Pope Paul III (Latin: Paulus III; Italian: Paolo III; born Alessandro Farnese; 29 February 1468 – 10 November 1549) was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 13 October 1534 to his death, in November 1549.
Paul III came to the papal throne in the time following the sack of Rome in 1527, which was rife with uncertainties in the Catholic Church as the Protestant Reformation progressed and the Ottoman Empire threatened Christian frontiers. He called the Holy League of 1538 to relieve the Republic of Venice from Ottoman expansionism, recruiting Holy Roman Emperor Charles V. Despite highly ambitious outlooks, the League fell into infighting and disbanded without much success.
His pontificate also initiated the Catholic Reformation with the Council of Trent in 1545, and witnessed wars of religion in which Charles V launched military campaigns against the Protestants in Germany. He recognized new Catholic religious orders and societies such as the Jesuits, the Barnabites, and the Congregation of the Oratory. His efforts were distracted by nepotism to advance the power and fortunes of his family, including his illegitimate son Pier Luigi Farnese.
Paul III was a significant patron of artists, including Michelangelo, and Nicolaus Copernicus dedicated his heliocentric treatise to him.
Born in 1468 at Canino, Latium (then part of the Papal States), Alessandro Farnese was the second son of Pier Luigi I Farnese, Signore di Montalto (1435–1487) and Giovanna Caetani, a member of the Caetani family which had produced Pope Gelasius II and Pope Boniface VIII. The Farnese family had prospered over the centuries, but it was Alessandro's ascendency to the papacy and his dedication to family interests which brought about the most significant increase in the family's wealth and power.
Alessandro was given a humanist education at the University of Pisa and the court of Lorenzo de' Medici. Initially trained as an apostolic notary, he joined the Roman Curia in 1491 and in 1493 Pope Alexander VI appointed him Cardinal-Deacon of Santi Cosma e Damiano. Alessandro's sister, Giulia, was reputedly a mistress of Alexander VI, and might have been instrumental in securing this appointment for her brother. For this reason, he was sometimes mockingly referred to as the "Borgia brother-in-law", just as Giulia was mocked as "the Bride of Christ". Much later (in 1535), the Venetian nobleman Soriano recorded that Alessandro was called cardinale Fregnese (Cardinal Pussy, or Cardinal Cunt) on account of the relationship between his sister and Alexander VI.
As a young cleric, Alessandro lived a notably dissolute life, taking a mistress, Silvia Ruffini. Between about 1500 and 1510, she gave birth to at least four children: Costanza, Pier Luigi (who was later created Duke of Parma), Paolo, and Ranuccio. In July 1505, Pope Julius II legitimated the two eldest sons so that they could inherit the Farnese family estates. On 23 June 1513, Pope Leo X published a second legitimation of Pier Luigi, and also legitimized Ranuccio (the second son Paolo had already died).
On 28 March 1509, Alessandro was named Bishop of Parma, but he was not ordained a priest until 26 June 1519 and not consecrated a bishop until 2 July 1519. As Bishop of Parma, he came under the influence of his vicar-general, Bartolomeo Guidiccioni. This led to Alessandro breaking off the relationship with his mistress and committing himself to reform in his diocese. Under Pope Clement VII (1523–1534) he was named Cardinal Bishop of Ostia and Dean of the College of Cardinals.
On the death of Clement VII in 1534, he was elected as Pope Paul III on 13 October 1534. Farnese, who did not fall within any of the factions, was considered a very good choice by the cardinals since his state of health denoted a short papacy which would give those cardinals time to select a proper candidate for a future conclave. On 3 November, Paul III was formally crowned by the protodeacon Innocenzo Cybo.
The elevation to the cardinalate of his grandsons, Alessandro Farnese, aged 14, and Guido Ascanio Sforza, aged 16, displeased the reform party and drew a protest from Emperor Charles V, but this was forgiven when, shortly after, he introduced into the Sacred College Reginald Pole, Gasparo Contarini, Jacopo Sadoleto, and Giovanni Pietro Caraffa, who would become Pope Paul IV.
The fourth pope during the period of the Protestant Reformation, Paul III became the first to take active reform measures in response to Protestantism. Soon after his elevation, 2 June 1536, Paul III summoned a general council to meet at Mantua in the following May, but the opposition of the Protestant princes and the refusal of Federico II Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua to assume the responsibility of maintaining order frustrated the project. Paul III first deferred for a year and then discarded the whole project.
In 1536, Paul III invited a committee of nine eminent prelates, distinguished by learning and piety alike, to report on the reformation and rebuilding of the Church. In 1537 they produced the celebrated Consilium de emendenda ecclesia, exposing gross abuses in the Roman Curia, the church administration, and public worship; and proffering bold proposals aimed at abolishing such abuses. The report was widely printed, and the pope was in earnest when he took up the problem of reform. He clearly perceived that Emperor Charles V would not rest until the problems had truly been addressed.
However, to the Protestants, the report seemed far from thorough; Martin Luther had his edition (1538) prefaced with a vignette showing the cardinals cleaning the Augean stable of the Roman Church with foxtails instead of brooms. In the end, no results followed from the committee's recommendations.
In 1534, a decision by Paul III favoured the activity of merchants of all nationalities and religions from the Levant and allowed them to settle with their families in Ancona, which had become part of the Papal States under his predecessor Clement VII. This decision helped make Ancona a prosperous trading city for centuries to come. A Venetian travelling through Ancona in 1535 recorded that the city was "full of merchants from every nation and mostly Greeks and Turks." In the second half of the 16th century, the presence of Greek and other merchants from the Ottoman Empire declined after a series of restrictive measures taken by the Italian authorities and the pope.
Paul III was highly involved in the 1538 Holy League against the Ottoman Empire, comprising mainly Emperor Charles V and Venice. He had also tried to recruit King Francis I of France, but could only obtain from him a temporary pause in the Franco-Ottoman alliance. In turn, the pope offered Charles V to make him Byzantine emperor too if they managed to reconquer Constantinople. When the Holy League's fleet was routed during the confusing battle of Preveza, Paul even considered to join the conflict personally in a reinforcement fleet. On October, he approved the Treaty of Nagyvárad and urged Charles to lead the Holy League to an attack on Ottoman territory, but the league dissolved shortly after.
As a consequence of the extensive campaign against "idolatry" in England, culminating with the dismantling of the shrine of St. Thomas Becket at Canterbury, Paul III excommunicated Henry VIII on 17 December 1538 and issued an interdict on England.
Around this time, family complications arose. In order to vest his grandson Ottavio Farnese with the Duchy of Camerino, Paul forcibly wrested the same from the duke of Urbino (1540). He also incurred virtual war with his own subjects and vassals by the imposition of burdensome taxes. Perugia, renouncing its obedience, was besieged by Paul's son, Pier Luigi, and forfeited its freedom entirely on its surrender. The burghers of Colonna were duly vanquished, and Ascanio was banished (1541). After this, the time seemed ripe for annihilating heresy.
In 1540, the Church officially recognized the society forming about Ignatius of Loyola, which became the Society of Jesus. In 1542, a second stage in the process of Counter-Reformation was marked by the institution, or reorganization, of the Congregation of the Holy Office of the Inquisition.