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

INTRODUCTION.
The restoration of ecclesiastical life in the XVIth century-
arose, as it had done in the days of Gregory VII., from within
the Church herself, but with this difference, that the first
incentive thereto was not given by the Holy See and the hier-
archy, as had been the case in the Xlth century, but by various
individuals inspired by God. These, clinging fast to the
precious treasure of the old faith, and firmly maintaining
obedience to lawful ecclesiastical authority, worked, with
burning zeal and unwearying diligence, first for their own
sanctification, and only afterwards for the radical reform of
their contemporaries. It is true that their endeavours for
reform could only take firm root and permeate the whole
Church when the Apostolic See took them in hand, and this
turn of affairs, made possible by the agency of the great Popes
of the houses of Farnese and Carafa, took place under the
fourth and fifth Pius.
The foundation of a Catholic reformation was laid by the
Council of Trent, which also pronounced so clearly in matters
of dogma. The completion of the Council was the work of
Pius IV., who, in spite of the greatest difficulties, succeeded
in once more opening this general assembly of the Church, on
which, in the midst of the great apostasy from Rome, all the
hopes of the faithful were fixed. ^ With unwearied patience
the Pope held fast to the Council, and steered it with the
greatest sagacity through renewed troubles both from within
and without, until he was at last able to bring it to a happy
conclusion. A clever and sagacious man, he again limited the
Inquisition to its proper sphere, and at once renewed the
^ Cf. the pamphlet composed under Pius IV. *De consolatione
ecclesiae, in the Graziani Archives at Citta di Castello, Istruzioni I.,
I02.
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