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

CHARLES BORROMEO. IO5
Of this family, Charles, who was born at Arona, on the west
shore of Lago Maggiore, on October 2nd, 1538,^ deserved in
the fullest degree the affection and confidence which his uncle
showed him. The choice of this youth of twenty-one to be
Secretary of State turned out to be a brilliant success. When
Pius IV. made up his mind to this step he was moved, apart
from family affection, at first only by the same considerations
as had induced so many of his predecessors to act in a like
manner. He believed, in view of the party differences in
the Curia and the College of Cardinals, that he could only find
a trustworthy confidant and fellow worker in his own family.
That his choice fell on Charles Borromeo was a decisive factor
for his whole reign. He found in him, above all, exactly
what, as a man of independent character, he sought ;
a most
loyal assistant, who endeavoured, with the greatest devotion,
with persevering diligence and inexhaustible patience, to carry
out the instructions of the head of the Church.
The members of the Curia, as well as the diplomatists, were
little pleased with the new Secretary of State ; they had no
hope of gaining any influence over the old, experienced Pope,
through his youthful nephew, and besides this, the strict
manner of his life, and the thoroughly ecclesiastical sentiments
of Charles were not at all to the taste of those persons whose
ideal was still the nepotist type of the Renaissance, and of this
Charles Borromeo showed not the least trace. His personal
appearance was neither made attractive by good looks, nor
imposing by its dignity. ^ His excessive modesty of demeanour
^ See the illustrations of the former castle and chapel, as well
as the colossal statue of Charles Borromeo, which now rises
above the ruins, in San Carlo, xi, 14, 27, 28.
2 See SusTA, Kurie, I., xxxiii.
^ Among the many portraits of Cardinal Borromeo, that painted
by Figini, now in the Pinacotheca Ambrosiana, gives the best
idea of his features, according to the testimony of Card. Federigo
Borromeo. A reproduction of it is in San Carlo, 123 ; cf. 136.
His death mask is now in the possession of the Capuchins of
Porta Monforte. An illustration, ibid., 520, 521. As an enemy
of self-glorification, Charles Borromeo, contrary to the habit of
^