As pope, he expanded the papal territory by force of arms and advantageous politicking, and was also a prominent patron of the arts, commissioning works from artists like Gian Lorenzo Bernini and a reformer of Church missions.

The massive debts incurred during his pontificate greatly weakened his successors, who were unable to maintain the papacy's longstanding political and military influence in Europe.

In 1601, Barberini, through the influence of his uncle, was able to secure from Pope Clement VIII appointment as a papal legate to the court of King Henry IV of France.

Pope Paul V also later employed Barberini in a similar capacity, afterwards raising him, in 1606, to the order of the Cardinal-Priest, with the titular church of San Pietro in Montorio and appointing him as a papal legate of Bologna.

Despite an early friendship and encouragement for his teachings, Urban VIII was responsible for summoning the scientist and astronomer Galileo to Rome in 1633 to recant his work.

Historian Leopold von Ranke estimated that during his reign, Urban VIII's immediate family amassed 105 million scudi in personal wealth.

[7] Urban VIII was a skilled writer of Latin verse, and a collection of scriptural paraphrases as well as original hymns of his composition have been frequently reprinted.

[10] In response to complaints in the Diocese of Seville, Urban VIII issued the letter Cum Ecclesiae, dated 30 January 1642, that made use of tobacco in holy places punishable by excommunication.

[11] While often described as a papal bull, the document was not filed as such and was more than likely an encyclical; Pope Benedict XIII eventually abrogated the tobacco ban, preferring other methods to ensuring the cleanliness of church facilities.

[12] Urban VIII canonized five saints during his pontificate: Stephen Harding (1623), Elizabeth of Portugal and Conrad of Piacenza (1625), Peter Nolasco (1628), and Andrea Corsini (1629).

In the papal bull Sanctissimus Dominus Noster of 13 March 1625, Urban instructed Catholics not to venerate the deceased or represent them in the manner of saints without Church sanction.

In 1626, the Duchy of Urbino was incorporated into the Papal dominions,[16] and, in 1627, when the direct male line of the Gonzagas in Mantua became extinct, he controversially favoured the succession of the Duke Charles of Nevers against the claims of the Habsburgs.

The vase remained in the Barberini family collection for some 150 years before passing through the hands of Sir William Hamilton Ambassador to the Royal Court in Naples.

[18] When Urban VIII travelled to Castel Gandolfo to rest, the members of the Spanish faction met in secret and discussed ways to advance their plan.

On his death, the bust of Urban VIII that lay beside the Palace of the Conservators on the Capitoline Hill was rapidly destroyed by an enraged crowd, and only a quick-thinking priest saved the sculpture of the late pope belonging to the Jesuits from a similar fate.

[20] Following his death, international and domestic machinations resulted in the papal conclave not electing Cardinal Giulio Cesare Sacchetti, who was closely associated with some members of the Barberini family.

He is especially prominent in 1634: The Galileo Affair (in which he makes the fictional Grantville priest, Larry Mazzare, a cardinal), and in 1635: The Cannon Law, 1635: The Papal Stakes, and 1636: The Vatican Sanction.