PAUL III, Pope. - Alessandro Farnese, b. at Canino in February 1468, belonged to the baronial Farnese family, with possessions on Lake Bolsena and south of Viterbo.
Having received a humanistic education in Rome and Florence, he was named cardinal in 1493 by Alexander VI (who had illicit relations with his sister, Giulia). He administered the bishoprics of Corneto, Montefiascone, Parma (where his vicar general was Bartolomeo Guidicci, later a cardinal) and of Benevento; he received, however, in at that time only the minor orders. From a relationship with a Roman noblewoman he had two children, Pierluigi and Paolo, later a third son Ranuccio and a daughter Costanza. Much esteemed for his political wisdom and his great experience, he received in 1524 the bishopric of Ostia and became dean of the Sacred College. He kept away from the unfortunate policy of Clement VII. On 13 Oct. 1534 he was elected pope after a single day of Conclave and immediately announced as his program the council and reform.
While the convocation of the Council at Mantua and at Vicenza, despite numerous postponements, had no follow-up because of the war between Charles V and Francis I, he began the reform of the Church by summoning excellent men into the College of Cardinals such as Contarini, Carafa, Pole, Sadoleto, Cervini, Cortese, Badia, Morone and others. A commission for Reform, convened in the autumn of 1536, presented to him on 9 March 1537 the Consilium de emendanda Ecclesia, the most important reform project prior to the Council of Trent and, in some points, even too radical. It was the starting point of age-old discussions on the reform of the curial authorities, especially of the Dataria: some abuses were halted, but there were no energetic changes, especially regarding the obligation of residence for bishops. The approval of the Society of Jesus on 27 Sept. 1540 and the growth of the Theatines, Barnabites, Somaschi, and the attempts at reform of the older Orders, secured for the Church numerous capable collaborators. By founding the Roman Inquisition (1542) he created a central authority for the struggle against Protestantism in Italy.
The Peace of Crépy (17 Sept. 1544) made possible the Council of Trent, already convoked in vain in 1542. Against the Emperor's wish that the discussions on Reform take precedence, the Pope insisted on the definition of the dogmatic controversies, and approved the compromise of Trent, of treating dogma and Reform simultaneously. The transfer of the Council to Bologna (11 March 1547) without his knowledge, however, corresponded to his wishes. The Emperor's protest at this transfer, the subsequent arbitrary regularization of Germany's ecclesiastical relations in the Interim of Augsburg, and more than all the assassination of his son Pierluigi with the complicity of the governor of Milan Ferrante Gonzaga (10 Sept. 1547), led the Pontiff into open conflict with Charles V, a conflict that lasted until the death of P. III, on 10 Nov. 1549.
In the war between Charles V and Francis I, P. III was neutral, though personally inclined toward France, in which he saw the necessary counterweight to the superiority of the Emperor, who held predominance in Italy as lord of Milan and Naples, and who, according to the Pope, threatened the independence of the Holy See. When Francis I allied himself with the Turks and the German Protestants, Charles V tried in vain, repeatedly, to induce the Pontiff to abandon his neutrality. The distrust of P. III toward the Emperor persisted even after the stipulation of the League (1545) to overthrow the Schmalkaldic alliance and the sending to Germany of his nephews Alessandro and Ottavio, at the head of the papal troops. The publication of the great excommunication against Henry VIII of England (1538) completed the Anglican schism, and all the Pontiff's attempts to induce the continental powers to impose economic and military sanctions also failed.
To his family P. III gave first the Duchy of Camerino and then those of Parma and Piacenza, his aspirations to Milan having failed because of the Emperor's opposition. The creation of the Farnese dynasty at Parma was the last grandiose manifestation of papal nepotism. It is undeniable that the Pope's aspiration to give his family a place among the princely houses of Italy exercised its influence over the whole political and ecclesiastical conduct of P. III. Pope Farnese (whose appearance has been handed down to us by the celebrated paintings of Titian) belongs among the great figures of the history of the popes. His pontificate marks the passage from the Renaissance to the Catholic Reformation: the splendid monument by Guglielmo della Porta is located in the apse of St. Peter's. - See plate LV.
Bibliography6 works
Hubert Jedin