The condition of the country improved as the year 1496 expanded. An ill-advised attempt of the Elect-Emperor Maximilian to revive the waning Imperial power by a progress through the Italian realms, was averted by the opposition of Venice and the remonstrances of the Sovereign Pontiff. The Elect-Emperor having withdrawn into the Tyrol, the Lord Alexander P.P. VI was free to deal with the Pontifical States. The Regno flourished under the young King Don Ferrandino II, and the French occupation was becoming a thing of the past. Only the rebellious vassals of the Holy See remained; and, of these, Colonna and Savelli appear to have made their submission; but the Orsini were still in arms, and Malatesta, Riario, Manfredi, and Sforza, were fortified at Cesena, Imola and Forli, Faenza and Pesaro. * * * * * At the Fifth Consistory of the nineteenth of February 1496, the Lord Alexander P.P. VI named four Spanish cardinals, who were (α) The Lord Don Bartolomeo Martino, Bishop of Segovia; Cardinal-Presbyter of the Title of Sant’ Agata _in Suburra_: (β) The Lord Don Juan de Castro, Prefect of Santangelo, Bishop of Girgenti, (Άκραγαντῖνος) in Sicily; Cardinal-Presbyter of the Title of Santa Prisca: (γ) The Lord Don Juan Lopez, Canon of the Vatican Basilica, Apostolic Datary; Cardinal-Presbyter of the Title of Santa Maria _in Trastevere, tit. Callisto_: (δ) The Lord Giovanni Borgia (detto Giuniore), a Pontifical Nephew, Bishop of Melfi; Cardinal-Presbyter of the Title of Santa Maria _in Via Lata_. * * * * *