 CHAPTER XV. Julio. Clement VII. Born 1478. Pope, 1523 to 1534. Died 1534. 1. The first four years of his pontificate. Clement VII has generally been looked upon as a more or less feeble intriguer, humbly carrying out, during the pontificate of his cousin, Leo X, plans originated by the latter, and involved in disasters in his own pontificate owing to want of ability. How far from the truth is the first portion of this view of him has already been shown. While, as regards the second portion, it will be seen in the sequel that the disasters in question, far from being due to any want of ability, were deliberately incurred for the sake of a single, definite object which governed all his actions. Julio de Medici, son of the Giuliano killed in the Pazzi conspiracy, was tall and good-looking, spare in figure, of agreeable manners, and, except his uncle Lorenzo the Magnificent, was the cleverest of all this able family. Ronca, speaking of him after he became Pope, says, he spoke with equal knowledge of his subject, whether that were philosophy and theology or mechanics and hydraulic architecture. In all affairs he displayed an extraordinary acuteness. The most perplexing questions were unraveled, the most difficult circumstances penetrated to the very bottom by his extreme sagacity. No man could debate a point with more address, and he manifested a circumspectability in practice which none could surpass. At the same time he was, as we have seen, of a cold-hearted and crafty disposition, an absolutely unscrupulous, with none of those qualities of kind-heartedness, magnanimity, and cheerful banami which in the case of his cousin, Leo X, helped to balance great faults. In this member of the family we see the Medici reaching their highest importance in the politics of Europe, and their history becoming, for a time, to the large extent, that of Europe. But more than this we see in him one who turned this family from those aims which his ancestors had followed, who set it upon a path where even success could confer no glory, and who, leading it to strive after an ignoble aim, brought upon the name of Medici, obliquy and condemnation, where before it had won honour and esteem. This course of action, already steadily pursued by Julio ever since the family were reinstated in Florence, was now to have a greater development. Upon the death of Adrian VI, the same disgraceful scenes which had characterised the previous conclave were repeated, and this time they lasted much longer. For seven weeks the bribing and intriguing continued, Julio's two chief antagonists being Woolsey and Alessandro Farnese. At length, on the 19th November, Julio triumphed, and was elected Pope, assuming the name of Clement VII. He was then forty-five years old. On becoming Pope, the first point which Julio, now Clement VII, had to settle was how to retain the rule of Florence in the elder branch of the family, seeing that he himself could no longer reside there, the Lorenzo's only child was a girl of four years old, and that Juliano's son, Ipolito, was too young at present to be entrusted with authority. Under these circumstances, Clement decided for the present to delegate the control of Florentine affairs to Cardinal Pasarini as his representative. Accordingly Pasarini was, in May 1524, sent to Florence, and for the next three years Florentine affairs were administered by him under orders from Rome, though the Signoria continued to be, ostensibly, the ruling body. With Cardinal Pasarini, Clement also sent Juliano's son, Ipolito, now a handsome, intelligent, and attractive youth of fifteen, who was looked upon by all as destined to succeed to the authority exercised by his father twelve years before with such satisfaction to the Florentines. He took up his abode with Cardinal Pasarini at the Medici Palace, assumed the title of Il Magnifico, and was elected a member of the government. A few months later there was also sent to Pasarini's charge, from Naples, where he had been brought up, another boy, Alessandro, then about thirteen, who now for the first time appears in connection with Florence, and whose woolly hair and negro-like appearance had already caused him to be called the Moor. This boy's origin was a secret. Born during the time that the family were in exile, he was in reality the son of Clement himself, but the latter had hidden the fact, and kept the boy out of sight as long as he could. Subsequently, after Juliano, Lorenzo, and Leo X were all dead, Clement brought this boy forward as an illegitimate son of Lorenzo. The fact that Clement had not yet begun to make this claim, and to pass Alessandro off as Lorenzo's heir, at the time when he first became Pope, is corroborated by what took place on that occasion. For when Clement, on becoming Pope, consulted the envoys of Florence as to what he should do with regard to that state, three of them advised him to give the supreme power to a gonfolaniere, appointed from year to year, until he polito was old enough to rule. It is significant that it was Ipolito who was mentioned and not Alessandro, as must have been the case, had the latter been declared at this time to be the heir of Lorenzo. It was not until three or four years later that Clement devised the scheme of passing over Ipolito in favor of Alessandro, giving, as a reason, that he was Lorenzo's son. The eleven years pontificate of Clement VII, 1523 to 1534, was a troubled time in Europe. The triangular duel which Charles V, Francis I, and Henry VIII carried on lasted for twenty-six years, never ceasing until Francis and Henry both died in the same year, 1547, and during the first half of this long struggle it was Clement VII who kept this contest alive. The latter, during the whole of his reign as Pope, was employed in prosecuting vast schemes of diplomacy, all with the object of playing off Francis against Charles, to prevent their combining against himself, and of effecting his own designs while pretending to favor each of theirs in turn. Thus, whereas Adrian VI had striven to create peace between them, Clement's whole aim was to inflame their animosities to the utmost. In this he succeeded only too well, and by their unceasing wars large portions of Europe were laid waste, ravaged by ruthless and undisciplined armies whose track was like that of a pestilence. It is curious to note the sanguine expectations which were formed when Clement VII succeeded to the papal throne, and how strangely they were falsified. It was anticipated that his pontificate would show all that had been best in that of Leo X while avoiding its defects. Belonging to a family so renowned for their patronage of literary and artistic culture, and being himself fond of art, culture, music, and the conversation of learned men, it was confidently asserted that there would be a restoration of that culture which had been put to flight by his predecessor, while from his sober temperament it was presumable that there would be none of that extravagance and luxury which had marked the reign of Leo X. Lastly, of his great administrative ability there was no doubt. He had ruled Rome well in Leo's day, while at Florence he had, on two separate occasions, put an end to dissensions, reorganized the finances, and given general satisfaction in the midst of discordant elements. There appeared, therefore, every ground for the confident expectation entertained that his pontificate would be an unusually satisfactory one. Yet the result was extraordinarily the reverse. The difficulties surrounding him on becoming pope and the qualities he possessed for meeting them are thus described by Trollope. The time was a difficult one for any pope, but a straight course along an open road would have been less congenial to the talents and temperament of Giulio de' Medici than one where intrigue, craft, and wily policy were necessary, and the situation was one exactly suited to his talents and disposition. Calm, moderate, unimpassioned, active, vigilant, astute, with nothing genial, large, or noble about him, but decorous, correct, and eminently respectable, while at bottom thoroughly unscrupulous, it might have been thought that Clement was just the man for the occasion, and that he, if any man, was bound to rise a winner from the slippery game of the politics of the time. Yet the result was such that his pontificate has been called the most disastrous of any pontiff who ever sat on the papal throne. Clement was not long in showing what would be the general character of his policy. Soon after he became pope, the emperor, anxious to bring about that reform of the church, which Adrian VI had not been given time to effect, began to suggest the assembly of a general council. Clement professed entire agreement, but by plausible stipulations contrived to create difficulty after difficulty in the emperor's path, hoping, meanwhile, that the pressure of war would soon give the latter other matters to attend to. This result soon followed, and during the next four years, Clements endeavours to keep the two great rivals at feud were so successful that widespread war swept backwards and forwards in turn over Burgundy, northern France, southern France, Savoy, northern Italy, and southern Italy. Clement at first took the side against Francis, who was beset with difficulties. Three armies had entered France, a Spanish force advancing into Langdok, a German one entering France on the northeast, and an English one occupying Picardy. On the other hand, a large French army under Bonneveille had, as already noted, invaded Lombardy. Charles's armies in northern and southern France were repulsed by the French, but in Lombardy, where the imperial army was commanded by Lenoy, viceroy of Naples, with whom were Pescara and Bourbon, the French suffered serious reverses. All through these wars the Spanish generals were superior to the French. Francis had no good general, and suffered perpetually from the irretrievable loss he had caused himself by having driven from his surface Charles, Duke of Bourbon. In 1524 the French army in Lombardy was at length forced by Lenoy to commence a disastrous retreat toward France, and in this retreat was severely defeated at the passage of Cessia, where the chevalier Bayard, the knight, sans peu et sans reproche, who commanded the rear-guard of Bonneveille's army, was mortally wounded and died on the field. The imperial army driving the French before it advanced into southern France, and laid siege to Marseille. Francis, as though the ordinary miseries of war were not enough, met this invasion by laying waste the whole of Provence, the garden of southern France, in order that the invading army might be unable to subsist. The entire population of the district was made to move elsewhere. Villages were raised to the ground, cattle driven off, crops destroyed, and the sufferings of the people were almost as great as though they had been the captives of a hostile force. By this measure the imperial army, after heavy losses from disease and starvation, was forced to quit France and retired again into Italy. Clement, who hitherto had encouraged Charles, now began to intrigue with Francis, and in December 1524 concluded a secret treaty with him. Meanwhile, Francis, elated by his success in Provence, prepared, against the advice of his ministers and generals, and even of his mother, Louise of Savoy, to invade Lombardy with a large army under his own command. All the flower of the French nobility flocked to join this expedition. Francis appointed his mother regent of France in his absence, and marched for Italy with the most powerful army which had till then been seen in war. At first Francis was successful. He took Milan, and then proceeded to attack Pavia, defended by the experienced Spanish general, Antonio Deleva. During three months Pavia sustained a most rigorous siege, everything known to the engineers of that age being employed to reduce it. Francis added strong reinforcements to his army, bringing up a large body of Swiss troops, and also receiving troops sent to join him by Clement, commanded by Giovanni delle Abandonere, now the foremost commander of his time among the Italians. Meanwhile, Lenoy, Pescara, and Bourbon were collecting troops sufficient to oppose the powerful army of Francis, and at length advanced to the relief of Pavia. A great battle was fought outside the walls on the 24th February 1525, in which the French sustained the most fatal defeat known in those times. The Battle of Pavia is the greatest military event of the 16th century. Francis I, who very nearly lost his life, owing to his refusal to surrender to the Duke of Bourbon, was taken prisoner. Nearly the whole of the French nobility were either killed or captured. Ten thousand men of the French army were killed, and the rest surrendered. And in a fortnight after the battle not a Frenchman remained in Italy except those who were prisoners in Lenoy's hands. It was a crushing defeat for France, whose whole military strength had been collected in this army commanded in person by the King. Lenoy at once sent news of his victory to Charles V, who was in Spain, and shortly afterwards escorted Francis I thither as a prisoner. Clement VII, aghast at the mistake he had made, deserted Francis, and hastened to make a treaty with the Emperor. But it was a hollow affair, and Clement's punishment was only postponed until the Emperor had leisure for it. For one of Clement's pieces of deception at this time, Florence has reason to be glad. After the Battle of Pavia, Clement, in his terror, was anxious to propitiate Federico Gonzaga, Marquis of Mantua, one of the Emperor's chief adherents in Italy. Gonzaga expressed a desire to possess the portrait of Leo X, painted by Raphael, which was in the Medici Palace at Florence. Clement promised he should have it, and wrote from Rome, ordering that the picture should be sent to the Marquis of Mantua, as soon as a copy of it, which he at the same time directed to be made by Andrea del Sarto, was completed. Andrea del Sarto made so good a copy that no one could tell the difference, and this copy was sent to Mantua, purporting to be the original. Even Giulio Romano, Raphael's own pupil, did not detect the deception until it was pointed out to him, years afterwards, by Vasari. It is impossible to believe that this fraud was carried out without the secret orders of Clement VII. The result, however, is that the original remained in the possession of the Medici, and hangs with that portion of their pictures, which now forms the Petite Gallery in Florence. In 1526, Francis I, after thirteen months' captivity in Spain, obtained his liberty, on condition that he would restore Burgundy, would agree not to attack Milan again, and would reinstate Charles, Duke of Bourbon, in the estates of which the latter had been robbed by Louise of Savoy. Some writers have maintained that the terms were too severe, but, on the contrary, in view of the crushing victory which Charles had won at Pavia, they must be held to be exceedingly moderate. No indemnity was extorted, nor any attempt made to cripple the power of France for the future. Francis I gave his two sons, Francis and Henry, then respectively ten and nine years old, as hostages for this agreement. But as soon as he reached France, he repudiated the whole of it, and was absolved therefrom by Clement, who had resolved again to change sides since Charles was becoming too strong. Clement now formed an alliance which he called the Holy League, consisting of France, England and the Pope, with Venice and Florence, to oppose Charles to relieve Francesco Sforza, besieged in Milan by the Imperial Army, and to set Francis's sons at liberty. Clement expected that Francis would be the life and soul of this league. But Francis, owing to his defeat and imprisonment, had gone through such a time of distress that his spirit was for a time cowed. He desired tranquillity, and for the first time failed to be roused by the Pope's incitements. He delayed doing anything, except to allow certain troops to be engaged for him by Clement in Italy. Among them the corps commanded by the latter's relative, Giovanni del Pandanere, for whom Clement was, as usual, anxious to find some fighting to do. The forces assembled by Venice and the Pope were placed under command of the Duke of Urbino, and advanced against the Imperial Army in Lombardy. But the Duke of Urbino, no great friend of Clement, by losing several opportunities, gave Bourbon time to bring up reinforcements to the Imperial Army. Bourbon immediately took command of the latter, and very soon captured Milan, and drove the allied forces to retire on Lodhi. It was in these operations that Giovanni del Pandanere was killed near Mantua. While these events were taking place in France and Italy, Germany was in a state of turmoil through the conflict on the subject of religion, which had now developed into actual war. To allay these conditions, which weakened Germany at a time when it was especially necessary that she should be strong, Charles assembled the diet of the Empire at Spire to consider the religious differences, and this meeting of the diet granted great toleration to Luther's opinions, so much so that the resolutions passed on this occasion came to form a sort of Magna Carta to the Protestant cause. They had a political object. The Turks were now pouring into Hungary, and the Emperor was urgent to oppose them, but could not do so as long as half his territories were torn by these dissensions. He hoped by the settlement at Spire to get the Protestant princes of Germany to march with him against the Turks. It was, however, already too late, and in August the Turks gained a great victory over Hungary at the Battle of Mohas, in which Louis II, king of Hungary, was killed. Though not evident at the time, we can see now that Clement VII by his course of action became himself the chief assistant to the cause of Protestantism. Every time he induced Francis to attack Charles he made it more difficult for the latter to deal with the rising tide of revolt against the Church taking place in Germany, which needed all Charles's attention, and which he probably would have assuaged, or at all events greatly mitigated, had he not been forced to devote most of his attention to the defense of those parts of the Empire attacked by Francis, attacks in most cases instigated or encouraged by Clement. Meanwhile retribution was being prepared for the latter. The Emperor thought at time to give him a lesson, and punish him for his various tortuous dealings. In September 1526, therefore, the Emperor drew up a manifesto systematically setting forth the treacherous manner in which the Pope had acted throughout the previous three years. He then instructed his agent, Moncada, to stir up the powerful family of the Colonna, who attacked and plundered the Vatican, drove Clement to take refuge in the Castle of St. Angelo, and there made him, as a condition of his release, agree to renounce the Holy League, to withdraw his troops from Lumberdy, and to give hostages for his good faith. But Clement was not to be held firm, even by the giving of hostages. As soon as he was again free, he repudiated his engagements, collected a force, attacked the territory of the Colonna, raised to the ground fourteen of their castles and villages, and executed a general massacre of men, women, and children belonging to them, thus filling up the cup of his misdeeds. Then the Emperor, always deliberate and never relinquishing any purpose which he had once formed, prepared a terrible vengeance. He sent, during November and December, additional troops from Spain to Lenoy, his commander in southern Italy, and from Germany to Bourbon, his commander in northern Italy, Piscata having just died, and ordered Bourbon on their arrival to march upon the Papal States. The imperial army in Italy was composed of all the greatest Ruffians from every race in Europe, Spanish and Germans predominating. They had been, for some time, deliberately kept by Charles V without pay, and the state of want to which they were reduced made these troops almost unmanageable except by Bourbon, who, from his many qualities as a general, had a wonderful power over them. Nevertheless, his position was rendered most difficult. Northern Italy, ravaged by these incessant wars, was almost a desert, and could no longer support his troops. To increase his difficulties, there now came to join his army, already in arrears of pay, this addition of sixteen thousand Lutheran troops from Germany, who had not only been promised their pay on reaching Lombardy and were bent upon plunder, but also came with a fixed determination to execute vengeance upon the Pope, to whose faithlessness they attributed all the woes of Christendom. To his charge were laid the long continuance of war throughout Europe, the defeats sustained from the Turks, even their own present state of privation, and they openly announced their intention of marching to Rome and hanging the Pope. Their commander, Fransburg, ostentatiously carried with him a silken rope for this a special purpose. In January 1527 Bourbon made over the government of Milan to Antonio Deleva, and set his army in motion southwards. On reaching Bologna, where he halted for a short time during February, a mutiny of his troops, who were now in the greatest destitution, was only pacified by his promising to march upon Rome. Clement, threatened by Bourbon from the north and Illinois from the south, and terrified to find the same storm coming upon himself which he had brought upon so many others, sent urgent appeals to Francis to deliver him. But Francis had not yet recovered from the blow to his spirit caused by his own defeat and captivity, while he himself had certain scores to pay off upon Clement, and he made no effort to prevent matters from taking their course. But the latter were obdurate. Clement made overtures to Illinois, who came, bringing the above sum of money to Bourbon, but more than twice that amount was due for the arrears of pay alone, and Illinois dared not approach the camp, as the Lutheran troops, bent upon personally, had to take the lead of the army, and the army had to take the lead of the army. and Illinois dared not approach the camp, as the Lutheran troops, bent upon personal vengeance on the pope, would not hear of any truce, and threatened to kill even Illinois himself if he interfered with them, while Frensburg, their own immediate commander, was just at this time struck down by apoplexy. They were determined to hang the pope and sack Rome, would obey no other general than Bourbon, and would not obey even him unless he led them towards Rome. So while Clement, now in the greatest terror, offered every possible and impossible concession to any who would come to his assistance, the resistless torrent rolled steadily on through the valleys of Romania and Umbria, Bourbon subsisting his hungry and ferocious troops on the country pass-through, whose inhabitants had sore reason to curse Clement for bringing this terrible visitation upon them. On the evening of the 5th May the army encamped outside Rome, and the troops at last feasted their eyes on its palaces, and promised themselves, as the reward of all their hardships, the plunder of the papal city. Next morning Bourbon, the ferocious Bourbon, as his enemies called him, fastening upon himself the chief characteristic of the miserable material given him to command, whom his many misfortunes had made tired of life, broke his army for the attack. He led the assault himself, ascended the first ladder placed against the walls, and fell, mortally wounded, as his victorious troops gained the city, his last act being to have himself covered with a cloak that his soldiers might not be discouraged by seeing his condition. 6th May 1527. Then followed the terrible sack of Rome. As the imperial army burst into the city, Clement took refuge in the Castle of St. Angelo, while his troops were being pursued by enemies who gave no quarter, and were doubly enraged by the death of their adored commander. And Clement was now able to see some of the results of his crafty policy in double dealing. The pandemonium which followed is indescribable. The Lutheran troops took pleasure in destroying and defiling all that the Catholic world had revered. Robertson says, It is impossible to describe or even imagine the misery and horror of the scene that followed. Whatever a city taken by storm can dread for military rage unrestrained by discipline. Whatever excesses the ferocity of the Germans, the avarice of the Flemings, or the licentiousness of the Spaniards could commit, these wretched inhabitants of Rome were obliged to suffer. Churches, palaces and houses were plundered without distinction. No age or character was exempt from injury. Cardinals, nobles, priests, matrons, virgins were all the prey of the soldiers, and at the mercy of men deaf to the voice of humanity. Nor did these outrages cease as is usual in towns carried by assault when the first fury of the storm was over. The imperial army, unable to be controlled by any general now bourbon was dead, kept possession of the city for many months, and during all that time the brutality of the soldiers continued. Their booty in ready money alone amounted to one million ducats. What they raised by ransoms and exactions far exceeded that sum. Rome, though taken various times by the northern nations in the fifth and sixth centuries, was never treated with so much cruelty by the barbarous and heathen huns, vandals, or Goths as now by this terrible foe. While these scenes were being enacted, Clement, the author of all this, was a close prisoner in the Castle of St. Angelo, besieged by those troops who, as he well knew, had often sworn to hang him, and were now uncontrolled by the only general who had had any power over them. On bourbon's death the command evolved upon Filiburt, Prince of Orange, but the troops made no pretense of obeying him, and it was with difficulty that he could even persuade some of them to desist from plunder and invest the Castle of St. Angelo. The Duke of Urbino advanced with an army consisting of Venetians, Florentines, and Swiss in the pay of Francis I, strong enough to have overpowered the army of the Prince of Orange. The Duke of Urbino had an old score to pay off against Clement, since the time when the latter had helped to rob him of his duchy. So to tantalize him by raising false hopes in his mind, he merely brought his army near enough for Clement to see it, and then marched away, leaving him surrounded by the furious enemies who thirsted for his blood. The Emperor courteously expressed sorrow at the Pope's misfortune, but the Imperial army remained where it was. Nor, in fact, could any power have removed it, for the troops found Rome exceedingly pleasant quarters and had not the slightest intention of obeying any order to quit the city, so long as anything remained to eat or to plunder. Clement continued besieged by them in the Castle of St. Angelo for seven months, and his action when reduced to great straits he bade Cellini, who was with him there, to melt down his tiara with symbolical of the position to which he had brought himself. At length he contrived to escape, disguised as a peddler, and fled in miserable plight, and with only one attendant, to Orvieto, where he arrived in a most forlorn state, destitute of everything, a disastrous conclusion to four years of tortuous scheming. 8 December 1527 The Imperial army remained firmly planted in Rome, and seemed likely to take root there for good. Lenoy succeeded the Prince of Orange in command, but died of the plague. All the splendor of the Rome of Leo X was destroyed, and when, after nine months' occupation, the army, utterly demoralized by its long debauch, was driven out of the city by the plague, they left it a ruined and desolate waste. Meanwhile, as soon as the news arrived of Pope Clement's disaster and of his being besieged in the Castle of Sant'Angelo, Florence, seen now an opportunity of throwing off the yoke which he had long been craftily but steadily tightening upon her, revolted from his authority, and for the third time banished the Medici family. 19 May 1527 At the same time Venice, taking advantage of the opportunity, seized Ravenna and other places in the States of the Church, and the Ducsa Ferrara and Urbino resumed possession of those territories of which the papacy had deprived them. At this juncture also Henry VIII of England began to press Clement to grant him a divorce from his queen, Catherine of Aragon, the aunt of Charles V. But Clement was truly not just then in a position to offend Charles further, or to give attention to such matters. End of Section 37 Section 38 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 16 Clarice de Medici Clarice Strozzi Born 1493 Married 1508 Died 1528 Clarice, the second of the two children of Pietro the Unfortunate, and sister of Lorenzo, Ducco Vorbino, was far more capable than either her father, mother, or brother. Her uncle Leo X used to say that it would have been well for the family if Clarice had been the man and her brother Lorenzo the woman. She had a high spirit and a strong intelligence, and frequently saved her husband from disaster by her courage and ability. Her very interesting portrait, taken when she was about 17, shows a fine, strong, intellectual face, fully in keeping with the character she afterwards displayed. Clarice's life exemplified the vicissitudes of the Medici fortunes. For during her comparatively short life the family were twice in the highest prosperity and twice in the deepest adversity. Born in the Medici palace when her family was at the height of the splendor to which it had been brought by her grandfather, Lorenzo the Magnificent, she was when a year old carried away from Florence when her parents were exiled and the whole of her girlhood was passed in the nomadic existence entailed on her family by that exile. Her father died when she was ten years old and when she was fifteen her mother, Alfonsina, gave her in marriage to Filippo Strozzi, head of the Strozzi family, and a man of much influence both at Florence and at the Papal Court. Although her husband was fined and banished for this marriage with her, he was suffered to return to Florence about a year later, bringing his young bride with him. Then when Clarice was nineteen came the return of the Medici to Florence and her uncle Giuliano became ruler of the state, and in the following year that rule passed to her brother Lorenzo. Clarice was the first mistress of the handsome Strozzi palace in the Via Tonaboni, which begun twenty years before was first occupied when in fifteen ten she and her husband were allowed to return to Florence, though it was not finally completed until fifteen thirty-six. In fifteen thirteen her uncle Giovanni became pope and being a favorite with him Clarice was often in Rome during the years of his pontificate. In fifteen nineteen when she was twenty-six her brother Lorenzo died and her distant relative Cardinal Giulio de Medici, whom she cordially detested, came to administer Florentine affairs. And when in fifteen twenty-three he became pope Clarice had opportunities of seeing the gradual working of his policy as regards Florence and the change of feeling towards her family which it produced. We hear of her again in Rome in fifteen twenty-four where for some time she resided, taking charge of her brother Lorenzo's only child Catherine, then five years old. But in fifteen twenty-five affairs in Rome after the battle of Pavia becoming unsettled, Clarice returned to Florence where she had the mortification of seeing that palace which was associated in her mind with all the glory of her family occupied by the two illegitimate sirens of the family Ipolito and Alessandro and their guardian Cardinal Pasalini, Pope Clement's representative. In the following year Clarice by her boldness and resource saved her husband's life, not the only occasion of the kind during her life. When in September fifteen twenty-six the Colonna forced Clement to give hostages as a guarantee of his good faith, the latter gave as a hostage his friend Filippo Strozzi, who was then in Rome. And when Clement broke his agreement and committed his atrocious attack on the Colonna, Strozzi's life was in the greatest danger. Clarice, who had remained in Florence much out of health, as soon as she heard this news got into her litter, travelled with all speed to Rome, where she declared that Filippo had been basely and fowly sent like an innocent lamb to the slaughter, and by her energetic action on arrival there eventually obtained her husband's liberty. Early in fifteen twenty-seven the storm which he had provoked burst upon Clement. He was besieged in the castle of Sant'Angelo. Florence rose in revolt against the thraldum which had been gradually imposed upon her ever since he had become the ruling spirit of the family, and for the third time in their history the Medici were banished. On this occasion Clarice gave full evidence of her strength of character and lofty spirit. Filippo, her husband, unable to decide which side to take, remained shut close in his palace, full of doubt and uncertainty. No such feeling so pressed his high-spirited wife. Clarice, justly hating Clement the Seventh, was not at all displeased at seeing him brought to disgrace a disaster. The more pride she took in her ancestors the more wrath she felt at the course being pursued by the existing head of the family, and she eagerly seized the opportunity of dealing a blow at his plans which might be a decisive one. She first advised her irresolute husband to stick to the side of the Republic, advice which he eventually took. Then sallying forth to the Medici palace, the home of her ancestors, now tenanted by those whom she considered only half Medici, unworthy to be the bearers of that once honored name, she proceeded to eject them in the following fashion. The scene in the Medici palace on that 19 May 1527, and Clarice's part therein, is thus vividly described by Trollope. In the Medici palace, after the news had come of the terrible sack of Rome, and that Pope Clement had fled and was closely besieged in the castle of St. Angelo, and while in the Palazzo della Signoria the great council, hastily assembled, and still only half determined to take the decisive step, discussed a revolution, sat the Cardo Passarini with his three young charges, awaiting the decision of the council, dismayed and irresolute, while the whole length of the Via Larga outside, presented to one looking on it from the Medician palace, a threatening billowy sea of heads. To them, thus sitting, trembling and perplexed, entered the haughty and intrepid Clarice, bent on bringing them to a very speedy resolution. Clarice hated her relative, Clement, and burnt with indignation at seeing the illegitimate ipolito in Alessandro made inheritors of her family's honors and preeminence. Entering the room with haughty step and flashing eye, full of indignation, and raising her voice so loud that it was even heard by those in the street outside, she bitterly taunted the trembling cardinal at having brought his own and his master's affairs to such a pass, contrasting how differently things were managed by my ancestors who were true Medici and who with benevolence and gentleness gained the loyalty of the Florentines, and so found them constant in adversity. But you, turning to ipolito in Alessandro, who by your conduct have betrayed the secret of your birth and convinced the world that you are not of the blood of the Medici, and not you alone but Clement also, unworthy and wrongfully Pope, and now most rightfully prisoner in Sant'Angelo, why are you surprised that all are this day against you? Now therefore depart from a house to which you have no claim, and from a city which has no affection for you. For in this evil hour the family honour depends on me. And this forceful lady wound up her harangue by sarcastically informing them that the Medici palace was not built in order to be as stable for mules. And promptly depart they did. As an old chronicler commenting on this episode naively remarks, the lady Clarice had great power of tongue. But apart from all questions of her power of tongue, there is no doubt that Clarice was abundantly right. She saw plainly Clement's scheme and how he was, step by step, carrying it out. She saw how, as a result, the whole temper of the people of Florence was changing towards her family. She knew what a tool her brother Lorenzo had been made in his hands. Except for a girl of eight years old, she was herself the last legitimate representative of a line of ancestors who had been actuated by far different aims. And she was enraged at seeing a policy so destructive to the honour of her house, being pursued by one who illegitimate himself was scheming to make a second illegitimate scion of the family continue the same policy. And the speech which Leo X had uttered concerning her was, had he known it, a prophetic one. For had she been in her brother's place, Clement would have found in her a formidable antagonist. She would have found means to make the course upon which he had embarked and which after her death produced the destruction of the Republic an impossible one. And the family honour would not have been dragged in the dust by an action which has been the cause of all the condemnation bestowed upon their name. By her conduct on this occasion, conduct apparently impelled by a determination to maintain the honour of her family by showing the Florentines that the true Medici had neither part nor lot with Clement and his scheme for the enslavement of Florence. Clarice forced the hesitating senioria over the Rubicon. For by this expulsion of Epolito and Alessandro with the Pope's representative the die was cast and it meant war to the knife with Clement. And Clarice's bold endeavour to defend that honour of her family which she had truly said depended only on her was in its own sphere not unworthy to be set beside Piedro Capone's action in that same room thirty-three years before when he boldly spoke for the liberty of Florence against Charles VIII. Clarice's character is a fine one. In every act of her life she showed herself a worthy descendant of those Medici who had gone before and of whom she was so proud and in this the last recorded episode of her life she showed it most. She died in the following year on the third May fifteen twenty-eight at the age of thirty-five while the Republic was still in full power and while her husband was keeping away from Florence and endeavouring to remain friends both with the Republic and the Pope. She died at their lovely villa of Le Selve on the heights overlooking the valley of the Arno near Signa and is buried in the Strozzi Chapel in Santa Maria Novella, Florence. She had ten children, seven sons and three daughters. In his life of his brother Filippo her brother-in-law Lorenzo Strozzi says that at her death her husband cordially lamented her and afflicted himself much and Filippo Strozzi and his will provided for a monument to be erected to her memory, seeing that Clarice, my wife, deserves by her virtues to be honoured by me. And certainly Filippo Strozzi had every reason to honour one who was the most true, faithful and able helped me to him who throughout her life identified herself completely with his interests and plans and took by far the larger share of the burden not only worthily upheld the name of Medici but also brought credit upon that of Strozzi. End of Section 38 Section 39 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 17 2. The last seven years of his pontificate that Florence should revolt from him and for a third time banish his family is said to have been more intolerable to Clement VII than even the Sack of Rome and all his other misfortunes. It was a severe blow to his life and to his death and to his death and to his death It was a severe blow to his long cherished scheme. To his former plans there was now added the desire for vengeance. Meanwhile Florence was jubilant. She had reasserted her independence and had good grounds for hoping to maintain it. Stronger as a state than Rome the only thing she had to fear was the Pope's gaining allies and in the condition to which Clement had brought his affairs seemed highly improbable. The Emperor's animosity had been thoroughly roused and he and the Pope seemed now too hopelessly estranged to be ever likely to reunite. Francis I was Florence's ally and besides this had, in his contest with Charles other work for his troops than to employ them on Clement's behalf in the latter's private quarrel with Florence. Henry VIII was also Florence's ally and incensed against Clement for his evasive replies in the matter of his divorce. Genoa, Venice, and Ferrara were all allied with Florence while the smaller states were nearly all at enmity with Clement for one cause or another. Lastly he himself was a fugitive plundered of everything and in a destitute condition. But the Florentines notwithstanding their long knowledge of him who has been called the Master of Craft had not fathomed the capabilities of that fertile brain for finding a way even through such a tangled web as this. Clement's main difficulty was that while he could not hope to regain power over Florence without the hope of one or other of the two great antagonists if he obtained the assistance of one the other would at once take the opposite side and so neutralize matters. How to avoid this therefore became a problem to the solution of which he turned all his mental powers. First, however, he had to make his peace with Charles and get the Emperor's Spanish, Flemish, and German bulldogs which had been so ruthlessly let loose upon him made to let go from his throat. As the price of this release Charles imposed upon him the most humiliating terms including the surrender of a large part of the papal territories and the payment of a heavy fine to all of which Clement had to submit. In February 1527, soon after Clement reached Orvieto Francis again declared war against Charles. Henry sided with Francis, hoping thereby to secure the latter's influence with the Pope in the matter of his divorce. For Clement, now completely in the power of Charles was secretly intriguing with Francis and urging on this war in the hope that it would liberate him from this state of bondage. With France and England the other allies against Charles were Venice, Genoa, Florence, and Ferrara. Florence made a fatal mistake in the side she took in this war. Before it began, the Emperor offered if she would side with him against Francis to secure her against the Pope. And Niccolò Caponi, who was Golfaloniere exerted all his influence to induce his countrymen to accept this offer foreseeing that the Pope would eventually contrive to patch up matters with the Emperor and that whenever this occurred Francis would prove a broken read. But the Florentines insisted on clinging to the French alliance and three years later had bitter reason to repent their mistake. As before, Italy was the principal battlefield. A French army under De La Trek advanced against Charles's dominions in northern Italy. A second army, assisted by the Genoese fleet attacked his kingdom of Naples and for the next year and a half war raged throughout Italy. In October 1528 Clement, who had moved in June from Orvietto to Viterbo was at last able to return to Rome. He was horror-stricken on seeing its condition finding it ruined, half burnt and the population diminished by one half. Meanwhile matters were going against the French. They lost the valuable alliance of Genoa. A few months afterwards the whole French army in southern Italy had to capitulate. And lastly, their army in northern Italy suffered a severe defeat from Antonio de Leiva. Exhausted by so many reverses Francis was inclined to make peace and to this end discussions regarding a treaty between the two antagonists went on for months at Cambrai between Louise of Savoy on the part of Francis and Margaret of Austria on the part of Charles. The above position of affairs caused Clement to consider that the time was ripe for carrying out a great scheme the details of which he had been elaborating for many months. Seldom surely has such vast machinery been set in motion to attain such a petty object. Europe was now to see the politics of France, England, Spain, Germany and Italy all manipulated in order that Clement might compass his aim of regaining power over Florence and exalting a scion of his family to be despot over it. Accordingly in June 1529 while the endless discussions between Louise and Margaret were still continuing at Cambrai Clement proceeded to Spain where Charles then was and laid before him certain proposals for their combined action. The result of this was a secret compact concluded between Charles and himself at Barcelona towards the end of June which soon had important results to all the countries then at war. Though the arrangements made between Charles and Clement in this dubious plot were not allowed to transpire for some little time but became apparent by degrees in the terms of the Treaty of Cambrai and in Charles's proceedings in Italy a few months later. This compact was followed in August 1529 by the conclusion of the Treaty of Cambrai between Francis and Charles in which Francis agreed to abandon his allies England, Venice, Ferrara and Florence to pay a ransom for his sons to withdraw his troops from all Charles's territories and to renounce all interference in the future with affairs in Italy. The last item was the principal one and was that which Clement had employed all his art to secure. Simultaneously with this treaty between Francis and Charles Clement gave Henry some encouragement in the matter of his divorce and the latter, anxious to obtain this offered no remonstrance against the abandonment of the other allies by Francis and himself followed the same course. This left of the original allies against Charles only Venice, Ferrara and Florence deserted by the rest. The above treaty combined with the thralldom in which he held the Pope made Charles complete master of Italy. He now proceeded for the first time to that country where his armies had been fighting for nearly eight years almost uninterruptedly to settle its affairs and to carry out the remaining provisions of the secret compact which had been made between himself and Clement. Reaching Genoa at the end of August he proceeded to Milan where he reinstated Francesco Svortzai's duke and dictated terms of peace to Venice and Ferrara. In accordance with the secret compact at Barcelona Charles treated Venice and Ferrara leniently and only required from them the restitution to the Pope of the territories they had seized from him in 1527. This left Florence alone bereft of all her allies. Genoa, France, England, Venice and Ferrara had one by one been separated from her. Nor was Florence given any opportunity of making her peace with the Emperor in the same way as Venice and Ferrara had done. For this would have prevented that destruction of her Republic which was the object of all these maneuvers on Clement's part. Moreover another item in the Barcelona compact now transpired for as the price of his submission on all other points Clement had stipulated that the Imperial Army should be lent to him to enable him to crush Florence to which Charles had agreed on Clement's pointing out that the eventual result would be to the Emperor's own advantage since instead of a turbulent Republic there would be substituted a ruler who would be a vassal of the Emperor. Thus had Clement, in a course of two years intricate diplomacy, gradually got the bundle of sticks separated and also obtained the assistance against Florence of Charles's army for which Clement agreed to pay while Francis under the terms of the Treaty of Cambrai was debarred from interfering. The sum total was a triumph of that kind of diplomacy in which Clement delighted and in which he excelled. Accordingly in the end of September 1529 the Imperial Army was ordered to march upon Florence and in December, while the siege of Florence was proceeding, Clement and Charles met again this time at Bologna to perfect these arrangements to add certain other clauses to the contract between them and for Charles to be crowned by Clement with the Imperial Crown. This coronation took place on the 24th February 1530 and in April Clement returned to Rome having, in the further clauses to their compact added at Bologna, set on foot arrangements concerning a private and domestic scheme which he was elaborating as regards his own family. He had by this time determined to supplant Ipolito by Alessandro and to give the rule of Florence whenever that state should be subdued to the latter but he kept this carefully concealed from all except the Emperor until the time should come and until he should find means to dispose of Ipolito in some manner which should prevent him from interfering with this plan. The terms of the secret compact to which Clement had induced Charles to agree at Barcelona and which was thus finally completed between them at Bologna were such as fully showed Clement's unscrupulous character. While in them we see that scheme at last taking shape upon which he had been for so many years bent as regards Florence and which two years before had seemed as though it would have to be abandoned. The principal terms were One, that on Florence being isolated from her allies by the arrangement settled upon is regarded France, England, Venice, and Ferrara, the Imperial army should be led to Clement with which to attack and subdu her. Two, that the independence of Florence should be abolished. Three, that Alessandro, called by Clement the son of Lorenzo, Ducco Vorbino, should be invested by the emperor with the rule of Florence holding that state as the emperor's vassal. And four, that Margaret, a daughter of the emperor then nine years old, should be married to Alessandro as soon as she should be old enough. But the third and fourth articles were not allowed to transpire until more than a year later, Clement having private reasons for keeping them secret for the present. It may be imagined with what indignation the Florentines heard of this resolution to extinguish their beloved republic and with what determination they prepared to fight to the death against it. Regarding this whole matter, Renka's comment is as follows. With astonishment did men behold him, Clement, after so many indignities again connect himself with the emperor. He so completely changed his policy that the very army by which the horrors of Rome had been perpetrated before his eyes and himself held so long a captive he now called to his assistance and launched upon his native city. Nevertheless, Florence did not lose heart though opposed to the united power of the pope and emperor. Her field army was placed under Francesco Ferrucci, other troops being enrolled to form the garrison of the city. All round the walls of the city a space one mile wide was ruthlessly cleared so as to afford no cover to the enemy. Every tree, including those of vineyards and fruit gardens being cut down and every building including even churches being demolished and notwithstanding the fact that some of these suburbs were almost like towns. The Venetian ambassador, Carlo Capello, writing to his government comments on the widespread ruin thus caused the many beautiful villas that had been burnt by their owners and the greatness of mind displayed by the general willingness to suffer all these losses for the sake of liberty. One exception only was made vis the monastery of San Salvi on account of Andrea del Sarto's fresco of the Last Supper which art-loving Florence had not the heart to destroy. On the 14th October 1529 the imperial army commanded by the Prince of Orange appeared before Florence and occupied all the high ground on the southern side at a distance of about a mile from the walls from near Luciano on the east round to Monte Alivetto on the west while another equally large force occupied the country on the northern side of the city. Before the investment was complete Florence sent an embassy to Clement in Rome to appeal to his mercy but they met only with a cold refusal. Yet the troops whom he had gathered round Florence were the ferocious ruffians of many nationalities whom Bourbon had commanded and Clement had hired them with 80,000 Florence in the promise of the plunder of Florence while we are told that even before this army left Lombardy the soldier's usual oath had become by the glorious sack of Florence there was therefore no doubt as to what was the fate in store for Florence if this enemy got within her walls. Florence's struggle in defense of her independence was worthy of her former history. She defended herself for ten months against all that the imperial army could do and at one time it looked as though she would win. Michelangelo laid aside his chisel and became his country's principal engineer in particular designing all the defenses around San Minato the principal point of attack. Francesco Carducci was the gonfaloniere and although he had not the ability of his predecessor, Niccolò Caponi he was a worthy and patriotic head of the government. But the chief hero of the defense is Florence's noble general, Francesco Ferrucci who well deserved the niche in Florence's temple of fame which he has gained. Keeping the field and holding the neighboring town of Empoli he managed steadily to pour in then supplies into Florence again and again defeating the imperial detachments with his numerically inferior forces and hampering the Prince of Orange by the knowledge that there was an army in the field on his flank and so well did he maintain his country's cause that it became at length evident that the imperial army would never take Florence and Perucci remained unconquered. It would have been well for Florence if her forces within the city had been commanded by a man of light character. But here she had made the fatal mistake of employing a foreigner Maletesta Ballioni one of that blood-stained family who had previously ruled Peruccia and this caused her defeat. He was a traitor from the very first and had sold the cause he was engaged to defend. Gino Caponi states that before the siege began Ballioni received from the Pope a written document promising him the lordship of Peruccia confirming any terms which he might make with the Prince of Orange and conveying absolution for all crimes which he might commit during the siege of Florence. Nevertheless, though the garrison was so badly commanded the imperial army failed to gain any success in the sorties and skirmishes which took place almost daily and were fought with great ferocity the Florentines nearly always prevailed and in December a well arranged sortie of three thousand men under Stefano Colonna was so successful that the besieging army would probably have been routed had it not been for the treachery of Ballioni who sounded the retreat when Colonna's force was carrying all before them. Month after month the struggle continued and by degrees one after another of Florence's subject towns were captured. Volterra, Pistoia, Prato, Lastra, San Miniatu Altadesco and others being successively taken by the imperial army. But these losses did not daunt Ferucci who harassed the enemy continually and even recaptured Volterra and San Miniatu Altadesco. At length, in July 1530, the Prince of Orange seeing that if he was ever to take Florence it was imperative first to defeat Ferucci desired to attack him with the greater part of his army leaving only a weak force round the city but he feared, lest in his absence the garrison should sally out and defeat the force thus left behind Ballioni, however, enabled him to affect his object and to attack Ferucci with an overwhelming force by engaging not to make any such sortie during the Prince's absence. Thus assured the latter marched away with a force more than double the strength of that commanded by Ferucci and attacked him. The battle between them decided the fate of Florence. It was fought at Gavinana in the mountains above Pistoia on the 3rd August 1530. After a severely contested battle the Imperial Army won chiefly because their brave opponents were nearly all destroyed. The two commanders, the Prince of Orange and Francesco Ferucci, were both killed. Thereupon Florence surrendered. On condition, agreed to on Clement's part that the ancient constitution should be preserved and the city ruled by the Signoria but subject to the Emperor as the supreme power in Italy Florence agreed to pay an indemnity of 80,000 Florence while the Pope agreed to treat his countrymen with affection and clemency as he had always done. Nevertheless, as soon as the city was in possession of the Pope these terms were entirely ignored. Francesco Carducci, the brave head of the government during the siege, Niccolò de Lapi Fra Benedetto da Foyano, a monk who during the siege had encouraged the citizens by his sermons and many others Iriart states to the number of a thousand were put to death while many of the leading citizens were imprisoned. The abolition of the Republic and the installation of Alessandro's Duke Clement thought, even in the beaten condition of the Florentines would be more safely carried out by successive steps. So for a time he caused the government to be carried on by his representative Baccio Valori the Signoria being allowed to continue but all power being vested in Valori who lived in the Palazzo della Signoria surrounded by a strong body of the Imperial troops. After this arrangement had lasted ten months Clement took the second step by sending Alessandro from Rome to take Valori's place. He arrived on the 5th July 1531 and took up his abode in the Medici Palace. But before the final step of declaring the Republic abolished and proclaiming Alessandro's sole master of Florence could be ventured upon a fortress was necessary to contain the troops to support this despotism. Accordingly for the present Alessandro was only called Head of the Republic while arrangements were made to rebuild a strong fortress. The present Fortezza da Basso at the center of the northern wall of the city. Clement the 7th's ancestors are often accused of despotism but they had no need of a fortress. Now however that a despotism is in reality about to be set up a fortress to support it is felt to be a sine qua non so much so that the proclamation of that despotic rule was even delayed until the fortress is ready. As soon as the latter was sufficiently completed to be occupied by the troops lent by the Emperor to support Alessandro's authority the third and final step was taken and on the 1st May 1532 Alessandro summoned the members of the Signoria to the Medici Palace and read out to them the Emperor's order that the Signoria was abolished the Republic ended and he himself to be sole ruler of Florence. At the same time a similar proclamation was made from the Ringhera in front of the Palazzo de la Signoria the name of which was henceforth changed to Palazzo Vecchio. Alessandro also caused the great bell, Lavaca, which hung in the tower of the Palazzo Vecchio and had summoned so many generations of Florentines to proclaim their will to be thrown down and broken to pieces. The bell of the Council, says Davanzatti in his contemporary diary was taken from us in order that we should no more hear the sweet sound of liberty. Thus had Clement at last affected the completion of that project which he had assiduously pursued during twenty years. The further development of converting the Ducal Coronet into a crown was still unattained but only one step more remained to reach it. The city, held in subjection by foreign troops, groaned in silence but rage burnt under the surface at the manner in which its conquest had been affected, at the deliberate breach of the conditions under which it had surrendered and at the odious tyranny to which it now found itself subjected. End of Section 39 Section 40 of the Medici Vol. 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 Vol. 1 by G. F. Young Chapter 17 Julio, Clement VII. Part II Michelangelo, when the city surrendered fled for his life and remained for some time in hiding but his talents were too valuable to be lost and Clement wanted him for the completion of the family monuments in the new sacristy planned in the time of Leo X. So he was pardoned and given orders to proceed with the work. It may be imagined with what feelings he returned to the execution of such a task in the midst of the daily humiliations of Alessandro's rule. What memories of a bygone, very different state of things in the happy days of his youth were Lorenzo the Magnificent and what despair at the present degradation of Florence oppressed his soul as he labored at these monuments may be seen in his work. And there is no ground for the uncertainty which some have expressed as to what ideas Michelangelo meant to convey in these statues of day and night, evening and dawn when they are studied in conjunction with the contemporary history and his own words. Footnote Michelangelo referring to the Statue of Night wrote, Ah, glad I am to sleep in stone while wrong and dire disgrace rage unreproved near. A happy chance to neither see nor hear. Oh, then wake me not! Hush! Whisper low. End footnote The great sculptor worked at the task given him full of the bitterest feelings at the ruin of his country, at the wrong which had been done to her and at the dire disgrace of such a rule as that of Alessandro and the statues referred to the day which once had been and the dark night which had now settled down upon Florence, one regarding which he despaired of any dawn. Michelangelo left these monuments unfinished, not on account of any artistic reason some have fancied, but because on Clement's death in 1534 before they were completed he precipitantly fled from Florence being in fear of the tyrant Alessandro's hate when once the pope was dead. Germany By the year 1530 Charles V. had triumphed in every direction. Spain was reduced to subjection. On France had been inflicted the greatest defeat of the century. All temporal power had been taken from the pope. Throughout Italy Charles's supremacy was complete while his brother Ferdinand had gained the crowns of both Hungary and Bohemia. But in Germany the contest about religion threatened to produce serious civil war. In 1530 Charles assembled the diet of the empire at Augsburg to endeavour to find means of healing the breach and at this assembly Melanchthon put forward a creed which became a rallying point for the Lutheran party now for the first time called Protestant. Every effort was made to find terms of agreement between the rival parties in this assembly and at one time Charles hoped this had been affected but the Protestants would yield nothing from their side and after much discussion they were outvoted and the diet passed to decrease severely condemning their opinions. As a consequence the Protestant princes of Germany secretly assisted by both Francis and Henry in order to embarrass the emperor formed for their mutual defence the League of Smokaldin. But the Turkish invasion of Hungary had now assumed formidable proportions and to meet it Charles after great efforts managed to the diet of Radisbon in July 1532 to arrange a truce on the religious question whereupon the Protestant princes agreed to march with him against the Turks. Accordingly in August 1532 Charles led a large army against Solomon the Turkish Sultan who overawed by this great display of force retreated precipitately without risking a battle and evacuated Hungary and Croatia. Having thus rescued Hungary the emperor returned thence and passed through Italy on his way to Spain. He had no intention of going to Rome and ordered Clement to meet him at Bologna regardless of the rough and difficult journey in which this would involve the Pope who dared not go by the main road which passed through Florence. They met at Bologna in December 1532 when a second conference between them took place. At this meeting Clement was made to feel more than ever the galling yoke of his bondage to Charles. The latter knew that during his absence in Hungary Clement had been again making overtures to Francis and intended to put a stop to all such procedure on his part. As a counter-poise however Clement had prepared a scheme for the emperor's disconfiture while the compact which he had secretly formed with Francis and which included specific proposals for an attack on Milan did not prevent Clement's forming at this meeting an agreement with Charles to oppose Francis should the latter again endeavour to take Milan. England For nearly six years Clement had, by various artifices been keeping Henry VIII at bay over the question of the divorce which he desired from his queen Catherine of Aragon the sister of Charles' mother Joanna. Clement in his position with regard to Charles desired to retain the valuable aid of Henry as long as possible. At the same time if forced to choose between the two it was Charles whom he least dared to offend. And as the latter's power over him grew every year stronger it became more and more certain that Clement would soon be forced to make that choice and to break with Henry however much he desired to avoid it. At last in 1532 Henry would wait no longer. He first tried to force Clement to his will by making the English Parliament pass an act abolishing the payment of first fruits to the pope. Power being left in the king's hand to suspend the act until it should be seen whether the pope should meet his wishes. As this failed to produce the desired effect Henry then endeavored to force Clement to a decision between himself and Charles by forming an alliance with Francis against the Emperor. Charles' retort was the meeting to which he summoned Clement at Bologna in December 1532 at which he showed the pope with great plainness that he must not dare to offend him and must throw over Henry and refuse to agree to the divorce. But the more Charles made Clement feel his bondage to him the more disinclined was the latter to lose any friendship which might sooner or later prove a help to him to get free from this yoke. Therefore in secret he still did not despair of contriving by some means to avoid an absolute rupture with Henry. On the 25th January 1533 Henry was secretly married to Anne Boleyn. In February Clement, ignorant of this marriage granted at Henry's request a bull making Thomas Kramner Archbishop of Canterbury. In May the question of whether or not Henry's marriage to Catherine of Aragon had been illegal was tried in the Archbishop's court. And on the 23rd May both houses of Convocation several foreign universities and many of the leading canonists of the day having given the opinion that that marriage was void from the first the Archbishop acting with other bishops annulled it and three days later confirmed that with Anne Boleyn. But even this did not cause Clement as yet to break with Henry. Francis was Henry's close ally and Clement hoped to obtain Francis's influence with Henry to persuade him against a breach with the Pope. Therefore though Clement expostulated and threatened the final thunderbolt of an excommunication was held in abeyance for more than a year Clement hoping by persuasion to induce Henry to take back his wife when his fickle nature had had time to grow tired of Anne Boleyn. Although Clement had succeeded in his scheme as regards Florence he did not find his own position improved. The Emperor still held him bound in fetters fetters which were stronger than ever since Francis had been shut out from interfering in the affairs of Italy. And while thus cut off from gaining assistance from Francis Clement felt that he was now being forced by Charles to break with Henry also when he would become more than ever the Emperor's Bond Slave. Clement therefore now executed his great and final coup. During the latter end of 1532 he managed secretly to arrange a compact with Francis which would bind the latter to him by an actual matrimonial alliance. This was nothing less than that the heiress of the Medici family Catherine, now 14 should be married to Francis's second son Henry, Duke of Orleans now about 16. The bait by which Clement went over Francis to this proposal was not only the enormous dour which Catherine would bring with her but also an agreement on Clement's part to assist the French king to retake Milan. Having secretly settled this with Francis Clement proceeded in December 1532 to the meeting with Charles at Bologna and there, in the course of their discussions Clement mentioned to the Emperor the idea of such a marriage pretending to ask his advice about it and carefully concealing the fact that he had had any communications on that or any other subject with Francis. Charles, knowing that Francis was again planning to get hold of Milan and being particularly anxious to prevent a friendship between him and Clement which might assist that endeavour and never believing for a moment that Francis would agree to such a mes alliance advised Clement to make the proposal thinking that it would bring upon him a rebuff from Francis which would produce ill feeling between them whereupon to Charles' astonishment and disgust the thing was promptly carried out. The Emperor having departed to Spain Clement pushed on all the arrangements as fast as possible and in October 1533 the marriage was performed by Clement himself Francis also being present. As a part of the terms of this marriage it was secretly agreed that on Francis gaining possession of Milan with the Pope's assistance that Duchy should be given to Henry Catherine's husband hoping to gratify his ambition by seeing one of his family in power at Florence and the other at Milan. And Clement returned to Rome in December feeling much secret satisfaction not only at having achieved so advantageous a marriage for his family but also at having outwitted Charles who had held him so long in chains and who was left with no power of taking offence at this marriage since he had been led by Clement actually himself urging the latter to propose it. But Clement had not a long time in which to enjoy feelings of satisfaction. Before five months were over they're pressed upon him from another direction matters which made the last half year of his life more disastrous than all that had preceded. For the cloud in the west now grew to greater dimensions than those of a mere personal quarrel with a king and in the last six months of Clement's life events supervened in England which in their momentous importance to the papacy threw all else into the background. For here was no case, as in Germany, of a certain number of individuals however powerful revolting from the Pope but an entire national church was casting off his supremacy and a whole nation by its legislature enacting laws prohibiting obedience to his authority while a king, instead of restraining these actions was instigating them. And this nation also was that which had hitherto furnished the largest supplies for the support of the papacy. If one or two more countries should act in the same manner there would scarcely remain any papacy to fight for. In March 1534 both the Church and Parliament of England separately repudiated the supremacy of the Pope. The convocation of the Church of England repudiating that supremacy is opposed to the principles of the Catholic Church and an innovation which had not existed for the first six centuries of the Church's life and declaring that the Pope hath no greater jurisdiction in this kingdom of England than any other foreign bishop. And the Parliament of England passing an act made appeals to the Pope high treason. Thus the repudiation by the Church of England of the papal supremacy took place before the actual rupture between Henry and the Pope. This latter followed four months later when in July 1534 the Pope pronounced a sentence of excommunication against Henry unless he would take back Catherine of Aragon and put away Anne Boleyn. Clement thus still leaving a loophole in the hope that a rupture between himself and Henry might even yet at the eleventh hour be avoided. Henry, however, refused to do this whereupon the breach became complete. Thus had Henry's personal quarrel with the Pope led to greater consequences than even a king's excommunication and had enabled the Church of England to cast off that papal supremacy which had been wrongly imposed upon her for five centuries. The sentence of excommunication against Henry VIII was the last public act of Clement VII's life. He died less than two months afterwards on the 25th September 1534 at the age of 56. His life ended in the midst of the gloom caused by the darkest of all the storms that had come upon the papacy and he died with his name execrated in every country and unrecreted by a single human being. It might have been thought that whatever the northern races might feel at least in the capital city of that papacy on behalf of which he had contended so strenuously some reverence might have been felt for him. But it was not so. In a letter to the Duke of Norfolk three weeks after the Pope's death a Roman Catholic correspondent Gregory de Cassal writes thus The joy in Rome was great. The most bitter hatred was felt for the dead pope by every human being. A hatred which, unappeased even by his death showed itself by repeated nightly attacks upon his tomb. Once it was absolutely destroyed and the corpse was found transfixed with a sword. And had it not been for respect to the cardinal de Medici, Ipolito, the body would have been dragged through the city by a hook. At length an armed guard had to be set over the tomb since it was every night broken and defiled with all sorts of filth. Thus ended Clement VII. By setting before himself ignoble aims and pursuing them with complete unscrupulousness he did the greatest harm to his own family, to Florence, to Italy, and to the papacy. He died leaving half Europe all and away from the papacy. Rome, a ruined city, the name of his family hated where once it had been honoured and Italy, from Milan to Naples, a field of slaughter bathed in blood and tears. At first sight Clement VII's pontificate is an enigma. He, one of the cleverest members of an exceptionally able family who had been the guiding genius of the papacy throughout Leo X's much-praised reign seems, in his own pontificate, to be perpetually engaged in the most unsuccessful schemes and involved in the most grievous troubles in dignities and losses, all without any apparent necessity, and with a result which has caused his pontificate to be considered the most disastrous on record. The key, however, to this enigma and the clue to the whole history of these eleven eventful years is to be found in the reports of the Venetian ambassador at Rome, Antonio Suriano. The latter, immediately after Clement's death, set himself to show to his own government that one single underlying motive was the cause of all Clement's actions and the key to his otherwise inexplicable conduct. And that this all-dominating motive was the endeavour to avoid the assembly of a general council. Sodiano writes two long reports to his government to prove this point and draws out in detail the many things which Clement was willing to endure for the sake of this one object, while he states that Clement's dread of a general council amounted to nothing short of abject terror. In his first report, Sodiano points out at great length many occasions on which this exaggerated terror had impelled Clement to the most strange course of conduct, stating that this overwhelming dread of the general council, and this alone, induced the pope to smother his resentment against the emperor for the many mortifications received from him, and especially for the never-to-be-forgotten outrage of the sack of Rome. All was, if not forgiven, endured in silence, so long as there was any hope that by keeping Charles in good humour the council might be staved off. And it was only when the emperor definitively insisted on its assembly that Clement began again to lean towards Francis in the hope that the latter would impede it. Sodiano states that Clement would not even suffer the word to be mentioned in his presence and gives in detail the many cogent reasons he had for dreading it. In his second report, the Venetian ambassador gives a masterly sketch of Clement's whole policy, and again points out that through all his manifold schemes there had been this one motive only. For this, says Sodiano, took place the conference with the emperor at Malonia, and the lead between his holiness, his majesty the emperor, and your serene hynuses. For this the cruel and shameful siege and conquest of Florence. For this the marriage between the emperor's daughter Margaret and the infamous Alessandro. For this again the marriage between the duchessina and the son of the king of France. Again for the same reason when the arrest in Hungary of the cardinal Ipolito de Medici occasioned the pope, on account of the indignity, such poignant grief that he wept over it, yet was it all passed unnoticed. Nor could any circumstance avail to arouse Clement, or cause him to quarrel with the emperor, since his holiness considered that the friendship of the emperor secured him from the council so much dreaded by him. For this same cause, pursues the ambassador, although his holiness had but little love for the emperor, who ruled him and led him wither so ever he would, yet by necessity, to consent to whatever the emperor chose without manifesting any resistance and all this from fear of the council. Therefore, considering this his painful position, and the slavery, as it may be called in which the emperor held him, and still more the danger of the council, he began to show himself more accessible to the most Christian king, Francis I. The marriage of the Duchessina was planned. His holiness's idea was that by this alliance of his niece with the son of the king of France, he should lay the foundation of two pillars of support for his family and his own affairs, especially in the so much dreaded matter of the council, in the hope that by these means some settlement of the religious questions might be attained, and at least the dreaded council be avoided. And Sodiano sums up by saying, Your Lordships then may be assured that Clement used all possible means to avoid a council, and the fear of it tormented the mind of his holiness to such a degree that by reason of it he even lost the friendship of the emperor and of others, and finally his own life. To which may be added the break with England, for Clement would never have allowed the breach with Henry to occur had it not been for the threat of the assembly of a general council which Charles the Fifth intimated to him in the plainest terms should be the result of his agreeing to the divorce of his aunt. But there is something deeper to be seen here, though strangely enough it is passed without notice. If we look back through the long roll of the centuries we shall see that all this means, in one word, retribution. And so we see Canossa at last avenged, and after four centuries and a half, instead of the scene enacted there which burnt itself into the memory of Europe, we see the rolls reversed, and behold a successor of the emperor Henry the Fourth making a successor of Pope Gregory the Seventh his abject slave who trembled before him, and placed the papal authority at his entire disposal to be used only in accordance with his behests. In following Clement the Seventh's history to his death we have had to neglect for a time the younger members of the family who during the last few years of his life were beginning to play their parts in the drama of the Medici story. These present to us a group of four two young men and two girls, three of them belonging to the family, while the Fourth entered it by marriage. These occupy a considerable portion of the stage during the years from 1930 to 1537. The two young men destined to meet with early deaths the two girls destined to have long lives and to fill important places in history. They are Ipalito the son of Giuliano Duke de Demorre, Alessandro whose dubious parentage has been already noticed. Catherine, the only child of Lorenzo, Duke of Urbino and Margaret, a daughter of the emperor Charles the Fifth who at 15 became the wife of Alessandro. Ipalito, as the eldest of the group must be considered first while Catherine being so important a personage must be dealt with separately. Ipalito Ipalito, the son of the justly esteemed Giuliano Duke de Demorre, appeals to us both on account of his own attractive personality and the sadness of his history. Born in 1509 and only 7 years old when his father died he was as a child taken charge of by his uncle, Pope Leo X who was very fond of him and watched carefully over his education delighting in the ability which from an early age he displayed but Leo died when Ipalito was only 12 years old. We have seen how when he was 15 he was sent from Rome by Pope Clement VII to reside in Florence made a member of the government and looked upon by all as intended when old enough to succeed to the rule of Florence which had been held by his father. During the next three years he with Alessandro and the child Catherine remained at Florence under Cardinal Pasarini's charge living in the Medici Palace until when Ipalito was 18 the third banishment of the family took place. Ipalito there upon became for a time a wanderer but when Pope Clement got back to Rome at the end of 1528 Ipalito also returned there Ipalito was by this time 20 years of age handsome courteous, good-natured highly cultivated possessed of much ability and a universal favorite Varchi says of him that he was gifted with every accomplishment affable and pleasant in his manner and most liberal to all who excelled in war or letters or in any of the liberal arts while another quality which the contemporary writers constantly speak of as possessed by him is that of royal mindedness towards the end of the year 1529 Clement the 7th began to form a plan of supplanting Ipalito as the future ruler of Florence by Alessandro this was the more unpardonable and that Ipalito was eminently qualified for that position while Alessandro being uneducated, vicious and universally detested was as conspicuously unfit for it Clement began privately to carry out this scheme when making the secret treaty with Charles V at Bologna in December 1529 the 3rd and 4th items of which treaty provided for this arrangement these intentions were however kept concealed from all concerned except the emperor until Florence should first be subdued Ipalito disposed of elsewhere in the spring of 1531 after the siege of Florence had ended but while the pope's intentions had not yet been allowed to transpire Ipalito, Alessandro and Catherine were all once more together in Rome Ipalito being then 22 and Catherine 12 and the idea of these two becoming united in marriage began by some to be entertained but their common guardian Pope Clement had other plans for both of them he intended to use Catherine as the bait by which to secure the alliance with the king of France which he desired as a defense against the thralldom of the emperor while he had reasons for his own for intending that Alessandro and not Ipalito should be Duke of Florence so while during the early part of 1531 affairs in Florence were left to be carried on by the provisional government under Valori Clement completed his arrangements for making it equally impossible for Ipalito to become Duke of Florence and to marry Catherine Ipalito's natural bent was towards the profession of a soldier and he disliked everything connected with the ecclesiastical life and the ways and modes of thought of the ecclesiastics among whom the greater part of his boyhood and youth had been passed Clement however who managed these young scions of the family like pawns on a chess board and the ways of forcing them to conform to his will now proceeded to carry out his object as regards Ipalito by conferring on him the dignity of a cardinal Ipalito violently refused to accept the proposed honor but eventually was forced to submit though he never would wear the cardinal's dress when he could help it and to get him out of the way was dispatched on a political mission to Hungary this done Clement sent Alessandro to Florence he was declared head of the Republic and 10 months later while Ipalito was still absent in Hungary the Republic was abolished and Alessandro declared Duke of Florence May 1532 Alessandro Installed as absolute ruler of Florence at the age of 20 Alessandro showed all the inherent evil of his nature there is only one example in Florence of the plain Ducal Coronet it is to be seen surmounting Alessandro's name over the door leading into the Ognesanti Cloisters in the Via Borgo Ognesanti and so a reason had Florence to look with hatred on that sign of her subjugation there followed the five most shameful years of her history the exaltation of this foul and evil youth to a position of power absolutely uncontrolled showed mankind an example of what human nature is capable of under such conditions his sycophantic admirer Ceciaregli in his Atione Hisentensi credits him with wit and wisdom a fine sense of justice and judgments which would have done honor to a Solomon but if this was the case it was combined with other qualities which obliterated all such considerations an historian of his own time calls him a creature who would have disgraced even the deadliest epochs of Roman villainy while another describes him as one whose excesses were as controllable by human reason as those of a beast of the forest none dare defend him or refuse him anything lest he should murder those dearest to them Trollopey says the portraits of this wretched youth which hang on the walls of the Florentine gallery show the lowness of the type to which his organization belonged the small contracted features the low forehead and mean expression are all together unlike any of the Medici race in whom whatever else they might be there was always a manifestation of intellectual power his life was one continued orgy the ministers to his lawless will were ruffians chosen from among the vilest of mankind and these men were made not only the ministers to but the companions of his pleasures and the companions also of the young the wealthy and the beautiful among the aristocracy of Florence what wonder that disgust and indignation and being subjected to such a rule was the prevailing temper of Florence or that after three years an appeal should have been made to the emperor to remove so infamous a vassal the wonder rather is that any city should have endured such a monster so long and should not have deprived him of life within the first year instead of the sixth the experience was a more bitter one to Florence than it would have been to other cities others had had tyrannies to endure Florence had never known the rule of a tyrant the experience killed her very soul for a time Margaret in the spring of 1533 when Alessandro had been for about a year Duke of Florence the fourth member of the group Margaret then a girl of twelve fair and pretty and engaged Alessandro in accordance with Clement's compact with the emperor Florence on her way to Naples born in Flanders in 1521 she had been brought up by her two aunts Margaret of Austria and Maria of Hungary and was now sent by her father the emperor's orders to reside in Naples until the time should come for her marriage to Alessandro Catherine two years older who was then in Florence preparatory to her departure from Marseille for her own marriage rode out to meet her at the Medici Villa of Caffogiolo in the valley of the Mugello on the road from Fainza and thence on the 16th April 1533 these two girls so different in appearance and destined to have such very different histories together rode to Florence Margaret remained for a few days to be shown by Catherine the principal sites of the city and then continued her journey for the next three years Margaret remained in Naples and as Alessandro the Normadies yearly grew more notorious there began to be doubts especially after the death of Pope Clement whether her marriage would take place so iniquitous did such a marriage seem even in that age that the Fiorio City did not believe in the projected marriage because they did not believe that the princess could be given to a man so infamous however Charles V evidently thought otherwise and even Pope Clement's death did not cause him to alter his intention to carry out the marriage which had been settled upon between them Ippolito although the way he had been treated caused a great change in Ippolito a permanent sadness coming over a disposition which had before been full of brightness we do not hear of his showing any resentment he developed a great liking for the Hungarians and for Hungary and while in that country was fond of wearing the Hungarian dress though on one occasion while there he was made prisoner under a mistake a matter over which Pope Clement suffered much humiliation on his return from Hungary Ippolito took up his abode at Bologna and shortly afterwards complied with the post request that he should accompany him to Marseille to be present at Catherine's marriage at Bologna Ippolito lived in great style and an incident connected with his life there gives an example of his character Clement VII thinking the number of retainers maintained by Ippolito excessive remonstrated with him whereupon Ippolito replied no, I do not maintain them because I have need of their services but because they have need of mine Ippolito had all the family taste for learning he wrote various poems and translated the second book of the Aeneid into Italian blank verse a work of which has been highly praised and often reprinted in 1534 Pope Clement being ill Ippolito returned to Rome and was with the pope when he died in September on which occasion we hear of his protecting the latter's body from insult while it was he who thereupon commenced the construction of the tombs in St. Maria, Sopra Minerva to the two Medici Popes Leo X and Clement VII perhaps we shall not be wrong in considering that Ippolito showed the nobility of his character in nothing more strongly than in exhibiting any malice towards Pope Clement for the way in which the latter had cheated him and ruined his life yet he evidently felt it deeply for Varchi tells us when he understood that Pope Clement had decided that Alessandro was to be made the heir to the riches and greatness of the house of Medici and not himself a great change took place in him he was seized with immense anger and grief as it seemed to him that being older a nearer relation to the Pope and better endowed by nature so rich and inheritance and so brilliant a marriage should rather be his either not knowing or refusing to believe the secret rumors that Alessandro was the son of Clement it is peculiar to notice how it is assumed as a matter of course that nearness of relationship to the Pope and not right of primogeniture as a grandson of Lorenzo the Magnificent is that which should constitute a veto stronger claim contemporary historical events 1534 through 1535 on Clement the 7th death Alessandro Farnese was on the 11th October 1534 elected Pope in a conclave which only lasted one hour he took the name of Paul the 3rd and within three days of his election he ordered a committee to assemble to draw up a scheme for the reformation of the church to consider the time, place and mode for the assembly of a general council in politics also the new Pope adopted a totally different course from that of his predecessor endeavoring to assuage the animosity between Charles and Francis and maintaining a position of neutrality between them the above course of action on the part of the Pope changed the entire political situation while it enabled the Emperor to turn his attention to the affairs of the city into resisting the formidable encroachments of the Turks in May 1535 Charles the 5th sailed with a great fleet from Barcelona to attack the Barbary pirates who under their commander Charadin Barbarossa had established themselves in Algiers and Tunis and ravaged the coasts of Spain and Italy the pirates were defeated and Charles took their capital Tunis and in August returned in Triumph Ipalito in June 1535 Pope Clement being dead and Alessandro having in the three years he had been in power so outraged the Florentines that he had driven a large number of them into voluntary exile these Fiori Siti determined to send an embassy to the Emperor Charles the 5th to appeal to him against the atrocities of his vassal and to petition for his removal the Fiori Siti had always been a recognized party in Florentine politics as whichever party was in power caused a number of the opposite party to quit Florence either voluntarily for their own safety or by being exiled but under Alessandro's evil tyranny they had come to muster unusually strong they selected Ipalito as their ambassador to lay their petition before the Emperor the latter being then at Tunis on his expedition against the Barbary pirates Ipalito who was then at Rome started upon this journey and got as far as Eitri near Gaeisha between Rome and Naples but while waiting there for a vessel in which to embark for Tunis he was poisoned and the proof was overwhelming that it was done by Alessandro the agent employed was one Giovanni Andreia of Borgo Sancibocco and besides the universal opinion in the testimony of other historians Varchi gives proof which is practically conclusive that he was employed to commit the crime by Alessandro Thos died at the age of 26 the accomplished and deservedly popular Ipalito put out of life like so many others by the detestable youth whom Clement VII had placed in power in Florence the assassin Giovanni Andreia did not long survive after affecting his escape from Ipalito's servants then the rage would have torn him in pieces he fled to Florence and lived for some months in Alessandro's palace protected by the latter then after a time he went to his own town of Borgo Sancibocco but there the people in an outburst of popular indignation at his crime and killing one so universally admired as Ipalito seized him and stoned him to death as we look at Titian's portrait of this handsome and accomplished grandson of Lorenzo the Magnificent we see his whole character and history laid bare before us though a cardinal he will not be painted in that hated dress but wears his favorite Hungarian costume and the sword which he would have liked to bear as a soldier his chivalrous spirit high temper, quick intelligence and that quality of royal mindedness which those around saw in him are well brought out by the painter the picture was painted after that great change in him of which Varci speaks and his face may well have that look of permanent sadness since too wally in the power of his crafty relative the Pope to resist after the thing was done he had by various subterfuges had his whole life spoiled Titian was at this time at the height of his fame the greatest portrait painter in Europe and much in request at all the most splendid courts he had passed from the patronage of the Duke of Mantua to that of the Emperor Charles V whose admiration for him was exemplified in his speech on picking up Titian's brush from the ground declaring that a Titian might well be served by Caesar in order to give a high relief to the head Titian was fond of using as in this instance a black background in his portraits Ruskin speaking of them says both for what they present and the manner of their presentation Titian's portraits are among the artistic marvels of the world End of section 41