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

270 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
be given up.^ This in fact was done ; the legates resolved
to make their representations to the Empeior, which were to
have been entrusted to Commendone, through the nuncio,
Delfino, However, before the letter to Delfino, drafted on
April 2nd, was dispatched, a report from the nuncio, of March
30th, arrived in Trent on April 6th, which announced that the
Emperor had withdrawn his demand for a postponement of
the proceedings of the Council. ^ On March 29th the Pope
gave instructions to the legates through Borromeo that they
were no longer to delay the deliberations. Beginning with
the next Session, they were to proceed to the treatment of
questions of dogma, and thereby, though tacitly, and without
any express declaration, the continuation would become an
actual fact ;
the Spaniards would certainly be pleased to have
this as an accomplished fact, while on the other hand all
unnecessary offence would be avoided. The Pope also
declared that, in the event of its being necessary, the highly
controversial question whether the bishops' duty of residence
was of divine or human institution, was admissible.^ This
difficult point had been raised when the legates, without
waiting for the Pope's reply, had, on March nth, begun the
treatment of questions of reform by submitting twelve
articles.*
At first it was only private discussions in which this import-
ant controversy came into the foreground, but soon it was being
discussed with much heat in the widest circles.^ Cardinal
1 Borromeo to the legates on March 14, 1562, in Susta, II., 59.
2 See Steinherz, III., 32-3.
3 Susta, II., 71 seq. Already on March 18, Borromeo had
given the legates instructions, so as to prevent unpleasantness, to
avoid from any dispute about the " ius divinum residentiae,"
ibid., 65.
* For the story of the origin of the important 12 articles on
reform (in Theiner, I., 694 ; Le Plat, V., 104) see Susta, II., 47.
Cf. ibid., 52 seq. for the proceedings of the legates, which could
not be brought into accordance with the instructions received
on March 12. See also Eder, I., 136 seq.
^ Cf. Paleotto in Theiner, I., 5^0 seq,