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Dromo's Den
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[Up] [Dromo's Den] Paul IV Biography PAUL IV (Pope, 1555-59), Giovanni Pietro Caraffa. He was born at Naples in 1476. In 1494 he entered the service of the Curia and in 1507 was appointed Bishop of Chieti, in which see he labored most earnestly for the reformation of abuses and for the revival of religion and morality. With this view he established, in conjunction with several congenial reformers, the congregation of secular clergy called Theatines (q.v.) and was himself the first superior. It was under his influence that Paul III organized the tribunal of the Inquisition in Rome. On the death of Marcellus II in 1555, although in his seventy-ninth year, he was elected to succeed him. He enforced vigorously upon the clergy the observance of all the clerical duties and enacted laws for the maintenance of public morality. He established a censorship and completed the organization of the Roman Inquisition; he took measures for the alleviation of the burdens of the poorer classes and for the better administration of justice, not sparing even his own nephews, whom he banished from Rome on account of their corrupt conduct and profligate life. His foreign relations, too, involved him in much labor and perplexity. He was bitter in enmity against Charles and the Spaniards. He insisted on the restoration of Church property in England, a demand which Julius III had in the interests of peace refused to press, and recalled Pole, who had arranged the settlement; and on Elizabeth's accession declared her illegitimate and not entitled to the throne. He was embroiled with the Emperor Ferdinand, with Philip II of Spain, and with Cosmo, Grand Duke of Tuscany. Having condemned the principles of the Peace of Augsburg, he protested against its provisions. At home he was unpopular for his strictness and lack of tact. Consult Leopold von Ranke, History of the Popes vol. i (London, 1903). The New International Encyclopaedia, Vol. XVIII (New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1920) 183. |