Calippi, Lorenzo

CALEPPI, LORENZO. — Cardinal, born in Cervia on 29 April 1741, died in Rio de Janeiro on 10 January 1817. After attending the Collegio dei Nobili in Ravenna, he moved to Rome and devoted himself to the study of jurisprudence. He became a friend of Garampi, who, having been appointed nuncio to Warsaw in 1772, wanted C. with him as auditor of that nunciature; always in Garampi’s retinue, he held the same office in Vienna from 1776 to 1785. In June 1786 he was sent to Naples to conclude a concordat with that court. The demands of the Holy See concerning the appointment of bishops, the direct dependence of religious orders on Rome, the jurisdiction of the nuncio, and the granting of ecclesiastical benefices, however, met with opposition from the Neapolitan rulers, who sought to reaffirm the caesaropapism of Tanucci and the marquis della Sambuca. The negotiations having consequently been broken off in January 1788, C. returned to Rome. Several years later, the confidence of Pius VI called him to conduct other extremely delicate negotiations. In 1796 he was in Florence to confer with Bonaparte’s plenipotentiaries on the arrangements for implementing the Armistice of Bologna, and the following year he was part of the delegation that signed the Treaty of Tolentino. In 1801 he became nuncio in Lisbon, succeeding B. Pacca, who had been made a cardinal. When Portugal was invaded by French troops in 1808, C. followed the royal family to Brazil. There he succeeded in gaining the esteem and gratitude of Giovanni VI by lending his good offices to secure the successful outcome of the Anglo-Brazilian commercial agreement and of the dispute that had arisen between the regent and the administrators of the Patriarchate of Lisbon. He was created a cardinal in the Consistory of 8 March 1816.