Today in 1534 Alessandro Farnese was elected Pope Paul III. He came to the papal throne following the sack of Rome in 1527. It was a period that was filled with uncertainties in the Catholic Church. There was the Protestant Reformation going on, and during this period, he started the Counter-Reformation, and recognized the new Catholic religious orders and societies like the Jesuits, the Barnabites, and the Congregation of the Oratory.
He also convened the Council of Trent in 1545. He was a very important patron of the arts and he’s also the person that Nicolaus Copernicus dedicated to the De revolutionibus orbium coelestium (On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres).
Pope Paul III was unable to suppress the Protestant Reformation, and he laid the foundation for the Counter-Reformation. He also excommunicated King Henry VIII in 1538. In May-June 1537, he issued his three most famous documents. They were the papal bull Sublimis Deus, Altitudo divini consilii, and the Pastorale officium.
Sublimis Deus relates to the enslavement and evangelization of Native Americans in the New World. And this particularly said that the Native Americans had souls and could be converted to Christianity. This also meant that it was not legal to enslave them and he says
“Nor is it credible that any one should possess so little understanding as to desire the faith and yet be destitute of the most necessary faculty to enable him to receive it. Hence Christ, who is the Truth itself, that has never failed and can never fail, said to the preachers of the faith whom He chose for that office ‘Go ye and teach all nations.’ He said all, without exception, for all are capable of receiving the doctrines of the faith.”
Some modern historians say that this papal bull had been swept under the rug by Protestant historians in later generations, and Catholic historians, in particular, say that it was the most important papal document relating to the condition of Native Americans and it was addressed to all Christians.
That’s your Tudor Minute for today. Remember you can dive deeper into life in 16th century England through the Renaissance English History podcast at Englandcast.com
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October is Reformation Month!
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Heather Teysko is the creator, writer, and producer of The Renaissance English History Podcast, one of the longest running indie history podcasts, going since 2009. She's been writing about history online for over 25 years, since her first site on Colonial American history became number one in history on Yahoo in 1998. She writes books, created the original Tudor Planner (a yearly diary filled with Tudor history) and in 2019 created the world's first Tudorcon (you can "attend" online this year!). She has been passionate about Tudor England since she first read Alison Weir's The Six Wives of Henry VIII 20 years ago, and subsequently moved to London after college to spend her time immersed in Tudor history.