Sixtus IV

Sixtus IV (1414-84), pope (1471-84), who was a notable patron of arts and letters, but whose reign was marked by political intrigue and corruption. Born Francesco della Rovere in Celle Ligare, near Savona, Italy, he became a Franciscan friar at an early age. In 1464 he was elected general of the Franciscans, and three years later he was created cardinal. During his pontificate the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican and the Sistine Bridge across the Tiber River were constructed, and the Sistine choir was founded. He involved the papacy in war (1478-80) with Florence and supported (1480-84) the Venetian war against Ferrara. Sixtus was censured for promoting unworthy relatives to high ecclesiastical offices and for pursuing secular matters to the neglect of spiritual ones. He tried unsuccessfully to moderate some of the excesses of the Spanish Inquisition, although he had originally consented to its establishment in 1478 (see Inquisition). Sixtus's political and cultural projects impoverished the papal treasury, and his reign is usually regarded as an unsuccessful one.