CONTARINI, GASPARE. — Cardinal, born in Venice to Luigi, of the branch of the C. of S. Maria dell'Orto, on 16 October 1483; died in Bologna on 24 August 1542. He studied at Padua, taking a keen interest in the philosophical questions then being fervently debated at that University. He collaborated with the republic in affairs of state, particularly in the embassies entrusted to him, among which the one to Rome in 1528, concluded in Bologna with Charles V, was noteworthy.
His youthful works included a treatise, De magistratibus et Republica Venetorum, which was printed several times, and a second, De officio Episcopi, composed in 1516, in which he set forth the duties of a bishop in fulfilling his mission. In order to have him as a capable collaborator in the ecclesiastical renewal he intended to undertake, Paul III created him cardinal on 21 May 1535, although he was still a simple layman, and gave him the bishopric of Belluno on 23 October 1536. The C. stood beside the Pope in preparing the reform of the Church and eliminating the abuses that afflicted it, and first of all advised the creation of cardinals who would be of effective assistance through their learning and the integrity of their lives and intentions. He therefore promoted the activity of the commission that drew up a radical plan of reform known as Concilium de emendanda Ecclesia 1536. He was a friend of s. Ignazio di Loyola and the first Jesuits, and worked to secure approval for their institute; in creating an environment of genuine spiritual reform, he rendered outstanding service.
When Charles V returned to the intention of resuming negotiations to bring the Protestants into union, he favored religious colloquies between the most illustrious masters of the two opposing parties. These colloquies were held at Speyer and Worms in 1540 in preparation for the imperial diet of Regensburg; but the diet opened before they had reached a conclusion, and the diet was merely their continuation. On 10 January 1541 Paul III sent the C. there so that, together with the nuncio Giovanni Morone, he might uphold the cause of the Catholics. The C. hoped to attract the Lutherans, for whom the dogma of justification stood at the center of the theological system, by moving toward a tempering of the opposing conceptions. In this he was supported by the Catholic theologians of the school of Cologne, among whom G. Gropper and A. Pigghe were pre-eminent. He went so far as to concede that justification is not properly due to good works but to faith, in the sense that faith is the means by which we obtain justification. Thus there is in us a double justice: the inherent justice by which we begin to become just, but which is insufficient, and the other given to us by Christ, namely Christ’s own justice and merit. In this alone must one believe oneself to be justified before God. The C. used the phrase iustitia nobis donata et imputata, explaining the second word by the first. The C. proposed this doctrine as his personal view, hoping that it would not displease the Lutherans, and expounded it in his writing De iustificatione, which he published at this time together with other occasional works: Confutatio articulorum Lutheri, Catechesis sive christiana instructio. In fact, on this subject an agreement seemed possible; but the artificiality of the doctrine soon became evident. Besides, there were other articles of faith to which the Lutherans proved decidedly hostile, particularly those concerning the Eucharist, Confession, the Church, and the Pope. The C. composed a short work, De auctoritate Pontificis, and proposed a program of reform; but every agreement proved impossible, and on 29 June Charles V dissolved the diet and promulgated the so-called Interim of Regensburg, which was to remain in force until an ecumenical or national council or another diet. As for the C.’s doctrine on justification, although praised by Cardinal Polo and his friends, it found no favor, and the C. had to defend himself. Returning to Rome on 9 September, the C. was sent by Paul III, on 21 January 1542, as legate to Bologna, where he died, precisely when the Pope had appointed him legate to Spain. He was buried in Venice in S. Maria dell'Orto.
The works of the C. were collected by his nephew Luigi C. and printed in Paris in 1571, and subsequently reprinted in Venice. In Florence, Quattro lettere had been printed in 1558. In the collection of E. Alberi, Relazioni degli ambasciatori veneti al Senato, IV, Florence, p. 11, there is the C.’s report after the embassy to Charles V, read on 16 November 1525; in vol. VII, p. 255, the “Relazione di Roma” of 1530, read on 8 March. As for the negotiations at Bologna, cf. ibid., p. 147 ff. Letters of the C. in G. B. Morandi, Monumenti di varia letteratura, I, Bologna 1799, part 2; II, p. 61 ff.
Among his contemporaries, Lod. Beccadelli wrote his life in the aforementioned Monumenti, p. 9 ff.