BRANDA da CASTIGLIONE. – Cardinal, born at Castiglione Olona in 1350, died there on 3 February 1443. He was already known as a canon lawyer when Gian Galeazzo Visconti sent him to Rome on affairs of the University of Pavia, where he taught. Boniface IX appointed him chaplain and auditor of the Rota, and then papal legate in Germany. In 1404 he was bishop of Piacenza; he was deposed by Gregory XII (1409) because at the Council of Pisa he maintained that that Pope ought to renounce the pontificate, as he had undertaken to do before the election. John XXIII created him, on 6 June 1411, cardinal priest of the title of S. Clemente. He later became bishop of Porto (1431), and 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 the Council of Basel he supported Eugene IV and consequently was among the prelates who transferred to Florence. The Pope also sent him as peacemaker between the Church and Filippo Maria Visconti.
He was accused of wishing to abolish the Ambrosian rite in Milan in 1440; but this was probably an unfounded accusation, based on a misunderstanding, with the aim of driving him from the city.
Many of his works remain in manuscript; he is remembered for founding two colleges and for his patronage on behalf of his native land, where he summoned Masolino da Panicale to paint.