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

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HISTORY OF THE POPES.
head fortune seemed to shower her gifts with a lavish hand,
was of a quiet and retiring temperament, and does not seem
to have aspired to exercise any influence in affairs of state.
In spite of this, foreign princes eagerly sought his favour,
especially Cosimo I., who presented to him the magnificent
Altoviti palace in December, 1560, as well as a considerable
sum of money, 2 the relations of the Borromeo family to the
Duke of Florence being as close as those between father and
son 3
On April 2nd, Pius IV. appointed the youthful head of the
Borromeo family to be Captain-General of the Church, and
solemnly presented his beloved Federigo with the Marshal's
baton, which carried with it a monthly pension of 1,000
ducats.* On the 22nd of the same month Federigo went to
Trent as the representative of the Pope, in order to give the
daughter of the King of the Romans, Ferdinand, the bride of
the Duke of Mantua, an escort of honour to her new home.^
A year later, when Philip II. was preparing to raise Federigo,
who till now had been a count, to the dignity of Marquis of
Oria, it reallv seemed as though the name of Borromeo would
soon be able to rival that of Farnese or Medici in splendour and
renown. Unfortunately Federigo quite unexpectedly succumbed
to an attack of fever on December 19th, 1562, after
an illness of only eight days.^ The magnificent funeral
1 C/. MocENiGO, 53; SusTA, Kutic, I., xxxii seq.
2 See the *letter of Fr. Tonina of December 14, 1560 (Gonzaga
Archives, Mantua).
^ See with regard to this and the later change in the relations,
the interesting **report of Fr. Tonina of January 29, 1563 (Gonzaga
Archives, Mantua).
* See BoNDONUs, 541.
*See Massarelli in Merkle, 355; Bondonus, 549. Cf. C.
Giuliani in the Arch. Trentino, III. (1884), 14 seq.
6 See Bondonus, 543, where however, what the otherwise
careful editor Merkle has overlooked, November 19 is certainly
correct and not August 19. The former date has various other
authorities in its support, besides that already cited in Sickel,
Berichte, III., 90 seq., and Susta, Kurie, III., 89 seq. viz, : (i)
^