CRISTO RAUL.ORG

READING HALL

THE DOORS OF WISDOM

CHAPTER XV

The Meeting of Clement VII and Charles V at Bologna. —The Last Imperial Coronation.—Restoration of the Medicean Rule in Florence.

On the 12th of August, 1529, Charles V, with a stately retinue of Spanish grandees, had landed at Genoa, where he was welcomed with shouts of “Long live the Ruler of the World!”. The coming of the Emperor raised the hopes of his followers to the highest pitch. Typical of the pride with which Charles was regarded by the Germans in Rome is the diary of Cornelius de Fine, who even associates the plenteous harvest of the autumn of 1529 with the coming of the Emperor. By command of the Pope, Cardinals Farnese, Medici, Quiñones, and his nephew Alessandro de’ Medici awaited his coming at Genoa. The Imperial troops, twelve thousand infantry and two thousand cavalry, landed for the most part at Savona. With this force Charles might have attacked Venice and Sforza successfully, had not his brother Ferdinand at this very moment reported the threatening advance of the Turks in Hungary. This intelligence forced Charles to act with foresight and caution; he gave up the idea of an aggressive movement against the Venetians and expressed himself in a pacific sense. The hopes of the anti-imperialists in Italy, those of Venice before all, were, in fact, based on the victory of the Turks; the Venetian Senate instructed their Ambassador at Constantinople, on the 25th of August, to stir up the Moslem to push on against Ferdinand. In this state of things Charles was thrown more than ever on his friendship with the Pope; this accounts for the rude treatment of the Florentine envoys at Genoa who had come to plead for a postponement of the expedition against the city. Charles refused this peremptorily as an engagement undertaken without the cognizance of the Pope; he exhorted them, but certainly in vain, to come to terms with Clement. Gattinara spoke even more clearly, since he told the Florentines that they would have to reinstate Clement and his family in their former position. This, indeed, was the whole end and aim of the Pope; heedless of all warnings and dangers, he pursued without scruple the policy of the aggrandizement of the house of Medici.

Orange had left Rome in the middle of August. His troops were gathered in the flat country between Foligno and Spello; there were three thousand landsknechts, the remnant of Frundsberg’s army, and four thousand Italians under Pierluigi Farnese, Camillo Marzio, Sciarra Colonna, and Giovan Battista Savelli; the Spanish infantry were to be brought up from Apulia by Vasto.

The expedition against the rebellious Malatesta Baglioni was carried out swiftly. While reconnoitring near Spello, Giovanni d’ Urbino, the bravest of the Spanish captains, was indeed killed, but Spello surrendered in September. Vasto had now come up; on the 6th of September the army crossed the Tiber and pitched camp before Perugia, and by the 10th this stronghold had also capitulated. The conditions were very favourable to Malatesta Baglioni: he was allowed free egress for himself and his artillery, protection for his property, and permission to take service for Florence. Perugia returned to its former relations with the Holy See, retaining its privileges, and, on the evening of the nth of September, Cardinal del Monte took possession of the city in the Pope’s name.

The hopes of the Florentines, that the campaign would be concentrated on Perugia, were thus baffled; once more the war was confined exclusively to their own territory. They also failed completely in their attempts to drive Orange off by means of negotiations. Since Malatesta had betaken himself to Montevarchi without giving a thought to the protection of the Florentine frontier towns, little resistance was offered to the Imperialist troops. In a short time they became masters of Cortona, Castiglione Florentino, and finally of Arezzo. The further advance of Orange into the valley of the Arno was very slow; this gave the inhabitants of Florence time to defend themselves. Orange laid himself open to the suspicion of acting with a view to his own interests rather than to those of the Pope, but there is no adequate proof of this; on the contrary, his delay arose from altogether different causes. The letters of Charles V to Orange show that the former expressly wished for a protracted advance against Florence, in order that, if possible, an agreement might be reached between the Pope and the citizens of his own town. Only in the case of this being altogether unsuccessful did the Emperor, that he might not incur the loss of Clement’s friendship, consent to carry the expedition through.

Up to the last, Clement had hoped that the Florentines, isolated from all help, would surrender and avoid the issue of a struggle with the fierce soldiery. He was doomed to see how far he had deceived himself. With admirable heroism, the Florentines had made preparations to fight for their freedom to the death. With their own hands they had devastated the fair surroundings of their city in order to deprive the enemy of any points of advantage. By every means in their power, even to the sale of Church property, money had been raked together to provide pay for the troops. They would rather, declared some, see their city in ashes than stoop to obey the Medici. The walls were manned by soldiers ready to resist any assault of the Imperialists. Orange had to make up his mind to invest the city, and at the end of October his artillery fire was trained upon the heights of San Miniato. Michael Angelo, who, on the 6th of April 1529, had already been appointed overseer of the fortifications, had transformed the noble basilica, on its lofty eminence, into a bulwark of such strength that the fire from Orange’s guns was ineffectual.

The success of their measures of defence filled the Florentines with fresh courage. Preachers of the order of which Savonarola had been a member sought zealously to revive the old belief in the inviolable security of the city; the holy angels, it was declared, would be the saviours of Florence; to gainsay such teaching was deemed a transgression against the State. The popular excitement was fanned especially by the Dominicans Fra Zaccaria of San Marco and Benedetto da Fojano. Like Savonarola, once the object of their heated adulation, these religious made their pulpits resound with politics. Their sermons, according to the testimony of Varchi, were filled with derisive gibes against the Pope and flattery of the government in power. The hatred of the Medici in some amounted at last to madness. It reached the length of a proposal that vengeance in a shameful form should be visited on Catherine de’ Medici, a child of ten, who was then detained as a hostage in a convent.

While in Genoa, Charles V had sent a request to the Pope that his coronation might be solemnized at Bologna. Such threatening intelligence had come from Germany that it became more necessary than ever that the head of the Empire should speedily have recourse thither. The pressure to which Ferdinand was exposed from the Turks had altered the situation in such a way that it appeared impolitic for Charles to be at too great a distance from the hereditary domains of the Hapsburgs. Nor could Clement deny the force of this argument; but the state of his health, only just restored, and the cost of the journey were against it Moreover, an Imperial coronation outside the walls of Rome was something unknown, contrary to all precedent, the closest adherence to which was in Rome a fixed and unchanging principle. Many of the Cardinals, the Curia, and the Romans, almost without exception, were against the journey. But the Legates who had followed Charles to Piacenza supported him in his wish, to which he gave renewed expression in a letter of the 20th of September 1529. They also announced that Charles had sworn at Piacenza, as at Parma, to undertake nothing to the detriment of Holy Church. Clement was strongly influenced by the knowledge that he was dependent on Charles for the Florentine enterprise and the restoration of the Papal territory. He had also repeatedly previously announced his intention of going into Spain in the cause of peace. How could he now decline to make a comparatively trifling journey? By the end of August he had made up his mind to gratify the Emperor’s wish; but he kept his resolve a secret for some days, and allowed the belief to prevail that the notion of a Roman coronation had not been given up. On the 19th of September the Treaty of Cambrai was officially announced in Rome; before the Pope proceeded to the ceremony of its publication he made known to the Cardinals his intention of going to Bologna, but he left it optional to the members of the Sacred College whether they accompanied him or not. On that the Cardinals withdrew any opposition, and the Romans were pacified by the arrangement that the Rota and Cancelleria were to remain in Rome.

The date of the journey, for which preparations were now beginning to be made, depended a good deal on the news from Florence. The frightful danger hanging over his native city was a source of increasing agitation to Clement. He still hoped for a peaceful solution, and this hope was encouraged by Contarini. On the 22nd of September a Florentine envoy arrived in Rome. As he was the bearer only of general expressions, the Pope determined to send Schonberg to Orange and to Florence with the task of arranging a peaceful settlement, if such were by any means possible. Schonberg, who had only returned from Cambrai on the 19th, was once more on his way by the 23rd. But his mission was as unsuccessful as was that of one of the Papal Chamberlains despatched by Clement when he was already on the road to Bologna.

The obstinacy of the Florentines occasioned alterations in the Pope’s travelling arrangements. Instead of going through Tuscany, he had to take the road through the Romagna. Before starting, Clement drew up a series of precautionary regulations. By a special Bull the freedom of the Papal election, in case he died at Bologna, was secured. Cardinal del Monte was made Legate in Rome, and special Nuncios were ordered to go to France and England to acquaint their respective governments with the circumstances of the Pope’s journey, and to ask that full powers should be sent to Bologna for dealing with the Turkish question. Cardinal Cibo was instructed to make the necessary preparations in Bologna.

On the afternoon of the 7th of October the Pope left Rome amid torrents of rain. In immediate attendance were Cardinals Accolti, Cesi, Cesarini, and Ridolfi; most of the remaining Cardinals as well as the Ambassadors followed. The insecurity of the road made an escort necessary and considerably impeded the progress of the journey, which the Emperor, with renewed insistence, begged might be accelerated. The Pope’s route lay by Civita Casteliana, Orte, Terni, Spoleto, and Foligno to Sigillo on the Via del Furlo. On the way, important despatches were brought by members of the Imperial court. They contained Charles’s wish that the settlement of Italian affairs might be made as quickly as possible, seeing that the Turks were advancing on Vienna. He therefore would give up Parma to the Pope, although still in his (the Emperor’s) possession, and would deal with the affairs of Milan in conformity with Clement’s advice. At Sigillo the new Imperial envoy, Gabriele Merino, Bishop of Jaen and Archbishop of Bari, together with Praet and Mai, had his first audience with the Pope, whom he found full of confidence in the Emperor’s good intentions.

On the 20th of October Clement was at Cesena, where a Florentine deputation appeared, to announce that their city would make a willing submission if honourably treated. On the 21st the distinguished travellers were welcomed at Forli by the Bolognese envoys. On the 23rd feux de joie and peals of bells informed the inhabitants of Bologna that the head of the Church had reached the convent of the Crociferi, one mile distant from the city. On the following day the solemn entry, for which preparations on a vast scale had been undertaken, was made.

The road to San Petronio was overspread by draperies from which hung green garlands enclosing the arms of the Medici. Magnificent triumphal arches in the Doric order of architecture, with allegorical reliefs, paintings, and stucco groups of figures, had been constructed at the Porta Maggiore, the Palazzo Scappi and on the Piazza Maggiore. The Pope made his entrance borne on the sedia gestatoria; sixteen Cardinals, numerous Archbishops and Bishops, as well as bodies of Bolognese officials, went with him to San Petronio, from whence, after giving his solemn benediction, he betook himself to the Palazzo Pubblico, where splendid apartments had been prepared for him. A special messenger of the Emperor, Pedro de la Cueva, greeted Clement VII, a compliment acknowledged by the Pope in an autograph letter.

In a secret Consistory held on the 29th of October, six Cardinals were appointed to make all the needful preparations for the Emperor’s coronation, and it was decided, in the event of the rite being performed in Bologna, that a Bull should be issued declaring the solemnity to have the same validity as it would have had if carried out in Rome. At the same time the Pope was able to proclaim the joyful news that the Turks had abandoned the siege of Vienna. In celebration of this event a solemn function was held in San Petronio on the last day of October, at which the Pope gave his benediction and absolution.

The entry of Charles V was looked for on the 5th of November. He had left Piacenza on the 27th of October. In Borgo San Donnino he received a letter from his brother announcing the complete failure of the Turkish attack on Vienna. Thus Charles’s position in Italy was remarkably improved, and his enemies, who had reckoned on the Turks, lost spirit.

With renewed hopes Charles went by Parma to Reggio, where the Duke Alfonso of Ferrara besought him on his knees to support him against the Pope. This crafty Prince made lavish promises in order to gain the favour of the powerful Emperor, whom he accompanied as far as Modena. The personal intercourse between them was destined to have important results. When Charles reached Borgo Panigale on the 4th of November, he found almost all the Cardinals and a numerous company of prelates there assembled; Cardinal Farnese welcomed him in the Pope’s name and escorted him to Certosa. On the following day the Emperor made his state entry into the second city of the Papal territories.

On this occasion the decorations of Bologna far surpassed those employed on the arrival of the Pope. If on the former occasion the ecclesiastical element was the most prominent, the chief place was now occupied by secular pomp. In correspondence with the character of the Renaissance, now at its zenith, the festal decorations were marked by the utmost prodigality. Architects, sculptors, and painters competed in the creation of a scheme of ephemeral decoration striking the eye with magnificence and colour and transporting the spectator into the very heart of ancient Rome. From the windows of every house hung coloured tapestries, and awnings overspread the streets ; garlands of green leaves formed an admirable contrast to the arches which make Bologna a city of arcades. On the ravelin of the Porta S. Felice, through which Charles was to enter, was seen, on one side, the triumph of Neptune surrounded by tritons, sirens, and sea-horses, and on the other, Bacchus in the midst of satyrs, fauns, and nymphs, with the inscription, "Ave Caesar, Imperator invicte!”. On the gateway itself were conspicuous the Papal keys and the Imperial eagle, inscriptions in imitation of those of ancient Rome, medallion portraits of Caesar, Augustus, Titus, and Trajan, and lastly the equestrian statues of Camillus and Scipio Africanus. The architectural illusions were also, on this occasion, of exceptional splendour; the triumphal arches erected in the Doric style were all profusely adorned with stucco figures and paintings, mostly in chiaroscuro. Besides the painters of Bologna, those of other cities, such as Giorgio Vasari and a Flemish pupil of Raphael, were employed on these works.

At three o’clock in the afternoon the head of the Imperial procession reached the Porta S. Felice: first came lancers, then the artillery, two hundred landsknechts, cavalry, and again numerous foot-soldiers, followed by many princes and knights on horseback and in gleaming armour. Cardinal Campeggio, recently returned from England, as bishop of the city, met the Emperor at the gate, before whom were borne the standard of the Empire, the banner of St. George, and an unsheathed sword. Surrounded by Spanish grandees in magnificent attire rode Charles, on a white charger, in flashing armour inlaid with gold. His baldachino was carried by nobles and senators of Bologna. Behind him came the Count of Nassau, Alessandro de’ Medici, the Marquis of Montferrat, Andrea Doria, the Cardinal Chancellor di Gattinara, Cles, Bishop of Trent, Bishop George III of Brixen, Antonio Perrenot, Bishop of Arras, his confessor Garcia de Loaysa, and numerous ecclesiastical and secular dignitaries; the rearguard was composed of Spanish troops. While treasurers flung coins and medals to the closely packed crowds, who were shouting “Cesare, Imperio”, the procession slowly made its way to San Petronio, before which a richly decorated platform had been raised; here the Pope, in full pontifical garb, the triple crown upon his head, with five-and-twenty Cardinals around him, awaited the Emperor, on whose approach fanfares from trumpets were blown, all the city bells pealed, and the cannon thundered forth salutes. Two members of the Sacred College led Charles to the platform, where he knelt, and kissed the foot, hand, and forehead of the Pope. Thus, for the first time, the two men came face to face who had been engaged in such a long and bitter contest until their common interests brought them together. Charles addressed the Pope briefly in Spanish, and Clement made a friendly reply. The Emperor was then conducted to the church by the Pope, who afterwards withdrew. A Te Deum was sung in San Petronio.

It was six o’clock in the evening when the Emperor left the church and betook himself to the Palazzo Pubblico, where his lodgings also had been prepared. His apartments immediately adjoined those of the Pope. A private door of communication enabled them both to hold intercourse, at any time, free from interruption and observation. A well-known picture in the palace of the Signoria in Florence represents the Emperor and Pope in animated conversation.

Charles as a politician was more than a match for Clement in shrewdness; nevertheless he made most careful preparation on each occasion of conference with the Pope, noting down on a slip of paper all essential points. Italian writers of despatches were struck in Charles, who was not yet full thirty years old, by his seriousness, his sense of religion, and a certain slow deliberation of speech. Contarini, who had followed the Pope to Bologna, was impressed by the Emperor’s absorption in affairs while there; he seldom left the palace except in order to hear Mass. Of the Pope, then in his fifty-first year, he says that the traces of the long and dangerous illness he had gone through were plainly visible on his countenance. Among the Pope’s advisers the Venetian Ambassador mentions as the most influential Jacopo Salviati, French in his sympathies, but now accommodating himself to the conditions of the time; then Sanga, the friend of Giberti; Cardinal Pucci, entirely occupied with the Florentine business; as well as Schonberg and Girolamo da Schio, both Imperialists.

The negotiations of Clement VII with Charles were made easier by the conclusion of the treaties of Barcelona and Cambrai. But there still remained certain points which were very difficult of adjustment between them. The Pope was still distrustful of Charles, and, if Contarini is to be believed, it was not until after long intercourse with him at Bologna that Clement’s opinion in this respect underwent a change.

Clement insisted, as was to be expected, on an exact fulfilment of the stipulations in his favour of the Treaty of Barcelona. Charles, for his part, was determined, to retain the Pope’s friendship in any event, on account of the Turkish danger, not as yet by any means extinct, the condition of Germany, and the exhaustion of his resources. But his views regarding Milan and Ferrara differed essentially from those of Clement. The expedition against Florence gave rise to difficulties only in so far as Orange was incessant in his demands for money and reinforcements; an understanding on this point was made easier because Charles saw in the Florentine alliance with France a standing menace to his supremacy in Italy. It was otherwise with the Milanese question, to a favourable settlement of which Charles attached the greatest value. Previous to the meeting at Bologna, negotiations on this matter had already begun. In September and October the Imperialist envoys had proposed to Clement that Alessandro de’ Medici should be given Milan; but they received the negative reply that the Pope could not commit himself to so great an undertaking, productive as it would be of perpetual difficulties to those of his own house. Nevertheless, the Emperor at Bologna returned to this proposal, but with no better success; on the other hand, influences were at work to secure Milan for Federigo Gonzaga, Marquis of Mantua. As things were, any investiture of the duchy on another than Francesco Sforza would have kindled afresh another war in Italy. It was therefore fortunate that Charles listened to the representations of the Pope, Gattinara, and Contarini, and summoned Sforza to appear at Bologna to vindicate his claims. On the 23rd of November 1529 Sforza had his first audience with the Emperor; he conducted his case with such skill that the Pope succeeded in bringing Charles completely round. By the 3rd of December the investiture of Sforza with Milan was practically settled.

The Venetian Government having already, on the 10th of November, given full powers to Contarini to restore Ravenna and Cervia to the Pope, now declared themselves also ready to evacuate the Apulian towns; they objected, however, at first to enter into the defensive Italian league desired by the Emperor. On the 26th of November the Senate determined to make this concession also, in the hope that Charles would then make reductions in his demands for money from Milan and Venice. On the representations made to him by Contarini, the Emperor consented to a substantial reduction of the war indemnity payable by the Republic; but from Sforza he demanded as before, together with enormous sums of money, the castles of Milan and Como as security for payment. On the 12th of December a messenger from Venice arrived with in­structions to Contarini to comply with the Emperor’s wishes.

The Pope, yielding to the requests of Venice, recognized the right of the Duke of Urbino to the possession of his entire dominions. The Emperor, made uneasy by the news from Germany and the renewal of danger from Francis I, now decided to bring the negotiations to an end at once. The interests of Ferdinand were no longer considered, and his representatives were obliged, perforce, to agree with the Emperor’s determination. Thus, on the 23rd of December 1529, it became possible to conclude a treaty of peace, the parties to which were Clement, Charles, Ferdinand, Venice, Sforza, Mantua, Savoy, Montferrat, Urbino, Siena, and Lucca. On New Year’s Day the treaty was solemnly proclaimed in the Cathedral of Bologna, and on the 6th of January 1530 ratified on oath by all the contracting parties.

The only points still left unsettled were the dispute between Clement and Alfonso of Ferrara, and the conclusion of a confederacy against the Turks. The Pope’s antagonism to Alfonso had been made all the more vehement by the encroachments of the latter on purely ecclesiastical matters. With regard to political controversies, Clement let Alfonso understand that he was quite willing not to interfere with him, but if he were to renounce his claim to Modena and Reggio, Parma and Piacenza would then be separated from the Papal States in such a way that it would be almost equivalent to their alienation. Clement appealed expressly to the promises given by Charles at Barcelona; but in vain, for Alfonso had succeeded in completely winning over to his side the Emperor’s advisers, as well as the Emperor himself. In this he was greatly helped by the secret intention of Charles to curb the power and independence of the Papal States. In public Charles spoke threateningly to Alfonso’s envoys; but they knew very well that his anger was all assumed. The Pope, in his irritation, said to the French Ambassador, “I am being betrayed, but I must act as if I were unaware of it.” Yet he declared expressly that under no circumstances would he allow Alfonso to participate in the coronation of the Emperor.

For a long time the claims of Rome to be the scene of this solemnity had been seriously considered; but at last, after lengthy deliberation, the choice had fallen on Bologna. The reason for this decision was principally the gloomy account of the state of Germany sent by Ferdinand I, which rendered necessary the presence of Charles, as speedily as possible, in that portion of his empire.

Burgo and Salinas, representing Ferdinand I, convinced him that there was no longer any time to await their arrival. Ferdinand, wrote the envoys on the 12th of February 1530, could make excuses for his brother to the German princes and show them that it had not lain in Charles’s power to fix beforehand the date of the coronation, which he was now compelled to proceed with without preparation in order to accelerate his arrival in Germany.

All the necessary arrangements were, in fact, made in great haste.2 On the 16th of February the Pope confirmed, in a Bull, the election of Charles and his coronation at Aix-la-Chapelle, and gave orders that he should be crowned with the iron and the golden Imperial crowns. As early as the 22nd of February, the festival of St Peter’s Chair at Antioch, Charles received in the chapel of the Palazzo Pubblico the iron crown of Lombardy, which had been brought from Monza. Two days later the coronation as Emperor was to take place in San Petronio; Charles had chosen this day because it was his birthday and the anni­versary of the victory of his forces at Pavia.

Except as regarded the customary place for the enact­ment of this solemn rite, all other observances of the coronation were carried out with painstaking exactitude. In San Petronio the very side-chapels and the rota porphyrea itself were copied from St. Peter’s, so that the entire ceremony could be held as if at the tombs of the Apostles Peter and Paul in Rome. A wooden bridge decorated with tapestries and garlands, and high enough to allow the passage of vehicles beneath, led from the palace to the church, which was adorned with Flemish tapestries of great value. Four hundred landsknechts guarded the bridge, two thousand Spaniards and ten pieces of artillery were drawn up on the piazza. All the city gates also were guarded by landsknechts and Spaniards.

At nine o’clock the Pope, clad in a mantle embroidered with gold and studded with precious stones, and wearing the triple crown, was borne to the church; the Cardinals and all the members of his court followed him. In the meantime the secular dignitaries, all, especially the Spanish grandees, wearing the most costly garments, had assembled in the palace to meet the Emperor. Pages and servants of the princes and the Emperor opened the procession; then came the nobles, the Imperial bodyguard, and all the envoys. Before the Emperor, the Marquis of Montferrat carried the golden sceptre; the Duke of Urbino, the sword; the young Count Palatine Philip, the nephew of the Elector, the orb of the Empire; the Duke of Savoy, the kingly crown. Charles wore the iron crown of Lombardy; having on his right Cardinal Salviati, and on his left Cardinal Ridolfi; the Counts of Lannoy and Nassau followed with a great train of nobles, mostly Spanish.

Before the church, on the right-hand side, a wooden chapel had been erected, representing S. Maria in Turri at Rome. After the Papal Bull relating to the coronation had here been read aloud by the Bishop of Malta, Charles swore on a book of the Gospels held before him by Cardinal Enkevoirt, to be the faithful champion of the Holy Roman Church, whereupon he was received into the Chapter of St. Peter’s. Charles had hardly crossed the wooden bridge when a portion of it fell in. In spite of this perilous incident he maintained his composure, and knelt down in the portal of the church, where two Cardinals recited the customary prayers. He was then conducted into yet a second chapel, to which the Roman name of S. Gregorio had been given, and was there clad in the Deacon’s tunic and a pluviale sown with pearls, rubies, and diamonds. He then took his place at the rota porphyrea, going on to a spot arranged in imitation of the confession of St. Peter’s, and finally passing into a chamber, representing the chapel of S. Maurizio at Rome, to be anointed with the holy oil. During these proceedings a sharp dispute arose between the envoys of Genoa and Siena as to precedence; not until this had been composed could the ceremonies proceed.

The solemn act of the coronation itself was reserved for Clement. After the reading of the Epistle, Charles was girt with the sword; then he likewise received from the hands of the Pope the orb and sceptre, and lastly the Imperial crown; whereupon Clement spoke the words: “Receive this symbol of glory and the diadem of the Empire, even this Imperial crown, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, that thou, despising the ancient enemy and guiltless of all iniquity, mayst live in clemency and godliness, and so one day receive from our Lord Jesus Christ the crown of His eternal kingdom.” Before the oblation the Emperor offered the three customary gold pieces and served as Deacon, bringing to the altar the paten with the wafers and the cruet of water, “in so seemly and devout a fashion, as one long accustomed to fulfil such services, that all standing around were filled with wonder and joy.” After receiving Holy Communion the Emperor kissed the Pope’s forehead, after which the latter bestowed the benediction. Together the two heads of Christendom, in all the pomp of their respective dignities, left the Church. Although Clement tried to prevent him, the Emperor insisted on holding his stirrup and on leading his palfrey a few paces forward; then with youthful alacrity he mounted his own charger.

Then came the great cavalcade. “Under the same golden canopy,” says a contemporary, “shone, like sun and moon, these two great luminaries of the world.” In the procession, the gorgeous outlines of which the artists of the day were swift to fasten on their canvases, were conspicuous, first the banners of the Crusade, then those of the Church and of the Pope, followed by the standards of the Empire, of the city of Rome, Germany, Spain, the New World, Naples, and Bologna. Treasurers flung gold and silver coins among the vast crowds with which all the streets were filled. At San Domenico the Pope left the procession, while the Emperor from a throne conferred knighthood on about a hundred persons. Not until four o’clock in the afternoon was Charles, amid the jubilant greetings of his troops, able to regain his apartments. The coronation banquet brought the celebrations to an end.

At nightfall bonfires blazed everywhere. The Duke of Milan, although suffering from illness, allowed these demonstrations to last three days. On the 1st of March a Papal Bull was issued declaring the coronation as fully valid as it would have been if solemnized at Rome, and renewing the dispensation permitting Charles to combine the possession of Naples with that of the Imperial dignity.

Since Florence remained stubborn in her resistance, Clement saw that he must make two further concessions of great importance to Charles; first of all by nominating three Cardinals acceptable to the Emperor. The appointments were made public on the 19th of March. These were Bernhard Cles, Bishop of Trent, on whose behalf Burgo had been active for some time past; the Emperor’s confessor, Garcia de Loaysa; and the Savoyard, De Challant. With much greater reluctance Clement granted his permission that Alfonso of Ferrara should, after all, come to Bologna. But although on this point also he gave way, the Duke was not allowed to make his entry in state. Clement also demanded once more the restoration of Reggio, Modena, and Rubbiera. An agreement was at last reached on the 21st of March; Alfonso was to cede Modena to the Emperor, who, on the expiration of six months, should pronounce a final decision as to the ownership of the three towns and the computation of the assessment of Ferrara. This gave Charles, who had never acquired a real trust of Clement, a decided influence over the fortunes of the Papal States; the exceptional favour shown by him to the Duke of Urbino was also of service in this direction.

Charles, moreover, knew how, in a masterly way, to widen the firm foundations of his power in Italy by means of the possession of Naples and the dependent position of the Duke of Milan, and to link closely to himself the minor states of the Peninsula. In order to secure Alfonso absolutely he invested him with the fief of Carpi, wrested from Alberto Pio as a punishment for his attachment to France. He gave Asti to his brother-in-law, the Duke of Savoy, who was at Bologna during his stay, and the marquisate of Mantua was erected into a duchy. He could reckon besides on the republics of Siena, Lucca, and Genoa with certainty. For centuries no Emperor had wielded so much power in Italy; national independence was practically at an end. By no means the least share in this guilt belongs to Clement VII, even although a good deal may be said to excuse his ultimate reconciliation with Charles. But the Pope was not the only culprit; all the heads of the Italian states without exception contributed towards the subjection of their fair lands to the supremacy of the alien Spaniard. Yet in the existing state of things even this was a boon; for otherwise Italy must have fallen a prey to the Turks, to whose aid not only Venice but even Florence had appealed.

When Charles left Bologna on the 22nd of March to take his journey into Germany he was able to do so with feelings of satisfaction. Not so the Pope. The Papal territories had certainly been restored in essentials, but in many respects they were dependent on the Emperor. More galling even than this was the continued resistance of Florence, for when he made his way to Bologna, Clement had expected its speedy subjection. During his residence there his impatience had grown greater day by day; now, after five months, the heroic spirit of the Florentines flouted, as at the first, all the efforts of their besiegers. It was reported that as Clement’s distrust of Orange grew more intense the latter might have fallen upon him in Bologna and renewed the lessons of the sack of Rome, and that this suspicion hastened the Pope’s departure. He left early on the 31st of March, touching Urbino, Gualdo, and Foligno on his way, and by the 12th of April he was once more in Rome; his entry, however, was unaccompanied by any public reception.

Consumed with impatience, Clement now waited daily for the capitulation of his native city, whose inhabitants were defending themselves with the courage of despair. The war was consuming vast sums of money; besides, since June, the Pope had been engaged in attempts to suppress the Abbot of Farfa, so that his finances, deplorable enough in any case, were threatened with total bankruptcy. There was also the fear that France and England might help the Florentines; but, on the other hand, in the city on the Arno things might be pushed to the last extremity and Florence be stormed and plundered. What would then happen might be presaged from the frightful havoc and cruelty perpetrated by the ungovernable troops of the besieging army. With these fears mingled the consciousness of the heavy reproaches levelled far and wide against this almost fratricidal enterprise. When the French envoy, Gabriel de Gramont, Bishop of Tarbes, in April 1530, represented this fully to Clement and earnestly exhorted him to come to terms, the Pope exclaimed distractedly, “Would that Florence had never existed!”

Yet this same Florence still held out. As it was in May, so it was in June; as it was in June, so it was in July. Neither the enemy without nor dissension within, neither hunger nor pestilence, could break down the desperate resistance of the inhabitants. They were resolved to carry it on to the last extremity; better that Florence should be reduced to ashes than that their city should fall into the hands of the Medici. There were even rumours that a plot had been made to put the Pope to death by poison.

Affairs began to take a final turn after the failure of Francesco Ferruccio in his heroic attempt to raise the siege. On the 3rd of August an engagement was fought at Gavinana, in the hills of Pistoja, in which Ferruccio, as well as Orange, met their death. Florence, ravaged by famine and plague, was now lost. Malatesta Baglioni, who since the beginning of the year had chief command of the Florentine troops, made further resistance impossible by turning his guns against the city. On the 12th of August the final capitulation was agreed upon: within four months the Emperor was to appoint a constitution with “safeguards of freedom”; the exiles were to return home, 80,000 scudi to be paid to the Imperial troops, and the Florentine territory preserved without diminution; a complete amnesty to be declared for all who had acted as opponents of the house of Medici.

After Malatesta’s departure (12th of September) two hundred landsknechts, under the Count of Lodron, occupied the city, where the Medicean party, in shameful violation of the terms of capitulation, began to take savage reprisals on their enemies. Carducci, Bernardo da Castiglione, and four other members of the former government were beheaded; numerous sentences of exile and confiscation were passed. The Dominican, Benedetto da Fojano, who had inveighed heavily against the person of the Pope, was handed over to Rome by Malatesta, where, if Varchi is to be believed, Clement allowed him to suffer lingering imprisonment, on bread and water, in the foul dungeons of St. Angelo.

The Pope, at first, gave Bartolomeo Valori, Francesco Guicciardini, and Roberto Acciaiuoli permission to rule the sorely visited city as they thought best, but afterwards he took things into his own hands. Valori was made governor of the Romagna, Guicciardini of Bologna; but in February 1531 Schonberg was sent to Florence. The Emperor made no haste to despatch Florentine affairs; he allowed nearly a whole year to pass before paying attention to the wishes of the Pope, whose impatience grew from day to day. In the summer of 1531 he at last issued a decree which secured to the Medici “a sort of hereditary presidentship” in the Florentine republic, but also contained a reassertion of the Imperial supremacy. Alessandro de’ Medici, bearing the decree, appeared in Florence in July 1531. In the following year Clement succeeded in doing away with the Republican forms of the constitution, although their preservation was recognized by the Emperor’s decree. In attaining this end he acted, as in other cases, according to the well-known saying of Varchi, that “he could sling a stone so that no one should see the hand of the slinger.” On the 27th of April 1532 the new constitution was made known, whereby Alessandro de’ Medici became hereditary Duke of Florence. The actual reins of government remained, none the less, in the hands of Clement VII.