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

DISAPPOINTMENT OF GIAN ANGELO. 75
assisting him in the department of administration. In this
position Gian Angelo had the mortifying experience of seeing
his friends rise to distinguished positions in the Curia, his
countryman, Girolamo Morone, having been created Cardinal
in 1542, although he was ten years younger than himself.
It was a hard, but a salutary school which the young Medici
guilty of offences against morality, has not hitherto been examined.
It can neither be affirmed v/ith certainty nor denied. The statement
of the by no means trustworthy Panvinius {cf. Appendix
No. 37) in the third edition of his Vita Pii IV : " in voluptates
pronus," is in too general a form, and the lampoons after the
death of Pius IV. (F. Cattaneo sent several of the worst in his
*reports of December 22 and 29, 1565, Gonzaga Archives, Mantua)
naturally prove nothing for certain. Tiepolo (p. 181) lays stress,
in his account of the causes of the death of Pius IV. (plainly
drawn up with distaste) not only on his failings as to diet, but
also " altri gravi disordini," which cannot be attributed with
any certainty to offences against morality. A *report of Cusano
of March 2, 1566, and which was hitherto unknown, states :
" Papa Pio IV. haveva un medico da buon tempo per 1 consigli
del quale vogliano si fusse dato alle cose venere[e], perch' egli
con quanto sia di 65 anni vi attendeva. Hora S.S*^ intendendo
teneva donna havendo moglie 1' ha fatto metter all' inquisitione
prigione per adultero et si dubita la potra far male essendo caduto
nelli badi vi sono sopra. E perch' a questi di fu spirato ii confessor
di Pio IV. et il Porcillega gran suo cam'"° dicono come consapevoli
delle cose veneree. Ho[ra] S.S*'^ fa far grandissima diligenza
per trovar ch' e stato il malfattore per dargli il meritevole castigo "
(Domestic, Court, and State Archives, Vienna). As nothing
further is to be found in the State Archives at Vienna or elsewhere
(in the *Avvisi di Roma of March 2, there is only some talk of
the proceedings against those who had attacked the confessor
of Pius IV. [Urb. 1040, p. i88b, Vatican Library]) there is nothing
to check this communication of Cusano, a thing which in such a
matter is absolutely necessary. Perhaps the researches under-
taken by the Bollandists in the voluminous Borromeo correspond-
ence in the Ambrosian Library in Milan, may throw some light
on this mysterious affair ; the Archives of the Inquisition, before
which the physician of Pius IV. had to justify himself, are un-
fortunately not accessible.