Sack of Rome (1527)
The Sack of Rome began on the 6th of May 1527. That day, an Imperial army stormed a city its own Emperor had never ordered it to attack. Charles V had dispatched troops to Italy to pressure Pope Clement VII into a political agreement. He wanted compliance, not catastrophe. But his soldiers had gone unpaid. Once they mutinied, no commander could hold them back.
Eight months later, when the violence finally ended, Rome's population had fallen from over 55,000 to just 10,000. The consequences reached far beyond Rome's walls. How did a pressure campaign become one of history's worst urban catastrophes? Who stood against the tide? And what exactly was lost?
Pope Clement VII formed the League of Cognac in 1526, alarmed by the growing power of Charles V. The League brought together the King of France, the Duchy of Milan, the Republic of Venice, the Republic of Genoa, and Medici Florence. Their first military effort, an attack on the Republic of Siena, ended in failure. The weakness of the papal forces was exposed from the outset.
On the Imperial side, some 34,000 troops had gone without pay for too long. They refused orders and forced their commander, Duke Charles III of Bourbon, to lead them south toward Rome. The army included 14,000 Landsknechte under Georg von Frundsberg, 6,000 Spaniards under Bourbon himself, and Italian infantry commanded by Fabrizio Maramaldo. Also present were the cardinal Pompeo Colonna, Luigi Gonzaga, and cavalry under Ferdinando Gonzaga and Philibert, Prince of Orange. Outlaws and deserters from the League joined the column as it marched.
The Duke left Arezzo on the 20th of April 1527. His forces sacked Acquapendente and San Lorenzo alle Grotte along the route, then occupied Viterbo and Ronciglione. Bourbon wrote to Clement acknowledging what was coming. He described himself as being dragged along with the army 'more like a prisoner than a free man.' Contemporary historians doubted his account of helplessness. By the 5th of May, the army had reached the walls of Rome.
The assault on Rome began on the 6th of May at the Gianicolo and Vatican hills. The city's defenders were thinly spread: Renzo da Ceri commanded 5,000 militiamen, while a contingent of Swiss Guards held positions near the Vatican. The Aurelian Walls were formidable and the city held substantial artillery, but the Imperial army had brought none of its own. Bourbon needed to take the city quickly before League forces could trap him between the walls and the relief army.
Bourbon wore a white cloak to identify himself to his troops as he led the assault. It also identified him to the enemy. Benvenuto Cellini, a prominent artist who joined Rome's defense, claimed in his own account to have fired the shot that killed Bourbon. His account also said he wounded Philibert of Chalon in the same engagement. Whatever the truth, Bourbon fell during the assault. Command passed to Philibert, who carried far less authority over the troops.
With Bourbon dead, the common soldiery lost whatever restraint remained. The Imperial soldiers broke into the city the same day. Philibert, unable to command obedience, was left with troops who answered to no one.
Kaspar Rost, captain of the Swiss Guard, commanded 189 Papal Swiss Guards when the Imperial troops flooded through the Vatican. He and his soldiers made their last stand in the Teutonic Cemetery, within the Vatican grounds. Rost was wounded in the fighting and sought shelter in his own home. Spanish soldiers tracked him there and killed him in front of his wife.
Of the original 189 guards, only 42 survived the engagement. Under Hercules Goldli, this group held off the Habsburg pursuers long enough for Clement VII to escape the Vatican. The Pope's route ran through the Passetto di Borgo, a secure elevated corridor connecting the Vatican to Castel Sant'Angelo. Those Swiss who had fallen back to the steps of St. Peter's Basilica were massacred. Only the 42 who escorted the Pope's entourage to the castle lived.
Clement remained in Castel Sant'Angelo as an effective prisoner. Philibert, meanwhile, chose the Vatican Library as his personal headquarters. This decision, whatever his motive, meant the library's collections survived the initial phase of the sack.
After the execution of roughly 1,000 defenders, the looting of Rome began. Churches and monasteries were stripped. The palaces of cardinals and prelates were ransacked and destroyed. Even pro-Imperial cardinals had to pay to protect their own property; the soldiers moved without regard to allegiance. Hospice patients were killed. Women were raped. Many prominent supporters of the Imperial cause were not spared. After three days, Philibert ordered his men to stop pillaging. Few obeyed, and the plundering continued unabated for five more days.
The German Landsknechte, many of them Lutheran, reserved particular hostility for Catholic holy sites. Relics were profaned and sacred images destroyed. At one point, a prostitute was dressed in priestly vestments and seated on the Chair of Saint Peter. Soldiers called out 'Vivat Lutherus pontifex!' Monks were castrated and nuns raped. Priests were singled out for killing. Although Martin Luther himself had opposed violence against the Church 'by hand and flail,' the symbolic targeting of Church officials and sacred property was deliberate and pointed. Most of the pillaging, though, was purely economic: captives were held for ransom, with wealthier prisoners commanding higher payments.
On the 8th of May, Cardinal Pompeo Colonna, a personal enemy of Clement VII, entered the city with peasants from his own estates. They had come to avenge raids the Papal armies had carried out against them. Colonna gave refuge to some Roman citizens in his palace and attempted to impose order on the soldiers' conduct. Pope Clement VII, still imprisoned in Castel Sant'Angelo, remained weeks from any settlement.
Francesco Maria I della Rovere and Michele Antonio of Saluzzo arrived at Monterosi, north of Rome, on the 1st of June with League forces. Their cautious conduct allowed the undisciplined Imperial troops to avoid being routed. Clement VII surrendered from Castel Sant'Angelo on the 6th of June, one month after the city had fallen.
The price of Clement's release was 400,000 ducati. He also agreed to cede Parma, Piacenza, Civitavecchia, and Modena to the Holy Roman Empire, though in practice only Modena actually changed hands. Venice took advantage of the chaos to seize Cervia and Ravenna, and Sigismondo Malatesta returned to Rimini. Despite the treaty Clement had signed, the pillaging continued for months.
In July 1527, Imperial soldiers spread into the surrounding regions. They sacked Narni and reportedly Terni and devastated the countryside around Orte. Many Imperial soldiers also died in this period, largely from diseases caused by masses of unburied corpses in the streets. Pillaging finally ended in February 1528, when the city's food supply was exhausted, there was no one left to ransom, and plague had spread. The army withdrew toward Naples when Marshal of France Odet de Foix approached with League forces. An estimated 6,000 to 12,000 people had been killed, with some 2,000 bodies reportedly thrown into the Tiber.
The Sack of Rome is often cited as the end of the Italian High Renaissance. It scattered the artists and writers who had made Rome the center of European patronage. Before 1527, Rome was the destination for any European artist seeking prestigious commissions from the papal court. The sack ended that almost overnight.
Antonio Tabaldeo, who witnessed what remained, captured the destruction in a single sentence: 'if you come back, you will find Rome unmade.' Scholars who had cherished Rome as a 'paradise of learning' watched as the contents of many of its great libraries were destroyed or sold. The blow to Rome's scholarly prestige was lasting; proponents of humanism especially mourned the city's accumulated knowledge. The sack marked the end of humanism's standing within Christian thought.
Among those who died were Paolo Valdabarini, a papal secretary, and Augusto Valdo, a professor of natural history. Clement continued artistic patronage and building projects in Rome after the sack. But observers described what had occurred as 'the end of the Rome of Julius II and Leo X.' The city did not recover its population until around 1560, some three decades after the attack.
After the sack, Clement VII lacked the military and financial resources to resist Charles V. The two came to terms with the Treaty of Barcelona in 1529, followed by coronation ceremonies at Bologna. At Bologna in 1530, Clement crowned Charles as Holy Roman Emperor and King of Italy. From then on, Clement endorsed Charles's demands rather than contest them.
Catherine of Aragon was the aunt of Charles V, and the Emperor demanded that Clement refuse her husband King Henry VIII's request for an annulment. Clement complied. Henry VIII broke with Rome, setting in motion the English Reformation.
Charles had long urged the calling of a Church Council to address Martin Luther's Protestant movement, which was spreading throughout Germany. Clement had resisted, fearing that a council would revive the conciliarism that had deposed popes during the Western Schism of the 14th-15th centuries. After the sack, Clement agreed and designated Trent as the council's location. He died in 1534 without convening it. His successor, Pope Paul III, opened the Council of Trent in 1545, eleven years after Clement's death. By then, any realistic chance of reconciliation between Catholics and Protestants had passed.
Martin Luther assessed what the sack had wrought in a single observation (LW 49:169): 'Christ reigns in such a way that the Emperor who persecutes Luther for the Pope is forced to destroy the Pope for Luther.' Under Charles V and his son King Philip II of Spain, who reigned from 1556 to 1598, the Inquisition grew pervasive throughout the Catholic world. The humanism that had characterized Rome before 1527 came to be viewed as contrary to Church teaching. Each year on the 6th of May, new recruits to the Papal Swiss Guard are sworn into service. It is the anniversary of the day the walls fell.
Common questions
What caused the Sack of Rome in 1527?
The immediate cause was unpaid Imperial troops who mutinied and forced Duke Charles III of Bourbon to lead them on Rome. Charles V had dispatched the army to pressure Pope Clement VII diplomatically, not to sack the city. Once the soldiers mutinied, no commander could hold them back.
How many people died in the Sack of Rome?
An estimated 6,000 to 12,000 people were killed in the Sack of Rome, with approximately 2,000 bodies reportedly thrown into the Tiber River. The city's population fell from over 55,000 before the attack to just 10,000 afterward, due to killings, plague, famine, and flight.
What happened to Pope Clement VII during the Sack of Rome?
Pope Clement VII fled through the Passetto di Borgo, a secure elevated passage connecting the Vatican to Castel Sant'Angelo, where he remained as an effective prisoner. He surrendered on the 6th of June 1527, agreeing to pay a ransom of 400,000 ducati and to cede several territories to the Holy Roman Empire.
What was the Stand of the Swiss Guard during the Sack of Rome?
Of 189 Papal Swiss Guards stationed at the Vatican, only 42 survived the Sack of Rome. Led by Hercules Goldli, this group held off the Habsburg pursuers long enough for Clement VII to escape through the Passetto di Borgo. In commemoration, new Swiss Guard recruits are sworn in on the 6th of May every year.
How did the Sack of Rome lead to the English Reformation?
The Sack of Rome indirectly triggered the English Reformation. Charles V's aunt was Catherine of Aragon, wife of King Henry VIII of England. After the sack, a weakened Clement VII complied with Charles's demand to deny Henry's annulment request, and Henry VIII broke with Rome.
What were the long-term religious consequences of the Sack of Rome?
The Sack of Rome permanently deepened the divide between Catholics and Protestants. After the sack, Clement VII agreed to convene a Church Council; his successor Pope Paul III opened the Council of Trent in 1545. By then the window for reconciliation had closed, and under Charles V and his son Philip II of Spain the Inquisition became pervasive throughout the Catholic world.
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