GREGORIO XIV, PAPA. – Niccolò Sfondrato, of an ancient Cremonese family, born at Somma on 11 February 1535. He studied law at Perugia and Padua, took his degree at Pavia, and then entered the ecclesiastical state. His having been received among the household members of Carlo Borromeo had a decisive influence on his life. At barely twenty-five years of age, he was appointed bishop of Cremona by Pius IV (12 March 1560). In this capacity, on 13 March 1561, he took part in the work of the Council of Trent, where he upheld the thesis opposing the accumulation of ecclesiastical benefices and affirming the duty of bishops not to absent themselves from their own sees. Having returned to his diocese and found it without priests, he introduced the Theatines and Barnabites. At the Synod of 1580 he fully accepted the salutary decrees of the reform of the Church. He was appointed cardinal of S. Cecilia by Gregory XIII. When Urban VII died on 15 December 1583, after a Conclave lasting more than two months, made famous by the agitation of factions and influences, he was, on 5 December 1590, “out of weariness with intrigue,” almost unaware and incredulous, elected pope by the unanimous votes of the fifty-four cardinals present. He was crowned on 8 December. He died after 10 months and 11 days of reign (16 October 1591).
He was a most devout man, of strict and wholly pure morals, and of exemplary goodness, of which he gave proof when, during the Jubilee of 1575, he hospitably opened his house to pilgrims. He enjoyed the friendship of Filippo Neri. As Pope he was, also in Pastor’s judgment, too weak, mild, and compliant. In poor health and physically feeble, having had no experience of affairs because he had always lived among religious men, during his brief pontificate he soon found himself obliged to rely on advisers, such as the Minorite Panigarola, a celebrated orator; but perhaps he allowed himself to be guided too much by his nephew Paolo Emilio Sfondrato, whom he elevated to the honours of the cardinalate at the age of twenty-nine (19 December 1590) and placed at the head of the Secretariat of State. Although little experienced in worldly matters, and despite belonging to a family traditionally in the Spanish service and showing deference to the Spanish monarch, who had helped him ascend the papal throne, and despite seeing in the preservation and teaching of the Spanish monarchy the salvation and future of the Catholic Church, he was not subservient to the will and the great, ambitious Caesaro-papal aims of Filippo II and Filippo III.
G. XIV worked tirelessly to heal Rome and the Papal State of the three prevailing scourges: epidemic, famine, and brigandage. In combating the plague, which in a single year, beginning in August 1590, cut short the lives of approximately 60,000 people, and in providing public assistance, he was aided by the charitable zeal of Camillo De Lellis and his confrères. The famine, caused by poor harvests and partly also by the lack of foresight of Cardinal Sfondrato in failing to supply the market adequately, led to protests, pasquinades, uprisings, and the sack of the granaries of the Pantheon, Piazza Giudecca, and Campo dei Fiori, and even to the invasion of the Pope’s apartments by the hungry and agitated crowd. Once the Pontiff became aware of the country’s difficulties, which had been concealed by Cardinal Sfondrato, he took measures by granting even heretics the broadest freedom to import grain (supplies arrived from Danzig and Lübeck) and by distributing bread vouchers on a very large scale. The provisioning of Rome was very often made impossible by the fact that bandits were raging through Umbria and Sabina, as far as the gates of the capital. Men and resources were committed to confront them, with firm determination. A corps of soldiers, under the command of Msgr. Grimaldi, defeated a band of 800 brigands near Ascoli and pursued them to the borders of the Neapolitan territory.
G. XIV was a jealous guardian of the rights and privileges of the Catholic Church. He gave clear proof of this when he extended the right of asylum, provoking complaints and resistance from the secular authorities; this gave rise to controversies and disputes between the Curia, which intended to defend traditional rights, and the monarchies, which sought to assert their absolute power. G. XIV took an active part in France’s internal struggles, supporting the Catholic League and siding with the policy of Filippo, urged to do so by his nephew Cardinal Sfondrato and by the Curia, in which the Spanish party and those sympathetic to Spain were powerful. To finance the League party and pursue the policy of war and intervention in France, and to combat the heretics and Huguenots, he squandered the treasures accumulated by Sixtus V (although much of them served to enrich the Sfondrato family, and especially the cardinal of that name, who was always in need of and exceedingly greedy for money). He carried this policy to its extreme when he launched the interdict against Enrico IV.
The reign of G. XIV is also fundamental for religious development: G. XIV issued a constitution (15 May 1591) concerning the qualifications of those aspiring to the episcopate; he prohibited the celebration of Mass in private houses; he granted the red hat to the cardinals; he made provision for a better edition and printing of the Vulgate; he granted protection to Camillo De Lellis and the “Fathers of a Good Death”; he defended the Jesuits and supported them even against Olivares; he compelled Sigismondo to choose a Catholic wife; and he pursued a policy aimed at attracting Germany. He protected the arts, as is attested by the fact that he completed the dome of S. Pietro, the constructions of Sixtus V at the Quirinal, the Vatican, and S. Maria Maggiore; by the protection granted to Palestrina; and by the certain liberality of access to consultations of Vatican sources granted to Cardinal Baronio.