Chapter 45: Three Emperors, Three Popes (1589-1592)
While the calendar may have turned, the fortunes for Pope Paul IV did not. Early that year many of the refugees from the French wars against their Protestant minority attempted to flee French troops into Avignon. These religious dissidents attempted to establish their own communities’ right under the Church’s nose. Pope Paul refused to accept these heretics, and banished them away. This was followed by another group in Kärnten which combined with Austrian nationalism, contributed an Easter revolt. Mantua though, returned to the true faith.
Although he was neither a diplomat, nor a Cardinal, Leo Erizzo still had Pope Paul’s ear as his friend and governmental advisor. He nearly pleaded with the Pope to begin repairing his tarnished reputation. Erizzo convinced Pope Paul to elevate Roma Bishop Martinus Belfuno (Level 2 Diplomat) to Cardinal, and appoint him as the new Secretary of State. Belfuno had been vice-legate to most of the courts of Europe and was much more versed in diplomacy than the old French Cardinal who preceded him. But the Pope was too trusting in his friend’s judgment for both were now working on behalf of the King of Castile.
Pope Paul most likely was unaware of the shift in Curial attitudes. Likewise many in the Curia did not realize the Pope was ill. On June 9, 1589, Pope Paul IV died suddenly. On behalf of the Castilians, Cardinal Belfuno (under Erizzo’s direction) presented a list of seven acceptable Cardinals for the Conclave to consider. While the Cardinals were outraged by the audacity of King Felipe II, the Conclave still elected the perceived weakest of the seven Milanese Cardinal Niccolo Sfondrati who took the name Gregory XIII.
The new Pope was never a well man and suffered greatly from malaria and gallstones. He was considered a stopgap which would give the Castilian and anti-Castilian forces time to electioneer for the next Pope. This led to great speculation and betting in the streets of Rome on how long Gregory would last, which Cardinal would be elected next, and who else might be elevated to Cardinal by the Pope. Disgusted by this, one of Pope Gregory’s first acts was to forbid gambling on any of these three items, though betting for sport would still be allowed.
News reached Rome in the summer that Emperor Wladyslaw had died and the electors had surprisingly agreed upon the Duke Ernst Johann of Kurtland to be the next Emperor-Elect. Like with the papacy, the new elderly Holy Roman Emperor was a stopgap as the German and Non-German, as well as the Catholic and Protestant factions jockeyed for control. This was seen as a positive as the last thing the Papal State could afford was a large scale war against the members of the Holy Roman Empire. Cardinal Belfuno attempted to strengthen relations with Kurtland on behalf of Pope Gregory XIII, but the gift had no effect on improving relations.
Primarily Pope Gregory served the interests of the Castilian party based on his advisor’s recommendations. No longer would the Papal State assist as a police force in northern Italy. Pope Gregory updated Paul III’s papal bull dividing the world between Castile and Portugal which moved the demarcation line in both directions to the east. This recognized the de facto control Castile had over much of South America except for the fringe eastern coast. Inadvertently, Pope Gregory XIII gave the Portuguese a complete sphere of influence in the Far East which could prove to haunt the Castilians later.
In September, less than three months after first being settled, the Imperial Question again came to the forefront when the Duke of Kurtland expired. Meeting in Hannover, the Protestant German electors outvoted their Catholic counterparts and Duke Karl Philip of The Palatinate was selected 3-2 over Stephan of Poland.* Karl Philip was more moderate in religious matters, and immediately reissued the Edict of Tolerance within the Empire.
The next month another change in leadership would occur when Pope Gregory XIII traveled to Abruzzi to witness the opening of a new renovated Church. The Pope suffered yet another bout of the malarial fever from which he would not recover. On October 20, 1590 he died and his body was transported back to the Vatican for burial.**
One week later fifty-eight Cardinals arrived in Rome for the beginning of another stormy conclave. Unlike the one the year before, Cardinal Belfuno’s “recommendations” from the King of Castile were dismissed wholeheartedly from a determined minority of Cardinals preventing the election of any of the Castilian favorites. Castile’s curial control had slipped to the point where they could no longer dictate the direction of the papacy. This group of Cardinals marshaled support for Cardinal Ippolito Aldobrandini a lawyer and diplomat who took the name of his predecessor as a way of being non-political.***
Pope Gregory XIV’s spent the first year of his pontificate reorganizing the Papal State in his image. His first act was to reassign both Leo Erizzo and Cardinal Belfuno away from Rome. Both were too valuable to the Papal State to sack, but too controversial to remain in Rome. Erizzo was transferred to teaching Government and Theocracy to unrepentant Lutherans at the University of Bologna. The Jesuit faculty would ensure Erizzo’s ideas remained fully theoretical.
For Cardinal Belfuno, his task was to simply be Pope Gregory’s successor as Legate to the Imperial Court. The Emperor-Elect’s cold drafty castle would be a perfect location for the Cardinal to work on repairing the reputation of the Papal State. With that complete, Pope Gregory prayed that 1592 would bring even better tidings.
*One vote was cast for the King of Bohemia and one for the new Duke of Kurtland.
** This was four days later than OTL Pope Gregory XIV.
*** In OTL, Cardinal Aldobrandini took the name Clement VIII for much the same reason as it was a non-political decision.
o [/shamless plug] 
