JULIUS III°

JULIUS III° (Giovanni Maria Ciocchi del Monte; b. 1487). pope, 1550–55. Julius III showed himself comparatively favorably disposed toward the Jews by employing many Jewish physicians, by imposing a fine of 1,000 ducats on anyone who forcibly baptized Jewish children, and by placing no limit on the residence permits of the Marranos at ancona . Naturally he was in favor of conversion: he himself acted as godfather to Andrea del Monte (Joseph sarfati ) and set aside certain taxes levied from the Jews for the House of catechumens . On the other hand, he allowed the Franciscan Cornelio de Montalcino, a Jewish convert, to be condemned to the stake. In 1550, he confirmed the constitution of the Society of Jesus. Following the denunciations of two rival printers and a number of converted Jews, Julius set up in 1553 a new commission to examine the Talmud and, on the commission's recommendation, ordained that it be publicly burned. After a new inquiry, in 1554, passages deemed anti-Christian were censored and suppressed. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: Vogelstein-Rieger, 2 (1895), 144; Milano, Italia, 596f. (Bernhard Blumenkranz)