PIETRO de MONTE. – Jurist, born in Venice in 1433, died in Rome on 12 January 1457.
He studied at the Collège de Navarre in Paris and became a magister artium; he earned his doctorate in utroque iure at the University of Padua (1433). He soon found himself at the Council of Basel, where he was a staunch defender of the rights of the Holy See and was entrusted with the task of securing the release of Cardinal Condulmer, who had been taken prisoner by the Romans. Eugenius IV sent him as nuncio and collector of tithes to England. Having succeeded in detaching the English from the Council of Basel, which had become schismatic, he returned to Rome and was appointed Bishop of Brescia. Before taking possession of his see, he was sent as legate a latere to Charles VII of France to induce him to revoke the Pragmatic Sanction of Bourges. When his efforts proved fruitless, he settled in Brescia (1445); in 1451 he was sent as legate to Perugia; from 1454 he remained in Rome as an apostolic referendary.
Principal works: Repertorium utriusque iuris (Rome 1476); Tractatus de potestate Papae et concilii (Rome 1492); De monarchia o De Summi Pontificis et universalis concilii necnon de Imperatoriae majestatis origine (Lyons 1512, Rome 1537); Responsio ad exhortationem seu incetivam N. archiepiscopi Panormitani ad Patres Concilii Basileensis (Bibl. Vaticana, cod. Barb. lat. 843 [formerly 116], ff. 198-233); Contra impugnantes Sedis Apostolicae auctoritatem (ibid., ms. Vat. lat. 4415); Discorsi e lettere varie (Bibl. Vatic., ms. Vat. lat. 2694; Ott. lat. 350 and 675).