Soffred
Italian cardinal born in Pistoia
Soffred (died 14 December 1210, Pistoia) was an Italian cardinal. His name is also given as Soffredo Errico Gaetani, whilst his Christian name is also spelled Soffrido or Goffredo in some sources.
Life
Born in Pistoia, he was made cardinal deacon of Santa Maria in Via Lata in the 1182 consistory. He took part in the 1185 conclave, which elected pope Urban III. In 1187, he and cardinal Andrea Bobone were made papal legates to France to mediate between Philip II of France and Henry II of England - the two legates succeeded in sealing a two-year truce between the two kings.
He took part in the October and December 1187 conclaves which elected pope Gregory VIII and pope Clement III. He and cardinal Pietro Diana were sent to mediate between Genoa and Pisa. He also took part in the 1191 conclave, which elected pope Celestine III and that of 1198. During summer 1198, he and cardinal Pietro Capuano were chosen as papal legates to follow the crusader army which was about to set out on a new crusade. Despite this, Soffredo remained in the curia and Capuano went to Venice to prepare to make the crossing. In 1201, the chapter of the metropolitan cathedral of Ravenna requested him as their archbishop, but the pope chose not to ratify this since he wished to keep the cardinal in his court in Rome. Until the end of May 1202, when he finally set out for the Holy Land, Soffredo remained in the curia and represented the prosecution in several trials.
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This entry incorporates text from “Soffred” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.