Why do people keep asking me “you do know” what happened in 1300s and 16thcentury.
NO believe it or not I don’t know, I’m a new Catholic educating myself on the faith, hence the question.
Sheesh. I’m going to get my morning coffee now. I’ll be less agro after that
Oops! Sorry about that, I didn’t mean to unsettle your coffee. I can certainly appreciate a good pot or two in the morning.
The story is long, detailed full of good guys turned bad and bad guys turned good. At the time, King Henry VIII was picking out a new hair dresser for his queen, Catherine; probably to be held over for his Boeleyn (apparently short cropped hair, down to the neck was the in-thing). Charles V was the emperor, a champion of Christendom, was fighting off the Turks who were attacking Istanbul under Sultani Suleiman and would soon overrun Hungary. The Pope was Clement VII, Giulio di Giuliano de’ Medici, and coming from the Medici family was waist deep in family politics. Luther was literally raising hell in Germany, pillaging and burning Catholic Churches and monasteries. And like the devil the New Jesus himself would blame his reeducated peasantry for the mayhem. The Pope was both a secular and a spiritual leader of the Papal States. In the Americas the Spaniards were focused on Gold in Peru and the French were discovering the St. Lawrence River. I can only guess what fires were burning in Asia, but it seems just about the entire world was at each other’s throat. And then the Emperor and the Pope both simultaneously decide to become brain dead. In 1524 The Emperor found himself at war with the Papal States in Italy and France - don’t ask why, it would take at least 2 pots of coffee to explain. It was just another day on the blue marble seemingly without rhyme or reason.
In my part of the world history is told through the eyes of the Protestants. As a result the sacking of Rome is usually told with little discussion of the Lutheran influence which was only starting in Germany. Warren H. Carroll describes it this way:
The close association between Lutheran teaching and the revolution was apparent nearly everywhere that rebellion broke out. In southwestern Germany-Swabia and the Black Forest - where uprisings had taken place throughout the summer of 1524, the rebels (usually called “peasants,” though actually they included many townsmen) in March 1525 formulated their demands in twelve articles which were quickly published and spread throughout Germany in some 25,000 copies. The first and the last of these articles were explicitly Lutheran: that each parish should be allowed to choose it own pastor and that all laws were to be based on Scripture. Warren H. Carroll, A History of Christendom Vol. 4, The Cleaving of Christendom
[As an aside, we should note the similarity of this movement to the Islamic terrorists, in particular the weakening of the established by isolation and governance by the Koran - which by the way was used in the French Revolution, the Communist Revolution and the German Third Reich - all disastrous to the world]
Nevertheless, the movement of the Lutheran revolt was more political than spiritual; used as a political tool by the powerful to sway the allegiances of the masses. In this atmosphere the Pope declared war on the Emperor and aligned himself with Francis, King of France. The Emperor writes to the Pope< September 17, 1526, expressing his predictions that such a war would bring Christendom low saying, “The whole of Christendom is in this way shattered, treacherous enemies will drive the Christian flock step by step into false paths; new errors will spring up day by day; the doctrines of heretics will take firmer and firmer root.” One should wonder if Charles V was an emperor or a prophet of God as his prediction was to come true. Then he seems to go brain dead appointing the Colonna family (adversaries of the Medici family) to attack Rome. A large army was put together from all over the Empire including Germany. When it seemed things couldn’t get worse, it did. The army couldn’t be paid and was to quickly dwindle down to about 22,000 men three-quarters of which were commanded by a “ferocious warrior who was a convinced Lutheran as were most of his men.” The Popes forces were committed to other campaigns somewhere in Europe and as a result Rome stood nearly defenseless.
The remnant army was looking for booty and Rome was a cherry to be picked. “Suddenly,” writes Carroll, “this was a Lutheran and not an imperial army, dominated by followers of the man who had called upon his people to wash their hands in the blood of the clergy, eager to make Rome their objective. It could no longer b justly called Charles V’s army, for neither he nor his officers commanded it.” In the interim the Pope had changed his alliances and the army was now a rag tag group of mercenaries marauding down the Apennines eventually camping outside the walls of Rome. The half starved army had no money pay the soldiers and no place to go but forward. On May 6, 1527 they started their attack. After two failed attacks on the walls the marauders suddenly breach the Vatican.
continued. . .
).
and the Church in general if a successful attack was carried out and he managed to survive?