Ippolito Aldobrandini, made Cardinal-Priest of S. Pancrazio…

Ippolito Aldobrandini, made Cardinal-Priest of S. Pancrazio in 1585 by Pope Gregory XIII, had been named by Pope Sixtus V as major penitentiary in January 1586 and in 1588 been sent by him as legate in Poland.

Placing himself under the direction of the reformer Philip Neri, who for thirty years was his confessor, Aldobrandini had won the gratitude of the Habsburgs by his successful diplomatic efforts in Poland to obtain the release of the imprisoned Archduke Maximilian, the defeated claimant to the Polish throne.

Following the death of Pope Innocent IX, another stormy conclave has ensued, where a determined minority of Italian Cardinals are unwilling to be dictated to by Philip II of Spain.

Cardinal Aldobrandini's election on January 30, 1592, is received as a portent of more balanced and liberal Papal policy in European affairs.

Taking the non-politicized name Clement VIII, he will prove to be an able Pope, with an unlimited capacity for work and a lawyer's eye for detail, and a wise statesman, the general object of whose policy is to free the Papacy from its dependence upon Spain.