Julius Excluded from Heaven

Julius Excluded from Heaven (Latin: *Iulius exclusus e coelis*) is a satirical dialogue from 1514, usually credited to the Dutch humanist and theologian Desiderius Erasmus. The piece presents Pope Julius II, dead for a year, as he tries to get past Saint Peter at Heaven’s gate, relying on the same tricks he used in life. A "Genius," the pope’s guardian angel, adds dry remarks about his actions.

In the plot, a drunk Julius attempts to open Heaven’s gate with the key to his personal money chest. His Genius accompanies him, and behind them march soldiers who died in his wars—men he had promised entry regardless of their deeds. Peter refuses him, even when Julius threatens with his army and papal excommunication, or questions Peter’s right to deny someone who achieved far more. Unmoved by boasting, Peter hears Julius justify sins like simony and pederasty by claiming papal authority to excuse any wrongdoing. Seeing no remorse, Peter drives Julius and his army away. The dialogue ends with Julius planning his own paradise, from which he intends to conquer Heaven.

Authorship is contested. Erasmus’s friend Richard Pace hinted he wrote it in his 1517 book *De fructu*, but Erasmus is usually named as author, despite his strong denials. Erasmus and his circle were appalled by Julius II, who did not act as a vicar of Christ; Erasmus thought his election invalid due to simony and was shocked by his leading armies in armor, seeing him as worldly and unscrupulous. These views appear in Erasmus’s *The Praise of Folly*. One theory holds that Erasmus gave a draft to Thomas Lupset in summer 1514, who took it to Rome, where Ulrich von Hutten copied it. In a 1519 letter, Erasmus told Cardinal Lorenzo Campeggio he had possessed the work five years earlier, around the earliest known mention. He sometimes implied he didn’t write it, but modern scholarship generally rejects this, citing internal evidence and the lack of a plausible alternative author when comparing copies by Bonifacius Amerbach (1516) and von Hutten. Thomas More wrote in December 1516 that he had a copy in Erasmus’s handwriting and asked what to do. Erasmus likely made evasive comments to avoid losing allies and escaping the Inquisition. The dialogue was widely reprinted and praised by Martin Luther as “so learned, and so ingenious, that is, so entirely Erasmian, that it makes the reader laugh at the vices of the