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 | POPE JULIUS II | |
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| 'Let's see if I have as much balls as the King of France' See Cardinal della Rovere for detailed bio | ||||||||||||
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| Pope Julius II was born on 5 December 1443 of poor parents at Albissola, near Savona, and originally intended for commerce, Giuliana della Rovere was educated, through his uncle Francesco's influence, by the Franciscans at Perugia and took orders. When his uncle became Sxtus IV (1471), he named Giuliano bishop of Carpentras and (16 December 1471) cardinal priest of San Pietro in Vincoli; he soon acquired other bishoprics, abbacies and benefices, including the cardinal bishopric of Santa Sabina. As legate in France in 1480 - 82 he successfully mediated between Louis XI (1461 - 83) and Maximilian I of Austria (1486 - 1519) over the latter's Burgundian inheritance. He was prominent under Innocent VIII, whose election he managed, but an enemy of Alexander VI. Fearing assassination, he fled in 1494 to France, where he encouraged Charles VIII (1483 - 98) to undertake the conquest of Naples. He accompanied the King on his campaign (1494 - 95), but his efforts to get his backing for a council to depose Alexander for simony were foiled by the wily pope. Although he negotiated Cesare Borgia's marriage with Charlotte d'Albret a French princess in 1499, he was lucky to escape Alexander's plots and remained in hiding until his death. At the ensuing conclave he was not chosen, but Pius III reigned only twenty-six days; on his death Giuliano at last attained his ambition, and with the help of lavish promises and bribes was unanimously elected pope at a conclave lasting a single day. A forceful ruler, ruthless and violent, Julius eschewed family aggrandisement and strove, with all diplomatic and military means available, to restore and extend the papal state, which the Borgia's had alienated, and to establish a strong, independent papacy in an Italy free from foreign domination. First, having dexterously got rid of the still dangerous Cesare Borgia (died 1507) by making Italy too hot for him, he vainly urged Venice to evacuate those parts of Romagna she had occupied earlier in 1503. Then, having allied himself with France and Germany, he won back all Romagna from her except Rimini and Faenza in 1504. In 1506, in a brilliant campaign led by himself in full armour, he wrested Perugia and Bologna from their petty tyrants. In March 1509 he joined the League of Cambrai formed in 1508 between France, Germany and Spain, excommunicated Venice on 27 April, and in May defeated her so disastrously that she was forced to surrender Rimini and Faenza and also the control of church appointments and taxation rights that she had usurped. He had no wish, however, unduly to weaken Venice, indispensable in any war with the Turks, and now decided that France, powerfully established in the north, was the real danger to Italy and must be driven out. He therefore made peace with Venice and, to win the support of Spain, enfeoffed Ferdinand II of Aragon (1476 - 1516) with Naples (3 July 1510) in disregard of France's claims. Julius first attacked Ferrara, an ally of France and the only vassal state still unsubdued. His troops seized Modena in 1510 and captured Mirandola in January 1511 with himself at their head. He failed, however, to win Ferrara, and had to see Bologna fall temporarily to the French; he himself narrowly escaped capture. Meanwhile Louis XII of France (1498 - 1515) counter-attacked by holding a synod at Tours (September 1510) which renewed the Pragmatic Sanction of Bourges, and by calling, in the name of a group of rebel cardinals, for a council to meet at Pisa on 1 September 1511 to depose the pope. It assembled on 1 October, held several sessions, and decreed the suspension of Julius. To meet the threat, especially as Emperor Maximilian I favoured the Pisan council, Julius now summoned the Fifth Lateran Council to meet in Rome in 1512. On the political plane he formed (October 1511) the Holy League with Venice and Spain for the defence of the papacy; Henry VIII of England (1509 - 47) joined it later in the year. The League's armies were severely defeated at Ravenna (11 April 1512), but its fortunes changed with the arrival of Swiss troops, and before the end of 1512 the French had to quit Italian soil. Parma, Piacenza and Reggio Emilia were added to the papal state, of which Julius could claim to be the re-founder. Politics and wars dominated Julius's reign; Erasamus in his Praise of Folly (1509) caricatured his military ardour, and the Florentine historian Guicciardini remarked that there was nothing of the priest about him except the dress and the name. His strictly church activities were largely routine: in 1503, for instance, he issued the dispensation which enabled Henry VIII later to marry his brother's (Arthur - Prince of Wales) widow, Catherine of Aragon. Nevertheless, he published a bull (dated 14 January 1505) declaring papal elections nullified by simony, and founded the first bishoprics in South America. He opened on 3 May 1512 the Fifth Lateran (Eighteenth General) Council (1512 -17), being gratified at the third session by the adhesion of Emperor Maximilian; but the five sessions held in his lifetime concerned mainly with condemning the schismatics Pisan council (1511 - 12) and the Pragmatic Sanction of Bourges. His most enduring achievement was as the patron and inspirer of artists, notably Michelangelo, the youthful Raphael and Bramante. The last he commissioned to prepare plans for the new St Peter's, assisting at the laying of the foundation stone on 18 April 1506, and arranging for the cost to be defrayed by the sale of indulgences (later to be bitterly criticised by the Protestant reformers). In spite of expensive wars and building projects he was a frugal administrator who, having inherited an empty treasury, left it more than full. As a man he was headstrong, irascible, sensual (as cardinal he fathered three daughters - although it is more likely that it was only the one Felice della Rovere and the two attributed to him were actually Felice's children, his grand-daughters), he was nicknamed 'papa terribile'; as pope he had policies which were at least disinterested and intelligible even if they aimed no higher than making the papal state the first power in Italy. When he died of fever, he was mourned as the liberator of Italy from foreign domination, and has subsequently been saluted as the promoter of its unification. It is a common error that many associate the burial place of Julius as being in San Pietro in Vincoli as the location for the so-called "Tomb of Julius" by Michelangelo. However, this tomb was not completed until 1545 and represents a much abbreviated version of the planned original, which was initially intended for the new St Peter's Basilica. Instead, as was always intended, Julius was buried in St Peter's in the Vatican. His remains, along with those of his uncle, Pope Sixtus IV were later desecrated during the Sack of Rome in 1527. Today, the remains of both lie in St. Peter's in the floor in front of the monument to Pope Clement X. A simple marble tombstone marks the site. |
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