Pope Paul IV
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Paul IV, né Giovanni Pietro Carafa (June 28, 1476 – August 18, 1559) was Pope from May 23, 1555 until his death.
Giovanni Pietro Carafa was born in Capriglia Irpina, near Avellino into a prominent noble family of Naples. He was mentored by Cardinal Oliviero Carafa, his relative, who resigned the see of Chieti (Latin Theate) in his favor. Under the direction of Pope Leo X (1513–21) he was ambassador to England and then papal nuncio in Spain, where he conceived a violent detestation of Spanish rule that affected the policies of his later papacy.
However, in 1524 Pope Clement VII (1523–34) allowed Carafa to resign his benefices and join the ascetic order of Saint Cajetan, popularly called the Theatines, after Cardinal Carafa, bishop of Theate. Following the sack of Rome in 1527, the order moved to Venice. But Carafa was recalled to Rome by the reform-minded Pope Paul III (1534–49), to sit on a committee of reform of the papal court, an appointment that forecast an end to a humanist papacy, and a revival of scholasticism, for Carafa was a thorough disciple of Thomas Aquinas. In December 1536 he was made a cardinal and then Archbishop of Naples. He reorganized the Inquisition in Italy.
He was a surprise choice as Pope to succeed Pope Marcellus II (1555); his rigid, severe and unbending character combined with his age and patriotism meant he would have declined the honor. He accepted apparently because Emperor Charles V (1519–56) was opposed to his accession. As Pope his nationalism was a driving force, he used the office to preserve some liberties in the face of four-fold foreign occupation. The Habsburgs disliked Paul IV and he allied with France, possibly against the true interests of the Papacy. He also alienated the English and rejected the claim of Elizabeth I of England (1558–1603) to the Crown. The strengthening of the Inquisition continued and Paul IV's rectitude meant that few could consider themselves safe by virtue of position in his drive to reform the Church; even cardinals he disliked could be imprisoned.
Paul IV had rather anti-Semitic views, and he acted on those views, as well. He considered Jews to be condemned by God to slavery and undeserving of "Christian love". In 1555 he issued a canon (papal law), Cum nimis absurdum, by which the Roman Ghetto was created; Jews were then forced to live in seclusion in a specified area of the town, locked in at night, and he decreed that Jews should wear a distinctive sign, yellow hats for men and veils or shawls for women. The following Popes would have enforced the creation of other ghettos in most Italian towns. Under conservative pressure from Pope Pius IX (1846–78), the Roman ghetto was the last ghetto to be abolished in Western Europe.
Paul IV was violently opposed to the liberal Giovanni Cardinal Morone whom he strongly suspected of being a hidden Protestant, so much that he had him imprisoned. In order to prevent Morone from succeeding him and imposing what he believed to be his Protestant beliefs on the Church, Pope Paul IV codified the Catholic Law excluding heretics and non-Catholics from receiving or legitimately becoming Pope, in the bull Cum ex apostolatus officio.
As with other Renaissance Popes, Paul IV was not backward in promoting his relatives – he made a nephew into a cardinal and chief advisor as well as granting favors and estates to other relatives, often taken from those who supported the Spanish. However at the conclusion of the foolish and disastrous war with Philip II of Spain (1556–98) and after many scandals, in 1559 the Pope publicly disgraced his nephew and banished him from the Court.
He was buried in St. Peter's Basilica but was later transferred to Santa Maria sopra Minerva.
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