Pope Julius III

We can imagine the contrast, a gaunt Spanish friar in a ragged habit, standing in the marble halls of the Vatican among cardinals in scarlet who had never in their lives gone hungry.

Pope Julius III received him and heard his case, and the Pope was moved.

In 1555, he gave the reform his approval and placed the new houses under a special superior.

The friars who followed Peter's rule became known as the Alcantarines, after the town where he was born, and within a few years, they would have houses throughout Spain and Portugal.

Thus, Urban IV testified that every day the rosary obtained fresh boon for Christianity.

Sixtus IV declared that this method of prayer "redounded to the honor of God and the Blessed Virgin, and was well suited to obviate impending dangers." Leo X, that "it was instituted to oppose pernicious heresiarchs and heresies," while Julius III called it the "glory of the church." So also St.

Pius V, that "with the spread of this devotion, the meditations of the faithful have begun to be more inflamed, their prayers more fervent, and they have suddenly become different men." I've experienced this myself.

"The darkness of heresy has been dissipated, and the light of Catholic faith has broken forth again." Lastly, Gregory XIII, in his turn, pronounced that the rosary had been instituted by St.

The council held many sessions until September fifteen forty-seven, when it was suspended.

In February fifteen fifty, Cardinal de Monte was elected pope, taking the name of Julius III.

In the following year, in May fifteen fifty-one, he opened the eleventh session of the council under the presidency of Cardinal Crescenzio.

It lasted a year, but in April fifteen fifty-two, Prince Maurice of Saxony, by his military successes, caused it to be again suspended.

Years passed.

Julius III was succeeded by Cardinal Cervini as Marcellus II, and he in his turn by Paul IV.

In the meantime, the Emperor Charles V had abdicated.

Elizabeth of England was seeking an alliance with the Protestant princes of Germany and was doing her utmost to aid the Huguenots in France.

Nor even with that have I reached that goal to which I think to be able to attain, now that fortune promises me so much favor, that, with greater ease and greater credit for myself and with greater satisfaction to others, I may perchance be able, as well with the pen as with the brush, to unfold my ideas to the world, whatsoever they may be.

For besides the help and protection for which I must hope from your excellency as my liege lord and as the protector of poor followers of the arts, it has pleased the goodness of God to elect as his vicar on earth the most holy and most blessed Julius III, Supreme Pontiff, and a friend and patron of every kind of excellence, and of these most excellent and most difficult arts in particular, from whose exalted liberality I expect recompense for many years spent and many labors expended, and up to now without fruit.

And not only I, who have dedicated myself to the perpetual service of His Holiness, but all the gifted craftsmen of this age must expect from him such honor and reward and opportunities for practicing the arts so greatly, that already I rejoice to see these arts arriving in his time at the greatest height of their perfection, and Rome adorned by craftsmen so many and so noble that, counting them with those of Florence, whom your excellency is calling every day into activity, I hope that someone after our time will have to write a postpart to my book, enriching it with other masters and other masterpieces than those described by me, in which company I am striving with every effort not to be among the last.

Meanwhile, I am content if your excellency has good hope of me and a better opinion than that which, by no fault of mine, you have perchance conceived of me, beseeching you not to let me be undone in your estimation by the malignant tales of other men, until at last my life and my works shall prove the contrary to what they say.

Nor even with that have I reached that goal to which I think to be able to attain, now that fortune promises me so much favor, that, with greater ease and greater credit for myself and with greater satisfaction to others, I may perchance be able, as well with the pen as with the brush, to unfold my ideas to the world, whatsoever they may be.

For besides the help and protection for which I must hope from your Excellency as my liege lord and as the protector of poor followers of the arts, it has pleased the goodness of God to elect as his vicar on earth the most holy and most blessed Julius III, Supreme Pontiff, and a friend and patron of every kind of excellence, and of these most excellent and most difficult arts in particular, from whose exalted liberality I expect recompense for many years spent and many labors expended, and up to now without fruit.

And not only I, who have dedicated myself to the perpetual service of His Holiness, but all the gifted craftsmen of this age must expect from him such honor and reward and opportunities for practicing the arts so greatly.

But already I rejoice to see these arts arriving in this time at the greatest height of their perfection, and Rome adorned by craftsmen so many and so noble that counting them with those of Florence, whom your Excellency is calling every day into activity, I hope that someone after our time will have to write a postpart to my book, enriching it with other masters and other masterpieces than those described by me, in which company I am striving with every effort not to be among the last.

Gregory IX's inquiry into the Talmud in 1239, innocent the fourth bull the following decade.

Julius III's orders in the 1550s.

None of that is street prejudice.

It's the church exercising the same care over doctrines she exercises anywhere else.