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'Gasparo Contarini' (October 16, 1483 - August 24, 1542) was an Italian diplomat and cardinal.
He was born in Venice. After a thorough scientific and philosophical training, he began his career in the service of his native city. In 1521 he was the Republic's ambassador to Charles V. He accompanied Charles to Spain; later, after the Sack of Rome, he assisted in reconciling the emperor and Clement VII, also the emperor and the Republic of Bologna. His accomplishments, but still more his mild resoluteness and blameless character, made him respected everywhere.
One of the fruits of his diplomatic activity is his ''De magistratibus et republica Venetorum''. In 1535, Paul III unexpectedly made the secular diplomat a cardinal in order to
bind an able man of evangelical disposition to the Roman interests. Contarini accepted, but in his
new position did not exhibit his former independence.
In 1536 Paul III appointed a commission to devise ways for a reformation. Paul III received favorably Contarini's ''Consilium de Emendanda Ecclesia'', but it remained a dead letter, and his successor Paul IV, once a member on the commission, in 1539 put it on the Index. What Contarini had to do with it is shown by his letters to the pope in which he complained of the schism in the church, of simony and flattery in the papal court, but above all of papal tyranny.
Contarini in a letter to his friend Cardinal Pole (dated November 11, 1538) says that his hopes had been wakened anew by the pope's attitude. He and his friends, who formed the Catholic evangelical movement of the Spirituali, thought that all would have been done when the abuses in church life had been put away.
In the year 1541 he was papal delegate at the diet and religious debate at Ratisbon. There everything was unfavorable; the Catholic states were bitter, the Evangelicals were distant. Contarini's instructions though apparently free were full of papal reservations. But the papal party had gladly sent him, thinking that through him a union in doctrine could be brought about, while the interest of Rome could be attended to later. Though the princes stood aloof, the theologians and the emperor were for peace, so the main articles were put forth in a formula, Evangelical in thought and Catholic in expression. The papal legate had revised the Catholic proposal and assented to the formula agreed upon. All gave their approval, even Johann Eck, though he later regretted it.
His own position is shown in a treatise on justification, composed at Regensburg, which in essential points is Evangelical, differing only in the omission of the negative side and in being interwoven with the teaching of Aquinas. Meanwhile the papal policy had changed, and Contarini was compelled to follow his leader. He advised the emperor, after the conference had broken up, not to renew it, but to submit everything to the pope.
Meanwhile Rome had drifted further into reaction, and he died while legate at Bologna, at a time when the Inquisition had driven many of his friends and fellows in conviction into exile.

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See also

★ Pope Paul III

External links

★ Gasparo Contarini article on Catholic Encyclopedia