Pope Urban VIII

From Wikipedia Mirror

Pope Urban 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 Pope's longstanding political or military influence in Europe. He was also involved in a controversy with Galileo and his theory on heliocentrism during his time.

Early life

Maffeo Barberini was born in 1568 to an important Florentine family. He was educated by the Jesuits and received a doctorate of law from the University of Pisa in 1589.

In 1601, Maffeo was able to use the influence of an uncle who had become apostolic protonotary to secure an appointment by Clement VIII 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.

At the death of his uncle, he inherited his riches, with which he bought a palace in Rome which he made a luxurious Renaissance residence.

By Clement VIII he was himself made protonotary and nuncio to the French court; Paul V also employed him in a similar capacity, afterwards raising him to Cardinal-Priest of S. Pietro in Montorio and making him the papal legate to Bologna. On 6 August 1623, after the papal conclave following pope Gregory XV's death, he was chosen as Gregory's successor and took the name Urban VIII.^[1]

Papacy

Template:Infobox popestyles 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 and Andrew Corsini and issued the Papal bull of canonisation for Ignatius Loyola and Francis Xavier, who had been canonized by his predecessor, Gregory XV.

Despite an early friendship and encouragement for his teachings, Urban was responsible for summoning Galileo to Rome in 1633 to recant his work.

He was the last to practice 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. Urban was also a clever writer of Latin verse, and a collection of Scriptural paraphrases as well as original hymns of his composition has been frequently reprinted.

Urban VIII issued a 1624 papal bull that made smoking tobacco punishable by excommunication,^[1] because he believed it led to sneezing which too closely resembled sexual ecstasy. Pope Benedict XIII would later repeal the ban. ^[1]

A 1638 papal bull protected the existence of Jesuit missions in South America by forbidding the enslavement of natives who joined a mission community.^[1] At the same time, Urban repealed the Jesuit monopoly on missionary work in China and Japan, opening these countries to missionaries of all orders.^[1]

Politics

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A 1627 portrait of Pope Urban VIII by Pietro da Cortona.

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 of Nevers against the claims of the Catholic Habsburgs. He also launched the Wars of Castro (1641) against a fief of Odoardo Farnese, then duke of Parma, whom he excommunicated; Castro was destroyed and its duchy incorporated into the Papal States.

He was the last Pope to extend the papal territory, and fortified Castelfranco Emilia on the Mantuan frontier and the castle of Sant'Angelo in Rome. Urban also established an arsenal in the Vatican and an arms factory at Tivoli, and fortified the harbour of Civitavecchia.

For the purposes of making cannon and Vatican decoration, massive bronze girders were pillaged from the portico of the Pantheon, leading to a famous quote quod non fecerunt barbari, fecerunt Barberini, "what the barbarians did not do, the Barberini did."^[1]

Urban VIII was also a nepotist: among the cardinals created by him are his brother Antonio Marcello Barberini and his nephews Francesco and Antonio Barberini.

Art

In addition to these warlike activities, Urban patronized art on a grand scale. He expended vast funds to bring polymaths like Athanasius Kircher to Rome, and painters Nicolas Poussin and Claude Lorrain, architects Bernini and Borromini were commissioned to build the Palazzo Barberini, the college of the Propaganda, the Fontana del Tritone in Piazza Barberini, the Vatican cathedra and other prominent structures in the city. He also rebuilt San Sebastiano al Palatino on the Palatine Hill.

Pietro da Cortona embellished the gran salon of his family palace with an apotheotic allegory of the triumph of the Barberini.

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. By 1640 the debt had reached 35 million scudi, consuming more than 80 percent of annual papal income in interest repayments.^[1]

Later life

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Statue of Pope Urban VIII sculpted by Gian Lorenzo Bernini and his students between 1635 and 1640, and currently on display at the Palazzo dei Conservatori in Rome.

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 Conservator’s Palace 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.^[1]

He was succeeded by Innocent X.

Private revelation

Numerous books that allege private revelations, house a disclaimer in the beginning that quotes an alleged saying of Pope Urban VIII. The disclaimer usually goes:

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Whether or not Urban VIII said this is debated.^[1]^[1]^[1]

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.

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