POSSESSIVO, ANTONIO - Enciclopedia Cattolica, Vol. IX, p. 1096

Machine translation of the 1948–1954 Italian original. The original text is authoritative.

ANTONIO POSSESSIVO. — Jesuit, diplomat, born in Mantua on 10 July 1533, died in Ferrara on 26 February 1611.

In 1550 he went to Rome, where he was chosen as tutor to the nephews of Cardinal Ercole Gonzaga and in 1559 received a commandery of the Military Order of St Anthony at Fossano (Cuneo). In the same year he entered the Society of Jesus in Rome; but already the following year, 1560, he was sent to Piedmont to Duke Emanuele Filiberto to stem the Waldensian heresy in the valleys and to promote the founding of colleges for the young. Ordained priest in 1561, he continued his apostolate in the valleys of Luserna and Angrogna, then in Chambéry and Lyon. Rector of Avignon (1565–1570) and of Lyon (1571–73), from 1573 until his first diplomatic mission he served as secretary to the Superior General Everard Mercurian.

In 1577 Gregory XIII sent him as legate to Sweden, where he succeeded in converting King John III but not in reuniting Sweden to Rome. In 1581 he went as legate to Russia and Poland to broker peace between Stephen Báthory, King of Poland and Prince of Transylvania, and Ivan IV the Terrible, Tsar of Russia, while at the same time promoting the union of the Russian Church with that of Rome. He obtained only the conclusion of the Peace of Jan Zapolski (1582); as regards union with Rome, he secured only certain privileges for Catholics. More successful was his work toward the union of the Ruthenians, encouraging the dissemination of Catholic writings, the founding of a Ruthenian seminary, and freedom for Catholic schools among the Ruthenians. Stripped of his legatine office over jurisdictional disputes with the nuncio in Poland, A. Bolognetti, Father Possessivo devoted himself to missionary work across Poland, Bohemia, and Upper Hungary, founding papal seminaries at Erlau, Moravia, and Siebenbürgen. A further mission to King Báthory, entrusted to him by Sixtus V, failed with the king’s death. He then took up teaching theology at Padua (1587–91), where his pupil was St Francis de Sales. He also worked for the reconciliation of Henry IV of France with the Church.

Noteworthy too is his editorial activity: *Trattato del sacrificio dell’altare* (Lyon 1563); *Il soldato cristiano* (Rome 1569), written at the order of Pius V for the troops sent to France and the fleet dispatched to Lepanto; *Transsilvania* (Villach 1584; republished by J. Veres in *Fontes rerum Transsilvanicarum*, III, Budapest 1913); *Moscovia* (Venice 1586), which earned him the title of “discoverer of Russia”; *Bibliotheca selecta, qua agitur de ratione studiorum* (Rome 1593; ed. in *Bibliothek der Katholischen Pädagogie*, XI, Freiburg im Br. 1901); *Apparatus ad omnium gentium historiam* (Venice 1602) and his most renowned work, *Apparatus sacer ad scriptores Veteris ac Novi Testamenti* (3 vols., Venice 1603–1606).

Bibl.: The principal source for his life is the unpublished autobiography, written by the Father in his old age in the third person at the request of Cardinal C. Baronio and by order of Paul V: *Annalium quinquaginta annorum*... (3 vols., Arch. rom. S. J., Opp. NN., 336). Biographies: J. Doringy, *La vie du p. A. P.*, Paris 1712; N. Ghezzi, *Vita del p. A. P.*, Italian trans. of Doringy’s work with notes, many unpublished letters, and several additional documents, Venice 1759; L. Karttunen, *A. P., un diplomate pontifical au XVIe siècle*, Lausanne 1908. — Studies: P. Pierling, *Possessio missio moscovitica*, Paris 1882; id., *Un nonce du Pape en Moscovie*, IV 1884; id., *Báthory et P.*, IV 1887; id., *La Russie et le St Siège*, II, IV 1897; H. Briandet, *Le St Siège et la Suède durant la seconde moitié du XVIe siècle*, 2 vols., Paris-Geneva 1907–13; *Monumenta Poloniae Vaticana*, V. *Alberti Bolognetti nuntii ap. in Polonia Epist. et acta*, 1581–82, part 1, Cracow 1933 (with more than 70 letters and memorials by P.), see index; I. Popatek, *Geneza Seminarijui papieskiego w. Wilnie*, in *Oriens*, 1 (1933), pp. 47–50; K. Derks, *P. A. P.*, I. *De contra-reformist*, II. *In zending naar Zweden*, III. *De vredesbemiddelaar*, in *Studien*, 119 (1933), pp. 314–32, 405–31, 519–47; G. Soranzo, *Il p. A. P. e l’ambasciatore inglese a Venezia (1604–1605)*, in *Aevum*, 7 (1933), pp. 385–422; C. Crivelli, *La disputa di A. P. con i Valdesi (26 luglio 1566)*, in *Arch. Hist. S. J.*, 7 (1938), pp. 79–91; C. Castellani, *La vocazione della C. d. G. del p. A. P. da una relaz. ind. del medesimo*, ibid., 14 (1945), pp. 102–24; H. Fouqueray, *Hist. de la Comp. de J. en France*, I, Paris 1910, pp. 335–41, 441–51, 542–50; III, IV 1913, pp. 251–55; Sommervogel, VI, 1061–93; IX, 781; Pastor, IX–XII, see index.

C. Castellano Testore