The Medici became leaders of Christendom through their two famous 16th century popes, Leo X and Clement VII. Both also served as "de facto" political rulers of Rome, Florence, and large swaths of Italy known as the Papal States. They were generous patrons of the arts who commissioned masterpieces such as Raphael's "Transfiguration" and Michelangelo's "The Last Judgment"; however, their reigns coincided with troubles for the Vatican, including Martin Luther's Protestant Reformation and the infamous sack of Rome in 1527.