He earned a degree in law at Pavia in 1520 and taught at Padua, Pavia, Bologna, Rome, and Turin. He held public offices, especially under Charles V, who made him Count of the Riviera of Lecco on 23 October 1537. After the death of his wife Anna Visconti (20 November 1538), he entered the clerical state and was named by Paul III as Referendary of the Apostolic Signatura and Bishop of Sarno on 12 October 1543, then Archbishop of Amalfi on 27 October 1544. Meanwhile, in November 1543 he was sent as nuncio to Charles V to negotiate a peace with France that would open the way to the Council and ensure the security of Europe. Created cardinal on 19 December 1544, he returned to the Curia and became one of the zealous promoters of ecclesiastical reform and a member of the Inquisition. He mediated relations between Paul III and Charles V regarding the transfer of the Council from Trent to Bologna and the military events in Germany. The cardinal left Rome on 22 April 1547 as legate to the Emperor; with him he also had to deal with English affairs after the death of King Henry VIII, the complications arising in Lombardy from the assassination of Pier Luigi Farnese, and the Augsburg Interim (v. AUGUSTA, IV), which was meant to regulate relations with the Protestants in Germany but appeared to infringe Catholic rights while satisfying neither of the opposing parties. The cardinal, who had tried to prevent its publication, was recalled on 10 June 1548 and left Germany. He had been given charge of the diocese of Capaccio on 23 March 1547 and held it until 9 November 1549, when he received the diocese of Cremona.
Francesco’s sons were Niccolò, who became Pope Gregory XIV (v.) for a few months, and Paolo, who married Sigismonda d’Este and continued the family line; he was a senator of Milan and predeceased his brother in 1587. Four daughters, together with their aunt Giulia, became nuns of the Angeliche in Milan, renowned for their great virtue. The Sfondrati family was always closely linked to the Barnabites through ties of great friendship. Paolo’s son was Paolo CAMILLO (also called Emilio), born in 1561, whom his uncle Gregory XIV created cardinal on 19 December 1590 and kept near him as Secretary of State. In his youth he had frequented the circle gathered around St Philip Neri, but later he showed himself eager to enrich himself and his family, even abusing the trust placed in him by his uncle the Pope. On 13 September he received the see of Cremona and died on 14 February 1618. With him there came to Rome his brothers ERCOLE, Duke of Montemarciano, general of the Church, who served in the League in France; and FRANCESCO, general of the galleys, marquis of Montafia (1591).
Renata Orazì Ausenda
Greater fame came to the family in the following century through CELESTINO, a Benedictine cardinal and theologian, born in Milan on 11 January 1644, died in Rome on 4 September 1696. At the age of twelve he entered the Benedictine school at Rorschach. After several years of teaching, he was elected Bishop of Novara (1686) and became Prince-Abbot of St Gall on 16 April 1687. He was created cardinal by Innocent XII on 12 December 1695. He vigorously defended the prerogatives of the Apostolic See in various works: Tractatus regaliae (St Gall 1682); Regale sacerdotium Romano Pontifici assertum et quatuor propositionis gallicani cleri explicatum (ibid. 1684), under the pseudonym Eugenius Lombardus; and the continuation Gallia vindicata (ibid. 1688), in which he appeals to the testimony of the Gallican Church itself; Legatio Marchionis Lavardini eiusque cum Innocentio XI dissidium (ibid. 1688) in defence of the Holy See’s refusal to grant France the right of asylum for the Roman quarter of the embassies. His principal and, in a certain sense, famous work is the Nodus praedestinatiensis ex sacris litteris, doctrinaque sanctorum Augustini et Thomae, quantum homini licet, dissolutus (posthumous, Rome 1697), in which he upholds Molinism (v.) with a Leibnizian tone and in a wholly original manner regarding the (considered exceedingly happy) state of children who die without baptism and a certain kind of impeccability (from invincible ignorance of God) of the unbaptized. The work, violently attacked from many quarters, especially by Bossuet, was defended by Cardinal Gabrielli and escaped any condemnation.
CARLO FILIPPO entered the Barnabites, was a friend of Cosimo III of Tuscany, and on 12 July 1677 was named Bishop of Volterra. He died on 11 May 1680 in a reputation for holiness (O. Premoli, Storia dei Barnabiti, II, Rome 1913, p. 350).
The family became extinct in the 18th century with Colonel CARLO, whose property passed to the Serbelloni and Barbiano-Belgioioso families (L. Castano, Mons. Nicolò S., etc., Turin 1939, p. 8).
Renata Orazì Ausenda