Lentorama 2010: Two Millennia of Pointy Hats

Day 34: Urban VIII (1623-44)

While you can't really sum up 20 years of rule in two items, there are two things that stand out about Urban's two decades in office:

1. He was the last pope to expand the territories of the Papal States by force. In the course of doing this, he created a Vatican arsenal, and looted the Pantheon of bronze for use in making cannons (as well as for the famed canopy in St. Peter's).

2. He was the pope that summoned Galileo to Rome to recant his belief in heliocentrism. The irony here is that Urban and Galileo had been friendly.

Of course, there were a number of other things that went on during Urban's term of office. He protected Jesuit missions in the new world while opening up Asian mission work to orders other than the Jesuits. He practiced nepotism on a grand scale, enriching his family quite a bit. He patronized the arts significantly. And he made smoking tobacco punishable by excommunication, which just seems like something you'd do because you're the pope and can get away with it.

One other thing Urban did a great job of during his reign was make enemies. This was mostly due to the burgeoning Vatican debt, which more than doubled during his term of office. This debt crippled the papacy, as interest payments took up roughly 80 percent of the Vatican's income. This unpopularity survived his death, most notably in the conclave, where a leading candidate who was allied with Urban's family was passed over for the man who would become Innocent X.