SPINA, GIUSEPPE. - Cardinal, b. 12 March 1756 at Sarzana, d. 13 Nov. 1828 at Rome. He studied law at Pisa and at Rome, where he entered the papal Court and was appointed by Pius VI referendary of the Segnatura. Ordained priest in 1796, he accompanied the Pontiff on the road of exile, was his majordomo and in 1799 at Valence, at the point of death, administered the last Sacraments to him.
During the journey from Rome to France he had been consecrated on 30 Sept. 1798 titular archbishop of Corinth. After the death of Pius VI, he returned to Italy and brought to the cardinals assembled in Conclave at Venice the ring of the fisherman of the deceased Pontiff. In 1800, at the request of Napoleon, who had made his acquaintance the previous year at Valence, on his return from the Egyptian expedition, he went to Paris with the task of conducting the negotiations for the conclusion of a concordat. The negotiations, begun with Bernier in Nov., dragged on uselessly for some months, because the French government, whenever an agreement seemed to have been reached, called everything back into question with the intention of procuring by such dilatory tactics the greatest sum of advantages at the expense of the Holy See and of the Catholic Church. Spina safeguarded with prudence and tenacity the interests of the Holy See, but at the moment when everything seemed concluded, Bonaparte proposed a new text, unacceptable to Spina, who was bound by precise instructions. Only the arrival in Paris of Card. Consalvi brought the negotiations to port. On his return Spina accompanied the remains of Pius VI to Rome. Created cardinal on 29 March 1802, in the following May he was appointed archbishop of Genoa, where he always showed himself solicitous for the good of his diocesans, though at times bending to compromises toward the Emperor with the intention of avoiding a rupture with the constituted authorities and a consequent worsening of religious conditions in the diocese. For this reason, probably, in 1810 he attended the religious marriage of Napoleon with Marie Louise of Austria, standing among the red cardinals. In 1811 he also took part in the National Council of Paris, where he supported the proposal to request the liberation of the Pope relegated to Savona, advising that such a request not be put explicitly, though inserting it in the minutes. After the restoration of the Papal State Spina renounced the archbishopric, became in 1816 legate at Forlì, then in 1818 at Bologna until 1824. During the legation of Bologna, as pontifical plenipotentiary, he took part in the Congresses of Ljubljana and of Verona. At Ljubljana he reaffirmed the neutrality of the Holy See in the Neapolitan question and substantially refused to approve the invasion of the Kingdom by Austria; at Verona, on the other hand, he opposed, together with the representatives of other States of the peninsula, Metternich's hegemonic claims over Italy, helped to bring about the failure of the project for a central police commission and temporarily averted the concentration of the peninsula's postal service in the hands of Austria.