SANTA CROCE PUBLICA, FAMIGLIA. — Recorded as very ancient already in the 13th century in the registers of Innocent IV. They were created princes by Clement XI, who elevated their Oliveto fief to a duchy.
The most illustrious among the ecclesiastics was PROSPERO (b. 24 Sept. 1513, d. 18 Nov. 1589), auditor of the Rota, bishop of Chissamo (22 March 1548; resigned on 10 Dec. 1572), invited as nuncio to King Ferdinand (5 Apr. 1548–25 Apr. 1550); then he was nuncio in France in 1552–54, in Spain in 1560, and again in France (Oct. 1561–1566). In the meantime he was created cardinal on 12 March 1564 and was given the administration of the archbishopric of Arles (17 June 1566), which he held until 15 March 1574. Of the civil struggles he witnessed he speaks in his De civilibus Galliae dissensionibus commentariorum libri III, which extend from the death of Francis I to 1562. ANTONIO, archbishop of Seleucia and nuncio in Poland, was created cardinal by Urban VIII on 19 Nov. 1629; he became archbishop of Chieti (10 March 1631), then of Urbino (9 June 1639, resigned in 1639). Died in Rome at the age of 43 on 25 Nov. 1541.