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3. Jane Lebak will participate in this discussion. If you have any questions to her, you can ask them in this thread.

I have two questions, Jane.

Cardinal Ludovico Simonetta is portrayed in the novel as a manipulator who twists his reports to the Pope to make bishops in favor of reform appear as heretics, so as to induce the Pope to order their "execution."

1. Do you have information that suggests that Simonetta was this kind of man, or is his behavior purely fictitious?

2. Was there any real case where Pope Pius IV actually ordered the "execution" of a heretic without a previous trial, or is this also fictitious?

Manuel wrote: "I have two questions, Jane.

1. Do you have information that suggests that Simonetta was this kind of man, or is his behavior purely fictitious?

This is, unfortunately, exactly how he's described in Trent: What Happened at the Council." Page 174: Simonetta "was the legate whom Pius came most to trust and whose reports from Trent he gave the most credence. Those reports, kept secret from the other legates, were highly critical of Gonzaga and Seripando and undermined their authority in Rome." The book later refers to them as poison pen letters.

When I started working on the book, I had very little knowledge about the circumstances that led to the Reformation, so the research was like a bucket of cold water to the face. I tried to keep the historical figures' personalities as true to what I read about them as possible. On the plus side, that means Morone and Seripando were just as amazing and too-good-to-be-true as I wrote them, if not moreso.

2. Was there any real case where Pope Pius IV actually ordered the "execution" of a heretic without a previous trial, or is this also fictitious? That I believe I did make up. Pius IV had some issues and was engaged in wholesale manipulation of the way the third session of the unfolded, but I don't believe he is recorded as ordering anyone executed. Removed, sent home, undermined--all that was documented.