Editing Pope Clement VII (section)

=== Political legacy ===
[[File:Angelo Bronzino - Portrait of Pope Clement VII - WGA3272.jpg|thumb|left|[[Agnolo Bronzino]] – Portrait of Pope Clement VII]]
Clement VII's papacy is generally regarded as one of history's most tumultuous; opinions of Clement himself are often nuanced.<ref name="encyclopedia.com" /> For example, Clement's contemporary [[Francesco Vettori]] writes that he "endured a great labor to become, from a great and respected cardinal, a small and little-esteemed pope", but also that "if one considers the lives of previous popes one may truly say that, for more than a hundred years, no better man than Clement VII sat upon the Throne. Nevertheless, it was in his day that the disaster took place while these others, who were filled with all vices, lived and died in felicity—as the world sees it. Neither should we seek to question the Lord, our God, who will punish—or not punish–in what manner and in what time it pleases him."<ref name=":3">{{cite book |last=Chamberlin |first=E.R. |title=The Bad Popes |date=1969 |publisher=Dial Press |isbn=0880291168 |location=New York |page=}}</ref>{{rp|280}}

The disasters of Clement's pontificate—the Sack of Rome and the English Reformation—are regarded as turning points in the histories of Catholicism, Europe, and the Renaissance.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.catholicdigest.com/faith/spirituality/key-figures-of-the-reformation-pope-clement-vii/|title = Key figures of the Reformation: Pope Clement VII|date = 20 January 2020}}</ref> Modern historian Kenneth Gouwens writes, "Clement's failures must be viewed above all in the context of major changes in the dynamics of European politics. As warfare on the Italian peninsula intensified in the mid-1520s, the imperative of autonomy [for the Catholic Church and Italy] required enormous financial outlays to field standing armies. Political survival perforce eclipsed ecclesiastical reform as a short-term goal, and the costs of war necessitated the curtailment of expenditure on culture. Clement pursued policies consistent with those of his illustrious predecessors Julius II and Leo X; but in the 1520s, those policies could but fail.... Reform of the Church, to which his successors would turn, required resources and concerted secular support that the second Medici pope was unable to muster."<ref name=":2">{{cite book |last=Corkery |first=James |title=The Papacy Since 1500: From Italian Prince to Universal Pastor. Edited by James Corkery and Thomas Worcester |date=2010 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0521509879 |location=Cambridge |page=}}</ref>{{rp|31}}

Regarding Clement's struggle to liberate Italy and the Catholic Church from foreign domination, historian Fred Dotolo writes that "one might see in his papacy a vigorous defense of papal rights against the growth of monarchial power, a diplomatic and even pastoral struggle to retain the ancient division within Christendom of the priestly and kingly offices. Should the new monarchs of the early modern period reduce the papacy to a mere appendage of secular authority, religious issues would become little more than state policy.... Clement VII attempted to restrain the expansion of royal power and maintain the independence of Rome and of papal prerogatives."<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Dotolo |first=Fred |date=2008-05-01 |title=Priest and Prince: Clement VII and the Struggle of Church and State in the Renaissance |url=https://fisherpub.sjf.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1127&context=verbum |journal=Verbum |volume=5 |issue=2 |pages=78–83}}</ref>

Ecclesiastically, Clement is remembered for orders protecting [[Marrano|Jews]] from the [[Portuguese Inquisition|Inquisition]], approving the [[Theatine]],<ref name=":4">{{cite book |last=Salomoni |first=David |title=Educating the Catholic People: Religious Orders and Their Schools in Early Modern Italy (1500–1800) |publisher=Brill |year=2021 |pages=}}</ref>{{rp|324}} [[Barnabite]],<ref name=":4" />{{rp|47-48}} and [[Capuchin Franciscan Order|Capuchin]] Orders,<ref>{{cite book |chapter=The new orders |first=H.O. |last=Evennett |title=The New Cambridge Modern History |volume=2, The Reformation, 1520–1559 |editor-first=G. R. |editor-last=Elton |edition=2 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2004 |pages=320–321}}</ref> and securing the island of [[Malta]] for the [[Knights of Malta]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/12273-popes-the|title=Popes, The|website=jewishencyclopedia.com}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.knightsofmalta.com/history/history.html|title=Knights of Malta |website=www.knightsofmalta.com|access-date=19 January 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120224054406/http://www.knightsofmalta.com/history/history.html|archive-date=24 February 2012|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name="auto7" />

In a final analysis of Clement's papacy, historian E.R. Chamberlin writes, "in all but his personal attributes, Clement VII was a protagonist in a Greek tragedy, the victim called upon to endure the results of actions committed long before. Each temporal claim of his predecessors had entangled the Papacy just a little more in the lethal game of politics, even while each moral debasement divorced it just a little more from the vast body of Christians from whom ultimately it drew its strength."<ref name=":3" />{{rp|278}} More charitably, modern historian James Grubb writes, "indeed, at a certain point it is difficult to see how he might have fared much better, given the obstacles he faced. Certainly his predecessors since the end of the Schism had experienced their share of opposition, but did any have to fight on so many fronts as Clement, and against such overwhelming odds? At one time or another he battled the Holy Roman Empire (now fueled by precious metals from America), the French, the Turks, rival Italian powers, fractious forces within the papal states, and entrenched interests within the Curia itself. That the precious liberta d'Italia (freedom from outside domination) should have been lost irrevocably seems more an inevitability than a product of Clement's particular failings. He tried his utost...."<ref>{{cite journal |last=Grubb |first=J.S. |date=August 2006 |title= ''The Pontificate of Clement VII. History, Politics, Culture'', edited by Kenneth Gouwens and Sheryl E. Reiss |journal=Renaissance Studies |volume=20 |issue=4 |pages=596–598 |doi=10.1111/j.1477-4658.2006.00214.x}}</ref>