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

234 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
his stay in Belgium he had also been occupied with the matter
of the recently established bishoprics.
^
In the Imperial city of Aix Commendone confirmed tha
municipal council and the citizens in their great zeal for the
old faith. There was a want of suitable delegates for the
Council in the city, and therefore the councillors promised
a strict observance of any decrees which should be issued
by the Council at Trent.
On June 2nd Commendone left Aix-la-Chapelle on his
return journey to Antwerp, where he stayed for three weeks,
waiting for news from Rome. On the 24th he started for
Amsterdam, from which city he went on to Liibeck, by way
of Osnabriick. His stay in this entirely Protestant and very
profligate city, which he reached on July 9th, was to last for
quite two months, and in the end was to prove altogether
useless.
While the councillors at Liibeck were still hesitating whether
they should observe the customary rules of diplomatic courtesy
towards the representative of the Pope, the Protestant preach-
ers were violently declaiming in their pulpits against the
demon who had come to unsettle the consciences of the people
and deceive them with the fable of the Council. The municipality
at length decided not to take the embassy of Commendone
into consideration ;2 this ill success, however, might
have been endured had not the other and much more important
mission, to the Danish king, been such a complete failure.
Full of zeal, Commendone had already declared himself
willing to deliver the invitation to the Council to King Eric
XIV. of Sweden as well. Pius IV., who had originally intended
to entrust this task to Canobio, who was destined for Russia,
at last decided, on the advice of Hosius, in favour of Com-
mendone. The latter had addressed a letter to the King of
Denmark, Frederick II., who had not even condescended to
^ For the stay at Liege and Aix, cf. Commendone's letter in
Ehses, VIII. , 216 seq. Ruggieri's report on Aix has been pub-
lished in the Zeitschrift des Aachener Gesch.-Vereins [cf. supra 225,
n. 3)-
^ See Ehses, VIII. , 233 and 239 seq. Cf. also Illigens, Gesch.
der lubeckischen Kirche (1896), 149 seq.