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

INTRODUCTION. xivii
while he was also capable of making his will and his position
effective even in the case of his most faithful and best fellow
workers in the cause of reform and renewal. When the
legislation of the Jesuits did not appear to him quite to coincide
with that of St. Thomas, he at once took decisive steps and
changed what his predecessors had allowed. The Capuchin,
Pistoja, who was in other respects highly esteemed by the
Pope, must have had a painful surprise when he ventured to
submit a memorandum concerning matters with which he had
nothing to do.^ Free from every trace of favouritism for
persons or institutions, and free from passing moods or un-
regulated passions, Pius V. weighed all questions solely in
accordance with ecclesiastical doctrine and canon law. In all
his actions he stood out as the embodiment of the Catholic
spirit ; he devoted the revenues of the Apostolic See, which
so many of the Renaissance Popes had used for the enrichment
of their relatives or for the prosecution of worldly aims,
exclusively to the defence of the ancient faith. His reign was
in all respects a contrast to the outwardly brilliant but worldly
period of the Rovere, Borgia and Medici Popes. This saintly
Pontiff, by his simple and ascetic life, made expiation, as it
were, for all those points in which his predecessors had been
found wanting.
Peter Canisius has justly described it as a special dis-
pensation of Divine Providence that in Pius V. a man was sent
to the assistance of the Church, who with holy assiduity
entered the lists on behalf of the faith, and sought the reno-
vation of Christendom with burning zeal.^ As a Pontiff whose
whole thoughts and aspirations were fixed far beyond earthly
interests, on the imperishable blessings of eternity, he begins
that line of pious and able Popes, worthy of all reverence, who
^ He suspended him from saying mass and preaching, " non
li parendo conveniente, che questi ch'hanno cura delle cose
spirituali, vogliono ancora governare le temporali." *Avviso
di Roma, June 14, 1570, Urb. 1041, p. 290b, Vatican Library.
2 See Canisii Epist., V., 197. Cf. Braunsberger, Pius V.,
32, Freiburg, 1012.