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

FURTHER LEGATES SUGGESTED. 201
ecclesiastical spirit, great diplomatic skill, of which he had
given proofs as Venetian ambassador at different courts, and
finally in Rome. It might therefore be hoped that he would
be successful in restoring harmony among the legates.^
Pius IV., in his own vigorous way, informed the legates of
his intention on May nth. He did not refrain from making
bitter reproaches to them on account of their want of unity
in treating the question of the duty of residence. They should
have prevented this complicated question, which had already
been postponed in the time of Paul III. from being made a
subject of discussion, especially as they themselves were not
of one mind regarding it. " Remember," he wrote, " that
\-ou are all legates together, and that you must proceed in
complete agreement, instead of causing scandal by disunion."
In addition to this exhortation to harmony, he repeated in
his letter the declaration that the matter of the duty of resi-
dence must be adjourned for the present, and the treatment
of dogma and reform proceeded with instead, without delay.
The legates, who received this letter on May 15th, answered
two days later ; they would do their utmost, and hoped to
succeed in postponing the question of the duty of residence
at least until the treatment of Holy Orders ; against the re-
proach of disunion they attempted to justify themselves.^
Cardinals Gonzaga and Seripando, who understood quite well
that the reproaches of the angry Pope were chiefly directed
against themselves, addressed special letters of justification
to Cardinal Borromeo on May i6th and 17th, which left
nothing to be desired from the point of view of frankness.**
Cardinal Gonzaga at the same time announced his intention of
leaving Trent as soon as Cicada, to whom, because of his
seniority, the presidentship of the legatine college must
^^ See Pallavicini, 16, 8, 12.
* SusTA (II., 134 seq.) by making use of the previous drafts
has cleared up in a masterly way the genesis of the Papal letter
of May II, 1562.
^ See SusTA, II., 152.
* Gonzaga's letter in Susta, II., 143 seqq., that of Seripando
in SiCKEL, Berichte, II., 108 seq.
^