10. Pope Clement VII’s papacy led to the sacking of Rome in 1527
It was Pope Clement VII who opposed the divorce of English King Henry VIII, leading to the creation of the Church of England and Henry assuming the title of Defender of the Faith among his various styles. Clement became pope near the end of the Italian Renaissance in 1523, with a background in foreign affairs and statesmanship. The Church at the time, following the reigns of the spendthrift Leo X and the ineffective Adrian VI (and the 22 day reign of Marcellus II) was bereft of finances, faced with the Lutheranism expanding in the German lands, and under assault by the Ottoman Empire in the east. Clement was a Medici, and one of the goals of his papacy was the unification of Italy, and his diplomatic maneuvering was based on achieving that goal.
Clement’s back and forth diplomacy led to the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V taking the city of Rome and the Papal States in 1527, after which the poorly disciplined troops enjoyed an orgy of pillage and destruction. For the remainder of his time as pope Clement feared antagonizing the Holy Roman Emperor and bringing about another sacking of Rome, which was part of his consideration when he denied Henry VIII an annulment of his marriage to Catherine of Aragon, who happened to be the aunt of Charles V. Essentially, the office of the Pope as a strong power in European affairs came to an end under Clement, as he failed to exercise either moral or diplomatic authority, and Henry VIII dissolved the temporal authority of the pope in England.