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POPF, SIXTUS V. 
His former complaisance and humility disappeared together with 
his infirmities, and he now treated all around him with reserve and 
haughtiness. 
The first care of Sixtus V. was to correct the abuses, and put 
a stop to the enormities, daily committed iii the Ecclesiastical State. 
The lenity of Gregory’s government had introduced a general licen- 
tiousness of manners. It had been usual with former popes to 
release delinquents on the day of their coronation, who therefore 
voluntarily surrendered themselves prisoners after the election of the' 
pope. When the governor of Rome and the keeper of St. Angelo 
waited on his holiness, to know his intention in this particular, he 
replied, ” We have too long seen the prodigious degree of wickedness 
that reigns in the state, to think of granting pardons. Let the pri- 
soners be brought to a speedy trial, and punished as they deserve, 
to shew the world that divine Providence has called us to the chair of 
St. Peter, to reward the good and chastise the wicked ; that we bear 
not the sword in vain, but are the ministers of God, and a revenger to 
execute wrath on those that do evik” Accordingly he appointed 
commissioners to inspect the conduct of judges, displaced those who 
were inclined to lenity, and put others of severer dispositions in their 
room. He ofl'ered rewards to any person who could convict them of 
corruption or partiality. He ordered the syndics of all the towns 
and signiories to make out a complete list of the disorderly persons 
within their districts. The syndic of Albano w'as scourged in the 
market-place, because he had left his nephew, an incorrigible liber- 
tine, out of his list. He made law s equally severe and just against rob- 
bers and assassins. Adulterers when discovered suffered death ; and 
they who w'illingly submitted to the prostitution of their wives, a custom 
then common in Rome, received the same punishment. He was par- 
ticularly careful of the purity of the female sex, and never forgave 
those who attempted to debauch them. His execution of justice 
was as prompt as his edicts were rigorous. 
A Swiss happening to give a Spanish gentleman a blow witli his 
halberd, was struck by him so rudely with a pilgrim’s staff, that he 
expired on the spot. Sixtus inforrlied the governor of Rome that he 
was to dine early, and that justice must be executed on the criminal 
before he sat down to table. The Spanish ambassador and four 
cardinals entreated him not to disgrace the gentleman by suffering him 
to die on a gibbet, but to order him to be beheaded. “ He shall be 
hanged,” replied Sixtus,‘‘ but I will alleviate his disgrace by doing him 
the honour to assist personally at his death.” He ordered a gibbet 
to be erected before his own windows, where he continued sitting 
during the whole execution. 
When Sixtus assended the throne, the whole Ecclesiastical State 
was infested with bands of robbers, who from their numbers and out- 
rages, w ere exceedingly formidable ; hut b}^ his vigorous conduct, he 
soon extirpated the whole of his banditti. Nor was the vigour of his 
conduct less conspicuous in his transactions with foreign nations. 
Before he had been pope two months, he quarrelled with Philip IL of 
Spain, Henry III. of France, and Henry king of Navarre. His intrigues 
indeed in some measure influenced all the councils of Europe. 
