Paul III

Alessandro Farnese (1468-1549) was born at Canino (now in the province of Viterbo). After a youth spent in luxuries and vices and a term of imprisonment in the Castel Sant’Angelo, he temporarily left Rome to go to the court of Lorenzo the Magnificent, where he had the opportunity to meet the best of the Italian nobility and culture of the time. The relationship between the sister Giulia and Pope Alexander VI Borgia favoured his election to the cardinalate in September 1493. He participated in the conclaves that elected Pope Pius III (1503), Julius II (1503), Leo X (1513), Adrian VI (1522) and Clement VII (1523), but only in 1513 was ordained a priest. Elected pope in 1534 with the name of Paul III, Farnese became known as the pope who convened the Council of Trent (1545) and founded the Congregation of the Sant’Uffizio, presided over by Cardinal Gian Pietro Carafa, the future Pope Paul IV. He was also the creator of the Duchy of Parma and Piacenza: the territories that formed it were taken from the Papal States and granted to the son of Paul III, Pier Luigi Farnese. Great patron, he promoted the building development of Rome helping various artists, especially Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475-1564).