The history of the popes, from the close of the middle ages : drawn ...

I08 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
religious duties most conscientiously and kept himself pure
and unstained in the licentious university city.
The distinguishing quahty of the future reformer, his
unusual talent for government and administration, was very
obvious even during these years of study. In Pavia he had
to manage his household and superintend his servants,^ and he
performed this duty with the greatest skill, in spite of many
difficulties, and a constant want of money. ^ During the vaca-
tions and the intervals in his studies, with his father's consent,
he looked after the family estates,^ and after the death of
the latter in 1558, his elder brother, Federigo, was quite willing
that Charles should undertake the management of the family
and their father's fortune into his already experienced hands.*
In accordance with the evil custom of the times, he had
already, when a child, been appointed abbot in commendam
of a Benedictine abbey, but the revenue from this he devoted,
for the most part, and vv^ith his father s consent, to the poor.^
He also endeavoured successfully to reform the monks, and
when friendly measures did not avail, he made it his business to
see that recourse was had to the punishment of imprisonment.^
Many other offices were soon bestowed on Charles by Pius
IV. in addition to those he already held. The Pope appointed
him Protector of Portugal, Lower Germany and the seven
Catholic cantons of Switzerland, as well as Protector of the
Franciscans, Carmelites, Humiliati, the Canons Regular of the
Holy Cross at Coimbra, and of the orders of St. John and of
Christ in Portugal. '^ The revenues from these dignities, and
^ Sylvain, I., 25. ^ Ibid., 22 seqq. ^ Ibid., 28, 31.
* Rerum familiarium summa propter prudentiam morumque
gravitatem ad eius iudicium rediit. Bascape, 4-5.
^ BASCAPfe, 4a.
* Ibid., 5b :
alios victus asperitate, alios arcta custodia punivit
at in officio continuit, quamquam nullo eias generis tunc proposito
exemplo.
' Bascap£;, 1 3D. He became Protector of the Humiliati on
February 13, 1560, (Sala, Dissertazioni, 414). The brief ap-
pointing him Protector of Switzerland on March 12, 1560, in
Raynaldus, 1560, n. 95. Cf. Wymann, 85.