Pope Clement VIII

Born Ippolito Aldobrandini in Fano in 1536 to a prominent Florentine family, he rose through the Church as a canon lawyer before becoming Cardinal-Priest in 1585. Elected Pope in 1592, he engineered the reconciliation of Henry IV of France to Catholicism and helped forge a Christian alliance against the Ottoman Empire during the Long War. He mediated a theological clash between Dominicans and Jesuits over grace and free will, and in 1600 oversaw a jubilee that drew pilgrims to Rome in great numbers. That same year he presided over the trial and execution of Giordano Bruno, and he imposed strict measures on Jewish residents of the Papal States. He died in March 1605 at sixty-nine, and was laid to rest in Santa Maria Maggiore.