URBAN  VIII
(1623-1644)

 Maffeo Barberini was born in Florence (Italy) in1568.  As a child, he was educated by the Jesuits in Florence, according to the wishes of his mother, since his father had died when Maffeo was only 3 years old.  Later, he went to Rome to live with his uncle, Francesco Baberini, and to study at the Collegio Romano and then to Pisa, where the university granted him a doctorate in law in 1589.  He returned to Rome and begin to fill various offices in the Church.  In 1601, he was sent to France as papal legate to convey Clement VIII’s congratulations to King Henry IV on the birth of his son, who would become Louis XIII.  Three years later he was appointed archbishop of Nazareth and sent as nuncio to France.  In 1606, Maffeo was named cardinal with the titular church of S. Pietro in Montorio, which he exchanged for that of S. Onofrio in 1610.  He was made bishop of Spoleto in October of 1608, where he convened a synod and completed the construction of one diocesan seminary and built two others.  Paul V appointed him legate of Bologna and Prefect of the Segnatura di Giustizia in 1617.  On 5 August 1623, Maffeo Barberini was elected pope with 50 votes from the 55 cardinals who had entered the conclave after the death of Gregory XV.  It was Urban VIII who reserved the right of beatification to the Holy See.  In 1631, he accepted and incorporated into the official 1632 edition of the Roman Breviary the recommendations of a committee appointed for its reform in 1629.  He also introduced many new offices into the Breviary.  Complete form was given to the famous bull  In Coena Domini by Urban VIII in 1627.  He was a strong supporter of the Council of Trent’s decree that all ruling bishops reside in their dioceses and of the Church’s global missionary activity, encouraging missionaries by word and financial assistance.  He enlarged the work for the Congregation of the Propagation of the Faith and founded the Collegium Urbanianum in 1627 for the training of missionaries.  He opened China and Japan to all missionaries, ending the papally approved Jesuit monopoly there.  By a bull of 22 April 1639, Urban VIII prohibited slavery of any kind among the Indians of Brasil, Paraguay and the entire West Indies.  In his relations with the Catholic sovereigns of Europe, Urban VIII tried to follow a policy which matched his desire to work for the common benefit of the Church.  The weakness of his pontificate is found in his excessive nepotism and his failure to evaluate properly the new currents of intellectual energy that were growing in importance during his reign.  As part of his appreciation of the political and military situation, he spent large sums of money on the production of armaments and the construction of fortifications for use by the papal government.  His activities in this regard are countered by the support which he gave to Bernini and other artists in beautifying the St. Peter’s Basilica, the streets and squares of Rome and other places.  He had the Vatican Seminary and other religious and artistic edifices built.  The papal villa at Castel Gondolfo was commissioned by him.  It was during his pontificate that Galileo’s second trial and condemnation by the Roman Inquisition occurred.  The private life of Urban VIII was above reproach.  Use of the bronze girders of the Pantheon for the spiral columns supporting the altar canopy in St. Peter’s Basilica (Bernini’s work) and the furthering of other projects by Urban VIII prompted the epigram:  Quod non fecerunt barbari, fecerunt Barberini [What the barbarians did not do, the Barberini did.].  Urban VIII died on 29 July 1644.  Bernini built him an impressive momument in the Vatican Basilica, where he was buried.