8 - Epilogue

Summary

As we have seen, following Clement's death, Filippo lost his privileged station at the papal court and the special protection he had enjoyed as one of the pope's favorites. Because Clement was no longer alive to shelter and shield him, the damaging grain suit by the Roman people and his continuing legal troubles of 1534 and 1535 fell upon him with ruinous force. At the same time he had to relinquish his most important administrative offices such as the Treasury of the Marches and most of the patronage awards and titles he had enjoyed under both Medici popes. Filippo could keenly appreciate how far Medici patronage had advanced his career at the papal court when in 1534 he was shorn of the special considerations, the guarantees of tax revenues, Monte shares and the venal titles that he had so willingly accepted throughout the years to secure his credits. And he lost them all in the same way he had originally taken them over, at the word of a pope, eager to tear them away from the grasp of his predecessor's favorites and ready to bestow them on others who pledged him their loyalty and treasure.

After 1534 Filippo also lost the opportunity, and to some degree the financial capital, to engage in the same massive investments and loans he had undertaken for Clement. In the more than thirteen years between spring 1521 and fall 1534, Filippo had made secured loans to his papal patrons totaling over 530,000 ducats, and more than 85 percent, over 450,000 ducats, had gone to Clement VII alone.