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SIXTHS V. 



tendent of the Franciscan schuol, and in 1557, in- 

 quisitor-general. He discharged these offices with 

 great strictness, and not without some danger; for 

 the abhorrence in which the Venetians held the 

 inquisition compelled him several times to flee from 

 the city. In 1500, he gladly returned to Rome, 

 where the pope made him a counsellor of the holy 

 office (the inquisition), and professor in the univer- 

 sity; and his order, at the suggestion of Capri, 

 chose him their procurator-general. He attended 

 the papal legate to Spain, in 1565, as the theologian 

 of the embassy. Here he became acquainted with 

 the policy of the Spanish court, and, by his sermons, 

 obtained the esteem of Philip II. and his nobles. 

 The cardinal of Alessandria being made pope, in 

 1566, under the name of Pius V, elevated his old 

 friend Peretti to the rank of vicar-general of the 

 Franciscans, bishop of St Agata de" Goti, and father 

 confessor to the pope. Peretti now laboured to 

 repress the disorders which had arisen among the 

 Franciscans, and to improve by pastoral letters the 

 morals of the clergy of his diocese, which he never 

 visited but once: moreover, he generously pardoned 

 his former enemies. In 1570, he was made a car- 

 dinal, and assumed the name of Montalto, because 

 cardinals of low birth are accustomed to exchange 

 their family name for the name of their native 

 place. Well acquainted with the policy of his col- 

 leagues, he believed the surest way to gain the 

 triple crown the great object of his ambition 

 was to pursue a course of conduct which should 

 not awaken the jealousy of the other cardinals. 

 Till then, violent, ambitious, active, and strong in 

 body, he seemed to have adopted with the purple 

 all the opposite qualities. His influence over Pius 

 V. he used with moderation, and after his death, 

 avoided connecting himself with any party in the 

 conclave. Under Gregory XIII. he withdrew al- 

 most wholly from the court, and took part, as he 

 pretended, very reluctantly in the improvement of 

 the calendar, and the important political negotia- 

 tions with Russia and England, in which his wisdom 

 and experience could not be dispensed with. He 

 treated every one with kindness and affability, and 

 suffered injuries without seeking for revenge. In- 

 stead of permitting his poor relations to reap much 

 advantage from his advancement, he expended his 

 income (which was, indeed, rather small) in pious 

 establishments, acts of benevolence, and literary 

 enterprises, erected new monuments to forgotten 

 saints, fed the poor, superintended an edition of the 

 works of St Ambrose, and presented the appearance 

 of a sick and broken-down old man, who loved, 

 above all things else, tranquillity and devotion. 

 But, in the confessor's chair, where the licentious 

 nobles confided to him their secrets, and by means 

 of the members of his household, he secretly col- 

 lected a fund of accurate information in regard to 

 the views and characters of the most distinguished 

 Romans; and, under the mask of pious simplicity 

 and feeble old age, prepared himself for that high 

 destiny for which he was born. He had deceived 

 all about him as to his true character; and on the 

 death of Gregory XIII., in 1585, the majority of the 

 cardinals were convinced that a pope like Montalto 

 would be most easily managed. In consequence of 

 this opinion, he was chosen to the popedom almost 

 unanimously, and took the title of Sixtus V. As 

 soon as he was sure of his election, he threw down, 

 in the electoral chapel, the staff on which he had 

 hitherto leaned, and came forward, to the astonish- 

 ment of all, with a dignity and firmness indicative 



of that independence of spirit which he maintained 

 during his five years' administration. At the very 

 beginning of his reign, he showed the Romans, by 

 the speedy execution of several criminals, how he 

 intended to exercise justice, which had slept under 

 his predecessors. Offences against the public peace 

 or safety he punished generally with death, regard- 

 less of all intercession. He removed unfaithful 

 judges, freed the States of the Church from robbers, 

 and laboured energetically to restore the public 

 tranquillity. But he was a terror only to the 

 wicked ; oppressed innocence found in him support ; 

 the poor were fed from his storehouses, and 

 thousands of idle hands employed in the erection of 

 edifices, which he constructed with surprising rapi- 

 dity, for the ornament of Rome. The aqueduct, 

 called aqua felice, the lofty obelisk in front of St 

 Peter's church, and the triumphal pillars of Trajan 

 and Marcus Aurelius, which he erected at a great 

 expense, the noble dome of St Peter's, and the 

 hospital on the Tiber, are monuments of his zeal 

 for the splendour and welfare of his capital. He 

 gained lasting honour by founding the Vatican lib- 

 rary, for which he erected a magnificent building, 

 with a printing-office, for the publication solely of 

 the works of ecclesiastical authors. From this 

 Vatican press proceeded his complete edition of the 

 works of St Ambrose, and the Vulgate, which he 

 revised. At Fermo, in the States of the Church, 

 he founded a university; at Rome, the college oi 

 St Bonaventura, for young Franciscans; and at 

 Bologna, the college of Montalto. His chief atten- 

 tion, however, was directed to the government of 

 the ecclesiastical states, and the care of its foreign 

 relations. He endeavoured to increase the trade 

 and industry of Rome by abolishing heavy imposts, 

 and establishing manufactures of silk and of wool 

 for the employment of the poor. He improved the 

 departments of the police and the finances, and ac- 

 cumulated a fund of three millions scudi, which he 

 deposited in the castle of St Angelo, to serve as a 

 fund for the public wants. This was acquired by 

 the increase and rigid collection of the public taxes, 

 the confiscation of the property of criminals, the 

 profits of new pawnhouses (monti), by an ad- 

 vance on the price of venal offices, and the sale of 

 many which had never before been subjects of 

 traffic, but principally by rigid economy. The 

 expenses of his court he limited as much as possible. 

 Although he was generous to his former patrons, 

 he was moderate in his benefactions to his relatives. 

 For the administration of the affairs of church and 

 state, he instituted fifteen congregations, composed 

 of cardinals and other officers. The most remark- 

 able are the congregations for the navy, which con- 

 sisted of ten galleys, for the protection of the coast, 

 for the complaints of the people, for the continua- 

 tion of the catalogue of prohibited books, for carry- 

 ing into effect, and explaining, the decrees of the 

 council of Trent, for sacred rites and ceremonies, 

 and for the administration of justice. (See Curia.) 

 Besides the establishment of several festivals in 

 honour of saints, the reign of Sixtus V. was marked 

 by the limitation of the number of cardinals to 

 seventy, and the obligation imposed on all Catholic 

 bishops to visit Rome once in every three, five, or 

 ten years, according to the distance of their sees, 

 on pain of losing their offices an ordinance which, 

 though never strictly enforced, was calculated to 

 confirm the old papal claims, and to bind the bishops 

 more firmly to the head of the church. In theolo- 

 gical controversies, Sixtus maintained a wise neu- 



