 Section 31 of the Medici, Volume 1, this is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. The Medici, Volume 1 by G. F. Young. This period of the interregnum, when war and its miseries raged over Italy, and confusion and anarchy were rampant in Florence, is nevertheless the time when art reached its culminating point. It was as though men, seeking an antidote to the violence and turmoil around them, turned to the pictures of the great masters of the time which breathed an atmosphere of peace and rest not to be found elsewhere. The zenith of the art of the Renaissance falls between these years, 1494 and 1512, during which period the last supper by Leonardo da Vinci, the frescoes on the roof of the 16th Chapel by Michelangelo, and the frescoes of the Camera della Segnatura by Raphael were painted, works in which art reached its highest development. There now succeeds a great army of painters, all of the first rank, and all practically contemporaneous, in whose hands art, so long associated almost entirely with Florence, soared forth over all Italy. To mention only the names of the chief of those who all flourished at this epoch is to call up before the mind's eye a mass of art creations such as no other period has produced. The following were all painting at this period, besides many others of last note. Batticelli, Florence. Leonardo da Vinci, Florence. Filippino Lippi, Florence. Lorenzo di Credi, Florence. Fra Bartellomeo, Florence. Michelangelo, Florence. Andre del Sarto, Florence. Perugino, Perugia. Francia, Bologna. Pinturicchio, Perugia. Luini, Milan. Raphael, Urbino. Carpaccio, Venice. Giorgione, Venice. Titian, Venice. Palma Vecchio, Venice. In the year of 1505 there were all working in Florence at one time Perugino, Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Raphael, Fra Bartellomeo, and Lorenzo di Credi. One may safely say that never on any other occasion were six such painters collected together at one time and place. Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo were at work on their cartoons for the great whole of the Palazzo della Signoria. Footnote, Michelangelo's statue of David had been finished the previous year. Perugino and Lorenzo di Credi were called upon to advise as to where it should be placed, and a footnote. Perugino was engaged on his assumption in the Church of the Annunziata, and Raphael was painting his Madonna del Grand Duca, Pitti, his Madonna del Cardellino, Uffizi, and his fresco of the Last Supper in the monastery of San Onofrio, which bears his signature at the date 1505. Patacelli was at this time 61, Perugino 59, Leonardo da Vinci 53, Michelangelo 30, and Raphael 22. Leonardo da Vinci was sent by Lorenzo the Magnificent to Il Moro, as the best among the Florentine painters whom he could recommend to him in 1487. He remained with Il Moro for 12 years, during which time he founded the Milanese School of Painting. He returned to Florence from 1503 to 1506, after which his principal home was Milan until 1516, when at the earnest invitation of Francis I, who was anxious to inaugurate the patronage of art in France, he removed to that country and died there in 1519 at the age of 67. Raphael entered the School of Perugino at Perugia in the year 1500 at the age of 17. He came thence to Florence in 1504, being then 21, and painted there for four years. He was summoned by Pope Julius II to Rome in 1508, and worked there under that pope and his successor, Leo X, for the remaining 12 years of his life, dying at Rome in 1520 at the age of 37. Michelangelo, whose earliest impulse towards art had been fostered and directed by Lorenzo the Magnificent, whom throughout his life he never forgot, went to Rome for the first time in 1496. He worked there until 1500, when he returned to Florence and remained there until 1506, when he was summoned by the pope to Rome to design an immense tomb larger and grander than that of any other pope, which Julius II desired to have constructed for himself. And in 1508 he was given the difficult task of painting the frescoes on the roof of the 16th chapel. But to Michelangelo, grand as was his genius, has been traced the downfall of art, which about two decades later commenced, and which was fully developed long before his death in 1564. Ruskin, carefully tracing out the cause of this downfall, says that so long as artists employed their artistic powers to depict their subjects, art continued to advance. But as soon as they reversed this process, and employed their subject to display their artistic powers, art's downfall began. And that this disastrous change was made by Michelangelo, who practiced the latter method throughout his life, whose unrivaled powers led all to follow him, and who, by adopting a principle alien to the true spirit of art, was the author of its downfall. It would seem that there was in Michelangelo a false idealism which was ready to distort to any extent the character of his subject in order to produce a result which would glorify his powers of execution. This first showed itself in his Bacchus, executed at Rome in 1496 and now in the Bargello Museum. Which statue, Shelly, while fully appreciating the great powers of execution that it displayed, declared to be a most revolting mistake of the whole spirit of Bacchus. It showed itself still more in his David, 1503, which, astonishing as it is in its execution, is false to the true spirit of art, in that, in order to display the powers of the sculptor, it falsifies the character of the subject, which might just as well be that of a young Samson or Hercules. The same thing is no less apparent in his Moses and in his statue of Lorenzo, Duke of Urbino. In each case, the subject is treated as of no importance and distorted out of all resemblance to its character in order to form a vehicle for the display of certain powers in the sculptor. There is not one of Michelangelo's statues in looking at which we are not forced by the artist to think not of the man depicted but of Michelangelo. It is no wonder, therefore, in view of Michelangelo's long life and the leadership which is surpassing genius and the death of all the contemporaries of his earlier years gave to him, that Ruskin, after a prolonged study of the subject, should have traced to him the downfall in art which, not long after Raphael's death, set in. And if anyone should desire to see how great that downfall was, he has but to walk in Florence from Orsan-Michele, which Donatello's statue of St. George adorns, to the Piazza San Lorenzo, where Baccio Bandinelli's hideous statue of Giovanni delle Bande Nere, executed in 1540, is an eyesore to the whole locality, or into the Piazza della Signoria, where the same artist's no less hideous statue of Hercules slaying Cacus, executed in 1534, disfigures the front of the Palazzo Vecchio. Before quitting the subject of arts, zenith, and downfall, the part which Pope Julius II played in connection with the former must not be omitted. For in the intervals of war, Julius II, following the Florentine School of Thought in Philosophy and Religion, formulated a scheme which is set forth in the two final achievements attained by the art of painting. Michelangelo's frescoes on the roof of the Sixteen Chapel, and Raphael's frescoes on the walls of the Camera della Signatura, both works being in the Vatican, and both executed for Julius II. These works, by two masters which differ so greatly, have yet underlying them a fundamental idea common to both, which, in view of the place and the circumstances, can only have been furnished by the Pope himself. The Florentine School of Thought, under the leadership of Cosimo, Lorenzo, Ficino, and Pico della Mirandola, had endeavored to amalgamate Platonism and Christianity. Julius II, surrounded by men trained in that school, went a step further, and in the paintings which he caused to be executed by Michelangelo and Raphael in the Vatican, propounded that both the Jewish dispensation and the Greek philosophy were the antechambers through which the human race was shepherded to Christ. We see this idea first introduced in the frescoes on the roof of the Sixteen Chapel, where in Michelangelo demonstrates it by showing the human race led to Christ through a long line of pagan symbols and Jewish prophets. And we see the same idea elaborated with a still greater wealth of thought in Raphael's frescoes around the Pope's principal official room, the Camera della Signatura, the first work executed by Raphael on reaching Rome in 1508, frescoes of which the general scheme must have been supplied by the Pope, though the wonderful way in which it is worked out is Raphael's own great achievement. In the four world-renowned pictures which covered the four walls of this room, Raphael, on the text given him by the Pope, preaches his great sermon, and in pictures in which the celebrated scientists, philosophers and poets of pre-Christian times peer together with those of the Christian epoch, teaches the lesson that the human soul is to aspire towards God in each of its faculties, in the exercise of reason and scientific research, the School of Athens, in the exercise of the artistic and aesthetic faculty, Pernassus, in the exercise of the faculty of order and good government, secular and ecclesiastical laws, and lastly, in the exercise of the more definitely religious faculty, theology, the science about God. In these pictures, therefore, two lessons are combined. First, that the pre-Christian philosophers and scientists showed in their degree aspiration towards God and helped to prepare the human race for Christianity. And second, that in man's aspiration towards God, his highest intellectual faculties are not to be excluded, but that all his faculties are to be included and consecrated to God. The thoughts, thus expressed, show the standpoint which had at length been reached after nearly eighty years' discussion of these subjects by the thinkers of Florence. We are reminded of Pico della Mirandola's speech long before. Philosophy seeks truth, theology finds it, religion possesses it. How much of the sermon belongs to Julius II, and how much to the great artist Raphael, we can never know. But we could have no grander example of the way in which art is a language and has deep thoughts to speak to all who will listen to its words. But there was one event at this time in the world of art, inseparably connected with Pope Julius II, which by no means redounded to his glory or that of any of those concerned in it. Urged on by Bramante and Michelangelo, he committed the enormous vandalism of pulling down the old St. Peter's rich with a thousand years' historical associations because it would not hold the huge and tasteless tomb which he had ordered and erecting instead the present St. Peter's. Regarding this act and the motives which caused it, Ranke remarks as follows. Was it not profoundly significant that a pope should himself resolve to demolish the ancient basilica of St. Peter's, the great metropolitan church, every part of which was hollowed, every portion crowded with monuments that had received the veneration of ages, and determined to erect a temple planned after those of antiquity on its site? Both the factions then dividing the jealous world of art urged Julius II to this enterprise. Michelangelo desired a fitting receptacle for the enormous monument of the pope which he proposed to complete on a vast scale and with that lofty grandeur which he had exhibited in his Moses. Yet more pressing was Bramante, whose ambition it was to execute that bold project of raising high in the air on colossal pillars an exact copy of the pantheon in all the majesty of its proportions. Many cardinals remonstrated, and it would even appear that there was a general opposition to the plan. So much of personal affection attaches itself to every old church. How much more than to this the chief sanctuary of Christendom? As Pandivius wrote, he had men of almost all classes against him, and especially the cardinals, not because they did not wish to have a new basilica erected with all possible magnificence, but because they grieved that the old one should be pulled down, revered as it was by the whole world, ennobled by the sepulchres of so many saints and illustrious for so many great things that had been done in it. But Julius was not accustomed to regard contradictions. Without further consideration, he caused one half of the old church to be demolished, and himself laid the foundation stone of the new one. The year 1512 opened with a new series of military operations. France, Ferrara, and Florence, on one side, were against the Pope, Spain, and Venice on the other. The French army was commanded by the brave and capable young general, Gaston de Foix, cousin of Louis XII and only 24 years of age. The Spanish forces were commanded by Raymond de Cardona, vicero of Naples, and the papal troops were placed by Julius II under cardinal Giovanni de' Medici. And as to rise in favor with Julius II, one had to be above all things a soldier Giovanni could not refuse, though he evidently had no talents in that direction. After several brilliant successes had been gained by the French under the leadership of Gaston de Foix, a pitched battle was fought on the 6th April 1512 at Ravenna, in which the papal and Spanish army was totally defeated by the French, who, however, sustained a serious loss for at the moment of victory, their brave young commander, Gaston de Foix, was killed. This battle was one of the bloodiest on record. And while the commander on the French side was killed, cardinal Giovanni de' Pope's representative was taken prisoner by the French and sent a captive to Milan. Pope Julius II was not cowed by this reverse. He rapidly collected a fresh army, the loss of Gaston de Foix seemed to paralyze the French, the tide of victory turned, and within three months the French army was driven across the Alps. Then Julius II turned his arms against Florence and the troops of the Holy League which he had formed were sent against her, Julius II being determined to put an end to the existing state of things in that city and to visit Soderini in particular with a wrath for having allowed the assembly of the council at Pisa. Cardono's army of Spanish troops was therefore ordered to advance into Tuscany and Cardinal Giovanni having escaped from Milan he, his brother, and his cousin were sent with it. The Pope informing Florence that the terms he required from her was that she should dismiss the gonfaloniere Soderini pay a fine of 100,000 Florence and allow the Medici to return to Florence. These terms Soderini's government declined to accept and sent an inefficient force chiefly composed of Machiavelli's newly organized militia to oppose Cardono's army at Prato about 10 miles from Florence. Cardono reached Prato on the 28th of August and summoned it to surrender which being refused the attack was at once commenced and after a feeble resistance the town was taken by assault on the 29th of August. The terrible sack of Prato which has become proverbial among such events on account of the atrocities committed by the inhuman Spanish troops ensued. Mr. Hyatt says the horrors of the sack which followed are without a parallel in history. For 21 days no attempt seems to have been made by Cardono to control his savage greedy and licentious soldiery. Every building was pillaged. The defenseless inhabitants were chased from street to street and slaughtered as soon as overtaken. Neither youth, age nor sex neither the sanctity of place nor office were respected. Mothers threw their daughters into wells and jumped in after them. Men cut their own throats and girls flung themselves from balconies onto the paving stones below to escape from violence and dishonor. It is said that 5600 protons perished. A medieval army was on such occasions absolutely uncontrollable and it is a mistake to speak of Cardono as though he wielded a power over his troops of a kind similar to that possessed by a modern commander and failed to exercise it. Discipline as we understand it scarcely existed in such army at any time and in a sack of a city not a vestige of it remained. From the moment that a town was taken by assault there was no longer an army but only a horde of savage ruffians with arms in their hands, mad with passion and ready in a moment to turn their weapons against those who for the time were but nominal commanders should this latter attempt to interfere with their proceedings. The real cruelty was perpetrated by the weak and incapable governing body headed by Sodorini in sending a totally insufficient force to Prado not strong enough to meet Cardono's army with any chance of success but just sufficient to make the result upon Prado which actually occurred a certainty and this in the case of a town which had no voice in the matter offering resistance to that army. The Medici brothers were not present during the whole of these terrible doings at Prado Giuliana was only there during the first two days Giovanni for ten days longer during this time they exerted themselves to do what they could to protect the women and children among other things getting a guard placed over the great church in which a large number of them had taken refuge and Gioveo states that if the Cardinal de Medici and his brother Giuliano had not at the risk of their lives opposed themselves to the fury of the conquerors these enormities would have been carried to a still greater excess. While these horrors were taking place at Prado Florence was occupied in carrying out a rapid revolution immediately on the news being received that Prado had been taken and that these atrocities were being perpetrated there a number of the citizens justly attributing all that had occurred to Sodorini's mismanagement forced their way into his room made him resign his office and sent him under an escort to Siena once he fled to Castel Nuovo where that town being under the Turks he felt safe from Julius II whose personal animosity against him for the matter of the council he well knew the remaining members of the government hastily signified to Cardona their willingness to allow the Medici to return and agreed to pay the fine which the Pope demanded and on the 1st September 1512 the Medici once more entered Florence after an exile of 18 years moreover it was soon evident that the people were glad to get them back again that it had only been the power of a dominant faction which had kept them out so long and that the result of the misrule suffered under the government of the latter had sunk deep into the minds of the people for had it been otherwise the re-establishment of the family in Florence would not have been accompanied by the results which ensued that they were greeted on their arrival with the old shouts of Palle Palle may not of itself show much more significant however is the fact that the Spanish troops which had escorted them into the city were able within a month to be entirely dispensed with and this notwithstanding that all laws passed since 1494 were repealed that the Concilio Maggiore established by Savanarola was abolished and that the government was remodeled on exactly the same lines as in the times of Lorenzo Te Magnificent although a law expressly forbidding this had been passed in 1495 there was no demonstration whatever against these changes and Professor Villari tells us that after the Spaniards had left the new government required no support from foreign troops also the writings and conduct of Francesco Valori, Nerli and Machiavelli fully corroborate the statement made later that even those who disapproved of the present constitutional changes soon reconciled themselves to the return of the old order of things from the above it is clear that although the magic return in accordance with the terms imposed upon the city by Julius II yet the people were well content to have it so they were in fact sick to death of the misgovernment they had experienced for so many years and ready to welcome a room which had ever been associated with order and security to life and property and the conduct of the Medici brothers Giovanni and Giuliano was worthy of the occasion they followed the traditions of their house and the example that had been set by Cosimo Pater Patria and Piero Il Gottoso their family had been made to suffer much they themselves had had to endure for so long years the harsh conditions attaching to the life of outcasts and wanderers they returned to a family home which had been swept bare all the invaluable collections of their ancestors which it had contained when they left it having been wantonly destroyed or carried off nevertheless their father Lorenzo's speech of 46 years before was not forgotten by his sons and they showed that they knew how to conquer by showing that they knew how to forgive the vindictive policy which among the Florentines invariably accompanied the return to power of a banished action was by the Medici entirely rejected there were no executions prohibitions, confiscations or banishments except in the case of Piero Soderini who had been banished by the Florentines themselves before the Medici returned and even he was afterwards befriended by Giovanni in this manner did the Medici once more set up their rule in Florence and all things seemed to augur well for its satisfactory continuance especially as it was decided that the rule should be placed in the hands of Giuliano both Giovanni and Giulio being anxious to depart to Rome where the election of a new pope was imminent End of section 31 section 32 of the Medici Volume 1 this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org the Medici Volume 1 by G. F. Young Chapter 12 Giuliano, Duke de Nemor and Lorenzo, Duke of Urbino the Medici when they returned again after so many years to Florence were represented by the two brothers Giovanni and Giuliano and their first cousin Giulio they had been youths of 18, 15 and 16 when driven out from their home they returned as men of 36, 33 and 34 during the intermediate years they had had many varied experiences had seen much of life had had many hard things to endure and ample opportunities of realizing differently the world treats those who are in a position to grant favors and those who have to seek them on one of the trio the effect of these experiences had been good on the other two the reverse and the relative characters of these three young men are important in regard to subsequent events the senior member of the trio Giovanni was an easy going pleasure loving man with a full measure of the ability customary in his family he was ready to avoid trouble while the experiences through which he had passed had left him with few scruples as to the manner in which he attained his objects with his brother Giuliano it was otherwise he had a thoroughly good disposition and one which would not allow him to adopt unworthy methods but it is with the third member of the trio that we are in this matter chiefly concerned Giulio was full of energy with extreme ability second only to that of his uncle Lorenzo the Magnificent though the objects to which he throughout life devoted his powers were on so much lower a level as to make them less generally apparent from their very boyhood he had attached himself closely to his cousin Giovanni becoming his constant companion and advisor and an agent ever ready to take all trouble off his shoulders with the attachment which exactly suited Giovanni's ease-loving character these conditions were fraught with important consequences for during the long years of exile Giulio's fertile brain had designed a course of action in regard to Florence should they ever succeed in regaining power there which would make an entire change in the traditional policy of the family no more should there be any of that resting of the Medici power of peculiarity which had proved Giulio considered such a broken reed but it should rest if he could direct events upon force pure and simple but the force should be that of a steel hand in a velvet glove and the despotism thus planned be made as little irksome as possible by the outward form of a Republic being still maintained at all events for a time for Giulio's far-reaching schemes went further than this and looked forward to a time when even the form of a Republic might be abolished a despotic monarchy of Tuscany set up and a crown at length to be placed upon a Medici head all this could, he considered be brought about, or at all events set in train, if Giovanni would continue to be guided by him and if only it could be managed that Giovanni should become pope to this member of the trio such feelings as generosity magnanimity care for the people readiness to give unselfish labor for the good of one's country clemency towards enemies and other similar motives of action which had been so long inherent in all the men and women of this family that they had grown to be assumed as matters of course were completely non-existent beneath a handsome exterior in a graceful manner a hearted disposition a nature able to entertain only ignoble aims and a character burdened with no scruples whatever but Giulio well knew that the younger of the Medici brothers Giuliano would absolutely oppose any such projects and in the present relative position of the two brothers would be able to do so successfully therefore Giulio's plans must be kept for the present to himself let Giovanni however become pope and it should be seen how differently Florence would be ruled while it would be easy to provide for Giuliano elsewhere and to place Florentine affairs in the hands of some more amenable agent such were the plans laid during the years of exile by this base born scion of the Medici who possessing all their ability but not a particle of their other qualities and scheming to direct the family towards aims and raise it by methods which were the only ones he appreciated became its evil genius and now the first step necessary to his schemes had been gained and they were once more installed in power in Florence and Giulio turned all his attention to the second step that of getting Giovanni made pope the dim crown in the distance which Giulio had set before him as the family aim had advanced one step nearer than it was when they were homeless exiles without power or influence but he little realized through how many vicissitudes the family were at length to gain that aim after he had passed away Giuliano duc de nemore born 1479 ruled 1512 to 1513 died 1516 Giuliano the third son of the magnificent was 33 years of age when his family returned to the home from which they had been driven out when he was a boy of 15 during the earlier part of their period of exile he had taken refuge with the Duke and Duchess of Urbino Guido Baldo Montefeltro and his talented wife Elizabeth Gonzaga the second greatest lady of the Renaissance both of whom were very fond of him and during the years of exile he had shown himself possessed of both general capacity and military ability on his family being reinstalled Giuliano was placed in charge of the rule of Florence ruling that is to say in the same manner as Lorenzo the Magnificent had done the ostensible government being as heretofore the senioria and as soon as the new government had been established Giovanni accompanied as always by Giulio his fetus accates departed to Rome this return after 18 years banishment or rather the election of Giovanni to be Pope which was almost simultaneous with it marks the second turning point in the history of the Medici up to this point great has had been their rise the position which they had attained was not higher than that of various other rulers of Italian states now however their history enters on a new phase one in which they were to be one of the most important people in Europe intermarrying with crowned heads and taking a prominent part in great events of European history Giovanni's decision to place the rule of Florence in Giuliano's hands rather than in those of Pietro San Lorenzo who was then 20 and had returned with his two uncles was a wise one for Lorenzo's character was similar to that of his father Pietro and his mother Alfonzina while to inaugurate again the kind of rule maintained by Lorenzo the Magnificent it was eminently necessary that the power should be in the hands of one who had a conciliatory disposition and was in sympathy with the feelings of the Florentine people Giuliano was in every way calculated to fulfill these requirements born just after the conspiracy of the Pazzi his father Lorenzo the Magnificent had given to him the name of the much loved brother whose murder was so great a grief and in disposition Giuliano was extraordinarily like the uncle whose name he bore all writers agree as to his admirable character he had a generous and sympathetic nature and conciliatory manners was opposed to bloodshed and violence was highly accomplished and a great lover of literature and art at the courts of Urbino and Mantua and wherever else he wandered during the years of exile the young Giuliano de' Medici had been a favorite at all social gatherings and Castiglione gives us in his Il Cortigiano an attractive picture of him describing him as the chivalrous champion of women another writer says he was a thoughtful and religious man of a peaceful and generous nature revolting from the crimes in those days necessary to the success of ambition he has been justly called one of the most attractive personalities the Italian Renaissance can claim to have produced he showed himself at once even in his outward actions desirous of meeting Florentine views he shaved off his beard in accordance with the fashion among the Florentines who regarded a beard as the badge of the foreigner he wore the Florentine luco and avoiding all ostentation for himself simply as an ordinary citizen but Giuliano's rule of Florence was of short duration in February 1513 Giulius II died and as his successor Giovanni de' Medici was elected pope and took the name of Leo X immediately upon this Giuliano's schemes began to work Giuliano's lenient rule must be replaced by one more adapted to the new pope's views regarding Florence so he was made gonfaloniere of the papal forces an office which necessitated his residence in Rome and the rule of Florence was made over to his less scrupulous nephew Lorenzo who was ordered to conduct Florentine affairs in accordance with instructions given to him by the pope just before this change was made the plot occurred which blighted the political career of Machiavelli he had been secretary to Sorerini's government but had signified his willingness to serve under the new regime two young men, Boscoli and Caponi fired with ideas acquired by reading the ancient Roman authors had concocted an ill-digested plot for the murder of Giuliano and his nephew Lorenzo they had apparently no confederates but one of them dropped in the street a paper which disclosed their plot and contained a number of names presumably of men whom they thought likely to sympathize with them amongst which Machiavelli's was one and the finder took the paper to the senioria the latter caused Boscoli and Caponi to be executed but of the rest, while a few were banished the greater part were set at liberty it being felt that the plot had no real sympathizers but was simply a dream of two hair-brained young men Machiavelli was one of those held to be entirely innocent but the suspicion which had rested on him for a few days ruined his career as he could get no further official employment he retired to his country villa and took to literature Giuliano on being relieved of the rule of Florence retired to Rome a change which was not unacceptable to him he preferred the charms of private life literature and the society of learned men to ambition and such society having been driven from Florence by the anarchy of the previous 18 years had now gravitated to Rome which under Julius II and still more under Leo X was becoming what Florence had once been the center of art and learning in Italy in 1513 Louis XII again advanced into Italy and attacked Milan but was repulsed by the armies of Ferdinand and Maximilian sustaining a decisive defeat at the battle of Novara in 1515 Louis XII died on the 1st January and was succeeded by his distant cousin Francis I Giuliano loving a quiet and unaustentatious style of life was averse from the honors which his brother Leo X in the desire to aggrandize his family now thrust upon him he was made lord of Parma Piacenza and Modena but he thwarted the design which Leo X formed to make him Duke of Urbino by dispossessing its Duke Francesco della Rovere who in 1508 had succeeded his uncle Guidobaldo Montefeltro when this was proposed Giuliano absolutely refused because it would be an injustice to the rightful Duke and Leo X had to defer his design to gain Urbino for his family until after Giuliano was dead Early in 1515 Giuliano was sent by the Pope as his representative to congratulate the new king of France Francis I on his accession Francis developed a great liking for him and while at the French court Giuliano was married to the charming Philippe de Savoy then 17 years old the anima eleta of Ariosto the young aunt of Francis I sister of his mother, Louis of Savoy the French king at the same time created him Duke de Nemours by which title he is always known to distinguish him from his uncle Giuliano the brother of Lorenzo the Magnificent soon after his return to Rome from France Giuliano accompanied Leo X as commander of the papal forces to the conference between the Pope and the king of France which was held at Bologna in December 1515 on which occasion the festivities in Florence both on the way to Bologna and during their stay at Florence on their return but in February 1516 Giuliano being much out of health removed to the Badia of Fiesole and there on the 17th March he died at the age of 37 sincerely lamented by the Florentines to whom he had greatly endeared himself thus the two Giulianos were each in their respective generations the best beloved of their family to the very last Giuliano endeavored to prevent his brother's design upon Urbino and Alberti tells us that when Leo X came to see Giuliano at Fiesole in his last illness the latter begged him almost with his dying breath not to attack the Duke of Urbino Filippert of Savoy did not survive him many years she only lived to the age of 26 dying in 1524 Giuliano was buried with great ceremony in San Lorenzo in the new sacristy then just begun by Michelangelo under the orders of Leo X being the first member of the family to be interred there and in after years over his tomb was erected one of the two great masterpieces of Michelangelo Giuliano left no child by Filippert but left an illegitimate son in 1909. The fine portrait of Giuliano by Raphael is particularly interesting because it has only recently come to light after being lost for 350 years. The portrait of him in the Uffizi Gallery by Alessandro Allori 1535 to 1607 had always been said to be a copy of one known to have been painted by Raphael and mentioned by Vasari as having been seen by him but since Vasari's time the trace of this portrait had disappeared. In 1901 however a picture which had been bought by the Grand Duchess Marie of Russia some years before was brought to Paris by the Prince Chiara Colonna for examination by the late Monsieur Eugene Muntz director of the Ecole de Beaux-Arts who after a careful inspection pronounced it to be undoubtedly the lost portrait by Raphael of Giuliano Duc de Nemours and this opinion has since been confirmed by that of Dr. Wilhelm Bode director of the Royal Gallery of Berlin and other experts. The picture differs from that by Alessandro Allori in having in the background a view looking from the Vatican of the Castle of Sant'Angelo and showing the corridor leading from the Vatican to the castle. It was evidently painted in Rome in 1516, either just before or more probably just after Giuliano's return from his embassy to France. He wears the style of cap in vogue there, the French style of dress and a beard as customary in that country. Over a scarlet vest and a black doublet he wears a cloak of grayish-green brocade bordered with fur, the left sleeve having on it a narrow strap with a gold ornament. The document in his hand and the folded paper stuck into his cap refer to his diplomatic mission to Francis I. Lorenzo, Duke of Urbino, born 1492, ruled 1513 to 1519, died 1519. Lorenzo, the only son of Pietro the Unfortunate, was two years old when the family were exiled, eleven years old when his father died and sixteen when his sister Clarice was married in Rome to Filippo Strozzi. In consequence of his father's wandering life and early death he was brought up by his mother, Alfonsina and had imbibed from her all those ideas of pride and arrogance which were most repugnant to the Florentines. When he was twenty-one the rule of Florence was placed in his hands as the representative of his uncle, Leo X, the senior member of the family. He was ordered to rule in accordance with detailed instructions which were drawn up for his guidance by the Pope and which specially warned him against offending the feelings of the Florentines by ostentation in his mode of life or any display of that arrogant demeanor to which he was inclined. Leo X and his advisor, Julio, were bent upon ruling Florence with a strong hand but at the same time they had no desire to disturb the excellent relations between them and the people which had been established on their return to power. And for the first two or three years they all obeyed these wise instructions. Though he had little capacity he refrained from giving offence and when in 1515 Leo X visited Florence the enthusiastic reception which the people gave him showed that the Medici rule was still popular. In March 1516 Giuliano's death removed the obstacle to Leo X's design of seizing upon the ductum of Urbino and giving it to one of the members of his own family. The papal forces were at once set against Urbino, Lorenzo being put in command. The reigning Duke, Francesco de la Rovere was driven out and on the 30th May the papal army entered Urbino whereupon Leo X declared Lorenzo Duke of Urbino by which name he is always known but he remained so in little more than name and on Leo X's death five years later the papal Duke recovered his state. This new acquisition by the representative of the Medici family charged with the rule of Florence was of doubtful advantage to that state. Lorenzo had not the wit to be a Duke in Urbino and a simple citizen in Florence. He now disregarded the instructions he had received and his insolent bearing his maintenance of a semi-Ducal ceremonial and his disillute conduct was hated in Florence. Moreover, Lorenzo's new dignity involved Florence in a costly war for Francesco de la Rovere made strenuous endeavors to regain his inheritance and Lorenzo before his authority over Urbino was secured had to undertake a campaign lasting many months. All this embittered the Florentines conspiracies to take his life were frequent institutions which enraged the people still more against him and matters were rapidly tending towards another revolution. In 1518 Leo X and his advisor Giulio who had now become a cardinal succeeded in arranging with Frances the First that Lorenzo should be married to the king's distant relative the beautiful Madeleine de la Tour de Verne. The contemporary historian Florentine Trobelle Chelemarié referring to Lorenzo's disillute life. Lorenzo went to France in great splendor both to represent the pope at the baptism of Frances's eldest son as well as for his own marriage to the king's relative. He was accompanied by his brother-in-law Filippo Strozzi and other principal Florentines all dressed in crimson velvet and with a numerous retinue. The court of Frances the First was the most brilliant in Europe. It was now assembled at Amboise and there, first the baptism of the heir to the throne took place followed three days later by the marriage of Lorenzo de Medici and Madeleine de la Tour de Verne. Florentine who was present says that the festivities on the occasion of this marriage were on a more splendid scale than it ever before been witnessed in Christendom and gives a long description of them. The young king Francis the First delighted in the most gorgeous pageants and no place was more suited to the display of 16th-century magnificence than the splendid old feudal castle of Amboise. The festivities lasted a month after which Lorenzo and his bride returned to Florence where the Medici palace must have seemed to Madeleine a somewhat somber abode after the brilliance of Frances the First's court. After this marriage Lorenzo added to his other misdemeanours in Florentine eyes by adopting the French custom of wearing a beard a dire offence in Florence and the portrait we have of him was evidently painted at this time. Madeleine only lived for one year after her marriage. She died in the Medici palace on the 29th April 1519 a fortnight after giving birth to a daughter Catherine and six days later on the 4th of May Lorenzo worn out by a dissolute life also died at the age of 27 his death being to the advantage not only of Florence but also of the Medici family to whose name he had brought nothing but discredit. Lorenzo was buried as his Uncle Giuliano had been in the new sacristy of San Lorenzo and Michelangelo received orders from Leo the 10th to design his monument. This in after years he carried out in the manner which has made this monument perhaps the most generally admired of all Michelangelo's works. And these two tombs in the new sacristy over Giuliano, Duke de Nemor and Lorenzo, Duke of Orbino are probably the best known tombs of any in Europe. Over each sarcophagus sits a statue of the man whose remains it contains but these statues make no attempt to resemble the man depicted. To Giuliano who had a fine character is given a statue representing quite the reverse. While to Lorenzo the most worthless of the Medici is given a statue so grand that poet after poet has been inspired to write fine lines about it, attributing to the man the qualities represented by the statue. When this result was foreseen and it was pointed out to Michelangelo that the figures bore no faintest resemblance to the men represented and temptuously asked who would know it in the ages to follow. The plans of Giulio de Medici had been much disarranged by the results of Lorenzo's failure to follow the instructions laid down for him. On the latter's death therefore Leo X sent Giulio with all speed to Florence to undo the harm to the family interests which Lorenzo had caused. He must have travelled with great despatch for he arrived in time to superintend the arrangements for Lorenzo's funeral which was carried out with much magnificence. Giulio then turned his attention to the matters on account of which he had been sent to Florence and here for the first time gave public evidence of his great ability for he was completely successful in his arduous task. The embittered feelings which the misgovernment of Lorenzo had called forth caused the political atmosphere to be one of a kind of discontent. The Frateschi, led by Yocopo Salviati, declared the existing method of government to be too oligarchical. The Ottimati, led by Piero Ridolfi, condemned it as being too republican, while outside these two parties were many turbulent spirits who merely aimed at anarchy. Giulio skillfully avoided identifying himself with either of the opposing parties, and yet arrived to please both of them, while at the same time keeping the real power in his own hands. And during the five months that he remained in Florence, he lightened taxation, brought the finances into order, reformed the administration of justice, and restored to the elective bodies, rights of which Lorenzo had deprived them. Narditi tells us that both his measures and his demeanor gave general satisfaction. This five months' work on Cosimo's part was in its way a masterpiece in the art of government. But Cardinal Giulio had other difficulties than these to surmount. There were very intricate family politics also, through which a way must be found if his cherished scheme was ever to bear fruit. By Lorenzo's having died leaving only a daughter who was a baby a week old, the position of the family as rulers of Florence had become very precarious since Cosimo's branch threatened to become extinct. Lorenzo had been the only son of Pietro the Unfortunate, and of his two uncles, Giuliano was dead and Giovanni was Pope, while Giuliano's son, Ippolito, then ten years old, as well as Giulio himself, were both illegitimate. So that this little baby, Catherine, was the last legitimate representative of the elder branch. The succession to the headship of the family and with it to the rule of Florence would, therefore, on Leo the Tenth's death, by rights go to the younger branch, either in the person of Pierre Francesco, great-grandson of Cosimo's brother Lorenzo, or in that of the latter's other great-grandson, Giovanni della Bandanere, who was now twenty-one years old and already making a name for himself as a military commander. Not only, however, had the younger branch shown no aptitude for state affairs, but also that branch deserved no consideration from any of Cosimo's branch, seeing that they had been the chief cause of the exile of the family, had discarded the family name during the years of the interregnum, and had acted a mean and ignoble part all through. So that Leo the Tenth and Giulio were determined to keep the rule of Florence out of their hands and in those of Cosimo's branch, if this should be in any way practicable. Nor were either of them likely to be at all scrupulous as to the methods by which this object might be affected. But all this, by what schemes under such circumstances the power was to be kept in Cosimo's branch, what was to be done with this baby girl who had become the most important person in the future of the family, and how all this was to be combined with that ultimate aim of which he had never lost sight, furnished, for Cardinal Giulio, a problem the consideration of which occupied many more hours of those five months at Florence than even the difficulties of public affairs. Immediately after the splendid funeral in San Lorenzo he took up his abode in the Medici Palace, now tenanted by so small an owner. And we can well imagine the far reaching dreams and complex projects for a distant future which filled the active brain of the Medici as his deep thoughtful eyes for the first time looked down in her cradle on this last frail scion of Cosimo's branch, a fragile bark to bear so weighty afraid. End of Section 32 Section 33 of the Medici, Volume 1 This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org The Medici, Volume 1 by G. F. Young Chapter 13 Giovanni Leo X Born 1476 Pope 1513-1521 Died 1521 Leo X was by no means so important a character as it has been universally the fashion to depict him. The splendor which surrounded him has caught the popular imagination and has prevented its being seen how little he merited the exalted view of him which has obtained general acceptance. When, however, he is brought to stand side by side with the other members of his family, this inevitably comes out. The combined effect of his desire to take life easily and his unfailing common sense which kept him from involving himself in matters likely to lead to embarrassment and disaster prevented him from becoming as did his cousin, Clement VII the pivot round which the great events which took place in his time revolved. As a result, in a history of the Medici family where each individual occupies the place demanded by his own character and deeds the narrative of Leo's life becomes of far less importance than that of his much less pleasing cousin, Clement, who not only played a more important part in the affairs of Europe, but also pursued a course which had infinitely greater effect on the subsequent fortunes of the family. Giovanni, the second son of Lorenzo the Magnificent, was only 37 when, on the 11th March, 1513 he was elected Pope. During the previous twenty years from the time when at 16 he had left his home in Florence to take his seat for the first time at Harvard College, his life had been a checkered one. Returning to Florence after only a few months in Rome, he had, during the two years that followed, seen the rapidly increasing unpopularity of his family. Under his brother Pietro's unsympathetic rule, had been driven forth with him into exile, had spent five years in endeavors at various courts to obtain assistance for his brother in military enterprises against Florence which invariably failed and then, departing from Italy for a time, had wandered through northern Europe, seeing many cities and the life of many lands. Returning at length to Rome, he had gradually won for himself and his family a position of favour with the Pope and had been sent by him on important missions, had been placed practically in command of a military force, had taken part in a severely fought battle and had taken prisoner, had seen the terrible sack of Prato and done something to mitigate its horrors, and finally had re-entered his native city in triumph and re-established his family and power there. All this had given him a wide experience of men and affairs but it had not altered his ease-loving disposition. Leo X gave his name to his age and his nine years reign as Pope has been appealed to the skies by the literary men of three centuries. His character has in part been already noted. Apart from his love of literature and art an unusually strong common sense and a genial good nature were his chief characteristics. Erasmus, who knew him well praises his kindness and humanity, his magnanimity and learning, the charm of his manner, and his love of peace and the fine arts, and comparing his pontificate with that which had preceded it says that an age of iron was suddenly transformed into one of gold. And even Sartpe states Leo, noble by birth and culture, brought many aptitudes to the papacy especially a remarkable knowledge of classical literature, humanity, kindness, the greatest liberality and an avowed intention of supporting artists and learned men who for many years had enjoyed no such favor in the Holy See. While Dr. Kraus says paramount in Leo's character were his gentleness and cheerfulness, his indulgence both for himself and others, his love of peace and hatred of war. But on his personal character the great blot must rest that he passed his life in intellectual self-indulgence and took his pleasure in hunting and while the Teutonic North was bursting the bounds of reverence and authority which bound Europe to Rome. On becoming Pope, Leo at once actively began all that encouragement of literature and art for which his pontificate is famous inviting learned men from all parts of Italy to Rome, making plans for founding a great university there for the study of the Greek and Latin authors corresponding with Aldous Manusius and others about inaugurating a printing press at Rome, commencing research work to obtain lost manuscripts of the classical age, planning schemes for important works to be executed by Raphael and other artists and setting himself in every way to advance the cause of learning and art. He also said about assuring the future of his family. He created his cardinals, his two first cousins Giulio de' Medici Rossi, also his nephews, each a son of one of his three married sisters, Innocenzo Cibo, Giovanni Salviati, and Niccolò Ridolfi. With five cardinals in the family there would be a good probability that one of them would succeed him as Pope. His schemes for securing to the family the Dacia of Urbino have already been noted. In January 1515 Francis I, on succeeding to the French throne, began to make preparations for an expedition to recover Milan. Leo X endeavored to oppose this by means of an alliance between himself, Ferdinand of Spain, and the Emperor Maximilian. But Francis gained the victory of Marignano and took Milan, and Leo was forced to come to terms with him, which were settled at a personal conference between them, held at Bologna in December 1515. On his way to this conference Leo stayed three days in Florence where a splendid reception was prepared for him. Landucci, who was present, states that the grandeur of this reception was beyond description and that no other city in the world would or could have done the like. The city was decorated in all directions with triumphal arches, imitations of buildings of the classic age, statues, and allegorical devices. In the Piazza de la Signoria an octagonal temple was erected by Sangallo. Over the unfinished façade of the Duomo the design for it, made by Lorenzo the Magnificent himself, was executed in wood by Sansovino and painted by Andrea del Sarto. A colossal Hercules for the Loggia dell'Anzi was sculptured by Baccio Bandinelli. Various triumphal arches were erected by Monteluzzo, and Granacci, one between the Badia and the Bargello and another near the monastery of San Marco, being specially fine. And the city gave itself up to welcoming with numerous festivities the first Florentine who had ever sat on the papal throne. On his return from Bologna Leo stayed at Florence for more than a month remaining there till the 17th February 1516 and during this visit he made arrangements for completing the family church of San Lorenzo. He ordered Michelangelo to prepare a design for the façade and sent him to Carrara to obtain the necessary marble. And for this purpose no less than 34 shiploads of marble were subsequently dispatched to Florence, though the façade remains to this day untouched. Leo also directed the construction by Michelangelo of the new sacristy in San Lorenzo, which hope intended should form a mausoleum to contain six tombs those of his father Lorenzo and his uncle Giuliano as well as tombs for the other four members of the family who were then living, Viz, himself his brother Giuliano his cousin Giulio and his nephew Lorenzo. But only two of these six tombs were ever completed. In 1516 Leo the 10th immediately upon his brother Giuliano's death seized Dorbino as previously mentioned in order to form a sovereignty for his nephew Lorenzo. The dissatisfaction caused by this procedure led in the spring of 1517 to a remarkable episode. A serious conspiracy headed by the young cardinal of Siena Alfonso Petrucci was formed amongst the cardinals to poison the pope. This being discovered, Petrucci who had absented himself from Rome was invited thither under a safe conduct as well as a solemn promise given by Leo to the Spanish ambassador that Petrucci's life would be spared. Both of which promises were disregarded as soon as the latter reached Rome where he was thrown into prison and condemned to death. Further examination proved that a large number of cardinals were implicated in the plot and Petrucci with his two chief assistants a surgeon and a secretary were cruelly tortured and put to death. The lives of the other cardinals concerned were spared but they were subjected to various deprivations. These punishments aroused so great disaffection among nearly all the remaining cardinals that the pope had to be surrounded by guards even when celebrating mass in St. Peter's. To meet this alarming state of affairs and finally put an end to this extraordinary episode, Leo X took the bold and unprecedented step of creating in one day thirty-one new cardinals. At this period just before the Reformation the plurality of offices held by the higher clergy was scandalous. Roscoe states it is actually and substantially true that the same person was frequently at the same time an Archbishop of Germany, a Bishop in France or England, an Abbot or a Prior in Poland or Spain and a Cardinal in Rome. The creation of so many additional cardinals with the benefits given to them of course increased this evil and this large number of important church offices held by permanent absentees tending as it did to much corruption and maladministration in the diocese thus deprived of their proper rulers helped to increase the dissatisfaction with the church which was steadily growing in Northern Europe. In 1518 Leo X arranged with Francis I the marriage already mentioned between his nephew Lorenzo and the king's relative Madeline de la Tour de Venne this being the second matrimonial alliance with the royal family of France made by the Medici family. The following year Lorenzo died Leo sent his cousin Giulio to administer Florentine affairs for a time. The latter remained in Florence from May to October 1519 and on his return to Rome Cardinal Pasarini was left in charge of the Medician interests in Florence on behalf of the Pope and continued in charge for the next two years. In 1521 Perugia being greatly misgoverned by its ruler and Paolo Balioni described as a monster of iniquity Leo X determined to put an end to the Balioni rule there and to incorporate Perugia with the states of the church. He seems to have considered that against such a criminal any treachery was admissible. Balioni was invited to Rome under the pretext of consulting with him about political affairs and given the Pope's safe conduct but on arrival he was then subjected to torture and beheaded in the castle of Sant'Angelo the Pope taking possession of Perugia. About the same time a similarly treacherous endeavour was made to enlarge still further the states of the church by seizing Ferrara but the agents who had been bribed to open the gates on the approach of the papal forces revealed the plot to the Duke of Ferrara and the attempt failed. Even Roscoe with all his admiration for Leo X remarks that these operations disclose some of the darkest chains of his character and they are to be attributed, if not wholly, at all events to a very large extent to that action which was the fundamental mistake of Leo X's life for in order to satisfy his easygoing temperament and indulge in those pursuits of literature and art, convivial pleasures and luxurious enjoyment for which alone he cared Leo surrendered the whole conduct of the political affairs of the papacy into the hands of his energetic and crafty cousin Julio with the consequences which were to be expected from the latter's unscrupulous character Leo X must, of course bear the full responsibility for the acts which he permitted to be done in his name but while this is so the political acts of his pontificate are to be ascribed rather to Julio than to Giovanni and in looking at the latter's life and character this requires to be borne in mind to him political and ecclesiastical affairs were a weary some burden to be got rid of as much as possible while as time went on he left them more and more in the hands that were so willing to undertake them leaving him free to attend to those matters which to him were so much more congenial it was indeed hard on such a nature that it should be his lot to have to deal with a movement like the Reformation and be expected to divert his attention from the latest reproduction of some classical work brought out by Aldo's printing press to give he to the troublesome complaints of a Luther it is almost as much a relief to us as it must have been to Leo himself to turn from his political life to his action in regard to those matters which were his chief interest here we find another man altogether and here there is neither apathy boredom surrender of his leadership to others nor treacherous or underhand dealing in that world of literature and art which is so loved and in his sympathy for all the culture of his time he is worthy of that atmosphere of splendor which is gathered around his name his great grandfather Cosimo and his father Lorenzo had contrived both to conduct difficult political affairs and also to achieve mighty results in the domain of literature and art Leo X had none of the energy of his ancestors while his abilities were cast in a smaller mold so that he found one half of the matter as much as he could attend to but in that half his achievements though not to be compared to those father and great grandfather were considerable moreover he had greater resources to draw upon art had advanced to its zenith great stores of the classical literature had by this time been brought to light printing had come to assist in their reproduction instead of the slow and laborious process of hand copying while great has had been the wealth which his ancestors had possessed to assist their efforts in this cause Leo had the still greater resources of the papacy to detail all that he did in the patronage of literature and art would fill a volume the same effect was produced at Rome as had taken place 80 years before at Florence where his great grandfather Cosimo became the leading man in that city scholars and artists flocked to Rome where such a patron was to be found Leo founded the University of Rome to which he summoned a crowd of celebrated men and which had 88 professors as teachers of various branches of learning and he did not rest until he had with the assistance of Marcus Masuris and Aldis Manusius established a press at Rome for printing the works of the great authors which as they issued were corrected by the celebrated Giovanni Lascaris himself who had in his earlier years been employed in the collections of the magnificent and whom Leo now summoned to Rome to help him in this work Ariosto speaks in glowing terms of the gifted company of poets and learned men whom Leo gathered round him his own classical attainments were considerable and he was justly acknowledged as a judge on all such matters he had a passion for all books and manuscripts both in the dead and living languages and these were explored with avidity remembering and quoting their contents out of an excellent memory towards art his patronage was unbounded and great as was his renown it has been held by many that his protection of and affection for Raphael who died the year before him is and always will be Leo's best and noblest title to fame the above pursuits were combined with the advertisements of an existence frankly given up to enjoying life as much as possible and never showing from first to last any indication that a future life was to be expected this latter is a strange trait under the circumstances and one which had very important results Lorenzo the Magnificent for all his love of the pagan classical literature and whatever he may or may not have been in conduct had played this trait but in the sun whom he had helped to become head of the church it is a marked feature and various eminent writers have supported the opinion of Mosheim in designating Leo the Tenth as an atheist not that he was by any means wanting as regards to the outward performance of his religious duties for as to these he was most scrupulous but both Europe in that age there are plenty of examples that the scrupulous performance of such duties is compatible with entire unbelief so far as one can judge on so essentially private a matter from a man's outward conduct and expressed opinions Leo was a simple epicurean pagan he was not a course voluptuary but his speech on becoming Pope frankly displayed his mind since God has given us the papacy and he did hunting and hawking parties in the campania pleasant gatherings at his villa of La Maliana convivial supper parties at Rome the delights of literature, poetry, music and theatrical representations a revelry of culture as Gregorovius has called it these things occupied the greater portion of his time unlike most scholars or any previous Pope he was frequently devoted to sport as understood in those days and often spent a month or more at a time absent from the papal city either fishing or pheasant shooting round the lake of Bolsena or staying at his favorite hunting lodge of La Maliana, five miles from Rome in the fever laden valley of the Tiber taking part in the grand battous of stags, wild boar and every sort of game and scandalizing the papal master of ceremonies by appearing in hunting costume and worst of all in long riding boots when in Rome his life was a less healthy one the Venetian ambassador at his court has described the ponderous and unwholesome banquets lasting for hours and in their lavish profusion and variety of incongruous dishes reminding us of the feasts of the Roman emperors of antiquity an Isabella d'Este who was the pope's guest during the winter of 1514 has graphically detailed how she and her maids of honor were plunged into a perpetual round of banquets, balls processions, hunting parties popular festivals and dramatic performances End of Section 33 Section 34 of the Medici, Volume 1 This is a LibriVox recording All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org The Medici, Volume 1 by G. F. Young Chapter 8 Giovanni, Leo X Part 2 Occupied in this constant succession of festivities, field sports and literary and artistic delights Leo led an easy, jovial existence troubling himself as little as might be with political affairs and leaving the heavier burdens of the papacy whose course was at that epic becoming from day to day more thickly strewn with rocks and shoals to be born by his cousin Giulio In 1515 the Emperor Maximilian's grandson Charles, then 15 was invested with the government of Flanders, his father Philip having died in 1506 His genealogy is important and was as follows Maximilian of Austria married Mary of Burgundy only child of Charles the Bold Duke of Burgundy They gave birth to Philip, Archduke of Austria, an heir of Flanders through his mother Philip married Joanna, Queen of Spain in Naples and the daughter of Ferdinand King of Aragon and Isabella Queen of Castile and sister to Catherine married to Henry VIII of England Philip and Joanna gave birth to Charles V married to Isabella, daughter of the King of Portugal Ferdinand, King of Bohemia Eleonora married I, the King of Portugal and II, Francis I of France and Mary married to Louis, King of Hungary In 1516 Ferdinand of Spain died and Charles was invested with the government of Spain and Naples in place of his mother Joanna who was set aside, being mad. In the same year the Eight Years' War begun by the League of Cambrai was brought to an end by the treaty of Noyue between Francis and Charles which left France in possession of Lumberdy and Spain in possession of Naples and Sicily. In 1519 the Emperor Maximilian died and Charles succeeded to the crown of Austria and Flanders. There ensued five months' rivalry between Francis I of France Henry VIII of England and Charles of Austria as to which of them should be elected emperor. Finally Charles was elected. Thus Charles V inherited Austria from his grandfather Maximilian Flanders from his grandmother Mary of Burgundy Spain and Naples from his grandfather Ferdinand and his grandmother Isabella and the imperial title with such dominions still remained to it by the election of the German diet. The result of his election as emperor was a contest between the three rivals which lasted for 28 years in which Francis and Charles were always opponents and Henry sided sometimes with one and sometimes with the other. In 1520 Charles V visited Henry VIII in England in May and in June Francis I and Henry VIII held the meeting known as the Field of the Cloth of Gold to cement their friendship. In 1521 Francis declared war against Charles invading simultaneously Luxembourg from one side of France and Navarre from the other. Henry, led by Wolsey sided with Charles. The atmosphere of cultured paganism which Leo X created around him in the Vatican was unique and it has been too well described by Ranka to be given in any other words. He says at that time men sought to emulate the ancients in their own language. Leo X was in a special patron of this pursuit. He read the well written introduction to the history of Jovius, Volume I, 2D allowed in his circle of intimates declaring that since the works of living nothing so good had been produced. A patron of the Latin improvisators we may readily conceive the charm he would find in the talents of Vida who could set forth a subject like a game of chess in the full tones of well cadence Latin examiners. A mathematician celebrated for expounding his science in elegant Latin was invited from Portugal. In this manner he, Leo would have had theology and church history written. It was in his presence that he was performed and also the first comedy produced in the Italian language and this notwithstanding the objectionable character of a play that imitated Plautus. Ariosto was among the acquaintances of his youth. Machiavelli composed more than one of his works expressly for him. His halls, galleries and chapels were filled by Raphael with the rich ideal of human beauty. The music, and its sounds were daily heard floating through the palace. Leo himself humming the airs performed. Easily does life veil its own incongruities. Such a state of things was directly opposed to Christian sentiment and conviction. The schools of philosophy disputed as to whether the soul were really immortal or whether it were absolutely mortal. Nor are we to believe that Christians were confined to a few. Erasmus declares himself astonished at the blasphemies that met his ears. Attempts were made to prove to him, a foreigner, by passages from Pliny, that the souls of men are absolutely identical with those of beasts. Such was the atmosphere in which Leo X passed his life as pope. And if this mode of life was less objectionable than that which had distinguished the immediate predecessors, it was not less at variance with the urgent needs of the circumstances of the time. For a storm was beginning to gather north of the Alps, destined in no long time to envelop all Europe, and to give the papacy other things to think of than light literature and the triumphs of art. The papacy had fallen to one who neither outraged the world by crime and immorality in Alexander VI, nor harassed mankind by perpetual war like Julius II. But the causes which had long been tending towards a revolt from the papacy were still steadily at work. And as the results of the invention of printing increased were ever gathering greater strength. Printing presses did not only reproduce the Greek and Latin works of pagan poets, and the ancient manuscripts of ancient research included the writings of Irenaeus and Tertullian, Cyprian and Basil, no less than those of Cicero and Pliny, Tacitus and Livy. The work of Cosimo and Lorenzo was now about to produce results which they had never anticipated. The new learning was no longer confined to Florence or to Italy. It had spread far and wide, carrying with it to Germany, to Flanders, to Switzerland, to France to England the knowledge of the fraudulent basis on which the papal claimed to supremacy in the church rested, the knowledge of a Christian age in which there had been no papacy, and all bishops had been of equal rank and authority, and the knowledge of a pre-existing scheme of Christian doctrine not overlaid by the errors and corruptions which had subsequently grown up in the church at Rome. And as this knowledge spread, wider and stronger, grew the determination to end the existing state of things in the church, to cast off the usurped supremacy of Rome and to return to a purer form of Christianity. Not that the Roman church is to be justly charged with all that her opponents asserted. The power developed by the papacy had, in its time, done great things for religion. During a large part of the earlier Middle Ages, the papacy was the sole authority in Europe which stood for justice and righteousness, and had it not possessed the power it gradually developed, it would have been unable to withstand effectively, as it did, the almost universal unrighteousness in high places. But that time was long past, and for at least two centuries the papacy had only made use of its power for purposes of worldly aggrandizement, with results that caused the condemnation which it incurred, to be fully deserved. The gradual spread of this newly acquired knowledge, following on the failure of all efforts to obtain reform, by means of a general counsel, had by degrees made men ready, as soon as opportunity should occur, to fly to arms to obtain that reform which it was evident was to be gained in no other way. This effect had been steadily growing during the pontificate of the Fourth, Innocent the Eighth, Alexander the Sixth, Julius the Second, and Leo the Tenth. But so little did these popes realize the conditions of the case that they seemed, by the kind of life they led, bent upon bringing about that appeal to arms. They were bishops of the leading sea of Western Christendom, yet anything more opposed to the ideal life of a bishop whether measured by the standard of the centuries of the Church's life or by that of our own age, than were their lives it would be hard to conceive. And so the natural result followed in a conflagration which brought cruel wars and innumerable sufferings upon mankind and tore the civilized world asunder for one hundred and fifty years, but in the end cleansed Christendom. And here we come upon one of those strange revelations impossible for anyone at the time to have seen, but which history, throwing its light back upon events long past, every now and then shows to those who come afterwards. From the time of Cosimo we see four successive generations of the Medici, the very last family to wish to bring about such a movement as the Reformation, and the very family, out of which were to come the two popes who were the leading opponents of that movement, eagerly engaged in pursuing a course which made them, little as they dreamt it, the chief agents in producing that great revolt from the papacy. For it was not Luther, but the new learning which produced the Reformation. A very little consideration will show that no single individual, much less one placed in so obscure a position as Luther, could have produced a convulsion which shook all Europe from end to end. What Luther did was to set light to materials which were ready to take fire. And this new learning was created, nourished, fostered, and endowed chiefly by the Medici. It is strange indeed to note what energy they devoted and what wealth they expended through a period of eighty years on that which was to bring upon the papacy such dire results. And to do so during the very time that the papal throne was occupied by the two members of this family who in turn sat upon it. Of the five popes who have been named Leo X was the one against whom mankind had by far the fewest accusations to bring. It was, however, his fate to take the action which finally precipitated the crisis. The legacy which Julius II had left him of building a new Peter's caused such a heavy drain on the resources of the papacy that it became necessary to find some unusual means for raising funds. Accordingly, in 1517 Leo published a bull declaring that the Pope has the power of granting indulgences affecting the state of souls after death, and that this doctrine was an essential article of belief. And this was followed by the scandalous measure of the sale of these indulgences. Thus starting a traffic in holy things which roused northern Europe to a pitch of indignation such as even the crimes of Alexander VI had failed to call forth. Obviously, one who doubted whether souls were immortal would find no difficulty in declaring his power to grant such indulgences or in selling them to anyone who would give money for them. And it is very probable that Leo punished at the uproar which his action aroused. Upon the issue of this bull by the Pope, Luther published and nailed up on the door of the principal church at Wittenberg his celebrated theses against both the sale of indulgences and all the additions which had been made to the theory and practice of indulgences during the 13th, 14th, and 15th centuries with all they involved. The system of indulgences with the doctrines on which it was based was no new invention of Leo the 10th. It had existed for at least 300 years and Leo only redeclared it. But the new learning had caused the temper of men's minds to change and the new departure of the sale of such indulgences came just when men were least disposed to endure it. The conflagration quickly spread. Germany was soon in a blaze and Flanders in Switzerland showed signs of following suit. Luther proceeded to rouse all men against the iniquities of the papacy and to urge the assembly of a general council to purge the church. And at length in June 1520 he published his celebrated Appeal to the Christian nobility of the German nation. Four thousand copies were distributed with the greatest rapidity the printers working while Luther wrote and it immediately produced a strong impression throughout Germany. At the same time from the other side Leo published in all countries his bull of 1520 condemning the doctrines of Luther calling upon all princes and peoples to seize him and his adherents and excommunicating all who might harbour them. This bull, Luther protected by the Elector of Saxony publicly and solemnly burnt at Wittenberg and so began a conflict which was to last for generations splitting countries, nations and even families asunder and having far-reaching effects which are still extending. In the following year Leo, anxious to drive the French out of Italy, deserted Francis and engaged to join Charles in an attempt to regain Milan. The imperial and papal forces were commanded by the Marquis of Pescara and in November 1521 Milan was captured. The news reached Leo at his villa of La Maliana at the 22nd November and filled him with the greatest joy. At the same evening he caught a chill on returning hot and tired from the chase. Fever set in, he returned to the Vatican, grew rapidly worse and died on 1st December. There was, as usual, a suspicion that his death was due to poison and Castiglione who was with him at Maliana at first believed this but the post-mortem examination which was held failed to confirm the suspicion. And in view of the excessively malaria character of the locality of Maliana, nothing could be more probable than that malaria fever contracted at the place where he so often resided should eventually be the cause of his death. Leo X was 45 when he died. He was buried at first in the Vatican. The result of Julius II's action in regard to St. Peter's was that neither he himself nor any of the three popes after him could be buried there and for several years no tomb was erected to Leo X. But after the death of Clement VII, 1534 it was decided that these two Medici popes should be interred in the Church of Santa Maria Sopra Minerva whereupon Cardinali Polito di Medici the 10th remains from the Vatican to that Church and commence the erection of the tombs of the two Medici popes Leo X and Clement VII which are to be seen there. After Epolito's untimely death in 1535 these tombs were completed by Leo X's sister Lucrezia Salviati. It would have been hard if the Medici, the greatest of all patrons of art and belonging to art's own special form, Florence, should not have been able to show us a unique succession of portraits of themselves executed by the leading painters of their day. And in Leo X's case none other could, of course, be employed to paint his portrait than his own great protege and favorite, Raphael. And so Raphael has given us one of the most celebrated portraits in existence, that of Leo X with his two first cousins Giulio di Medici and Luigi Rossi, which hangs in the Peti Gallery. And it tells us much of Raphael's own character to note that even though he is entirely dependent upon this great patron, yet he will not flatter him, and we feel that we have the man to the life place before us. Easygoing, jovial, indolent, luxury-loving, shrewd and worldly-wise, all this he was, and just so does Raphael depict him. His tendency to fat was not altogether his fault. He had it throughout life, and endeavored to combat it by outdoor pursuits, and it was on the advice of his physicians that he carried these on even after he became Pope, not withstanding the shock that it gave to the ideas held by the papal officials as to what was becoming in a Pope. His love of learning is indicated in the picture by the book which has just been studying. His love of all forms of art, both by the illuminations of the book and by the highly chaste silver bell, and his indifferent eyesight which was proverbial, by the spectacles in the magnifying glass which latter Jovius says he used on all occasions. Of the two cardinals shown with him, Giulio is the one standing at the right hand of the Pope, who seems to be listening to his advice, with his objective attitudes through life. Giulio's clever and intelligent, yet cold hard face is probably a much better likeness of him than that afterwards painted by Andrea Del Sarto. Luigi Rossi was the Pope's secretary. The picture is not only notable for its portraiture, but also is a wonderful study of the combination of colors, the whole, except the Pope's white robe, being in various shades of crimson and red. Exultation to the papacy is probably the severest trial to character which this world holds, and it was one which Leo was not able to bear. A steady deterioration in his character from the time that he became Pope is the most marked feature in him. Many cited, like all his family, he was a remarkable mixture of good and bad points, but in the end the latter predominated. End of Section 34 Section 35 of the Medici, Volume 1 This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org The Medici, Volume 1 by G. F. Young Chapter 14 The 20 Months Pontificate of Adrian VI 1522-1523 Adrian VI did not belong to the Medici family but as his short pontificate of 20 months spans the period between the two Medici Popes and is important with reference to their history, it is desirable to detail briefly the events of his reign. On the death of Leo the Tenth an unusual amount of discord took place at the conclave to elect a new Pope. Julio de Medici, having been the late Pope's advisor in everything, counted on seceding him and employed all the arts of which he was a master to get himself elected. But out of the 39 Cardinals assembled as many as 18 wanted the office themselves and Julio was only able by all his efforts to get together a party of 14. Wolsey was also a candidate for a long time in swaying the politics of England in favor of Charles V and the latter's struggle with Francis I so as to obtain and return the Emperor's influence on his behalf at this election with the Emperor's candidate in possession of seven votes with Julio de Medici in possession of 14 and with the remaining 18 Cardinals each striving to gain votes for himself the conclave became a scene of disgraceful party struggles and the discord was so great that it seemed as though no conclusion would ever be reached. At last Julio's party merely as an expedient for wearing out their opponents voted one morning at the daily scrutiny for the most unlikely man they could think of Cardinal Adrian the Del of Utrecht Archbishop of Tortosa who had been the Emperor's tutor at that time governing Spain as Charles V's representative to their amazement and discussed a majority of the other Cardinals seeing that they could not succeed themselves in an order to defeat Julio's party once voted the same and to the astonishment of all Europe one who had never been dreamt of by anyone for such an office and had made no candidate chore for it became Pope thus did the sad and serious Adrian and earnestly religious Fleming secede to the throne so recently occupied by the cultured Epicurean Leo if all Europe had been searched a more startling contrast to the latter could not have been found the new Pope at once gave evidence of his temperament by declining to follow the custom which had so long prevailed of changing his name preferring to adhere to the practice of the earlier centuries in this respect Julio de Medici having thus failed departed to Florence and took over the charge of Florentine affairs the absence of any opposition to his doing so shows that no doubt was felt as to the tacit right of Medici to control the government of Florence and this undoubtedly rested on solid ground and was due to the instinct of feeling that Florentine affairs only went smoothly when a Medici was at the helm Pasarini's inefficient administration that gradually created considerable discontent financial affairs were in disorder and much discord prevailed but Julio de Medici wanting in so many other respects had just one good quality inheriting in full measure that special gift conspicuous in this family in generation after generation of a genius for pacifying the angry passions of Florentine political life by his conciliatory manner careful attention to public affairs and knowledge of the feelings of the Florentines he soon put an end to the prevailing discord and under his guidance Florentine affairs were satisfactorily administered it was the universal opinion that never since the city had been under the rule of the Medici had it been governed with greater civil liberty or more skillful concealment of despotism Nardi's remark shows that Julio was still carefully pursuing his scheme inviting his time until those of the family who were then children should be grown up and he himself in a position to adopt a more rigorous attitude towards Florentine than that of merely controlling her government meanwhile Adrien VI was showing himself a pope such as Rome not seen for many centuries he was not only virtuous and frugal humble and pious a hater of pomp and simple and straightforward in character but he also viewed with indignation the corruption which abounded in the church and set himself vigorously to the task of reform there was a prompt end to all the pleasant ways which Rome loved and a voltivace which was in some of its aspects almost comic bishops to whom life at a distance from Rome was like banishment to a barbarous country were sent off to their neglected bishoprics the sycophantic throng of poets philosophers, artists and musicians who had surrounded Leo were swept out of the Vatican the supper parties, hunting parties and convivial gatherings came to an abrupt end the pope insisted on living in the simplest fashion with a very small establishment and spent a great part of his time prayer and study Rome was consumed with an unutterable disgust moreover whereas it had been a main object with every proceeding pope to aggrandize his family and increase the papal dominions Adrian the sixth refused to do anything of the kind he restored Orbino to its rightful duke Francesco de la Rovere and gave back to the Duke of Ferrata the territories which Leo the tenth had taken from him such acts increased his unpopularity Adrian however was unmoved by the indignant wrath of the corrupt community by which he was surrounded he set before himself three main objects the reform of the church the restoration of peace in Germany and the defense of Christendom against the Turks that he lived too short of time to affect any of these objects does not detract from the honor due to him for having earnestly by wise methods striven to attain them contemporary historical events 1521 through 1523 in 1521 the diet of the empire was assembled by Charles the fifth at to consider how to check the growth of the new opinions in religion which were causing so much conflict in Germany with the result that Luther was placed under the ban of the empire in 1522 Charles the fifth again visited England Henry the eighth urged down by Woolsey who still hoped for the emperor's assistance at the next papal election which all felt could not be far distant now deserted the side of Francis which he had lately been favoring and took that of Charles and the Turkish Sultan after invading Hungary and taking Belgrade turned his victorious arms against Rhodes which held by the Knights of Saint John had been the bulwark of Christendom against the Turks since the fall of Constantinople Adrian the sixth appealed earnestly to Charles, Francis and Henry to lay aside their quarrels and unite to save Rhodes from the Turks but they were too occupied with Constantinople was repeated after a stubborn resistance of six months Rhodes was to capitulate. Charles gave Malta to the Knights of Saint John and they retired there in this year 1522 the conquest of Mexico added yet further to Charles Spanish dominions in 1523 Francis the first carried the war into Lombardi and dispatched a large force Bither under Boniface at the same time swayed by his vicious mother Louise of Savoy he by various insults drove into rebellion the best general that he had Charles Duke of Orbonne Constable of France who relentlessly persecuted by Louise because he would not marry her and deprived of his position in the French army at last in desperation deserted his country and offered his services Charles the fifth in his endeavors to reform the church Adrian the sixth showed both wisdom and vigor not only did he insist on a reform of their ways by the bishops who had so long brought discredit upon their office but he also set himself with all his power to heal the discord in Germany by searching out the cause of the disease and the remedy required for 120 years Europe had cried out for a reform of the church in head and members three great councils had been assembled and all the power of the laity throughout Europe put forth to effect this reform but all had been foiled by the head which refused to admit that it needed reformation Adrian the sixth for the first time struck a different note he ordered a GDS of Viterbo the learned principal of the Augustinian order and the most pious man of intellect at that time of Rome to furnish him with his opinion as to the disease and its remedy in response to which a GDS drew up the great document in which he showed the disease to be due to the misuse of papal power in that the remedy was a limitation of the absolutism of the head of the church Adrian the sixth agreed with the views expressed and the result was the celebrated set of instructions issued by him in 1522 to the Nuncio Cierre Regato in which the pope declared that the disease had spread from the head to the members from the pope to the bishops and cardinals he wrote we have all sin there is not one that do with good and announced his determination to carry out a radical reform had Adrian the sixth lived longer widespread results must have ensued from such an edict eliminating from such a source but it was not to be and when the grave closed over Adrian the sixth the last non-Italian pope it closed also overall chance of a reform of the head and members conducted by the head himself not however that Adrian the sixth took the Protestant side by any means he was both learned enough and wise enough to see the era of both sides and he met the fate of all to this and are honest enough to let both know it to the diet of the empire then assembled to discuss the subject he addressed a most powerful protest against the doctrines of Luther while in the same document acknowledging candidly and in the most positive terms the corruptions of which Luther and his followers accused the church of Rome in showing that he was determined to eradicate them Adrian the sixth presented the almost unique instance in that age of a man of the humblest birth who had risen in the church solely through the great respect entertained by his profound theological learning and this justly deserved reputation joined to his candid acknowledgement of the corruptions of the church with the stringent measures he was taking to extirpate them made his protest against the new doctrines and his demonstration of the ignorance on which they were to a large extent based far more forcible than that which any other pope of that time could have made whereas others maintained such doctrinal points by appeals to this or that precedent Adrian did so out of his own knowledge as a theologian thus the gentle and humble Adrian condemned Luther's opinions much more sharply than Leo the tenth had ever done while he also passed severe censors upon the princes of Germany for allowing them to spread owing to their own ignorance and their attaching greater importance to political contests than to religion truly many centuries had passed away since any head of the Roman church had spoken in this fashion or had been animated by sentiments like these but in that corrupt age a pope of this type was obnoxious to all parties he was obnoxious to the followers of Luther for disagreeing with their doctrines to the princess of Germany who as he rightly said all they paid heed to the matter so far as they could make use of it for a political purpose to the Cardinals who bitterly resent it reforms which rob them of all for which they cared and above all he was intensely obnoxious to the Roman people who loved a pope who spent money freely and was troubled with both of the two latter parties looked upon Adrian the sixth and his ways with a horrified disgust too deep for words the change from the one extreme to the other from the easy going lavishly generous Leo to the austere reformer Adrian was too bitter a contrast a pope who admitted that the church needed a reform and was bent on carrying it out was altogether insupportable of course his end was certain Rome wanted no popes of this sort and would not endure them that he existed even so long as 20 months is extraordinary at the end of that time he was poisoned unless there should be any doubt of the fact or other great relief there at the Roman people on the night after his death adorned his chief physician's house with garlands and with the inscription written over them to the deliverer of his country thus ended Adrian the sixth who had his lot been cast in other times would have accomplished much for the church he died on the 14th September 1523 and was buried in the church of Santa Maria de la Anema and the epitaph written for his tomb by his faithful friend and companion Cardinal Inkelford was certainly suitable for all the Lord of the kingdom re-fed in quite temporal well optimally cajuste, vertas, incidad Ender section 35