FERRERI, ZACCARIA. - Born at Vicenza in 1479, died at Rome in 1524. A Benedictine monk and later a Carthusian, he left the cloister in order to engage in freer activity. Together with Cardinal Bernardino Carvajal, he was one of the most active opponents of Giulio II at the Conciliabolo of Pisa (1511), upholding the theories of the superiority of the council over the Pope. He later drew close to Leone X, who made him referendary, bishop of Guardialfiera, and nuncio to Poland, Russia, and Prussia (1519–21).
He also published: De reformatione Ecclesiae suasoria... ad Hadrianum VI (Venezia 1523), and fought against Lutero. Better known is his work: Hymni novi ecclesiastici inicia veram metri et latiutatis normans (Roma 1525), which was intended to constitute the first step toward the reform of the Roman Breviary, with which he had been entrusted by Leone X; Clemente VII permitted its use in the private recitation of the Breviary; but, being composed with an excessively servile classical imitation, to the detriment of religious spirit, those hymns met with no success.