Roman Catholic Cardinal. Born to a noble Milanese family, Carlo Oppizzoni was the son of Count Francesco Oppizzoni and Marchioness Paola Trivulzio. Frequenting the University of Pavia, earning doctorates in theology and canon law, he was ordained priest on May 25, 1793. Named archpriest of the cathedral chapter of Milan in 1799, during the Congress of Lyon, gathered to systematize the conditions of the church in the territory of the Cisalpine Republic, he successfully defended the rights of the Church yet declined the appointment to the see of Milan offered in recognition. Elected instead archbishop of Bologna on September 20, 1802, he received his episcopal consecration in Rome on September 21, 1802 at the church of San Carlo ai Catinari from Cardinal Giovanni Filippo Gallarati Scotti. Pope Pius VII created him cardinal priest in the consistory of March 26, 1804 with the title of San Bernardo alle Terme at the early age of thirty four. Named senator of the Italian Kingdom and member of the Order of the Iron Crown by Emperor Napoléon I Bonaparte in 1808, he used the posts to restore the rights and prestige of the Church before the political authority. For his refusal to attend the marriage ceremonies of Emperor Napoléon and Archduchess Marie Louise of Austria on April 2, 1810, he and twelve other cardinals were deprived of their property and of their cardinalitial dignity and compelled to wear black garments, becoming thus known as the "black cardinals". Returning to Bologna on July 28, 1815, he opted for the title of San Lorenzo in Lucina on July 8, 1839, becoming eventually cardinal protoprete. His longtime membership in the Sacred College made him participate in four conclaves while his episcopate in Bologna, which lasted over fifty two years, facing the events of the Risorgimento, the revolution of 1831 and the anti-Austrian revolt of 1848, proved his moderation and affection for city. Supporting the citizens of Bologna during the uprisings of 1848, he intervened several times to avoid irreparable consequences. Archchancellor of the Pontifical University of Bologna, he died two days short of his eighty sixth birthday and was interred in the city's metropolitan cathedral.