Pope Sixtus IV

Pope Sixtus IV (Latin: Xystus IV ; 21 July 1414 – 12August 1484), born Francesco della Rovere, was Popefrom 9 August 1471 to his death in 1484. His accom-plishments as pope included building the Sistine Chapel;the group of artists that he brought together introducedthe Early Renaissance into Rome with the first master-pieces of the city’s new artistic age. He also establishedthe Vatican Archives. Sixtus furthered the agenda ofthe Spanish Inquisition and annulled the decrees of theCouncil of Constance. He was famed for his nepotismand was personally involved in the infamous Pazzi Con-spiracy.[1]

1 Biography

1.1 Early career

Francesco was born to a family of modest means fromLiguria, Italy, the son of Leonardo della Rovere andLuchina Monleoni. He was born in Celle Ligure, a townnear Savona.[2]

As a young man Della Rovere joined the Franciscan Or-der, an unlikely choice for a political career, and hisintellectual qualities were revealed while he was study-ing philosophy and theology at the University of Pavia.He went on to lecture at Padua and many other Italianuniversities.[3]

In 1464, Della Rovere was elected Minister General ofthe Franciscan order at the age of 50. In 1467, he was ap-pointed Cardinal by Pope Paul II with the titular churchbeing the Basilica of San Pietro in Vincoli. Before his pa-pal election, Cardinal della Rovere was renowned for hisunworldliness and had even written learned treatises en-titled On the Blood of Christ and On the Power of God.[4]His pious reputation was one of the deciding factors thatprompted the College of Cardinals to elect him pope uponthe unexpected death of Paul II at the age of fifty-four.[5]

1.2 Papal election

Main article: Papal conclave, 1471

Upon being elected pope Della Rovere adopted the nameSixtus – a name that had not been used since the 5thcentury. One of his first acts was to declare a renewedcrusade against the Ottoman Turks in Smyrna. How-ever, after the conquest of Smyrna, the fleet disbanded.[6]

Some fruitless attempts were made towards unificationwith the Greek Church. For the remainder of his pontif-icate, Sixtus turned to temporal issues and dynastic con-siderations.

1.3 Nepotism

Pope Sixtus IV appoints Platina as Prefect of the Library, byMelozzo da Forlì, accompanied by his relatives

Sixtus IV sought to strengthen his position by surround-ing himself with relatives and friends. In the fresco byMelozzo da Forlì he is accompanied by his Della Ro-vere and Riario nephews, not all of whom were madecardinals: the protonotary apostolic Pietro Riario (onhis right), the future Pope Julius II standing before him,and Girolamo Riario and Giovanni della Rovere behindthe kneeling Platina, author of the first humanist historyof the Popes.[7] His nephew Pietro Riario also benefitedfrom his nepotism. Pietro became one of the richest menin Rome and was entrusted with Pope Sixtus’ foreign pol-icy. However, Pietro died prematurely in 1474, and hisrole passed to Giuliano della Rovere.The secular fortunes of the Della Rovere family beganwhen Sixtus invested his nephew Giovanni with the lord-ship of Senigallia and arranged his marriage to the daugh-ter of Federico III da Montefeltro, duke of Urbino; from

1

2 1 BIOGRAPHY

this union came a line of Della Rovere dukes of Urbinothat lasted until the line expired in 1631.[8] Six of thethirty-four cardinals that he created were his nephews.[9]

In his territorial aggrandizement of the Papal States, Six-tus’ niece’s son Cardinal Raffaele Riario, for whom thePalazzo della Cancelleria was constructed, was a leaderin the failed “Pazzi conspiracy" of 1478 to assassinateboth Lorenzo de' Medici and his brother Giuliano andreplace them in Florence with Sixtus IV’s other nephew,Girolamo Riario. Francesco Salviati, Archbishop of Pisaand a main organizer of the plot, was hanged on the wallsof the Florentine Palazzo della Signoria. To this, SixtusIV replied with an interdict and two years’ of war withFlorence.According to the later published chronicle of the Ital-ian historian Stefano Infessura, "Diary of the City ofRome", Sixtus was a “lover of boys and sodomites” -awarding benefices and bishoprics in return for sexualfavours, and nominating a number of young men as car-dinals; some of whom were celebrated for their goodlooks.[10][11][12] However, Infessura had partisan alle-giances to the Colonna and so is not considered to bealways reliable or impartial.[13] The English churchmanand protestant polemicist John Bale writing a centurylater, attributed to Sixtus “the authorisation to practicesodomy during periods of warm weather” to the “Car-dinal of Santa Lucia”.[14] However, such accusations areeasily dismissed as anti-Catholic propaganda,[10] but didnevertheless prompt the noted historian of the CatholicChurch, Ludwig von Pastor, to issue a firm rebuttal.[15]

1.4 Foreign policy

Sixtus continued a dispute with King Louis XI of France,who upheld the Pragmatic Sanction of Bourges (1438),according to which papal decrees needed royal assent be-fore they could be promulgated in France.[3] This wasa cornerstone of the privileges claimed for the GallicanChurch, and could never be shifted as long as Louis XImaneuvered to replace King Ferdinand I of Naples witha French prince. Louis was thus in conflict with the pa-pacy and Sixtus could not permit it.On 1 November 1478, Sixtus published the papal bullExigit Sincerae Devotionis Affectus, through which theSpanish Inquisition was established in the Kingdom ofCastile. Sixtus consented under political pressure fromFerdinand of Aragon, who threatened to withhold mil-itary support from his kingdom of Sicily. Nevertheless,Sixtus IV quarrelled over protocol and prerogatives of ju-risdiction, was unhappy with the excesses of the Inquisi-tion and condemned the most flagrant abuses in 1482.[16]

As a temporal prince who constructed stout fortresses inthe Papal States, he encouraged the Venetians to attackFerrara, which he wished to obtain for another nephew.Ercole I d'Este, Duke of Ferrara, was allied with theSforzas of Milan, the Medicis of Florence along with the

King of Naples, normally a hereditary ally and championof the papacy. The angered Italian princes allied to forceSixtus IV to make peace, to his great annoyance.[3] Forrefusing to desist from the very hostilities that he himselfhad instigated (and for being a dangerous rival to DellaRovere dynastic ambitions in the Marche), Sixtus placedVenice under interdict in 1483. He also lined the cof-fers of the state by unscrupulously selling high offices andprivileges.[6]

In ecclesiastical affairs, Sixtus promoted the cult of theImmaculate Conception, which had been confirmed at theCouncil of Basle in 1439[6] and designated 8 Decemberas the Feast day of the Immaculate Conception of Mary.He formally annulled the decrees of the Council of Con-stance in 1478.

1.5 Slavery

The two papal bulls issued by Pope Nicholas V, Dum Di-versas of 1452 and Romanus Pontifex of 1455, had ef-fectively given the Portuguese the rights to acquire slavesalong the African coast by force or trade. These conces-sions were confirmed by Sixtus in his own bull, Aeterniregis of 21 June 1481.[17] Arguably the “ideology of con-quest” expounded in these texts became the means bywhich commerce and conversion were facilitated.[18]

In November 1476 Isabel and Fernando ordered an inves-tigation into rights of conquest in the Canary Islands, andin the spring of 1478 they sent Juan Rejon with sixty sol-diers and thirty cavalry to the Grand Canary, where thenatives retreated inland. Sixtus’ earlier threats to excom-municate all captains or pirates who enslaved Christiansin the bull Regimini Gregis of 1476 could have been in-tended to emphasise the need to convert the natives ofthe Canary Islands and Guinea and establish a clear dif-ference in status between those who had converted andthose who resisted.[19] The ecclesiastical penalties weredirected towards those who were enslaving the recentconverts.[20]

1.6 Princely patronage

As a civic patron in Rome, even the anti-papal chroniclerStefano Infessura agreed that Sixtus should be admired.The dedicatory inscription in the fresco by Melozzo daForlì in the Vatican Palace records: “You gave your citytemples, streets, squares, fortifications, bridges and re-stored the Acqua Vergine as far as the Trevi...” In additionto restoring the aqueduct that provided Rome an alterna-tive to the river water that had made the city famouslyunhealthy, he restored or rebuilt over 30 of Rome’s di-lapidated churches, among them San Vitale (1475) andSanta Maria del Popolo, and added seven new ones. TheSistine Chapel was sponsored by Sixtus IV, as was thePonte Sisto,[7] the Sistine Bridge – the first new bridgeacross the Tiber since antiquity – and the building of Via

1.7 Death 3

Sistina (later named Borgo Sant'Angelo), a road leadingfrom Castel Sant'Angelo to Saint Peter. All this was doneto facilitate the integration of the Vatican Hill and Borgowith the heart of old Rome. This was part of a broaderscheme of urbanization carried out under Sixtus IV, whoswept the long-establishedmarkets from the Campidoglioin 1477 and decreed in a bull of 1480 the widening ofstreets and the first post-Roman paving, the removal ofporticoes and other post-classical impediments to freepublic passage.

Ponte Sisto, the first bridge built at Rome since the Roman Empire

At the beginning of his papacy in 1471, Sixtus do-nated several historically important Roman sculpturesthat founded a papal collection of art that would even-tually develop into the collections of the Capitoline Mu-

seums. He also re-founded, enriched and enlarged theVatican Library.[7] He had Regiomontanus attempt thefirst sanctioned reorganization of the Julian calendar andincreased the size and prestige of the papal chapel choir,bringing singers and some prominent composers (Gasparvan Weerbeke, Marbrianus de Orto, and Bertrandus Va-queras) to Rome from the North.In addition to being a patron of the arts, Sixtus was apatron of the sciences. Before becoming pope, he spenttime at the then very liberal and cosmopolitan Universityof Padua, which maintained considerable independencefrom the Church and had a very international character.As Pope, he issued a papal bull allowing local bishopsto give the bodies of executed criminals and unidentifiedcorpses to physicians and artists for dissection. It was thisaccess to corpses which allowed the anatomist Vesalius,along with Titian's pupil Jan Stephen van Calcar, to com-plete the revolutionary medical/anatomical text De hu-mani corporis fabrica.

1.7 Death

Tomb of Pope Sixtus IV by Antonio del Pollaiolo

Pope Sixtus’ tomb was destroyed in the Sack of Rome in1527. Today, his remains, along with the remains of hisnephew Pope Julius II (Giuliano della Rovere), are in-terred in St. Peter’s Basilica in the floor in front of themonument to Pope Clement X. A simple marble tomb-stone marks the site.His bronze funerary monument, now in the basementTreasury of St. Peter’s Basilica, like a giant casket ofgoldsmith’s work, is by Antonio Pollaiuolo. The top ofthe casket is a lifelike depiction of the Pope lying in state.Around the sides are bas relief panels, depicting withallegorical female figures the arts and sciences (Gram-mar, Rhetoric, Arithmetic, Geometry, Music, Painting,Astronomy, Philosophy, and Theology). Each figure in-corporates the oak tree (“rovere” in Italian) symbol ofSixtus IV. The overall program of these panels, theirbeauty, complex symbolism, classical references, and ar-rangement relative to each other is one of the most com-

4 6 FURTHER READING

pelling and comprehensive illustrations of the Renais-sance worldview.

2 The cardinals of Sixtus IV

See also: Cardinals created by Sixtus IV

Sixtus created an unusually large number of cardinalsduring his pontificate (twenty-three), drawn from the ros-ter of the princely houses of Italy, France and Spain; thusensuring that many of his policies continued after hisdeath:

3 Portrayals

Pope Sixtus is portrayed by James Faulkner in the histor-ical fantasy Da Vinci’s Demons. In this show, he is por-trayed as having an identical twin, Alessandro. Shortlyafter the true Pope Sixtus, Francesco, was elected onconclave, Alessandro usurped the Holy See and had hisbrother locked up in Castel Sant'Angelo. The series thusimplies that many of the more unsavory parts of Sixtus’reign were really the work of his twin, out to gain powerfor himself.

4 Notes[1] Lauro Martines, April Blood: Florence and the Plot

Against the Medici, Oxford: Oxford University Press,2003, pp. 150–196.

[2] Miranda, Salvador. Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church

[3] Butler, Richard Urban. “Pope Sixtus IV.” The CatholicEncyclopedia. Vol. 14. New York: Robert AppletonCompany, 1912. 25 Jul. 2014

[4] Martines, April Blood, p. 159

[5] Richard P. McBrien, Lives of the Popes, New York:HarpersSanFrancisco, 1997, p.264-5.

[6] “Sisto IV (1414-1484)", Palazzo-Medici Riccardi

[7] Morris, Roderick Conway. “When Sixtus IV Needed aPainter”, New York Times, May 10, 2011

[8] On his premature death (1501), Giovanni entrusted hisson Francesco Maria to Federico’s successor Guidobaldo(Duke of Urbino 1482–1508) who, without an heir, de-vised the duchy on the boy.

[9] McBrien, Lives of the Popes, p. 265.

[10] Studies in the psychology of sex — Havelock Ellis —Google Boeken. Books.google.com. 2007-07-30. Re-trieved 2013-06-23.

[11] Nigel Cawthorne (1996). “Sex Lives of the Popes”. Prion.p. 160.

[12] Stefano Infessura,Diario della città di Roma (1303-1494),Ist. St. italiano, Tip. Forzani, Roma 1890, pp. 155-156

[13] Egmont Lee, Sixtus IV and Men of Letters, Rome, 1978

[14] Giovanni Lydus,Analecta in librumNicolai de Clemangiis,De corrupto Ecclesiae statu. In calce a: Nicolas de Cle-manges, Opera omnia, Elzevirius & Laurentius, LugduniBatavorum 1593, p. 9)

[15] Ludwig Pastor, History of the Popes [1889], vol. II, De-sclée, Roma 1911, pp. 608-611

[16] “Sixtus IV.” Encyclopædia Britannica. EncyclopaediaBritannica 2008 Ultimate Reference Suite. Chicago: En-cyclopædia Britannica, 2008.

[17] Raiswell, p. 469 see also “Black Africans in RenaissanceEurope”, P. 281

[18] Traboulay 1994, P. 78-79.

[19] Sued-Badillo (2007, see also O'Callaghan, p. 287-310

[20] "Slavery and the Catholic Church”, John Francis Maxwell,p. 52, Barry Rose Publishers, 1975

5 References

• Vincenzo Pacifici,Un carme biografico di Sisto IV del1477, Società Tiburtina di Storia e d'Arte, Tivoli,1921 (Italian)

• “The Historical Encyclopedia of World slavery”, Ed-itor Junius P. Rodriguez, ABC-CLIO, 1997, ISBN0-87436-885-5

• “Black Africans in Renaissance Europe”, ThomasFoster Earle, K. J. P. Lowe, Cambridge UniversityPress, 2005, ISBN 0-521-81582-7

• “Christopher Columbus and the enslavement of theAmerindians in the Caribbean. (Columbus andthe New World Order 1492–1992).”, Sued-Badillo,Jalil, Monthly Review. Monthly Review Founda-tion, Inc. 1992. HighBeam Research. 10 Aug.2009

• "Castile, Portugal, and the Canary Islands: Claimsand Counterclaims, 1344–1479”, Joseph F.O'Callaghan, 1993, p. 287–310, Viator, Volume 24

6 Further reading

• Texts on Wikisource:

• "Pope Sixtus IV" in the 1913 Catholic Ency-clopedia

5

• Clark, J. W., On the Vatican Library of SixtusIV

• Short Biography

• Marek, Miroslav. “Genealogy of Leonardo dellaRovere”. Genealogy.EU., father of Francesco dellaRovere, Pope Sixtus IV

• Roberto Weiss The medals of Pope Sixtus IV (1471-1484) (1961)

6 7 TEXT AND IMAGE SOURCES, CONTRIBUTORS, AND LICENSES

7 Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

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