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

32 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
influence in the Papal election. Nobody, however, had the
courage to take a step of such decisive importance, for the
favour of so powerful a monarch as Philip II. must be retained
for the Church. Nothing else was therefore possible but to
suffer as before the intercourse with the ambassadors, and to
await with patience the decision of the Spanish king as to the
candidature of Gonzaga which had been asked for.
Philip II. was in no hurry with his rep'y. It appeared to
him impossible to declare himself in favour of Gonzaga, yet
to pronounce against him, the member of so highly esteemed
a princely family, was both distasteful and dangerous.^ He
therefore postponed his answer from week to week, hoping
perhaps that the Cardinals would understand his silence, and
at length decide as he wished without express instructions
from him. This, in fact, was what actually took place.
The conclave remained for a few weeks completely un-
decided as to the election. As a matter of form, the daily
voting took place, and Pacheco regularly received from seven-
teen to twenty-two votes, and Cueva from twelve to eighteen.
Cardinals of whose actual elevation no one was really thinking,
often received an unusual number of votes, merely as a compliment,
as, for instance, Saraceni, who on October 5th and
7th had sixteen and nineteen votes, Rebiba on the 6th no less
than seventeen, and Ghislieri at a later date twenty. To
Cardinal Ranuccio Farnese, whose name is otherwise only
occasionally mentioned, twenty-one votes were given on
October 13th, merely because it was the anniversary of his
grandfather's election. Similar surprises occurred every
day. 3
In the midst of the tedious monotony of the almost sus-
pended proceedings, a little excitement was caused by a
striking remark made by Cardinal Medici, who, in conversation
with Cardinal Truchsess said : "As regards the Germans, we
^ Cf. Tiepolo to the Signoria of Venice, Toledo, December 11,
1559. in Brown, VII., n. 117.
2 Cf. the *List of scrutinies (State Library, Munich) in Appendix
No. I.
3C/. ibid.
^