Biography
Born in Capovallazza di Ussita (in the modern province of Macerata, then part of the Papal States) Gasparri served as the Apostolic delegate to Peru from 1898 to 1901, when he became a member of the Curia and returned to Rome. He was called to Rome in 1904 to take the post of Secretary for the Commission for the Codification of Canon Law, in which he spent the next 13 years in seclusion, digesting volumes of decrees and studies compiled over centuries to create the first definitive legal text in the history of Catholicism.
He was made a Cardinal-Priest of S. Bernardo alle Terme in 1907, and served as the Cardinal Secretary of State from 1914 to 1930, when he retired to be succeeded by Eugenio Pacelli, the future Pope Pius XII. From 1916 until his death he was Chamberlain of the Holy Roman Church, and Cardinal Pacelli also succeeded him in that position. He played a significant role in the codification of canon law, heading the effort that produced the Code of Canon Law of 1917. Beginning in 1929, he also played a significant early role in the codification of Eastern Catholic canon law.
Read more about this topic: Pietro Gasparri
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