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Gregory XV
1621-1623

Alessandro Ludovisi

Gregory XV was born at Bologna, on the 15th of January, 1554, and was the son of Pompey Ludovisi and Camilla Bianchini. Having studied the humanities and philosophy at Rome, in the German College and in the Roman Seminary, Alessandro became one of the most praiseworthy pupils of the Society of Jesus. The modesty, intellect, and prudence of the young nobleman were admired, and his elevation predicted. On his return to Bologna, whither he was recalled by his family, Alessandro took the insignia of doctor of both laws. Afterwards settled at Rome, he there won the esteem of three successive pontiffs. Gregory XIII named him first judge of the Capitol, saying to him: "We now give you the first step towards the pontificate."

Clement VIII created him referendary of signature, lieutenant of the cardinal-vicar, and, in succession, vicegerent, auditor of the Rota, and clerk of the chamber. At length Paul V, on the 12th of March, 1612, granted him the archbishopric of Bologna, and then sent him, as nuncio, into Savoy.

As nuncio at Chambery, Alessandro knew the Constable Duke of Lesdiguieres, whom the King of France had sent into that city to support the claims of the Holy See, that so constantly showed itself the conciliator of conflicting interests. When Alessandro had completed his labors as nuncio, the duke laughingly said, as they parted: "I can assure you that I have a presentiment that you will be pope."

"I wish it may be so," replied Alessandro; "and I accept the happy augury on the one condition that my pontificate shall be illustrated by your conversion, and that you will renounce Calvinism."

Either in the ordinary impulse of friendly conversation, or in sincere feeling, the duke pledged himself to become a Catholic, should Monsignor Alessandro Ludovisi become pope. But there are some pleasantries of the great world which speedily pass into serious facts. Ludovisi, having become pope, called upon the duke to fulfill his promise; and the latter, though he was then eighty-four years old, put himself under instruction and embraced our holy religion.

Alessandro obtained the purple on the 19th of September, 1616, and his cardinalate was one long series of wise and useful actions.

After the funeral of Paul V the sacred electors heard a discourse by the celebrated Augustine Mascardi, and went into conclave on the 8th of February, 1621. The governor, Monsignor Varese, could not close the conclave until two o'clock in the morning, in consequence of the opposition of the French ambassador, Francis Annibal d'Estrees, Marquis de Coeuvres, who was bent on keeping it open, and who redoubled his visits to those cardinals who were his adherents, conversing with them on the chances of the approaching election.

The cardinals present were fifty-two. The electors attached to Cardinal Borghese, supported by the Bentivoglios, who hoped indirectly to repossess themselves of Bologna, declared in favor of Cardinal Campori; but they were obliged to yield before the accusations brought against that personage. Most of those accusations probably originated in error or malice, but the effect was as sudden as it was unjust. Campori entered the conclave in some sort pope; on the following day, at the ballot, he had not a single vote, almost all the electors giving their votes to Bellarmine.

Unmoved by these tokens of good will, Bellarmine, with out listening to his own name, again and again repeated dtiring the ballot, pointed to the French cardinal La Rochefoucauld as the most worthy of the tiara.

Rather by way of courteous revenge upon Bellarmine for his self-abnegation than from any hostility to La Rochefoucauld, the cardinals would not listen to the opinion of the former. The crown was offered to Cardinal Frederic Borromeo, the living image of the sanctity of his cousin, Charles Borromeo; but he refused the tiara.

On the 9th of February Cardinal Ludovisi arrived from Bologna, and had scarcely entered when he received the welcoming compliments of those who shared the opinion of the old Duke of Lesdiguieres, and he was elected pope at the age of sixty-seven years.

Alessandro took the name of Gregory, in memory of his fellow-citizen, and was crowned on the 14th of February. Subsequently, on the 14th of May, the day dedicated to Saint Gregory Nazianzus, he went in an open litter to take possession of Saint John Lateran.

After publishing a jubilee to entreat God for a good and prosperous government of the Church, Gregory hastened to organize a league of the Christian princes against the Turk, and to find means of restoring to the faith the Protestant princes by all fitting mildness of expedients. To that end the pope sent money and troops to the Emperor Ferdinand II. That monarch, being at war with the Protestants, derived inestimable encouragement from that timely and unlooked for aid. The Protestant princes having refused his honorable terms, he found it was necessary to fight, and he gained the battle of Prague, which recovered Bohemia, Silesia, and Moravia. Frederic, the rebellious palatine of the Rhine, lost even his own electorate. Among the notable products of this battle must be reckoned the famous library of Heidelberg. The books had been pillaged from the monasteries. Gregory ordered them to be given to the Vatican Library, which, however, did not get them till the reign of Urban VIII.

At the same time Gregory sent aid to Sigismund, King of Poland, who thus was enabled to gain advantages over the Turks.

In that same year the pope approved the congregation of the Blessed Virgin of Calvary, so called because the religious who followed that rule passed the canonical hours before the altar of the Blessed Virgin weeping for her Son at the foot of the cross. This institute had been recognized in 1607, at first under the rule of Saint Benedict, by Antoinette of Orleans, daughter of Louis, Duke of Longueville, under the direction of Father du Tremblay, of the Capuchin order. On the death of that princess, the queen mother founded, at Paris, another house, which became the residence of the superior-general.

On the 18th of November, 1621, the Holy Father approved the congregation of the Regular Clerks of the Pious Schools, or the Poor of the Mother of God, instituted by Joseph Calasanctius, a noble Aragonese. The object of this congregation is to give primary education to the poor, and especially to inculcate upon youth the principles of good morals. On the 6th of March, 1617, Paul V had approved it, imposing upon it only simple vows; at the same time he had separated it from the congregation of the Mother of God, and from the union prescribed on the14th of January, 1614. Subsequently Innocent X reduced it to the condition of a simple congregation, like that of Saint Philip Neri, without any vow. Afterwards Alexander VII permitted those composing it to pronounce the three solemn vows, promising to maintain them perpetually. Finally, Clement IX, in 1669, restored it to the condition of an order, with solemn vows, in which state it now exists, to the great advantage of the poor. On the 3rd of November His Holiness approved the congregation of the Regular Clerks of the Mother of God–already approved, with simple vows, on the 13th of October, 1595, by Clement VIII.

His Holiness also approved, without subjecting it to any vow, the congregation of the Pious Missionaries, founded by Charles Caraffa, a noble Neapolitan, to give missions and other pious exercises. It is governed by a provost, named for three years. Some of the members of that institution devote themselves to an austere life. Linen is forbidden them; they can wear only woollen, and sleep only in woollen sheets.

By constitution 10, the pope approved the Benedictine congregation of Saint Maur, in France.

Near the monastery of Saint Cecilia the pope built the Gregorian College, for the Benedictines to receive members going to Rome to study, or from motives of piety. He also granted to the Observantine Franciscans of the Indies or of Spain a hospital, to which were attached many privileges; and he at the same time founded, at Prague, a college, called Saint Bonaventure's, in the convent of the Minor Conventuals.

Gregory published two constitutions, which were approved by Urban VIII, upon the form, the rules, and the ceremonies of the election of the pontiffs. The following, according to Novaes, is a summary of the principal arrangements. The pontiffs can be elected only in a conclave. The election may be made in three modes–by ballot, by compromise, or by acclamation. The number of votes for the election must be two thirds of the electors assembled in conclave, in which two thirds is not to be included the vote of the elected cardinal.

No election is consummated if all the votes have not been published. Before the ballots are placed in the chalice, all the electors must swear, in succession, that they have named only him whom they believe to be the best among them.

The elector must write on the ticket his own name and that of the cardinal to whom he gives his vote. Their tickets must be folded and sealed, in such wise that the seal will show that there are not two tickets put in by the same elector. The ticket of the ballot corresponds with that of the accesso. In each ballot an elector can accede (i.e., declare the acceptance of one proposed in the ballot immediately preceding the accesso) but once.

Previous to opening the votes of the ballot and the accesso, the votes must be counted to see if their number equals that of the cardinals present. A cardinal failing to observe those laws is excommunicated. As to cardinals prevented from being in conclave by their infirmities, three cardinals will visit them and receive their votes from their own hands.

The ballot will be made twice a day–in the morning after Mass, and in the evening at a convenient hour. The cardinals, on pain of excommunication, must abstain from all agreement, sign, or threat relative to an election. The electors and the elected, practicing any other than the prescribed mode, are declared to be under major excommunication. The three cardinals, heads of the orders–the cardinal, head of the order of the suburbicarian bishops, the cardinal, head of the order of priests, and the cardinal, head of the order of deacons–in turn, and the chamberlain, are invested with the execution of this bull. All the cardinals must swear, on the day of their promotion to the purple, to conform to these rules, and on the first day following the death of the pope.

When Gregory had published this bull, he named a congregation to regulate a direct ceremonial resulting from its directions and those of the bulls of his predecessors in harmony with this one, and by a constitution of the 16th of March, 1622, he gave plenary confirmation to this ceremonial, by virtue of his pontifical authority.

An important circumstance drew more closely together the ties of the union which so closely connected the popes and the kings of France–a union that Mary de' Medici and Richelieu, Bishop of Lucon, supported with all the ability they could exert.

Osman II, the sixteenth Ottoman sultan, and son of Achmet I, had been put to death in the Seven Towers, at the age of seventeen. Gregory had negotiated with that prince for the protection of the Catholic missions in Barbary, and now feared that it would be retarded by the catastrophe that had ensanguined the throne of Constantinople. The diplomatic relations between the Ottoman Porte and France were then very satisfactory to both courts. Gregory, perceiving the necessity of receiving the support of some formidable power, and that France alone could assure him of that support, immediately recalled to Rome Noel Brulart, commander of Sillery, and ambassador from Louis XIII to the Holy See. The pontiff reminded the French ambassador that when the same Barbary regencies, and especially that of Algiers, had insulted the subjects and the clients of the King of France (these clients at that time being Danes, Swedes, Muscovites, Poles, Swiss, and often Dutch), religious sent by Paul V, and furnished with instructions under his own hand, had in Algiers itself assisted in terminating the disputes; and Gregory now requested that the son of Henry IV would reciprocate, as the pope just then needed the aid of the French king. In fact, in consequence of an indirect intervention by Paul V there had previously been a letter written by Osman II to Louis XIII, which it may not be superfluous to notice here. The tone of the declarations made by the pasha, secretary of the grand seignior, throws a bright light upon the connections existing between Constantinople and those regencies, and announces the greatness of France at that period, even by the titles which the Porte accords to Louis XIII. It had resulted from the political foresight of Paul V, continued by Gregory XV, that France had ceased to fit out ruinously expensive armaments, and had obtained full and entire satisfaction. France strongly desired to aid her subjects and allies without engaging with faithless barbarians in an eternal repetition of wars, which at that time always ended in painful sacrifices of money offered as presents, and of forced clemencies, added to very great expense in armaments.

Gregory did not vainly repeat how greatly Paul V had been serviceable to the Christian king, and Rome not unjustly asked the French cabinet to return service for service. The policy of Gregory, sustained by the French, had therefore nothing to lose with the Porte.

In the year, 1622, the pope published a bull by which he forbade all ecclesiastics, regular or secular, exempt or not exempt, to confess or preach without the approbation and permission of the ordinary. Thus ended the old disputes raised by writers who maintained that faculties given by a bishop might be withdrawn by his successor, but not by him who had given them.

We have now reached the period when the congregation of cardinals called De Propaganda Fide was instituted, to send missionaries to propagate the faith among the heathen. On the same day Gregory granted to that congregation the value of the ring which is given to each cardinal on his promotion–that is to say, the value of the ring which the chamber presents to a poor cardinal, or that of the ring which a rich cardinal procures for himself, and which is on his finger on his reception. The precise periods of the history of the establishment of the Propaganda are as follows: The first idea belonged to Gregory XIII; then Clement VIII examined the plan with scrupulous attention; and Gregory XV perfected the work that had been commenced.

Animated by a like zeal, the pontiff extinguised the heresy of the Illuminati, which had widely spread in Spain. They had fallen into disorders which Novaes calls an excessive spiritualism. They deemed prayer more efficacious than the sacraments. They refused obedience to ecclesiastical superiors, unless the latter were illuminated; and they maintained that man, having arrived at perfection, need not obey the commands of the Church.

In reward of his vigils, the Holy Father had the consolation of receiving a letter from Rudolph Maximilian, Duke of Saxony, announcing his conversion to the Catholic faith. Meantime the Spaniards had seized upon the Valteline, a lordship of the country of the Grisons, at the entrance of Italy, under the pretence of protecting the Catholics against the Protestants; but that measure turned to the injury of all the Grisons, who, whether Catholics or Protestants, became slaves of the Spanish cabinet, of the Venetians, and of divers Italian princes. Then the interested provinces leagued themselves with France, and the result was a furious war. To settle those various pretensions, Gregory demanded that the entire Valteline should be placed temporarily in his power. The disputing powers consented, and then explanations and methods of conciliation were discussed in peace.

For a long time preparations had been made for the ceremony of canonization. Gregory in a single solemnity canonized five illustrious personages, eminent for their merits and their piety.

The first was Saint Isidore, the husbandman, called from the business he had followed during his life. He was born at Madrid, at the close of the eleventh century, and died on the 30th of November, 1130. Leo X permitted Dr. Francis de Vargas to erect a chapel in honor of this servant of God before his beatification. His body had been laid in a magnificent tomb, but in a place little honored, a chapel of Saint Andrew's, at Madrid, as mentioned by the Bollandists. At the request of Philip II, Paul V beatified Isidore, and permitted the process of his canonization to advance before the Congregation of Rites; and on its decision, Isidore was solemnly canonized, and his feast assigned to May 15, but subsequently transferred to the 10th of that month by Urban VIII.

The second saint proclaimed in this solemnity was Philip Neri, a Florentine, founder of the congregation of the Oratory, born on the 22d of July, 1515. He was the son of Francis Neri and Lucretia Solli, and died at Rome on the 26th of May, 1595. Twenty years after the death of Philip Neri, Paul V, on the 23rd of April, 1615, beatified him, and permitted an office and Mass in his honor. On the 8th of June, 1669, Clement IX ordered his feast to be celebrated throughout the Church with the double rite, instead of the semi-double, with which it had till then been honored. Benedict XIII, having been delivered at Benevento from an earthquake by the intervention of Saint Philip, made his feast a holiday of obligation with a vigil, at Rome. The first church in honor of Saint Philip Neri was built at Carbognano, by Cardinal Horace Giustiniani, who had been a priest of the Oratory.

The third saint in this ceremony was Ignatius Loyola, a noble Spaniard of Guipuzcoa, in Biscay, founder of the Society of Jesus. That order, approved by Paul III, in 1540, and confirmed by the Council of Trent, was suppressed by Clement XIV, in 1773, and restored in 1814 by Pius VII.

Ignatius, Don Inigo Lopez de Recalde, was the youngest of eight brothers. Born in 1491, he was the son of Beltran Yanes de Onez and of Marina Sanchez de Licona Balda. He died at Rome, on the 31st of July, 1556.

Paul V, by a decree of the 27th of July, 1609, and by a brief of the 3rd of December of the same year, had inscribed him in the number of the blessed. Clement IX, by a brief of the 11th of October, 1667, ordered the office of this saint to be celebrated as a double, instead of, as previously, a semi-double. Innocent XI, by a brief of the 17th of September, 1682, declared him patron of the kingdom of Biscay. Alexander VII, by a brief of the 18th of July, 1659, confirmed the plenary indulgence granted by Gregory XV to those who, after confession and communion, on Saint Ignatius's day and Saint Francis Xavier's, visited a church of the Jesuits.

The fourth saint was Saint Francis Xavier, of the family of the lords of the castle Xavier, at the foot of the Pyrenees, in the diocese of Pampeluna and kingdom of Navarre, born on the 7th of April, 1506, the son of John Guasco and Maria Xaveria. He was one of the companions of Saint Ignatius in founding the Society of Jesus, and died in the island of Sancian, near China, on the 2nd of December, 1552, at the age of forty-six, after the most painful toils in traversing the East Indies for the conversion of many millions of the inhabitants of those countries, whom he led to the Catholic religion–labors which won him the surname of the Apostle of the Indies. Paul V gave him the title of Blessed on the 25th of October, 1619. On the 24th of April, 1657, Alexander VII ordered the feasts of Saints Firman and Xavier to be celebrated throughout the kingdom of Navarre, of which they were patrons, and directed the office of Saint Francis Xavier to be placed in the Roman calendar, with the semi-double rite. Subsequently Clement X caused Saint Francis Xavier to be placed in the Roman Breviary, for the whole Church, with the double rite.

Gregory XV, on the 4th of June, 1622, granted a plenary indulgence to those who, on the day of that saint, visited a church of the Jesuits. Innocent X, by a brief of the 27th of October, 1651, transferred the feast to the Monday after the first Sunday in Advent. Benedict XIV, at the earnest request of John V, King of Portugal, by a bull of the 24th of February, 1748, made Saint Francis Xavier the principal patron of the East Indies, from the Cape of Good Hope to the kingdoms of China and Japan.

The fifth saint canonized at this time was Saint Teresa,, foundress of the order of barefooted Carmelites; she was born on the 12th of March, 1515, daughter of Alphonso Sanchez de Cepeda and Beatrice de Hahumada, and died at Alba on the 6th of October, 1582. After three years her body was taken to the monastery of Avila; but Sixtus V, at the request of the Duke of Alba, ordered, in 1589, that it should be restored to the monastery of Alba, where she died, and where she is still preserved, quite entire, with the exception of the right hand, which was sent to the monastery of Avila, and a foot, which was given to the convent of Saint Mary at Rome, in 1615.

The Queen of Spain, Elizabeth, subsequently obtained a finger, which she sent to Queen Mary de' Medici, her mother, who gave it to the Carmelite sisters of Paris. Paul V, who, in 1614, had beatified Teresa on the solicitation of Philip III, committed the examination of the cause for canonization to Congregation of Rites. The canonization was celebrated Gregory XV. Pope Urban VIII, by a brief of the 23rd of July, 1636, approved the office of the saint, and permitted it to be recited throughout the kingdoms of Spain and Portugal. Subsequently Clement IX, by a decree of the 22nd of 1668, extended it to the Universal Church, with the double rite.

In the same year, 1622, Gregory beatified that servant of God, Albert the Great, of the order of Preachers. He had been master of the sacred palace, then Bishop of Ratisbon. Albert was born at Lauingen, on the Danube, and died on the 15th of November, 1280. Urban VIII, in 1635, authorized the Dominicans of Germany to celebrate the office and the Mass of Blessed Albert. Clement X granted the like permission to the Dominicans of the Venetian State, and by a decree of the 27th of April, 1670, permitted the whole order of Saint Dominic to celebrate the feast of the saint on the 15th of November.

The same pontiff, Gregory XV, by a decision propriae vocis, communicated to Cardinal Scipio Borghese, protector of the Dominican order, extended to the whole order the cultus of the Blessed Ambrose Sansedoni, a Dominican, who was born at Sienna in 1220, and died about the 23rd of March, 1286.

The King of France, Louis XIII, had petitioned the pope to erect the see of Paris into a metropolitan diocese. The pope granted that favor on the 12th of March, 1622. That diocese possessed an income of seven hundred and eighty thousand livres tournois. All authors agree that its first bishop was Saint Denis, after whom were a hundred and seven other bishops, of whom seven were venerated as saints, nine had received the purple, ten had been promoted to the archiepiscopal dignity in other dioceses, and six personages had left its chapter to ascend the throne of Saint Peter.

As suffragans to the Archbishop of Paris were the bishop of Orleans, Meaux, and Chartres; to whom was added the Bishop of Blois, when that diocese was created under Louis XIV, in 1697.

Gregory still engaged in his labors with the same zeal, when the winter of 1623 set in, to increase infirmities which had commenced in the preceding autumn. The agonies of that dreadful disease the stone afflicted this good pope; he supported them courageously, but they are so terrible as to overcome the most holy patience.

Our present remedies were then unknown, and the cardinals attempted to divert his mind by urging him to fill up the vacancies in the Sacred College. He replied that there no longer was a pontiff, an exact appreciator of the merits of so many candidates, and that he would concern himsel solely with his own salvation. He sent for his confessor, again made his confession, and received the Viaticum. On the following day he had two Masses celebrated in his presence, communicated, and received extreme unction. 0n the following day he heard Mass, fervently entreating a present to aid him with their prayers. He then said to the cardinals who were assembled around him: "We shall die with one consolation. Our successor may correct some errors in the administration of the Christian republic. It will not be possible, my beloved brothers, for a successor to us to be chosen who will not be more worthy of the authority than we, and who will not better fill the exalted pontifical office". In these sentiments he expired on the 8th of July, 1623. He was interred at the Vatican.

His funeral oration was pronounced before the cardinals by the Jesuit Famiano Strada, a religious known for his eloquence and learning. Subsequently his mortal remains were removed into a very handsome tomb, raised by the French sculptor Legros, in the Church of Saint Ignatius, the expense of Cardinal Louis Ludovisi, nephew of Pope Gregory XV.

Gregory was of low stature; his face was pale and his eyes dull, and both bore witness to his frequent fasting.

The elocution of this pope was noble, keen, and extremely animated. He excelled in the study of jurisprudence. As often as his health permitted, he was present, but concealed by a curtain, at the scientific meetings, presided over by his nephew, at the Vatican and at the Quirinal.