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Authors: William Manchester
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bloody,
bruised, often with serious injuries, in the streets. The pope’s son was not only a guttersnipe; he was also one of history’s
great spendthrifts. To support his lifestyle Innocent raised simony to new levels. By the time he found a suitable bride for
Frances-chetto, a Medici, he had to mortgage the papal tiara and treasury to pay for the wedding. Then he appointed his son’s
new brother-in-law to the sacred college. The new cardinal and future pope—Leo X—was fourteen years old.
Even Leo X (r. 1513–1521), who fathered no children, shared the passion to honor papal relatives. He began in 1513 with his
first cousin, Giulio de’ Medici, whose mother, all Rome knew, had been a casual partner at a drunken Holy Week frolic. By
now there were precedents for conferring red hats on illegitimate sons; Alexander VI had put one on his own teenaged bastard,
Cesare Borgia. Leo had big plans for Giulio, so he perjured himself, swearing out an affidavit that the youth’s parents had
been secretly married. He then appointed five more members of his family, three nephews and two first cousins, to the cardinal’s
college. Meantime his hopes for Giulio, like Giulio himself, were maturing. The boy cardinal became a man, served his benefactor
as chief minister, and, in 1523, became pope himself. However, it is just as well that Leo did not live to see his dream realized.
As Clement VII, Giulio was to become the ultimate pontifical disaster.
U NDISCIPLINED BY PIETY , most of these popes are nonetheless remembered for their consummate skills in the brutal politics of the era. Only men with
strong power bases of their own, notably leaders of great Italian families—the Sforzas, Medicis, Pazzis, Aragons—dared
challenge them. At the turn of the century the most popular critic of Alexander VI, the Borgia pope, was a Florentine, Girolamo
Savonarola of San Marco, a charismatic, idealistic Dominican friar with an enormous following in Florence, where he had introduced
a democratic government free of corruption. Savonarola (1452–1498) was among those offended by Vatican orgies and Alexander’s
celebrated collection of pornography. The friar’s protests took the form of annual “bonfires of the vanities”—carnivals
in Florence’s Piazza della Signoria, where he tossed lewd pictures, pornography, personal ornaments, cards, and gaming tables
on the flames. To his multitudes he would roar: “Popes and prelates speak against pride and ambition and they are plunged
into it up to their ears.” The papal palace, he said, had literally become a house of prostitution where harlots “sit upon
the throne of Solomon and signal to the passersby. Whoever can pay enters and does what he wishes.”
Savonarola also charged the Vicar of Christ with simony and demanded that he be removed. Alexander at first responded warily,
merely ordering the friar gagged. But Savonarola continued to defy him. The pontiff, he declared “is no longer a Christian.
He is an infidel, a heretic, and as such has ceased to be pope.” The
Girolamo Savonarola (1452–1498)
Holy Father tried to buy him off with a cardinal’s hat. Savonarola indignantly rejected it—“A red hat?” he cried; “I want
a hat of blood!”—and that was the end of him. Alexander excommunicated him; then, when Savonarola again defied him by continuing
to celebrate Mass and give communion, the pope condemned him as a heretic, sentenced him to torture, and finally had him hanged
and burned in the Piazza della Signoria.
The pontiffs of that time cannot be said to have been fastidious. They even executed their enemies in churches, where victims’
bodyguards were likeliest to be caught off guard. Allying himself with the Pazzi family, who were challenging the Florentine
power of Lorenzo de’ Medici—Lorenzo the Magnificent—Pope Sixtus IV conspired with them to murder Lorenzo and his handsome
brother Giuliano. He chose their most defenseless
bruised, often with serious injuries, in the streets. The pope’s son was not only a guttersnipe; he was also one of history’s
great spendthrifts. To support his lifestyle Innocent raised simony to new levels. By the time he found a suitable bride for
Frances-chetto, a Medici, he had to mortgage the papal tiara and treasury to pay for the wedding. Then he appointed his son’s
new brother-in-law to the sacred college. The new cardinal and future pope—Leo X—was fourteen years old.
Even Leo X (r. 1513–1521), who fathered no children, shared the passion to honor papal relatives. He began in 1513 with his
first cousin, Giulio de’ Medici, whose mother, all Rome knew, had been a casual partner at a drunken Holy Week frolic. By
now there were precedents for conferring red hats on illegitimate sons; Alexander VI had put one on his own teenaged bastard,
Cesare Borgia. Leo had big plans for Giulio, so he perjured himself, swearing out an affidavit that the youth’s parents had
been secretly married. He then appointed five more members of his family, three nephews and two first cousins, to the cardinal’s
college. Meantime his hopes for Giulio, like Giulio himself, were maturing. The boy cardinal became a man, served his benefactor
as chief minister, and, in 1523, became pope himself. However, it is just as well that Leo did not live to see his dream realized.
As Clement VII, Giulio was to become the ultimate pontifical disaster.
U NDISCIPLINED BY PIETY , most of these popes are nonetheless remembered for their consummate skills in the brutal politics of the era. Only men with
strong power bases of their own, notably leaders of great Italian families—the Sforzas, Medicis, Pazzis, Aragons—dared
challenge them. At the turn of the century the most popular critic of Alexander VI, the Borgia pope, was a Florentine, Girolamo
Savonarola of San Marco, a charismatic, idealistic Dominican friar with an enormous following in Florence, where he had introduced
a democratic government free of corruption. Savonarola (1452–1498) was among those offended by Vatican orgies and Alexander’s
celebrated collection of pornography. The friar’s protests took the form of annual “bonfires of the vanities”—carnivals
in Florence’s Piazza della Signoria, where he tossed lewd pictures, pornography, personal ornaments, cards, and gaming tables
on the flames. To his multitudes he would roar: “Popes and prelates speak against pride and ambition and they are plunged
into it up to their ears.” The papal palace, he said, had literally become a house of prostitution where harlots “sit upon
the throne of Solomon and signal to the passersby. Whoever can pay enters and does what he wishes.”
Savonarola also charged the Vicar of Christ with simony and demanded that he be removed. Alexander at first responded warily,
merely ordering the friar gagged. But Savonarola continued to defy him. The pontiff, he declared “is no longer a Christian.
He is an infidel, a heretic, and as such has ceased to be pope.” The
Girolamo Savonarola (1452–1498)
Holy Father tried to buy him off with a cardinal’s hat. Savonarola indignantly rejected it—“A red hat?” he cried; “I want
a hat of blood!”—and that was the end of him. Alexander excommunicated him; then, when Savonarola again defied him by continuing
to celebrate Mass and give communion, the pope condemned him as a heretic, sentenced him to torture, and finally had him hanged
and burned in the Piazza della Signoria.
The pontiffs of that time cannot be said to have been fastidious. They even executed their enemies in churches, where victims’
bodyguards were likeliest to be caught off guard. Allying himself with the Pazzi family, who were challenging the Florentine
power of Lorenzo de’ Medici—Lorenzo the Magnificent—Pope Sixtus IV conspired with them to murder Lorenzo and his handsome
brother Giuliano. He chose their most defenseless
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