Esteban Gabriel Merino

Esteban Gabriel Merino (died 1535) was a Spanish Roman Catholic bishop and cardinal.

Merino was born in Santisteban del Puerto, ca. 1472, the son of Alonso Merino and Mayor de Amorcuende, a family of the lowest condition. His father died when he was very young. He went to Rome with a priest who was a family friend.

He entered the household of Cardinal Ascanio Sforza, initially occupying minor positions. He later joined the ecclesiastical estate after obtaining a dispensation from Pope Alexander VI for having caused the death of a cleric while playing with a sword. In spring 1500, during the Italian War of 1499–1504, he was in Lombardy with Cardinal Sforza during the French invasion. He ended up in prison in Bourges with Cardinal Sforza; while there, he learned French. He was freed on January 3, 1502, then traveled to Rome to act as Cardinal Sforza's procurator for dealing with the Fugger Bank. He was a conclavist for Cardinal Sforza at the papal conclave of September 1503 that elected Pope Pius III and at the papal conclave of October 1503 that elected Pope Julius II. He became the cardinal's secretary around this time. In 1504, he was made a protonotary apostolic.

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