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

FRANCIS II. AND FERDINAND I. 195
Pius IV. spoke most openly to Philip II., whose views
really approached his own most closely. Prospero Santa
Croce, who had been appointed nuncio in Portugal, was
entrusted with the negotiations, and left Rome in the middle
of July, 1560.
His instructions about the Council, ^ contained, besides a
number of other commissions, the following points : He was
first of all to express to Phihp II. the exceeding joy of His
Holiness at the royal letter of June i8th, and at the same
time hand him copies of the very unsatisfactory answers of
Ferdinand I. anti Francis II. The instructions emphasize
the fact that, in spite of this, the Pope held firmly to his
decision, and admonish Philip II. to do the same. To summon
the Council eJseM'here than at Trent must delay the opening
and cause the canons akeady framed by the Council to be
called in question. As far as the other requests of the
Emperor are concerned, the Pope has no intention of granting
the concessions asked for without the authority of a General
Council.
The replies to Francis II. and Ferdinand I., whose requests
were, at any rate in part, impossible of fulfilment, were
somiewhat delayed, owing to an illness of the Pope. The
first was handed in the middle of August to the Abbot of
Manne, who returned home a week later. In this the Pope
declares that he adheres to his determination to come to the
help of the miseries of Christendom by a General Council
of the Church, and that as soon as possible. Trent seemed
to be the best place for this, especially in the interests of a
speedy opening ; the Pope, however, would make no diffi-
culty, after the Council was opened, about removing it, if
necessary, to some other city which was safe and not under
the suspicion of heresy. The King of Spain agreed to the
removal of the suspension, and the continuation of the Council,
1 Original minute in the *Varia polit., 117, p. 365 seq. (Papal
Secret Archives), printed in the Miscell. di storia Ital., V., 1013 seq.,
and in part in Laemmer, Melet., 177 seq. Cf. Voss, 68, n. 128 ;
Dembinski, I., 158 seq., and Ehses, Berufung des Konzils, 8 and
VIII., 52 seq.