Pope Paul V
Pope|English name=Paul V|Latin name=Paolo PP. V|image=
|birth_name=Camillo Borghese|term_start=
May 16,
1605|term_end=
January 28,
1621|predecessor=
Leo XI|successor=
Gregory XV|birth_date=
September 17,
1552|birthplace=
Rome,
Italy|dead=dead|death_date=
January 28,
1621|deathplace=
Rome,
Italy|other=Paul}}
Pope Paul V (
Rome,
September 17,
1552 –
January 28,
1621), born
Camillo Borghese, was
Pope from
May 16,
1605 until his death.
He was born as Camillo
Borghese into a noble family of
Siena which had recently fled to
Rome, and
ROMANUS appears in most of his inscriptions. He was a lawyer educated at
Perugia and
Padua.
In June
1596 he was made
cardinal and
Cardinal-Vicar of Rome by
Pope Clement VIII.
Election
|
Coat of Arms of Pope Paul V |
When
Pope Leo XI died (
April 27, 1605) Cardinal Borghese became Pope over a number of candidates including
Caesar Baronius and
Robert Bellarmine, his neutrality in the factional times made him an ideal compromise candidate. In character he was very stern and unyielding, a lawyer rather than diplomat, who defended the privileges of the Church to his utmost. His first act was to send home to their
sees the bishops who were sojourning in Rome, for the
Council of Trent had insisted that every bishop reside in his diocese.
Theology
Paul met with
Galileo Galilei in
1616 after Cardinal Bellarmine had, on his orders, warned Galileo not to hold or defend the
heliocentric ideas of
Copernicus. Whether there was also an order not to teach those ideas in any way has been a matter for controversy. A letter from Bellarmine to Galileo, however, states only the injunction that the heliocentric ideas could not be defended or held; this letter was written expressly to enable to Galileo to defend himself against rumors concerning what had happened in the meeting with Bellarmine.
Canonizations and Beatifications
He canonized
Charles Borromeo (
November 1,
1610) and
Frances of Rome. He beatified a number of individuals, including
Ignatius Loyola,
Philip Neri,
Theresa of Avila, and
Francis Xavier.
Ecclesiastical jurisdiction
Paul's insistence of ecclesiastical jurisdiction led to a number of quarrels between the Church and the secular governments of various states, notably
Venice, where the exemption of the clergy from the jurisdiction of the civil courts was a sore point. Venice passed two laws obnoxious to Paul, one forbidding the alienation of real estate in favor of the clergy, the second demanding approval of the civil power for the building of new churches. Two priests had been found guilty and committed to prison. Paul insisted that they be released to the Church. The Venetian position was ably defended by a canon lawyer,
Paolo Sarpi, who extended the matter to general principles defining separate secular and ecclesiastical spheres. In April
1606 the Pope took the step of
excommunicating the entire government of Venice and placed an
interdict on the city. All clergy sided with the city, however, with the exception of the
Jesuits, the
Theatines, and the
Capuchins, who were expelled from Venetian territories.
Masses continued to be said in Venice, and the feast of
Corpus Christi was celebrated with outstanding public pomp and magnificence, to the Pope's chagrin. Within a year (March
1607) the disagreement was mediated by
France and
Spain. The
Most Serene Republic refused to retract the laws, but asserted that Venice would conduct herself "with her
accustomed piety." The Jesuits, considered subversive Papal agents, remained banned. No more could be expected. The Pope withdrew his censure.
Relations with England
Paul's hard-edged Catholic diplomacy cut the ground from under moderate
Catholics in
England. His letter of
July 9,
1606 to congratulate
James I on his accession to the throne was three years late and seemed to English eyes merely a preamble to what followed, and his reference to the
Gunpowder Plot, made against the life of the monarch and all the members of
Parliament the previous November, was unfortunate, for papal agents were considered by the English to have been involved. But he prays James not to make the innocent Catholics suffer for the crime of a few. He promises to exhort all the Catholics of the realm to be submissive and loyal to their sovereign— in all things not opposed to the honor of God. Unfortunately the oath of allegiance James demanded of his subjects contained clauses to which no
17th century Catholic could in conscience subscribe: the oath of allegiance was solemnly condemned in a brief published a matter of weeks later (
September 22,
1606, extended
August 23,
1607). This condemnation served only to divide English Catholics. The other irritant in English relations was Cardinal
Robert Bellarmine's letter to the English archpriest
Blackwell, reproaching him for having taken the oath of allegiance in apparent disregard of his duty to the Pope. The letter received enough circulation to be referred to in one of James's theological essays (
1608), and Bellarmine was soon fencing in a pamphlet exchange with the King of England.
Relations with Japan
In November 1615, Paul V welcomed the embassy of the Japanese samurai
Hasekura Tsunenaga in
Rome. Hasekura remitted to the Pope a gilted letter, containing a request for a trade treaty between Japan and Mexico and the dispatch of Christian missionaries to Japan. The Pope agreed to the dispatch of missionaries, but left the decision for trade to the King of Spain.
In Rome the Pope financed the completion of
St. Peter's Basilica, and improved the
Vatican Library. He restored the
Aqua Traiana, an ancient Roman
Aqueduct (named after him
Acqua Paola), bringing water to the
rioni located on right bank of the
Tiber (
Trastevere and
Borgo). He had always encouraged
Guido Reni. Like many Popes he was also guilty of
nepotism, and his nephew Cardinal
Scipione Borghese wielded enormous power on his behalf, consolidating the rise of the Borghese family.
Paul V died on
January 28,
1621 in
Rome and was succeeded by
Gregory XV.
*James I,
De Triplici Nodo, Triplex Cuneus, (his anonymous pamphlet encouraging loyalty to the Crown, accompanied by letters from Paul V about the Catholic Church's opinion of the Oath of Allegiance, and James' responses to them).
*Stephen A. Coston,
King James VI & I and Papal Opposition, 1998
*
Catholic Encyclopedia: Paul V
