223rd Pope of the Catholic Church. Pontificate 1555 - 1559. As pope his nationalism was a driving force; he used the office to preserve some liberties in the face of fourfold foreign occupation. An alliance of the Holy See with France created tension with the Habsburgs. In 1555 he issued a canon (papal law), Cum Nimis Absurdum, by which the Roman Ghetto was created. Jews were then forced to live in seclusion in a specified area of the rione Sant'Angelo, locked in at night, and he decreed that Jews should wear a distinctive sign, yellow hats for men and veils or shawls for women. Jewish ghettos existed in Europe for the next 315 years