ORMEA, CARLO VINCENZO FERRERO DI ROASIO, d'. - Piedmontese diplomat and mystic, b. at Mondovì on 5 Apr. 1680, d. at Turin on 29 May 1745. Judge at Carmagnola, he was appointed by Victor Amadeus II intendant of the province of Susa and later general intendant of finances. In 1722 the King granted him the marquisate of O.
In 1725, to resolve the bitter jurisdictional dispute agitating Sardinia, recently acquired by the House of Savoy, d’O. was sent to Rome, and after laborious negotiations, with the aid of the Sardinian cardinal Agostino Pipia and through the intervention of Card. Prospero Lambertini, succeeded in concluding with Benedict XIII the Concordat of 29 May 1727. Whatever judgment may be passed on the opposing theses from the strictly juridical standpoint, this reconciliation in practice had the beneficent effect of restoring religious peace to the island and, by removing from Spain any pretext for intervention, eliminated the danger of fresh conflicts. In 1730 d’O. was named Secretary of State for Internal Affairs and retained his office even under Charles Emmanuel III, by whose order he had Victor Amadeus II arrested when the latter sought to revoke his abdication and resume power. In 1732 d’O. took charge of the Foreign Office and inspired and directed the Kingdom’s policy during the War of the Austrian Succession. The conflict with the Holy See over Sardinia flared up again when Clement XII declared the Concordat of 1727 invalid; it was composed under his successor, Benedict XIV, by the convention of 5 Jan. 1741. In 1742 d’O. received the Order of the Annunciation and was finally appointed Grand Chancellor of the Kingdom.
