CESARINI, ALESSANDRO. - Cardinal, born in Rome in an uncertain year, died there on 13 February 1542. Leone X, whose esteem and friendship he enjoyed, raised him to the sacred purple in 1517, while he was apostolic protonotary, and he received the deaconry title of SS. Sergio e Bacco, later changed (1523) to that of S. Maria in Via Lata. In 1522 he was sent to Saragozza to the new pope Adriano VI, together with cardinals Colonna and Orsini, to hasten his arrival in Rome and for other negotiations on behalf of the S. Collegio (v. le istruzioni date ai legati in Papiers d'état du card. de Granvelle publiés sous la direction de m. Ch. Weiss, I, Parigi 1841, pp. 241-250).
During the sack of Rome in 1527, although he was of the imperial party and had paid a large sum to ransom it, he saw his palace at S. Eustachio plundered. He was one of the four cardinals who accompanied Clemente VII to Bologna (1529) for the coronation of Emperor Carlo V. When the latter returned there in 1532, C. was sent to meet him together with Cardinal Grimani. He was again sent to meet Carlo V with Cardinal Piccolomini in December 1535, to negotiate, among other matters, the highly thorny question of the succession to the duchy of Milano upon the death of Francesco Sforza, the convocation of a council, and the condemnation of Enrico VIII of England. He was again legate extraordinary between Francesco I and Carlo V shortly before the Truce of Nice was signed between them (June 1538). From 1534 he was a member of the cardinalitial commission created by Paolo III for the reform of the Church.
Renata Orazi Ausenda