Pope Julius II
Pope Julius II (Latin: Iulius II; Italian: Giulio II; born Giuliano della Rovere; 5 December 1443 – 21 February 1513) was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 1503 to his death, in February 1513. Nicknamed the Warrior Pope, Battle Pope or the Fearsome Pope, he chose his papal name not in honour of Pope Julius I but in emulation of Julius Caesar.[1] One of the most powerful and influential popes, Julius II was a central figure of the High Renaissance and left a significant cultural and political legacy.[2] As a result of his policies during the Italian Wars, the Papal States increased their power and centralization, and the office of the papacy continued to be crucial, diplomatically and politically, during the entirety of the 16th century in Italy and Europe.
Julius II
1 November 1503
21 February 1513
1471
1481 (?)
by Sixtus IV
15 December 1471
by Sixtus IV
21 February 1513 (aged 69)
Rome, Papal States
St. Peter's Basilica, Rome
Raffaello della Rovere and Theodora Manerola
- Archbishop of Avignon (1474–1503)
- Cardinal-bishop of Sabina (1479–1483)
- Camerlengo of the Cardinals (1479)
- Cardinal-bishop of Ostia (1483–1503)
In 1506, Julius II established the Vatican Museums and initiated the rebuilding of the St. Peter's Basilica. The same year he organized the famous Swiss Guard for his personal protection and commanded a successful campaign in Romagna against local lords. The interests of Julius II lay also in the New World, as he ratified the Treaty of Tordesillas, establishing the first bishoprics in the Americas and beginning the Catholicization of Latin America. In 1508, he commissioned the Raphael Rooms and Michelangelo's paintings in the Sistine Chapel.
Julius II was described by Machiavelli in his works as an ideal prince. Pope Julius II allowed people seeking indulgences to donate money to the Church, which would be used for the construction of Saint Peter's Basilica.[a] He was fiercely satirized after his death by Erasmus of Rotterdam in Julius Excluded from Heaven, in which the drunken pope, denied entry by St. Peter, justifies his worldly life and threatens to found his own paradise.[4]
Early life[edit]
Giuliano della Rovere was born in Albisola near Savona in the Republic of Genoa. He was of the House of della Rovere, a noble but impoverished family, the son of Raffaello della Rovere[b] and Theodora Manerola, a woman of Greek ancestry.[13] He had three brothers: Bartolomeo, a Franciscan friar who then became Bishop of Ferrara (1474–1494);[14] Leonardo; and Giovanni, Prefect of the City of Rome (1475–1501)[15] and Prince of Sora and Senigallia. He also had a sister, Lucina (later the mother of Cardinal Sisto Gara della Rovere).[16] Giuliano was educated by his uncle, Fr. Francesco della Rovere, O.F.M., among the Franciscans, who took him under his special charge. He was later sent by this same uncle (who by that time had become Minister General of the Franciscans (1464–1469)), to the Franciscan friary in Perugia, where he could study the sciences at the University.[17][18]
Della Rovere, as a young man, showed traits of being rough, coarse and inclined to bad language. During the late 1490s, he became more closely acquainted with Cardinal de’ Medici and his cousin Giulio de’ Medici, both of whom would later become Pope, (i.e. Leo X and Clement VII, respectively). The two dynasties became uneasy allies in the context of papal politics. Both houses desired an end to the occupation of Italian lands by the armies of France. He seemed less enthused by theology; rather, Paul Strathern argues, his imagined heroes were military leaders such as Frederic Colonna.[19]
