Editing Pietro Carnesecchi

{{Short description|Italian humanist (1508–1567)}}
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[[Image:Pietro Carnesecchi.jpg|thumb|Pietro Carnesecchi (portrait by [[Domenico Puligo]]).]]
'''Pietro Carnesecchi''' (24 December 1508 &ndash; 1 October 1567) was an Italian [[Renaissance humanism|humanist]].

==Biography==
Born in [[Florence]], he was the son of a da Andrea Carnesecchi, a merchant who under the patronage of the [[Medici]], and especially of [[Giulio di Giuliano de' Medici|Giulio de' Medici]] as [[Pope Clement VII]], rapidly rose to high office at the papal court.

He came into touch with the [[new learning]] at the house of his maternal uncle, Cardinal [[Bernardo Dovizi]], in [[Rome]]. At the age of twenty-five he held several rich livings, had been [[Civil law notary|notary]] and [[protonotary]] to the [[Roman Curia|Curia]] and was first secretary to the pope, in which capacity he conducted the correspondence with the [[nuncio]]s (among them [[Pier Paolo Vergerio]] in Germany) and a host of other duties.

By his conduct at the conference with [[Francis I of France]] at [[Marseille]] he won the favour of [[Catherine de' Medici]] and other influential personages at the French court, who in later days befriended him. He made the acquaintance of the [[Spain|Spanish]] reformer [[Juan de Valdes|Juan de Valdés]] at Rome, and got to know him as a [[theologian]] at [[Naples]], being especially drawn to him through the appreciation expressed by [[Bernardino Ochino]], and through their mutual friendship with the Lady [[Giulia Gonzaga]], whose spiritual adviser he became after the death of Valdés. He became a leading spirit in the literary and religious circle that gathered round Valdés in Naples, and that aimed at effecting from within the spiritual reformation of the church. Under Valdés' influence he wholeheartedly accepted [[Martin Luther|Luther]]'s doctrine of justification by faith, though he repudiated a policy of [[Schism (religion)|schism]].

He was also an intimate friend of the poet [[Vittoria Colonna]], whom he met in [[Fondi]] in 1535.

When the movement of suppression began, Carnesecchi was implicated. For a time he found shelter with his friends in [[Paris, France|Paris]], and from 1552 he was in [[Venice]] leading the party of reform in that city. In 1557 he was cited (for the second time) before the tribunal in Rome, but refused to appear. The death of [[Pope Paul IV]] and the accession of [[Pope Pius IV]] in 1559 made his position easier, and he came to live in Rome. With the accession of [[Pope Pius V]] in 1566 the [[Spanish Inquisition|Inquisition]] renewed its activities with fiercer zeal than ever.

Carnesecchi was in Venice when the news reached him, and betook himself to Florence, where, thinking himself safe, he was betrayed by Duke [[Cosimo I de' Medici]], who wished to curry favour with the pope. From July 1566 he lay in prison over a year. On 21 September 1567 a sentence of degradation and death was passed on him and sixteen others, ambassadors from [[Florence]] vainly kneeling to the pope for some mitigation, and on 1 October he was publicly beheaded and then burned.

==References==
*{{Cite EB1911|wstitle=Carnesecchi, Pietro}}

==External links==
*[http://www.carnesecchi.eu/storia_dei_Carnesecchi.htm History of the Carnesecchi family]
*[http://www.carnesecchi.eu/ History of the Carnesecchi family]

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Carnesecchi, Pietro}}
[[Category:1508 births]]
[[Category:1567 deaths]]
[[Category:16th-century executions by Italian states]]
[[Category:16th-century people from the Republic of Florence]]
[[Category:Apostolic pronotaries]]
[[Category:Executed Italian people]]
[[Category:Italian Renaissance humanists]]
[[Category:People executed by the Papal States by decapitation]]
[[Category:People executed for heresy]]
[[Category:Victims of the Inquisition]]