Carvajal, Juan de

CARVAJAL, JUAN de. - Cardinal, b. at Trujillo in Extremadura around 1400, d. at Rome on 6 Dec. 1469. As auditor of the Apostolic Chamber he was charged by Eugene IV with negotiating with Emperor Frederick III and with the German princes to draw them out of the neutrality between the Pope and the Council of Basel which they had proclaimed. To this end he took part in the Diets of Mainz (Feb. 1441) and Frankfurt (May-July 1442) and, together with Tommaso Parentucelli, in the other Diet of Frankfurt in Sept.-Oct. 1446, succeeding in preparing a rapprochement between Germany and the Pope.

Appointed bishop of Plasencia in Spain on 10 Aug. 1446, he was created cardinal on 16 Dec. together with Parentucelli and received the hat with him on 23 Dec., as soon as he had returned to Rome. He set out again for Germany as legate on 15 Sept. 1447 to complete the work of religious pacification, which concluded with the Concordat of Vienna (17 Feb. 1448).

Another legation in Hungary was conducted by C. from 25 Sept. 1455 to 30 Sept. 1461, to support that nation in the struggle against the Turk, and in it he had as his companion St. John of Capistrano.

For the same reason he was legate at Venice from 30 July 1466 to 17 Sept. 1467. He had been bishop of Porto from 26 Oct. 1461 and camerlengo of the Sacred College from 11 Jan. 1469, when he died, leaving a reputation as a most valiant diplomat and an austere churchman; he had shown himself, among other things, ardent in the struggle against the Hussites.

Niccolò del Re