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Transcription. His intelligence was of a high order, though his diplomacy was feeble and irresolute.
The seal was set upon the compact by the meeting of the emperor and the pope at Bologna, where, on 24 February, 1530, Charles was solemnly crowned.
Contact information. These last pretended reconciliation until the papal commanders were lulled into a sense of security.
A period of vacillation followed. The king's impatience, however, was such that, without giving his full confidence to Wolsey, he sent his envoy, Knight, at once to Rome to treat with the pope about getting the marriage annulled. Sources PASTOR, Geschichte der Päpste (Freiburg, 1907), IV, pt. The bullying attitude which Gardiner adopted towards the pope seems to have passed all limits of decency, but Wolsey, fearful of losing the royal favour, egged him on to new exertions and implored him to obtain at any cost a "decretal commission". He was made a Knight of Rhodes and Grand Prior of Capua, and, upon the election of his cousin Giovanni de' Medici to the papacy as Leo X, he at once became a person of great consequence.
The editor of New Advent is Kevin Knight. On the other hand, his private life was free from reproach, and he had many excellent impulses, but despite good intention, all qualities of heroism and greatness must emphatically be denied him. Despite the fiscal constraints left him by the exhausted papal treasury of his cousin, Clement remained a patron of Renaissance art and letters, supporting the Florentine historian Francesco Guicciardini, the famed political thinker Nicolo Machiavelli, and artists Michelangelo and Raphael. Giuliano influenced Leo's policies, and also planned some impressive works of art to honor his family. Ecclesiastical approbation. With thanks to St. Mary's Church, Akron, Ohio. Henry VIII, tired of Queen Catherine, by whom he had no heir to the throne, but only one surviving daughter, Mary, and passionately enamoured of Anne Boleyn, had made known to Wolsey in May, 1527, that he wished to be divorced. Nihil Obstat. Imprimatur.
Clement had barely time to take refuge in the Castle of Sant’ Angelo, and for eight days the "Sack of Rome" continued amid horrors almost unexampled in the history of war.
In the more ecclesiastical aspects of his pontificate Clement was free from reproach. He was genuinely in earnest over the crusade against the Turks, and he gave much encouragement to foreign missions. Giulio de' Medici was born a few months after the death of his father, Giuliano, who was slain at Florence in the disturbances which followed the Pazzi conspiracy.
We cannot be much surprised at what followed. Churches were desecrated, women, even the religious, violated, ambassadors pillaged, cardinals put to ransom, ecclesiastical dignitaries and ceremonies made a mockery, and the soldiers fought among themselves for the spoil" (Leathes in "Camb. He furthered angered Charles in 1525 by joining the League of Cognac with France, Milan, Florence, and Venice. Clement soon thereafter died on September 25, 1534 and was buried in Santa Maria sopra Minerva. Under pressure from Charles, the pope finally had the case transferred to Rome in 1529 and came to excommunicate Henry only in 1533 and void both his divorce to Catherine and his remarriage in 1534. In the more ecclesiastical aspects of his pontificate Clement was free from reproach. In particular, the pope seems to have had a horror of the idea of convoking a general council, foreseeing, no doubt, grave difficulties with France in any such attempt.
History", II, 55). There can be no doubt that Clement showed much weakness in the concessions he had made to the English demands; but it must also be remembered, first, that in the decision of this point of law, the technical grounds for treating the dispensation as obreptitious were in themselves serious and, secondly, that in committing the honour of the Holy See to Campeggio's keeping, Clement had known that he had to do with a man of exceptionally high principle. Please help support the mission of New Advent and get the full contents of this website as an instant download. It was only then that Clement at last took the step of launching a sentence of excommunication against the king, declaring at the same time Cranmer's pretended decree of divorce to be invalid and the marriage with Anne Boleyn null and void. Clement’s position was weakened in 1526, when the French lost to Charles’s forces at Pavia, leading to the imprisonment of Francis himself.
This was an instrument which decided the points of law beforehand, secure from appeal, and left only the issue of fact to be determined in England. Moreover, as Queen Catherine solemnly swore that the marriage between herself and Henry's elder brother Arthur had never been consummated, there had consequently never been any real affinity between her and Henry but only the impedimentum publicæ honestatis. There the future Clement would be raised alongside his cousin, the future pope. That Clement, instead of accepting Charles' overtures, should have made himself a party to the French king's perfidy and should have organized a league with France, Venice, and Florence, signed at Cognac, 22 May, 1526, must certainly have been regarded by the emperor as almost unpardonable provocation.
About this page But the sacrifice was ineffectual. (Paderborn, 1893); THURSTON, The Canon Law of the Divorce in Eng.
A commission was indeed granted and taken back to England by Foxe, but it was safeguarded in ways which rendered it practically innocuous. (Oct., 1904); Am.
He had unfortunately been brought up in all the bad traditions of Italian diplomacy, and over and above this a certain fatal irresolution of character seemed to impel him, when any decision had been arrived at, to hark back upon the course agreed on and to try to make terms with the other side. Almost immediately after his consecration Cranmer proceeded to pronounce judgment upon the divorce, while Henry had previously contracted a secret marriage with Anne Boleyn, which marriage Cranmer, in May, 1533, declared to be valid. The commission was to be shown to no one, and was never to leave Compeggio's hands. The new peace was confirmed when the pope crowned Charles at Bologna in February 1530—the last pope to so crown an emperor. Regrettably, I can't reply to every letter, but I greatly appreciate your feedback — especially notifications about typographical errors and inappropriate ads. Clement’s religious and political timorousness was most exemplified by his handling of the Anne Boleyn affair.
This article was transcribed for New Advent by WGKofron.
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/04024a.htm. Knight found the pope a prisoner in Sant’ Angelo and could do little until he visited Clement, after his escape, at Orvieto.