On Holy Thursday 1527 while Clement VII was blessing the crowds in St. Peter’s, Brandano da Petroio, who was venerated by the crowds as ‘Christ’s Madman,’ shouted: “Sodomite bastard, for your sins Rome will be destroyed. Confess and convert, for in fourteen days the wrath of God will fall upon you and the City.”
On May 6, 1527, the scourge of God descended upon the city of Rome and raped her. A feral pack of mercenaries, mutinous troops under the direction of the Duke of Bourbon, entered the Eternal City and reminded her of her own temporality. The freshly painted frescoes which adorned her marble flesh were recoated in sanguine hues. The Sistine Chapel, that exquisite chamber built to the proportions of the Temple of Solomon- adorned not in silver or gold but with the brush strokes of the Florentine masters- was violated in every sense of the word. Rome was not built in a day, but her supposed Renaissance died in one.