Born in Capovallazza di Ussita (in the modern province of Macerata, then part of the Papal States) as the youngest child of a family of shepherds.
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.