Italy lay crushed and prostrate, trampled down by armies, exhausted by impost and exactions, terrorized by brutal violence.

That Charles had come to speak his will and be obeyed was obvious.
To greet the king on his arrival at Genoa, Clement deputed two ambassadors, the Cardinals Ercole Gonzaga and Monsignor Gianmatteo Giberti, Bishop of Verona.

Gonzaga was destined to play a part of critical importance in the Tridentine Council.

Giberti had made himself illustrious in the Church by the administration of his diocese on a system which anticipated the coming ecclesiastical reforms, and was already famous in the world of letters by his generous familiarity with students.[3] Three other men of high distinction and of fateful future waited on their imperial master.

Of these the first was Cardinal Alessandro Farnese, who succeeded Clement in the Papacy, opened the Tridentine Council, and added a new reigning family to the Italian princes.