Giovanni Morone

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.

Morone was born in Milan, on January 25, 1509, where his father, Count Girolamo Morone (d. 1529), was grand chancellor.   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 April 7, 1529, at the age of 20, nominated by Pope Clement VII to the see of Modena as a demonstration of gratitude. His father Girolamo had been one of the commissioners who negotiated the terms of the release of the Pope from imprisonment in the Castel St. 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 November 14, 1528. D'Este was finally bought off with an annual pension. Giovanni Morone was finally ordained priest and consecrated bishop on January 12, 1533.

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; then he was sent as nuncio in 1536 to Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor, then in 1539-1540 to Hagenau and Worms in an attempt to reclaim those areas for the Catholic Church. Morone was legate to the Diet of Speyer (1542) having successfully resisted the transfer of the diet to Hagenau on account of the plague (1540). On the 31st of May 1542 he was created Cardinal Priest, and on October 16, 1542 assigned the titulus of San Vitale. 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. With the cardinals Pier Paolo Parisio and Reginald Pole he was deputed to open the Council of Trent (November 1, 1542 – July 6, 1543), the choice of that place of meeting having been a concession to his diplomacy. The legates arrived on the 22nd of November, but no council assembled; proceedings were suspended and postponed until 1545. He was appointed instead to be Papal Legate to Bologna, from April 2, 1544 to July 13, 1548. His vice-Legate was Giannangelo de' Medici, who became Pope Pius IV. On February 25, 1549, he opted for the Cardinalatial titulus of San Stefano in Monte Celio (San Stefano Rotondo). The death of Paul III on November 10, 1549, deprived him of a good friend.

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