Gabriele Paleotti

Gabriele Paleotti (4 October 1522 – 22 July 1597) was an Italian Cardinal and Archbishop of Bologna. He was a significant figure in, and source about, the later sessions of the Council of Trent, and much later a candidate for the papacy in 1590, and is now mostly remembered for his De sacris et profanis imaginibus (1582), setting out the Counter-Reformation church's views on the proper role and content of art.

Paleotti was born at Bologna. Having acquired, in 1546, the title of Doctor of Civil and Canon Law, he was appointed to teach civil law. In 1549 he became a canon of the cathedral, but he did not become a priest until later. He gave up teaching in 1555, and although he had turned down office as a bishop, he became in 1556 "Auditor" or judge of the Roman Rota, the supreme Catholic ecclesiastical court, moving to Rome.

Pope Pius IV sent him to the Council of Trent, where he played an important role, as a mediator between reformers and conservatives. His Diarium, or journal, on the proceedings of the council, forms one of the most important documents for its history. The complete text is published in the third volume of the Concilium Tridentinum.

After the council Paleotti became one of the commission of cardinals and prelates that served as a basis of the Congregation of the Council. On 12 March 1565, he became cardinal, and on 13 January 1567, was made Bishop of Bologna; he was made the latter's first archbishop, when in 1582 that see became an archdiocese. His early biographers praise his introduction of the Tridentine reforms in his diocese, comparing his activity at Bologna to that of Charles Borromeo at Milan, but Prodi's biography emphasizes his frustrations, struggling with an inadequate staff and unconcerned clergy, as well as difficulties caused by the Papal governors of Bologna, which was part of the Papal States.

In 1589 Paleotti became Cardinal-Bishop of Albano and in 1590 Cardinal-Bishop of Sabina, both suburbicarian sees near Rome traditionally held by senior cardinals, and moved to Rome. There also he distinguished himself by his zeal for reform, although it was becoming clear that his moderate stance was not being followed by the church. His support for the rights of bishops and cardinals against the increasing of the Popes and Curia brought him into conflict with Pope Sixtus V, but at the next conclave in 1590, which elected Pope Gregory XIV, he obtained the votes of an important minority. He died in Rome in 1597, a rather disappointed figure in his hopes for the church and church art, and is buried in Bologna Cathedral.

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