P1836GOUT A PAPAL DISEASE: A STUDY ON 20 PONTIFFS (540-1830 AD)
Authors: Bisacccia Carmela , De Santo Luca Salvatore , De Santo Natale Gaspare 
Published: June 2020

Background and Aims

Pope Gregory I (Magnus)―born c.540 AD, Pope 580-604 AD―in a letter to Bishop Venanzio ofLuni (later venerated as a saint) wrote “I have been confined to bed for the last eleven months, because of pain and malaise and suffer because of goutand my life has been turned into a penitence for my sins thus I am waiting death as a physician who will give me health”. He was the first Pope to suffer of gout and opens a list including in the years 20 pontiffs that includes Sisinnius, (b.650, pope 21 day in 708); Boniface VI (b. 806, Pope 15 days in 886), Honorius IV (b.1210, Pope 1285-1287); Boniface VIII (b. 1230, Pope 1294-1303); Clement VI (b.1281,Pope 1342-1352), Nicholas V (b.1387, Pope 1447-1455); Pius II( b. 1405, Pope 1458-1464); Sixtus IV (b. 1414, Pope 1471-1474); Pius III (b.1440, Pope 26 days in 1503); Pius IV (b. 1499, Pope 1559-1565); Julius II (b. 1443, Pope 1503-1516); Julius III (b.1481, Pope 1550-1555); Clement VIII (b. 1536, Pope 1592- 1605); Clement X (b.1581, Pope 1670-1676); Innocent XI (b.1681, Pope 1676-1689); Innocent XII (b.1649, Pope 1676-2692); Innocent XIII (b.1655, Pope 1721-1724); Benedict XIV (b. 1765, Pope 1740-1758), and Pius VIII (b.1761, Pope 1829-1830). Their mean age at death was 69.4 years, the youngest being Sisinnius (59 years), the oldest being Clement X (96 years).

Results

Some popes were strong eaters like Boniface VIII. He was chronically affected by gout and renal stone disease and by the fear for death, and the search for therapies capable to prolong life. Cosmacini says “podagroso e gottoso”… the Pope is affected by arthritis and renal disease due to overalimentation very rich (straricca) in meat”. He enrolled various archiaters among them Taddeo Alderotti (1223-1295), Pietro da Abano (1257-1315), Anselmo da Bergamo (artisphysicae professor), Simone of Genova (author of Clavissanationis), Accursino from Pistoia, Manzia from Fabriano, Gugliemo da Brescia, Angelo da Camerino and Campano da Novara (Magister Campanus), the naturalist he too affected by renal stone disease. Julius III too was a strong eater (he loved fatty foods seasoned with garlic) as was Pius IV, the hard worker who everyday used to take a nap after lunch and a long walk later in the day. By contrast Nicholas V (his Pontiff saw in 1453 the Fall of Costantinople and the end of the Hundred Years War) was a sober eater and drinker as were Pius II who made use of simple common foods, little wine and slept up to 5-6 hours. Probably Nicholas V died uremic since his pale natural color switched into yellowish-brown (itaque ex naturali et subcandido in croceumsubcinericiumque color suusconversusest). Pius III “was a sober eater and drinker and used to dine every two days. Some of the above popes were patrons of universities (Boniface VIII, Nicholas V, Pius II), some were patrons of arts and science (Nicholas V, Sixtus IV). Boniface VIII is remembered for the Bulla detestandeferitatis (against dismemberment and evisceration of cadavers), issued on September 27, 1299). For thatBulla, during the subsequent centuries he was wrongly accused even by Herman Boerhaave and Albrecht von Haller to have retarded the advancement of medicine by impeding anatomical dissections. By contrast Sixtus IV is remembered not only for modernizing Rome and embelling it, but for the 1482 Breve to the University of Tubingen allowing―for teaching purposes ―dissection of dead bodies of people sentenced to death.