By and Large the Renaissance Popes Were Indifferent to Art

The Renaissance Papacy was a period of papal history between the Western Schism and the Protestant Reformation. From the ballot of Pope Martin V of the Council of Constance in 1417 to the Reformation in the 16th century, Western Christianity was largely complimentary from schism as well equally significant disputed papal claimants. In that location were many important divisions over the management of the religion, but these were resolved through the and then-settled procedures of the papal conclave.

The popes of this period were a reflection of the College of Cardinals that elected them. The College was dominated past primal-nephews (relatives of the popes that elevated them), crown-cardinals (representatives of the Catholic monarchies of Europe), and members of the powerful Italian families. There were 2 popes each from the House of Borgia, Business firm of della Rovere, and House of Medici during this period. The wealthy popes and cardinals increasingly patronized Renaissance art and compages, (re)building the landmarks of Rome from the footing up.

The Papal States began to resemble a modern nation-state during this period, and the papacy took an increasingly active role in European wars and diplomacy. Popes were more frequently chosen upon to arbitrate disputes between competing colonial powers than to resolve complicated theological disputes. To the extent that this menses is relevant to modern Catholic dogma, it is in the expanse of papal supremacy. None of these popes accept been canonized equally a saint, or even regarded as Blest or Venerable.

Overview [edit]

The menses from stop of the Western Schism in 1417 to the Council of Trent (1534–1563) is a crude approximation used by scholars to date the Renaissance Papacy and separate it from the era of the Counter-Reformation.

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History [edit]

In 1420, the papacy returned to Rome under Pope Martin V. More often than not speaking, the Renaissance popes who followed him prioritized the temporal interests of the Papal States in Italian politics.^[1] In addition to beingness the caput of the Holy Roman Church, the Pope became one of Italia'south most powerful secular rulers, signing treaties with other sovereigns and fighting wars. In practice though, much of the territory of the Papal States was only nominally controlled by the Pope, and in actuality was ruled by small-scale princes. Control was often contested; indeed it took until the 16th century for the Pope to accept any 18-carat control over all his territories.

Numerous popes during this period used Papal finances and armies to enforce and aggrandize upon the longstanding territorial and belongings claims of the papacy as an establishment, eastward.m. Pope Julius II and the League of Cambrai; Pope Cloudless VII and the War of the League of Cognac.^[2] Before the Western Schism the papacy derived much of its acquirement from the "vigorous practise of its spiritual part;" however, during the Renaissance, popes were largely dependent on financial revenue from the Papal States themselves.^[3] In attempting to increase the territory of the Papal States, Pope Julius II became known as "the Warrior Pope" for his ongoing military campaigns.^[1] He continued the consolidation of power in the Papal States and continued the process of rebuilding Rome physically. His near prominent architectural projection was the rebuilding of St. Peter's Basilica.

Certain Renaissance popes used papal finances and armies to enrich themselves and their families; for instance, Pope Alexander 6 used the power of Papal patronage to fund his son Cesare Borgia's wars throughout Italy.^{[4] [five]} Likewise, Pope Leo X embroiled papal armies in fighting the protracted War of Urbino, an effort to secure the Pope'due south nephew Lorenzo II de Medici's rule over that city. The State of war of Urbino contributed, in big part, to driving the papacy into deep debt.^{[half dozen]}

With aggressive temporal agendas ranging from armed services campaigns to the arts, Renaissance popes widened the scope of their sources of revenue. Famously, Pope Leo X expanded the sale of indulgences and bureaucratic and ecclesiastical offices to finance the rebuilding of St. Peter's Basilica.^[iii] Controversy over these practices reached their zenith in 1517, when Martin Luther initiated the Protestant Reformation, ultimately splintering Western Christendom into many denominations.^[7]

The popes of this period ruled as absolute monarchs, but unlike their European peers, they were not hereditary rulers, and so a plurality of them promoted their family unit interests through nepotism.^[eight] (The word nepotism originally referred to the practise of Popes creating cardinal-nephews, when it appeared in the English language about 1669).^[9] According to Duffy, "the inevitable outcome of all of this was a creation of a wealthy cardinalatial class, with strong dynastic connections."^[x] For example, in 1517, Pope Leo X made his cardinal-nephew Giulio de Medici vice-chancellor of the Holy Roman Church (second-in-command); and ultimately, post-obit the former'south death in 1521, in 1523 the latter became Pope Cloudless 7.^[eleven]

According to Eamon Duffy, "the Renaissance papacy invokes images of a Hollywood spectacular, all decadence and elevate. Contemporaries viewed Renaissance Rome as we now view Nixon'due south Washington, a urban center of expense-account whores and political graft, where everything and everyone had a cost, where goose egg and nobody could be trusted. The popes themselves seemed to set the tone."^[10] Exemplary of the time and place, Pope Leo Ten is said to have famously remarked: "Since God has given us the Papacy, let us bask it."^[8] Several of the Renaissance popes took mistresses, fathered children, engaged in intrigue, and even murder.^[10] For instance, Alexander VI had four acknowledged children, including the infamous murderer Cesare Borgia. Not all historical commentators take such a grim view of the Renaissance papacy though, noting that the "misdeeds (largely exaggerated) of some of the pontiffs of this era have caused many people to dismiss all of the "Renaissance Popes" as corrupt and worldly when, in fact, their ranks included men who were personally upright, modest and virtuous."^[12] The writer goes on to cite Clement VII equally "a very upright man, devout and not at all licentious, lavish or cruel as so many of his fellow "Renaissance Popes" are often thought of as being;" likewise, he praises Adrian 6'south "holiness and moral integrity."^{[12] [13]}

The Renaissance papacy began to pass up when the Protestant Reformation splintered Western Christianity into denominations, and as nation-states (e.g. France, England), began asserting varying degrees of control over the Church in their territories.^[fourteen] Other factors contributed as well; for example, by the early on 1520s, subsequently years of immoderate spending, the Holy Roman Church was nearing bankruptcy; in 1527, the armies of Holy Roman Emperor Charles Five sacked Rome, causing the metropolis's population to dwindle from 55,000 to 10,000 in a single yr; and in 1533, Henry VIII of England broke away from the Cosmic Church building then that he could ally Anne Boleyn, initiating the English language Reformation.^[14] Cumulatively, these events changed the complexion of the Church, moving it away from the humanistic values exemplified by Popes similar Leo X and Clement VII, toward the religious orthodoxy that would become synonymous with the Counterreformation, and Roman Inquisition. Following the Council of Trent in 1545, the humanism once encouraged past the Renaissance papacy came to be regarded equally against the teachings of the Church.^{[15] [14]}

Art and architecture [edit]

Because the popes had been in Avignon or divided by schism since 1309, Rome remained architecturally underdeveloped from both a utilitarian and artistic perspective.^[16] According to Duffy, "Rome had no industries except pilgrimage, no function except as the pope'south upper-case letter."^[16] The patronage of arts and architecture was both a matter of papal policy – to increase the prestige of the establishment as a whole—and the personal preferences of individual popes.^[8] Pope Leo 10 is well known for his patronage of Raphael, whose paintings played a large office in the redecoration of the Vatican. Pope Sixtus IV initiated a major drive to redesign and rebuild Rome, widening the streets and destroying the aging ruins, commissioning the Sistine Chapel, and summoning many artists from other Italian metropolis-states. Pope Nicholas V founded the Vatican Library.

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Theology [edit]

The "inquisitorial machinery" to deal with heresy remained largely unchanged from the thirteenth century.^[1] The two main movements unsuccessfully suppressed during this period were John Wycliffe's Lollardy and Jan Hus's Hussitism.^[i] Voices disquisitional of the worldliness of the papacy—such as Savonarola in Florence—were excommunicated.^[17] Critics such as Desiderius Erasmus, who remained committed to reform rather than schism, were treated more favorably.^[18] The revival of Greek literature during this period made Platonism fashionable once more in Catholic intellectual circles.^[10]

This was a period of declining religiosity among popes. Although Adrian VI said mass every 24-hour interval for the twelvemonth he was pope, at that place is no evidence that his two predecessors—Julius Two and Leo 10—ever historic mass at all.^[xix]

The reforms of the Council of Constance were unambitious and unenforced.^[1] Conciliarism—a motility to affirm the authority of ecumenical councils over popes—was also defeated; papal supremacy was maintained and strengthened at the expense of the papacy's moral prestige.^[1] The role of the College of Cardinals in theological and temporal policy making also declined during this menses.^[twenty] According to Duffy, "the one place where the cardinals were supreme was in Conclave."^[10]

The perceived abuses of this period, such every bit the selling of indulgences, were piled upon pre-existing theological differences and calls for reform, culminating in the Protestant Reformation.^[21] Leo X and Adrian VI "failed utterly to grasp the seriousness" of the back up of Martin Luther in Deutschland, and their response to the rising of Protestantism was ineffective.^[22]

Come across also [edit]

Notes [edit]

1. ^ ^{a b c d e f} Spielvogel, 2008, p. 368.
2. ^ Duffy, 2006, p. 190.
3. ^ ^{a b} Duffy, 2006, p. 194.
4. ^ "Cesare Borgia | Encyclopedia.com".
5. ^ "CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Pope Alexander VI".
6. ^ "CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Pope Leo X".
7. ^ "Catholic ENCYCLOPEDIA: Martin Luther".
8. ^ ^{a b c} Spielvogel, 2008, p. 369.
9. ^ Oxford English Dictionary. September 2003. "Nepotism"
10. ^ ^{a b c d e} Duffy, 2006, p. 193.
11. ^ "Cloudless Vii | Encyclopedia.com".
12. ^ ^{a b} "The Mad Monarchist: Papal Profile: Pope Cloudless VII". 9 July 2012.
13. ^ "The Mad Monarchist: Papal Profile: Pope Hadrian Six". 2 April 2012.
14. ^ ^{a b c} https://dailyhistory.org/Did_the_Sack_of_Rome_in_1527_end_the_Renaissance_in_Italy%3F
15. ^ Duffy, 2006, p. 206.
16. ^ ^{a b} Duffy, 2006, p. 178.
17. ^ Duffy, 2006, p. 197.
18. ^ Duffy, 2006, p. 197-198.
19. ^ Baumgartner, 2003, pp. 97–98.
20. ^ Duffy, 2006, p. 192.
21. ^ Duffy, 2006, pp. 201–203.
22. ^ Duffy, 2007, pp. 203–204.

References [edit]

• Baumgartner, Frederic J. 2003. Behind Locked Doors: A History of the Papal Elections. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 0-312-29463-8.
• Duffy, Eamon. 1997. Saints & Sinners: A History of the Popes. Yale University Printing.
• Jackson J. Spielvogel. 2008. Western Culture: Alternate Volume: Since 1300.

External links [edit]

• The Papacy during the Renaissance at the Metropolitan Museum of Art

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