December 5

Niccolò Sfondrati, was born on February 11, 1535. Born into a rather prosperous family he early on achieved a reputation for modesty and piety. He entered the priesthood and in 1560 was made a cardinal by Pope Gregory XIII. On the 5th of December in 1590, at the conclave held upon the death of Pope Urban, Sfondrati was elevated to the papacy and assumed the name Pope Gregory XIV. When informed of his election he purportedly burst into tears and responded to the cardinals who informed him by stating “God forgive you! What have you done?” In March of 1591 he issued his first papal bull, Cogit nos, in which he forbade under pain of excommunication ‘all betting concerning the election of the Pope, the duration of a pontificate, or the creation of new cardinals.’ Gregory XIV would die on October 16, 1591 making his pontificate one of the shorter ones in church history. There are no records extant indicating the odds on his dying on that day or what the payoff was.