Pope Julius III: 'Vicious, proud and odd in the head'

Coat of Arms of Pope Julius III, Palazzo Spada

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On February 22nd 1550, Cardinal Giovanni Ciocchi Maria del Monte was elected pope taking the name Julius III. Pope Julius III reigned for five years, dying on March 23rd 1555 at the age of sixty-eight. 

Julius III's pontificate was beset by scandals, the most notable of which concerned the his adopted nephew, Innocenzo Ciocchi Del Monte (c. 1532-77). When the pope was still a cardinal he found Innocenzo, who turned out to be anything but, a teenager begging in the streets of Parma.

After his elevation to the papacy, Innocenzo Del Monte was adopted into the family by the pope's brother and was then promptly created cardinal-nephew by Julius. The pope showered his favourite with benefices and malicious rumours soon began to circulate about the exact relationship between the pope and 'nephew'. The courtier and poet Girolamo Muzio, in a letter of 1550 to Ferrante Gonzaga, governor of Milan, wrote: 'They write many bad things about this new pope; that he is vicious, proud, and odd in the head.' The Venetian ambassador reported that Innocenzo shared the pope's bed 'as if he were his own son or grandson.' 

Despite the damage that the scandal was inflicting on the church, it was not until after Julius' death that anything could be. Innocenzo was temporary banished following the murder of two men who had insulted him, and then again following the rape of two women. He tried to use his connections in the College of Cardinals to plead his cause, but his influence waned and he died in obscurity. He was buried in the del Monte family chapel in the church of San Pietro in Montorio. 

In the field of patronage, the most lasting achievements of Pope Julius III were the appointment of the composer Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina as the Maestro da Cappella of the Sistine Chapel, and the creation of Villa Giulia (today's National Etruscan Museum). 

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