Urban VII.

Urban VII.

Coat of arms of Pope Urban VII, modern tracing

Urban VII (born August 4, 1521 as Giambattista (Giovanni Battista) Castagna in Rome , † September 27, 1590 in Rome) was Pope of the Catholic Church from September 15 to 27, 1590 . Apart from Stephan (II.) , Who has not officially been counted as Pope since 1961, his pontificate was the shortest in history.

Life

Giovanni Battista Castagna was the son of the Genoese Cosimo Castagna and his wife, the Roman Costanza Ricci. He studied civil and canon law at various universities in Italy . He completed each of the two courses in Bologna with a doctorate, i.e. was Doctor iuris utriusque .

He then entered the service of his uncle, the papal legate in France , Girolamo Cardinal Verallo. On March 1, 1553 Pope Julius III appointed him . to the Archbishop of Rossano . Since he was not a priest, followed on 30 March 1553 ordination and on 4 April 1553 finally consecrated bishop.

Pope Julius III appointed him governor of Fano in 1555 . Pope Paul IV soon appointed him governor of Perugia and Umbria . In his capacity as Archbishop of Rossano, he took part in the Council of Trent .

In 1565 he became papal nuncio at the court of Philip II. On his return to Italy , in January 1573, he resigned from his office as Archbishop of Rossano. Pope Gregory XIII sent him in the same year as papal nuncio to Venice .

In 1578 Pope Gregory XIII sent him. as extraordinary legate to Cologne , after his return from Cologne the Pope appointed him consultor of the Holy Office . On December 12, 1583, Pope Gregory XIII appointed him. finally to the Cardinal of San Marcello .

He gained a lot of influence under the pontificate of Pope Sixtus V ; on November 19, 1586 he became Grand Inquisitor of the Holy Office.

So it was that the conclave elected him as the new Pope on September 15, 1590. For the name of the Pope , he consciously chose a name that was out of use for a long time: St. Urban I. was a Roman. However, Urban VII fell ill the night after his election, presumably of malaria , and died after a short pontificate of only 12 days. He is buried in the Cappella del 'Annunziata of the Basilica of Santa Maria sopra Minerva .

literature

• Gino Benzoni:  Urbano VII. In: Massimo Bray (Ed.): Enciclopedia dei Papi. Volume 3:  Innocenzo VIII, Giovanni Paolo II. Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana, Rome 2000, pp. 222-230 ( treccani.it ).
• Entry in the Catholic Encyclopedia , Robert Appleton Company, New York 1913.

Web links

Commons : Urban VII.  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Castagna, Giambattista. In: Salvador Miranda : The Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church. ( Florida International University website), accessed May 27, 2017.
• Illustration from 1627: Urbanus VIII. Pont. Max. ( Digitized )

predecessor	government office	successor
Sixtus V.	Pope 1590	Gregory XIV.