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| Sack of Rome | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of theWar of the League of Cognac | |||||||
 The sack of Rome in 1527, byJohannes Lingelbach, 17th century (private collection) | |||||||
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
 Papal States |   Imperial army (mutinous)[a] | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
| Strength | |||||||
| 20,000+ (mutinous)
| ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| 1,000 militiamen killed 147 Swiss Guards killed[1] | Unknown | ||||||
| 45,000 civilians dead, wounded, or exiled[2] | |||||||
TheSack of Rome, then part of thePapal States, followed the capture ofRome on 6 May 1527 by themutinous troops ofCharles V, Holy Roman Emperor, during theWar of the League of Cognac. Charles V only intended to threaten military action to makePope Clement VII come to his terms. However, most of theImperial army (14,000Germans, includingLutherans, 6,000Spaniards and someItalians) were largely unpaid. Despite being ordered not to storm Rome, they broke into the scarcely defended city and began looting, killing, and holding citizens for ransom without any restraint.[3] Clement VII took refuge inCastel Sant'Angelo after theSwiss Guard were annihilated in a delaying rear guard action; he remained there until a ransom was paid to the pillagers.
Benvenuto Cellini, eyewitness to the events, described the sack in his works. It was not until February 1528 that the spread of a plague and the approach of the League forces underMarshal of FranceOdet de Foix forced the army to withdraw towardsNaples from the city. Rome's population had dropped from 55,000 to 10,000 due to the atrocities, famine, an outbreak of plague, and flight from the city. The subsequent loss of the League army during theSiege of Naples secured a victory in the War of the League of Cognac for Charles V. The Emperor denied responsibility for the sack and came to terms again with Clement VII. On the other hand, the Sack of Rome further exacerbated religious hatred and antagonism between Catholics and Lutherans.
The growing power of the King of Spain and Holy Roman EmperorCharles V alarmedPope Clement VII, who perceived Charles as a threat to the papal power. Clement VII formed an alliance with Charles V's arch-enemy, KingFrancis I of France, which came to be known as theLeague of Cognac.[4]
Apart from the Pope and the King of France, the League also included theDuchy of Milan, theRepublic of Venice, theRepublic of Genoa, and theFlorence of theMedici. The League began hostilities in 1526 by attacking theRepublic of Siena, but the undertaking proved to be a failure and revealed the weakness of the troops at the Pope's disposal.[5]
The Imperial Army defeated the French army, but funds were not available to pay the soldiers. The 34,000 Imperial troops mutinied and forced their commander, DukeCharles III of Bourbon, to lead them towards Rome, which was an easy target for pillaging due to the unstable political landscape at the time.[citation needed]
Aside from some 6,000 Spaniards under the Duke of Bourbon, the army included some 14,000Landsknechte underGeorg von Frundsberg; some Italian infantry led byFabrizio Maramaldo, the powerful ItaliancardinalPompeo Colonna, andLuigi Gonzaga; and some cavalry under the command ofFerdinando Gonzaga andPhilibert,Prince of Orange. ThoughMartin Luther himself was against attacking Rome and Pope Clement VII, some followers ofLuther's Protestant movement viewed the papal capital as a target for religious reasons. Numerous outlaws, along with the League's deserters, joined the army during its march.[citation needed]
The Duke of Bourbon leftArezzo on 20 April 1527, taking advantage of chaos among theVenetians and their allies after a revolt broke out in Florence against Pope Clement VII's family, the Medici. In a message to Clement, the Duke announced that "he [wouldn’t] be able to hinder his army [from marching to Rome], being dragged along with it more like a prisoner than a free man"; however, contemporary eyewitnesses and historians doubted his claim of helplessness.[6][7] His largely undisciplined troops sackedAcquapendente andSan Lorenzo alle Grotte, and then occupiedViterbo andRonciglione, reaching the walls of Rome on 5 May.[citation needed]
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The imperial troops were 14,000 Germans, 6,000 Spaniards, and an uncertain number of Italian infantry.[8]The troops defending Rome were not very numerous: only 5,000 militiamen led byRenzo da Ceri and 189[9] PapalSwiss Guards. The city's defenses included the massiveAurelian Walls, and substantial artillery, which the Imperial army lacked. Charles of Bourbon needed to conquer the city swiftly to avoid the risk of being trapped between the besieged city and the League's army.
On 6 May, the Imperial army attacked the walls at theGianicolo andVatican hills. The Duke of Bourbon was fatally wounded in the assault. He was allegedly shot byBenvenuto Cellini, a prominent artist who participated in Rome's defense, killing the Duke and woundingPhilibert of Châlon according to his own account.[10] The Duke was wearing his famous white cloak to mark him out to his troops, which also had the unintended consequence of pointing him out as the leader to his enemies. With the death of their last respected leader, the common soldiery in the Imperial army lost any restraint when they easily succeeded in storming the walls of Rome the same day. Philibert of Châlon took command of the troops, but he was not as popular or feared, leaving him with little authority.
In the event known as the Stand of the Swiss Guard, the Swiss, alongside the garrison's remaining soldiers, made their last stand in theTeutonic Cemetery within the Vatican. Their captain,Kaspar Röist, was wounded and later sought refuge in his house, where Spanish soldiers killed him in front of his wife.[9] The Swiss fought bitterly, but were hopelessly outnumbered and almost annihilated. Some survivors, accompanied by a band of refugees, fell back to the steps ofSt. Peter's Basilica. Those who went toward the Basilica were massacred, and only 42 survived. This group of 42, under the command of Hercules Goldli, managed to stave off the Habsburg troops pursuing the Pope's entourage as it made its way across thePassetto di Borgo, a secure elevated passage that connects theVatican City toCastel Sant'Angelo.[9]
After the execution of some 1,000 defenders of the Papal capital and shrines, the pillage began. Churches and monasteries, as well as the palaces of prelates and cardinals, were looted and destroyed. Even pro-Imperial cardinals had to pay to save their properties from the rampaging soldiers as they marauded without regard to the allegiance of their victims. Citizens of Rome of all descriptions were subjected to the carnage – women were raped, hospice patients killed, and many prominent allies of the Imperial cause were not spared. Particular vehemence was displayed by the German Landsknechte, many of whom were Lutheran, towards the Catholic holy sites. Churches were ransacked, relics profaned, and sacred images destroyed. Parodies of Catholic rites were carried out; for example, a prostitute was dressed in priestly vestments and seated on the throne of Saint Peter to the cry of "Vivat Lutherus pontifex!", and animals were mockingly presented for communion. Violence towards clergy was pointed, with monks being castrated and nuns raped, along with a general targeting of priests for killing.[11] Although Martin Luther himself was against revolt against the Church by "hand and flail," the actions of German troops were ostensibly fueled by the religious discontent proliferating at the time, and the targeting of Church officials and property was intentionally symbolic.[7] However, most of the pillaging was a means for the troops to compensate themselves monetarily. To that end, prisoners were taken to be held for ransom, with more prominent prisoners making for more profitable ransoms. On 8 May, CardinalPompeo Colonna, a personal enemy of Clement VII, entered the city. He was followed by peasants from his fiefs, who had come to avenge the sacks they had suffered at the hands of the Papal armies. Colonna was touched by the pitiful conditions in the city and gave refuge to some Roman citizens in his palace. Colonna attempted to bring some sense of order to the events, and the troops began only gradually to cease pillaging in response to his orders.[12]
TheVatican Library was saved because Philibert had set up his headquarters there.[13] After three days of ravages, Philibert ordered the soldiers to stop pillaging, but few heeded his words, and the plundering continued unabated for five more days.[11] In the meantime, Clement remained a prisoner in Castel Sant'Angelo.Francesco Maria I della Rovere andMichele Antonio of Saluzzo arrived with troops on 1 June inMonterosi, north of the city. Their cautious behaviour prevented them from obtaining an easy victory against the now totally undisciplined imperial troops. On 6 June, Clement VII surrendered, and agreed to pay a ransom of 400,000ducati in exchange for his life; conditions included the cession ofParma,Piacenza,Civitavecchia, andModena to the Holy Roman Empire (however, only the last would actually change hands). At the same time Venice took advantage of this situation to conquerCervia andRavenna, whileSigismondo Malatesta returned toRimini. Despite the signing of this treaty, pillaging continued for several more months.[11]
Often cited as the end of the ItalianHigh Renaissance, the Sack of Rome shaped the histories of Europe, Italy, and Christianity, with lasting ripples throughout European culture and politics.[14]
Before the sack, Pope Clement VII opposed the ambitions of Emperor Charles V. Afterward, he lacked the military or financial resources to do so.[2] To avert more warfare, Clement adopted a conciliatory policy toward Charles.[2][15]
The sack had major repercussions for Italian society and culture, and in particular, for Rome. Clement'sWar of the League of Cognac would be the last fight of some of the Italian city-states for independence until the nineteenth century.[16] Before the sack, Rome had been a center ofItalian High Renaissance culture and patronage, and the main destination for any European artist eager for fame and wealth, thanks to the prestigious commissions of the papal court. In the sack, Rome suffered depopulation and economic collapse, sending artists and writers elsewhere.[17] Lamenting the loot and destruction of many of Rome's antiquities and artistic treasures,Antonio Tabaldeo wrote, "if you come back, you will find Rome unmade."[18] The calamity also dealt a grave blow to Rome's scholarly prestige, as the contents of many of its great libraries – including the Vatican library – were destroyed or sold in the sack. Proponents of humanism especially lamented the destruction of the city's stores of knowledge, which had come to characterize Rome as a "paradise of learning"; the sack did indeed prove to mark the end of humanism's favor within Christian thought.[19][2][15] The city's population dropped from over 55,000 before the attack to 10,000 afterward.[12] An estimated 6,000 to 12,000 people were murdered; it is said that two thousand bodies were disposed of in the Tiber River.[20] Among those who died in the sack were papal secretaryPaolo Valdabarini[21] and professor of natural historyAugusto Valdo.[22]
Many Imperial soldiers also died in the aftermath, largely from diseases caused by masses of unburied corpses in the streets. Pillaging finally ended in February 1528, eight months after the initial attack, when the city'sfood supply ran out, there was no one left to ransom, and plague appeared.[2] Clement would continue artistic patronage and building projects in Rome, but a perceivedMedicean golden age had passed, with the sack having brought about "the end of the Rome of Julius II and Leo X."[23][14] The city did not recover its population losses until around 1560.[24]
A power shift – away from the Pope, toward the Emperor – also produced lasting consequences for Catholicism. After learning of the sack, Emperor Charles professed great embarrassment that his troops had imprisoned Pope Clement. Charles would eventually restore many of the spoils of the sack, amounting in value to more than 4 million ducati, to the Vatican.[20] However, though he had wanted to avoid destruction within the city of Rome, which would damage his reputation, he had ordered troops to Italy to bring Clement under his control. Charles eventually came to terms with the Pope with theTreaty of Barcelona (1529) and thecoronation of Bologna. This done, Charles molded the Church in his own image.[15] Clement, never again to directly oppose the Emperor, rubber-stamped Charles' demands – among them naming cardinals nominated by the latter; crowning Charles Holy Roman Emperor andKing of Italy at Bologna in 1530; and refusing toannul the marriage of Charles' beloved aunt,Catherine of Aragon, to KingHenry VIII of England, prompting theEnglish Reformation.[25][14][26][27] Cumulatively, these actions changed the complexion of the Catholic Church, steering it away from Renaissance freethought personified by the Medici Popes, toward the religious orthodoxy exemplified by theCounter-Reformation. After Clement's death in 1534, under the influence of Charles and later his son KingPhilip II of Spain (1556–1598), theInquisition became pervasive, and thehumanism encouraged by Renaissance culture came to be viewed as contrary to the teachings of the Church.[28][2]
The sack also helped make permanent the split betweenCatholics andProtestants. Previously, Charles and Clement had disagreed over how to addressMartin Luther and theProtestant Reformation, which was spreading throughout Germany. Charles advocated for calling a Church Council to settle the matter. Clement opposed this, believing that monarchs should not dictate Church policy; and also fearing a revival ofconciliarism, which had exacerbated theWestern Schism during the 14th–15th centuries, and deposed numerous Popes.[29][30] Clement advocated a Holy War to unite Christendom. Charles opposed this because his armies and treasury were occupied in fighting other wars. After the sack, Clement acceded to Charles' wishes, agreeing to call a Church Council and naming the city ofTrent, Italy, as its site. He did not convene theCouncil of Trent during his lifetime, fearing that the event would be a dangerous power play. In 1545, eleven years after Clement's death, his successorPope Paul III convened the Council of Trent. As Charles predicted, it reformed the corruption present in certain orders of the Catholic Church.[31] However, by 1545, the moment for reconciliation between Catholics and Protestants – arguably a possibility during the 1520s, given cooperation between the Pope and Emperor – had passed. In assessing the effects of the Sack of Rome,Martin Luther commented: "Christ reigns in such a way that the Emperor who persecutes Luther for the Pope is forced to destroy the Pope for Luther" (LW 49:169).
In commemoration of the Swiss Guard's bravery in defending Pope Clement VII during the Sack of Rome, recruits to the Swiss Guard are sworn in on 6 May every year.[32]
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