Aloysius Bevilacqua

Aloysius Bevilacqua , Italian Luigi Bevilacqua (* 1616 in Ferrara , † April 22, 1679 in Rome ) was an Italian clergyman and Latin titular patriarch of Alexandria .

Life

Origin and beginning of the church career

He was the son of Francesco Bevilacqua and his wife Virginia born. Turchi. After studying in Ferrara, he received his doctorate iuris utriusque in early 1639 . Shortly afterwards he moved to Rome, where he received minor orders on February 6th of the same year . Pope Urban VIII appointed him Archpriest of Crespino in the Diocese of Ravenna , and on December 23, 1643 the Bishop of Ferrara appointed him Vicar General .

As early as the following year he resigned from the position of Vicar General of Ferrara, as it was connected with a residence obligation and Bevilacqua preferred to stay at the papal court. There he placed himself under the protection of Cardinal Francesco Barberini , from which he hoped for a quick advance. Indeed, he received the post of governor of Tivoli . In 1650 Pope Innocent X gave him the governorate of Rimini and, two years later, that of Fabriano . In 1652 he was appointed auditor of the Roman Rota , which from 1597 had been reserved for a citizen of the city of Ferrara. Clement X enfeoffed him in 1670 with the rich Abbey of San Girolamo in Ferrara, which Clement IX from the fortune of the two years earlier . repealed Jesuit order was founded. Bevilacqua later transferred this abbey to the Discalced Carmelites . On March 4, 1671, Clement X appointed him papal house prelate and a little later governor of Rome.

Peace negotiations in Nijmegen

In 1675, during the Dutch War , the Pope decided to intervene in the courts of Vienna, Madrid and Paris to reach an armistice. Bevilacqua was sent as extraordinary nuncio to the imperial court, he officially took over the mission at the beginning of October after he had received the episcopal ordination as Latin Patriarch of Alexandria on September 21, 1675 . In December 1676, Innocent XI. him to represent the Holy See in the negotiations that would eventually lead to the Peace of Nijmegen .

Bevilacqua did not reach Nijmegen until June 1677, as the Protestant powers had raised various objections to the papal mediation. The instructions Bevilacqua had received from Cardinal Secretary of State Alderano Cibo provided for the nuncio to act as a mediator among the Catholic princes participating in the Congress and recommended that the Protestant powers grant their Catholic subjects greater religious freedom. In Nijmegen, Bevilacqua played a leading role, especially in the negotiations between the French, the Spanish and the Emperor. He managed to remain completely neutral in the negotiations, so that Emperor Leopold I suggested sending him to Paris to induce Louis XIV to adopt a new policy towards the Turks. The Dutch representatives declared that they would willingly use Bevilacqua's mediation in the negotiations between the Protestant powers, but Innocent XI contradicted this proposal, which the emperor tried in vain to make in Rome. with reference to the discipline of the Church, which would run counter to the fact that the Apostolic Nuncio publicly defended the interests of the heretics. Nevertheless, Bevilacqua was actively, if not always officially, involved in all deliberations. However, he could not sign any peace treaties in which the mediation of the Holy See was mentioned; because there was a conflict between Rome and Louis XIV because of Bevilacqua's credentials. The French king claimed he was mentioned in the papal document with a special formula, and Innocent XI. preferred not to appear officially as a mediator in the peace treaties in order not to have to comply with Ludwig's request. Furthermore, Bevilacqua in Nijmegen could not achieve any of the reliefs that the Holy See had hoped for for Catholics in Protestant countries - the Pope's refusal to negotiate directly with the "heretics" was not conducive to the implementation of the Nuncio in to achieve expected results on this matter. He could only get the promise of the mayor of Nijmegen that a Catholic chapel would be left open and accessible in the palace of the nunciature. Bevilacqua had on October 31, 1676 from Innocent XI. continued to receive the order to dissuade Leopold I from marrying the Protestant princess Ulrike Eleonore of Denmark , which threatened to bring "heresy" into the house of Austria - a mission that did not cost him too much trouble, since the emperor himself was an enemy this marriage was.

From 1678 to 1679, the future Cardinal Lorenzo Casoni was his assistant.

Return and death

After the signing of the last treaties in February 1679, Bevilacqua returned to Italy, but this became an excruciating journey during which he lost half of his companions to the plague . After other deaths became known during Bevilacqua's stay in Ferrara, the population of the city got into an uproar against the nuncio and he was forced to leave the city in a great hurry.

It appears that Bevilacqua had also been infected, which would have led to his sudden death, which overtook him shortly after returning to Rome on April 22, 1679. Officially, however, his death was attributed to an illness that he would have contracted in Nijmegen "because of the climate there" and that would have been made worse by the rigors of the journey.

literature

• Gaspare De Caro:  Bevilacqua, Luigi. In: Alberto M. Ghisalberti (Ed.): Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani (DBI). Volume 9:  Berengario – Biagini. Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana, Rome 1967.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Cf. Casoni, Lorenzo. In: Salvador Miranda : The Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church. ( Florida International University website , English)

predecessor	Office	successor
Alessandro Crescenzi	Latin Patriarch of Alexandria 1675–1679	Pietro Draghi Bartoli