GREGORY X., pope from 1271 to 1276, succeeded Clement IV. after the papal chair had been three years vacant; his election occurred while he was engaged in a pilgrimage to Saint Jean-d’Acre. On his arrival at Rome his first act was to summon the council which met at Lyons in 1274 for the purpose of considering the Eastern schism, the condition of the Holy Land, and the abuses of the Catholic Church. It was while returning from that council that he died at Arezzo on the 10th of January 1276. To him is due the bull which, subsequently incorporated into the code of canon law, continues to regulate all conclaves for papal elections. He was succeeded by Innocent V.

GREGORY XI. (Pierre Roger de Beaufort), pope from 1370 to 1378, born in Limousin in 1336, succeeded Urban V. in 1370 as one of the Avignon popes. During his pontificate vigorous measures were taken against the “heresies” which had broken out in Germany, England, and other parts of Europe; a sincere effort was also made to bring about a reformation in the various monastic orders. The nineteen propositions of Wickliffe and the thirteen articles of the “Sachsenspiegel” were formally condemned by him in 1373. His energy was largely stimulated by the stirring words of Catherine of Siena (see vol v. p. 231), to whom in particular the transference of the papal see back to Italy, January 27, 1377, was almost entirely due. He did not long survive this removal, dying on March 27, 1378. His successor was Urban VI., but the antipope Clement VII. also received much support, and the schism lasted forty years.

GREGORY XII. (Angelo Corario or Corraro), pope from 1406 to 1409, born at Venice about 1326, succeeded Innocent VII. on 30th November 1406, having been chosen at Rome by a conclave consisting of only fifteen cardinals, under the express condition that, should Benedict XIII. of Avignon renounce all claim to the papacy, he also would renounce his, so that a fresh election might be made by the no longer divided church. Along with Benedict he was deposed by the council of Pisa in March 1409 as schismatical, heretical, perjured, and scandalous; but it was not till after the council of Constance had set aside John XXIII. (1415) that through his ambassador he formally renounced the title and dignity of lawful pope. The rest of his life was spent in peaceful obscurity as cardinal-bishop of Porto and legate of the mark of Ancona. He died October 18, 1417, having been succeeded in 1409 by Alexander V.

GREGORY XIII. (Ugo Buoncompagno), pope from 1572 to 1585, was born February 7, 1502, at Bologna, where he studied law and graduated in 1530, and afterwards taught jurisprudence for some years, Alexander Farnese and Charles Borromeo being among his pupils. At the age of thirty-six he was summoned to Rome by Paul III., under whom he held successive appointments as first judge of the capital, abbreviator, and vice-chancellor of the campagna; by Paul IV. he was attached as datarius to the suite of Cardinal Carafa; and by Pius IV. he was created cardinal priest and sent to the council of Trent. On the death of Pius V. in May 1572, the choice of the conclave fell upon Buoncompagno, who assumed the name of Gregory XIII. His intervention in the affairs of Britain through Ireland and by means of his tool Philip II., and also the league which he sought to cement against France (the massacre of the St Bartholomew had taken place in September 1572), are matters which belong to the history of those countries. In order to raise funds for these and similar objects, he confiscated a large proportion of the houses and properties throughout the states of the church,—a measure which enriched his treasury, indeed, for a time, but by alienating the great body of the nobility and gentry, revived old factions, created new ones, and ultimately plunged his temporal dominions into a state bordering upon anarchy. Such was the position of matters at the time of his death, which took place on the 10th of April 1585. He was a liberal patron of the Jesuit order, for which he founded many new colleges; the new and greatly improved edition of the Corpus juris canonici was also due to his care; but the work with which the name of Gregory XIII. is most intimately and honourably associated is that of ...

GREGORY XIV. (Niccolo Sfondrato), pope from 1590 to 1591, a native of Cremona, succeeded Urban VII., 5th December 1590. As a monk he had been eminent for the decency and sobriety of his life; but his brief pontificate was marked by no important occurrence, except that, instigated by the king of Spain and the duke of Mayenne, he excommunicated Henry IV. of France, declaring him, as a heretic and persecutor, to be deprived of his dominions, and also levied an army for the invasion of France. The history of that country records how this proceeding was regarded alike by clergy, parliament, and people. The biographers mention as a curious personal trait of Gregory XIV. a nervous tendency to laughter which occasionally became irresistible, and which manifested itself even at his coronation. He was succeeded by Innocent IX.

GREGORY XV. (Alessandro Ludovisio), pope from 1621 to 1623, born at Bologna in 1554, succeeded Paul V. on the 9th of February 1621. Beyond assisting the German emperor against the Protestants, and the king of Poland against the Turks, he interfered little in European politics. He was a learned divine and manifested a reforming spirit; and his pontificate was marked by the canonization of St Theresa, Francis Xavier, Ignatius Loyola, and Philip Neri. He died on the 18th of July 1623, and was succeeded by Urban VIII.

GREGORY XVI. (Bartolommeo Alberto Cappellari), pope from 1831 to 1846, was born at Belluno on September 18, 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 Trionfo della Santa Sede, which, besides passing through several editions in Italy, was 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. When Pius VII. was carried off from Rome in 1809, Cappellari withdrew to the monastery of San Michele at 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 2d 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 it seemed as if similar disasters to the papal cause were imminent in other parts of Europe, when Gregory XVI. entered upon his fifteen years’ pontificate. Almost the first act of the new Government of France was to ...