Pope Gregory XVI (b. 1765)
Pope Gregory XVI (Latin: Gregorius XVI; Italian: Gregorio XVI; born Bartolomeo Alberto Cappellari; 18 September 1765 – 1 June 1846) was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 2 February 1831 to his death in 1846. He had adopted the name Mauro upon entering the religious order of the Camaldolese.
Strongly conservative and traditionalist, he opposed democratic and modernising reforms in the Papal States and throughout Europe, seeing them as fronts for revolutionary leftism. Against these trends, Gregory XVI sought to strengthen the religious and political authority of the papacy (see ultramontanism). In the encyclical Mirari vos, he pronounced it "false and absurd, or rather mad, that we must secure and guarantee to each one liberty of conscience." He encouraged missionary activity abroad and condemned the slave trade. However, his harsh repression, financial extravagance and neglectfulness left him deeply unpopular domestically.
He is the most recent pope to take the pontifical name "Gregory", and the most recent pope who was not a bishop when elected. He was, until the accession of Pope Francis in 2013, the most recent pope to have been a priest of a religious order.
1846Jun, 1
Pope Gregory XVI
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Events on 1846
- 11May
Mexican-American War
President James K. Polk asked for a Declaration of War against Mexico, starting the Mexican-American War. It is approved on May 13. - 7Jul
Conquest of California
American troops occupy Monterey and Yerba Buena, thus beginning the conquest of California. - 10Sep
Sewing machine
Elias Howe is granted a patent for the sewing machine. - 24Sep
Zachary Taylor
Mexican-American War: General Zachary Taylor captures Monterrey. - 16Oct
Ether Dome
William T. G. Morton first demonstrated ether anesthesia at the Massachusetts General Hospital in the Ether Dome.