Pope Paul IV

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Pius IV
Orders
Consecration18 September 1505
by Cardinal Oliviero Carafa
Created cardinal22 December 1536
by Pope Paul III
Personal details
Born
Gian Pietro Carafa

28 June 1476
Died18 August 1559(1559-08-18) (aged 83)
Rome, Papal States
Previous post(s)
MottoDominus mihi adjutor
("The Lord is my helper")[1]
Coat of armsPaul IV's coat of arms
Other popes named Paul
Papal styles of
Pope Paul IV
His Holiness
Spoken styleYour Holiness
Religious styleHoly Father
Posthumous styleNone

Pope Paul IV (

Latin: Paulus IV; Italian: Paolo IV; 28 June 1476 – 18 August 1559), born Gian Pietro Carafa, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 23 May 1555 to his death, in August 1559.[2][3] While serving as papal nuncio in Spain, he developed an anti-Spanish outlook that later coloured his papacy. In response to an invasion of part of the Papal States by Spain during his papacy, he called for a French military intervention. After a defeat of the French and with Spanish troops at the edge of Rome, the Papacy and Spain reached a compromise: French and Spanish forces left the Papal States and the Pope thereafter adopted a neutral stance between France and Spain.[4]

Carafa was appointed

Cardinal Nephew damaged the papacy further, and scandals forced Paul to remove him from office. He curbed some clerical abuses in Rome, but his methods were seen as harsh. He would introduce the first modern Index Librorum Prohibitorum or "Index of Prohibited Books" banning works he saw as in error. In spite of his advanced age, he was a tireless worker and issued new decrees and regulations daily, unrelenting in his determination to keep Protestants and recently immigrated Marranos from gaining influence in the Papal States. He had some hundred of the Marranos of Ancona thrown into prison; 50 were sentenced by the tribunal of the Inquisition and 25 of these were burned at the stake. Paul IV issued the Papal bull Cum nimis absurdum, which confined Jews in Rome to the neighbourhood claustro degli Ebrei ("enclosure of the Hebrews"), later known as the Roman Ghetto
. He died highly unpopular, to the point that his family rushed his burial to make sure his body would not be desecrated by a popular uprising.

Early life

Gian Pietro Carafa was born in Capriglia Irpina, near Avellino, into the prominent Carafa family of Naples.[2] His father Giovanni Antonio Carafa died in West Flanders in 1516 and his mother Vittoria Camponeschi was the daughter of Pietro Lalle Camponeschi, 5th Conte di Montorio, a Neapolitan nobleman, and Dona Maria de Noronha, a Portuguese noblewoman of the House of Pereira.[citation needed]

Church career

Bishop

He was mentored by Cardinal

see of Chieti (Latin Theate) in his favour. Under the direction of Pope Leo X, he was ambassador to England and then papal nuncio in Spain, where he conceived a violent detestation of Spanish rule that affected the policies of his later papacy.[2]

In 1524,

ascetic and newly founded Congregation of Clerks Regular, popularly called the Theatines, after Carafa's see of Theate. Following the sack of Rome in 1527, the order moved to Venice. But Carafa was recalled to Rome by the reform-minded Pope Paul III (1534–49), to sit on a committee of reform of the papal court, an appointment that forecasted an end to a humanist papacy and a revival of scholasticism, as Carafa was a disciple of Thomas Aquinas.[2]

Cardinal

In December 1536 he was made

The

Papal Bull was promulgated in 1542 and Carafa vowed, "Even if my own father were a heretic, I would gather the wood to burn him".[6]

Election as pope

He was a surprise choice as pope to succeed

Emperor Charles V was opposed to his accession.[2]

Carafa, elected on 23 May 1555, took the name of "Paul IV" in honor of

Basilica of Saint John Lateran
on 28 October 1555.

Papacy

As pope, Paul IV's nationalism was a driving force; he used the office to preserve some liberties in the face of fourfold foreign occupation. Like Pope Paul III, he was an enemy of the Colonna family. His treatment of Giovanna d'Aragona, who had married into that family, drew further negative comment from Venice because she had long been a patron of artists and writers.[7]

Paul IV was displeased at the French signing a five-year truce with Spain in February 1556 (in the midst of the Italian War of 1551–1559) and urged King Henry II of France to join the Papal States in an invasion of Spanish Naples. On 1 September 1556, King Philip II responded by preemptively invading the Papal States with 12,000 men under the Duke of Alba. French forces approaching from the north were defeated and forced to withdraw at Civitella del Tronto in August 1557.[8] The Papal armies were left exposed and were defeated, with Spanish troops arriving at the edge of Rome. Out of fear of another sack of Rome, Paul IV agreed to the Duke of Alba's demand for the Papal States to declare neutrality by signing the Peace of Cave-Palestrina on 12 September 1557. Emperor Charles V criticized the peace agreement as being overly generous to the Pope.[9]

As

Duke of Paliano after the pro-Spanish Colonna were deprived of that town in 1556. Another nephew, Antonio, was given command of the Papal guard and made Marquis of Montebello. Their conduct became notorious in Rome. However, at the conclusion of the disastrous war with Philip II of Spain in the Italian War, and after many scandals, Paul IV publicly disgraced his nephews and banished them from Rome in 1559.[10]

With the

Paul IV was violently opposed to the liberal Cardinal Giovanni Morone, whom he strongly suspected of being a hidden Protestant, so much that he had him imprisoned. In order to prevent Morone from succeeding him and imposing what he believed to be his Protestant beliefs on the Church, Pope Paul IV codified the Catholic Law excluding heretics and non-Catholics from receiving or legitimately becoming pope, in the bull Cum ex apostolatus officio.[citation needed]

Paul IV was rigidly orthodox, austere in life, and authoritarian in manner. He affirmed the Catholic doctrine of

Holy Office to suppress the Spirituali, a Catholic group deemed heretical. The strengthening of the Inquisition continued under Paul IV, and few could consider themselves safe by virtue of position in his drive to reform the Church; even cardinals he disliked could be imprisoned.[13] He appointed inquisitor Michele Ghislieri, the future Pope Pius V, to the position of Supreme Inquisitor despite the fact as Inquisitor of Como, Ghislieri's persecutions had inspired a citywide rebellion, forcing him to flee in fear for his life.[14]

Vicolo Capocciuto, Roman Ghetto by Franz Roesler c.1880

On 17 July 1555, Paul IV issued one of the most infamous papal bulls in Church history. The bull, Cum nimis absurdum, ordered the creation of a Jewish ghetto in Rome. The Pope set its borders near the Rione Sant'Angelo, an area where large numbers of Jews already resided, and ordered it walled off from the rest of the city. A single gate, locked every day at sundown, was the only means of reaching the rest of the city. The Jews themselves were forced to pay all design and construction costs related to the project, which came to a total of roughly 300 scudi. The bull restricted Jews in other ways as well. They were forbidden to have more than one synagogue per city—leading, in Rome alone, to the destruction of seven "excess" places of worship. All Jews were forced to wear distinctive yellow hats, especially outside the ghetto, and they were forbidden to trade in everything but food and secondhand clothes.[15] Christians of all ages were encouraged to treat the Jews as second-class citizens; for a Jew to defy a Christian in any way was to invite severe punishment, often at the hands of a mob. By the end of Paul IV's five-year reign, the number of Roman Jews had dropped by half.[14] Yet his anti-Jewish legacy endured for over 300 years: the ghetto he established ceased to exist only with the dissolution of the Papal States in 1870. Its walls were torn down in 1888.[citation needed]

According to Leopold von Ranke, a rigid austerity and an earnest zeal for the restoration of primitive habits became the dominant tendency of his papacy. Monks who had left their monasteries were expelled from the city and from the Papal States. He would no longer tolerate the practice by which one man had been allowed to enjoy the revenues of an office while delegating its duties to another.[16]

All begging was forbidden. Even the collection of alms for Masses, which had previously been made by the clergy, was discontinued. A medal was struck representing Christ driving the money changers from the Temple. Paul IV put in place a reform of the papal administration designed to stamp out trafficking of principal positions in the Curia.[10] All secular offices, from the highest to the lowest, were assigned to others based on merit. Important economies were made, and taxes were proportionately remitted. Paul IV established a chest, of which only he held the key, for the purpose of receiving all complaints that anyone desired to make.[16]

During his papacy, censorship reached new heights.[17] Among his first acts as pope was to cut off Michelangelo's pension, and he ordered the nudes of The Last Judgment in the Sistine Chapel be painted more modestly (a request that Michelangelo ignored) (the beginning of the Vatican's Fig leaf campaign). Paul IV also introduced the Index Librorum Prohibitorum or "Index of Prohibited Books" to Venice, then an independent and prosperous trading state, in order to crack down on the growing threat of Protestantism. Under his authority, all books written by Protestants were banned, together with Italian and German translations of the Latin Bible.[18]

In the Papal States, a Marrano presence was noticeable. In Rome and, even more so, the seaport of Ancona, they thrived under benevolent popes Clement VII (1523–34), Paul III (1534–49), and Julius III (1550–55). They even received a guarantee that if accused of apostasy they would be subject only to papal authority. But Paul IV (1555–59), the voice of the Counter-Reformation, dealt them an irreparable blow when he withdrew the protections previously given and initiated a campaign against them. As a result of this, 25 were burned at the stake in the spring of 1556.[citation needed]

Consistories

Throughout his pontificate, Paul IV named 46 cardinals in four consistories, including Michele Ghislieri (the future

Saint Ignatius of Loyola of this, as did Cardinal Otto Truchsess von Waldburg. In response, Father Pedro de Ribadeneira repeated what the saint had said to him: "If our Lord does not lay down his hand, we will have Master Laínez a cardinal, but I certify to you, if it were, that it be with so much noise that the world would understand how the Society accepts these things".[19]

Death

Paul IV's health began to break down in May 1559. He rallied in July, holding public audiences and attending meetings of the Inquisition. But he engaged in fasting, and the heat of the summer wore him down again. He was bedridden, and on 17 August it became clear he would not live. Cardinals and other officials gathered at his bedside on 18 August, where Paul IV asked them to elect a "righteous and holy" successor and to retain the Inquisition as "the very basis" of the Catholic Church's power. By 2 or 3 pm, he was close to death, and died at 5 pm.[20]

The people of Rome did not forget what they had suffered because of the war he had brought on the State. Crowds of people gathered at the Piazza del Campidoglio and began rioting even before Paul IV died.[21] His statue, erected before the Campidoglio just months before, had a yellow hat placed on it (similar to the yellow hat Paul IV had forced Jews to wear in public). After a mock trial, the statue was decapitated.[21] It was then thrown into the Tiber.[22]

The crowd broke into the three city jails and freed more than 400 prisoners, then broke into the offices of the Inquisition at the Palazzo dell' Inquisizone near to the

John Craig, who later was a colleague of John Knox. The people ransacked the palace, and then set it afire (destroying the Inquisition's records).[20] That same day, or the next day (records are unclear), the crowd attacked the Church of Santa Maria sopra Minerva. The intercession of some local nobility dissuaded them from burning it and killing all those within.[23] On the third day of rioting, the crowd removed the Carafa family coat of arms from all churches, monuments, and other buildings in the city.[22]

The crowd dedicated to him the following pasquinata:[24]

Carafa hated by the devil and the sky
is buried here with his rotting corpse,
Erebus has taken the spirit;
he hated peace on earth, our faith he contested.
he ruined the church and the people, men and sky offended;
treacherous friend, suppliant with the army which was fatal to him.
You want to know more? Pope was him and that is enough.

Such hostile views have not mellowed much with time; modern historians tend to view his papacy as an especially poor one. His policies stemmed from personal prejudices—against Spain, for example, or the Jews—rather than any overarching political or religious goals. In a time of precarious balance between Catholic and Protestant, his adversarial nature did little to slow the latter's spread across northern Europe. His anti-Spanish feelings alienated the Habsburgs, arguably the most powerful Catholic rulers in Europe, and his ascetic personal beliefs left him out of touch with the artistic and intellectual movements of his era (he often spoke of whitewashing the Sistine Chapel ceiling). Such a reactionary attitude alienated clergy and laity alike: historian John Julius Norwich calls him "the worst pope of the 16th century."[14]

Four or five hours after his death, Paul IV's body was taken to the

canons of St. Peter's Basilica refused to take his body into the basilica unless they were paid the customary money and gifts. Instead, the canons sang the usual office in the Cappella del Santissimo Sacramento (Chapel of the Blessed Sacrament). Paul IV's body was taken to the Sistine Chapel in the Apostolic Palace at 6 pm.[22]

Paul IV's nephew, Cardinal-nephew Carlo Carafa, arrived in Rome late on 19 August. Worried that the rioters might break in and desecrate the pope's corpse, at 10 pm Cardinal Carafa had Pope Paul IV buried without ceremony next to the Cappella del Volto Santo (Chapel of the Holy Face) in St. Peter's. His remains stayed there until October 1566, when his successor as pope, Pius V, had them transferred to Santa Maria sopra Minerva. In the chapel founded by Paul IV's uncle and mentor, Cardinal Oliviero Carafa, a tomb was created by Pirro Ligorio and Paul IV's remains were placed therein.[22]

In fiction

Paul IV's title in the

Prophecy of St. Malachy is "Of the Faith of Peter".[25]

As Paul IV, appears as a character in John Webster's Jacobean revenge drama The White Devil (1612).[26]

In the novel

Luther Blissett, while not appearing himself, Gian Pietro Carafa is mentioned repeatedly as the cardinal whose spy and agent provocateur, Qoelet, causes many of the disasters to befall Protestants during the Reformation and the Roman Church's response in the 16th century.[27]

Alison MacLeod's 1968 historical novel "The Hireling" depicts Cardinal Carafa befriending the English Cardinal Reginald Pole during Pole's long exile in Italy, their later falling out, and Pole's feelings of betrayal after Carafa, once elevated to the Papacy, charges him with heresy at the very time when Pole was striving to return England to the Catholic fold.[citation needed]

Pope Paul IV is a major villain in Sholem Asch's 1921 historical novel The Witch of Castile (Yiddish: Di Kishufmakherin fun Kastilien, Hebrew: Ha'Machshepha Mi'Castilia המכשפה מקשיטליה). The book's depiction of a young Sephardi Jewish woman in Rome being falsely accused of witchcraft and being burned at the stake, dying as a Jewish martyr, is placed in the context of Paul IV's actual persecution of the Jews.[citation needed]

See also

References

  1. ^ "Pope Paul IV (1555-1559)". www.gcatholic.org. Retrieved 12 May 2022.
  2. ^ a b c d e f Loughlin, James F. (1911). "Pope Paul IV" . In Herbermann, Charles (ed.). Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 11. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
  3. ^ Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Paul (popes)" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 20 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 956.
  4. ^ (Firm), John Murray (1908). "Handbook for Rome and the Campagna".
  5. ^ "Britannica". 14 August 2023.
  6. ^ MacCulloch, Dairmuid. Reformation in Europe, London, 2005
  7. ^ Robin, Larsen and Levin. Encyclopedia of Women in the Renaissance. p. 24.
  8. .
  9. .
  10. ^ a b c "John, Eric. The Popes, Hawthorne Books, New York". Archived from the original on 2 February 2017. Retrieved 19 February 2016.
  11. ^ "Crown of Ireland Act 1542". Heraldica. 25 July 2003. Retrieved 1 November 2012.
  12. ^ Ryrie, Alec (23 September 2020). "England's Catholic Reformation". See transcript, or 46:55 in the video.
  13. ^ Will Durant (1953). The Renaissance. Chapter XXXIX: The Popes and the Council: 1517–1565.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location (link) CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  14. ^ .
  15. .
  16. ^ a b "Wines, Roger. Leopold von Ranke: The Secret of World History, (1981)". Archived from the original on 18 August 2017. Retrieved 19 February 2016.
  17. ^ Deming 2012, p. 36.
  18. ^ "Remaking the world | Christian History Magazine". Christian History Institute. Retrieved 10 May 2023.
  19. ^ Salvador Miranda. "Pius IV (1555-1559)". The Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church. Retrieved 10 March 2022.
  20. ^ .
  21. ^ .
  22. ^ .
  23. .
  24. ^ Claudio Rendina, I papi, p. 646
  25. ^ "Prophecies of Future Popes". The Month: An Illustrated Magazine of Literature, Science and Art. June 1899. p. 572.
  26. .
  27. ^ Garber, Jeremy (Winter 2006). "Reading the Anabaptists: Anabaptist Historiography and Luther Blissett's 'Q'". The Conrad Grebel Review. 24 (1). Archived from the original on 29 November 2014.

Bibliography

External links

Catholic Church titles
Preceded by
Cardinal-bishop of Albano

1544–1546
Succeeded by
Cardinal-bishop of Sabina

1546–1550
Succeeded by
Preceded by
Cardinal-bishop of Frascati

1550–1553
Succeeded by
Preceded by
Cardinal-bishop of Porto

1553
Preceded by
Giovanni Domenico de Cupi
Cardinal-bishop of Ostia

1553–1555
Preceded by Pope
23 May 1555 – 18 August 1559
Succeeded by