Clement VII and the Crisis of the Sack of Rome
Clement VII and the Crisis of the Sack of Rome
This chapter provides a discussion on the treatment of Clement VII and the Sack of Rome. It is suggested that the events in Rome caused Clement to relive the tragic assassination of his father, Giuliano de' Medici, during the Pazzi Conspiracy of 1478. Clement's diplomacy after the Sack of Rome shows a profound awareness of the Laurentian legacy and of the memory and myth of the Laurentian “golden age,” which had come to occupy such a large place in the consciousness of Florentine intellectual circles after 1494. Clement was not always the target of conspiracy; he was a conspirator, too. He turned to the past in his moment of crisis. The fact that the past failed him only testifies to those broader political and cultural changes that were then gathering force in Europe.
Keywords: Clement VII, Sack of Rome, assassination, Giuliano de' Medici, Laurentian legacy, conspiracy, conspirator, Pazzi Conspiracy
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