Jacopo Sadoleto (original) (raw)

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Italian cardinal (1477–1547)

His EminenceJacopo Sadoleto
Bishop of Carpentras
Portrait by Jacopino del Conte, c. 1537
Church Catholic Church
Diocese Carpentras
Appointed 24 April 1517
Term ended 18 October 1547
Predecessor Pierre de Valletariis
Successor Paolo Sadoleto
Previous post(s) Cardinal-Priest of San Callisto(1537-1545)Cardinal-Priest of Santa Balbina(1545)
Orders
Created cardinal 22 December 1536by Pope Paul III
Rank Cardinal-Priest
Personal details
Born 12 July 1477Modena, Italy
Died 18 October 1547(1547-10-18) (aged 70)Rome, Papal States

Jacopo Sadoleto (July 12, 1477 – October 18, 1547) was an Italian Catholic cardinal and counterreformer noted for his correspondence with and opposition to John Calvin.

He was born at Modena in 1477, the son of a noted jurist, he acquired reputation as a Neo-Latin poet, his best-known piece being one on the group of Laocoön. In Rome, he obtained the patronage of Cardinal Oliviero Carafa and adopted the ecclesiastical career. Pope Leo X chose him as his secretary along with Pietro Bembo,[1] and in 1517 made him bishop of Carpentras.[2]

A faithful servant of the papacy in many negotiations under successive popes, especially as a peacemaker, his major aim was to win back the Protestants by peaceful persuasion and by putting Catholic doctrine in a conciliatory form.[2] Sadoleto was saw little of his diocese until the death of his master in 1522. Pope Clement VII recalled him to Rome a year later. Leaving Rome a few months before it was sacked, he diligently ruled his diocese, where he was greatly loved. Pope Paul III recalled him once more and made cardinal in 1536, given the titular church of San Callisto.[3]

In 1539 Cardinal Sadoleto wrote to the people of Geneva, urging them to return to the Catholic faith. John Calvin had been asked to leave Geneva the previous year, and was living in Strasbourg, but the Genevans still asked Calvin to write a response to Sadoleto, which he did.[4]

Sadoleto died in Rome in 1547, aged 70.

Sadoleto's collected works appeared at Mainz in 1607, and include, besides his theological-ironical pieces, a collection of Epistles, a treatise on education (first published in 1533), and the Phaedrus, a defence of philosophy, written in 1538. The best collection is that published at Verona (1737–1738); it includes the life by Fiordibello.[2]

  1. ^ Paolo Giovio (1551). Vita Leonis Decimi, pontifici maximi: libri IV (in Latin). Florentiae: officina Laurentii Torrentini. p. 67.
  2. ^ a b c Chisholm 1911.
  3. ^ Cardinal Title S. Callisto GCatholic.org
  4. ^ Both letters can be found in Calvin's Tracts Relating to the Reformation, translated by H. Beveridge, 1844. Digitized by Google Books.