Gregory Xiii (Ugo Buoncompagno)

Gregory Xiii (Ugo Buoncompagno)

Gregory XIII (Ugo Buoncompagno),

Pope, born in 1502 at Bologna, succeeded Pius V May 13, 1572. He was one of the most learned priests of his time. especially in civil and canonical law. He was a man of mild temper and jovial habits, yet his pontificate is stained by his relations to the bloody massacre of St. Bartholomew (which he openly approved by a solemn Te Deum, and by striking medals in honor of it), and by his participation in a treasonable plot against queen Elizabeth. His reign was agitated and unquiet throughout, and, amid the confusions caused by his attempts to confiscate many of the estates of thee Italian nobles, he died, April 10,1585. His reform of the calendar, however, will carry his name down to the latest posterity. — Mosheim, Church Hist cent. 16, sec. iii, pt. i, ch. i, n. 28; Ranke, History of Papacy, i, 307 sq. (See Calendar).