CHIEREGATO (CHIERICATI), FRANCESCO. - Apostolic nuncio, b. at Vicenza in 1478, d. at Bologna on 6 Dec. 1539. Under Leo X he was sent as apostolic nuncio to England from 1515 to 1517, and two years later to Spain; then again, in 1521, to Portugal. At Saragossa and Barcelona he had occasion to become acquainted with the future Pope Adrian VI, then Cardinal A. Florenz and governor of Charles V. On 7 Sept. 1522 he was appointed by the new Pope bishop of Teramo and nuncio to Germany on the occasion of the Diet of Nuremberg. Having arrived in Germany on 26 Sept. 1522, and having been well received by Archduke Ferdinand, he took part in the diet opened on 17 Nov. of that same year, delivered two speeches there, and on 3 Jan. 1523 read aloud the Pope’s letter
in which the abuses that had become established in the Church and the need to eliminate them were acknowledged. But this was not enough to change the attitude of those rebelling against ecclesiastical authority and to restore religious peace in Germany. Nor was it possible to obtain the enforcement of the Edict of Worms (1521) against Luther. In 1534 he was governor and castellan of Narni, offices which he relinquished in 1535 for reasons of health.