Jacopo Sadoleto (July 12, 1477 – October 18, 1547) was an Italian Roman Catholic cardinal and counterreformer noted for his correspondence with and opposition to

John Calvin John Calvin (; frm, Jehan Cauvin; french: link=no, Jean Calvin ; 10 July 150927 May 1564) was a French theologian, pastor and reformer in Geneva during the Protestant Reformation. He was a principal figure in the development of the system ...

Life

He was born at

Modena Modena (, , ; egl, label=Emilian language#Dialects, Modenese, Mòdna ; ett, Mutna; la, Mutina) is a city and ''comune'' (municipality) on the south side of the Po Valley, in the Province of Modena in the Emilia-Romagna region of northern I ...

in 1477, the son of a noted jurist, he acquired reputation as a

neo-Latin New Latin (also called Neo-Latin or Modern Latin) is the revival of Literary Latin used in original, scholarly, and scientific works since about 1500. Modern scholarly and technical nomenclature, such as in zoological and botanical taxonomy ...

poet, his best-known piece being one on the group of Laocoön. In Rome, he obtained the patronage of

Cardinal Carafa Oliviero Carafa (10 March 1430 – 20 January 1511), in Latin Oliverius Carafa, was an Italian cardinal and diplomat of the Renaissance. Like the majority of his era's prelates, he displayed the lavish and conspicuous standard of living that was ...

and adopted the ecclesiastical career. Pope Leo X chose him as his secretary along with

Pietro Bembo Pietro Bembo, ( la, Petrus Bembus; 20 May 1470 – 18 January 1547) was an Italian scholar, poet, and literary theorist who also was a member of the Knights Hospitaller, and a cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. As an intellectual of the It ...

, and in 1517 made him

bishop of Carpentras Carpentras (''Lat.'' dioecesis Carpentoratensis) was a diocese of the Roman Catholic Church in the Provence region (later part of France), from the later Roman Empire until 1801. It was part of the ecclesiastical province under the Metropolitan ...

. A faithful servant of the

papacy The pope ( la, papa, from el, πάππας, translit=pappas, 'father'), also known as supreme pontiff ( or ), Roman pontiff () or sovereign pontiff, is the bishop of Rome (or historically the patriarch of Rome), head of the worldwide Cathol ...

in many negotiations under successive popes, especially as a peacemaker, his major aim was to win back the Protestants by peaceful persuasion and by putting Catholic doctrine in a conciliatory form. Sadoleto was a diligent bishop, made

cardinal Cardinal or The Cardinal may refer to: Animals * Cardinal (bird) or Cardinalidae, a family of North and South American birds **''Cardinalis'', genus of cardinal in the family Cardinalidae **''Cardinalis cardinalis'', or northern cardinal, the ...

in 1536, given the titular church of San Callisto. In 1539 Cardinal Sadoleto wrote to the people of Geneva, urging them to return to the Catholic faith.

had been asked to leave Geneva the previous year, and was living in

Strasbourg Strasbourg (, , ; german: Straßburg ; gsw, label=Bas Rhin Alsatian, Strossburi , gsw, label=Haut Rhin Alsatian, Strossburig ) is the prefecture and largest city of the Grand Est region of eastern France and the official seat of the Eu ...

, but the Genevans still asked Calvin to write a response to Sadoleto, which he did.Both letters can be found i
''Calvin's Tracts Relating to the Reformation''
translated by H. Beveridge, 1844. Digitized by Google Books. Sadoleto died in Rome in 1547, aged 70.

Works

Sadoleto's collected works appeared at Mainz in 1607, and include, besides his theological-ironical pieces, a collection of ''Epistles'', a treatise on education (first published in 1533), and the ''Phaedrus'', a defence of

philosophy Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. Some ...

, written in 1538. The best collection is that published at Verona (1737–1738); it includes the life by Fiordibello. * * * * * * * * His chief work, a ''Commentary on Romans'', meant as an antidote against the new Protestant doctrines, gave great offence at Rome and Paris:

References

Bibliography

* *Pericaud, Antoine. ''Fragments biographiques sur Jacob Sadolet'' (Lyon, 1849) * * * * *

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Sadoleto 1477 births 1547 deaths Italian Renaissance humanists 16th-century Italian cardinals New Latin-language poets Bishops of Carpentras 16th-century Italian Roman Catholic bishops