Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 19.djvu/164

Rh 154 PIUS 1504. At the age of fourteen he entered the Dominican order, passing from the monastery of Voghera to that of Vigevano, and thence to Bologna. Having been ordained priest at Genoa in 1528, he settled at Pavia, where he lectured for sixteen years. He soon gave evidence of the opinions which found a more practical expression in his pontificate, by advancing at Parma thirty propositions in support of the papal chair and against the heresies of the time. As president of more than one Dominican monast ery he proved himself a rigid disciplinarian, and, in accordance with his own wish to discharge the office of inquisitor, received an appointment to that post at Como. His zeal provoking resentment, he was compelled in 1550 to return to Rome, where, after having been employed in several inquisitorial missions, he was elected to the com missariat of the Holy Office. Paul IV., who while still Cardinal Caraffa had shown him special favour, conferred upon him the bishopric of Sutri and Nepi, the cardinalate with the title of Alessandrino, and the honour unique in one not of pontifical rank of the supreme inquisitorship. Under Pius IV. he became bishop of Mondovi in Pied mont, but his opposition to that pontiff procured his dismissal from the palace and the abridgment of his authority as inquisitor. Before Ghislieri could return to his episcopate, Pius IV. died, and on January 7, 1566, he was elected to the papal chair with duly attendant prodigies, his coronation taking place on his birthday, ten days later. Fully alive to the necessity of restoring discipline and morality at Rome to ensure success without, he at once proceeded to reduce the cost of the papal court, compel residence, regulate inns, expel prostitutes, and assert the importance of ceremonial. In his wider policy, which was characterized throughout by a stringency which tended to defeat its own ends, the maintenance and increase of the efficacy of the Inquisition and the enforcement of the canons and decrees of the Tridentine council had precedence over all other considera tions. The prudence of Commendone alone saved him at the commencement of his pontificate from trouble with Germany, as in the general diet of the empire at Augsburg (March 26, 1566) Pius saw a threatened invasion of his own supremacy and W 7 as desirous of limiting its discussions. In France, where his influence was stronger, he directed the dismissal of Cardinal Odet de Coligny and seven bishops, nullified the royal edict tolerating the extra-mural services of the Reformers, introduced the Roman catechism, restored papal discipline, and strenuously opposed all com promise with the heretics his exertions leading up in no small degree to the massacre of St Bartholomew. In the list of more important bulls issued by him the famous bull &quot;In Coena Domini&quot; (1568) takes a leading place; but amongst others throwing light on his character and policy there may be mentioned his prohibition of qua3stuary (February 1567 and January 1570); the condemnation of Michael Baius, the heretical professor of Louvain (1567); the reform of the breviary (July 1568) ; the denunciation of the dirum nefas (August 1568) ; the banishment of the Jews from the ecclesiastical dominions except Rome and Ancona (1569) ; the injunction of the use of the reformed missal (July 1570); the confirmation of the privileges of the Society of Crusaders for the protection of the Inquisi tion (October 1570) ; the prohibition of discussions con cerning the miraculous conception (November 1570) ; the suppression of the Fratre.s Humiliati for alleged profligacy (February 1571) ; the approbation of the new office of the Blessed Virgin (March 1571); the enforcement of the daily recitation of the canonical hours (September 1571) ; and the purchase of assistance against the Turks by offers of plenary pardon (March 1572). His antagonism to Elizabeth was shown, not only in the countenance lent by him to Mary Stuart and those who sought in her name to deliver England &quot; ex turpissima muliebris libidinis servi- tute,&quot; but in the publication of a bull, dated April 27, 1570, excommunicating Elizabeth and releasing her sub jects from their allegiance. His energy was in no respect more favourably exhibited than in his persistent and suc cessful endeavours to form a general league against the Turks, as the result of which the battle of Lepanto (Oct. 7, 1571) was won by the combined fleet under Colonna. Three national synods were held during his pontificate at Naples under Cardinal Alfonso Caraffa (whose family had, after inquiry, been reinstated by Pius V.), at Milan under Carlo Borromeo, and at Mechlin. His death took place on May 1, 1572, and he was canonized by Clement XL on May 24th 1712. He was succeeded by Gregory XIII. PIUS VI. (Giovanni Angelo Braschi), pope from 1775 to 1799, was born at Cesena, December 27, 1717. After taking the degree of doctor of laws in 1735, he went to Ferrara and became the private secretary of Cardinal Ruffo, in w r hose bishopric of Ostia and Velletri he held the post of uditore until 1753. His skill in the conduct of a mission to the court of Naples won him the esteem of Benedict XIV. who appointed him one of his secretaries and canon of St Peter s. In 1758 he was raised to the prelature and then to the treasurership of the apostolic chamber by Clement XIII., whose successor, Clement XIV. created him cardinal on the 26th April 1773. On the death of Clement XIV. and after protracted debate, Braschi was elected to the vacant see on the 15th February 1775. His assumption of the title Pius VI. even then recalled to the populace the verse current in the pontificate of Alexander VI. &quot; Semper sub Sextis perdita Roma fuit,&quot; though his earlier acts gave fair promise of liberal rule and reform in the defective administration of the papal states. He showed discrimination in his benevolences, reprimanded Potenziani, the governor of Rome, for unsuppressed dis orders, appointed a council of cardinals to remedy the state of the finances and relieve the pressure of imposts, called to account Nicolo Bischi for the expenditure of moneys intended for the purchase of grain, reduced the annual disbursements by the suppression of several pen sions, and adopted a system of bounties for the encourage ment of agriculture. The circumstances of his election, however, involved him in difficulties from the outset of his pontificate. He had received the support of the ministers of the crowns and the anti-Jesuit party upon a tacit understanding that he would continue the action of Clement, by whose brief Dominus ac Redemptor (1773) the dissolution of the Society of Jesus had been pronounced. On the other hand the zelanti, who believed him secretly inclined towards Jesuitism, expected from him some reparation for the alleged wrongs of the previous reign. As the result of these complications, Pius was betrayed into a series of half measures which gave little satisfaction to either party. The case of Ricci and the other Jesuits imprisoned in the castle of St Angelo had scarcely been settled, by formal discountenance but informal relaxations and final release, before the question became an inter national one. Driven from devout Catholic countries, the members of the condemned society found an asylum under the rule of the heretic Frederick II. and the schismatic Catherine II., who welcomed them upon educational grounds. A long correspondence ensued in which both monarchs maintained their right, Catherine carrying the matter still further and wresting from Pius a series of important concessions. Even in countries acknowledging the papal authority practical protests arose which tended to its limitation. In Austria the social and ecclesiasti cal reforms undertaken by Joseph II. and his minister