GUIDICCIONI, BARTOLOMEO. — Cardinal, born at Lucca in 1469, died at Rome on 4 Nov. 1549. He studied law at Parma and Bologna. In 1508 he entered the service of Cardinal Alessandro Farnese 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Farnese even after the latter became Pope Paul III, he devoted himself both in his work and writings (partly still unpublished) to the reform of the Church.
G. is a typical representative of the curialist tendency: the council, whether plenary or general, is subject 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 by the faithful derives from all that is published in council. In matters of positive law papal thought is normative; when there is a discrepancy between pope and council, the council can obtain a suspension only if it concerns a new dogmatic proposition.
G., however, did not fully grasp the functions of the council against Luther: for G. the Council was to restrict itself to condemning heretics and their writings; whereas in fact the Council represented something broader and more profound: it suffices to consider the manifold discussions that led to precise dogmatic formulations.