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

INTRODUCTION. xH
nephew and Secretary of State, Charles Borromeo, stood at his
side as his assistant and adviser, a man who, Hke Gaetano di
Tiene, Ignatius Loyola and Philip Neri, embodied the spirit
of Catholic reformation in its purest form.
The carrying out of the decrees of the Council and the
abolition of the manifold abuses which had taken such deep
root during the period of the Renaissance naturally could not
be the work of a single pontificate. It was therefore of the
utmost importance that the right man, in the person of Pius
V. (1566—1572), should have ascended the throne of St. Peter
to carry into effect the reform plan of the Council of Trent,
and to awaken new life in every part of Catholic Christendom.
In his person the Papacy became the representative and the
director of the Catholic reformation. This son of St. Dominic,
a man who was on fire with consuming zeal for the purity of the
faith, and of morals, and one who was absolutely unyielding
when ecclesiastical affairs and the rights of the Church were
in question, knew neither fear nor consideration for worldly
interests. Without the faults and weaknesses of Paul IV.,
he yet saw eye to eye with him in so man}^ matters that his
adherents in Rome could joyfuUy proclaim that the Theatine
Pope had risen again. ^ Their jubilation was well founded.
Like Paul IV., who with iron hand had demolished deeply
rooted, inveterate, and apparently ineradicable abuses, Pius
V. courageously took up the difficult task of reformx, and fear-
lessly devoted to it all his powers and all his holy zeal.
The spiritual affinity with Paul IV., whom Pius V. venerated
in many respects as a father, ^ shows itself in no smaU degree
in the manner in which he fulfilled his task of guarding the
treasure of faith in the Church and of protecting her against
the assaults of the religious innovators. The means he
employed in so doing were entirely in keeping with the char-
acter of a time when force and compulsion were used to
subdue spiritual revolt, the strongest measures seeming all
^ Santori, Autobiografia, XIII,, 379.
2 See the letter to King Sebastian of Portugal of October 27,
1567, in Laderchi, Annales eccl., 1567, n. 17.