Interior Policy As pope, Paul IV's nationalism was a driving force; he used the office to preserve some liberties in the face of fourfold foreign occupation. Like
Pope Paul III, he was an enemy of the
Colonna family. His treatment of
Giovanna d'Aragona, who had married into that family, drew further negative comment from Venice because she had long been a patron of artists and writers. Paul IV was violently opposed to the liberal Cardinal
Giovanni Morone, whom he strongly suspected of being a hidden Protestant, so much that he had him imprisoned. In order to prevent Morone from succeeding him and imposing what he believed to be his Protestant beliefs on the Church, Pope Paul IV codified the Catholic Law excluding heretics and non-Catholics from receiving or legitimately becoming pope, in the bull
Cum ex apostolatus officio. Paul IV was rigidly orthodox, austere in life, and authoritarian in manner. He affirmed the Catholic doctrine of
extra ecclesiam nulla salus ('outside the Church there is no salvation'), and used the
Holy Office to suppress the
Spirituali, a Catholic group deemed heretical. The strengthening of the Inquisition continued under Paul IV, and few could consider themselves safe by virtue of position in his drive to reform the Church; even cardinals he disliked could be imprisoned. He appointed inquisitor Michele Ghislieri, the future
Pope Pius V, to the position of Supreme Inquisitor despite the fact as Inquisitor of
Como, Ghislieri's persecutions had inspired a citywide rebellion, forcing him to flee in fear for his life. As such, in the Papal States, especially in the seaport of
Ancona,
Marranos had thrived under benevolent popes Clement VII (1523–34), Paul III (1534–49), and Julius III (1550–55). These had even received a guarantee that if accused of
apostasy they would be subject only to papal authority. Convinced that the papal policy of kindness had been abused by the Jews and not resulted in enough conversions, he enacted harsh restrictions and ended all dispensations to the Jews in the papal state, with the aim of encourage the Jews to convert. All secular offices, from the highest to the lowest, were assigned to others based on merit. Important economies were made, and taxes were proportionately remitted. Paul IV established a chest, of which only he held the key, for the purpose of receiving all complaints that anyone desired to make. During his papacy, censorship reached new heights. Among his first acts as pope was to cut off
Michelangelo's pension, and he ordered the nudes of
The Last Judgment in the
Sistine Chapel be painted more modestly (a request that Michelangelo ignored) (the beginning of the Vatican's
Fig leaf campaign). Paul IV also introduced the
Index Librorum Prohibitorum or "Index of Prohibited Books" to
Venice, then an independent and prosperous trading state, in order to crack down on the growing threat of Protestantism. Under his authority, all books written by Protestants were banned, together with Italian and German translations of the
Latin Bible.
Exterior Policy Paul IV was displeased at the French signing a five-year truce with Spain in February 1556 (in the midst of the
Italian War of 1551–1559) and urged King
Henry II of France to join the Papal States in an invasion of
Spanish Naples. On 1 September 1556, King Philip II responded by preemptively invading the Papal States with 12,000 men under the
Duke of Alba. French forces approaching from the north were defeated and forced to withdraw at
Civitella del Tronto in August 1557. The Papal armies were left exposed and were defeated, with Spanish troops arriving at the edge of Rome. Out of fear of another sack of Rome, Paul IV agreed to the Duke of Alba's demand for the Papal States to declare neutrality by signing the Peace of Cave-Palestrina on 12 September 1557. Emperor Charles V criticised the peace agreement as being overly generous to the Pope. As
cardinal-nephew,
Carlo Carafa became his uncle's chief political adviser. Having accepted a pension from the French, Cardinal Carafa worked to secure a French alliance. Despite the bull, his relations with England were not positive. Paul IV had known Cardinal
Reginald Pole while Pole was living in Italy and the two had been members of the
spirituali together. Pole was the leader of Mary's efforts, but Paul IV seems to have hated Pole and become convinced he was a crypto-Protestant. Combined with hostility towards Spain and thus Mary's husband, Paul IV refused to allow any English bishops to be appointed, and began inquisitorial discipline proceedings against Pole, leading to the "farcical" situation that by 1558, the most serious opponent of
English Catholicism was the Pope himself. He also angered people in England by insisting on the restitution of property confiscated during the
dissolution of the monasteries. After Mary's death, he rejected the succession of
Elizabeth I of England to the throne. ==Death==