Julius II. (Giuliano Rovere—he was not connected with the highly aristocratic Della Rovere
family): Pope 1503-13. He was born at Albizzola,
near Savona (25 m. s.w. of Genoa), 1443.
When his uncle Francesco (later Pope Sixtus IV.),
became cardinal, he turned to the spiritual career,
likewise becoming cardinal by 1471; and in 1480-1481,
he was legate to the French King Louis XI.
He exerted only a moderate influence over his
uncle, Sixtus IV. (d. 1484), who stood under the
sway of another nephew, Cardinal Riario; but he
determined the policy of his successor, Innocent
VIII. (q.v.). However, when Borgia (Alexander
VI.) ascended the papal throne, Julius was compelled
to secure his life by flight to France (1494).
It was not until 1498, when the growing power of
the pope drew the second successor of Louis XI.
to his side, that Julius became ostensibly reconciled
with Alexander, and now wrought for the conclusion
of a compact between the two rulers which
occasioned fresh war over Italy. He did not venture
back to Rome till after the death of Alexander
VI. (Aug. 18, 1503). On Oct. 31, 1503, after the
sudden end of the pontificate of Pius III., lasting
less than a month, he was chosen pope. He had
gained the Spanish cardinals by the degrading
promise not to contest the Romagna against Borgia's
son Cesare. Nevertheless, in the first year
of his pontificate, he demanded the delivery of the
fortresses in that region and made Cesare captive.
Then the Venetians interposed, and occupied the
Romagna; but, owing to a league of the pope with
France and Germany in 1504, they were compelled
to surrender all the occupied points except Rimini
and Faenza. Julius then at the head of an army
wrested these cities from the Venetians and united
the entire district with the Papal States. The enmity
toward Venice continued, and in 1508 Julius
again contrived, in the League of Cambrai, to combine
the mightiest sovereigns of the West—Spain,
France, and Germany—against the republic. The
Curia now began a system of deceitful and opportunist
seesaw statecraft whereby it maintained its
position among the nations. Hardly were the districts
that had been occupied by Venice won back
by the help of France, when Julius arrayed himself
against France on the side of Venice. The French
king's resentment went so far that in 1510 he assembled
a national synod against the pope at
Tours, and sought an alliance with Emperor Maximilian,
with a view to depose the pope from his
dignity. Maximilian actually thought of crowning
his own head with the tiara. Meanwhile, Julius
in person waged war on the duke of Ferrara, who
had remained on the side of France, hoping to
unite his city and territory with the States of the
Church; and he succeeded, in the winter of 1511;
but France retaliated by occupying Bologna, and
an antipapal council was convened at Pisa. In
Opposition, Julius convened the Fifth Lateran
Council in 1512, and, by founding the "Holy
League," he secured the retreat of the French across
the Alps in the same year. He still managed to
add Parma and Piacenza to the States of the
Church; but all the results of his war-lust and of
his statecraft continued insecure, since the States
of the Church, being subject to a policy of constant
vacillation, lacked the conditions of independent
existence. He died Feb. 21, 1513.
K. BENRATH.
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
For sources consult his bulls in A. M.
Cherubini, Magnum bullarium Romanum, i. 477 sqq.,
Lyons, 1655, and in Turin ed., v. 399 sqq.; R. Brown,
Calendar of State Papers, vols. i.-ii., London, 1864 sqq.;
Pauli Jovii Historia sui temporisa, Basel, 1517; O. Raynaldus, Annales ecclesiastici, Cologne, 1694-1727. Consult
further: A. von Reumont, Geschichte der Stadt Rom,
iii. 10 sqq., Berlin, 1870; G. Balbi, Julius II., Berlin,
1877; J. Burckhardt, Die Cultur der Renaissance in Italien,
i. 112, 231 sqq., Leipsic, 1877; idem, Geschichte der Renaissance
in Italien, pp. 11 sqq., ib. 1877; M. Brosch,
Papst Julius II. und die Gründung des Kirchenstaates,
Gotha, 1878; F. Gregorovius, Geschichte der Stadt Rom,
vol. viii., Stuttgart, 1881; Creighton, Papacy, v. 68-202;
Ranks, Popes, i. 39 sqq., iii. 11-14; Bower, Popes, iii.
283-290; KL, vi. 1998-2002.
