His Eminence Giovanni Battista Caprara |
|
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Cardinal, Archbishop of Milan | |
Church | Catholic Church |
See | Milan |
Appointed | 24 May 1802 |
Term ended | 21 June 1810 |
Predecessor | Filippo Maria Visconti |
Successor | Carlo Gaetano Gaisruck |
Other posts | Cardinal Priest of Sant'Onofrio |
Orders | |
Consecration | 8 Dec 1766 (Bishop) by Pope Clement XIII |
Created Cardinal | 18 June 1792 |
Personal details | |
Born |
Bologna |
29 May 1733
Died | 21 June 1810 Paris |
(aged 77)
Buried | Cathedral of Milan |
Coat of arms |
Giovanni Battista Caprara Montecuccoli (1733 – 1810) was an Italian statesman and cardinal and archbishop of Milan from 1802 to 1810. Legate of Pius VII in France, he implemented the Concordat of 1801.
Caprara was born at Bologna on 29 May 1733 to Count Francesco Raimondo Montecuccoli and Countess Maria Vittoria Caprara. He took his surname from the latter. He studied at the Collegio Nazareno in Rome and earned a doctorate in utroque iure at the Sapienza University of Rome on 23 September 1755.
Having entered the ecclesiastical state, he was appointed in 1755 referendary of the Tribunals of the Apostolic Signature and vice-legate of Ravenna from 1758 to 1761. Appointed titular archbishop of Iconio on 1 December 1766, he was consecrated bishop in the Quirinal Palace on 8 December 1766 by Pope Clement XIII.
Following his appointment as titular bishop, Caprara served as nuncio at Cologne from 1767 to 1775 where he dealt with the Febronian issue. In 1772 he visited Netherlands and United Kingdom.
Due to health problems, in 1775 Caprara was appointed nuncio at Lucerne, and in 1785 he was moved to Vienna, where he remained until 1793. The Vatican Secretary of State remained dissatisfied of his action in Vienna, where he for his pleaser and passive nature did not oppose the religious reforms undertook by Joseph II in order to make the Catholic Church in his empire the tool of the state, independent of the papacy.