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

ATTITUDE OF THE PRINCES, 9
dors of the foreign powers could not on this occasion exercise
that influence upon the election which they had brought to
bear at the elevation of Pius IV. Besides this, the princes
themselves had become less inclined to interfere than in former
days. It is true that the question of the most suitable candi-
date for the tiara was freely canvassed in the correspondence
of the ambassadors, but no definite policy was arrived at, nor
was any actual interference attempted. Duke Alfonso of
Ferrara, indeed, immediately after the death of Pius IV., sent
Paolo Emilio Bemieri to the Emperor Maximilian II. to try
and obtain the election of his uncle, Cardinal Ippolito d'Este,^
it being, in his opinion, ^ very advisable to secure the tiara for
a Cardinal of princely birth, after the disastrous experiences
they had had, under recent Popes, of upstarts and ambitious
relatives ;
the Emperor should therefore, said Duke Alfonso,
write to the leading Cardinals, and to the whole Sacred
College, to the Duke of Florence and Philip II., to support
the candidature of Este.^ Maximilian, however, replied'*
that, following the example of his father, who had not wished
to interfere with the Papal election, he had contented himself
with urging the Sacred College to make a wise choice, and that
he could not now act in a different sense by espousing the cause
of any definite candidate.
As a matter of fact the Emperor had not been quite as
neutral as he pretended. He had already, during the later
days of Pius IV., asked Cosimo de' Medici to tell him which
Cardinals were looked upon as probable candidates for the
tiara, ^ and after the Pope's death he had announced that he
the items of news which were supposed to have leaked out of the
conclave were false. Letter to Philip II. of December 30, 1565,
Corresp. dipl., I., 61.
1 BiBL, Korrespondenz, I., 339. Instructions of Bernieri of
December 15, 1565, ibid. n. 300 seq., p. 339 seq., 341 seq.
* Instructions for Bernieri, ibid. 340.
* Ibid. 341 seq.
* December 24, 1565, ibid. 351.
^ Cf. the reply of Cosimo of December 2, 1565, in Wahrmund
265 ; HiLLiGKR, 96 ; BiBL, Korrespondenz, I., 331.