CARAFFA, family. - The Caraffa family of Naples is a branch of the Caracciolo family, and its progenitor was Gregorio Caracciolo, who lived in the first half of the 12th century and was surnamed Caraffa, perhaps because he was the concessionaire of the wine tax. The princely title was granted on 24 May 1594 to Fabrizio I, who distinguished himself greatly in the defense of Roccella against Hassan Cigala.
Another important branch was that known as della Stadera, so called from the crossed scales in its coat of arms, of which Antonio was head in the 15th century, surnamed Malizia for his acumen in diplomacy. From him descended Cardinal Oliviero, who purchased the county of Ruvo for his brother Ettore; the family later obtained the duchy of Andria.
Other branches include the counts of S. Severino and of Trastto, the lords of Mariglianella, and the counts of Maddaloni, whose most illustrious member was Gian Pietro, duke of Montorio, later Pope Paul IV.
After the collapse of the Caraffa family at the death of Paul IV (1559), the lineage was still distinguished by cardinals, archbishops, viceroys of Naples, warriors, and scholars, among whom was VINCENZO (1542–1611).
Caraffa, family - Tomb of Malizia C. (1438). Naples, church of S. Domenico Maggiore.
The Caraffa family held the archbishopric of Naples from December 1458 to September 1576, with a brief interruption from July 1545 to April 1557.
The cardinalate came into the della Stadera line with Oliviero, born in 1430, doctor of both laws, canon and later archbishop of Naples on 29 December 1458. He was highly favored by King Ferdinand, who had ascended the throne that same year and wished him as a counselor in the royal council and his representative in Rome. He was created cardinal by Paul II on 18 September 1467, earning the title of the Neapolitan cardinal. In 1472 Sixtus IV placed him at the head of a maritime expedition to operate in the Aegean against the Turks, and it was not his fault that, after taking Smyrna and forcing the port of Antalya, he could not achieve the successes necessary to curb their arrogance.
Alexander VI appointed him head of the reform commission, which in fact accomplished nothing. He built on the Quirinal the palace that, later enlarged, became the papal residence; in the church of Santa Maria sopra Minerva he erected the chapel of St. Thomas, which he had painted by Filippino Lippi. He also carried out works at St. Lawrence in the Verano (cf. V. Forcella, *Iscrizioni*, XII, Roma 1878, p. 514, no. 575). In Naples he built the building of the Sapienza, intended for studies; in the cathedral the chapel of the Soccorso, where he was also buried; he also had the relics of St. Januarius transferred from Montevergine to Naples. Highly esteemed by the best men of his time, he died in Rome on 20 January 1511.
Among those who operated around Paul IV stands out his nephew Cardinal Carlo C., son of Giovanni Alfonso, brother of the Pope, born in Naples c. 1517, died in Rome on 4 March 1561. He first served in the military in Italy and beyond the Alps; when Paul IV was elected pope, he was in Rome and decided to enter the ecclesiastical state. He succeeded in persuading his uncle, who created him cardinal with the deaconry of SS. Vito e Modesto on 7 June 1555, and kept him close as cardinal-nephew, entrusting to him the cares of governing the state while he himself attended to the reform of the Church and the Inquisition. The cardinal, mindful of the Pope’s advanced age, sought to secure a prominent position for himself. He obtained the regency of the Chancellery, the legation of Bologna, and especially free rein in political relations. And since Paul IV was opposed to Spanish influence and the Habsburgs, precisely when their power was passing through a critical moment in Germany, Caraffa took advantage of this to ally with France, where he was sent as legate on 11 May 1556, and was the cause of that war with Spain fought around Rome that endangered the city itself. It ended with the Treaty of Cave (September 1557), to which Caraffa had secret agreements added, kept hidden from the Pope, to regulate the interests of his own family.
The cardinal, who had not corrected his private conduct, shamelessly abused the Pope’s trust, until, at the beginning of 1559, informed by certain incidents and by reliable information, the Pope severely punished him and others who had taken part in his misdeeds. The cardinal was ordered first to leave his apartment in the palace and then Rome itself to go to Civita Lavinia, deprived of all involvement in affairs and of the legation of Bologna; however, he was not stripped of his cardinal’s dignity. Therefore, at the death of Paul IV (18 August), he returned to Rome and was admitted to the conclave that elected Pope Pius IV. The new pontiff ordered a regular trial against the prevaricating Caraffas; the cardinal, imprisoned on 7 June 1560, was deposed and then strangled in prison on 4 March 1561. Pius V, who had been protected by Paul IV, ordered a review of the Caraffa case, vindicating at least in part their reputation and bringing to light the serious irregularities of the 1561 trial.
The elder brother of Cardinal Carlo was Giovanni, count of Montorio, who worked hard with the Pope to obtain the cardinalate for his brother Carlo. Although he was named captain general of the Church, he had to yield precedence to his younger brother and had no opportunity to exercise either military or political activity. He obtained the duchy of Paliano when the Colonna were dispossessed of it; but he did not receive the lordship of Siena, as had been negotiated when in 1557 the cardinal drew closer to Spain. Involved in his brother’s downfall, he was subjected like him to the 1561 trial, confessed to the killing of his wife Violante d’Alife, whom he had unjustly accused of adultery, and was sentenced to beheading.
The third brother, Antonio, marquis of Montebello, commanded the papal guard, but even less than his brother Giovanni took part in public affairs and was not condemned in the 1561 trial. His son Alfonso, born in Naples in 1540, was greatly beloved by Paul IV for his mildness; the Pope created him cardinal at the age of 18 on 15 March 1557 with the deaconry of S. Nicola in Carcere, and on 19 April of that year also gave him the archbishopric of Naples, and in December 1558 appointed him regent of the Apostolic Chamber.
He remained close to Paul IV, well received by him even after the condemnation of the two uncles; he was transferred to the title of SS. Giovanni e Paolo and was named librarian of the Vatican at the beginning of 1559. Under Pius IV he was involved in the ruin of his family under the false accusation of having removed precious objects from the chamber of the deceased Paul IV at the time of his death; he was stripped of honors and offices.
He was fined 100,000 gold scudi, confined to Castel Sant’Angelo on 7 June 1560, and faced the prospect of harsher punishment. Pardoned in 1562, he took refuge in Naples, a see from which he had not been deprived, and governed it, holding a synod, initiating monastic reform, and finally dying there on 26 August 1565. He was buried in the cathedral, where Pius V, as it were to compensate for the wrongs he had suffered, had a magnificent tomb erected for him.
Connected with the foregoing but belonging to the branch of the dukes of Ariano was Cardinal Diomede C., born in 1491, who died in Rome on 12 August 1560. At the age of twenty, in 1511, he was appointed by Julius II bishop of Ariano, a see he governed for fifty years. Paul IV created him a cardinal with the presbyteral title of San Martino ai Monti on 20 December 1555, together with his kinsman Alfonso. In Ariano he restored the cathedral, the episcopal residence, and the crumbling abbey of Sant’Andrea, and had begun to embellish the church of his titular church as well, which he obtained to be raised to the status of a Lenten station. Of modest disposition, he always lived far from the Neapolitan court; he was buried before the high altar of the church of San Martino ai Monti.
From the branch of the marquises of Montenero came instead ANTONIO C., born in Naples in 1538, a Vatican canon and cup-bearer to Paul IV. When his kinsmen fell from favor, he resigned his canonry and retired to Naples, where he devoted himself to studies, especially of Greek, drawing on what he had learned under Guglielmo Sirleto, with whom he remained thereafter on terms of warm friendship. He was created a cardinal by Pius V on 24 March 1568, the pope intending thereby also to rehabilitate the memory of the Carafa. He was a member of the new Congregation for the Implementation of the Council of Trent and, after Sirleto’s death, also librarian of the Vatican.
A man of great learning, he worked on the revision of the Vulgate mandated by the Council of Trent; but Sixtus V drew only partially on the critical work Antonio had prepared and in 1588 published that flawed edition which was soon withdrawn. His principal work was the critical edition of the Greek Bible known as the Septuagint, with an accompanying Latin version (Rome 1587). He also directed the critical edition of the *Corpus iuris canonici* sponsored by Gregory XIII and of other texts. Worth noting is his *Catena explicatio veterum Patrum in omnia tam Veteris quam Novi Testamenti cantica* (Padua 1565). He died in Rome on 13 January 1591 and was buried at San Silvestro al Quirinale.
To these sixteenth-century cardinals there succeeded in the following century another group who made their careers through ecclesiastical diplomacy, discharging their entrusted tasks with zeal and honor.
DECIO C., born in Naples in 1556 and dying there on 23 January 1626, was educated by Mario C., archbishop of Naples; coming to Rome, he was enrolled among the prelates of the Curia. On 16 March 1598 Clement VIII named him apostolic collector in Portugal. Paul V then appointed him archbishop of Damascus on 17 May 1606, after which he served as nuncio in the Low Countries and in 1607 in Madrid. On 7 August 1611 he was created a cardinal by Paul V, and upon his return from Spain he was assigned the presbyteral title of San Lorenzo in Panisperna on 7 May 1612. On 7 January 1613 he was elected archbishop of Naples, where he governed the diocese with great diligence. He received votes in the conclaves of 1621 and 1623. Beloved by all, at his death he was buried in the cathedral.
CARLO C. the elder was appointed bishop of Aversa on 16 July 1616. On 14 April the new pope Gregory XV sent him as nuncio to the emperor Ferdinand II so that, now that the Protestants had been defeated at the White Mountain near Prague (8 November 1620), he might restore order in Bohemia, which had been left in religious and political turmoil. Carlo C. remained in Bohemia until 1628 and ably and energetically assisted the sovereign in his work. He returned to Aversa in 1629 and was not employed in any further nunciatures. He died in 1644 and was succeeded by his namesake nephew.
He composed the *Commentaria de Germania sacra instaurata*, printed at Cologne in 1639 and reissued in a second Frankfurt edition in 1641; the work retains its value to this day. Earlier, in 1628, Carlo C. had compiled a *Relazione dello stato dell’Impero*, which was in effect a synthesis of his nunciature.
CARLO C. the younger, born in Rome about 1612, doctor of both laws and referendary of the Segnatura, became bishop of Aversa at the age of thirty-three on 13 July 1644; he served as vice-legate in Bologna, nuncio in Switzerland on 18 January 1653, whence he moved to Venice on 31 October 1654; then, on 13 August 1658, he was sent as nuncio to the emperor. He was created a cardinal by Alexander VII on 14 January 1664 and immediately sent as legate to Bologna. He died in Rome at the age of sixty-eight and a half on 19 October 1680; he had resigned the bishopric up to 1665.
PIER LUIGI C., cardinal, son of the marquis Ottavio, born in Naples in 1581 and died in Rome on 14 February 1655. He served as vice-legate in Ferrara, and in 1614 as governor of Fermo; on 29 March 1624 he succeeded his brother Diomede as bishop of Tricarico, but by May he had been named nuncio to Cologne and Lower Germany, where he remained until 1634, restoring the fortunes of Catholicism in the region and winning the esteem of both Catholics and dissenters. Returning to Tricarico, he restored the cathedral and founded the seminary. He was created a cardinal by Innocent X on 6 March 1645 and on 10 June received the title of San Martino ai Monti; in January 1646 he resigned the bishopric. On 3 July 1651 he was appointed legate to Bologna, but for reasons of health he remained there only briefly; thereafter he held the prefecture of the Congregation of the Council and served on other congregations. He died while confined in the conclave that elected Alexander VII and was buried in the church of the Gesù.
A contrasting, pallid figure from the same century who likewise held the purple was Fortuoso C., brother of the grand master of Malta Gregorio, born on 16 February 1631 and dying suddenly in Naples on 16 January 1667. He was created a cardinal, to the surprise of many, by Innocent XI on 2 September 1686 while serving as vicar general of his uncle, the archbishop of Messina, and had come to Rome to present the church on behalf of the king of Naples. On 7 July 1687 he was appointed bishop of Aversa, took part in the election of Alexander VIII, and served as legate in Romagna.
In the eighteenth century careers were almost exclusively made within the Curia: PIER LUIGI C. the younger, born in 1677 to the princes of Belvedere; he served as nuncio to Florence in 1713–17, then as secretary of the Propaganda, and in 1724 as secretary of the Congregation
of bishops and regulars. He was created cardinal on 20 Sept. 1728; on 19 Apr. he became bishop of Ostia and dean of the Sacred College; he died on 16 Dec. 1755 and was buried at S. Andrea delle Fratte.
Francesco C., born on 29 Apr. 1722 at Naples, was secretary of the Congregation of bishops and regulars; he was created cardinal by Clement XIV on 19 Apr. 1773 with the title of S. Clemente, whence he passed to S. Lorenzo in Lucina on 15 Sept. 1788 and was granted in commendam S. Lorenzo in Damaso on 3 Aug. 1807. He was president of S. Spirito in Sassia in 1800. He died on 30 Sept. 1818.