with the major events of European history and to read Latin, so that they were able to understand the paintings in combination with their explanatory inscriptions (if there were any). I presume that they did not bring their history books in order to verify on the spot the historical content and accuracy of the paintings. Nor do I suppose that they consulted these books afterwards. They were essentially reliant on the information offered by the paintings and the explanatory inscriptions, which they must have accepted at face value, even if they sensed a propagandistic undertone.
I then analyze the paintings more comprehensively and explain the strategies by which the papal view on history was conveyed. Some historical and contextual knowledge is essential for understanding the paintings’ underlying assumptions about the status and significance of the papacy and the biblical, theological, and historical arguments that these assumptions are based on. In the first chapter I will briefly provide this information, together with a historical outline of the papacy in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries and a short discussion of some of the most important instances of papal propaganda, as these were the forerunners of the paintings that will be discussed extensively in the following chapters. Throughout the book, however, I have tried to observe some restraint in discussing contemporary sources, comparable paintings, and other relevant material. The paintings, in my view, should speak for themselves, as they were originally meant to, and not dissolve into their historical context. I have conceived these following chapters as largely separate episodes, each dealing with one specific series of paintings.
In the epilogue, I will go over the main points of the propagandistic strategies that were employed and suggest that the reason examples from the past no longer had the desired impact was not only the dwindling respect for the papacy, but a changing concept of history. New concepts and different strategies were necessary. The papacy’s propaganda, like the papacy itself, needed fresh impulses and a novel approach. What this new approach was, however, and how well it succeeded are questions that fall outside the scope of this book.
LIST OF POPES: FROM THE END OF THE GREAT SCHISM IN 1417 THROUGH GREGORY XIII
1
THE POPE, THE PAPACY, AND THE CHURCH
The fifteenth century opened with the Roman Catholic Church in serious crisis. For more than a thousand years, it had been teaching that Christ had delegated the full authority to govern his church to Saint Peter and his successors, the popes. As Christ had assigned this power to one man alone, not to all of his apostles, it was fundamental that there could only be one pope at a time. While the church could be represented by a general council (though not in the same way that a modern nation is represented by a parliament), its decisions always needed papal approval to become valid. The pope is not elected or appointed by the general council, and is in no way subordinate to it. In fact, church councils are not even involved in the procedures to elect a pope. Over the ages, these procedures varied considerably, but around 1400 they crystallized into the practice that is still in use today, in which the electoral college of cardinals meets in conclave to vote for the new pope. This tension between the pope, endowed with plenitude of power (plenitudo potestatis), which was held to have been divinely instituted, and the general council representing the church but having no real grip or influence on the pope, was an important factor in the fifteenth-century crisis.1
The direct roots of the crisis lay in the events of 1303, when Pope Boniface VIII died in the wake of a violent clash with the King of France, Philip IV. In an attempt to appease the conflict, the new pope, Clement V, gave in to the request of Philip IV and settled in Avignon in France.2 This marked the beginning of an era of heavy French dominance. Soon the majority of the College of Cardinals consisted of Frenchmen, and, as a consequence, Clement’s immediate successors were all French. The papal court remained firmly settled in Avignon until 1376, when Pope Gregory XI, under mounting international pressure and criticism, moved the Papal See back to Rome, where it historically belonged. His untimely death in 1378 moved the assembled cardinals to act swiftly and elect a new pope before the French king could interfere. They elected not a Frenchman, but the Italian archbishop of Bari, who adopted the name Urban VI. Stirred up by the French king, however, a group of dissenting cardinals refused to recognize this new pope and proceeded to elect Clement VII, of Swiss origin, who took up residence again in Avignon.
This embarrassing situation became even worse in 1409, when a large group of cardinals, bishops, and other church dignitaries, unhappy with the present circumstances and sensitive to the generally increasing feelings of displeasure with the state of the church, came together in Pisa. Rather than siding with either Gregory XII in Rome or Benedict XIII in Avignon, they elected a new pope, Alexander V. Both incumbent popes, however, disputed the legitimacy of this election and refused to withdraw in favor of a single new successor to Saint Peter. The Catholic world thus now had three popes.
The solution to this painful crisis did not come from within the church, but was forced by the German King Sigismund. In 1414, acting on the model of ancient Christian rulers like Constantine the Great, he summoned a council to Constance.3 His personal attendance and active involvement gave the council, after a hesitant start, increasing momentum and convinced many cautious and skeptical clerics to join. One of the decrees adopted during the deliberations directly affected the position of the pope and the extent of his authority. It stated that a general council was a lawful assembly that represented the universal church and held its power directly from Christ; everyone in the church, therefore, had to obey the general council, including the pope. Moreover, general councils should meet at regular intervals of several years. This decree considerably curbed the authority of the pope, making him a representative of the general council and restricting his powers to the limits set by it. The church, in other words, was no longer a papal monarchy; its head was the general council, of which the pope was the chief officer.
It was along these lines that the Council of Constance dealt with the three incumbent popes. The Pisan Pope John XXIII, who had actually convened the council at the instigation of King Sigismund and presided over its first sessions, fled when he perceived that his manipulations did not help his chances to become the “new” legitimate pope. He was soon caught, however, tried, and officially declared deposed on May 29, 1415. A few months later, his Roman rival, Gregory XII, also ceded. However, Gregory would not recognize a council summoned by John XXIII, and was therefore allowed the right to convene the council afresh, which he duly did on July 4. Now that the council was also legitimate in his eyes, he immediately offered his resignation. The council accepted it by declaring him ineligible for reelection. Pope Benedict XIII, representing the Avignon line, was less cooperative. He refused to resign and even had a successor after his death in 1423. This next pope, however, had so little support that he stepped down in 1429 and joined the supporters of the pope who had come out of the council as the one legitimate successor of Saint Peter: Martin V.
The election of Martin V took place in a very particular way and at a moment that ran counter to King Sigismund’s will. Next to ending the schism, reform of the church was the major topic on the council’s agenda. However, Sigismund’s advice to carry through reforms before electing a new pope was disregarded. The representatives of the various states feared that reformers from all over might join and use the chance to make the church more independent and harder to control, against their national interests. They preferred to elect a pope first and then try to deal individually with him, as this would increase their chances of securing their national good. After long discussions about the procedures to follow, a special conclave consisting of twenty-two cardinals and thirty representatives of France, England, Italy, Spain, and the German Empire elected Pope Martin V on November 11, 1417.
What King Sigismund had wanted to prevent immediately happened. The various nations tried to deal individually with the pope and were largely successful in doing so. The pope wrongly assumed that concluding separate pacts would reestablish his authority over the individual countries, and the outcome
