ARMELLINI DE' MEDICI, FRANCESCO

ARMELLINI de' MEDICI, FRANCESCO. – Cardinal, born in Perugia or Fossato (diocese of Nocera) in 1469, died in Rome in 1527. The son of merchants, he changed his surname from Pantalassi to that of a maternal uncle, who had had him educated and left him heir to his possessions. Having entered the clergy, he passed through various grades of the ecclesiastical hierarchy. Leo X admitted him into his household, allowing him to add the name de' Medici to his own. In 1517 he was created cardinal of the title of S. Callisto and subsequently of S. Maria in Trastevere. He was entrusted with the administration of the bishoprics of Oppido and Gerace and was appointed legate of Umbria, the Marches, and subsequently France. In 1521 he was invested with the office of camerlengo, which had already been entrusted to him in 1517 in place of Card. Raffaele Riario, who had been suspended from II. Under Clement VII he was appointed pro-vice-chancellor in place of Card. Pompeo Colonna. In 1525 he became archbishop of Taranto. He lost all his possessions in the sack of Rome, during which he was forced to take refuge in Castel S. Angelo in the Pope’s retinue. He was buried in S. Maria in Trastevere, where he himself had had the tomb prepared. A. did not enjoy a good reputation because of his greed and his insufficiently restrained conduct.