The EPISCOPAL ORDINATION of POPE GREGORY XIV
In September 2021, my friend
and research colleague from Milan discovered the details of the ordinations of
Ugo Boncompagni, the future Pope Gregory XIII, as subdeacon, deacon, priest,
and bishop. Those ordinations were published on this site on 15 September 2021.
Recently he was reviewing
documents in the Archivio di Stato di Milano, Atti notarili della Cancelleria
arcivescovile and he came across a papal brief dated 8 April 1560 which
authorized Niccolò Sfondrati, Bishop-elect of Cremona, to receive the four
minor orders and the orders of subdeacon, deacon, and priest anywhere outside
the city of Rome. The brief also authorized him to be ordained a bishop by one
bishop, assisted by two or three other bishops.
In the same archives, at b. 22,
fasc. 80, the details of Bishop-elect Sfondarti’s episcopal ordination were
found:
On 19 May 1560, at Milan, in
the Church of San Paolo Converso, Bishop Melchiorre Cribelli, Titular Bishop of
Thagaste, assisted by Bishop Giulio Giovio, Bishop of Nocera, and Bishop
Antonio Scarampi, Bishop of Nola, ordained Father Niccolò Sfondrati, as Bishop
of Cremona.
Bishop Sfondrati was born at
Somma, Archdiocese of Milano, on 11 February 1535. He was elected Bishop of
Cremona on 13 March 1560 and he was created a cardinal in the consistory of 12
December 1583. Cardinal Sfondrati was elected Pope on 5 February 1590, taking
the name Gregory XIV. He died at Rome on 16 October 1591.
