Paul III of the Renaissance, who, through a combination of nepotism and art, paved the way for the Council

10 November 1549. Pope Paul III, Cardinal Alessandro Farnese, died. In many respects, he was a Renaissance Pope like his predecessors: a nepotist (as soon as he was elected, he appointed two of his nephews, aged fourteen and sixteen, as cardinals), a lover of the arts (he revitalised the University of Rome by opening it up to secular culture and enriched the Vatican Library), and a patron of the arts (he commissioned Michelangelo to paint the fresco of the Last Judgement on the wall of the Sistine Chapel); ordained a priest at the age of fifty, when he had already been a cardinal deacon for decades, it was only from that moment, having severed all ties with the mother of his four children, that he began to lead an irreproachable private life. Yet it was precisely this Pope, as recent historiography has highlighted, who placed at the heart of his programme a twofold commitment to the Council, which was finally convened at Trent in 1545, and for the ‘Catholic Reformation’, which took up long-neglected calls for renewal and for which Paul III fostered new religious orders (such as the Jesuits and the Somaschi) and radically altered the composition of the College of Cardinals; this reform movement was subsequently accompanied by the ‘Counter-Reformation’, understood as a struggle against the ‘Protestant Reformation’ that had been initiated by Luther. Among Paul III’s various initiatives, the papal bull Veritas ipsa of 1537 stands out, in which he condemned the enslavement of the inhabitants of the New World, regarding whom there was then debate in universities as to whether they should be considered ‘superior animals’ or ‘inferior men’. The Pope solemnly declared that they were ‘true men’ and that, being men like all others, they could not be deprived of their freedom or the ownership of their property. In the centuries that followed, the prohibition of slavery was reaffirmed by at least seven other popes.

11 November 1417. Martin V, the Roman cardinal deacon Oddone Colonna, was elected during the Council of Constance, which had been convened three years earlier to put an end to the ‘Western Schism’ that had been ongoing for forty years. The election took place according to unusual procedures established for the occasion: the electors were the twenty-two cardinals present and six representatives from each of the five ‘nations’ participating in the council. A two-thirds majority of the votes from each individual nation was required, as well as from the cardinals. Voting was not conducted by secret ballot, as each elector had to identify their ballot paper and also confirm their choice verbally. Despite the complicated system of the six required majorities, within three days Oddone Colonna was elected; he was immediately ordained a priest and consecrated a bishop. The new Pope took charge of the council, which he brought to a close within a few months after issuing a series of regulations that only partially met expectations for reform; he then devoted himself with great determination to the Papal States, which had fallen into serious disarray during the very long schism.