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Giovanni Morone

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His Eminence
Giovanni Morone
Cardinal-Bishop of Ostia
Portrait of Cardinal Morone, 16th century
Portrait of Cardinal Morone, 16th century
Church Roman Catholic Church
Diocese Diocese of Ostia
See Ostia
Appointed June 1570
Term ended 1 December 1580
Predecessor Francesco Pisani
Successor Alessandro Farnese
Other post Dean of the College of Cardinals
(1570–1580)
Previous posts Bishop of Modena
(1529–1550, 1564–1571)
Bishop of Novara
(1552–1560)
Cardinal-Bishop of Albano
(1560–1561)
Cardinal-Bishop of Sabina
(1561–1562)
Cardinal-Bishop of Frascati
(1562, 1564–1565)
Cardinal-Bishop of Palestrina
(1562–1564)
Cardinal-Bishop of Porto–Santa Rufina
(1565–1570)
Orders
Ordination 12 January 1533
Consecration 12 January 1533
Created cardinal 2 June 1542
by Pope Paul III
Rank Cardinal-Bishop
Personal details
Born Giovanni Girolamo Morone
25 January 1509
Milan, Duchy of Milan
Died 1 December 1580 (aged 71)
Rome, Papal States
Buried Santa Maria sopra Minerva

Giovanni Morone (or Moroni) (25 January 1509 – 1 December 1580) was an Italian cardinal. He was named Bishop of Modena in 1529 and was created Cardinal in 1542 by Pope Paul III. As a cardinal, he resided in the Vatican's Apostolic Palace and was consulted by Saint Ignatius, founder of the Jesuits.[1]

Biography

Early life and ordination

Morone was born in Milan, on 25 January 1509, where his father, Count Girolamo Morone (d. 1529), was grand chancellor.[2] His father, who had been imprisoned for opposing encroachments on the liberties of Milan by Charles V (whom he afterwards cordially supported), removed to Modena, where his youngest son had most of his early education. Proceeding to Padua, he studied jurisprudence with distinction. In return for important service rendered by his father, he was, on 7 April 1529, at the age of 20, nominated by Pope Clement VII to the see of Modena[3][4] as a demonstration of gratitude.[5] His father Girolamo had been one of the commissioners who negotiated the terms of the release of the Pope from imprisonment in the Castel Sant'Angelo in 1527 during the Sack of Rome. Giovanni was seven years too young to be consecrated a bishop, and in any event, his appointment was disputed by the future Cardinal Ippolito II d'Este, son of the Duke of Ferrara, who claimed that the Pope had promised the See of Modena and a Cardinalate for him in a treaty of 14 November 1528.[6] D'Este was finally bought off with an annual pension. Giovanni Morone was finally ordained priest and consecrated bishop on 12 January 1533.

Diplomatic missions

From 1535, he was repeatedly entrusted by Pope Paul III with diplomatic missions; first, he went with a mission to France to King Francis I to attempt to arrange a peace with the Emperor;[7] then he was sent as nuncio in 1536 to the Emperor's brother, King Ferdinand I, then in 1539–1540 to Hagenau and Worms in an attempt to reclaim those areas for the Catholic Church.[8] Morone was legate to the Diet of Speyer (1542)[9] having successfully resisted the transfer of the diet to Hagenau on account of the plague (1540). On 31 May 1542, he was created Cardinal Priest, and on 16 October 1542 assigned the titulus of San Vitale.[10] He was further nominated protector of England, Hungary, Austria, of the Order of St. Benedict, the Cistercian Order and the Order of Preachers (Dominicans), and of the Santa Casa at Loreto.[11] With the cardinals Pier Paolo Parisio and Reginald Pole, he was deputed to open the Council of Trent (1 November 1542 – 6 July 1543), the choice of that place of meeting having been a concession to his diplomacy. The legates arrived on 22 November, but no council assembled;[4] proceedings were suspended and postponed until 1545. He was appointed instead to be Papal Legate to Bologna, from 2 April 1544 to 13 July 1548. His vice-Legate was Giannangelo de' Medici, who became Pope Pius IV. On 25 February 1549, he opted for the Cardinalatial titulus of San Stefano in Monte Celio (San Stefano Rotondo).[12] The death of Paul III on 10 November 1549 deprived him of a good friend.

He participated in the Conclave of 1549, where his friend and fellow President of the Council of Trent, Reginald Pole, came close to being elected pope.[13]

Relations with Protestants

The views of the Reformers had spread in his diocese, and he was suspected of temporizing with them. He resigned (1550) in favour of the Dominican Egidio Foscarari, reserving to himself an annual pension and the patronage of livings. Later, he founded the diocesan seminary. On 11 December 1553, he opted for the titulus of San Lorenzo in Lucina,[14] which meant a greater income. Pope Julius III, at the instance of the Duke of Milan, gave him the rich see of Novara (which he resigned in 1560 for the Suburbicarian See of Albano) and sent him as nuncio to the diet of Augsburg (1555), from which he was immediately recalled by the death of Julius III (23 March 1555).[4]

He participated in the Conclave of 5–10 April 1555, which saw the election of Cardinal Marcello Cervini as Pope Marcellus II.[15] However Marcellus died after only twenty-two days in office. A second Conclave in May, on the nomination of Cardinal Alessandro Farnese and Cardinal Ippolito d' Este, elected (23 May) the Dean of the College of Cardinals, Cardinal Gianpietro Carafa, the Grand Inquisitor of the Roman Inquisition. This was much to the distaste of the Emperor, who was aware of Carafa's deep hatred of the Spanish and his religious fanaticism.

Incarceration on orders of the Pope

Morone opted for the titulus of Santa Maria in Trastevere on 12 June 1556.[16] But on 31 May 1557, on direct orders of Pope Paul IV, carried out by his nephew, Cardinal Carlo Carafa, Morone was imprisoned in the Castel Sant'Angelo (with others, including Bishop Egidio Foscherari), on suspicion of the Lutheran heresy.[17] The College of Cardinals, led by their Dean, Cardinal du Bellay, demanded a Consistory the next day, and the Pope was forced to explain himself. He stated that there had been questions about the orthodoxy of Cardinal Morone since the time of Paul III, and he also attacked Cardinal Pole. He insisted that Morone remain in the hands of the Inquisition for a future time when all the Cardinals would be summoned to judge his case.[18] A commission of Cardinals was appointed to conduct the interrogations, among whom was Cardinal Michele Ghislieri (the future Pope Pius V), Cardinal Scipione Rebiba, Cardinal Giovanni Reuman Suau, and Cardinal Alessandro Farnese.[19] The prosecution entirely failed, the Cardinals having found no grounds for any of the charges. Morone might have had his liberty and the Suburbicarian Bishopric of Albano, but refused to leave prison unless Paul IV publicly acknowledged his innocence.[4] Paul IV, a former Inquisitor who believed that the Inquisition was never wrong, refused to admit his error, and therefore Morone remained incarcerated until the pope's death (18 August 1559). It is believed that Paul IV published his Cum ex apostolatus officio[20] to prevent Cardinal Morone from being elected the next Pope because he suspected Morone of secretly being in league with Protestants.[21] As events turned out, Cardinal Giovanni Angelo de' Medici was elected and took the name Pope Pius IV.[22] Morone did have the great pleasure of making the acquaintance of Cardinal Carlo Borromeo at that Conclave, and Borromeo conceived a very high opinion of Morone's virtues.

Upon the election of Pius IV, Morone's name was cleared publicly, and he accepted the office of Cardinal Bishop of Albano,[23] which he exchanged for that of Sabina in 1561, then Palestrina in 1562, and Porto and Santa Rufina in 1565. In 1564, he had the pleasure of receiving back from Pius IV the diocese of Modena, upon the decease of the incumbent, and he held the post until 1571. In 1566, he was a candidate at the Conclave summoned to elect a successor to Pius IV. He had the support of the Emperor and the Spanish, and was supported by Cardinal Carlo Borromeo; but the French faction and some of the Italian princes (Ferrara and Florence) were able to exclude him from the Papal Throne.[24] Cardinal Ghislieri declared that he had reconsidered Morone's case and could not in conscience elect him, though he did not impose that judgment upon the other cardinals.[25] Nonetheless, Morone received as many as twenty-nine votes in the scrutinies, a majority, but not the two-thirds majority (35) needed to elect. Ghislieri himself was ultimately elected unanimously and took the name of Pope Pius V.[26]

He became Dean of the Sacred College of Cardinals in 1570, and assumed the Bishopric of Ostia and Velletri[27] which went with the Deanship. In that capacity he presided over the Conclave of 1572, which elected Ugo Boncompagni as Pope Gregory XIII.[28] As Cardinal Bishop of Ostia and Velletri, he was attentive to the implementation of the decrees of the Council of Trent, especially as regards the holding of regular diocesan synods. On 3 June 1573, a Synod took place under his authority in the Diocese of Veletri, with his Suffragan bishop, Lorenzo Bernardini, presiding. In October 1579, the Cardinal Bishop himself presided. The original Acta are preserved, with his handwriting and seal on them.[29]

Years as a senior statesman

Morone continued to explore issues within the Church and between Catholics and Protestants in hopes of reuniting the two sides. He commissioned Nicholas Sander to research the progress of Protestantism in England, resulting in the publication of the Report on the State of England in 1560. In 1562, Morone assisted Pius IV in restarting the Council of Trent, earning a reputation as a skilled mediator and, in hindsight, "the savior of the council."[30] He served as its last chair under Pius IV and helped the Council to create the Tridentine Creed.

When the festival of the Jubilee of 1575 began in Rome, Cardinal Morone presided over the ceremony of the opening of the Holy Door, through which hordes of pilgrims passed, at the Basilica of San Paolo Fuori le Mura on the Via Ostiensis. In 1575, likewise, he was invited to join a legation which included Matteo Senarega, a minister of the Emperor and a minister of the King of Spain, to visit Genoa, which had fallen into complete disorder because of civil strife.[31] Morone was able to bring peace to the troubled city with a new civic constitution, the major part of which was written by Morone. Next year he was asked to attend the Diet at Ratisbon, in the presence of the Emperor Maximilian II, and his very presence had the effect of calming the participants. In 1578, he was sent to Flanders to restore peace there, but (as might have been expected) he was unable to achieve his goal.[32]

He died on 1 December 1580, and was buried in the Basilica of Santa Maria sopra Minerva,[33] the headquarters of the Dominicans, whose Protector he was.

Books

From the 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia

Giovanni Morone — Cardinal, Bishop of Modena, b. at Milan 25 Jan., 1509; d. at Rome, 1 Dec., 1580. He belonged to a distinguished Milanese family, raised to the nobility in the twelfth century. His father held the dignity of chancellor of Milan, and it was probably to bind the father to his interest that Clement VII in 1529 named his son Giovanni, then only twenty years of age, to the See of Modena. By this appointment great offence was given to Cardinal Ippolito d'Este, who on the pretext that the See of Modena had previously been promised to himself, invoked the aid of Duke Alfonso of Ferrara and took forcible possession of the see, appropriating all its revenues. The dispute was not settled until 1532, when Morone at last bought off the opposition of d'Este by agreeing to pay him an annual pension of 400 ducats. Even as early as 1529, the young bishop-elect, whose talents had already attracted attention at the University of Padua, was chosen by Clement VII for a diplomatic mission to France. Under Paul III Morone's gifts as a negotiator placed him at once in the very front rank of ecclesiastical politicians. He was sent as papal envoy to Duke Sforza of Milan in 1535, and in the following year accepted, not altogether without reluctance, the important mission of nuncio at the court of Ferdinand, King of the Romans. His instructions were to press on the affair of the council in Hungary and Bohemia. He was to obtain from Ferdinand a safe-conduct for those who intended to take part in it, and to insist upon Mantua or some other Italian city as the place of meeting.

With the exception of an interval from September, 1538 to July, 1539, and another in 1541, Morone remained at his post in Germany for nearly six years, and he was present at the diets of Hagenau in 1540 and Ratisbon in 1541, while at the important meeting of Spiers in 1542 he appeared as the pope's special representative, and played a leading part, though even his great tact and resolution were able to do little in the complicated tangle of German religious affairs. During these early years in Germany, and indeed throughout his life, Morone remained a conspicuous member of a little group of moderate and intellectual men who saw that in the deadly struggle with Lutheranism, the faults were not all on one side. When Cardinal Sadoleto in 1537 for addressing a courteously worded appeal to Melanchthon was denounced by many of his own side as little better than a traitor and a heretic, Morone wrote the cardinal a letter of sympathy. "There are in these parts", he said, "many reputed defenders of the Catholic faith who think that our religion consists in nothing but hatred of the Lutherans.... and they are so wedded to this point of view that, without ever looking into the matter itself, they take in bad part not only all negotiations with the Lutherans, but every single word spoken about them which is not abusive". Morone further advises Sadoleto to treat his critics with silent contempt, and states his own conviction that to show charity to heretics was a better way than to overwhelm them with abusive language, adding: "if only this course had been adopted from the first, there would probably be less difficulty than there is in bringing about the union of the Church" (see the letter in "Archiv f. Reformationsgeschichte", 1904, I, 80-81).

On 22 May, 1542, Paul III published his Bull, which had been drafted by Sadoleto, summoning the council to meet at Trent, on 1 Nov., of the same year. On 2 June, Morone was created a cardinal, and on 16 Oct., he and Cardinals Parisio and Pole were named legates to preside over the assembly as the pope's representatives. But this first attempt to launch the long-desired council was a failure. Morone went to Trent and waited until the handfull of representatives, who never met in public session, gradually dispersed, the council being formally prorogued 6 July, 1543. Before the assembly was again convened Morone was named legate (practically papal governor) at Bologna, and he had nothing to do with the sessions of the council which took place at Trent between December, 1545 and June, 1546, though after the council had been ostensibly transferred to Bologna, he was named by Julius III as one of the commissioners to arrange for its return to Trent. In 1555 he was sent to the Diet of Augsburg, but the death of Julius necessitated his recall and under the Pontificate of Paul IV Morone, who owing to his wide and liberal views had the misfortune to awaken the pope's suspicions when the latter presided over the Roman Inquisition, was arrested by the pontiff's order, confined in the Castle of Saint Angelo (31 May, 1557), and made the object of a formal prosecution for heresy, in which his views on justification, the invocation of saints, the veneration of relics and other matters were incriminated and submitted to rigid inquiry.

The cardinal strenuously repudiated these charges, but he was kept in confinement until the death of Paul IV. In 1560 his successor Pius IV authorized a revision of the process against Morone, and as a result the imprisonment of the cardinal and the whole procedure against him were declared to be entirely without justification; the judgment also recorded in the most formal terms that not the least suspicion rested upon his orthodoxy. A few years later when the cardinal legates Gonzaga and Seripandi died at Trent, Morone and Cardinal Navagero were appointed to succeed them, and the former eventually presided over the concluding sessions of the council with conspicuous tact and dignity. He was also placed upon the commission appointed to see that the conciliar decrees were duly carried into execution. Under the succeeding pontiffs his credit was in no way impaired. He was sent on a mission to Genoa in 1575, and in 1576 was appointed to attend the Diet of Ratisbon as papal legate. As Cardinal Protector of England, Morone in 1578-1579 had much to do with the administration of the English College (see Catholic Record Society, "Miscellanea", II, London, 1906); and when he died he had been for some time Cardinal Bishop of Ostia. Few ecclesiastics in that century were so successful in retaining the esteem of men of all parties and all creeds as this large-minded and eminently able and honest churchman. His reports as nuncio, recently published of late years in the German series of "Nuntiaturberichten", throw a flood of light upon the religious conditions of the empire, and it is interesting to note that the "Claudius internuntius" whose letters were so often turned to good account by Raynaldi proves to be no other than Morone himself (see Ehses in "Römische Quartalschrift", 1903). It may be mentioned in conclusion that Morone had much to do with the founding of the important Collegium Germanicum in Rome, a work in which he was closely associated with St. Ignatius Loyola.

Cantu, Gli Erelici d'Italia, II (Turin, 1865); Cantu, Il Cardinale Giovanni Morone in Atti dell' Instituto Lombardo (Turin, 1866); Bernabei, Vita del Cardinale Morone (Modena, 1885). The most interesting and satisfactory materials for Morone's life are to be found in his own despatches and in the prefaces contributed by his editors: see Friedensburg, Nuntiaturberichten aus Deutschland, part I, II (Gotha, 1892); Dittrich, Quellen und Forschungen auf d. Gebiete der Geschichte, I (Paderborn, 1892); Idem in Historisches Jahrbuch, IV (Bonn, 1883); Lammer, Monumenta Vaticana (Freiburg, 1901); Merkle, Concil. Trident. Diaria (Freiburg, 1901); Ehses, Concilium Tridentinum, IV (Freiburg, 1904); Steinhuber, Gesch. d. Collegium Germ. (Freiburg, 1906); Tacchi Venturi, La Vita Religiosa in Italia, I (Rome, 1910), in the appendix, pp. 534-49, is printed Father Salmeron's evidence before the Inquisition given in Morone's trial. Pastor, Geschichte der Papste, V (Freiburg, 1909); this last work is particularly valuable for an account of Morone's early missions.

References

  1. Back to citation Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Giovanni Morone". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
  2. Back to citation Girolamo Rossi, Vita di Girolamo Morone (Oneglia, 1865). Carlo Gioda, Girolamo Morone e i suoi tempi: studio storico (Milano: Paravia 1887).
  3. Back to citation Diocesi di Modena
  4. Back to citation occurrence 4.0 Back to citation occurrence 4.1 Back to citation occurrence 4.2 Back to citation occurrence 4.3 Gordon 1911.
  5. Back to citation Giuseppe Cappelletti, Le chiese d' Italia Volume 15 (Venezia 1859), 287. Frédéric Sclopis, Le cardinal Jean Morone (Paris 1869), 2. One sometimes sees the date of 1527, as in Nicola Bernabei, Vita del Cardinale Giovanni Morone Vescovo di Modena (Modena 1885), 3. But this is an error. Ercole Cardinal Rangoni was Bishop of Modena from 12 September 1520 until his death in Castel Sant'Angelo on 25 August 1527, during the siege. His successor as bishop was Cardinal Piero Gonzaga on 21 November 1527, and he died on 28 January 1529.
  6. Back to citation Lorenzo Cardella, Memorie storiche de' cardinali della Santa Romana Chiesa Tomo Quarto (Roma 1793), 240.
  7. Back to citation Cardella, 240–241.
  8. Back to citation Franz Dittrich (editor), Nuntiaturberichte Giovanni Morones vom deutschen Königshofe 1539. 1540. (Paderborn 1892).
  9. Back to citation Frédéric Sclopis, Le cardinal Jean Morone, 5–9.
  10. Back to citation Cardinal-Priests of the titulus of San Vitale
  11. Back to citation Cardella, 242.
  12. Back to citation Cardinal-Priests of the titulus of San Stefano
  13. Back to citation Conclave of 1549. Dr. J. P. Adams
  14. Back to citation Cardinal-Priests of San Lorenzo in Lucina
  15. Back to citation Conclave of 1555. Dr. J. P. Adams
  16. Back to citation Cardinal-Priests of the titulus of Santa Maria in Trastevere
  17. Back to citation Massimo Firpo, Inquisizione romana e controriforma: studi sul cardinal Giovanni Morone e il suo processo d'eresia (Bologna: II Mulino, 1992).
  18. Back to citation Sclopis, 89–91, an anonymous report of the events of the two days, found in the Ambrosian Library.
  19. Back to citation Morone names them himself in his written defense to the charges: Cesare Cantù, "Il Cardinale Giovanni Morone," Illustri Italiani Volume II (Milano: Brigola, 1873), 393–465, at p. 421.
  20. Back to citation Cantù, pp. 440–442.
  21. Back to citation Cardella 242–243:...furono deputati quattro Cardinali per esaminare la sua causa, tra questi vi fu il Cardinale Michele Ghislieri poi Summo Pontifice col nome di Pio V., il quale avendo sottoposto il Morone a rigidissimo esame in ordine a tutti gli articoli, de' quali era accusato, alla fine pronunciò, che era astatto innocente, e restiticollo all presenze di Paolo IV., quantunque poi si opponesse quando si tratto di farlo Papa. Ebbe dunque il Morone la libertà di sortire dal suo carcere, ma ricusò di aprofittarne, sintanto che il Papa non avesse renduta esatta giustizia alla sua innocenza. Paolo IV. tuttavia ne disserì l' assoluzione, forse per tema di no condannare se medesimo, e lo, e lo lascio prigione fino al Pontificato di Pio IV., in cui rivedutasi con la più squisita, ed esatta diligenza da due Cardinali maggiori di ogni eccezione, cioè dal Puteo, e dal prelodato Ghislieri, la sua causa, fu datto stesso Pontefice Pio IV., non solo giustificato, ma di più dichiarato in pieno concistorio innocente, e ingiustamente carcerato, e della cattolica religione fervido zelatore, e uomo per insigne pietà riguardevole, e chiaro.
  22. Back to citation Conclave of 1559. Dr. J. P. Adams
  23. Back to citation Cardinal-Bishops of the Suburbicarian See of Albano
  24. Back to citation F. Petruccelli della Gattina, Histoire diplomatique des conclaves Volume II (Paris: 1864), 208–235. T. Adolphus Trollope, The Papal Conclaves, as they were and as they are (London 1876), 250–257.
  25. Back to citation Conclavi de' Pontifici Romani (Cologne 1692), 292–334, at p. 310: "Le creature di Paolo Quarto, erano poche, e trà esse era il Cardinal d'Araceli (D'Olera), il quale, per non alienarsi Borromeo, haveva promesso di dare l'ultimo accesso, di maniera che molti stavano sospeti, e frà essi il Cardinal Alessandrino (Ghislieri) apertamente diceva, che in conscienza sua non poteva eleggere Morone Papa, mà che nondimeno non s'opponeva alla conscienza degli altri, ne diceva che non potessero eleggerlo per l'imputatione datagli nelle cose della Religione."
  26. Back to citation Conclave of 1566. Dr. J. P. Adams
  27. Back to citation Cardinal-Bishops of the Suburbicarian See of Ostia and Velletri
  28. Back to citation Conclave of 1572. Dr. J. P. Adams
  29. Back to citation Tommaso Bauco, Storia della città di Veletri edizione seconda Volume II (Veletri 1851), 90–91.
  30. Back to citation JEDIN, H. "Trent, Council of." New Catholic Encyclopedia, 2nd ed., vol. 14, Gale, 2003, pp. 168–176. Gale eBooks, link.gale.com/apps/doc/CX3407711234/GVRL?u=sain44199&sid=GVRL&xid=c7aad1f8. Accessed 1 March 2021.
  31. Back to citation Sclopis, 67–79. In 1528, the famous Genoese admiral, Andrea Doria, having driven out the French garrison, restored the Republic of Genoa in an assembly which produced a new constitution on 13 September 1528, sharing power between the Old Nobility, the New Nobility, and the people. This constitution was modified by Doria in 1547, in the face of continued civil strife, involving as well the Adorno and Fregoso families; it was called the garibetto. Doria died in 1560, and the internal situation of Genoa continually deteriorated, causing alarm throughout Italy, especially to the Grand Duke of Tuscany, Francesco de' Medici, and the Prince of Piedmont, Emmanuel Philibert. In 1575, in a period of terror, the Genoese Senate abolished the garibetto, and a civil war began, made no less dangerous because Genoa was the port for fifty galleons of the navy of Don John of Austria, half-brother of King Philip II of Spain. Gregory XIII intervened in the name of Italian liberty and tranquillity.
  32. Back to citation Cardella, 243.
  33. Back to citation Vinzenzo Forcella, Inscrizioni delle chiese e d' altri edificii di Roma Volume I (Roma 1869) p. 547 no. 2096 (Morone's epitaph): D O M HIC. IACET. CORPUS. IOANNIS. CARD. MORONI PATRITII. MEDIOLANENSIS. ET. EPISCOPI. OSTIENSIS QUI. IULII. III. LEGATUS. APOSTOLICUS IN. SACRO. CONCILIO. TRIDENTINO ET. PARESES. VIXIT. ANNOS. LXXI. MENSES X. DIES. V. OBIIT. I. DECEMBRIS. MDLXXX ORATE. DEUM. PRO. EO HIERONIMUS. MORONUS. COMES. PONTIS. CORONI. HAERES HORATIUS. MORONUS. EPISC. SUTRIN. ET. NEPESIN FRATRIS. FILII. DNO. AC. PATRUO. OPTIMO EX. TESTAMENTO. MOERENTES. POSUERUNT
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