His  choice  fell  on  the  Dominican,  Thomas  de  Vio,  the  same  who  had  so
zealously  defended  the  papal  prerogatives  ;  this  had  opened  to  him  the
way  to  higher  dignities,  which  had  terminated  in  that  of  cardinal.  The
brilliant  appointment  of  legate,  now  superadded,  placed  him  at  the  summit
of  his  ambition.  He  determined  to  appear  with  the  greatest  magnificence,
and  almost  acted  in  earnest  upon  the  pretension  of  the  Curia,  that  a  legate
was  greater  than  a  king.2  At  his  nomination  he  made  special  conditions
as  to  the  state  and  splendour  of  his  equipments  ;  for  example,  that  a
white  palfrey  with  bridle  of  crimson  velvet,  and  hangings  for  his  room
of  crimson  satin,  were  to  be  provided  for  him  :  even  his  old  master  of  the
ceremonies  could  not  refrain  from  laughing  at  the  multiplicity  of  demands
which  he  had  to  make.  When  at  Augsburg  he  delighted  beyond  all  things
in  magnificent  ceremonies  ;  such  as  the  high  mass  which  he  celebrated
before  all  the  princes,  spiritual  and  temporal,  in  the  cathedral,  on  the  1st
of  August ;  when  he  placed  the  cardinal's  hat  on  the  head  of  the  Arch-
bishop of  Mainz,  kneeling  at  the  altar,  and  delivered  to  the  emperor
himself  the  consecrated  hat  and  sword — the  marks  of  papal  grace  and
favour.  He  indulged  also  in  the  most  extravagant  ideas.  While  exhorting
the  emperor  to  march  forth  against  the  hereditary  enemy  who  thirsted
for  the  blood  of  Christendom,  he  reminded  him  that  this  was  not  6nly
the  day  on  which  Augustus  had  become  master  of  the  world  at  the  battle
of  Actium,  but  also  that  it  was  sacred  to  St.  Peter  :  the  emperor  might
accept  it  as  an  augury  of  the  conquest  of  Constantinople  and  Jerusalem,
and  the  extension  of  the  empire  and  the  church  to  the  farthest  ends  of  the
earth.3  Such  was  the  style  of  a  discourse,  framed  according  to  all  the  rules
of  rhetoric,  which  he  delivered  to  the  assembly  of  the  States.
