[6.] Venerant his diebus certa nova ex aula serenissimi nepotis Maiestatis Vestrae, domini mei gratiosissimi ad pontificem scripta Maiestatem Vestram suadere nepoti suo serenissimo, ut cum videat se ab omnibus fere Christianis principibus destitutum, cogitaret de aliquibus induciis cum hoste faciendis. Quae quidem res licet et pontificem et reverendissimos dominos cardinales multum turbaverit, tamen in rei veritate, Serenissime Princeps, ego nihil potuissem audire, quod me inter tot metus magis recreare potuisset et quod existimassem ad praesentem rerum nostrarum statum esse magis accomodatum. Video principes Christianos partim inter se digladiari, partim otio domestico torpere et nihil penitus de re Christiana pensi habere. In Sede autem Apostolica, vel quod sit mala Leonis pontificis 4 administratione, quod multi queruntur, penitus exhausta, vel quod in excusationem suam hoc utatur praetextu, parvam admodum spem nobis esse ponendam. Fui ego hic per annum integrum et amplius dies et noctes sollicitando aliquod subsidium pro nepote Maiestatis Vestrae, promissa sunt mihi maria et montes, 5 declarati cardinales in Hungariam mittendi, multi menses in his consultationibus et legatorum expeditionibus frustra consumpti, actum non solum per me et collegam meum Franciscum Marsupinum, 6 sed etiam per oratorem serenissimi principis Ferdinandi 7 diligentissime atque acerrime toto isto tempore maximo labore et 3  Cardinal Francesco Soderini, Bishop of Volterra, was arrested on 27 April 1523 for encouraging the French King to occupy Sicily. Soderini was locked up in the Saint Angel Castle and a legal procedure started. Only the death of Hadrian VI brought it to an end. He was released after 14 September 1523, what’s more, he was allowed to participate in the conclave. More on his life: K. J. P. Lowe, Church and Politics in Renaissance Italy. The Life and Career of Cardinal Francesco Sodarini (1453–1524), Cambridge, 1993. (Cambridge Studies in Italian History and Culture) 4  Pope Leo X (1513–1521) 5  glorians maria montisque polliceri coepit: Sallustius: Cat. 23, 3, 4. Only Sallustius uses this combination of words in classical literature. 6  Francesco Marsupino, one-time Secretary of Archbishop Bakócz, stayed in Rome from 1518 as a permanent Hungarian envoy. 7  Starting with 7 February 1523, Ferdinand had two envoys in Rome, Pedro de Cordoba (Pedro Salamanca) and Girolamo Balbi. Pedro de Cordoba left Rome at the end of April, while Balbi stayed until about mid-June. Since Brodarics speaks about an envoy, it is unclear whom he refers to, but the date of the letter (10 June) makes Balbi more probable. Brodarics had known him longer anyway. Compare: Gerhard Rill, Fürst und Hof in Österreich. Von den habsburgischen Teilungsverträgen bis zur Schlacht Mohács (1521/22 bis 1526). Bd. 1. Außenpolitik und Diplomatie, Wien–Köln–Weimar, 1993, 241.

diuturna ac nocturna sollicitudine ac discursatione non video, quid adhuc sim consecutus, nisi nudas spes et promissiones, factum autem penitus nullum. In tanta igitur rerum omnium desperatione ac principum Christianorum vel discordia vel negligentia, Sedis etiam Apostolicae vel paupertate vel tarditate, quid posset per immortalem Deum Vestra Maiestas melius suo serenissimo nepoti consulere, quam ut iam tandem tentatis omnibus, quae tentari potuerunt, de salute regnorum suorum aliter cogitaret? Si tamen haec consilia non essent iam nimium sera.