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

74 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
On his return from Hungary to Italy, Gian Angelo settled
a boundary dispute between Bologna and Ferrara, and after-
wards again accompanied the troops with which Paul III.
supported the Turkish war of Ferdinand I., after which the
Pope invested him with the administration of Ancona and
gave him the rank of Papal Referendarius.^ Gian Giacomo
had in the meantime been rendering the Emperor excellent
service in the war against Cleves and France, and as a reward
he was, in January, 1545, invested with Tre Pievi, on the
lake of Como.2
A matrimonial alliance which Gian Angelo successfully
negotiated with the assistance of the friendly Duke of Florence,
had a decisive influence on the further advancement of both
the brothers.^ While Gian Giacomo was still employed at
the seat of war, the daughter of Ludovico Orsini, Count of
Pitigliano, and sister-in-law of the powerful Pier Luigi Farnese,
was married to him by proxy in October 1545. The result
was that Gian Angelo at length attained to a higher position.
When his patron, Alessandro Farnese, had been raised to the
Papal throne in 1534, Gian Angelo had hoped for speedy
promotion, but the far-seeing Pope, especially in the early
years of his reign, had shown scrupulous care in his choice
of his higher officials, and he had contented himself with
employing the worldly-minded Lombard, who was also not
altogether innocent of offences against the moral law,^ in
1 Cf. GiROL. SoRANZo, 71 ; Ehses, Concil., IV., 332, n. 2,
350 n. 2. Gian Angelo in 1545 corresponded repeatedly with the
legates of the Council ; see Merkle, I., 186, 189, 205, 224, 226.
2 See SusTA, Pius IV., 26. Concerning Tre Pievi see Bergmann
in the treatise X., 172, n. i, mentioned infra, p. 95, n. i.
27.
^ Cf. GiROL. Soranzo, 171 ; Balan, VI., 368 ; Susta, Pius IV.,
* Gian Angelo had several illegitimate children before he
received the major orders; a son, born either in 1541 or 1542,
and two daughters ;
he had kept his failings secret and endeavoured
to avoid public scandal (see Mocenigo, 52, quoted in
SoRANZO, 95; cf. MuLLER, 237). The question as to whether
Gian Angelo de' Medici later on, as Cardinal and Pope, was