the way in which he had taken the wind out of the sail of the wily Inquisitors, invited the distinguished scholar to His Court, where He named him Apostolic scribe, with magnificent appointments. On the death of that Pontiff, Messer Lorenzo’s sometime colleague, the Lord Calixtus P.P. III made him Pontifical Secretary, and dignified him with several canonries including one at St. John _in Laterano_, the cathedral-church of Rome. So fifteenth century tact and mental limberness made a friend, where nineteenth century arrogant stupidity made a host of scornful foes. * * * * * The first year of the pontificate of the Lord Calixtus P.P. III was occupied by audiences granted to Orators offering the homage of the Powers, and by preparations for the Crusade. Germany deserved and enjoyed high consideration, because the ruler of Germany held the title of _Romanorum Imperator Caesar Semper Augustus Mundi Totius Dominus Universis Principibus et Populis Semper Venerandus_; and an understanding between Pope and Emperor, a friendship between Peter and Caesar, was desirable for the peace and prosperity of Christendom. This friendship, however, was subject to frequent breaches. Both Papacy and Empire were exceedingly tenacious of their dignity, willing to consider themselves aggrieved, or their rights in danger of encroachment. Each, in fact, was a power of dimensions so gigantic that intermittent paroxysms of megalomania were the order of the day. The violence of these attacks was allayed, from time to time, by cooling lotions in the shape of concessions. There had been a serious relapse not many years before, which temporarily had been retrieved by a treaty, known as the Concordat of the Lord Eugenius P.P. IV.