The Most Corrupt and Scandalous Papacies in History

The Most Corrupt and Scandalous Papacies in History

Larry Holzwarth - December 17, 2018

The Most Corrupt and Scandalous Papacies in History
Pope Paul IV ordered Michelangelo to cover the nudes in the Sistine Chapel and suggested whitewashing the ceiling. Wikimedia

16. Paul IV wanted to paint over the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel

Pope Paul IV brought his personal prejudices with him to the office of the pope, which he used to inflict them upon his flock. He banned translations of the bible other than the Latin Bible from the Papal States, stopped the pension of Michelangelo for the sin of including nudes in the depiction of the Last Judgement, and discussed using whitewash to cover the paintings on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. He required Jews in Rome to wear distinctive clothing to identify them. He forbade begging, even to the point of ending collecting alms for the poor by clerics. Under his stewardship, the Church forbade the ownership of any book written by a Protestant with the threat of excommunication for those who violated the edict.

Though he was pope for just four years, 1555 – 1559, he managed to alienate the Spanish Habsburg dynasty and Jews throughout Christendom through his bulls and pronouncements. Under Paul IV, no more than one Jewish synagogue was allowed in any city, and so-called excess places of worship were ordered destroyed (leading to seven razed in Rome alone). A Jewish ghetto was created in Rome, walled off from the rest of the city, with access through a single gate. At his death there was rioting in the streets. Paul left behind a legacy of anti-Semitism which endured for three centuries, with the ghetto he created remaining in place until the dissolution of the Papal States in 1870, with the walls torn down nearly two decades later.

Advertisement