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Pope Clement VII

Pope Clement VII (Latin: Clemens VII; Italian: Clemente VII; born Giulio 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.[3]

Not to be confused with Antipope Clement VII.


Clement VII

19 November 1523

25 September 1534

19 December 1517

21 December 1517
by Leo X[1][2]

23 September 1513
by Leo X

Giulio di Giuliano de' Medici

26 May 1478

25 September 1534(1534-09-25) (aged 56)
Rome, Papal States

Candor illæsus (Innocence inviolate)

Clement VII's coat of arms

Your Holiness

Holy Father

None

Elected in 1524 at the end of the Italian Renaissance, Clement came to the papacy with a high reputation as a statesman.[4] 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).[5][6][4] 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.[7] He later attempted to liberate Italy from foreign occupation, believing that it threatened the Church's freedom.[3]


The complex political situation of the 1520s thwarted Clement's efforts.[8] Inheriting unprecedented challenges, including Martin Luther's Protestant Reformation in Northern Europe; a vast power struggle in Italy between Europe's two most powerful kings, Holy Roman Emperor Charles V and Francis I of France, each of whom demanded that the Pope choose a side; 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 jailer, Charles V.[3][4] 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.[9]


Clement left a significant cultural legacy in the Medici tradition.[10] He commissioned artworks by Raphael, Benvenuto Cellini, and Michelangelo, including Michelangelo's The Last Judgment in the Sistine Chapel.[11][12][13] 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 for similar ideas.[14][15][16]

Death[edit]

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."[35] 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.[63]


On 23 September 1534, Clement wrote a long letter of farewell to Emperor Charles.[64] He also affirmed, just days before his death, that Michelangelo should paint The Last Judgment above the altar in the Sistine Chapel.[18] Clement VII died just two days later, on 25 September 1534,[65] 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,[66] which was designed by Baccio Bandinelli.[67]


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.[68][69]


Clement's symptoms and the length of his illness do not, however, support the hypothesis that he had been poisoned.

Republic of Florence

Italian Wars

Medici family

List of popes from the Medici family

Cardinals created by Clement VII

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.

Cellini, Benvenuto (1902). John Addington Symonds, tr. (ed.). (fifth ed.). New York: Charles Scribner's Sons.

The Life of Benvenuto Cellini

Gar, Tommaso (1846). Eugenio Alberi (ed.). (in Italian). Vol. Series 2, Volume III, Secolo XVI, Vol. 1. Firenze: Società editrice fiorentina.

Le relazioni degli ambasciatori veneti al Senato

Roscoe, William (1846). Thomas Roscoe (ed.). . Vol. I (4th ed.). London: Henry G. Bohn.

The life and pontificate of Leo the tenth

Roscoe, William (1900). Thomas Roscoe (ed.). . Vol. II (reprint of 4th edition (1846) ed.). G. Bell & sons.

The Life and Pontificate of Leo the Tenth

De Leva, Giuseppe (1866). . Vol. II. Venezia: Naratovich.

Storia documentata di Carlo V in correlazione all'Italia

Creighton, Mandell (1894). . Vol. V. London: Longmans, Green, and Company.

A History of the Papacy, during the period of the Reformation: The German revolt, 1517–1527

Artaud de Montor, Alexis (1911). . Vol. V. New York: The Catholic Publication Society of America.

The Lives and Times of the Popes

Wilkie, William E. (26 July 1974). . Vol. 44. New York and London: Cambridge University Press. pp. 257–258. doi:10.2307/3165218. ISBN 978-0-521-20332-6. JSTOR 3165218. S2CID 162231515. {{cite book}}: |journal= ignored (help)

The Cardinal Protectors of England: Rome and the Tudors Before the Reformation

Rodocanachi, Emmanuel. Histoire de Rome. Les pontificats d'Adrien VI et de Clément VII. Paris : Hachette, 1933.

Chastel, André (1983). . Princeton: Princeton U.P. ISBN 978-0-691-09947-7.

The Sack of Rome, 1527

Hook, Judith (2004). (2nd ed.). New York: Palgrave Macmillan UK. ISBN 978-1-4039-1769-0.

The Sack of Rome: 1527

Gouwens, Kenneth; Sheryl E. Reiss (2005). . Aldershot UK; Burlington VT USA: Ashgate. ISBN 978-0-7546-0680-2.

The Pontificate of Clement VII: History, Politics, Culture

Wallace, William E. (2005). . Aldershot UK: Ashgate.

Clement VII and Michelangelo: An Anatomy of Patronage

Thurston, Herbert (1908). . Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 4.

"Pope Clement VII" 

(1911). "Clement s.v. Clement VII." . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 6 (11th ed.). pp. 485–486.

Phillips, Walter Alison

Popes Clement VII

Catholic Hierarchy

Cardinal Medici

Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church

His son Alessandro de Medici

Paradoxplace Medici Popes' Page

Adriano Prosperi, "," Enciclopedia dei Papi (2000) [in Italian]

Clemente VII

Pope Clement VII in Catholic Encyclopedia

Pope Clement VII - a key player in the historical and artistic events of the high renaissance