Also known as:
Italian: Mercurino Arborio di Gattinara, Mercurino di Gattinara
GATTINARA, MERCURINO da. - Grand chancellor of Charles V, b. at G. on 12 June 1465, d. at Innsbruck on 5 June 1530. After completing his studies at the University of Turin, he followed, as adviser to the duchess Margaret of Habsburg, his lady to Burgundy, when she, on the death of her brother Philip, assumed the regency there. In 1517 he was elected grand chancellor of the king of Spain and had a decisive influence in the formation of the young sovereign Charles of Habsburg. M. da G. was permeated with imperial ideals of a Dantean type (in 1507 he would meditate on the publication of the De Monarchia), aiming at the restoration of a universal monarchy that would have its center in Italy, his homeland, and he knew how to instill in the King's soul such a conception of the Empire and of a correlative Italian policy. His work as grand chancellor would obtain a triumph with the imperial election of Charles V. At times he practiced a certain yieldingness toward the Protestant innovators.
At the Diet of Worms he advised against the condemnation of Luther, who ought to have been judged by a Council («without a Council we shall not be able to overcome the heresy»). Of conciliarist tendency, he would have wished the Council to have a reformatory character, but he also esteemed it a political instrument of imperial power to be brandished before the Pope in moments of struggle.
In 1529 he accompanied Charles V to Italy for the imperial coronation, which he was unable to attend, being ill. He was elected cardinal by Clement VII.
Bibliography3 worksC. Bornato, Historia vitae et scriptura per dominum magnum cancellarium (M. Arborio di G.), in Miscellanea di storia italiana, 3rd series, 1
BIBL.: C. Bornato, Historia vitae et scriptura per dominum magnum cancellarium (M. Arborio di G.), in Miscellanea di storia italiana, 3rd series, 17 (1915), pp. 238-368. H. Van der Linden, Le chancellier G. et la politique méditerranéenne de Charles Quint, in Acad. R. de Belgique, Bulletin, Cl. des Lettres, 1936, pp. 361-374 (the older literature is examined there); K. Brandi, Berichte und Studie, IX. Eisenhändige Aufzeichnungen Karls V. und d. f. 1525. Der Kaiser und sein Konster, in Nachrichten d. Göttingen Gesellschaft d. Hun, phil.-hist. Klasse, 1933, p. 240-322, (fundamental); id., Kaiser Karl V., I. Munich 1937. On G. and the Council, H. Jedin, Storia del Concilio di Trento, I. Brescia 1940 (see index).
Sannazzaro, Piero. “Gattinara, mercurino da.” In Enciclopedia Cattolica, vol. V, coll. 1960–1961. Città del Vaticano: Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico, 1950. https://azioneromana.com/article/gattinara-mercurino-da.
MLA
Sannazzaro, Piero. “Gattinara, mercurino da.” Enciclopedia Cattolica, vol. V, Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico, 1950, coll. 1960–1961. Azione Romana, https://azioneromana.com/article/gattinara-mercurino-da.
BibTeX
@incollection{ec5_gattinara_mercurino_da,
author = {Sannazzaro, Piero},
title = {Gattinara, mercurino da},
booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica},
volume = {V},
pages = {1960--1961},
note = {Cited by column},
publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico},
address = {Città del Vaticano},
year = {1950},
url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/gattinara-mercurino-da}
}
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