Maffeo Gherardi
Maffeo Gherardi (1406–1492) (called the Cardinal of Venice) was an Italian Roman Catholic bishop and cardinal.
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Maffeo Gherardi was born in Venice in 1406, the son of nobles Giovanni Gherardi and his wife Cristina Barbarigo.[1]
He entered the Camaldolese Order when young, receiving the habit from Paolo Venerio, Abbot of the Monastery of St. Michael on Murano.[1] Gherardi later became abbot of this monastery, and later Abbot General of the Camaldolese Order.[1]
In April 1466, the Venetian Senate unanimously elected him to be the Patriarch of Venice.[1] Ambassadors of the Republic of Venice presented his selection to Pope Paul II on October 31, 1467, and the pope confirmed his appointment on December 16, 1468.[1] Gherardi subsequently held this position for the rest of his life.[1] His chancellor for many years was Filippo da Rimini.[2]
Pope Innocent VIII made him a cardinal priest in pectore in the consistory of March 9, 1489.[1] On July 3, 1489, the pope declared that his creation would be published in the next consistory at which cardinals were created, and that if the pope died before such a consistory, he would nevertheless be eligible to participate in the next Papal Conclave.[1] Following the death of Pope Innocent VIII, Gherardi traveled to Rome, then in the midst of a sede vacante, arriving on August 3, 1492.[1] At the insistence of the Venetian Council of Ten, the College of Cardinals published his creation as a cardinal and allowed him to participate in the papal conclave of 1492, where he cast the decisive vote in favor of Pope Alexander VI.[1] He received as Titular church the deaconry of Santi Sergio e Bacco.[3]
On his way back to Venice, he died in Terni on September 14, 1492.[1] He is buried in San Pietro di Castello in Venice.[1]
References
- Biography from the Biographical Dictionary of the Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church
- Margaret L. King, Venetian Humanism in an Age of Patrician Dominance (Princeton University Press, 1985), p. 407.
- Thomas Ripoll (ed.), Bullarium ordinis praedicatorum, vol. 4, Rome 1732, p. 191
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