Background
Lorenzo Campeggio was born in Milan on November 7, 1474. He was the eldest of five sons.
Lorenzo Campeggio was born in Milan on November 7, 1474. He was the eldest of five sons.
In 1500, Lorenzo Campeggio took his doctorate in canon and civil law at Bologna.
Raised to the see of Feltre in 1512, Lorenzo Campeggio went on another embassy to Maximilian in 1513, and was created cardinal priest of San Tommaso in Pavione, 27th of June 1517.
He was made protector of England in the Roman curia; and in 1524 Henry VIII gave him the rich see of Salisbury, and the pope the archbishopric of Bologna.
After attending the diet of Regensburg, he shared the captivity of Clement VII during the sack of Rome in 1527 and did much to restore peace.
On the 1st of October 1528 he arrived in England as со-legate with Wolsey in the matter of Henry's divorce.
He brought with him a secret document, the Decretal, which defined the law and left the legates to decide the question of fact; but this important letter was to be shown only to Henry and Wolsey. "
The legatine court opened at Blackfriars on the 18th of June 1529, but the final result was certain.
Campeggio could not by the terms of his commission give sentence; so his only escape was to prorogue the court on the 23rd of July on the plea of the Roman vacation.
Having failed to satisfy the king, he left England on the 26th of October 1529, after his baggage had been searched at Dover to find the Decretal, which, however, had been burnt.
Returning to Bologna, the cardinal assisted at the coronation of Charles V on the 24th of February 1530, and went with him to the diet of Augsburg.
He was deprived by Henry of the English protectorate; and when sentence was finally given against the divorce, Campeggio was deprived of the see of Salisbury as a non-resident alien, by act of parliament (1, 1th of March 1535); but his rich benefices in the Spanish dominions made ample amends.
Lorenzo Campeggio married Francesca Guastavillani with whom he had five children. When she died in 1509, Campeggio began an ecclesiastical career under Pope Julius II's patronage.