Pope Sixtus V
Urban VII | |
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Orders | |
Ordination | 1547 |
Consecration | 12 January 1567 by Antonio Lauro |
Created cardinal | 17 May 1570 by Pius V |
Personal details | |
Born | Felice Piergentile, then Felice Peretti 13 December 1521 |
Died | 27 August 1590 Rome, Papal States | (aged 68)
Previous post(s) |
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Motto | Aqua et panis, vita canis (Water and bread are a dog’s life)[1] |
Signature | |
Coat of arms | |
Other popes named Sixtus |
Papal styles of Pope Sixtus V | |
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His Holiness | |
Spoken style | Your Holiness |
Religious style | Holy Father |
Posthumous style | None |
Pope Sixtus V (Italian: Sisto V; 13 December 1521 – 27 August 1590), born Felice Piergentile, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 24 April 1585 to his death, in August 1590. As a youth, he joined the Franciscan order, where he displayed talents as a scholar and preacher, and enjoyed the patronage of Pius V, who made him a cardinal. As a cardinal, he was known as Cardinal Montalto.
As Pope, he energetically rooted out corruption and lawlessness across Rome, and launched a far-sighted rebuilding programme that continues to provoke controversy, as it involved the destruction of antiquities. The cost of these works was met by heavy taxation which caused much suffering. His foreign policy was regarded as over-ambitious, and he excommunicated both Queen
Early life
Felice Piergentile was born on 13 December 1521 at
Franciscan
At the age of 9 years, Felice returned to
About 1552 he was noticed by Cardinal
After a brief term as
Cardinal
During the pontificate of his political enemy Gregory XIII (1572–1585), Cardinal Montalto, as he was generally called, lived in enforced retirement, occupied with the care of his property,[5] the Villa Montalto, erected by Domenico Fontana close to the cardinal's beloved church on the Esquiline Hill, overlooking the ancient Baths of Diocletian. The first phase (1576–1580) of the building was enlarged after Peretti became pope and was able to clear buildings to open four new streets in 1585–86. The villa contained two residences, the Palazzo Sistino or "Palazzo di Termini"[6] and the casino, called the Palazzetto Montalto e Felice.
This clearance programme was an undoubted gain in the relief it brought to the congestion of the crowded medieval city. Clearly, however, Romans displaced by it were furious, and resentment was still felt centuries later until the decision was taken to build Roma Termini railway station, inaugurated by Pope Pius IX in 1863, on the site of the Villa, which became doomed to destruction.
Cardinal Montalto's other occupation at this period was with his studies, one of the fruits of which was an edition of the works of Ambrose.[5] As pope he would personally supervise the printing of an improved edition of Jerome's Vulgate.
Papacy
Election as pope
Though not neglecting to follow the course of affairs, Felice carefully avoided every occasion of offence. This discretion contributed not a little to his election to the papacy on 24 April 1585, with the title of Sixtus V to honour
Reforms in the city of Rome
The terrible condition in which
Next Sixtus set to work to repair the finances. By the sale of offices, the establishment of a new "Monti" and by levying new taxes, he accumulated a vast surplus, which he stored up against certain specified emergencies, such as a
Immense sums were spent upon public works,[5] in carrying through the comprehensive planning that had come to fruition during his retirement, bringing water to the waterless hills in the Acqua Felice, feeding twenty-seven new fountains; laying out new arteries in Rome, which connected the great basilicas, even setting his engineer-architect Domenico Fontana to replan the Colosseum as a silk-spinning factory housing its workers.
Inspired by the ideal of the Renaissance city, Pope Sixtus V's ambitious urban reform programme transformed the old environment to emulate the "long straight streets, wide regular spaces, uniformity and repetitiveness of structures, lavish use of commemorative and ornamental elements, and maximum visibility from both linear and circular perspective."
Besides numerous roads and bridges,[5] he sweetened the city air by financing the reclamation of the Pontine Marshes. Consequently, the spatial organization, monumental inscriptions and restorations throughout the city reinforced the control, surveillance, and authority that alluded to the power of Pope Sixtus V.[11] Good progress was made, with more than 9,500 acres (38 km2) reclaimed and opened to agriculture and manufacture. The project was abandoned upon his death.
Sixtus had no appreciation of antiquities, which were employed as raw material to serve his urbanistic and Christianising programs: Trajan's Column and the Column of Marcus Aurelius (at the time misidentified as the Column of Antoninus Pius) were made to serve as pedestals for the statues of SS Peter and Paul; the Minerva of the Capitol was converted into an emblem of Christian Rome; the Septizodium of Septimius Severus was demolished for its building materials.[5]
Church administration
The subsequent administrative system of the Catholic Church owed much to Sixtus. He limited the College of Cardinals to seventy. He doubled the number of the congregations and enlarged their functions, assigning to them the principal role in the transaction of business (1588). He regarded the Jesuits with disfavour and suspicion. He meditated radical changes to their constitution, but death prevented the execution of his purpose.[5]
In 1588, he established the 15
Sixtine Vulgate and Septuagint
In May 1587, the Sixtine Septuagint was published under the auspices of Sixtus V.[13]
In May 1590 the Sixtine Vulgate was issued.
Consistories
Sixtus V created 33 cardinals in eight consistories during his reign, which included his grandnephew Alessandro Peretti di Montalto and his future successor Ippolito Aldobrandini who would later become Pope Clement VIII.
Beatifications and canonizations
During his pontificate, Sixtus V
Roman Curia
In 1588, Sixtus V published the
Foreign relations
In his larger political relations, Sixtus entertained fantastic ambitions, such as the annihilation of the
Sixtus agreed to renew the
Sixtus excommunicated King
Contraception, abortion, and adultery
Sixtus extended the penalty of excommunication relating to the Roman Catholic Church's teaching on contraception and on abortion. While the Church taught that abortion and contraception were gravely sinful actions, it did not apply to all mortal sins the additional penalty of excommunication.[citation needed]
Some theologians argued that only after proof of the "quickening" (when the mother can feel the fetus's movement in her womb, usually about 20 weeks into gestation) that there was incontrovertible evidence that ensoulment had already occurred. Until Sixtus V, canon lawyers had applied the code from Gratian whereby excommunications were only given to abortions after the quickening. In 1588 the pope issued a papal bull, Effraenatam or Effrenatam ("Without Restraint"), which declared that the canonical penalty of excommunication would be levied for any form of contraception and for abortions at any stage in fetal development.[21] The reasoning on the latter would be that the soul of the unborn child would be denied Heaven.[22]
Sixtus also attempted in 1586 to introduce into the secular law in Rome the Old Testament penalty for adultery, which is death. The measure ultimately failed.[23]
Death and legacy
Sixtus V died on 27 August 1590 from malaria. The pope became ill with a fever on 24 August; it intensified the following day.
As Sixtus V lay on his deathbed, he was loathed by his political subjects, but history has recognized him as one of the most important popes. On the negative side, he could be impulsive, obstinate, severe, and autocratic. On the positive side, he was open to large ideas and threw himself into his undertakings with energy and determination; this often led to success. His pontificate saw great enterprises and great achievements.[5]
About 5,000 bandits were executed by Sixtus V in the five years before his death in 1590, but there were reputedly 27,000 more at liberty throughout Central Italy.[24]
He was the last pope to date to use the name Sixtus.
References
- ^ "Sixtus V. S.A. Bent, comp. 1887. Familiar Short Sayings of Great Men". www.bartleby.com. Retrieved 15 February 2022.
- ^ Richard P. McBrien, Lives of the Pope, (HarperCollins, 2000), 292.
- ^ Name and date information sourced from Library of Congress Authorities data, via corresponding WorldCat Identities linked authority file (LAF).
- ^ "The Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church – Biographical Dictionary – Consistory of 17 May 1570".
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o public domain: Collier, Theodore Freylinghuysen (1911). "Sixtus". In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 25 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the
- Latin, thermae)
- ^ Ludwig Pastor, History of the Popes, St. Louis, 1898/99, vol 21, p.83
- ISBN 978-0-300-17503-5.
- ISBN 9780226663869.
- )
- S2CID 144253902.
- ^ "The Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church - The Roman Curia". cardinals.fiu.edu. Retrieved 11 October 2021.
- ^ Swete, H. B. (1914). "Introduction to the Old Testament in Greek. Additional Notes. CHAPTER VI. PRINTED TEXTS OF THE SEPTUAGINT". Christian Classics Ethereal Library. Archived from the original on 3 November 2019. Retrieved 3 November 2019.
- ^ Metzger, Bruce M. (1977). The Early Versions of the New Testament. Oxford: Clarendon Press. p. 348.
- ^ a b "Vulgate in the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia". International Standard Bible Encyclopedia Online. Retrieved 17 September 2019.
- ISBN 978-1-4102-1729-5.
- ^ Scrivener, Frederick Henry Ambrose; Edward Miller (1894). A Plain Introduction to the Criticism of the New Testament. Vol. 2 (4 ed.). London: George Bell & Sons. p. 64.
- ISBN 9780300066678.
- ^ Catholic encyclopedia, "Spanish Armada".
- ^ R.J. Knecht, Hero or Tyrant? Henry III, King of France, 1574-89, (Routledge, 2016), 238.
- ^ [1] Archived 18 February 2012 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "Effraenatam in English".
Who will not detest such an abhorrent and evil act, by which are lost not only the bodies but also the souls? (Popes believe in the limbo of the little ones) Who will not condemn to a most grave punishment the impiety of him who will exclude a soul created in the image of God and for which Our Lord Jesus Christ has shed His precious Blood, and which is capable of eternal happiness and is destined to be in the company of angels, from the blessed vision of God, and who has impeded as much as he could the filling up of heavenly mansions (left vacant by the fallen angels), and has taken away the service to God by His creature?
- ^ Diarmuid MacCulloch, Reformation: Europe's House Divided 1490–1700 (London, 2008)
- ISBN 1-4051-5783-6.
Sources
- Ott, Michael (1912). Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 14. New York: Robert Appleton Company. . In Herbermann, Charles (ed.).
- Leti, Gregorio; Farneworth, Ellis (1779). The Life of Pope Sixtus the Fifth. Dublin.
- Tempesti, Casamiro (1754). Storia della vita e geste di Sisto quinto, vol. I. Rome.
External links
- Montalto delle Marche city of Sisto V
- Papa Sisto V
- Piazza di Termini, Rome: timeline, including the Villa
- Visit Montalto delle Marche where Pope Sixtus V trained
- FIU
Works
- Contra exercentes astrologiae iudiciariae artem (in Latin). Bologna: eredi Antonio Blado. 1586.
- Latin text of Effraenatum perditissimorum