At the moment of Pope Gregory XV’s…

At the moment of Pope Gregory XV’s election, won chiefly through the influence of Cardinal Borghese, at his advanced age (he is sixty-seven) and with his weak state of health, he had seen at once that he would need an energetic man, in whom he could place implicit confidence, to assist him in the government of the Church.

His nephew Ludovico Ludovisi, a young man of twenty-five years, had seemed to him to be the right person: at the risk of being charged with nepotism, he had created him cardinal on the third day of his pontificate.

On the same day, Orazio, a brother of the pope, had been put at the head of the pontifical army.

Gregory XV will not be be disappointed in his nephew.

The Catholic Encyclopedia allows that "Ludovico, it is true, advanced the interests of his family in every possible way, but he also used his brilliant talents and his great influence for the welfare of the Church, and was sincerely devoted to the pope."

Gregory has secured for the Ludovisi two dukedoms, one for his youngest brother Orazio, made a Nobile Romano and duca di Fiano, 1621, and the other, the duchy of Zagarolo, purchased from the Colonna by his nephew Ludovico Ludovisi in 1622.

A second nephew, Niccolò, will be made reigning Prince of Piombino and Lord of the Isola d'Elba in 1634, having married the heiress on March 30, 1632.

The hereditary Palatine Library of Heidelberg, containing about thirty-five hundred manuscripts, is given to the Vatican by Maximilian I, Duke of Bavaria (who has just acquired it as booty in the Thirty Years' War) in thanks for Gregory’s adroit political maneuvers, which have sustained him in his contests with Protestant candidates for the electoral seat.

Beyond assisting Ferdinand II, Holy Roman Emperor and the Catholic League against the Protestants, to the tune of a million gold ducats, and Sigismund III Vasa against the Turks, Gregory has interfered little in European politics.

His Constitution against magicians and witches (Omnipotentis Dei, 20 March, 1623) is the last papal ordinance against witchcraft.

Former punishments are lessened, and the death penalty is limited to those who were "proved to have entered into a compact with the devil, and to have committed homicide with his assistance".