BELLAY, JEAN DU

BELLAY, JEAN du. — Cardinal, younger brother of Guglielmo, born in 1492, died in Roma in 1560. He began his ecclesiastical career at a very young age and in 1526 became bishop of Baiona. An intimate friend of the constable-minister Anne de Montmorency, he was known and appreciated by Francesco I, who sent him as ambassador to England in 1528. He entered into the friendship of Cardinal Wolsey and Enrico VIII and became the king’s supporter at the moment when the latter’s relations with Roma were becoming increasingly strained. He energetically defended at the Sorbonne in 1530 and in Roma in 1534 the thesis of the king’s divorce from Caterina d’Aragona, aunt of Carlo V, with the purely political aim of securing for Francesco I a powerful alliance in his struggles against the emperor. As a reward for this action, he obtained the bishopric of Paris in 1532 and the purple in 1535. The following year, he distinguished himself by organizing the defense of the city during the siege of Peronne by the imperial troops. On his journey to Roma in 1536 he was accompanied by Rabelais. Bishop of Limoges in 1541, archbishop of Bordeaux in 1544, bishop of Le Mans in 1546, he returned to Roma in 1548 to unsuccessfully promote, on behalf of Enrico II, an anti-imperial alliance. Opposed by the Cardinal of Lorraine, he withdrew permanently to Roma in his final years, where he had a magnificent palace and splendid court frequented by men of letters and artists. Upon the death of Marcello II, there was talk of his possible elevation to the papacy. He left three books of poetry (Paris 1546) and several speeches.