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Sixtus IV

Britannica Concise Encyclopedia | Date: 2007

[orig. Francesco della Rovere] (born July 21, 1414, Cella Ligure, near Savona, Republic of Genoa—died Aug. 12, 1484, Rome) Pope (1471–84). A Franciscan from Genoa, he enriched his family and the Papal States through simony and heavy taxation. The Pragmatic Sanction of Bourges caused strain with France, and Sixtus failed in his effort to unite the Russian and Roman churches. He endorsed the Pazzi conspiracy, though not the attempt to kill Lorenzo de'Medici. He also incited Venice to attack Ferrara; then, in a turnabout, he placed Venice under interdict (1483) as a rival to the Papal States. A patron of arts and letters, he built the Sistine Chapel, which takes its name from him.

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