GONDI, PIETRO. — Cardinal, born in Lyon in 1532, died in Paris on 17 Feb. 1616. Court chaplain and chancellor of the diocese of Langres, where he was elected bishop in 1566; he was transferred to the see of Paris in 1569 and created cardinal by Sixtus V on 18 Dec. 1587. He exercised his ministry as a pious and zealous pastor in troubled and difficult times (v. Otto, Notti), and although not uninvolved in political activities (at the Colloquy of Poissy in 1561, in Rome in 1576 and 1585, and in the negotiations for the absolution of Henry IV), he mainly carried out an action of charitable aid to the poor, especially during the siege of Paris in 1589.
BIBL.: Eubel, III, pp. 52, 226, 270; A. Ciaconius, Vita et res gestae pontificium Romanorum et S.R.E. cardinalium IV. Rome 1677, cols. 180-82; Pastor, IX, passim. Antonio Cisterlini