Prospero Santacroce

Prospero Pubblicola Santacroce (24 September, 1514 – 2 October, 1589) was an Italian Roman Catholic bishop and cardinal.

Prospero Santacroce was born in Rome on September 24, 1514, the son of Tarquinio Santacroce and Ersilia de' Massimi. He was the uncle of Cardinal Antonio Santacroce.

He received a doctorate from the University of Padua. He then returned to Rome, becoming a consistorial lawyer in 1537. In 1538, he became the auditor of Fabio Mignanelli, who was then nuncio before Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor. He later became a referendary of the Apostolic Signatura. In 1543, he became an auditor of the Roman Rota. The next year he was an auditor of Cardinal Alessandro Farnese, who was then papal legate a latere in the Holy Roman Empire. He accompanied the cardinal to the Diet of Worms in May 1545.

On March 22, 1548, he was elected Bishop of Cisamus. From April 5, 1548 until April 25, 1550, he was nuncio before Ferdinand, King of the Romans; during this time, he participated in the Diet of Prague, where he argued with the Hussites. He was nuncio to the Kingdom of France from July 15, 1552 until May 23, 1554. He became governor of Bologna on April 2, 1560. He was nuncio extraordinary in Spain in 1560, and nuncio to the Kingdom of Portugal July 6, 1560 until May 10, 1561. During his time in Portugal, he became the first European to cultivate tobacco for the purpose of tobacco smoking; as a result, tobacco's original name in the Italian language was erba Santacroce. From 1561 to 1565, he was again nuncio to the Kingdom of France.

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