Balue, Giovanni

BALUE, GIOVANNI. - Cardinal of Anjou. Born at Angle-Luçon in Bithon in 1421, died at Ripatransone in the Marches on 5 December 1491. Of very poor origin, he received his doctorate in law at Angers in 1457; and having entered the court he received important assignments from Louis XI. Appointed bishop of Evreux on 20 May 1465, he was transferred to Angers on 5 June 1467 and received the cardinal's hat from Paul II on 18 September 1467 with the title of St. Susanna for the part he had taken in the abolition of the Pragmatic Sanction of Bourges. Although he had shown himself an open defender of Louis XI in the "War of the Public Weal" (1465-69), he was accused after the meeting of Péronne of being in secret understanding with Charles the Bold, duke of Burgundy, and was imprisoned (cf. Mélanges d'archéol. et d'histoire, 29 [1899], p. 259 ff.); he obtained his release only at the beginning of 1481 through the intervention of Cardinal Giuliano della Rovere, and with him he entered Rome on 3 February 1482; he became bishop of Albano on 31 January 1483. In those years he led the life of the Curia, except for a brief period from October 1483 to February 1485, when he was legate in France for the coronation of Charles VIII; he participated actively in the intrigues and affairs of those years and made himself so powerful as to intimidate even Innocent VIII. Having declined the legation to Germany, he went as legate to the Marches in 1490, where he succeeded in quelling continuously recurring discords.

Pio Paschini