Pope Gregory XVI

Pope Gregory XVI (Latin: Gregorius XVI ; 18 September 1765 1 June 1846), born Bartolomeo Alberto
Cappellari[lower-alpha 1] EC, reigned from 2 February 1831
to his death in 1846.[1] He had adopted the name Mauro
upon entering the religious order of the Camaldolese.

to assume the post of Camaldolese vicar general. He was

then appointed as counsellor to the Inquisition and later
promoted to Prefect of the Congregation of Propaganda
Fide (Propagation of the Faith),[5] which dealt with all
missionary work outside of the Spanish Empire, includStrongly conservative and traditionalist, he opposed ing to the non-Catholic states in Europe.
democratic and modernising reforms in the Papal States
and throughout Europe, seeing them as fronts for rev- 1.2 Cardinal
olutionary leftism. Against these trends he sought to
strengthen the religious and political authority of the pa- On 21 March 1825, Cappellari was created cardinal by
pacy (see ultramontanism). He encouraged missionary Pope Leo XII,[6] and shortly afterwards he was asked to
activity abroad to increase the Churchs international in- negotiate a concordat to safeguard the rights of Catholics
uence, but his harsh repression, nancial extravagance in the Low Countries, a diplomatic task which he comand neglectfulness left him deeply unpopular domesti- pleted successfully. He also negotiated a peace on becally.
half of Armenian Catholics with the Ottoman Empire.
He remains the last pope to take the pontical name He publicly condemned the Polish revolutionaries, who
Gregory upon his election, and the last non-bishop to he thought were seeking to undermine Russian Tsar
Nicholas I's eorts to support the Catholic royalist cause
become pope.
in France by forcing him to divert his troops to suppress
the uprising in Poland.

1
1.1

Biography
2 Ponticate

Early life

Bartolomeo Alberto Cappellari was born at Belluno on 2.1 Papal election

18 September 1765, to an Italian lower noble family.
His parents were from a small village named Pesariis, Main article: Papal conclave, 183031
in Friuli. At an early age he joined the order of the On 2 February 1831, after a fty-day conclave, CapCamaldolese[2] (part of the Benedictine monastic family)
and entered the Monastery of San Michael in Murano,
near Venice. As a Camaldolese monk, Cappellari rapidly
gained distinction for his theological and linguistic skills.
In 1799 he published a polemic against the Italian
Jansenists titled II Trionfo della Santa Sede (The Triumph of the Holy See),[3] which passed through various editions in Italy and was translated into several European languages. In 1800 he became a member of the
Academy of the Catholic Religion, founded by Pope Pius
VII (180023), to which he contributed memoirs on theological and philosophical questions. In 1805 he was
made abbot of the Monastery of San Gregorio on Romes
Caelian Hill.[4]

Pope Gregory XVI, 1834

pellari was unexpectedly chosen to succeed Pope Pius

VIII (182930). His election was inuenced by the fact
that the cardinal considered the most papabile, Giacomo
Giustiniani, was vetoed by King Ferdinand VII of Spain.
There then arose a deadlock between the other two major candidates, Emmanuele De Gregorio and Bartolomeo
Pacca. To resolve the impasse, the cardinals turned to
Cappellari, but it took as many as eighty-three ballots for
a sucient majority to be reached.

When the French Emperor Napoleon took Rome and expelled Pope Pius VII in 1809, Cappellari ed to Murano.
From there he and a group of monks moved to Padua
in 1814. After Napoleons nal defeat, the Congress of
Vienna re-established the sovereignty of the Papal States
over central Italy and Cappellari was called back to Rome
1

2 PONTIFICATE

At the time of election, Cardinal Cappellari was not yet a

bishop: he is the last man so far to be elected pope prior
to his episcopal consecration.[7] He was consecrated as
bishop by Bartolomeo Pacca, Cardinal Bishop of Ostia
and Velletri and dean of the Sacred College of Cardinals,[8] with Pier Francesco Galle, Cardinal Bishop of
Porto e Santa Runa and sub-dean of the Sacred College
of Cardinals, and Tommasso Arezzo, Cardinal Bishop of
Sabina, acting as co-consecrators.
The choice of Gregory XVI as his regnal name was inuenced by the fact that he had been abbot of San Gregorio
monastery on the Coelian Hill for more than twenty years.
This was the same abbey from which Pope Gregory I had
dispatched missionaries to England in 596.

2.2

Actions

reforms after a series of bombings and assassination attempts. The replacement of Tommaso Bernetti by Luigi
Lambruschini as Cardinal Secretary of State in 1836 did
nothing to appease the situation.

2.3 Governance of the Papal States

Gregory XVI and Cardinal Lambruschini opposed basic technological innovations such as gas lighting and
railways,[10] believing that they would promote commerce
and increase the power of the bourgeoisie, leading to demands for liberal reforms which would undermine the
monarchical power of the Pope over central Italy. Gregory XVI in fact banned railways in the Papal States, calling them chemins d'enfer (literally road to hell, a play
on the French for railroad, chemin de fer, literally iron
road).[11]
The insurrections at Viterbo in 1836, in various parts of
the Legations in 1840, at Ravenna in 1843 and Rimini in
1845, were followed by wholesale executions and draconian sentences of hard labour and exile, but they did not
bring the unrest within the Papal States under the control
of the authorities. Gregory XVI made great expenditures
for defensive, architectural and engineering works, having a monument to Pope Leo XII built by Giuseppe Fabris
in 1837.[12] He also lavished patronage on such scholars
as Angelo Mai, Giuseppe Mezzofanti, and Gaetano Moroni. This largesse, however, signicantly weakened the
nances of the Papal States.

2.4 Other activities

In 1839, Gregory XVI issued an encyclical against the
Atlantic slave trade, In supremo apostolatus,.[13] Other
important encyclicals were Sollicitudo ecclesiarum; that
stated in the event of a change of government, the church
would negotiate with the new government for placement
of bishops and vacant dioceses (issued 1831),[14] Mirari
Vos; on liberalism and religious indierentism (issued on
15 August 1832), Quo graviora; on the Pragmatic Constitution in the Rhineland (issued on 4 October 1833), and
Singulari Nos; on the ideas of Hugues Felicit Robert de
Lamennais (issued on 25 June 1834).
Lithograph of Gregory XVI in 1831

Gregory XVI canonized Veronica Giuliani, an Italian

mystic. During his reign, ve saints were canonized,
thirty-three Servants of God declared Blessed, (including the Augustinian Simon of Cascia), many new orders
were founded or supported, the devotion of the faithful
to Mary, the mother of Jesus, increased, in private as in
public life.[15]

The Revolution of 1830, which overthrew the House of

Bourbon, had just inicted a severe blow on the Catholic
royalist party in France. Almost the rst act of the new
French government was to seize Ancona, thus throwing
Italy, and particularly the Papal States, into a state of
confusion and political upheaval. In the course of the
struggle that ensued, it was more than once necessary to 2.5 Death and burial
call in Austrian troops to ght the red-shirted republicans
engaged in a guerrilla campaign.[9] The conservative ad- On 20 May 1846, he felt himself failing in health. A few
ministration of the Papal States postponed their promised days later, he was taken ill with facial erysipelas. At rst

3
the attack was not thought to be very serious, but on 31
May, his strength suddenly failed, and it was seen that the
end was near.[16]
Gregory XVI died on 1 June 1846, with two attendants
near him at the time of his death. After his funeral, he
was buried in Saint Peters Basilica.

2.6

Condemnation of the Slave Trade

animals, having been brought into servitude,

in no matter what way, are, without any distinction, in contempt of the rights of justice
and humanity, bought, sold, and devoted sometimes to the hardest labour. Further, in the
hope of gain, propositions of purchase being
made to the rst owners of the Blacks, dissensions and almost perpetual conicts are aroused
in these regions.
We reprove, then, by virtue of Our Apostolic Authority, all the practices abovementioned as absolutely unworthy of the Christian
name. By the same Authority We prohibit and
strictly forbid any Ecclesiastic or lay person
from presuming to defend as permissible this
trac in Blacks under no matter what pretext
or excuse, or from publishing or teaching in
any manner whatsoever, in public or privately,
opinions contrary to what We have set forth in
this Apostolic Letter.
From In supremo apostolatus[17]

3 See also
Cardinals created by Gregory XVI
List of encyclicals of Pope Gregory XVI

4 Notes
[1] English: Bartholomew Albert Cappelari

Monument to Gregory XVI in Saint Peters Basilica.

In 1839, Gregory XVI wrote that:

[W]e have judged that it belonged to Our
pastoral solicitude to exert Ourselves to turn
away the Faithful from the inhuman slave trade
in Negroes and all other men. [...] [D]esiring
to remove such a shame from all the Christian
nations, having fully reected over the whole
question and having taken the advice of many
of Our Venerable Brothers the Cardinals of the
Holy Roman Church, and walking in the footsteps of Our Predecessors, We warn and adjure earnestly in the Lord faithful Christians of
every condition that no one in the future dare
to vex anyone, despoil him of his possessions,
reduce to servitude, or lend aid and favour to
those who give themselves up to these practices, or exercise that inhuman trac by which
the Blacks, as if they were not men but rather

5 References
[1] John-Peter Pham, Heirs of the Fisherman, (Oxford University Press, 2004), 187.
[2] Richard P. McBrien, Lives of the Popes, (HarperCollins,
2000), 336.
[3] Richard P. McBrien, Lives of the Popes, 337.
[4] John-Peter Pham, Heirs of the Fisherman, 322.
[5] John-Peter Pham, Heirs of the Fisherman, 322.
[6] Richard P. McBrien, Lives of the Popes, 335.
[7] John-Peter Pham, Heirs of the Fisherman, 322.
[8] John-Peter Pham, Heirs of the Fisherman, 322.
[9] Richard P. McBrien, Lives of the Popes, 276.
[10] Richard P. McBrien, Lives of the Popes, 276.
[11] John-Peter Pham, Heirs of the Fisherman, 20-21.
[12] Richard P. McBrien, Lives of the Popes, 276.

[13] Richard P. McBrien, Lives of the Popes, 339.

[14] Richard P. McBrien, Lives of the Popes, 339.
[15] "Pope Gregory XVI". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York:
Robert Appleton Company. 1913.
[16] "Pope Gregory XVI". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York:
Robert Appleton Company. 1913.
[17] In supremo apostolatus. Papalencyclicals.net. Retrieved
2013-06-23.

External links
"Pope Gregory XVI". Catholic Encyclopedia. New
York: Robert Appleton Company. 1913.

EXTERNAL LINKS

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