ZAMOMETIČ, ANDREA

Croatian archbishop, imperial envoy, reform agitator; d. Basel, Nov. 13, 1484. Of Croatian origin, he took the Dominican habit in the friary of Udine, Italy. He became master of novices and taught at Padua, where he became a friend of Francesco della Rovere (later Pope sixtus iv). After becoming archbishop of Krajina in Albania (1476) the ambitious Andrea paid three visits to Rome in the year 1478 as the envoy of Emperor Frederick III to Sixtus IV. He went to Rome again in 1480, and this time openly attacked the abuses he saw there, e.g., the nepotism of the Pope and the rapacity of the Rovere family. This led to his imprisonment in castel sant' angelo. Because of the Emperor and the intercession of the cardinal from Venice, the imprisonment was of short duration. Once released, Andrea allied himself with the Pope's enemies, such as Lorenzo de' medici, King Louis XI of France, and Ferrante of Naples, and went to Basel, where he assumed the ironical title of Cardinal of Saint-Sixtus. On March 25, 1482, in the cathedral, this proud, rebellious churchman announced the convening of a Church council and demanded that the Pope cease all exercise of power until the council should have pronounced judgment on him. The bishops of Mainz and Constance seemed disposed to listen to Andrea; the bishop of Würzburg and the Franciscan Glazberger vigorously opposed him. Backed by the University of Basel, Andrea became more insulting and vituperative to the delight of the Pope's enemies, but Emperor Frederick had had enough and vainly ordered Andrea to return to the court. Basel, which had ignored a papal interdict, was influenced by the Emperor's action and placed Andrea under arrest (December 1482). He hanged himself in his prison cell.

Bibliography: l. pastor, The History of the Popes from the Close of the middle Ages 4:358–363. r. coulon, Dictionnaire d'histoire et de géographie ecclésiastiques 2:1718–21. "Zamometič, Andreas," Lexikon für Theologie und Kirche ² v.10.

[t. c. crowley]