“I know of no one who loathes the ambition, the avarice, and the sensuality of the clergy more than I–both because each of these vices is hateful in itself and because each and all are hardly suited to those who profess to live a life dependent upon God.\u00a0 Furthermore, they are such contradictory vices that they cannot coexist in a subject unless he be very unusual indeed.<\/p>\n
In spite of all this, the positions I have held under several popes have forced me, for my own good, to further their interests.\u00a0 Were it not for that, I should have loved Martin Luther as much as myself–not so that I might be free of the laws based on Christian religion as it is generally interpreted and understood; but to see this bunch of rascals get their just deserts, that is, to be either without vices or without authority.” \u00a0Francesco Guicciardini, “Selections from Maxims and Reflections<\/em>,” in\u00a0The Civilization of the Italian Renaissance<\/em>, ed. Kenneth R. Bartlett, 2nd edition (Toronto 2011), p. 268.<\/p>\n Francesco Guicciardini (1483-1540) lived in Florence and received an education in the Renaissance humanist tradition.\u00a0 He served as a papal governor\u00a0in the Papal State under\u00a0the two de’ Medici popes, Leo X and Clement VII.\u00a0 In the 1530s he returned to Florence to\u00a0advise the duke of Florence,\u00a0Alessandro de’ Medici.\u00a0 He also\u00a0wrote a famous\u00a0history of Italy that focused on the political events since Charles VIII’s\u00a0French invasion of the peninsula in 1494.<\/p>\n This quote above comes\u00a0from Guicciardini’s\u00a0collection of maxims that examined a variety of subjects.\u00a0 Here he expresses an unflattering opinion concerning his papal bosses.\u00a0 The reference to Martin Luther also displays the importance the Lutheran Reformation played in international and ecclesiastical affairs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" “I know of no one who loathes the ambition, the avarice, and the sensuality of the clergy more than I–both because each of these vices is hateful in itself and because each and all are hardly suited to those who … Continue reading