Pope Gregory XIII. Pope Gregory XIII, born Ugo Boncompagni, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 13 May 1572 to his death in April 1585.
   He is best known for commissioning and being the namesake for the Gregorian calendar, which remains the internationally accepted civil calendar to this day. Youth Ugo Boncompagni was born the son of Cristoforo Boncompagni and of his wife, Angela Marescalchi, in Bologna, where he studied law and graduated in 1530.
   He later taught jurisprudence for some years, and his students included notable figures such as Cardinals Alexander Farnese, Reginald Pole and Charles Borromeo. He had an illegitimate son after an affair with Maddalena Fulchini, Giacomo Boncompagni, but before he took holy orders, making him the last Pope to have left issue.
   Career before papacy At the age of 36 he was summoned to Rome by Pope Paul III, under whom he held successive appointments as first judge of the capital, abbreviator, and vice-chancellor of the Campagna e Marittima. Pope Paul IV attached him as datarius to the suite of Cardinal Carlo Carafa.
   Pope Pius IV made him Cardinal-Priest of San Sisto Vecchio and sent him to the Council of Trent. In the year 1552, Ugo Boncompagni confirmed the paternity of his son Giacomo. As stated in the online Archivio Digitale Boncompagni Ludovisi: One of the most valuable items to emerge from the new archival finds from the
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