GREGORY XIV, POPE. - Niccolò Sfondrato, of an ancient Cremonese family, was born at Somma on 11 February 1535. He studied law at Perugia and Padua, and took his degree at Pavia; then he entered the ecclesiastical state. A decisive influence on his life was his admission among the familiars of Carlo Borromeo. At the age of only twenty-five, he was appointed bishop of Cremona by Pius IV (12 March 1560). In that capacity, on 13 March 1561 he took part in the deliberations of the Council of Trent, where he upheld the thesis against the accumulation of ecclesiastical benefices and the duty of bishops not to absent themselves from their sees. Having returned to his diocese, which he found without priests, he introduced the Theatines and Barnabites. In the Synod of 1580 he fully accepted the salutary decrees of the Church’s reform.
He was created cardinal of S. Cecilia by Gregory XIII. After the death of Urban VII on 15 December 1583, following a conclave lasting more than two months—famous for the agitation of factions and influences—he was elected pope on 5 December 1590, “wearied by intrigue,” almost unaware and incredulous, by the unanimous vote of the fifty-four cardinals present. He was crowned on 8 December. He died after ten months and eleven days of rule (16 October 1591).
He was a man of singular piety, of severe and most pure morals; of exemplary kindness, which he demonstrated when, during the Jubilee of 1575, he opened his house hospitably to pilgrims. He was a friend of Filippo Neri. As pope, he was, even in the judgment of Pastor, too weak, gentle, and credulous. In poor health and of delicate constitution, lacking experience in affairs since he had always lived among religious, in his brief pontificate he soon found himself obliged to rely on counsellors, such as the Franciscan Panigarola, a celebrated orator; but perhaps he allowed himself to be too much guided by his nephew Paolo Emilio Sfondrato, whom he raised to the honours of the purple at the age of twenty-nine (19 December 1590) and placed at the head of the Secretariat of State. Though inexperienced in worldly matters, and though of a family traditionally in the service of Spain and deferential to the Spanish monarch who had helped him to the papal throne, and though he saw in the preservation and advancement of the Spanish monarchy the salvation and future of the Catholic Church, he was not a slave to the will and great ambitions of Philip II and Philip III.
Gregory XIV worked tirelessly to heal Rome and the Papal States of the three dominant plagues: epidemic, famine, and brigandage. In combating the plague, which in a single year, from August 1590, carried off about 60,000 lives, he was assisted in public assistance by the fervour of charity of Camillo de Lellis and his confreres. The famine, caused by poor harvests and to some extent by the cardinal’s lack of foresight in not sufficiently supplying the market, gave rise to protests, pasquinades, uprisings, and the sacking of the granaries of the Pantheon, Piazza Giudecca, and Campo de’ Fiori, and even to the invasion of the pope’s apartments by the hungry and excited mob. When the pope became aware of the country’s difficulties, which had been concealed from him by Cardinal Sfondrato, he took prompt and generous measures, even granting the broadest freedom of importation of grain to heretics (shipments arrived from Danzig and Lucca) and distributing bread tickets on a large scale. The supply of Rome was frequently made impossible by the fact that bandits were rampant in Umbria, in Sabina, and even to the gates of the capital. Means and firm resolve were employed to deal with them. A body of soldiers under Monsignor Grimaldi defeated a band of 800 brigands near Ascoli and pursued them to the borders of the Papal States.
Gregory 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 recrimination and resistance from the secular authority, which led to controversies and disputes between the Curia, which sought to defend traditional rights, and the monarchies, which aimed to assert their absolute power. Gregory XIV took an active part in the internal struggles of France, supporting the Catholic League and backing the policy of Philip II, urged thereto by his nephew Cardinal Sfondrato and by the Curia, where the Spanish party and the pro-Spanish faction were strong. To finance the League’s party and to pursue a policy of war and intervention in France, to fight heretics and Huguenots, he squandered the treasures accumulated by Sixtus V (though much of this money served to enrich the Sfondrato family, and especially the cardinal of the same name, who was always in need and avid for money). This policy reached its extreme when he launched an interdict against Henry IV.
The reign of Gregory XIV is also notable for religious developments: he issued a constitution (15 May 1591) concerning the qualifications of those aspiring to the episcopate; he forbade the celebration of private Masses; he granted the red hat to cardinals; he provided for the better edition and printing of the Vulgate; he accorded protection to Camillo de Lellis and the Fathers of the Good Death; he defended the Jesuits and supported them even against Olivares; he compelled Sigismund to choose a Catholic spouse; he pursued a policy aimed at drawing Germany to the Church. He fostered the arts, as is evidenced by his bringing to completion the dome of St Peter’s, the buildings of Sixtus V at the Quirinal, the Vatican, and S. Maria Maggiore; the protection granted to Palestrina; and the limited consultation of Vatican sources accorded to Cardinal Baronio.