Cles, Bernardo

CLES, BERNARDO. - Cardinal, b. at Cles on 11 March 1485, d. at Bressanone on 28 July 1539. He studied at Bologna; during the pontificate of Leo X, he was elected (12 June 1514) bishop of Trent, a city that he greatly benefited with his munificence, adorning it with numerous buildings interesting also for practical works such as aqueducts and the paving of streets. He was opposed to the Protestant revolution, so much so that his anti-Lutheran work received the praise of Adrian VI in 1523. He was created cardinal by Clement VII in 1530. Having gone to Bressanone, of whose bishopric he had been named administrator, he died there suddenly.

He was a man of great energy and broad political vision (above all as chancellor of Ferdinand I), a friend and protector of the arts and letters. He was a friend of Erasmus of Rotterdam, to whom he felt akin in his antipathy toward all fanaticism and in his sense of religion understood above all as interior recollection. Nevertheless, a fervent man of action, he immediately perceived, against the Protestant revolution, the necessity of opening a council: in 1522 he had already urged Adrian VI in this direction, and at the meeting of Bologna between Charles V and Clement VII (Dec. 1532), where he took part in the negotiations, he advocated the urgency of convoking a council.