MORONE, GIOVANNI. - Cardinal, b. in Milan on 25 Jan. 1509 to Girolamo, chancellor of Maximilian and Francesco Sforza, and to Amabilia Fisiraga. He devoted himself to the study of law at Padua and by Clement VII was named, at the age of twenty, bishop of Modena on 7 Apr. 1529 by virtue of a promise made to his father; despite the opposition of Alfonso d'Este, he held the diocese until 23 May 1550. On 12 Sept. 1552 he received the diocese of Novara and held it until 13 March 1560. He received the diocese of Modena again on 23 Feb. 1564 and then held it until 16 Sept. 1571. He himself described himself as neither theologian nor canonist; but his consummate experience and dignified conduct made up for this undeniable deficiency. He can well be called one of the purest and most clear-sighted men of the Church of his age.
After a brief mission to France in 1529, M. began under Paul III his brilliant diplomatic activity, when on 21 Oct. 1536 he was appointed to succeed Pier Paolo Vergerio in the nunciature at the court of Ferdinand of Germany, with the special charge of promoting the celebration of the Council then convoked for Mantua: on that occasion he immediately gave proof of that special keenness of observation and almost proverbial ability that was his own. Recalled on 3 Sept. 1538, he was again sent to Germany on 20 Jan. 1539, especially in view of the religious colloquy that was intended to be held at Speyer with the princes of the Empire to put an end to the religious discords. When it was decided that the theological discussions would be held at Hagenau, on 25 May 1540 M. went there with King Ferdinand. When the conference was convoked at Worms (28 Oct.), M. arrived there on 27 Nov. He is found at the Diet of Regensburg on 31 Jan. 1541; Cardinal legate Gaspare Contarini joined him there on 12 March. M.'s shrewd activity at a very delicate moment for Catholicism in Germany did not succeed in preventing the useless theological disputes and the recess with the Interim of Regensburg (29 June), which turned out disadvantageous to the Catholics. While Contarini returned to Italy, M. remained with King Ferdinand to advocate the convocation of the Council at Trent. On 9 Feb. 1542 he took part in the Diet of Speyer and on 2 June he received the appointment as cardinal, after which he left Germany.
On 16 Oct. 1542, together with Cardinals Pole and Parisio, he was named legate to the Council that was to assemble at Trent (v.) and reached that city on 22 Nov. 1542; he departed from it at the end of July 1543, having remained the only legate at a Council that for political reasons could not then function. On 2 Apr. 1544 Paul III named M. legate to Bologna and he held that legation until 1548, during which, on 23 July 1544, he was sent as legate to Charles V for affairs concerning the Council; but Charles V refused to receive him, for which reason he returned to Bologna at the end of Sept. M. was convinced that it was necessary to carry forward the reform of the Church if the progress of heresy was to be checked, and he had taken care during his absences to provide for the purity of the faith in his diocese of Modena. From these years dates the particular friendship that bound him to Cardinal Pole and to that spiritual circle that gathered around him first at Capranica and then at Viterbo (1541-45), where with Vittoria Colonna, Marco Antonio Flaminio, Alvise Priuli, there sometimes assembled Pietro Carnesecchi, Donato Rullo, Vittore Soranzo, Apollonio Merenda and others not well secure in the faith. From this arose the suspicions conceived against him by Cardinal Gian Pietro Carafa, which were the cause of so many troubles for him when the latter became Paul IV. Like these men, M. at that time inclined toward the Lutheran principle of justification by faith alone, through the merits of the Savior, without however undermining the mystery of the real presence; he admitted the duty of good works and the authority of the Church. He had the fault, like many Catholics, of contributing to the diffusion of the heretical little treatise of the Beneficio di Cristo (1541-43), later condemned. Nevertheless, on 27 Feb. 1550 M. became a member of the Roman Inquisition, assisted the nascent Society of Jesus and promoted the foundation in Rome of the German College (1552). Julius III had recourse to him when in 1553 the Diet of Augsburg was being prepared and named him legate to King Ferdinand (7 Jan. 1555) with the task of safeguarding the dignity of the Apostolic See. M., having departed on 18 Feb., had to return soon in order to take part in the Conclave at the end of March.
In June 1555, as soon as he was elected, Paul IV deputed the commissioner charged with gathering the heads of accusation against M. for heresy. M. himself on 31 May 1557 was imprisoned in Castel S. Angelo and a commission of cardinals was designated to judge him on the accusation that «unmindful of the benefits received from the Roman Church he had dissented from the Catholic faith in pluribus dictis et factis, clam et publice». The trial, resumed in Oct., did not lead to positive proofs and Paul IV would have wished to free M. by way of grace; but the latter wanted a sentence and compiled a defense (cf. C. Cantù, Gli eretici d'Italia, II, Turin 1866, pp. 176-90; P. Tacchi-Venturi, Storia della Compagnia di Gesù, II, Rome 1950, p. 125, 156 ff.). The sad episode came to an end at the death of Paul IV, when M. (18 Aug. 1559) was liberated and then admitted to the Conclave from which Pius IV was elected. In the Consistory of 13 March he was absolved of every charge and recognized as innocent. On that same day he opted for the suburbicarian see of Albano. After the deaths of Cardinals Seripando and Gonzaga, legates to the reopened Council of Trent, Pius IV replaced them on 7 March 1563 with M. and with Navagero, and from that moment M. was the soul of the Council, which seemed on the point of shipwreck and which he knew how to bring happily to completion in Dec., overcoming the many difficulties that arose at every moment. By Christmas 1563 he was already in Rome to favor the solemn approval of the Council. In the Conclave of 1566 a strong party led by Cardinal Borromeo warmly supported his election, but he was greatly harmed by the fact of having been subjected to inquisition. Even under Pius V, who was never entirely favorable to him, he continued to be consulted in German affairs (regarded, as he was, as the best connoisseur of German matters) and also on the occasion of the war against the Turk. He was held in particular consideration by Gregory XIII, who on 18 March 1575 sent him to Genoa to settle the city's discords and to thwart the intrigues of Philip II. Having settled Genoese affairs in the best manner, M. returned to Rome on 14 Apr. 1576. But a few days later he departed again as legate to Germany to the Diet of Regensburg for the league against the Turk, and there he occupied himself excellently with the reestablishment of discipline among the Catholics, in whom he reawakened courage «with incomparable prudence». He returned to Rome on 17 Nov. Since 3 July 1570 he had become bishop of Ostia and dean of the Sacred College. He died on 1 Dec. 1580 «tota urbe collacrimante»; poor because he had never importuned the popes «to give him [anything], but only attended with every industry to overcoming envies and malevolences». He was protector of several religious Orders and of the new German and English; yet in the midst of so many affairs he had zealously attended to the government of his dioceses, especially that of Modena, where he gathered three synods.
Besides the Difesa, letters of M. survive in various collections; the diplomatic dispatches, of great importance, in Nuntiaturberichte aus Deutschland (I, II, IV, VI; III, I, Gotha 1892-1908; partially [period 1536-41] in H. Lämmer, Monum. Vatican., Freiburg im Br. 1861, see index).