MONTEFIORE, O.F.M., Gentile da (ca. 1240/1250-1312) Birth. Ca. 1240/1250, Montefiore dell'Aso, diocese of Fermo. He is also listed as Gentilis de Monteflorum; as Gentilis di Montefiori; as Gentile di Particino da Montefiore; as Gentile Partino; as Partino di Montefiore dell'Aso; and Gentile Portino. Education. Entered the Order of Friars Minor (Franciscans), province of Marche, when he was very young. Studied in Paris; obtained the title of magister; regent, before 1295. Priesthood. Ordained (no further information found). Professor of theology in Paris. Returned to Italy before the end of 1294; in Perugia, he met Cardinal Benedetto Caetani, seniore, future Pope Boniface VIII. Lector of theology in the Sacred Palace in 1296 (or at the Studium of the city where the papal curia was located). Cardinalate. Created cardinal priest of S. Martino ai Monti in the consistory of March 2, 1300. Together with Cardinal Niccolò Boccasini, O.P., he was charged by the pope to solve the problem of the distance that needed to exist between the churches of the Friars Minor and the Dominicans; the peaceful solution that they proposed on July 28, 1300 was ratified by the new Pope Benedict XI (former Cardinal Boccasini) on December 5, 1303. Subscribed the papal bulls issued on October 2, 1300 and February 16, 1302. Grand penitentiary, 1302 to 1305. On September 7, 1302, he was present in Anangni when the attempt on Pope Boniface VIII occurred. Participated in the conclave of 1303, which elected Pope Benedict XI. Subscribed the papal bulls issued on March 14, 1304. Participated in theconclave of 1304-1305, which elected Pope Clement V. In 1305, Pope Clement V granted him the cure and the administration of the church of S. Prassede. In the papal curia in Lyon, at the end of June 1307, he reviewed numerous elections of bishops and abbots. Named legate in Hungary in 1307 with a papal brief addressed to the people of that kingdom as well as of Poland, Dalmatia and Croatia; his main mission was to secure the Angevin succession in Hungary. He left Rome on December 19, 1307, and arrived in Hungary in June 1308; he crowned King Carlo-Roberto (Károly or Charles Robert I of Hungary and Croatia), son of King Carlo II Anjou of Sicily, whom he had helped to be accepted by the Hungarian nobility and magnates by threat of excommunication. He assisted in the composition of a constitution and a legal system for Hungary. Also, Cardinal-legate Montefiore confirmed the order of monks of St. Paul First Eremite, which followed the rule of Saint Augustine; and as apostolic legate, he condemned the sect of the Fraticelli. He left Hungary on September 10 or 11, 1311. He participated in the Council of Vienne convened on October 16, 1311 and defended the memory of Pope Boniface VIII (1). Charged by Pope Clement V with transferring the treasures of the Church in Rome, the province of Campagna and the Patrimony of S. Pietro, beyond the Alps to Avignon because they were in danger in Rome; the cardinal estimated that because of the fight between the factions of the Guelphs and the Ghibellins it was not safe to transport the treasures; he took the most valuable items of the papal treasure with him, leaving the rest in safe deposit in the sacristy of S. Frediano, in Lucca; in 1314, the papal treasures and the cardinal's possession were stolen by the Ghibelline Uguccione della Faggiola, when he took that city. In 1312, he commissioned the decoration of the chapel of San Martino in the basilica of Assisi; he spent a few months in Siena, where he probably met Simone Martini and chose him as his personal painter. On March 26, 1312, he was in Perugia; and at the beginning of June he went to Lucca, where he fell ill and died. The papal treasure and the personal possessions of the late cardinal were dispersed. King Edward I of England had assigned him a pension of 500 sterling pounds. Death. October 27, 1312, Lucca. Buried in the chapel of S. Luigi e Martino, which he had built and had Simone Martini decorate with a fresco, in the lower church of S. Francesco in Assisi On August 5, 1313, the pope ordered that the wealth of Cardinal Montefiore should be assigned to Cardinal Vitale du Four, O.F.M. from From http://www2.fiu.edu/~mirandas/bios1300.htm

• published: 01 Sep 2013
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