not tire. He
preferred the surest, even though the slowest, means to attain his
object. He was not ambitious of effect; he never sought to startle by a
brilliant _coup-de-main_. He would not have compromised a single chance
in his own favor by appealing to the issue of a battle. He looked
steadily to the end, and he moved surely towards it by a system of
operations planned with the nicest forecast. The result of these
operations was almost always success. Few great commanders have been
more uniformly successful in their campaigns. Yet it was rare that these
campaigns were marked by what is so dazzling to the imagination of the
young aspirant for glory,--a great and decisive victory.--Such were some
of the more obvious traits in the military character of the chief to
whom Philip, at this crisis, confided the post of viceroy of
Naples.[143]

Before commencing hostilities against the Church, the Spanish monarch
determined to ease his conscience, by obtaining, if possible, a warrant
for his proceedings from the Church itself. He assembled a body composed
of theologians from Salamanca, Alcala, Valladolid, and some other
places, and of jurists from his several councils, to resolve certain
queries which he propounded. Among the rest, he inquired whether, in
case of a defensive war with the pope, it would not be lawful to
sequestrate the revenues of those persons, natives or foreigners, who
had benefices in Spain, but who refused obedience to the orders of its
sovereign;--whether he might not lay an embargo on all revenues of the
Church, and prohibit any remittance of moneys to Rome;--whether a
council might not be convoked to determine the validity of Paul's
election, which, in some particulars, was supposed to have been
irregular;--whether inquiry might not be made into the gross abuses of
ecclesiastical patronage by the Roman see, and effectual measures taken
to redress them. The suggestion of an ecclesiastical council was a
menace that grated unpleasantly on the pontifical ear, and was used by
European princes as a sort of counterblast to the threat of
excommunication. The particular objects for which this council was to be
summoned were not of a kind to soothe the irritable nerves of his
holiness. The conclave of theologians and jurists made as favorable
responses as the king had anticipated to his several interrogatories;
and Philip, under so respectable a sanction, sent orders to his viceroy
to take effectual measures f