Pope Paul III

4 Key excerpts on "Pope Paul III"

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  eBook - ePub

  A Short History of Christianity

  • Stephen Tomkins(Author)
  • 2012(Publication Date)
  • Lion Books

    (Publisher)

  Protestantism had triumphed in Germany. After years of conflict, the emperor was defeated by Protestant princes and forced to agree to a permanent settlement. The 1555 Peace of Augsburg gave up hope of restoring religious unity to the empire, allowing every ruler to choose between Lutheranism or Catholicism (but not Calvinism) for his own territory. This left Germany something of an ecclesiastical patchwork quilt; but Protestantism had won not only the right to exist but also the majority of Germany.

  The hardening of religious divisions was hardly improved by the election of Pope Paul IV, whom we met before as the inquisitor Cardinal Carafa. Under the previous pope, Julius III, the council of Trent had returned to the business of condemning Protestant understandings of the eucharist – both bread and wine turn entirely into the body and blood of Christ, so not only is Protestant theology inadequate, but their insistence on giving people both the bread and the wine is wrong – however, this was the only important decree the council passed before Julius died, and Paul IV abandoned it, wanting all reform in his own hands. He achieved little, beyond insisting that bishops live in their dioceses and that monks who had left their houses be arrested. He had greater impact through the Roman Inquisition, which purged Italy of the last remnants of Protestantism as well as attacking humanists. He tried to bring Cardinal Pole back from Mary’s England for a heresy trial, but she refused to lose him. He took control of the Society of Jesus, which lost its less traditional freedoms. He made moral demands of the Roman population every bit as puritanical as Calvin’s, banning travelling entertainers and dancing, and he had fig leaves painted on the naked figures on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. He started the Index of Forbidden Books , banning Catholics from reading certain writings and calling for them to be burnt. As well as the obvious Protestant offenders, the Index also included Petrarch and Machiavelli, Jewish and Muslim writings, the complete works of Erasmus and most Bibles in translation (other than Latin versions). The vast Bible bonfires in Italy were one of the more surreal aspects of the purification of the church.

  Pope Paul’s extravagant hatreds extended from Protestants and humanists to Jews and Spaniards. Against all papal interests, he fought Philip of Spain in the last papal war to date against a Catholic monarch, and he herded Roman Jews into ghettos and made them wear yellow hats on the suspicion that they were in league with Protestants. This was of course mere paranoia, though Luther had indeed hoped to win Jews to his gospel, putting their previous unbelief down to the fact that ‘The papists have so demeaned themselves that a Jew would rather be a sow than a Christian.’ When they largely rejected his efforts, and even tried to convert Lutherans, he was disappointed enough to recommend – unsuccessfully – that they be forced into farm labour, their synagogues and scriptures be burnt, and their prayers be banned.

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  The Modern Papacy, 1798-1995

  • Frank J. Coppa(Author)
  • 2016(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  CHAPTER 17 Conclusion: the modern papacy in historical perspective

  The intellectual climate in the West since the age of revolution has often been hostile to the papacy, which has been constrained to demonstrate its legitimacy and relevance. The pontificate of John Paul II reflects the accommodation and confrontation of the papacy with developments from the onset of the French Revolution to the end of the cold war. Like his predecessors over the past two centuries, the present pope has espoused traditionalist views on certain matters, while seeking accommodation on others. John Paul II inherited the difficulties confronted by Pope Paul VI, who sought to implement the reforms of the second Vatican council, while restraining those who pressed for ‘excessive’ innovations. During an audience of December 1968, an anguished Pope Paul criticized Catholics who rejected his via media. Departing from his prepared text, Paul preached that the effort to dress the church message in modern garb did not entail abandoning basic doctrines. The pontiff warned that the refusal to accept papal pronouncements would provoke a crisis of authority.1

  The papacy’s role remains controversial, with progressives in the church pushing for a decentralization of the hierarchical structure, and the more conservative insisting on Rome’s final authority. Although proclaiming itself the custodian of an unchangeable dogma and an unyielding moral vision, during the past two centuries the papacy has not been a fixed and monolithic reality. Indeed, it has never been static or frozen in one form. Since its inception, the papacy’s willingness to accommodate itself and the church to diverse governments and times have made it one of the most resilient institutions in the world. Diversity in continuity has been Rome’s hallmark. It is the extent and direction of change that is debated and remains contentious as it confronts the challenge of modernity. There has been a tendency for some observers to focus on popes such as Leo XIII, John XXIII and John Paul II for their innovations, forgetting that Gregory XVI, Pius IX, Pius XI and Pius XII likewise introduced changes of tremendous historical impact.

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  The Theory and Practice of History

  Edited with an introduction by Georg G. Iggers

  • Leopold von Ranke, Georg G. Iggers(Authors)
  • 2010(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  We are not to believe that the influence of public opinion on the world has begun to make itself felt for the first time in our own day; through every age of modern Europe it has constituted a vital element of life. Who shall say whence it arises or how it is formed? It may be regarded as the most peculiar product of that identification of interests which holds society together, as the most intelligible expression of those internal movements and revolutions by which life, shared in common, is agitated. Its sources are as secret as its sustenance; requiring little support from evidence or reason, it obtains mastery over men’s minds by the force of involuntary convictions. But only in its most general outline is it in harmony with itself; within these it is reproduced in innumerable greater or smaller circles and with modifications varied to infinity. And since new observations and experiences are perpetually flowing in upon it, since there are always original minds that, though affected by its course, are not borne along by its current but rather themselves impress on it a powerful reaction – it is thus involved in an endless series of metamorphoses; transient and multiform, it is sometimes more, sometimes less, in harmony with truth and right, being rather a tendency of the moment than a fixed system. It is often the attendant only of the event that has contributed to produce it, and from which it derives form and extension. There are times, nevertheless, when encountering a rugged will that refuses to be overcome, it extends to coercive demand. That its perception of defects and deficiencies is frequently the just one must needs be confessed, but it cannot, by its very nature, produce a pure, firm consciousness of what is operable and what is not. Hence it can be seen to be at opposite extremes at different times; as it aided to found the papacy, so did it help to overthrow that power. In the times under consideration, it was at one period utterly profane, at another as entirely spiritual. We have seen it inclining toward Protestantism throughout the whole of Europe; we shall also see that in a great portion of the world it will assume an entirely different coloring.

  Attempts at internal reform and a reconciliation with the Protestants

  Possibly the most honorable act of Paul III, that indeed by which he signalized his accession to the papal throne, was the elevation of many distinguished men to the College of Cardinals without any consideration but that of their personal merits. The first of these was the Venetian Contarini, by whom, it is said, the others were afterward proposed. They were men of irreproachable character, in high repute for learning and piety, and well acquainted with the requirements of different countries – Caraffa, for example, had long resided in Spain and the Netherlands; Sadolet was bishop of Carpentras in France; Poole was a refugee from England; Giberto, after having long taken active part in administering, was then ruling his bishopric of Verona with exemplary wisdom; Federigo Fregoso, who was archbishop of Salerno – almost all, be it observed, were members of the Oratory of Divine Love, and many of them held opinions inclining to Protestantism.

  It was these same cardinals who now prepared a plan for the reform of the Church by command of the Pope. This became known to the Protestants, who rejected it, not without derision. They had indeed meanwhile advanced far beyond its most liberal provisions. But we are not on that account permitted to deny the extreme significance of such an act on the part of the Catholic Church. Here we have the evil grappled with in Rome herself. In the presence of the Pope, former popes were accused of misgovernment, and in the introduction to the document now laid before him, his predecessors were accused of having “frequently chosen servants, not as desiring to learn from them what their duties demanded, but rather to procure the declaration that those things were lawful toward which their desires led them”. This abuse of the supreme power was declared to be the most prolific source of corruption.

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  The Christian Theological Tradition

  • Mark McInroy, Michael J. Hollerich, Mark McInroy, Michael J. Hollerich(Authors)
  • 2019(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  curia, staffed by the College of Cardinals. The term “cardinal” originally was an honorary title for certain ordained clergy who assisted the pope in his liturgical and administrative tasks in the city of Rome. In 1059, a papal decree granted these “cardinal” clergy the exclusive right to elect the pope. The popes then began to extend the title to important churchmen outside of Rome. The College of Cardinals thus came to assist the pope in governing the universal church, particularly through their management of the Curia, which handled official correspondence, finances, record keeping, and legal business. Training in canon law became a virtual requirement for the papal office, as the papacy became a popular court of appeal for litigants from all over Europe. At the same time, friendly critics pleaded with the popes not to let their spiritual mission get swallowed up in bureaucratic routine. Pope Innocent III and Pope Boniface VIII are two popes of the High Middle Ages whose reigns coincide with the height of papal power and the beginning of its decline.

  Pope Innocent III and the Zenith of Papal Power

  Innocent III (r. 1198–1216) became pope at the age of 37, the youngest person ever to hold the office. He is perhaps best known for his political involvements. Besides being ruler of the Papal States, the popes’ own realm in central Italy, Innocent also had special feudal rights over Poland, Hungary, Aragon (in Spain), and Sicily. He believed he could intervene in political affairs when moral or religious issues were involved. The church could and did claim competence in affairs and transactions that might seem personal but were inevitably public and political as well. One example is the centrality of personal oaths in feudal political relations. Another is marriage and reproduction: the church’s power to determine marital legitimacy could affect dynastic successions and diplomacy, which was often based on marital alliances.

  Oath of Peter II, King of Aragon, made to Pope Innocent III

  “I will defend the catholic faith; I will persecute heresy; I will respect the liberties and immunities of the churches and protect their rights. Throughout all of the territory submitted to my power I will strive to maintain peace and justice.”

  An example of Innocent III’s power over kings is his disciplining of the king of England in a dispute over who would be appointed archbishop of Canterbury. When the king objected to the canonically elected archbishop, Innocent III excommunicated the king and put all of England under interdict for five years. An interdict

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