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

BORROMEO RECEIVES HOLY ORDERS. II7
believed, the Pope himself, drew quite other conclusions from
these events. It was supposed that the heir of all the Borromeo
riches would now give up his clerical career, and, in the place
of his dead brother, carry on the family.^ Although Charles
was already a sub-deacon, and as such had taken a vow of
chastity, a Papal dispensation did not seem unlikely in his
case. The Cardinal, however, put an end to any such expec-
tations by receiving holy orders from Cardinal Cesi on July
17th, 1563. He took this step with the consent of the Pope,
who had raised his nephew to the rank of Cardinal-Priest at
the consistory of June 4th, 1563, and had thereby given him
the express command to receive holy orders, declaring at the
same time that he had never intended to force Charles to give
up the priesthood, and that all rumours to the contrary were
unfounded.- Borromeo was much strengthened in his reso-
lutions by the Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius of Loyola, which
he made under the direction of the Jesuit, Ribera.^ He said
his first mass publicly, and with great solemnity in St. Peter's,
at the altar of the Confession of the Prince of the Apostles, and
his second in complete privacy in the chapel which had been
used by Ignatius of Loyola."*
After having received holy orders, Borromeo at first retained
1 Bascape, ga ; Kervyn
de Lettenhove, IIL, 212. See the
report of Arcos of December, 1562, in Sickel, Konzil, 410. In
yet another *letter from Cardinal Mark Sittich to Hannibal von
Hohenems, dated May 3, 1563, reference is made to the possibility
of Cardinal Borromeo marrying (Hohenems Archives). On June
7, 1563, Cardinal Borromeo was invested with the freedom of the
city of Rome ; see Gregorovius, Kleine Schriften, I., 316.
^ See Acta consist, in Susta, Kurie, IV., 68 n. 3 ; (van Ortroy)
in the Anal. Boll., XIV. (1895), 436, according to the dispatches
of the Imperial ambassador in Rome, Prospero d'Arco. Cf.
Borromeo's letter to Cesare Gonzaga of June 5, 1563, in Sala,
Documenti, III., 269. The statement in Guissano, 20 seq.,
that Charles had secretly received Holy Orders against the wish
of his uncle is therefore erroneous.
^ GiussANO, 21 ; Sacchini, 8, 12 (p. 406).
^ Sacchini, 7, II (p. 362). Sylvain, I., 77.