He was born in Palestrina, Lazio, and was from the beginning of his life destined for a high position in the Catholic Church. He studied from almost the beginning at the most prestigious pontifical universities, the Collegium Capranica and the Pontifical Gregorian University. Ordained a priest in 1860, he was never a pastor in his almost seventy years of priesthood: his career began as a faculty member in seminaries and continued in the Roman Curia. Most of his early career was in Roman and foreign postings of the Secretariat of State, aside from two years starting in 1878 when he was an Auditor of the Roman Rota.