We may fairly assume that, in such a crisis as this, the gold of the New Christians had not been spared in Lisbon or in Rome. João evidently felt that the turning-point had come and that some supreme effort must be made to outbid his subjects. He had not been niggardly, on his side, in responding to the urgent calls of his ambassadors for liberality towards the cardinals. Cardinal Farnese, the favorite grandson of Paul III, and the most influential member of the Sacred College, had a pension from him of thirty-two hundred cruzados, assigned in 1544 equally on the sees of Braga and Coimbra to assure its continuance: at a critical moment, in 1545, the arrearages and two years in advance were paid to him, in a lump sum of thirteen thousand cruzados. So little reserve was there in these matters that, after the death of Cardinal Santiquatro, the "protector" of Portugal, João actually suggested the employment of Paul III as his successor, pointing out the large "propinas" that would enure to him from certain provisions as to bishops which the king was soliciting. For these and for the payment to Farnese, he forwarded bills of exchange for thirty-three thousand cruzados. Julius III was as mercenary as his predecessor. In 1551 João, in response to a hint that a present was desirable, sent him a magnificent diamond, valued by the Roman jewellers at a hundred thousand cruzados. Julius was greatly pleased and declared that he would make it an heirloom in his family, but when the next year he intimated that another gift would be acceptable, João, who was dissatisfied with him at the time, refused to respond, saying that when the pope acceded to his demands to make Henrique perpetual legate it would be time to think of giving him something. This brought Julius to terms; in 1553 the appointment was made and in 1554 João sent him a brooch.[712] [Sidenote: _INQUISITION OF PORTUGAL_]