Editing Pope Urban VIII (section)

===Later life===
[[File:Urban VIII Bernini Musei Capitolini.jpg|thumb|Statue of Pope Urban VIII sculpted by [[Gian Lorenzo Bernini|Bernini]] and his students between 1635 and 1640, and on display at the [[Palazzo dei Conservatori]] in [[Rome]]]]
A consequence of these military and artistic endeavours was a massive increase in papal debt. Urban VIII inherited a debt of 16 million [[Italian scudo|scudi]], and by 1635 had increased it to 28 million.

According to contemporary [[John Bargrave]], in 1636 members of the [[Habsburg Spain|Spanish]] faction of the [[College of Cardinals]] were so horrified by the conduct of Pope Urban VIII that they conspired to have him arrested and imprisoned (or killed) so that they could replace him with a new pope; namely [[Laudivio Zacchia]].<ref name=bargrave>''Pope Alexander the Seventh and the College of Cardinals'' by [[John Bargrave]], edited by [[James Craigie Robertson]] (reprint; 2009)</ref> When Urban VIII travelled to [[Papal Palace of Castel Gandolfo|Castel Gandolfo]] to rest, the members of the Spanish faction met in secret and discussed ways to advance their plan. But they were discovered and the pope raced back to Rome where he immediately held a [[papal consistory|consistory]] and demanded to know who the new pope was. To put an end to the conspiracy, the pope decreed that all Cardinal-Bishops should leave Rome and return to their own churches.<ref name=bargrave/>

With the Spanish plan having failed, by 1640 the debt had reached 35 million scudi, consuming more than 80% of annual papal income in interest repayments.<ref>{{cite book| title=Saints and Sinners: A History of the Popes| first=Eamon| last=Duffy| year=1997| publisher=Yale University Press| isbn=978-0-300-09165-6| url-access=registration| url=https://archive.org/details/saintssinnershis00duff_0}}</ref>