In the spring of 1547, as matters seemed to approach a settlement, the necessary briefs were successively drafted. One of May 11th granted a general pardon for past offences; all prisoners were to be released, all confiscations returned, all disabilities removed, and reincidence was not to incur the penalty of relapse. One of July 1st addressed to Cardinal Henrique announced to him that the pope had granted the Inquisition, with full powers of procedure. One of July 5th, to João informed him that the bearer, Cav. Giovanni Ugolino (a nephew of the late Cardinal Santiquatro) carried the bull for the Inquisition and exhorted him to see that the inquisitors exercised their powers with moderation. Ugolino was also empowered to take possession for Farnese of the see of Viseu and the other benefices of Silva, and to collect the arrears of revenue for the fabric of St. Peter's. There were two briefs of July 15th, one appointing Farnese administrator for life of the see and the benefices; the other withdrew and annulled all the letters of exemption from the Inquisition which the New Christians had been for so many years purchasing at heavy cost. Finally, under date of July 16th, came the long sought-for bull, _Meditatio cordis,_ instituting for Portugal a free and untrammelled Inquisition. It declared that the pope, desiring the rigorous punishment of the atrocious crime of heresy, revoked all previous limitations on its powers, and conferred on it all faculties at any time granted to inquisitors. To render effective the withdrawal of the letters of exemption, it evoked to the pope all cases pending before other judges than Cardinal Henrique, and committed them to him and his deputies with full powers. That Paul did not, without some qualms of conscience, thus abandon the New Christians who had contributed so liberally to the curia, is suggested by a subsequent brief of November 15th, in which he told the king that, as he had granted to Portugal a free Inquisition, he earnestly exhorted him to see that the inquisitors acted with charity and not with judicial severity, in consideration of the weakness of the neophytes, for this would be most gratifying to him.[715]