Pope Paul IV (Latin:Paulus IV;Italian:Paolo IV; 28 June 1476 – 18 August 1559), bornGian Pietro Carafa, was head of theCatholic Church and ruler of thePapal States from 23 May 1555 to his death, in August 1559.[2][3] While serving as papalnuncio inSpain, 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 appointedbishop of Chieti, but resigned in 1524 in order to found withSaint Cajetan the Congregation of Clerics Regular (Theatines). Recalled to Rome, and madeArchbishop of Naples, he worked to re-organise theInquisitorial system in response to the emergingProtestant movement in Europe, any dialogue with which he opposed (the inquisition itself had been first instituted byPope Innocent III who first regulated inquisitional procedure in the 13th century). Carafa was elected pope in 1555 through the influence of CardinalAlessandro Farnese in the face of opposition fromCharles V, Holy Roman Emperor. His papacy was characterised by strong nationalism in reaction to the influence ofPhilip II of Spain and theHabsburgs. The appointment ofCarlo Carafa asCardinal Nephew damaged the papacy further, and scandals forced Paul to remove him from office. He curbed someclerical abuses in Rome, but his methods were seen as harsh. He would introduce the first modernIndex 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 immigratedMarranos from gaining influence in the Papal States. Paul IV issued thePapal bullCum nimis absurdum, which confined Jews in Rome to the neighbourhoodclaustro degli Ebrei ("enclosure of the Hebrews"), later known as theRoman 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.
He was mentored by CardinalOliviero Carafa, his relative, who resigned thesee of Chieti (LatinTheate) in his favour. Under the direction ofPope Leo X, he was ambassador toEngland and then papalnuncio inSpain, where he conceived a violent detestation of Spanish rule that affected the policies of his later papacy.[2]
In 1524,Pope Clement VII allowed Carafa to resign hisbenefices and join theascetic and newly founded Congregation of Clerks Regular, popularly called theTheatines, after Carafa'ssee ofTheate. Following thesack of Rome in 1527, the order moved toVenice. There, he wrote in a memorandum in 1533 that reform of the Church and vigorous struggle against any deviations were interlinked.[5] Carafa was recalled toRome by the reform-mindedPope Paul III (1534–49), to sit on a committee of reform of the papal court, an appointment that forecasted an end to ahumanist papacy and a revival ofscholasticism, as Carafa was a disciple ofThomas Aquinas.[2]
TheRegensburg Colloquy in 1541 failed to achieve any measure of reconciliation between Catholics and Protestants in Europe, but instead saw a number of prominent Italians defect to the Protestant camp. In response, Carafa was able to persuade Pope Paul III to set up aRoman Inquisition, modelled on theSpanish Inquisition with himself as one of the Inquisitors-General. ThePapal Bull was promulgated in 1542.[7] Carafa demanded the surveillance of education, ordered the confiscation of many authors, such asErasmus, and inspired the warning of the Inquisition against printed books containing perceived threats against the Christianity.[5] In this regard, he headed the commission that investigated theBragadin-Giustiniani dispute and that recommended the burning of theTalmud in 1553.[8]
He was a surprise choice as pope to succeedPope Marcellus II (1555); his severe and unbending character combined with his advanced age and Italian patriotism meant under normal circumstances he would have declined the honor. He accepted apparently becauseEmperor Charles V was opposed to his accession.[2]
Carafa, elected on 23 May 1555, took the name of "Paul IV" in honor ofPope Paul III who named him as a cardinal. He wascrowned as pope on 26 May 1555 by theprotodeacon. He formally took possession of theBasilica of Saint John Lateran on 28 October 1555.
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. LikePope Paul III, he was an enemy of theColonna family. His treatment ofGiovanna 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.[9]
Paul IV was violently opposed to the liberal CardinalGiovanni 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 bullCum ex apostolatus officio.[citation needed]
Paul IV was rigidly orthodox, austere in life, and authoritarian in manner. He affirmed the Catholic doctrine ofextra ecclesiam nulla salus ('outside the Church there is no salvation'), and used theHoly Office to suppress theSpirituali, 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.[10] He appointed inquisitor Michele Ghislieri, the futurePope Pius V, to the position of Supreme Inquisitor despite the fact as Inquisitor ofComo, Ghislieri's persecutions had inspired a citywide rebellion, forcing him to flee in fear for his life.[11] Paul IV also established a special committee to work on theIndex Librorum Prohibitorum, a first draft of which was finished in 1557, that later served as basis for the first version promulgated by the Inquisition after his death in 1559.[12]
Paul IV also begun a more radical and severe policy towards the Jews compared to the lenient papal legislation of the first half of the sixteenth century.[13][14][11] As such, in the Papal States, especially in the seaport ofAncona,Marranos had thrived under benevolent popes Clement VII (1523–34), Paul III (1534–49), and Julius III (1550–55). These had even received a guarantee that if accused ofapostasy they would be subject only to papal authority.[15][16] Convinced that the papal policy of kindness had been abused by the Jews and not resulted in enough conversions, he enacted harsh restrictions and ended all dispensations to the Jews in the papal state, with the aim of encourage the Jews to convert.[13]
Vicolo Capocciuto, Roman Ghetto by Franz Roesler c.1880
The policy was formalised in hisbullCum nimis absurdum, which was issued on 17 July 1555 and where Paul IV explicitly declared that the Church had to adopt a policy that led Jews to converting.[11][17] In the bull, Paul IV restricted the commercial activities and professions Jews could engage with, forbade them employing Christian servants and future ownership of real property while limiting their options to sell their own property.[13] It further ordered that Jews had to wear distinctive yellowhats, especially outside the ghetto,[11] and that Jews were forbidden to have more than onesynagogue per city,[18] resulting in Rome alone to the destruction of seven "excess" places of worship. Finally, the bull also ordered the creation of aJewish ghetto in Rome. The Pope set its borders near theRione 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 300scudi. In another reversal of previous papal policies, some hundred of the Marranos of Ancona were thrown into prison, 50 sentenced by the tribunal of the Inquisition and 25Conversos who had reverted Judaism were burned at the stake in the spring of 1556.[15][16] Finally, the Inquisition prohibited in 1557 under his influence the Jews to possess any other religious work in Hebrew except for the Bible.[19] Paul IV's policy was somewhat successful as the later sixteenth century saw a substantial increase in conversions from Jews to Christianity.[17] By the end of his five-year reign, the number of Roman Jews had dropped by half.[11] Yet his anti-Jewish legacy endured for over 300 years: the ghetto he established ceased to exist only with the dissolution of thePapal States in 1870. Its walls were torn down in 1888.[citation needed]
According toLeopold 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.[20]
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 representingChrist driving the money changers from theTemple. Paul IV put in place a reform of the papal administration designed to stamp out trafficking of principal positions in the Curia.[21] 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.[20]
During his papacy, censorship reached new heights.[22] Among his first acts as pope was to cut offMichelangelo's pension, and he ordered the nudes ofThe Last Judgment in theSistine Chapel be painted more modestly (a request that Michelangelo ignored) (the beginning of the Vatican'sFig leaf campaign). Paul IV also introduced theIndex Librorum Prohibitorum or "Index of Prohibited Books" toVenice, 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 theLatin Bible.[23]
Paul IV was displeased at the French signing a five-year truce with Spain in February 1556 (in the midst of theItalian War of 1551–1559) and urged KingHenry II of France to join the Papal States in an invasion ofSpanish Naples. On 1 September 1556, King Philip II responded by preemptively invading the Papal States with 12,000 men under theDuke of Alba. French forces approaching from the north were defeated and forced to withdraw atCivitella del Tronto in August 1557.[24] 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 criticised the peace agreement as being overly generous to the Pope.[25]
Ascardinal-nephew,Carlo Carafa became his uncle's chief political adviser. Having accepted a pension from the French, Cardinal Carafa worked to secure a French alliance.[21] Carlo's older brotherGiovanni was made commander of the Papal forces andDuke of Paliano after the pro-SpanishColonna 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.[21]
With theProtestant Reformation, the papacy required all Roman Catholic rulers to considerProtestant rulers asheretics, thus making their realms illegitimate. At the time of Paul's election, QueenMary I of England was two years into her reign, and was rolling back theEnglish Reformation that had occurred under her half-brotherEdward VI. Paul IV issued apapal bull in 1555,Ilius, per quem Reges regnant, removing all Church measures against the English government, and further recognising Mary and her husband Philip asKing and Queen of Ireland, rather than merely being "lord".[26] Despite the bull, his relations with England were not positive. Paul IV had known CardinalReginald Pole while Pole was living in Italy and the two had been members of thespirituali together. Pole was the leader of Mary's efforts, but Paul IV seems to have hated Pole and become convinced he was a crypto-Protestant. Combined with hostility towards Spain and thus Mary's husband, Paul IV refused to allow any English bishops to be appointed, and began inquisitorial discipline proceedings against Pole, leading to the "farcical" situation that by 1558, the most serious opponent ofEnglish Catholicism was the Pope himself.[27] He also angered people in England by insisting on the restitution of property confiscated during thedissolution of the monasteries. After Mary's death, he rejected the succession ofElizabeth I of England to the throne.[2]
Throughout his pontificate, Paul IV named 46 cardinals in four consistories, including Michele Ghislieri (the futurePope Pius V). According to Robert Maryks, the pope decided to nominate theJesuit priestDiego Laynez to the cardinalate. However, FatherAlfonso Salmerón warnedSaint Ignatius of Loyola of this, as did CardinalOtto Truchsess von Waldburg. In response, FatherPedro de Ribadeneira repeated what thesaint 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".[28]
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.[29]
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 thePiazza del Campidoglio and began rioting even before Paul IV died.[30] 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.[30] It was then thrown into theTiber.[31]
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 theChurch of San Rocco. They murdered the Inquisitor, Tommaso Scotti, and freed 72 prisoners. One of those released was DominicanJohn Craig, who later was a colleague ofJohn Knox. The people ransacked the palace, and then set it afire (destroying the Inquisition's records).[29][5] That same day, or the next day (records are unclear), the crowd attacked the Church ofSanta Maria sopra Minerva. The intercession of some local nobility dissuaded them from burning it and killing all those within.[32] 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.[31]
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 theSistine Chapel ceiling). Such a reactionary attitude alienated clergy and laity alike: historianJohn Julius Norwich calls him "the worst pope of the 16th century."[11]
Four or five hours after his death, Paul IV's body was taken to theCappella Paolina in theApostolic Palace. Itlay in repose, and a choir sang theOffice of the Dead on the morning of 19 August. Cardinals and many others then paid homage to Paul IV ("kissed the feet of the pope"). Thecanons ofSt. 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 usualoffice in the Cappella del Santissimo Sacramento (Chapel of the Blessed Sacrament). Paul IV's body was taken to theSistine Chapel in the Apostolic Palace at 6 pm.[31]
Paul IV's nephew,Cardinal-nephewCarlo 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, CardinalOliviero Carafa, a tomb was created byPirro Ligorio and Paul IV's remains were placed therein.[31]
In the novelQ byLuther Blissett, while not appearing himself, Gian Pietro Carafa is mentioned repeatedly as the cardinal whose spy andagent provocateur, Qoelet, causes many of the disasters to befall Protestants during the Reformation and the Roman Church's response in the 16th century.[36]
Alison MacLeod's 1968 historical novel "The Hireling" depicts Cardinal Carafa befriending the English CardinalReginald 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 inSholem Asch's 1921 historical novelThe 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]
^abRay, Jonathan Stewart (2013).After expulsion: 1492 and the making of Sephardic Jewry. New York: New York University Press. p. 73.ISBN978-0-8147-2911-3.
^Woodward, Geoffrey (2013). "8".Philip II. London, New York: Routledge.ISBN978-1317897736.
^Pattenden, Miles (2013).Pius IV and the Fall of The Carafa: Nepotism and Papal Authority in Counter-Reformation Rome. OUP Oxford. pp. 21–22.ISBN978-0191649615.
Fichtner, Paula Sutter. “The Disobedience of the Obedient: Ferdinand I and the Papacy 1555-1564.” The Sixteenth Century Journal 11, no. 2 (1980): 25–34.online.
Firpo, Massimo.Inquisizione romana e Controriforma. Studi sul cardinal Giovanni Morone (1509–1580) e il suo processo d'eresia, Brescia, Morcelliana, 2005
Gleason, Elisabeth G. “Who Was the First Counter-Reformation Pope?” The Catholic Historical Review 81, no. 2 (1995): 173–84.online.
Mampieri, Martina. "From Paul IV 'the Evil' to Pius IV 'the Merciful'". inLiving under the Evil Pope (Brill, 2019). 160–204.
Mathews, Shailer. "The Social Teaching of Paul. IV. The Messianism of Paul".Biblical World 19.4 (1902): 279–287online.
Loades, D. M. “THE NETHERLANDS AND THE ANGLO-PAPAL RECONCILIATION OF 1554.” Nederlands Archief Voor Kerkgeschiedenis / Dutch Review of Church History 60, no. 1 (1980): 39–55.online.
Pattenden, Miles.Pius IV and the Fall of the Carafa: Nepotism and Papal Authority in Counter-Reformation Rome (Oxford UP, 2013).
Pocock, Nicholas, Marinus Marinius, and J. Barengus. "Bull of Paul IV concerning the Bishopric of Bristol".English Historical Review 12.46 (1897): 303–307.JSTOR547469.
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