At the beginning of 1458, György Podiebrad renounced the Hussite heresy on his election to the throne of Bohemia. King György made no difficulty about swearing allegiance to the Holy See; and he also promised to take the cross of the Crusade. Considering that his dominions immediately were menaced by the Infidel, his policy would appear to have been dictated by reasons of state rather than by religious zeal. The Holiness of the Pope was consoled by this accession to the thinned ranks of His allies. He hoped that the example of King György would be of good effect to the Bohemian heretics; for spiritual matters are not uninteresting to a Roman Pontiff. It seemed that the occasion might be used to bring the powers into line; and He summoned a congress to meet in Rome, whose object was the Unity of Christendom. Pious men have pursued that object ever since—the religious unity. In the days of the Lord Calixtus P.P. III, political unity was the aim desired, and striven-for again, in vain. * * * * * After the Crusade, the work nearest to the Pope’s heart was the promotion of His nephews’ interests. Why He should never have done anything for His own most charming son remains a historical mystery. The elevation to the cardinalate of Don Luis Juan de Mila y Borja, and of Don Rodrigo de Lançol y Borja, already has been recorded. There was a younger brother of Cardinal Rodrigo, younger by a year and a half, Don Pedro Luis de Lançol y Borja, a gorgeously beautiful sneak and coward, to whom the Pope extended the envious admiration that feeble age must feel for youth and strength; and for whom nothing had been done. The Lord Calixtus P.P. III, though quite independent of the good opinion of the Sacred College, did not cause a second storm by raising this young man, also, to the purple. He himself preferred a secular career; and it was thought that the hot blood of Borja suited him to cut a military figure. On that account, his Uncle, in the capacity of an Italian despot, named him Duke of Spoleto, Gonfaloniere of the Holy Roman Church, Castellan of all pontifical fortresses, and Governor of the cities of Terni, Narni, Todi, Rieti, Orvieto, Spoleto, Foligno, Nocera, Assisi, Amelia, Civita Castellana, Nepi, and of the Patrimony of St. Peter in Tuscany,—an extravagance of generosity which is justifiable solely on the score of goodwill towards His family, which, after long years, an octogenarian was able to put into effect. Of course there arose the usual uproar of protest from the Sacred College, led by the Lord Domenico Capranica, Cardinal-Presbyter of the Title of Santa Croce _in Gerusalemme_; and something akin to a riot among the citizens of Rome, who always hated foreigners, and especially Catalans. For the idea had got abroad in Spain that in Rome preferment awaited Spaniards, and thither they flocked to receive the good gifts which, they imagined, a Spanish Pope would have in store.