Campeggio

Campeggio, LORENZO, CARDINAL, was born in 1472, of a noble Bolognese family. He studied law, and married early, taking holy orders after his wife's death. He was made Bishop of Feltri, and sent by Leo X. on a mission to the Emperor Maximilian, being created a cardinal in his absence (1517). Next year he visited England as papal legate to incite Henry VIII. against the Turks, and was well received. In 1524 he obtained the bishopric of Salisbury and the archbishopric of Bologna, and he presided the same year at the Ratisbon diet; in 1528 he was despatched to England to hear the famous divorce suit of Henry VIII. against Catharine of Aragon. Perplexed betwixt his own private instructions, pity and regard for the unhappy queen, the dubious counsels of Wolsey, and the imperious impatience of the king, and racked the while by the pains of a severe gout, the cardinal ended by displeasing all parties; and his final revoking of the cause to Rome led ultimately to the king's rupture with the papal court. Campeggio died at Rome in 1539.