Tommaso Bernetti

Tommaso Bernetti (29 December 1779 – 21 March 1852) was an Italian Roman Catholic prelate and cardinal who served in the Secretariat of State and the Roman Curia during his time in the cardinalate. He came from Fermo and was named a cardinal in 1826 before beginning his work in the Curia. He had worked prior to his time in the cardinalate as a papal legate and governor with a dispensation for not having been a priest at that point.

Life Tommaso Bernetti was born to the noble patricians Count Salvatore Bernetti and Countess Giuditta Brancadoro in Fermo on 29 December 1779. His uncle Cesare Brancadoro on his maternal side was a cardinal that Pope Pius VII named in 1801 and his brother Alessandro became a bishop. Bernetti's brother Alessandro ordained him as a priest in 1839. In 1836 he left the Secretariat of State and in 1844 was appointed as the Vice-Chancellor for the Apostolic Chancery; in 1844 he opted to become the Cardinal-Deacon of San Lorenzo in Damaso reduced pro illa vice.

Bernetti participated in the papal conclave in 1846 that elected Pope Pius IX. He himself had been considered a possible contender and his candidature was supported by the Russians and the Prussians, but he was not a serious contender as he suffered from gout and was considered too old. Bernetti favored Giovanni Mastai-Ferretti to become pope but soon learnt that the Austrian Emperor Ferdinand I wanted to invoke the right of veto against the latter. He realized he had to act fast to secure votes for him and so - in an effort to also prevent his rival Luigi Lambruschini from being elected - lobbied other cardinals to secure the votes needed for Mastai-Ferretti, therefore leading to his election before the veto could be imposed. He later sought refuge in Sant'Elpidio following the assassination of Pellegrino Rossi and later joined Pius IX in Gaeta in 1848. In 1849 he returned to his hometown of Fermo and would live there until his death.

Bernetti died in Fermo on 21 March 1852 and his remains were interred in Fermo Cathedral.

Honours Order of the White Eagle, 1826