Benevento from 22 November 1556, until a new Archbishop was approved by Paul IV on 14 January 1558. All of these appointments should be considered as opportunities for financial enrichment, not opportunities for service in vineyards of the Lord far from Rome. The various administrations were carried out by authorized agents. In 1564, Alessandro Farnese succeeded his brother Ranuccio as Abbot Commendatory of the Monastery of Farfa, which he held until his death in 1589. It was he who introduced the Benedictine monks of the Congregation of Monte Cassino into the monastery in 1567. He also built, or rebuilt, the monastery's water supply. Diplomatic activity Farnese also became a Papal Legate, arranging peace between the perpetually warring Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor and Francis I of France. In the Consistory of 24 November 1539 he was sent as Apostolic Legatus a latere to attempt to arrange a peace between the two feuding monarchs. He left Rome on 29 November and made his solemn entry into Paris on 31 December. He was in Rouen on 14 January 1540, and had a solemn meeting with the King on 14 February. He then left for Flanders on 17 February for a meeting with the Emperor; he stayed for three months, and returned to Paris on 14 May. He had a meeting with King Francis on the 17th at Saint-Germain-en-Laye. He returned to Rome on 5 June 1540. Cardinal Farnese was named Legatus a latere again, and for the same purpose, at the Consistory of 21 November 1543. He arrived at Fontainebleau on 29 December 1543 and remained until 6 January 1544, when he departed for Bruxelles to visit the Emperor. He arrived on 14 January, and was back in France by 4 February. He returned to Rome on 1 March 1544. In 1546, he accompanied the troops sent by the pope to the aid of Charles V against the Schmalkaldic League. In 1548, Cardinal Alessandro Farnese took into his service as his private secretary Annibale Caro, the noted poet and prose stylist. Caro had previously been in the service of Cardinal Alessandro's father, Pierluigi Farnese, and after his murder on 10 September 1547, to Duke Ottavio Farnese, and then to Cardinal Ranuccio Farnese, his own younger brother. In 1551, Cardinal Alessandro was sent by Pope Julius III to convince his brother Ottavio, the Duke of Parma and Piacenza, to surrender those territories, which,