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254th Roman Pontiff
Gregory XVI
GREGORIVS Sextus Decimus
Bartolomeo Alberto Cappellari, O.S.B. Cam.
254th Successor of St Peter · 1831–1846 · Italy · b. Belluno, Republic of Venice
1831
Elected
1846
Reign ended
15 years
Length
19th
Century
The Life
Citizen of the Republic of Venice. Member of the Camaldolese, with the religious name Mauro. Last non-bishop to be elected to the papacy.
Politically opposed to democratic and modernising reforms of the Papal States. Regarding scientific thinking, all traces of opposition to heliocentrism by the church disappeared in 1835, when the uncensored versions of Dialogue and De Revolutionibus were finally removed from the Index.
Portrait: Paul Delaroche / Wikimedia Commons