- Pietro Carnesecchi
Pietro Carnesecchi (
December 24 ,1508 –October 1 ,1567 ) was an Italian humanist.Biography
Born in
Florence , he was the son of a da Andrea Carnesecchi, amerchant who under the patronage of theMedici , and especially of Giulio de' Medici asPope Clement VII , rapidly rose to high office at the papal court.He came into touch with the new learning at the house of his maternal uncle, Cardinal
Bernardo Dovizi , inRome . At the age of twenty-five he held several rich livings, had been notary andprotonotary to the Curia and was first secretary to the pope, in which capacity he conducted the correspondence with thenuncio s (among themPier Paolo Bergerio inGermany ) and a host of other duties.By his conduct at the conference with
Francis I of France atMarseille he won the favour ofCatherine de' Medici and other influential personages at the French court, who in later days befriended him. He made the acquaintance of the Spanish reformer Juan de Valdés at Rome, and got to know him as atheologian atNaples , being especially drawn to him through the appreciation expressed byBernardino Ochino , and through their mutual friendship with the LadyGiulia Gonzaga , whose spiritual adviser he became after the death of Valdés. He became a leading spirit in the literary and religious circle that gathered round Valdés in Naples, and that aimed at effecting from within the spiritual reformation of the church. Under Valdés' influence he wholeheartedly accepted Luther's doctrine of justification by faith, though he repudiated a policy of schism.He was also an intimate friend of the poetess
Vittoria Colonna , whom he met inFondi in 1535.When the movement of suppression began, Carnesecchi was implicated. For a time he found shelter with his friends in Paris, and from 1552 he was in
Venice leading the party of reform in that city. In 1557 he was cited (for the second time) before the tribunal in Rome, but refused to appear. The death ofPope Paul IV and the accession ofPope Pius IV in 1559 made his position easier, and he came to live in Rome. With the accession ofPope Pius V in 1565 the Inquisition renewed its activities with fiercer zeal than ever.Carnesecchi was in Venice when the news reached him, and betook himself to Florence, where, thinking himself safe, he was betrayed by Gran Duke
Cosimo I de' Medici , who wished to curry favour with the pope. From July 1566 he lay in prison over a year. OnSeptember 21 1567 sentence of degradation and death was passed on him and sixteen others, ambassadors fromFlorence vainly kneeling to the pope for some mitigation, and onOctober 1 he was publicly beheaded and then burned.References
*1911 This page is available here: [http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Pietro_Carnesecchi]
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