Italian theologian, canonist, statesman, and Cardinal
1398 CE
to 1444 CE
Julian Cesarini the Elder (It.
: Giuliano Cesarini, seniore) (Rome 1398 – Varna, Bulgaria, November 10, 1444) is one of the group of brilliant cardinals created by Pope Martin V on the conclusion of the Western Schism.
His intellect and diplomacy make him a powerful agent first of the Council of Basel and then, after he breaks with the Conciliar movement at Basel, of Papal superiority against the Conciliar movement.
The French bishop Bossuet describes Cesarini as the strongest bulwark that the Catholics could oppose to the Greeks in the Council of Florence.
One of five brothers of a well-established Roman family of the minor nobility; his brother Giacomo is appointed papal Podestà of Orvieto and Foligno in 1444; his great-nephew, also Giuliano Cesarini Giuliano (1466–1510) is made a cardinal in 1493.
He is educated at Perugia, where he lectures on Roman law and has Domenico Capranica among his pupils.
When the schism is ended by the general recognition of Martin V as pope, Giuliano returns to Rome, where he attaches himself to Cardinal Branda da Castiglione.
The suggestions for wide reform that inform the Conciliar Movement are rife, and Cesarini devotes his career to the principles of the outward unity of the Church and its reformation from within.
In 1419 he accompanies Cardinal Branda da Castiglione, who thinks highly of him, on his difficult mission to Germany and Bohemia, where the Hussites are in open rebellion.
He also serves as a papal envoy to England.
In 1426 Martin V creates Cesarini a cardinal and later sends him to Germany to preach a crusade against the Hussites.
After the crusade fails, Cesarini goes to Basel to preside over the council that has begun there.
