Contarini, Gasparo
CONTARINI, GASPARO (1483–1542), Venetian statesman, author of philosophical and theological works, proponent of Roman Catholic church reform, and cardinal. Born in Venice on October 16, 1483, he died in Bologna on August 24, 1542. Belonging to an ancient patrician clan, Contarini received a solid education first in Venice and then, from 1501 to 1509, at the University of Padua, where he studied philosophy, mathematics, and theology. In 1511, during a period of inner turmoil and search for personal vocation, he arrived at the conviction that humankind is justified before God by faith, not works. This belief, similar to Martin Luther's, later enabled him to deal sympathetically with Protestantism.
His career in the service of Venice began in 1518. Among its highlights were embassies to Emperor Charles V from 1521 to 1525, and to Pope Clement VII from 1528 to 1530. Dispatches from both missions show the development of Contarini's considerable diplomatic skill. Between 1530 and 1535 he was a member of the Venetian government's inner circle, holding high office almost continuously, including that of the head of the Council of Ten. This period also saw the completion of his best-known work, De magistratibus et respublica Venetorum, which contributed to the widespread diffusion of the idea of Venice as a perfectly ordered state.
On May 21, 1535, Pope Paul III appointed Contarini cardinal. He became the center of a group of reformers at the papal court, heading a commission to propose reforms in the church before the calling of a general council. As a member of subsequent commissions for the reform of various curial offices, he was an insistent spokesman for the necessity of removing abuses and clashed with his conservative colleagues. In January 1541, he was chosen as papal legate to the religious colloquy between Catholics and Protestants in Regensburg. In an unsuccessful effort to break down the differences between the two confessions, Contarini proposed a theory of double justification. It was eventually rejected by both sides. He spent the last months of his life as papal legate in Bologna, suspected by intransigents in Rome of having been too accommodating to Protestants and of leaning toward their ideas. Contarini remains perhaps the most attractive personality among Catholic reform thinkers before the Council of Trent.
Bibliography
Franz Dittrich's Gasparo Contarini (Braunsberg, 1885) is still the fullest biography. Contarini's works have been issued under the titles Gasparis Contarini cardinalis opera (1571; microfilm reprint, Rome, 1964) and Regesten und Briefe des Cardinals Gasparo Contarini, 1483–1542, edited by Franz Dittrich (Braunsberg, 1881). Useful studies include Hubert Jedin's "Gasparo Contarini," in Dictionnaire d'histoire et de géographie ecclésiastiques, vol. 13 (Paris, 1956), pp. 772–784; James B. Ross's "The Emergence of Gasparo Contarini: A Bibliographical Essay," Church History 41 (1972): 22–46; and Gigliola Fragnito's "Gasparo Contarini," in Dizionario biografico degli Italiani, vol. 28 (Rome, 1983), pp. 172–192.
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