Giovanni Francesco Commendone (17 March 1523 – 26 December 1584) was an Italian
cardinal
Cardinal or The Cardinal may refer to:
Animals
* Cardinal (bird) or Cardinalidae, a family of North and South American birds
**''Cardinalis'', genus of cardinal in the family Cardinalidae
**''Cardinalis cardinalis'', or northern cardinal, the ...
and
papal nuncio.
Life
Commendone was born at
Venice
Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 ...
. After an education in the humanities and in
jurisprudence at the
University of Padua, he came to Rome in 1550. The ambassador of Venice presented him to
Pope Julius III, who appointed him one of his secretaries.
After successfully performing various papal missions of minor importance, he accompanied Cardinal Legate
Girolamo Dandino Girolamo is an Italian variant of the name Hieronymus. Its English equivalent is Jerome.
It may refer to:
* Girolamo Cardano (1501–1576), Italian Renaissance mathematician, physician, astrologer and gambler
* Girolamo Cassar (c. 1520 – after ...
to the
Netherlands, whence Pope Julius III sent him in 1553 on an important mission to Queen
Mary Tudor, who had just succeeded
Edward VI on the English throne. He was to treat with the new queen concerning the restoration of the Catholic faith in England.
Accompanied by Penning, a servant and confidant of Cardinal
Reginald Pole, Commendone arrived in London on 8 August 1553. Though Mary Tudor was a loyal Catholic, she was surrounded at court by numerous opponents of papal authority, who made it difficult for Commendone to obtain a secret interview with her. By chance he met John Lee, a relation of the
Duke of Norfolk and an attendant at court, with whom he had become acquainted in Italy, and Lee succeeded in arranging the interview. Mary received Commendone kindly, and expressed her desire to restore the Catholic Faith and to acknowledge the spiritual authority of the pope, but considered it prudent to act slowly on account of her powerful opponents, Commendone hastened to Rome, arriving there on 11 September, and informed the pope of the news, at the same time handing him a personal letter from the queen.
Commendone continued to hold the office of papal secretary under
Pope Paul IV, who esteemed him very highly and in return for his services appointed him
bishop of Kephalonia and Zacynthus
A bishop is an ordained clergy member who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution.
In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance of dioceses. The role or office of bishop i ...
in 1555. In the summer of 1556 he accompanied Cardinal Legate
Scipione Rebiba on a papal mission to the Netherlands, to the courts of
Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor
Charles V, french: Charles Quint, it, Carlo V, nl, Karel V, ca, Carles V, la, Carolus V (24 February 1500 – 21 September 1558) was Holy Roman Emperor and Archduke of Austria from 1519 to 1556, King of Spain (Crown of Castile, Castil ...
and King
Philip II of Spain
Philip II) in Spain, while in Portugal and his Italian kingdoms he ruled as Philip I ( pt, Filipe I). (21 May 152713 September 1598), also known as Philip the Prudent ( es, Felipe el Prudente), was King of Spain from 1556, King of Portugal from ...
, the consort of Queen Mary of England. Commendone had received instructions to remain as nuncio at the court of Philip, but he was recalled to Rome soon after his arrival in the Netherlands. On 16 September of the same year the pope sent him as extraordinary legate to the Governments of
Urbino,
Ferrara
Ferrara (, ; egl, Fràra ) is a city and ''comune'' in Emilia-Romagna, northern Italy, capital of the Province of Ferrara. it had 132,009 inhabitants. It is situated northeast of Bologna, on the Po di Volano, a branch channel of the main stream ...
, Venice, and
Parma in order to obtain help against the Spanish troops who were occupying the
Campagna and threatening Rome.
In 1560, when
Pope Pius IV
Pope Pius IV ( it, Pio IV; 31 March 1499 – 9 December 1565), born Giovanni Angelo Medici, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 25 December 1559 to his death in December 1565. Born in Milan, his family considered ...
determined to reopen the
Council of Trent, Commendone was sent as legate to Germany to invite the Catholic and Protestant Estates to the council. He arrived in Vienna on 3 January 1561, and after consulting with
Emperor Ferdinand, set out on 14 January for
Naumburg, where the Protestant Estates were holding a religious convention, He was accompanied by Delfino,
Bishop of Lesina
A bishop is an ordained clergy member who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution.
In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance of dioceses. The role or office of bishop is ca ...
, who had been sent as papal nuncio to Ferdinand four months previously and was still at the imperial court. Having arrived at Naumburg on 28 January, they were admitted to the convention on 5 February and urged upon the assembled Protestant Estates the necessity of a Protestant representation at the Council of Trent in order to restore religious union, but all their efforts were of no avail. From Naumburg, Commendone traveled northward to invite the Estates of Northern Germany. He went by way of
Leipzig and
Magdeburg to
Berlin, where he arrived on 19 February and was well received by
Joachim of Münsterberg
Joachim (; ''Yəhōyāqīm'', "he whom Yahweh has set up"; ; ) was, according to Christian tradition, the husband of Saint Anne and the father of Mary, the mother of Jesus. The story of Joachim and Anne first appears in the Biblical apocryphal ...
, the
Elector of Brandenburg. Joachim spoke respectfully of the pope and the Catholic Church and expressed his desire for a religious reconciliation, but did not promise to appear at the council. Here Commendone met also the son of Joachim, the young Archbishop
Sigismund of Magdeburg, who promised to appear at the council but did not keep his word.
Leaving Berlin, Commendone visited
Beeskow,
Wolfenbüttel,
Hanover,
Hildesheim,
Iburg,
Paderborn,
Cologne,
Cleves, the Netherlands, and
Aachen
Aachen ( ; ; Aachen dialect: ''Oche'' ; French and traditional English: Aix-la-Chapelle; or ''Aquisgranum''; nl, Aken ; Polish: Akwizgran) is, with around 249,000 inhabitants, the 13th-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia, and the 28th- ...
, inviting all the Estates he met in these places. From Aachen he turned to
Lübeck with the intention of crossing the sea to invite Kings
Frederick II of Denmark
Frederick II (1 July 1534 – 4 April 1588) was King of Denmark and Norway and Duke of Schleswig and Holstein from 1559 until his death.
A member of the House of Oldenburg, Frederick began his personal rule of Denmark-Norway at the age of ...
and
Eric XIV of Sweden. The King of Denmark, however, refused to receive the legate, while the King of Sweden invited him to England, whither he had planned to go in the near future. Queen
Elizabeth I of England had forbidden the papal nuncio
Hieronimo Martinengo Hieronimo is one of the principal characters in Thomas Kyd's ''The Spanish Tragedy''. He is the knight marshal of Spain and the father of Horatio. In the onset of the play he is a dedicated servant to the King of Spain. However, the difference in so ...
to cross the English Channel when he was sent to invite the queen to the council, hence it was very improbable that she would allow Commendone to come to England. He therefore repaired to
Antwerp
Antwerp (; nl, Antwerpen ; french: Anvers ; es, Amberes) is the largest city in Belgium by area at and the capital of Antwerp Province in the Flemish Region. With a population of 520,504, , awaiting further instructions from Rome. Being recalled by the pope, he returned to Italy in December, 1561, by way of
Lorraine and Western Germany. The numerous letters which Commendone wrote during this mission to
Charles Borromeo present a picture of the ecclesiastical conditions in Germany during those times. These and others were published in "Miscellanea di Storia Italiana" (Turin, 1869, VI, 1-240).
In January 1563, the legates of the Council of Trent sent Commendone to Emperor Ferdinand at Innsbruck, to treat with him regarding some demands which he had made upon the council in his "Libel ( la, libellus="little book, tract," not modern English "
libel
Defamation is the act of communicating to a third party false statements about a person, place or thing that results in damage to its reputation. It can be spoken (slander) or written (libel). It constitutes a tort or a crime. The legal defini ...
") of Reformation." In October of the same year Pius IV sent him as legate to King
Sigismund II of Poland with instruction to induce this ruler to give political recognition to the Tridentine decrees. Yielding to the requests of Commendone and of
Hosius, Bishop of Ermland
Stanislaus Hosius ( pl, Stanisław Hozjusz; 5 May 1504 – 5 August 1579) was a Polish Roman Catholic cardinal. From 1551 he was the Prince-Bishop of the Bishopric of Warmia in Royal Prussia and from 1558 he served as the papal legate to the H ...
, Sigismund not only enforced the Tridentine reforms, but also allowed the Jesuits, the most hated enemies of the Reformers, to enter Poland. While still in Poland, on the recommendation of Charles Borromeo, Commendone was created cardinal on 12 March 1565.
He remained in Poland until the death of Pius IV (9 December 1565), and before returning to Italy he went as legate of the new pope,
Pope Pius V, to the
Diet of Augsburg, which was opened by
Emperor Maximilian II on 23 March 1566. He had previously warned the emperor under pain of excommunication not to discuss religion at the diet. He also seized the opportunity to exhort the assembled Estates to carry into execution the Tridentine decrees. In September 1568, Pius V sent him a second time as legate to Maximilian II. With
Biglia
Biglia is a surname. Notable people with the surname include:
* Andrea Biglia (1395–1435), Italian Augustinian humanist
* Francesco Biglia (1587–1659), Italian Roman Catholic bishop
* Giovanni Battista Biglia (1570–1617), Italian Roman Cath ...
, the resident nuncio at Vienna, he was to induce the emperor to make no new religious concessions to the Protestant Estates of Lower Austria and to recall several concessions which he had already made. While engaged in this mission, Commendone was also empowered by a papal Brief dated 10 October 1568, to make an apostolic visitation of the churches and monasteries of Germany and the adjacent provinces. An account of this visitation in the
diocese of Passau and
diocese of Salzburg in the year 1569 is published in "Studien und Mittheilungen aus dem Benedictiner und Cistercienser Orden" (Brünn, 1893, XIV, 385-398 and 567-589).
In November 1571, Pius V sent him as legate to the emperor and to King Sigismund of Poland in the interest of a crusade. After the death of King Sigismund, in 1572, he promoted the election of
Henry, Duke of Anjou
Henry III (french: Henri III, né Alexandre Édouard; pl, Henryk Walezy; lt, Henrikas Valua; 19 September 1551 – 2 August 1589) was King of France from 1574 until his assassination in 1589, as well as King of Poland and Grand Duke of Li ...
, as King of Poland, thereby incurring the displeasure of the emperor. Upon his return to Italy in 1573,
Pope Gregory XIII appointed him a member of the newly founded
Congregatio Germanica, the purpose of which was to safeguard Catholic interests in Germany. When Gregory XIII fell dangerously ill, it was generally believed that Commendone would be elected pope, but he was outlived by Gregory. He died at
Padua.
References
*
*
Antonio Maria Graziani, ''Vita Commendoni Cardinalis'' (Paris, 1669), Fr. tr. by Flechier (Paris, 1671, and Lyons, 1702);
*The Cambridge Modern History (London and New York, 1907), II and (1905), III, passim;
*
PALLAVICINO, Istoria del Concilio di Trento (Rome, 1846), II, 13, 15, III, 24;
*PRISAC, Die Legaten Commendone und Capacini in Berlin (Neuss, 1846);
*REIMAN, Die Sendung des Nunzius Commendone nach Deutschl. im Jahre 1561 in Forschungen zur deutsch. Gesch. (Göttingen, 1867), 237-80;
*SUSTA, Die römische Kurie und das Konzil von Trient unter Pius IV. (Wien, 1904);
*SCHWARZ, Der Briefwechsel des K. Maximilian II mit Papst Pius V. (Paderborn, 1889);
*GRAZIANI, De scriptis invita Minerva, cum adnotationibus
H. Lagomarsini (Florence, 1745-6).
External links
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Commendone, Giovanni Francesco
1523 births
1584 deaths
16th-century Italian cardinals
Diplomats from Rome
Apostolic Nuncios to Poland
16th-century Italian Roman Catholic bishops
16th-century Italian diplomats
Italian expatriates in England