Sixtus IV.
Sixtus IV. ( Francesco della Rovere ; * July 21, 1414 in Celle near Savona , Liguria ; † August 12, 1484 in Rome ) was Roman Catholic Pope from August 9, 1471 to August 12, 1484 .
Life
Origin, youth and career
The baptized Francesco came from a respected but poor family in Liguria . He later took the name della Rovere from a Turin family to which he was not related. Rovere is the sessile oak , the coat of arms of the Pope and his nephew Julius II shows such an oak with twelve golden acorns. He was given spiritual care by his mother at the age of seven, and when he was of the required age he entered the Franciscan Order . In the following years he studied philosophy and theology in Bologna , Chieri , Padua and Savona .
On April 14, 1444, he obtained a doctorate in theology from the University of Padua. Now Francesco della Rovere was active in teaching, he gave lectures in Bologna, Florence , Padua, Pavia , Perugia and Siena . In doing so, he drew the attention of Cardinal Bessarion, among others . Francesco della Rovere was valued by his contemporaries for his teaching activities and as an excellent preacher.
Francesco della Rovere was elected Minister General of the Franciscan Order on May 19, 1464 because of his achievements . On September 18, 1467, Pope Paul II elevated him to cardinal priest with the titular church of San Pietro in Vincoli and appointed him to the Curia in Rome. It is believed by many historians that Cardinal Bessarion prompted the Pope to elevate the cardinals.
On May 19, 1469 he resigned from his leadership positions with the Franciscans in order to be able to devote himself to the tasks within the Curia. During this time he wrote many theological treatises, including the two treatises De potentia Dei and De sanguine Christi .
pontificate
On August 9, 1471, after a three-day conclave, he was surprisingly elected as the new Pope. However, the College of Cardinals had demanded various electoral surrenders from him prior to his appointment . The choice of name refers to the ancient Roman martyr Sixtus II , on whose feast day the conclave began. While the general of the order was initially expected to reflect on pastoral principles, it soon became apparent during his pontificate that Pope Sixtus IV was a dissolute nepotist .
As early as December 16, 1471, Pope Sixtus IV, contrary to the agreements of the electoral surrenders, appointed two of his nephews, Pietro Riario and Giuliano della Rovere, the later Pope Julius II, cardinals and another, Girolamo Riario , captain general of the Church . Other secular offices in the Papal States were also filled with relatives. In 1477, the son of a sister of Girolamos, Raffaele Sansoni-Riario, followed as cardinal . In his thirteen-year pontificate he appointed 34 cardinals , among them the other relatives Girolamo Basso della Rovere , Cristoforo della Rovere and Domenico della Rovere . The other cardinals were appointed to represent the courts of France, Castile, Portugal, Naples, and Milan, as well as representatives of the Roman, Genoese, and Venetian nobility. The Holy College had a total of 25 cardinals at the time of his papal election.
In 1473, on the occasion of the marriage between Girolamo Riario and Caterina Sforza , the Pope wanted to call in the Imola ecclesiastical fief and pass it on to Riario; as a pretext he used the interest that Taddeo Manfredi allegedly owed. Manfredi had secretly ceded the city to the Sforza, who ruled Milan , in 1471 . Pietro Riario , who was sent to the Sforza as a cardinal legate in 1474 , managed to get the Milanese to sell their claims to Girolamo in return for 40,000 ducats; the Pazzi and Medici were to advance the money for this . Since Florence had also made a claim on Imola, Lorenzo de 'Medici refused to participate in the loan and asked the Pazzi to also refuse to accept the papal wishes. In fact, the loan came about with other donors, but with the participation of the Pazzi.
In the summer of 1474 Sixtus got into another conflict with the Florentines when he claimed the city of Città di Castello , which Pope Eugene IV had left the Florentines to pay his debts. The nepot Giuliano della Rovere, who had taken his place after the death of Pietro Riario at the beginning of the year, wanted the city for his brother Giovanni. The dispute could only be settled through the intervention of Federico da Montefeltro (military leader of the Pope and raised by him to Duke of Urbino during the controversy ), who was able to persuade Niccolò Vitelli , who had previously thought the city to be Florence , to give up.
The upcoming occupations of the dioceses of Florence and Pisa led to new conflicts with Florence . Francesco Salviati , who was appointed Archbishop of Pisa by the Pope, was denied access to Pisa because the Florentines had the right to propose and rejected the Pope's candidate .
Salviati, a close confidante of the nephew Girolamo Riario , together with him and Francesco de 'Pazzi set up a conspiracy that was supposed to bring about a change of power in Florence. This attempted coup, which has gone down in history as the Pazzi conspiracy , found the express approval of the Pope, as the condottiere Giovan Battisto Montesecco , who was in the service of the Pope, later stated in his confession. This should Lorenzo de 'Medici and his brother Giuliano be "removed" and Pazzi and Riario take power in Florence. Montesecco, who was supposed to participate in the overthrow, initially refused and insisted on receiving the order from the Pope himself. This led to a conversation between Montesecco and Sixtus, in which Salviati and Riario also took part. As a precaution, Riario even demanded absolution from the Pope for the planned murders. The Pope refused this - with reference to his office - rather he finally left the conspirators free to choose their means.
First Lorenzo was to be summoned to Rome, where they wanted to arrest him, while at the same time his brother was to be murdered in Florence. When this did not succeed, the conspirators traveled to Florence and carried out the assassination attempt on April 26, 1478 in the Florence Cathedral. Giuliano was killed, Lorenzo was able to escape injured. Salviati, who had tried to occupy the Signoria's palace, was arrested and hanged on one of the windows of the government palace that same day.
As a result, Sixtus demanded Lorenzo's extradition in order to bring about the overthrow, but could not force it despite the ban and interdict against Florence. It was ultimately the fall of Otrantos , conquered by the Turks in 1480, and the ensuing insight that the unity of Italy in the struggle against the Turks would be necessary, which brought about a reconciliation between Florence and the Pope.
Sixtus did everything to help his nepot Girolamo Riario , who had meanwhile received the dominions of Imola and Forlí , to acquire further rule. His desires were initially directed towards Faenza , Ravenna and Rimini . In 1481 the Pope had also concluded an agreement with Venice, which was directed against Ercole I d'Este , Duke of Ferrara . The Venetians wanted to drive out the Duke and take over his property, but the Pope only intended to use the Venetians to drive out the d'Este so that Ferrara could then defeat Girolamo. Like Calixt III. he stretched out his hands to the kingdom of Naples to win it over to his family; Here too, Venice should give him a helping hand. But to the annoyance of the Pope, Ercole found allies on all sides who opposed Sixtus' urge to expand in the Ferrarese War that broke out in 1482 and was soon to turn Italy into a battlefield.
In Rome, there had previously been civil war-like clashes between the factions of Savelli and Colonna and the Orsini ; the long-standing hostility between the two groups had broken out again in a blood revenge and was rekindled with the Ferrarese War. The Neapolitan troops, which were supposed to support Ercole against the Venetians, had been prevented from passing through Lazio and were now turning in the direction of Rome while the fleet was blocking Ferrantes Ostia . Marauding troops of the Colonna and Savelli (some of whom Ferrante served as condottiere ) not only devastated the surroundings of Rome, but even invaded the city itself to murder and loot.
When Sixtus finally asked Prospero Colonna, who was still in his service, to hand over the rulership, which the Colonna had received from Ferrante in thanks for the support against the Turks at Otranto in 1480, he too moved to the Neapolitan camp. In the meantime Sixtus had concentrated his troops in the city, also for fear of a revolt by the Romans; When Roberto Malatesta finally brought reinforcements from Venice , a battle broke out in August near Campo Morto in the Pontine Marshes , which the papal troops won.
Malatesta returned to Rome, but died there two weeks later - on September 10, 1482 - of malaria , from which he had been attacked during the campaign. Malatesta had been an ally of the Pope, but also ruler of Rimini , and his heir, Pandolfo Malatesta, was still a child; Sixtus decided to take action for his nephew. It was only thanks to the rapid intervention of Florence that Girolamo Riario , who was hurriedly on the march, was unsuccessful here.
Even the victory at Campo Morto did not produce the desired success for Sixtus: Not only were numerous cities in Lazio still in the power of the Neapolitans, Ferrara's support also increased - Emperor Friedrich , who had taken on Ferraras, threatened Sixtus with the deposition by a council . So Sixtus finally had to sign an armistice on November 28, 1482, which explicitly provided for the restriction of Venice and the preservation of Ferrara. Sixtus dropped his previous ally Venice , which he blamed for the war, and made a new alliance with Naples against Venice.
The clashes between the Orsini and the Colonna continued, however, encouraged by the Pope. Sixtus had suspended the agreements of the alliance concerning the Colonna in order to be able to appropriate their possessions. In January 1484 another war began between Orsini and Colonna. Girolamo Riario blackmailed churches and papal colleges to finance the raid. At first, Gaetani and Capranica surrendered , but during the siege of Palliano , his defenders under Prospero Colonna put the nephew to such an extent that he had to ask for support from Rome.
But in the meantime the Italian powers, tired of the war against Venice, had arbitrarily concluded a peace favorable to the Serenissima . Sixtus, who had hoped for a financial gain from a victory over Venice, was informed of the armistice on August 11, 1484; the following day he died of a stroke of madness from a rage .
Sixtus was first buried in a side chapel of Alt St. Peter . The Italian sculptor Antonio Pollaiuolo created his tomb on behalf of Giuliano della Rovere , the nephew Sixtus, who succeeded him as Julius II in the papal office in 1503, ten years after the completion of the tomb. Contrary to the last will of the late Pope, who wanted a flat floor slab, the bronze tomb is richly decorated with embodiments of the virtues and the arts. After the demolition of Old St. Peter, both Popes were reburied in a common grave in the sacristy of St. Peter's Basilica in 1605, where the empty grave complex can be viewed today. The grave of Sixtus and Julius II has been located under a marble tablet in the northwestern part of St. Peter's Basilica since 1926.
Cultural and theological work
Under Pope Sixtus IV, the Sistine Chapel named after him was built in the Vatican between 1475 and 1483 . She was consecrated to the Immaculate Conception on August 15, 1483 . The transformation of the city of Rome into a splendid Renaissance city goes back to him .
Sixtus was a staunch advocate of the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception of Mary throughout his life . On September 4, 1483, he published the papal bull Grave nimis. The bull declared Mary's freedom from original sin at the moment of her conception.
In 1478 Sixtus declared the decrees of the Council of Constance , which had determined the precedence of the council over the Pope , to be invalid .
Through the bull Exigit sincerae devotionis affectus of November 1, 1478, he allowed Ferdinand V and Isabella I of Castile to appoint inquisitors in their territories. This is considered to be the beginning of the Spanish Inquisition .
evaluation
The contemporary Senate clerk Stefano Infessura wrote in his Diario della città di Roma (Roman diary) about Sixtus that “there was no love for his people in him, only lust, avarice, opulence, vanity; Out of greed for money he had sold all offices, rampaged with corn, imposed taxes, offered the law for sale; faithless and cruel he killed countless people in his wars. ”He called the day of Sixtus' death the“ most blissful day on which God redeemed Christianity from the hands of such a man ”. Infessura is considered to be one of the most resolute anti-clerical critics of the papacy at that time - it was also Infessura who bluntly accused the Pope of being homosexual and reproached him for elevating his lust boys to cardinals. The accusation that his homosexuality influenced the cardinal creations has not been proven.
Sixtus operated an escalating nepotism with the aim of securing a hereditary duchy for his closest relatives. He created the prerequisite that this actually succeeded with Urbino after the death of Guidobaldo da Montefeltro . His relatives were also generously endowed with fiefs from the Papal States, benefits and benefices. Vespasiano da Bisticci later wrote about this: "This election almost led to the downfall of the Lord's Church".
With the cardinal elevation of his nephew Giuliano della Rovere, Sixtus IV laid the foundation for his further career: In 1503 he ascended the throne of Peter as Julius II.
literature
- Richard Urban Butler: Pope Sixtus IV . In: Catholic Encyclopedia , Volume 14, Robert Appleton Company, New York 1912.
- Gino Capponi : La confessione di Giovanni Battista da Montesecco. In: Gino Capponi: Storia della Repubblica di Firenze. Volume 2. G. Barbèra, Florence 1875, pp. 509-520.
- Maurizio Gattoni: Sisto IV, Innocenzo VIII e la geopolitica dello Stato Pontificio (1471–1492) (= Religione e Società. Vol. 52). Edizioni Studium, Rome 2010, ISBN 978-88-382-4124-6 .
- Francesco Guicciardini : Storie fiorentine dal 1378 al 1509 (= Classici della BUR L 1233). A cura di Alessandro Montevecchi. Biblioteca Universale Rizzoli, Milan 1998, ISBN 88-17-17233-2 .
- Stefano Infessura : Roman Diary (= The Age of the Renaissance. Series 1, Vol. 8, ZDB -ID 1025495-x ). Translated and introduced by Hermann Hefele . Diederichs, Jena 1913.
- Giuseppe Lombardi: SISTO IV. In: Massimo Bray (ed.): Enciclopedia dei Papi. Volume 2: Niccolò I, santo, Sisto IV. Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana, Rome 2000 ( treccani.it ).
- Vincenzo Pacifici: Un carme biografico di Sisto IV del 1477 , Società Tiburtina di Storia e d'Arte, Tivoli, 1921 [2]
- Ludwig von Pastor : History of the Popes since the end of the Middle Ages. Volume 2: History of the Popes in the Age of the Renaissance. From Pius II's accession to the throne to the death of Sixtus IV. 8th and 9th, unchanged edition. Herder, Freiburg im Breisgau 1925, pp. 477-495.
- Michael Schaich: Sixtus IV. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 10, Bautz, Herzberg 1995, ISBN 3-88309-062-X , Sp. 584-599.
- Georg Schwaiger : Sixtus IV., Pope (1471–1484) . In: Lexicon of the Middle Ages (LexMA). Volume 7, LexMA-Verlag, Munich 1995, ISBN 3-7608-8907-7 , Sp. 1944.
- Philipp Zitzlsperger: About the longing for immortality. The tomb of Sixtus IV. Della Rovere (1471–1484). In: Horst Bredekamp , Volker Reinhardt (Ed.): Cult of the dead and will to power. The restless resting places of the Popes in St. Peter. Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, Darmstadt 2004, ISBN 3-534-17224-8 , pp. 19-38.
Web links
- Literature by and about Sixtus IV. In the catalog of the German National Library
- Entry on Sixtus IV. On catholic-hierarchy.org
Individual evidence
- ↑ José Antonio Escudero López: Fernando el Católico y la introducción de la Inquisición . In: Revista de la Inquisición: (intolerancia y derechos humanos) . No. 19 , 2015, ISSN 1131-5571 , p. 16 (Spanish, [1] [accessed January 1, 2019]).
| predecessor | Office | successor |
|---|---|---|
| Paul II |
Pope 1471–1484 |
Innocent VIII. |
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Sixtus IV. |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Rovere, Francesco della |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Pope (1471–1484) |
| DATE OF BIRTH | July 21, 1414 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Celle near Savona , Liguria |
| DATE OF DEATH | August 12, 1484 |
| Place of death | Rome |