Editing Pope Urban VII

{{Short description|Head of the Catholic Church in 1590}}
{{more citations needed|date=May 2014}}
{{Infobox Christian leader
| type = Pope
| honorific-prefix = [[List of popes|Pope]]
| name = Urban VII
| title = [[Bishop of Rome]]
| image = Portrait of Pope Urban VII Castagna (Jacopo del Conte, Vatican Museums).jpg
| caption = Portrait by [[Jacopino del Conte]] <br><small>({{circa|1590}}, [[Vatican Museums]])</small>
| birth_name = Giovanni Battista Castagna
| church = [[Catholic Church]]
| term_start = 15 September 1590
| term_end = 27 September 1590
| predecessor = [[Sixtus V]]
| successor = [[Gregory XIV]]
| ordination = 30 March 1553
| ordained_by = [[Filippo Archinto]]
| consecration = 4 April 1553
| consecrated_by = [[Girolamo Verallo]]
| cardinal = 12 December 1583
| created_cardinal_by = [[Pope Gregory XIII|Gregory XIII]]
| birth_date = 4 August 1521
| birth_place = [[Rome]], [[Papal States]]
| death_date = {{death date and age|1590|9|27|1521|8|4|df=y}}
| death_place = Rome, Papal States
| other = Urban
| previous_post = {{Indented plainlist|
* [[Archbishop of Rossano]] (1553)
* Governor of [[Fano]] (1555–1559)
* Governor of [[Perugia]] and [[Umbria]] (1559–1560)
* [[Apostolic Nuncio to Spain]] (1565–1572)
* [[Apostolic Nuncio to Venice]] (1573–1577)
* Governor of [[Bologna]] (1576–1577)
* Papal Legate to Flanders and Cologne (1578–1580)
* [[S. Marcello|Cardinal-Priest of S. Marcello]] (1584–1590)
}}
| coat_of_arms = C o a Urbanus VII.svg
| signature = Signature of Bishop Giovanni Battista Castagna (future Pope Urban VII).svg{{!}}class=skin-invert
}}

{{Infobox popestyles
|image            = C o a Urbanus VII.svg
|dipstyle         = [[His Holiness]]
|offstyle         = Your Holiness
|relstyle         = Holy Father
|deathstyle       = None
}}

'''Pope Urban VII''' ({{langx|la|Urbanus VII}}; {{langx|it|Urbano VII}}; 4 August 1521 – 27 September 1590), born '''Giovanni Battista Castagna''', was head of the [[Catholic Church]], and ruler of the [[Papal States]] from 15 to 27 September 1590. His papacy was the shortest recognized in history.

Castagna, born in Rome in 1521, was a highly educated man who held various positions within the Roman Catholic Church. He served as the [[Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Rossano-Cariati|Archbishop of Rossano]], Governor of [[Fano]], [[Perugia]], and [[Umbria]], and participated in the [[Council of Trent]]. Later, he was appointed as the Apostolic [[Nuncio]] to [[Habsburg Spain|Spain]] and [[Republic of Venice|Venice]] and served as the [[Papal legate]] to [[Habsburg Netherlands|Flanders]] and [[Electorate of Cologne|Cologne]]. He was elevated to cardinalate in 1583 by Pope Gregory XIII.

Upon the death of Pope Sixtus V, Castagna was elected as pope on 15 September 1590, taking the name Urban VII. He was known for his charity, public works projects, and strict opposition to [[nepotism]]. His papacy was short-lived as he died of [[malaria]] on 27 September 1590, after just 12 days in office. Urban VII is remembered for instituting the world's first known [[Tobacco control|public smoking ban]], threatening [[excommunication]] for those using tobacco in or near a church.

==Biography==
Giovanni Battista Castagna was born in [[Rome]] in 1521 to a [[Nobility|noble family]] as the son of Cosimo Castagna of Genoa and Costanza Ricci-Giacobazzi of Rome.<ref name=Ott>{{CE1913 |inline=1 |first=Michael |last=Ott |wstitle=Pope Urban VII |volume=15}}</ref>

Castagna studied in universities all across Italy. He obtained a doctorate in civil law and canon law when he finished his studies at the [[University of Bologna]]. Soon after he became auditor of his uncle, Cardinal [[Girolamo Verallo]], whom he accompanied as datary on a papal legation to [[Kingdom of France|France]].<ref name=Ott/> 

He served as a constitutional lawyer. He entered the [[Roman Curia]] during the pontificate of [[Pope Julius III]] as the Referendary of the [[Apostolic Signatura]]. Castagna was chosen to be the new [[Archbishop of Rossano]] on 1 March 1553. He quickly received all the minor and major orders, culminating in his [[ordination]] to the [[priesthood]] on 30 March 1553 in Rome. He then received [[episcopal consecration]] a month after, at the home of Cardinal Verallo.

He served as the governor of [[Fano]] from 1555 to 1559, and served as the governor of [[Perugia]] and [[Umbria]] from 1559 to 1560. During the reign of Pius IV, he settled satisfactorily a long-standing boundary dispute between the inhabitants of [[Terni]] and [[Spoleto]].<ref name=Ott/> Castagna participated in the [[Council of Trent]] from 1562 to 1563 and served as the president of several conciliar congregations. He was appointed as the [[Apostolic Nuncio to Spain]] in 1565 and served there until 1572,<ref>[https://www.britannica.com/biography/Urban-VII Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. "Urban VII". ''Encyclopedia Britannica'']</ref> resigning his post from his archdiocese in 1573. 

He served as the governor of [[Bologna]] from 1576 to 1577. Among other positions, he was the [[Apostolic Nuncio to Venice]] from 1573 to 1577 and served as the [[Apostolic Nunciature to Flanders|Papal Legate to Flanders]] and Cologne from 1578 to 1580.
[[Pope Gregory XIII]] elevated him to the [[Cardinal (Catholic Church)|cardinalate]] on 12 December 1583. He was appointed as the Cardinal-Priest of [[San Marcello al Corso]].{{cn|date=February 2024}}

==Papacy==
===Election===
{{main|September 1590 papal conclave}}
After the death of [[Pope Sixtus V]], a [[Papal conclave|conclave]] was convoked to elect a successor. [[Ferdinando I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany]] had been appointed a cardinal at the age of fourteen but was never ordained to the priesthood. At the age of thirty-eight, he resigned from the cardinalate upon the death of his older brother, [[Francesco I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany|Francesco]] in 1587, to succeed to the title. There were suspicions that Francesco and his wife died of arsenic poisoning after having dined at Ferdinando's [[Villa Medici]], although one story has Ferdinando as the intended target of his sister-in-law. Ferdinando's foreign policy attempted to free [[Grand Duchy of Tuscany|Tuscany]] from Spanish domination. 

He was consequently opposed to the election of any candidate supported by Spain. He persuaded Cardinal [[Alessandro Peretti di Montalto]], grand-nephew of Sixtus V, to switch his support from Cardinal [[Marco Antonio Colonna (16th-century cardinal)|Marco Antonio Colonna]], which brought the support of the younger cardinals appointed by the late Sixtus.<ref name=Pirie>Pirie, Valérie Pirie. ''The Triple Crown: An Account of the Papal Conclaves'', London. Sidgwick & Jackson, 1935.<!-- ISSN/ISBN needed --></ref>

Castagna, a seasoned diplomat of moderation and proven rectitude, was elected as pope on 15 September 1590 and selected the pontifical name of "Urban VII".<ref name=Pirie/>

===Activities===
Urban VII's short reign gave rise to the world's first known public [[smoking ban]], as he threatened to excommunicate anyone who "took [[tobacco]] in the porchway of or inside a church, whether it be by chewing it, smoking it with a pipe or sniffing it in powdered form through the nose".<ref>{{cite web|title=Public smoking ban: Europe on the move|url=http://www.oxfordjournals.org/our_journals/eurheartj/press_releases/freepdf/ehl266.pdf|publisher=European Society of Cardiology|year=2006|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110524082354/http://www.oxfordjournals.org/our_journals/eurheartj/press_releases/freepdf/ehl266.pdf|archive-date=24 May 2011}}</ref>

Urban VII was known for his charity to the poor. He subsidized Roman [[bakers]] so they could sell bread below cost, and restricted the spending on luxury items for members of his court. He subsidized public works projects throughout the [[Papal States]]. Urban VII was strictly against [[nepotism]] and he forbade it within the [[Roman Curia]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://saints.sqpn.com/pope-urban-vii/|title=Pope Urban VII|publisher=Saints SQPN|date=4 April 2012|access-date=12 February 2015}}</ref>

==Death==
Urban VII died in Rome on 27 September 1590<ref>[https://www.vatican.va/content/vatican/en/holy-father/urbano-vii.html "Urban VII", The Holy See], vatican.va. Accessed 25 February 2024.</ref> of [[malaria]].<ref name=walshconclave>{{cite book|last=Walsh|first=Michael J.|title=The Conclave: A Sometimes Secret and Occasionally Bloody History of Papal Elections|location=Lanham, Md.|publisher=Sheed & Ward|date=2003|isbn=9781580511353|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GOg_xLCvpn4C|page=124}}</ref> He had reigned for 13 days<ref>{{cite book|last=Pham|first=John-Peter|title=Heirs of the Fisherman: Behind the Scenes of Papal Death and Succession|location=Oxford, UK|publisher=Oxford University Press|date=2004|isbn=9780195178340|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uvA_k9HYkh8C|page=32}}</ref> and died uncrowned.<ref name=walshconclave /> He was buried at [[Old St. Peter's Basilica|St. Peter's Basilica]]. His remains were transferred to the church of [[Santa Maria sopra Minerva]] on 21 September 1606.<ref name=reardon>{{cite book|last=Reardon|first=Wendy|title=The Deaths of the Popes: Comprehensive Accounts, Including Funerals, Burial Places and Epitaphs|location=Jefferson, N.C.|publisher=McFarland & Co.|date=2004|isbn=9780786415274|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yvXeCQAAQBAJ|page=198}}</ref>

His estate, valued at 30,000<ref name=blackconfrat>{{cite book|last=Black|first=Christopher F.|title=Italian Confraternities in the Sixteenth Century|location=Cambridge, UK|publisher=Cambridge University Press|date=1989|isbn=9780521364874|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=B7j-AHVu_P4C|page=128}}</ref> to 32,000 [[scudi]],<ref name=reardon /> was bequeathed to the [[Confraternity]] of the Annunziata alla Minerva<ref name=blackconfrat /><ref>{{cite journal|last=Esposito|first=Anna|title=Ad dotandum puellas virgines, pauperes et honestas: Social Needs and Confratemal Charity in Rome in the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries|journal=Renaissance and Reformation / Renaissance et Réforme|volume=18|issue=2|date=Spring 1994|pages=5, 7|jstor=43444896 |url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/43444898}}</ref> for use as dowries for poor young girls.<ref name=reardon />
[[File:Menorah (Temple) מנורת בית המקדש Temple vessels Vatican מדלייה שיצא עי הוותיקן בשנת 1590 בעת מינוי האפיפיור אורבנוס השביעיאורבנוס.JPG|thumb|The reverse of a 1590 coin in honor of Urban VII, with a [[menorah (Temple)|menorah]] and the legend<br/>SIC•LUCEAT•LUX•VESTRA<br/>(Let your light so shine – Matt. 5:16)]]

==See also==
*[[List of popes]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
*{{commons category-inline|Urbanus VII}}
{{s-start}}
{{s-rel|ca}}
{{s-bef|before=[[Sixtus V]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[Pope]]|years=15–27 September 1590}}
{{s-aft|after=[[Gregory XIV]]}}
{{s-end}}
{{Popes}}
{{Catholicism}}
{{History of the Roman Catholic Church}}
{{Authority control}}
{{Portalbar|Biography|Catholicism|Christianity|History|Italy|Politics}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Urban 7}}
[[Category:Deaths from malaria]]
[[Category:Italian popes]]
[[Category:Clergy from Rome]]
[[Category:Popes]]
[[Category:University of Perugia alumni]]
[[Category:1521 births]]
[[Category:1590 deaths]]
[[Category:16th-century popes]]
[[Category:Apostolic nuncios to the Republic of Venice]]
[[Category:Burials at Santa Maria sopra Minerva]]
[[Category:Anti-smoking_activists]]