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

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164 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
ness and begged for mercy for his clients. The answer of
Pius IV. was to the effect that he had better get out of his way.^
At that time, as the Pope expressed it, there were four capital
C's which gave him great anxiety : the Cardinals, the Carafa,
the Council, and the Colonna.^
There now remained only one hope for the Carafa : the
intervention of the Spanish king. Cardinal Carafa had
counted on him from the first, all the more so as all the time
Vargas had remained his firm friend. When the whole world
had abandoned the unhappy man, the ambassador had only
held the more faithfully to him. He even dared, in covert
terms, to reproach his king for his reserve,^ but now, as at
first, Philip took refuge in silence. The way in which he
determined his attitude is evident from the significant words
which he wrote to Tendilla on August nth, 1560. In these
he expresses the impatience with which he was awaiting the
arrival of Santa Croce, who had started from Rome on July
14th, so that he might know what attitude he had better adopt,
as, however anxious he might be to please the Pope, it would
not be good policy on his part altogether to abandon Cardinal
Carafa, lest he should be accused of ingratitude.* It was
evident that the king did not wish to commit himself pre-
maturely. Santa Croce disclosed to Philip II., in the name of
Pius IV., that Raverta had gone too far in his recommendation
of the Carafa, and that the Pope had been unable to communi-
^ Avviso di Roma of March i, 1561, in Angel, Disgrace, 146 n. 5.
2 *Dicono che S.S** diceva haver quattro C grandi ch'l travag-
liavano la mente cioe : Cardinali, Caraffa, Concilio, Colonnesi.
Letter of Fr. Tonina of February 28, 1561 (Gonzaga Archives,
Mantua)
3 See Angel, 149-50; Ibid., 147, concerning the intervention
of France for the Duke of Paliano. Albert V. of Bavaria inter-
ceded for both the Cardinal and the Duke ;
see Correspondence
of Card O. Truchsess, 211, 216, 218 seq., 225 seq., 233.
* See Angel, 150 n. 4. Concerning the mission of Santa
Croce cf. Corpo dipl. Portug., VIII., 483 seq. ; IX., 9 seq., 16 seq. ;
Pallavicini, 14, 15, 8; Miscell. d stor. Ital , V., 526 seq. ;
HiNojosA, 121 seq.