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

10
HISTORY OF THE POPES.
intended to take a strong and decided interest in the election.^
However, except for Delfino, Maximilian could scarcely count
upon a single reliable supporter in the Sacred College.^ He
could indeed name, though as a profound secret, either through
the Duke of Florence,^ or through his ambassador, Arco, four
Cardinals, namely, Boncompagni, Grasso, Niccolini and Ricci,^
as being acceptable to him, but to promote the actual election
of any one of them Arco had to turn to the Duke of Florence
for help.^ Perhaps the reason why he made no micntion of
Morone was that he was not in favour with the Duke, though
he would have been most acceptable to the Emperor, who
hoped to obta,in from him the concession of the marriage of
priests.^
Cosimo de' Medici did his utmost to obtain a decisive
influence upon the course of the election. In order to strengthen
the hand of his ordinary ambassador in Rome, Serristori, he
sent thither the crafty Bartolomeo Concini,' while another
of his agents, Nosti Camaiani, managed to make his way into
the conclave in the guise of a conclavist.*^ Cosimo could also
count upon his young son. Cardinal Ferdinando de' Medici,
and upon Niccolini, who had undertaken to promote the
173-
^ Giulio Ricasolito Cosimo, December 14, 1565, in Petrucelli,
^ In a report of December 15, 1565, Arco says that among the
Cardinals there were " Imperiales 6, Re Filippo 10, Re di Francia
10, Duca di Firenze 8." But among these are counted the absent
Cardinals (Wahrmund, 265). For the attitude of Maximilian
11. towards the conclave cf. also G. Wolf in Gottinger Gel. An-
zeigen, CLXXX. (1918), 442.
^December 21, 1565, in Bibl, Korrespondenz, I., 347.
* This secrecy was impressed a second time on Dec. 24, 1565,
Bibl, Korrespondenz, I., 354.
^ HiLLiGER, 105 ; cf. 89. The letter from the Emperor to
Arco was of December 21 and reached Rome on the 31 ; ibid.
106. Cf. Bibl in Archiv fur osterr. Gesch., CIIL, 21.
* Requesens, December 30, 1565 Corresp. dipl., I., 67.
'Petrucelli, 176. Hilliger, 95. Cosimo to Borromeo,
December 11, 1565 in Sala, Docum., III., 370.
* Petrucelli, i 76.