Fulvio Giulio della Corgna

Fulvio Giulio della Corgna (also Della Cornia, Della Corgnia) (19 November 1517 – 2 March 1583) was a Tuscan Catholic bishop and cardinal.

Biography

Fulvio Giulio della Corgna was born in Perugia on 19 November 1517, the son of Francia della Corgna, a Perugian nobleman who bore the title of Duca di Corgna, and Jacopa Ciocchi del Monte. He had a brother, Ascanio, who became an important commander of papal armies and Duca della Corgna. His mother was the sister of Pope Julius III and niece of Cardinal Antonio Maria Ciocchi del Monte. The family owned the Marchesato di Castiglione del Lago on Lake Bolsena. Fulvio was a Marchese della Corgna.

He joined the Knights Hospitaller at an early age, taking the religious name "Giulio" in honour of his family's benefactor, Pope Julius II.

On 5 March 1550, he was appointed Bishop of Perugia by his uncle Pope Julius III. He became Papal Legate of Ascolo-Piceno, Reate and Monteleone di Spoleto on 15 December 1550.

Cardinal

Pope Julius III made him a cardinal priest in the consistory of 20 November 1551. He received the red hat and the titular church of Santa Maria in Via Lata on 4 December 1551. Duke Cosimo of Florence requested that Cardinal della Corgna be named administrator of Spoleto to quell disturbances that had broken out there; on 22 March 1553, therefore, the Cardinal resigned the government of Perugia to become Administrator of Spoleto, on the appointment of Pope Julius III. His seat in Perugia was taken by his nephew, Ippolito della Corgna.

Conclave of 1555

He was a participant in both the papal conclave of April 1555 that elected Pope Marcellus II (Marcello Cervini), and the papal conclave of May 1555 that elected Pope Paul IV (Gian Pietro Carafa). Pope Paul IV deprived him of the administration of Spoleto in 1555, in favour of Cardinal Alessandro Farnese, one of Carafa's friends, who had administered the diocese of Spoleto under his uncle Paul III in the 1540s. When the pope learned that Cardinal della Corgna had warned his brother Ascanio della Corgna of the pope's orders to arrest him for illicitly entering into communications with Philip II of Spain, the pope had the cardinal arrested on his way to the consistory of 27 July 1556. He served as the Camerlengo of the Sacred College of Cardinals from 15 January 1561 until 9 January 1562. It was at this time that he founded the seminary in Perugia. On 7 February 1565 he opted for Sant'Angelo in Pescheria, another deaconry assigned as titulus, on 7 February 1565. On 30 January 1566 he opted for the titular church of San Lorenzo in Lucina, and then, on 3 March 1567, for Sant'Adriano al Foro, another deaconry assigned as titulus. On 5 December 1580 Cardinal della Corgna opted for the suburbicarian Diocese of Porto-Santa Rufina.

Episcopal succession While bishop, he was the principal consecrator of Girolamo Simoncelli, Bishop of Orvieto (1573) and Ottavio Santacroce, Bishop of Cervia (1576).