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

CHARLES BORROMEO. IO9
from the different abbeys which were entrusted to him in
commendam, as well as from his family estates, were valued
by the commercial mind of the Venetian ambassador, Girolamo
Soranzo, in 1563, at about 48,000 scudi annually.^
The foreign ambassadors were filled with wonder that the
Pope's youthful nephew was not seduced by all these honours
and riches to give himself up to the pleasures of life. Nor was
there the least sign of haughtiness about him, and his whole
manner of life remained, according to the universal testimony
of his contemporaries, without a stain. ^ He threw himself
into his work with so much zeal, that at first his attendants
feared that his health would be impaired. One of his intimate
friends writes that he hardly allowed himself time to eat or to
sleep in peace, and begs the uncle of Charles, Count Francesco,
that he and Count Guido Borromeo would remonstrate with
their nephew as much as lay in their power, for he was deaf
to all the expostulations of his servants.^ Charles himself
^ALBitRi, II., 4, 92. According to Soranzo, the archbishopri^
of Milan yielded him 7,000 scudi, the abbey of Arona 2,000, the
abbeys of Mozzo, della Follina, Colle (in Venetian territory) 3,000.
Nonantola 3,000, an abbey in the Neapolitan territory 1,000. The
Spanish King paid him 12,000 scudi, of which he gave up 3,000
to Card. Altemps The legation of Bologna brought him in
7,000, that of Ravenna 5,000, and the administration of Spoleto
3,000. From four galleys which Federigo had left him, and which
were in the service of Spain, he drew 1,000 scudi each, and the
revenues from his father's estates amounted to 4,000 scudi. Bascape
testifies (p. 6b) that many of these benefices were forced on
him by the Pope. As abbot in commendam, Charles possessed,
according to Bascape (pp. 15, 16) twelve churches ; his revenues
occasionally amounted to 90,000 ducats. A pension of 12,000
ducats, which Philip II. had assigned to him in connection with
the archbishopric of Toledo, was in reality never paid. Girol.
Soranzo, 95.
^ Girol. Soranzo, 91 : " E il Cardinale di una vita innocen-
tissima, tanto che, per quello che si sa, si puo dir che sia netto da
" La vita sua e innocen-
ogni macchia." Giac. Soranzo 133 :
tissima e castissima."
^ Ercole Lodi to Count Guido Borromeo on February 17, 1560
(published by E. Motta in the Archivio storico Lombardo, 1900,