Picture of the day:

THE APPARITION OF THE VIRGIN TO POPE CALIXTUS III BY SANO DI, ALSO ANSANO DI PIETRO DI MENCIO PIETRO

7 May 1274-The Second Council of Lyon opens in France to regulate the election of the pope.

7 May 1342-Election of pope Clement VI

Picture of the day:

LORENZO DE MEDICI BY PAT NICOLLE

6 May 1312 - Pope Clement V closes Council of Vienna

6 May 1501 – Birth of Pope Marcellus II

6 May 1527- Sack of Rome

Spanish and German troops sack Rome; some consider this the end of the Renaissance. 147 Swiss Guards, including their commander, die fighting the forces of Charles V in order to allow Pope Clement VII to escape into Castel Sant'Angelo.

6 May 1574 – Birth of Pope Innocent X

Picture of the day:

Marriage of Lucrezia Borgia by Angus McBride

4 May 1493-Pope Alexander VI divides the New World between Spain and Portugal along the Line of Demarcation.

Pope Alexander VI published a bull, 'Inter caetera', which granted to Spain (the Crowns of Castile and Aragon) all lands to the "west and south" of a pole-to-pole line 100 leagues west and south of any of the islands of the Azores or the Cape Verde islands.

4 May 1519 - Death of Lorenzo II de' Medici, Duke of Urbino.
He was the son of Piero di Lorenzo de' Medici and Alfonsina Orsini,husband of Madeleine de la Tour, daughter of the Count of Auvergne, and father of Catherine de' Medici,Queen of France