ORMANETO, NICCOLÒ

ORMANETO, Niccolò. — Bishop of Padua, Veronese by birth, born at the beginning of the 16th century, died on 17 or 18 June 1577. In 1553, as legate to England, he assisted Cardinal Pole in his work of reforming the clergy and the University of Oxford. He returned to Rome in 1557 to report on the legation, at which time Cardinal Pole was removed from office by Paul IV.
He followed Cardinal Navagero, one of the papal legates to the Council of Trent, and in 1563 was sent by the legates on a mission to Albert V, Duke of Bavaria. He then moved to Milan and became one of the most trusted advisers of St Charles Borromeo, who in June 1566 sent him to Rome as his representative in the Congregation for the Reform of the Roman Clergy. Thus he was one of the most effective instruments of the reforming action of Pius V. In 1572 Gregory XIII sent him as nuncio to Spain, where he carried out energetic work in the reform of Spanish monasteries.