72 JEROME CARDAN. 



Charles V. became Duke of Milan, Sfondrato had 

 been made a member of the secret council. In the 

 year 1541 his wife died, and he was appointed, as we 

 have seen, governor of Sienna. There he remained 

 eighteen months, and obtained from the townspeople a 

 good-will that had not been earned by others in the same 

 position. In the year 1544 he went to Rome and was 

 ordained a bishop; directly afterwards he became arch- 

 bishop and cardinal. When Pope Paul III. died at the 

 end of the year 1549, he was almost elected his successor. 

 He was then fifty-six years old, and he died in the summer 

 following of a weary disease, that some, of course, attributed 

 to poison. He was a big man, tall, frank-looking, fat and 

 rubicund, genial, elegant, joyously disposed, not without 

 wisdom and erudition. In business he was cautious, pru- 

 dent, prompt and successful. He delighted in gambling, 

 and that, too, for large sums. He was passionate and 

 somewhat prejudiced. He believed in fate, and in the 

 Sortes VirgiliancB, of which he testified that he had often 

 found them true. 



In addition to the motives that have been assigned, 

 Cardan had other reasons for retiring from his post at 

 Pavia. He considered that he had attained his end 

 as a professor; he had recalled his mind thoroughly 

 to the 'pursuit of medicine, had written a great body 

 of professional matter, and had obtained fame as a 

 physician. He had also completed the university edu- 



