Innocent VIII: biography. Innocent VIII, Giambattista Cibo

Under the name of Pius II (1458-1464), the remarkable humanist poet and scientist Enea Silvio Piccolomini ascended the papal throne. Together with him, the idea of ​​the era - humanism - took possession of the throne of St. Peter. (This was the same embodiment of the idea of ​​the century as in its time the triumph of the idea of ​​militant mysticism found its embodiment in the election of the hermit pope.)

A native of Siena, fifty-three years old, but already very battered by his previous turbulent life, the humanist pope was already by that time the highest church dignitary. But he remained a humanist to the core. Pope Calixtus knew that he was the father of two illegitimate children, but he turned a blind eye to this and kept them in his circle. As secretary of Cardinal Capranica, Piccolomini participated in the Council of Basel, where he showed himself to be a supporter of extreme conciliarism. That is why he went into the service of the last antipope, Felix V. When the antipope’s position became hopeless, he tried his luck at the court of the German-Roman emperor. As a deft imperial diplomat, Piccolomini traveled throughout almost all of Europe. Educated, witty, and possessed of universal knowledge, Piccolomini at the same time combined in himself a poet, historiographer, geographer, politician and diplomat, everything except a high clergyman! When he was awarded the cardinal's hat, he found his place as a high clergyman, gaining favor and respect.

The election of Pius II was greeted by Rome with wild enthusiasm, because with him the “prince of the humanists” ascended the papal throne. (Another question is that the humanist pope, due to vague internal conditions, did not really care about Rome and was more happy to be in other cities of Italy than in his Roman residence.) The papal tiara was placed on the head of Pius II by a cardinal from the Colonna family, symbolizing this the unity of Rome and humanism. Pius II, even as pope, retained his commitment to the arts, antiquity, and all manifestations of living life. Under him, a systematic collection of the treasures of ancient Rome began. Piccolomini continued his literary activity as a pope. Only one papal manuscript, written in classical Latin, has reached us - his memoirs.

The central idea of ​​Pius II's pontificate was the creation of a large European anti-Turkish alliance. He convened a congress of European monarchs to achieve this goal. In a papal bull issued on October 13, 1458, beginning with the words “Vocabit nos Pius,” the pope ordered a congress to be convened in Mantua. In 1459 he arrived in Mantua for the opening of the congress and delivered a speech in brilliant Latin; however, the meeting was a complete fiasco due to the indifference and passivity of the monarchs. Pope Pius had to take into account that the era of the knightly crusades was irrevocably over and that, even as pope, he would not be able to awaken to new life the long-gone ideals of chivalry, although glorified in his poems. The Christian Middle Ages were replaced by the era of centralized class monarchies.

Christian princes and monarchs did not budge, and the pope began to make new attempts to repel the Turkish danger. In 1461, Pius wrote a letter to the Turkish Sultan Mehmed II, in which - along with an attempt to harmonize and unite Christian doctrine with the Koran - he called on the Turkish ruler to convert to the Christian faith. Then, they say, the pope will recognize him as the heir of the Byzantine Empire, crown him and enter into an alliance with him! These fantastic plans indicated that the humanist head of the church, living in the world of ideas, did not have a very developed sense of practical affairs; practical policies concerning the problems of Eastern European peoples and their state existence. We can consider this step even more wonderful and strange, knowing that the Palaiologan dynasty, expelled by the Turks, sought refuge in Rome.

Desperate attempts to unite the Christian powers failed; This was facilitated by the fact that Pius II, having abandoned the concilarist views of his youth, became, as pope, a strong supporter and defender of noble absolutism. At the beginning of 1460, he issued the bull "Execrabilis", in which he emphasized that no one could protest the papal verdict by appealing to an ecumenical council; whoever does this excommunicates himself from the church. This step by the pope primarily aggravated his relationship with France. Supported by King Louis XI, the French Church, in the spirit of the Pragmatic Sanction adopted in Bourges in 1438, stood in the position of concilarism, because in this way it could ensure its autonomy, its “Gallican freedoms” as a counterbalance to the supreme power of the pope. Since the pope did not support French claims to Naples, the king, for his part, silently recognized these Gallican rights and freedoms. Pius II's speech against concilarism caused discontent both in Italy and in the German-Roman Empire (in Germany mainly due to the ever-increasing papal taxes).

In the meantime, however, the danger of a Turkish invasion threatened not only Hungary, but also Italy itself, and above all Venice. In 1463, the Venetian fleet stood ready to launch a sea campaign against the Turks. In September 1463, at a meeting of the consistory, Pius II announced that he himself would become the head of the united papal and Venetian military fleets. However, the pope arrived in Ancona already broken by a fatal illness. And literally on the threshold of the implementation of his plan, Pius II was struck by death - thus, nothing came of this campaign.

Following the pope, the humanist poet, the papal throne was occupied by Eugene IV's nephew, Cardinal Pietro Barbo, who took the name Paul II (1464-1471); it was the anti-humanist pope again. The new pope was a true Venetian: he loved pomp, was a clever diplomat, but suspicious by nature, a stern, calculating person. When making the final decision at the conclave, two factors played an equal role: Pietro Barbo’s promise to start a crusade against the Turks and the promise to convene an ecumenical council. Under Paul II, who was, one might say, inaccessible (he very rarely held hearings with advisers and senior clergy), papal dignity acquired the outward pomp of the Renaissance. Paul II loved beauty, but did not recognize the human element in it, but he himself was delighted with his own beauty. Generally speaking, the external pump became an organic part of the Catholic cult during this period. In place of spiritual, religious life, in place of faith coming from the very depths of the soul, came the external pomp of church rituals. This pump has also developed populist variants. For the broad masses of the people, by no means humanists, the church still meant culture, festivity, and entertainment. Opportunities for this were provided by the increasingly colorful and generous holidays of the church year. By the way, precisely in accordance with the order of Paul II, issued in 1470. The Holy Year was supposed to be celebrated once every 25 years.

The reign of Paul II was characterized by arbitrariness and the relegation to the background of the College of Cardinals, whose influence was growing. The growing power of the cardinal consistory, of course, contradicted papal absolutism. The Pope cut the fabulous incomes of the cardinals, the expenses of the Curia, and persecuted simony. These reform orders limited the patronage activities of the pope and cardinals, which, in turn, made Roman humanists, artists and masters of art impoverished wanderers. The attacks of humanists against the harsh and despotic pope were encouraged by the cardinals. The leader of the humanists, Bartolomeo Platina, had already threatened to convene an ecumenical council. The Pope responded by ordering Platina to be arrested and kept in the Castel Sant'Angelo. Here it must be borne in mind that Platina, in his work on the history of the papacy, on which he was working at that time, presented Paul II as a barbarian, an enemy of culture and the arts.

Paul II sought to internally strengthen the Church state, realizing that only by relying on a single state would the popes be able to prevent its annexation by the French or the Austrian and Spanish Habsburgs. Pope Paul also realized that a joint campaign against the Turks was no longer possible. Therefore, he saw his task as helping Christian states that were fighting the Turks in a life-or-death struggle, not only morally, but also materially, with money. Based on this, he actually supported Hungary, Venice and Albania with significant sums. Under Paul II, a new conflict arose: between the Czech Republic and the papacy. The Czech national king Jiří Poděbrad (1458-1471) had a favorable attitude towards moderate Husism; for this the pope excommunicated him from the church in 1466. In the dynastic war between the Hungarian king Matthias and the Czech king, the pope took the side of Hungary.

Acting in the spirit of papal absolutism, Paul II consistently avoided convening an ecumenical council (council of reforms). Even the personal visit of Emperor Frederick III to Rome in 1468 could not influence his change in this position. Pope Paul clearly saw that at this time a council of reforms could only end in the defeat of papal primacy.

In the person of Sixtus IV (1471-1484), the founder of the Rovere dynasty ascended to the throne of St. Peter, in order to then make the papal throne hereditary for this family. Under him, the politics of nepotism already clearly prevailed over the general interests of the church and the papacy. Before his election as pope, Francesco della Rovere was first a gentle Franciscan monk, then from 1464 a master of this order, and from 1470 a cardinal.

Pope Sixtus IV already felt like an Italian sovereign. The fact is that by the time he ascended the papal throne, the possibilities for the missionary and mentoring activities of the popes had finally been exhausted, the anti-Turkish struggle was a fiasco; Thus, only one thing remained - to seize the leadership of the political life of Italy. The means for this was the conquest of the world dominion of the pope (and, accordingly, the family nominating the pope) through family ties and nepotism, which have now acquired specific forms and the nature of the founding of the dynasty. Sixtus IV did not hide the fact that he saw the task of his pontificate in the elevation of the Rovere family to the level of the richest and most influential families in Italy. In accordance with this, the pope not only provided his relatives with church positions, but also contributed to their acquisition of Italian duchies and principalities.

Sixtus IV, contrary to the capitulations (electoral obligations) he signed during his election, appointed 34 new cardinals, among them six of his nephews. A magnificent perpetuation of this princely nepotism is the famous fresco by Melazzo da Forli, which depicts the founding of the Vatican Library; she depicts Sixtus IV as a prince and philanthropist among his family and courtiers. Platina, whom he had appointed prefect of the library, knelt before him; the rest of the faces depicted in the fresco are the cardinal nephews of the pope. We see Giuliano Rovere, who later became Pope Julius II, as well as (also a nephew) the young and notoriously immoral Pietro Riario; both were promoted by Sixtus, first to bishops, and then to cardinals, and were endowed by him with enormous benefices. Giuliano, who had a clear penchant for leadership, organized a family party in the College of Cardinals in order to ensure his right of succession. And speaking of Pietro, his annual income, according to one Hungarian church historian, was - if converted to Hungarian penge at the 1938 exchange rate - a million penge! Pietro led an unbridled lifestyle and died young. Another nephew, Cardinal Raffaello Riario, later became involved in the assassination attempt on Pope Leo X.

The greatest influence on Pope Sixtus IV was Girolamo Riario. This nephew did not take holy orders and was the commander of the mercenaries of the Papal State. He used the power of the popes to create his own principality. Sixtus IV awarded him the title of duke, setting himself the goal of creating a grand duchy for Girolamo Riario on the beautiful and fertile plains of Romagna. In the interests of this, he used all his power as the head of the church. But in Rome he encountered opposition from the Colonnas and began to persecute and expel them because they resisted his plan. With the expulsion of Colonna, the pope managed to keep Rome and its environs in his hands. He also spoke out against the nepotism of previous popes. From this time on, it became a generally accepted phenomenon that the new pope, with the help of his relatives and followers, expelled the enriched relatives and minions of his predecessor.

Due to his family policy, Sixtus IV developed hostile relations with the Medici clan in Florence. Girolamo, in all likelihood, with the knowledge of the pope and with the support of the Florentine Pazzi family, attempted to overthrow the rule of the Medici. During a conspiracy in 1478, the leaders of the Medici clan wanted to be slaughtered on the Florentine Hill. Giuliano de' Medici was killed and Lorenzo was wounded.

Pope Sixtus subordinated the very expansion of the Church state to the interests of his family. He acquired Imola and Forlì for Pietro Riario. The Pope no longer forced the crusade against the Turks, although the taxes imposed for its needs continued to be levied. The huge sums of money that his predecessors collected for the purposes of this war were used by the pope mainly to strengthen the power of his family. “The real Turks today are the pope’s nephews,” was a catchphrase going around Rome. (In this, however, there was a certain exaggeration. According to Fraknoi, Sixtus IV sent Matthias 200,000 gold to fight the Turks.)

As a generous patron of the arts, Sixtus IV gained immortal fame for patronizing the art of the Renaissance: Rome truly became the city of the Renaissance, the center of Italian culture. It is enough here to mention the amazing frescoes on the walls of the Vatican chapel (chapel), named after him. The chapel, 40 meters long, 14 meters wide and 18 meters high, with 6 windows in two parallel walls, was completed in 1483. Each of these walls was decorated with six frescoes; on one side - from the life of Moses, on the other - from the life of Christ. (Artists: Pinturicchio, Botticelli, Cirlandaio, Perugino, Roselli and Signorelli.) Above these frescoes one could see images of 28 popes. The chapel is the most elegant part of the Vatican; conclaves, consistory meetings, and the most solemn papal events were held here

The Pope entrusted Platina with the equipment of the Vatican Library, a description of the history of the popes. (V. Platina: De vitis ac gentis pontificum. Colon, 1626.) At the direction of Sixtus, the “ancestor” of the Vatican archive was also created. This order of his was, first of all, an organic part of the improvement of papal bureaucratic structures and the cassation administration.

With Pope Sixtus IV, an atmosphere of venality was established in the Vatican Palace. The cardinals at the conclave gave their votes to those candidates who promised a large sum. And Sixtus himself received the tiara in the same way. The Curia organized, through an early version of the World Bank, the purchase and sale of all ecclesiastical offices and privileges. With his family policy, the pope incredibly expanded the purchase and sale of church positions, which extended to everything from the appointment of cardinals to the granting of the most insignificant privilege and papal blessing.

In 1475, Sixtus again celebrated the Jubilee Holy Year, which was marked by the growing cult of Mary. During the pontificate of Sixtus, the strengthening of Spanish influence again began to be felt - the pope sought the support of the Spaniards against the pro-French-minded Medici and Colonna. At this time, a single Spanish absolutist bureaucratic monarchy emerged on the Iberian Peninsula. In 1479, through the marriage of Isabella and Ferdinand, Castile and Aragonia were reunited under the Spanish crown. In the Spanish monarchy, church and state were extremely closely intertwined, since the Catholic faith and the church for a long time were a connecting and unifying force. This was also the reason why the most brutal state inquisition arose here.

As soon as Sixtus IV died, unrest and anarchy began again in Rome. Gangs roamed the city, robbed and started arson, and street battles broke out. This shows that the desire to make the rule of the nepots hereditary after the death of the pope is doomed to failure, since the papal monarchy, in accordance with its constitution, is an elective kingdom: the monarch, that is, the pope, does not inherit power, it can only come to him as a result of his election by the cardinals. Anarchy was facilitated by clashes and the struggle of interests of family clans, which nominated popes with the goal, in particular, of winning the masses to their side.

After the death of the pope, the chances of the two family clans - the Borgia party (led by Rodrigo Borgia) and the Rovere party (led by Giuliano Rovere) - were equal at the College of Cardinals. This was largely consistent with the Franco-Spanish orientation. As a result, the usual compromise was born: Cardinal Cibo, who took the name Innocent VIII (1484-1492), was elected pope. He owes his election primarily to Giuliano della Rovere, whose influence was decisive during his papacy.

Pope Innocent VIII entered the Vatican "accompanied" by 16 illegitimate children. But, having become a dad, he generously cared not only for them, but also for all his numerous relatives. Thus, the aristocratic Genoese family of Cibo became a new papal dynasty. Innocent's son Franceschetto Cibo married Maddalena Medici, while Lorenzo Medici's son, thirteen-year-old Giovanni Medici, was elevated by the pope to the rank of cardinal, he later became Pope Leo X. With his dynastic policy, Innocent won Florence as an ally in the conflict that arose with the Kingdom of Naples . All this indicated that the “Renaissance” pope conducted politics as one of the monarchs of Italy.

As for high politics, his predecessor, Sixtus IV, started a feud with Matthias over Ancona, while Innocent VIII began to mediate in concluding peace between Matthias and Emperor Maximilian. In fact, it can be said that since the policy of Pope Innocent began to take on an anti-Habsburg orientation, the Hungarian kings supported it. Pope Innocent was also not a strong supporter of the fight against the Turks. He preferred to achieve peace between Europe and the Turks through negotiations. For his own benefit, he used the internal strife that undermined the Turkish imperial court. When he tried to provoke a putsch by Duke Cem against Sultan Bayazed, which ended in failure, the Duke was forced to seek and found refuge in the Vatican in 1489. Although Matthias also laid claim to the fugitive duke, the pope kept him as a hostage in Rome. (The Sultan allegedly paid the pope an annual rent for the refuge provided to the duke, which turned out to be a real captivity.)

During the entire reign of Innocent VIII, he had to constantly deal with the problems of restoring public security in the vicinity of Rome. Characteristic of the situation at that time, for example, may be the following fact: a high-ranking ambassadorial delegation sent by the Roman King Maximilian was robbed near Rome and stripped down to its underwear by robbers. The pope tried to put an end to the unrest by reorganizing the administration of the Church State. On December 31, 1487, with his bull “Non debet reprehensibile,” Innocent created the predecessor of the future secretariat of state - the Camera secretaria, establishing that the number of secretaries living in the Vatican should be 24. This body functioned as a kind of office of the papal cabinet. It was headed by a secret secretary, whose office still exists today.

Pope Innocent VIII, who died in 1492 (the year Columbus discovered America), gave the church's blessing for the inhumane persecution and extermination of witches. It is striking that it was precisely at the end of the Middle Ages and the beginning of the New Age that this mass hysteria acquired tragic proportions. Belief in witchcraft revived ancient religious elements, which became widespread, one might say, in all levels of society. According to the church, witchcraft was a type of communication with the devil. In each country, witchcraft took on very different forms; in Italy, for example, it was believed that the sphere of action of witches was love. The witch hunt and their persecution were fanned by the mendicant spiritual orders that were closest to primitive, popular beliefs, primarily the Dominicans. Prompted by them, Pope Innocent VIII issued his bull “Summis desiderantes” (“With the greatest zeal”) on December 5, 1484, in which he gave the consent and blessing of the church to the persecution of witches. After this, the persecution of witches became universal, creating for the Inquisition - in the absence of other heretics - a huge field of activity. Social subordination and the dependent position of women were expressed in the fact that witchcraft was considered, in essence, only a female sin, a female crime. The strength and vitality of this superstition is evidenced by the fact that later Protestant churches also took part in the persecutions and witch hunts.

While historical research is replete with many contradictory statements about a number of outstanding popes, about the most famous pope of the Renaissance, Alexander VI (1492-1503), the opinion of the overwhelming majority of historians, with the exception of some French authors, is surprisingly clear: a harsh, condemning verdict.

According to the official Catholic history of the papacy, “he is the darkest figure of the papacy” (Adriani G. Pocket Guide to the History of Religion. Munich, 1975, p. 170), and also: “His reign was a disaster for the church” (Franzen A., Böumer R. History of the Papacy (Freiburg - Basel-Vienna, 1974, p. 279). Why such a harsh, condemning assessment, although it is generally known that during his reign the Italian Renaissance reached its culmination, and also that Alexander VI cannot be accused of any dogmatic errors, heresy or other deviations from the true faith? Behind this phenomenon, undoubtedly, stands the truly “Renaissance” personality of Pope Borgia with all its contradictions and extremes.

Rodrigo Borgia, as nepo Calixtus III, became a cardinal while still very young, and a year later - deputy head of the papal chancellery. Cardinal Borgia, according to contemporaries, was an extremely handsome man, clearly an attractive person, whom few could resist. Although he became a cardinal in 1455, he accepted the papal regalia only in 1468. There is no doubt that he was the most authoritative among the cardinals. God rewarded him with exceptional abilities: he was a deft diplomat and an experienced statesman, but at the same time he was distinguished by greed and stinginess, cunning, immorality and a clearly secular, worldly mentality, despite his rank as a high clergyman. In his cardinal's palace, he openly cohabited with one woman or another; from one of his concubines, Vanozzi de Catanei, he had four children: Cesare, Giovanni, Joffre and Lucrezia - all of whom he recognized. They were, to the core, a product of the Renaissance: they craved power and glory, knew no moral inhibitions, and strived to achieve their political goals, just as they did their sensual desires. Alexander II remained a slave to his sensual passions until his death; according to some sources, he was "morbidly sexy."

His election as pope corresponded to the conditions of that era - intrigue, threats, bribery, and simony were hidden behind the unanimous vote. Alexander VI, sixty years old at the time, possessed brilliant human qualities and believed that everything was permitted to him, became a model of the monarchs of the Renaissance. Although the Borgia were Spanish by origin, under him the pro-French Milanese party prevailed at the conclave. Alexander VI subordinated everything to politics; his political goal was to establish the power of the Borgia clan in Italy. According to Alexander VI, the papacy was just a significant Italian principality.

An integral condition for the world domination of the popes, the transformation of their state into a genuine state, was the creation of papal armed forces. This also dates back to the reign of the "Renaissance" popes. The true creator of the papal mercenary army was Alexander VI, or rather, its commander, the pope's son, Cardinal Cesare Borgia. Papal mercenaries were recruited primarily from the Swiss cantons.

Borgia's long-term goal was the real mastery of the Church State as the hereditary Italian kingdom. So far, no large family clan that has nominated popes has succeeded in this. Pope Alexander VI sought to achieve Italian hegemony through his first-born son, Cesare. And Cesare Borgia could become a monarch on the model of Machiavelli's "Prince", since he was truly the first modern politician who looked at politics from a position of complete moral permissiveness. Following Ranke, historiography considers Cesare a “virtuoso of crimes” who dealt not only with his allies and opponents, but also with his brothers. Alexander VI's youngest son, Giovanni, was killed by assassins on Cesare's orders. The nepots of the Borgia clan, striving for ever greater power, took the place of the creatures of the previous pope - Rovere. Cesare expelled Riario's widow from Imola. At the same time, Lucrezia Borgia became Duchess of Ferrara.

Before Alexander VI, Italian small states adhered to, in the spectacular formulation of Lorenzo Medici, a “policy of balance”: in his opinion, balance in Italy was achieved by the balance of the power of such city-states as Venice, Milan, Florence, Rome and Naples. However, from the end of the 15th century, Italy again attracted the attention of foreign invaders, and under the influence of their expansion, this balance was also disrupted. In the XIV-XV centuries, the Italian city-states were not yet interested in political unity, since it would limit their independence, their independent development. Their interests were governed by competition, not by the idea of ​​unity. Imperial rule over Italy became nominal, papal power was in decline; therefore, neither the emperor nor the pope threatened the independence of large city-states. The issue of the political unity of Italy did not become vitally important for Italian society until the fragmentation of the country aroused the appetites of foreign invaders (the French, Spaniards, Germans). France, which emerged stronger from the Hundred Years War, its centralized class monarchy, having gathered its strength by the end of the century, again acted as a conqueror - this time in Italy. The French kings and the Austrian and Spanish Habsburgs, who were striving for world domination, marked the beginning of a century-long struggle between the European great powers for rich Italy. Possession of Italy henceforth meant European hegemony.

The elected monarchs of the German-Roman Empire from the mid-15th century onwards were the Habsburgs. Maximilian I (1493-1519) acquired the Netherlands and a significant part of Burgundy through a successful marriage and eventually became German-Roman Emperor in 1493. In 1496, he married his son, Philip, to the only heir of the Spanish couple (Ferdinand and Isabella), Juana. After the death of Philip and Juana, their sons (grandsons of Maximilian) inherited the Spanish and Austrian possessions. The eldest, Charles, inherited the imperial throne; from 1506 he was the sovereign of the Netherlands and Burgundy, and from 1516 he became the hereditary owner of Spain, Naples and Sicily, Sardinia. His younger brother, Ferdinand, inherited the Austrian provinces; he was also a candidate for the Hungarian, Czech and, perhaps, Polish throne (Jagiello's legacy). Thus, the Habsburgs, as it were, encircled the French and, both in Southern and Northern Italy, became competitors of French influence. Essentially, the only opportunity for the great French power to break out of the Habsburg ring was expansion into Italy.

The battles for Italy, in which the popes had to be content with the role of a second-class power, began in 1494-1495 with the campaign of the French king Charles VIII. In 1494, his troops captured (as the hereditary possession of Anjou) Naples, which was under the dominance of the Aragonese Spanish dynasty. In this great power competition, Alexander VI initially sided with the French, whom he considered less dangerous. But when Charles VIII extended French hegemony to almost all of Italy, the pope turned against him. Having become the head of Italian cities, Alexander VI also counted on external forces in the fight against the French invaders. In 1495, the Holy League was created for a period of 25 years; its members were: the Pope, Venice, Milan, Ferdinand's Spain and Emperor Maximilian I. Imperial and Spanish troops expelled the French from Naples, which turned out to be forever lost to the French conquerors and from that time on over the centuries became the base of Spanish influence in Italy. From then on, the attention of Charles VIII and his successors turned to the conquest of Northern Italy.

Navigating between the contradictions of the great powers, Alexander VI tried to create the Central Italian Kingdom of Borgia. The greatest resistance to this was shown by Tuscany, led by Florence, which was experiencing its heyday. Alexander VI, with the support of the French and in alliance with the internal opposition, expelled the Medici from Florence. The kingdom was restored in Florence. However, a radical popular movement soon prevailed, led by the abbot of the Dominican monastery of St. Mark in Florence, Girolamo Savonarola. With calls for church reform and restoration of the original apostolic poverty of the church, he won the urban poor to his side. The fanatical monk ardently castigated not only the wealth of the church, but also the depraved lifestyle of the rich burghers. Ordinary people listened with trepidation to the words of the preacher, who predicted all sorts of horrors that awaited them in the next world. From 1494 to 1498, Savonarola was the absolute dictator of Florence. His goal was to create a theocratic city-state with the help of the French. Beginning in 1495, Savonarola sharply opposed the pope, but his criticism was not so much of a theological nature as it contained a merciless denunciation of the depravity and immorality of the papal court. The pope first ordered not to respond to his attacks, and then in 1497 he excommunicated Savonarola. As the mood of the masses turned against the dictator, he fell into the hands of the Inquisition. He was tortured with a hot iron. This gave the result the pope needed, and on May 23, 1498, Savonarola was burned at the stake as a heretic.

The tragedy of Savonarola meant the defeat of Italian church reform. The church reform that accompanied the revolution of the poor did not go beyond the walls of Florence, because its asceticism and radicalism did not correspond to the interests of the Italian trading bourgeoisie. The death of Savonarola also did not cause any particular shock, nor did it become a catalyst for a wide popular movement, like the martyrdom of Jan Hus in his time. The basis of the confrontation between Savonarola and the pope was not religious, but political reasons. The pope, who turned against the French, wanted to acquire Florence for the Holy League, but she, fearing for her independence, believed more in an alliance with the French. When Charles VIII was defeated in Italy, Florence handed over Savonarola to the pope.

The new French king, Louis XII (1498-1515), successfully destroyed the Holy League and formed an alliance with Venice against the Habsburgs and the pope. The French army occupied Milan. From this time on, very frequent changes occurred in the allied groups opposing the French. Italian cities and the pope took the side of those who were least dangerous to their independence. Thus, at the turn of the 15th and 16th centuries, the Spaniards appeared in Naples, and the French appeared in Lombardy. Alexander VI had no sympathy for either one or the other. But when the Habsburgs regained the upper hand, he entered into an alliance with the defeated Louis XII. Now he again tried, with the support of the French, to create a kingdom of Central Italy for Cesare. The ultimate goal of the pope and Cesare was to establish the political unity of all of Italy under the rule of Borgia and relying on papal power.

In 1503, Cesare Borgia, being essentially the true master of the Church State, made an attempt to secularize it and establish a united Italy under his rule. Cesare himself wanted to become a pope as soon as possible in order to achieve his goal faster and easier. By this time it had become obvious that the Church State was the main obstacle to the creation of an Italian national state. A united Italy was unthinkable under the leadership of the popes, since the state of the church cannot be part of the national state. If the pope or his family becomes the head of the aspirations for unity, then secularization is inevitable, the transformation of the Church state into a secular one is inevitable. Cesare was not only a real politician, but also a generous patron of the arts; Thus, Leonardo da Vinci was also in his service. However, Borja's aspirations were not destined to come true due to the growing independence of the city-states; The bourgeois development of Italy continued to manifest itself not within the framework of a single national state entity, but within the framework of city-states.

However, the threat of enslavement by foreign invaders and the associated devastation and war awakened a national consciousness in the Italians. It became obvious that political fragmentation leads to foreign domination. The political program for creating a united Italy was formulated by Machiavelli in his work “The Prince” (“Il Principe”), in which he cited Cesare Borgia as an example of a real politician. Machiavelli was the first to see in the state not an eternal institution given by God, but a historically established institution that exists on the basis of its own principles and laws, independent of religion and personal, individual morality. Thus, he substantiated modern politics as a science and shook the picture of the world that was created by St. Augustine and Thomas Aquinas, and shook the Christian theory of the state. And this, in turn, justified the need for the separation of church and state and the espropriation of church lands (secularization).

However, the secularization of politics was realized only during the French Revolution; before this, religion and politics were intertwined in some form. This was clearly manifested at the dawn of the New Age. This is especially clearly seen in the example of the first colonial dispute and the role of the papacy in it. The great geographical discoveries that began became a source of new contradictions between the Catholic powers. Endowed with the rank of supreme judge of the Catholic world, the pope, in his bull "Inter caetera divini", issued on May 4, 1493, announced his decision to divide the world between Spain and Portugal. The meridian, passing between the islands of Cape Verde and Haiti, divided the globe in two and was a kind of demarcation line between the territories belonging to the Spaniards and the Portuguese. To the east of it the Portuguese could expand their possessions, to the west - the Spaniards.

With the discovery of America in 1492, the papacy also had the opportunity to make the Catholic Church a truly universal church. Christian missionaries also set off on the ships of the Spanish and Portuguese conquerors. This then gave new impetus to the close alliance between the Spanish world power and the papacy, an alliance that lasted for several centuries.

Alexander VI, who took an active part in world politics, maintained contact with the monarchs of the early Renaissance. For example, he awarded the cardinal’s hat to his Hungarian “double,” the favorite of King Matthias, Archbishop Tamás Banoc of Esztergom. And Alexander VI, while still a cardinal, received from Matthias the Petervarad Abbey, or rather, the income from it, which he kept for himself when he became pope. Thus, Pope Alexander VI was also listed as the abbot of Petervarad Abbey.

Alexander VI, Cesare and Lucrezia Borgia not only eliminated their opponents, but also ordered the murder, one after another, of those whose fortune or income they wanted to gain. They either left the benefices released in this way unoccupied - the income from them went to the pope, or they demanded huge sums for replacing the benefices. During the reign of Pope Alexander VI, essentially, without exception, only cardinals were appointed who purchased their rank from the Curia.

The proven means of murders inspired by the Vatican or carried out there was poison, which had such a property that its effect was felt only after 1-2 days. According to some sources, only from the College of Cardinals, four senior clergy were sent in this way to another world. The rumors about the cause of the death of Pope Alexander himself can be considered more of a legend about God’s fair judgment, punishing him for the sins and crimes of Borgia, than a reliable story. According to some descriptions, Cesare and the pope wanted to destroy the Utrecht Cardinal Adrian, the tutor of Charles V. To do this, they invited several cardinals to visit, and among them Adrian. However, the servants mixed up the glasses and served the poisoned wine not to the cardinal, but to the pope and Cesare. The pope, who was already old, died that same night, and Cesare recovered. (It is more likely, however, that Alexander VI was killed by a sudden epidemic of Roman fever.)

Immediately after the death of Alexander VI, the Church State shook off the dominance of the Borgia. Cesare fled to France. Cardinal Giuliano Rovere played the main role in overthrowing the Borgia government. After Pope Borgia, known for his scandalous life, the conclave elected Cardinal Francesco Piccolomini, who was considered almost a saint, and took the name Pius III. True, his reign lasted only 20 days, so he did not leave any trace in the history of the papacy.

At the next conclave, which lasted only one day, the sworn enemy of Borgia, the nephew of Sixtus IV, Cardinal Giuliano Rovere, who had been in this rank for 30 years, was elected pope. His election (he became Julius II) was also not without simony, but his personal life, one might say, was impeccable. Julius II was an outstanding personality of the Renaissance, but the bright colors and pomp that distinguished Borgia began to shine with austere and cold beauty under him. Julius II, in accordance with the requirements of the time, was a versatile ecclesiastical sovereign (diplomat, philanthropist, politician), but above all he was a commander and statesman. With him, a tyrant sovereign typical of Renaissance Italy ascended the papal throne. That is why he received the nickname Terrible from his contemporaries.

Julius II more moderately, but also more realistically, pursued the Italian policy initiated by Borgia. He also relied on the power of the Rovere family, but acted through more peaceful means than his predecessors. So, he managed to get, for example, Urbino. Pope Julius II implemented Borgia's plans and plans within a more limited framework, within the expanded boundaries of the Papal State. He organized from the papal possessions a single, modern state, standing at the level of its time, and made it a partner in the politics of the great powers. While Pope Alexander VI and Cesare sought a secular, united Italy, Julius II's goal was the territorial expansion and enlargement of the Church State, making it the strongest state in Italy. To achieve these expansionist goals, a strong papal army was first needed. Pope Julius himself often became the head of the troops, but his official commander was Pompeo Colonna. The name of Julius II is also associated with the creation of the Swiss Guard, which initially numbered 200 people and provided personal security for the pope. On June 12, 1506, the guard entered Rome. Having grown into an “army”, it then fought endless battles with the German Landsknechts.

The policy of Julius II was consistently anti-French. In contrast to Borgia, he believed that the independence of Italy and the power of the pope were primarily threatened by the French conquerors. But in the fight against foreign invaders, against the French, the pope was not very inclined to rely on outside help, from another great power, because this would “hang around” another threat. Fighting for Italian hegemony, Pope Julius began with a war against France's ally, Venice. As a result of successful military operations, he annexed Parma, Piacenza and Reggio to the Papal State. During the reign of Julius II, the Church State achieved the greatest expansion of its territory in the entire medieval history of the papacy, and it is hardly possible to name another pope who would have had more real power than he. A well-organized state could indeed generate large incomes if it is known that the pope, despite his costly wars and equally extensive philanthropic activities, left behind 700,000 gold pieces to his successor! Even Machiavelli, who had previously been very sympathetic to Cesare Borgia, admitted that Julius II achieved greater political success than his ideal, Cesare.

The political goal of Julius II was the complete liberation of Italy from French rule. In the interests of this, he tried to "remove" Rome from Italian parochial politics and from the rivalry for power of the city-states. He pursued a policy that was truly European in scope. However, this required a well-organized and well-functioning diplomatic mechanism. Papal diplomacy in the Middle Ages grew out of the diplomacy of the ecclesiastical government of the popes. Papal ambassadors, called Lateran legates, had specific tasks and at the same time performed inspectorate functions. The organization of permanent papal nunciatures began around 1500 (apostolic nunciatures). Papal nuncios were also not purely secular ambassadors; they were also church visitators (inspectors), who, under the pretext of church administrative assignments, also carried out political functions - papal assignments of a diplomatic nature.

It soon became clear that, while pursuing his great power policy, Julius II also could not do without external allies; now he had already concluded an alliance with the Habsburgs. The Pope and Emperor Maximilian united in 1508 to oppose Venice's overland expansionist ambitions. The French, along with other Italian cities, also became members of the Cambrai League they created. However, the defeat of Venice strengthened French influence in Northern Italy. Yet the Pope was the real winner, because in 1509 he acquired Perugia and Bologna and reconquered all of Romagna.

After the victorious war against Venice, Julius II began to stir up Italian national feeling against the French conquerors. Of the Italian cities, only Venice took part in the new Holy League created on his initiative; Thus, external help was needed for the war against the French. Switzerland, the Spaniards, then the German Emperor and even the English King joined the Holy League. As a result of the military campaign of 1512, the French were driven out of Milan; only Genoa remained in their hands. The Medici returned to Florence (Julius' successor, Pope Leo X, also came from them).

As a result of the anti-French policy of Julius II, Spanish influence in Italy increased again. The peculiar fluctuations in the foreign policy orientation of the popes were a consequence of the fact that the popes of the 16th century were looking for opportunities for their independence, balancing between the great powers.

While Julius II fought against “the most Catholic king” not with ecclesiastical weapons, Louis XII used clearly ecclesiastical and political means against the pope, demanding an ecumenical council. On his initiative, the pro-French cardinals decided to convene an ecumenical council in Pisa in 1511, probably with the aim of removing the pope. Previously, the popes had avoided holding ecumenical councils in every possible way, since they saw in them a serious limitation of their power. Julius II could not completely avoid the demand for reforms, which clearly pursued political goals, so he himself convened a council, which was supposed to implement reforms. Convened quite unexpectedly, the Fifth Lateran Ecumenical Council opened in May 1512. Mostly Italian and Spanish bishops attended the Lateran Council. The Emperor was at first a supporter of the French-backed Council of Pisa. The reason for this was primarily his hatred of Julius II, who clearly opposed any manifestation of imperial influence in Italy. So, in particular, he refused the coronation of the emperor; but already in 1508 he approved the actions of Maximilian I, who called himself "elected (elected) German emperor." However, the Habsburgs were not interested in seeing concilarism, fanned by the French, revive again; therefore, at the end of 1512, the Germans also joined the Lateran Council. After this, the meeting in Pisa began to lose more and more of its significance; In the end, the Pisa Anti-Cathedral, which was moved from place to place, was simply dissolved. Thus, concilarism suffered a final defeat. It is noteworthy that the Hungarian king Ulaszlo and the only serious Hungarian contender for the papal throne, Tamás Bakoc, had even earlier taken a neutralist position in relation to both Pisa and Lateran. This was explained by the fact that Bakotz had good connections with the French; he was on good terms even with Louis XII. In the end, Bakotz decided to side with Julius II, and on January 26, 1512 he arrived in Rome. His solemn procession resembled an imperial procession - by this he seemed to want to show that the archbishop of distant Esztergom was born for the throne of St. Peter. The growth of Bakotz's authority was facilitated by his French connections, and his popularity by gold generously distributed left and right. Bakotz actively participated in the meetings of the Lateran Council, which adopted a number of useful, but ultimately unfulfilled reform decisions. Among them, the most famous is the prohibition (once again!) of simony during the election of the pope. The spearhead of this decision was directed primarily against Bakots, who openly laid claim to the place of the old and sick pope. Thus, the council considered Bakotz, who was committed to simony and represented alien interests (French, Venetian and Hungarian influence), unsuitable for pursuing the political line he proclaimed.

During the pontificate of Julius II, it was generally known that he supported art and the works of the Renaissance not out of humanism or love of art, but as one of the means of strengthening and strengthening papal power. In the eyes of Julius II, even the greatest artist was a servant, obliged to carry out his orders flawlessly.

While on his deathbed, Julius II still managed to warn the cardinals against electing a Hungarian archbishop as his successor. The conclave, which met in early March 4513, was attended by 25 cardinals. Of these, 18 are Italians, 3 Spaniards, as well as a Hungarian, a Frenchman, an Englishman and a Swiss. The solemn mass on the occasion of the opening of the conclave was celebrated in St. Peter's Cathedral by Tamás Bakoc. During the first round of voting, the Venetian cardinal (Spanish) received 13 votes, and Bakotz - 8. However, the Italians quickly rallied against the “outsider”, and in the second round, Cardinal Giovanni Medici received the two-thirds majority necessary for election. Upon his election (he took the name Leo X; 1513-1521), simony no longer played any role. (The first act of the new pope was to remove Bakoc from both the council and Rome. As a legate for special assignments, he was sent to Buda to announce the beginning of a new crusade against the Turks. In March 1514, Bakoc arrived in Buda, and on April 16 he announced a papal bull calling for a crusade, which turned into the peasant war of György Dozsa for Hungary.)

With Leo X at its head, the Renaissance papacy reached its true zenith. The Medici Pope wittily described his reign during the conclave, declaring: “Let us enjoy the papacy that God has given us!” At the dawn of the Middle Ages, Gregory I called the papacy a service, a ministry, but at the end of the Middle Ages, in the eyes of Leo X, it looks like only pleasure. Giovanni Medici was a completely secular man of the Renaissance, who was interested in little other than the humanistic arts, culture and spiritual pleasures. Leo X - aristocrat of the Florentine Renaissance; This is how he remained on the papal throne.

The reign of Leo X was truly the complete decline of the medieval papacy. He was very far from the new problems of the church and reforms; in Luther's speech, Leo X for many years saw only an ordinary squabble raised around a confused German monk, which, they say, would subside on its own, like many similar things before. He was not interested in the church, and he squandered the fabulous wealth squeezed out of the Christian world on the humanists hanging around his court - often on unworthy epigones and flatterers. While the Medici Pope was enjoying the exquisite Latin verses, Luther translated the Holy Scriptures into German. At a time when the papal court found joy in the multiplication of refined spiritual and physical pleasures, the Reformation placed civic rationalism and conscientious work at the center of religious morality. Light and shadow never coexisted so well together in the Vatican as during the reign of Leo X.

However, the mood that preceded the storm, even in Rome, was by no means serene. When the Pope closed the Lateran Council in 1517 without making any decisions, the cardinals began to weave threads of a conspiracy to assassinate him. The dissatisfied leader was Alfonso Petrucci. When the attempt to poison dad ended in failure. Leo X, that refined humanist, ordered Petrucci to be hanged, and his accomplices - among them Cardinal Rovere - to be defrocked, their incomes to be confiscated and heavy fines to be paid. In order to prevent the possibility of a new conspiracy, Leo X appointed 39 new cardinals, most of them his adherents, but in this case as recognition of their actual merits, and not simply for the sake of material advantages.

The reign of Leo X was again characterized by boundless nepotism. His goal was to transfer Italy into the hands of the Medici clan. For his brother, Giuliano de' Medici, he wanted to acquire the Neapolitan throne, and this meant a clash of his interests with the interests of the French, who still laid claim to Naples. (By the way, the son of Giuliano Medici became pope under the name of Clement VII.) Leo X wanted to give his nephew, Lorenzo Medici, the Kingdom of North Italy, which would unite Milan, Tuscany, Urbino and Ferrara. The Papal State would then be “built into” this empire. To achieve these goals, Leo X intended to exploit the contradictions among the great powers.

At first, Pope Leo X pursued the anti-French policy of his predecessor. The creator of the French absolute monarchy, the “Renaissance” king Francis I, having again concluded an alliance with Venice, conquered Milan in 1515 and wanted to be elected emperor. Leo X himself became the head of the papal army, but was defeated at Ravenna. According to the agreement signed in Bologna, he had to abandon Parma and Piacenza in favor of the French. At the same time, the concordat concluded here abolished the Pragmatic Sanction in terms of the “Gallican liberties” mentioned in it, but provided the king with the right to nominate candidates for bishops; their consecration remained with the church.

Along with the strengthening of French domination in Italy, the world power of the Habsburgs also rose, which soon began to pose a more real danger to papal independence than the French. Under Charles V (grandson of Maximilian), Spanish and Dutch possessions also passed into the hands of the Habsburgs. In 1519, Emperor Maximilian I died. The Pope tried by all means to prevent the owner of the Spanish crown, Charles, from being elected emperor.

But here the pope found himself in a difficult position: if, relying on the Habsburgs, it was possible to expel the French, then Italy would be surrounded by the Habsburgs both from the north and the south. If Francis I wins and also captures Naples, then Italy will find itself under French domination. Neither one nor the other smiled at Leo X. And he decided to use the Saxon Elector Frederick the Wise against them, even offering him the imperial crown, and the “rebel” Luther - a cardinalship. But Friedrich did not take on this unpromising role. Then dad took the side of the French, who seemed to him less dangerous; but in the context of the anti-papal sentiment awakened by Luther, he only played into the hands of Charles, who, with the money of the Fuggers, bribed the princes electing the emperor, and they elected him under the name of Charles V (1519-1556) to the imperial throne. Thus, the main power on the continent was in the hands of the Habsburgs. Spain, Burgundy, the Netherlands, the German-Roman Empire, the Czech Republic, the kingdom of Naples and the Two Sicilies fell under their rule. The Austrian branch of the Habsburgs also awaited the Hungarian throne. In a rapidly developing conflict, the last emperor of the Middle Ages, Charles V, and the last pope of the Middle Ages, Leo X, fought each other; this conflict will end in defeat for both sides, and the Reformation and the national idea will emerge victorious!

During the time of Julius II and Leo X, Rome carried the baton of the Renaissance from Florence. In the process of large-scale construction, remarkable masterpieces of ancient art were found: during the reign of Alexander VI - the figure of Apollo Belvedere in the Porte d'Anzio; under Julius II, the Laocoon group and the Vatican Venus were dug out from under the ruins. The Popes of the Renaissance completely rebuilt Rome. It is characteristic that he Pope Julius II took the initiative to demolish the Church of St. Peter, which until now symbolized the papacy, and build in its place a new, even more grandiose basilica in the ancient style.The impressive and charming building still symbolizes in the language of art the reorganized papal power and world glory.Plans and the drawings of the new temple were made by Bramante; this temple was, perhaps, one of the most magnificent creations that expressed the idea of ​​​​a single power. The Temple of St. Peter embodied two styles of art at the same time: Renaissance and Baroque. Starting in 1547, according to the plans of Michelangelo, the construction of the dome began, recreating the Pantheon.Great artists, mainly Raphael, took part in decorating the interior of the temple. On behalf of Pope Leo X, Raphael also prepared plans and drawings for the reconstruction in the Renaissance style of the entire city of Leo.

During the reign of the "Renaissance" popes, the Vatican essentially took on its current form. Under Innocent VIII, the Belvedere was built, connected with the main buildings. Under Alexander VI, Pinturicchio decorated the walls of the Borgia apartments with his frescoes. Under Julius II, Raphael created his wonderful creations, which decorated the halls of the Vatican, and under Leo X, he decorated the Vatican Loggias. At the direction of Julius II, Michelangelo painted the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, likening it to the starry firmament. In general, the Sistine Chapel bears traces of the work of artists from different eras. Twenty-three years later, at the direction of Paul III, Michelangelo created the fresco “The Last Judgment” behind the main altar of the chapel, which depicts 300 figures. During the years of the Counter-Reformation, they did not spare her either: Paul IV, and then Pius IV, ordered the naked figures to be “dressed,” shocking their chastity. (Art history called the artists who performed this “operation” “dirty men.”)

Such a titanic personality as Julius II was more impressed by the art of Michelangelo, which was close to his character. This kinship of souls found its expression in the magnificent creation of Michelangelo - the funerary monument of Julius II, the central figure of which is Moses. On the instructions of Julius II, Bramante created the Belvedere galleries. Along with Bramante, Michelangelo, and Raphael, Leonardo, Titian, and the sculptor Cellini also received ample opportunities to develop their creativity in Rome.

Raphael depicted Pope Leo X sitting at the codex in 1518. This symbolized that the Medici Pope patronized not only the fine arts, but also literature and the sciences. His original works significantly enriched the Vatican Library. Leo X reorganized the University of Rome, Sapienza

Dad, a humanist, loved light literature and entertaining music, he understood well and he himself loved to make risky jokes. His immediate circle included, along with the “king of painting” - Raphael, also Machiavelli and Ariosto. The courtyard of Leo X already bore the features of the late Renaissance turning into baroque.

Innocent VIII

Innocent VIII.
Reproduction from the site http://monarchy.nm.ru/

Innocent VIII (Giambattista Cibo), 1484.VIII.29 - 1492.VII.25

Innocent VIII, Pope
Innocentius Octavus
Worldly name: Giovanni Battista Cibo
Origin: Genoa (Liguria, Italy)
Years of life: 1432 - July 25, 1492
Years of pontificate: August 29, 1484 - July 25, 1492
Father: Arano Chibo
Mother: Teodorina de Marie
Son: Franceschetto (illegitimate)
Daughter: Teodorina (illegitimate)

The son of a Roman senator, Giovanni Cibo spent a very turbulent youth, which resulted in numerous illegitimate offspring, who later populated the Vatican palaces. Using the patronage of the cardinals from the della Rovere family, in 1467 he was appointed bishop of Savona, in 1472 - bishop of Molfetta, in 1473 he became a cardinal, and in 1484 he was elected pope under the name Innocent VIII, promising to protect First of all, the interests of the cardinals.
In 1490, Innocent convened a congress of Christian rulers in Rome with the aim of organizing a crusade against the infidels, but due to the conflict between the pope and Ferdinand I of Naples, the congress ended in vain. Innocent held Prince Cem, brother of Bayezid II, hostage. To ransom his brother, in 1489 the Sultan paid the pope 40 thousand ducats and sent him a gift of the spear of Longinus, with which Jesus was pierced. Innocent accepted the gift, but did not release the hostage.
On December 5, 1484, Innocent issued a very severe bull against witches. The theses set forth in it were subsequently embodied in the notorious “Hammer of the Witches.” In 1487 he appointed Tomas de Torquemada Grand Inquisitor. As part of the fight against heresy, Innocent organized a crusade against the Waldenses, spoke out against the Hussites in the Czech Republic, and in December 1486, under pain of excommunication, banned public readings of nine hundred theses by Pico della Mirandola. In order to enrich himself, Innocent created many positions in the curia, which he shamelessly traded. As a result, he had to fight against unscrupulous officials who issued fake bulls in the name of the pope. In 1489, two forgers were executed.

One of the few bright spots in the pontificate of Innocent VIII was the capture of Granada and the complete liberation of the Iberian Peninsula from the Arabs in 1492. Having received beautiful Moorish slaves as a gift from Ferdinand II of Aragon, the pope bestowed the title of “Catholic Highness” on the king.

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INNOCENT VIII (Gianbattista (Giovan Battista) Cibo) - Pope from August 29, 1484 to July 25, 1492. Born in 1432 in Genoa in the family of Arano Cibo, who, thanks to the patronage of Pope Calixtus III (1455–1458), became a Roman senator, and Teodorina del Mare, who came from the noble Genoese family of Doria. Having become a cleric, Gianbattista Cibo received a canonicate in Capua from the Neapolitan king Alfonso I (1442–1458), who favored him, but after the death of the monarch, the Archbishop of Capua Giordano Gaetano expelled him. In his youth he studied in Padua and Rome, led a dissolute life and had several illegitimate children; his numerous illegitimate offspring populated the Vatican palaces during the pontificate. In Rome it was later joked that he was a real “pope”, since the streets of the capital were teeming with his children and he was diligently populating the land. Innocent VIII did not hide his paternity (later he recognized two children: son Franceschetto and daughter Teodorine), thereby marking the beginning of the official recognition of the offspring of the popes (sometimes this gave positive results). From 1458, Gianbattista studied at the University of Padua, later moving to Rome, where he intended to complete his education. In Rome, he secured the patronage of Cardinal Filippo Caladrini, half-brother of Pope Nicholas V (1447–1455), which later helped him obtain from Pope Paul II (1464–1471) an appointment to the vacant episcopal see of Savona (November 5 1466). In 1472, Pope Sixtus IV (1471–1484) transferred him to the see of Molfetta. In 1471–1473 Gianbattista Cibo served as papal datarius. On May 7, 1473, he was elevated to the rank of cardinal presbyter of the Roman Church of St. Balbina, in January 1474 became cardinal-presbyter of the Roman Church of St. Cecilia. In 1476, during the plague epidemic, he was appointed papal legate in Rome (Pope Sixtus IV retired to Viterbo). Researchers explain his fast church career by his close friendship with Cardinal Giuliano della Rovere (later Pope Julius II; 1503–1513), who even then had significant influence in Rome. However, at the conclave that met on August 26, 1484, after the death of Sixtus IV, Gianbattista Cibo was not at first among the main contenders for the Roman throne. In the first round of voting, Cardinal Marco Barbo became the favorite, but he failed to get the required 2/3 of the votes. The struggle broke out between Vice-Chancellor Rodrigo Borgia, who was supported by representatives of the influential Roman Orsini family, and Cardinal Giuliano della Rovere, who enjoyed the patronage of the Roman Colonna family. Cardinal-Presbyter Gianbattista Cibo became a compromise candidate and was elected pope on the night of August 29, taking the name Innocent in memory of his compatriot Pope Innocent IV (Sinibaldo Fieschi; pope 1243–1254). On September 12, 1484, his solemn coronation took place in Rome. Since he was elected pope under the patronage of the della Rovere family, he was under the influence of Giuliano della Rovere, on whose instructions he made most of the important political decisions. Innocent VIII did not change the style of government of his predecessor in any way. In an effort to enlist the support of the wealthy Medici, he married his illegitimate son Franceschetto to the daughter of Lorenzo the Magnificent (1449–1492), Magdalena de Medici. The wedding took place in the Vatican. The descendants of one of the sons from this marriage took the surname Malaspina until the 18th century. ruled the principality (then duchy) of Massa Carrera; one of Franceschetto's daughters is Caterina Cibo. The Pope appointed his 14-year-old son Lorenzo de' Medici (his son's brother-in-law) as cardinal. Busy with the affairs of his family, Innocent VIII did not pay enough attention to the general religious and political situation; he tried to restrain the claims of the Ottoman court, keeping the Sultan’s brother at his court as a hostage. To ransom his brother, Sultan Bayazid II (1481–1512) gave the pope a relic - part of the sacred spear of Longinus the Centurion, with which, according to legend, Jesus Christ was pierced (the reliquary with the spear, created under Innocent VIII, was in St. Peter's Cathedral until 1606). Dad accepted the gift, but still did not release the hostage. Like his predecessors, Innocent VIII tried to organize a Crusade against the Turks. In March 1490, a council was convened in Rome, at which a plan to attack the Ottoman Empire was discussed. If the Christian armies were successful, Innocent VIII planned to overthrow the Turkish ruler Bayezid II and install his brother Cem, who was brought to Rome in 1489. It was assumed that Cem would withdraw Turkish troops from the Balkans and from Constantinople.

He himself cynically and rudely declared that God did not order him to have children, but the devil sent him many “nephews”, nepos - names under which the illegitimate children of Roman popes were often hidden. However, Innocent did not hide his paternity and celebrated the wedding of his daughter Teodorine with great pomp, thus marking the beginning of the official recognition of the offspring by the Pope. Teodorina openly took part in the affairs of the curia and often, through her intervention, determined one or another solution to the most important issues. She married the Neapolitan king to end the old struggle between Naples and Rome.

In the same way, at the conclusion of peace with the Florentine Medici, the pope married his son Franceschetto to the daughter of Lorenzo Medici and presented one of the representatives of this house with a cardinal's hat, although he was only 13 years old (the future Pope Leo X).

However, Innocent VIII went down in history primarily as the author of the monstrous witch bull of December 5, 1484, known as “Summis desiderantes” (“With the greatest zeal” - in its first words).

The reason for the publication of the bull, apparently, was the complaints of two inquisitors - Institoris and Sprenger - about the resistance offered to their inquisitorial activities in different places of the German Empire. Both of these inquisitors, with the blessing of Rome, declared that not to believe in the existence of witches was the greatest heresy, and the pope decided to give them a weapon that would eliminate any protest, any resistance to the energetic reprisal of the Inquisition. From now on, no one could any longer challenge Institoris and Sprenger’s right to persecute in the most cruel manner “heretics,” especially “sorcerers” and especially “witches.” An equally terrible continuation of the papal bull was the book "Malleus Maleficarum" ("Hammer of Witches") - a practical guide for witch hunters, compiled by the above-mentioned monks.

The crude and cynical mockery of the Roman Curia, cardinals, and a significant part of the clergy over the religious and moral traditions of various segments of the population, especially women, caused enormous unrest in a society that was already experiencing major social and related ideological shifts. Driven out through the door, the old religion made it possible for an even more crude and backward form of faith to enter through the window: the belief in witchcraft penetrated the thickness of the people and captured even part of the advanced elements of the then society. Taking on wide dimensions, this belief prompted those who were the imaginary victims of evil sorceresses and witches to demand from church and even secular authorities the strictest measures against this “fiend of hell” and “sons of Satan.”

Pope Innocent VIII managed to take advantage of this public mood and erected for himself a monument to the most terrible human fanaticism and the darkest fanaticism.

The main provisions of the bull of 1484 are set out in the following lines:

“With the greatest zeal, as required by the duties of the supreme pastor, we strive to ensure that the Catholic faith grows and the atrocities of heretics are eradicated. Therefore, we persistently and again prescribe what should fulfill these our aspirations... With great sorrow we inquired , that in some parts of Germany ... very many persons, both male and female, without caring about their own salvation, have turned away from the Catholic faith, have sinful sexual relations with demons taking the form of men or women, and with their witchcraft, songs, spells and other magical means that inspire horror and disgust, they cause damage, destroy the birth of women, the offspring of animals, the fruits of the earth, vineyards and orchards, as well as men, domestic and other animals, vines, fruit trees, meadows, crops and harvests: they torment men , women and internal diseases prevent men from impregnating and women from giving birth, even depriving men of the power to perform marital duties and preventing women from fulfilling their marital duty.”

So from the height of the papal throne there was a call for the destruction of the witchcraft, devilish heresy, and Europe burst into flames.

The number of victims cannot even be approximated:

1500-1600 — in the diocese of Como, more than a hundred women were burned every year.
1590-1600 - In Bern, an average of 30 witches were burned annually. In Brunswick, on some days, 10-12 people were burned, and due to the many pillars to which heretics were tied, the execution area resembled a forest.
1609 - 600 people were burned at Latur.
1612 - 167 witches were burned in small Ellwangen; in the equally small Westerstetten there are about 100 people.
1620 - 800 people were burned in Alsace, and it seemed to everyone, the chronicler says, that “the more people they burned, the more witches there would be: they appeared as if from the ashes.”
1639 - 242 people were burned in Zukmantel; a few years later, another 102 people were burned, among whom were two children recognized as children of the devil.
1640-1651 - about 1 thousand witches were convicted in the Principality of Neisse; To speed up execution of the sentence, they were simply pushed into an oven specially built for this purpose.
1659 - a seven-year-old and a four-year-old “witch” were burned in Lucerne for “cohabiting with the devil” and for “bewitching people and changing the weather.”
1666 - in Eichstätt, a 70-year-old man was tortured with red-hot tongs and then burned alive, accused of causing storms, flying on clouds, serving the devil for 40 years and dishonoring the holy gifts.

In two villages of the Trier district, only two women remained, the rest were burned. The officials reported to their superiors: “Soon there will be no one to love here; there will be no one to give birth: all the women have been burned.”

Innocent VIII probably occupies one of the first places in world history in terms of the number of people he killed - innocent victims of the Inquisition.

Sources:

S.G. Lozinsky "History of the Papacy"

Popes: Kowalski's catalog

The Cibo family was related to the influential and wealthy Genoese family of Doria.

Gianbattista studied in Padua and Rome. The fruit of his stormy youth was numerous illegitimate offspring, which during the pontificate of Innocent populated the Vatican palaces. Paul II appointed young Cibo bishop of Savona and then cardinal. Through the patronage of the della Rovere family, he was elected pope.

Innocent VIII did not change the style of government of his predecessor in any way. In an effort to gain the support of the wealthy Medici, he married his illegitimate son Franceschetto to the daughter of Lorenzo the Magnificent, Magdalena de' Medici. The wedding took place in the Vatican; the descendants of one of the sons from this marriage took the surname Malaspina and until the 18th century ruled the principality (then duchy) of Massa Carrara; one of Franceschetto's daughters is Caterina Cibo. The pope appointed his fourteen-year-old son Lorenzo de' Medici—his son's brother-in-law—as cardinal.

Busy with the affairs of his family, Innocent did not pay due attention to the general religious and political situation. He tried to restrain the claims of the Ottoman court by keeping the Sultan's brother as a hostage at his court. To ransom his brother, Sultan Bayazid II gave the Pope a relic - the sacred spear of Longinus, which, according to legend, pierced the side of Christ. Dad accepted the gift, but still did not release the hostage.

In 1484, Innocent VIII issued the famous bull against witches, which became the cause of many Inquisition processes in the countries of Christian Europe.

In 1492 the Spaniards occupied Granada, the last bastion of Islam on the Iberian Peninsula. On the initiative of Innocent VIII, the Belvedere Palace was built next to the Vatican, which served as a place for celebrations and entertainment of the papal court. Nowadays, the Vatican Museum is located on the site of the Belvedere, which was dismantled in the 16th century.

Propaganda

Leo Taxil retells the opinions of historians that when Innocent VIII was dying in 1492, his doctor, trying to awaken vitality in him, resorted to a criminal means - he let the blood of three boys into the veins of the dying man. Dad knew about the murder of these boys and agreed to it. But that didn't save him. There is also a known version about the Pope being soldered with this blood.

This fact was described by the Italian Renaissance historian Stefano Infessura (), who was hostile to the pope.