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

372
HISTORY OF THE POPES.
Hessels on May 27th, 1561.1 In his letter to the legates of the
Council Commendone proposed, as the best way to avert the
threatened storm, that the Pope should summon the case
before himself, impose silence on the Franciscans, and in his
own name suggest the sending of Baius and Hessels to the
Council.^ This advice, however, which the legates referred
to Rome together with their own proposals,^ arrived too late.
Cardinal Borromeo replied to them on July 6th, 1561, that he
had already had information on the subject from Granvelle,
and that the Pope had decided to send the latter a brief
imposing silence, on his own initiative, even under censures
and penalties, until either the Council or the Pope had decided
the question.^ Pius IV. had come to this decision so hastily
that there was no possibility of awaiting the fuller report
which the legates of the Council had promised to make upon
the controversy and the proposals of Commendone.^ The
latter, who continued to insist upon Baius and Hessels being
summoned to the Council,^ received a reply in a letter from
Cardinal Gonzaga on August 31st, that the Pope had already
made up his mind.' It was not until two years later that
Baius and Hessels were sent to Trent by Margaret of Parma as
royal theologians,^ and assisted at the last three sessions of
the Council, which afforded them no opportunity of explaining
1 In SusTA, Kurie, I., 192. " Nobis " we read " praecipue
incumbere putamus, ut studendo, docendo, disputando ex antiquissimis
et solidissimis nostrae religionis fundamentis studeamus
nostri temporis erroribus occurrere."
- Letter of June 9, 1561, ibid. 36.
^ June 30, 1561, ibid. 34 seq.
* Borromeo to the legaces, 6 July, 1561, ibid. 49 : " Hoggi ha
risoluto di scriver al detto cardinale un breve, dove gli commette,
che imponat silentium sub censuris et penis sin'a le determinatione
del concilio oche espongano a S. S*^ le lor different!." Cf.
Borromeo to the legates, 12 July, 1561, ibid. 58.
'^ Ibid. 50 ; cf. 36.
"From Liibeck, July 24, 1561. Miscell. di stona Ital., IV.,
200. Pallavicini, 15, 7,. 10.
' In SusTA, loc. cit.
^ Raynaldus, 1561, n. 46.