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

DELFINO IN SOUTH GERMANY. 239
poverty, while yet others alleged the dangers to which their
absence would expose their dioceses. In the Imperial cities
the customary marks of honour were, indeed, shown to the
nuncio, but the answers he received were very unsatisfactory,
several, especially that of the city of Strasbourg, being a curt
refusal.^ Delfino took the opportunity while he was in
Strasbourg, of carrying on negotiations with several Italian
Protestants, such as Count Thiene, Dr. Massaria and Girolamo
Zanchi, who had sought refuge abroad. The nuncio also
had repeated conversations with Vergerio at Strasbourg,
Zabern and Schwarzach. All these efforts were without
result ; as was soon realized in Rome, they were to some
extent even dangerous, for Vergerio certainly " only negotiated
so as to give vent to his burning hatred against the Papacy,
and to forge new weapons against it out of any offers which
might be made for his return to the Church. "^
From Strasbourg, Delfino travelled by way of Freiburg,
to the Bishop of Constance, who resided at Meersburg, and
to the Abbot of Weingarten, both of whom declared themselves
unable to, go to Trent on account of their age. The
Bishop of Merseburg, who visited Delfino at Ulm, at the end
of May, made his decision dependent on the attitude of the
Emperor. The municipal council of Ulm refused to separate
themselves from the other adherents of the Confession of
Augsburg ; these last protested that they longed above all
things for the restoration of religious unity, but in view of
their own powerlessness could only express their earnest wishes
for its realization.^ The University of Ingoldstadt, on the
other hand, promised to send delegates to Trent, as did Duke
Albert of Bavaria, whose court at Munich Delfino reached
^ The reply of Strasbourg in Steinherz, I., 355 seq. The
brief to Strasbourg of December 13, 1560, in Raynaldus, 1560,
n. 76 ; Le Plat, IV., 666 seq.
' The opinion of Steinherz (I., 368) who treats of this in great
detail (I., 266 seq., 277 seq., 292 seq., 294, 312, 320, 333 seq., 345 seq.,
356 seq., 367 seq., 374 seq., 394). CJ. also Hubert, 179 seq., and
SusTA, I., 29, 39 seq., 96 seq.
^ Cf. Steinherz, I., 370 seq., 375 seq., and Ehses, VIII., 218 seq.