**COMMENDONE, Giovanni Francesco.** – Cardinal, nuncio; born in Venice on 17 March 1524, died in Padua on 25 December 1584. Thanks to his solid humanistic and theological training and his personal gifts as a skilled negotiator, he rendered invaluable service to the popes. He served as papal secretary under Julius III and Paul IV and was entrusted with difficult and delicate missions. In 1553, Julius III sent him to England as a confidential agent to report on the true state of the kingdom and on what should be done to restore Catholicism. On 25 October 1555, Paul IV appointed him Bishop of Zante and Cephalonia, though he never took possession of that see; for that pope he also composed a treatise: *De iure Romani Imperii ad Germanos translati, de pontificum maximorum potestate ac de publicorum conciliorum vi*.
Upon his election, Pius IV made use of him, entrusting him on 29 November 1560 with the mission of going to Ferdinand I to communicate to him and the German princes the bull convoking the council. Commendone traveled to Vienna, then to the Diet of Naumburg, where at first the Protestants refused to receive him; proceeding via Leipzig, Munich, and other important places, he reached Trent, where the Council was assembling, on 7 March 1562. In January 1563, due to difficulties raised by the Cardinal of Guise, the legates sent him to Innsbruck to urge Ferdinand I to take action against the grievances oppressing the Church in Germany. Even before the Council closed, the pope sent him as nuncio to Poland in October–November 1563 to strengthen Catholicism in that country, which was troubled by the divisions among the various Protestant factions. While there, he was created Cardinal Deacon of S. Ciriaco on 12 March 1565 and returned to Rome in December to receive the red hat.
To these years is assigned a discourse on the Roman Curia that, though remaining in manuscript, enjoyed wide circulation, being found in several archives and speaking very frankly on the subject (cf. Pastor, VII, pp. 636 ff.). Commendone remained little in Rome; on 23 January 1566 he was dispatched as legate to the Diet of Austria in Germany; on 17 September 1568 he was sent again to the Emperor; finally, on 18 June 1571 he was sent once more to Germany and Poland, where he remained until 1573, expanding and consolidating the work he had begun in his previous legation and leaving a deep mark of his efforts. Under Gregory XIII he was largely sidelined; yet in 1574 a relator described him thus: “Commendone possesses what is rare in few: he has virtue, goodness, experience, and competence with infinite judgment, and there is no lord in the Sacred College who has spoken to as many different lords, princes, and nations as he has” (Pastor, IX, p. 877).
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COMMENTARIUM ORDINIS FRATRUM MINORUM SANCTI FRANCISCI CONVENTUALIUM. – Official organ of the Conventual Friars Minor, published in Rome under the title *Notitiae ex Curia Fratrum minorum conventualium* from November 1907 (including news from 1904–1906) and under its present title *Commentarium* from January 1915.
Its purpose is to inform the members of the Order of the principal acts of the Holy See and the general curia, and of the various activities of the provinces and convents throughout the world. Published monthly in Latin, it includes the following sections: *Ex Actis Apostolicae Sedis* (with acts of the popes and the Roman Congregations); *Acta Ordinis*: *Curia generalitia, Procura generalis, Postulatio generalis, Provinciae Ordinis, Ad historiam Ordinis*, necrology, and bibliography. The current editor is Fr. Giovanni Bastianini, general secretary of the Order’s missions. Giovanni Odorandi