A boyhood friend of Eugenio Pacelli (the future Pope Pius XII),[2] he studied at the Almo Collegio Capranica and Pontifical Gregorian University.

He was attached to the secretariat of the Congregation for Extraordinary Ecclesiastical Affairs for a year before becoming auditor of the Apostolic Nunciature to Germany in 1907.

He received his episcopal consecration in the chapel of the Pontifical Latin American College on the following 14 April from Cardinal Pietro Gasparri, with Archbishops Carlo Pietropaoli and Bonaventura Cerretti serving as co-consecrators.

In addition to his role as secretary, he served as an extraordinary papal envoy to Haile Selassie I, Emperor of Ethiopia.

[citation needed] Pope Pius XI created him Cardinal-Priest of S. Maria Nuova in the consistory of 30 June 1930.