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

NICCOLO ORMANETO. I39
right, hand in the reform of his archdiocese, Niccolo Ormaneto,^
a priest of Verona who had been trained in the school of
Matteo Giberti. After prolonged studies, especially in Canon
Law, Ormaneto had at first had charge of the parish of
Bovolone as archpriest. When he was sent as legate to
England in 1553, Cardinal Pole chose this able man as his
companion, and made use of his services for important missions
to the Pope and the Emperor, ^ as well as for the reform of the
English clergy and the University of Oxford.^ After the
death of Pole, Ormaneto might have received the archbishopric
of Avignon, but he preferred to return to his post as a simple
priest in his parish of Bovolone, though he was soon to exchange
this quiet work for a field of wider activity. His bishop,
Navagero, took him with him to the Council of Trent, and
when it became necessary to restrain Albert V. of Bavaria
from precipitate action in the matter of communion under both
kinds, this thankless task was entrusted to Ormaneto, who
carried it out with complete success.^ As Valiero, Navagero's
successor, attests, he next won considerable repute at the
diocesan synod which was held at Verona after the conclusion
of the ecumenical council. Cardinal Borromeo chose this
prudent and experienced disciple of his master Giberti to hold
the diocesan synod at Milan, and thus set on foot the work of
ecclesiastical reform.
A yet wider and more important field of work opened before
Ormaneto when, in June, 1566, he was summoned to the
capital of Christendom. ^ Borromeo let him go most reluct-
antly ; I feel, he wrote,® as if my right hand had been cut off.
^ Cf. F. M. Carini, Monsignor N. Ormaneto, Rome, 1894.
C. Robinson, Nic. Ormaneto, London, 1920.
2 Cf. Vol. XIII. of this work, pp. 275, 278.
^ Carini, 6.
* Cf. Vol. XV. of this work, p. 331; Susta, IV., 23 seq. 28 118.
^ For his arrival in Rome (July 8) and his first audience cf.
VATS! Ortroy in Anal. Bolland., XXXIIL (1914), 189.
^ To Cardinal Alciati, June 5, 1566, Anal. Bolland., XXXIIL,
194, n. 4. At first Ormaneto was only summoned for two years.
Borromeo to Pius V., June 26, 1566, in Baluze-Mansi, III., 531.