**Matthäus Schiner in a portrait from 1784. Background: Letter from Bishop Matthäus Schiner to the envoy in Rome, no date.** Zentralbibliothek Zürich / Universitätsbibliothek Basel

Matthäus Schiner: A Valaisan at the centre of power

From peasant’s son to almost Pope: Matthäus Schiner (c. 1465-1522), who came from the Upper Valais, was a decisive figure in European politics during the height of Swiss power in Europe. He remains controversial to this day.

James Blake Wiener

James Blake Wiener is a world historian, Co-Founder of World History Encyclopedia, writer, and PR specialist, who has taught as a professor in Europe and North America.

Website: worldhistory.org

On October 1, 1522, Matthäus Schiner died in Rome of the plague. A cardinal, prince-bishop, papal prelate, military commander, and energetic diplomat, Schiner’s life was as colorful as it was tumultuous. From his humble beginnings as the son of Walser peasants to his spectacular rise as one of the leading figures in early modern European politics, Schiner remains one of the most compelling and divisive personalities in Swiss history.

Schiner’s Formative Years

Matthäus Schiner was born around 1465 in Mühlebach bei Emen, in Upper Valais, to Peter Schiner and Katharina Zmitweg. His father was a carpenter and farmer who took part in the Battle of the Planta (1475), in which the Walsers fought against the Savoyards during the Burgundian Wars (1474–1477). Although very little is known about his earliest years, Schiner is reported to have impressed everyone with his sharp intelligence and quick memory. It seems probable that Schiner’s uncle, Nicholas Schiner, later the prince-bishop of Sion, guided him towards an ecclesiastical career. He studied at the cathedral schools of Sion and Como, taking instruction from the renowned humanist Heinrich Wölfli. An accomplished linguist, Schiner dazzled those who met him in fluent High German, Latin, French, and several dialects of Italian, including Venetian. The spirit of the Italian Renaissance left an indelible imprint on Schiner’s personality and tastes: Appreciative of Boccaccio’s romantic stories and Dante’s poetry, Julius Caesar, Livy, Tacitus, and Suetonius were his authors of choice. Schiner was intimately aware to master the art of politics in order to obtain and consolidate personal power within the church. Political intrigue as well as artistic discernment thus became second nature.

**Sion around 1597. Miniature from the chronicle of Andreas Ryff. On the left, Tourbillon Castle, on the right Château de la Majorie, from where Schiner ruled as Prince-Bishop of Sion.** Musée historique de Mulhouse

First ordained as a chaplain in 1489, Schiner collected an assortment of ecclesiastical and political offices in Valais in the course of a decade: Priest of Ernen and Obergesteln, vicar of Ernen, deacon of Valais, and prince-bishop of Sion in 1499. Schiner’s spiritual and temporal power was unmatched in Valais; he even possessed a voice in the Imperial Diet. He governed as a true Renaissance prince, purchasing lavish residences and building new structures, like the Church of St. Théodule in Sion. However, many in Valais considered him a polarizing figure. Valais was sharply divided in the 1490s between those of a pro-French political orientation – mostly churchmen and administrators living primarily in Lower Valais – and those favored closer ties to Milan and Austria. Schiner made no secret of his close ties to the Sforza of Milan, the Papacy, and the Holy Roman Empire. To Schiner, France and Savoy were avaricious nations, determined to dominate not only Italy and the Old Confederation, but all of Christendom. In order to safeguard internal Swiss interests as well as trade over the key alpine passes, many of which intersected Valais, Schiner advised against supporting the expansion of French power into northern Italy. The balance of power in Western Europe shifted profoundly between 1499 and 1500 after the French successfully captured Milan and the Swabian War commenced. France and the Confederation signed a ten year treaty of alliance in 1499 much to Schiner’s consternation. From this moment onwards, Schiner worked tirelessly to preserve the independence of the Papacy as well as the Confederation from French domination.

Transfer of power within the Schiner family: Niklaus Schiner renounces his office as Bishop of Sitten in 1499 in favour of his nephew Matthäus (right), to whom he symbolically hands over the Gospel Book. Korporation Luzern, Diebold Schilling-Chronik, S 23 fol.

I want to wash my hands, drinking in the blood of the French.

Matthäus Schiner

**Thaler of the diocese of Sion from 1501. One side depicts St. Theodul, the other the family coat of arms of Matthäus Schiner with crosier, mitre and sword.** Swiss National Museum

The Great Game of Power

With determination and cunning, Schiner sought allies within the Confederation and across Europe who shared his anti-French opinions. He found some in Bern. Although technically allied to France and Savoy, Bernese officials assured Schiner that the territorial integrity of Valais would be secure in the face of any French or Savoyard aggression. Schiner scored a further political victory through the 1503 Treaty of Arona, in which he intervened diplomatically to secure the Confederation’s possession of Leventina, the Valley of Blenio, and Bellinzona. Schiner’s ultimate grand design was an international alliance against France that would see their expulsion from the Italian peninsula through the force of arms. That would guarantee his base of power in Valais and expand his own sphere of influence well beyond the Alps. Through secret diplomatic overtures – often written in cypher – to friends and counterparts in Austria, Venice, the Vatican, Spain, Portugal, and England, Schiner assessed military readiness and promised immediate Swiss support in any campaign against the French. Rome proved the most receptive to Schiner’s outreach; in 1506, the warrior Pope Julius II hired the first 150 Swiss Guards in a gesture of support. The Confederation and the Papacy entered into an official alliance in March 1510, and Julius II thereafter made Schiner a papal nuncio. This new alliance came at an opportune moment as the Lötschental villages signed a treaty with France during the same year, threatening Schiner’s dominance of Valais.

**Pope Julius II, painted by Raphael, 1511.** National Gallery

In October 1511, Julius II proclaimed a “Holy League” against France, naming Schiner cardinal of Santa Pudenziana in Rome. The Spanish-Austrian-English-Papal-Venetian alliance that Schiner had long dreamed of widened the scope of the Italian Wars into that of a major European conflict. The following year, Schiner directed Swiss forces as the Papal Minister of War. With his troops, he subdued the French and pushed them out of Italy in only six weeks time. It was a stunning turn of events that awed the monarchies of Europe. Schiner was at the height of his power between 1512-1515 – he won the title Marquis of Vigevano from the Milanese, and Julius II made him the archbishop of Novara. Maximilian Sforza ruled as duke of Milan with his consent as a Swiss puppet. Schiner now dreamed of a Confederation that would encompass not only Milan but also Genoa, which would give the Swiss access to the Mediterranean Sea. With silver pouring in from Spain, Austria, and Rome, Schiner believed this was tangible. Schiner had perhaps become nearsighted, lost in his grandiose daydreams. The constant stream of Swiss men leaving to serve in Europe’s mercenary armies had stripped the Confederation of its labor force. Social and economic disruption fueled banditry and poverty at home, while corrupt Swiss politicians showed more interest in money and power than principle. The magnitude and cost of the mercenary system was pulling the Confederation apart. Schiner also failed to acknowledge that new artillery weapons, first engineered in Austria, negated the supposed invincibility of the Swiss pikemen. Although Schiner oversaw one last great military victory at the Battle of Novara in June 1513, he would be outmaneuvered by the young François I of France two years later. Around 10,000 Swiss men died on the fields around Marignano in September 1515 after more than 16 hours of brutal combat. François I is supposed to have uttered, “I have vanquished those whom only Caesar vanquished” to the crowds as he entered Milan victoriously a few weeks later.

**Matthäus Schiner on the battlefield at Marignano, 1515. Engraving by Johann Melchior Füssli, 1713.** Swiss National Museum

A rough lump like this Schiner, whose words have hurt me more than all the lances of his mountain people…

François I of France on Matthäus Schiner

**The French King François I (1494-1547) in a portrait by Jean Clouet.** Musée du Louvre

Frenetic Final Years

Schiner traveled to London to meet Henry VIII to propose another alliance between the Confederation, the Papacy, Austria, England and Spain against France, but the Treaty of Perpetual Peace of 1516 between the Confederation and France prevented this from coming to fruition. Schiner had lost power and influence not only in Italy but also in Valais after the defeat at Marignano. His longstanding feud with his former mentor and employer, the Francophile Georg Supersaxo, precluded any chance of a return to Sion. Schiner therefore fled over the Furka Pass to the safety of Zürich. Here, he lived from 1517-1519, and he became friendly with Ulrich Zwingli. The two men had likely met earlier in Italy; they shared a love of humanism and foreign languages, and both were mutual friends of Erasmus and Wölfli. Curiously, it was Schiner who provided the crucial recommendation that enabled Zwingli to become the lay priest of Grossmünster Cathedral. Although he believed that the Catholic Church needed reform, Schiner was no reformer himself.

**Zurich mercenaries travel through swampy areas with the Cardinal of Sion on their way to Milan in 1521.** Zentralbibliothek Zürich

Schiner’s final years were spent primarily at the imperial court in Vienna. He helped secure Charles V’s election as Holy Roman Empire in 1519, for which he was appointed bishop of Catania in Sicily the following year. Schiner publicly denounced Martin Luther at the Diet of Worms and met with Erasmus in 1521. When Pope Leo X died in 1522, Schiner traveled to Rome to help govern the Papal States during the interim and take part in Papal elections. He was a strong contender to become pope himself, but French cardinals in the curia blocked his candidacy. He was, nonetheless, instrumental in securing the election of the anti-French Adrian VI as pope before dying of the plague. Schiner was buried with honors just west of the Piazza Navona in the Church of Santa Maria dell’Anima – the national church of the Holy Roman Empire – in Rome. During the infamous Sack of Rome in 1527, his grave was robbed and destroyed by the Landsknechte.

**The church of Santa Maria dell'Anima in Rome, burial place of Matthew Schiner. Today, however, one looks in vain for his tomb.** Wikimedia

One can make the argument that in the first decades of the sixteenth century, the battle for supremacy in Western Europe lay in the hands of a clever Walser. There can be no doubt that Schiner was a vigorous statesman endowed with a brilliant intellectual mind. His rapid rise to power is indicative of a man with extraordinary expertise in matters of church and state, and an unshakeable commitment to his beliefs. During his life and long after his death, Schiner has remained a contentious personality. Depending on the source, the figure of Schiner fluctuates wildly: A corrupt cleric with three illegitimate daughters and a prince of the church whose bloody ambitions cost the lives of thousands; on the other hand, he is considered by many as one of chief architects of early modern European diplomacy and a prominent, early defender of Swiss independence. When viewed holistically in a wider historical context, it is irrefutable that Schiner’s triumphs and failures still color and shape the Swiss national consciousness 500 years after his death.

I only wish that what each of us is engaged in may be successful, or rather that what we are all engaged in may tend equally to the glory of Christ.

Erasmus in a letter of support to Matthäus Schiner, dating from December 14, 1521.