CLEMENT VII. (Giulio de' Medici), pope from 1523 to was the son of Giuliano de' Medici, assassinated in the Pazzi con spiracy at Florence. After the death of Lorenzo, Giulio in went into exile; but, on Giovanni's restoration to power, re turned to Florence, of which he was made archbishop by his cousin, Pope Leo X., a special dispensation being granted on account of his illegitimate birth, followed by a formal declaration of the fact that his parents had been secretly married and that he was therefore legitimate. In 1513 he was made cardinal, and during the pontificate of Leo had practically the whole papal policy in his hands. On the death of Adrian VI. he was chosen pope (Nov. 18, 1523). It soon became clear, however, that Clement was only a good second in command, for though he was cultured and economical without being avaricious, he was essen tially a man of narrow outlook and interests. Instead of bending his mind to the problem of the Reformation, he subordinated the cause of Catholicism to his interests as an Italian prince and a Medici ; and even in purely secular affairs his timidity and indecision prevented him from pursuing a consistent policy.
His accession at once brought about a political change in favour of France. He wavered between the emperor and Francis I., con cluding a treaty of alliance with the French king, and then after the defeat of Pavia making his peace with Charles (April 1, 1525), but breaking it again by countenancing Girolamo Morone's League of Freedom, which aimed to assert Italian independence. On the betrayal of this conspiracy Clement made a fresh submission to the emperor, only to follow this, a year later, by the Holy League of Cognac with Francis I. (May 22, 1526). Then followed the imperial invasion of Italy and Bourbon's sack of Rome (May 1527). The pope himself was besieged and compelled to ransom himself with 400,000 scudi, and to promise to convene a general council to deal with Lutheranism. After the treaty of Cambrai on Aug. 3, 1529, Charles met Clement at Bologna and received from him the imperial crown and the iron crown of Lombardy, but the pope for some time exercised his temporal power in sub servience to the emperor. Clement was now mainly occupied in urging Charles to arrest the progress of the Reformation in Ger many and in efforts to elude the emperor's demand for a general council, which Clement feared lest the mode of his election and his legitimacy should be raised. Owing to his dependence on Charles V., Clement evaded Henry VIII.'s demand for the nulli fication of his marriage with Catherine and so brought about the breach between England and Rome. He died on Sept. See E. Casanova, Lettere di Carlo V. a Clemente VII. (Florence, 1893) ; Hugo Lammer, Monumenta Vaticana, etc. (Freiburg, 1861) ; P. Balan, Monumenta saeculi X V I. hist. illustr. (Innsbruck, 1885) ; ib. Mon. Reform. Luther (Regensburg, 1884) ; Stefan Ehses, Rom. Dokum. z. Gesch. der Ehescheidung Heinrichs VIII. (Paderborn, 1893) ; Calendar of State Papers (London, 1869, etc.) ; J . J. I. von Dellinger, Beitrage zur politischen, kirchlichen and Kulter-geschichte (3 vols., Vienna, 1882) ; F. Guicciardini, Istoria d'Italia; L. von Ranke, Die romischen Papste in den letzten vier Jahrhunderten, and Deutsche Gesch. im Zeitalter der Reformation; W. Hellwig, Die politischen Beziehungen Clement's VII. zu Karl V., 1526 (Leipzig, 1889) ; H. Baumgarten, Gesch. Karls V. (Stuttgart, 1888) ; F. Gregorovius, Geschichte der Stadt Rom, vol. viii. p. 414 (2nd ed., 1874) ; P. Balan, Clemente VII. e L'Italia de' suoi tempi (Milan, 1887) ; E. Armstrong, Charles the Fifth (2 vols., 19c.) ; M. Creighton, Hist. of the Papacy during the Reformation (London, 1882) ; H. M. Vaughan, The Medici Popes 0908) ; and Cambridge Modern History, vol. ii., chap. i., with bibl.