Francesco Maria Sforza Pallavicino or Pallavicini (28 November 1607 – 4 June 1667), was an Italian cardinal, philosopher, theologian, literary theorist, and church historian.
A professor of philosophy and theology at the Roman College and a fixture of important academies such as the Accademia dei Lincei and the Academy of Prince Maurice of Savoy, Pallavicino was the author of several highly influential philosophical and theological treatises (praised among others by Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, Benedetto Croce and Eugenio Garin) and of a well-known history of the Council of Trent that remained authoritative until the late 19th century.
Pallavicino was born in Rome on November 28, 1607. He was the firstborn son of Marquis Alessandro Pallavicino and his second wife, Francesca Sforza di Santa Fiora, widow of Ascanio della Penna della Cornia. He belonged to the Parma branch of the ancient and noble Pallavicini family.
He was baptised with the names Francesco Maria Sforza, but in all of his published works throughout his life, he only gave Sforza as his first name, which is also the only first name inscribed on his tomb in the Church of Sant'Andrea al Quirinale in Rome; Sforza is also the only name used universally by his contemporaries. The name Sforza was in honor of Sforza Pallavicino, a famous Italian condottiero, Captain-General of the Republic of Venice, who had adopted Marquis Alessandro, leaving him all his wealth and titles. An eldest son, he renounced the right of primogeniture and entered the priesthood.
Pallavicino studied literature, philosophy, and jurisprudence at the Roman College, and received his doctorate in philosophy in 1625 at the age of eighteen. His thesis, De Universa philosophia, was printed in the same year in the presses of Francesco Corbelletti. Soon afterward, Pallavicino started studying theology in the same college under John de Lugo, earning his doctorate in 1628.
The young Pallavicino was soon introduced to the leaders of Roman cultural life. He was elected Member of the Accademia degli Umoristi and became friends with the poet Virginio Cesarini and with some of the most prominent personalities of Italian Baroque, including Agostino Mascardi, Fulvio Testi, John Barclay and Giulio Strozzi. Alessandro Tassoni praised him in a verse of his mock-heroic poem La secchia rapita. Federico Cesi portrayed him as a child prodigy, whose great ingegno ("ingegno grande"), relentless will ("volontà indefessa"), and his familiarity with writing ("l'amicitia stretta della penna") held promise "of even greater things" ("di cose tuttavia maggiori") in the future.
An ardent supporter of Galileo, on 27 January 1629, Pallavicino became a Member of the Accademia dei Lincei, together with Lucas Holstenius and Pietro della Valle. Following Ciampoli's guide Pallavicino started an open and harsh struggle against Aristotelianism. After Federico Cesi's death in 1630, he was taken under consideration as his successor for the presidency of the Academy. According to Pietro Redondi, Pallavicino played a part in delaying, or deflecting, Orazio Grassi's attack against the atomistic argument in Galileo's Assayer.
In 1630, he took minor orders. Soon afterwards, the Pope Urban VIII appointed him referendary of the Tribunals of the Apostolic Signatures of Justice and of Grace and member of the Congregatio boni regiminis and of the Congregatio immunitatis, assigning him a pension of 250 scudi.
When his friend Giovanni Ciampoli, the secretary of briefs, fell into disfavour, Pallavicino's standing at the papal court was also seriously affected. In 1632, he was sent to govern the provincial towns of Iesi, Orvieto, and Camerino. In contrast with Ciampoli, who died in Iesi in 1643 without ever having set foot again in Rome, Pallavicino returned there in 1636.
Over his father's objections, he entered the Society of Jesus on 21 June 1637. After the two years' novitiate he became professor of philosophy at the Roman College. In 1643, when John de Lugo was made a cardinal, Pallavicino succeeded him in the chair of theology, a position he held until 1651 while also fulfilling assignments for Pope Innocent X. He was appointed member of the commission that examined the writings of Cornelius Jansen and Martin de Barcos, which resulted in the condemnation of two works by de Barcos in 1647. Sforza Pallavicino was a staunch opponent of Jansenism and a vocal supporter of the Jesuit theological tradition, and while he certainly did not oppose probabilism, which he taught in his earlier scholarly career, he did not condone its most radical outcomes either.
Pope Alexander VII created Pallavicino cardinal in pectore in his first creation on 9 April 1657. His appointment was made public in March 1650. He received the red hat and the title of San Salvatore in Lauro on December 6, 1660. He was also appointed examiner of the bishops, and soon afterwards a member of the Congregation of the Holy Office. As the master of the Jesuit novitiate on the Quirinal, Pallavicino was closely involved in planning the church of Sant'Andrea al Quirinale, designed by Gian Lorenzo Bernini from 1658 onwards.
In his later years, Pallavicino played an active role in Italian cultural life. He became a member of the so-called pleias alessandrina, the international network of Neo-Latin poets gathered around Alexander VII. He warmly endorsed the activities of the Accademia del Cimento and took part to them. Leopoldo de' Medici entrusted him with the stylistic revision of the academy's sole publication, the Saggi di naturali esperienze. On 3 February 1665 he entered the Accademia della Crusca, an association of scholars and writers devoted to the Italian language. The cardinal was a loyal protector of Gian Lorenzo Bernini's interests in Rome and with the French court, as well as mentor to his oldest son, Pietro Filippo. A late portrait of Pallavicino in red chalk on buff paper by Bernini is in the Yale University Art Gallery.
Owing to ill health Pallavicino could not participate in the conclave of 1667, which elected Pope Clement IX; he died in his room in the Jesuit house of Sant'Andrea al Quirinale on 5 June 1667, at the age of 59. His pupil Sylvester Maurus assisted him on his deathbed. According to the provisions of his last will and testament, Pallavicino was buried in the church of Sant'Andrea al Quirinale. He was entombed under a magnificent slab designed by baroque architect Mattia de Rossi.
History of the Council of Trent
Pallavicino is chiefly known by his History of the Council of Trent, a harsh if well researched rebuttal to Paolo Sarpi's Istoria del Concilio Tridentino. The work was published at Rome in two folio volumes in 1656 and 1657 (2nd ed., considerably modified, in 1666). Several potential candidates had been taken under consideration for the onerous task of correcting and superseding the very damaging work of Sarpi. According to an unpublished account by the custodian of the papal archives Felice Contelori (1588–1652), these were Girolamo Aleandro, secretary to Cardinal Francesco Barberini, the historian Agostino Mascardi, the ex-Jesuit Francesco Herrera, Giovanni Ciampoli and Felice Contelori himself. The Jesuit Terenzio Alciati had been eventually chosen for the task by Pope Urban VIII. In early 1652, a few months after Alciati's death, Pallavicino took over Alciati's task.
Alciati had access to the original acts of the Council of Trent deposited in the Archives of Castello, Archivum Arcis (Castel Sant'Angelo). Together Felice Contelori, Alciati collected and catalogued a huge amount of unpublished sources. Pallavicino draws on not only the sources collected over decades by P. Alciati, but also directly on the Latin manuscript of Alciati's unfinished and unpublished history Pseudo historia Concilii Tridentini refutata. In addition to these sources Pallavicino continued searching the vast holdings of the Roman archives for documentary materials relating to the Council of Trent. Fabio Chigi, an old friend of Pallavicino, gave him liberal access to the acts of the council and other important documents preserved in the Vatican Apostolic Archive. Pallavicino read and made use of historical authors such as Johannes Sleidanus, Francesco Guicciardini, Paolo Giovio, Nicholas Sanders, François de Beaucaire (1514–1591), and Florimond de Raemond. Thanks to the preparatory work by Alciati, as well as his own research, he was able to cite a large array of printed and unpublished documentary sources on the Council of Trent.