The sack of Rome

In May 1527, while Castiglione was in Spain as the apostolic nuncio at the court of Charles V, the mercenary troops of the Emperor based in Italy, exasperated by the continued delays in the payments due to them, decided to march on Rome, and, animated by strong antipapal sentiments, submitted the city to violent plunder. Both clergy and laymen were murdered, women raped, churches stripped of their treasures, the symbols of religion vulgarly profaned. In this situation, that gravely embarrassed Charles V on both a moral and political level, a young humanist in his court, Alfonso de Valdés, certain that he had Imperial protection, wrote the Dialogo de las cosas occuridas en Roma, in which the dramatic events were poisonously justified, with insolent and mocking tones, both from a political and a religious point of view.

Castiglione’s reply was a great example of bravery. Remaining true to his position as a high ranking official representing the Church of Rome, he wrote a long letter to Valdés in which, with stringent and ruthless logic, he denounced the crude tragedy that had taken place. With impetus, ire and passion, Baldassarre pronounced a judgement of condemnation that to his eyes did not admit any reply. What had happened seemed to him to be the indication of an irrational clash that, in the name of the hatred generated in Rome by Lutheran preaching, had overthrown all forms of civility and respect. In other words, no fault, on behalf of the Church of Rome, could be used as an excuse to justify the barbarism that produced such scorn for humans and humanity. The words of Castiglione ring out as a warning against any attempt to legitimise evil that, in the name of the contraposition of values, operates in history: “Io non so imaginarmi come voi abbiate pensato che l’allegar questi inconvenienti sia a proposito per dimostrare che poco male sia lo spogliar le reliquie, o vere o false che si sieno, e che l’ammazzare i chierici, rubar gli altari e profanare tutte le cose sacre, ruinar le chiese e farle stalle da cavalli sia poco errore, perché dall’altra parte si trovino chierici che celebrino in peccato mortale e che fanno liti, e forse alcuni che vendono i benefizi. Veramente io non so chi sia tanto ignorante che non sappia che allegar inconvenienti non è solverli, e che il rimedio del male non è fare il peggio” (I can’t imagine how you can have thought that combining these facts together is a way of demonstrating that it is no great sin to steal relics, be they real or false, and that killing priests, stealing from alters and profaning sacred objects, ruining churches and turning them into stables for horses is but a small error, due to the fact that on the other side there are priests that celebrate while being in mortal sin and that argue, and maybe some sell for profit. Really I cannot imagine who could be so ignorant as not to know that putting these inconveniences together is not a solution, and that the solution to evil is not greater evil) (B. Castiglione, Lettere, edited by P. Serassi, II, Paduta 1771, 180).