It’s a little late but In honor of Pride Month, I would like to tell a story that has intrigued me for some time; the love story of Pope Julius III and his Cardinal-nephew, Innocenzo Ciocchi del Monte. I said this was a love story, but considering that this was a relationship between the Pope and a minor this might be more appropriately described as a story of abuse. However, the matter is somewhat complicated, so I’ll tell the story, and then you can decide.
Before I begin, I should explain just what a Cardinal-nephew is. The title is precisely what it implies, a nephew of the pope that he makes a cardinal. The Cardinal-nephew was an official post in the Papal bureaucracy throughout the Middle Ages and the Early Modern Period. If you are thinking that this is nepotism, you would be right. In fact, the word nepotism (nepos is Latin for nephew) derives from this practice. The Cardinal-nephew did not have to be the Pope’s nephew. he could name any male relative to the position, including his illegitimate sons. Most often, however, the Cardinal-nephew was indeed the nephew of the pope.
This may seem to be corrupt to us, but you must understand at the time the sort of impersonal administrative institutions that make up governments today were only beginning to come into being during the Middle Ages. Politics was more personal back then, and there was a feeling that only the members of one’s own family were trustworthy. A Cardinal-nephew could be trusted with the same sort of duties a secular monarch might entrust to a son or brother; helping with the administration of Papal properties, undertaking sensitive diplomatic missions, and so on. Unlike the sons of a secular monarch, the Cardinal-nephew could not expect to succeed his uncle to the Papacy, but Cardinal-nephews were often power brokers when the Cardinals gathered in Conclave to elect a new Pope.
The story begins around 1645, when the Cardinal Bishop of Palestrina Giovanni Maria Ciocchi del Monte, the future Pope Julius III, noticed a beautiful teenage boy named Innocenzo begging in the streets of Parma. For Giovanni, it was love at first sight, and he prevailed upon his brother to take the young man into his household. Giovanni hired Innocenzo to care for his pet monkey and appointed him Provost of the cathedral chapter of Arezzo.
In 1650 the College of Cardinals elected Giovanni Maria Ciocci del Monte pope. Giovanni had a good reputation as a skillful administrator and diplomat and was known to be a supporter of reform in the Roman Catholic Church, serving as the first president of the Council of Trent. Giovanni took the name Julius III and began his Papal career with high hopes among his supporters. These hopes would soon be dashed. Julius III displayed shockingly poor judgment in his relationship with the young Innocenzo
Almost as soon as he had become Pope, Julius III named Innocenzo as his Cardinal Nephew and lived with him openly as his lover. That was a problem. Popes throughout the Middle Ages and Renaissance had mistresses, and Julius III was probably not the first homosexual pope. Papal mistresses were scandalous but more or less expected. Times were changing, however.
In 1517, Martin Luther had nailed his 95 Theses to the church door, igniting the Protestant Reformation. Since then, Protestantism had spread like wildfire throughout Europe. Many Catholic reformers believed the most effective way to check the spread of Protestantism was for the Roman Catholic Church to clean up its act. Long-standing abuses ought to be reformed., corrupt practices ended, and Church leaders, especially the pope, should show moral leadership. A gay pope sharing his bed with his teenage boy was no one’s idea of strong, moral leadership. Rumors about Julius’s relationship with Innocencza spread throughout the courts of Europe badly damaging the prestige of the papacy. Poets wrote verses about the Pope’s “Ganymede.” Protestants held up the relationship as a symbol of the moral corruption of the Vatican
Even worse than the sex scandal was the fact that Innocenzo proved to be incapable of handling the duties of the Cardinal-Nephew. Innocenzo was uneducated, to the point of being illiterate, and attempts to provide him with the needed education went nowhere. Innocenzo simply wasn’t interested. And why should he have been? Pope Julius III continued to shower him with offices and gifts while relieving him of any onerous responsibilities. Papal courtiers urged Julius to put Innocenzo aside to preserve the reputation of his papacy, but Julius simply refused. The only concession Julius would make was to upgrade the formerly minor post of Cardinal Secretary of State to handle Innocenzo’s duties as Cardinal Nephew. Julius’s reputation, and any efforts he made to reform the church, was ruined.
Pope Julius III’s relationship with his lover continued until he died in 1655. Innocenzo remained a cardinal thanks to his relationship with the Ciocchi del Monte family, and he participated in the 1655 Conclaves that Elected Marcellus II and then Paul IV. The unpopularity of his relationship with Julius III and his own crimes, he murdered two men in 1559 and raped at least two women, caused Innocenzo to lose his influence in the Vatican. He participated in later Conclaves but was generally despised, and he died in obscurity in 1577.
Part of Innocenzo Ciocchi del Monte’s legacy was the degradation of the position of Cardinal-nephew. He wasn’t the last Cardinal-nephew, but his bad example and the rise of the concept of impersonal administrative bureaucracy throughout Europe made Papal nepotism less palatable. The Cardinal Secretary of State took on most of the duties of the Cardinal Nephew, which became increasingly superfluous. The position of Cardinal Nephew was formally abolished in 1692, although popes continued to name relatives as cardinals until the nineteenth century.
So, is the story of Julius III and Innocenzo Chiocci del Monte a story of love, abuse, or both? By our standards, there is no question that their relationship was abusive. Innocenzo was a minor when the relationship began and he was always in the power of Julius III. As I stated, he was never in a position to refuse Julius. Yet the matter may not be so simple.
Twenty-first-century standards are not the same as seventeenth-century standards. Julius’s contemporaries were more scandalized by Innocenzo’s sex than his age. They objected to the homosexual relationship and that Innocenzo was given a post he could not perform. I am not sure what the age of consent might have been in the seventeenth century. It is possible if Innocenzo had been Julius’s “niece” and their relationship strictly private, the affair wouldn’t have been remarked on at all.
It seems to me that Julius did love Innocenzo, at least to some extent. He did not end the relationship when it would have been expedient to do so. In a way, Julius sacrificed his reputation and his papacy for the sake of Innocenzo. It is less clear whether Innocenzo returned Julius’s affections. He had at least one affair with a woman even while he was Julius’s Cardinal-Nephew, and his subsequent sexual history suggests that he was not himself homosexual. He may have seen his relationship with Julius simply as an opportunity to get ahead. Or, he may have been an unwilling participant in the relationship.
That brings up the question of who was exploiting whom in this relationship. Innocenzi seems to have made off remarkably well from his affair with Julius. He was adopted into a prominent Italian family and, as a cardinal, was one of the most powerful men in Catholic Europe. Julius seemed to get nothing but scandal and trouble out of it. There is also the question of the crimes Innocenzo committed after Julius’s death. Was Innocenzo a criminal all along? Was he a cunning manipulator who preyed on Julius’s affections to gain undeserved wealth and power? Or was he a victim who turned to crime as the result of the trauma of the sexual abuse he suffered? I am afraid we may never know.
For whatever it is worth, I think the story of Pope Julius III and Innocenzo Ciocci del Monte is a story of abuse. We can talk about changing standards, but the fact is that in the end, Innocenzo was never in a position to say “no” to Julius. He may have leveraged his position as Julius’s lover to benefit himself, but he was making the best of a bad situation. There is a certain tragedy in the way in which Pope Julius III destroyed his papacy. Julius III could have been known as one of the great reforming Popes. Instead, he will always be known for his disgraceful affair with a teenager. He deserves his reputation.
David's Commonplace Book 