papal authority. Although the Renaissance
popes were the most powerful individuals
in Europe, with immense treasuries and
armies at their disposal, they were looked
on as just another center of power, con-
tending for land, taxes, and political au-
thority with all the other rulers of the con-
tinent. The Papacy, in the hands of many
Renaissance popes, became an instrument
of amassing wealth and prestige and ad-
vancing the interests of their families.
The movement known as the Counter-
Reformation was in full swing by the end
of the Renaissance. The Council of Trent,
which first convened in 1545, passed de-
crees against the Protestant movement,
clarified Catholic doctrine, and attempted
to set down uniform guidelines for the ad-
ministration of the church. Although the
Council of Trent was meant to reassert
Catholic primacy, the church struggled for
centuries to implement the decrees in the
far-flung domains that still accepted the
Catholic Church as the true Christian au-
thority. The rise of powerful nation-states
brought the church directly into conflict
with kings over the appointment of bish-
ops, the ownership of income-producing
land, the authority of the religious courts,
and other matters, while secular authori-
ties sought to assert themselves as the final
law of the land.
The most beneficial legacy of the Re-
naissance Catholic Church was its patron-
age of artists and their work. Under the
commission of church authorities, artists
such as Giotto, Michelangelo, Masaccio,
and others raised artists well above their
traditional status as mere artisans. The Re-
naissance popes made possible the new
classicism in architecture, the monumental
sculptures of Rome and other cities, and
the innovations in painting, woodworking,
engraving, and metalworking, all done in
the service of the church. Even as the Prot-
estant movement was splitting the church
down a lasting divide, the popes were cre-
ating an enduring artistic legacy in cities
all over Europe.Cellini, Benvenuto .............................
(1500–1571)
Sculptor, jeweler, and goldsmith, Cellini
was a leading craftsman and artist of the
Italian Renaissance who described a tur-
bulent and violent life through a famous
autobiography. Born in Florence to a well-
to-do landowning family, he was appren-
ticed to a goldsmith but fled the city after
getting into a scrape with the law. He jour-
neyed to Siena, the rival of Florence, then
to the more distant city of Bologna, where
he became an accomplished musician as
well as a professional jeweler and metal-
smith. At the age of nineteen he settled in
Rome, where he became a musician at the
court of the pope and an artisan in wide
demand for delicately wrought medals,
miniatures, and jewelry—some of the fin-
est and most valuable works of art of his
age. An accomplished soldier, he fought
valiantly in the pope’s armies during a
siege of Rome, but could not subdue his
violent nature in the face of challenges to
his freedom or his honor on the part of
friends, patrons, or the authorities.
He fled Rome after killing the man
who had murdered his brother, engaging
in a sword fight with a notary, and devel-
oping a sworn enemy of the son of Pope
Paul III. On returning to the city, he was
arrested on a charge of embezzlement and
imprisoned in the Castel Sant’ Angelo, the
ancient fortress that stood high on the
west bank of the Tiber River near the
pope’s palace at the Vatican.
Enraged at his captivity and his treat-
ment in Rome, Cellini returned to Flo-Cellini, Benvenuto