Urban VIII

File:Urban VIII.JPG

Portrait of Urban II, attributed to Sacchi, circa 1632

Pope Urban VIII (April 1568 – July 29, 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 is famous, or infamous, for condemning and imprisoning Galileo. He had actually given permission for Galileo to publish his theory but as theory, not fact. It was less what he wrote than the fact that he had been warned not to do that upset the Pope. The debts he accrued paid for building and Baroque cultural artifacts to express the prestige of the papacy. However, behind this bold statement of power lay deep uncertainty as the new humanism of the Enlightenment questioned old assumptions. The tendency was to retreat into an authoritarianism that was out-of-step with the spirit of the age. As a nepotist ans spendthrift, Urban easily attracts criticism. Yet in both of these he but followed the example of many of his predecessors. Like them, imperfect though he was, he tried to protect the authority of the papacy against what he saw as potentially endangering this. For most of his predecessors, this had been the power of kings and the papacy's vulnerability to physical, military attack. Now, it was the threat of ideas. Later, ways would be found to reconcile the teaching of the Bible with science by seeing the former as a theological not a scientific text which, which, read a metaphor, anaology and as spiritually but not literally true, does not clash with science but adds a spiritual dimension.

Papacy

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 canonized Elizabeth of Portugal and Andrew Corsini and issued the Papal bull of canonization 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 declared that Galileo had "dared to meddle with matters beyond his competence", and had him imprisoned. . What actually infuriated the Pope was less Galileo's "heliocedntric theory" but that he taught this despite having been warned not to do so by the Inquisition. Urban was prepared to forgive "error and conceit" but not "deliberate defiance of ecclesiastical authority." . Duffy suggests that beneath the "astonishing porojections of the Baroque-papacy's self-image" lay deep uncertainty as Enlightment knowledge began to question old assumptions, so it resorted to the "perempory exercise of authority". Earlier, Urban had given Galileo permission to publish his ideas, as long as he did so as hypothesis.

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 he 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.

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

Politics

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.

Coat of Arms of Pope Urban VIII.

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."

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.

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. Urban saw these Baroque creations as an expression of the prestige and authority of the papacy. Duffy, however, suggests that this was bluster, covering a deep uncertainty about whether the world did operate according to the rules that the Church supposed it did. .

Later life

Urban' death (July 29 1644) is said to have been hastened by chagrin at the result of the First War of Castro, a war he had undertaken against Odoardo Farnese, the Duke of Parma. 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. He was succeeded by Innocent X.

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

• Bower, Archibald The History of the Popes, Boston: Adamant Media, 2001 ISBN 978-1402171796
• Duffy, Eamon Saints and Sinners: A History of the Popes, New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2006 ISBN978-0300115970
• Maxwell-Stuart, P. G Chronicle of the Popes: The Reign-by-Reign Record of the Papacy over 2000 years, London: Thames & Hudson, 1997 ISBN 978-0500017982
• McBrien, Richard P Lives of the Popes, NY: Harper, 2000 ISBN 978-0060653040

Roman Catholic Popes
Preceded by: Gregory XV	Bishop of Rome 1623–44	Succeeded by: Innocent X

Catehory:Religion

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