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Urban VIII

Pope
Urban VIII
Bishop of Rome
Urban VIII.jpg
A portrait of Pope Urban VIII
by Pietro da Cortona (1627)
Papacy began 6 August 1623
Papacy ended 29 July 1644
Predecessor Gregory XV
Successor Innocent X
Orders
Ordination 1592
Consecration 28 October 1604
by Fabio Blondus de Montealto
Created Cardinal 11 September 1606
by Pope Paul V
Personal details
Birth name Maffeo Barberini
Born 5 April 1568
Florence, Duchy of Florence
Died 29 July 1644 (aged 76)
Rome, Lazio, Papal States
Parents Antonio Barberini & Camilla Barbadoro
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Coat of arms {{{coat_of_arms_alt}}}
Papal styles of
Pope Urban VIII
C o a Urbano VIII.svg
Reference style His Holiness
Spoken style Your Holiness
Religious style Holy Father
Posthumous style None

Pope Urban VIII (Latin: Urbanus VIII; baptised 5 April 1568 – 29 July 1644), reigned as Pope from 6 August 1623 to his death in 1644. He expanded the papal territory by force of arms and advantageous politicking, and was also a prominent patron of the arts and a reformer of Church missions.

However, the massive debts incurred during his pontificate greatly weakened his successors, who were unable to maintain the papacy's longstanding political and military influence in Europe. He was also involved in a controversy with Galileo and his theory on heliocentrism during his reign.

He is the most recent pope to date to take the pontifical name of Urban upon being elected as pope.

He was born Maffeo Barberini in April 1568 to Antonio Barberini, a Florentine nobleman, and Camilla Barbadoro. His father died when he was only three years old and his mother took him to Rome, where he was put in the charge of his uncle, Francesco Barberini, an apostolic protonotary. At the age of 16 he became his uncle's heir. He was educated by the Society of Jesus, ("Jesuits") and received a doctorate of law from the University of Pisa in 1589.

In 1601, Barberini, through the influence of his uncle, was able to secure from Pope Clement VIII appointment as a papal legate to the court of King Henry IV of France. In 1604, the same pope appointed him as the Archbishop of Nazareth, an office joined with that of Bishop of the suppressed Dioceses of Canne and Monteverde, with his residence at Barletta. At the death of his uncle, he inherited his riches, with which he bought a palace in Rome which he made into a luxurious Renaissance residence.

Pope Paul V also later employed Barberini in a similar capacity, afterwards raising him, in 1606, to the order of the Cardinal-Priest, with the titular church of San Pietro in Montorio and appointing him as a papal legate of Bologna.


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