Segundo Quinquenio de la década de los 2000 (2006-2010)

The fourth Pauline objective to which the Last Judgment fresco contributed was the pope’s effort to construct a renewed identity of the Catholic Church as a sacred institution devoted to the pastoral care of Christians. In addition to asserting the sacred focus of the Church, the Last Judgment reinforces the sanctity and legitimacy of Catholic rites and relics.

In popular prints and fiery speeches, critics characterized the papal court as more

157 Revelations 14:1. 158 Pastor, Popes, 12: 517. 107

interested in pompous ceremony and self-indulgence than in the teachings of Christ. The entire hierarchy of the Church came under protestant criticism, as demonstrated by the following denunciation by the Protestant pastor Antoine Marcourt, which is representative of the lot.

The pope, and his horde of cardinals, bishops and priests, of monks and other heretical Mass-sayers (and all those who agree with them) are like this: that is, false prophets, damned cheats, apostates, wolves, false-pastors, idolaters,

seducers, liars and inexcusable blasphemers, killers of souls, traitors to Christ, of his death and Passion, perjurers, traitors, thieves, rapers of God’s honor—more detestable than devils.159

In 1521 Martin Luther produced a pamphlet, illustrated with woodcuts by Lucas Cranach the Elder, entitled The Passional of Christ and the Antichrist. Traditional passionals were small picture books, containing scenes from the life of Christ or the saints, used to prompt pious meditation. In the Passional of Christ and the Antichrist pairs of images juxtapose scenes of an unscrupulous, worldly pope with scenes of Christ’s life. Two woodcut prints in the passional demonstrate how northern reformers contrasted Christ’s humility with the pompous ceremonies surrounding the papacy. In the print on the left (fig. 2.27), Christ washes the feet of his Apostle Peter. On the right, the image on the recto of the next page (fig. 2.28) shows Peter’s successor, the pope, extending his foot to be kissed in adoration. The contrast of Christ’s humble mission and papal arrogance could not be starker. The Catholic Church needed to reform its identity by downplaying pompous pageantry and emphasizing its ministry to the faithful.

Some Protestant reformers characterized Catholic ecclesiastics as uneducated, slovenly

159

William G Naphy, ed. Documents on the Continental Reformation, Macmillan Documents in History (Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire: Macmillan, 1996), 55. Antoine Marcourt (1485-1561) published several pamphlets denouncing the Catholic Church. The text cited is an excerpt from a placard posted in public places throughout France, most significantly on the bedchamber door of King Francis I.

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fellows unqualified to preach and uninterested in the spiritual well-being of the faithful. Such criticism is demonstrated in prints that characterize Catholic preachers as wolves that lure in unsuspecting geese, and then devour them. The woodcut on the title page of Das Wolffgesang (Ausberg, 1522) shows a wolf enthroned as pope, surrounded by wolves and a cat in the

liturgical garb of cardinals, monks and a bishop (fig. 2.29). The lesser clergy play instruments to draw in rosary-toting geese. Higher officials capture the geese in a net, the harsh lines of which lead directly to the ultimate authority, the lupine pope. The image implicates ravenous

churchmen at every level of the ecclesiastic hierarchy in a devious ruse to capture and devour trusting believers in search of spiritual guidance.

In 1520 Martin Luther focused criticism directly on the pope for “going about in such a worldly and ostentatious style that neither king nor emperor can approach him.”160 The fresco of the Last Judgment contradicts criticism of worldliness and luxury in the Church by excluding all forms of ceremony and ecclesiastical finery. Paul’s efforts to counter Protestant accusations included projecting a more favorable identity of the Church and papacy. As the backdrop of papal ceremonies, the Last Judgment helped to construct this more favorable identity. The souls of the saved and the damned alike are stripped of all worldly refinements and social identifiers. In this Catholic vision of salvation, even the most reverently adored apostles and saints appear unclothed, or nearly so. There is no hint of the elaborately brocaded vestments worn by Church

160

Martin Luther, “To the Christian nobility of the German nation concerning the reform of the Christian estate,” November 1520. This was Luther’s third response to Pope Leo X’s bull Exsurge Domine which condemned Luther's teachings. Reprinted in Denis Janz,, ed., A

Reformation Reader: Primary Texts with Introductions, 2nd ed. (Minneapolis: Fortress Press,

2008), 102.

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officials. The refinements of ceremonies and excessive puffery of the papal court could not be more unlike the scene that unfolds on the altar wall. The papacy, it seems, recognized the irrelevance of magnificent display, even liturgical vestments, in the eyes of the Redeemer. Despite the magnificence of papal pageantry in the Sistine Chapel, the fresco suggests that the Church focused on the human struggle for salvation. After all, the altar wall displays the supernatural culmination of Christ’s mission, not a papal ceremony.

Reformers pointed to the vast differences between Christ and his followers on the one hand, and the papacy and Catholic hierarchy on the other. Michelangelo’s fresco helps to erode the distinction between these two groups. Among the saints present in the Last Judgment are some of the earliest leaders of the Church. Stephen and Lawrence were deacons; Blaise, Simon the Apostle and Quiriacus (née Judas) were bishops; Peter served as Bishop of Rome as well as the first pope. Saints chosen for the fresco exemplify the devoted followers of Christ that built the early Church and helped organize the ecclesiastic hierarchy. They serve as virtuous models for the ecclesiastics gathered in the Sistine Chapel. In this way, modern bishops could be identified with early Christian saints and martyrs rather than wealthy, ceremonial figureheads.

A figure in the lower left-hand corner, barely noticeable from a distance, stands among the dead emerging from the ground. The figure, dressed in a long purple-grey robe with sleeves and a broad cloth collar, extends his right hand above a revivified corpse rising from the dead.161

161

The garment appears to be a Vestis talaris, which had been worn since the 13th c. and was confirmed by the Council of Trent. Bernard J. Ganter, Clerical Attire: A Historical Synopsis

and a Commentary (Washington, D.C.: Catholic University of America Press, 1955), 10,19. The

figure has been unconvincingly identified as Ezekial, Virgil and Saint Stephen. For these suggestions, see de Tolnay, Michelangelo, 5:117. Barnes identifies the figure, visible only to those close to the altar, as a monk performing a sacramental ritual. Members of the audience would carry out similar duties. Barnes, Renaissance Response, 24.

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He has a long grey beard, forked at the end, in the manner favored by both Michelangelo and Paul III. The painted figure wears the tonsure of a monk. The beings surrounding him are wrapped in burial garments, but there is no indication that the monk has died and reanimated like the other figures. He attends to those struggling to rise up to heaven, seemingly too occupied with helping others to seek his own ascension. As a stand-in for church officials, he suggests that despite well-known abuses, the clergy were devoted to the spiritual well-being of the flock. For the ecclesiastical audience gathered in the chapel, he serves as a model of selfless devotion to priestly duties. Identifying with the monk, viewers would be reminded of the essential task of assisting the faithful attain salvation. In this way, the painting addresses one of Paul’s

objectives, the legitimate spiritual reform of the Church.

The monk’s gesture suggests the rite of supreme unction, offered to dying individuals by ordained priests to aid and give perfect spiritual health.162 At the same time, the act of blessing alludes to the rite of baptism. Some Protestants questioned the legitimacy of some of the

sacraments. For example, In June 1524, the city council of Zurich under the advice of Huldrych Zwingli (1484-1531), ordered that baptism and supreme unction were opposed to God’s word and would be stopped.163 The devoted monk in the fresco, and the figure he assists, attest to the sanctity and efficacy of Catholic rites.

The elevation of the arma Christi in the lunettes of the Last Judgment fresco, and the inclusion of relics with the martyrs below, suggests that these objects belong among the realm of

162

Monks were devoted to prayer, rather than pastoral ministry, and were not necessarily ordained priests. The figure in the fresco, surely suggests a broader identification as an

individual devoted to the Church.

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Naphy, Continental Reformation, 42. 111

the Blessed. In the Sistine Chapel, relics are not simply displayed above the altar in the traditional manner, they are raised to surround Christ in heaven. The inclusion of the arma

Christi in the Last Judgment is important enough for two dozen figures to devote their energy to

elevating or bringing the objects to Christ. One figure hoists the column with his head and shoulders while other figures seek to assist by grappling with the object (fig. 2.25). Several muscular figures exert themselves to keep the equally unwieldy cross from falling. One figure supports it with his back, another on his shoulder (fig. 2.24). At the base of the cross, one angel grips the bottom of the cross, as if to prevent its downward movement. The fact that multiple crosses appear in the fresco (or rather, the True Cross and the decussate cross each appear twice) attests to the importance of the cross in Catholic devotion and liturgy. It also suggests that, like apostles and martyrs, these objects warrant inclusion in the sacred space surrounding Christ.

The reverence with which the relics are treated in the fresco is in stark contrast to the derision with which Protestants spoke of relics. John Calvin claimed in his “Treatise against Relics” that if all of the pieces of wood purported to be relics of the True Cross were gathered together, they would “form a whole ship’s cargo.”164 In response to Pope Paul III’s attempt to call a Church council to deal with Protestant concerns, Luther issued a statement known as the “Smalcald Articles” outlining matters of dispute. On the matter of relics, Luther wrote:

Here so many open lies and foolishness are based on the bones of dogs and horses. Because of such shenanigans—at which even the devil laughs—they should have long ago been condemned, even if there were some good in them.165

164

John Calvin, Treatise on Relics, trans. Valerian Krasinski (Edinburgh: Johnstone and Hunter, 1854), 233.

165

Denis Janz, ed. A Reformation Reader: Primary Texts with Introductions, 2nd ed. (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2008), 133.

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Corporeal relics of saints, instruments of martyrdom and relics associated with the Passion were equally denounced. These criticisms assert that the relics cherished by Catholics were not even genuine, but pieces of rubbish peddled by charlatans.

The Last Judgment responds to criticism of relics by turning to a tradition known by pilgrims and faithful visitors to sacred shrines throughout Rome. In the fresco, the objects of torture held by the martyrs appear to have real weight.166 Quiriacus, perched on a bank of clouds by the right edge of the fresco, rests a heavy cross on the cornice projecting from the side wall of the chapel (see fig. 2.7). The figure behind him helps hold the heavy object, and a pair of hands jut out from the side wall towards the cross. The object is too heavy for the saint to balance alone, even with the brunt of the burden on the cornice. To the left of Quiriacus,

Catherine leans heavily forward as if to hoist the broken wheel upwards or simply hang on to it. To the left of Catherine, Philip grabs a wooden cross that slides downwards, off the cloud. Blaise leans far out as he grasps his long, heavy blade. Although the object is not especially large, it is nonetheless a significant burden for the muscular saint. The weight of these relics, and the effort required to support them, is even more evident in Michelangelo’s preliminary studies for the fresco. In a drawing in the Casa Buonarroti (fig. 2.2), Philip struggles to drag his cross upwards, and Lawrence awkwardly supports his heavy grill on his back.

The obvious weight of the relics is evidence of their legitimate sanctity. At sacred sites throughout Rome, including the apostle’s tomb at St. Peter’s Basilica, pilgrims had access to the blessed relics. Above the tomb, a platform was raised higher than the surrounding floor,

166

Burroughs calls attention to the evident exertion of the martyrs. He suggests that the figures reenact their martyrdoms and/or their movements are associated with routine actions of various laborers in Renaissance Rome. Burroughs, “Pictorial Space,” 65.

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creating a void over the tomb, with a grate or fenestrella (fig. 2.30). Twin sets of steps extended up to the platform, where popes celebrated Mass below the baldacchino. The fenestrella ensured that the sacred relics were secure but not entirely sealed off from the faithful. Gregory of Tours, writing in the sixth century, suggests that a visitor to Peter’s tomb would be allowed to approach the fenestrella to ask for whatever he requires.

If he wishes to carry away a holy token, a piece of cloth weighed in a scale is hung within; and then, watching and fasting, he makes urgent prayer that the Apostle’s virtue further his request. And if his faith prevail, when the cloth is raised from the tomb, wonderful to tell, it is so imbued with holy virtue it weighs more than it did before. 167

The tradition of lowering cloth into tombs was so prevalent that the tomb of Paul at St. Paul’s Outside the Walls had a marble slab with several holes cut out specifically so that pilgrims could obtain contact relics from the site (fig. 2.31).168 The tradition was prevalent at many sites throughout Rome, so visitors in the Sistine Chapel would surely know of the tradition. As Gregory explains, the weight of the contact relics was physical evidence of sanctity. The relics represented in the Last Judgment are so imbued with sanctity that they are weighed down, forcing muscular saints to struggle with the heavy burdens. Michelangelo anticipated the shared experiences of viewers, some of whom surely clutched strips of cloth sanctified and weighed at Rome’s most venerated tombs. For these viewers, the weight of relics in the fresco was a visual testament to the legitimacy of these most venerated objects

167

Gregory of Tours quoted in Stephen Llamia, “Souvenir, Synaesthesia, and the Sepulchrum Domini: Sensory Stimuli as Memory Stratagems,” in Memory and the Medieval

Tomb, ed. Elizabeth Valdez del Alamo and Carol Stamatis Pendergast (Aldershot, England:

Ashgate, 2000), 25.

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Contact relics are created when an object that touches a sacred relic becomes imbued with the sanctity of the relic. They were especially prized by pilgrims that visited sacred shrines.

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