MORONE, GIOVANNI Italian cardinal, was born on Jan. 25, 1509 at Milan, where his father, Count Ieronimo Morone (d. 1529), was grand chancellor. His father, who had been imprisoned for opposing encroachments on the liberties of Milan by Charles V. (whom he afterwards cordially supported), removed to Modena. The son was educated there and at Padua. He was in 1527 nominated by Clement VIII. to the see of Modena, and consecrated in 1533 after a contest. From 1535 he was constantly entrusted by Paul III. with diplo matic missions. In 1542 he was created cardinal, and was further nominated protector of England, Hungary, Austria, of several religious orders, and of the sante case at Loreto. With the car dinals Paul Parisio and Reginald Pole he was deputed to open the Council of Trent (Nov. 1, 1542), the place of meeting having been a concession to his diplomacy. The legates arrived on Nov. 22, but no council assembled. The death of Paul III. (1549) deprived him of a good friend. The views of the Reformers had spread in his diocese, and he was suspected of temporizing with them. He resigned his see (155o), reserving to himself an annual pension and the patronage of livings. Julius III., at the instance of the duke of Milan, gave him (1553) the rich see of Novara (which he resigned in 156o for the see of Albano) and sent him as nuncio to the diet of Augsburg (1555), from which he was immediately recalled by the death of Julius (March 23). In June
1557 Paul IV. imprisoned him in the castle of St. Angelo (with others, including Pole and Foscherari), on suspicion of Lutheran heresy. The prosecution entirely failed, and Morone might have had his liberty, but refused to leave prison unless Paul IV. pub licly acknowledged his innocence. He remained incarcerated till the pope's death (Aug. 18, 1559), and took part in the election of Pius IV. Ochino, in the twenty-eighth of his Dialogi XXX., 1563, has a colloquy on the treatment of heretics, between Pius IV. and Morone, in which the latter maintains: "Errantes in viam revocandi, non occidendi." This really hits the position of Morone, a sincere Catholic, to whom persecution was abhorrent. He pre sided at the Tridentine Council from April ro to Dec. 4, 1563. In 1564 he was reinstated in the see of Modena. On the death of Pius IV. (1565) he came near to being elected pope. He died at Rome on Dec. 1, 1580, and was buried at S. Maria sopra Minerva.
See J. G. Frick, "De Joanne Morono," in J. G. Schelhorn's Amoeni tates literariae, vol. xii. (173o) ; "G. Moroni," Dizion.ario di erudizione (1847) ; N. Bernabei, Vita del cardinale G. Moroni (1885) ; M. Young, Life and Times of Aonio Paleario (186o) ; C. Benrath, in Hauck's Real encyklopeidie (1903) ; G. Constant, La Legation du Cardinal Morone, 1563 (1922) .