After three quiet years passed in retirement in France (1550–1553), the Cardinal was charged with a new mission to Pope Julius III. In Rome he discovered that the Imperialists were in control everywhere, and he was shocked when, on 11 December 1553, Cardinal Carafa was given the See of Ostia and the office of Dean of the College of Cardinals, which Du Bellay believed ought to have been his. He complained in a letter of 22 December 1553 to the Constable de Montmorency.