Carnesecchi, Pietro
CARNESECCHI, PIETRO
B. Florence, Dec. 24, 1508; beheaded and burned as a heretic, Rome, Oct. 1, 1567. He was the son of a Florentine merchant and was well versed in the classics. He became the secretary of Clement VII, Cardinal Giulio de Medici. Between 1536 and 1540 he made the acquaintance of Juan de Valdés, Bernardino Ochino, and Peter Martyr Vermigli; in 1541 he was in the circle of Reginald Pole in Viterbo. The apostasy of Ochino and Vermigli in 1542 brought Carnesecchi under suspicion, but in 1546 he was acquitted of heresy for lack of evidence. He then was the guest of Catherine de Médici in France. In 1552 he was in Venice, where with D. Grimani he favored the Lutheran attitude toward the Reformation. He rejected Paul IV's demand that he appear in Rome and was condemned for contumacy in 1558; but on the death of Paul IV, he secured an annulment of the condemnation. He remained under suspicion, however, and Pius V reopened the case. After a trial lasting a year he was condemned and executed.
Bibliography: g. k. brown, Italy and the Reformation to 1550 (Oxford 1933). Dizionario ecclesiastico 1:524. j. lenzenweger, Lexikon für Theologie und Kirche (Freiburg 1957–65) 2:953. o. ortolani, Pietro Carnesecchi (Florence 1963).
[e. a. carrillo]