Alessandro Mattei

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Alessandro Cardinal Mattei

Alessandro Mattei (born February 20, 1744 in Rome ; † April 20, 1820 there ) was Archbishop of Ferrara , Curia Cardinal of the Roman Church and Cardinal Dean .

Life

Mattei became a doctor of both rights in 1768 and was ordained a priest that same year . After working as a speaker at the Apostolic Signature , he became prelate of the Council Congregation in 1775 , and in the following year Camerlengo Carlo Rezzonico appointed him his auditor.

From Pope Pius VI. he was appointed Archbishop of Ferrara on February 17, 1777. The episcopal ordination donated him six days later Cardinal Bernardino Giraud ; Co-consecrators were Archbishop Marcantonio Conti and Giuseppe Maria Carafa , Bishop of Mileto . On March 9, 1777 Mattei was also papal assistant to the throne . In the consistory of July 12, 1779 Pius VI created. him in pectore cardinal, which was published in 1782, and assigned him as cardinal priest the titular church of Santa Balbina . In 1786 he became cardinal priest of Santa Maria in Aracoeli . In a pastoral letter of January 20, 1791, he defended Catholicism against the ideas of the French Revolution . Cardinal Mattei took part in the conclave of 1799/1800 , which Pope Pius VII elected. He himself was traded as a candidate for the pro-Austrian parliamentary group, but did not receive enough votes. In 1800 he was appointed Cardinal Bishop of Palestrina and in 1809 Cardinal Bishop of Porto e Santa Rufina .

When the Church was troubled by the French Revolution, he was traveling as a legate in Italy with Cardinal Francesco Maria Pignatelli . After the French occupation, both cardinals were initially able to restore papal rule in 1796, but in the following year he had to sign the Treaty of Tolentino on papal orders , in which the church was obliged to make considerable concessions. In June 1809 he had to leave Rome and first went into exile to Bologna , later to Paris . Since he refused to recognize Napoleon's marriage to Archduchess Marie-Louise of Austria in 1810 , the emperor forbade him to wear his red official robe and Mattei became a so-called black cardinal . In September 1814 he was elected cardinal dean and Pius VII transferred the suburbicarian diocese of Ostia to him ; four months earlier he had returned to Rome with the Pope. In 1817 Cardinal Mattei also became archpriest of the Vatican basilica.

In April 1820 he died after a brief illness. He was buried in the Church of Santa Maria in Aracoeli .

Web links

predecessor Office successor
Leonardo Antonelli Cardinal Dean
1814-1820
Giulio Maria della Somaglia
Leonardo Antonelli Cardinal Bishop of Ostia e Velletri
1814-1820
Giulio Maria della Somaglia
Luigi Valenti Gonzaga Cardinal Bishop of Porto
1809–1814
Giuseppe Maria Doria Pamphilj
Leonardo Antonelli Cardinal Bishop of Palestrina
1800–1809
Aurelio Roverella
Bernardino Giraud Archbishop of Ferrara
1777–1800
Paolo Patricio Fava Ghisleri