Old St Peter's Basilica: Caught in the Della Rovere-Medici Crossfire

 Julius II had  been the cardinal-nephew of Sixtus IV Della Rovere.  Sixtus who had headed the Franciscan Order before his election, named a number of his nephews Cardinals and they, in turn, had spent much of his papacy fighting one another for power and influence (and money).  Most of them weren’t worth spit but Guiliano was a cut above the rest and proved himself competent enough to hold several important offices in the Roman Curia as well as being entrusted with a variety of bishoprics—holding eight at the same time, though being an absentee pastor in each of his dioceses.  It was common to name important Roman officials to dioceses not only in Italy but throughout Europe so that they could collect the salaries as a means of financial support.  This drew money from all over Europe into the Roman economy and empowered these Curia officials to build the palaces and  churches of Renaissance Rome. 

Speaking of Roman palaces, another of Sixtus’ cardinal nephews, Raffaele Riario hosted an evening of gambling at which Franceschetto Cybo, bastard son of Pope Innocent VIII (the current pope and successor to Giuliano’s uncle, Sixtus IV), lost 15,000 ducats (Two and a half million modern dollars).  Not a lucky night.  The pope asked Cardinal Riario to return the money, but the Cardinal explained that he had already spent the money to finance the construction of a new palace—the beautiful palazzo della Cancelleria near the piazza Campo dei Fiori.  If it is any consolation to the memory of Innocent VIII, the palace is still owned by the Vatican and it serves today to hold various administrative offices.  It truly is one of the most lovely buildings in Rome—won all in a night’s gambling.   As for Cybo, he was not a cardinal as he was married (to a Medici—rivals of Pope Sixtus, Cardinal Giuliano, and other Della Roveres.  Mortal enemies as we shall see.  While unable to be made a Cardinal, Cybo was entrusted with several military and administrative offices, including the governorship of Rome, that provided him a handsome income.  He was, after all, the Pope’s son. In 1490 he attempted to steal the papal treasury to finance his extensive gambling debts, but as Dad was still pope, he was not prosecuted for his lack of good judgment.  One of his own sons would become a Cardinal—not only was he the grandson of a pope (Innocent VIII) but remember he was a Medici on his mother’s side, so one of his uncles was destined to reign as Leo X—the pope at the time of Luther’s saying that he had enough of the whole Roman Church. “Everything is for sale in Rome.”  When you see this sequence of events, can you blame Luther?  Well, we will talk about that in future postings.

We are still not ready to return to Julius yet as there is one more important story about his Cardinal Cousin—Rafaelle “lucky at cards” Riario.  The seventeen year old Cardinal stopped in Florence on his way from Pisa where he was studying canon law (how would you like to have a Cardinal in your canon law class?) to Rome.  Unbeknown to the lad, his visit was used as a pretext by his uncle the Pope and several others to lure the Medici brothers—Lorenzo and Giuliano—out of the Medici Palace to attend High Mass at the Cathedral.  It would have been considered rude, a snub to the Cardinal, to miss the mass in his honor.  The elevation of the host was used as a signal for the conspirators to attack. Giuliano was stabled to death on the Cathedral floor; Lorenzo, seriously ( but not fatally) wounded escaped to the sacristy where, once in, the doors were barred for his protection. The plot failed as the Florentines supported the Medici and in the subsequent bloodshed many of the conspirators were killed—including the Archbishop of Pisa, Francesco Salviati, who was hung naked from the walls of Florence’s town hall, the Palazzo della Signoria.  The young Cardinal seems to have been only a pawn in his uncle’s game and, though arrested, he was shortly set at liberty.  In fact Lorenzo and Pope Sixtus soon made up.  In Renaissance Italy, attempted murder was no reason to break off a friendship.  It was done all the time.   But the plot does tell you something about this Della Rovere family.  They played for big stakes and they played for keeps.  Well, back now to Julius, but also note tht  Raffaele Riario was also the patron who first brought Michelangelo to Rome. 

Julius, or more properly at this pont, Cardinal Giuliano della Rovere, also had his ups and downs as we have seen.  He fled to France after his enemy Rodrigo Borgia was elected Alexander VI.  In France he became buddies with Charles VIII whom he persuaded to invade Italy in hopes of deposing Alexander.  Though Charles did get to Rome, Alexander out maneuvered Giuliano’s plan and Charles, instead of convoking a Council to depose Alexander, moved on to fight a war with Naples in a vain hope of adding it to his realms.  In the second 1503 conclave, however, Cardinal Della Rovere’s fortunes improved and he was elected pope.

As I pointed out, the Della Roveres were strong people.  The family had been poor until uncle Sixtus had become pope and started making all the nephews Cardinals.  They were scrappers and they didn’t mind a fight to get what they wanted.  Indeed Julius himself loved a fight—a real fight in which he could put on armor and get on a horse and go out and bash some heads. In a 1506 battle for Bologna, the pope was one of the first up the scaling ladders and over the city wall.  He was a man’s man which isn’t to say that he didn’t enjoy having a man in bed.  While he had an illegitimate daughter, Julius seems to have been either gay or bi-sexual.  I have heard stories that he made one of his lovers the Archbishop of Ravenna but I can’t find this anywhere and I wonder if the sources are confusing him with Julius III whose lover was a street urchin, Innocenzo Ciochhi Del Monte, whom, in his infatuation, he made Cardinal. 

As I said yesterday, Julius’ great passion was for his projected tomb and that returns us to the fate of Old St Peter’s and the Destiny of New Saint Peter’s. Before we pick up the story of the Basilica, however, one more thing about Julius.  As part of the terms under which he was elected pope, Julius had promised to convoke a Council of the Church to address the need for reform.  (Ya think there was a need for Reform???)  He delayed this as long as possible, but finally on July 18, 1511 he convoked the Council to meet at the Lateran on April 19, the following year.  Finally fifteen Cardinals, two Latin Patriarchs, ten archbishops, fifty-six bishops, various abbots, the generals of the mendicant orders, and ambassadors from various states convened on May 3^rd 1512.  Giles of Viterbo, the charismatic General of the Augustinian Friars preached the opening sermon—a bombastic demand for reform in root and branch.  Julius would die the following February, escaping any personal worries about having to reform. 
the image today is Giuliano de Medici, killed in the Pazzi Conspiracy due to the rivalry between the Della Rovere family and the Medici. 

St, Peter's Basilica: Roll over Peter, Julius needs a grave.

Julius II Della Rovere

Well, to pick up our saga of the popes and Old Saint Peter’s—Alexander VI, rotting even before they got him into his coffin—was laid to rest (temporarily) in Old St. Peter’s but his son, Caesare, was alive, well, and determined to control the papacy because his own power depended on papal patronage.  The very last thing he wanted was a pope from the Della Rovere faction among the Cardinals (the family of Sixtus IV—the guy who made the pretty-boy cardinals and built the Sistine Chapel) as the Della Roveres and the Borgias were mortal enemies.  You may remember that Caesare’s father, the dead and rapidly decomposing Alexander, beat out Giuliano della Rovere in the 1492 conclave despite Giuliano’s shelling out 300,000 ducats in “tokens of esteem” to the electors.  (Bribe is such a coarse term.)

It is hard to know from the sources what exactly Caesare’s role in the election was.  In fact Caesare himself was under the weather when his father died.  He and his father had both become ill after having dinner with Cardinal Adriano da Corno (aka Cornetto or dei Castelli).  Here is where the story gets even more confusing.  Adriano was a partisan of the Della Rovere faction and some say that the dinner was an attempt at reconciling with the Borgias.  Others say that Borgia—Father and Son—had accepted the invitation to have the opportunity to poison Adriano and the death of Alexander and illness of Caesare was due to the Borjas’ confusedly drinking from the cup they had “prepared” for the Cardinal.   While the state of Alexander’s body almost immediately after death—discolored, swollen, mouth black and  protruding, emitting gases and fluids—indicates poisoning, modern historians attribute the death of Alexander and the serious (but not fatal) illness of Caesare to malaria which was indeed the nemesis of many a Renaissance Roman.   I myself favor the poisoning theory except for the fact that I can’t figure out a motive of the Borjas trying to do away with Adriano.  He may have been a friend of the Della Roveres, but Alexander had made him a cardinal only the year before.  And if Caesare wanted him out of the way, he would have framed him with some accusation that would have enabled Caesare to seize his property—which was considerable.  The Cardinal had built the Palazzo Torolonia standing on what is today the Via della Conciliazione just outside the Vatican.  To my estimation it is one of the most beautiful palaces in Rome. If Adriano died naturally—or even by murder—his property would go to his heirs.  Perhaps Adriano was trying (successfully) to poison the Borjas.  Frankly it is just one of those things historians argue about.  Furthermore, when a della Rovere finally did come to the papal throne, the Cardinal fled Rome, so he probably had betrayed his Della Rovere allies and turned his loyalty to the Borjas and they, in turn, probably had malaria to blame for their problems.  Just with the Borjas and poison one never knows. 

Caesare may have been too sick to leave his bed, but he had troops at his command and they dominated the conclave of 1503.  Or, I should say, the first conclave of 1503 because the new pope, Pius III—a Piccolomini and nephew of Pius II Piccolomini (The pope who refashioned and renamed Pienza and used to write letters to Dracula—see April 17) only lasted 26 days on the papal throne.  He died either of an ulcerated leg or was poisoned on the orders of an old enemy from Siena.  It wasn’t easy being pope in those days—great perks and low expectations for moral character, but you better have your own chef and sommelier. 

Caesare wasn’t able to control the next conclave and the Cardinals thought it was time for a change.  Giuliano della Rovere finally got his chance.  The nephew of Sixtus IV, he had tried in three successive conclaves to get his uncle’s old job but had never made it.  He spent 300,000 ductats –again almost 50 million dollars in a vain attempt to be elected in 1492.  On November 1, 1503 he was elected on the first ballot  of the Conclave.  Now finally we have a pope who will decide to do something about the basilica that was all but falling down. 

It is Julius II who decided to build a new Saint Peter’s, but before you give him too much credit you need to know why.  It wasn’t that he decided to build a new shrine to the Apostle; it was that one of the first decisions he made was to build a tomb for himself and needed a church to hold it.  This was no ordinary tomb, no simple sarcophagus.  It was to be over 20 feet wide, 30 feet long, and twenty feet high.  it was to be free standing in the middle of a great space and Michelangelo was hired to carve the forty statues that were to adorn it.  All he needed was that great space in which it could stand.  This new Basilica was not to be a monument on the grave of Peter, but a monument over the grave of Julius.  You have to understand papal chutzpah.  More tomorrow.   By the way, don't give up hope just because the Church is going to be built--there is still plenty of sex in the Vatican left to tell you about