June 15, 1585: A Document Signed as Pope Sixtus V

This is a document dated June 15th, 1585, the first year of his pontificate.

It is signed as Pope Sixtus V and is untranslated. It concerns a bishop with an illegitimate son who owes money to the church.

It is written to another bishop about this subject.

An avid patron of the arts and of building and scholarship, Sixtus continued the work of beautifying Rome begun by his predecessors, imaginatively reconstructing the city by widening streets that linked the seven pilgrimage churches and by moving three existing obelisks with crosses crowning them to strategic places. The placement of the obelisks is of particular importance. Brandon Toropov notes that, he went out of his way to embrace…the city’s extraordinary history. Previous pontificates appeared to have viewed Rome’s now-ancient “pagan” heritage as some kind of invitation to heresy. Sixtus, in stark contrast, moved the obelisk of the Circus of Nero into the middle of St. Peter’s Square.. Additionally, he completed the dome of St. Peter’s, rebuilt the Lateran Palace, and built aqueducts throughout the city. He erected the Vatican Library with its adjoining printing office and the wing of the Vatican Palace, which is inhabited by the pope. Significant hospices for the poor were also built. And this is just a partial list of achievements of this pontificate.

Sixtus V accomplished all of this in the space of five years. Then, suffering severely from malaria, he died in 1590 and was buried in his beloved church, St. Mary Major in a sepulcher built in front of the mausoleum he had erected for Pope (Saint) Pius V. History has recognized that Sixtus V was the most significant figure in the Catholic Reformation. His reign saw great achievements that cannot be dismissed but upon his death, the people tore down a statue that had been erected in his honor.