Everything about Pope Julius Iii totally explained
Pope Julius III (
September 10,
1487 –
March 23,
1555), born
Giovanni Maria Ciocchi del Monte, was
Pope from
February 7,
1550 to
1555.
Biography
The last of the High Renaissance Popes, Julius III was born Giovanni Maria Ciocchi del Monte in
Rome in 1487. His father was a famous jurist, and he succeeded his uncle as archbishop of
Siponto (Manfredonia) in
Apulia in
1513, adding the diocese of
Pavia in
1520. At the
Sack of Rome (1527) he was one of the hostages given by
Pope Clement VII (1523–34) to the Emperor's forces, and might have been killed in the
Campo de' Fiori as others were, had he not been secretly liberated by Cardinal
Pompeo Colonna.
In
1536 he was created
cardinal-bishop of Palestrina by
Pope Paul III (1534–49), by whom he was employed on several important legations; he was the first president of the
Council of Trent, opening its first session at Trent,
December 13,
1545, with a brief oration. At the council, he was the leader of the papal party against Emperor Charles V (1519–56), with whom he came into conflict on various occasions, especially when, on
March 26,
1547, he transferred the Council to
Bologna.
Paul III died on
November 10,
1549, and in the ensuing
conclave the forty-eight cardinals were divided into three factions: the Imperials, the French, and the adherents of the
Farnese. The French cardinals were able to prevent the election of the other two factions, and Cardinal del Monte was duly elected Pope Julius III on February 7, 1550, as a compromise, after a conclave of ten weeks, although the Emperor had expressly excluded him from the list of acceptable candidates.
Ottavio Farnese, Paul III's grandson, was immediately confirmed as Duke of
Parma.
The papacy of Julius III
In
1551, at the request of the Emperor Charles V, he consented to the reopening of the council of Trent and entered into a league against the duke of Parma and
Henry II of France (1547–59), but soon afterwards made terms with his enemies and suspended the meetings of the council (1553). (For the history of papal conflicts with councils, see
conciliar movement). He was also a friend of the
Jesuits, to whom he granted a fresh confirmation in
1550.
Julius spent the bulk of his time, and a great deal of Papal money, on entertainments at the
Villa Giulia, created for him by
Vignola, where
putti play with one another's genitals amidst the vine-covered trellis of the ceiling fresco. Julius extended his patronage to the great Renaissance composer
Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, whom he brought to Rome as his
maestro di cappella,
Giorgio Vasari, who supervised the design of the Villa Giulia, and to
Michelangelo, who worked there. But the pope's lack of interest in political or ecclesiastical affairs caused dismay among his contemporaries,
Joachim du Bellay the French poet in the retinue of
Cardinal du Bellay, expressing his scandalized opinion of Julius' priorities in two sonnets in his series
Les regrets (
1558).
Far worse scandal surrounded Julius' relationship with his adoptive "nephew",
Innocenzo Ciocchi Del Monte, a beggar-boy whom he'd picked up on the streets of Parma some years earlier. Julius raised the uncouth and quasi-illiterate Innocenzo to the cardinalate as
cardinal-nephew, and showered him with benefices to the point where his income was one of the highest in Europe. Gossip called the boy Julius's "
Ganymede," and the Venetian ambassador reported that Innocenzo shared the pope's bedroom and bed. The relationship became a staple of anti-papal polemics for over a century: it was said that Julius, awaiting Innocenzo's arrival in Rome to receive his cardinal's hat, showed the impatience of a lover awaiting a mistress, and that he boasted of the boy's prowess. Despite the damage which the affair was inflicting on the church, it wasn't until after Julius' death in 1555 that anything could be done to curb Innocenzo's visibility. One outcome of the Innocenzo affair, however, was the upgrading of the position of
Papal Secretary of State, as the incumbent had to take over the duties Innocenzo was unfit to perform: the Secretary of State eventually replaced the cardinal-nephew as the most important of official of the Holy See.
Literature
- Bayle, Pierre. "Jules III." Dictionnaire historique et critique. Vol. 15. Paris: Desoer, 1820.
- Burkle-Young, Francis A., and Michael Leopoldo Doerrer. The Life of Cardinal Innocenzo del Monte: A Scandal in Scarlet. Lewiston, N.Y.: Edwin Mellen, 1997.
- Dall'Orto, Giovanni. "Julius III." Who's Who in Gay and Lesbian History from Antiquity to World War II. Robert Aldrich and Garry Wotherspoon, eds. London: Routledge, 2001. 234-35.
- Kelly, J. N. D. The Oxford Dictionary of Popes. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1986.
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