Pope Clement VII
Pope Clement VII was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 19 November 1523 to his death on 25 September 1534. Deemed "the most unfortunate of the popes", Clement VII's reign was marked by a rapid succession of political, military, and religious struggles—many long in the making—which had far-reaching consequences for Christianity and world politics.
Elected in 1523 at the end of the Italian Renaissance, Clement came to the papacy with a high reputation as a statesman. He had served with distinction as chief advisor to Pope Leo X, Pope Adrian VI, and commendably as gran maestro of Florence. Assuming leadership at a time of crisis, with the Protestant Reformation spreading, the Church nearing bankruptcy, and large foreign armies invading Italy, Clement initially tried to unite Christendom by making peace among the many Christian leaders then at odds. He later attempted to liberate Italy from foreign occupation, believing that it threatened the Church's freedom.
The complex political situation of the 1520s thwarted Clement's efforts. Inheriting unprecedented challenges, including Martin Luther's Protestant Reformation in Northern Europe; a vast power struggle in Italy between Europe's two most powerful kings, Charles V of the Holy Roman Empire and Francis I of France, each of whom demanded that the Pope choose a side; and Turkish invasions of Eastern Europe led by Suleiman the Magnificent. Clement's problems were exacerbated by souring relations with Charles V in 1527, which led to the violent Sack of Rome, during which Clement was imprisoned. After escaping confinement in the Castel Sant'Angelo, Clement—with few economic, military, or political options remaining—compromised the Church's and the Papal States' independence by allying with his former enemy, Charles V. However, his problems continued during Henry VIII of England's contentious divorce, resulting in England breaking away from the Catholic Church.
In contrast to his tortured pontificate, Clement was personally respectable and devout, possessing a "dignified propriety of character", "great acquirements both theological and scientific", as well as "extraordinary address and penetration—Clement VII, in serener times, might have administered the Papal power with high reputation and enviable prosperity. But with all of his profound insight into the political affairs of Europe, Clement does not seem to have comprehended the altered position of the Pope" in relation to Europe's emerging nation-states and Protestantism.
Clement left a significant cultural legacy in the Medici tradition. He commissioned artworks by Raphael, Benvenuto Cellini, and Michelangelo, including Michelangelo's The Last Judgment in the Sistine Chapel. In matters of science, Clement is best known for approving, in 1533, Nicolaus Copernicus's theory that the Earth revolves around the Sun—99 years before Galileo Galilei's heresy trial.
Early life
Giulio de' Medici's life began under tragic circumstances. On 26 April 1478—exactly one month before his birth—his father, Giuliano de Medici was murdered in the Florence Cathedral by enemies of his family, in what is now known as the "Pazzi conspiracy". He was born illegitimately on 26 May 1478, in Florence; the exact identity of his mother remains unknown, although a plurality of scholars contend that it was Fioretta Gorini, the daughter of a professor, Antonio Gorini. Giulio spent the first seven years of life with his godfather, the architect Antonio da Sangallo the Elder.Thereafter, Lorenzo the Magnificent raised him as one of his own sons, alongside his children Giovanni, Piero, and Giuliano. Educated at the Palazzo Medici in Florence by humanists like Angelo Poliziano, and alongside prodigies like Michelangelo, Giulio became an accomplished musician. In personality he was reputed to be shy, and in physical appearance, handsome.
Giulio's natural inclination was for the clergy, but his illegitimacy barred him from high-ranking positions in the Church. So Lorenzo the Magnificent helped him carve out a career as a soldier. He was enrolled in the Knights of Rhodes, but also became Grand Prior of Capua. In 1492, when Lorenzo the Magnificent died and Giovanni de' Medici assumed his duties as a cardinal, Giulio became more involved in Church affairs. He studied canon law at the University of Pisa, and accompanied Giovanni to the conclave of 1492, where Rodrigo Borgia was elected Pope Alexander VI.
Following the misfortunes of Lorenzo the Magnificent's firstborn son, Piero the Unfortunate, the Medici were expelled from Florence in 1494. Over the next six years, Cardinal Giovanni and Giulio wandered throughout Europe together—twice getting arrested. Each time Piero the Unfortunate bailed them out. In 1500, both returned to Italy and concentrated their efforts on re-establishing their family in Florence. Both were present at the Battle of Ravenna in 1512, where Cardinal Giovanni was captured by the French but Giulio escaped; this led to Giulio becoming an emissary to Pope Julius II. That same year, with the assistance of Pope Julius and the Spanish troops of Ferdinand II of Aragon, the Medici retook control of Florence.
Paternity of Alessandro de' Medici
In 1510, while the Medici were living near Rome, a servant in their household—identified in documents as Simonetta da Collevecchio—became pregnant, ultimately giving birth to a son, Alessandro de' Medici. Nicknamed "il Moro" due to his dark complexion, Alessandro was officially recognized as the illegitimate son of Lorenzo II de Medici, but at the time and to this day, various scholars suggest that Alessandro was the illegitimate son of Giulio de' Medici. The truth of his lineage remains unknown and debated.Regardless of his paternity, throughout Alessandro's brief life, Giulio—as Pope Clement VII—showed him great favoritism, elevating Alessandro over Ippolito de Medici as Florence's first hereditary monarch, despite the latter's comparable qualifications.
Cardinal
Under Pope Leo X
Giulio de' Medici appeared on the world stage in March 1513, at the age of 35, when his cousin Giovanni de' Medici was elected Pope, taking the name Leo X. Pope Leo X reigned until his death on 1 December 1521."Learned, clever, respectable, and industrious", Giulio de' Medici's reputation and responsibilities grew at a rapid pace, unusual even for the Renaissance. Within three months of Leo X's election, he was named Archbishop of Florence. Later that autumn, all barriers to his attaining the Church's highest offices were removed by a Papal dispensation that resulted in his birth being recognized as legitimate. It stated that his parents had been betrothed per sponsalia de presenti. This Papal act permitted Leo X to create him cardinal during the first Papal consistory on 23 September 1513. On 29 September, he was appointed Cardinal Deacon of Santa Maria in Domnica—a position that had been vacated by the Pope.
Cardinal Giulio's reputation during the reign of Leo X is recorded by contemporary Marco Minio, the Venetian ambassador to the Papal Court, who wrote in a letter to the Venetian Senate in 1519: "Cardinal de' Medici, the Pope's cardinal nephew, who is not legitimate, has great power with the Pope; he is a man of great competence and great authority; he resides with the Pope, and does nothing of importance without first consulting him. But he is returning to Florence to govern the city."
Statesmanship
While Cardinal Giulio was not officially appointed Vice-Chancellor of the Church until 9 March 1517, in practice Leo X governed in partnership with his cousin from the beginning. Initially, his duties centered primarily on administering Church affairs in Florence and conducting international relations. In January 1514, Henry VIII of England appointed him Cardinal protector of England. The following year, Francis I of France nominated him to become Archbishop of Narbonne, and in 1516 named him cardinal protector of France. In a scenario typical of Cardinal Giulio's independent-minded statesmanship, the respective kings of England and France, recognizing a conflict of interest in Giulio protecting both countries simultaneously, brought pressure to bear on him to resign his other protectorship; to their dismay, he refused.Cardinal Giulio's foreign policy was shaped by the idea of la libertà d'Italia, which aimed to free Italy and the Church from French and Imperial domination. This became clear in 1521, when a personal rivalry between King Francis I and Holy Roman Emperor Charles V boiled over into war in northern Italy. Francis I expected Giulio, France's cardinal protector, to support him; but Giulio perceived Francis as threatening the Church's independence—particularly the latter's control of Lombardy, and his use of the Concordat of Bologna to control the Church in France. At the time, the Church wanted Emperor Charles V to combat Lutheranism, then growing in Germany. So Cardinal Giulio negotiated an alliance on behalf of the Church, to support the Holy Roman Empire against France. That autumn, Giulio helped lead a victorious Imperial-Papal army over the French in Milan and Lombardy. While his strategy of shifting alliances to liberate the Church and Italy from foreign domination proved disastrous during his reign as Pope Clement VII, during the reign of Leo X it skillfully maintained a balance of power among the competing international factions seeking to influence the Church.