RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Pius II-V1
policy had been passionately hostile to Spain, he turned toward the Austro-Spanish house. By nature he was the counterpart to that somber man who had reorganized the inquisition at Rome, perceiving therein the best instrument of his domination. Pius IV was affable, benevolent, and of simple manners. Yet it was his lot, soon after his ascension to the throne, to inflict the extreme penalty of the law upon the two nephews of his predecessor. One of them, the duke of Paliano, besides other deeds of violence, had caused thirty vassals of the hostile Colonna family to be imprisoned, and atrociously made away with his wife's paramour, as well as herself. The evidence against him inculpated in like degree his brother, Cardinal Caraffa. When the trial proceedings had lasted eight months, the pope himself gave the decision, in a sealed order at the final session, imposing the death sentence upon both, which was carried out Mar. 6, 1561. Under Pius V., however, the trial was reviewed, the stigma upon the two brothers was removed, and the promoter of the trial was himself condemned to death.
Nepotism in the Curia was radically abolished by Pius IV., who contrived to extract large sums of money from the States of the Church and from the ecclesiastical administration, and allotted considerable amounts to his adherents, though he never yielded to them special influence in State or Church. His weightiest concern was the reopening of the Council of Trent (q.v.), the result of which was no less gratifying to the Curia than it was disappointing to Emperor Ferdinand. For even though the emperor refused to acknowledge its decrees, and though not until later, and subject to the guaranteed rights of his crown, were these decrees acknowledged by King Philip II., while the French parliament assumed an expectant stand, yet during the council and by virtue of it, Pius IV removed all dangers that threatened the papal absolutism within the Church. When, in 1564, he solemnly published the council's decrees and imposed upon the bishops the Professio fidei Tridentince (see Tridentine Profession of Faith) as a matter of obligation, he could do so in the consciousness that the papal theory had now conquered effectually. Hence the contingency of apostasy without was indemnified within the Church by a centralization of ecclesiastical economy such as laid all the lines of administration, jurisdiction, and doctrinal finality in the sole hands of the pope.
Destiny placed Pius IV between two popes who stand as the most impassioned persecutors of heretics in that century, Paul IV and Pius V For he is not the equal of these in furtherance of the inquisition and in persecution of heretics. Yet where opportunity offered, he showed himself ready for that object; and it was he who facilitated the conflict in the literary arena by devising the expedient of the Index librorum prohibitorum, so named by him in 1564. K. Benrath.
Bibliography. Onuphrius Panvinius, De summis pontificibus continuatio, Bonona, 1599; Ranke, Popes, i. 241 sqq., iii. nos. 31-40; M. Brosch, Geschichte des Kirchenstaates, vol. i., Gotha, 1880; F. H. Reuseh, Index der verboten Bilcher, passim Bonn, 1885; Bower, Popes, iii. 319- 320; and the literature under Thent, Council of.
Pius V. (Michele Ghislieri): Pope 1566-72. He was born at Bosco near Alessandria (48 m. e.s.e. of Turin), and both as cardinal and as pope conceived his main task to be the detection and annihilation of heresy. He belonged to the Dominican order, to which this activity was particularly committed. After some earlier inquisitorial service about Milan, he was drawn to Rome by Caraffa in 1550 (see Paul IV.), who conferred on him the cardinalate and appointed him director of the Roman inquisition. He owed his election as pope (Jan. 8, 1566) to Cardinal Borromeo and other exponents of the very strictest trend in the sacred college. The Roman populace felt due fear on hearing that " Fra, Michele dell' Inquisizione " had ascended the papal throne. In fact, no pope applied so indefatigably every agency for annihilating the heretics. Both in and out of Italy, he was incessantly exhorting or threatening governments to make them accommodating to this end. And the consequence was favorable to him, especially in the Italian peninsula. During the six years of his pontificate, Protestantism in Italy was deprived of its last vestige of strength; its prominent advocates being either killed or driven away (see Italy, Reformation in). In France, Catherine de' Medici and Charles IX. were at his command. He fortified the Spanish king in his measures against the Netherlands, and sent to the duke of Alva the consecrated hat and sword.
Yet according to Roman Catholic apprehension, this foe of " heretics " was a very pious man, and in Rome he insisted on the most stringent ecclesiastical discipline, imposing heavy penalties for desecration of festival days. No physician was to continue treating a patient critically ill, unless that patient's certificate of confession be produced on the third day for inspection. Whoever, among the higher clergy, combined an ascetic life with strictness toward the nether clergy, was regarded as the right man, as in the case of Carlo Borromeo.
Toward the close of his labors he was destined also to achieve a notable suecess in statecraft. Like so many of his predecessors, he headed an action against the Turks, which Venice and Spain assisted with their naval forces, and the work was crowned by the brilliant victory of Lepanto (Oct. 7, 1571).
Pius V died on May 1, 1572, and was canonized by Clement XL K. Benrath.
Bibliography. G. G. Catena, Vita del Papa Pio V.,
Rome, 1587; Ranke, Popes, i. 269 sqq., iii., no. 43; J. Quetif and J. 6chard, Scriptores ordinis Prasdicatorum, ii. 220, Paris, 1721; J. Mendham, Life and Pontificate of . . Pius V., London, 1832; A. F. P. Comte de Filioux, Hist, de . . Pie V., 2 vols., Angers, 1844; T. M. Granallo, Fra Michele Ghislieri, o San Pio V '., Bologna, 1877; F. H. Reuseh, Index der verbotenen Bilcher, Bonn, 1885; C. A. Joyau, Saint Pie V '., pape du rosaire, Poitiers, 1892; P. A. Faroehan, Cheypre et Lefante, St. Pie V. et Don Juan d'Autriche, Paris, 1894 (profusely illustrated); TJ. Papa, Un Dissidio tra Venezia e Pio V.. Venice, 1895; B. A. H. Wilberforce, St. Pius V ., London, 1896; Bower, Popes, iii. 320, 484-489; Pastor, Popes, viii. 432 sqq.
Pius VI. (Giovanni Angelo Braschi) : Pope 1775- 1799. He was born at Cesena (57 m. n.e. of Florence) Dec. 27, 1717. After a course in jurisprudence, he entered the clerical vocation, and in 1740 went to Rome with his uncle, auditor to Cardinal Ruffo. Years later, he reappears as secretary to
Pius VI- VII