Activities
Urban VIII's papacy covered 21 years of the Thirty Years' War (1618–1648), and was an eventful one, even by the standards of the day.
Despite an early friendship and encouragement for his teachings, Urban VIII was responsible for summoning the scientist and astronomer Galileo to Rome in 1633 to recant his work. Urban VIII was opposed to Copernican heliocentrism and he ordered Galileo's trial after the publication of Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems, in which Urban's point of view is argued by the character "Simplicio".
Urban VIII practiced nepotism on a grand scale; various members of his family were enormously enriched by him, so that it seemed to contemporaries as if he were establishing a Barberini dynasty. He elevated his brother Antonio Marcello Barberini (Antonio the Elder) and then his nephews Francesco Barberini and Antonio Barberini (Antonio the Younger) to Cardinal. He also bestowed upon their brother, Taddeo Barberini, the titles Prince of Palestrina, Gonfalonier of the Church, Prefect of Rome and Commander of Sant'Angelo. Historian Leopold von Ranke estimated that during his reign, Urban VIII's immediate family amassed 105 million scudi in personal wealth.
Urban VIII was a skilled writer of Latin verse, and a collection of scriptural paraphrases as well as original hymns of his composition have been frequently reprinted.
The 1638 papal bull Commissum Nobis protected the existence of Jesuit missions in South America by forbidding the enslavement of natives who were at the Jesuit Reductions. At the same time, Urban VIII repealed the Jesuit monopoly on missionary work in China and Japan, opening these countries to missionaries of other orders and missionary societies.
In response to complaints in the Diocese of Seville, Urban VIII issued the letter Cum Ecclesiae, dated 30 January 1642, that made use of tobacco in holy places punishable by excommunication. While often described as a papal bull, the document was not filed as such and was more than likely an encyclical; Pope Benedict XIII eventually abrogated the tobacco ban, preferring other methods to ensuring the cleanliness of church facilities.
Urban VIII canonized five saints during his pontificate: Stephen Harding (1623), Elizabeth of Portugal and Conrad of Piacenza (1625), Peter Nolasco (1628), and Andrea Corsini (1629). The pope also beatified 68 individuals, including the Martyrs of Nagasaki (1627). He also issued the papal bulls of canonization for Ignatius of Loyola (founder of the Society of Jesus, "Jesuits") and Francis Xavier (also a Jesuit), who had been canonized by his predecessor, Pope Gregory XV.
Pope Urban VIII is also known as the first pope who granted a canonical coronation towards a Marian icon. The first icon that was crowned was the La Madonna della Febbre which is enshrined at the sacristy of St. Peter's Basilica. The coronation took place on 1631 making it as the first coronation in the world.
The pope created 74 cardinals in eight consistories throughout his pontificate, and this included his nephews Francesco and Antonio, cousin Lorenzo Magalotti, and the pope's own brother Antonio Marcello. He also created Giovanni Battista Pamphili as a cardinal, with Pamphili becoming his immediate successor, Pope Innocent X. The pope also created eight of those cardinals whom he had reserved in pectore.
In the papal bull Sanctissimus Dominus Noster of 13 March 1625, Urban instructed Catholics not to venerate the deceased or represent them in the manner of saints without Church sanction. It required a bishop's approval for the publication of private revelations. Since the nineteenth century, it has become common for books of popular devotion to carry a disclaimer. One read in part: "In obedience to the decrees of Urban the Eighth, I declare that I have no intention of attributing any other than a purely human authority to the miracles, revelations, favours, and particular cases recorded in this book..."
