Gianotto Castiglione, grandmaster of the Order of St Lazarus of Capua : 1517–1571

Abstract

In 1489, the papal bull Cum Solerti Meditatione Pensamus of Innocent VIII attempted to assimilate the Order of St Lazarus with that of St John. The attempt was unsuccessful, and eventually its edicts were also partially reversed. The Lazarite Order had been split in three parts over the European mainland since at least the 1370s with separately managed mother houses in Burton Lazar (England), Boigny (France) and Capua (Italy). By the middle of the sixteenth century, the Order of St Lazarus had lost Burton Lazar in England. The Order on French soil remained under the protection of the French king. The Lazarite Order in Capua, under Spanish dominion, was re-established by Pope Leo X in 1517, enriched, and continued to function directly under papal jurisprudence. In 1564, Pope Pius IV in an overtly act of nepotism, set up his nephew Gianotto Castiglione as grand master of the Lazarite Order. While the Order had the back-up of Rome it flourished, but the hiatus was short-lived. The uncle died in 1565, and the Capuan Lazarites fell on hard times. Castiglione, by all accounts a shrewd business player, saw the writing on the wall and made a valiant attempt to save his own skin. His overtures to the Order of St John put the latter in the unenviable position of trying to obtain what they considered by rights their own possessions as assigned to them by Innocent VIII in 1489. It was to be a bartering arrangement, in which there was to be a winner, Castiglione, and a loser, the Order of St Lazarus, whose Capuan territories were to be incorporated with that of St John. But Castiglione was too avaricious and the deal with the Order of St John fell through after Gerosolimitan counter proposals. In the end, the Capuan Lazarite Order was united some years later in 1571 with a Savoyan Order. Castiglione however did not enjoy the proceeds from this particular union, as he had died a year earlier, penurious and disregarded.