GATTINARA, MERCURINO da. – Grand chancellor of Charles V, born at G. on 12 June 1465, died at Innsbruck on 5 June 1530. Having completed his studies at the University of Turin, he followed his lady, Duchess Margherita of Habsburg, to Burgundy as her adviser, when, upon the death of her brother Filippo, she assumed the regency there. In 1517 he was elected grand chancellor of the King of Spain and exercised a decisive influence on the formation of the young sovereign Carlo d’Asburgo. M. da G. was imbued with imperial ideals of a Dantean type (in 1507 he would consider publishing the De Monarchia), aspiring to the restoration of a universal monarchy, with its centre in Italy, his homeland, and he succeeded in instilling in the King’s mind this conception of the Empire and of a corresponding Italian policy. His work as grand chancellor would triumph with the imperial election of Charles V. At times he displayed a certain accommodation 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 defeat heresy”). Of conciliarist inclination, he would have liked the Council to have a reforming character, but he also regarded it as a political instrument of imperial power, to be brandished before the Pope in moments of conflict.
In 1529 he accompanied Charles V to Italy for the imperial coronation, which he was unable to attend because he was ill. He was created a cardinal by Clement VII.