Pope Urban VII

Urban VII
Birth name	Giovanni Battista Castagna
Papacy began	September 15, 1590
Papacy ended	September 27, 1590
Predecessor	Sixtus V
Successor	Gregory XIV
Born	August 4 1521(1521-08-04) Rome, Italy
Died	September 27 1590 (aged 69) Rome, Italy
Other popes named Urban

Styles of Pope Urban VIII
Reference style	His Holiness
Spoken style	Your Holiness
Religious style	Holy Father
Posthumous style	His Holiness

Pope Urban VII (August 4, 1521 – September 27, 1590), born Giovanni Battista Castagna, was Pope for thirteen days in September 1590. He was of Genoese origin, although born in Rome. He was chosen successor of Pope Sixtus V (1585–90) on September 15, 1590, but died of malaria (September 27, 1590) before consecration, making his either the shortest or second shortest papal reign in history, depending on whether Stephen II is considered a real Pope (he has not been so considered by the Catholic Church since 1961). He had previously served as governor of Bologna and as archbishop of Rossano, and was for many years nuncio to Spain; his election to the papacy was largely backed by the Spanish faction. Urban VII's short passage in office gave rise to the world's first known public smoking ban, as he threatened to excommunicate anyone who "took tobacco in the porchway of or inside a church, whether it be by chewing it, smoking it with a pipe or sniffing it in powdered form through the nose".

References

• "Pope Urban VII" in the 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia.
• The Death of the Popes by Wendy J. Reardon, 2004.