Pope Clement VII

Pope Clement VII
Bishop of Rome
Portrait by Sebastiano del Piombo, c. 1531 Portrait by Sebastiano del Piombo, c. 1531
Church	Catholic Church
Papacy began	19 November 1523
Papacy ended	25 September 1534
Predecessor	Adrian VI
Successor	Paul III
Previous posts	Archbishop of Florence (1513–1523) Cardinal-Deacon of Santa Maria in Domnica (1513–1517) Cardinal-Priest of San Clemente (1517) Cardinal-Priest of San Lorenzo in Damaso (1517–1523) Titular Bishop of Worcester (1521-1523)
Orders
Ordination	19 December 1517
Consecration	21 December 1517 by Leo X
Created cardinal	23 September 1513 by Leo X
Personal details
Born	Giulio di Giuliano de' Medici 26 May 1478 Florence, Republic of Florence
Died	25 September 1534 (aged 56) Rome, Papal States
Buried	Basilica of Santa Maria sopra Minerva
Parents	Giuliano de' Medici Fioretta Gorini
Motto	Candor illaesus (Innocence inviolate)
Other popes named Clement

Pope Clement VII (Latin: Clemens VII; Italian: Clemente VII; born Giulio di Giuliano de' Medici; 26 May 1478 – 25 September 1534) was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 19 November 1523 to his death on 25 September 1534. Deemed "the most unfortunate of the popes", Clement VII's reign was marked by a rapid succession of political, military, and religious struggles—many long in the making—which had far-reaching consequences for Christianity and world politics.

Elected in 1523 at the end of the Italian Renaissance, Clement came to the papacy with a high reputation as a statesman. He had served with distinction as chief advisor to Pope Leo X (1513–1521, his cousin), Pope Adrian VI (1522–1523), and commendably as gran maestro of Florence (1519–1523). Assuming leadership at a time of crisis, with the Protestant Reformation spreading, the Church nearing bankruptcy, and large foreign armies invading Italy, Clement initially tried to unite Christendom by making peace among the many Christian leaders then at odds. He later attempted to liberate Italy from foreign occupation, believing that it threatened the Church's freedom.

The complex political situation of the 1520s thwarted Clement's efforts. He inherited unprecedented challenges, including Martin Luther's Protestant Reformation in Northern Europe; a vast power struggle in Italy between Europe's two most powerful kings, Charles V of the Holy Roman Empire and Francis I of France, each of whom demanded that the Pope choose a side; and Turkish invasions of Eastern Europe led by Suleiman the Magnificent. Clement's problems were exacerbated by souring relations with Charles V in 1527, which led to the violent Sack of Rome, during which Clement was imprisoned. After escaping confinement in the Castel Sant'Angelo, Clement—with few economic, military, or political options remaining—compromised the Church's and the Papal States' independence by allying with his former enemy, Charles V. However, his problems continued during Henry VIII of England's contentious divorce, resulting in England breaking away from the Catholic Church.

In contrast to his tortured pontificate, Clement was personally respectable and devout, possessing a "dignified propriety of character", "great acquirements both theological and scientific", as well as "extraordinary address and penetration—Clement VII, in serener times, might have administered the Papal power with high reputation and enviable prosperity. But with all of his profound insight into the political affairs of Europe, Clement does not seem to have comprehended the altered position of the Pope in relation to Europe's emerging nation-states and Protestantism.

Clement left a significant cultural legacy in the Medici tradition. He commissioned artworks by Raphael, Benvenuto Cellini, and Michelangelo, including Michelangelo's The Last Judgment in the Sistine Chapel. In matters of science, Clement is best known for approving, in 1533, Nicolaus Copernicus's theory that the Earth revolves around the Sun—99 years before Galileo Galilei's heresy trial.

Early life

Giulio de' Medici's life began under tragic circumstances. On 26 April 1478—exactly one month before his birth—his father, Giuliano de Medici (brother of Lorenzo the Magnificent) was murdered in the Florence Cathedral by enemies of his family, in what is now known as the "Pazzi conspiracy". He was born illegitimately on 26 May 1478, in Florence; the exact identity of his mother remains unknown, although a plurality of scholars contend that it was Fioretta Gorini, the daughter of a professor, Antonio Gorini. Giulio spent the first seven years of life with his godfather, the architect Antonio da Sangallo the Elder.

Thereafter, Lorenzo the Magnificent raised him as one of his own sons, alongside his children Giovanni (the future Pope Leo X), Piero, and Giuliano. Educated at the Palazzo Medici in Florence by humanists like Angelo Poliziano, and alongside prodigies like Michelangelo, Giulio became an accomplished musician. In personality he was reputed to be shy, and in physical appearance, handsome.

Giulio's natural inclination was for the clergy, but his illegitimacy barred him from high-ranking positions in the Church. So Lorenzo the Magnificent helped him carve out a career as a soldier. He was enrolled in the Knights of Rhodes, but also became Grand Prior of Capua. In 1492, when Lorenzo the Magnificent died and Giovanni de' Medici assumed his duties as a cardinal, Giulio became more involved in Church affairs. He studied canon law at the University of Pisa, and accompanied Giovanni to the conclave of 1492, where Rodrigo Borgia was elected Pope Alexander VI.

Following the misfortunes of Lorenzo the Magnificent's firstborn son, Piero the Unfortunate, the Medici were expelled from Florence in 1494. Over the next six years, Cardinal Giovanni and Giulio wandered throughout Europe together—twice getting arrested (first in Ulm, and later in Rouen). Each time Piero the Unfortunate bailed them out. In 1500, both returned to Italy and concentrated their efforts on re-establishing their family in Florence. Both were present at the Battle of Ravenna in 1512, where Cardinal Giovanni was captured by the French but Giulio escaped; this led to Giulio becoming an emissary to Pope Julius II. That same year, with the assistance of Pope Julius and the Spanish troops of Ferdinand II of Aragon, the Medici retook control of Florence.

Paternity of Alessandro de' Medici

In 1510, while the Medici were living near Rome, a servant in their household—identified in documents as Simonetta da Collevecchio—became pregnant, ultimately giving birth to a son, Alessandro de' Medici. Nicknamed "il Moro" ("the Moor") due to his dark complexion, Alessandro was officially recognized as the illegitimate son of Lorenzo II de Medici, but at the time and to this day, various scholars suggest that Alessandro was the illegitimate son of Giulio de' Medici. The truth of his lineage remains unknown and debated.

Regardless of his paternity, throughout Alessandro's brief life, Giulio—as Pope Clement VII—showed him great favoritism, elevating Alessandro over Ippolito de Medici as Florence's first hereditary monarch, despite the latter's comparable qualifications.

Cardinal

Under Pope Leo X

Giulio de' Medici appeared on the world stage in March 1513, at the age of 35, when his cousin Giovanni de' Medici was elected Pope, taking the name Leo X. Pope Leo X reigned until his death on 1 December 1521.

"Learned, clever, respectable, and industrious", Giulio de' Medici's reputation and responsibilities grew at a rapid pace, unusual even for the Renaissance. Within three months of Leo X's election, he was named Archbishop of Florence.^{: 197} Later that autumn, all barriers to his attaining the Church's highest offices were removed by a Papal dispensation that resulted in his birth being recognized as legitimate. It stated that his parents had been betrothed per sponsalia de presenti. This Papal act permitted Leo X to create him cardinal during the first Papal consistory on 23 September 1513. On 29 September, he was appointed Cardinal Deacon of Santa Maria in Domnica—a position that had been vacated by the Pope.

Cardinal Giulio's reputation during the reign of Leo X is recorded by contemporary Marco Minio, the Venetian ambassador to the Papal Court, who wrote in a letter to the Venetian Senate in 1519: "Cardinal de' Medici, the Pope's cardinal nephew, who is not legitimate, has great power with the Pope; he is a man of great competence and great authority; he resides with the Pope, and does nothing of importance without first consulting him. But he is returning to Florence to govern the city."

Statesmanship

While Cardinal Giulio was not officially appointed Vice-Chancellor of the Church (second-in-command) until 9 March 1517, in practice Leo X governed in partnership with his cousin from the beginning. Initially, his duties centered primarily on administering Church affairs in Florence and conducting international relations. In January 1514, Henry VIII of England appointed him Cardinal protector of England. The following year, Francis I of France nominated him to become Archbishop of Narbonne, and in 1516 named him cardinal protector of France. In a scenario typical of Cardinal Giulio's independent-minded statesmanship, the respective kings of England and France, recognizing a conflict of interest in Giulio protecting both countries simultaneously, brought pressure to bear on him to resign his other protectorship; to their dismay, he refused.

Cardinal Giulio's foreign policy was shaped by the idea of la libertà d'Italia, which aimed to free Italy and the Church from French and Imperial domination. This became clear in 1521, when a personal rivalry between King Francis I and Holy Roman Emperor Charles V boiled over into war in northern Italy. Francis I expected Giulio, France's cardinal protector, to support him; but Giulio perceived Francis as threatening the Church's independence—particularly the latter's control of Lombardy, and his use of the Concordat of Bologna to control the Church in France. At the time, the Church wanted Emperor Charles V to combat Lutheranism, then growing in Germany. So Cardinal Giulio negotiated an alliance on behalf of the Church, to support the Holy Roman Empire against France. That autumn, Giulio helped lead a victorious Imperial-Papal army over the French in Milan and Lombardy. While his strategy of shifting alliances to liberate the Church and Italy from foreign domination proved disastrous during his reign as Pope Clement VII, during the reign of Leo X it skillfully maintained a balance of power among the competing international factions seeking to influence the Church.

Armed conflicts

Giulio de' Medici led numerous armed conflicts as a cardinal. Commenting on this, his contemporary Francesco Guicciardini wrote that Cardinal Giulio was better suited to arms than to the priesthood. He served as papal legate to the army in a campaign against Francis I in 1515, alongside inventor Leonardo da Vinci.

Achievements

Cardinal Giulio's other endeavors on behalf of Pope Leo X were similarly successful, such that "he had the credit of being the prime mover of papal policy throughout the whole of Leo's pontificate". In 1513, he was member of the Fifth Lateran Council, assigned the task of healing the schism caused by conciliarism. In 1515, his "most significant act of ecclesiastical government" regulated prophetic preaching in the manner of Girolamo Savonarola. He later organized and presided over the Florentine Synod of 1517, where he became the first member of the Church to implement the reforms recommended by the Fifth Lateran Council. These included prohibiting priests from carrying arms, frequenting taverns, and dancing provocatively – while urging them to attend weekly confession. Similarly, Cardinal Giulio's artistic patronage was admired (e.g., his commissioning Raphael's Transfiguration and Michelangelo's Medici Chapel, among other works), particularly for what goldsmith Benvenuto Cellini later called its "excellent taste".

Gran Maestro of Florence

Cardinal Giulio governed Florence between 1519 and 1523, following the death of its civic ruler, Lorenzo II de Medici, in 1519. There "he was permitted to assume almost autocratic control of State affairs", and "did very much to place public interests upon a firm and practical basis". U.S. President John Adams later characterized Giulio's administration of Florence as "very successful and frugal". Adams chronicles the cardinal as having "reduced the business of the magistrates, elections, customs of office, and the mode of expenditure of public money, in such a manner that it produced a great and universal joy among the citizens".

On the death of Pope Leo X in 1521, Adams writes there was a "ready inclination in all of the principal citizens [of Florence], and a universal desire among the people, to maintain the state in the hands of the Cardinal de' Medici; and all this felicity arose from his good government, which since the death of the Duke Lorenzo, had been universally agreeable."

Under Pope Adrian VI

When Pope Leo X died on 1 December 1521, Cardinal Giulio was "widely expected to succeed him"—but instead, during the conclave of 1522, the College of Cardinals elected a compromise candidate, Adrian VI of the Netherlands. Of why this happened, historian Paul Strathern writes, "it was common knowledge that [Cardinal Giulio] had been Leo X's most able adviser, as well as manager of the pope's financial affairs. The fact that Leo X had blithely ignored his cousin's advice, on so many occasions, was widely seen as being responsible for the plight of the papacy—not the influence of Cardinal Giulio de' Medici. On the contrary, Cardinal Giulio appeared to be everything that Leo X was not: he was handsome, thoughtful, saturnine and gifted with good taste. Despite this, many remained steadfast in their opposition to his candidacy."

In conclave, Cardinal Giulio controlled the largest voting bloc, but his enemies forced the election to a stalemate. Among them were Cardinal Francesco Soderini, a Florentine whose family had lost a power struggle to the Medici "and held a grudge"; Cardinal Pompeo Colonna, a Roman nobleman who wanted to become Pope himself; and a group of French cardinals who "were unwilling to forget Leo X's treachery to their King".

Realizing that his candidacy was in jeopardy, "Cardinal Giulio now chose to make an astute tactical move. He declared modestly that he was unworthy of such high office; instead, he suggested the little-known Dutch scholar Cardinal Adriaan Boeyens, an ascetic and deeply spiritual man who had been tutor to the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V. Cardinal Giulio was sure that Cardinal Boeyens would be rejected—on the grounds of his obscurity, his lack of political expertise and the fact that he was not Italian. The selfless suggestion that had been made by Cardinal Giulio de' Medici would then demonstrate to all that he was in fact the ideal candidate. But this move backfired badly, Cardinal Giulio's bluff was called and Cardinal Boeyens was elected as Pope Adrian VI."

During his 20-month papacy, Adrian VI "seemed to set great store by Cardinal Medici's opinions... And all the other cardinals were kept distinctly at arm's-length." In this way, Cardinal Giulio "wielded formidable influence" throughout Adrian's reign. Splitting time between the Palazzo Medici in Florence and the Palazzo della Cancelleria in Rome, Cardinal Giulio "lived there as a generous Medici was expected to live, a patron of artists and musicians, a protector of the poor, a lavish host".

Assassination plot of 1522

In 1522, rumors began to swirl that Cardinal Giulio—lacking legitimate successors to rule Florence—planned to abdicate rule of the city and "leave the government freely in the people". When it became clear that these rumors were untrue, a faction of mostly elite Florentines hatched a plot to assassinate him and then install their own government under his "great adversary", Cardinal Francesco Soderini. Soderini encouraged the plot, exhorting both Adrian and Francis I of France to strike against Giulio and invade his allies in Sicily. This did not happen. Instead of breaking with Giulio, Adrian had Cardinal Soderini imprisoned. Afterward, the principal conspirators were "declared rebels", and some were "apprehended and beheaded; by which means Giulio was again secured [as leader of Florence]."

Pope

Following Adrian VI's death on 14 September 1523, Cardinal Giulio overcame the opposition of the French king and finally succeeded in being elected Pope Clement VII in the next conclave (19 November 1523).^{: 29}

Pope Clement VII brought to the papal throne a high reputation for political ability and his accomplishments were compared to those of a wily diplomat. But his contemporaries considered him worldly and indifferent to the perceived dangers of the Protestant Reformation.

At his accession, Clement VII sent the Archbishop of Capua, Nikolaus von Schönberg, to the kings of France, Spain, and England, in order to bring the Italian War to an end. An early report from the Protonotary Marino Caracciolo to the Emperor records: "As the Turks threaten to conquer Christian states, it seems to him that it is his first duty as Pope to bring about a general peace of all Christian princes, and he begs him (the Emperor), as the firstborn son of the Church, to aid him in this pious work." But the pope's attempt failed.

Continental and Medici politics

Francis I of France's conquest of Milan in 1524, during his Italian campaign of 1524–1525, prompted the Pope to quit the Imperial–Spanish side and to ally himself with other Italian princes, including the Republic of Venice, and France through a treaty of January 1525. This treaty granted the definitive acquisition of Parma and Piacenza for the Papal States, the rule of Medici over Florence and the free passage of the French troops to Naples. This policy in itself was sound and patriotic, but Clement VII's zeal soon cooled; by his want of foresight and unseasonable economy, he laid himself open to an attack from the turbulent Roman barons, which obliged him to invoke the mediation of the emperor, Charles V. One month later, Francis I was crushed and imprisoned in the Battle of Pavia, and Clement VII went deeper in his former engagements with Charles V, signing an alliance with the viceroy of Naples.

But deeply concerned about Imperial arrogance, he was to pick up with France again when Francis I was freed after the Treaty of Madrid (1526): the Pope entered into the League of Cognac together with France, Venice, and Francesco II Sforza of Milan. Clement VII issued an invective against Charles V, who in reply defined him a "wolf" instead of a "shepherd", menacing the summoning of a council about the Lutheran question.

Like his cousin Pope Leo X, Clement was considered too generous to his Medici relatives, draining the Vatican treasuries. This included the assignment of positions all the way up to Cardinal, lands, titles, and money. These actions prompted reform measures after Clement's death to help prevent such excessive nepotism.

Evangelization

In his 1529 bull Intra Arcana Clement VII gave a grant of permissions and privileges to Charles V and the Spanish Empire, which included the power of patronage within their colonies in the Americas.

Sack of Rome

The Pope's wavering politics also caused the rise of the Imperial party inside the Curia: Cardinal Pompeo Colonna's soldiers pillaged Vatican Hill and gained control of the whole of Rome in his name. The humiliated Pope promised therefore to bring the Papal States to the Imperial side again. But soon after, Colonna left the siege and went to Naples, not keeping his promises and dismissing the Cardinal from his charge. From this point on, Clement VII could do nothing but follow the fate of the French party to the end.

Soon he found himself alone in Italy too, as Alfonso I d'Este, duke of Ferrara, had supplied artillery to the Imperial army, causing the League Army to keep a distance behind the horde of Landsknechts led by Charles III, Duke of Bourbon and Georg von Frundsberg, allowing them to reach Rome without harm.

Charles of Bourbon died while mounting a ladder during the short siege and his starving troops, unpaid and left without a guide, felt free to ravage Rome from 6 May 1527. The many incidents of murder, rape, and vandalism that followed ended the splendours of Renaissance Rome forever. Clement VII, who had displayed no more resolution in his military than in his political conduct, was shortly afterwards (6 June) obliged to surrender himself together with the Castel Sant'Angelo, where he had taken refuge. He agreed to pay a ransom of 400,000 ducats in exchange for his life; conditions included the cession of Parma, Piacenza, Civitavecchia, and Modena to the Holy Roman Empire. (Only the last could be occupied in fact.) At the same time, Venice took advantage of his situation to capture Cervia and Ravenna while Sigismondo Malatesta returned to Rimini.

Clement was kept as a prisoner in Castel Sant'Angelo for six months. After having bought off some Imperial officers, he escaped disguised as a peddler and took shelter in Orvieto and then in Viterbo. He came back to a depopulated and devastated Rome only in October 1528.

Meanwhile, in Florence, Republican enemies of the Medici took advantage of the chaos to again expel the Pope's family from the city.

In June 1529 the warring parties signed the Peace of Barcelona. The Papal States regained some cities and Charles V agreed to restore the Medici to power in Florence. In 1530, after an eleven-month siege, the Tuscan city capitulated and Clement VII installed his illegitimate nephew Alessandro as duke. Subsequently, the Pope followed a policy of subservience to the emperor, endeavouring on the one hand to induce him to act with severity against the Lutherans in Germany and on the other to avoid his demands for a general council.

Appearance

During his half-year imprisonment in 1527, Clement VII grew a full beard as a sign of mourning for the sack of Rome. This was in contradiction to Catholic canon law, which required priests to be clean-shaven, but had as precedent the beard Pope Julius II wore for nine months in 1511–12 as a sign of mourning for the papal city of Bologna.

Unlike Julius II, however, Clement kept his beard until his death in 1534. His example in wearing a beard was followed by his successor, Paul III, and indeed by 24 popes after him, down to Innocent XII, who died in 1700. Clement was thus the unintentional originator of a fashion that lasted well over a century.

Ancona

In 1532, Clement VII took possession of Ancona, which definitively lost its freedom and became part of the Papal States, ending hundreds of years when the Republic of Ancona was an important maritime power.

English Reformation

By the late 1520s, King Henry VIII wanted to have his marriage to Charles's aunt Catherine of Aragon annulled. The couple's sons died in infancy, threatening the future of the House of Tudor, although Henry did have a daughter, Mary Tudor. Henry claimed that this lack of a male heir was because his marriage was "blighted in the eyes of God". Catherine had been his brother's widow, but the marriage had been childless, so the marriage was not against Old Testament law, which forbids such unions only if the brother had children. Moreover, Pope Julius II had given a dispensation to allow the wedding. Henry now argued that this had been wrong and that his marriage had never been valid. In 1527 Henry asked Clement to annul the marriage, but the Pope, possibly acting under pressure from Catherine's nephew, Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, whose effective prisoner he was, refused. Pope Clement VII discreetly advised King Henry VIII to divorce Queen Catherine without seeking an official annulment, aiming to resolve the politically and personally sensitive situation surrounding the legitimacy of their marriage. Despite the Pope's counsel, Henry VIII remained committed to following the proper ecclesiastical procedures, insisting that any actions taken must align with the established norms of the Catholic Church. A validly contracted marriage is indivisible until death, and thus the pope cannot annul a marriage on the basis of an impediment previously dispensed. Many people close to Henry wished simply to ignore Clement, but in October 1530 a meeting of clergy and lawyers advised that the Parliament of England could not empower the Archbishop of Canterbury to act against the Pope's prohibition. In Parliament, Bishop John Fisher was the Pope's champion.

Henry subsequently underwent a marriage ceremony with Anne Boleyn, in either late 1532 or early 1533. The marriage was made easier by the death of the Archbishop of Canterbury William Warham, a stalwart friend of the Pope, after which Henry persuaded Clement to appoint Thomas Cranmer, a friend of the Boleyn family, as his successor. The Pope granted the papal bulls necessary for Cranmer's promotion to Canterbury, and also demanded that Cranmer take the customary oath of allegiance to the pope before his consecration. Laws made under Henry already declared that bishops would be consecrated even without papal approval. Cranmer was consecrated, while declaring beforehand that he did not agree with the oath he would take. Cranmer was prepared to grant the annulment of the marriage to Catherine as Henry required. The Pope responded to the marriage by excommunicating both Henry and Cranmer from the Catholic Church.

Consequently, in England, in the same year, the Act of Conditional Restraint of Annates transferred the taxes on ecclesiastical income from the Pope to the Crown. The Peter's Pence Act outlawed the annual payment by landowners of one penny to the Pope. This act also reiterated that England had "no superior under God, but only your Grace" and that Henry's "imperial crown" had been diminished by the Pope's "unreasonable and uncharitable usurpations and exactions". Ultimately, in 1534, Henry led the English Parliament to pass the Act of Supremacy that established the independent Church of England and broke from the Catholic Church.

Marriage of Catherine de' Medici

In 1533, Clement married his cousin's granddaughter, Catherine de' Medici, to the future King Henry II of France, son of King Francis I. Due to an illness, before setting out to Marseille for the wedding, Clement issued a Bull on 3 September 1533 giving instructions on what to do if he died outside Rome. The wedding ceremony took place at Église Saint-Ferréol les Augustins on 28 October 1533 and was conducted by Clement himself. It was "followed by nine days of lavish banquets, pageants, and festivities." On 7 November in Marseille, Clement created four new cardinals, all of them French.^{: 22} He also held separate, private meetings with Francis I and Charles V. Charles' daughter, Margaret of Austria was set to marry Clement's relative—Alessandro de' Medici, Duke of Florence—in 1536.

According to Medici historian Paul Strathern, Clement marrying Catherine into France's royal family and Alessandro becoming Duke of Florence and marrying into the Hapsburg family "marked perhaps the most significant turning point in the history of the Medici family—the ascent into nobility in Florence, and the joining of the French royal family. Without the guiding hand of Clement VII, the Medici would never have been able to achieve the pinnacles of greatness that were yet to come" in the following centuries.

Death

On 10 December 1533, Clement returned to Rome with a fever and complaining of stomach problems. Strathern writes of how he had been ill for months: "[he] was aging rapidly...his liver was failing and his skin turned yellow; he also lost the sight of one eye and became partially blind in the other." He was so ill at the beginning of August 1534 that Cardinal Agostino Trivulzio wrote to King Francis that the Pope's doctors feared for his life.

On 23 September 1534, Clement wrote a long letter of farewell to Emperor Charles. He also affirmed, just days before his death, that Michelangelo should paint The Last Judgment above the altar in the Sistine Chapel. Clement VII died just two days later, on 25 September 1534, having lived 56 years and four months, reigning for 10 years, 10 months, and 7 days. His body was interred in Saint Peter's Basilica, and later transferred to a tomb in Santa Maria sopra Minerva in Rome, which was designed by Baccio Bandinelli.

Clement's biographer Emmanuel Rodocanachi writes that "in accordance with the custom of those times, people attributed his death to poison"—specifically, poisoning by death cap mushroom. Clement's symptoms and the length of his illness do not, however, support the hypothesis that he had been poisoned with death cap mushroom.

Legacy

Political legacy

Clement VII's papacy is generally regarded as one of history's most tumultuous; opinions of Clement himself are often nuanced. For example, Clement's contemporary Francesco Vettori writes that he "endured a great labor to become, from a great and respected cardinal, a small and little-esteemed pope", but also that "if one considers the lives of previous popes one may truly say that, for more than a hundred years, no better man than Clement VII sat upon the Throne. Nevertheless, it was in his day that the disaster took place while these others, who were filled with all vices, lived and died in felicity—as the world sees it. Neither should we seek to question the Lord, our God, who will punish—or not punish–in what manner and in what time it pleases him."^{: 280}

The disasters of Clement's pontificate—the Sack of Rome and the English Reformation—are regarded as turning points in the histories of Catholicism, Europe, and the Renaissance. Modern historian Kenneth Gouwens writes, "Clement's failures must be viewed above all in the context of major changes in the dynamics of European politics. As warfare on the Italian peninsula intensified in the mid-1520s, the imperative of autonomy [for the Catholic Church and Italy] required enormous financial outlays to field standing armies. Political survival perforce eclipsed ecclesiastical reform as a short-term goal, and the costs of war necessitated the curtailment of expenditure on culture. Clement pursued policies consistent with those of his illustrious predecessors Julius II and Leo X; but in the 1520s, those policies could but fail.... Reform of the Church, to which his successors would turn, required resources and concerted secular support that the second Medici pope was unable to muster."^{: 31}

Regarding Clement's struggle to liberate Italy and the Catholic Church from foreign domination, historian Fred Dotolo writes that "one might see in his papacy a vigorous defense of papal rights against the growth of monarchial power, a diplomatic and even pastoral struggle to retain the ancient division within Christendom of the priestly and kingly offices. Should the new monarchs of the early modern period reduce the papacy to a mere appendage of secular authority, religious issues would become little more than state policy.... Clement VII attempted to restrain the expansion of royal power and maintain the independence of Rome and of papal prerogatives."

Ecclesiastically, Clement is remembered for orders protecting Jews from the Inquisition, approving the Theatine,^{: 324} Barnabite,^{: 47–48} and Capuchin Orders, and securing the island of Malta for the Knights of Malta.

In a final analysis of Clement's papacy, historian E.R. Chamberlin writes, "in all but his personal attributes, Clement VII was a protagonist in a Greek tragedy, the victim called upon to endure the results of actions committed long before. Each temporal claim of his predecessors had entangled the Papacy just a little more in the lethal game of politics, even while each moral debasement divorced it just a little more from the vast body of Christians from whom ultimately it drew its strength."^{: 278} More charitably, modern historian James Grubb writes, "indeed, at a certain point it is difficult to see how he might have fared much better, given the obstacles he faced. Certainly his predecessors since the end of the Schism had experienced their share of opposition, but did any have to fight on so many fronts as Clement, and against such overwhelming odds? At one time or another he battled the Holy Roman Empire (now fueled by precious metals from America), the French, the Turks, rival Italian powers, fractious forces within the papal states, and entrenched interests within the Curia itself. That the precious liberta d'Italia (freedom from outside domination) should have been lost irrevocably seems more an inevitability than a product of Clement's particular failings. He tried his utmost...."

Portrayals

The life of the second Medici pope has been portrayed numerous times in films and television, notably the Netflix series Medici: The Magnificent, where the figure is portrayed by British actor Jacob Dudman.

Patronage

As both a cardinal and Pope, Giulio de' Medici "commissioned or supervised many of the best-known artistic undertakings of the cinquecento." Of those works, he's best known for Michelangelo's monumental fresco in the Sistine Chapel, The Last Judgment; Raphael's iconic altarpiece The Transfiguration; Michelangelo's sculptures for the Medici Chapel in Florence; Raphael's architectural Villa Madama in Rome; and Michelangelo's innovative Laurentian Library in Florence. "As a patron, [Giulio de' Medici] proved extraordinarily confident in technical affairs," which allowed him to suggest workable architectural and artistic solutions for commissions ranging from Michelangelo's Laurentian Library to Benvenuto Cellini's celebrated Papal Morse. As Pope, he appointed goldsmith Cellini head of the Papal Mint; and painter Sebastiano del Piombo keeper of the Papal Seal. Sebastiano's tour de force, The Raising of Lazarus, was produced via a contest arranged by Cardinal Giulio, pitting Sebastiano in direct competition with Raphael over who could produce the better altarpiece for the Narbonne Cathedral.

Giulio de' Medici's patronage extended to theology, literature, and science. Some of the best known works associated with him are Erasmus' On Free Will, which he encouraged in response to Martin Luther's critiques of the Catholic Church; Machiavelli's Florentine Histories, which he commissioned; and Copernicus' heliocentric idea, which he personally approved in 1533. When Johann Widmanstetter explained the Copernican system to him, he was so grateful that he gave Widmanstetter a valuable gift. In 1531 Clement issued rules for the oversight of human cadaver dissection and medical test trials, a sort of primitive code of medical ethics. Humanist and author Paolo Giovio was his personal physician.

Giulio de' Medici was a talented musician, and his circle included many well-known artists and thinkers of the Italian High Renaissance. For example, "in the days before his papacy, the future Clement VII had been close to Leonardo da Vinci," with Leonardo gifting him a painting, the Madonna of the Carnation. He was a patron of the satirist Pietro Aretino, who "wrote a series of viciously satirical lampoons supporting the candidacy of Giulio de' Medici for the papacy." As Pope, he appointed author Baldassare Castiglione as Papal diplomat to Holy Roman Emperor Charles V; and historian Francesco Guicciardini as governor of the Romagna, the northernmost province of the Papal States.

The Clementine Style

Italian Renaissance artistic trends from 1523 to 1527 are sometimes called the "Clementine style", and notable for their technical virtuosity. In 1527, the Sack of Rome "put a brutal end to an artistic golden age, the Clementine style that had developed in Rome since the coronation of the Medici Pope". André Chastel describes the artists who worked in the Clementine style as Parmigianino, Rosso Fiorentino, Sebastiano del Piombo, Benvenuto Cellini, Marcantonio Raimondi, and numerous associates of Raphael: Giulio Romano, Giovanni da Udine; Perino del Vaga; and Polidoro da Caravaggio. During the Sack, several of these artists were either killed, made prisoner, or took part in the fighting.

Character

Clement was renowned for his intelligence and counsel, but maligned for his inability to take timely and decisive action. Historian G.F. Young writes, "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 unravelled, the most difficult circumstances penetrated to the very bottom, by his extreme sagacity. No man could debate a point with more address." Historian Paul Strathern writes, "his inner life was illuminated by an unwavering faith;" he was also in "surprisingly close contact with the ideals [of Renaissance humanism], and even more surprisingly was deeply sympathetic to them." For example, "Clement VII had no difficulty in accepting Copernicus's heliocentric idea, and appeared to see no challenge to his faith in its implications; his Renaissance humanism was open to such progressive theories." Of Clement's other qualities, Strathern writes "he had inherited his murdered father's good looks, though these tended to lapse into a dark scowl rather than a smile. He also inherited something of his great-grandfather Cosimo de' Medici's skill with accounts, as well as a strong inclination to his legendary caution, making the new pope hesitant when it came to taking important decisions; and unlike his cousin Leo X, he possessed a deep understanding of art."

Of Clement's limitations, historian Francesco Guicciardini writes, "although he had a most capable intelligence and marvelous knowledge of world affairs, he lacked the corresponding resolution and execution.... He remained almost always in suspension and ambiguous when he was faced with deciding those things that from afar he had many times foreseen, considered, and almost revealed." Strathern writes that Clement was "a man of almost icy self-control, but in him the Medici trait of self-contained caution had deepened into a flaw.... If anything, Clement VII had too much understanding—he could always see both sides of any particular argument. This had made him an excellent close adviser to his cousin Leo X, but hampered his ability to take matters into his own hands." The Catholic Encyclopedia notes that while his "private life was free from reproach and he had many excellent impulses... despite good intention, all qualities of heroism and greatness must emphatically be denied him."

See also

• Republic of Florence
• Italian Wars
• Medici family
• List of popes from the Medici family
• Cardinals created by Clement VII
• Tour Grimaldi

From the 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia

Pope Clement VII — (Giulio de' Medici).

Born 1478; died 25 September, 1534. Giulio de' Medici was born a few months after the death of his father, Giuliano, who was slain at Florence in the disturbances which followed the Pazzi conspiracy. Although his parents had not been properly married, they had, it was alleged, been betrothed per sponsalia de presenti, and Giulio, in virtue of a well-known principle of canon law, was subsequently declared legitimate. The youth was educated by his uncle, Lorenzo the Magnificent. He was made a Knight of Rhodes and Grand Prior of Capua, and, upon the election of his cousin Giovanni de' Medici to the papacy as Leo X, he at once became a person of great consequence. On 28 September, 1513, he was made cardinal, and he had the credit of being the prime mover of the papal policy during the whole of Leo's pontificate. He was one of the most favoured candidates in the protracted conclave which resulted in the election of Adrian VI; neither did the Cardinal de' Medici, in spite of his close connection with the luxurious regime of Leo X, altogether lose influence under his austere successor. Giulio, in the words of a modern historian, was "learned, clever, respectable and industrious, though he had little enterprise and less decision" (Armstrong, Charles V., I, 166). After Adrian's death (14 September, 1523) the Cardinal de' Medici was eventually chosen pope, 18 November, 1523, and his election was hailed at Rome with enthusiastic rejoicing. But the temper of the Roman people was only one element in the complex problem which Clement VII had to face. The whole political and religious situation was one of extreme delicacy, and it may be doubted if there was one man in ten thousand who would have succeeded by natural tact and human prudence in guiding the Bark of Peter through such tempestuous waters. Clement was certainly not such a man. He had unfortunately been brought up in all the bad traditions of Italian diplomacy, and over and above this a certain fatal irresolution of character seemed to impel him, when any decision had been arrived at, to hark back upon the course agreed on and to try to make terms with the other side.

The early years of his pontificate were occupied with the negotiations which culminated in the League of Cognac. When Clement was crowned, Francis I and the Emperor Charles V were at war. Charles had supported Clement's candidature and hoped much from his friendship with the Medici, but barely a year had elapsed after his election before the new pope concluded a secret treaty with France. The pitched battle which was fought between Francis and the imperial commanders at Pavia in February, 1525, ending in the defeat and captivity of the French king, put into Charles' hands the means of avenging himself. Still he used his victory with moderation. The terms of the Treaty of Madrid (14 January, 1526) were not really extravagant, but Francis seems to have signed with the deliberate intention of breaking his promises, though confirmed by the most solemn of oaths. That Clement, instead of accepting Charles' overtures, should have made himself a party to the French king's perfidy and should have organized a league with France, Venice, and Florence, signed at Cognac, 22 May, 1526, must certainly have been regarded by the emperor as almost unpardonable provocation. No doubt Clement was moved by genuine patriotism in his distrust of imperial influence in Italy and especially by anxiety for his native Florence. Moreover, he chafed under dictation which seemed to him to threaten the freedom of the Church. But though he probably feared that the bonds might be drawn tighter, it is hard to see that he had at that time any serious ground of complaint. We cannot be much surprised at what followed. Charles' envoys, obtaining no satisfaction from the pope, allied themselves with the disaffected Colonna who had been raiding the papal territory. These last peretended reconciliation until the papal commanders were lulled into a sense of security. Then the Colonna made a sudden attack upon Rome and shut up Clement in the Castle of Sant' Angelo while their followers plundered the Vatican (20 September, 1526). Charles disavowed the action of the Colonna but took advantage of the situation created by their success. A period of vacillation followed. At one time Clement concluded a truce with the emperor, at another he turned again despairingly to the League, at another, under the encouragement of a slight success, he broke off negotiations with the imperial representatives and resumed active hostilities, and then again, still later, he signed a truce with Charles for eight months, promising the immediate payment of an indemnity of 60,000 ducats.

In the mean time the German mercenaries in the north of Italy were fast being reduced to the last extremities for lack of provisions and pay. On hearing of the indemnity of 60,000 ducats they threatened mutiny, and the imperial commissioners extracted from the pope the payment of 100,000 ducats instead of the sum first agreed upon. But the sacrifice was ineffectual. It seems probable that the Landsknechte, a very large proportion of whom were Lutherans, had really got completely out of hand, and that they practically forced the Constable Bourbon, now in supreme command, to lead them against Rome. On the 5th of May they reached the walls, which, owing to the pope's confidence in the truce he had concluded, were almost undefended. Clement had barely time to take refuge in the Castle of Sant' Angelo, and for eight days the "Sack of Rome" continued amid horrors almost unexampled in the history of war. "The Lutherans", says an impartial authority, "rejoiced to burn and to defile what all the world had adored. Churches were desecrated, women, even the religious, violated, ambassadors pillaged, cardinals put to ransom, ecclesiastical dignitaries and ceremonies made a mockery, and the soldiers fought among themselves for the spoil" (Leathes in "Camb. Mod. History", II, 55). It seems probable that Charles V was really not implicated in the horrors which then took place. Still he had no objection against the pope bearing the full consequences of his shifty diplomacy, and he allowed him to remain a virtual prisoner in the Castle of Sant' Angelo for more than seven months. Clement's pliability had already given offence to the other members of the League, and his appeals were not responded to very warmly. Besides this, he was sorely in need of the imperial support both to make head against the Lutherans in Germany and to reinstate the Medici in the government of Florence from which they had been driven out. The combined effect of these various considerations and of the failure of the French attempts upon Naples was to throw Clement into the emperor's arms. After a sojourn in Orvieto and Viterbo, Clement returned to Rome, and there, before the end of July, 1529, terms favourable to the Holy See were definitely arranged with Charles. The seal was set upon the compact by the meeting of the emperor and the pope at Bologna, where, on 24 February, 1530, Charles was solemnly crowned. By whatever motives the pontiff was swayed, this settlement certainly had the effect of restoring to Italy a much-needed peace.

Meanwhile events, the momentous consequence of which were not then fully foreseen, had been taking place in England. Henry VIII, tired of Queen Catherine, by whom he had no heir to the throne, but only one surviving daughter, Mary, and passionately enamoured of Anne Boleyn, had made known to Wolsey in May, 1527, that he wished to be divorced. He pretended that his conscience was uneasy at the marriage contracted under papal dispensation with his brother's widow. As his first act was to solicit from the Holy See contingently upon the granting of the divorce, a dispensation from the impediment of affinity in the first degree (an impediment which stood between him and any legal marriage with Anne on account of his previous carnal intercourse with Anne's sister Mary), the scruple of conscience cannot have been very sincere. Moreover, as Queen Catherine solemnly swore that the marriage between herself and Henry's elder brother Arthur had never been consummated, there had consequently never been any real affinity between her and Henry but only the impedimentum publicæ honestatis. The king's impatience, however, was such that, without giving his full confidence to Wolsey, he sent his envoy, Knight, at once to Rome to treat with the pope about getting the marriage annulled. Knight found the pope a prisoner in Sant' Angelo and could do little until he visited Clement, after his escape, at Orvieto. Clement was anxious to gratify Henry, and he did not make much difficulty about the contingent dispensation from affinity, judging, no doubt, that, as it would only take effect when the marriage with Catherine was concelled, it was of no practical consequence. On being pressed, however, to issue a commission to Wolsey to try the divorce case, he made a more determined stand, and Cardinal Pucci, to whom was submitted a draft instrument for the purpose, declared that such a document would reflect discredit upon all concerned. A second mission to Rome organized by Wolsey, and consisting of Gardiner and Foxe, was at first not much more successful. A commission was indeed granted and taken back to England by Foxe, but it was safeguarded in ways which rendered it practically innocuous. The bullying attitude which Gardiner adopted towards the pope seems to have passed all limits of decency, but Wolsey, fearful of losing the royal favour, egged him on to new exertions and implored him to obtain at any cost a "decretal commission". This was an instrument which decided the points of law beforehand, secure from appeal, and left only the issue of fact to be determined in England. Against this Clement seems honestly to have striven, but he at last yielded so far as to issue a secret commission to Cardinal Wolsey and Cardinal Campeggio jointly to try the case in England. The commission was to be shown to no one, and was never to leave Compeggio's hands. We do not know its exact terms; but if it followed the drafts prepared in England for the purpose, it pronounced that the Bull of dispensation granted by Julius for the marriage of Henry with his deceased brother's wife must be declared obreptitious and consequently void, if the commissioners found that the motives alleged by Julius were insufficient and contrary to the facts. For example, it had been pretended that the dispensation was necessary to cement the friendship between England and Spain, also that the young Henry himself desired the marriage, etc.

Camapeggio reached England by the end of September, 1528, but the proceedings of the legatine court were at once brought to a standstill by the production of a second dispensation granted by Pope Julius in the form of a Brief. This had a double importance. Clement's commission empowered Wolsey and Campeggio to pronounce upon the sufficiency of the motives alleged in a certain specified document, viz., the Bull; but the Brief was not contemplated by, and lay outside, their commission. Moreover, the Brief did not limit the motives for granting the dispensation to certain specified allegations, but spoke of "aliis causis animam nostram moventibus". The production of the Brief, now commonly admitted to be quite authentic, though the king's party declared it a forgery, arrested the proceedings of the commission for eight months, and in the end, under pressure from Charles V, to whom his Aunt Catherine had vehemently appealed for support as well as to the pope, the cause was revoked to Rome. There can be no doubt that Clement showed much weakness in the concessions he had made to the English demands; but it must also be remembered, first, that in the decision of this point of law, the technical grounds for treating the dispensation as obreptitious were in themselves serious and, secondly, that in committing the honour of the Holy See to Campeggio's keeping, Clement had known that he had to do with a man of exceptionally high principle.

How far the pope was influenced by Charles V in his resistance, it is difficult to say; but it is clear that his own sense of justice disposed him entirely in favour of Queen Catherine. Henry in consequence shifted his ground, and showed how deep was the rift which separated him from the Holy See, by now urging that a marriage with a deceased husband's brother lay beyond the papal powers of dispensation. Clement retaliated by pronouncing censure against those who threatened to have the king's divorce suit decided by an English tribunal, and forbade Henry to proceed to a new marriage before a decision was given in Rome. The king on his side (1531) extorted a vast sum of money from the English clergy upon the pretext that the penalties of præmunire had been incurred by them through their recognition of the papal legate, and soon afterwards he prevailed upon Parliament to prohibit under certain conditions the payment of annates to Rome. Other developments followed. The death of Archbishop Warham (22 August, 1532) allowed Henry to press for the institution of Cranmer as Archbishop of Canterbury, and through the intervention of the King of France this was conceded, the pallium being granted to him by Clement. Almost immediately after his consecration Cranmer proceeded to pronounce judgment upon the divorce, while Henry had previously contracted a secret marriage with Anne Boleyn, which marriage Cranmer, in May, 1533, declared to be valid. Anne Boleyn was consequently crowned on June the 1st. Meanwhile the Commons had forbidden all appeals to Rome and exacted the penalties of præmunire against all who introduced papal Bulls into England. It was only then that Clement at last took the step of launching a sentence of excommunication against the king, declaring at the same time Cranmer's pretended decree of divorce to be invalid and the marriage with Anne Boleyn null and void. The papal nuncio was withdrawn from England and diplomatic relations with Rome broken off. Henry appealed from the pope to a general council, and in January, 1534, the Parliament pressed on further legislation abolishing all ecclesiastical dependence on Rome. But it was only in March, 1534, that the papal tribunal finally pronounced its verdict upon the original issue raised by the king and declared the marriage between Henry and Catherine to be unquestionably valid. Clement has been much blamed for this delay and for his various concessions in the matter of the divorce; indeed he has been accused of losing England to the Catholic Faith on account of the encouragement thus given to Henry, but it is extremely doubtful whether a firmer attitude would have had a more beneficial result. The king was determined to effect his purpose, and Clement had sufficient principle not to yield the one vital point upon which all turned.

With regard to Germany, though Clement never broke away from his friendship with Charles V, which was cemented by the coronation at Bologna in 1530, he never lent to the emperor that cordial co-operation which could alone have coped with a situation the extreme difficulty and danger of which Clement probably never understood. In particular, the pope seems to have had a horror of the idea of convoking a general council, foreseeing, no doubt, grave difficulties with France in any such attempt. Things were not improved when Henry, through his envoy Bonner, who found Clement visiting the French king at Marseilles, lodged his appeal to a future general council on the divorce question.

In the more ecclesiastical aspects of his pontificate Clement was free from reproach. Two Franciscan reforms, that of the Capuchins and that of the Recollects, found in him a sufficiently sympathetic patron. He was genuinely in earnest over the crusade against the Turks, and he gave much encouragement to foreign missions. As a patron of art, he was much hampered by the sack of Rome and the other disastrous events of his pontificate. But he was keenly interested in such matters, and according to Benvenuto Cellini he had excellent taste. By the commission given to the last-named artist for the famous cope-clasp of which we hear so much in the autobiography, he became the founder of Benvenuto's fortunes. (See Cellini, Benvenuto.) Clement also continued to be the patron of Raphael and of Michelangelo, whose great fresco of the Last Judgment in the Sistine Chapel was undertaken by his orders.

In their verdict upon the character of Pope Clement VII almost all historians are agreed. He was an Italian prince, a de' Medici, and a diplomat first, and a spiritual ruler afterwards. His intelligence was of a high order, though his diplomacy was feeble and irresolute. On the other hand, his private life was free from reproach, and he had many excellent impulses, but despite good intention, all qualities of heroism and greatness must emphatically be denied him.

Pastor, Geschichte der Päpste (Freiburg, 1907), IV, pt. II; Fraiken, Nonciatures de Clément VII (Paris, 1906-); Idem in Mélanges de l'école française de Rome (1906); Gairdner, The New Light on the Divorce of Henry VIII in English Histor. Rev. (1896-1897); Ehses, Römische Dokumente zur Geschichte der Ehescheidung Heinrichs VIII. (Paderborn, 1893); Thurston, The Canon Law of the Divorce in Eng. Histor. Rev. (Oct., 1904); Am. Cath. Quart. (April, 1906); Hemmer in Dict. de théol. cath., in which and in Pastor a fuller bibliography will be found.

Bibliography

• Hersey, George L. (1993). High Renaissance Art in St. Peter's and the Vatican: An Interpretive Guide. The University of Chicago Press.
• Reynolds, Anne (2016). "The Papal Court in Exile: Clement VII in Orvieto, 1527–28". In Gouwens, Kenneth; Reiss, Sheryl E. (eds.). The Pontificate of Clement VII: History, Politics, Culture. Ashgate Publishing. pp. 143–164.
• Visceglia, Maria Antonietta (2006). "A comparative historiographic reflection on sovereignty in early modern Europe: interregnum rites and papal funerals". In Schilling, Heinz; Tóth, István György (eds.). Cultural Exchange in Early Modern Europe. Cambridge University Press. pp. 162–190.

Further reading

• Cellini, Benvenuto (1902). John Addington Symonds, tr. (ed.). The Life of Benvenuto Cellini (fifth ed.). New York: Charles Scribner's Sons.
• Gar, Tommaso (1846). Eugenio Alberi (ed.). Le relazioni degli ambasciatori veneti al Senato (in Italian). Vol. Series 2, Volume III, Secolo XVI, Vol. 1. Firenze: Società editrice fiorentina.
• Roscoe, William (1846). Thomas Roscoe (ed.). The life and pontificate of Leo the tenth. Vol. I (4th ed.). London: Henry G. Bohn.
• Roscoe, William (1900). Thomas Roscoe (ed.). The Life and Pontificate of Leo the Tenth. Vol. II (reprint of 4th edition (1846) ed.). G. Bell & sons.
• De Leva, Giuseppe (1866). Storia documentata di Carlo V in correlazione all'Italia. Vol. II. Venezia: Naratovich.
• Creighton, Mandell (1894). A History of the Papacy, during the period of the Reformation: The German revolt, 1517–1527. Vol. V. London: Longmans, Green, and Company.
• Artaud de Montor, Alexis (1911). The Lives and Times of the Popes. Vol. V. New York: The Catholic Publication Society of America.
• Wilkie, William E. (26 July 1974). "The Cardinal Protectors of England: Rome and the Tudors Before the Reformation". Church History. 44 (2). New York and London: Cambridge University Press: 257–258. doi:10.2307/3165218. ISBN 978-0-521-20332-6. JSTOR 3165218. S2CID 162231515.
• Rodocanachi, Emmanuel. Histoire de Rome. Les pontificats d'Adrien VI et de Clément VII. Paris: Hachette, 1933.
• Chastel, André (1983). The Sack of Rome, 1527. Princeton: Princeton U.P. ISBN 978-0-691-09947-7.
• Hook, Judith (2004). The Sack of Rome: 1527 (2nd ed.). New York: Palgrave Macmillan UK. ISBN 978-1-4039-1769-0.
• Gouwens, Kenneth; Sheryl E. Reiss (2005). The Pontificate of Clement VII: History, Politics, Culture. Aldershot UK; Burlington VT USA: Ashgate. ISBN 978-0-7546-0680-2.
• Wallace, William E. (2005). Clement VII and Michelangelo: An Anatomy of Patronage. Aldershot UK: Ashgate.

External links

• Thurston, Herbert (1908). "Pope Clement VII". Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 4.
• Phillips, Walter Alison (1911). "Clement s.v. Clement VII.". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 6 (11th ed.). pp. 485–486.
• Catholic Hierarchy, Popes Clement VII
• Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church, Cardinal Medici
• His son Alessandro de Medici
• Paradoxplace Medici Popes' Page
• Adriano Prosperi, "Clemente VII," Enciclopedia dei Papi (2000) [in Italian]
• Pope Clement VII in Catholic Encyclopedia
• Pope Clement VII - a key player in the historical and artistic events of the high renaissance