Giovanni Antonio Facchinetti, whose family came from…
October 1591 CE
Giovanni Antonio Facchinetti, whose family came from Crodo, in the diocese of Novara, northern Italy, had become secretary to Cardinal Nicolò Ardinghelli before entering the service of Alessandro Cardinal Farnese, brother of the Duke of Parma and grandson of Pope Paul III (1534–1549), one of the great patrons of the time.
The Cardinal, who was archbishop of Avignon, had sent Facchinetti there as his ecclesiastical representative and subsequently recalled him to the management of his affairs at Parma, where he was acting governor of the city, from 1556 to 1558.
Facchinetti had been named Bishop of Nicastro, in Calabria, in 1560, and in 1562 had been present at the Council of Trent.
Pope Pius V (1566–1572) had sent him as papal nuncio to Venice in 1566 to further the papal alliance with Spain and Venice against the Turks, which ultimately resulted in the victory of Lepanto in 1571.
Relinquishing his see to pursue his career in Rome, he had been named titular Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem in 1572.
During the reign of the sickly Gregory XIV, who suffers from bouts of malaria, the burden of the papal administration rests on his shoulders.
Even before Gregory XIV breathes his last, Spanish and anti-Spanish factions are electioneering for the next Pope.
Philip II of Spain's high-handed interference at the previous conclave is not forgotten: he had barred all but seven cardinals.
This time the Spanish party in the College of Cardinals does not go so far, but they still control a majority, and after a quick conclave they raise Facchinetti to the papal chair as Pope Innocent IX.