Hieronymus ALLEANDRO (Italian: Girolamo ALLEANDRO) — Cardinal. Born at Motta in Friuli on 13 February 1480, died at Rome on 1 February 1542. He first studied in his native region, at Pordenone and Venice, then at Padua, where he took degrees in philosophy and theology. He mastered Latin, Greek, Hebrew, Chaldean, and other Oriental languages. In 1500, at Venice, he belonged to the Aldine Academy and formed a friendship with Erasmus of Rotterdam, from which he soon diverged.
In 1508, after the League of Cambrai, he went to France and lived mostly in Paris. He held a university chair and taught Latin, Hebrew, Chaldean, and especially Greek. Louis XII granted him naturalization, so that he was treated as a native Frenchman; on 18 March 1513 he was elected Rector of the University of Paris. The following year he became counsellor and secretary to Erard de la Mark, Bishop and Prince of Liège, who in 1516 sent him to Rome to seek the cardinal’s hat for himself. On 27 July 1519 Leo X named him librarian of the Vatican Library, and the next year he was sent as apostolic nuncio to the Emperor Charles V with special instructions to combat Lutheran heresy.
He joined the Emperor in the Low Countries and at once secured the execution of the bull condemning Luther’s forty-one propositions and the burning of his books. He accompanied Charles V to Aix-la-Chapelle, where he witnessed the Emperor’s coronation, and then to Cologne, where in the Academy, by imperial authority and in the presence of the leading German princes, he again debated Luther. Finally he took part in the Diet of Worms, where on 8 May 1521 the famous edict was promulgated condemning Luther as a heretic.
After the deaths of Leo X and Adrian VI, Clement VII created A. Archbishop of Brindisi and Oria, and on the same day appointed him apostolic nuncio to Francis I with the special mission of reconciling Emperor and King. During the battle of Pavia, on 24 February 1525, he was taken prisoner and did not return to Rome until 3 August of the same year. The following year his house was destroyed by the Colonnesi. From 1527 to 1529 he attended to his diocese; in 1531 he was again sent to Germany to the Emperor Charles V. He took part in the Diet of Regensburg and was one of the chief promoters of the war against the Turks. From 1533 to 1535 he served as nuncio to Venice. He rendered great service to Paul III in the negotiations for the Council. On 13 March 1538 he was created cardinal with the title of S. Crisogono, and on the 20th of the same month legate to the council that was to meet at Vicenza. He was again sent to Germany, but since no agreement could be reached with the Lutherans and peace between Francis I and Charles V had not yet been established, the Council was postponed indefinitely and A. returned to Rome, where he died.
A. published many scholarly works in Greek and Latin. There are also preserved in manuscript treatises on theology, philosophy, philology, writings on Church reform, and correspondence relating to his various missions.