Editing Gasparo Contarini (section)

===Cardinalate===
[[File:Ingeram Codex 180.jpg|thumb|Contarini's coat of arms (left) in the [[Ingeram Codex]]]]
In 1535, [[Pope Paul III|Paul III]] unexpectedly made the secular diplomat a cardinal in order to bind an able man of evangelical disposition to the Roman interests. Contarini accepted, but in his new position did not exhibit his former independence. At the time he was promoted to cardinal, May 21, 1535,<ref>The consistory also promoted to the cardinalate [[Desiderius Erasmus]], [[John Fisher]] and [[Jean du Bellay]]</ref> he was still a [[layman]]. However, already in October 1536 he was appointed [[Roman Catholic Diocese of Belluno-Feltre|Bishop of Belluno]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/04323c.htm|title=Gasparo Contarini|publisher=Catholic Encyclopedia}}</ref> One of the fruits of his diplomatic activity is his ''De magistratibus et republica Venetorum''.

As Cardinal, Contarini figured among the most prominent of the ''[[Spirituali]]'', the leaders of the movement for reform within the Roman church. In April 1536 Paul III appointed a commission to devise ways for a reformation, with Contarini presiding. Paul III received favorably Contarini's ''[[Consilium de Emendanda Ecclesia]]'', which was circulated among the cardinalate, but it remained a dead letter.  Contarini in a letter to his friend Cardinal [[Reginald Pole]] (dated 11 November 1538) says that his hopes had been wakened anew by the pope's attitude. He and his friends, who formed the Catholic evangelical movement of the [[Spirituali]], thought that all would have been done when the abuses in church life had been put away. What Contarini had to do with it is shown by his letters to the pope in which he complained of the schism in the church, of [[simony]] and flattery in the papal court, and the dangers of a papal ''fiat'' monarchy, its least grateful passages. Paul's successor [[Pope Paul IV|Paul IV]], once a member on the same 1536 commission and fellow ''spirituali'', put it on the new ''[[Index Librorum Prohibitorum]]''.

In 1541 Cardinal Contarini was papal legate at the [[Conference of Regensburg]], the diet and religious debate marking the culmination of attempts to restore religious unity in Germany by means of conferences. There everything was unfavorable; the Catholic states were bitter, the Evangelicals were distant. Contarini's instructions though apparently free were in fact full of papal reservations. But the papal party had gladly sent him, thinking that through him a union in doctrine could be brought about, while the interest of Rome could be attended to later. Though the princes stood aloof, the theologians and the emperor were for peace, so the main articles were put forth in a formula, Evangelical in thought and Catholic in expression. The papal legate had revised the Catholic proposal and assented to the formula agreed upon. All gave their approval, even [[Johann Eck]], though he later regretted it.

Contarini's theological advisor was [[Tommaso Badia]]; his own position is shown in a treatise on justification, composed at [[Regensburg]], which in essential points is Evangelical, differing only in the omission of the negative side and in being interwoven with the teaching of [[Thomas Aquinas|Aquinas]]. Meanwhile, the papal policy had changed, and Contarini chose to follow this. He advised the emperor, after the conference had broken up, not to renew it, but to submit everything to the pope.

[[Ignatius Loyola]] acknowledged that Cardinal Contarini was largely responsible for the papal approbation of the [[Society of Jesus]],  on September 27, 1540. Meanwhile, Rome had drifted further into reaction, and Contarini died while legate at Bologna, at a time when the [[Inquisition]] had driven many of his friends and fellows in conviction into exile.
[[File:Madonna dell'Orto (Venice) - Chapel Contarini - Gasparo Contarini (1483-1542) by Danese Cattaneo (ca 1563).jpg|thumb|His tomb in the church of the [[Madonna dell'Orto]]]]