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| other = Gregory}}Pope Gregory XIII (; 7 January 1502 – 10 April 1585), born Ugo Boncompagni, was Pope of the Catholic Church from 13 May 1572 to his death in 1585. He is best known for commissioning and being the namesake for the Gregorian calendar, which remains the internationally accepted civil calendar to this day.

Early biography

Youth

Ugo Boncompagni was born the son of Cristoforo Boncompagni (10 July 1470 – 1546) and of his wife Angela Marescalchi in Bologna, where he studied law and graduated in 1530. He later taught jurisprudence for some years, and his students included notable figures such as Cardinals Alexander Farnese, Reginald Pole and Charles Borromeo. He had an illegitimate son after an affair with Maddalena Fulchini, Giacomo Boncompagni, but before he took holy orders.WEB,weblink The Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church: Ugo Boncompagni, Fiu.edu, 2007-12-03, 2013-06-23,

Career before papacy

At the age of thirty-six he was summoned to Rome by Pope Paul III (1534–1549), under whom he held successive appointments as first judge of the capital, abbreviator, and vice-chancellor of the Campagna e Marittima. Pope Paul IV (1555–1559) attached him as datarius to the suite of Cardinal Carlo Carafa, Pope Pius IV (1559–1565) made him Cardinal-Priest of San Sisto Vecchio and sent him to the Council of Trent.He also served as a legate to Philip II of Spain (1556–1598), being sent by the Pope to investigate the Cardinal of Toledo. It was there that he formed a lasting and close relationship with the Spanish King, which was to become very important in his foreign policy as Pope.

Election as Pope

Upon the death of Pope Pius V (1566–1572), the conclave chose Cardinal Boncompagni, who assumed the name of Gregory XIII in homage to the great reforming Pope, Gregory I (590–604), surnamed the Great. It was a very brief conclave, lasting less than 24 hours. Many historians have attributed this to the influence and backing of the Spanish King. Cardinal Borromeo and the cardinals wishing reform accepted Boncompagni's candidature and so supported him in the conclave while the Spanish faction also deemed him acceptable due to his success as a nuncio in Spain.Gregory XIII's character seemed to be perfect for the needs of the church at the time. Unlike some of his predecessors, he was to lead a faultless personal life, becoming a model for his simplicity of life. Additionally, his legal brilliance and management abilities meant that he was able to respond and deal with major problems quickly and decisively, although not always successfully.

Pontificate

factoids

In 1578, to further the plans of exiled English and Irish Catholics such as Nicholas Sanders, William Allen, and James Fitzmaurice FitzGerald, Gregory outfitted adventurer Thomas Stukeley with a ship and an army of 800 men to land in Ireland to aid the Catholics against the Protestant plantations.BOOK, The Life and Times of Thomas Stukeley (c.1525-78), Tazón, Juan E., Ashgate, 2003, 9780754632856, Aldershot, United Kingdom, 222–235, To his dismay, Stukeley joined his forces with those of King Sebastian of Portugal against Emperor Abdul Malik of Morocco instead.Another papal expedition sailed to Ireland in 1579 with a mere 50 soldiers under the command of Fitzmaurice, accompanied by Sanders as papal legate. {{citation needed|date=April 2010}} All of the soldiers and sailors on board, as well as the women and children who accompanied them, were beheaded or hanged on landing in Kerry, in the Smerwick Massacre. Gregory's greatest success came in his patronage of colleges and seminaries which he founded on the Continent for the Irish and English, among others.In 1580 he was persuaded by English Jesuits to moderate or suspend the Bull Regnans in Excelsis (1570) which had excommunicated Queen Elizabeth I of England. Catholics were advised to obey the queen outwardly in all civil matters, until such time as a suitable opportunity presented itself for her overthrow.P. J. Corish, "The origins of Catholic nationalism", part 8, vol. III, pp 15–18, in "The History of Irish Catholicism" (Dublin, 1967)Pope Gregory XIII had no connection {{citation needed|date=April 2010}} with the plot of Henry, Duke of Guise, and his brother, Charles, Duke of Mayenne, to assassinate Elizabeth I in 1582.(File:Gregory XIII medal.jpg|thumb|Strages Ugonottorum medal)After the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacres of Huguenots in France in 1572, Pope Gregory celebrated a Te Deum mass. However, some hold that he was ignorant of the nature of the plot at the time, having been told the Huguenots had tried to take over the government but failed.weblink Three frescoes in the Sala Regia hall of the Vatican depicting the events were painted by Giorgio Vasari, and a commemorative medal was issued with Gregory's portrait and on the obverse a chastising angel, sword in hand and the legend UGONOTTORUM STRAGES ("Overthrow of the Huguenots").BOOK, History of the Christian Church, Volume VII. Modern Christianity. The German Reformation,weblink Schaff, Philip, Philip Schaff, 1910, Note 53, Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, true,

Cultural patronage

In Rome Gregory XIII built the magnificent Gregorian chapel in the Basilica of St. Peter, and extended the Quirinal Palace in 1580. He also turned the Baths of Diocletian into a granary in 1575.He appointed his illegitimate son Giacomo,{{efn|Ugo Boncompagni had Giacomo legitimated on 5 July 1548 by the bishop of Feltre.}} born to his mistress at Bologna before his papacy, castellan of Sant'Angelo and Gonfalonier of the Church; Venice, anxious to please, enrolled him among its nobles. Philip II of Spain appointed him general in his army. Gregory also helped his son to become a powerful feudatary through the acquisition of the Duchy of Sora, on the border between the Papal States and the Kingdom of Naples.In order to raise funds for these and similar objects, he confiscated a large proportion of the houses and properties throughout the states of the Church. This measure enriched his treasury for a time, but alienated a great body of the nobility and gentry, revived old factions, and created new ones.{{Citation needed|date=April 2010}}

Canonizations and beatifications

The pope canonized four saints during his pontificate and in 1584 beatified his predecessor Pope Gregory VII.

Consistories

During his pontificate, the pope created 34 cardinals in eight consistories; this included naming his nephew Filippo Boncompagni to the cardinalate in the pope's first consistory in 1572. Gregory XIII also named four of his successors as cardinals all in 1583: Giovanni Battista Castagna (Urban VII), Niccolò Sfondrati (Gregory XIV), Giovanni Antonio Facchinetti (Innocent IX), and Alessandro de' Medici (Leo XI).

Death

The pope suffered from a fever on 5 April 1585 and on 7 April said his usual private Mass still in ill health. The pope seemed to recover enough that he was able to conduct meetings throughout 8-9 April though it was observed he did not feel well. But a sudden change on 10 April saw the pope confined to bed and was noticed to have had a cold sweat and weak pulse; Gregory XIII himself received the Extreme Unction moments before he died.WEB, 18 March 2016, Sede Vacante 1585, 21 January 2019,weblink

See also

• Computus
• Clavius
• Cardinals created by Gregory XIII

Notes

{{Notelist}}

References

Citations

{{Reflist}}

Sources

• Initial text from the 9th edition (1880) of an unnamed encyclopedia.
• {{Catholic |wstitle = Pope Gregory XIII}}

External links

{{commons|Gregorius XIII|Pope Gregory XIII}}{{wikisource author}}

• weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20040423111816weblink">"Papal Library" website: Gregory XIII
• weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20140213213105weblink">Monument to Gregory XIII [archived]

{{Popes}}{{Catholicism}}{{History of the Catholic Church}}{{Authority control}}