On 06 May 1527 the city of Rome was sacked by German mercenary pikemen hired by Holy Roman Emperor Charles V.
It was this particular sacking of Rome that both established the heroism of the Swiss Guards, for holding off the Germans long enough for Pope Clement VII to escape to the Castel SantAngelo (and were then annihilated), and that in retrospect marked the end of the Renaissance in many history books. Yet another significant mark on European history by our German ancestors.
The context for this sacking is complicated like all European stories -- it happened during the War of the League of Cognac, because the papal states had allied with Charles V's nemesis King Francis I. Also on their side: England, Venice, Milan, Florence and some others.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_of_the_League_of_Cognac
Of course it wouldn't catch my attention unless there were Lutherans involved in perpetrating the sacking--they were among Charles V's hires, along with a lot of Spaniards/Bourbons.
Charles' fighters beat the French, but then Charles and the Duke of Bourbon decided not to pay them (sound familiar?) so they in turn decided that pillaging Rome would make the trip worthwhile.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sack_of_Rome_(1527)
Protestant versions of this story claim that Martin Luther himself was against the sacking, and therefore the Lutherans who perpetrated it were 'outlaws.'
What are your suggested non-Anglo-Saxon sources for reading more about this period?
• Why is this considered the end of the Renaissance?
After the dust settled the Italian states began to defer to the HRE and the Habsburgs began to be the central power calling the shots in Europe.
With the HRE rising, Humanism had to go into hiding until the 19th century.
From the article linked above:
" The calamity also dealt a grave blow to Rome's scholarly prestige, as the contents of many of its great libraries – including the Vatican library – were destroyed or sold in the sack. Proponents of humanism especially lamented the destruction of the city's stores of knowledge, which had come to characterize Rome as a "paradise of learning"; the sack did indeed prove to mark the end of humanism's favor within Christian thought "