COMMENDONE, GIOVANNI FRANCESCO. – Cardinal and nuncio, born in Venice on 17 March 1524 and died in Padua on 25 December 1584. Thanks to his sound humanistic and theological education and his personal gifts as a skilled negotiator, he was able to render valuable services to the popes; he was papal secretary under Julius III and Paul IV and was employed in difficult and delicate missions. In 1553 he was sent by Julius III to England as a confidential agent, so that he might report on the true condition of the kingdom and on what should be done for the restoration of Catholicism. Paul IV appointed him bishop of Zante and Cephalonia on 25 October 1555, but he never went to 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. Immediately after his election, Pius IV made use of him, entrusting him on 29 November 1560 with the task of going to Ferdinand I to communicate to him and to the German princes the bull convoking the council. C. proceeded to Vienna, then to the Diet of Naumburg, where at first the Protestants refused to receive him; then, passing through Leipzig, Munich, and other important places, he reached Trent, where the Council was assembled, on 7 March 1562. In January 1563, because of the difficulties raised by the Cardinal of Guise, the legates sent him to Innsbruck to Ferdinand I, to urge him to take measures against the burdens with which the Church in Germany was being oppressed. Even before the council had closed, in October–November 1563, the Pope sent C. as nuncio to Poland, so that he might revive Catholicism in that country, which had been disturbed by dissensions provoked by the various Protestant tendencies. While he was there, he was created cardinal deacon of S. Ciriaco on 12 March 1565 and returned to Rome to receive the hat in December.
A ‘discourse’ of his on the court of Rome is assigned to these years; although it remained in manuscript, it circulated widely, so much so that it is found in several archives, and it speaks very explicitly on the subject (cf. Pastor, VII, p. 636 sgg.). C. remained in Rome only a short time; on 23 January 1566 he was sent as legate in Germany to the Diet of Augsburg; on 17 September 1568, once again to the Emperor; finally, on 18 June 1571, he was again sent to Germany and Poland, where he remained until 1573, completing and extending what he had accomplished in the previous legation and leaving a profound mark through his work. Under Gregory XIII, C. was almost left aside; in 1572, however, a reporter described him as follows: C. « ha quello che suole essere in pochi, perché ha la virtù, la bontà, l'esperienza et la sufficienza con infinito giudizio, et non vi è signore nel collegio (cardinalizio) che abbia parlato a più diversi signori et principi et nazioni di quello che ha fatto lui. È grave et severo accompagnato con dolcezza et affabilità » (Pastor, IX, p. 877).