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

THE NEW CARDINALS. 169
the Church, though, in other things he says, Zuniga justifies
the Pope's choice in the most surprising way. Even at the
last moment he had raised objections to Aquaviva and Cer-
vantes, though he himself says of the latter that he had never
seen a man of less ambition or more exemplary life ;^ he
speaks of Aquaviva as a virtuous young man, of good scholarly
attainments. 2 According to the instructions of his master,
he would, if it had been possible, have excluded Burali and
Santori as well from the cardinalate, but when in 1570 there
arose the question of appointing a legate for Germany, Zuniga
wrote that they ought to choose a man of exceptionally
virtuous life, and recommended Burali as one who had a great
reputation in this respect, and who would be much esteemed
in Germany.^
Pius V. was well aware of all this, because he had so long and
so carefully sought for suitable Cardinals, and, in spite of every
attack, had so firmly insisted upon the men whom he had
chosen. If the Council of Trent had exhorted the chief shepherd
of the Church to include in the ranks of its supreme senate none
but the most eminent men, and if, in so doing, as well as in the
appointment of distinguished bishops, it had put its finger
on the thing most needed for the reform of the Church,*
Pius V. had done his best to act up to that exhortation. The
next Papal election seemed to be assured ; if the next Pope
should walk in the ways of his predecessor, no longer would
those scandals which had so often placed their best weapons
in the hands of the enemies of the Holy See be found in the
senate of the Church. For this reason the renewal of the
Sacred College of 1570 was, in the best sense of the word, a
great act of reform.
The Pope, wrote Tiepolo on October 19th, 1566, does nothing
but reform ;^ on the same day Strozzi states that on the
Monday there had been a meeting of the Congregation of the
1 Zuniga to Philip II., May 15, 1570, Corresp. dipL, III., 358 n.
"^ Ibid. 357 (May 17, 1570).
* Ibid. 363 seq. (May 19, 1570).
* Sess. 24, de ref., c. i.
^ MUTINELLI, I., 57.