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

26 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
made up his mind that this should not be the case under
PhiHp II., and he therefore developed a feverish activity in
order to influence the election in the Spanish interest. ^ He
proceeded to do this with an incredible want of consideration
All the other ambassadors preserved at least the outward
usages of decorum, but the zeal of Vargas knew no bounds.
Scarcely a night passed that he did not enter the conclave
by a window or a breach in the wall, in order to work on the
Cardinals by promises and threats, often remaining there till
daybreak. 2 He himself wrote to the king,^ on November
5th, 1559, that he had taken more trouble about the conclave
than in all his former missions together, and that if he did not
succeed in gaining his end, he believed it would prove his
death.
Vargas was not satisfied with the whole tendency and
development of the proceedings so far. His opinion Vv^as that
if the Cardinals who had Spanish sympathies would only unite
among themselves they would not need the support of the
adherents of the French party, ^ and that it wats a matter of
honour on their part to bring the election to an end in the
Spanish sense without the help of a person so " hated by God
and the Spanish king as Este."^ The candidature of Gonzaga
was also not approved of by Vargas, because it was a principle
of Spanish policy that scions of Italian princely families should
be kept from the tiara, so as not to endanger the peace of
Italy, ^ and for the same reason he was at first opposed to
Medici, as being a dependent of Cosimo I.'^
^MuLLER, 196, 198.
" Mocenigo in Alberi, IL, 4, 45. Cf., §usta, Pius IV., 131.
^ In DoLLiNGER, I., 289.
* Vargas on November 6, 1559, in Dollinger, I., 291.
^ Ibid., 292.
* Mocenigo (in Alberi, II., 4, 32^ writes that it was easier to be
Pope if one did not belong to the nobility, but was of humble
origin. The Duke of Alba gave it as his opinion with regard to
Gonzaga that the rule that a man of noble birth was no use as
a Pope was so general that there were hardly any exceptions to it.
HiNAjosA, 64 ; Herre, 43. ' SusTA, Pius IV., 130.
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