Pole was at this time at Padua, where he had studied, and where he was resident by permission of the king. He avoided going to Rome lest he should offend Henry. But he received one day an invitation from Paul III., who summoned him to the Vatican to take part in a consultation about the general council. To comply with this summons would be to pass the Rubicon; it would make Henry VIII. his irreconcilable enemy, and would expose to great danger not only himself but all his family. Pole therefore hesitated. The advice, however, of the pious Contarini, the command of the pope, and his own enthusiasm for the cause, brought him to a decision. On his arrival at Rome he gave himself up entirely; and when Christmas was drawing near, on December 20, 1536, the pope created him cardinal, together with del Monte, afterwards Julius III.; Caraffa, afterwards Paul IV.; Sadoleto, Borgia, Cajetan, and four others.[231] These proceedings were very seriously criticised in England. For the vain glory of a red hat,[232] said Tonstall and Stokesley, Pole is, in fact, an instrument of the pope to set forth his malice, to depose the king from his kingdom, and to stir his subjects against him. There was, however, something more in his case than a cardinal's hat; there was, we must acknowledge, a faith doubtless fanatical but sincere in the papacy. Not long afterwards the pope nominated him the new cardinal legate beyond the Alps; the object of this measure being _per dar fermento_,[233] to excite men's minds. He was to induce the king of France and the emperor to enter into the views of the Roman court, to inflame the Catholics of England, and, if he should be unable to go there himself, to take up his residence in the Netherlands, and thence conspire for the ruin of Protestantism in England. [Sidenote: POLE DECLARED A REBEL.]