CRISTO RAUL.ORG

READING HALL

THE DOORS OF WISDOM

CHAPTER XIII.

Clement VII in Exile at Orvieto and Viterbo.—The Imperialists leave Rome. — Disaster to the French Army in Naples.—The Weakness of the Pope’s Diplomacy.—His Return to Rome.

In the old town of Orvieto, guarded by its strong citadel on the cone-shaped hill which separates, like a boundary stone, the Roman and Tuscan territory, the personal freedom of the Pope was secure; yet his situation must still be described as a deplorable one. His ecclesiastical rank excepted, he had lost all he could call his own : his authority, his property, almost all his states, and the obedience of the majority of his subjects. Instead of the Vatican adorned with the masterpieces of art, he was now the occupant of a dilapidated episcopal palace in a mean provincial town. Roberto Boschetti, who visited the Pope on the 23rd of January 1528, found him emaciated and in the most sorrowful frame of mind. “They have plundered me of all I possess”, said Clement VII to him; “even the canopy above my bed is not mine, it is borrowed.” The furniture of the Papal bedchamber, the English envoys supposed, could not have cost twenty nobles. They describe with astonishment how they were led through three apartments bare of furniture, in which the hangings were falling from the walls. In this inhospitable dwelling Clement was confined to bed with swollen feet; there were suspicions that poison had been given him by the Imperialists, but the mischief was caused by his unwonted exertions on horseback on the night of his flight.

At first only four Cardinals, then, on a special summons from the Pope, seven betook themselves to Orvieto. Their position was also a hard one, for no preparations had been made for the fugitives in the town; provisions could only be got with difficulty and at the highest prices, and there was such a scarcity of drinking water that the Pope had at once to give orders for the construction of four wells.

In spite of the distress in Orvieto, little by little numerous prelates and courtiers made their way thither. The business of the Curia, for a long time almost wholly suspended, was again resumed. On the 18th of December 1527 a Bull relating to graces bestowed during the captivity was agreed to in secret Consistory. The conduct of the more important affairs lay in the hands of Jacopo Salviati and of the Master of the Household, Girolamo da Schio, Bishop of Vaison.

The poverty and simplicity of the new court at Orvieto were such that all who went thither were filled with compassion. “The court here is bankrupt,” reported a Venetian; “the bishops go about on foot in tattered cloaks: the courtiers, take flight in despair; there is no improvement in morals; men here would sell Christ for a piece of gold.” Of the Cardinals only Pirro Gonzaga was able to live as befitted his rank; the rest were as poor as the Pope himself, who, in the month of April, was still without the most necessary ecclesiastical vestments. The congratulations on his deliverance, addressed to him in writing by the Cardinals assembled in Parma, personally by the Duke of Urbino, Federigo Bozzolo, and Luigi Pisani, and in letters or by special envoys from nearly all princes and many cities, must have seemed to him almost a mockery. As Clement had only a few troops at his disposal and the neighbourhood of Orvieto was rendered insecure by the bands of soldiery, he was practically shut up in his mountain fortress. He had to complain repeatedly that even communication by letter had become difficult, while any attempt to escape into the surrounding territory was out of the question. The care-laden Pope, wearing the long beard which he had allowed to grow during his captivity, was seen passing through the streets of Orvieto with a small retinue. Rumour exaggerated his poverty still further; he was compared to the Popes of the infant Church.

In spite of spoliation and exile the Pope continued to represent a mighty power. This was best seen in the eager competition of both the forces inimical to him to obtain his patronage. The attempts of France and England in this direction were well known to the Emperor, who made it a matter of express reference in the letter of congratulation addressed to Clement. In his answer of the nth of January 1528 Clement thanked him for the restoration of freedom, assured him that he had never held him guilty of the occurrences in Rome, and declared himself ready to do all that lay in his power to aid him in the questions of peace, the Council, and all other things which Charles desired for the highest good of Christendom; the Emperor, moreover, would see for himself how powerless the Pope was, as long as the hostages were retained and the ceded cities still occupied; Francesco Quiñones would report in detail on all other circumstances under consideration. To an Imperial envoy who had come to Orvieto as early as December 1527 to propose a formal alliance with Charles on the basis of the restoration of the States of the Church, the answer was given that the question could not be considered until the occupied cities had been given back and the hostages set at liberty.

Clement was as little willing to give definite pledges to the League as to the Emperor. In the autograph letter in which, on the 14th of December 1527, he announced his release to Francis I, he certainly thanked the King for the help he had rendered, but showed in no ambiguous terms how insufficient, in reality, it had been. Yet Lautrec’s army had not hastened a step. It was clear from this letter that the Pope had no intention of giving pledges to France; he excused his treaty with the Imperialists as a measure wrung from him by force. “For months, together with our venerable brethren, we had endured the hardest lot, had seen all our affairs, temporal and above all spiritual, go to ruin, and your well-intentioned efforts for our liberation end in failure. Our condition grew worse, indeed, day by day, the conditions imposed upon us harsher, and we saw our hopes threaten to vanish away. Under these circumstances we yielded to the pressure of a desperate state of things. Neither our personal interest nor the peril in which each one of us stood was the mainspring of our action; for eight long months we suffered ignominious imprisonment, and stood daily in danger of our lives. But the misery in Rome, the ruin of the States which had come down to us unimpaired from our predecessors, the incessant affliction in body and soul, the diminished reverence towards God and His worship, forced us to take this step. Personal suffering we could have continued to endure; but it was our duty to do all in our power to remove public distress. Our brothers, the Cardinals, have not shrunk from submitting, as hostages, to a fresh captivity in order that we, restored to freedom, may be in a position to ward off from Christendom a worse calamity.” The bearer of this letter was Ugo da Gambara, who together with Cardinal Salviati was to give fuller information by word of mouth. On the same day (December 14) Clement wrote in similar terms to the Queen, Louisa of Savoy, to Montmorency, Henry VIII, and Cardinal Wolsey, referring also in these letters to Gambara’s information.

Ever since January 1528 Clement had been besieged with the most pressing entreaties to join the League, whose army persisted in its wonted inactivity. In com­pany with Lautrec, who had advanced as far as Bologna, were Guido Rangoni, Paolo Camillo Trivulzio, Ugo di Pepoli, and Vaudemont. In February they were joined by Longueville, who brought the good wishes of Francis I. As envoys of Henry VIII, Gregorio Casale, Stephen Gardiner, and Fox were active; the last-named was especially occupied with the question of the divorce on which the English King was bent.

The League made the most tempting promises to the Pope. Not only should he receive back the Papal States, but also designate to the kingdom of Naples and be compensated for all damages and costs of the war. But the events of the past year had made Clement very cautious. Despite all the pressure brought upon him, he would give no decided answer, and insisted that he was of more use outside the League than within it. His inmost sympathies at this time were certainly with the League, for he feared the power of the Emperor, who, in possession of Naples and Milan, was the “Lord of all things,” and wished for the expulsion from Italy of those who had done him such unheard-of wrong. But from any attempt of this kind he was deterred by weighing closely the actual state of things; a waiting attitude, giving to both parties a certain amount of hope, appeared to the Pope to be the best, and this policy was also in accordance with his natural indecision.

Perhaps the conduct of the League itself had even more influence on Clement than his feeling of helplessness when pitted against the victorious Spaniard. He could not trust a confederacy, the members of which, each engrossed in his own interests, had left him to his downfall in the year of misfortune 1527. Might not this trick be played again at any moment? Above all—and this was decisive—the League had assumed a character which made it quite impossible for the Pope to enter into it. Florence, from which his family had been expelled, was supported by France, Venice had seized Ravenna and Cervia, the Duke of Ferrara, Modena, and Reggio. Both were unwilling to give back their plunder, and yet such were the allies whom Clement was to join against the Emperor!

In view of this situation, the Pope and his diplomatists directed their efforts towards securing the restoration of the States of the Church under a guarantee of neutrality.

On New Year’s Day 1528 Cardinal Salviati informed the French Government that the League must be satisfied with a benevolent neutrality on the part of the Pope, deprived, as he was, of all material resources. At the same time he made it clear that Clement insisted on the restoration of the cities taken by Venice, and would consent to no dishonourable agreement with the Duke of Ferrara, the originator of all the misfortunes of the Church. On the 12th of January Gambara arrived in Paris; and, together with Salviati, made the most urgent appeals to the French Government to compel the Venetians and Ferrara to surrender their plunder; if they failed to do so, then the Pope would be forced to try some other means of getting back his possessions. Salviati did not let the matter drop, but afterwards forcibly renewed his representations. But he gained little at first, since the French were afraid that Venice might quit the League, and hesitated to take any steps. It was not until France and England had formally declared war against the Emperor that a stronger pressure was put on Venice.

It was almost coincident with this turn in affairs that Clement determined to send a new Nuncio to Spain in the person of Antonio Pucci, Bishop of Pistoja, who together with Castiglione was to open up the way to a general peace. If Charles, declared Sanga, now Clement’s chief adviser in place of Giberti, would not agree to Pucci’s conditions of peace, then the Pope would join the League, but only after his own just grievances had been redressed. The League, so ran the fuller instructions, must undertake to restore Ravenna, Cervia, Modena, and Reggio, settle upon whom Naples should devolve, and finally bring about a general pacification in Florence. Pucci was to travel through France, to treat personally with Francis I, and explain why the Pope was obliged, for the time being, to remain neutral. The French King, however, was by no means disposed to carry out the wishes of which Pucci was to be the exponent; the mission of the new Nuncio to the Emperor made him uneasy, and he made a plan to put obstacles in his way.

Lautrec’s successes certainly encouraged Francis in his projects. The former had at last left Bologna on the 10th of January 1528, and was pressing towards Naples through the Romagna. Clement now recovered Imola, and, somewhat later, Rimini also. On the 10th of February the French army crossed the Tronto and entered the kingdom of Naples. In Rome, and throughout Papal circles generally, this advance of the French was coupled with the hope that a final deliverance from the dreadful incubus of the landsknechts was at hand. Lautrec gave assurances on all sides that, after reducing Naples, he would set free the Papal States; since his whole course of action was only undertaken in the interest of the Pope, he renewed his insistent entreaties that Clement would now resume his place in the League.

The Imperialists, at first, had not feared Lautrec; now they recognized the peril threatening them. If they were unable to move their army from Rome, then Naples would fall without a blow into the hands of the enemy. Philibert of Orange, who had been in chief command since January, Bemelberg, and Vasto negotiated with the mutinous troops. Money was scraped together in every possible way, and even Clement had to raise 40,000 ducats. Thus, on the 17th of February 1528, the soldiery, who up to the last indulged in acts of violence and depredation, were induced to move. The army, which eight months previously had numbered twenty thousand men, had melted down to one thousand five hundred cavalry, two or three thousand Italians, four thousand Spaniards, and five thousand Germans; so great had been the ravages of the plague among the troops. On the 13th of January Melchior Frundsberg fell a victim; his tomb in the German national church of the Anima recalls one of the most terrible episodes in the history of Rome. “The troops,” says a German diarist, “had destroyed and burnt down the city; two-thirds of the houses were swept away. Doors, windows, and every bit of woodwork even to the roof beams were consumed by fire. Most of the inhabitants, especially all the women, had taken flight.” The neighbourhood for fifty miles around was like a wilderness. The columns of flame, rising up from Rocca Priora and Valmontone, showed the road which the lands­knechts had taken for Naples.

The sufferings of the unfortunate Romans were even then not yet at an end. On the afternoon of the same day (February the 17th) on which the Imperialists departed, the Abbot of Farfa, with a leader of a band from Arsoli, accompanied by a pillaging rabble, who were soon joined even by Romans themselves, entered the city. The streets rang with shouts of “Church, France, the Bear (Orsini)!” and plundering began anew, where anything was left to plunder, especially in the houses of the Jews. All stragglers from the Imperial army were put to death, even the sick in the hospitals were not spared.

On hearing of these fresh outrages Clement sent Giovanni Corrado, and afterwards a detachment of troops under the Roman Girolamo Mattei, to restore order. At the same time the Pope made strenuous efforts to mitigate the distress in Rome caused by the scarcity of provisions and to guard against the danger of plague. The letters of Jacopo Salviati to the Cardinal-Legate Campeggio, who had remained in Rome, throw light on the difficulties which had to be encountered in revictualling the city; transport on land as well as by sea was extremely difficult, and there were those in Rome who did not scruple to take advantage of the existing necessity to sell corn at prices advantageous to themselves. But Clement VII persevered; the extortionate sale of corn came under the sharpest penalties, and to ensure free carriage to Rome Andrea Doria was appointed to guard the coasts.

In the beginning of March a deputation came from Rome to Orvieto to invite the Pope to return to his capital, where the desecrated churches had already been purified. Clement replied that no one longed more eagerly than he to return to Rome, but the scarcity and disorder then prevailing, as well as the uncertainty of the issue of the war in Naples, made any immediate change of residence impossible. Thereupon the Roman delegates begged that at least the officials of the Rota and Cancelleria might go back. Clement, after long hesitation, gave way, on the advice of Cardinal Campeggio; but the officials in question delayed complying with the Papal orders on account of the famine in the city. But by the end of April the majority of the officials of the Curia had to return, though the situation in Rome continued to be critical, and Cardinal Campeggio’s position was beset with difficulties.

The Pope’s own position was so harassing that Jacopo Salviati wrote to Cardinal Campeggio, “Clement is in such dire necessity that, like David, he must, perforce, eat the loaves of proposition” (1 Kings XXI. 6). In the beginning of March, Brandano, the prophet of misfortune of the year 1527, appeared in Orvieto. He foretold for Rome and Italy new and yet greater tribulations; these would continue until 1530, when the Turk would take captive the Pope, the Emperor, and the French King and embrace Christianity; whereupon the Church would enter on a new life. The Papal censures, the hermit went on to say, were void, inasmuch as Clement, having been born out of wedlock, was not canonically Pope. When Brandano proceeded to incite the people of Orvieto against the Pope, the latter gave orders for his arrest. On Palm Sunday (April 5) Clement addressed the Cardinals and prelates then present in earnest language on the need for a reform of the Curia, exhorted them to a better manner of life, and spoke emphatically of the sack of Rome as a chastisement for their sins. On Holy Thursday the customary censures on the persecutors of the Church were published.

Lautrec, in the meanwhile, had achieved successes beyond all expectation. The towns of the Abruzzi hailed him as their deliverer; but after that his operations came to a standstill, for Francis I sent no money for his troops; besides, this valiant soldier was deficient in promptness of decision. Consequently, the Imperialists found time to put Naples in a state of defence; they judged rightly that here the decisive issue must be fought out. Lautrec did not realize this, and wasted time in reducing the towns of Apulia, and not until the end of April did he approach Naples from the east. But the luck of the French did not yet desert them; dissensions, especially between Orange and Vasto, divided the Imperialist generals, the landsknechts were as insubordinate as ever, and hated the Spaniards. On the 28th of April the Imperial fleet was totally destroyed by Filippino Doria off Capo d’Orso, between Amalfi and Salerno. Moncada and Fieramosca fell in the battle; Vasto and Ascanio Colonna were taken prisoners. The fall of Naples, where great scarcity of food was already making itself felt, seemed to be only a question of time. The Emperor’s enemies were already busy with the boldest schemes, and Wolsey, through the English envoys, called upon the Pope to depose the Emperor without delay.

Clement VII watched with strained attention the result of the great contest, on which for him so much depended. The Neapolitan war filled the unfortunate Romans with renewed alarm; they dreaded a repetition of the sack; the landsknechts had, in fact, threatened to return and burn the whole city to the ground. Clement sent Cardinal Cesi to support Campeggio, and later on some troops. The Pope’s anxieties were increased by the stormy demands of the English envoys insisting on the dissolution of their King’s marriage, and by the not less stormy entreaties of the League, especially of Lautrec, to declare immediate war on the Emperor. To crown all came the pressure of famine in Orvieto, which the Sienese would do nothing to relieve on account of their enmity towards the house of Medici. Since a return to the capital, so much desired by the Romans, was impossible, owing to the insecure state of the country, the Pope was counselled to change his residence to Perugia, Civita Casteliana, or Viterbo; it was decided to remove to the last-named place, the fortress having come into the Pope’s possession at the end of April.

On the 1st of June Clement reached Viterbo and was received by the pious and aged Cardinal Egidio Canisio; he first occupied the castle, and afterwards the palace of Cardinal Farnese. Here too, at first, suitable furniture was wanting, while, at the same time, there was great scarcity in the town; but a return to Rome seemed im­possible until the Pope should be again master of Ostia and Civita Vecchia. In place of Campeggio, who was under orders to go to England, Cardinal Farnese was appointed, on the 8th’of June, the Legate in Rome; three hundred men were to garrison the castle of St. Angelo, and Alfonso di Sangro, Bishop of Lecce, was sent to the Emperor to effect the release of the three Cardinals detained as hostages in Naples.

On the 4th of June Gasparo Contarini, as Venetian envoy, and Giovanni Antonio Muscettola, commissioned by the Prince of Orange, made their appearance in Viterbo; the latter was instructed to try and induce Clement to return to Rome. The Pope, shrinking from thus placing himself in the hands of the Spaniards, laid the matter before the Cardinals, who were unanimous in declaring the return to Rome desirable but impossible of execution so long as the Spaniards were masters of Ostia and Civita Vecchia. Just then a prospect of recovering these places was opened up; a French fleet appeared off Corneto, and Renzo da Ceri made an attempt, but an unsuccessful one, to take Civita Vecchia; the Pope, unmindful of his neutrality, gave material assistance towards this attempt.

In the meantime Contarini had done all he could to persuade the Pope to surrender his claims on Ravenna and Cervia, but his endeavours were unsuccessful; Clement stood firm, and insisted that he was pledged by honour and duty to demand the restoration of those towns. The support lent by Venice to the Pope’s enemy, Alfonso of Ferrara, and the provocation given to Clement himself by the excessive taxation of the clergy of the Republic and the usurpation of his jurisdiction, did not lessen the difficulties of Contarini’s position. On the 16th of June the Pope complained to Contarini of such actions as constituting a breach of the treaty made with Julius II; he had bestowed the bishopric of Treviso on Cardinal Pisani, but the Republic had not allowed the latter to take possession of his see. His disposal of patronage was entirely disregarded in Venice, and it seemed as if the Venetians wished to show him how little he was considered by them. “You treat me,” he said, “with great familiarity ; you seize my possessions, you dispose of my benefices, you lay taxes upon me.” The Pope’s irritation was so great that, a few days later, in the course of another interview with Contarini, he said to himself in a low voice, but so that the Ambassador could understand him plainly, that, strictly speaking, the Venetians had incurred excommunication.

All doubt as to Clement’s determination to recover the captured towns vanished in the course of Contarini’s communications with Sanga, Salviati, and other influential personages of the Papal court. The Master of the household, Girolamo da Schio, informed the Venetian Ambassador that he had spoken in vain to the Pope of some compensation in the way of a money payment; Clement had rejected the suggestion at once with the greatest firmness and, moreover, had complained not only of the conduct of Venice but also of France.

Clement VII had good grounds for displeasure with Francis I, who had supported Alfonso of Ferrara and at last taken overt measures against the Pope. Seized with alarm lest the new Nuncio, Pucci, should prepare the way for an understanding between Pope and Emperor, Francis I determined to detain the Papal envoy by force.

To this, however, his English ally would not agree; Henry VIII, who had more need than ever of the Pope’s favour in the matter of his divorce, was doing all in his power to arrive at some accommodation with Clement in his demands on Venice. The French Chancellor, on the other hand, told Pucci that Francis I could not permit him to make his journey to Spain, since he was certain that he would otherwise lose the support of Venice, Ferrara, and Florence; rather than give up such in­dispensable allies, France would sooner dispense with the aid of the Pope and England. The arrogance of the French increased with the news of Lautrec’s successes.

At the end of April the French Chancellor gave the Nuncio, Pucci, to understand that the king insisted on an immediate declaration from the Pope. Salviati replied that his master would make his intentions known if Ravenna and Cervia were surrendered at once, and Modena and Reggio after the war. In consequence of the firm behaviour of the Papal representative the French court at last became aware that something must be done, at least in the case of Cervia and Ravenna. Strong representations were made to the Venetians but at the same moment a grievous wound was inflicted upon Clement by the formation of an alliance of the closest kind with the Pope’s bitterest enemy, Ferrara: Renée, the daughter of Louis XII, was betrothed to Ercole, the hereditary Prince of Ferrara.

The French proposals to the Venetian Government proved futile. Contarini had, as hitherto, to try and justify the robbery. The Pope, however, prone as he was in other respects to give way, showed in this instance inflexible determination. He repeated his declaration that an agreement with the League was impossible while Venice and Ferrara withheld from him his legitimate possessions. Contarini thought he saw signs of. a leaning towards the Emperor on the part of Clement, although the latter feared the power of Charles and placed little trust in him.

A step, however, in this direction was taken after the opening of hostilities on the scene of war in Naples. The victory of the 28th of April had destroyed the Imperialist fleet, and since the 10th of June Naples had been completely cut off at sea by Venetian galleys; the necessaries of life were hardly procurable in the great city. With the rising heat of summer came a new enemy with whom not only the besieged but also the besiegers had to engage. Typhus and a bad form of intermittent fever broke out and spread daily.

In July, when the disease was at its worst, an event occurred bringing with it far-reaching results; this was the rupture between Francis I and his Admiral, Andrea Doria. Charles consented to all Doria’s demands; the Genoese squadron set sail, and Naples, which the French had looked upon as certain to fall into their hands by the end of July, was thus set free by sea. Later, Genoa also, so important on account of its situation, was lost to France.

Lautrec had made the greatest exertions to bring about the fall of Naples. By the 5th of July it was believed, in the French camp, that further resistance was impossible. But the Imperialists held out and defended themselves so skilfully that Philibert of Chalon, Prince of Orange, who had succeeded on Moncada’s death to his command, was able to report to his master : “The French in their entrenchments are more closely besieged than we in the city.” The Imperialists’ best ally, however, was the sickness which made great strides in the marshy encampment of the French. “God,” said a German, “sent such a pestilence among the French hosts that within thirty days they well-nigh all died, and out of 25,000 not more than 4000 remained alive.”

Vaudemont, Pedro Navarro, Camillo Trivulzio, and Lautrec fell ill, and on the night following the Feast of the Assumption Lautrec died. As Vaudemont also was carried off by the disorder, the Marquis of Saluzzo assumed the chief command. He soon perceived that the raising of the siege had become inevitable, and on the night of the 29th of August, amid storms of rain, began his retreat. The Imperial cavalry at once rode out in pursuit; Orange, with his infantry, turned back to meet them; but the sickly French soldiers could not face the onslaught; quarter or no quarter, they were forced to yield; they were stripped and disarmed and then left to the mercy of God and to the peasantry, “who put nearly all of them to death.” The wretched scattered remnant of the great French army wandered about in beggary; a few bands made their escape as far as Rome, where they were compassionately succoured, but forced to depart by the landsknechts. A German resident in Rome relates how he had supplied the sick and naked with food and clothing, and how in the streets and environs the corpses of those who had perished miserably lay exposed.

“Victoria, victoria, victoria,” wrote Morone on the 29th of August 1528 to the Imperial envoy in Rome. “The French are destroyed, the remainder of their army is flying towards Aversa.” Cardinal Colonna and Orange at once informed Clement of the victory, and at the same time sent more special messages. Orange added that he had tried persistently to describe as faithfully as possible the position of affairs, and had always foretold the issue as it had come to pass; he besought the Pope to attach himself as much as possible to Charles V. The complete triumph of the Emperor was, in fact, no longer in question. Although the campaign still lingered on in Apulia and Lombardy, yet, such was the weakness of the French and the lukewarmness of the Venetians, that the end could be foreseen with certainty.

Clement thanked God that he had not accepted the baits of the League. “If he had acted otherwise,” wrote Sanga, “in what an abyss of calamity should we now be.” In the beginning of September Clement VII and Sanga determined, in spite of Contarini’s warnings, to make serious approaches to the victorious Emperor. “The Pope,” as Contarini expressed it on the 8th of September 1528, “is accommodating himself to the circumstances of the hour.” His own position, as well as that of Italy, left him, in fact, no other choice. In letters and messages Orange expressed his loyalty to the Pope; he assured Clement, in a letter of the 18th of September, that he might look upon the Imperial forces as his own and return without anxiety to Rome: “in case of necessity we are ready to sacrifice our lives in defence of your Holiness.” Charles also tried to gratify the Pope in circumstances of a different sort, for he gave a promise, through Orange, to restore the Medicean rule in Florence. But from Venice came the tidings through the French envoy, that all his efforts to induce the Signoria to give back Ravenna and Cervia were unavailing. So great was the acquisitiveness and lust of possession of the Venetians that, instead of giving back the Pope his own, they were more likely to make further aggressions.

In September Clement made up his mind to return to Rome, in accordance with the Emperor’s strong desire, although Civita Vecchia and Ostia were still occupied by the Spaniards. Contarini vainly tried to dissuade him. Orange had given his solemn oath to protect the Pope, if the latter would only go back to Rome and save the Emperor, who was actually and in intent a faithful son of the Church, from the contumely which would certainly accrue to him if Clement VII refused, from distrust, to return to his See. Already, on the 17th of 1528, the Pope had sent Cardinals Sanseverino and Valle to Rome. His own return was delayed owing to a violent feud between the Colonna and Orsini, whereby the neighbourhood of Rome was laid waste.

At the last hour France made an attempt to thwart this beginning of an understanding between the Pope and the Emperor. On the 1st of October a messenger from Carpi approached the Pope. He brought a promise of the immediate restoration of Ravenna and Cervia as soon as Clement gave his adhesion to the League; while Modena and Reggio would be given back simultaneously with his acting in the interests of France. The Pope sent a refusal. On the 5th of October he left Viterbo with his whole court, under the protection of about a thousand soldiers, and on the following evening, amid torrents of rain, re-entered his capital. He forbade any public reception on account of the distressing state of the times; he first paid a visit to St. Peter’s, to make. an act of thanksgiving, and then repaired to the Vatican.

The city presented a truly horrifying picture of misery and woe. Quite four-fifths of the houses, according to the computation of the Mantuan envoy, were tenantless; ruins were seen on every side—a shocking sight for anyone who had seen the Rome of previous days. The inhabitants themselves declared that they were ruined for two generations to come. The same authority, quoted above, emphasizes the fact that of all his many acquaintances, inmates of or sojourners in Rome, hardly anyone was left alive. “I am bereft of my senses”, he says, “in presence of the ruins and their solitude.” The churches were one and all in a terrible condition, the altars were despoiled of their ornaments, and most of the pictures were destroyed. In the German and Spanish national churches only was the Holy Sacrifice offered during the occupation of the city.

A Papal Encyclical of the 14th of October 1528 summoned all Cardinals to return to Rome. Clement wrote in person to Charles, on the 24th of October, that, relying on the promises of Orange and the other representatives of his Majesty, to whom this intelligence will be certainly acceptable, he had returned to Rome, “the one seat ” of the Papacy. “We too,” he added, “must rejoice on coming safe to shore, after so great a shipwreck, even if we have lost all things; but our grief for the ruin of Italy, manifest to every eye, still more for the misery of this city and our own misfortune, is immeasurably heightened by the sight of Rome. We are sustained only by the hope that, through your assistance, we may be able to stanch the many wounds of Italy, and that our presence here and that of the Sacred College may avail towards a gradual restoration of the city. For, my beloved son, before our distracted gaze lies a pitiable and mangled corpse, and nothing can mitigate our sorrows, nothing can build anew the city and the Church, save the prospect of that peace and undisturbed repose which depends on your moderation and equity of mind.”