CONTARINI, GASPARO. — Cardinal, born in Venice to Luigi of the branch of the Contarini of S. Maria dell’Orto on 16 Oct. 1483, died in Bologna on 24 Aug. 1542; he studied in Padua, taking a keen interest in the philosophical questions then fervently debated at that university; he collaborated with the Republic in matters of state and especially in the embassies entrusted to him, among which notable was that to Rome in 1528 and concluded in Bologna with Charles V.
His early works were: a treatise *De magistratibus et Republica Venetorum*, which was printed several times, and a second, *De officio Episcopi*, composed in 1516, in which he sets out the duties of a bishop in accordance with his mission. Paul III, wishing to have a valuable collaborator in the ecclesiastical renewal he intended to undertake, created him cardinal on 21 May 1535, although he was still a simple layman, and assigned him the bishopric of Belluno on 23 Oct. 1536. Contarini stood alongside the Pope in preparing the reform of the Church and removing the abuses that afflicted it, and he advised above all the creation of cardinals who would be of valuable assistance through their learning and the integrity of their life and purpose. He thus promoted the work of the commission that drew up a radical reform plan known as the *Consilium de emendanda Ecclesia* (1536); he was a friend of St Ignatius of Loyola and the first Jesuits, and worked to secure the approval of their institute; in fostering an environment of true spiritual reform he rendered very great service.
When Charles V returned to the intention of resuming negotiations to bring the Protestants back into unity, Contarini favoured religious colloquies between the most illustrious masters of the opposing sides; these colloquies were held at Speyer and Worms in 1540 in preparation for the imperial diet at Regensburg; but the diet opened before they had reached any conclusion, and the diet was merely a continuation of them. On 10 Jan. 1541 Paul III sent Contarini there so that, together with the nuncio Giovanni Morone, he might uphold the Catholic position. Contarini hoped to win over the Lutherans, for whom the dogma of justification stood at the centre of their theological system, by adopting a tempered approach to the opposing conceptions, supported in this by the Catholic theologians of the school of Cologne, among whom G. Gropper and A. Pigghe were prominent, and he even 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. Hence there is in us a twofold justice: the inherent justice by which we begin to be just, but which is insufficient, and the other justice given to us by Christ, namely Christ’s own justice and merit; it is in this alone that we must believe ourselves justified before God. Contarini used the phrase *iniustitia nobis donata et imputata*, explaining the second word by the first. He proposed this doctrine as expressed, hoping it would not displease the Lutherans, and the expression appears in his treatise *De iustificatione*, which he published at this time along with other occasional works: *Confutatio articulorum Lutheri*, *Catechesis sive christiana instructio*; and indeed on this point an agreement seemed possible; but the artificiality of the doctrine soon became evident. Moreover, there were other articles of faith to which the Lutherans were resolutely opposed, particularly on the Eucharist, on Confession, on the Church and the Pope. Contarini composed a pamphlet, *De auctoritate Pontificis*, and proposed a programme of reform; but no agreement proved possible, and on 29 June Charles V dissolved the diet and issued the so-called Regensburg Interim, which was to hold until an ecumenical or national council or another diet. As for Contarini’s doctrine on justification, although praised by Cardinal Pole and his friends, it did not meet with favour, and Contarini had to justify himself. Having returned to Rome on 9 Sept., he was sent by Paul III on 21 Jan. 1542 as legate to Bologna, where he died, just as the Pope had intended to send him as legate to Spain. He is buried in Venice in S. Maria dell’Orto.
Contarini’s works were collected by his nephew Luigi Contarini and printed in Paris in 1571, and later reprinted in Venice. In Florence in 1558 *Quattro lettere* had been printed. In the collection by E. Alberi, *Relazioni degli ambasciatori veneti al Senato*, IV, Florence, p. 11, there is Contarini’s report after his embassy to Charles V, read on 16 Nov. 1523; 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 Contarini, 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.