[MR] Wikipedia: Shortest Papacy and Church Smoking Ban

[Garth Groff and Sally Sanford]

Noble Friends,

On this date in 1590 Pope Urban VII died of malaria. He reigned for just 13
days, the shortest papacy in history.

Urban VII didn't have much time to make enemies, or to leave a real mark on
the church and its policies. His most unique accomplishment was to ban
tobacco use in all Catholic churches upon threat of excommunication. How
long the ban lasted, and how effective it was, is not mentioned in any of
the articles I read. The Church itself was already heavily involved in
tobacco production at some Italian monasteries.

An understandably brief bio of Urban VII is at
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Urban_VII .

A bit, and I mean just a bit, more about Pope Urban's smoking ban is found
at https://www.churchpop.com/pope-worlds-first-ban-smoking-excommunication/
 .

Yours Aye,


Mungo Napier, Laird of Mallard Lodge  🦆
Continuing a crusade to keep Merry Rose relevant and in business.