The new Pope Hadrian VI
These two sad events, the death of his friend Raffaello and, above all, that of his wife Ippolita, that occurred in 1520, left a deep wound in Castiglione’s memory, which induced him in the following months to a deep internal reflection, from which emerged the decision to give his life, both private and public, a new beginning. Thus, on 9th June 1521, in the palace of Belvedere near St Peters, he received the minor order of tonsure, which gave him an ecclesiastic status, combining it with militancy for the Church. This new identity reflected a decision which was, as well as spiritual, also political, as Baldassarre had by now matured the awareness that the Pope and the Church were, in Italy, the only authorities capable of dealing as equals with the great European monarchs.
However, at the end of 1521 Pope Leone X died prematurely: for Castiglione it was a bolt out of a clear sky. Nonetheless, he remained in Rome for the funeral ceremonies and for the conclave, which, on the 10th January, elected Adriano VI. Baldassarre waited for the arrival and instatement of the new Pope, but, as time passed, he manifested greater tiredness and dissatisfaction over the sudden change in the equilibrium of life at court. He would have liked to return to Mantua, but the obligations of his profession did not allow it. Between January and May, he participated actively in the secret dealings aimed at redefining the political and military alliances among the various Italian states: he defended the Marquis Federico from the accusations of the pro-French cardinals and, at the same time, guided his actions in defence of his cousin Francesco II Sforza, who was weak and ill.
Adriano VI did not arrive in Rome until August, and Castiglione immediately set about illustrating to him the merits of the Marquis of Mantua and of what he had done to defend the rights of the Church in Romagna. He thus succeeded in obtaining from the Pope a written ratification confirming Federico Gonzaga as Captain General of the Papal Armies.
