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

THE CARDINAL LEGATES. 245
cant fact that, with the exception of the president, Simonetta
alone had a code at his disposal for his correspondence with
Rome.
Giacomo Puteo, a Cardinal since 155 1, had rendered
important services to the Church under Julius III. and
Paul IV. Like Simonetta, he was possessed of a thorough
and comprehensive knowledge of canon law. This made
both men peculiarly suited to maintain the rights of
the Holy See in the face of the prejudices against the
Council.
Hosius and Seripando were distinguished in a similar
manner by their theological learning, but their characters
were as different as their origin. Girolamo Seripando, who
belonged to a noble Apulian family, was undoubtedly the
most distinguished man of whom the order of Augustinian
Hermits could at that time boast. Paul III. had appointed
this native of southern Italy, who was distinguished as
preacher, theologian, Ciceronian, Greek scholar, and above
all as a friend of Catholic reform, to be their Prior General
in 1538. In this capacity Seripando displayed burning zeal,
working especially to bring about a thorough reform of his
order and to purge it of the Lutheran elements which had
penetrated into it. During the first period of the Council of
Trent, Seripando had played a most distinguished part.
His views had given occasion for the searching deliberations
on the subject of justification, in the course of which the
well-meant but mistaken theory of compromise which he
maintained had been repudiated. From that time Seripando
had been mistrusted by the strict conservative party, headed
by Carafa. Hostility on the part of the latter, as well as
constant illness caused him, in 1551, to resign his position
as General of his order, and also prevented any further par-
ticipation in the deliberations of the Council of Trent, which
had again been opened by Julius III., and he devoted himself
to his studies at Naples. His appointment as Archbishop
of Salerno in the year 1554, enabled him to live in his diocese,
and far from Rome, during the pontificate of Paul IV., who
was prejudiced against him. The new Pope called to mind