Sixtus IV
Francesco della Rovere · 1471 – 1484
Built the Sistine Chapel and expanded the Spanish Inquisition while practicing rampant nepotism.
Sixtus IV was a Franciscan theologian who became pope in 1471 and immediately began promoting his nephews to positions of power, giving the word "nepotism" its full Renaissance meaning. He built the Sistine Chapel, the enduring masterpiece that bears his name, and commissioned its original fresco cycle from Botticelli, Perugino, and Ghirlandaio. He expanded the Vatican Library, built bridges and roads, and made Rome a genuine capital again. But the other side of the ledger is ugly. He authorized the Spanish Inquisition under Ferdinand and Isabella in 1478, handing the Spanish crown a tool that would be used to terrorize Jews, Muslims, and suspected heretics for centuries. He was implicated in the Pazzi conspiracy to assassinate Lorenzo de' Medici in Florence. He sold offices, packed the curia with relatives, and spent lavishly.
Beauty and Corruption
The Sistine Chapel is one of the most beautiful spaces in the world, and the pope who built it was one of the most corrupt. Sixtus IV embodies the Renaissance papacy at its most contradictory: extraordinary cultural achievement funded by questionable means and overseen by a man who treated the Church as a family business.
The Spanish Inquisition
Sixtus IV initially authorized the Inquisition but quickly grew alarmed at its excesses. He tried to rein it in and was largely ignored by the Spanish crown. The institution he approved became something far worse than what he intended, though his responsibility for launching it cannot be avoided.