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

EXEMPLARY LIFE OF BORROMEO. 121
In time people ceased to lind fault with the asceticism of
Charles, and his example had an effect, even in the case of the
worldly-minded diplomatists. Their testimony is all the more
valuable and worthy of credence, as they were in the habit of
mthlessly laying bare the human weaknesses of even the
highest dignitaries. Wlien Girolamo Soranzo gave a report
of his Roman embassy in June, 1563, he remarked :
" The life
of Cardinal Borromeo is most innocent, and absolutely
blameless ; by his religious attitude he gives an example which
could not be surpassed. His exemplary manner of life is
all the more worthy of praise as he is in the flower of his age,
and is the very powerful nephew of a Pope, and lives at a court
where the opportunity of enjoying pleasures of every kind is
certainly not wanting to him. '
' ^ Two years later the Venetian
Giacomo Soranzo, wrote : " Cardinal Borromeo is only
twenty-seven, but delicate, as he has impaired his health by
study, fasting, vigils and abstinences. He is a doctor of laws,
but devotes himself to theology with a zeal rare in our days.
His life is most unworldly, and his zeal for religion is so great
that one can say with all authority that by his example he is
of more use to the Roman court than all the decrees of the
Council. This nephew, so loved by the Pope, still in the
bloom of 5'outh and at a court full of temptations, who has
overcome himself and the love of the world, is a rare phenom-
enon. Borromeo is devoted to the Pope, who, for his part
thinks the world of him and his wishes, as may be seen in
the last promotion of Cardinals, when only such were chosen
as he had either proposed or recommended. He and the Pope,
however, are of two different natures, and Pius IV. would like
to see him more jovial and less strict in his life and ideas. He
even said so to the Jesuits, who have a great influence on the
Cardinal's manner of life, but the latter did not allow himself
to be diverted from his own way. He is not much loved at
court, because they are used to other ways there, and they
complain that the Cardinal asks the Pope for little and gives
1 GiROL. Soranzo, 91. Cf. Wymann in the Schweiz. Kirchen-
zeitung, 1910, No. 44, n. 49.
,