Outside the Vatican very diverse opinions were entertained of Him. His long connection with King Don Alonso I. caused anxiety, suspicion, and jealousy, among the Powers of Italy. They were always disgusted, those Powers, to find the Pope on easy terms with a temporal sovereign, with one of themselves; and the Magnanimous King Don Alonso was the next-door neighbour, so to speak, of the Lord Calixtus P.P. III. Such a combination inevitably inspired distrust. The fear was expressed that Naples, through his former secretary, would rule the Holy See—and Christendom. The official despatches of the Orators of Florence, Genoa, and Venice, hypocritically displayed the greatest satisfaction: but their private letters were in a diametrically opposing strain. A great grievance was made of the fact that the new Pope was a Spaniard and a foreigner. Some thought that a handful of discontented cardinals should leave Rome, set up a pseudopontiff in another city, and inaugurate a Fortieth Schism. Oh, people knew one another to be properly cantankerous in the fifteenth century! But Rome considered the Lord Calixtus P.P. III a just and right-minded man. The Procurator-General of the Order of Teutonic Knights wrote to the Grand Master on the third of May 1455: “The new Pope is an old man, of honourable and virtuous life, and of excellent repute.” Messer Bartolomeo Michele, a Sienese, wrote to his native city, exhorting the Sienesi to send the most splendid possible embassage to congratulate the Pope, selecting for the same only eminent and worthy men, inasmuch as that the Lord Calixtus P.P. III was excessively learned and clear-sighted: “He is a man of great sanctity and learning, a friend and adherent of King Don Alonso. He has always shown Himself well-disposed to our city, and by nature He is peaceable and kindly.” But the best appreciation of all is given by St. Antonino, that gentle, brave Archbishop of Florence, whose quality all the world admires and loves. He wrote to Messer Giovanni of Orvieto, the 24th of April 1455.