Remember The Sack

480 years have passed since the sack of Rome.

Here is an excerpt from my posting from last year.

May 6, 1527, the day of the sack of Rome, marks the greatest day in the history of the Swiss Guard. That morning, Captain General Bourbon launched a series of attacks on Rome. During one of them, at the Torrione Gate, while leading the assault of the walls, he himself was mortally wounded. After just a moment's hesitation, the Spanish mercenaries broke through the Torrione Gate, while the lansquenets invaded the road of Borgo Santo Spirito and St. Peter's. The Swiss Guard, standing firm at the foot of the obelisk (now in St. Peter's Square, but then near the German cemetery within the Vatican close to the Basilica), together with the few remnants of the Roman troops, resisted desperately. Their Captain, Kaspar Röist was wounded, and later killed by the Spaniards in his quarters in front of his wife, Elizabeth Klingler. Of the 189 Swiss Guards, only 42 survived, the ones who, when all was lost, under the command of Hercules Göldli guarded Clement VII’s retreat to safety in Castel Sant’Angelo. The rest fell gloriously, massacred together with two hundred fugitives, on the steps of the High Altar in St. Peter's Basilica. Pope Clement VII and his men were able to escape to safety, thanks to the "Passetto", a secret corridor which Pope Alexander VI had built along the top of the wall connect­ing the Vatican with Castel Sant’Angelo.

Across the Sisto bridge the lansquenets and Spaniards fell on the city and for eight days committed every sort of violence, theft, sacrilege and massacre, even the tombs of the Popes, including that of Julius II, were violated in search of spoils. There were as many as 12 thousand dead and the booty amounted to ten million ducats.

Viva il Papa! Viva Ecclesia!

Photo by Domini Sumus.

Swiss Guards Unhappy With

Colonel Elmar Mader has banned the guards from holding New Year's parties on the barracks roof and is refusing the extend the curfew for the holiday season. Cases of wine have also been confiscated under his orders.

Now, maybe it's just me, but I don't see the problem here. Of course, that may be because I have never liked partying, especially on New Year's Eve. That will explain why I am home and blogging tonight.

Anyway, here are the articles:
This one from the Independant:

There is mutiny afoot in the Vatican's Swiss Guard, the world's smallest but probably most pampered army.

The focus of discontent at the barracks is what many papal bodyguards see as the heavy-handed policies of the current commanding officer, Colonel Elmar Theodore Mader, who has banned men from holding the traditional year-end parties on the terrace atop their barracks. Even senior officers have been forbidden to give cocktail parties, say Vatican sources.

Ordinary guardsmen are angry that rules preventing them from staying out at night in Rome after midnight are being rigidly applied in the holiday season while Capt Mader himself is frequently out at parties until the early hours of the morning.

One of the halberdiers was angry after discovering that the commanding officer had ordered the confiscation of a crate of wine that admirers of the corps frequently send the soldiers from Switzerland. "We received 25 bottles of good Swiss wine but when we came back from guard duty there were only five left in my room," said the guard. "The other 20 had been seized on orders of the commander, evidently for his own use."

Capt Mader in private remarks has shrugged off suggestions that he might fall foul of mutinous tendencies, claiming that, far from being a martinet, he has a "meaningful dialogue" with his 130 Roman Catholic troops. Many guards would question that, however, complaining of double standards inconsistent with the traditions of sacrifice celebrated this year during ceremonies to mark the 500th anniversary of the corps.

and from the UPI:

New policies imposed on the Vatican's Swiss Guard by its commanding officer have the small unit's troops infuriated and threatening mutiny, a report says.

The Independent reported that due to Col. Elmar Theodore Mader's policies and actions as the military force's new leader, Swiss Guard soldiers have begun to complain of unfair double standards.

Mader allegedly has banned his troops from engaging in traditional holiday parties and instilled a nightly curfew, despite the fact he stays out later and enjoys a festive holiday season, the report said.

In addition, one of Mader's troops has alleged that his commander confiscated the majority of a case of wine a supporter gave the Swiss soldiers.

"We received 25 bottles of good Swiss wine but when we came back from guard duty there were only five left in my room," the unidentified soldier claimed. "The other 20 had been seized on orders of the commander, evidently for his own use."

The Independent said that while Mader has denied the reports, many under his command have questioned his actions during the ongoing 500th anniversary of the pope's Swiss Guard.

Swiss Guard Sticker Book

(CNS) -- Move over baseball players and soccer stars -- an Italian publisher is hoping to hook young collectors on the Swiss Guards.

To honor the guards in their 500th year of service to the popes, the publisher has released a deluxe collector's album with 250 different stickers.

"The Guardian Angels of the Pope" is heavy on images and light on text, but the brief explanations of each sticker are provided in both Italian and English.

The images used were chosen and the explanations written by Giovanni Morelli, the retired Vatican Library employee who served as researcher and curator of the 2006 Vatican exhibition on the history of the Swiss Guards.

Claudio Ventrella, editorial director of Pubblicazioni Collezionare Cultura, said the sticker collection fits perfectly with the company's commitment to using sticker mania to promote appreciation of Italy's culture, including its religious history and heritage.

The company already has sold 200,000 albums and some 20 million stickers in its two series on the saints, he said.

But while the saints' albums and stickers are sold separately through Italian newsstands, the Swiss Guards' special edition is sold in bookstores or over the Internet -- http://www.collezionarecultura.it -- in a box with the album and all the stickers ready to be affixed.

The album includes the history of the Swiss Guards, illustrated with portraits of all the popes of the past 500 years and the 33 commanders who have led the corps over the course of five centuries.

Vittorio Pranzini, who worked with Morelli in putting the book together, says he has no doubt the more serious collectors will be most interested in the second chapter: a look at how the guards' uniforms have changed through the years.

The album also includes photo-stickers of the daily work and life of the guards as they watch over the pope, patrol the Vatican and train in the use of their medieval halberds.Ventrella said that with the price at 48 euros, just over $63, the publisher did a limited first printing of 5,000 copies.

But he hopes further print runs are necessary, he said.

As the success of the saints' series has shown, he said, stickers are "a winning formula for joining fun and curiosity with culture and faith."