15th century overview - 06 |
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It was, however, not sufficient that Orders be protected from without. They also had to be strong within themselves and this by harmonious cooperation.
In 1474, the same year in which Sixtus IV granted the so-called Mare Magnum (literally the "great ocean" of priivileges to religious orders),he also forbade the Augustinian Observants to take over the houses of conventuals (non-Observants) by force, and also put a stop to the altercations between the Hermits and Canons Regular of St Augustine which of the two congregations Augustine had founded first – when, in fact, he had founded neither of them.
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To show the Augustinians his personal favour Pope Sixtus IV his own expense rebuilt the Church of St Maria del Popolo, a place which the Augustinians had obtained before their Great Union in 1256. The Pope placed it into the hands of the Augustinian Observants.
It may have been a sign of sincere affection that Sixtus IV appointed his own nephew, Raphael Sansoni-Riario, as cardinal protector of the Augustinians after the death of their previous protector, Cardinal William Estouteville in 1483. The Order, however, could scarcely be pleased with the choice, for he was a man interested in the accumulation of wealth and power, as if it were his right because of his connections with wealthy families who had popes in their lineage. He was of no value to the Order.
Raphael had been only seventeen years old when created a cardinal in 1477, thereby becoming the first-ever adolescent to be elevated to the College of Cardinals. As a patron of the arts, he is best remembered for having been the one who invited Michelangelo to Rome.
This came about soon after 1496, when the Sleeping Cupid by the twenty-year-old Michelangelo had treacherously been sold to cardinal as an ancient sculpture; the aesthetic prelate discovered the fraud, but was so impressed by the quality of the sculpture that he invited Michelangelo to Rome, where worked for the rest of his life.
While passing through Florence became a witness to the conspiracy against its ruler, Lorenzo de Medici. Though unaware beforehand of the foul attempt against Lorenzo’s life soon afterwards that was led by one of his uncles, Raphael was nevertheless imprisoned and interrogated for a number of weeks, and was in great danger of losing his life. It was not until 1480 that Raffaele was ordained a priest.
Like the other papal relatives on whom the pope wasted the income of the Church, Raffaele Riario lived like a great secular lord. He is generally considered a prelate typical of his era: indifferent in religious matters, and a statesman more than a priest.
A number of developments in the fifteenth century cast long shadows into the sixteenth century. These included the charge of heresy that led to the execution of John Hus of Bohemia in 1415. The theological ferment that gave visibility to Hus, plus the Church’s violent reaction in response to them, was a prelude of the bursting forth of the Augustinian friar, Martin Luther exactly a century later.
(Continued on the next page.)
ID2581
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