Italy. On the 23rd January, 1473, he made
his entrance into Rome, bringing with him a number of Turkish prisoners on
camels. The Cardinal hung up portions of the broken harbour-chain of Satalia on the door of St. Peter’s; these trophies are now
placed over the entrance which leads to the Archives of the Basilica.
Carafa’s successor as Legate, Lorenzo Zane, Archbishop
of Spalatro, and a Venetian by birth, sailed with ten
galleys for the East at the end of April, 1473; he was not able to do anything,
and Usunhassan’s defeat at Terdschan (26th July, 1473) gave a decided advantage to the Turks. Moreover, the Venetian
Commander, Mocenigo, held aloof from the Papal
Legate, fearing that the latter would frustrate his designs on Cyprus.
Hopes had been entertained that the marriage of
Princess Zoe, niece of the last Byzantine Emperor, with the Russian Grand Duke,
Ivan III., would enlist a new champion for the Crusade, and bring about the
reunion of the Russian with the Roman Church. These hopes were doomed to
disappointment. On the 25th May, 1472, Sixtus IV. had received the Russian
Ambassadors in Secret Consistory, and, on the 1st June, Zoe, who was
acknowledged by her contemporaries to be the legitimate heiress to the
Byzantine throne, was married by proxy to the Grand Duke. What took place on
this occasion, in regard to the question of religion, is not clear, but Rome
was probably deceived by fair promises. The Pope gave the Princess rich
presents and the sum of 6000 ducats, provided for her a suitable escort, and
sent letters of recommendation to the different States through which she was to
pass on her journey to the North.
The Greek Princess left Rome on the 24th June, 1472;
everywhere, both in Italy and in Germany, the Pope's letters procured for her a
brilliant reception. His kindness was but ill repaid, for, from the moment she
set foot on Russian soil, she showed herself a schismatic. On her entry into
Moscow (12th November), the Papal Legate who accompanied her was only admitted
into the city in incognito, for it was feared that his public appearance with
his cross would imply an acknowledgment of the Pope's Supremacy. The new Grand
Duchess completely conformed to the Orthodox Church.
Four years later, we again hear of negotiations
between Sixtus IV. and the Russian Grand Duke, who was then seeking to obtain
the Crown. Poland at the time dreaded the consequences of their success, and
worked against the Union which it had supported at Kiev. Michael Drucki, the Metropolitan of that place, had, with the
consent of his clergy, sent an Embassy with a letter to the Pope, expressly
acknowledging his Primacy; and his successor, Simeon, is said to have been in
favour of Union.
CHAPTER II.
Rapid Elevation of the Members of the Families of La
Rovere and Riario.—The Cardinal of San Sisto.
The admirable energy with which, in the earlier years
of his pontificate, Sixtus IV devoted himself to the defense of Christendom, is, in great measure, clouded by the extravagance with which,
from the moment of his accession, he heaped favours upon his numerous, and, in
many instances, unworthy relations.
Foremost among his kindred appear the sons of his
brother Raffaello, Giuliano, Bartolomeo, and Giovanni della Rovere, of whom the
first two embraced the ecclesiastical state, while Giovanni remained in the
world, and, under Federigo of Montefeltre, studied the art of war. Lionardo,
who afterwards became City Prefect, was the son of Bartolomeo della Rovere,
another brother of the Pope’s.
Three sisters of the Pope had respectively married
into the families of Riario, Basso, and Giuppo; and
from these marriages sprang a number of descendants, “over all of whom the oak
spread its branches, so that the golden fruit fell into their laps”. Bianca
della Rovere, the wife of Paolo Riario, had two sons, Pietro and Girolamo, and
one daughter, Violante; Violante married Antonio Sansoni and was mother of
Cardinal Raffaello Riario Sansoni, well-known in connection with the Pazzi
conspiracy. Luchina, the Pope’s next sister, had, by her marriage with Giovanni
Guglielmo Basso, five sons, Girolamo, Antonio, Francesco, Guglielmo, and
Bartolomeo, and a daughter, Mariola. Antonio was a man of pure and blameless
life; and in 1479 he espoused a relation of the King of Naples. The christian name of the Pope’s third sister, who married
Pietro Giuppo, is not known; a fourth, Franchetta, is
mentioned as married to Bartolomeo Armoino, and dying
in 1485.
A new epoch for his kindred began with the elevation
of Francesco della Rovere to the Throne of St. Peter. As early as the autumn of
1471, we find three of his nephews in the Papal service. In the following
spring, two of his sisters, probably Bianca and Luchina, migrated to Rome,
where Sixtus IV had prepared for them a suitable dwelling. The arrival of the
other relations was not long delayed.
All the members of the Ligurian colony which assembled
around the Pope well understood how to take advantage of the fact that “Sixtus
did not know the value of money, and, having grown up from his youth in a
mendicant Order, gave with full hands as long as he had anything to give”.
These relations, who had mostly been in very needy circumstances and humble
positions, in the course of a few years found themselves in the enjoyment of
wealth, and of ecclesiastical and temporal dignities such as hitherto they had
never dreamed of.
Sixtus IV had not occupied the Papal throne for many
months before two of his youthful nephews, Giuliano della Rovere and Pietro
Riario, were admitted into the Sacred College. The Pope was deeply indebted to
Paolo Riario of Savona, the father of the last-named young man. Leone Cobelli,
in his Chronicle of Forli, has recorded some interesting particulars regarding
their earlier relations. A certain Franceschino of Savona, he tells us, of the
Order of the Minorites, was studying in that town, and was on very friendly
terms with Paolo Riario. Paolo, a worthy and benevolent man, observing the
young monk’s love of learning, resolved to receive him into his house, and to
support him. Franceschino accordingly instructed the sons of his patron, and
was enabled by the latter to complete his own education. This generous
assistance could not have been better bestowed, for the needy student became
one of the best professors in his Order. In the fullness of his gratitude to
Paolo Riario, Franceschino said to him : “I well know that to you, after God, I
owe it that I have become what I am; I will show myself grateful; let me have
your son Pietro for my son: I will give him the best possible education, and
make a notable man of him”. Paolo gladly consented; Francesco clothed his
protégé with the Franciscan habit, and showed him the greatest kindness. When a
Cardinal, he took Fra Pietro with him to Rome, where he is said to have played
an important part in the Conclave. Almost immediately after his accession,
Sixtus IV bestowed on Pietro an Abbey on the Franco-German frontier, with a
yearly income of 1000 ducats, and the Bishopric of Treviso. But he was destined
ere long to mount yet higher.
In the second week of December, 1471, it was reported
that the Pope was about to create new Cardinals; that he purposed to make an
alteration in the Election Capitulation, and meant to elevate his two young
nephews to the purple. Sooner than had been expected, these anticipations were
realized.
On the 16th December, 1471, a Consistory was held, and
Pietro Riario, aged twenty-five, and Giuliano della Rovere, aged twenty-eight,
were created Cardinals, though not immediately published. To the former was
assigned, as his title, on the 22nd December, the Church of S. Sisto, while
Giuliano received that of S. Pietro in Vincoli, previously held by Sixtus IV
himself. On the following day, although not yet published, both of the young
Cardinals appeared with the Red Hat, a thing which the Marquess of Mantua’s
Ambassador mentions as hitherto unheard-of.
The promotion of these two nephews afforded to those
who had not approved of the first acts of Sixtus IV, and had deemed themselves
overlooked, a welcome occasion for angry and injurious comments. Cardinal
Ammanati speaks of the elevation of two youths, now for the first time brought
out of obscurity, and altogether inexperienced, as an act of imbecility. “He
declaimed against the nepotism of La Rovere, quite forgetting that his own
patron, Pius II, had been far from blameless in this particular”.
This first creation of Cardinals by Sixtus IV was
certainly an infringement of the Election Capitulation, but the uncertain
position of the new Pope, surrounded as he was on all sides by experienced,
influential, and skilful prelates, who desired to use him as a tool for their
own selfish designs, justifies this step, to which Bessarion lent his approval
and aid. Sixtus IV, to ensure his independence, required the support of
trustworthy coadjutors, whose energies should be absolutely at his disposal.
Giuliano della Rovere was certainly the most
remarkable of the two nephews. Even at an early age he gave evidence of those
qualities which rendered his long and brilliant career so distinguished alike
in the political history of Italy and in the annals of intellectual culture.
If, like others, he profited by the abuse which had now become a system, and
allowed numerous Bishoprics and Abbeys to be conferred upon a single
individual, with the sole object of enriching him; if his uncle made him
Archbishop of Avignon and of Bologna, Bishop of Lausanne, Coutances, Viviers,
Mende, and finally of Ostia and Velletri, and Abbot of Nonantola and Grottaferrata, heaping benefice after benefice upon him, Giuliano
manifested in the expenditure of his income, and in his whole manner of
living, a prudence and seriousness which contrasted favourably with the conduct
of many other prelates. If his moral character was not unblemished, his outward
demeanour was always becoming, and, immediately after his elevation to the
purple, he began to devote that attention to the fine arts, and especially to
architecture, which won for him lasting renown. The serious character of his
other studies, although they were mostly directed to secular subjects,
contributed to develop those exceptional abilities of which his labours in
later life gave such signal proof, and which had begun to manifest themselves
even during the pontificate of Sixtus IV.
Giuliano della Rovere was born on the 5th December,
1443, at Albizzola, near Savona, where his parents
were living in very poor circumstances. Having entered the Franciscan Order, he
pursued his studies at Perugia. Sixtus IV, even while a Cardinal, treated him
with exceptional favour. The grave and resolute character of this nephew
justly inspired him with confidence. Like himself, he had been trained in the
strict discipline and privations of the monastic life, and there had been an
almost constant interchange of thought between them. Giuliano’s appearance was
striking. Melozzo da Forli’s fresco of Sixtus IV, surrounded by his Court,
appointing Platina Librarian of the Vatican, represents his tall figure, his
face in profile, looking down upon his uncle with great dark eyes full of
seriousness and dignity. He wears the purple cape, lined with ermine. His black
hair is surmounted by a bright coloured skull-cap. The round head, with its
angular cheek-bones, and the firmly closed mouth betoken the man of deeds, who
wastes no words, but acts.
Pietro Riario was a very different character. He was
intelligent and cultivated, courteous, witty, cheerful, and generous, but his
good qualities were counterbalanced by a lust of power, a boundless ambition
and pride, and a love of luxury, which rendered him utterly unworthy of the
purple. Unfortunately, Sixtus IV fostered these faults by lavishing rich
benefices on him, even more abundantly than on the Cardinal of S. Pietro in
Vincoli. The Archbishopric of Florence, which had so lately been held by a Saint,
the Patriarchate of Constantinople, the Abbey of S. Ambrogio, and a number of
Bishoprics were soon concentrated in the hands of this young man. His yearly
revenues before long exceeded 60,000 golden florins; but even this sum was far
from satisfying his requirements, for Riario, transformed in one night from a
mendicant friar into a Croesus, plunged into the maddest excesses. The
Cardinal, says Platina, set himself to collect together unheard-of quantities
of gold and silver plate, costly raiment, hangings and carpets, splendid
horses, and a multitude of servants in scarlet and silk. He patronized young
poets and painters, and delighted in contriving and carrying out pageants and
tournaments on the most magnificent scale. He gave extravagant banquets to some
of the Ambassadors, and to Leonora, daughter of the King of Naples. He was very
generous to scholars, and to the poor. Moreover, he began a palace in the
vicinity of the Church of the Holy Apostles, the extensive foundations of which
bespoke a colossal superstructure. He seemed to vie with the ancients in pomp
and grandeur—and, it may be added, in vices. All morality was openly defied by
this upstart. Instead of the habit of St. Francis, he went about in garments
laden with gold, and adorned his mistress from head to foot with costly pearls.
The ostentation of Cardinal Riario, says Ammanati,
surpassed anything that our children will be able to credit, or that our
fathers can remember.
The Reports of Ambassadors then in Rome show that Ammanati’s expressions were not exaggerated; the
Ambassadors of the Duke of Milan seem unable to say enough of the brilliant
tournaments and the rich banquets given by the Cardinal, especially during the
Carnival.
Great astonishment was excited by a feast to which
Riario invited four Cardinals, all the Ambassadors, and several prelates on the
1st February, 1473. The sons of the Despot of the Morea, the City Prefect, and
the Pope’s nephews, Girolamo and Antonio, also took part in it. The walls of
the dining-hall were adorned with precious tapestry; in the middle, on an
elevated platform, was a table where the so-called King of Macedonia sat, in
splendid robes, and attended by four Counsellors and an interpreter. At the
left of this platform was the Cardinal’s table, to which those of the guests
were joined; there were two sideboards laden with silver, and a multitude of
torches made a blaze of light. The feast lasted fully three hours. Before every
course the seneschal appeared on horse-back to the sound of music, and each
time in a fresh costume. The banquet was followed by a Moorish dance and other
pastimes. At its conclusion, came a Turkish Ambassador, bearing credentials,
and accompanied by an interpreter; who complained that Cardinal Riario had
bestowed on the King of Macedon a kingdom which belonged to the Turks, and
threatened that unless he gave up his usurped insignia, war should be declared.
The Cardinal and the King replied that they would let the matter be decided by
arms. Accordingly, on the following day, the combat took place in the square
before the Church of the Holy Apostles, and the Turk—being taken captive by Usunhassan the King of Macedon’s General—was led through
the streets of Rome in fetters.
Before the year was over, Riario again gave an
entertainment on a yet larger scale, surpassing in mad extravagance anything
that the sumptuous age of the Renaissance had yet produced. The occasion for
this further display was the passage through Rome of Leonora, the daughter of
the King of Naples, on her way to her husband, Ercole of Ferrara.
On the 5th June, 1473, after a short rest at Marino,
Leonora approached the walls of Rome. Ercole’s brothers, Sigismondo and
Alberto, together with many nobles from Ferrara and Naples, accompanied her.
Cardinals Carafa and Ausio, and several Prelates,
awaited her arrival at the third milestone from the City, and conducted her to
the Lateran, where she partook of some refreshment, and venerated the holy
relics. Meanwhile, the Pope’s two favoured nephews, Pietro Riario and Giuliano
della Rovere, had come to bid her welcome, and, escorted by them, the Princess
proceeded to the residence of the Cardinal of S. Sisto by the Church of the
Holy Apostles, where preparations for her reception had been made in a style of
unprecedented magnificence. In the square before the Church, Riario had caused
to be erected a splendid house constructed of wood, rivalling the Palaces of
ancient times. It had three halls, with wreathed pillars, surmounted by a rich
frieze, on which the arms of the Pope, the Cardinal, and the Duke of Ferrara
were hung. The open sides of these halls looked into the court, which, on its
fourth side, was closed by a stage prepared for the theatrical representations
which were to be given. In the middle of the court were two fountains, supplied
with water from the roof of the Basilica. The whole open space was protected by
an awning from the rays of the sun. Five spacious sleeping rooms for the
Princess and her ladies opened into the first hall. The gentlemen of her suite
were accommodated in fourteen chambers, similarly opening into that of the
opposite wing. The middle hall, looking across to the stage, was in front of
the Church over against its portico. Externally, the edifice was painted to
resemble stone; within, the walls, ceilings, and floors were covered with
gold-embroidered carpets and precious tapestries and stuffs, so that the
wood-work nowhere appeared.
The banqueting-hall of this palace was kept cool by
means of three bellows, out of sight, and here was to be seen the marvellous
tapestry, representing the creation of the world, made by order of Pope
Nicholas V, and believed to be unequalled in Christendom. This masterpiece of
art was afterwards hopelessly lost. The luxury of the interior was
indescribable; silk, damask, and gold brocade were lavished in reckless
profusion; even the meanest vessels were made of pure silver and gilt! However
highly we may estimate the extravagance of the age, such senseless prodigality
must necessarily have given cause for scandal and offence.
On Whit-Sunday, after the Mass at St. Peter’s, the
Princess, attired with dazzling splendour, was received by the Pope, and in the
afternoon the History of Susanna was represented by a Florentine troupe.
On Whit-Monday, Riario gave a banquet in her honour,
which, in its sumptuous and unreasonable luxury, recalled the heathen days of
Imperial Rome. If the silk-clad servants, and the splendid decoration of the
hall, the great sideboard, with its twelve epergnes and masses of silver plate,
was enough to astonish the guests, the feast itself was even more marvellous.
Before its commencement, sweetmeats, oranges encrusted with sugar, and
malvoisie were offered to the company, and then rose-water for the hands. The
guests took their places at the table to the sound of trumpets and fifes. Only
ten persons sat at the principal table with Leonora, eight belonging to her
suite, her host and Girolamo Riario. The banquet lasted six whole hours; there
were three courses, during which forty-four dishes were served; amongst them
were stags roasted whole and in their skins, goats, hares, calves, herons,
peacocks with their feathers, and finally, a bear with a staff in his jaws.
Most of the dishes were for show, the bread was gilt, the fish and other viands
were brought to table overlaid with silver. The sweets and confectionery were
countless, and all sorts of artistic shapes. Amongst other devices, the labours
of Hercules were represented the size of life; and a mountain with a gigantic
and apparently living serpent. Sugar fortresses, with towers and citadels from
which banners waved, were borne in and thrown amongst the people from the
balcony. Ten great ships sailed in, made of confectionery and laden with
sugared almonds, which, in allusion to the arms of the Rovere, were shaped like
acorns. Next came the triumph of Venus, drawn in a chariot by swans, then a
mountain from which a man emerged and expressed his astonished admiration of
the banquet. Allegorical figures also appeared during the feast, amongst
others, a youth who sang verses in Latin, and announced: “At the command of the
Father of the Gods I am come, and bring you joyful news: Envy us no longer the
festivals of our Heaven, for Jupiter himself is a guest at your board”.
Towards the end of the entertainment a ballet was
danced on a stage by ancient heroes with their mistresses; while it was going
on, ten Centaurs suddenly burst in upon the scene, with little wooden shields
and clubs, and were driven away by Hercules. Bacchus, and also Andromeda, were
represented, and “other things”, says a writer belonging to the Princess’s
suite, “which I do not remember or did not understand, as I was not a
proficient in Humanistic studies”.
Leonora received many costly gifts from Sixtus IV and
the Cardinals; she remained in Rome until the 10th June. Other spectacles, of a
more Christian character, were provided in her honour, forming a striking
contrast to the mythological representations we have described.
The splendid reception of the Neapolitan Princess had,
in part, a political object; it was intended to make the alliance between the
Pope and Ferrante evident to the world. This agreement had cost the Pope
considerable sacrifices, but it put an end to a ceaseless series of disputes,
and, for a time, delivered the Apostolic See from apprehensions which had
caused much distress to Paul II. A family connection was to confirm the
alliance with Naples. In the spring of 1472, on the death of Antonio Colonna, Lionardo
della Rovere had become City Prefect. Soon afterwards, he married a natural
daughter of Ferrante, and Sora, Arpino, and other territories were bestowed on
the newly-married couple. Both outwardly and inwardly, Lionardo was so poorly
gifted that he was the laughingstock of the Romans. Thus the union was
anything but an attractive one. In order to bring it about, Sixtus IV renounced
his right of sovereignty over Sora, and Ferrante agreed to invest Rovere with
that fief.
Not satisfied with what he had already obtained, the
Neapolitan Monarch now brought forward the question of the feudatory tribute,
and, in this matter also, Sixtus IV showed himself exceedingly complaisant,
remitting the whole tribute, together with all other debts. The King, in
return, bound himself to send a white horse yearly to Rome, in recognition of
the tenure of his fief, to take part in the war against the Turks, to defend
the coasts of the States of the Church against pirates, and, if necessary, to
support the Pope, at his own expense, with an armed force. Platina admits that
this agreement was disapproved of by many. Sixtus IV, in writing to the Duke of
Milan, quotes the advice of the Cardinals and the intention of Pius II in
justification of his renunciation of territory, adding that the fief had
brought the Church more trouble than gain, and that the Duke himself had
advised the measure.
After this beginning, a crafty diplomatist like
Ferrante too clearly perceived the advantages promised by the alliance with the
Pope to refrain from making use of it for his own ends. In the spring it was
evident that nothing would come of the Italian League. The King soon succeeded
in rendering the negotiations with the agents of the different States, who had
come to Rome, ineffectual, and lost no time in writing to inform the Milanese
of the dissolution of the compact between him and them.
This disturbance of the relations between Milan and
Naples was extremely disagreeable to the Pope, who earnestly endeavoured to
prevent a breach between the two powers. He had reason to hope for success,
from the fact that his relations with Milan, which had always been good, had of
late been drawn yet closer. Platina informs us that, either from jealousy at
Rovere’s elevation to the post of City Prefect and to the Dukedom of Sora, or
else in obedience to the wishes of the Lord of Milan, the Cardinal of S. Sisto
had exerted himself to promote the betrothal of his brother Girolamo with
Sforza’s grand-niece, the daughter of Conrad of Cotignola. Girolamo had
hitherto been a grocer, or, some say, a public scrivener in Savona. The little
town of Bosco was now purchased for him at the price of 14,000 golden florins.
Riario even went so far as to have Cardinal Giuliano’s youthful brother
secretly conveyed from Pavia to Rome, because Galeazzo Maria Sforza had cast
his eyes upon him, and expressed a wish that this nephew of the Pope’s should
be connected with his family by marriage. When Giovanni della Rovere so
suddenly disappeared from Pavia, Galeazzo changed his plans. The Countess of
Cotignola made difficulties about the dowry, with the result that this alliance
was relinquished, and Girolamo Riario married instead Caterina Sforza, a
natural daughter of the Duke, and was made Count of Bosco.
Meanwhile, all danger of war between Milan and Naples
had ceased. On the 22nd June, the Pope had urged the Duke to keep on good terms
with the King of Naples, assuring him that in no way could he give him greater
pleasure. On the 17th July, he was able to express his satisfaction to Galeazzo
in learning that he meant, for the future, to preserve amicable relations with
Naples.
Cardinal Riario was now in the fullest enjoyment of
the favour of the Pope. He seemed, says a contemporary, able to do whatever he
wished. A chronicler speaks of him as being the first among the Cardinals,
having the complete control of the Papal treasure, and the Pope himself
entirely in his hands. Not the reserved, brusque Giuliano, but the versatile
and agreeable Pietro was the one to conduct all negotiations, and, with
undeniable skill, to assist Sixtus iv, who had little experience in diplomacy,
in all the more important business of the State. The influence of the Cardinal
of S. Sisto had in a very short time become so great that he was feared, not
only by the Cardinals, but even by Sixtus IV himself, to whom nothing but the
Papal dignity seemed left, while all real power was in the hands of the
favourite.
The year 1473 was one of trouble for Sixtus IV. In
February he was attacked by an illness, in consequence of which he spent the
hot season on the airy heights of Tivoli. All through the summer he was
harassed by political anxieties. In May, tidings came that the Duke of Milan
had sold Imola to the Florentines for 100,000 florins, and, at the same time,
he heard that the Hungarians had entered into an agreement with the Turks, and
meant to attack the Venetians in Dalmatia. The last of these reports was false,
but the first proved correct.
The Pope was greatly, and very reasonably, disturbed
by the sale of Imola. Neither he nor Ferrante could calmly witness the
extension of Florentine domination into the Romagna, which would introduce
relations of a very different order from those maintained with the small
existing dynasties. Moreover, the measure was also unwelcome, because it would
obviously tend to stimulate the desire of Venice for further annexations. On
the 16th of May, a Brief of admonition and complaint was addressed to the Duke of
Milan, informing him that the Pope would not, on any account, permit the sale
of Imola. This declaration was repeated in Papal Missives to Florence itself,
to the King of Naples, and to the Bolognese. A week later, Sixtus IV again
begged the Duke to revoke the sale of this city, which belonged to the Church.
“O my son!” he writes, in concluding his letter, “listen to your father’s
counsel; depart not from the Church, for it is written : Whoever separates
himself from thee, must perish”. Shortly afterwards, on the 6th June, another
Brief was written to the Duke, who had meanwhile expressed his willingness to
comply with the Pope’s desire. The importance attached by Sixtus IV to the
matter is manifested by the fact that he again wrote with his own hand.
On this occasion the Pope obtained all that he wished.
Galeazzo Maria Sforza restored Imola to the Holy See for the sum of 40,000
ducats, and, with the consent of the Cardinals, Sixtus IV conferred it as a
fief upon Girolamo Riario.
There can be no doubt that these circumstances were
connected with the tour through Italy which Cardinal Riario undertook, in the
middle of the summer of 1473, as Legate for the whole of that country. The
commencement of this journey was far from propitious. The Cardinal’s efforts
to compose the party strife in Umbria were unsuccessful. Spoleto and Perugia
refused to obey his commands. The Legate indignantly turned to Gubbio, whither
he had summoned the petty princes of the Flaminian and Pisan territory to meet
him; but Niccolo Vitelli, who was practically tyrant of Città di Castello,
answered his invitation by saying that he was a private individual, and a
simple burgess of his native city; an assembly of Princes in no way concerned
him, as he had never coveted so high a title. Thus the Legate was mocked, and
the competency of his tribunal denied. The immediate punishment of the
refractory Vitelli being impossible, Riario proceeded to Florence, to take
possession of his Archiepiscopal See, amid great festivities. On the 12th
September he entered Milan. The Duke received him with royal honours, conducted
him in triumph to the Cathedral, and then to the Castle, where, as if he had
been the Pope himself, apartments were given him, and the keys of the Citadel
delivered to him each night. In the negotiations which ensued, the Cardinal
succeeded in securing the favour of the Duke for himself. Report, moreover,
spoke of a compact then entered into, by virtue of which the Pope was to make
the Duke of Milan King of Lombardy, and give him possession of all the cities
and provinces appertaining to this dignity. The Duke, in return, it was said,
promised to help Cardinal Riario to obtain the Tiara. It was even asserted
that, on his return to Rome, the Pope would resign the Chair of St. Peter in
favour of his nephew!
From Milan, Riario proceeded by way of Mantua and
Padua to Venice, where further festivities awaited him. By the end of October
he was again in Rome. Soon afterwards Sixtus IV thanked the Duke of Milan for
his splendid reception of Riario, and confirmed the arrangements entered into
by the. latter.
Two months more brought the scandalous life and
ambitious projects of the Pope’s nephew to an end. In the third week of
December, 1473, Riario was attacked by a violent fever; on the 5th January,
1474, he was a corpse. Venetian poison was spoken of by some, but the statement
of other contemporaries, who say that the Cardinal, though only eight and
twenty years of age, fell a victim to his own excesses, is more probable. The
Report of a Milanese Ambassador also informs us that Riario was converted
before his end, received the holy Sacraments, and died truly penitent.
All Rome wept with Sixtus IV over the untimely death
of the pomp-loving Cardinal. The feeling of the people is expressed by the
Senatorial Secretary, Infessura, who says: “Our delightful feasts all came to
an end, and every one lamented the death of Riario”. In the short period of his
cardinalate he had squandered 200,000, or, according to some accounts, 300,000
golden florins, and the debts which he left amounted to 60,000 florins.
Justice, however, requires us to add that Riario had also spent some of his
wealth on noble objects. " In his love of splendour we trace the taste of
the period for that artistic embellishment of existence, without which the
temporal rulers of the day, even the wildest and most warlike of them, deemed
it impossible to live. “During his sojourn at his Palace of the Holy Apostles”,
continues Melozzo da Forli’s biographer, “his love of the fine arts was
evidenced by the way in which he attracted to himself, and gathered into his
service, all the talent that Rome afforded”. This account is confirmed by the
statement of a Roman scholar, who, after a thorough investigation of the
subject, asserts that every poet at that time living in Rome has commemorated
the Cardinal as a patron of talent. The funeral discourse pronounced at his
obsequies makes mention of the valuable library which he was preparing to
establish in his Palace, and also his restorations and embellishments of
churches at Treviso, Milan, Pavia, and Rome.
CHAPTER III.
Christian, King of Denmark and Norway, and Federigo of
Urbino in Rome.— The League of the 2nd November, 1474.
SIXTUS IV consoled himself more quickly than had been
expected for the death of his beloved nephew. For a few days he gave himself up
to his sorrow, no one, not even the Cardinals, being admitted to his presence;
but on the 10th January, 1474, the Mantuan Ambassador was able to inform the
Marchioness that the Pope was beginning to get over Riario’s loss. The question as to who would now exercise the influence wielded by the
late Cardinal, whose jealousy had kept all others in the background, and on
whom would his wealth devolve, was eagerly and generally discussed. Some
predicted the elevation of Girolamo Riario, while others thought it would be
Cardinal Orsini, who had now no opponent.
Riario’s possessions, regarding which fabulous stories were circulated, passed
to his brother, Girolamo, who inherited with them much of his influence.
Cardinal Giuliano della Rovere also became a prominent figure. The conduct of
this nephew of the Pope formed a happy contrast to that of Pietro Riario.
Giuliano was not distinguished by brilliant intellect or fine literary culture,
but he was a man of serious disposition and great prudence, though frequently
rough in his manner and proceedings. He did not surround himself with an
extravagant number of attendants, and indulged in no needless expense in
apparel or in living, yet his taste was good in his house and furniture, and he
loved excellent workmanship. On suitable occasions, he knew how to give free play
to the largeness of his nature. Such occasions presented themselves when
princely persons visited his uncle in the Eternal City, and in 1474 and 1475
they were of frequent occurrence.
Early in March, 1474, it was rumoured that King
Christian of Denmark and Norway was coming to Rome. Sixtus IV at once declared
his intention of showing all possible honour to the Northern Prince, and
lodging him in the palace formerly occupied by Frederick III; he also wrote him
a very cordial letter of welcome. If, as would seem probable from recent
investigations, the motive of the King’s journey was principally religious, the
joy of the Pope and the attentions paid to his guest can easily be understood. Moreover,
Sixtus IV hoped for the assistance of Christian I in the war against the Turks;
he was aware that the King believed in a prophecy which had declared that a
Northern Ruler was destined to conquer and expel the Infidel.
The King, a grave man, with a long grey beard, came
with 150 followers; all were soberly clad, and pilgrims’ staves were
embroidered on the housings of their horses. On the 6th of April the travellers
entered Rome. Christian I was overwhelmed with tokens of honour; the whole
Court went to meet him and conducted him to St. Peters. Here Sixtus IV would
have embraced him at once, but the King knelt down with all his followers, and
begged for the Papal blessing. When he rose from his knees, the Pope embraced
him and conducted him to his Palace. Cardinals Gonzaga and Giuliano della
Rovere provided for the hospitable entertainment of the visitors.
During the whole time of his sojourn in Rome, Christian
I paid such honour and attention to the Pope and the clergy, that he was often
cited as an example to the Italians of the manner in which they ought to bear
themselves towards the Church and her servants. The Pope gave the royal pilgrim
a portion of the true Cross and other relics, a portable altar, a splendid mule
with a bridle studded with gold, a valuable ring, and other precious things. On
Maundy Thursday, after Holy Mass, Sixtus IV bestowed his blessing on the King,
and granted him an Indulgence. On Easter Sunday Christian received Holy
Communion from the hands of the Pope, and the Golden Rose. He also received
costly gifts from the Cardinals, and, in return, presented them with beautiful
furs, and other choice products of his kingdom.
King Christian remained in Rome for three weeks,
Sixtus IV showing him honour in every possible way. The conversations between
the Pope and the King dealt with the question of the Crusade, the affairs of
the Northern Kingdom, and perhaps other political projects, such as the
possibility of changing the Ducal Crown of Sforza into a Royal one. As the
Papal Bull for the foundation of the University of Copenhagen is dated 12th
June, 1475, the erection of such an institution in the North must also, at this
time, have come under discussion. The Pope showed great readiness in meeting
the wishes of his royal guest with regard to several other Bulls, and Christian
was so much delighted with his sojourn in Rome that he had a medal struck to
commemorate it.
After again devoutly visiting the seven principal
Churches, Christian I started on the 27th April on his homeward journey. The
Milanese Ambassador informs us that all the Cardinals conducted him, with every
token of respect, to the gate of the City. Two members of the Sacred College
accompanied him on his way, as far as the frontier of the Papal territory.
According to the same Ambassador, Christian was the bearer of important letters
from the Pope to the Emperor, Frederick III, a fact which proves that the
opportunity afforded by this pilgrimage for discussing political affairs had
not been neglected.
Soon after the departure of Christian, Count Federigo
of Urbino, a former friend of the Pope, arrived in Rome. On this occasion also,
Cardinal Giuliano was splendid in his hospitality; he had given up his
residence in S. Pietro in Vincoli to the City Prefect, and had moved to
Bessarion’s Palace, near the Church of the Holy Apostles. On the 28th May, the
Count was solemnly received by the Pope; Sixtus IV had assigned him a place in
the Chapel on the benches of the Sacred College, so that he sat immediately below
the last Cardinal, an honour hitherto reserved for the eldest sons of Kings.
Although d'Estouteville and Gonzaga were extremely annoyed at this arrangement,
the Pope adhered to it. His motive was soon evident. A marriage was in
contemplation between a daughter of Federigo and Giuliano’s younger brother,
Giovanni della Rovere, who was to be given Sinigaglia and Mondavio.
Even before it had been discussed in Consistory the Pope had impressed upon the
Count the impossibility of obtaining the consent of the Cardinals to the
project. Jacobus Volaterranus informs us that it was
looked upon in the Sacred College as a dangerous example of nepotism. Federigo
was obliged to depart without effecting his purpose.
During the Count’s sojourn in Rome, and at the very
time when the Pope was occupied in taking precautions against an impending
dearth, tidings reached him of the murder of Gabriello Catalani, the Guelph
Lord of Todi, and of the outbreak in that city of an insurrection which seemed
likely to spread. All the discontented from Umbria, and especially from
Spoleto, with their partisans, flocked into Todi, and were headed by Giordano
Orsini and the Counts of Pitigliano. Soon the whole
of the province was in commotion. Rioting, murder, and incendiarism were the
order of the day. If the whole place was not to be given over to absolute
anarchy, it was necessary to act at once with a strong hand.
At the beginning of June, Sixtus IV sent Cardinal
Giuliano to restore peace in Todi by force of arms. The task was one of great
difficulty, but in selecting Giuliano the Pope had chosen a man well fitted to
carry it out. Accustomed to privations, and to the stern discipline of the
cloister, the Cardinal did not shrink from the hardships of a soldier’s life.
With the assistance of the valiant Giulio of Camerino, he forced his way into
Todi. Giordano Orsini and the Count of Pitigliano withdrew, some of the insurgents were cast into prison and others banished, and
all communication between the country people and the city was cut off.
Cardinal Giuliano then turned his arms against
Spoleto, which, at the time, was in the hands of the party of the Orsini. At
3000 paces from the city he halted, and, through Lorenzo Zane, Patriarch of
Antioch, called upon the inhabitants to lay down their arms. Thereupon many of
the citizens fled, carrying their most valuable possessions to the mountain
fortresses in the neighbourhood; the rest accepted the Ambassador's offers of
peace, went to meet the Legate, and begged for pardon. Giuliano garrisoned the gates
of the city, and had already begun to endeavour to reconcile the contending
parties, when, in defiance of his express command, the greedy mercenaries began
to plunder. Most of these men were from Camerino and Ceretano,
and were bent on retaliating on the people of Spoleto the depredations which
they had suffered at their hands. The Legate’s voice was powerless to restrain
the lawless troops; indeed, his own life was at one moment in danger. He could
only be thankful that he was able to save the Episcopal Palace and the
Convents, and to preserve the women and maidens from outrage. “Such”, observes
Platina, “was the fate of the Spoletans, who had
despised the Pope’s commands, and had filled their city with the spoils of
their neighbours”.
At the end of June, the Cardinal proceeded to the
upper valley of the Tiber, where Niccolo Vitelli, the tyrant of Città di
Castello, replied to all remonstrances from Rome with words of open scorn. He
was charged with having lent assistance to the insurgents in Todi and Spoleto:
the time had come when he must be compelled to submit. His contumacy seemed all
the more dangerous, because it found favour with his neighbours. Whenever any
political dispute should break out with Rome, the forcible alienation of the
important district on the borders of Tuscany was to be apprehended. The
adjacent stronghold of Borgo San Sepolcro was still
in the hands of the Florentines, to whom it had been mortgaged by Eugenius IV.
The Pope was bound to put an end to this state of things. Not till all
peaceable means had been exhausted did he proceed to force. And even to the
last he declared that, if Vitelli would submit, he would again receive him into
favour, for he only sought obedience, not vengeance.
Vitelli, meanwhile, had no idea of submission; he
rejected the easy conditions offered by Cardinal Giuliano, who was accordingly
compelled to lay siege to Città di Castello. Sorties were made every day, and
the Papal troops repeatedly suffered serious losses. But a far greater danger
threatened them in the consequences of an alliance which Vitelli had succeeded
in negotiating with Milan and Florence. The Florentines, forgetful of benefits
received from the Pope, even as recently as during the war of Volterra, had
furnished the tyrant with money, and then, in spite of the absolute promise of
Sixtus IV that their territory should remain inviolate, had sent 6000 men to
Borgo San Sepolcro near Città di Castello, ostensibly
for the protection of their frontier, but in reality with the object of
assisting Vitelli whenever the situation should become critical. Sixtus IV
justly complained of the shameful manner in which help was thus given to a
rebellious subject, whom no kindness had been able to win to obedience.
During the siege of Città di Castello the attitude of
Galeazzo Maria Sforza was very unsatisfactory. On the 5th June the Pope felt
constrained to express his astonishment at the manner in which the Duke had
written to him on this occasion, and to defend the justice of his action. The
Pope said, “We ask nothing from Vitelli but obedience; if he will submit, and
live as a private individual, We will be gracious to him, but no Prince can
tolerate open rebellion. The excuse of the Florentines that they feared an
attack on Borgo San Sepolcro, was hypocritical, for,
on the 28th June, We had already pledged our word on this matter”.
In the middle of July, Milan and Florence began
diplomatic action in favour of Vitelli; meanwhile, the Pope refused to accede
to the request that he would withdraw his troops from Città di Castello, giving
a full account of the motives which influenced his decision. It is worthy of
note that the King of Naples, who had received many benefits from Sixtus IV,
also interfered on behalf of the rebels. Anarchy in the States of the Church
was more in accordance with his wishes than peace and order. The ingratitude of
the Duke of Milan seems to have been particularly distressing to the Pope, who,
on the 28th July, 1474, sent him an autograph letter, reproaching him in
touching language.
In this serious state of affairs Sixtus IV turned to
the warlike Count Federigo of Urbino. In order to make yet more sure of his
fidelity, he bestowed on him, on the 21st August, the Ducal dignity with the
same pomp and ceremonies observed in the case of Borso of Este three years
before. Two days after this, Federigo arrived at the Papal camp before Città di
Castello. On the appearance of this General, who was reputed to be invincible,
Vitelli expressed a willingness to negotiate. His bearing, however, was still
anything but submissive. He knew that he had powerful friends to fall back
upon, and he was also aware that Federigo had no intention of strengthening the
Papal authority on his own borders. The daring rebel was able so to manage the
negotiations, that the capitulation was not a submission, but an honourable
treaty. It was decided that the Cardinal, with 200 soldiers, should be admitted
into the city. The personal safety of the tyrant was guaranteed; Lorenzo Zane,
Patriarch of Antioch, was to remain with a garrison in the castle until the
return of the exiles and the completion of a fort, for the erection of which,
Giuliano had given orders. The army then withdrew, and the Cardinal,
accompanied by Duke Federigo who brought Vitelli with him, started for Rome.
The tidings of the fall of Città di Castello were
received with great rejoicings in Rome; trumpets announced the event from S.
Angelo, and more noise could not have been made about the taking of a Spartacus
or a Sertorius; yet, adds Cardinal Gonzaga’s Secretary, “I do not believe in a
real submission, for there are crafty people who know how to mingle fire and
water without disturbing any one”.
The capitulation was, indeed, calculated rather to
encourage than to subdue Vitelli. It was in harmony with the whole course of
this affair, which clearly showed the character of the confederates with whom
Sixtus IV had to deal. Surrounded by treachery, with such an ally as the crafty
Ferrante of Naples at his side, and with neighbours like Lorenzo de' Medici,
can the Pope be blamed for establishing his nephews firmly in the States of the
Church, where a Cesare Borgia and a Pope like Julius II were needed to purge it
from its oppressors great and small?
Platina informs us that the Legate, on his journey
back to Rome, was met by Envoys from many cities, who congratulated him and
brought him valuable presents. These the Cardinal either declined, not from
pride, but as unbefitting a servant of the Church, or else devoted to pious,
objects, like the restoration of Churches and Convents. “On the 9th of
September, early in the morning, Giuliano with the Duke reached the Porta
Flaminia. All the Cardinals had been commanded by the Pope to go and meet him,
but the hardy Ligurian was too early for them. Before the sun had risen he was
in the Church of Sta Maria del Popolo. Thence he was conducted to his Palace
with great pomp. The Duke, the City Prefect, and Count Girolamo rode in front,
preceded by Vitelli amid some nobles”. A Consistory was then held, and the
vanquished rebel did homage. The Pope was prevented by indisposition from
taking part in these proceedings.
During the Duke of Urbino’s sojourn in Rome on this
occasion he received honours even greater than those bestowed upon him in the
spring. The rooms provided for him were immediately above those of the Pope.
This, time the negotiations regarding the marriage were brought to a
satisfactory conclusion. On the 10th of October Sixtus IV informed the Duke of
Milan that “today the betrothal of our nephew, Giovanni della Rovere, with the
Duke of Urbino’s daughter, has been announced”. Two days later, the Vicariates
of Sinigaglia and Mondavio, which, after the death of
Pius II, had revolted against Antonio Piccolomini, Duke of Amalfi, were
conferred upon Giovanni. The document appointing him Vicar was signed by all
the Cardinals, including those who before had voted against the measure, with
the exception of Cardinal Piccolomini. The yearly salary was fixed at 600
ducats.
In attaching to himself, by benefits and by bonds of
relationship, the warlike Federigo of Urbino, who might have been a dangerous
enemy, Sixtus IV had achieved an important political success. Indeed, the Pope
had much reason to congratulate himself on all that he had gained during the
summer of 1474. The attempt to keep his hands full at home, by making troubles
in the States of the Church, had not succeeded for any time, and its authors
had been exposed. The intrigues of Lorenzo de' Medici were laid bare. He had
most unwarrantably interfered in a private affair of the Pope’s. Even Cardinal
Ammanati, who certainly was no partisan of the Rovere family, thought it
necessary to remonstrate with him. Not content with supporting the insurgents,
he had, under cover of the confederation, sent letters and messengers about to
excite disturbances throughout the whole of Italy, with the view of compelling
the Pope to desist from the chastisement of the rebels. His efforts had failed,
and Lorenzo de' Medici saw that his hopes of assistance from Milan and Naples
were vain. He at once looked about him for new allies, and turned to Venice.
The rulers of the Republic, however, felt that the league against the Turks
bound them to Naples, and yet more to the Pope, who had sent money and
provisions when Scutari was besieged. The Signoria, Navagiero informs us, answered Lorenzo’s overtures by declaring that they had already
concluded a league with Naples, and with the Pope, and that he was free to join
it. The matter was to be dealt with in Rome, where Ambassadors from all parts
would soon meet. The hopes of the Pope, that his wish for a general alliance
among the Italian powers might yet be fulfilled, began to revive. The failure
of this scheme, so necessary in view of the warlike preparations of the Turks,
was in no way his fault.
The progress of the negotiations seemed at first to
justify the brightest expectations. An agreement, which satisfied all parties,
was framed. But at the last moment, when the treaty was about to be signed,
Ferrante, according to the testimony of a Venetian chronicler, instructed
his Ambassadors to break off the negotiations. On the
2nd November, 1474, Florence, Venice, and Milan concluded a defensive alliance
for twenty-five years. The Duke of Ferrara, the Pope, and the King of Naples
were invited to join this league. The Duke alone consented to do so. Sixtus IV
gave a decided refusal, accompanying it with a full explanation of the reasons
which induced it. He looked upon the league as a coalition against the Holy
See, an attempt to isolate him and to reduce him to the position of a mere tool
for carrying out the egotistical policy of the Tyrants. Such was the condition
of Italy immediately preceding the Holy Year proclaimed by Paul II.
CHAPTER IV.
The Jubilee Year, 1475.—King Ferrante visits Sixtus
IV.—The Fall of Caffa and the War with the Turks.
As early as the 26th March, 1472, Sixtus IV had
confirmed his predecessor’s decision that every twenty-fifth year should be a
year of Jubilee; a further Bull of the 29th August, 1473, abrogated all other
Indulgences and Faculties during the Jubilee Year. In Rome itself the Pope at
once began various works of embellishment in preparation for the approaching
solemnity. “From the autumn of 1474”, writes Platina, “Sixtus IV devoted
himself to the beautifying of Rome. The bridge, which, from its ruinous state,
had long been called by the Romans the Ponte Rotto, was rebuilt from its
foundations, at great cost, of square blocks of Travertine. This restoration
was an immense boon, both to the Romans and to the strangers who came for the
Jubilee, and Sixtus IV, with a justifiable pride, desired that it should bear
the name of Ponte Sisto. It was a truly princely gift, and we appreciate it all
the more, when we see that no Pope before him had ever attempted it. In my
opinion”, continues Platina, “this was done principally to guard against the
recurrence of the disaster which occurred on the Bridge of St. Angelo, in the
time of Nicholas V, and which I have already related, when, owing to a panic,
numbers of pilgrims were crushed to death”.
Infessura tells us that this bridge was begun in the
spring of 1473. On the 29th of April the foundation stone was laid. The Pope,
with the Cardinals and several prelates, proceeded to the bank of the Tiber,
and, descending into the bed of the river, inserted, in the foundations, a
square stone, with the inscription: “Built by Pope Sixtus IV in the year of
Salvation, 1473”. Two years later the work was completed, so that this most
durable and solid, though not beautiful, bridge was ready for the use of the pilgrims
in the Jubilee Year. Two inscriptions on marble tablets also for many centuries
bore witness to the care of Sixtus IV for these pilgrims.
Another work of great public utility, commenced in
1472, was finished in the Jubilee Year. The Aqueduct, conducting the Aqua Virgo
to Rome, which had been almost stopped up, was cleared out and prolonged from
the Quirinal to the Fontana Treve. The architectural decorations at its mouth
were entrusted to Antonio Lori of Florence and Giacomo of Ferrara. Here, as in
many other undertakings, Sixtus IV continued what Nicholas V had begun.
Opposite to the simple inscription left by his predecessor, he placed one of
his own, and surmounted it with a cornice which, with pillars, formed the
facade.
The chief solicitude of Sixtus IV was for the
restoration of those Churches and Sanctuaries which were the special objects of
the pilgrims. He had St. Peter’s thoroughly cleaned, and inserted several
windows to admit more light. He caused a portion of the wall on the left side,
which was in a dangerous condition, to be strengthened. The Basilica of
Constantine was cleansed, and the side aisles were refloored and embellished.
The Vatican Palace was restored; the bronze equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelius
Antoninus, which was falling from age, was repaired, and placed in front of the
Lateran on a larger marble pedestal decorated with trophies. The Church of the
Holy Apostles was beautified, and many of the smaller Churches, which, even in
those days, were very numerous in Rome, were renovated. “There was hardly a
chapel in the whole City”, says Sigismondo de' Conti, “to which the Pope did
not contribute something in the Jubilee Year”. Many inscriptions still remain
which bear witness to his energy in this respect.
The Cardinals vied with the Pope in their care for the
Sanctuaries of the Eternal City. “The ancient saying, that the people copy
their Princes, was verified”, wrote Platina, in the year 1474, “for so much
building is going on throughout Rome, that, if Sixtus lives, the whole City
will soon be transformed. Inspired by these examples, Guillaume d'Estouteville,
the Cardinal Archbishop of Ostia, had vaulted the side aisles of the Basilica
of the Holy Crib, now called Santa Maria Maggiore, and so embellished it, that
nothing finer can be found in Rome”.
In the early part of this pontificate the restoration
of the ruined Hospital of Santo Spirito was begun. Here, also, care for the
expected pilgrims was the chief inducement for taking the work in hand. Amongst
many other instances of his solicitude for their welfare, we find exhortations
addressed to the Italian Powers, calling on them to take care that the roads
should be good and secure, to provide a sufficient number of inns for their
accommodation, and not to burden them with tolls.
Similar considerations led Sixtus IV to revert to the
plans for the improvement of the streets, already contemplated by the patron
of Leon Battista Alberti. In a Brief, addressed to the Papal Commissary,
Girolamo de Giganti, on the 14th December, 1473, we find the following passage:
“Amongst countless other cares we must also attend to the purifying and
beautification of our City; for, if any city should be clean and fair,
certainly this one should be so, since, by reason of the Chair of St. Peter, it
is the head of the whole world. Considering, then, that through the negligence
of those whose duty it is to keep the streets in good order, they are in many
places foul and unsightly, we command you for the future to pay special
attention to this matter”. Already in the year 1474 the paving of the streets
between the Bridge of S. Angelo and the Vatican was put in hand. The other
principal thoroughfares were then paved with blocks of stone, the road from
Monte Mario to the Borgo repaired, and the walls and gates of the City
restored.
In the beginning of the Jubilee Year appeared the
celebrated Bull, which had, for its chief provision, the renovation of Rome.
It opens with the following sentences : “If it is a part of our common duty to
see to the welfare of all the cities in the States of the Church, then,
certainly, our best-beloved daughter, the chief City of the Church, hallowed by
the blood of the Princes of the Apostles, has a special claim on our care and
attention. Unhappily, many calamities have befallen her, through which her
buildings have fallen into decay, and the number of her citizens has been
diminished. We therefore earnestly desire to see her population increased, her
houses and palaces rebuilt, and all her other necessities duly provided for”.
Many valuable proprietary rights and privileges are promised to all who will
contribute to the accomplishment of these objects.
It may easily be understood that the Pope met with
great difficulties in carrying out his improvements, when they involved
clearances to be effected in the narrow streets beyond the Leonine City,
belonging to the Roman burghers. Haughty barons could not easily be induced to
sacrifice their private property, or the unkempt comfort of their dwellings, to
the higher end of the common good. Thus progress was necessarily slow, but the
Romans dated the obnoxious measures from the visit of the King of Naples, who certainly
encouraged the Pope in his plans, although he was not their originator.
In December, 1474, an approaching visit from the
Neapolitan monarch began to be talked of, the motives of which were rather
political than religious. Ferrante and Sixtus IV had been drawn closer together
by the League of November 2, 1474, which was a cause of grave apprehension to
them both. A personal interview was now to afford the opportunity of deciding
on the attitude to be adopted towards this new combination.
The reception of the King of Naples was honourable in
the extreme. Rodrigo Borgia and Giuliano della Rovere, two of the most
distinguished among the Cardinals, welcomed him in Terracina, on the borders of
the States of the Church. When he entered Rome on the 28th January, 1475, all
the Cardinals met him before the Porta S. Giovanni. Splendid festivities
followed. The King and his brilliant suite, however, remained but three days in
Rome. Infessura says that the numbers of falcons which the Neapolitans brought
with them completely cleared the City and all the neighbourhood of owls.
The King and the Pope interchanged rich presents, nor
did Ferrante forget the Roman officials and the Churches. When he left Rome, on
the 1st February, all the Cardinals accompanied him to the Porta S. Paola and
four of their number as far as S. Paola itself, where he heard Mass before
starting for Marino, Rodrigo Borgia and Giuliano della Rovere being with him on
this occasion, and Federigo of Urbino having also arrived. At Grottaferrata he
received the Order of the Garter, sent to him by the King of England.
On the 8th February, 1475, the Mantuan Ambassador
wrote word that Ferrante was to return to Rome secretly by night. On the 5th a
report was current that the King had come privately to the Pope. According to
Paolo della Mastro’s Chronicle, he was in Rome on the 13th and 14th February.
The subject of these interviews between the Pope and
Ferrante was at first unknown to the majority even of the Cardinals. On the
17th February, Cardinal Gonzaga thought he had some inkling of it. On that day
Sixtus IV summoned a Consistory, in which he announced that the danger from
Turkey called for a general League of all the Italian Powers, and the levy of a
tithe from the clergy. This decision was then imparted to the Ambassadors
appointed to attend the Consistory, but the Neapolitan Envoy was the only one
who displayed any alacrity in responding to the wishes of the Pope. There can
be no doubt that negotiations had also been carried on between Sixtus IV and
Ferrante regarding the attitude to be adopted by them towards the League of the
2nd November, 1474.
The concourse of Jubilee pilgrims, which commenced on
Christmas Day of that year, did not at first equal the great expectations
entertained. The wars in France, Burgundy, Germany, Hungary, Poland, Spain, and
other countries were, according to the Chronicle of Viterbo, the reason why so
few people came; also, respect for the clergy had been much shaken by former
experiences.il An encouraging token of a return to a better state of feeling
was, however, manifested by the much-decried courtiers, who eagerly availed
themselves at Easter of the graces of the Jubilee. The pilgrims now became more
and more numerous. One of the Ambassadors gives 200,000 as the number present
when the Pope solemnly blessed the people on Ascension Day. This is, no doubt,
an exaggerated estimate, but the report of this eye-witness fully establishes
the fact that the concourse was immense.
Entries in the Confraternity-Book of the Church of the
Anima show that a great many pilgrims, both clerical and lay, came from Germany
during the “golden year”.
Among the princely personages at Rome on this occasion
we may mention Queen Dorothea of Denmark, Nicholas of Ujlak,
whom Matthias Corvinus had made King of Bosnia; Anthony of Burgundy, the “Great
Bastard”; and finally, Charlotte of Lusignan. Charlotte had left Rhodes on the
4th July, 1474, and was never again to see that island or Cyprus. She had gone
first to her husband at Montcalier, and now journeyed
to Rome, where her rights were recognized. In the latter part of May she
reached Civita Vecchia, and on the 3rd June entered Rome. The Cardinals went to
meet the deposed Princess, and during her stay in Rome she was entertained at
the Pope’s expense.
Sixtus IV caused the reception of Charlotte of
Lusignan to be portrayed among the frescoes in the Hospital of S. Spirito.
Beneath the picture, still visible, which represents the Queen, adorned with
the insignia of her rank and surrounded by her attendants, kneeling before
Sixtus IV, is a somewhat fulsome inscription, which declares that the Pope
received the unhappy lady with such kindness, that, in her overflowing
gratitude, she was incapable of words and could only weep. Charlotte spent the
next year in Rome, supported by a pension from the Pope; a house in the Leonine
City, now the Palazzo de Convertende, was assigned to
her as a residence.
The Jubilee year closed sadly for the Pope. The City
Prefect fell ill at the end of October, and died on the nth November. Sixtus IV
conferred the vacant post on his nephew, Giovani della Rovere. During the same
month, the Tiber rose and overflowed a great part of the City. The mud, which
it deposits more abundantly than almost any other river, and the continued
dampness of the flooded quarter, produced malaria and pestilence. Under these
circumstances, many were prevented from coming to Rome to gain the Jubilee
Indulgence. The roads had also become more insecure, and accordingly, to avoid
exposing pilgrims from a distance to these risks, the Pope commanded that the
Jubilee should be held at Bologna during the Eastertide of 1476, and granted
the Plenary Indulgence to all who, besides fulfilling the usual conditions,
should visit the Churches of S. Pietro, S. Petronio, S. Antonio, and S.
Francesco in that city. Countless pilgrims, therefore, nocked to Bologna, which
had never before seen so many strangers within her walls. Participation in the
graces of the Jubilee Year, without leaving home, was also granted to several
other foreign Princes and countries; in most cases with the condition that the
Jubilee alms should be devoted to the defense of
Christendom from the Turks.
Besides his consultations with the King of Naples in
the beginning of the Jubilee Year, the Pope was repeatedly occupied with the
affairs of the Turkish war. Owing to the hostile complications in which Central
Europe was involved through the Burgundian war, it had become powerless to
resist the advance of the Turks. Sixtus IV, accordingly, on the 15th February,
1475, appointed Bishop Alexander of Forli Papal Legate for the restoration of
peace. In the ensuing months the Pope made repeated appeals to the Italian
Powers for help. The state of affairs in the East was indeed calculated to
cause the greatest anxiety. Usunhassan had never been
able to recover from his defeat, and thus the hand of the Sultan pressed more
and more heavily on the Christians in Albania, the coasts of the Adriatic, and
the Danubian Provinces. At the end of 1474 a powerful Turkish army attacked the
brave Woiwode of Moldavia, Stephen the Great, who refused any longer to pay
tribute. Stephen, with great skill, decoyed the superior forces of the enemy on
through the forest to the Lake of Rakowitz (north-west of Galatz), and there
inflicted on them a severe defeat (10th January, 1475).
Meanwhile, a fleet of 300 sail, with 40,000 men on
board, had been made ready at Constantinople. Candia was, at first, supposed to
be its destination, but it took an easterly course, ran into the Black Sea,
and, on the 31st of May, appeared before Caffa in the Crimea, a rich and
important Genoese colony. On the 6th of June the place was in the hands of the
Turks, and its fate was soon shared by the whole southern coast of the Crimea.
Strenuous efforts for the preservation of this city
had in former days been made by Popes Calixtus III, Pius II, and Paul II. The
tidings of its fall reached Rome in September, 1475. Further details were soon
received from the Knights of St. John, and the accounts of the cruelties
exercised by the Turks on its unfortunate inhabitants caused general horror and
dismay, which were intensified by the impossibility, under the melancholy
circumstances of the West, of that united defensive action which alone could
have promised success. Discouraging as the result of his former attempts had
been, the Pope again fulfilled his duty. He sent special Briefs to all the
Princes of Christendom, informing them of the disaster, and calling on them to
resist the indefatigable foe. Sixtus IV, at the same time, exhorted them to
send Ambassadors to Rome. It would seem that he still hoped to bring about a
League of all the Powers against the Osmanli; but he met with little
response! In November negotiations began, and they lasted for months.
Their result may be learned from the fact that the flames of the places the
Turks had set on fire were soon visible from the belfry of St. Mark’s. In
March, 1477, Cardinal Ammanati wrote: “Our Pope is doing everything in his
power. He did not dismiss the Italian Ambassadors, as he wishes to obtain more
than the tithe. The tithe from the clergy, and a twentieth part from the Jews,
has been granted to him, but how little is that compared to such a war. What
are a few hundred thousands for the defense of a
needy king against the ruler of all Asia and a good part of Europe? The
assistance of the laity, so anxiously desired by His Holiness, has not yet been
afforded. We strive as far as in us lies, to copy the indefatigable zeal and
courage of our Father. May God enlighten our minds and hearts, that we may not
walk in darkness and the shadow of death, and, when we have lost this valiant
champion, too late lament that we have not sooner known the way of our
salvation”.
CHAPTER V.
Beginning of the Rupture of Sixtus IV with Lorenzo de'
Medici.
The pestilence, which had already visited Rome in the
Jubilee Year, returned early in the summer of 1476, with such violence that
residence in the City became almost intolerable. At the beginning of June the
Pope determined to seek the heights of Viterbo; on the 3rd he commended his
States to the Protection of King Ferrante; on the 10th he left Rome,
accompanied by Cardinals d'Estouteville, Borgia, Carafa, Nardini, Gonzaga, and
Michiel. Cardinal Cybò remained behind as Legate. Later on, the City was visited
by terrible thunderstorms and tempests. The Palace of the Senate was closed,
and justice was administered at the foot of the steps. Penitential processions
thronged the streets. Infessura mentions one in July, in which the venerated
image of our Lady from S. Maria Maggiore was carried with much devotion.
The Pope was obliged, immediately on starting, to
alter his route, for the terrible malady had appeared at Viterbo; he went,
therefore, first to Campagnano, then to Vetralla, then for a time to Amelia and Narni,
and finally settled at Foligno. Thence he visited Assisi, where, in the month
of August, he celebrated the Feast of St. Francis, the founder of his Order,
and venerated his relics with great devotion.
As the pestilence abated very slowly, Sixtus IV
remained at Foligno until the autumn. When Cardinal Giuliano della Rovere
returned, on the 4th October, from his mission to France, he found the Pope
still in this charming little town, which he only left on the 7th of the month.
He spent the first night at Spoleto, and then, probably because the Plague was
still claiming many victims, travelled so slowly that he did not reach his
capital until the 23rd of October.
Just as this calamitous year was closing, all Italy
was struck with horror at the assassination of the Duke of Milan (26th
December, 1476). This crime was a tyrant-murder of the ancient type, and was
directly attributable to the influence of ideas zealously propagated by the
false Humanist, Cola Montano. The Annals of Siena expressly state that the
conspirators had studied Sallust, and Sigismondo de' Conti also informs us
that Lampugnani had, from early youth, chosen
Catiline as his model.
“The peace of Italy is at an end!” exclaimed the Pope,
on hearing of the death of Galeazzo Maria Sforza; and, indeed, the existing
political system seemed entirely upset. The Duke of Milan was the only Prince
sufficiently rich and powerful permanently to counterbalance the ambitious King
of Naples, his heir was still a child; the Regency was in the hands of the
Duchess Bona, a weak woman, entangled in the meshes of her intriguing
brothers-in-law.
Fully alive to the dangers which threatened Italy,
Sixtus IV, on the first day of the new year (1477), addressed a Brief to all
the Italian Princes and Rulers, earnestly exhorting them to the maintenance of
peace. Cardinal Giovanni Mellini was also sent as
special Legate to Milan and Lombardy, and instructed to use every effort for
the same object. The newly-appointed Legate was a man venerable alike for his
age, his learning, and his goodness; he started on the 27th January, and
returned on the 7th May.
The course of affairs in Milan was watched, not only
by the Pope, but also by Lorenzo de' Medici, with the keenest interest. Peace
was for the present preserved, and the Duchess remained in power, but her
authority rested on no solid foundation. Lorenzo sought in every way to confirm
it. “But”, as a friend of the Medici writes, “it is perfectly incomprehensible
how, at so critical a moment, when the support of Milan was most uncertain, he
could think of giving just cause of complaint to neighbours whom he knew to be
already dissatisfied with him. Yet this is what he did”.
At the beginning of his reign, Sixtus IV had been very
favourably inclined towards the Medici; the reception which Lorenzo met with in
Rome, the fact that the financial affairs of the Holy See were, much to their
advantage, entrusted to their care, and that the Alum works at Tolfa were
farmed out to them, were plain proofs of this good-will. If these friendly
relations were of brief duration, it was only because Lorenzo openly manifested
his ungrateful purpose of making troubles for the Pope.
The Florentine Expedition against Volterra, in the
year 1472, was the first occasion on which these differences appeared. The Pope
had sent auxiliary troops to aid the Florentines in suppressing the revolt of
that city; this act of friendship towards Lorenzo led to disastrous results.
After twenty-five days of bombardment, the city capitulated, on condition that
the lives, honour, and property of the burgesses should be spared. No sooner,
however, had the undisciplined troops entered the place, than a general plunder
began. “In vain did Federigo of Montefeltre remonstrate; Volterra was
sacrificed in the most shameful manner. This seemed to have delighted the
Florentines. When the victor came, with a heavy heart, to their city, they
overwhelmed him with marks of gratitude to console him for the wound that his
honour had sustained; but the Pope saw his credit abused, and general
compassion excited on behalf of the ruined city. His magisterial hand, which
had been laid upon the balance in favour of the Medici, was stained with
blood”.
Then followed the purchase of Imola. The acquisition
of this territory from the Duke of Milan interfered with the designs of the
Republic, which had eagerly sought an extension of its domain in that
direction. Lorenzo had made the greatest efforts to make it impossible to
obtain the money required. Henceforth the Court of Rome could no longer employ
him in a financial capacity. That which had once been so generously offered to
him was now withdrawn. The management of the Apostolical Exchequer was transferred
to the Bank of the Pazzi, who, in spite of the Medici, had advanced the sum;
that was all, but it was enough.
The tension between Sixtus IV and Lorenzo was also
greatly increased by the faithless conduct of the latter at the time of the
siege of Città di Castello. He repaid the assistance rendered to him by the
Pope, during the war with Volterra, by vigorously supporting rebellion in the
States of the Church. The persistent aid accorded by Florence to Vitelli
rendered his complete subjugation impossible. Thus the capitulation, which was
at last brought about, is characterized by Cardinal Ammanati, favourably
disposed as he was towards the Medici, as an insult to the victors, for the
terms were dictated by the vanquished.
The next dispute had to do with a more ecclesiastical
question. On the death of Cardinal Riario, Francesco Salviati had aspired to
the Archbishopric of Florence, but had been compelled to give way to Lorenzo's
brother-in-law, Rinaldo Orsini. In 1474, Filippo de' Medici, Archbishop of
Pisa, a man much devoted to the interests of his relations, died. Without
consulting the Florentines, the Pope now raised Francesco Salviati to the
vacant throne. It is not to be supposed that the Pope made this appointment with
the intention of wounding the Medici and the Republic, but from a letter of
Cardinal Giuliano to Lorenzo, it is evident that he knew it would not be
welcome. The Cardinal commends the Archbishop-elect to Lorenzo, and
emphatically declares that there had been no intention of offending his
Magnificence by the nomination. Girolamo Riario earnestly entreated Lorenzo to
overrule the opposition that would be made to the acceptance of Salviati. As
this letter was not answered, Girolamo Riario wrote again on the 26th October,
1474, and this time with his own hand. “If”, he says, “you would have me see
that I am loved by you, and that my friendship is agreeable to you, and would
also have our Master perceive that you are towards His Holiness all that I have
ever declared you to be, then deal with me in this matter as you wish me to
deal with you and your affairs”. Two days before this letter was written, the
Pope had exhorted the Florentines to be reasonable, and to acknowledge the
newly-appointed Archbishop; but neither the Republic nor Lorenzo had any idea
of yielding. Lorenzo, writing to the Duke of Milan, declared that to consent to
recognize the Archbishop would be to betray the honour of the city. Early in
1475 Girolamo sent his Chancellor to Florence to enter into negotiations for an
agreement; but a long time passed without any settlement. All the Pope’s
exhortations failed to obtain Salviati’s reception. For three whole years the
Florentines held out. Salviati remained in Rome, and the resentment which he
cherished was soon shared by others. “Lorenzo”, says an historian by no means
prejudiced against him, “could not fail to perceive that this affair was
seriously disturbing his relations with the Pope and his adherents. It is easy
to understand that the feeling of animosity was directed against Lorenzo
personally; men had come to look upon him as the head of the Republic, and
everything, whether good or evil, was ascribed to his influence”.
A fresh manifestation of the hostile disposition of
the Florentines towards Sixtus IV occurred in the autumn of 1475. Niccolò
Vitelli was then endeavouring to regain his former position in Città di
Castello. The enterprise failed, but the Pope's request, that the faithless
rebel should no longer be permitted to dwell in the territory of the Republic,
was refused.
After all this, it is not surprising that Sixtus IV
did not grant the petition that a Florentine should be admitted into the Sacred
College, but put off the Republic with hopes for the future.
In the spring of 1477 Lorenzo placed further
difficulties in the Pope’s way, by encouraging the mercenary captain, Carlo Fortebraccio, to abandon the Turkish war and return to the
Umbrian frontier. Carlo desired to win for himself the quasi free city of
Perugia, where his father and brother had formerly ruled. Without the consent
of the Florentines this was impossible, as free passage through their States
and maintenance for his troops were indispensable; but they also had designs
upon the city. They wished to draw it into their league, to alienate it from
the Pope and to bring it under their own influence. They therefore incited
Carlo to attack the Sienese; he nothing loth began, on the most frivolous
pretexts, to plunder and to levy contributions in the valleys of the Chiana and
the Arbia. The Medici viewed with satisfaction these troubles of their
neighbours, hoping that they would tend to incline them to submit to their
domination. Moreover, it was desirable that the Pope’s attention should be
diverted from Perugia, until the conspiracy for the betrayal of the city should
be mature.
The Sienese, thus attacked in time of peace,
complained to the Pope and the King of Naples, and from both received promises
of assistance. Sixtus IV remembered that Carlo’s father had threatened to make
Pope Martin say twenty Masses for a bolognino.
A division of the army, under Antonio of Montefeltre, advanced to chastise the
mercenary chief, who had thus wantonly disturbed the peace of the district.
Carlo Fortebraccio made a feint of going to meet the
enemy, but on a day agreed upon with some of the nobles who were in league with
him, suddenly appeared before Perugia. Happily the plot was discovered, and the
seizure of the place prevented. Carlo thus saw the scheme, for whose
accomplishment he had come to Tuscany, frustrated, and, as the hostile army
had meanwhile increased in strength, he retired first to Montone and afterwards
to Florence. Duke Federigo of Montefeltre had, by this time, led a large force
into the Perugian territory. Montone was surrounded. The stronghold of the
Bracci stood on a steep height, and was defended by lofty walls and various
outworks, erected by the old Condottiere. All the plunder amassed by Fortebraccio was collected in this mountain fortress, and
his wife, who was in charge, appeared with dishevelled hair, urging the
garrison to offer a brave resistance. Carlo himself also sent messengers and
letters from Florence to encourage them, promising that a powerful army should
soon arrive to raise the siege, for he was assured of the assistance of the
Medici and their allies; but no castle had yet been able to hold out against
Federigo, a stormer of cities like Demetrius, the son of Antigonus. The troops
sent from Florence were repulsed, and Montone compelled to capitulate. “As
pardon had been promised to them”, says Sigismondo de' Conti, they remained
unharmed from first to last, and were, moreover, through the Pope's goodness,
indemnified for their losses, but the walls were destroyed, and a nest of
rebellion was thus rooted out”.
The Sienese from this time forth were greatly alarmed:
they concluded a close alliance with Sixtus IV and Ferrante of Naples (8th
February, 1478). Lorenzo himself could cherish no illusions as to the untoward
position in which his own fault had placed him. He looked round about him for
allies. He thought he might depend upon Milan, and then turned to Venice to ask
if he might, in case of necessity, reckon on the troops of the Republic ; the
answer was in the affirmative. Interests and parties became more and more
sharply separated. Sixtus IV, Count Girolamo, Ferrante, and Siena being on one
side, and Florence, Venice, and Milan on the other.
Lorenzo’s attitude towards the Pope remained
unchanged. It is hard to discover in these proceedings his customary
circumspection and political penetration. Even his biographer, Niccolo Valori,
is not able to reconcile his conduct towards Sixtus IV with the claims of
either statesmanship or gratitude.
CHAPTER VI.
The Conspiracy of the Pazzi, 1478.
At the beginning of the year 1478 the tension between
Rome and Florence was such as to render a catastrophe almost inevitable.
Wherever the opportunity had occurred, Lorenzo de' Medici had thwarted the
Pope; he had done everything in his power to prevent the consolidation of the
temporal principality of the Pope and to foster the elements of weakness which
existed in the States of the Church. His ambition and masterfulness had
increased beyond all bounds: he would have been prepared to sacrifice even the
precious blessing of ecclesiastical unity to carry out his own schemes. His
confidential letter of the 1st February, 1477, to Baccio Ugolini shows that he
would have contemplated a schism without shrinking. In this letter he says, in
so many words: “For any one in my position, the division of power is
advantageous, and, if it were possible without scandal, three or four Popes
would be better than a single one”.
The downfall of the Medici, who had become the very
soul of the anti-Papal agitation in Italy, appeared the only hope of security
for the future. No one maintained this view with more warmth and eloquence than
the Pope’s nephew, Girolamo Riario, who felt that, as long as that family
governed Florence, his hold upon Imola must remain precarious. The weakness of
Sixtus IV allowed to Girolamo an overweening influence in public affairs, and
his ambition had become absolutely unbounded since his marriage with Caterina
Sforza (May, 1472), a woman of a spirit kindred to his own. “I am not”, she
said, “Duke Galeazzo’s daughter for nothing : I have his brains in my head”.
Lorenzo, more or less by his own fault, had made many
enemies in Florence as well as in Rome. Eaten up with pride, he cared for no
one and tolerated no rival. Even in games he would always be first. He
interfered in everything, even in the private lives of the citizens, and in
their marriages; nothing could be done without his consent. In the work of
casting down the mighty and raising up those of low degree, he refused to act
with that consideration and discretion which Cosmo had always been careful to
observe. Among the old nobility, in particular, there was great
dissatisfaction. It was an essential part of the policy of the Medici to
prevent any family, even if allied or related to their own, from becoming too
powerful or too rich. Lorenzo de' Medici carried out this principle to the
utmost. The Pazzi soon perceived that he was planning their ruin. They saw
themselves excluded from all honourable offices and influential positions in
the Republic, and at last found their property also attacked. Grievances such
as these drove them into the party of Lorenzo’s opponents, whose motto was, the
Liberty of the Republic.
The enemies of the Medici soon formed themselves into
two groups, one of which gathered round the Pazzi, and the other round Girolamo
Riario. The hostility of the Pazzi towards the Medici was purely political, or,
perhaps, social and political, in its character. With Sixtus IV and his right
hand, Riario, its motives were chiefly ecclesiastical.
The indignation of the Florentine nobility against the
purse-proud tyranny of the Medici was so deep and so widespread that,
independently of Roman influence or co-operation, it must sooner or later have
led to a catastrophe such as it had often already produced. The outbreak was
hastened on by the alliance of the Pazzi with Girolamo, which had become closer
since the purchase of Imola.
It is uncertain whether the idea of effecting a change
in the form of government in Florence by violent means originated with the
Pazzi or with Girolamo. However this may be, Francesco de' Pazzi, the Roman
banker, was quite as active and as eager in the matter as Riario. Together they
induced the Archbishop of Pisa, Francesco Salviati, who was living at the Roman
Court, and very bitter against the Medici, to join them.
The first most important point was to discover what
line the Pope would take in regard to their plan. There was no doubt that, in
his present state of irritation, he would favour any attempt to bring about a
change of government in Florence. But Girolamo Riario was also well aware that
his uncle would not lend himself to any undertaking which could imperil the
honour of the Papacy. They must aim at securing a free hand to carry out the
revolution, without letting the Pope know how it was to be accomplished. He
must be led to believe that the ill-will in Florence against the Medici was
already so great that they could be easily overthrown in the usual manner, that
is to say, by an insurrection without assassination. Giovan Batista da
Montesecco, a vassal of Riario’s, was selected, after
the blow had been struck, to march into Florence with an armed force, and
follow up the advantage gained. He consented, but warned the conspirators that
the business might not be so readily accomplished as they thought.
Montesecco had also another misgiving as to what the
Pope would say to the plan. The answer given by Girolamo and Salviati is most
significant. “Our Lord, the Pope”, they said, “will always do what we persuade
him, and he is angry with Lorenzo, and earnestly desires this”. “Have you
spoken to him of it?”. “Certainly”, was the reply, “and we will arrange that he
shall also speak of it to you”.
This interview, at which Salviati and Girolamo alone
were present, soon-took place. According to the later and thoroughly credible
statement of Montesecco, the Pope from the first declared that he wished for a
change of government in Florence, but without the death of any man.
“Holy Father”, replied Montesecco, “these things can
hardly be done without the death of Lorenzo and Giuliano, and, perhaps, of
others also”.
The Pope answered : “On no condition will I have the
death of any man: it is not our office to consent to the death of any, and,
even if Lorenzo is a villain (villano), and has
wronged us, I in no way desire his death; what I do desire is a change of
government”.
Girolamo then said, “What is possible shall be done to
avoid such a casualty, but if it should occur, will your Holiness forgive its
authors?”.
“You are a brute”, rejoined Sixtus, “I tell you I do
not desire the death of any man, but only a change in the government; and to
you also, Giovan Battista, I say that I greatly wish that the government of
Florence should be taken out of Lorenzo’s hands, for he is a villain and an
evil man, and has no consideration for us, and if he were out of the way we
should be able to arrange matters with the Republic according to our mind, and
this would be a great advantage”.
“What your Holiness says is true”, said Riario and the
Archbishop. “If, after a change of government in Florence, the State is at your
disposal, your Holiness will be able to lay down the law for half of Italy, and
everyone will have an interest in securing your friendship. Therefore, be
content to let us do all that we can for the attainment of this end”.
Hereupon Sixtus IV again spoke very decidedly,
without any reserve or ambiguity. “I tell you”, he said, “I will not. Go and do
as seems good to you, but no one’s life is to be taken”.
At the close of the audience, he gave his consent to
the employment of armed men. Salviati said, as he withdrew: “Holy Father, be
content to let us steer this bark, we will guide her safely”. The Pope said, “I
am content”. Sixtus IV could only understand that those present fell in with
his views, and he gave his consent.
The Pope, who had grown up in the cloister, and was
little acquainted with the world, evidently believed that the advance of the
troops assembled on the frontiers of the Republic, to join the discontented
Florentines, would make it possible to overpower and capture the Medici. The
conspirators had other views. After repeated consultations, Girolamo and
Salviati determined to act in opposition to the clearly expressed desire of the
Pope. Preparations were at once commenced.
It is important to observe that Sixtus IV again sent a
message through a Bishop to urge the confederates to consider the honour of the
Holy See and of Girolamo himself. Had he known anything of the purpose of
assassination, such an exhortation would have been absolutely meaningless.
For, even if it succeeded, if both the Medici fell at once, and the Republic
declared itself free, the honour of the Holy See would be compromised. Sixtus
IV accordingly remained, as is perfectly clear from the whole of Montesecco’s deposition, under the impression that the plan
was to take both the Medici prisoners: Lorenzo on his journey to or from Rome,
Giuliano perhaps on his way from Piombino, and then to issue a Proclamation
from the Republic. An unprejudiced critic cannot arrive at any other conclusion
from the documents before us.
Circumstances had hitherto been unfavourable to the
execution of the scheme. As, however, many had been initiated, it became
necessary to act promptly, to avoid the risk of discovery. Francesco de' Pazzi
had at last won over his brother Jacopo, the head of the family : among the
other conspirators may be named, Bernardo di Bandini Baroncelli and Napoleone Franzesi Jacopo, son of the well-known
Humanist, Poggio Bracciolini, two of the Salviati,
and two clerics, Stefano of Bagnone, a dependent of
Jacopo de' Pazzi, and Antonio Maffei of Volterra, who had been led to take part
in the plot by grief at the misfortunes of his native city, whose ruin he
attributed to Lorenzo. Francesco de' Pazzi and Bandini were to murder Giuliano,
while Lorenzo was to be killed by Montesecco; Salviati was to seize the
Signorial Palace, and Jacopo de' Pazzi to arouse the Florentines.
Just at this time, in the spring of 1478, the young
Cardinal Rafaello Sansoni-Riario came to Florence, in consequence of an
outbreak of the Plague at Pisa, and took up his abode at the Villa of the
Pazzi. According to the original plan, the Medici were to be assassinated at a
banquet; but, as Giuliano was prevented by indisposition from attending it, the
murder was postponed. Cardinal Rafaello, who was but eighteen, had no suspicion
of all that was going on, and held free and friendly intercourse with Lorenzo
de' Medici. Lorenzo repeatedly urged him to visit his Palace and the Cathedral,
and Rafaello Sansoni promised to do so on Sunday, the 26th April, 1478. The
conspirators determined to take advantage of this favourable opportunity for
carrying out their purpose.
Lorenzo had invited a brilliant company to dinner in
honour of the Cardinal. Many Ambassadors and Knights, among them Jacopo de'
Pazzi and Francesco Salviati, were invited. On the morning of the eventful day,
the Cardinal, with a few companions, among whom were the Archbishop and
Montesecco, went into the city. Giuliano de' Medici excused himself from the
feast on the plea of ill-health, but promised to be present in the Cathedral.
This caused a change of purpose, and the church, instead of the banqueting-hall,
was selected as the scene of the murder. Montesecco, however, at the last
moment refused to perpetrate the crime in the Cathedral, either because he
shrank from shedding blood in a church, or, on maturer consideration, from the
affair altogether. In his stead, the two clerics, Stefano and Maffei, undertook
the deed.
The beginning of the second part of the High Mass was
the signal of action for the conspirators. With the cry “Ah! traitor!” Bernardo
di Bandini Baroncelli made a rush at Giuliano, and
plunged his dagger in his side. Severely wounded as he was, he strove to defend
himself, and, in doing so, pushed against Francesco de' Pazzi, from whom he
received a thrust in the breast. After this he staggered about fifty paces
further, and then fell to the ground, where Francesco de' Pazzi stabbed him
repeatedly till life was extinct. Stefano and Maffei had meanwhile attacked
Lorenzo, but only wounded him slightly. While his servants and some youths
warded off further blows with their cloaks, he fled into the old sacristy, and
its bronze door was fastened at once by Angelo Poliziano.
All this was the work of a moment. Very few persons
could see exactly what took place. This, and the horror which paralyzed the
senses of the immediate witnesses, accounts for the many variations in the
details which have reached us. Those who were at a little distance did not know
what was going on, and many thought that the dome of the Cathedral was about to
fall in.
Salviati’s attempt to take possession of the Signorial
Palace was equally a failure. Jacopo de' Pazzi’s cry of liberty met with no
response, while the people rose on all sides to that of “Palle” (the balls in
the armorial bearings of the Medici). The slaughter of the guilty at once
began. Archbishop Salviati, his brother, and his nephew Jacopo Bracciolini, with Francesco de' Pazzi, were all hung up
together from the window-bars of the Signorial Palace. Then the ropes were cut,
so that the bodies fell amidst the crowd, where they were torn in pieces, and
the severed heads and limbs borne in triumph through the streets. All who were
supposed to be enemies of the Medici, whether guilty or innocent, were
butchered. The two assassins who had fallen upon Lorenzo had their noses and
ears cut off before they were killed.
Montesecco was seized on the 1st, and beheaded on the
4th, May. Neither his withdrawal at the last moment, nor the disclosures which
he made in regard to the ramifications of the conspiracy, availed to mitigate
his sentence. His statements are of. the greatest importance in their bearing
on the question of the participation of Sixtus IV in the events of the 26th
April. It is certain that he desired that the Medici should be overthrown by
force. It is equally certain that he can have known nothing beforehand of the
details of the attempted assassination, for these were only arranged in haste
on the very morning of the deed, when it had been found necessary to abandon
the plan of murdering the brothers at a banquet.
The further question, whether Sixtus IV approved of
the murderous intention of the conspirators, must be answered in the negative.
Had this been the case, Montesecco, whose interest it was to make the least of
his own share in the crime, would scarcely have concealed the fact His
depositions bear upon them the stamp of truth; they have sometimes been taken
in their obvious sense, and sometimes arbitrarily interpreted. In face of such
evidence, to continue to make the Pope an abettor in the murder is worse now
than it was 400 years ago.
It is, however, deeply to be regretted that a Pope
should play any part in the history of a conspiracy. Lorenzo had given Sixtus
IV good ground for a declaration of war; the principle of self-preservation
demanded active measures for future security, and amongst them, the overthrow
of this malignant enemy; but open warfare would certainly have been more worthy
of a Pontiff than participation in a political plot, even had it involved no
bloodshed.
CHAPTER VII.
The Tuscan War.—French Intervention in Favour of the
Florentines.
An unsuccessful conspiracy always strengthens the
power against which it has been directed. Lorenzo, who showed admirable skill
and tact in making the most of his advantage, now rose to absolute power in
Florence. Even those who had hitherto been heartily opposed to him, from
Republican convictions, came over to his side. The baseness of this attack on
his life, to which was added the abuse of the sacred place and the most solemn
act of worship, and the presence of a Cardinal, had called forth the greatest indignation.
Immediately after the failure of the plot, this anger found vent in the
indiscriminate slaughter of all the enemies of the Medici; and, as time went
on, far too much license was permitted to the mob. Twenty-three days after the
event, boys were allowed to drag the half-clad corpse of Jacopo de' Pazzi
through the streets, and fling it, with ghastly jibes, into the Arno. Cruel
reprisals continued even into the year 1480: a well-informed contemporary
doubts the guilt of those then sentenced. Renato de' Pazzi, a peaceful man,
devoted to study, who had refused to take any part in the conspiracy, was
certainly innocent. Nevertheless, he was executed. Bandini was pursued to
Constantinople, where the Sultan gave him up to Lorenzo. This circumstance, and,
in a yet greater degree, the letters of condolence which he received from all
sides, from Princes and Republics, Statesmen and Cardinals, helped to make him
haughtier than ever.
Many ecclesiastics who had nothing to do with the
conspiracy were also executed. The Archbishop of Pisa was brutally scourged,
without trial of any sort, and Cardinal Rafaello Sansoni-Riario, although
perfectly innocent, was imprisoned. These things greatly angered Sixtus IV.
Sigismondo de' Conti thus describes his feelings when the tidings first arrived
from Florence. “The Pope expressed his horror at the crime, in which the
conspirators had added sacrilege to murder. He was also deeply grieved at the danger
of Cardinal Sansoni, the disgraceful slaughter of innocent priests, and the
ignominious death of the Archbishop. He saw that a serious indignity had been
inflicted on the Church. This latter point was specially distressing to him,
because it made peace impossible, for it would be a dangerous example for the
future, if those who had so gravely infringed her rights were to be left
unpunished”. Accordingly, Sixtus IV claimed satisfaction from the Florentines
for their violations of ecclesiastical immunities, and also demanded the
liberation of Cardinal Sansoni, and the banishment of Lorenzo.
The first two demands were undoubtedly just. Donato Acciaiuoli, the Florentine Ambassador in Rome, though he
had been deeply affronted by Riario, strongly advised his Government to fulfil
the promise which they had made in writing to release the unoffending Cardinal.
Florence, he observed, gained nothing by his detention, and the refusal to
comply with the righteous request of the Pope must lead to serious danger. But
the reasonable representations of their trusty servant, and Ferrante’s warning
not to add fuel to the fire, were alike unheeded.
It was decided that the Cardinal should for the time
be retained in captivity, as a hostage for the safety of the Florentines in
Rome. On the 24th May, Sixtus IV sent the Bishop of Perugia to the city with a
letter from the Cardinal-Camerlengo to Lorenzo, informing him that a commission
was already appointed to commence proceedings against the Republic, unless the
Cardinal was at once set free. Venice also advised the Florentines not to give
their enemies just cause of complaint by keeping Sansoni in prison. All,
however, was in vain; although there had been ample time to establish the
innocence of the young Prelate, they would not hurry themselves, and matters
daily grew worse.
Sixtus IV was at last weary of waiting. He would, no
doubt, have preferred a reconciliation with Florence, but that had been
rendered impossible. Accordingly, on the 1st June, fully four weeks after the
tragedy, and, therefore, when the excitement of the first moment had subsided,
he issued a Bull excommunicating Lorenzo and his adherents. The Bull began by
enumerating the whole series of Florentine offences : the protection afforded
to the Pope’s enemies, the attack on the Papal territory, the hindrances placed
in the way of those who were going to Rome, and the detention of convoys
carrying provisions to the Court there, finally their treatment of Francesco
Salviati. Passing on to the events which had succeeded the conspiracy, Sixtus
IV declared that the vengeance taken in the form of executions and banishments
had been cruel and excessive. Lorenzo, the Gonfaloniere,
and the Prior in their mad fury, and by the instigation of the devil, had even
laid hands on ecclesiastics. They had hanged the Archbishop at the window of
the Palace in the sight of the crowd, and, cutting the rope, allowed the corpse
to fall down into the street. Other innocent clerics, of whom some belonged to
the suite of Cardinal Sansoni, had also suffered death. Finally, although the
Bishop of Perugia had been sent as Legate to apply, in the name of the Pope,
for the release of the Cardinal, he had not been released. On account of these
crimes, the sentence of the greater Excommunication was pronounced against
Lorenzo and the other functionaries, and, in the event of these guilty persons
not being delivered up, the city would be laid under an Interdict and its
Archiepiscopal dignity cancelled. In spite of the severity of this Bull the
Cardinal was still kept in prison, though the rigor of his captivity was
somewhat mitigated. Its character may be gathered from the description a
Sienese chronicler gives of his appearance when he was at length set free. “On
the 13th June”, says Allegro Allegretti, “Cardinal Sansoni-Riario came to
Siena, more dead than alive from the terror he had endured, and still feeling
as if the rope were about his neck”.
On the 20th June the Cardinal arrived in Rome. The
deadly pallor of his face bore witness to the torments he had undergone, and
this he retained to the end of his life. Francesco Gonzaga had left the City
two days previously for Bologna, where the friendship of the Bentivogli with the Medici awakened some anxiety. The
instructions given to Gonzaga betray the Pope’s uneasiness, and his
consciousness of the bad impression produced by Florentine events. They also
show that there had been a possibility of reconciliation; for, after exhorting
the Bolognese to be faithful, Sixtus IV observes, “We have not taken it ill,
nor do we blame our people for their friendliness towards the Florentines when
the tidings of these disturbances first reached them. On the contrary, we
approved of this manifestation of sympathy with their neighbours, as the
Republic had as yet done nothing against the Church, and we ourselves wrote to
Florence to express our regret at the occurrence. But, now that they have
committed such shameful outrages on the ecclesiastical state, and have incurred
the censures of the Church for their persistent violations of her rights, the
Bolognese can no longer in honour continue to stand by them. Such a course
would constitute an attack upon us, and would not assist them”.
The long-deferred, but practically inevitable, release
of the Cardinal, whose innocence could not be denied, was the only concession
made by Florence to the Pope. The Excommunication was despised; the Interdict,
pronounced on the 20th June, was disregarded; and the alliance of other Powers,
especially that of France, was sought. Memorandums, couched in violent
language, and evading any real answer to the very definite charges made by the
Pope, threats of a Schism, and preparations for war were the only reply
vouchsafed by the once pious and fastidiously refined Florentines to the
exhortations of Sixtus IV, who was convinced of the justice of his cause.
Although the Florentine Government set the
Excommunication and Interdict at naught and constrained the clergy to perform
their sacred functions, they still complained of the distress which these
censures had occasioned. The document known by the name of the Synodus Florentina bears eloquent testimony to the
fanatically anti-Roman temper of the party of the Medici. In it Sixtus IV is
called “the adulterer’s minion” and the “Vicar of the Devil”. He is loaded with
accusations, and the hope is expressed that God may deliver His people from
false shepherds who come in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravening wolves.
War began in July. Ferrante, hoping by this means to
gain Siena, espoused the Pope’s cause. Lorenzo looked for support to Venice and
Milan, and especially to Louis XI, King of France.
The relations between this monarch and Sixtus IV had,
from the first, been precarious. In 1472 he had, indeed, sent an Embassy to
Rome to do homage, but it soon became evident that the King adhered to his
former policy of holding the Pragmatic Sanction and the Council over the Pope’s
head, to be used as a bait or a rod according to circumstances. The agreement
arrived at by direct negotiation with Rome, in the summer of 1472, lasted but a
short time. The University resisted it as contrary to the Basle Decrees.
Although Louis XI ratified the Concordat on the 31st October, 1472, the
Pragmatic Sanction continued practically in force.
The Mission of the Bishop of Viterbo to France made no
change in the state of affairs. In the following year the tension between
France and Rome increased. At the French Court it was asserted that the
creation of Cardinals by Sixtus IV on the 7th May, 1473, was simoniacal. The Pope justified himself in a letter
addressed to the King on the 22nd August, 1473. Louis’ reply is a combination
of reclamations and insults. He angrily complained that the Pope had passed
over the names of those whom he had proposed for the purple, while the wishes
of other Princes were taken into consideration. He thought that he deserved
better treatment than this, after having abolished the Pragmatic Sanction in
his kingdom. He concludes with an appeal to Almighty God and to St. Peter and
St. Paul!
At the end of 1474 Sixtus IV had remonstrated with the
King about his breach of the treaty of I472. Louis answered by issuing an
Ordinance on the 8th January, 1475, for the protection of Gallican liberties,
making the Royal Placet necessary for the publication of all Papal Decrees.
Measures of a more hostile character soon followed. The King began to agitate
for the holding of a General Council, in which the Church might be reformed,
and a lawful Pope elected in the place of Sixtus IV, who had obtained his elevation
by simony. Secret Dispatches, taken from a Hungarian Envoy, show that Louis was
seeking to win over the Emperor Frederick to this scheme. The King of Hungary,
upon this, represented to the Duke of Burgundy that he and the King of Naples
thought that the only way of counteracting these manoeuvres was for the Pope
himself at once to summon a Council. He had obtained the consent of Sixtus IV,
and urged the Duke to join them.
In January, 1476, Louis XI issued a decree convening
an Assembly of the French Church at Lyons. Thus, the Council so much dreaded in
Rome threatened to assume a tangible form. There can be no doubt that the
Mission of the Legate, Giuliano della Rovere, to France was connected with
this movement. His presence there was also rendered desirable by the state of
affairs in Avignon, of which city Giuliano was Archbishop; to this dignity was
now added that of Papal Legate. Louis XI, who was by no means favourably
disposed towards the Cardinal, did everything in his power to have the former
Legate, Charles of Bourbon, reappointed. A violent dispute ensued, in which it
seemed probable that Avignon would have been lost to the Holy See. At last the
difficulty was settled by the elevation of Charles of Bourbon to the purple.
Giuliano founded a College in Avignon for poor students, and was received with
great honour in Rome when he returned in the autumn. In the difficult
negotiations with the French monarch, he received much assistance from his
skilful judicial adviser, Giovanni Cerretani.
In March, 1476, while Giuliano was still in France, a
letter from Louis XI was affixed to the door of St. Peter’s, commanding all
Cardinals, Prelates, and Bishops of his kingdom to appear at Lyons on the 1st
May, to deliberate upon the assembling of a General Council. In the latter part
of April a French Embassy presented to the Pope the strange request that he
would consent that a Council should be held at Lyons, and would be present
there in person! Naturally, this request was not granted. For a considerable
time it was reported that the Pope, in order to be beforehand with the
opposition, would himself summon a General Council to meet in Rome. In the end,
neither Assembly came to anything.
Trusting in the schismatical tendencies of Louis XI, Lorenzo had, on the 2nd May, 1478, begged him to
interfere in the contest between Florence and Rome, and a little later had
recommended that the usual means of intimidation, the proposal to hold a
Council, should be employed. Louis XI did not need much persuasion. “The King”,
writes a contemporary Ambassador, “has long cherished the plan of bringing
about a schism in the Church. That which has taken place in Florence has
furnished him with an excellent pretext. He is, therefore, sending Philippe de
Commines to Turin, Milan, and Florence. Commines will not go to Venice, the
King being persuaded that, in consideration of the close alliance existing
between him and the Signoria, the intimation of his wishes by a simple letter
will suffice”.
Sixtus IV did not allow himself to be cast down by the
threats of the French King. On the nth July an outbreak of the Plague obliged
him to betake himself to Bracciano where he was
joined by the representatives of Venice, Milan, Florence, and Ferrara, together
with two new French Envoys. On the 1st August all the Envoys met together in
the Castle of the Orsini, and declared that the conduct of Sixtus IV towards
Florence and towards Lorenzo was a scandal to Christendom, because it hindered
the Turkish war. Repeated requests for the removal of the censures had been
made to him without any effect. For this reason, and also because all
countries, chiefly through the faults of their rulers, needed thorough reform,
they demanded the assembly of a Council in France. On the 16th August Louis XI
strictly forbade the transmission of any money to Rome. In September the
temporal and spiritual magnates of France met at Orleans. They left it to the
King’s choice, either in the following year to summon a National Council at
Lyons, or to prevail on the Pope to hold an Ecumenical Council. Louis XI.
deemed it best to attempt the latter alternative.
At the beginning of December, 1478, Sixtus IV, with
the object of counteracting French intervention in the contest with Florence,
as well as the schismatic tendencies of Louis XI and his Italian allies, sent
two Nuncios to the Emperor Frederick III, requesting his mediation and
assistance.
The Ambassadors of the King of France reached Rome in
January, 1479, and at once presented a memorial desiring the assembling of a
General Council. Sixtus IV replied that, if it were possible, such a measure
would be very agreeable to him. At the same time, he made it plain that the
Pope presides in an Ecumenical Council, and that to him belongs the right to
summon it. He pointed out that the Prelates, who are all bound to maintain the
liberty of the Church, would sit in it. No one of them would say that Lorenzo
had the right to cause the Archbishop of Pisa to be ignominiously executed. All
would rather be of opinion that he ought first to have been sentenced by an
ecclesiastical tribunal. No Council could be called without the consent of the
Emperor and the other Princes. The summoning of such an Assembly belongs to the
Pope, and he would take council with the Cardinals on the subject. Sixtus IV
went on to speak in detail of the ecclesiastical policy of Louis XI. As to the
Pragmatic Sanction, he said, either it was a just measure, in which case the
King ought not to have revoked it, or an unjust one, in which case he ought not
to think of reviving it. In recalling the Prelates from Rome, he had done
wrong: their Superior is the Pope. The King would do better to lead Lorenzo to
acknowledge his errors, and to persuade him to make fitting atonement; if he
did this, he would obtain pardon, and all else would be easily settled. A Papal
Ambassador had, moreover, been sent to France, and would be able to give the
King further explanations. Numerous letters received from members of the clergy
bear witness to the indignation that would be felt if the Pope did not appear
as the avenger of the insults offered to the Church in Florence.
On the 15th February another Consistory was held, and
the Emperor’s Ambassadors, who had meanwhile arrived, took part in it. They
expressed themselves with decision regarding the rights of the Holy See, and
did not think a Council necessary, but were of opinion that the Pope should
deal mercifully with the Florentines, and conclude a peace, considering the
present danger from the Turks.
Most of the Cardinals also desired the restoration of
peace, but Count Girolamo and Ferrante laboured with all their might against
it, and were at first successful.
The uncertain attitude of Bologna at this time caused
the greatest anxiety to Sixtus IV, and Cardinal Gonzaga was sent there.
In the struggle with Florence, things at last seemed
taking a more favourable turn, for, on the 4th April, 1479, the ecclesiastical
censures were suspended, and a temporary cessation of hostilities proclaimed by
the Pope. Emboldened by this partial success, the Florentines, on the 28th
April, rejected the terms of peace then proposed by him. In order to bring
pressure to bear upon Sixtus IV, on the 27th May the League, through the
Venetian Ambassador, declared that, unless within a period of eight days he should
agree to a peace, their representatives should be instructed to leave Rome.
Sixtus IV was justly astounded at this communication, which was tantamount to a
refusal to make any concession to his demands. The limit of eight days, also,
was an insult, since it was obviously impossible for him to conclude a peace
without the consent of his allies, Naples and Siena. On the 31st May the
Ambassadors again assembled in the Pope’s presence for further negotiations.
Sixtus IV caused a long statement to be read, showing that he had tried every
possible means for the restoration of peace. The Venetian Ambassador replied in
a speech in which he greatly incensed the Pope, by dwelling largely on the
obnoxious topic of the Council. When the French Ambassador, in the name of his
master, and in accord with the League, endeavoured to enter a protest against
the failure of the negotiations, Sixtus IV brought the meeting to a close. Soon
after this the Envoys of the League left Rome, unaccompanied, however, by those
of the French King.
The position of the Florentines grew much worse in the
autumn. Discontent was more and more openly expressed; Lorenzo was told to his
face that the city was weary of war and needed peace. It became evident that
there was no hope of assistance from Louis XI, and this conviction had a great
effect on public feeling.
In his necessity Lorenzo boldly resolved to go himself
as a suppliant to Naples (6th December, 1479). The utter faithlessness of
Ferrante now became evident. Regardless alike of the alliance concluded with
the Pope, and of the loyalty which he owed to his suzerain, he did not hesitate
to betray him. The treaty of peace, which was the result of his negotiations
with Lorenzo and Lodovico il Moro, regarded nothing but his own interests,
although he had but recently sworn that he would lose ten kingdoms and his
crown rather than let Lorenzo go without securing the conditions desired by
Sixtus. The Pope bitterly complained that the victory which had been in his
hands was niched away, as it were, behind his back; but, that no one might
accuse him of being an obstacle in the way of peace, he ratified the treaty,
stipulating, however, that Lorenzo should come in person to Rome; from this
time the Tuscan war languished.
Meanwhile Otranto had been taken by the Turks, and
this loss did more than anything else to turn attention from these internal
disputes to the dangers in the East, and to remove the last obstacles in the
way of a complete reconciliation. The advantage which the Florentines derived
from the altered condition of affairs was so manifest that many voices were
heard which accused Lorenzo of having encouraged the Sultan to attack Apulia.
Florence decided to send a solemn Embassy to Rome, praying for the removal of
the Interdict. It arrived on the 25th November, 1480, and the negotiations for
peace were promptly brought to a happy conclusion. On the 3rd December the
Florentines were released from all ecclesiastical censures.
CHAPTER VIII.
Turkish Expeditions against Rhodes and Otranto.
It has always been a part of the policy of the Eastern
conquerors to profit by the quarrels of the Western Powers. From this point of
view the last thirty years of the 15th Century had been an exceptionally
favourable period for the Sultan. Half Europe was convulsed with wars, and,
from 1478, Rome, hitherto always the foremost in the defense of Christendom, had been involved in an unholy struggle, with the result that
for a time Sixtus IV did nothing in this direction.
From 1477 the outlook in the East had grown more and
more gloomy. In May of that year, while a Turkish army blockaded Lepanto and
Leucadia, Achmed Bey attacked Kroja, the capital of
Albania, and, on the 15th June, 1478, this stronghold was compelled to
capitulate. Schabljak, Alessio, and Drivasto also fell into the hands of the Turks; only Antivari and Scodra continued to
hold out though besieged.
Even more distressing than these losses were the
barbarous incursions of the Turks into the Austrian Alpine Provinces, Friuli,
and Upper Italy. The Tuscan war deprived the Venetians of all hope of
assistance from their fellow-countrymen; and an alarming outbreak of the Plague
added yet more to their discouragement. The Signoria took the momentous
resolution of abandoning the contest. On the 25th January, 1479, a treaty of
peace was signed at Stamboul by Giovanni Dario, the Venetian Commissioner. The
conditions were hard. Not only Kroja and Scodra, the Albanian chieftains, and the house of Tocco,
but also even Euboea and Lemnos were abandoned to the enemy; however, the trade
of the Republic with the Levant was preserved. From this moment a period begins
during which the whole policy of Venice is devoted to the one object of
maintaining this advantage.
In the very nature of things, for a conquering state
there is no standing still. This was evident after the great successes gained
by the Turks over the first naval power of the West. In the summer of 1479,
Leonardo Tocco the Third was driven from Leucadia. The unfortunate man sought
refuge in Rome, where the number of fugitives from the East was constantly
increasing. Sixtus IV generously gave him 1000 ducats at once, and allowed him
twice that sum as a yearly pension, promising to do more when better times
should come.
The next year an attempt was made to put an end to the
rule of the Knights of St. John in Rhodes. They had been the terror of the
Turks, and the object of their bitterest hatred. As there was no Christian
naval power now to be feared, the task seemed an easy one; but the heroic
valour of Pierre d'Aubusson and his Knights wrought
marvels, and this last bulwark of Eastern Christendom was saved for a time
(Summer of 1480). Tidings of the approach of succour from the West hastened the
departure of the Turks. Sixtus IV had granted a special Indulgence to all who
should do anything to aid the Knights; had called upon the Italian Powers to
assist them, and besides himself sending two ships with provisions and war
materials, was preparing for further exertions.
Western Christendom had not yet recovered from the
agitation caused by the struggle in Rhodes, when a fresh disaster filled all
hearts with terror and dismay.
Mahomet had long been gazing with covetous eyes on the
wealth of Italy, the seat of his great enemy, the Papacy. There can be no doubt
that the insane jealousy of Venice at the increase of the power of Naples,
hurried on the impending attack. If the Signoria did not actually invite the
Turks into Italy, they certainly allowed them to believe that their arrival
would be far from unwelcome to them.
The result appeared in the dispatch of a Turkish
fleet, with a number of troops on board, to Apulia. On the 11th August, 1480,
Otranto was in the hands of the Infidel. Of its 22,000 inhabitants, 12,000 were
put to death with terrible tortures, and the rest carried away into slavery.
The aged Archbishop, who, with heroic courage, had remained to the last before
the altar imploring the help of God, was sawn in two, as was also the Governor.
Indescribable horrors were perpetrated. Many captives, who refused to become Mahometans, were slaughtered on a hill before the city, and
their bodies thrown to the dogs.
The tidings that the victorious banner of the Crescent
had been planted on Italian soil produced unutterable consternation. “In Rome”,
says Sigismondo de' Conti, “the alarm was as great as if the enemy had been
already encamped before her very walls. Terror had taken such hold of all minds
that even the Pope meditated flight. I was at that time in the Low Countries,
in the suite of the Cardinal Legate Giuliano, and I remember that he was commissioned
to prepare what was necessary at Avignon, for Sixtus IV had decided upon taking
refuge with the French, if the state of affairs in Italy should become worse”.
Ferrante’s dismay was even greater than that of the
Pope. His son, Alfonso, was immediately recalled from Tuscany, and the
assistance of Sixtus IV, and all the other Princes of Italy, vehemently invoked
with the threat that, unless active support were speedily given, he would throw
in his lot with the Sultan for the destruction of all the others. We see, from
the report of a contemporary historian on the Papal side, how unfriendly were
the relations between the Pope and the King of Naples at this time. “Sixtus
IV”, he writes, “would have witnessed with great indifference the misfortunes
and losses of his faithless ally, had Ferrante's enemy been any one but the
Sultan; but it was a very different matter when the common foe of Christendom
had actually got a footing on Italian soil, and speedily the Papacy and Rome
itself were threatened with utter ruin, unless he were promptly expelled. He at
once sent all the money that he could get together, permitted tithes to be
levied from all the clergy in the kingdom, and promised a Plenary Indulgence to
all Christians enlisting under the banner of the Cross”.
Immediately on the landing of the Turks in Apulia,
Sixtus IV had appealed to the Italian Powers, and his cry for help was soon
repeated in yet more pressing terms. “If the faithful”, he said, “especially
the Italians, wish to preserve their lands, their houses, their wives, their
children, their liberty, and their lives, if they wish to maintain that Faith
into which we have been baptized, and through which we are regenerated, let
them at last trust in our word, let them take up their arms and fight”.
In a Consistory, held on the 14th August, it was
determined that every possible effort should be made to expel the Turks from
Otranto.
On the 18th August Gabriele Rangoni was appointed
Cardinal Legate to Naples, and, on the 23rd, he started for his post. On the
22nd September fresh Briefs were addressed to all the Italian States, desiring
them to send representatives to a Congress to be held in Rome at the beginning
of November. The example set by Sixtus IV, in his reconciliation with Florence,
could not fail to have a good effect on his efforts for the restoration of
peace in Italy. One of the conditions of the treaty with the Republic was that,
it should furnish fifteen galleys for the war with the Turks. On the 4th
December Cardinal Savelli was sent to Genoa, to endeavour to reconcile the
contending parties there, and to superintend the equipment of the Papal fleet
in the harbour.
The Divine assistance was invoked by an ordinance of
the Pope, desiring that the Octave of the Festival of All Saints should
henceforth be solemnly celebrated throughout Christendom. The preparations for
the Crusading fleet were at once commenced; twenty-five galleys were to be
built, partly in Ancona, and partly in Genoa. As the Papal Treasury was empty,
Sixtus IV was compelled to have recourse to extraordinary taxation. A tax of a
gold ducat was, in the first instance, laid upon every hearth in the States of
the Church, and then a tithe imposed for two years on all churches and convents
in the Papal territory.
A Brief of Sixtus IV to Bologna, dated 3rd January
1481, furnishes detailed information regarding the deliberations of the Envoys
assembled in Rome. The Pope explains that, as a tax for the expenses of the
Turkish war has to be imposed on all Princes, he and the Cardinals, in order to
set a good example, have undertaken to contribute the sum of 150,000 ducats,
although so large an amount is almost beyond his powers. 100,000 ducats of this
is to be expended on the equipment of twenty-five triremes, and the remaining
50,000 to be sent to the King of Hungary. He, moreover, engages to collect 3000
soldiers for the recovery of Otranto, to which place he has already sent
troops. With regard to the building of the fleet, the Ambassadors are of
opinion that 100 triremes must be prepared, and 200,000 ducats be sent annually
to the King of Hungary. The money required for these purposes is to be raised
among the several Powers; he and the Cardinals having already contributed their
share, the preparation should be completed by March. The Bolognese must not
delay, for the danger was imminent.
The action of the Pope was not confined to Italy. He
was unremitting in his endeavours to unite all the Princes of Europe against
the common foe. The results varied in different places. King Edward IV. of
England declared that it was unfortunately impossible for him to take part in
the war. No help was to be expected from distracted Germany. Even now, the
States assembled to take counsel together were unable to come to terms.
Tidings of a more favourable nature arrived from
France, where Giuliano della Rovere was at this time acting as Papal Legate. He
had been charged to bring about a peace between Louis XI, Maximilian of
Austria, and the Flemings, to obtain the release of Cardinal de La Balue, and procure French assistance for the Crusade.
Giuliano had been obliged to renounce the exercise of his full powers as
Legate, but he was in great measure successful in regard to the Crusade. On the
28th August he was able to forward to the Pope a royal letter, containing the
most satisfactory assurances as to the share France would take in the war.
Envoys were to be sent to Rome to settle the details. In the instruction for
this Mission, Louis XI says : “No sufficient resistance can be offered to the
Turks at less cost than at least 100,000 golden scudi a month. He proposed
himself to furnish 100,000 annually, and twice that sum if the Pope would allow
him to impose a tribute on all ecclesiastics in his kingdom, and would send him
a Legate provided with all the faculties desired by the King, and especially
with full powers to absolve in cases reserved to the Pope. Other Christian
Princes, however, must also contribute their share. The King counted on 40,000
scudi annually from Italy and the States of the Church; on 200,000 from
Germany, which had so many rich Archbishops, Bishops and Beneficiaries, Princes
and cities; and on the same amount from Spain. The King of England might
contribute 100,000 scudi. Venice, he had heard, would not be unwilling to
declare war against the Turks if help from Italy were certain. The plenipotentiaries
were accordingly authorized to unite with the other Italian Powers in promising
an annual subsidy of 300,000 scudi to the Republic. In the event, however, of
the other Kings and nations not giving any definite promise, the French Envoys
were only to undertake that their Government would contribute its just share of
the burden. The Pope must also, above all, secure France against England”.
Soon after the arrival of the French Mission (8th
March) Sixtus IV wrote a circular letter to the Italian Powers, laying before
them the proposals of Louis, as expressed in a Memorandum, in which the Envoys
had embodied the result of their negotiations. It proclaimed a general peace
throughout Italy, and decreed that speedy assistance against the Turks should
be rendered with the least possible delay. France promised troops, and was to
be included in the alliance. The Emperor was also invited to join it, and a
subsidy of 50,000 ducats was allotted to the King of Hungary. The Pope
undertook to furnish twenty-five, and King Ferrante forty triremes. Genoa
promised five galleys, Ferrara four, Siena three, and Bologna two, Lucca,
Mantua, and Montferrat one each; while Milan engaged to give 30,000 and
Florence 40,000 ducats.
According to the testimony of a contemporary
historian, the Milanese and Florentines were not remiss in contributing money;
the Venetians only held aloof, because they had concluded peace with the
Sultan.
On Passion Sunday, the 8th April, 1481, Sixtus IV
published an Encyclical, calling on all the Princes of Europe to take part in
the Turkish war. Indulgences were proclaimed throughout Italy, and the tithe
for the war was levied. On the 9th April the tithe was announced in France and
Dauphine, and Giuliano della Rovere appointed Collector-General.
Notwithstanding the daily increasing danger, there was still in many places but
little zeal. The wealthy city of Bologna, for instance, declared that the tribute
of hearth-money and the equipment of two triremes were too much for her; the
Pope accordingly, on the 1st February, 1481, forgave the tribute, but urged
that the two vessels should be prepared at once. A Papal Brief of the 3rd May
to the Vice-Legate at Bologna shows that the city then professed itself willing
to contribute 2000 ducats towards the expenses of the war. The Pope considered
the sum very small, but had all the more hope that it would be sent without
delay. In June we hear of difficulties. On the 7th of August it was still
unpaid. At last, on the nth of September, it arrived! Several other cities
behaved in the same manner.
Personally, Sixtus IV gave the best possible example.
He parted with his own silver plate, and sent a large quantity of sacred
vessels to the Mint to meet the expenses of the Crusade.
In the midst of these anxious and hurried preparations
came tidings of the death of the mighty conqueror, whose name, during one whole
generation, had filled Europe and Asia with terror. By the end of May rumours
of this event began to circulate in Rome, and, on the 2nd June, the report was
confirmed by letters from the Venetian Government to its Envoys. Cannons were
fired, and all the Church bells rang to announce the good news. The Pope
himself went at once in thanksgiving to the Vespers at Sta Maria del Popolo,
which the Sacred College and all the Ambassadors also attended. As darkness
came on, bonfires were lighted in all directions. On the 3rd of June,
processions of thanksgiving were ordered during three successive days, and
Sixtus IV personally took part in them. Briefs, dated the 4th June, pointed out
to all Christian Powers that this was the moment for dealing a decisive blow.
Sixtus IV was able to announce that he had already equipped a fleet of
thirty-four ships at Genoa, which would soon be in the Tiber, and that
men-of-war were being built at Ancona and would be added to the Neapolitan
fleet.
On the 30th June the Pope, with all the Cardinals,
went to S. Paolo for the blessing of this fleet, which brought the Cardinal
Legate Savelli back to Rome, and also its recently appointed Admiral, Cardinal
Fregoso. After Vespers, the Pope held a Consistory. Savelli gave an account of
his mission, and the ceremony of opening the mouth of Cardinal Fregoso then
took place. Sixtus IV made him an address on the task which he was called upon
to undertake, “gave him his Legate’s ring and the banner which he had consecrated
for the fleet. The captains of the ships then came in, kissed the foot of the
Pope, and were signed with the cross on their breasts. At the close of the
Consistory, the Pope, with the Cardinals and a great number of Prelates,
proceeded to the river, where the galleys were lying at anchor, went on board
each of the vessels, and gave the Apostolic blessing. The crew stood fully
armed on the decks and saluted when he appeared. Weapons were brandished,
swords drawn and struck upon the shields, and military evolutions executed as
in actual battle. Hundreds of hoarse voices shouted the Pope’s name amid the
thunder of artillery; “it was a feast for both eye and ear”, writes the
chronicler, Jacobus Volaterranus.
On the 4th July the Cardinal Legate sailed by way of
Naples for Otranto, and, together with Ferrante and his ships, took part in the
siege of that place. The resistance of the Turks was most obstinate, and they
did not lay down their arms until the 10th September. Ferrante at once informed
the Pope of the happy event, and he, in his turn, transmitted the news to all
the Powers.
Sixtus IV had, from the first, intended that, after
Otranto had been retaken, his fleet, joined by the ships of the other Powers,
should proceed to Vallona, and, with the help of the
Albanians, wrest this important fortress from the Turks. As early as the 30th
of August he had written to Genoa to this effect. The Portuguese fleet of
twenty-five vessels, which had appeared before Ostia, was to form part of this
expedition. Its Commander, the Bishop of Elbora,
begged permission to go to Rome and receive the Pope’s blessing, a favour which
Sixtus IV could not refuse. But his annoyance may be imagined, when, on his
return from a short absence, he found that the Portuguese officers had
preferred sight-seeing in Rome to going to the war, while the sailors occupied
themselves in robbing the Roman vineyards. It required stringent orders from
the Pope to induce them at last to weigh anchor and proceed to Naples, but only
to linger there in a similar manner, under pretext of completing their
equipment. Sixtus IV repeatedly complained of the conduct of these Crusaders,
and especially of that of their unprincipled chief. But it was all in vain.
Meanwhile, still more deplorable events had occurred
at Otranto. Disputes had arisen among the victors about the partition of the
spoil. On the 1st September the Cardinal Legate wrote word that the captains of
the triremes were bent on leaving, because the Plague had broken out on board
four ships, and, moreover, their pay had not arrived. Sixtus IV wrote to the
Legate on the 10th September, maintaining that he was in no way to blame, he
had fulfilled all his promises; he also exhorted Fregoso to use every effort to
retain these captains. On the 18th September, after hearing that Otranto had
been recaptured, Sixtus IV again urged his Legate to follow up the victory to
the best of his power. Great, therefore, was his surprise when he learned from
the King of Naples that the Legate had given out that the Pope had desired him
to return with his fleet after the capture of Otranto! Sixtus IV at once, on
the 21st September, wrote to the King that he had, on the contrary, always
intended and desired that the fleet, after delivering Otranto, should sail to Vallona. At the same time, he sent strict orders to the
Legate to proceed thither at once, recapture the place, and destroy the Turkish
ships. On the 23rd September Sixtus IV sent one of his naval captains to
prevent the return of the Papal fleet, and to urge the Legate to start for Vallona.
All the Pope’s efforts were, however, fruitless. By
the beginning of October the Legate and his ships appeared before Cività Vecchia. Sixtus IV hastened there to endeavour to
prevail upon him to turn back. Protracted consultations ensued, in which the
Pope presided, and the Legate, the Neapolitan Ambassador, and the captains of
the ships took part. These last complained much of the conduct of the Duke of
Calabria, while Fregoso represented, with all due deference, the impossibility
of carrying out the undertaking. The outbreak of the Plague on board the ships,
the impracticability of the men, whom no amount of pay could persuade to serve
any longer, the advanced season of the year, the essential difficulty of the
enterprise, its immense cost—for the repair of the fleet alone, 40,000 ducats
would at once be required —all these things were brought forward to prove the
enterprise hopeless; but Sixtus IV declared himself ready for every sacrifice.
He would, like Eugenius IV, pawn his mitre, he would sell the rest of his
silver plate: all was in vain. He was obliged to return to Rome without
effecting his purpose, only leaving orders that the harbours of Cività Vecchia and Corneto should be thoroughly repaired.
CHAPTER IX.
Sixtus IV and Venice at War with Ferrara and Naples.—
The Battle at Campo Morto
While Sixtus IV was zealously devoting himself to the
Turkish war, Count Girolamo was occupied with matters of a very different
nature. His ambition soon involved the too indulgent Pontiff in a new war in
the immediate neighbourhood of Rome, and even in the City itself. Giuliano
della Rovere was at this time Legate in the Low Countries, where he had been
sent to make peace between Louis XI of France and Maximilian of Austria. His
prolonged absence rendered it easy for Count Girolamo to carry out his plans
and abuse the affection of the Pope.
It was intolerable to Girolamo that Lorenzo had not
only escaped the attempted assassination on the 26th April, 1478, but that it
had actually served to render his position more secure. All his thoughts and
desires were directed to the one aim and object of obtaining some compensation
for this failure. His uncle's advanced age urged him to prompt action. Wholly
incapable of making himself a name by valorous deeds, Girolamo, who cared for
nothing but his own aggrandizement, was perpetually, by his schemes, running
counter to all statesmanlike plans of policy. He thus entangled a generous
nature like that of Sixtus IV in deplorable inconsistencies, and took advantage
of his. uncle's affection to urge him further and further down the steep
incline which ends in ruin.
Ferrante of Naples had, during the Tuscan war,
faithlessly abandoned the Pope and constrained him to make peace on very
unfavourable terms. From this time forth, the chronicler says, the Pope’s
confidence, withdrawn from Naples, was bestowed on the Venetians. At the
beginning of February, 1480, negotiations were set on foot which led to the
conclusion of an alliance with Venice. Here Count Girolamo stepped in. Even
during the war of Otranto he had formed close relations with Venice. Not
content with Imola, he had taken advantage of the dispute which broke out after
the death of Pino of Ordelassi, regarding the
succession, and seized on the Countship of Forli. After this success he cast
his insatiable eyes on Faenza. In January, 1481, Venice had made known her
willingness to gratify him in this point also. The Council of Ten, however,
warned him that another project of his, which aimed at nothing less than the
expulsion of Ferrante from Naples, must be kept a profound secret. According to
Sigismondo de' Conti, it was Virginio Orsini, the heir of Napoleone, who urged
the Count on to this enterprise. Virginio claimed from Ferrante the Countships
of Alba Fucense and Tagliacozzo,
which formed part of his patrimony, and which the King had sold for 12,000
ducats to Lorenzo Oddone Colonna and his brother. Orsini was deeply wounded by
this transaction, because his family had always been true to the King. He now
hoped, by Ferrante’s humiliation or downfall, to recover his rights. He
promised Girolamo that his family would assist to the utmost in the war against
the King of Naples. Sixtus IV, in his irritation against Ferrante, gave his
consent to the scheme, but he and Girolamo were well aware that the cooperation
of Venice was indispensable. This could only be obtained by offering some
tangible advantage to the Republic. Ferrara was accordingly held out as a bait.
Sixtus IV was incensed with the Duke, because, in the Florentine war, he had
been at the head of his enemies, and because he persistently strove to evade his
yearly tribute. Moreover, Ercole of Ferrara had so far forgotten himself as to
prohibit the publication of several Apostolic Rescripts in his State, which he
governed in the name of the Holy See.
In September, 1481, Girolamo Riario went to Venice. He
was received like an Emperor, the Doge meeting him at the foot of the Palace
steps. In a Secret Council the Count unfolded his plan for overthrowing
Ferrante, and promised the Venetians Ferrara if they succeeded in conquering
it. They were only asked to furnish a fleet, to keep the King in check, and a
few troops. Girolamo claimed nothing for himself, except Lugo and Bagnacavallo, two cities in the Flaminia, on the border of
his Countship of Imola.
After the Pope’s nephew had left the Council,
deliberations began. Opinions were divided. The elder men, whose judgment was
the clearest, objected to involving the Republic in a fresh war. They
represented the difficulty of taking Ferrara, a strong and populous city,
surrounded by swamps and a wide river; they averred that Ercole d'Este was a skilful soldier; that his neighbours were
bound to him by ties of kindred and friendship, and that he had at his disposal
treasures amassed by a long line of ancestors. Doubts were also expressed as to
the trustworthiness of Riario, who was not considered scrupulously truthful; it
was further urged that Sixtus IV was but mortal and had reached an age when
death could not probably be distant, that he was a Ligurian and inconstant in
his resolutions, that even if he adhered to his purpose the Sacred College
would not stand by him, as they had never desisted from claiming the
restoration of Cervia and Ravenna from the Venetians.
The votes of the younger members of the Council, however, prevailed against
these considerations, and war was decided upon. Girolamo returned to Sixtus IV,
after having received the freedom of the city and been admitted amongst her
nobles.
The beginning of the year 1482 seemed to offer some
hope that peace might still be maintained. Giuliano della Rovere returned at
this time from his Mission to France, and Ercole d'Este and Lorenzo de' Medici sought, by means of his powerful influence, to avert the
war. They were well acquainted with the Cardinal's opinion of the ambitious and
restless Riario, who just then had scarcely recovered from a violent fever, and
this fact also made it more probable that the Pope might be induced to withdraw
his consent.
In the middle of April the King commenced hostilities
by the advance of his troops into the States of the Church. In Rome,
preparations for war were but half completed, and Venice would not be ready
till the end of April. Two fleets had been equipped by the Republic: one of
them, under Vettor Soranzo,
was to commence operations on the coast of Naples, while the other, under
Damiano Moro, was to penetrate to the States of Ferrara. The land forces were
also divided into two armies, under the command of Roberto Malatesta and
Roberto da Sanseverino. At the beginning of May Venice declared war against
Ferrara. The Marquess of Montferrat, Genoa, and Pietro Maria de Rossi, Count of
San Secondo in the Parmesan territory, joined the Papal and Venetian league.
Ferrara and Naples found powerful allies not only in Milan and Florence, but
also in the Marquess Federigo of Mantua, Giovanni Bentivoglio of Bologna and
Federigo of Urbino.
Unhappily for the Papal cause, the ancient feud
between the Colonna and the Orsini at this time broke out again.
The immediate occasion of this outbreak was the
hostility between the rich and noble families of della Valle and Santa Croce.
In the autumn of 1480 the whole City had been involved in this contest, the
della Valle being supported by the Colonna, and the Santa Croce by the Orsini.
Not till April, 1481, did the Pope, after much trouble, succeed in restoring
peace. A Commission of three Cardinals was appointed to watch over its
maintenance, and to arrange all differences that might arise.
As most of the great Roman Barons, with the Pope's
consent, had entered the service of Ferrante, and were fully occupied by the
war at Otranto, tranquillity for a time continued; but after the recovery of
that city, quarrels recommenced, and, fomented by the King of Naples, became
more and more violent.
In consequence of the tension which existed between
Rome and Naples in the spring of 1482, the Pope recalled the Barons who, since
the war with the Turks, had remained in Ferrante's pay. The Orsini, headed by
Virginio, the intimate friend of Girolamo Riario, obeyed, and the Conti also,
as well as Stefano Colonna of Palestrina, with his sons Giordano and Giovanni,
re-entered the Papal service. The Savelli, on the other hand, and the Colonna
of Paliano-Genazzano cast in their lot with the King
of Naples. Their alienation was partly due to the enmity between them and the
Orsini, which Ferrante took pains to foster, but partly also to the domineering
ways of Girolamo Riario. The Pope endeavoured, by gentleness and consideration,
to repair the harm which his nephew had done, and several Cardinals, amongst
whom were Giuliano della Rovere and Stefano Nardini, did their best to pacify
the offended Colonna, even at the last moment, but all these efforts were
fruitless.
At the beginning of April a fresh incident occurred,
which made matters worse. During the night of the 3rd of that month the Santa
Croce, aided by the Palace guards, whom Girolamo had given them, attacked the
house of the della Valle. Most unfortunately, in the struggle which ensued,
Girolamo Colonna, an illegitimate brother of the Cardinal of S. Maria in Aquiro and of Prospero of Paliano, was killed. The Pope, in
consequence, outlawed the Santa Croce, and caused their palaces to be
destroyed. The exasperation of the Colonna from this time forth knew no bounds.
At this critical moment, several weeks before the
Venetian declaration of war, the King of Naples commenced hostilities against
Rome. In the middle of April his troops appeared in sight of the Papal
residence at Marino, ostensibly for the purpose of defending the Colonna
against the Orsini. Ferrante informed the Conservators that he was not taking
up arms against Rome, but for the deliverance of the City and of Italy from the
slavery to which the bad government of Girolamo Riario had reduced them.
On the 18th April the Pope admonished King Ferrante to
withdraw his troops from Rome; on the 23rd he complained in Consistory of the
presence of the Neapolitans at Marino, and declared that he could not grant the
request of the King's son, Alfonso of Calabria, for a free passage through the
States of the Church to support Ferrara.
The Ambassadors of Naples and Ferrara left Rome on the
14th May. They went, in the first instance, with great pomp to Lorenzo Colonna
at Marino. Strengthened by the Savelli, and by constant reinforcements from
Naples, Lorenzo now ventured to lead his men up to the very gates of Rome. On
the 30th May his troops entered the City, but were driven back by the Orsini
and Girolamo Riario. Prospero Colonna had previously gone over to the side of
the Pope's enemies, and had received in Paliano (on the 22nd May) a garrison
from the Duke of Calabria, who had meanwhile appeared before Rome as Commander
of the Neapolitan troops.
Sixtus IV was naturally much incensed by this
treachery, and all the more so because Prospero had recently drawn a portion of
his pay. The Pope also fully realized how injurious to him was the loss of
these villages. Therefore, Sigismondo de' Conti informs us, he resolved on a
hazardous step, which, however, the sequel proved to have been a judicious one.
A Consistory took place at midday on the 2nd June.
Count Girolamo and Virginio Orsini attended it, and accused Cardinals Colonna
and Savelli of treason. The two Cardinals warmly defended themselves, openly
condemning the conduct of their kinsmen and casting all the blame upon them.
The meeting was stormy, and lasted until the evening. At last the Pope, to
avoid worse evils, gave orders that the accused Cardinals should be kept as
hostages for their disaffected families. Cardinal Savelli’s brother, Mariano,
who had a command in the Papal army, was also arrested. As disturbances were
apprehended from the partisans of the Colonna, the Vatican was guarded by horse
and foot soldiers. The captured Cardinals were honourably treated during the
first day and the following night: Savelli in the house of Giuliano della
Rovere, and Colonna with Girolamo Basso, who at that time lived in the Vatican.
At the close of the second day an order arrived to transfer them to St. Angelo.
Several hundreds of light Turkish horsemen from the
garrison of Otranto had gone over to Alfonso of Calabria, and now formed part
of his army, which was encamped within sight of Rome. These wild troops ravaged
the Campagna, and spread terror in every direction. On the 6th of June the
Papal force was ready. Count Girolamo was Commander-in-chief, and under him
were Count Niccolo of Pitigliano, Virginio and
Giordano Orsini, Giovanni Colonna, Giacomo and Andrea de' Conti, the Count of
Mirandola, and many others.
Sigismondo de Conti has left us a graphic picture of
the state of things in Rome at this crisis. “In the Pope’s antechambers”, he
says, “instead of cassocked priests, armed guards kept watch. Soldiers,
equipped for battle, were drawn up before the gates of the Palace. All the
Court officials were filled with terror and anguish; the fury of the populace
was only restrained by the fear of the soldiers”.
Thus, with the assistance of the Colonna, Alfonso of
Calabria had succeeded in effecting his purpose, and transferring the war to
Roman soil. He was perpetually making raids in the vicinity of the City walls,
and carrying off men and cattle. The Papal army, encamped near the Lateran, did
not venture out, either from a sense of its own weakness or from a fear that
the angry townspeople, in whose vineyards it lay, might shut the gates and
prevent its return. To add to all, the Plague again broke out in the City.
Alfonso took Albano, Castel Gandolfo and Civita Lavinia, without encountering
any resistance. His father, Ferrante, meanwhile was active. With a fleet of
twenty triremes he harassed the shores of the Roman territory. He further
succeeded in making himself master of Terracina and Benevento by treachery. The
Florentine army, under the command of Costanzo Sforza, took Città di Castello.
The Pope was greatly alarmed, and commanded his chamberlains and domestics to
take turns in keeping nightly watch. His anxiety increased from day to day,
more particularly as the Venetian fleet, on which all his hopes rested, had not
yet sailed.
Rome was insufficiently defended, and was shut in on
every side by enemies. The perplexity and anxiety of the Pope were increased by
accounts which reached him from the North of attempts which the Dominican,
Andrea Zuccalmaglio, Archbishop of Carniola, was
making to revive the Council of Basle. He had come to Rome in 1478, as Envoy
from the Emperor, and received many presents and marks of distinction from the
Pope. His ambition led him to aspire to greater dignities, and even to the
purple, and, in October 1480, he induced the Emperor to address to the Pope and
the Sacred College letters recommending him in pressing terms. In consequence
of these letters, Sixtus IV, who readily made promises, seems to have given him
some encouragement; but, as the red hat did not arrive, Andrea soon began to
pour forth torrents of insolent abuse against the Pope, his nephews, and the
Roman clergy. Sixtus IV admonished and warned him, but in vain. There was
nothing for it but to call him to account for his calumnies. The Emperor’s
mediation soon procured his liberation from confinement in St. Angelo, where,
out of consideration for Frederick III, he had been treated leniently. The same
motive induced the Pope, in opposition to the desire of the Cardinals, to
abandon the suit which had been commenced against him, and then to set him at
liberty. Sixtus IV soon had cause bitterly to regret his indulgence. Andrea Zuccalmaglio went by way of Florence to Basle, where he
falsely announced himself as the Emperor's representative, and even went so far
as to assume the title of Cardinal of S. Sisto. On the 25th March, 1482, he
entered the Cathedral of Basle during the celebration of Mass, and, with
violent invectives against the Pope, proclaimed a General Council, to be held
in that city. Even at this time, his secretary, Numagen,
clearly perceived that he was not quite right in his head. He could not control
himself, was incapable of deliberation, and would listen to no one’s advice.
In April, Andrea went to Berne, and was at first
cordially received by the authorities, but at the end of eight days the Bernese
had discovered his real character. On the 4th May the alarmed Council sent a
letter to Basle to warn that friendly city against the danger of espousing his
cause. Berne apologized to Rome for having unwittingly shown honour to one who
placed himself in opposition to the Church and the Pope.
In Basle, also, Andrea’s abuse of the Pope had
awakened some doubts, and a suspicion that he was influenced by personal
hatred. Nevertheless, he was left quite free when he formally announced the
assembling of a Council at the beginning of May. The Emperor was duly informed,
but did nothing, and waited to see what would come.
Sixtus IV was greatly disquieted, and, on the 4th May,
wrote to Frederick III, and sent a special Envoy to ask him to take measures to
secure the arrest of the Archbishop. The Emperor’s attitude now became so
strange as to excite suspicions in Rome that Andrea was acting on secret
instructions from him. On the 21st July he called the Archbishop “trusty and
well-beloved”, and asked for information about his project, and, on the 23rd
July, he merely recommended the Councillors at Basle to act with caution.
Andrea chose this very time to cut off all means of
retreat. On the 20th and 21st July he issued two violent and ill-written
appeals, the last of which “was no better than a pasquinade”.
In the opening words of this detestable production, Sixtus IV, whom he had but
a few days before invited to attend his Council, is addressed, no longer as
Pope, but as “Francesco of Savona, Son of the Devil, thou who hast climbed to
thy high dignity through the window of simony instead of entering by the door,
thou art of thy father, the Devil, and seekest to do
his will”.
If we remember that the Archbishop had not a single
adherent among the German or French Prelates, these outrageous railings against
the Head of the Church seem almost like the ravings of a maniac; but when we
find that Andrea had allied himself with the enemies of the Pope in Italy, it
is easier to account for his violence. This evidently took place when he went
from Rome to Basle by way of Florence. He must then have received from the
Florentines and other conspirators assurances without which he could scarcely
have ventured on his hazardous enterprise. A bitterly exasperated Prelate, who
promised to raise the whole of the North against the Pope, was, under the
circumstances, an important ally, however dubious might be his motives, and
however great the peril to which he exposed the Church. The last consideration
did not certainly weigh with Lorenzo de' Medici, who already was of opinion
that it would be for his advantage to have three or four Popes instead of one.
The experiences of Lorenzo during his first conflict
with Sixtus IV, however, deterred him from again exposing himself to the risk
of Excommunication. Andrea was, therefore, for the time, only to be supported
in secret, and very cautiously. When he had been in a measure successful, and
the Pope had been thoroughly intimidated, the allies would proceed to advocate
a Council. Not till the 14th September did Lorenzo’s confidant, Baccio Ugolini,
accompanied by a Milanese Envoy, arrive in Basle.
Ugolini’s Reports to his master enable us to estimate
the hostility of Lorenzo to the Papacy, and to appreciate the reasons which
induced Sixtus IV to make the efforts he did for his removal from Florence. “I
offered him” (Andrea of Carniola), writes Ugolini on the 20th September, 1482,
“in your (Lorenzo’s) name all that I could and knew to favour this undertaking
(the Schism), praising him and flattering him as is customary. It is a great
thing that he is a Friar; that is the crown of all his qualities, and he has a
fearless countenance, which awakens confidence and knows how to keep a man in
his place, and let no one approach him. The citizens (of Basle), too, could not
be better disposed, they would not by any means allow their priests to observe
the Interdict, and they openly favour the Archbishop as much as they can. This
man is quite fitted to serve out the Pope and the Count (Riario), and that is
enough”. Ten days later this Florentine again wrote confidentially to Lorenzo,
saying, amongst other things: “I afterwards made a long speech (to the
Magistracy of Basle) in favour of the Council, praising the lords for this
honourable enterprise, and extolling the person of Carniola, while I drew a
contemptible picture of the government of Sixtus IV, and insisted on the
necessity for a Council. They listened thankfully to everything. As regards the
matter of the Council, they declare that they are welldisposed towards the Holy See, and so far as they can have their way they will take care
(they, the Councillors of Basle!) that the Church, which they see to be in
great danger, or rather in ruins, shall be reformed to the faith of Christ.
Moreover, I (Ugolini) have gained such an ascendancy over the Carniolan (the
Pope and Reformer of the future), that it rejoices him more than anything.
Every hour he raises his hands to heaven and thanks God who has sent me to him.
I need not say how eagerly the Doctors of the University read the letters which
I have communicated to the Council here. What more can we desire? The Pope is
more hated here than there”.
Under these circumstances, it is not surprising that
Girolamo Riario, the cause of all this trouble, became very unpopular in Rome,
and a powerful party, headed by Cardinal Giuliano della Rovere, strongly urged
the Pope to conclude a peace. But when the Venetian General, Roberto Malatesta,
who had hitherto been fighting against Ferrara, appeared in Rome on the 23rd
July, the war-party again got the upper hand.
His arrival caused great rejoicing. “This is he who
will redeem Israel!” shouted the people in the streets. On the 24th July
Roberto was received in secret audience by the Pope, after which he at once
began to make his preparations. The Proveditore,
Pietro Diedo, brought money by command of the
Republic to help in raising fresh troops for the Papal army; 1000 young Romans,
ready armed, were enlisted in a week. On the 15th August the Venetian
auxiliaries came in, and were blessed by the Pope from a window of the Vatican.
Rome was full of warlike enthusiasm. The banners of the Republic, together with
those of the Pope, were borne through the whole City, and harmony reigned in
the common camp.
On the same 15th August the army advanced as far as Bovillae on the ancient Appian Way. Castel Gandolfo, Castel Savello, and Albano surrendered. Alfonso retired
before the superior forces of the enemy behind Velletri to the neighbourhood of
Nettuno and Astura, where he expected succour by sea
from Naples.
Along this sea-shore stretches a woody morass, a
desolate wilderness, the home of the buffalo and the wild boar. In the whole of
the Roman territory there is not another district so pestilential as this
desert of Maremma. Its air is full of deadly fever, which has given the place
the name of the Campo Morto (field of death); even down to the time of Pius IX
it has been a safe refuge for murderers. In the midst of these marshy thickets,
at about an equal distance from Velletri and Nettuno, was a fortified enclosure
for the breeding of buffaloes and cattle; this castrum took from its Church the
name of San Pietro, and from its moats the surname in Formis.
Alfonso of Calabria had here assembled his troops to await the attack. His
position was a strong one, for his army occupied a sort of island, covered to
the south by a small swamp, and protected on the north and east by trees and
brushwood. To the west, where the Papal forces made the attack, there was a
meadow about 500 paces in width, which was crossed by a ditch about two feet
deep to carry off the water. Behind this, Alfonso’s artillery was placed; some
300 paces further back he caused a considerably deeper trench to be made for
the defense of his troops.
Roberto Malatesta, to whom Riario had resigned the
command, having set his troops in order of battle and exhorted them to bravery,
ordered the foot soldiers to make the attack. These were mostly recruits, and
were so alarmed by the appearance of the Turks, whom Alfonso opposed to them,
that they fled almost immediately. The whole of the Papal army would have been
cast into confusion had not Roberto, at the right moment, rushed forward with
a chosen band of tried soldiers, by which means he not only repelled the
onslaught of the enemy but drove him back behind the trench. Sword in hand,
Roberto here held his ground for a whole hour, acting at once as soldier and as
leader.
While the battle was raging at this point, Giacomo de'
Conti, with six companies, attacked the camp on the right. This movement was
hidden from Alfonso by the thicket. Roberto, at the same time, renewed his
assault on the front. Alfonso’s forces were not able to resist the two-fold
onslaught of an enemy superior in numbers; they began to waver and then to fly.
Up to this moment Alfonso had fought like a lion;
several horses had been killed under him; now, fearing he would be surrounded
and made prisoner, he also took to flight. He had some difficulty in making his
way through the wood to Nettuno, where, with a few followers, he took boat for
Terracina. Here, under the protection of his father’s galleys, he gathered
together the remnant of his army.
The battle of Campo Morto in the Pontine Marshes thus
ended in a complete victory for the Papal troops. Both sides had fought
desperately. The field was strewn with wounded, and the number of dead who lay
there was proportionately large; almost all the Janissaries were among them.
Many flags and cannons fell into the hands of the conquerors, who also took a
number of prisoners, including almost all the Chiefs and Barons.
Roberto proceeded at once to Velletri, to attend to
the wounded and rest his wearied troops. On the following day he sent his light
cavalry forward to collect the baggage of the enemy.
When the news of the victory reached Rome, bonfires
were lighted, the bells of the Capitol rang out, and all the Churches answered.
Sixtus IV, with a numerous suite, attended a Mass of Thanksgiving at Santa
Maria del Popolo.
The very day after the battle, Marino surrendered to
the Pope the keys of the Citadel and the captive Fabrizio Colonna; the idea of
pressing on into the kingdom of Naples with the victorious army was spoken of
in Rome. Sixtus IV informed the Emperor and all friendly States of the great
success obtained by his General, and thanked the latter in a highly eulogistic
Brief.
Girolamo Riario made a splendid pageant of his entry
into Rome with his prisoners. The Romans were treated with the spectacle of the
enemies who had but recently threatened their very walls, now led through their
streets as captives, with heads bowed low, in the triumphal procession. Antonio
Piccolomini, Duke of Amalfi, and Vicino Orsini, son of the Grand Constable of
the kingdom of Naples, attracted the greatest attention. The Pope received the
captives with kindness, and honourably entertained the Duke of Amalfi, Pius
II’s nephew, in his Palace, before sending him back to his family.
“It is a true saying”, writes Sigismondo de' Conti,
“that human happiness is never long unalloyed”. The sounds of rejoicing were
soon silenced and exchanged for lamentations over the premature death of the
victor.
Roberto Malatesta was engaged in dispersing the
hostile troops scattered about the neighbourhood of Rome, when the effects of
his tremendous exertions in the great heat of the unhealthy swamps overtook
him. The fatal breath of Campo Morto proved stronger than youth and courage.
On hearing of the sickness of his General, the Pope at
once sent his own physician to Val Montone, where Roberto lay, and caused him
to be transported in a litter to Rome. He was most carefully tended in the
house of the Cardinal of Milan, but he did not rally. When his condition left
no room for hope, the Pope, with his own hands, administered Extreme Unction.
On the 10th September the brave warrior breathed his last.
Sixtus IV paid every possible honour to the deliverer
of his capital. He personally took part in the obsequies, and afterwards caused
a marble monument to be erected in St. Peter’s. After many vicissitudes, this
monument, on which the figure of the leader, mounted on his war-horse, is
carved in relief, found its way to the Louvre, where it now adorns the hall
devoted to Sculpture of the Renaissance period.
On the 11th September the Pope legitimatized the sons
of Roberto and invested them with the paternal inheritance, thus refuting the
imputation that he was influenced by designs upon the fief of the Malatesta;
though some such hankerings, perhaps, had been cherished by Girolamo Riario.
The immediate consequence of Roberto’s death was to
nullify the good effects of the victory of Campo Morto. The Venetian troops,
regardless of the promises and entreaties of the Pope, withdrew. The siege of Cavi by the Papal forces was unsuccessful, either because
of the strength of its fortifications or because the Orsini, who disliked any
further extension of the power of the Pope, neglected to render assistance.
Meanwhile, Alfonso had again rallied his soldiers, and
the war continued, generally to the disadvantage of the Papal troops and the
detriment of the Romans, whose fields were laid waste and whose flocks were
carried off. The Orsini, incensed by Girolamo’s selfish proceedings, at last
declared that, if no other auxiliaries arrived, they would withdraw. Without
them—as Sigismondo de' Conti justly insists—it was impossible to carry on the
war against the King of Naples, and especially against the Colonna. The Venetians,
on their side, made it plain that the only thing they wanted was Ferrara, and
that which might befall the Pope was nothing to them.
Meanwhile, the revived opposition in the North added
to all these troubles the threat of a Council and a Schism, and Andrea of
Carniola was still unchecked in his career.
Sixtus IV now began to perceive that, by his own
action, he was strengthening the hands of a Power which, by its persistent
efforts to acquire dominion over the cities of the Adriatic littoral, was
likely soon to prove a source of serious danger to him. Giuliano della Rovere
seems to have been the person who induced the Pope to separate himself from the
Republic, while Girolamo Riario, the soul of the war party, was probably won
over by a hope of eventually obtaining the Malatesta fiefs. On the 28th November
a truce was concluded with the Duke of Calabria. On the 12th December a treaty
of Peace between Rome on the one side and Naples, Milan, and Florence on the
other was signed. By this treaty the possession of his States was guaranteed to
the Duke of Ferrara, territories conquered during the war were mutually
restored, an alliance for twenty years, which the Venetians also were free to
join, was concluded, and finally, a pension was secured to Girolamo Riario.
On the following day, the 13th December, Sixtus IV
went in procession to the newly-built Church of Sta Maria della Virtu and
bestowed on it the name of Sta Maria della Pace (Our Lady of Peace). At
Christmas Peace was publicly proclaimed. The important point now was to obtain
the adhesion of the Venetians to this alliance, which had been concluded
without their knowledge. Failing this, the peace would be little more than a
name.
CHAPTER X.
The Pope’s Struggle with Venice and the Colonna.—The
Peace of Bagnolo and the Death of Sixtus IV.
This one-sided treaty which, under the stress of
circumstances, had been concluded by Sixtus IV, had a most prejudicial
influence on his relations with Venice. Sigismondo de' Conti, known as an
historian, was sent in December, 1482, to pacify the Venetians, and to obtain
the cessation of hostilities against Ferrara. The reception which awaited him
was far from encouraging; no one ventured to speak to him. The Envoy, however,
was not to be deterred from the accomplishment of his Mission; he delivered the
letters which the Pope and the Sacred College had entrusted to him, and
endeavoured, with honied words, to persuade the Doge and the Council to a
truce; all his efforts, however, were ineffectual. The Signoria, after the
great sacrifices which had been made, would not draw back. They believed
victory to be in their hands, and were determined in any case to carry on the
war. Sigismondo’s Mission was a complete failure.
The irritation of the Venetians against Sixtus IV was
at this time so great that they proceeded to violent menaces. They declared
that, if the Pope should be led to employ his spiritual weapons, he would find
himself involved in a disastrous war in Italy, the end of which he would not
live to see. They said they were in league with all the Christian Powers, and
were resolved, if necessary, even to call in the Turks!
Sixtus IV did not allow himself to be intimidated. A
State Paper repelling the accusations of the Venetians was drawn up, and it was
then determined that, besides Girolamo Riario, Cardinal Gonzaga should be sent
as Legate to Ferrara. On the 5th February, 1483, Cesare de Varano was commanded
immediately to proceed thither with all the troops he could collect.
At the end of February the Venetian Ambassador left
Rome; fearing that Sixtus IV would proclaim a Crusade against Venice, he let
fly a parting threat, that in that case there should be no more peace for the
Pope. If it came to the worst they would make a league with the Devil!
At the same time, the Congress at Cremona, which,
besides the Papal Legate, the Duke of Calabria, and Lorenzo de' Medici,
comprised Lodovico and Ascanio Sforza, Ercole d'Este,
Federigo Gonzaga, Marquess of Mantua, and Giovanni Bentivoglio, determined to
put down the Venetians by force of arms.
Preparations for war were hastily begun in every
direction. There was no time to be lost, for Ferrara could not hold out much
longer. The Pope was unwearied in his exhortations. He especially insisted on
the necessity of attacking Venice by sea. No less than 50,000 ducats were
allotted for the equipment of the fleet, the sum being raised by the creation
of new offices.
Early in April, Branda Castiglione, Bishop of Como,
was appointed Legate of the fleet. On the 30th of the month the Pope proclaimed
his alliance with Naples, Milan, Ferrara, and Florence, and reiterated his
promises of assistance to the Ferrarese through Cardinal Gonzaga, who died soon
afterwards, a victim to the fatigues of the war. The Venetians on their side
entered into negotiations with the Duke of Lorraine, in order again to harass
King Ferrante by a popular Angevine rising, while their fleet harried the coast
of Apulia and took possession of the important stronghold of Gallipoli.
By the end of May the spiritual weapons of the Pope
were also launched against Venice. From the month of February the Ambassadors
of Ferrara had been urging him to proclaim an Interdict! Girolamo Riario
exerted his influence in the same direction, and succeeded in determining
Sixtus IV to take this important step.
The Bull of Interdict was laid before the Consistory
on the 24th May. All the Sacred College, with the exception of the Venetian
Cardinals, declared their concurrence. Their opposition, which greatly incensed
the Pope, was not calculated to alter his purpose. On the same day the Bull was
affixed to the Gates of St. Peter’s. In the Archives of Modena the jubilant
Report is still preserved in which the Ferrarese envoy tells the Duke that he
had at once hastened to St. Peter's to convince himself of the fact.
The Pope at once communicated the Bull to the Emperor,
the King of France, and the other Kings and Princes of Christendom for
publication in their dominions.
As the Venetian agents in Rome refused to transmit the
Bull to their native city, the Pope sent a herald to deliver it to the
Patriarch of Venice, whom he charged, under pain of Excommunication and
suspension, to impart it to the Doge and the Signoria. The Patriarch pleaded
illness and apprised the Doge and the Council of Ten, who enjoined strict
silence, and commanded him to continue the celebration of public worship as if
nothing had happened. “The indignation of the Venetians against the Pope is
extreme”, wrote the Ferrarese Ambassador. “They threaten to recall all their
Cardinals and Prelates from Rome, and Sixtus IV has prepared, in anticipation
of this, a new Bull against Venice”. The Signoria, in the first place, appealed
to a future Council, and at once began to agitate at the Imperial Court, as
well as at those of France and of England, for its convocation, but these efforts
were fruitless. Louis XI, on the contrary, at once complied with the wishes of
the Pope, and had the sentence against Venice published in his dominions. The
Venetian Ambassadors were dismissed. This happy result was chiefly due to the
exertions of the Archbishop of Tours and of St. Francis of Paula. The latter
had come to Rome in the beginning of 1483. All the Cardinals went to see him.
He had three audiences from the Pope, who placed him on a seat of honour by his
side, and conversed with him for three or four hours. He was so struck with
admiration at the wisdom of his discourse that he granted him permission to
found a new Order. From Rome St. Francis went to the French Court, and was
there when Louis XI died (29th August).
Sixtus IV had never allowed himself to be alarmed by
the threat of a Council. He declared in Consistory that he was quite willing
that one should be held, only it must be at Rome in the Lateran, for the right
of summoning it belonged to him; moreover, added the Pope, the Council will
necessarily afford an opportunity for the reformation of the ecclesiastical and
temporal Princes, and also for calling the Venetians to account for their
appropriation of portions of the States of the Church, which must be restored.
No decisive advantage had meanwhile been gained at any
one of the various seats of war. Not one of the enterprises begun by the allies
had been brought to a conclusion. Contending interests threatened the League
with dissolution. But Venice also was in a deplorable condition; her treasury
was exhausted, her arsenals empty.
There seemed, indeed, to be a hope of peace in March,
1484, when, at the desire of the allies, Ascanio Sforza, a brother of Lodovico
Moro’s, was raised to the purple. The Portuguese Cardinal, Giorgio Costa, who
possessed the full confidence of the Signoria, had already made considerable
progress in this direction, when Girolamo intervened. The selfishness of this
insatiable man completely destroyed the prospect of peace, which, at this
moment, would have been more honourable to the Pope and more favourable to
himself than it ever again could be.
While the Ferrarese war engrossed general attention,
internal dissensions again broke out with great violence in Rome. The year 1483
had been a year of peace for the Eternal City; towards its close, Cardinals
Colonna and Savelli were liberated. They were joyfully welcomed by their
dependents when released on the morning of the 15th November, and at once took
part in the Consistory in which Sixtus created five new Cardinals.
If the year 1483 had been one of tranquillity, the
next year was stormy. In January the Orsini, confident in the friendship of
Girolamo Riario, began the conflict by expelling Antonio Savelli from Albano.
The factions flew to arms. On the 21st February the della Valle stabbed their
enemy, Francesco Santa Croce, and fortified their Palace. The Colonna now
espoused the cause of the della Valle, and the Orsini that of the Santa Croce,
and also barricaded their Palaces. The disturbances came to such a pitch that,
as we learn from an Ambassador, soon no one in the City felt his life or
property secure. “Never”, wrote another contemporary, “did I see such
confusion. It was the 29th of May; the whole of Rome was in arms. It was said
that they wished to seize the Protonotary by night; he kept watch and secured
himself as well as he could. I had two hand-barrows full of stones set inside
my doors, which I barricaded, and I had heavy stones brought up to the windows
and into the loggia. All through the night the cry of Bear! Bear! was heard in
the Rio Ponte, and on Monte Giordano watch-fires burned, shots were fired, and
trumpets blown”.
On the following day, May 30, the Pope made an effort
to settle the dispute in an amicable manner. He sent messengers to the Palace
of Cardinal Colonna, on what is now called the Piazza della Pilotta,
where Lorenzo Oddone, the Protonotary, had entrenched himself, inviting him in
the most friendly terms to his presence, and promising him all that his justice
and generosity could grant. Lorenzo's intimate friend, Cardinal Sansoni,
endeavoured to persuade him to accept the Pope's invitation. Finally, Giuliano della
Rovere himself came and offered to remain as a hostage in the house of the
Colonna until such time as Oddone should return from the Pope, an offer, as
Sigismondo de' Conti observes, suggested rather by affection than prudence.
Lorenzo was fully inclined to go, but his friends,
fearing for his safety, prevented him. When Sixtus IV sent the Conservators for
the second time, and promised to forgive everything, he mounted his horse and
rode away alone. But some armed followers of his met him on the Piazza Trevi
and obliged him to return.
Girolamo and the Orsini had meanwhile ascertained,
through Leone Montesecco, the Prefect of the Body Guard, that Oddone had only a
crowd of untrained and unwarlike retainers in his house.
All fear vanished. After a proclamation had been made
to the effect that all who should take part with the Colonna incurred the guilt
of high treason, an order for the forcible arrest of the Protonotary was
issued. The attack at once began. A panic seized the Colonna; a great many of
them left the Palace, which was soon surrounded on all sides. During the fight,
which lasted but two hours, forty of the Colonna and only thirteen of their
adversaries were killed. The barricades were then scaled, the Palace was
relentlessly plundered, and Lorenzo Oddone taken prisoner. On the way to the
Vatican, Virginio Orsini had to defend the unarmed captive from Count Girolamo,
who, in his rage, twice drew his sword against him. Sixtus IV reproached him in
violent language, and accused him of having twice sought to drive him from
Rome. The Protonotary tried to excuse himself on the ground that his people had
prevented him when he tried to go to the Vatican, but after all the terror he
had undergone he could hardly utter a sound. He was given over to Virginio
Orsini and confined in St. Angelo.
“It was fortunate”, says Sigismondo de' Conti, “that
the conflict was not protracted into the night, under cover of which shame and
fear are put aside, and many more would have taken part with the Colonna, so
that the Pope and the Orsini might have been in great danger”.
The houses of the della Valle were, like the Palace of
the Colonna, razed to the ground. The undisciplined soldiers billeted
themselves in the houses of the Colonna quarter and wrought cruel havoc there.
A portion of the Roman burghers determined to beg the
Pope to make peace with the Colonna. Cardinal Giuliano also earnestly advocated
a reconciliation, but again the Orsini and Count Girolamo prevented it. The
conduct of the latter became more and more insupportable. He extorted money
from the Roman churches, and even from the College of Papal Secretaries and
that of the Stradioti. If we may believe Infessura,
whose sympathies are with the Colonna party, high words passed between Girolamo
Riario and Cardinal Giuliano, even in presence of the Pope. Cardinal Giuliano
had granted asylum in his Palace to some fugitives from Cardinal Colonna's
dwelling, and had expressed his displeasure at Riario’s violence. Girolamo accused the Cardinal of protecting rebels and enemies of the
Church. Giuliano replied that the men whom he protected were no rebels against
the Church, but some of her most faithful servants; that Girolamo was hunting
them out of Rome, setting the Church of God on fire and destroying her. He was
the cause of all the evil deeds which were bringing ruin on the Pope and on the
Cardinals. The Count, on this, flew into a rage and declared that he would
drive him out of the country, burn his house over his head, and give it up to
plunder, as he had done to that of the Colonna.
The attack on the Colonna still went on in the
neighbourhood of Rome. The whole of Latium was soon a prey to fire and rapine.
On the 27th June Marino fell, and the Colonna retired to Rocca di Papa.
Three days later Lorenzo Oddone was beheaded in St.
Angelo, after retracting the confessions torn from him on the rack. The unhappy
man met death with calmness and dignity. The corpse was taken, in the first
instance, to the neighbouring church of Sta Maria Traspontina,
whence, in the evening, it was conveyed to that of the SS. Apostoli. Here it
was received by his mother and many other women, wailing and lamenting, and was
buried that same night by Infessura and a vassal of the Colonna.
On the 2nd July Girolamo and Virginio Orsini, with
their troops, took the field against the Colonna. Events soon proved that they
had been very ill-advised in thwarting the efforts made to re-establish peace.
Prospero and Fabrizio Colonna defended themselves bravely. The Savelli allowed
themselves to be corrupted, and thus many strongholds were indeed lost, but
Paliano held out, and Girolamo found it necessary to apply to the Pope for
reinforcements. He was soon compelled to own that he had little hope of subduing
the Colonna.
Sixtus IV was greatly disturbed by these tidings; he
had never anticipated such determined resistance. In the month of March his
health, which, till then, had been very good, had begun to give way. Constant
agitation and anxiety naturally told upon him at last. In the middle of June he
fell ill of a fever. Early in August his old malady, the gout, attacked him
with such violence that he received the Sacraments of Penance and the Holy
Eucharist.
Meanwhile, the rumour that peace had been concluded
with the Venetians continued to gain more and more credence in Rome. This was
actually the case.
The warlike zeal of Milan had been gradually cooling
ever since the July of 1483. The urgent demands of Sixtus IV had failed to
produce any effect. A year later, Lodovico Moro had succeeded in severing
himself from the League, of which he had been but a half-hearted member. “When
the Venetians were getting the worst of it, and their finances were nearly
exhausted”, says Commines, “Duke Lodovico came to the aid of their honour and
credit, and every one again got his own, excepting the poor Duke of Ferrara, who
had been drawn into the war by himself and his father-in-law, and was now
obliged to abandon the Polesina to the Venetians”. It
is said that the affair brought Duke Lodovico in 60,000 ducats. “I know not”,
adds Commines, “if that is true, but I found the Duke of Ferrara, who, however,
had not at that time yet given him his daughter in marriage, under this belief”.
Gallipoli and other places on the coast, which had
been taken from him, were restored to the King of Naples. Roberto da San
Severino, the Captain-General of the Venetians, became commander of the troops
of the League, with a yearly salary of 20,000 florins. Riario went away empty.
The Peace of Bagnolo (7th August, 1484) became, as
Sigismondo de' Conti justly observes, a victory for Venice, for Ercole of
Ferrara was obliged to come there in person as a suppliant, and Lodovico sent
his son ostensibly to take part in the festivities, but really as a hostage for
the fulfilment of the conditions of the treaty.
The Pope would not at first believe in this
disgraceful Peace. When, however, he could no longer doubt that his authority
had been thus set at naught, his grief was extreme. “Faithless Lodovico!” he
was heard to exclaim, in a voice shaken with sighs.
His illness was no doubt aggravated by excitement. A
Consistory had been summoned to meet on Wednesday, the nth August, but as the
Pope had become worse in the night, the assembled Cardinals were dismissed.
Nevertheless, after Vespers, the Ambassadors of the League were admitted into
his presence. “When he had heard them”, says Jacobus Volaterranus,
“he complained, not, as evil-minded and malicious persons have asserted, that
Peace had been concluded, but that its conditions were so unfavourable. Up to
this time, he said, we have carried on a dangerous and difficult war, in order,
by our victorious arms, to obtain an honourable Peace for the security of the
Apostolic See, our own honour, and that of the League. Now, when as you know,
by the will of God, success was at hand, you bring back conditions of Peace
suited to the vanquished, not to the victor. The Venetians had already offered
our Apostolic Legate terms much fairer and more profitable to your Princes,
terms which were honourable to the Apostolic See, whereas these are
disgraceful. The cities taken in the war were to be entrusted to our
protection, the nobles were to send us hostages and await our judgment, Ferrara
was not mentioned. You propose none of these things, but, on the contrary,
shameful conditions, fraught with the seeds of confusion and future evil rather
than good. This Peace, my beloved sons in Christ, I can neither approve nor
sanction”. During the night and the following day the weakness of the Pope
hourly increased; the fever consumed his strength. On the Feast of S. Clara,
12th August, in the fourth hour of the night, he passed peacefully away. “Four
days previously”, Jacobus Volaterranus informs us,
“he had received Holy Communion. After his death the Penitentiaries of the
Friars-minor washed him, vested him, and laid him out on his bier. In the
evening the corpse was brought to the Basilica of St. Peter, and, with all
fitting honour, deposited in the chapel which he had himself built in his
lifetime, until his monument should be ready. The obsequies commenced on the
fourth day, and continued for nine days without intermission”.
CHAPTER XI.
Character of Sixtus IV as Spiritual Ruler.
In following the course of Sixtus IV through the mazes
of Italian politics, it is often difficult to believe that he was once the
General of a Mendicant Order; but in the ecclesiastical sphere the case is
quite different, and his action fully corresponds to what we should naturally
expect. As early as the year 1472 the decision of Gregory IX regarding the
powers of the Cardinal-Protector of the Franciscans was confirmed. A Bull of
the 3rd October of that year made the Feast of St. Francis henceforth a holiday
of obligation. This was followed, on the 31st August, 1474, by the Bull known
as Mare magnum (the Great Sea), by which the privileges of the
Franciscan-Conventuals were so greatly augmented. In it those granted by
Clement IV and Eugenius IV, which were already very extensive, were not only
confirmed but considerably increased. Most ample powers were conferred upon the
Conventuals in regard to Divine Worship during an Interdict, jurisdiction in
cases reserved to the Pope, exemption from tithes and from episcopal
jurisdiction, the administration of the Sacraments, and the burial of the
faithful in the habit and in the cemeteries of the Order. All who opposed them
were threatened with severe punishments. A similar Bull was also issued in
favour of the Dominicans.
Even this was not enough, for in 1479 Sixtus IV
granted yet further favours by the Golden Bull. To enumerate the good things
bestowed on the Mendicant Friars, and more particularly on the Franciscans,
during this long pontificate would be an almost endless task. Highly as we may
estimate the manifold and important labours of these Orders, there can be no
doubt that the indulgence shown to them was excessive. Sixtus IV also assisted
the Brothers of the Common Life, and approved the order of the Minims and that
of the discalced Augustinians.
The many disputes of the Religious Orders among
themselves were deplorable. Accordingly, in the Golden Bull Sixtus IV expressly
forbade the office of Inquisitor to be exercised by a Franciscan against a
Dominican or viceversa; and, to prevent the perpetual
conflicts between the Secular and Regular clergy, he also issued a decree that
Parish Priests were not to accuse Mendicants of heresy, and, on the other hand,
prohibited the latter from telling the people that they were not bound to hear
Masses of obligation in their Parish Church. Seculars and Regulars were alike
forbidden to influence the faithful in regard to their place of sepulture. Sixtus IV confirmed the rule that the Easter
Confession was to be made to the Parish Priest.
There seems to be no doubt that Sixtus IV also desired
to effect a reunion between the Franciscan Conventuals and the Observantines.
As he had himself been a Conventual, this would have meant the abolition of the
Observantines. They were greatly disturbed about this scheme. Glassberger writes in his chronicle: “During the whole
course of his pontificate, Sixtus IV did nothing that could justly be blamed,
except that he wished to subject the Observantines to the Conventuals; for this
reason God raised up an adversary against him in Andrea of Carniola. From all
sides, even from temporal Princes like the Duke of Milan, petitions were
showered upon Rome, so that the Pope exclaimed: The whole world is for the
Observantines!”. St. Jacopo della Marca is said to have predicted to Sixtus IV
that he would die suddenly if he carried out this plan. As a fact, the Bull,
which had been drafted, never appeared.
The partiality of Sixtus IV for his own Order
doubtless contributed to bring about the canonization of St. Bonaventura, which
was proclaimed with much solemnity in Rome on the 14th April, 1482. In the
previous year he had raised to the altars the Minorites martyred in Morocco in
the time of Honorius III.
The exertions of Sixtus IV on behalf of the due
celebration of Divine worship and chanting of the Liturgy are also especially
worthy of record. It was by him the famous Sistine Choir was instituted and
attached to this Chapel for the daily chanting of the Divine Office. The reign
of this Pontiff was the beginning of a new artistic life in the Papal Chapel;
the most highly-gifted singers from all countries nocked to Rome, allured by
the opportunity afforded to them of exercising their art, making their talents
known, and reaping rich rewards.
Sixtus IV laboured assiduously to preserve the
integrity of the Faith, and, in particular, took measures against the Waldensees in Piedmont and France.
The Pope was, as the preceding history bears witness,
most solicitous for the maintenance of the monarchical constitution of the
Church. In 1478 he formally annulled the Decrees of the Council of Constance.
Martin V had already refused to recognize them, with the exception of those
concerning the Faith. In 1483 he revived the Bull of Pius II prohibiting
appeals to a Council.
His ardent devotion to the Blessed Virgin was an
admirable trait in the character of this Pope. Sigismondo de' Conti says that
he used to pray before her statue with such fervour and recollection, that for
a whole hour his eyes never wandered from it. The Italian shrines of our Lady,
especially those of Loreto and Genazzano, were the
objects of his particular care. In the year 1475 he instituted the Feast of the
Visitation and published an Encyclical on the occasion. He also, in many ways,
promoted the devotion of the Rosary. In Rome the Pope’s veneration for the
Mother of God found expression in the erection of the celebrated churches of
Sta Maria del Popolo and Sta Maria della Pace, and of the Sistine Chapel, which
was dedicated to her Immaculate Conception. In 1475 he approved of a special
Office of the Immaculate Conception for the 8th December. Here also his
Franciscan sympathies appear. His Order, in opposition to that of the
Dominicans, were ardent champions of this doctrine, which was already widely diffused
in the Church. The contention between the two Orders on this subject now broke
forth anew. A Dominican, named Vincenzo Bandelli, had
asserted in public disputations and in writing that those who declared the
Conception of the Blessed Virgin to have been Immaculate were guilty of heresy
and, accordingly, of mortal sin. The dispute became so violent that Sixtus IV
had to interfere. Although he did not pronounce any definite decision, the
Constitution, which he published in 1483, clearly shows to which side he
personally inclined. “We”, he says, “reject and condemn the assertions of those
preachers, who allow themselves to be so far carried away as to represent such
as believe or maintain that the Mother of God was preserved from the stain of
original sin, to be thereby tainted with heresy or guilty of mortal sin, and
those who solemnly celebrate the Office of the Conception of Mary, or listen to
sermons in which that doctrine is declared, as thereby committing sin—we reject
and condemn, by Apostolical authority, all such statements as false, erroneous,
and completely devoid of truth, together with the books which contain them. We
also determine and appoint that preachers of the Word of God and others, of
whatever station, rank, calling, and character they may be, who shall
henceforth rashly venture to maintain that the statements we have thus
disapproved and condemned are true, or who shall read books containing them,
holding or considering them to be true, after the preceding constitution has
been made known to them—ipso facto, incur the sentence of Excommunication”.
In order, however, to guard against the impression
that any special dogmatic decision of the doctrine in question was here
involved, the Pope adds to this decree the express declaration that no such
decision has yet been given by the Apostolic See, and that, accordingly, the
opponents of the view of Scotus and of the Doctors of Paris cannot at present
be accused of heresy.
In the sphere of ecclesiastical policy, Sixtus IV made
considerable concessions to governments with whom he was on good terms, or from
whom he expected assistance of a political nature. The influence of the secular
power on ecclesiastical affairs was thus unduly strengthened. Besides
confirming the Bulls granted to the Emperor Frederick III by Eugenius IV and
Nicholas V, regarding the exercise of patronage for the episcopal Sees of
Trent, Brixen, Gurk, Trieste, Chur, Piben, Vienna,
and Wiener-Neustadt, on the 8th April, 1473, he also granted him the right of
presentation to 300 benefices. A Bull of 1478 also accorded to Frederick the
temporary patronage of other Bishoprics. Dukes Ernest and Albrecht of Saxony
received from Sixtus IV, in 1476, the right of presentation to several high
dignities belonging to the Chapter of Meissen, and, nine years later, that
right was extended to all such posts in that city.
A Bull of the 8th July, 1479, allowed the Government
of Zurich to fill up all benefices belonging to the Great Cathedral and that
of our Lady and the Monastery of Embrach, even such
as should fall vacant in the Papal months. In consideration of the number of
clerical state criminals and falsifiers of the coinage in the Republic of
Venice, Sixtus IV consented that such should be tried by the secular judges in
presence of the Vicar of the Patriarch.
The control of the State over the Church in Spain had
at this time assumed an immense development. Efforts to strengthen and extend
this power led to important contests concerning presentations to Bishoprics. In
the autumn of 1478 Cardinal Peter Ferrici, Bishop of
Tarragona, died. Sixtus IV then conferred the Bishopric on Andreas Martinez;
but King Ferdinand, who desired this preferment for Cardinal Pedro Gonzalez de
Mendoza, commanded, Martinez to resign at once, threatening him with exile and
other severe penalties to be inflicted on himself and his relations. The See of
Cuenca (1482) was the occasion of an, even more serious dispute. Sixtus IV had
appointed his nephew, Raffaello Sansoni, to this Bishopric, while Isabella
wished it to be given to her Confessor, Alfonso de Burgos. The remonstrances of
the Royal pair being disregarded, they broke off communication with Rome and
threatened to hold a Council. The friendship of the Spanish monarchs was of
great importance to the Pope in his Italian difficulties. In consequence, he
had granted them extensive concurrent rights in episcopal nominations, and
Alfonso de Burgos eventually became Bishop of Cuenca. Isabella, however, it
must be said, used her privilege in favour of really excellent men.
Sixtus IV showed greater firmness in regard to the
question of the Spanish Inquisition. This tribunal, whose office it was to
punish obstinate heretics or notorious sinners who were nominally members of
the Church, was created, in the first instance, to deal with the special
circumstances of the Jewish community in Spain. No other European State had
suffered, to the extent that Spain was then suffering, from the unrelenting
system of usury and organized extortion practised by these dangerous aliens.
Persecutions were the natural consequence, and often the only alternative
before the Jews was baptism or death. Thus the number of merely nominal
converts to the Christian Faith soon became very great. The secret Jews were
incomparably more dangerous than those who openly professed their religion. If
the latter monopolized the greater part of the wealth and commerce of the
country, the former threatened alike the Spanish nationality and the Christian
faith. On the one hand they contrived to insinuate themselves into a number of
ecclesiastical charges, and even to become Bishops, and on the other to attain
high municipal honours and to marry into all the noble families. These
advantages, and their great wealth, were all covertly devoted to the gradual
subjugation of the Spaniards and the undermining of their Faith in favour of
the Jews and Judaism. Things had latterly come to such a pass that the very
existence of Christian Spain was at stake.
The Inquisition was created as a remedy for these
evils. The necessary authorization of the Holy See was given in a Brief of the
1st November, 1478. Ferdinand and Isabella were hereby empowered, after due
examination, to nominate two or three Archbishops and Bishops, or other
dignitaries of the Church, who should be secular or regular priests,
commendable for their prudence and virtue, at least forty years of age, and of
blameless morals, Masters or Bachelors of Theology, Doctors or Licentiates of
Canon Law. These Inquisitors were to proceed against relapsed Jews who had been
baptized and other apostates. The Pope granted them the necessary jurisdiction
for proceeding, according to law and custom, against the guilty, and permitted
the Spanish monarchs to dismiss them and appoint others, with the reservation
that the Bull itself could not be annulled without express mention of its
contents.
By the desire of Queen Isabella another effort was
made to bring back those who had been led away by preaching and other peaceable
means. These attempts being obstinately and scornfully rejected, the Spanish
monarchs, in virtue of the Papal Bull, nominated, on the 17th September, 1489,
two Dominicans, Michael Morillo and Juan Martin, as Inquisitors for the city
and Diocese of Seville. Two secular priests were associated with them. They
began their work without delay. Jews who obstinately persisted in their errors
were handed over to the secular power and burned.
Very soon vehement complaints of the harsh and
irregular proceedings of the Inquisitors began to arrive in Rome. Sixtus IV’s
Brief of the 29th January, 1482, shows that grave abuses had arisen. The Pope,
in the first place, expresses his displeasure at the omission, without his
knowledge, of certain clauses in the former Brief, which, as it appears, would
have guarded more securely against abuses, brought the methods of procedure
into greater harmony with the course of common law, and facilitated the concerted
action which had been usual between the Inquisitors and the Bishops. The result
had been that these former, under pretext of the Papal Brief, had unjustly
imprisoned many persons without trial, subjected them to cruel tortures,
pronounced them heretics, and confiscated the possessions of those who were
executed, so that numbers had fled the country in dread of a similar fate.
Moved by the complaints of persons who had turned to the Holy See as the
defender of all the oppressed, after consultation with the Cardinals, he issued
his commands that the Inquisitors should henceforth proceed in conformity with
law and justice, and in concert with the Bishops. Sixtus IV further declared
that nothing but consideration for the King, whose Ambassadors in Rome interceded
for the Inquisitors, could have induced him to continue them in their office.
Should they persist in these evil practices, and act without consulting the
Bishop of the Diocese, or considering what the salvation of souls demanded, he
would put others in their place. The Pope refused to grant the request of the
Spanish monarchs for the appointment of Inquisitors in the other portions of
their kingdom, as the Dominican Inquisition was already in force there.
Sixtus IV, though approving of the new Inquisition in
itself, had soon fresh cause for dissatisfaction with the conduct of the
Inquisitors. His displeasure was directed not against the institution, but
against the manner in which it was carried out. There can be little doubt that
the Spanish monarchs desired to give it too worldly a character, and at times
made the real danger which existed from the feigned Christians, a pretext for
bringing the tribunal to bear upon their other enemies, and that the new Inquisitors
were but too ready to play into their hands. Against these abuses Sixtus IV
insisted on the strict observance of the provisions of the common law. We learn
something of the domineering character of Michael Morillo from a Bull of Sixtus
IV, dated 21st January, 1479. From this document it appears that Morillo had
removed the former Inquisitor of Valencia who had been appointed by the General
of the Dominicans, and had given his post to another. The Pope cancelled this
act, and desired the original appointment to be maintained.
The abuses in the Spanish Inquisition, however, did
not cease; consequently, when the jurisdiction of the tribunal was extended to
Castille and Leon, Sixtus IV pronounced the severest penalties against
Inquisitors who should fail to exercise their office in a conscientious manner,
and in accordance with the canonical prescriptions.
It is important to note, as a significant fact bearing
on the character of this institution, that not only the ecclesiastical
authorization of the first Inquisitors, but also the first regulations as to
the mode of procedure, emanated directly from the Pope. In order to avoid
constant appeals to Rome, often made as mere subterfuges and with a view of
impeding the course of the law, he, in 1483, appointed the Archbishop of
Seville, Papal Judge of Appeals for the Inquisition.
Notwithstanding all these precautionary measures on
the part of the Holy See, accused persons were still treated in Spain with
arbitrary cruelty and injustice. To remedy this evil, Sixtus IV, on the 2nd
August, 1483, decreed :—(1) That decisions on appeals given in Rome were to be
held valid in Spain; (2) that shamefaced penitents were to be absolved in
secret; (3) that those once absolved were not again to be molested by the
Inquisitors. In conclusion, Sixtus expressly admonished the Royal pair to leave
those who had retracted, in peaceful possession of their property. “As it is
mercy alone that makes us like God, we beg and exhort the King and the Queen,
for the love of Jesus Christ, to imitate Him, whose property it is always to
have mercy and to spare. Let them have compassion on their subjects in the city
and Diocese of Seville, who are sensible of their errors and ask for pardon”.
The appointment of a Grand Inquisitor, which took
place in this year, was another important step in the organization of the new
tribunal. The idea appears to have originated with the Spanish monarchs. In the
autumn of 1483 Sixtus IV entrusted the spiritual powers of this office to
Thomas Torquemada, the Dominican Prior of S. Cruz. He was to direct all the
business of the Inquisition, was empowered to delegate his Apostolic Mission to
others, and, especially, as the Pope’s representative, to hear appeals made to
the Holy See, superseding the former occupant of this office. The Grand
Inquisitor’s sphere of jurisdiction was, by a special Papal Brief of the 17th
October, 1483, extended to the kingdom of Aragon. A Council of Inquisition was
now established, mainly with the object of assisting in the hearing of Appeals.
Torquemada instituted this Council by virtue of the plenary powers which he had
received when his authority was conferred upon him by the Pope. Sixtus IV gave
his sanction to this measure. The members of the Council have often been spoken
of as mere State officials; this, however, is a mistake. They were State
officials, and, as such, derived their temporal jurisdiction from the King,
but, in their primary ecclesiastical capacity, they had no authority until it
was imparted to them by the Papal Delegate. The Grand Inquisitor, nominated by
the King, always received his ecclesiastical jurisdiction from an Apostolic
Brief. He proposed, and the King nominated, the Councillors, who derived their
spiritual jurisdiction from his approbation, by which he imparted to them a
share in his Apostolic authority.
The Spanish Inquisition, accordingly, appears as a
mixed, but primarily ecclesiastical, institution. The fact that the condemned
were handed over to the secular arm testifies to the correctness of this view.
Had the Spanish Inquisition been a State institution, a royal court of justice,
there would have been no necessity for this. A court which invariably hands
over those whom it finds guilty to the secular arm for punishment cannot itself
be a secular tribunal. It was precisely the ecclesiastical character of the new
Inquisition which made its judges decline to execute capital sentences, and
follow the custom always observed by the ecclesiastical Inquisition of
requesting that the prisoner might be leniently dealt with, a formality
prescribed by the Canon Law.
The action of Sixtus IV, as General of his Order,
would have led to the expectation that he would prove a reforming Pope.
Admonitions and exhortations on this point were not wanting. Apart from those
voices which clamoured for reform as a means for compassing other ends, many
memorials reached Rome from abroad, animated by the purest motives, and urging
the need of it on the Pope. The abuses in the Cistercian Order, particularly
that regarding commendams, were thus brought
under his notice. In Rome itself zealous Friars went preaching penance and
amendment. Many secular priests were equally earnest, warning their hearers
that God would let the Turks come to Rome as a judgment for their sins. The
Pope placed no obstacle in the way of such men, but, on the contrary, gave them
every encouragement, remembering how valuable the preachers of penance had been
in stemming the tide of depravity during the period of the Renaissance. A
secular priest, who had come to Rome in 1473 and spoken in this strain, was not
only permitted by the Pope to preach everywhere, but also received material
support. Sixtus IV sent the celebrated St. Jacopo della Marca in October, 1471,
to pacify Ascoli, which was torn with hatred and factions.
A further proof that the Pope was favourably disposed
towards ecclesiastical reform is furnished by a Bull, drawn up at his command,
and containing minute provisions for the amendment of the Court. Abuses which
had crept in among the Cardinals were relentlessly exposed in it, and rules
laid down which, had they been carried into effect, would have completely
changed the aspect of the Sacred College and of the whole Court. Unhappily,
this Bull was never published. The cause of this must be sought not in the remissness
of the Pope, but in the opposition of those who surrounded him. His nephews
well knew what the consequences of reform would be to them. The Sacred College
also put obstacles in the way. A letter of Petrus Barrocius,
written in the year 1481, expressly states this, while giving a detailed
account of the corruption of the Court. “Sixtus IV”, he writes, “wished to set
his face against these practices, and appointed a Commission of reform, but the
majority of the Cardinals negatived the suggestions of the better disposed”.
This could not have happened but for the unfortunate changes which had taken
place in the members composing the Sacred College.
Torquemada and Carvajal, two unflinching champions of
ecclesiastical purity, had died during the pontificate of Paul II. In the time
of Sixtus IV, many of the elder Cardinals had gone to their reward. Bessarion,
amongst others, in 1472, and, on the 21st December in the following year, at
Verona, the brave Forteguerri. Three other admirable members of the Sacred
College died in 1476: Roverella (3rd May), Calandrini (24th July), and Agnifilus (9th November). On the 11th August, 1477, Latino
Orsino, and in 1478, the austere Capranica passed away; Eroli and Ammanati in 1479 (2nd April and 10th September). The loss of these
representatives of better days was not adequately repaired; during the thirteen
years of Sixtus IV’s pontificate, eight creations of Cardinals took place, and
thirty-four prelates, twenty-two of whom were Italians, were raised to the
purple; but, in the majority of cases, these appointments were not made from
purely ecclesiastical motives, and the worldly-minded Cardinals, such as
Jouffroy (d. 1473), Alain (d. 1474, May 3), d'Estouteville (d. 1483, January
22), and Gonzaga (d. 1483, October 21), who died in the time of this Pope, were
but too soon succeeded by others of like character.
The first creation of Cardinals by Sixtus IV was much
to be deplored. On this occasion his two young nephews, one of whom was utterly
unworthy of this dignity, were raised to the purple. In the second creation, on
the 7th May, 1473, the wishes of temporal Princes had predominant weight. The
Archbishop of Arles, Philippe de Lévis, had been recommended for the dignity by
King René, and Giovanni Arcimboldo, Bishop of Novara, by the Duke of Milan. The
selection of Philibert Hugonet, Bishop of Macon, seems to have been due to the
Duke of Burgundy’s influence. As to Stefano Nardini, Sixtus IV himself said of
him that he had made him a Cardinal, in order to encourage the members of the
Court to emulate his zeal and industry.
If Nardini, the founder of a College for poor
students, was worthy of a place in the Senate of the Church, the same cannot be
said of the two other Italians who received the purple on the 7th May, 1473.
Giov. Batista Cybò had passed a frivolous youth, and the wealthy Antonio
Giacomo Venier was living in a style of princely luxury. The two Spaniards,
Auxias de Podio and Pedro Gonzalez de Mendoza, Archbishop of Toledo, created at
this time, were, however, excellent men.
More than three years elapsed before Sixtus IV again
added to the numbers of the Sacred College. An Ambassador, then living in Rome,
speaks of violent disputes between the Cardinals and the Pope, who,
notwithstanding all his efforts, only succeeded in accomplishing the creation
of five new Cardinals. This took place on the 18th December, 1476. Among those
promoted, but one, G. B. Mellini, Bishop of Urbino,
was an Italian; two, Charles de Bourbon and Pierre de Foix, were French; one,
Pedro Ferrici, was a Spaniard; and one, Giorgio da
Costa, Archbishop of Lisbon, a Portuguese. This last died in 1503, at the age
of 100, one of the wealthiest Princes of the Church of his time.
In the following March we hear of negotiations for the
nomination of new Cardinals. On the 24th of that month Sixtus IV proposed in
Consistory, John of Aragon (a son of Ferrante), Ascanio Maria Sforza, Pietro
Foscari, and his own two nephews, Cristoforo della Rovere and Girolamo Basso
della Rovere. The preliminary discussions lasted all through the summer, ending
on the 10th December, 1477, in a complete victory for Sixtus IV. On that day
all those whom he had proposed were, with the exception of Ascanio Sforza,
raised to the purple, and to their number were added the Minorite, Gabriel Rangone, George Hesler, who had rendered important service
to the house of Habsburg, and, finally, a third nephew of the Pope’s, Raffaello
Sansoni Riario. These numerous additions to the Sacred College gave occasion
for the creation of a new Title, the first which had for several centuries
taken place. Sixtus IV gave Pietro Foscari, St. Nicholas at the Colosseum (S.
Nicolaus inter imagines) as his titular Church.
If the simultaneous elevation of three Papal nephews
was in itself an extraordinary proceeding, Raffaello Sansoni’s age—he was only
seventeen—did not tend to diminish its exceptional character! The spiritual
element was no better represented by him than by Cristoforo and Giuliano della
Rovere. Though presenting many radical differences in personal character, they
were all great lords with essentially worldly interests. The fourth of the
Pope’s nephews on the sisters’ side, Girolamo Basso della Rovere, was a prelate
of blameless life, who never abused the favour of his uncle or of his cousin,
Pope Julius II”. Cristoforo della Rovere dying on the 1st February, 1478,
Sixtus IV, on the 10th of that month, received his brother, Domenico, into the
Senate of the Church. He built for himself the much-admired Palace on the
Piazza Scossacavalli, and a villa in the
neighbourhood of Ponte Molle, without the City, which was often visited by
Sixtus IV. He also built the Chapel in Sta Maria del Popolo, which, like his
Palace, was adorned with paintings from the hand of Pinturicchio. The little
town of Montefiascone owes to him its principal church, and his native city,
Turin, its Cathedral, which, being the work of Meo dal Caprino, bears a striking resemblance to the churches built by the same
architect in Rome. This member of the Rovere family had no merit in the way of
talent to recommend him. He had but little literary culture, and was not either
learned or naturally quick-witted. It was the grace of God, his good reputation,
and his true and loyal disposition which brought him to the front.
These last nominations, together with the increasing
influence of the Pope’s nephews, who came in greater numbers to Rome at this
time, gave to the Court a more and more worldly character. The crafty Girolamo
Riario, who was made Burgher of the City and a member of the Roman nobility in
the year 1477, and, in 1480, Commander-in-Chief of the Church, surpassed all
the Cardinals in influence. The whole demeanour of this upstart was in keeping
with his extravagant expenditure on all festal occasions. He took pride in
eclipsing all the Cardinals, even those who were of princely birth. The purely
worldly tendencies displayed, especially by Rodrigo Borgia, Francesco Gonzaga
and d'Estouteville, among the older Cardinals, the frequent admission of others
of similar disposition into the Sacred College, and the removal by death of so
many of those who were truly devoted to the interests of the Church, led pious
and earnest men like F. Piccolomini and Marco Barbo to absent themselves as
much as possible from Rome. Giovanni Michiel and Pietro Foscari, the kinsmen
and countrymen of the latter, were essentially Venetian patricians, and found
the new order of things by no means uncongenial.
The next creation still further promoted the
worldliness and pomp of the Sacred College. It took place on the 15th May,
1480, and was, in many respects, an important one. With hardly an exception
those raised to the purple were of high birth: they were, Paolo Fregoso, Ferry
de Clugny, Cosimo Orsini de' Migliorati, the
excellent Giovan Battista Savelli, whose elevation had, up to this time, been
hindered by the Orsini party. He had given proof of his abilities in several
Legations, was endowed with an enterprising spirit and a talent for
organization; he had been designated for the cardinalate by Paul II, but the
sudden death of that Pope, and the influence of Latino Orsini with Sixtus IV
had so far kept him from that dignity. In conjunction with him, Giovanni
Colonna was also created, and the seeds of party strife introduced into the
Sacred College; for Giuliano della Rovere was a friend of the Colonna and the
Savelli, while Girolamo Riario’s interests, as a
temporal lord, drew him to associate himself more and more closely with the
Orsini.
The next creation, on the 15th November, 1483, did yet
more to increase the influence of the great Roman families in the Sacred
College, Giovanni Conti of Valmontone and Battista
Orsini being then raised to the purple. The same dignity was conferred on Juan
Moles, a Spaniard, on the Archbishop of Tours, Elie de Bourdeilles,
and on Giovanni Giacomo Sclafenati, Bishop of Parma,
who was but twenty-three years of age. The choice of this youthful Prelate gave
occasion to much unfavourable comment, and completely nullified the good
impression which the simultaneous elevation of the saintly Bourdeilles might have produced. A yet greater error was committed in the promotion of
Ascanio Maria Sforza (March, 1484) dictated as it was by worldly and political
motives.
When we consider that it was this man, in conjunction
with Cardinals Riario, Orsini, Colonna, Sclafenati,
and Savelli (all of them admitted by Sixtus IV into the Senate of the Church),
who in 1492 carried the election of Rodrigo Borgia, we are naturally inclined
to form an unfavourable opinion of this Pope, from whom so much had been hoped.
Nevertheless, an impartial study of history must lead
us to protest against the picture drawn by Infessura of Sixtus IV. Infessura
was a violent partisan of his deadly enemies, the Colonna. He blesses the day
when God delivered his people out of the hand of this “most profligate and
unjust of Kings”. Neither fear of God nor love for his people, no spark of
kindness or good-will, according to this author, were to be found in him;
nothing but sensuality, avarice, love of show and vainglory. After this tremendous
general accusation he proceeds to enter into details. He cannot say a good word
anywhere of Sixtus IV. It is plain from this, and from the violence of his
language, that we have here a collection of everything that was reported to the
Pope's disadvantage in Rome, at a time when a strong opposition to his person
and to his Court prevailed there.
As regards Infessura’s most
serious accusation, that of gross immorality, in that corrupt age such a charge
was but too frequently flung at any enemy. Later on, the austere Adrian VI was
himself a victim to the slanderous tongues of the Renaissance age. Things had
come to such a pass that no one could escape calumny, and the most exemplary
virtue provoked the worst detraction. Atrocious crimes of this kind are not
proved by the malignant gossip collected by a writer so open to suspicion as
Infessura. No trustworthy contemporary, not one of the numerous Ambassadors,
who reported everything that took place in Rome with scrupulous accuracy, has a
word to say on the subject; one indeed of these Envoys, immediately after the
election of Sixtus IV, extols his blameless and pious manner of life. Whatever
faults Sixtus IV may have committed as Pope, there was no change for the worse
in regard to morals or religion. The fact that he chose as his confessor the
blessed Amadeus of Portugal, a man of extraordinary sanctity and mortification,
is in itself a proof of this. We have ample evidence to prove that Sixtus IV
discharged his religious duties zealously and seriously, and venerated his holy
patrons, St. Francis and the Blessed Virgin, with the same devotion which he
had manifested before his elevation. Though suffering acutely from gout, he
never allowed this to prevent him from assisting at the solemn Easter Mass.
“With touching perseverance the feeble old man made his pilgrimages of devotion
to the Churches of Sta Maria del Popolo and della Pace, which he had built in
honour of the Blessed Virgin”. Sixtus IV must indeed have been a
consummate hypocrite if his private life was infamous while he appeared so
fervent a client of the most Pure Mother of God.
Infessura’s other charges against Sixtus IV must equally be either dismissed or
modified. An impartial student admits that the historian who represents this
Pope as avaricious and greedy of gain, double-faced in his policy, insatiable
in his lust of conquest, passionate and tyrannical in character, without taking
into account how much in his conduct is entirely, or in great measure, due to
Girolamo Riario, is guilty of a serious error. History belies herself when she
paints her subject in a glare of light, oblivious of the deep contrasting
shadows.
Among the darkest of these shadows is that unfortunate
attachment to his nephews, in spite of his many estimable qualities, which
entangled him in a labyrinth of political complications, from which at last no
honourable exit was possible. The difficulties into which this deplorable
weakness for his relatives led Sixtus IV also had other most injurious effects.
In order to procure the required resources, it was necessary to resort to all
sorts of financial expedients, which resulted in a terrible amount of venality
and corruption. Even before the time of this Pope there existed offices which
could be purchased, and to which were attached certain sources of income. The
revenues of these offices are said to have amounted in 1471 to something like
100,000 scudi. When the danger from Turkey made the want of money more and more
pressing, Sixtus IV further added to this crowd of officials. Four Colleges,
those of the Stipulatori, Giannizzeri, Stradiatori, and Mamelucchi, were
revived by him. While the expense of every Bull or Brief went on constantly
growing, as the host of officials connected with it increased, the Annates were
again raised, and a new tax (Compositio), to be paid
to the Dataria in Rome on collation to a benefice,
imposed. Besides this there was the so-called Quindennien,
a tax to be paid every fifteen years by all benefices subject to Annates, which
dated from the reign of Paul II.
The venality of many of the Court officials, and the
excessive exercise of the Pope’s rights in the matter of taxation, occasioned,
especially in Germany, a feeling of deep dissatisfaction with the Holy See,
which did more than has generally been supposed to pave the way for the subsequent
apostasy. When the great assembly of the clergy of the Metropolitan Churches of
Mainz, Treves, and Cologne was held at Coblence, in
the year 1479, numerous complaints were formulated for transmission to the
Pope. Their principal subjects were the non-observance of the Concordat,
unfair taxation, the great privileges of the Mendicant Orders, and the number
of exemptions.
If, notwithstanding the many imposts levied, the Papal
Treasury was almost always in difficulties, this was due, not only to
extravagant expenses, but also to defective financial administration. Serious
and growing negligence is to be observed in the manner in which the accounts of
the Apostolic Treasury were kept. The monthly audit had become little more than
a formality. The salaries of the officials were often five or eight months, or
even a year or two, in arrears. The deficit, which increased month by month,
necessitated constant loans. Under such circumstances we cannot be surprised to
learn that Sixtus IV at his death left behind him debts to the amount of
150,000 ducats.
This financial pressure led to a considerable
augmentation of indirect taxation in the States of the Church, and also to the
diversion of the revenues of the Roman University to other objects, and the
imposition of taxes on the salaries of the Professors. As Infessura, who was a
member of the teaching staff of this University, speaks with peculiar
bitterness of the injury inflicted on it by Sixtus IV, there is ground for
supposing him to have been among the sufferers. In this circumstance, and in Infessura’s alliance with the Colonna and his Republican
sentiments, may be found the motive of the unmeasured reproaches heaped upon
Sixtus IV, the friend of the Orsini, and the advocate of strongly monarchical
ideas. Violent personal feeling, arising from the position of the author, and
perhaps from his unpleasant experiences, is here openly expressed. We have a
repetition of the relations which existed between Platina and Paul II. Platina
is not an impartial and truthful authority in regard to the builder of the Palace
of S. Marco, neither is Infessura to be trusted when he tells the history of
the head of the Rovere family.
Many abuses no doubt existed in the Rome of those
days, and Girolamo Riario was certainly guilty of many unbecoming actions, but
Infessura is not justified in accusing Sixtus IV of usurious speculation in
corn for his own covetous purposes. The Pope’s great care for Rome of itself
contradicts this statement, and witnesses above suspicion testify to the
relatively favourable condition of the inhabitants of the States of the Church
under Sixtus IV, excepting, of course, in times of war. Philippe de Commines, who
went to Rome with no favourable prejudices, after he had become personally
acquainted with the state of things there, expressed his opinion that the Popes
were wise and well advised, and that, but for the strife between the Colonna
and the Orsini, the dwellers in the States of the Church would be the happiest
people on earth, inasmuch as they paid no poll-tax and practically hardly any
other taxes. If this last statement is to be taken with some reservation, it is
still certain that hardly anywhere, on an average, was the taxation so low as
in the States of the Church.
The history of the speculations in corn of Sixtus IV,
about which Infessura has so much to say, is actually that the magistrate of
the Annona or Abondanza bought corn by his orders,
laid it up in granaries and distributed it to the bakers at a settled price,
according to which the value of bread was regulated. Abuses on the part of the
subordinate officials no doubt occurred; while men are men, such things will
arise in similar cases. But the new system was devised by the Pope in order to
facilitate and secure the provisioning of Rome, and affords no ground for
charging him with usurious dealing in corn. Practically, under the successor of
Sixtus IV, the Annona protected the Roman people from want, when, in the year
1485, the Duke of Calabria was encamped in the Campagna and cut off supplies.
The energetic measures adopted by Sixtus IV, in order to ensure public safety
in Rome and other cities of the States of the Church, as, for example, Perugia,
were appreciated by his contemporaries.
The solicitude of Sixtus IV for the welfare of his
subjects is further evinced by his efforts to check the devastation of the
Campagna, and to promote tillage there, his reintroduction of the Constitution
of Albornoz, his solicitude about the coinage, and his exertions for the
regulation of the rivers, and the drainage of unhealthy places in the States of
the Church. Works of this description were promoted by him in the neighbourhood
of Foligno, and in the Maritima. At the latter spot there was an idea of making
an attempt to dry up the well-known Pontine Marshes. In 1476 the Pope requested
the Duke of Ferrara to send him an hydraulic architect, competent to direct
these difficult works.
The accusations of greed and cruelty, which Infessura
has brought against the Pope, must also be absolutely dismissed. The most
trustworthy authorities, on the contrary, bear witness to the inherent
kindliness which was expressed in his countenance and speech. He was won by the
least token of attachment; the more disposed he himself was to kindness, the
less worthy of further benefits did he esteem those whom he saw to have abused
former ones.
Equally unanimous is the testimony which assures us of
his generosity. He could refuse nothing, so that the pleasure he felt in
satisfying people often made him grant the same appointment to several
troublesome petitioners. Accordingly, for the sake of avoiding
misunderstandings, he found it necessary to entrust to an experienced and firm
man, like John of Montmirabile, the revision of
requests, grants, and presents. Even in the Vatican, the Mendicant Friar so
little understood the value of money that, if he saw any coin on the table, he
could hardly refrain from at once distributing it, through his chamberlains, to
friends or to the poor. His saying, “A stroke of the pen suffices to procure
for a Pope any sum that he desires”, is an evidence of his simplicity in
matters of this kind. No Pontiff was fonder of giving, or of kinder
disposition, and he was always willing to advance men and to bestow honours
upon them. This amiable and benevolent temper of mind led him to adopt, in his
intercourse with those around him, both high and low, a tone of affability and
goodness, and even of expansive confidence, which, in diplomatic negotiations,
often gave cold politicians an advantage over him. His unpleasant experiences
with the Cardinals, who had carried his election, and with Ferrante of Naples,
who was solely influenced by selfish considerations, furnished the reasons
which induced him later on to confide practical affairs to the crafty brothers
Pietro and Girolamo Riario. The foregoing pages have shown the disastrous
influence exercised especially by the latter. Girolamo was like the evil genius
of Sixtus IV; bred in the cloister, and without experience of the world, the
better judgment of Francesco della Rovere succumbed but too often to his
headstrong policy. It may truly be said, that nothing so much tended to obscure
the good, and even brilliant, qualities, of this Pope, as his inability to
shake himself free from influences which stained his honour. It may be
asked how such weakness can be reconciled with the great energy often
manifested in the conduct of Sixtus IV; the best answer is, in the words of Melozzo’s biographer, that his was one of those peculiar
characters which are capable at times of strong efforts of will, during which
they display really commanding ability, but which are followed by intervals of
weakness and indifference which seem necessary to enable them to collect their
forces again. The crafty Girolamo relentlessly turned these weaker moments to
account.
Side by side with many excellent and praiseworthy
qualities, we see in Sixtus IV. great defects and failings; there are many
bright points, but there are also dark shadows.
If our unbiassed researches lead us, for the most
part, to dismiss the intemperate accusations brought against Sixtus IV by a
partisan of the Colonna like Infessura, on the other hand, they forbid us to
look upon him as an ideal Pope. Francesco della Rovere was admirable as General
of his Order; the contemplation of his pontificate awakens mingled feelings in
our minds. It is but too true that the father of Christendom often disappears
behind the figure of the Italian prince; that, in the exaltation of his own
kindred, he exceeded all due bounds, and allowed himself to be led into worldly
ways, and that great relaxation in ecclesiastical discipline and manifold
abuses prevailed in his reign, although they were not unaccompanied by measures
of reform. Egidius of Viterbo may be guilty of exaggeration in dating the
period of decadence from his pontificate, yet there can be no doubt that he
steered the Barque of St. Peter into dangerous and rock-strewn waters.
In his relations to learning and art Sixtus IV appears
to far greater advantage than in the sphere of ecclesiastical policy. When we
remember that this man was a poor Friar, suddenly transformed into the
mightiest Pontiff of his age, we are struck with astonishment at finding
nowhere in him the least trace of the straitened surroundings of his youth and
early training. Instead of the narrowness and pettiness we should expect, we
find him entering into the spirit of the past, and making the magnificent taste
of the day his own to a degree that no other Pope had done. We see him vying
with the most renowned Italian Princes in raising his capital from the dust and
degradation of centuries of ruin to be a seat of splendour, a worthy and
beautiful abode; endeavouring not merely to place her on an equality with the
greatest cities of Italy, but to make her once more the intellectual literary
and artistic centre of the world. Noting all this, we are filled with respect
for a man so capable and so powerful, in spite of some violence in his temper
and inequalities in his character. Notwithstanding all his faults, there is
something imposing in the first of the Rovere Popes; we are constrained to
admire him, and, without hesitation, place him on a level with his predecessor,
Nicholas V, and his nephew and successor, Julius II.
CHAPTER XII.
Sixtus IV as the Patron of Art and Learning.—(a.) Refounding and Opening of the Vatican Library—The
Capitoline Museum—The Frescoes of the Sistine Chapel.
One title to renown, possessed by Sixtus IV, is
uncontested; he was unwearied in his zeal for the promotion of art and
learning. Fresh from the poverty of the Franciscan Convent in which his earlier
days had been spent, and from the arduous philosophical and theological studies
which had occupied his mind, Francesco della Rovere, on his elevation to the
Chair of St. Peter, at once set to work to adorn Rome with the most precious
and varied works of art and learning, and to raise her to the position of the chief
city of the Christian world, and the artistic and literary centre of the
Renaissance. The prosecution of the great work of Nicholas V was the ideal
which filled his mind, and, amid all the political and ecclesiastical
perplexities which troubled the thirteen years of his reign, the realization of
this ideal was pursued with a steadfast earnestness which even his opponents
were constrained to admire. In the history of Intellectual Culture the name of
Sixtus IV must ever find an honourable place, together with those of Nicholas
V, Julius II, and Leo X.
It may safely be said that, in regard to the
development of the Renaissance in Rome, Sixtus IV occupies a position similar
to that of Lorenzo de' Medici in Florence. If the Golden Age which he
introduced was often the subject of exaggerated praise from the admirers of his
brilliant literary Court, it is nevertheless true that he has a right to be
numbered among the most popular National Popes.
I.
Of all the works undertaken by Sixtus IV none has a
greater claim on the sympathy and interest of the historian than the
re-establishment of the Vatican Library, and its opening for general use. This
most admirable of all his foundations occupied the Pope even in the earliest
months of his pontificate. On the 17th December, 1471, he took the first step
towards rescuing the forgotten Library of Nicholas V, and providing the
necessary accommodation for its preservation. As time went on, he adopted the
idea of Nicholas V in its fullest extent, and made further additions to the
treasures which had been saved. He endeavoured to procure valuable manuscripts,
ancient codices, and modern copies from all parts, so that a bookdealer like
Vespasiano da Bisticci speaks of the Pope's love of
collecting as marking a new epoch, from which he occasionally dates, although,
as a Florentine, he is not otherwise favourably disposed towards this Pope.
The zeal with which Sixtus IV, assisted by Platina,
Jacobo di Volterra, Lionardi Dati, Domizio Calderino, Mattia Palmieri, and Sigismondo de' Conti,
laboured to increase the Vatican Library is evidenced by the fact that in 1475
it contained no less than 2527 volumes, 770 of which were Greek and 1757 Latin.
Between 1475 and 1484, 1000 more were added, bringing the number up to more
than 3500 volumes, something like three times as many as appear in Nicholas V’s
Inventory drawn up twenty years before. In order to appreciate the importance
of the collection, let us remember that ten years later the library of the
wealthy Medici contained about a thousand Manuscripts.
In the collection of Pope Sixtus IV we observe a
decided preponderance of ecclesiastical works. Theology, Philosophy, and
Patristic Literature form its chief contents. The Inventory of 1475 mentions 26
volumes of St. Chrysostom's writings, 28 of St. Ambrose, 31 of St. Gregory, 41
of Canon Law, 51 of Records of Councils, 51 of the works of St. Thomas, 57 of
St. Jerome, and 81 of St. Augustine. The Old and New Testaments occupy 59
volumes, and Glosses on the Scripture 98. Celebrated Greek authors are represented
by 109 volumes, and there are 116 on religious subjects by less-known writers
of the same nation. Compared with the collection of Nicholas V, the total
absence of any writings in the vernacular is a defect. The classics occupy the
second place; there are 14 volumes of the works of Seneca, 53 of the Latin
Poets, 70 of Greek Poetry and Grammar, 125 of Roman, and 59 of Grecian History.
The Latin writers on Astrology and Geometry contribute 19, and Greek
Astrologers 49 volumes; Latin Philosophers 103, and Greek 94. There were 55
Latin and 14 Greek works on Medicine.
The first Librarian of the Vatican under Sixtus IV was Giandrea Bussi, Bishop of Aleria, a man of classical
culture. The appointment of this ardent promoter of the art of typography in
Rome renders it probable that the productions of the printing-press were not
excluded from the Papal collection. An Inventory of the year 1483 distinguishes
between printed books and Manuscripts.
Bussi, who died in the Jubilee Year, was succeeded by
Bartolomeo Platina. New and regular revenues were, at the same time, assigned
by the Pope to the Library, and energetic measures were taken for the recovery
of books which had been borrowed and not restored. Platina received a yearly
salary of 120 ducats and apartments. Three officials, called Scriptores or Custodes, were placed under
him, and also a bookbinder. They were paid 12 ducats a year each, and were
generously supported by Sixtus IV in every way that he could. One of them,
Demetrius of Lucca, was a man of considerable learning. Platina soon died, and
his place was filled by Bartolomeo Manfredi, surnamed Aristophilo,
Secretary to Cardinal Roverella. In July, 1484, the new Librarian went, by the
Pope’s desire, to Urbino and Rimini to copy Manuscripts.
The appointment of Platina, the employment of
subordinate officials, and the assignment of a regular income were the first
steps towards the reorganization of this noble Institution, which soon acquired
a worldwide reputation. On the 1st July, 1477, Sixtus IV published another Bull
regarding the revenues of the Library and the stipend of its custodians. In the
introduction to this Bull, he says that the objects of this Institution are the
exaltation of the Church militant, the spread of the Catholic Faith, and the
advancement of learning.
Another important work of the Pope was the separation
of the Manuscript books from the Documents and Archives. A special place,
called the Bibliotheca Secreta, was prepared, in which the Documents arranged
by Platina were to be preserved in walnutwood chests.
The whole room was wainscoted, and the free space on the walls above adorned
with frescoes in chiaroscuro. This costly undertaking must have been completed
in the latter part of the Summer of 1480.
Documents of special importance had, from the
beginning of the 15th Century, been kept at St. Angelo. Having regard to the
troubled state of the times, Sixtus IV caused the Charters containing the chief
privileges of the Roman Church to be transferred to this place of safety, after
authentic copies of them had been made by Urbino Fieschi and Platina.
The Library proper consisted, until 1480, of two halls
opening into each other, one for the Latin and the other for the Greek
Manuscripts. From the registers of payments it appears that, in the summer of
1480, Sixtus IV added a third hall, which was distinguished by the name of the
Great Library, and was in all probability situated on the other side of the
Cortile del Papagallo, beneath the Sistine Chapel.
Its walls and ceiling were painted by Melozzo, with the assistance of Antoniasso. Twenty-five years later, Albertini wrote a
description of the Library, which is shorter than we could wish. He places the
three portions of the Public Institution in juxtaposition, so as to separate
the Library from the Secret Archives. “In the Apostolic Palace at the Vatican”,
he writes, “is that glorious Library, built by Sixtus IV, with his portrait
exquisitely painted and the epigram beneath. There are also paintings of the
Doctors, with other verses, which I give in my collection of epigrams. Beside
this Library is another, called the Greek one, also built by Sixtus, together
with the chamber of the Custodians. There is, moreover, a third very beautiful
Library, also erected by Sixtus IV, in which are the Codices adorned with gold,
silver, and silk bindings. I saw Virgil’s works in this hall, written in
capital letters, besides geometrical, astronomical, and other instruments
connected with the liberal arts, which are also decorated with gold, silver,
and paintings”. Albertini then proceeds to speak of the Secret Library (Bibliotheca
Secreta), which had been rearranged by Julius II.
The Great Library, which contained the collection of
ancient Manuscripts, had the advantage of the two other halls in being
well-lighted by a large glass window containing the arms of the Rovere family.
The German glass-maker Hermann had been obliged to bring this himself from
Venice. Here stood the long tables to which the Manuscripts were secured by
little chains—just as they now are in the splendid Laurenziana at Florence; but in the 15th Century the comfort of scholars was more
considered than it is in the 19th. In the cold and damp winter days the grand
Library was warmed. Although the Manuscripts were chained, they were most
liberally lent out. Platina’s list of books lent is preserved, and shows that
several volumes were entrusted at once to the same person. Among those who
availed themselves of the literary treasures of this Library, were the Pope
himself, Cardinal Giuliano, numerous Bishops and Prelates, Johannes Argyropulos, Sigismondo de' Conti, Pomponius Laetus,
Johannes Philippus de Lignamine, Hieronymus Balbanus, Augustinus Patritius,
Jacobus Volaterranus, Francesco de Toledo, and
others. The negligence of some borrowers compelled the administrators from the
year 1480 to require pledges to be deposited for books lent.
The reorganization of the Vaticana,
and its opening to the public, would suffice to secure for Sixtus IV. an
abiding record in the history of scholars. But his other efforts for the
promotion of learning were by no means inconsiderable.
In the early days of his pontificate, the Humanists
seem to have felt much anxiety as to the attitude the former Franciscan friar
might adopt in regard to their pursuits. This feeling is evidenced by a work
which Sigismondo de' Conti dedicated to the Pope, reminding him that Nicholas
V, the most famous Pontiff of the age, had gained great renown by his patronage
of scholars. Sigismondo warned Sixtus IV not to attach too little importance to
the opinion of the learned, and to what might be written of him by celebrated
men. He reminded him of the words of Francesco Sforza, who said that the wound
of a dagger was less to be dreaded than that of a satirical poem. In
conclusion, the anxious Humanist again begged the Pope to show honour to men
who were in a position to preserve his name from oblivion and to immortalize
his actions.
Exhortations of this kind were not needed. Sixtus IV
perfectly understood the importance of the Renaissance; he was well aware that
the Humanists were indispensable, and that it was impossible, on account of
some isolated excesses, to adopt a position of antagonism towards the
intellectual life so ardently cultivated on all sides. “Full of intellect and
of taste for high culture”, the ex-general of the Mendicant Order from the
first resolved “to surround the Papal Throne and his own relations with all that
could give him prestige in the eyes of the world”. Although the attraction
which the Eternal City exercises on lovers of antiquity had already drawn a
numerous colony of learned men to Rome, the Pope constantly sought to add to
their number. One of his greatest acquisitions was Johannes Argyropulos of Constantinople, the most highly gifted among the Greeks who had migrated to
Italy. In winning him to Rome, Sixtus IV gained a victory over the Medici, in
whose service he had been for some time. Argyropulos was very successful there. He had the satisfaction of numbering amongst his
hearers men of the greatest distinction, Bishops and Cardinals, and even
notable foreigners such as Johann Reuchlin. Angelo Poliziano was also his disciple. The worthy Bartholomaus Fontiuswas appointed to a Professorial Chair in the Roman University under Sixtus IV. In
1473 Martino Filetico became Professor of Rhetoric in
that Institution. Even non-Italian scholars were summoned by the Pope to Rome.
Among these, was, in 1475, the famous Regiomontanus (Johann Muller of
Konigsberg in Franconia). Unfortunately, this great discoverer, who, by the
Pope's desire, would have assisted in the work of reforming the Calendar, died
in July, I476.
But the ambition of Sixtus IV was not yet satisfied.
He desired to win for his beloved Rome the prince of the neoplatonic philosophy, the scholar whose writings cast a halo of glory over Florence.
Several of the Cardinals supported him in this project. Marsilio Ficino,
however, was bound to the Medici by bonds which could not be severed. He
requited the Pope’s gracious summons by a letter couched in the most flattering
terms.
The Roman Humanists in the time of Sixtus IV formed a
very brilliant circle. While Pomponius Laetus lived almost entirely by his
labours as a Professor, Platina wrote his History of the Popes, Campanus
composed his elegies and epigrams, Aurelio Brandolini charmed even the
unpoetical Pope with his verses, while a bevy of youthful writers produced
Latin poems of more or less merit. The favour shown by Sixtus IV to Gasparo and
Francesco, the sons of Flavio Biondi, showed his willingness to reward the
services rendered by departed scholars. Johannes Philippus de Lignamine, the editor of many ancient authors, was in his
service. His kinsman, Philippus de Lignamine, a
Dominican, continued Ricobaldo’s Chronicle of the
Popes down to the year 1469, and dedicated his work to Sixtus IV.
His pontificate was very fruitful in historical works.
The example of Pius II in writing the history of his own time produced many
imitators. Sigismondo de' Conti holds the first place amongst these. His
“Contemporary History”, in seventeen books, comprising the period from 1475 to
1510 ensures him an honourable mention among the Cinquecento writers.
Sigismondo, who is spoken of with the greatest respect by contemporaneous
authors, was a Christian Humanist. These men, the sympathetic outcome of the
age of the Renaissance, had themselves experienced the antagonism between the
ancient classical world and the mediaeval point of view, but able justly to
distinguish between the means and the end, were not blinded by the splendour of
the past, and held fast to the principles of Christianity. Sigismondo requited
the favours of Sixtus IV and the Rovere by a frequent and far too partial
mention of them in his work, which otherwise is both trustworthy and candid.
Jacopo Gherardi of Volterra (Volaterranus), attracted
by Pope Sixtus IV to the Court of Rome, followed the example of his first
patron, Cardinal Ammanati, by writing Memoirs of his time. Mattia Palmieri of
Pisa, Papal Scriptor, who died in 1482, continued the
chronicle of his famous Florentine namesake, Matteo Palmieri.
Notwithstanding the love of literature which
distinguished Sixtus IV, the unfortunate circumstances of the time robbed the
Roman University of much of her splendour. The revenues destined for the
maintenance of the Institution were often employed in the war, and taxes were
imposed on the salaries of the Professors. Different posts connected with the
University came by purchase into unworthy hands.
Sixtus IV also encouraged literary men by appointments
to diplomatic Missions. In 1476 Georgios Hermonymos went to England as Orator to the English Embassy, and in 1482 Sigismondo de'
Conti, who had previously accompanied Cardinal Giuliano to the Netherlands, was
sent to Florence. Johannes Philippus de Lignamine had, in 1475, the honour of welcoming the King of Naples at Velletri, and was
subsequently entrusted with Missions to Mantua and Sicily.
The excessive self-esteem of these favoured Humanists
often took a very offensive form. Theodoros Gaza, considering the payment given
him by the Pope for his translation of Aristotle’s Animals insufficient, is
said to have scornfully cast it into the Tiber. The anecdote may be an
invention, but it exemplifies the insolence and greed of many Humanists, one of
whom, George of Trebizond, even went so far as to beg money from the Sultan, to
whom he wrote two fulsome letters. Francesco Filelfo, who made presents and
money the chief subject of his verses, was even more covetous. If the insolent
petitions of this insatiable man were not favourably received he revenged
himself by the coarsest invectives. Each new Pope was addressed immediately
upon his elevation by the “King of importunate poets”, and if, like Pius II, he
failed to satisfy the immense expectations of the petitioner, was loaded with
abuse. The attacks which this most repulsive of Humanists made on the memory of
the departed Pius II were so horrible, that the College of Cardinals caused him
to be imprisoned at the very time when he was striving to obtain a place at the
Court. On the accession of Sixtus IV, Filelfo renewed his efforts in this
direction. The Pope at first gave him no encouragement, and Filelfo’s flatteries soon changed to complaints, and finally to threats. When he was
summoned to Rome in 1474, he owed his appointment mainly to the dread of his
pen. Filelfo was employed for three years as Professor at the Roman University;
dissensions were not wanting during this period; the most important was his
quarrel with Miliaduca Cicada, Master of the Papal
Treasury. For the first time, however, he was delighted with the City, its
climate, the exuberance and elegance of its life, and, above all, with the
incredible liberty which there prevailed.
The incredible liberty was most strikingly displayed
in the permission given by the Pope to the Roman Academy to resume their
meetings, which had been suppressed. Sixtus IV looked upon Humanism as a purely
literary movement in no way dangerous to religion. The apprehensions which the
extravagances and the heathen tendencies of many literary men had awakened in
the mind of his predecessor were not shared by him. He may also have thought
that the Humanists had had their lesson and taken it to heart. Pomponius Laetus
was again perfectly free to lecture, and the Academy held its sittings without
the slightest hindrance. The spectacle was a strange one. While a Minorite
occupied the Papal Throne the worship of antiquity, with its excesses as well
as its good side, flourished unrebuked, and no offence seems to have been taken
at the pontificate of Pomponius Laetus. The assemblies at his house on the
Quirinal near the Gardens of Constantine were more brilliant than ever. The
Academy was openly recognized, and this, in fact, was the simplest way of
rendering it harmless. High dignitaries of the Church were on friendly terms
with it. On the 20th April, 1483, when the Academicians celebrated the birthday
of Rome, a solemn High Mass, followed by a discourse from Paulus Marsus, preceded the banquet, at which six Bishops were
present. At this Academic Feast the Privilegium,
by which the Emperor Frederick granted to the body the right of conferring the
title of Doctor and crowning Poets, was publicly read.
In his treatment of Platina, one of the most violent
members of the Academy, Sixtus IV showed great tact and knowledge of human
nature. He managed to win this ringleader of the opposition by treating him as
an old friend, and assigned to him successively two tasks, which removed all
danger of anti-Papal dispositions, by enlisting all his energies and talents in
the service of the very power against which he had rebelled. He first
encouraged him to write a History of the Popes, and then requested him to make
a collection of all the Documents regarding the rights of the Holy See. By the
end of the year 1474, or the beginning of 1475, Platina was able to offer his
History of the Popes to his august patron. It is, in many respects, a
remarkable work for the period in which it was written. Instead of the confused
and often fabulous Chronicles of the Middle Ages, we find here for the first
time a clear and serviceable handbook of real history. The graphic
descriptions, the elegant, perspicuous, and yet concise, style of the work have
won for Platina’s Lives of the Popes many readers even down to the present day.
In his Preface, which is addressed to Sixtus IV,
Platina begins by emphasizing, in the Humanistic style, the dignity and
importance of history. His declaration that he will, on principle, avoid
applying expressions belonging to classical heathenism to Christian subjects,
is remarkable. He begins his work with Christ, “so that, springing from the
Emperor of Christians as from a living fountain, it may flow on through the
Roman Bishops down to the days of Sixtus”. In the lives of the earliest Popes,
Platina repeatedly mentions the ancient monuments with admiration. “In the
Church of Sant' Andrea near Santa Maria Maggiore”, he writes, in his life of
Simplicius, “as I looked at the relics of antiquity which it contains, tears
often filled my eyes at the neglect of those whose duty it is to preserve it
from decay”.
The critical acumen repeatedly manifested by Platina
is worthy of note, though he keeps this faculty under restraint, not wishing to
interrupt the flow of his narrative. The freedom with which, in a work
dedicated to Sixtus IV, he treats of the faults of both the older and the more
recent Popes, is to be commended, and does equal honour to the author and to
his patron. It is all the more painful to find that, in dealing with the life
of his former adversary, Paul II, Platina has been unable to rise to the height
of an impartial historian. Death is a great peacemaker, and it might have been
expected that, when Paul II was no longer on earth, Platina would have done
justice to his memory. This, however, is by no means the case. The labours of
Paul II are described in a very one-sided manner, and indeed often willfully travestied and ridiculed. Even in passages in
which there is no occasion for mentioning this Pope, Platina seeks one, in
order to give vent to his hatred. This is all the more to be deplored, inasmuch
as the biographies of the Popes of the Renaissance period constitute the only
original portion of his work.
Platina’s language, also, in speaking of the
ecclesiastical affairs of his own time, is often very intemperate. Strangely
enough, these outbreaks do not occur in the lives of the 15th Century Popes,
but are interpolated in those of an earlier period. They are, in fact, masked
attacks. When writing of Dionysius I, Platina drags in complaints of the pomp
and pride of the higher clergy. In the histories of Julius I, Socinus I, and
Boniface III he introduces censures, obviously aimed at the clergy of the 15th
Century. The immorality of Sixtus IV’s Cardinals is severely castigated in the
biography of Stephen III. A still more violent passage is inserted in his
account of Gregory IV. There was doubtless good cause for his animadversions,
but they come somewhat strangely from a man whose own life was so dissolute.
Platina, however, is guilty of a worse fault, when, in dealing with the reign
of John XXII, he repeats the assertion of the party of the opposition, who
maintained that the Pope contradicted Scripture, in saying that Christ
possessed no property. The truthfulness of this historian may be gauged by the
frivolous inscriptions discovered to have been written by some of the Roman
Academicians in the Catacombs of S. Callisto, on the occasion on which he
describes himself as having visited it out of devotion J with a few friends.
We cannot but be surprised that Sixtus IV accepted the
dedication of a work like Platina’s. Probably he was only acquainted with its
contents in so far as they concerned the history of his own pontificate. This
portion, which comes down to November, 1474, contained nothing but what would
have given him perfect satisfaction. This feeling found expression in Platina’s
appointment as Librarian of the Vatican in the following year. While he
occupied this post, the Pope commissioned him to arrange the collection of
Documents containing the Privileges of the Roman Church, which are now
preserved in three volumes in the Vatican Archives. This useful work, which is
invaluable to the annalists of the Church, was brought to a conclusion during
the war with Florence. Here, also, Platina proved his critical discernment in
excluding the Donation of Constantine from his collection of Documents. The
Preface to the work is interesting, inasmuch as Platina not only avoids
everything of an anti-Papal tendency, but also speaks with approval of the
proceedings of the Popes against heretics and schismatics. There appears to be
no doubt that Sixtus IV succeeded in completely winning him over to the cause
of the Church. The same may also be said in regard to the proud Pomponius Laetus,
who now composed poems in honour of Sixtus IV.
Platina died in 1481. His friends, among whom were
some Bishops, celebrated the anniversary of his death in the Church of Sta
Maria Maggiore, where he was buried. Mass was said by the Bishop of
Ventimiglia, an Augustinian, and the tomb was sprinkled with holy water and
incensed.
Pomponius Laetus, the President of the Academy, then
mounted the pulpit to pronounce an oration in memory of his departed friend.
Jacobus Volaterranus informs us that it was of a
thoroughly religious and serious character. A poet from Perugia, named Astreus, then, from the same pulpit, recited an elegy in
verse, lamenting his loss! That such a thing could have been done is indeed an
evidence of that incredible liberty so triumphantly praised by Filelfo. We
cannot, however, suppose that serious men could fail to disapprove, when, in
the very sanctuary of the Queen of Heaven, just after the Mass for the Dead, a
layman, without the least token of any spiritual office, pronounced, from the
pulpit, verses which, although very elegant, yet—as Volaterranus remarks—were quite alien to our religion, and out of keeping with the sacred
function which had just taken place. The Rome of that day was indeed full of
strange contrasts, against which no one protested. Christian and heathen
Humanism are to be seen walking side by side in daily life, and apparently
incommoding each other as little as did the reforms and abuses which prevailed
together in the Church.
II.
During his long pontificate, Sixtus IV did
incomparably more for the promotion of Art than for that of Literature. It has
been justly observed, that the artistic activity of the 15th Century reached
its climax in Rome in his days. Francesco della Rovere started with the firm
determination of carrying on the work of Nicholas V, in adorning the capital of
the Christian world with all that sheds lustre on a secular power. But as his
individual character differed widely from that of the first patron of Art among
the Popes, the manner in which he proceeded naturally differed also. Sixtus
had, in common with Nicholas V, that love of the ideal which was so strong in
the earlier Pope, but he confined himself to what was practical and possible,
and did not let his imagination run wild in gigantic projects. Accordingly,
Sixtus IV had the happiness of reigning long enough to accomplish the greater
part of what he had undertaken. The verses from the pen of Platina, on the
opening of the Vatican Library, which adorn the portrait of Melozzo da Forli,
tell, in a few words, what Sixtus did for Rome :—
Templa domum expositus; vicos, fora, moenia, pontes :
Virgineam Trivii quod repararis aquam.
Prisca licet nautis statuas dare commoda portus :
Et Vaticanum cingere Sixte ingum :
Plus tamen Urbs debet : nam quae squalore latebat :
Cermitur (sic) in celebri bibliotheca loco.
The approach of the Jubilee Year was, as we have
shown, the primary occasion of the external renovation of the Eternal City, and
her transformation from the mediaeval type to one in keeping with the advancing
needs of the age. At the present day there are but few parts of Rome that give
any idea of the City as it was four hundred years ago. There was an irregular
collection of narrow, crooked, and dirty streets, in which the common
requirements of a great town were utterly neglected. In many cases, projecting
porticoes, stalls, and balconies seriously obstructed the ordinary traffic, not
to speak of that which might be expected in the Jubilee Year. In some places,
two horsemen could not pass each other. Pavements, with the exception of some
which had been begun in the time of Nicholas V, were almost unknown, either in
the middle of the streets or alongside of the houses. Into this gloomy and
unhealthy chaos Sixtus IV, following the schemes of Nicholas V, first brought
air and light. The most important streets were paved, and it then became
possible to think of cleansing them. We have already spoken of the difficulties
encountered in the work of widening the streets, which was undertaken in
preparation for the Jubilee Year. The Pope, however, was not to be deterred
from it. In January, 1480, he began by the removal of the armourers’ shops on
the Bridge of S. Angelo. The Romans at first opposed this innovation, but soon
became reconciled to what was a real benefit. In June of the same year an order
was promulgated, requiring that in all the most frequented streets projections
should be cleared away, pavements laid down, at least at the sides, houses
jutting out into the street wholly or partially removed, the ruined ones
rebuilt, new squares laid out and those already existing widened and made more
symmetrical. Cardinal d'Estouteville was to superintend these improvements. The
Pope himself came from time to time to ascertain personally how his directions
were being carried out.
In the Leonine City he laid out a handsome street,
originally known by his own name, extending from the moat of the Castle to the
great gate of the Papal Palace (now Borgo S. Angelo); a third street here met
the old Via de' Cavalli, which took much the same direction as the present
Borgo Sto Spirito, and the old Via Santa, now Borgo
Vecchio. The erection of the Ponte Sisto effected a complete transformation in
that part of the City which lay on the right bank of the Tiber. Sigismondo de'
Conti says that, in consequence of the accommodation afforded by the Bridge,
this dirty and uninhabited district became thickly populated. Distinguished
persons built houses there, and, even to the present day, the Vicolo Riario, near the Corsini Palace, remains as a
memento of the villa belonging to that family which was situated there.
Besides all that he did for the Library, Sixtus IV
carried on other works of restoration in the Vatican, and built the Chapel
which bears his name. The interior of the Palace was fitted up anew, and a
barrack erected for the guard. The roof of St. Peter’s, its Sacristy, and the
Chapel of S. Petronilla were restored, and the Tabernacle of the Confession
and the Chapel of the Immaculate Conception were constructed.
We have already spoken of the restoration of the
churches before and during the Jubilee Year. These works were very rapidly
carried on, and Sixtus IV also found time for building new churches. Foremost
among these we must mention Sta Maria del Popolo, begun in 1472, and Sta Maria
della Pace, both of which are worthy memorials of the Pope’s devotion to the
Queen of Heaven. Sta Maria del Popolo is a Basilica, with three naves
surrounded by chapels, and with an octagonal dome supported on a drum, the
first of the kind erected in Rome; unlike the other buildings of the period,
which were, for the most part, very hurriedly built, the facade of the year
1477 is a good specimen of pure Renaissance.
Sta Maria del Popolo was the favourite church of the
Pope and of the Rovere family. Sixtus IV visited it almost every week, and the
chief events of his reign were mostly celebrated there.
The Cardinals, especially his nephews, followed the
Pope’s example. Two Churches and palatial Convents, S. Pietro in Vincoli and
SS. Apostoli, are, in their entirety, memorials of the Rovere. In the
first-named Basilica, Cardinal Giuliano continued the work of his uncle, and in
the latter, that of the nephew, Pietro Riario. This Cardinal also restored the
portico of S. Agnese.
The Castles of Grottaferrata and Ostia, in the
neighbourhood of Rome, are also abiding monuments of the powerful Cardinal.
After the death of Bessarion, Grottaferrata was granted in commendam to Giuliano, who at once began to build there. On account of the strategical
importance of its position, the Convent was surrounded by a fortification.
Those who have visited the Alban hills will remember this incomparably
picturesque group of buildings at the foot of the green hills of Tusculum, on a
smooth space overshadowed by old elms and plane-trees. The Castle of Ostia is
of kindred character—even now, in its decay, the most beautiful ruin of the
later mediaeval period in the vicinity of Rome; but the surrounding landscape
is very different. Grottaferrata lies amidst rich fields and fruitful hills;
about Ostia is a melancholy, silent tract of barren, low-lying ground, formed
of rubbish and sand-hills, through which the yellow, sluggish stream makes its
way to the sea. A long inscription on the principal tower of the Castle records
that Giuliano of Savona erected this stronghold as a refuge from the perils of
the sea, a protection to the Roman Campagna, a defense to Ostia, and to the mouth of the Tiber. He began it in the reign of Pope
Sixtus IV, his uncle, and concluded the work by digging out, at his own
expense, the moat which had been silted up by the river in the time of Pope
Innocent VIII, in the year of Salvation 1486, the 2115th after the building of
Ostia, the 2129th after Ancus, the founder of the city. The architect of the
Castle at Ostia and probably also of the fortifications at Grottaferrata, was
the celebrated Giuliano Giamberti, surnamed da San
Gallo.
Before Cardinal Giuliano built the Castle of Ostia,
the wealthy d'Estouteville, its Bishop, had provided the ruined city with
walls, streets, and houses. In 1479, d'Estouteville, who had, two years
previously, succeeded Orsini as Camerlengo, began to rebuild the Church of S.
Agostino in Rome : this work was completed in four years. He was also a great
benefactor to other Roman Churches, especially to Sta Maria Maggiore and S.
Luigi de' Francesi.
Mention has already been made of the buildings erected
by Cardinal Domenico della Rovere. Girolamo Basso della Rovere completed the
Pilgrimage Church at Loreto, and caused the Cappella del Tesoro to be painted
by Melozzo da Forli; the paintings, which are in excellent preservation, are
very original and striking. Another important edifice of this time was the
Palace of Cardinal Stefano Nardini (Palazzo del Governo Vecchio), built in
1475. It is the last Roman Palace which still retains something of the character
of the mediaeval fortress.
It would take too long to go further into details. The
relations of Sixtus IV were undoubtedly admirable patrons of Arts; the armorial
bearings of Riario Rovere and Basso on many ancient piles bear witness to their
splendid achievements in this line.
Sixtus also did much in the way of restoring the
bridges, walls, gates, towers, and other buildings of the City. At the Capitol
these works were connected with the opening of a museum of antiquities, the
first public collection of the kind in Italy, and indeed in Europe. The
practical Sixtus IV, by admitting the public to visit the collection, rendered
it more popular than it had been in the time of its founder, Paul II. Museums
now began to appear everywhere in connection with and as supplementing the Libraries.
The characters of distinguished men frequently present great contradictions,
and we find Sixtus IV, almost simultaneously with the opening of the Capitoline
Museum, dispersing many of the costly treasures of the Palace of S. Marco. With
similar inconsistency, he restored the equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelius and
destroyed many ancient temples and triumphal arches. But, however great the
injury he may have inflicted on the ancient monuments, it was more than
outweighed by his artistic embellishment of Rome, to which he imparted a
completely new aspect. In order to encourage building in his capital, and to
increase the number of its inhabitants, he had, in 1475, conferred the right of
ownership on all who should build houses within the City district.
One of the most beneficial works accomplished by
Sixtus IV. was the restoration of the Hospital of Sto Spirito, a foundation of Innocent III, which had fallen into decay. Pity for
children deserted by unnatural mothers induced this Pope, whom his enemies
depict as another Nero, to adopt Eugenius IV’s undertaking. When Sixtus IV, in
his frequent visits to the dilapidated house, saw these poor, forsaken children
at play, his heart was touched, and he decided to have the Hospital thoroughly
rebuilt and richly endowed. He engaged the best Architects, hired a number of
labourers, and commenced operations at once. Sixtus IV considerably extended
the original plan; he provided portions for the girls as they grew up, so that
they might not be exposed, without resources, to the temptations of the world.
Although the building was certainly hurried on for the Jubilee Year, it was not
until 1482 that the works were completed. The Architect of the whole is unknown
he could not have been Baccio Pontelli, who, until 1482, lived at Pisa and
Urbino, not in Rome. Sixtus IV also showed his predilection for the Order of
the Holy Ghost and for the Hospital by a grant of various privileges and an
increase of its fixed revenues. Following the example of Eugenius IV, he
re-established the confraternity in the spring of 1478, and himself became a
member. All the Cardinals and the whole Court followed him. From that time
forward, it became more and more the custom to enter this pious society. The
Confraternity-book of Sto Spirito has accordingly
become, in its way, a unique collection of autographs.
The magnificent scale on which the reconstruction of
this Hospital was carried out, so that even Alberti was satisfied with it, is
an abiding memorial of the benevolence of Sixtus IV. Much pains were bestowed
on the decoration of the interior; the spacious and airy hall for the sick was
ornamented with frescoes as far as the tops of the windows, and above them with
a broad frieze of pictures arranged in panels. Attention has recently been
directed to these half-faded paintings, which are of the ancient Umbrian type.
They portray the foundation of the Hospital by Innocent III, and, in a very
attractive form, the life of Sixtus IV from his birth. The inscriptions under
them are from the pen of Bartolomeo Platina.
The architectural works of Sixtus IV extended to
almost all the cities of the States of the Church, and even as far as Savona
and Avignon. Assisi, Bertinoro, Bieda, Bologna, Caprarola, Cascia, Cesena, Citerna,
Citta di Castello, Civita Vecchia, Corneto, Fano, Foligno, Forli, Monticelli, Nepi, Orvieto, Ronciglione, Santa
Marinella, Soriano, Spoleto, Sutri, Terracina,
Tivoli, Todi, Tolfa, Veroli, and Viterbo, were all,
in this respect, indebted to this Pontiff.
It is worthy of remark that Sixtus IV’s patronage of
the Arts was universal in its character. Sculpture was encouraged in the
persons of Verocchio and Pollajuolo,
and he also did much for the promotion of the minor arts; medallists,
engravers, glassmakers, cabinetmakers, goldsmiths, weavers, and embroiderers
were all employed by him, and he also took an interest in pottery.
In his orders for Works of Art, the Pope did not spare
expense, as is evident from the fact that the Tiara made for him cost over
100,000 ducats. In this, as in all other things, he fully realized that the
duties of a Pope are very different from those of the General of a Mendicant
Order.
The artistic chronicle of this pontificate is not yet
exhausted. Sixtus IV seems to have been even more active as a promoter of
painting than as a builder. His practical spirit was shown in his command, that
the painters settled in Rome should form themselves into a Guild and draw up
statutes; and this was the beginning of the famous Academy of St. Luke.
Sixtus IV was, in fact, for Painters what Nicholas V
had been for Architects. We find, employed in his service, men whose names are
held in honour by the whole civilized world: Ghirlandajo,
Botticelli, Signorelli, Perugino, Pinturicchio, and finally, the great Melozzo
da Forli.
This last-named artist was specially in touch with the
stately characteristics of the Rovere family. Everyone who has visited the
Vatican galleries must remember Melozzo’s picture of
Sixtus IV, surrounded by his kindred, appointing Platina Prefect of the Vaticana. This was originally a fresco, and was afterwards
transferred to canvas. If no other work of Melozzo’s had been preserved, this one, which captivates the eye at once by its simple
and reposeful presentation of clearly defined personalities, would suffice to
give us a very high idea of the painter’s power.
This magnificent picture was painted in 1476 and 1477.
In the following year the master was working at Loreto, in 1479 he decorated
the Chapel of the Choir in St. Peter’s, and during 1480 and 1481 he was fully
occupied in painting the Vatican Library. Vasari does not mention any of these
works, or, indeed, any one of Melozzo’s, with the
exception of his picture of the Ascension in the Church of SS. Apostoli. This,
the most splendid masterpiece produced in Rome during the pontificate of Sixtus
IV, was unfortunately destroyed, all but a few fragments, when the church was
rebuilt in 1711. Vasari, who saw it, speaks of it with enthusiasm. “The figure
of Christ”, he says, “is so skilfully fore-shortened, that it appears to pierce
the vaulting, and the surrounding angels equally seem to be soaring or floating
in air. The Apostles, in their various attitudes, are also drawn with such
admirable adaptation to the eye of the spectator, who views them from below, as
to have won for Melozzo the highest praise from the artists both of his own day
and of ours. The buildings in the picture display a perfect mastery of the laws
of perspective”. The few remains of this painting still extant in the
Chapter-house of St. Peter’s and in the Quirinal, are just sufficient to enable
us to guess what the beauty of the whole must have been. A recent writer justly
observes: “In boldness of conception, in largeness and freedom of execution,
the fresco in the tribune of SS. Apostoli is a real masterpiece, and is an
unanswerable proof of the excellence which it was given to this artist to
attain”.
The Chapel in the Vatican which bears the name of
Sixtus IV contains many splendid memorials of his artistic tastes. This simple
and noble edifice was begun in 1473 and finished in 1481. Vasari attributes the
Cappella Sistina to Baccio Pontelli, but this is a
mistake. It is the work of the Florentine, Giovannino de' Dolci, who must be looked upon as Sixtus IV's head Architect. The Sistina, henceforth the special Papal Chapel for
ecclesiastical ceremonies of a semi-public character, is in form a
parallelogram, and measures 132 feet by 45. For two-thirds of its height the
wall on the longer sides is unbroken, then there is a cornice, and above this
six round-headed windows; formerly there were two similar ones on the altar
side, but these are now blocked up. Their position, however, is shown by two
false ones, painted with a facsimile of the glass that filled them, on the
opposite wall adjoining the Sala Regia. Each of these latter windows has a
bull's eye in the centre. In the interior, all architectural divisions are
purposely avoided, with the exception of the cornice, about 3 feet in width and
provided with an iron balustrade, which runs round beneath the windows. The
ceiling forms a shallow circular vault resting upon brackets, and is pierced by
a skylight over each of the windows. The whole was, from the first, evidently
intended to be covered with paintings.
A richly-sculptured balustrade of white marble, with
the arms of Sixtus IV, divides the space in front intended for the Pope and the
Cardinals from that of the laity. The tribune for the singers, which projects
but slightly to the left, is similarly enclosed. The floor is beautifully
inlaid in stone.
For the decoration of this modest and unpretending
building, Sixtus IV summoned to his Court all the most distinguished painters
of Umbria and Tuscany. Domenico Ghirlandajo, Sandro
Botticelli, Luca Signorelli, Cosimo Roselli, Pietro Perugino, and Pinturicchio
vied with each other in a noble rivalry in its embellishment. The time taken to
complete the paintings on the walls of the Sistina,
which were begun in the year 1480, greatly tried the patience of the Pope. Like
Julius II at a later period, when Michael Angelo was painting the roof, Sixtus
IV could scarcely bear to wait for the termination of the work.” On the
anniversary of his election, the vigil of S. Lawrence”, Jacobus Volaterranus tells us, “he came unannounced, and quite
against his usual custom (extra ordinem), to Vespers
in the Chapel to see how the frescoes were getting on. At last, on the 15th
August, 1483, came the long-desired day of their completion”. On the Feast of
the Assumption of our Lady, which that year fell on a Saturday, the Pope, we
learn from a contemporary, came to the new Chapel and there heard Mass. There
was no further ceremony. All the Prelates and some others assisted at the
function. The only Cardinal present was Raffaelo Sansoni. This was the first Mass said after the completion of the Chapel, and
only the ecclesiastics belonging to it attended. In commemoration of the event,
the Pope published an Indulgence for all who should visit the sanctuary,
including women. Sixtus IV. also attended Vespers there that same day. The Prelates
were placed below Cardinal Sansoni on the benches assigned to the Sacred
College. The Pope blessed the people, both at Mass and at Vespers. When it
became known that an Indulgence had been granted to those who should visit the
Chapel, the whole City was astir in a moment. The crowd in the Sistina was so great that it was extremely difficult either
to enter or to leave the Church, and the throng continued to pass through until
after midnight. On the Pope's coronation day, the first solemn High Mass was
celebrated in the new Chapel; Giuliano della Rovere being celebrant and all the
Cardinals assisting.
The whole series in the Sistina consisted originally of fifteen frescoes, twelve of which still remain on its
longer sides, the other three having given place to Michael Angelo’s colossal
picture of the Last Judgment. On the left wall, looking to the right from the
altar, are represented events from the history of Moses. According to the
custom and taste of the period, several scenes are grouped in the same picture
around the principal subject. Moses slaying the Egyptian, driving away the
shepherds who hindered Jethro’s daughter from drawing water, going into Egypt,
and, with his sandals put away, worshipping God in the burning bush, are thus
combined, due to the pencil of Botticelli. The whole forms a masterpiece of
vivid feeling and expression and technical facility.
Signorelli’s farewell and death of Moses is another
glorious creation, full of dramatic power. In contemplating it, we perceive at
once that the artist was thoroughly aware that the strength of his rivals lay
in composition and in the management of light and shade. In his grouping,
largeness of conception and combination are united with great clearness of
detail. The drawing is bold and strongly marked, and the entire execution bears
the impress of great care and taste, as also the employment of gold on the
draperies. On the right wall are paintings by Pinturicchio, Botticelli,
Ghirlandaio, Roselli, and Perugino, representing scenes from the life of our
Lord. Two of these frescoes, the Vocation of SS. Peter and Andrew, by
Ghirlandaio, and St. Peter receiving the Keys, by Perugino, stand out from
among the other mural paintings in so marked a manner, indicating the
approaching triumph of the noble ideal style in art, that nothing but the
overpowering proximity of Michael Angelo’s work could prevent the immediate
recognition of this important fact. All artists agree in considering Perugino’s
Institution of the Primacy one of his most perfect productions. The solemn
grandeur of this marvellous creation fully corresponds with the dignity of its
subject, and this latter is enhanced to the imagination by the situation of the
picture.
Ghirlandaio, however, surpassed all his companions.
His masterly genius enabled him to grasp the vocation of SS. Peter and Andrew
in its most impressive and solemn aspect. His picture is, so to speak, a
foreshadowing of Raphael’s Miraculous draught of Fishes and Feed my Sheep.
The wall behind the altar was adorned by a painting of
the Assumption of our Lady, with Sixtus IV praying beneath it. Vasari believes
this to be the work of Perugino, but Sigismondo de' Conti remarks, in regard to
this fresco, that the Blessed Virgin seems actually to rise from the earth
towards Heaven; Perugino never possessed the art of foreshortening in its
perfection. So marvellous is the view from beneath, so real the ascent towards
Heaven, that no man then living, save Melozzo da Forli, could have created the
like, and the most recent investigations are perhaps right in assigning the
work to the great Master, who has been called the forerunner of Raphael and
Michael Angelo.
As we survey this sanctuary of Italian Renaissance, we
cannot fail to acknowledge that the choice of subjects for the frescoes in the
Papal Chapel could not have been improved. To the chief scenes from the life of
Moses on the one side, correspond on the other those from the life of our Lord,
as the fulfilment of their typical signification. What Moses, the leader of the
chosen people, foreshadowed, has been perfected by Christ for all time. Peter,
who lives in his successors here, reigns as the Vicar of Christ. Through him
the human race is brought to the Saviour, as the Jewish nation, the type of
Christendom, was led by Moses to the feet of the Christ. The development of the
whole plan of Salvation is concentrated in the three names : Moses, Christ,
Peter. Thus, the magnificent drama of the Story of the Church is presented to
the spectator as the Life and the Truth in the frescoes of this Chapel, which,
in its historical aspect, is the most remarkable in the world, and thus
worthily was the building fitly inaugurated, which afterwards, under another
Pope of the house of Rovere, was to be enriched with the marvellous productions
of the giant genius of Michael Angelo.
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