The Pontificate of Clement VII: History, Politics, Culture by Sheryl E. Reiss,Kenneth Gouwens PDF

The hold forth of Clement VII (Giulio de' Medici) is generally considered as among the main disastrous in background, and the pontiff characterised as timid, vacillating, and avaricious. It was once in the course of his years as pope (1523-34) that England broke clear of the Catholic Church, and family members with the Holy Roman Emperor deteriorated to this sort of measure that during 1527 an Imperial military sacked Rome and imprisoned the pontiff. Given those miraculous political and armed forces disasters, it's maybe unsurprising that Clement has usually elicited the scorn of historians, instead of balanced and dispassionate research. This interdisciplinary quantity, the 1st at the topic, constitutes an enormous leap forward in our realizing of Clement VII's hold forth. having a look past Clement's recognized disasters, and anachronistic comparisons with extra 'successful' popes, it offers a desirable perception into the most pivotal sessions of papal and eu background. Drawing on long-neglected resources, as wealthy as they're plentiful, the members tackle a large choice of significant elements of Clement's preach, re-assessing his personality, familial and private family, political recommendations, and cultural patronage, in addition to exploring broader concerns together with the impression of the Sack of Rome, and spiritual renewal and reform within the pre-Tridentine interval. Taken jointly, the essays gathered right here give you the such a lot expansive and nuanced portrayal but provided of Clement as pope, consumer, and flesh presser. In reconsidering the politics and emphasizing the cultural energy of the interval, the gathering presents clean and much-needed revision to our knowing of Clement VII's hold forth and its serious influence at the background of the papacy and Renaissance Europe.