Jules III

Born with Rome on September 10th, 1487 and died in Rome on March 23rd, 1555, Giammaria Ciocchi del Monte, which was to become pope under the name of Jules III , was the son of a famous Roman lawyer; he studied the right to Perugia and His and theology at Dominican Ambrosius Catharinus. In 1512, it succeeded his uncle, Antonio del Monte, as archbishop of Siponto (Manfredonia) and in 1520 as bishop of Pavia, retaining however the administration of Siponto. Later he became vice-legate of Perugia and, under Clément VII, was twice named prefect of Rome. After the Bag of Rome (1527) it appeared among the hostages given by Clément VII to Imperial and would have been killed by the imperial lansquenets with Campo di Fiori, if it had not been released in secrecy by the Cardinal Pompeo Colonna. In 1534, he became legate of Bologna in Romagna, of Parma and Plaisance. The pope Paul III created it cardinal-priest of the S. Vitalis, Gervais and Protais on December 22nd, 1536 and raised it with the dignity of cardinal-bishop in charge of the diocese of Palestrina on October 5th, 1543. In 1542 one had entrusted the preliminary work to him to the convocation of the Concile of Thirty and at the time of a consistory held on February 6th, 1545, it was named the first president of the council. In this quality it opened the council with Thirty on December 13rd with a short speech solemn (cf Ehses, Concilium Tridentinum, IV, Freibourg im Br., 1904, p. 516). With the council it especially represented the pontifical interests against the emperor Charles-Quint, with whom it entered in conflict on various occasions, when on March 26th, 1547, it transferred the Council to Bologna.

After the death of Paul III, on November 10th, 1549, the 48 cardinals present in Rome entered in conclave on November 29th. They were divided into three fractions of which none had the majority: the Imperial ones, French and partisans of Farnèse. The friends of Farnèse linked themselves with the Impérial party and proposed like their candidates Reginald Pole and Juan de Toledo. The French party rejected them both and, although minority, was enough strong to prevent the election of any other candidate. The partisans of Farnèse and the French party passed finally a compromise and got along on the name of the cardinal del Monte, who was in due form elected on February 7th, 1550, after a ten week old conclave, although the emperor had expressly excluded it from the list of the candidates. The new pope took the name of Jules III. Obeying the promises made during the conclave, it restored Parma with Ottavio Farnèse a few days after its election. But, when Farnèse was combined in France against the emperor, Jules III, allied itself with the emperor, declared Farnèse private of his stronghold and sent troops under the orders of his nephew Giambattista del Monte to take Parma in.liaison.with the duke Gonzague of Milan. In a Bubble, dated November 13rd, 1550, it brought back the council of Bologna to Thirty and ordered that one took again there the meetings on May 1st, 1551, but it was constrained to suspend it again on April 15th, 1552, because the French bishops did not want to take part in it and, to escape its enemies, the emperor had to flee of Innsbruck. The success of the French weapons in Italy of North forced Jules III, on April 29th, 1552, to conclude with France a truce, in which it was stipulated that Farnèse would remain quietly in possession of Parma during two years.

Discouraged by his failure as combined of Charles-Quint, the pope abstained from now on mixing with the political matters Italy. He withdrew himself with his luxurious palate, the Giulia Villa, which he had made build in Porta del Popolo. It is there that it passed the majority of its time in ease and comfort, making from time to time a timid effort to reform the Church by joining together commissions of cardinals to propose reforms. It ardently supported the Order of the Jesuits which took his rise and, on the authorities of saint Ignace, it published on August 31st, 1552, the Bubble which founded Collegium Germanicum and an annual allocation granted to him. During its pontificate, Catholicism was temporarily restored in England by the Mary queen, who had succeeded Edouard VI on the throne in 1553. It sent the cardinal Reginald Pole as legate in England of the wide capacities which it was to use with his discretion to support the catholic restoration. In February 1555, an embassy was sent by the English Parliament to Jules III to inform it of its tender without reserve with pontifical supremacy, but the embassy was always travels from there when the pope died. Little time before its death, Jules III sent the Morone Cardinal to represent the interests of Catholicism to the Religious Peace of Augsburg. At the beginning of its pontificate Jules III seriously wished to cause a reform in the Church and in this intention it reopened the Council of Thirty. If the latter were again suspended, it was the fault of the circumstances. Its inactivity during the three last years of its pontificate can be caused by the frequent and severe crises of the drop which tormented it. The great fault of its pontificate was the nepotism. Little time after its accession with the throne, it has granted purple to its favorite, makes indignant it Innocenzo del Monte, a young boy of seventeen whom it had collected in the streets of Parma a few years earlier and which had been adopted by Baudouin, the brother of the pope. Such an act was the pretext of some poisonous rumors concerning the relation between the pope and Innocenzo. Jules showed himself also extremely generous in attribution with his parents of ecclesiastical dignities and benefit.

Random links: