All language subtitles for BBC.Rome.A.History.of.the.Eternal.City.3of3.The.Rebirth.of.Gods.City.PDTV.x264.AC3.MVGroup.org

Rome.

Holy City...

Eternal City.

A city with a sacred mission to rule
and minister to the world.

Its stories of faith and violence

forged by 3,000 years of tyrants,
saints and artists.

From the Roman emperors and
the Christian popes

to the Renaissance and fascism...

..a holy city driven
more by power than piety.

As a historian, I'm
fascinated by this place.

I'm here to tell the history
of the Eternal City

through its rulers,
its art, its shrines...

In its first 2,000 years,

Rome developed from the seat of
power of the pagan empire

to the capital of one
of the great world faiths.

But at the beginning of
its third millennium,

we find Rome at its lowest ebb.

Abandoned by the papacy,
the city resembled a wilderness.

In this final episode,

the Renaissance popes embark
on an incredible mission

to transform the city.

They harness the greatest
talents of the age

to create a majestic new Rome.

Stepping inside some of Rome's
most magnificent buildings,

I witness how religion,
art, lust and greed

vie to create the most splendid
city on Earth.

But the hubris of the popes

almost destroys the very city
they are creating.

In the centuries that follow,

Protestantism and nationalism
threaten Rome and the papacy.

In order to prosper,

the Eternal City would need to
adapt again and again.

This is the blood-spattered,
dramatic story

of how Rome emerged from
the turbulence of the early popes

and the catastrophes
of the Middle Ages

into the magnificent city
we see today.

In 1350, Rome was
a desperate backwater.

The kings of France dominated Rome

and forced the election
of a French pope,

who took up his residence
not in Rome,

but in Avignon.

Without the Pope, Rome lost
its financial and moral power.

Crime thrived on its streets,

dominated by two
aristocratic families,

the Colonnas and the Orsinis,

from their fortified palaces.

They ruled the territories
in the city like gangster bosses...

..Rome's real-life versions

of Shakespeare's Montagues
and Capulets.

There were now just
30,000 people living in Rome,

compared to a million
in imperial times.

The city that was once
the head of the world

had become, wrote poet Petrarch,

"The rubbish heap of history."

But salvation would come from
an unlikely source.

The church of Santa Maria
sopra Minerva

is the final resting place
of the woman

who would rescue Rome's fortunes.

Her name was Caterina Benincasa,

but she's better known
as St Catherine of Siena.

She spent much of her life
in a state of feverish rapture,

of long periods of deep meditation,

and it was said that Jesus' wounds
bled from her body.

In 1370, Catherine was 23.

She was broken-hearted by
the fall of Rome.

She believed the Pope had
betrayed Christianity itself

by abandoning his city.

It was an article of faith
for believers

that the Pope was the natural
heir of St Peter,

the first Bishop of Rome,

and to properly exert his authority,
he had to rule from the Holy City.

Catherine believed that in order to
save her precious Church,

the Pope had to return.

Catherine made it her life's mission
to bring the Pope back to Rome.

Alone against the might of
the papacy and the rulers of Europe,

Catherine fought to save
the Church and city.

She wrote letter after letter
imploring the Pope to leave Avignon.

Some of the earliest editions are
here at the Biblioteca Casanatense.

Manuscript keeper
Isabella Ceccopieri

has agreed to translate them for me.

"Come, come, and resist no more
the will of God that calls you,

"for you, as the vicar of Christ,
should rest in your own place

"and fear not for anything
that might happen,

"since God will be with you."

I guess the first thing that strikes
you in this is that Catherine...

She's saying, "Get a move on, Pope.
Get a move on, Holy Father.

"Get down there. This is my
personal command..."

As if they were equals. As equals.
Completely as equals.

"So, I ask unto you, our father
and our shepherd,

"begging you on behalf of Christ

"to rescue the lost sheep,
the human race,

"from the hands of the demons."

And, of course, the demons are
those running riot in Rome

when the Pope is away.

And so, this is a very
powerful appeal.

She believes more than anything that
the Pope's rightful place is in Rome

and that she wants him with all
her will, backed by the Holy Spirit,

to return there.

Yeah. She's a strong will.

She's got such a strong will.
Very powerful stuff.

After years of Catherine's
letter-writing,

the Pope showed
no sign of returning.

She resolved to travel to Avignon
to confront the Pope directly.

The fate of Rome rested on
the shoulders of this lone woman.

In 1377,

the Pope returned in a triumphant
procession to the Holy City

with Catherine of Siena by his side.

After 70 years of exile,

the Pope was back
in his rightful place.

Centuries later, Catherine
would be rewarded

by being made patron saint
of Italy...

AND Europe.

But it would be years before
Rome recovered

from the Avignon Exile.

Rome was in need of a strong ruler,

but the papacy was now
bizarrely weakened.

The Pope may have been back in Rome,
but at the end of the 14th century,

the French king elected
a rival pope, an antipope,

over in Avignon.

Kings and emperors now felt
they could appoint their own popes

to suit themselves.

The situation got so ridiculous
that, at times,

there were three popes
in three different cities

all claiming to be supreme pontiff.

This became known
as the Western Schism.

Rome would never reign supreme while
the papacy was a laughing stock.

I've come to the place where
the schism ended

and the resurgence began...

..where the Romans claimed back
their papacy.

This is the largest
private palace in Rome,

and it's still the home of
the Colonna family.

They've lived here for 700 years,

and in the 13th and 14th centuries,

they were one of the two
warring families

fighting for control
of Rome's streets.

But in 1417, the Colonna family
pulled off a major triumph.

After centuries of dominating Rome

with their private armies
and wealth,

these swaggering warlords
were about to play a decisive role

in restoring the papacy
and the city.

There was one way to harness
their violent power.

To elect a member
of the family as pope.

And to this day,

the palace displays a special piece
of furniture to mark this triumph.

This is the throne room.

Every dynasty with a pope
in the family

had one just like this for
when future popes came to visit.

And here's the throne itself.

But as you can see, it's facing
the wrong way round,

and that's because it was only
turned to face the right way

when there was a pope
actually here to sit on it.

It was the election of
the Colonna Pope, Martin V, in 1417

that brought an end
to the Western Schism.

The competing popes had turned
the papacy into a farce,

and finally, a council persuaded
all the popes to resign.

When they elected Martin V,
it was first time in years

that the Pope had not only been
Italian, but a Roman,

and a scion of the city's
most powerful family.

From now on, the papacy was Roman,
and Rome would be the papal city.

But the papacy was still vulnerable,
and the city was a mess.

The Pope's task now was to restore
the authority of both,

to make Rome the undisputed
capital of Christendom.

From this point on, the popes
were united by a shared vision.

Through the 15th and 16th centuries

they embarked on a project
of breathtaking scope

that would turn Rome into
a building site for 200 years.

Pope Nicholas V declared that they
would create "great buildings"

that would demonstrate that

"the authority of the Roman Church
is the greatest and highest."

Rome, said Pope Sixtus IV, would be
"the capital of the world."

The mission was to create the most
magnificent city on Earth,

so that pilgrims who
couldn't read or write

could see in its churches
and palaces

the glory of God
and his popes.

Rome's renaissance had begun.

Across the skyline, the domes of
grandiose churches started to rise.

Popes and cardinals built the most
sumptuous palaces

to display the impressive art
they'd commissioned.

The most elaborate of these would be
the papal residence itself,

the Vatican.

It was an astonishing endeavour
that brought together

the highest and lowest of
human appetites.

Spirituality and art vied
with power, lust and greed.

It took the patronage of many popes,

the work of the greatest artists
that have ever lived,

and incalculable sums of money.

The ambition was boundless,
the vision splendid.

The popes would stop at nothing

to make Rome the most holy
city on Earth...

..a new Jerusalem.

But the men leading the mission
would be far from saintly.

The Renaissance popes saw
no contradiction

between their sacred role,
cut-throat politics,

and the pursuit of wealth
and pleasure.

There was one Pope who personifies
this merciless magnificence

like no other.

This is the Castel Sant'Angelo,

the fortress, prison and
torture chamber of the papacy,

and up there is the family crest
of Pope Alexander VI.

But if you look closely, you'll see
that it's been totally vandalised.

And this is because
Alexander VI was a member

of the most notorious family in
the entire history of the papacy...

the Borgias.

The Borgia Pope was the nephew
of the Spanish Pope Callixtus III,

who raised him to Cardinal.

A brilliantly cunning
and effective politician,

as Pope, he was ruthlessly effective
in promoting papal power.

He was determined to make
Rome great

and his family even greater.

His son, Cesare Borgia, was a bishop
at 16 and a cardinal at 18,

but he probably murdered
his own brother,

whose death enabled him
to resign from the Church

and become papal commander-in-chief,

conquering new territories
for the family.

He was brilliantly talented,
tireless and terrifying.

His victims were found floating
in the Tiber every morning.

But to Machiavelli, he was the ideal
of the Renaissance prince.

Cesare Borgia was the Pope's
flamboyant enforcer and henchman.

No-one was safe
in his reign of terror.

Corruption, war and assassination

were as much part of Rome's
renaissance as the exquisite art.

And the popes and cardinals
were often as debauched

as they were priestly.

The Borgias shamelessly
turned the Vatican

into a palace of pleasure.

The Pope himself had many lovers
and fathered many children.

Historian Mary Hollingsworth

has been studying an account
written by a senior courtier

which provides a rather
interesting insight

into Borgia life at the Vatican.

The papal master of ceremonies
did describe

a particularly lurid dinner party
that Cesare...

not, I should say, the Borgia Pope,
but that Cesare held in the Vatican.

And at the end of the meal,

the guests removed all the big
silver candelabra onto the ground,

and then scattered chestnuts
all over the floor

and invited in a bevy
of naked ladies,

who went around on their
hands and knees,

bobbing up and down their heads

to pick up these chestnuts
in their mouths.

And then, at the end, once all
the chestnuts had been collected,

and, presumably, all the wares,
as it were, had been displayed,

then the male guest who had sex

with the largest number
of these prostitutes

was ceremonially given a present
of a very expensive pair of gloves.

So, those things seem to be true.

I mean, there are plenty
of later popes

where things like that happened.

Wasn't one of the great accusations
thrown at the Borgia Pope

was that he had so many mistresses
and so many children?

Was that usual for a for a religious
leader like the Pope at this time?

Well, I suppose he wasn't the first
to do it and nor was he the last,

but he was just slightly more so.
So, he was slightly more...

He had rather more beautiful
mistresses and, you know,

an awfully large bevy of children.

How seriously did these Renaissance
popes take their Christianity?

Well, I personally think
they took it very seriously.

I mean, just because they're
extravagant,

it's not that that they're not
religious. It's not either/or.

It's a different way
of doing things.

For the Renaissance popes,

outrageous parties and
ostentatious displays of wealth

were a tribute to the glory
of God and Church...

..and a demonstration to the world
of their power and sanctity.

In the mission to make Rome
great once more,

there was one Pope whose ambitions
would exceed all others.

The successor to the Borgia Pope

would be the ultimate creator
of Renaissance Rome.

His name was Giuliano della Rovera.

Years before he became Pope,

he began forming his great
vision for the city.

And in the entrance to the church
outside his old home

is a clue to his master plan
for the new Rome.

He erected a relief of an eagle...

..the mighty symbol of Ancient Rome.

Giuliano had rescued
the great eagle from the ruins,

and he wanted to do the same
to Rome itself.

His vision was to restore
the Eternal City

to its ancient glories.

And he himself would be
its Julius Caesar.

So it's no wonder that
when elected Pope,

the name he chose was Julius II.

Deep inside the Vatican Palace,

the walls of Julius's
private apartments ring out

with the story of his reign.

This high priest saw himself
as a warrior pope...

..who would don armour to lead
his troops into battle...

..like the emperors of old.

He became know as Papa Terribile,
the fearsome Pope.

But his most effective foot soldiers
would be his army of artists.

He assembled a team of
the greatest artists in history

to equal, and even out-do,
the glory of imperial Rome.

The artist Raphael

would be commissioned to decorate
his living quarters,

which many consider
Raphael's finest work.

Classical, as well as
Christian, scenes

dominate the Papal Apartments.

The pagan God Apollo has
pride of place,

surrounded by the finest poets,
from Homer to Dante.

Not all Christians were comfortable
with the pagan imagery,

but this classical/Christian fusion

was the true spirit of
the Renaissance.

Julius was channelling
the greatest human achievements
throughout history

to promote the power of the papacy
and Christian Rome.

But it was Julius' partnership
with one particular artist

that would come to define the
Renaissance more than any other.

An artist so revered that even
his rival, Raphael, painted him...

Michelangelo.

Michelangelo was
impossible to deal with.

He was obsessive,
paranoid and avaricious.

Tormented by his artistic rivalries,
his religious doubts,

the demands of his greedy family,
and his own homosexuality.

But Julius's commission would
produce a peerless masterpiece,

the jewel of the Renaissance.

500 years after its creation,

it is still regarded as one of
the world's finest works.

Even amidst the other splendours
of the Sistine Chapel,

it's the ceiling that takes
your breath away.

Painting the ceiling was a physical
and creative challenge.

Michelangelo was tormented
by neck and eye pain.

And Julius was a harsh taskmaster.
He beat Michelangelo
with a stick,

but the haughty artist was every bit
as volcanic as his patron.

Julius even used his own epithet to
describe him - Il Terribile.

But from this fiery relationship
came perfection.

In 1512, a heavenly vision
was unveiled.

The creation narrative of Genesis

has never been
so sublimely rendered.

This is truly
the pinnacle of the Renaissance.

It's just amazing to be here.

One really feels
one's...in the company of genius.

As you see God giving life to Adam,

you feel, too, how Michelangelo
gave life to the Renaissance.

Rome was reborn.

Michelangelo projects his vision
of the human body

as an expression of God's design.

While for Julius, this was
the declaration of papal Rome

as all-powerful
and divinely blessed.

But Julius wasn't prepared
to stop here.

Seven years earlier,

Julius had set in motion
an even more ambitious project...

..right next door
to the Vatican Palace.

An endeavour so colossal,
it would outlast Julius

and the final days
of the Renaissance itself.

Inside the Church
of San Martino ai Monti

is an image of what was once
the most sacred building in Rome...

..the original St Peter's Basilica,
built by Constantine the Great.

It was already 1,000 years old.

The very legitimacy and sanctity
of the popes themselves

were based on their connection
to the place

where St Peter had been
crucified and buried.

But in 1505, Pope Julius II
decided to destroy it.

Many of the clergy were outraged.

To destroy the basilica
was sacrilege.

Julius wanted to build
a bigger, better St Peter's,

that would be fittingly magnificent
for the capital of Christendom.

But he was taking a huge gamble.

He was demolishing Rome's
most beloved building

and the only church that linked
the city and the papacy

to the early days of Christianity,
and St Peter himself.

The rebuilding of St Peter's
would last 120 years.

It would take the commitment
of another 20 popes

to deliver Julius's vision.

But this would be a period of
astonishing activity,

during which the values
of Renaissance Rome

would be severely tested.

Hello. Hi there.

'The challenge began with
the astronomical cost

'of building the new St Peter's.'

The Renaissance had attracted
many more pilgrims to Rome,

and they brought in massive
new revenues,

but they were soon spent and
the Church needed much, much more.

'And so, in the early 16th century,

'the popes began exploiting
a uniquely papal practice

'to raise more money...'

Can I have this, please? Yes, sure.
How much is it?

20 Euro. 20 Euro, OK.

'..the selling of indulgences.'

The practice had been around
since the 6th century.

It was simple. People would pay
to have their sins forgiven.

And it raised so much money that
they had an even brighter idea.

People would pay for sins they
hadn't even committed yet.

OK? 25, sir.

25, perfect. There we are.

'The papacy had turned sin
into a business.'

This abuse, taking place in
the heart of God's city,

outraged many Christians.

For years, the Renaissance popes

had thrived through decadence
and corruption.

But the selling of indulgences
would prove one step too far.

I've come to a palace
that defines the moment

Renaissance Rome came tumbling down.

The Villa Farnesina was
known as the Villa of Pleasure,

and was frequently visited
by Julius's successor, Leo X.

Pope Leo was better at parties
than he was at politics.

"God has given us the papacy,"
he said,

"so let us enjoy it!"

And enjoy it he did.

He was a member of
the Medici banking family,

but in one year, he squandered
the entire savings of the papacy

on pleasures, on art,
and on gambling.

His reign marks the delicious climax

of the debauchery
of the Renaissance papacy.

The popes believed
they were invincible.

But they were wrong.

Their decadent version
of Christianity

did not go unnoticed by
Christians outside of Rome...

..and the Renaissance was about
to reach an explosive finale.

One German monk visiting Rome
was particularly outraged.

His name was Martin Luther.

Everything that the Renaissance
popes valued and nurtured for Rome,

Luther loathed.

Sexual pleasure, the beauty
of the human body,

the admiration for pagan art.

And most disturbing of all,

the selling of the forgiveness
of sins.

The worst perpetrator of these
abominations was the Pope himself.

Luther said that far from being
God's representative on Earth,

he was an agent of the devil.

Luther returned
to his home town in Germany

and nailed his protest
to the church door,

thereby launching the movement
that became known as Protestantism.

He defied the Church, and
his Protestantism

would be the greatest challenge to
papal supremacy in all its history.

The papacy had little time
for Luther,

but it would not be long
before his protests

would shake the Church
to its foundations

and bring catastrophe to Rome.

Just upstairs is a long-hidden
piece of evidence

of the horrific conclusion
of the Renaissance.

In the late 1990s, some art
restorers working on this room

uncovered some totally
fascinating graffiti...

..which dates back to the year 1528.

Now, it's very hard
to decipher this,

and with apologies for
my hopeless German, it says,

"Was soll ich die schreiben

nit lachen die Landsknechten
haben den Papst laufen machen."

The man who wrote this graffiti
is congratulating himself

and his mates.

He says, "Why shouldn't I laugh?

"We, the Landsknecht,
have set the Pope on the run."

The Landsknecht were a force
of German mercenaries

sent to Italy by Emperor Charles V

as a warning to the inept
Medici Pope, Clement VII.

But in May 1527, they mutinied...

..and stormed the city.

The Landsknecht were Protestants

who believed the Pope
was the Antichrist.

Infuriated by tales of
papal hedonism,

they ran amok in the satanic city.

The small papal army didn't
stand a chance

as the Landsknecht went berserk.

They slaughtered everyone
they encountered in the streets.

They disembowelled priests.

They turned monasteries
into brothels.

The Eternal City had become
Hell on Earth.

The Pope tried to
negotiate with them,

but no-one could stop the mayhem.

So, he escaped from the Vatican
along the passato,

this fortified passageway,

to seek refuge in
the Castel Sant'Angelo.

And here he hid
for almost an entire year.

The Pope's health disintegrated.

Outside of the Castel,
Rome was ravaged.

The city was devastated.

The population halved

by hunger, murder and plague.

But, still, the troops
wouldn't leave,

and in December 1527, they said
that if they didn't get their money,

they'd hang their captains and
slice the Pope into pieces.

By this time, the Pope was starving,

blind in one eye and ridden
with liver disease.

He escaped from the Castel
Sant'Angelo disguised as a servant

and headed out of Rome to
the Papal residence at Orvieto.

The Pope had lost his splendour
and his power.

The Holy City had lost its ruler,
its protector.

The Sack of Rome was the greatest
catastrophe in all its history.

The follies of the Renaissance popes

had brought the Eternal City
close to destruction.

On the 11th of February 1528,
the Landsknecht were finally paid

and the horde finally left.

The Pope returned to Rome.

The Sack of Rome was seen
as God's judgement,

even by the Pope himself.

Rome was being punished
for its sins.

Now, one thing was clear.
The Church would have to change.

The result was
the Catholic Reformation.

Dissidence and excess were now
brutally repressed.

For the moment, at least,

the orgies and mistresses were out,
austerity and chastity were in.

The new severity was personified by
Paul IV, a brutal and pedantic prig

who regarded the ancient
monuments of Rome

as pagan and, therefore, heretical.

He said he would have liked to
destroy them all.

But worse, he was disgusted by
the naked private parts

of the Renaissance masterpieces,

and ordered many of them
to be painted over.

It is his fitting punishment that
history remembers him above all

as the Fig Leaf Pope.

The curse of the fig leaf
is still visible today

on Michelangelo's later work
in the Sistine Chapel.

The Last Judgment was the final
masterpiece of the Renaissance.

I think it's the finest celebration

of the grace and dignity
of the human body,

but it also brutally reflects the
dystopic mayhem of the Sack of Rome.

Its naked passions appalled
the Catholic Reformation

and some of Michelangelo's
beautifully bare figures

now wear rather strategically
placed pieces of cloth.

And one previously naked woman

has had her modesty restored with
a rather frumpy green dress.

But the Catholic Reformation
attacked more than just art.

It unleashed the Roman Inquisition
on the Eternal City.

The Inquisition was set up to
enforce the doctrines of the Church

and destroy any heresies
or impurities.

Peccadilloes that had been
overlooked or indulged
during the Renaissance

were now brutally punished.

Homosexuals were burnt alive.

Jews, who had lived peacefully
in Rome for 1,700 years,

were confined to a ghetto.

But the biggest challenge
to Roman supremacy

was the new rival branch
of Christianity.

As Protestantism spread, the papacy
resolved to fight it on every level,

from the world of art
to the battlefield.

In 1539, the Catholic Church
created a new militant wing.

This is the Church of Saint Ignacio,
named after Ignacio Loyola,

a military man who believed that
the winning of Christian souls

could be conducted
like a military campaign.

So, he founded the Society
of Jesus, the Jesuits.

And a look at
this astonishing ceiling

tells you all you need to know
about the passionate energy

of the Jesuit mission.

Saint Ignacio commands the centre,
empowered by Jesus Christ himself.

His heart radiates four sacred beams
that propel his female missionaries

to the four corners of the world

to slay the pagans.

Indeed, the Jesuit mission was
international and universal.

It was to convert everyone.

It used both the sword
and the prayer book.

The Jesuits valued education
above all else,

and used their sophisticated
analysis of human character

to win souls, defeat enemies,

and to defend and spread
papal authority.

By the 17th Century,

the reach of Rome had spread
beyond its walls

to the four corners of the world.

The Renaissance may have passed,

but a new heyday now dawned
for the Holy City.

Rome was the heart of a new
Christendom. Not just Catholic,

but Roman Catholic.

The battle against Protestantism
would embellish Rome itself.

The popes launched a new
and exhilarating war of culture.

They championed an artistic movement

to project a new-found
intensity of passion

and ecstasy of revelation.

This new art was personified
by one man.

Gian Lorenzo Bernini was
the master of baroque art.

Impulsive and emotional,

when he found his mistress was
having an affair with his brother,

he beat his brother up
with a crowbar

and had her permanently scarred
with a razor blade.

But Bernini was adored by
Pope Urban VIII,

who told him, "You're lucky
to have me as Pope,

"but I'm even luckier to have you."

Their partnership was responsible

for much of what we see
in Rome today.

Bernini, in many ways, is
to the 17th century

what Michelangelo had been
in the 16th century,

and he certainly was the best
interpreter

of the wishes of the popes.

Art historian Alexandra Massini
has brought me to see

the sculpture that Bernini
considered his masterpiece.

It's called
The Ecstasy Of Saint Teresa.

Tell me about this piece.
I mean, this is extraordinary.

Well, this is really a very intense
religious experience

that is described by Saint Teresa

but, you know, if I read out
her own words

and you see the sculpture
that goes along with it,

I think there's little ambiguity
as to what exactly is happening...

So, let me just read this...

"I saw that he had a long
golden dart in his hand..."

She's referring to this angel
that she sees appearing.

"I thought that he pierced my heart
with this dart several times

"and in such a manner that it
went through my very bowels

"and when he drew it out, it seemed
as if my bowels came with it,

"and I remained wholly inflamed
with a great love of God.

"The pain thereof was so intense
that it forced deep groans from me,

"but the sweetness which this
extreme pain caused in me

"was so excessive that there was
no desiring to be free from it."

So, I think this is a very graphic
and very erotic rendering

of an absolutely physical
experience.

Now, this was very different
from, really, what had gone before,

because we're coming out of
the Counter-Reformation,

a strict time, a severe time,
a time of a sort of moral crackdown,

and suddenly we have
this explosion of sensual...

sensual extravagance, really.

The restraints of the
Counter-Reformation are long gone

by this stage, and...

What you are out to do is really
to draw in the viewer

and that's why you do things

that are absolutely theatrical
and absolutely dramatic,

and that explains why you have
such an erotic piece

that ends up in a church, where
you would at least expect it.

The viewer thinks... A modern-day
viewer would think,

"OK, this is something absolutely
secular. What is it doing
inside a church?"

But it is part, I think, of this
emotional sensibility that...

people expected at the time,

even inside a church,
even from the faithful.

It is part of the religious
picture of the time.

Was this new sensibility of
the Catholic Church,

represented by the baroque
and Bernini,

really also a way of competing
with Protestantism?

It definitely was, yes.

I think that whereas
the Protestants are really...

sticking to a literal reading
of the Bible,

here we have something
totally different. It is...

You reach God through the senses,
through opening up your heart,

through experiencing things
to the...to your bones, literally,

and that, I think, is what makes
this work of art so powerful.

Saying, "The Church can
give you this."

Exactly. The Church can
give you this.

And that's quite something.
Yes. Yes, indeed.

The Church deployed every
available weapon

to win the battle of
Christian souls.

But to complete Rome's status
as the ultimate Holy City,

there was one major task
left undone...

to finish the new St Peter's.

By 1610, the exterior was
finally complete.

115 years after Julius II had
knocked down the original,

a vast new structure
now dominated Rome's skyline.

It proclaims the power and
confidence of the Catholic Church.

But the basilica still lacked
a centrepiece.

And it's here that Bernini
produced his masterpiece.

The new basilica had been built
above the original tomb of St Peter.

To honour the shrine which gave
Papal Rome its sanctity,

Bernini created
this monumental canopy,

his baldacchino.

There's something very thrilling
and powerful

about this triumphalist piece
of architecture here.

It's not just declaring
the triumph of the Church

and the majesty of the papacy,

but it's also pointing out
the connection

between Rome and Jerusalem.

These gorgeous curving pillars
are specially designed

as replicas of pillars from
the Temple of Solomon in Jerusalem.

And so, what Bernini is saying here
is that Rome is the new Holy City,

Rome is the new Jerusalem.

On the 18th of November 1626,

the vision of Julius II
was finally realised.

20 popes later,
the new St Peter's was finished.

Today, it remains the largest
church in the world.

I think the gigantic force
of this church

defines Rome as
the capital of Christendom.

An emblem of the success of
the Renaissance dream

and global Catholicism.

Julius's gamble had paid off.

By the 18th century,

the story of the making of
the Holy City is almost complete.

At first glance, Rome looked
very much like it does today...

..filled with tourists eager
to see its beautiful monuments.

But there was one crucial difference
between then and now.

The popes were still
the autocratic rulers

of their own swathe of Italian
territories - the Papal States.

But all of that was about to change.

In the mid 19th century,

new ideologies were
sweeping across Europe,

which would permanently alter
the shape of the Holy City...

..republicanism and nationalism.

They rejected the medieval
and sclerotic papal autocracy.

Having already taken hold of France,

the idea of a republican nation
was gathering momentum

across the separate states of
the Italian peninsula.

A doctor's son from the northern
city of Genoa named Giuseppe Mazzini

led the campaign to unite the
various kingdoms of the peninsula

into just one country - Italy.

And Mazzini believed
there could only be one capital.

"Rome," he said, "was the national
centre of Italian unity,

"the dream of my young years,
the religion of my soul."

If Mazzini succeeded,
he would end papal rule for ever.

Not surprisingly, the Pope denounced
the new Italian nationalism

and called on all Catholics
to reject it.

War was looming.

In 1849, the Republican troops,

led by the swashbuckling warlord
Giuseppe Garibaldi,

descended on Rome.

This time, the Pope had
a surprising ally

in his opposition to
Italian republicanism.

France - now ruled
by Emperor Napoleon III,

nephew of the great
Napoleon Bonaparte.

And when Rome fell to Garibaldi
and the Republicans,

Napoleon sent an army
to get it back.

They bombarded Rome
and, as chance would have it,

a French cannon ball smashed right
in to the sumptuous great hall

of Prince Colonna's Palace.

Now, this is one of my
favourite secrets of Rome,

because that Napoleonic cannonball

embedded itself in Prince Colonna's
marble staircase...

and it's still there to this day.

Thanks to the support
of Napoleon III,

the Pope still ruled Rome.

But Mazzini's vision of Rome as
the capital of Italy lived on.

In 1870, Napoleon III fell,
the French withdrew,

and the army of the new nation
of Italy entered Rome.

Commanded by Victor Emmanuel,

king of the newly-formed
Kingdom of Italy.

He made Rome his capital,
while its former ruler, the Pope,

retreated behind the walls
of the Vatican,

where he melodramatically
declared himself a prisoner.

Secularism had taken control
of the Holy City.

A vast monument in honour
of King Victor Emmanuel

was erected to dominate
the Rome of the past

and dwarf its religious buildings.

Grotesque it may be,
but its message was clear.

Rome had new masters.

The city no longer
belonged to the Pope.

But the Pope was not going
to make this easy.

Historian Anne Wingenter has been
studying this pivotal period

in Rome's history.

So, when King Victor Emmanuel,
King of Italy,

arrived and united Rome with
the rest of Italy,

how did that effect the Pope?

Well, I mean, the Pope essentially
refused to recognise

the Kingdom of Italy, and not
just this particular Pope

when Rome was taken, but
the next several popes, and...

they encourage Catholics, not just
in Italy, but around the world,

not to recognise
the Kingdom of Italy.

And threatening Italians with
ex-communication

if they participate in
the political life of the state.

You know, it's a real problem,

because there's a priest
in every village, you know,

telling people that, you know,
the state is illegitimate.

And the Pope retreats to
the Vatican Palace?

The popes stay in the Vatican,

and they don't give the address
in St Peter's Square.

They sort of cut the state off
from...the mother Church

which, if you're a believing
Catholic, is...is a problem.

The papacy and the kingdom would
be in a stand-off for 60 years.

Surprisingly, the man who
solved the problem

was the Fascist dictator
Benito Mussolini.

Mussolini understood
the popularity of the Church

would add to the legitimacy
of his fascist regime.

So in 1929, he signed
the Lateran Pact with the Pope,

that created the Vatican state.

The border is right here.

Now, I'm standing in
the Republic of Italy,

and when I cross the line...

..now I'm standing
in the Vatican state,

the Pope's own country.

The Vatican state became
the world's smallest nation.

At just 0.2 square miles,

the new papal state was a miniature
of its former glories.

But it meant that the Pope could
lead his billion global Catholics

as an independent priest monarch.

Now, for the first time
in Roman history,

secular and sacred power
were separate in one Holy City.

Espiritu Santo...

In today's Rome, all the strands
of old and new come together.

You can see it right here
on this street corner,

surrounded by tourists and yet,
nowadays, strangely overlooked.

Right up there, you can see
Romulus and Remus,

the founders of Ancient Rome,
and above them,

the fasces, the symbols of fascism.

And all of this on this
majestic thoroughfare

leading straight to the magnificent
basilica of St Peter's.

All of it, modern and ancient,

now, together, seem
happily, typically, Roman.

For three millennia,

Rome has been the definition
of power and sanctity.

Rome, like Christianity's
other holy city, Jerusalem,

is a place where man
meets the divine.

Throughout its history,

Rome's destiny has
been determined inseparably

by both the cruel
necessities of power

and by the passion of faith.

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