Bonhomini (Bonomi), Giovanni Francesco

BONHOMINI (Bonomi), Giovanni Francesco. - Nuncio, bishop of Vercelli, b. 6 Dec. 1536 at Cremona. He did his early studies in his native city and then followed courses in law at Bologna and Pavia. He was a companion of St. Charles Borromeo, to whom he was bound by a great friendship, and he followed him to Rome when the latter was summoned there by his uncle Pope Pius IV. He was his collaborator and vicar, and when Cardinal Borromeo withdrew in 1565 to his archbishopric of Milan, B. remained in Rome as his agent. He was soon recalled by his protector, who in 1566 resigned the abbey of Nonantola in his favor; in 1567 he wished him with him on the visitation of the Canton of Ticino, and in 1570 on that of German Switzerland, from which arose the idea of creating the nunciature in Switzerland, which was subsequently entrusted for the first time to B. In 1572 B. was named bishop of Vercelli, and he soon began the reform of his diocese according to the decrees of the Council of Trent. In 1579 he was named nuncio in Switzerland for the seven Catholic Cantons, and he remained there until 1581, working indefatigably in the visitation of churches and monasteries for the application of the decrees of the Council of Trent, and for the introduction of various religious Orders. When the Swiss nunciature was suspended by Gregory XIII, B. returned to his diocese of Vercelli, but only briefly, because on 16 Sept. 1581 he was named nuncio at Vienna. Here too he aimed to apply the reform, he visited Hungary and Bohemia, and when in 1582 the Diet of Augsburg opened he assisted the pontifical legate Cardinal Madruzzo in the defense of Catholic interests for the archbishopric of Cologne. Once the dispute was concluded with the excommunication inflicted by the Pope on the archbishop of Cologne Gebhard Truchess, who had gone over to Protestantism, and the bishop of Liège Ernest of Bavaria had been named in his place, the Pope created the nunciature of Cologne and B. was chosen for it in 1584 as nuncio. The jurisdiction of the nunciature extended over the three ecclesiastical provinces of Cologne, Mainz and Trier and other dioceses of western Germany together with the Belgian regions, and very ample powers were granted to the nuncio. B. reached his new see in 1585, and soon began his visitations and took part in various synods for the reform of the dioceses according to the decrees of the Council of Trent. Death overtook him at Liège on 25 Febr. 1587. His remains rest in the cathedral of Vercelli. Besides numerous letters, we have from him the works: Antiquorum

Patrum sermones et epistolae de s. Eusebio episcopo vercellensi et martyre (Milan 1581); Reformationis ecclesiasticae decreta generalia (Vercelli 1579).

Maria Morseletto