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

122 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
little of his own. As to the first, it is with him a matter of
conscience, while as far as his own is concerned, he uses it for
alms, for the portions of penniless maidens, and for the payment
of the debts which his brother left."^ It is clear how
lavishly Borromeo distributed alms from the fact that at that
time he spent hardly anything on himself, from the revenues
which accrued to him from the archbishopric of Milan. ^ The
Borromeo College in Pavia is a magnificent foundation dating
from his days in Rome, and which he caused to be erected in
1564 by the architect, Pellegrino Pellegrini, to protect poor
students of noble family from the dangers which he had
learned to know in his own student days.^ As a striking
testimony to his benevolence, the table is still preserved in
S. Prassede, at which he served the poor with food.*
Next to Charles Borromeo, Pius IV. greatly valued in the
early days of his reign. Cardinal Morone, who was a man of
^ GiAC. SoRANZO, 133 seq. Cardinal Seripando *writes on
July 28, 1562, to Trent to Paolo Manuzio concerning Borromeo :
" E huomo di frutto et non di fiore, de' fatti et non di parole "
(Library at Montpellier). Bascape also says (p. 66) that Charles
showed a certain want of generosity at first. This struck people
more than was perhaps right, as they had been accustomed since
the time of the Renaissance to see the great nobles scattering gold
and favours with great prodigality (c/. Wymann, 98). A proof
of Borromeo's zeal for study is shown by two tickets, of June 20
and November 29, 1564, which are still in existence, by which
permission is given to him to borrow books from the Vatican
Library, and indeed, in virtue of the second, " volumina etiam
registra nuncupata, et quae forsan, ne adeo omnibus ostenderentur,
magis reservata et custodita essent." Mitteilungen des Osterr.
Instituts, XVIL (1896), 293.
* Bascape, 6-7.
' GuissANO, 22. Concerning the date of the foundation see
San Carlo, 209, concerning the college cf. Natali in Natura ed
arte, February, 1906. The statutes of the Roman Monte di
Pieta, of 1565, can probably be traced to Borromeo. Donato
Tamilia, II sacro monte de pieta di Roma, Rome, 1900.
* Illustration in San Carlo, 69.