Julius Iii. (Giovanni Maria Del Monte)

Two hundred and twenty-eighth pope; born at Rome 1487; elected pope Feb. 8, 1550;died March 22, 1555. Personally he was favorably inclined toward the Jews. He attached to his person a Jewish physician named Theodoro de Sacerdotibus; and during an illness he consulted two other Jewish physicians, Vitale Alatino de Pomis and Amatus Lusitanus. Julius prohibited the baptism of Jewish children without the consent of their parents, attaching a penalty of 1,000 ducats to the breach of this order. He also confirmed and increased the privileges of the Portuguese Jews of Ancona (March 20, 1553).

He yielded, however, to the influence of the reactionary party, by which he had been elected; and several of his edicts inflicted great suffering upon the Italian Jews. Upon the denunciation of the baptized Jews Ananel di Foligno, Joseph Moro, and Vittorio Eliano, Julius issued (Aug. 12, 1553) an edict enjoining the bishops and magistrates to seize and burn all copies of the Talmud, as containing slanderous attacks against Christianity. With premeditated malice this edict was to be carried into effect on the day of the Jewish New-Year (Sept. 9, 1553). In the following year (May 29) Julius issued the bull "Contra Hebræos Retinentes Libros Thalmudis," in which the Jews were ordered, on pain of severe punishment, to give up within four months all books supposed to contain blasphemies against Jesus; such books to be revised by Christian censors, and the suspected passages expunged. By his edict of 1553 Julius imposed a tax of ten golden ducats on every synagogue in his domains, to be paid toward the support of the House of Neophytes.

Bibliography:

  * Morini, Archiatri Pontifici, i. 296, 417, Rome, 1784;
  * David de Pomis, Ẓemaḥ Dawid, Introduction;
  * Joseph ha-Kohen, 'Emeḳ ha-Baka, ed. Wiener, p. 113;
  * Grätz, Gesch. ix. 287, 336;
  * Stern, Urkundliche Beiträge über die Stellung der Päpste zu den Juden, pp. 95 et seq., Kiel, 1893;
  * Vogelstein and Rieger, Gesch. der Juden in Rom, ii. 144 et seq.



D. I. Br.