PAUL III. (Alessandro Farnese), pope from 1534 to 1549, was born on Feb. 28, 1468. As a pupil of the famous Pomponius Laetus and, subsequently, as a member of the circle of Cosmo de' Medici he received a finished education. His advancement was rapid. To the liaison between his sister Giulia Farnese Orsini and Alexander VI. he owed his cardinal's hat ; but the steady favour which he enjoyed under successive popes was due to his own cleverness and capacity for affairs. His election to the papacy, on Oct. 13, 1534, to succeed Clement VII., was virtually without opposition.
Paul's instincts and ambitions were those of a secular prince of the Renaissance ; but circumstances forced him to become the patron of reform. By the promotion to the cardinalate of such men as Contarini, Caraffa, Pole and Morone, and the appointment of a commission to report upon existing evils and their remedy, the way was opened for reform ; while by the introduction of the Inquisition into Italy (1542), the establishment of the censor ship and the Index (1543) and the approval of the Society of Jesus (154o), agencies were set on foot for combating heresy.
But in the matter of a general council, so urgently desired by the emperor, Paul showed himself irresolute and procrastinat ing. Finally on Dec. 13, 1545, the Council assembled in Trent ;
but when the victories of Charles V. seemed to threaten its inde pendence it was transferred to Bologna (March 1547) and not long afterwards suspended (Sept. 1549). He concluded the truce of Nice (1538) between Charles and Francis, and contracted an alliance with each. But the peace of Crespy and the emperor's negotiations with the Protestants (1544) turned him against Charles, and he was suspected of desiring his defeat in the Schmalkaldic War. The most deplorable of Paul was his nepotism. See FARNESE : Family.
Paul was gifted and cultured, a lover and patron of art. He began the famous Farnese Palace; constructed the Sala Regia in the Vatican ; commissioned Michelangelo to paint the "Last Judg ment," and to resume work upon St. Peter's; and otherwise adorned the city. Easy-going, luxurious, worldly-minded, Paul was not in full sympathy with the prevailing influences about him.
See Panvinio, continuator of Platina, De vitis pontiff. rom. ; Cia conius, Vitae et res gestae summorum pontiff. rom. (Rome, 16o1—o2, both contemporaries of Paul III.) ; and also the extensive bibliography in Herzog-Hauck, Realencyklopadie, s.v. "Paul III."