[1189] He was described to the Pope by his secretary, Prosper himself tells us, as "virum exercitatum, magni animi, multarum literarum, eloquentem, magnæque apud Gallos auctoritatis," having obtained great familiarity with French affairs when nuncio in Henry the Second's lifetime. Ib., 1463.
[1190] "Non tam ut numerus legatorum, quam ut plus auctoritatis legatio haberet, si ab ipsius (ut dicunt) pontificis latere legatus discederet ... quasi aliorum legatorum creatio, quod erant jam in Gallia, neque Roma proficiscerentur, non satis diligenter curare negotium diceretur." Ib., 1462.
[1191] "Grande hombre de entretenimientos y de encantar." Vargas calls him. Letter to Granvelle, Nov. 15, 1561, Papiers d'état du card. de Granvelle, vi. 416.
[1192] "Diess waren zwölf gewiss mächtige Gründe," etc. Baum, ii. 302; La Place, 153; Marc' Ant. Barbaro, Rel. des Amb. Vén., ii. 86.
[1193] "Multum inde auri reportaturus existimetur, si ibi annum vel biennium communi omnium more transigat." Santacrucii, de civil. Galliæ diss. comment., 1464.
[1194] That is, excepting the cardinal's hat, which his friends informed him would be the reward of his services in France. Ibid., ubi supra.
[1195] Ibid., 1462, 1463, 1465.
[1196] Ibid., 1465.
[1197] "Lugduno hucusque omnes fere declinavit urbes in itinere, ut quæ jam habeant Ministros, et ideo irrisiones extimuerit." Letter of Peter Martyr, Sept. 19th, Baum, ii., App., 68.
[1198] "These artifices," wrote Languet from Paris at the time, "impose upon no one; and especially from this man, who is very well known here, who heretofore has surpassed even the highest princes in the luxury and splendor of his mode of life, and of whose utter want of knowledge of letters no one is ignorant." Letter of Sept. 20, 1561, Epist. secr., ii. 140.