BRANDA da CASTIGLIONE. - Cardinal, born at Castiglione Olona in 1350, died there on 3 February 1443. He was already renowned as a canonist when Gian Galeazzo Visconti sent him to Rome on affairs concerning the University of Pavia, where he taught. Boniface IX appointed him chaplain and auditor of the Rota, and later papal legate to Germany. In 1404 he was bishop of Piacenza; he was deposed by Gregory XII (1409) because at the Council of Pisa he maintained that the Pope ought to resign the pontificate, as he had been obliged to do before his election. John XXIII created him cardinal priest with the title of S. Clemente on 6 June 1411. He was later bishop of Porto (1431), then of Sabina. He was entrusted with various legations in Germany, in Bohemia against the Hussites (1421), and in Poland. He took an active part in the Council of Constance; at that of Basel he supported Eugenius IV and thus was among the prelates who transferred to Florence. The Pope also sent him to reconcile the Church with Filippo Maria Visconti.
He was accused of wishing to abolish the Ambrosian rite in Milan in 1440, but it is probable that this was an unfounded accusation based on a misunderstanding, intended to remove him from the city.
Many of his works remain in manuscript; he is remembered for founding two colleges and for his patronage of his native land, where he summoned Masolino da Panicale to paint.