To enumerate all the nobles of Spain, Italy and Germany, with the ambassadors from England, France, Scotland, Hungary, Bohemia and Portugal; who swelled the Imperial cortege; to describe the series of ceremonies by which Charles was first consecrated as a deacon, anointed, dressed and undressed, and finally conducted to the Pope for coronation; to narrate the breaking of the bridge at one point, and the squabbles between the Genoese and Sienese delegates for precedence, would be superfluously tedious.  The day was well-nigh over when at length Charles received the Imperial insignia from the Pope’s hands. Accipe gladium sanctum, Accipe virgam, Accipe pomum, Accipe signum gloriae!  As Clement pronounced these sentences, he gave the sword, the scepter, the globe, and the diadem in succession to the Emperor, who knelt before him.  Charles bent and kissed the Papal feet.  He then rose and took his throne beside the Pope.  It was placed two steps lower than that of Clement.  The ceremony of coronation and enthronization being now complete, Charles was proclaimed:  Romanorum Imperator semper augustus, mundi totius Dominus, universis Dominis, universis Principibus et Populis semper venerandus.  When Mass was over, Pope and Emperor shook hands.  At the church-door, Charles held Clement’s stirrup, and when the Pope had mounted, he led his palfrey for some paces, in sign of filial submission.

The month of March was distinguished by the arrival of illustrious visitors.  The Duchess of Savoy, with an escort of eighteen lovely maids of honor, made her pompous entry on the 4th, and took up her quarters in the Palazzo Pepoli.  On the 6th came the Duke of Ferrara, for whom Charles had procured a safe-conduct from the Pope.  During the Emperor’s stay at Bologna, Alfonso d’Este had been assiduous in paying him and his Court small attentions, sending excellent provisions for the household and furnishing the royal table with game and every kind of delicacy.  The settlement of his dispute with the Holy See was the only important business that remained to be transacted.  Charles prevailed upon both Clement and Alfonso to state their cases in writing and to place them in the hands of jurisconsults, to report upon.  There is little doubt that his own mind was already made up in favor of the duke; but he did not pass sentence until the following December, nor was the decision published before April in the year 1531.  The substance of the final agreement was as follows.  Modena, Reggio and Rubbiera were declared fiefs of the Empire, seeing that they had not been included in Pepin’s gift of the Exarchate.  Charles confirmed their investiture to Alfonso, in return for a considerable payment to the Imperial Chancery.  He had previously conferred the town of Carpi, forfeited by Alberto Pio as a French adherent, on the Duke.  Ferrara remained a fief of the Church, and Clement consented to acknowledge Alfonso’s tenure, upon his disbursement of 100,000 ducats.  This decision saved Modena to the bastard line of Este, when Pope Clement VIII. seized Ferrara as a lapsed fief in 1598.  In the sixty-seven years which passed between the date of Charles’s coronation and the extinction of the duchy, Ferrara enjoyed the fame of the most brilliant Court in Italy, and shone with the luster conferred on it by men like Tasso and Guarini.