So was Cardinal Granvelle.

So were Erasso and Delgado.
His midnight council--junta de noche--for thus, from its original hour of assembling, and the all of secrecy in which it was enwrapped, it was habitually called--was a triumvirate.

Don Juan de Idiaquez was chief secretary of state and of war; the Count de Chinchon was minister for the household, for Italian affairs, and for the kingdom of Aragon; Don Cristoval de Moura, the monarch's chief favourite, was at the head of the finance department, and administered the affairs of Portugal and Castile! The president of the council of Italy, after Granvelle's death, was Quiroga, cardinal of Toledo, and inquisitor-general.

Enormously long letters, in the King's: name, were prepared chiefly by the two secretaries, Idiaquez and Moura.

In their hands was the vast correspondence with Mendoza and Parma, and Olivarez at Rome, and with Mucio; in which all the stratagems for the subjugation of Protestant Europe were slowly and artistically contrived.