ices, and provoked the universal hatred
of the Spaniards. Peter Martyr shared the indignation of his adopted
countrymen against the King's Flemish parasites. His sympathies for
the _Comuneros_ were frankly avowed in numerous of his letters.
Consult Hoefler, _Der Aufstand der Castillianischen Staedte_;
Robertson, _Charles V_.]

In 1520, Peter Martyr was appointed historiographer, an office
yielding a revenue of eighty thousand maravedis. The conscientious
discharge of the duties of this congenial post, for which he was
conspicuously fitted, won the approval of Mercurino Gattinara, the
Italian chancellor of Charles V. Lucio Marineo Siculo speaks of Martyr
as far back as December, 1510, as _Consiliarius regius_, though
this title could, at that time, be given him only in his quality of
chronicler of the India Council, his effective membership really
dating from the year 1518. He was later appointed secretary to that
important body, which had control over all questions relating to
colonial expansion in the new world. In 1521 he renewed his efforts to
obtain the abbacy of St. Gratian in Arona, which had been refused him
ten years earlier. To his friend, Giovanni di Forli, Archbishop of
Cosenza, he wrote, protesting his disinterestedness, adding: "Don't be
astonished that I covet this abbey: you know I am drawn to it by love
of my native soil." It was not to be, and his failure to obtain this
benefice was one of the severest disappointments of his life. The
ambitions of Peter Martyr were never excessive, for he was in all
things a man of moderation; the honours he obtained, though many, were
sufficiently modest to protect him from the competition and jealousy
of aspiring rivals, yet he would certainly not have refused a
bishopric. After seeing four royal confessors raised to episcopal
rank, he slyly remarked that, "amongst so many confessors, it would
have been well to have one Martyr."[6]

[Note 6: "Tra tanti confessori, sarebbe stato ancora bene un
Martire," _Chevroeana_, p. 39. Ed. 1697.]

Arriving in Spain a foreign scholar of modest repute, and dependent on
the protection of his patron, the Count of Tendilla, Peter Martyr had
risen in royal favour, until he came to occupy honourable positions in
the State and numerous benefices in the Church. His services to his
protectors were valued and valuable. His house, whereever he happened
for the time to be, was the hospitable meeting-place where statesmen,
noblemen, foreign