Pope Urban VIII
| Urban VIII | |
|---|---|
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| Papacy began | 6 August 1623 |
| Papacy ended | 29 July 1644 |
| Predecessor | Gregory XV |
| Successor | Innocent X |
| Orders | |
| Consecration | 28 October 1604 by Fabius Blondus de Montealto |
| Created Cardinal | 11 September 1606 |
| Personal details | |
| Birth name | Maffeo Barberini |
| Born | 5 April 1568 Florence, Duchy of Florence |
| Died | 29 July 1644 (aged 76) Rome, Papal State |
Urban VIII (Latin: Urbanus PP. VIII; Italian: Urbano VIII; baptised 5 April 1568 – 29 July 1644), born Maffeo Barberini, was Pope from 1623 to 1644. He was the last pope to expand the papal territory by force of arms, and was a prominent patron of the arts and reformer of Church missions. However, the massive debts incurred during his papacy greatly weakened his successors, who were unable to maintain the papacy's longstanding political and military influence in Europe. He was also involved in a controversy with Galileo and his theory on heliocentrism during his reign.
He is the most recent Pope to date to take the name "Urban" upon being elected as Pope.
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Early life [edit]
Maffeo Barberini was born in 1568 into the wealthy merchant Barberini family in Florence, Italy. He was educated by the Jesuits and received a doctorate of law from the University of Pisa in 1589.
In 1601, Maffeo, through the influence of an uncle who had become apostolic protonotary, was able to secure from Clement VIII the appointment as papal legate to the court of King Henry IV of France. In 1604 Clement VIII appointed him archbishop of Nazareth, although this was an honorary position as the Holy Land was under Turkish rule. On the death of his uncle, he inherited his riches, with which he bought a palace in Rome which he made a luxurious Renaissance residence.
Under Clement VIII he himself was made protonotary and nuncio to the French court; Paul V also employed him in a similar capacity, afterwards raising him, in 1606, to Cardinal-Priest of S. Pietro in Montorio and appointing him the papal legate to Bologna.
Papacy [edit]
| Papal styles of Pope Urban VIII |
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|---|---|
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| Reference style | His Holiness |
| Spoken style | Your Holiness |
| Religious style | Holy Father |
| Posthumous style | None |
On 6 August 1623, at the papal conclave following the death of Pope Gregory XV, he was chosen as Gregory's successor and took the name Urban VIII.[1]
Upon his election, Zeno, the Venetian envoy, wrote the following description of him:[2]
The new Pontiff is 56 years old. His Holiness is tall, dark, with regular features and black hair turning grey. He is exceptionally elegant and refined in all details of his dress; has a graceful and aristocratic bearing and exquisite taste. He is an excellent speaker and debater, writes verses and patronises poets and men of letters.
Urban's papacy covered twenty-one years of the Thirty Years' War and was an eventful one even by the standards of the day. He canonised Elizabeth of Portugal, Andrew Corsini and Conrad of Piacenza, and issued the Papal bulls of canonisation for Ignatius of Loyola and Francis Xavier who had been canonized by his predecessor, Pope Gregory.
Despite an early friendship and encouragement for his teachings, Urban was responsible for summoning Galileo to Rome in 1633 to recant his work.
Urban practiced nepotism on a grand scale; various members of his family were enormously enriched by him, so that it seemed to contemporaries as if were establishing a Barberini dynasty.[3] He elevated his brother Antonio Marcello Barberini (Antonio the Elder) and then his nephews Francesco Barberini and Antonio Barberini (Antonio the Younger) to Cardinal. He also bestowed upon their brother, Taddeo Barberini, the titles Prince of Palestrina, Gonfalonier of the Church, Prefect of Rome and Commander of Sant'Angelo. Historian Leopold von Ranke estimated that during his reign, Urban's immediate family amassed 105 million scudi in personal wealth.[4]
Urban was a skilled writer of Latin verse, and a collection of Scriptural paraphrases as well as original hymns of his composition have been frequently reprinted.
A 1638 papal bull protected the existence of Jesuit missions in South America by forbidding the enslavement of natives who were at the Jesuit Reductions.[5] At the same time, Urban repealed the Jesuit monopoly on missionary work in China and Japan, opening these countries to missionaries of other Orders and missionary societies.[6]
Urban VIII issued a 1624 papal bull that made the use of tobacco in holy places punishable by excommunication;[7] Pope Benedict XIII would repeal the ban one hundred years later.[8]
Politics [edit]
Urban's military involvement was aimed less at the restoration of Catholicism in Europe than at adjusting the balance of power to favour his own independence in Italy. In 1626 the duchy of Urbino was incorporated into the papal dominions, and, in 1627, when the direct male line of the Gonzagas in Mantua became extinct, he controversially favoured the succession of the Protestant Duke Charles of Nevers against the claims of the Catholic Habsburgs. He also launched the Wars of Castro in 1641 against Odoardo Farnese, Duke of Parma and Piacenza, whom he excommunicated. Castro was destroyed and its duchy incorporated into the Papal States.
He was the last pope to extend the papal territory. He fortified Castelfranco Emilia on the Mantuan frontier and commissioned Vincenzo Maculani to fortify the Castel Sant'Angelo in Rome. Urban also established an arsenal in the Vatican, an arms factory at Tivoli and fortified the harbour of Civitavecchia.
For the purposes of making cannon and the baldacchino in St Peters, massive bronze girders were pillaged from the portico of the Pantheon leading to the well known lampoon: quod non fecerunt barbari, fecerunt Barberini, "what the barbarians did not do, the Barberini did."[6]
Patron of the arts [edit]
Urban and his family patronized art on a grand scale. He expended vast funds to bring polymaths like Athanasius Kircher to Rome and on a variety of works by the sculptor Bernini who was particularly favored during Urban's reign. Artistic and architectural commissions included the family palace in Rome, the Palazzo Barberini, the college of the Propaganda Fide, the Fontana del Tritone in Piazza Barberini, the cathedra in St Peters and other prominent structures in the city. He also rebuilt Santa Bibiana and the church of San Sebastiano al Palatino on the Palatine Hill. The Barberini patronised painters such as Nicolas Poussin and Claude Lorrain. One of the most eulogistic of these artistic works in its celebration of his reign, is the 'Glorification of the Reign of Urban VIII' painted by Pietro da Cortona in the large vault of salone of the Palazzo Barberini.
Later life and legacy [edit]
A consequence of these military and artistic endeavours was a massive increase in papal debt. Urban VIII inherited a debt of 16 million scudi, and by 1635 had increased it to 28 million.
According to contemporary John Bargrave, in 1636 members of the Spanish faction of the College of Cardinals were so horrified by the conduct of Pope Urban VIII that they conspired to have him arrested and imprisoned (or killed) so that they could replace him with a new pope; namely Laudivio Zacchia.[9] When Urban travelled to Castel Gandolfo to rest, the members of the Spanish faction met in secret and discussed ways to advance their plan. But they were discovered and the Pope raced back to Rome where he immediately held a consistory and demanded to know who the new pope was. To put an end to the conspiracy, the pope decreed that all Cardinal-Bishops should leave Rome and return to their own churches.[9]
With the Spanish plan having failed, by 1640 the debt had reached 35 million scudi, consuming more than 80 percent of annual papal income in interest repayments.[10]
Urban's death (29 July 1644) is said to have been hastened by chagrin at the result of the Wars of Castro. Because of the costs incurred by the city of Rome to finance this war, Urban VIII became immensely unpopular. On his death, the bust of Urban that lay beside the Palace of the Conservators on the Capitoline Hill was rapidly destroyed by an enraged crowd, and only a quick-thinking priest saved the sculpture of Urban belonging to the Jesuits from a similar fate.[11]
His unpopularity swayed the papal conclave not to elect Cardinal Giulio Sacchetti who was closely associated with the Barberini. Instead, it elected Cardinal Giovanni Battista Pamphili as his successor at the papal conclave of 1644, who took the name of Innocent X.
Private revelation [edit]
Numerous books that allege private revelations have a disclaimer in the beginning that quotes an alleged saying of Pope Urban VIII. The disclaimer usually goes:
In cases which concern private revelations, it is better to believe than not to believe, for, if you believe, and it is proven true, you will be happy that you have believed, because our Holy Mother asked it. If you believe, and it should be proven false, you will receive all blessings as if it had been true, because you believed it to be true.[12]
Whether or not Urban VIII said this is debated.[13][14][15]
Pope Urban VIII did make a public statement about private revelations and their dissemination in the Catholic Church in his Constitution, Sanctissimus Dominus Noster of 13 March 1625.
See also [edit]
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Urbanus VIII |
References [edit]
- ^ Ott, Michael T. (1912). "Pope Urban VIII". The Catholic Encyclopedia XV. New York: Robert Appleton Company. Retrieved 2007-09-07.
- ^ The triple crown: an account of the papal conclaves from the fifteenth century to the present day by Valérie Pirie (Sidgwick & Jackson, 1935)
- ^ http://www.libraryindex.com/encyclopedia/pages/cpxlcmvbhn/urban-viii-barberini-rome.html
- ^ History of the popes; their church and state (Volume III) by Leopold von Ranke (Wellesley College Library, reprint; 2009)
- ^ Mooney, James (June 1910). "Catholic Encyclopedia Volume VII". Robert Appleton Company, New York. Retrieved 2007-06-07.
- ^ a b van Helden, Al (1995). "The Galileo Project.". Rice University. Retrieved 2007-09-07.
- ^ Gately, Iain (2001). Tobacco: A Cultural History of How an Exotic Plant Seduced Civilization. Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0-8021-3960-4.
- ^ Cutler, Abigail. "The Ashtray of History", The Atlantic Monthly, January/February 2007.
- ^ a b Pope Alexander the Seventh and the College of Cardinals by John Bargrave, edited by James Craigie Robertson (reprint; 2009)
- ^ Duffy, Eamon (1997). Saints and Sinners: A History of the Popes. Yale University Press. ISBN 0-300-09165-6.
- ^ Ernesta Chinazzi, Sede Vacante per la morte del Papa Urbano VIII Barberini e conclave di Innocenzo X Pamfili, Rome, 1904, 13.
- ^ http://www.medjugorje.org/purban.htm
- ^ http://www.phatmass.com/phorum/index.php?showtopic=76133
- ^ Fr. Peter Stravinskas, The Catholic Answer Book 4 (pgs. 96-7).
- ^ http://jloughnan.tripod.com/salabol.htm
| Catholic Church titles | ||
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| Preceded by Gregory XV |
Pope 6 August 1623 – 29 July 1644 |
Succeeded by Innocent X |
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