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

REFORM DECREES MODIFIED. 359
cils and canons were merely renewed, the anathemas being
replaced by paternal admonitions.^ With regard to the
questions of dogma which were still in arrears, such as the
doctrines of Purgatory, indulgences, the invocation of the
saints, and the veneration of their images and relics, it was
only necessary to gather together all that had been decided
in former Councils, in such a way as to remove abuses, but
without entering upon discussions. On account of the general
feeling of weariness even the envoys of the princes agreed
to this procedure.^
The decisions arrived at on November 13th were laid by
Morone before the General Congregation two days later,
and the remaining fourteen chapters of the reform decree
were then discussed. As the last one, that on the reform
of the princes, had been given a very mild and elastic form,
it was necessary that ecclesiastical reform should be modified
as well.^
The discussions upon this lasted from November 15th
to the i8th, on which date the six other reform chapters
1 SusTA, IV., 326 seq.
2 See Paleotto in Theiner, II., 675 seq. ; MEND09A, 711 seq. ;
Pallavicini, 24, 2, 3 ; Baguenault de Puchesse, 384 ; Susta,
IV., 385 seq.
3" That the reform of the laity should thus have failed," such
is the verdict of Sagmuller (Papstwahlbullen, 181), " cannot
be imputed to Pius IV. We should rather recognize in it his
great prudence and his practical grasp of the whole state of
affairs at that time. Nor can it be regarded as so great a mistake
that the reform of the Curia turned out to be milder than was
somewhat unwisely desired in certain quarters, for, in the great
uplifting of the Catholic Church which followed upon the Council
of Trent, Rome maintained her position as the leader in this
matter. And if, in the failure of the reform of the laity, no
decision was arrived at in the matter of the interference of the
princes in the Papal elections, and consequently there was no
express prohibition of such a thing, yet this had already been
provided against in another way, namely in Par. 26 of the bull In
eligendis." (October 9, 1562).