GUIDICCIONI, BARTOLOMEO. — Cardinal, born in Lucca in 1469, died in Rome on 4 November 1549. He studied law at Parma and Bologna. He entered the service of Cardinal Alessandro Farnese in 1508 and was vicar general of the diocese of Parma from 1509. In 1539 he became a cardinal and vicar general of Rome. A close associate of Cardinal Farnese even after the latter became Pope Paolo III, he devoted himself, through his work and writings (some of them still unpublished), to the reform of the Church.
G. is a typical representative of the curialist tendency: the council, whether plenary or universal, is subordinate to and dependent upon the pope; the council is convoked by the pope (an exception is made in cases of extreme gravity, when, without papal intervention, it receives authority directly from Christ). G., however, was the first among the curialists to declare that greater authority and greater ease of acceptance among the faithful derive from everything published by the council. In questions of positive law, papal thinking is normative; when there is disagreement between pope and council, the council can obtain a suspensive effect only if the matter concerns a new dogmatic proposition.
G. did not, however, fully understand the functions of the Council against Luther: for G., the Council had to restrict itself to condemning the heretics and their writings; whereas the Council subsequently represented something broader and deeper. One need only think of the many discussions that led to precise dogmatic formulations.