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

COMMENDONE IN BERLIN. 227
and hospitality towards the Pope's representative.^ The
cunning HohenzoUern overwhelmed Commendone with marks
of attention, assigning him a lodging in the best part of his
castle, repeatedly inviting him to his table, and holding long
and confidential theological discussions with him. Commendone
might well have great hopes that his mission would
be successful here, because the Elector received without any
difficulty the bull of convocation and the brief addressed
to him ; the answer, however, which he finally received,
although ver}^ courteous, amounted to a refusal.-
The brother of the Elector, the Margrave John of Branden-
burg, whom Commendone, while at Berlin, visited at Beeskow,
also received him with great politeness, giving him, however,
an answer which was an even more definite rejection than
that of Joachim II. ^ The son of the Elector of Brandenburg,
Archbishop Sigismund of Magdeburg, to whom Commendone
delivered the bull and a brief from the Pope, promised, on
the other hand, to come soon to Trent ; he would, he said,
apply to the Pope with the greatest confidence for advice
and help in his ecclesiastical affairs. The prince who thus
gave these solemn assurances was already at that time a
Protestant in secret, and openly adhered to the Augsburg
Confession before the year was out.
Commendone 's stay in Berlin came to an end on March
3rd. On his departure Joachim II. handed him a polite
answer in writing to the Pope's brief. The Elector, whose
marks of attention were continued to the end, also wished to
bestow valuable gifts upon the nuncio. Commendone,
however, begged him to refrain from doing this, and rather
to grant him two other favours, namely to agree to read
the controversial woik of Hosius, " Confession of the Catholic
Faith," and to restore to the poor Carthusian monks, who
^ See Ehses, Ein Nuntius, 40.
" C/. Reimann, Commendone, 251-9; Ehses, VIII., 171 seq.
'The reply of John of Brandenburg, dated February 26, 1561,
in SiCKEL, Konzil, 176 seq. The detour to Beeskow took place
on February 25 ;
on the 26 Commendone started for Frankfort-
on-Oder, returning to Berlin on the 28 ; see *Viaggio, loc. cit.