The Pope Who Issued the World’s First Public
Ban on Smoking, on Penalty of Excommunication
by ChurchPOP
Editor -
Did you know
a pope issued the world’s first public smoking ban?
It was the
16th century, and Europeans had just brought back something very popular from
the New World: tobacco. As its use spread around Europe, questions arose about
when it was appropriate to use.
Apparently,
some people started smoking in and around churches, and other people didn’t
like it. This became a big enough problem that the pope actually decided to
weigh in on the matter.
Pope
Urban VII was elected pope on September 15th, 1590
but died just 12 days later – making his papacy the
shortest in history. But he still managed to weigh in on the tobacco debate.
And he came
down with an iron fist: anyone caught using
tobacco “in the porchway of or inside a church, whether it be by chewing
it, smoking it with a pipe, or sniffing it in powdered form through the nose”
would be excommunicated.
It’s not
clear whether or to what degree this ban was actually enforced. But the ban
remained on the books until the 18th century when Pope Benedict XIII
finally repealed it.
Note that the
Church did not ban smoking in general, just smoking in and around churches.
which probably isn’t a good idea. In the appropriate context, the Church
has generally taken the approach that such things can be enjoyed if used
in moderation.
As G.K.
Chesterton famously remarked in the 20th century: “In Catholicism, the pint, the
pipe and the Cross can all fit together.”
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