Gerard Noel

The Renaissance Poes

Statesmen, Warriors and the Borgia Myth

New York 2006

Stron IX+403, format: 16x24 cm

The Italian Renaissance pushed back the Dark Ages as it made way for the modern age. Between the years of 1447 (Nicholas V) and 1572 (Pius V) Rome was transformed from a ruined medieval city. The Vatican became the official home of the church and the world's largest bureaucracy, the spectacular new Basilica of Saint Peter took 100 years to build and Michelangelo changed the course of art history with his Sistine Chapel. So vast and expensive was this cultural explosion that a new fundraising initiative was launched: the sale of indulgences.

The Renaissance Popes were statesmen, warriors and patrons of the arts, as well as churchmen. These were earthly times and the reputations of popes like Alexander VI, the infamous Borgia patriarch, and Julius 'II Terribile' II for murder, poison, sodomy and simony vary only in degree. Meanwhile, the sin of heresy, which threatens the very core of the Catholic soul, was tirelessly targeted by two other lasting innovations of the period: the Inquisition and witch-hunts.

Alexander VI, father of the ruthless Cesare and jezebel Lucrezia, is seen to this day as the embodiment of this iniquity. But Gerard Noel shows this is injust, based on false confessions and unanswered historical myth. What's more, Alexander created the blueprint for reform— the first of its kind—that would eventually lead to the Counter-Reformation.

In his survey of the colourful reigns of these seventeen popes, set against the spectacular back­drop of the Renaissance, Noel brings to light the true legacy—artistic, political, religious—of an extraordinary time.

CONTENTS



PART I: POPES OF THE EARLY RENAISSANCE 13
Chapter 1. Pope Nicholas V (1447-55) 15
Chapter 2. Pope Calixtus III (1455-58) 23
Chapter 3. Pope Pius II (1458-64) 29
Chapter 4. Pope Paul II (1464-71) 47
Chapter 5. Pope Sixtus IV (1471-84) 55
Chapter 6. Pope Innocent VIII (1484-92) 65
PART II: POPE ALEXANDER VI (1[zasłonięte]492-15) 75
Chapter 1. The Election of Rodrigo Borgia 77
Chapter 2. The First Year as Pope 93
Chapter 3. Schemes, Scandals, Fanaticism and Invasion Ill
Chapter 4. A Foul Murder and a Live Burning 131
Chapter 5. Murder in the Vatican 147
Chapter 6. A Man 'Terrible in Revenge' 163
Chapter 7. The End of Alexander's Reign 177
Chapter 8. The Myth and the Man 191
PART III: POPES OF THE HIGH RENAISSANCE AND COUNTER-REFORMATION 203
Prologue 205
Chapter 1. Pope Pius III (22 September-18 October 1503) . . .209
Chapter 2. Pope Julius II (1503-13) 213
Chapter 3. Pope Leo X (1513-21) 235
Chapter 4. Pope Hadrian VI (1522-23) 255
Chapter 5. Pope Clement VII (1523-34) 261
Chapter 6. Pope Paul III (1534-49) 285
Chapter 7. Pope Julius III (1550-55) 299
Chapter 8. Pope Marcellus II (9 April-1 May 1555) 307
Chapter 9. Pope Paul IV (1555-59) 309
Chapter 10. Pope Pius IV (1559-65) 319
Chapter 11. Pope Pius V (1566-72) 329
Appendix I: Henry Charles Lea 343
Appendix II: Timeline 344
Appendix III: The Road to the Pontificate 349
Notes 351
Bibliographic Handlist 357
General Bibliography 370
Miscellaneous Bibliography 383
Art and Architecture Bibliography 386
Index 389