Excommunicator of Henry VIII

210, Lot: 364. Estimate $150. Sold for $525. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

ITALY, Papal Medals. Clement VII (Giulio di Giuliano de’Medici). 1523-1534. Æ Medal (33mm, 24.83 g, 12h). Struck 1530. · CLEM · VII · PONT · MAX ·, bust right, wearing zucchetto and mantum / Joseph seated left with his brethren; above, EGO · SVM · IOSEPH ·/FRATER · VESTER in two lines. Mazio 47; Lincoln 469-70; DDL pl. V, 10. Superb EF.

From the Luparello Collection.

The nephew of Lorenzo il Magnifico (the magnificent) and cousin of Pope Leo X, Clement VII wavered between alliances with France and the Holy Roman Empire, which lead to the sack of Rome by imperial troops in 1527. On account of this attack, he grew a beard, in defiance of Church canon, to show his mourning. He kept the beard, a tradition continued by the following 24 Popes, up to his death. Clement VII also strained relations with England when he refused to annul the marriage of Henry VIII to Catherine of Aragon, ultimately causing the break of England from Rome and the advent of the Church of England.