Cesarini, Giuliano (Julian Cesarini)

CESARINI, chê´´sɑ̄-rî´nî, GIULIANO (JULIAN CESARINI): Cardinal. He belonged to a distinguished family of Rome and attracted the attention of the curia as a humanist and teacher of law at Padua. Pope Martin V. made him cardinal (1426) and Eugenius IV. promoted him to cardinal bishop of Frascati. His knowledge of law and ability as a diplomatist fitted him for delicate missions. The Hussite question was entrusted to him and he entered Bohemia with a crusading army, but the army was defeated and the cardinal fled ignominiously (1431). From 1431 to 1438 be presided at the Council of Basel with marked ability.¹⁴¹⁴At the Council of Basel Cesarini's attitude toward the Hussites was highly conciliatory; and he urged a thorough reformation of ecclesiastical abuses as the only safeguard against further schisms.—A. H. N. In 1438 and 1439 he was active in Ferrara and Florence, and shortly after went to Hungary to incite King Vladislav to war against the Turks. He succeeded, and war broke out in 1443, but Vladislav was defeated and slain at Varna, Nov. 10, 1444, and Cesarini also perished while trying to escape; he was probably assassinated and robbed while endeavoring to cross the Danube.

Paul Tschackert.

Bibliography: The older accounts are in A. Chacon, Vitæ . . . pontificum et . . . cardinalium, ii. 861 sqq., 4 vols., Rome, 1677; and E. Baluze, Miscellanea, vol. iii., 4 vols., Lucca, 1761–64. Consult also: F. von Bezold, König Sigmund und die Reichskriege gegen die Husiten, 3 parts, Munich, 1872–77; Creighton, Papacy, ii. 163–165, 194 sqq.; Hefele, Conciliengeschichte, vol. vii. passim; KL, iii. 26–28.