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

INTRODUCTION. xlv
of the fleet of the infidels, till then considered invincible, was
his work.
The jubilation with which the western world received the
news of the crushing defeat of the dreaded enemy of Christian
civilization, was reflected on the Papacy which was being so
violently challenged and insulted by the religious innovators.^
Great, however, as were the merits of Pius V. with regard to
the repulse of the Turkish danger, and these assure him for
ever a place of honour among the Popes, the real significance
of his pontificate lies in the sphere of affairs within the Church.
Acts of the highest importance, such as the compilation of the
Roman Catechism, the reform of the Breviary and Missal,
and the Congregation of the Index, are indissolubly associated
with his name. But above all, it is as the reformer of ecclesiastical
life that he stands out in majestic grandeur. The
influence which he exercised over his contemporaries in this
direction, both at home and abroad, and on the development
of the Church, has been justly described as immeasurable.
That which the noblest spirits had prayed for and ardently
desired since the close of the Middle Ages, namely, the reform
of the Church in its head and in its members, was accomplished
by him with an iron will and a holy zeal which shrank before
no difficulties. Everywhere, wherever he found it necessary,
he laid his reforming hand, in Germany as in Switzerland, in
France as in Poland, but above all in Rome itself. His decrees
are more numerous and far-reaching even than those of Paul
IV. The Papal court, as well as the whole Curia, was reformed,
the Penitentiary completely transformed, and nepotism swept
away. The College of Cardinals, the episcopate, the secular
clergy, the religious orders both of men and women, and the
laity itself, experienced the zeal with which the aged Pontiff
carried on his work of reformation.
Whoever investigates the reign of Pius V. in the light of the
1 Instances of such insults outside the time of Pius V. in Jannsen
Pastor, VI. 15-16, 45 seq. Cf. also Katholik, 1887, II., 59.
2 Ranke, Papste, I., 234, and Muntz, Hist, de I'Art pendant
la Renaissance, III., 242, Paris, 1805, agree in this opinion.
^