URBAN VIII. (Maffeo Barberini), pope from 1623 to 1644, was born in 1568, of a wealthy Florentine family. He early entered the prelacy, became prefect of Spoleto, twice nuncio to France, cardinal (16°6), and finally, on Aug. 6, 1623, succeeded Gregory XV. as pope. Urban accepted the papacy chiefly as a temporal principality, and made it his first care to provide for its defence and to render it formidable. He built Castelfranco on the northern frontier; fortified the port of Civita Vecchia; and strengthened the Castel Sant' Angelo, equipping it with cannon made from the bronze of the Pantheon, an act of van dalism which the Romans punished by the epigram, "Quod non fecerunt barbari, fecerunt Barberini." He also established an arsenal and a factory of arms. But the only territory gained during Urban's pontificate, the duchy of Urbino, the last addition to the papal states, was acquired by reversion (1631) ; and in his one war, with the duke of Parma, for the district of Castro, he met defeat and humiliation (1644). The Thirty Years' War Urban professed to regard as waged for political, not for religious, ends. He therefore threw in his lot with France, supported the duke of Nevers in the Mantuan Succession, and, under stress of fear of Habsburg supremacy, suffered himself to be drawn into closer relations with the Protestants than beseemed his office.
Urban was the last pope to practise nepotism on a grand scale. He failed to found a princely house; but he enriched his family to an extent that astonished even the Romans. Urban bore a hand in the condemnation of Galileo. He acknowledged the genius
of the astronomer, and had not approved of the action of the Inquisition in 1616; but subsequently, believing himself to have been caricatured in the Dialogo, he permitted the Inquisition to have its way and to compel an abjuration (1633). Urban also denounced the doctrines of Jansen, 1644. (See JANsEmsm.) He promulgated the famous bull In Coena Domini in its final form, 1627; published the latest revision of the Breviary, 1631; founded the College of the Propaganda for the education of missionaries, 1627; and accorded the title of "eminence" to the cardinals, 1630. Urban did much to embellish the city. Conspicuous among his works are the Barberini Palace, the College of the Propaganda, the Fountain of the Triton, and the baldachin of St. Peter's. His hymns and poems, which have frequently been published, are evidence of his literary taste and ability. Urban died on July 29, 1644, and was succeeded by Innocent X.
For contemporary accounts of Urban see: Tommasucci, in Platina, De vitis Pontiff. Rom.; Oldoin, continuator of Ciaconius, Vitae et res gestae summorum Pontiff. Rom.; and Simonin, Gesta Urbani (Antwerp.