The history of the popes, from the close of the middle ages : drawn ...

54 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
^
We possess exact details of the last, days of the conclave
from the pen of Panvinio, who was present at the actual
election as an eye-witness, and who also reports as to other
matters as the result of exhaustive enquiries.^ At the begin-
ning of the conclave Cardinal Diomede Carafa had asked
Famese to allow Panvinio to act as his conclavist ;
Farnese,
however, was of the same opinion as many others, and believed
that the conclave would last such a short time that it was
hardly worth Panvinio 's while to allow himself to be shut
up there. 2 When Christmas, however, was approaching, and
many confessors were summoned to the conclave in prepara-
tion for the feast, Farnese arranged that Panvinio should also
come in on December 24th.
Panvinio found the Cardinals by no means in expectation
of an election. Carpi, whom he visited first of all, said to him
that if a Pope were not elected on that day or the next, he
very much feared that the conclave might last for another six
months.^ The negotiations of the party leaders had by this
time brought about the result that the decision now lay
between Cesi and Medici, but in other respects very great
difficulties lay in the way of both of them.^ The Spaniards
were on the side of Medici, while the French were more inclined
to Cesi, although they were not actually averse to Medici.
Carafa 's party could not agree among themselves ; the
influential Cardinal Vitelli was decidedly in favour of Medici,
while the Cardinal of Naples was against him and for Cesi ;
Carafa himself was undecided.^
^Panvinius, De creatione Pii IV. papae, in Merkle, II.,
575-601. To a certain extent Panvinius agrees exactly with
Guidus ; e.g. cf. Guidus, 630, 5 seq., with Panvinius, 581, 41 seq. ;
GuiDus, 630, I, with Panvinius, 580, 20 ; Guidus, 630, 16, with
Panvinius, 583, i.
^ Panvinius, 577.
3 Ibid.
* Ibid., 578.
^ " Ingentes etiam nunc difficultates superesse " : Guidus, 630 ;
" ingentes difficultates in utrisque superesse constabat " : Pan-
vinius, 580. 6 Panvinius, 580.