Agostino Valier


Agostino Valier, also Augustinus Valerius or Valerio, was an Italian cardinal and bishop of Verona. He was a reforming bishop, putting into effect the decisions of the Council of Trent by means of administrative and disciplinary measures. He was one of the Christian humanist followers of Filippo Neri.

Life

He was born in Venice on 7 April 1531. He became a doctor of canon law.
Valier took part in the intellectual life of his time. In Venice around the year 1560 he was associated with the Academy of Federico Badoer; he later also took part in the Noctes Vaticanae. As a dedicatee of one of the works of Jacopo Zabarella he may have been a patron.
Valier as bishop from 1565 was influenced by his reforming predecessor at Verona, Gian Matteo Giberti, as well as the Council of Trent, and his association with Carlo Borromeo. He followed Borromeo's Milan model but not slavishly, working within local tradition, while also handling the Venetian dominance in a diplomatic fashion. In 1576 he requested that the Jesuits be called to Verona to found a school.
Valier died in Rome on 24 May 1606.

Works

Valier wrote a biography of Carlo Borromeo shortly after his death in 1584, and a history of Venice to 1580. He later became prefect of the Congregation of the Index. The atmosphere of close scrutiny of works is thought to have affected his wish for publication in his own lifetime. One work left unpublished was Philippus sive de laetitia Christiana, referencing Filippo Neri in its title, and dwelling on Carlo Borromeo and his nephew Federigo Borromeo, whom Valier had mentored, in a neostoic vein.
Valier was one of the editors of the Clementine Vulgate. He took a sceptical line on much of the content of the Acta Sanctorum.