All language subtitles for Pope The Most Powerful s01e03 The Price of Progress.eng

male narrator: One of the most
powerful men on earth

holds a position
that has existed

for nearly 2,000 years.

[metallic clanging]

[dramatic choral music]

As the world changes
and faith evolves,

his authority remains.

What began with one apostle

has become 1.2 billion
followers under one man.

He is the head
of the Catholic Church:

the pope.

And this is his path to power.

[dramatic music]

♪ ♪

In this episode,

never-before-seen orders sent
from Rome to the New World

expose the most scandalous
popes in Vatican history

and reveal
how spectacular advancements

in art, science,
and exploration

are embroiled in webs
of sex, bribery,

and murderous rivalries.

[bell tolling]

From the time of Saint Peter
through the Middle Ages,

popes act as beacons
of faith, morality,

and religious leadership.

But as Church influence
expands,

the trappings of power

will seduce
even the godliest of men.

In 1417,
the papacy has been split

between France and Italy
for 40 years.

But after the devastation
of the Plague,

Pope Martin V
reunites the Church

and begins to rebuild
the once-great institution

in the once-thriving city
of Rome.

- It was with the return
of the papacy to Rome

that its heart began
to beat again.

And it started to grow
and to function

as the center
of the Western Church.

And that was
when the Renaissance

really kicked in.

- Very gradually,
as Europe climbs back

into economic activity,

you start
to see a class emerge

with enough money to have
aspirations to buy things.

Luxury comes back on the scene.

narrator: As a merchant class
begins to rise,

Europe ushers in an era
or revolutionary advancements

in art and science.

Explorers set out
in search of new lands.

[ticking]

The first mechanical clock

and the Gutenberg
printing press are invented.

- And on the walls
of the churches,

you start to see,
for the first time,

that when human beings appear,
they're not just tiny.

Man is standing
a little closer next to God.

narrator: And the man
closest to God is the pope.

- We owe some
of the most significant art

in Western history

to the popes
of the Renaissance.

- It's the world
of Michelangelo,

Leonardo, Raphael.

And a whole succession
of popes

act as patrons
to this huge flowering

of the Western imagination.

- The Renaissance popes
reshaped the city of Rome

into what we know it today.

narrator: Today, upwards
of 10 million tourists a year

visit Rome to see the art
and architecture

commissioned
by Renaissance popes:

the Sistine Chapel,

Capitoline Museums,

and the cloister
of Santa Maria della Pace,

all built in the name
of the Church

during this time
in European history.

But the celebrated
advancements

in art and exploration
come at a hefty price.

- For all of the beauty
and creativity

that we think of now
as the Renaissance,

a lot of that work
was financed by corruption.

You want the Sistine Chapel?

The Sistine Chapel
was paid for by bribery.

A lot of that beauty,

the flip side of it
was brutality.

- The Church is very human,

made up of sinful people

who are striving
to live a life

according to the Spirit,

and yet, we fall.

And big men
with big titles fall.

- We always have to remember

that this history
about the papacy

is not always a good history.

narrator:
Behind the iconic images

of the 15th and 16th centuries

lie webs of scandal,
violence, and depravity

surrounding the popes
at that time.

- The thing you have
to really remember

about this moment in history

is, there is no other game
in town but Catholicism.

So the higher up you get
in this organization,

which is kind of multinational
by this time,

the more important
your influence is.

And the pope is the CEO
of this global institution.

- And Italy at this time

was an unbelievably
dangerous place

to be an important person.

narrator: Throughout
the Renaissance,

the Church amasses
an exorbitant amount of wealth

through property holdings.

Churches act as local banks.

They hand out loans,
collect tithes,

and sit on vast reserves
of gold and silver

reaped through
political alliances.

With the Church's
swelling wealth

comes immense power,

and Europeans stop at nothing
to gain favor with the Church

and garner influence
within it.

- If you read Shakespeare

and you read Jacobean drama,
stuff like that,

Italy at the time
becomes this shorthand

for evil
and grotesque double-dealing

and poisoning.

- Italy at this time
is, of course, not a country.

She's a set
of little city-states.

And the basic tool of loyalty
in all of these places

is family, family.

You know, the mafia
doesn't grow out of Italy

for no reason at all.

narrator: The families
that control these city-states

are in constant competition
with one another

for money, land,

and most importantly, power.

- The most important
city-states were Milan,

run by Sforza family;

Florence, which came
under the domination

of the Medici family;

and there was Rome,

which was the kingdom in which
the king was the pope.

narrator: Today we don't often
think of popes as family men,

but in the 1400s,

it was extremely common
for popes to have children.

- It's pre-
the Victorian moment

and the Puritan moment.

So all of these people

who are running
this big institution,

many of whom have come
from top-notch families,

cannot get married,
and they understand that.

But that doesn't appear
to mean chaste,

because the pope
would have children.

narrator: By stacking
the College of Cardinals

with sons and nephews,

popes are able to ensure

that their families
stay in power.

- There is a great problem

when the papacy changes
between families.

Rome can become
a very dangerous,

even violent place there,

where the faction
that's controlled the Vatican

finds itself under threat.

- I think the Pazzi conspiracy
is a beautiful microcosm

of how crazy a place
Renaissance Italy was.

[dramatic music]

♪ ♪

narrator: By the 1470s,

the Italian families
had been embroiled

in power struggles
for generations.

And the newly appointed
Pope Sixtus IV,

a member of the ambitious
della Rovere family,

feels an imminent threat
from one of his rivals.

- There's conflict
with the Medicis.

- The Medici family,

they were kind of
a messy family.

I think about them
as being the "Dynasty"

of the Renaissance.

narrator:
The Medicis had interfered

with some business dealings
of the della Roveres.

- One of Pope Sixtus's
many nephews

is a vicious nut case.

Says, "The answer
to our problems is,

"get rid of the Medici.

Get rid of this headache.

- This is just a stupid idea.

I mean, the Medici clan
was huge.

- The pope agreed
to the murder

of Lorenzo de' Medici
and his brother.

narrator: The della Roveres
recruit members

of the Pazzi family,

another Italian
banking empire.

- The second-wealthiest family
in Florence was the Pazzi,

who resented the Medici,

because they felt
that the Medici

had unfair advantages.

narrator:
On Sunday, April 26, 1478...

[crowd screaming]

The assailants attacked
the Medici brothers

at a mass in Florence.

- The conspirators attacked
and killed the brother

and attacked Lorenzo,
who escaped.

- Lorenzo musters his troops.

They quickly capture
the main conspirators

and the murderers,

and they're summarily executed.

narrator:
And on August 6, 1492,

just three days
after Columbus set sail

for the New World,

with the wealthiest
Italian families

entangled
in murderous rivalries

and the power to rule
all of Europe and the Americas

at stake,

23 cardinals embark

upon one of the most ruthless
conclaves in Vatican history.

narrator: In August of 1492,

23 cardinals must elect
a new pope,

who will lead more Catholics
than the world has ever known.

- The cardinals will live
in the Sistine Chapel

until they finally decide
who's pope.

So it's
a very intense hothouse.

narrator:
Every powerful Italian family

has a seat at the table
and a horse in the race.

- The two most powerful
factions at this conclave,

one was led by a cardinal
named Ascanio Sforza.

And Sforza's primary rival
was Giuliano della Rovere.

narrator:
And Giuliano della Rovere,

the nephew of Sixtus IV,
the vicious pope

who called for the violent
removal of his rival,

has inherited
his uncle's blind ambition.

- della Rovere had
a very powerful personality.

- He's very smart,
and he's very ruthless.

narrator: Determined to swing
the conclave in his favor,

Giuliano della Rovere
begins handing out bribes

in exchange for votes.

- Although the matter
may finally be

about God and heaven,

this is
an earthly institution,

and it's run by men,

and it has a power structure
attached to it.

And whenever in history
you introduce power structures,

you will find
forms of corruption.

narrator: But while
della Rovere and Sforza

wheeled and dealed
center stage,

another candidate begins
to form his own campaign

behind the scenes.

- Rodrigo Borgia...

was both an insider

and a dark horse
at the same time.

narrator: Rodrigo Borgia
is a Spanish Cardinal

who had steadily risen through
the ranks of the Church

since he was a teenager.

- He had been
through five papacies.

The most important,
powerful member

of the Vatican bureaucracy.

But he was a Spaniard,

That makes him an outsider.

narrator: But despite
being an outsider,

Borgia is an experienced
Vatican politician.

On day four of the conclave,

the Spanish cardinal
makes his move.

[mysterious music]

- In the middle of the night,
six mules loaded with silver

leave the Borgia palace
in Rome

and trot along the streets

to the palace
of Ascanio Sforza,

cardinal,
and one of his rivals.

And it is absolutely clear

that somewhere
underneath there,

a deal has been done.

[bell tolling]

[dramatic music]

♪ ♪

Rodrigo Borgia bought his way
into the papacy.

narrator: Borgia's
first order of business

as Pope Alexander VI

is to surround himself
with a network

of people he trusts.

Like many powerful men
of the era--and today--

Borgia places his children

in the highest ranks
of his council.

- He had some of his children

marry important princes
in other dominions.

He made his one son a cardinal

and gave him all kinds
of Church income.

- It is a story
of nepotism, really.

People ask, how could these
kind of venal arrivistes

take over the Vatican City?"

narrator:
Flanked by his children,

Pope Alexander VI prepares
build a Borgia dynasty.

- The hierarchy of the Church
is about making sure

that the papacy stays powerful.

And we have a global,

multinational company
operating.

It needs a vast administration.

- Pope Alexander VI
is the father,

almost the creator
of modern diplomacy.

He introduced the practice

of stationing
the prototypical ambassadors

at the city-states,
to live there.

And then he started doing that

with the major
north European capitals.

narrator:
Each of his ambassadors

live amongst the clergy
in their various stations

and report
back to the Vatican.

Just weeks into his papacy,

Alexander VI has consolidated
his power across Europe...

and he does not intend
to stop there.

- The New World is discovered,

and Columbus is instructed
to write letters to the pope,

sort of chatty
little travelogues

about all the things
that he's seeing

and who the natives are
and what they look like

and how fascinating they are.

He's filling in the pope

in order to soften up the pope

towards
the Spanish perspective,

because the Portuguese
and the Spanish are spatting

about who is going to own what.

- This got very ugly
and very tense,

and it seemed likely
to result in war.

- They turned to the papacy,
to Alexander VI,

to adjudicate
the international boundary.

- It's the pope
who literally draws the line

on the map of the ocean.

- Everything east of that line
belonged to Portugal.

And that's how Brazil
came to be a Portuguese colony.

narrator: On May 12, 1493,

Pope Alexander VI issues
the Inter caetera.

The first papal bull grants
the majority of the New World

to his homeland.

- The Spanish have
the lion's share.

And blow me down,
but if the pope

doesn't also get
a Spanish bride

for his second son.

narrator: The papal order,

which leads
to hundreds of years

of pillaging and destruction
of native lands,

is still controversial today.

The world will soon learn

that all
of Borgia's accomplishments

come with a price.

narrator: When Rodrigo Borgia

becomes Pope Alexander VI
in 1492,

he ushers in an era
of extreme duality.

He brings
astonishing advancements

in art and technology
into the Vatican,

alongside a culture
of corruption, nepotism,

and brutal politicking.

- He knew
how to terrify people.

He knew how to bully people.

But he was
a very astute politician.

- He was like a mafia don,

like Marlon Brando
in "The Godfather,"

somebody who enjoyed
the trappings of power.

Often a very good administrator

is somebody who wants
to get very rich themselves.

- Corruption is two-fold.

It's financial and sexual.

narrator: One of the most
salacious stories

to come out
of the Borgia papacy

is the Banquet
of the Chestnuts.

- The story
is that it was a party

at which dozens of prostitutes
were invited,

and everybody got naked,

and all sorts
of things happened,

somehow involving chestnuts.

And supposedly,
Pope Alexander was present.

narrator:
Though the tale of the banquet

is met with doubt,

the story
of the pope's mistress

who took up residency
in the Vatican is undisputed.

- Giulia Farnese
was a beautiful young member

of an important Italian family.

And when Rodrigo became pope,

among the young men
he appointed cardinals,

one was Giulia's brother.

This was a way
of buying the girl.

"I'll make you a cardinal,

you let me have her
as a mistress."

Rodrigo was 60 at the time.

She was 15.

She lived in the papal palace
with the other young Borgias.

He had at least
one child with her.

- To us, that looks like
a bundle of contradictions.

How can you be
conventionally pious

and yet be living
this kind of contradiction?

It's a kind
of Latin distinction

between the man
and the office.

People managed
to respect the office

while being aware
that the people who occupy it

were extremely fallible.

- The modern man
has some trouble with this.

Jesus himself
was both god and man.

The person
is both body and soul.

The Church is both justice,
the law,

and mercy,
forgiveness of sins.

- There was a sense
in which sin was automatic.

Human beings would sin,

and if they didn't sin,

they wouldn't need the Church
to help them get out of it.

narrator:
And one way the Vatican

funds the pope's sins

is with the sale
of indulgences,

fees paid to the Church
in exchange for salvation.

- If you know you're gonna sin,

maybe you could buy,
ahead of time, a pardon.

narrator: Despite
their moral questionability,

indulgences pay
for many of the treasures

we've come to associate
with the modern Church.

- Borgia exemplifies
all the things

about the Renaissance papacy

that we both deplore
and admire.

A corrupt papacy,

but he's a great patron
of the arts.

He begins to employ
the greatest artists

and architects of the time.

narrator:
During Borgia's papal rule,

the Castel Sant'Angelo
was restored,

a center for the
University of Rome is built,

and Michelangelo draws plans

to rebuild
St. Peter's Basilica.

- One just has to live
with the paradox

that these things
are the product of sin,

but they are not
themselves sinful.

They're wonderful,

and the world
is better for them.

narrator: Borgia commissions
so many works of art

in the name of God
and his family

that the image
modern Christianity

has come to associate
with Jesus Christ

is said to be modeled
after his oldest son, Cesare.

But while Alexander VI
continues to collect bribes

and adorn the Vatican...

an old rival hatches a plan
to take him down.

- The man who will turn out

to be Rodrigo Borgia's
real nemesis

is Giuliano della Rovere.

- He was an angry,
aggressive man

in contrast
to Alexander VI's nature,

which,
by everybody's agreement,

was immensely charming.

narrator: Borgia
and della Rovere's rivalry

dates back to when they were
both young cardinals.

But when Borgia
wins the papacy in 1492,

della Rovere becomes obsessed
with destroying his enemy.

- Not surprisingly,

when della Rovere doesn't get
the papal throne,

he basically leaves Rome
in a sulk.

- Della Rovere exiled himself
to France

and attached himself
to the French court

and tried to work
against Pope Alexander VI.

narrator: Determined
to take out his rival,

della Rovere convinces
King Charles VIII of France

to capture Naples
and, on his way, to sack Rome

and dethrone the pope.

- Two years after
Rodrigo Borgia

comes to the throne,

this army floods over the Alps
into northern Italy

and towards Rome.

It's a major catastrophe.

- As the immense French army

on its way to Naples
approached Rome,

the papal court
got ready to flee.

Alexander decided
at the 11th hour,

"I'm not gonna run away."

narrator: Despite having
no army himself,

in the face
of 25,000 French soldiers,

Pope Alexander VI
is determined

to fight for Rome
and the Church.

- Basically, then, the pope
is having to negotiate

sort of for his life,

and for the life of Vatican
and papal independence.

- He invited Charles to come
live with him in the Vatican.

And he so charmed him,
so won him over,

that Charles announced,
"Hey, this is a real thing.

I'm not gonna depose him."

- And then Pope Alexander helps
to scoot them out on their way.

narrator: In one of
the greatest diplomatic moves

in world history,

the Borgia pope convinces
King Charles of France

to leave Rome
and the papacy intact.

- Della Rovere went nuts
over this,

because della Rovere
lost his chance

to displace his enemy.

narrator: But soon,
Giuliano della Rovere

will prove to be
just the first of many threats

to the world-changing papacy
of Alexander VI.

narrator: In 1494,
the papacy is both flourishing

and festering
in a sea of corruption.

And although the Borgia pope

charms King Charles
into sparing Rome...

[cannons blasting]

his formidable French fleet
continues its march

through the rest
of the Italian peninsula.

[men shouting]

- The situation in Italy
is getting very dodgy.

And into this vacuum
kind of enters

this passionate fundamentalist

called Girolamo Savonarola.

narrator:
Girolamo Savonarola

is a charismatic Italian friar
living in Florence.

As Vatican culture
becomes overtaken

with materialism
and depravity,

Savonarola becomes
more and more committed

to the Word of the Gospel

and takes vows of poverty,
chastity, and obedience.

- He's a very good preacher,

and he understands the Bible
inside-out.

He's part of the Church,
but he sees its corruption.

And so he starts to make
an attack on the Vatican.

- If you take Borgia
and Savonarola,

they represent polar opposites

within the Christianity
of the 15th century.

narrator:
While the Borgia pope

commissions lavish works
of art in the name of God,

Savonarola hails
these expenditures

as the downfall
of Christianity.

- His take on the Renaissance

is basically, "This is
the beginning of hell on earth.

This is the beginning
of the end."

narrator: Savonarola's
apocalyptic sermons

draw thousands.

He blames the pope
for the French invasions

and proclaims that God
is punishing Italians

for the hedonism
displayed by the Church.

- When Italy was being invaded
by French armies

for the first time in decades,

it was a moment when the world

looked as if it was
coming to an end.

And Savonarola
started preaching

this world-end message
before the crisis really hit,

so people thought,
"Well, here's a prophet."

- He understands what happens
when people get frightened,

and what he does is to say,

"Look at all this art
all around the walls.

"There was a time
when all you saw

"was pictures of our saints
and Mary and Jesus.

"And now, along with them,

"you've got these people
of flesh and blood.

"And there's quite a lot
of flesh being shown too.

This is the body;
this is not the Spirit."

"We're moving away
from the true path,

and God is punishing us."

narrator:
While Pope Alexander VI

dismisses the fanatical
preacher as a passing phase,

Savonarola's following
only grows.

- He did whip up
a lot of support in Florence

aimed at Rome.

And he wrote
some shocking things

about Alexander.

He wanted the world
to see Alexander

as the embodiment of evil.

He wanted Alexander
to be removed from the papacy.

Alexander could have had
Savonarola taken into custody,

killed.

He just laughed it off

and never defended himself
against it.

narrator:
But on February 7, 1497,

Savonarola makes
a spectacular display

of his rebellion
that the pope cannot ignore.

- Savonarola contrives
this idea of a bonfire...

[crowd clamoring]

to set fire to things
that are not necessary

and fripperies
and are luxuries.

[crowd clamoring]

- Famously,
Savonarola gathered paintings,

beautiful objects,
luxurious fabrics,

all put in a bonfire
as a symbol of the last days.

- It becomes known in history
as the bonfire of the vanities.

narrator: Tens of thousands
of Florentines flock

to the bonfire of the vanities

and burn
their worldly possessions.

- It's a brilliant stroke.

It's intimidating.

It's public spectacle.

It shows his power.

And it's dramatic.

[dramatic music]

It is one of the moments
in this moment in history

that lives on as emblematic
of excess luxury

and then excess fundamentalism.

narrator:
Pope Alexander VI realizes

Savonarola is no longer
someone to be ignored.

He deems the fire
a declaration of war

against the Vatican.

[dramatic music]

narrator: In 1497,
after months of ignoring

Savonarola's incendiary
displays against the Vatican,

the bonfire of the vanities
forces Pope Alexander VI

to strike back.

- The pope told him
to stop all this.

He said no.

And the pope declared him
a heretic.

narrator: Two months after
the spectacle in Florence,

Pope Alexander VI
has Savonarola excommunicated.

- Excommunication
is a very powerful tool

which makes
a lot of people nervous

about coming
to hear Savonarola talk.

They may believe in him,

but the pope
still runs the show.

And this guy is going to hell
if he's been excommunicated.

- He was destroyed
by his defiance of the pope.

narrator:
For his transgressions,

the pope's supporters
demand the heretic die.

On May 23, 1498,
Girolamo Savonarola

is pulled into
Florence's central square

and burned at the stake.

[fire crackling]

- They let him burn
until nothing is left.

[dramatic music]

narrator: In August of 1503,

after creating
a diplomatic empire,

commissioning some
of the greatest works of art

the world has ever known,

and reigning over one
of the most depraved papacies

in Vatican history,

the Borgia pope
contracts malaria

and suddenly dies.

- It's such a dramatic decline.

A mosquito bites someone,

and the entire 11 years

of trying to build
a dynasty collapses.

It's gone.

And within a year,

the arch-enemy
has taken the papacy.

narrator: Just three months
after his death,

Rodrigo Borgia's arch-rival
Giuliano della Rovere

becomes Pope Julius II.

- Della Rovere was not chosen
by a College of Cardinals

that saw in him a holy man

suited to be the leader
of the universal Church.

He took the office,
which he had hungered for,

by the force of his ability
to intimidate,

and almost immediately
became a kind of egomaniac.

narrator: Pope Julius II,

still driven
by spite and vengeance,

makes it his personal mission

to destroy everything
his nemesis built,

starting
with Borgia's son Cesare.

- Pope Alexander definitely did
go overboard with nepotism,

particularly with respect
to his son Cesare.

- Cesare was basically been
given the key to the kingdom.

He was given control
of the army.

narrator:
After he becomes pope,

Julius II has Cesare Borgia
thrown in prison,

stripped of his title,
and eventually killed.

- Della Rovere devoted himself

to blackening the reputation
of the whole Borgia family.

- The rumor starts
that Lucrezia Borgia,

Rodrigo's daughter,
is a whore

who is sleeping
with her father

and probably sleeping
with her brother.

There is no evidence
inside the Borgia history

of incest.

That doesn't mean
it did not happen.

But it's a bit
like tabloid journalism.

Once the mud has been slung,
it sticks.

narrator: Pope Julius II
continues to slander

the Borgia name

and proclaims
their behavior so disgusting

that the part of the Vatican
they lived in

must be closed off.

- Julius II had those Borgia
apartments sealed up.

So contaminated
by these evil presences

that nobody should go there.

They stayed sealed
till the 19th century,

and now they're
a tourist attraction.

narrator:
Today, over 5 million people

tour the restored
Borgia apartments every year,

making them one of
the most visited attractions

in Vatican City.

And despite Pope Julius II's
avid condemnation

of the corrupt Borgia papacy,

his lifestyle
is even more extravagant.

- He actually was the great
patron of Michelangelo.

He rebuilt the whole
of St. Peter's.

He commissioned Michelangelo
to do the dome.

narrator: In 1508,
Pope Julius II commissions

the most famous work
in the modern Vatican,

the ceiling
of the Sistine Chapel.

[dramatic music]

- Della Rovere was driven
by personal ambition,

grandiosity.

He wanted Michelangelo

to get finished
with the Sistine Chapel

so he could get to work
on his, Julius's, tomb,

which was never finished.

narrator:
Despite his motivations,

art flourishes
under the della Rovere pope,

and the papacy
becomes stronger

and more powerful than ever.

- He's a warrior pope

who actually goes into battle
leading his own soldiers,

wearing silver armor.

It is to aggrandize himself,
to some extent,

but it's also part
of a vision of a papacy

that has to be underpinned
by power.

narrator: Pope Julius II
continues flaunting

the power of the papacy
until his death in 1513.

By then, another powerful
Italian family

has been patiently plotting
to take over the papal throne.

And the young banking heir
will take Renaissance opulence

to levels of excess

from which the Church
may never recover.

narrator:
The Renaissance popes

are known
for their extravagance,

but one pope
pushes papal spending

beyond the realm
of wild excess.

[dramatic music]

♪ ♪

Pope Leo X is a member
of the wealthy Medici family

and has grown up
in a lifestyle

of lavish luxury.

- Giovanni de' Medici
was the second son

of Lorenzo de' Medici.

He was a pleasure-loving man.

Loved the arts, theater,
music, all that sort of thing.

- Leo X and members
of the Medici dynasty

represent the most glorious
aspect of the papacy

at the beginning
of the 16th century,

and also its nemesis.

They are the initiators
of the alliance

between the papacy
and the arts

and the corruption

of Western Christianity
altogether.

[crowd chattering]

narrator:
Leo X celebrates his election

with a party in Florence.

Part of the celebration
includes a young boy

painted in gold.

In the middle
of the festivities,

the boy dies
from paint poisoning.

Many see this death
of the golden boy

as a symbol
of the apocalyptic prophecy

preached by Savonarola,

the embodiment of death
by excess

at the hands
of the Catholic Church.

- Pope Francis rapidly becoming
known as the people's pope.

- Yeah, he takes the bus,
as we've reported here.

He pays his own bills.

- Pope Francis
is simply not interested

in the power-wealth-influence
aspect of the papacy at all.

He gets up at 5:00,
and he works till 10:00 p.m.

So there's a kind of focus
there that we admire.

But if everybody was like that,
the world would be horrible.

The Renaissance popes

did things
very, very differently.

They took a lot of holidays.

They partied.

And they created beauty.

But the beauty was paid for
with sin.

narrator: The Borgias,
the della Roveres,

the Medicis,

and the murderous,
power-hungry families

that shaped Renaissance Italy

bring the Church
to a breaking point.

By the end
of the 16th century,

their blind ambition,
fierce loyalty,

and frivolous spending

has bankrupt the Church
financially and spiritually.

- What they did with power,

it's obviously incompatible

with the figure
of Jesus in the Gospels.

And yet, when you stand

in front of Michelangelo's
"Pietà" in the Vatican

or Raphael's frescoes,

what do you say?

Do you take a hammer to them?

Or do you say they have nothing
to do with Christianity?

- The finance
and the corruption

and the creativity

are in queasy relationship
to each other

all the way through
this extraordinary moment

in history.

narrator: There can be no way

to untangle the corruption
of the Renaissance

with the beauty and discovery
that has come out of it.

Much of the power
of today's Vatican lies

in the diplomatic positions
set up by the Borgia pope

and the tourism attracted
by the works of art

commissioned
by the della Roveres

and the Medicis.

- What has been erected

are these extraordinary gifts
to all of humanity,

so that the Church
is like a repository of beauty.

How can we have this
magnificent art depository

and architecture
of St. Peter's

and then the corrupt actions
of individuals?

And yet, the Church is both.

narrator: The duality
of the Renaissance

lies within every facet
of the modern Church.

With all progress
comes sacrifice.

And despite the corruption
of fallible men,

the papacy remains divine.

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