Chieregato, Lionello

CHIEREGATO, LIONELLO. - Bishop and papal nuncio, b. at Vicenza to Nicola C., in the first half of the 15th century. A doctor of decrees, in February 1470 he is found in the retinue of Cardinal Marco Barbo, bishop of Vicenza; then in Rome, at the court of Paul II; he was appointed bishop of Arbe in Dalmatia on 8 January 1472 and accompanied Barbo on the legation to Germany, but preceded him in returning to Rome (1473). On 14 January 1484 he passed to the bishopric of Traù, visited the diocese and also Friuli in the name of Barbo, patriarch of Aquileia; finally, on 22 October 1488, he was transferred to the see of Concordia in eastern Venetia.

In the meantime Innocent VIII had appointed him nuncio in France to settle that nation's politico-religious controversies (Nov. 1487), giving him as companion Antonio Flores, canon of Seville. From C.'s letters one learns how numerous were the accusations against the abuses of ecclesiastics and particularly of the religious, and also of his work with regard to Pico della Mirandola, who had taken refuge in France.

In 1490 he went to England to negotiate peace between that king and Charles VIII. On 29 September 1490 C. left Lyons and France with his colleague, and returned to Rome without having accomplished much, owing to the delaying tactics of the French court. C. also enjoyed the favor of Alexander VI, who charged him with conferring with Charles VIII when the latter descended toward Rome (Dec. 1494), and the following year sent him as nuncio to Germany to Maximilian. He remained there until about the middle of 1499, when he betook himself to his bishopric of Concordia, where, in February 1505, he also held a Synod, and there he died on 19 August 1506. An upright and learned man, C. perhaps did not have much good fortune as nuncio. He was held in his time to be an orator of great merit, and some of his occasional orations survive in print; he also delivered the ceremonial address for the marriage of Lucrezia Borgia to Giovanni Sforza.

Part of his dispatches and letters are also printed.

Pio Paschini