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

PIETRO CARNESECCHI. 303
heresy, had had his case reopened.^ Cosimo de' Medici
did not dare to refuse to hand over his protegf^.^ Confidence
in his powerful patron encouraged the inconstant man in the
mad idea of trying to save himself again on this occasion by
an obstinate denial of the charge. The Florentine ambassador
in Rome soon learned that for this very reason, and in spite
of all the efforts of the Duke of Florence and other powerful
friends, the trial was taking a very ugl}^ turn.^ Carnesecchi
had to appear at the autodafe on September 21, 1567, and
receive sentence.
The reading of the minutes of his trial lasted for two hours,
and with increasing surprise the hearers learned how a man,
who had always, as far as outward appearances went, been a
minister of the Church, and who had apparently without any
scruple enjoyed the richest ecclesiastical benefices, had had
secret relations with almost all the heretics, had accepted a
number of doctrines contrary to the faith, and had succeeded
by impudent lies and subterfuges in deceiving his judges.*
The Florentine and Mantuan envoys describe the impression
made by the reading of the acts of the trial by speaking of him
as " a very wicked man " and " the most loathsome and villan-
^ A letter of Carnesecchi found among the papers of Giulia
Gonzaga gave the excuse (*Arco, June 29, 1566, State Archives,
Vienna). On May 15, 1566, Camillo Luzzara wrote to the Duke
of Mantua that it was said at the court that many people would
have to do with the Inquisition, " massime quelli che hebbero
stretta practica con la S. Donna Giulia, contro la quale vogliono
che si sian de male cose, et che se fosse viva che dovesse essere
chiamata a Roma infallibilmente. L'arcivescovo d'Otranto fu
molto amico suo." Gonzaga Archives, Mantua.
-For his handing over cf. Laderchi, 1566, n. 195 ^eq. (briefs
of June 20 and August i, 1566).
•' " Risposemi [Cardinal Pacheco] che le cos^ del Carnesecchi
erano in mal termine .
. ., e mi torno a dire che non ha cervello,
ed essersi governato molto male, e che portava gran pericolo della
vita non si mostrando penitente. . . . Crcde
il cardinale che la
speranza ch'egli ha havuto nell' EE. VV. gli abbia nociuto."
.Sorristori, May 16, 1567, Legazioni ^35 seq.
* A list of his heretical opinions in Ladekcfii, 1567, n. 34.