Dab solver - Pope Sixtus IV

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== The cardinals of Sixtus IV ==

{{See also|Cardinals created by Sixtus IV}}

Sixtus created an unusually large number of cardinals during his pontificate (twenty-three), drawn from the roster of the princely houses of Italy, France and Spain; thus ensuring that many of his policies continued after his death:

{{col-begin}}
{{col-break|width=33%}}
*Giuliano della Rovere (later [[Pope Julius II]])
*[[Stefano Nardini]]
*[[Pedro Gonsalvez de Mendoza]]
*Giovanni Battista Cybo (later [[Pope Innocent VIII]])
*[[Giovanni Arcimboldi]]
*[[Philibert Hugonet]]
*[[Giorgio da Costa]]
*[[...|Charles de Bourbon]]
*[[Pierre de Foix le jeune]]
*[[Girolamo Basso della Rovere]]
*[[Gabriele Rangoni]]
*[[Pietro Foscari]]
{{col-break|width=33%}}
*[[Juan of Aragon]]
*[[Raffaele Riario|Raffaele Sansoni Riario]]
*[[Domenico della Rovere]]
*[[Paolo Fregoso]]
*[[Giovanni Battista Savelli]]
*
*[[Giovanni Conti]]
*[[Juan Moles de Margarit]]
*[[Giovanni Giacomo Sclafenati]]
*[[Giovanni Battista Orsini]]
*[[Ascanio Sforza|Ascanio Maria Sforza-Visconti]]
{{col-end}}

== References ==

*"The Historical Encyclopedia of World slavery", Editor Junius P. Rodriguez, ABC-CLIO, 1997, ISBN 0-87436-885-5
*"Black Africans in Renaissance Europe", Thomas Foster Earle, K. J. P. Lowe, Cambridge University Press, 2005, ISBN 0-521-81582-7
*"Christopher Columbus and the enslavement of the Amerindians in the Caribbean. (Columbus and the New World Order 1492–1992).", Sued-Badillo, Jalil, Monthly Review. Monthly Review Foundation, Inc. 1992. HighBeam Research. 10 Aug. 2009
*"Castile, Portugal, and the Canary Islands: Claims and Counterclaims, 1344–1479", Joseph F. O'Callaghan, 1993, p.&nbsp;287–310, Viator, Volume 24

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{{Infobox Christian leader | type = Pope
|English name=Sixtus IV
|image=Pope Sixtus IV (head).jpg
|image_size = 170px
|birth_name=Francesco della Rovere
|term_start=9 August 1471
|term_end=12 August 1484
|predecessor=[[Pope Paul II|Paul II]]
|successor=[[Pope Innocent VIII|Innocent VIII]]
| ordination = 
| ordinated_by =
| consecration =25 August 1471
| consecrated_by =[[Guillaume d’Estouteville]] 
| cardinal =18 September 1467
|birth_date={{Birth date|1414|7|21|df=y}}
|birth_place=[[Celle Ligure]], [[Republic of Genoa]]
|death_date={{death date and age|1484|8|12|1414|7|21|df=y}}
|death_place=[[Rome]], [[Papal States]]
|other=Sixtus}}
{{Infobox popestyles
|image      = C o a Sisto IV.svg
|dipstyle   = [[His Holiness]]
|offstyle   = Your Holiness
|relstyle   = Holy Father
|deathstyle = None
|}}

'''Sixtus IV''' ({{lang-la|Xystus PP. IV}}, {{lang-it|Sisto IV}}; 21 July 1414 – 12 August 1484), born '''Francesco [[House of della Rovere|della Rovere]]''', was [[Pope]] from 1471 to 1484. His accomplishments as Pope included the establishment of the [[Sistine Chapel]]; the group of artists that he brought together introduced the Early [[Renaissance]] into Rome with the first masterpiece of the city's new artistic age, the [[Vatican Library|Vatican]] Archives.  Sixtus also furthered the agenda of the [[Spanish Inquisition]] and annulled the decrees of the [[Council of Constance]]. He was famed for his nepotism and was personally involved in the infamous [[Pazzi Conspiracy]].<ref>Lauro Martines, ''April Blood: Florence and the Plot Against the Medici'', Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003, pp. 150–196.</ref>

==Biography==
===Early career===

Francesco was born to a family of modest means from [[Liguria]], [[Italy]], the son of Leonardo della Rovere and Luchina Monleoni. He was born in [[Celle Ligure]], a town near [[Savona]].

As a young man he joined the [[Franciscan|Franciscan Order]], an unlikely choice for a political career, and his intellectual qualities were revealed while he was studying [[philosophy]] and [[theology]] at the [[University of Pavia]]. He went on to lecture at many eminent Italian universities.

In 1464, Francesco della Rovere was elected [[Minister General of the Franciscan order]] at the age of 50. In 1467, he was appointed [[Cardinal (Catholicism)|Cardinal]] of San Pietro in Vincoli by [[Pope Paul II]]. Before his papal election, Cardinal della Rovere was renowned for his unworldliness and had even written learned treatises entitled ''On the Blood of Christ'' and ''On the Power of God''.<ref>Martines, ''April Blood'', p. 159</ref> His pious reputation was one of the deciding factors that prompted the [[College of Cardinals]] to elect him pope upon the unexpected death of Paul II at the age of fifty-four.<ref>Richard P. McBrien, ''Lives of the Popes'', New York: HarpersSanFrancisco, 1997, p.264-5.</ref>

===Papal election===
{{Main|Papal conclave, 1471}}

Upon election to pope he adopted the name Sixtus – a name that had not been used since the 5th century. One of his first acts was to declare a renewed [[crusade]] against the [[Ottoman Turks]] in [[Smyrna]]. Fund-raising for the crusade was more successful than the half-hearted attempts to storm Smyrna, with little to show in return. Some fruitless attempts were made towards unification with the [[Eastern Orthodox Church|Greek Church]]. For the remainder of his pontificate, Sixtus turned to temporal issues and dynastic considerations. Sixtus continued a dispute with King [[Louis XI of France]], who upheld the [[Pragmatic Sanction of Bourges]] (1438), according to which papal decrees needed royal assent before they could be promulgated in France. This was a cornerstone of the privileges claimed for the [[Gallican Church]], and could never be shifted as long as Louis XI maneuvered to replace King [[Ferdinand I of Naples]] with a French prince. Louis was thus in conflict with the papacy and Sixtus (as a princely strategist himself) could not permit it.

===Nepotism===
[[Image:Sixtus IV.png|200px|thumb|left]]
Like a number of Popes, Sixtus IV adhered to the system of [[nepotism]]. In the fresco by [[Melozzo da Forlì]] he is accompanied by his [[Della Rovere]] and [[Riario]] nephews, not all of whom were made cardinals: the [[protonotary apostolic]] [[Pietro Riario]] (on his right), the future Pope [[Julius II]] standing before him, and [[Girolamo Riario]] and [[Giovanni della Rovere]] behind the kneeling [[Bartolomeo Platina|Platina]], author of the first [[Humanism|humanist]] history of the Popes. His nephew [[Pietro Riario]] also benefited from his nepotism. Pietro became one of the richest men in [[Rome]] and was entrusted with Sixtus IV's foreign policy. However, Pietro died prematurely in 1474, and his role passed to Giuliano della Rovere.

The secular fortunes of the Della Rovere began when Sixtus invested his nephew [[Giovanni della Rovere|Giovanni]] with the lordship of [[Senigallia]] and arranged his marriage to the daughter of [[Federico III da Montefeltro]], duke of [[Urbino]]; from this union came a line of Della Rovere dukes of Urbino that lasted until the line expired in 1631.<ref>On his premature death (1501), Giovanni entrusted his son [[Francesco Maria I della Rovere|Francesco Maria]] to Federico's successor [[Guidobaldo I da Montefeltro|Guidobaldo]] (Duke of Urbino 1482–1508) who, without an heir, devised the duchy on the boy.</ref> Six of the thirty-four cardinals that he created were his nephews.<ref>McBrien, ''Lives of the Popes'', p. 265.</ref>

In his territorial aggrandizement of the [[Papal States]], Sixtus IV's niece's son Cardinal [[Raffaele Riario]], for whom the [[Palazzo della Cancelleria]] was constructed, was a leader in the failed [[Pazzi|"Pazzi conspiracy]]" of 1478 to assassinate both [[Lorenzo de' Medici]] and his brother [[Giuliano di Piero de' Medici|Giuliano]] and replace them in [[Florence]] with Sixtus IV's other nephew, [[Riario|Girolamo Riario]]. [[Francesco Salviati (archbishop)|Francesco Salviati]], [[Archbishop of Pisa]] and a main organizer of the plot, was hanged on the walls of the Florentine [[Palazzo della Signoria]]. To this, Sixtus IV replied with an [[interdict]] and two years' of war with Florence. He also encouraged the [[Republic of Venice|Venetians]] to attack [[Ferrara]], which he wished to obtain for another nephew. The angered Italian princes allied to force Sixtus IV to make peace, to his great annoyance.

===Foreign policy===
[[Image:Sisto 4.gif|thumb|200px|A later portrait of Sixtus IV [[Titian]] [[Uffizi]]]]
As a temporal prince who constructed stout fortresses in the [[Papal States]], Sixtus IV committed himself to [[Venice|Venice's]] aggression against [[Ercole I d'Este]], [[Duke of Ferrara]], inciting the Venetians to attack in 1482 in the so-called [[War of Ferrara]]. Their combined assault was opposed by an alliance of the [[Sforza]]s of [[Milan]], the [[Medici]]s of [[Florence]] along with the [[King of Naples]], normally a hereditary ally and champion of the Papacy. For refusing to desist from the very hostilities that he himself had instigated (and for being a dangerous rival to Della Rovere dynastic ambitions in the [[Marche]]), Sixtus IV placed Venice under interdict in 1483.

On 1 November 1478, Sixtus published the Papal bull ''Exigit Sinceras Devotionis Affectus'', through which the [[Spanish Inquisition]] was established in the [[Kingdom of Castile]]. Sixtus IV consented under political pressure from [[Ferdinand II of Aragon|Ferdinand of Aragon]], who threatened to withhold military support from his kingdom of [[Sicily]].{{Citation needed|date=March 2011}} Nevertheless, Sixtus IV quarrelled over protocol and prerogatives of jurisdiction, was unhappy with the excesses of the Inquisition and condemned the most flagrant abuses in 1482.<ref>"Sixtus IV." Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopaedia Britannica 2008 Ultimate Reference Suite.  Chicago: Encyclopædia Britannica, 2008.</ref>

In ecclesiastical affairs, Sixtus IV instituted 8 December as the Feast of the [[Immaculate Conception]] of the [[Mary, the mother of Jesus|Virgin Mary]]. He formally annulled the decrees of the [[Council of Constance]] in 1478.

===Slavery===
The two papal bulls issued by [[Pope Nicholas V]], ''[[Dum Diversas]]'' of 1452 and ''[[Romanus Pontifex]]'' of 1455, had effectively given the Portuguese the rights to acquire [[Slavery|slaves]] along the African coast by force or trade. These concessions were confirmed by Sixtus in his own bull, ''Aeterni regi'' of 21 June 1481.<ref>Raiswell, p. 469 see also "Black Africans in Renaissance Europe", P. 281</ref> Arguably the "ideology of conquest" expounded in these texts became the means by which commerce and conversion were facilitated.<ref>Traboulay 1994, P. 78-79.</ref>  Sixtus' earlier threats to excommunicate all captains or pirates who enslaved Christians in the bull ''Regimini Gregis'' of 1476 could have been intended to emphasise the need to convert the natives of the [[Canary Islands]] and [[Guinea]] and establish a clear difference in status between those who had converted and those who resisted.<ref>Sued-Badillo (2007, see also O'Callaghan,  p. 287-310</ref> The ecclesiastical penalties were directed towards those who were enslaving the recent converts.<ref>"''Slavery and the Catholic Church"'', John Francis Maxwell, p. 52, Barry Rose Publishers, 1975</ref>

===Sexuality===
Sixtus has been accused of having had male lovers,<ref name="books.google.com">http://books.google.com/books?lr=&ei=CWUPSMLhGKDsygTH0ti9Ag&output=html&as_brr=1&id=BM6DAz1tefoC&jtp=21</ref><ref name="NC">{{cite web | title=Sex Lives of the Popes | publisher=Prion | date=1996 | author=Nigel Cawthorne | pages=160}}</ref> as mentioned in the diary records of 1484 of the historian [[Stefano Infessura]].<ref>Stefano Infessura, ''Diario della città di Roma (1303-1494)'', Ist. St. italiano, Tip. Forzani, Roma 1890, pp. 155-156</ref> Infessura called him a "lover of boys and sodomites", and suggested he awarded benefices and bishoprics in return for sexual favours and nominated a number of young men as cardinals, some of whom were celebrated for their looks (including his own nephews).

While it is indisputable that Sixtus favoured his relatives in the hope of having faithful executors of policy, as was often the practice at that time, there is less evidence of direct corruption or favouritism. The exception may perhaps be [[Giovanni Sclafenato]], who was appointed as cardinal according to the papal epitaph on his tomb for "ingenuousness, loyalty and his other gifts of soul and body"<ref>Mario Masini and Giuseppe Portigliotti, 'Attraverso il Rinascimento. Pier Luigi Farnese', "Archivio di antropologia criminale", vol. XXXVIII 1917, p. 473</ref> Scurrilous [[pasquinade]]s were also said to have appeared on the statues of Rome.

The English theologian [[John Bale]] attributed to Sixtus "the authorisation to practice [[sodomy]] during periods of warm weather" to the Cardinal of [[Santa Lucia]].{{dn|date=March 2013}}<ref>Giovanni Lydus, ''Analecta in librum Nicolai de Clemangiis, De corrupto Ecclesiae statu''. In calce a: Nicolas de Clemanges, Opera omnia, Elzevirius & Laurentius, Lugduni Batavorum 1593, p. 9)</ref> Likewise an anonymous work, ''True history of the lives of the Popes of Rome'', circulated in London during 1679, which accused Sixtus of setting up a brothel for both sexes. However, such accusations by [[Protestant]] polemicists are easily dismissed as anti-Catholic propaganda.<ref name="books.google.com"/>, but nevertheless prompted the noted historian of the Catholic Church, [[Ludwig von Pastor]], to issue a firm rebuttal.<ref>Ludwig Pastor, ''History of the Popes'' [1889], vol. II, Desclée, Roma 1911, pp. 608-611</ref>

===Princely patronage===
[[Image:Melozzo da Forlì 001.jpg|thumb|left|Pope Sixtus IV appoints Platina as Prefect of the Library, by Melozzo da Forlì]]
As a civic patron in Rome, even the anti-papal chronicler Stefano Infessura agreed that Sixtus IV should be admired.  The dedicatory inscription in the fresco by [[Melozzo da Forlì]] in the [[Vatican Palace]] records: "You gave your city temples, streets, squares, fortifications, bridges and restored the [[Acqua Vergine]] as far as the [[Trevi Fountain|Trevi]]..." In addition to restoring the aqueduct that provided Rome an alternative to the river water that had made the city famously unhealthy, he restored or rebuilt over 30 of Rome's dilapidated churches, among them San Vitale (1475) and Santa Maria del Popolo, and added seven new ones. The [[Sistine Chapel]] was sponsored by Sixtus IV, as was the ''Ponte Sisto'', the Sistine Bridge – the first new bridge across the [[Tiber]] since antiquity – and the building of ''Via Sistina'' (later named ''Borgo Sant'Angelo''), a road leading from [[Castel Sant'Angelo]] to Saint Peter. All this was done to facilitate the integration of the [[Vatican Hill]] and [[borgo (rione of Rome)|Borgo]] with the heart of old Rome. This was part of a broader scheme of [[urbanization]] carried out under Sixtus IV, who swept the long-established markets from the [[Capitoline Hill|Campidoglio]] in 1477 and decreed in a bull of 1480 the widening of streets and the first post-Roman paving, the removal of porticoes and other post-classical impediments to free public passage.
[[Image:Ponte Sisto, Rome.jpg|thumb|Ponte Sisto, the first bridge built at Rome since Antiquity]]
At the beginning of his papacy in 1471, Sixtus IV donated several historically important Roman sculptures that founded a papal collection of art that would eventually develop into the collections of the [[Capitoline Museums]]. He also refounded, enriched and enlarged the [[Vatican Library]]. He had [[Regiomontanus]] attempt the first sanctioned reorganization of the [[Julian calendar]] and increased the size and prestige of the papal chapel choir, bringing singers and some prominent composers (Gaspar van Weerbeke, Marbrianus de Orto, and Bertrandus Vaqueras) to Rome from the North.

In addition to being a patron of the arts, Sixtus IV was a patron of the sciences.  Before becoming Pope, he spent time at the then very liberal and cosmopolitan [[University of Padua]], which maintained considerable independence from the Church and had a very international character.  As Pope, he issued a papal bull allowing local bishops to give the bodies of executed criminals and unidentified corpses to physicians and artists for dissection.  It was this access to corpses which allowed the anatomist [[Vesalius]] along with [[Titian]]'s pupil [[Jan Van Calcar|Jan Stephen van Calcar]] to complete the revolutionary medical/anatomical text ''[[De humani corporis fabrica]]''.

===Death===
[[Image:Tomb of Sixtus IV Color.jpg|thumb|left|Tomb of Sixtus IV by Antonio del Pollaiolo
]]His tomb was destroyed in the [[Sack of Rome (1527)|Sack of Rome in 1527]]. Today, his remains, along with the remains of his nephew Pope Julius II (Giuliano della Rovere), are interred in St. Peter's Basilica in the floor in front of the monument to Pope Clement X. A simple marble tombstone marks the site.
His bronze funerary monument, now in the basement Treasury of [[St. Peter's Basilica]], like a giant casket of goldsmith's work, is by [[Antonio Pollaiuolo]]. The top of the casket is a lifelike depiction of the Pope lying in state. Around the sides are bas relief panels, depicting with allegorical female figures the arts and sciences (Grammar, Rhetoric, Arithmetic, Geometry, Music, Painting, Astronomy, Philosophy, and Theology). Each figure incorporates the oak tree ("rovere" in Italian) symbol of Sixtus IV. The overall program of these panels, their beauty, complex symbolism, classical references, and arrangement relative to each other is one of the most compelling and comprehensive illustrations of the Renaissance worldview.

==The cardinals of Sixtus IV==
{{See also|Cardinals created by Sixtus IV}}

Sixtus created an unusually large number of cardinals during his pontificate (twenty-three), drawn from the roster of the princely houses of Italy, France and Spain; thus ensuring that many of his policies continued after his death:

{{col-begin}}
{{col-break|width=33%}}
*Giuliano della Rovere (later [[Pope Julius II]])
*[[Stefano Nardini]]
*[[Pedro Gonsalvez de Mendoza]]
*Giovanni Battista Cybo (later [[Pope Innocent VIII]])
*[[Giovanni Arcimboldi]]
*[[Philibert Hugonet]]
*[[Giorgio da Costa]]
*[[Charles II, Duke of Bourbon|Charles de Bourbon]]
*[[Pierre de Foix le jeune]]
*[[Girolamo Basso della Rovere]]
*[[Gabriele Rangoni]]
*[[Pietro Foscari]]
{{col-break|width=33%}}
*[[Juan of Aragon]]
*[[Raffaele Riario|Raffaele Sansoni Riario]]
*[[Domenico della Rovere]]
*[[Paolo Fregoso]]
*[[Giovanni Battista Savelli]]
*<<link:0>>
*[[Giovanni Conti]]
*[[Juan Moles de Margarit]]
*[[Giovanni Giacomo Sclafenati]]
*[[Giovanni Battista Orsini]]
*[[Ascanio Sforza|Ascanio Maria Sforza-Visconti]]
{{col-end}}

==References==
*''"The Historical Encyclopedia of World slavery"'', Editor Junius P. Rodriguez, ABC-CLIO, 1997, ISBN 0-87436-885-5
*''"Black Africans in Renaissance Europe"'', Thomas Foster Earle, K. J. P. Lowe, Cambridge University Press, 2005, ISBN 0-521-81582-7
*''"Christopher Columbus and the enslavement of the Amerindians in the Caribbean. (Columbus and the New World Order 1492–1992)."'', Sued-Badillo, Jalil, Monthly Review. Monthly Review Foundation, Inc. 1992. HighBeam Research. 10 Aug. 2009
*"''Castile, Portugal, and the Canary Islands: Claims and Counterclaims, 1344–1479"'', Joseph F. O'Callaghan, 1993, p.&nbsp;287–310, Viator, Volume 24

==Further reading==
{{Commons category|Sixtus IV}}
* {{Wikisource-inline|list=
**"[[s:Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Pope Sixtus IV|Pope Sixtus IV]]" in the 1913 ''Catholic Encyclopedia''
**[[John Willis Clark|Clark, J. W.]], ''[[s:On the Vatican Library of Sixtus IV|On the Vatican Library of Sixtus IV]]''}}
* [http://www.nndb.com/people/334/000095049/ Short Biography]
* {{cite web |last=Marek |first=Miroslav |url=http://genealogy.euweb.cz/italy/rovere.html |title= Genealogy of Leonardo della Rovere |publisher=[http://genealogy.euweb.cz Genealogy.EU]}}{{Self-published source|date=August 2012}}{{Better source|date=August 2012}}, father of Francesco della Rovere, Pope Sixtus IV

==Notes==
{{Reflist|2}}

{{S-start}}
{{S-rel|ca}}
{{S-bef|before=[[Pope Paul II|Paul II]]}}
{{S-ttl|title=[[Pope]]|years=9 August 1471 – 12 August 1484}}
{{S-aft|after=[[Pope Innocent VIII|Innocent VIII]]}}
{{End}}

{{Authority control|VIAF=37712552}}
{{Persondata 
| NAME              = Sixtus 4
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES =
| SHORT DESCRIPTION = Pope
| DATE OF BIRTH     = 21 July 1414
| PLACE OF BIRTH    = [[Celle Ligure]], [[Republic of Genoa]]
| DATE OF DEATH     = 12 August 1484
| PLACE OF DEATH    = [[Rome]], [[Papal States]]
}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sixtus 4}}
[[Category:Pope Sixtus IV|*]]
[[Category:1414 births]]
[[Category:1484 deaths]]
[[Category:House of della Rovere]]
[[Category:People from Savona]]
[[Category:Italian Friars Minor]]
[[Category:University of Pavia alumni]]
[[Category:Scotism]]
[[Category:University of Perugia faculty]]
[[Category:15th-century Italian people]]
[[Category:Ministers General of the Order of Friars Minor]]
[[Category:15th-century Roman Catholic bishops]]
[[Category:Franciscan popes]]
[[Category:Renaissance Papacy]]
[[Category:Italian popes]]
[[Category:Popes]]

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