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Julius III
Birth name	Giovanni Maria Ciocchi del Monte
Papacy began	February 7, 1550
Papacy ended	March 23, 1555
Predecessor	Paul III
Successor	Marcellus II
Born	September 10, 1487(1487-09-10) Rome, Italy
Died	March 23, 1555 (aged 67) ???
Other popes named Julius

Pope Julius III (September 10, 1487 – March 23, 1555), born Giovanni Maria Ciocchi del Monte, was Pope from February 7, 1550 to 1555.

Contents 1 Biography 2 Elected Pope 3 Ecclesiastical policy 4 Sexuality 5 Literature 6 References 7 External links

The last of the High Renaissance Popes, he was born in Rome, the son of a famous jurist. He succeeded his uncle as archbishop of Siponto (Manfredonia) in Apulia in 1513, and added the diocese of Pavia in 1520. At the Sack of Rome (1527), he was one of the hostages given by Pope Clement VII (1523–34) to the Emperor's forces, and might have been killed in the Campo de' Fiori as others were, had he not been secretly liberated by Cardinal Pompeo Colonna.

In 1536 he was created cardinal-bishop of Palestrina by Pope Paul III (1534–49), by whom he was employed on several important legations; he was the first president of the Council of Trent, opening its first session at Trent, December 13, 1545, with a brief oration. At the council, he was the leader of the papal party against Emperor Charles V (1519–56), with whom he came into conflict on various occasions, especially when, on March 26, 1547, he transferred the Council to Bologna.

Main article: Papal conclave, 1549-1550

In the conclave after the death of Paul III (November 10, 1549) the forty-eight cardinals were divided into three factions: the Imperials, the French, and the adherents of the Farnese. The French cardinals were able to prevent the election of the other two factions, and Cardinal del Monte was duly elected Pope Julius III on February 7, 1550, as a compromise, after a conclave of ten weeks, although the Emperor had expressly excluded him from the list of acceptable candidates. Ottavio Farnese, Paul III's grandson, was immediately confirmed as Duke of Parma. As Pope, Julius III is better remembered by architectural historians and lovers of art than by theologians. He had a musical ear too: he immediately brought the great Renaissance composer Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina to Rome and made him maestro di cappella.

In 1551, at the request of the Emperor Emperor Charles V, Julius consented to the reopening of the council of Trent. He also entered into a league with Charles against the duke of Parma and Henry II of France (1547–59), but soon afterwards he deemed it advisable to make terms with his enemies, and in 1553 he again suspended the meetings of the council. (For the history of papal conflicts with councils, see conciliar movement).

As Pope, Julius III lost interest both in political and in ecclesiastical affairs; formerly he had acquired a reputation for impetuous energy in pressing the papal position, but he now could fully express his love of luxurious ease, in the entertainments given by him especially at the Villa Giulia, which Vignola created for him, in a manner fitted to shock later ideas of ecclesiastical propriety. Julius stood by his choice, and in the Villa Giulia the ceiling fresco of a portico depicts a vine-covered trellis, where putti play with one another's genitals. Joachim du Bellay the French poet in the retinue of Cardinal du Bellay, expressed his scandalized opinion in two sonnets in his series Les regrets (published after the Pope's death, in 1558).

Julius also aroused much scandal by creating as his first Cardinal Innocenzo Ciocchi Del Monte, a youth of seventeen whom he had picked up on the streets of Parma.[1] Julius met the boy two years previously and named him to the post of cathedral provost.

The imprudence of Pope Julius III in entrusting the office of Cardinal Nephew to Innocenzo Del Monte eventually led to an upgrading of the Secretary's job, as the incumbent had to take over the duties that Innocenzo was unfit for. The first man to fill the newly-created position of cardinal-secretary of state was the newly created Girolamo Cardinal Dandini. By the time of Pope Innocent X (1644–55) the Secretary of State was always himself a Cardinal, and Pope Innocent XII (1691–1700) abolished the office of Cardinal Nephew in 1692. From then onwards the Secretary of State has been the most important of the officials of the Holy See.

Julius III was a friend of the Jesuits, to whom he granted a fresh confirmation in 1550, and he appointed Ippolito II d'Este as governor of Tivoli, where Ippolito immediately set about creating the Villa d'Este.

Julius caused what is possibly the worst homosexual scandal in the history of the papacy. When he was a cardinal he was accused of sodomy, but scandal erupted four months after he became pontiff, when he named as cardinal his 17-year old lover, Innocenzo Ciocchi Del Monte (1532-1577), whom he already had adopted by his brother Baldovino. While still a cardinal, Julius had met Innocenzo, then called Santino, who was the 13-year old son of one of his servants. The cardinal fell madly in love with the boy and used favours to secure the collusion of the boy's father. As a reward for this prostitution, the boy was given profitable ecclesiastical benefices at age 14, then was adopted by Baldovino Del Monte. Innocenzo's elevation to the cardinalate was the final reward for his obligingness. Not all historians agree about the homosexual relations between Juilius III and his adoptive nephew^[1]

Cardinals who were more sensitive to the need to reform the mores of the Church in order to combat the Protestant Reformation protested in vain against Innocenzo's nomination. Rumours also circulated around European courts; according to P. Messina, 'The Venetian ambassador Matteo Dandolo wrote that Del Monte "was a little scoundrel", and that the cardinal "took him [Innocenzo] into his bedroom and into his own bed as if he were his own son or grandson".....^[2] One more favourable, if mocking, rumour made the rounds in Rome, saying that Innocenzo had been made a cardinal as a reward for being the keeper of the pope's monkey. The bodies of both Julius III and Innocenzo are buried in the Del Monte chapel in the church of San Pietro in Montorio in Rome.

• Bayle, Pierre. "Jules III." Dictionnaire historique et critique. Vol. 15. Paris: Desoer, 1820.
• Burkle-Young, Francis A., and Michael Leopoldo Doerrer. The Life of Cardinal Innocenzo del Monte: A Scandal in Scarlet. Lewiston, N.Y.: Edwin Mellen, 1997.
• Dall'Orto, Giovanni. "Julius III." Who's Who in Gay and Lesbian History from Antiquity to World War II. Robert Aldrich and Garry Wotherspoon, eds. London: Routledge, 2001. 234-35.
• Kelly, J. N. D. The Oxford Dictionary of Popes. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1986.

• Julius III at Find-A-Grave
• Career of Innocenzo Ciocchi Del Monte

Catholic Church titles
Preceded by Paul III	Bishop of Rome, Vicar of Peter (deprecated A.D. 495), Vicar of Christ, Successor of the Prince of the Apostles Supreme Pontiff (Pontifex Maximus) Patriarch of the West (deprecated 2006), Primate of Italy, Archbishop and Metropolitan of the Roman Province Servant of the Servants of God Pope 1550–55	Succeeded by Marcellus II

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