Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Giovanni Morone Cardinal, Bishop of
Modena, b. at Milan 25 Jan., 1509; d. at Rome, 1 Dec., 1580. He
belonged to a distinguished Milanese family, raised to the
nobility in the twelfth century. His father held the dignity of
chancellor of Milan, and it was probably to bind the father to
his interest that Clement VII in 1529 named his son Giovanni,
then only twenty years of age, to the See of Modena. By this
appointment great offence was given to Cardinal Ippolito d'Este,
who on the pretext that the See of Modena had previously been
promised to himself, invoked the aid of Duke Alfonso of Ferrara
and took forcible possession of the see, appropriating all its
revenues. The dispute was not settled until 1532, when Morone at
last bought off the opposition of d'Este by agreeing to pay him
an annual pension of 400 ducats. Even as early as 1529, the
young bishop-elect, whose talents had already attracted
attention at the University of Padua, was chosen by Clement VII
for a diplomatic missio