Pisa, which, despite its irregularity, proclaimed in June 1409 the deposition of both popes and the election of Alexander V. Gregory, still supported by Naples, Hungary, Bavaria, and by Rupert, king of the Romans, found protection with Ladislaus, and in a synod at Cividale del Friuli banned Benedict and Alexander as schismatical, perjured and scandalous. John XXIII., having succeeded to the claims of Alexander in 1410, concluded a treaty with Ladislaus, by which Gregory was banished from Naples on the 31st of October 1411. The pope then took refuge with Carlo Malatesta, lord of Rimini, through whom he presented his resignation to the council of Constance on the 4th of July 1415. A weak and easily-influenced old man, his resignation was the noblest act of his pontificate. The rest of his life was spent in peaceful obscurity as cardinal-bishop of Porto and legate of the mark of Ancona. He died at Recanati on the 18th of October 1417. Some writers reckon Alexander V. and John XXIII. as popes rather than as antipopes, and accordingly count Gregory’s pontificate from 1406 to 1409. Roman Catholic authorities, however, incline to the other reckoning.
See L. Pastor, History of the Popes, vol. i., trans. by F. I. Antrobus (London, 1899); M. Creighton, History of the Papacy, vol. 1 (London, 1899); N. Valois, La France et le grand schisme d’occident (Paris, 1896–1902); Louis Gayet, Le Grand Schisme d’occident (Paris, 1898); J. von Haller, Papsttum u. Kirchenreform (Berlin, 1903); J. Loserth, Geschichte des späteren Mittelalters (1903); Theoderici de Nyem de schismate libri tres, ed. by G. Erler (Leipzig, 1890). There is an excellent article by J. N. Brischar in the Kirchenlexikon 2nd ed., vol. 5. (C. H. Ha.)
Gregory XIII. (Ugo Buoncompagno), pope from 1572 to 1585, was born on the 7th of January 1502, in Bologna, where he received his education, and subsequently taught, until called to Rome (1539) by Paul III., who employed him in various offices. He bore a prominent part in the council of Trent, 1562–1563. In 1564 he was made cardinal by Pius IV., and, in the following year, sent to Spain as legate. On the 13th of May 1572 he was chosen pope to succeed Pius V. His previous life had been rather worldly, and not wholly free from spot; but as pope he gave no occasion of offence. He submitted to the influence of the rigorists, and carried forward the war upon heresy, though not with the savage vehemence of his predecessor. However, he received the news of the massacre of St Bartholomew (23rd of August 1572) with joy, and publicly celebrated the event, having been led to believe, according to his apologists, that France had been miraculously delivered, and that the Huguenots had suffered justly as traitors. Having failed to rouse Spain and Venice against the Turks, Gregory attempted to form a general coalition against the Protestants. He subsidized Philip II. in his wars in the Netherlands; aided the Catholic League in France; incited attacks upon Elizabeth by way of Ireland. With the aid of the Jesuits, whose privileges he multiplied, he conducted a vigorous propaganda. He established or endowed above a score of colleges, among them the Collegium Romanum (founded by Ignatius Loyola in 1550), and the Collegium Germanicum, in Rome. Among his noteworthy achievements are the reform of the calendar on the 24th of February 1582 (see Calendar); the improved edition of the Corpus juris canonici, 1582; the splendid Gregorian Chapel in St Peter’s; the fountains of the Piazza Navona; the Quirinal Palace; and many other public works. To meet the expenses entailed by his liberality and extravagance, Gregory resorted to confiscation, on the pretext of defective titles or long-standing arrearages. The result was disastrous to the public peace: nobles armed in their defence; old feuds revived; the country became infested with bandits; not even in Rome could order be maintained. Amid these disturbances Gregory died, on the 10th of April 1585, leaving to his successor, Sixtus V., the task of pacifying the state.
See the contemporary lives by Cicarella, continuator of Platina, De vitis pontiff. Rom.; Ciaconius, Vitae et res gestae summorum pontiff. Rom. (Rome, 1601–1602); and Ciappi, Comp. dell’ attioni e santa vita di Gregorio XIII (Rome, 1591). See also Bompiano, Hist. pontificatus Gregorii XIII. (Rome, 1655); Ranke, Popes (Eng. trans., Austin), i. 428 seq.; v. Reumont, Gesch. der Stadt Rom. iii. 2, 566 seq.; and for numerous references upon Gregory’s relation to the massacre of St Bartholomew, Cambridge Mod. Hist. iii. 771 seq.
Gregory XIV. (Nicoló Sfondrato), pope 1590–1591, was born in Cremona, on the 11th of February 1535, studied in Perugia, and Padua, became bishop of his native place in 1560, and took part in the council of Trent, 1562–1563. Gregory XIII. made him a cardinal, 1583, but ill-health forbade his active participation in affairs. His election to the papacy, to succeed Urban VII., on the 5th of December 1590, was due to Spanish influence. Gregory was upright and devout, but utterly ignorant of politics. During his short pontificate the States of the Church suffered dire calamities, famine, epidemic and a fresh outbreak of brigandage. Gregory was completely subservient to Philip II.; he aided the league, excommunicated Henry of Navarre, and threatened his adherents with the ban; but the effect of his intervention was only to rally the moderate Catholics to the support of Henry, and to hasten his conversion. Gregory died on the 15th of October 1591, and was succeeded by Innocent IX.
See Ciaconius, Vitae et res gestae summorum pontiff. Rom. (Rome, 1601–1602); Cicarella, continuator of Platina, De vitis pontiff. Rom. (both contemporary); Brosch, Gesch. des Kirchenstaates (1880). i. 300; Ranke, Popes (Eng. trans., Austin), ii. 228 seq.
Gregory XV. (Alessandro Ludovisi) was born on the 9th of January 1554, in Bologna, where he also studied and taught. He was made archbishop of his native place and cardinal by Paul V., whom he succeeded as pope on the 9th of February 1621. Despite his age and feebleness, Gregory displayed remarkable energy. He aided the emperor in the Thirty Years’ War, and the king of Poland against the Turks. He endorsed the claims of Maximilian of Bavaria to the electoral dignity, and was rewarded with the gift of the Heidelberg library, which was carried off to Rome. Gregory founded the Congregation of the Propaganda, encouraged missions, fixed the order to be observed in conclaves, and canonized Ignatius Loyola, Francis Xavier, Philip Neri and Theresa de Jesus. He died on the 8th of July 1623, and was succeeded by Urban VIII.
See the contemporary life by Vitorelli, continuator of Ciaconius, Vitae et res gestae summorum pontiff. Rom.; Ranke’s excellent account, Popes (Eng. trans., Austin), ii. 468 seq.; v. Reumont, Gesch. der Stadt Rom, iii. 2, 609 seq.; Brosch, Gesch. des Kirchenstaates (1880), i. 370 seq.; and the extended bibliography in Herzog-Hauck, Realencyklopädie, s.v. “Gregor XV.” (T. F. C.)
Gregory XVI. (Bartolommeo Alberto Cappellari), pope from 1831 to 1846, was born at Belluno on the 18th of September 1765, and at an early age entered the order of the Camaldoli, among whom he rapidly gained distinction for his theological and linguistic acquirements. His first appearance before a wider public was in 1799, when he published against the Italian Jansenists a controversial work entitled Il Trionfo della Santa Sede, which, besides passing through several editions in Italy, has been translated into several European languages. In 1800 he became a member of the Academy of the Catholic Religion, founded by Pius VII., to which he contributed a number of memoirs on theological and philosophical questions and in 1805 was made abbot of San Gregorio on the Caelian Hill. When Pius VII. was carried off from Rome in 1809, Cappellari withdrew to Murano, near Venice, and in 1814, with some other members of his order, he removed to Padua; but soon after the restoration of the pope he was recalled to Rome, where he received successive appointments as vicar-general of the Camaldoli, councillor of the Inquisition, prefect of the Propaganda, and examiner of bishops. In March 1825 he was created cardinal by Leo XII., and shortly afterwards was entrusted with an important mission to adjust a concordat regarding the interests of the Catholics of Belgium and the Protestants of Holland. On the 2nd of February 1831 he was, after sixty-four days’ conclave, unexpectedly chosen to succeed Pius VIII. in the papal chair. The revolution of 1830 had just inflicted a severe blow on the ecclesiastical party in France, and almost the first act of the new government there was to seize Ancona, thus throwing all Italy, and particularly the Papal States, into an excited condition which seemed to demand strongly repressive measures. In the course of the struggle which ensued it was more than once necessary to call in the Austrian bayonets. The reactionaries in power put off their promised reforms so persistently as to anger even
