GREGORY XIII, POPE. - Ugo Boncompagni, the fourth son of Cristoforo, a Bolognese merchant, and Angela Marescalchi, was born on 1 January 1502 in Bologna. There he earned his doctorate and taught law from 1531 to 1539. He then went to Rome to serve Cardinal Parisio and was ordained priest at about the age of 40. Soon Paul III employed the learned jurist in various judicial offices, and in 1546 appointed him abbreviator for the Council of Trent. Paul IV entrusted the learned jurist with various diplomatic missions and in 1558 named him Bishop of Viseu, though he continued to employ him in the Curia. Towards the end of 1561, Pius IV sent him again to the Council of Trent as companion to Cardinal Legate Simonetta, and thanks to his canonistic expertise and exceptional industry, he rendered invaluable service. After the Council concluded, he returned to Rome and on 12 March 1565 received the see of San Sisto.
When Pius V died six months after the victory of Lepanto and nine years after the close of the Council of Trent, the Sacred College, after a very brief conclave, elected Cardinal Boncompagni pope on 14 May 1572, who took the name Gregory XIII.
Despite having passed his seventieth year, the new pope immediately displayed exceptional energy and an unflagging will to continue the work of radical regeneration of the Church begun by Pius V. Under the influence of Cardinal Borromeo and faithfully following in all important matters the path of his great predecessor, Gregory XIII is seen throughout the years of his pontificate ceaselessly engaged in renewing the Catholic world through the integral and punctilious execution of the reform decrees of the Council of Trent. Under him, Catholic Reform and Catholic Restoration made immense strides, and whereas previously the work of regeneration had been carried out only in Italy and Spain, it now developed with swift and sure rhythm throughout Christendom.
A most effective instrument for Gregory XIII was the Society of Jesus. The recently founded order expanded its activities into almost every European country, Brazil, the Indies, and Japan, and while bringing the Gospel to the most distant and inhospitable pagan lands, it aided and supported Catholics in Protestant countries and strove to lead back to the faith princes and peoples who had strayed. On a different plane, but with no less intensity, the Capuchins worked, who under Gregory XIII’s auspices spread through central and western Europe.
The strenuous activity of Gregory XIII and his collaborators did not succeed in restoring religious unity to the Christian peoples of Europe, for attempts to reunite Sweden and Russia to the Church failed, the attempt to depose Queen Elizabeth of England came to naught, and in France the struggle between Catholics and Calvinists remained for the time being undecided. Yet it was crowned with great victories: in the Netherlands the Catholic cause regained the upper hand, Poland was definitively reconquered for the Church and Protestantism there uprooted, and in Germany, thanks also to the meritorious activity of the Dukes of Bavaria and distinguished German ecclesiastical princes, Protestantism was halted in its expansion and much lost ground was reconquered by the Church.
In the Latin nations too, religious conditions were the object of Gregory XIII’s vigilant care. Notable in particular is the reform of the Carmelite nuns in Spain by Teresa of Jesus and the founding of the Congregation known as the Priests of the Oratory by Philip Neri.
Under Gregory XIII, missionary activity, already greatly favoured by Pius V, received fresh impetus, and excellent results were achieved among the pagan peoples of America and the Far East. Here too the Jesuits earned imperishable glory.
Gregory XIII also promoted the sciences and the arts. Public buildings and notable monuments arose in Rome, as well as churches and numerous colleges for the education of priests of different nations, which proved of immense advantage for the formation of the clergy and consequently for Catholic Reform and Restoration as well as for the missions. In the scientific field, the pope concerned himself with a new edition of the texts of canon law, the Roman Martyrology, and the reform of the calendar: this last a historical achievement of the greatest importance, to which his name remains linked.
Gregory XIII died at the age of eighty-four on 10 April 1585, and his mortal remains were interred in St Peter’s, in a tomb adorned with sculptures by Camillo Rusconi only in 1723. His pontificate, even if it was not particularly fortunate in terms of more strictly political activity (the pope zealously strove to unite the Christian powers once more against the Turk, but did not succeed in this aim), and indeed was unfortunate with regard to the internal administration of the Papal State (his struggle against the bandits infesting the state proved fruitless), must be considered one of the most glorious of the modern age for the outstanding results achieved in the strictly religious sphere, especially with regard to Catholic Restoration and Reform.