Giulio Gabrielli the Younger

Who was Giulio Gabrielli the Younger?

Giulio Gabrielli was an Italian Catholic Church's cardinal. He spent most of his career in the Roman Curia.

Gabrielli was born in Rome to a princely family originally from Gubbio in the Papal States. His parents were marquis Angelo Gabrielli and marquise Caterina Trotti-Bentivoglio, the most beautiful woman in the mid-18th century Rome, celebrated by Giacomo Casanova as the "marquise G.".

He studied law at the Sapienza University of Rome and, while still a layman, was appointed Protonotary Apostolic, Relator of the Sacred Congregation of the Good Government and, in 1787, Secretary of the Sacred Congregation of the Tridentine Council. He was ordained priest only on March 23, 1800, but less than one year later Pope Pius VII elevated him to cardinal, in the consistory of February 23, 1801. He received the red hat on February 26 and the title of cardinal priest of San Tommaso in Parione on July 20. On January 11, 1808 he was consecrated bishop of Senigallia by Pius VII, in his private chapel.

On March 26, 1808, following the retirement of cardinal Filippo Casoni, Pius VII appointed Gabrielli Cardinal Secretary of State. Considered as the most loyal guardian of the Church and the staunchest opponent of Napoleon and general de Miollis, on June 16 he was arrested by the French troops in his office at the Quirinal Palace in Rome and forced to move to Senigallia; he was later deported to Novara, and then to Milan. Two days after the arrest, he was replaced by cardinal Bartolomeo Pacca as pro-Secretary of State.