Nexus - 1403 - New Times Magazine-pages

Page Content (OCR)

production as "that abominable satire", dishonestly claiming that it was the origin of Pope Leo's frank admission (De Antiqua Ecclesiae Disciplina, Bishop Louis Dupin [Catholic historian], Paris folio, 1686). Pope Leo's successors and the sacking of Rome Catholic apologists say that a "really religious pope" succeeded Leo X, but they do not freely say why or how. From what information we have about him, it seems that he was ridiculed by the people of Rome and lasted a little over a year. The Conclave that elected him, held at a time when half of Germany was in Protestant revolt, is described by Catholic professor F. H. Kraus in The Cambridge Modern History as "a spectacle of the most disgraceful party struggles ever seen in the papacy" (1902 ed., "Conclaves" entry). The conflicts of greed : iF ‘ reached a deadlock and Adriaan Florenszoon a a, a is | Boeyens (1459-1523), a Dutchman from This engraving depicts Pope Clement VII with plumed and armed cardinals assisted Utrecht who could not speak the Italian by curates and attempting to escape during the "disastrous humiliation of the sack o' language, was subsequently elected pope in Rome" (The Papacy, George Weidenfeld & Nicolson Ltd, op. cit., pp. 137-139, absentia. He later entered Rome as Pope passim). In the background are scenes of fighting and looting. The pope was Adrian VI (1522-23), promising reform in captured and imprisoned in the Castel Sant’ Angelo, the circular building shown in the Church and saying, "We, prelates and _ the top left area of the engraving. (© Film Library of Roman Antiquities, Milan, Italy) clergy, have gone astray from the right path, and for a long time there is none that has done good, no, no one" 32,000 in eight days. Included in the carnage were the deaths of (Secrets of the Christian Fathers, Bishop J. W. Sergerus, 1685, 147 Swiss Guardsmen in the Vatican. Again, papal nepotism and 1897 reprint, p. 227). the lust for territory had brought ruin upon the Romans: this time, Since it was standard procedure for Romans to drag statues of a arguably the worst rape of a great city in history. Rome was laid pope through the mud after the pope's death, the new pope issued a waste, its churches profaned, its treasures plundered, its libraries bull declaring the practice illegal. After looting his wine cellar in pillaged, people murdered, and nuns raped and tortured to death by response, the Roman populace laughed him out of existence. He what the Church called "a rabble of miscreants" ( Catholic died on 14 September 1523, and the Romans gave vent to their Encyclopedia, Pecci ed., ii. p. 166). hatred for the foreigner in a pasquinade "in a language that had not Catholic writers put against this the contemporary activity of been heard since the days of Bernard of Clairvaux" (d. 1153) (The various Church reformers in parts of Italy and the refusal of Papacy, George Weidenfeld & Nicolson Ltd, London, 1954, op. Clement to grant King Henry VIII a divorce from Catherine of cit., pp. 137-139). The later Church frankly conceded that Pope Aragon. But, said Cardinal Cajetan, "it was a just judgment of the Adrian VI "was hated by all and loved by none", adding that people ... the papacy aimed henceforth at becoming an ‘ideal "however regarded, the pontificate of the last non-Italian pope was government' under a spiritual and converted clergy" (Catholic only an episode" (ibid.). Encyclopedia, xii, pp. 767-769). This was decades after the The next Conclave took 20 days and the cardinals were in sucha __ boasted "reformation in Head and members" of the Church assured hurry to receive another round of bribes that they strutted to the by Pope Alexander VI (Catholic Encyclopedia xiv, pp. 32-33). So Sistine Chapel dressed in the garb of fashionable cavaliers, with here the Augean stables were at length cleansed; the papacy, for plumed hats, gay vests, mantles, silver spurs and flowing robes. the seventh time in its own editions of the Catholic Encyclopedia, Giulio de' Medici (1478-1534), a bastard child of the great is recorded as having "sunk to its lowest ebb" but now promised to Florentine family, made them the highest bid and he became Pope become an "ideal government", and the Vatican confessed that "the Clement VII (1523-34). Under his papacy, Rome fell in 1527. lemand for reform in the Church was, in fact, not unjustified" It is an extraordinary story, one which space prevents our giving (Catholic Encyclopedia, xiv, pp. 264-265). a full account of, and is yet another little-known episode in the bizarre history of the Christian Church. Pope Clement was as The fraudulent Book of the Popes treacherous and dishonourable in his public conduct as his cousin, What we may today call the "foreign policy" of the papacy Pope Leo X, and drew upon himself the contempt as well as hatred uring our 631-year overview brought an incalculable volume of of all who had dealings with him. His excesses shocked Europe, savage warfare and bloodshed upon Italy and Europe. The papacy and it was his crooked ways and his cowardly subterfuges which can only be relieved of the charge of savagery on the ground that led to the taking and pillaging of Rome by Christian troops of the popes were determined at any cost to have an earthly kingdom and Spanish king Charles V (1500-58; later Holy Roman Emperor, its revenues. In pursuance of that purpose, the papal office has 1530-58). Stung by Clement's perfidy, the emperor launched his lemonstrated a record of centuries of unparalleled corruption and cardinal-led army upon the city on 6 May 1527, and so savage was _criminality, and to hide this fact the Church provided itself with the attack that the population of Rome was reduced from 98,000 to concocted books about its popes that are "wise and salutary 32,000 in eight days. Included in the carnage were the deaths of 147 Swiss Guardsmen in the Vatican. Again, papal nepotism and the lust for territory had brought ruin upon the Romans: this time, arguably the worst rape of a great city in history. Rome was laid waste, its churches profaned, its treasures plundered, its libraries pillaged, people murdered, and nuns raped and tortured to death by what the Church called "a rabble of miscreants" ( Catholic Encyclopedia, Pecci ed., ii. p. 166). Catholic writers put against this the contemporary activity of various Church reformers in parts of Italy and the refusal of Clement to grant King Henry VIII a divorce from Catherine of Aragon. But, said Cardinal Cajetan, "it was a just judgment of the people ... the papacy aimed henceforth at becoming an ‘ideal government’ under a spiritual and converted clergy" ( Catholic Encyclopedia, xii, pp. 767-769). This was decades after the boasted "reformation in Head and members" of the Church assured by Pope Alexander VI (Catholic Encyclopedia xiv, pp. 32-33). So here the Augean stables were at length cleansed; the papacy, for the seventh time in its own editions of the Catholic Encyclopedia, is recorded as having "sunk to its lowest ebb" but now promised to become an "ideal government", and the Vatican confessed that "the demand for reform in the Church was, in fact, not unjustified" (Catholic Encyclopedia, xiv, pp. 264-265). The fraudulent Book of the Popes What we may today call the "foreign policy" of the papacy during our 631-year overview brought an incalculable volume of savage warfare and bloodshed upon Italy and Europe. The papacy can only be relieved of the charge of savagery on the ground that popes were determined at any cost to have an earthly kingdom and its revenues. In pursuance of that purpose, the papal office has demonstrated a record of centuries of unparalleled corruption and criminality, and to hide this fact the Church provided itself with concocted books about its popes that are "wise and salutary APRIL — MAY 2007 NEXUS = 53 www.nexusmagazine.com