Pope Paul III
Pope Paul III reigned from 1534 to 1549 and began the Catholic Church's institutional response to the Reformation, while practising nepotism on a scale remarkable even for the period. Born Alessandro Farnese in 1468, he was educated at Lorenzo de' Medici's court in Florence and owed his cardinalate at twenty-five to his sister Giulia, who was the mistress of Alexander VI — earning him the nickname the petticoat cardinal. He lived as a Renaissance prince for decades, fathering four acknowledged children, and was ordained only in 1519. Elected in 1534, he proved a far more serious pope than his career suggested. He appointed reforming cardinals including Contarini, Pole and Carafa, and commissioned a report in 1537 that named the curia's abuses frankly. He approved the Society of Jesus in 1540, giving Ignatius of Loyola's order the standing that made it the Counter-Reformation's most effective instrument, and established the Roman Inquisition in 1542. His central achievement was convening the Council of Trent, which opened in December 1545 after years of delay caused by war between Charles V and Francis I. It defined Catholic doctrine on justification, scripture and the sacraments against Protestant positions and reformed clerical discipline and training, and its decisions governed the Church until the twentieth century. He issued Sublimis Deus in 1537 declaring that the indigenous peoples of the Americas were rational beings who must not be enslaved. He made two teenage grandsons cardinals, and carved the duchy of Parma and Piacenza out of papal territory for his son Pier Luigi, who was murdered in 1547. He commissioned Michelangelo to complete the Last Judgment and to design St Peter's dome. He died in 1549.
- Lived: 1468 CE – 1549 CE
- Nationality: Italian
- Roles: pope, reformer, head_of_state
