220 JEROME CARDAN 



fulfilment and explanation of the portents lately chroni- 

 cled. The knockings appeared furthermore to warn him 

 of approaching death, and he began to bewail his misery ; 

 but, having gathered courage, he heartened himself to 

 face his doom, which could be nothing worse than death. 

 Young men, leaders of armies, courted death in battle 

 to win the favour of their sovereigns ; wherefore he, a 

 decrepit old man, might surely await his end with calm- 

 ness. He then wanders off into a long disquisition on 

 the philosophy of Polybius, and forgets entirely to set 

 down further details of his imprisonment, or to explain 

 the cause thereof. 



Pius IV. had died at the end of 1565, and had been 

 succeeded by Michele Ghislieri, the Cardinal of Ales- 

 sandria, as Pius V. Like his predecessor, the new Pope 

 was a Milanese by birth, but in character and aims the 

 two Popes were entirely different. Pius. V. identified 

 himself completely with the work of the Holy Office, 

 and straightway set in operation all its powers for the 

 extirpation of the heretical opinions which, on account 

 of the easy-going character of the late Pope, had made 

 much progress in Italy, and nowhere more than in 

 Bologna. Von Ranke, in the History of the Popes, gives 

 an extract (vol. i. p. 97) from the compendium of the 

 Inquisitors, which sets forth that "Bologna was in a very 

 perilous state, because there the heretics were especially 

 numerous ; amongst them was a certain Gian Battista 

 Rotto, who enjoyed the friendship and support of many 

 persons of weight, such as Morone, Pole, and the 

 Marchesa Pescara (Vittoria Colonna). Rotto made 

 himself very active in collecting money, which he dis- 

 tributed amongst the poor folk of Bologna who were 

 heretics." 



It will be remembered that in 1562, while he was 



