PIUS IV. (John Angel, Cardinal de Medicis), of a different family from that of Florence, was born at Milan in 1499. He was son to Bernardin de Medechini, and brother of the famous Marquis de Marignan, Charles V.'s general. He raised himself by his own merit, and filled several important offices under Popes Clement VII. and Paul III. Julius III. who had entrusted him with several legations, honoured him with a cardinal's hat.
hat in 1549. After the death of Paul IV. he was advanced to St Peter's chair on the 25th of December 1559. His predecessor had rendered himself detestable to the Romans, who treated his memory with every mark of indignity, and Pius IV. commenced his pontificate by pardoning them. He did not, however, extend the same clemency to the nephews of Pope Paul IV.; for he caused Cardinal Caraffe to be strangled in the castle of St Angelo, and his brother, the prince de Palliano, to be beheaded. His zeal was afterwards directed against the Turks and heretics. In order to stop, if possible, the progress of these last, he renewed the Council of Trent, which had been suspended. He knew well (says Abbe de Choisy), that that council might make some regulations which would have the effect to lessen his authority; but, on the other hand, he perceived that great inconveniences might result from its not being assembled; and "in the main (said he to his confidants) it is better to feel evil for once than to be always in dread of it." In 1561 he dispatched nuncios to all the Catholic and Protestant princes, to present them with the bull for calling that important assembly. An end was, however, put to it by the industry of his nephew, S. Charles Borromeus, in 1563; and, on the 26th of January the year following, he issued a bull for confirming its decrees. In 1565 a conspiracy was formed against his life by Benedict Acolti, and some other visionaries. Those madmen had taken it into their head that Pius IV. was not a lawful pope, and that after his death they would place another in St Peter's chair, with the title of Pope Angelicus, under whom errors might be reformed, and peace restored to the church. The conspiracy was discovered, and the fanatic Benedict put to death. This pontiff died a little time after, on the 9th of December 1565, aged 66 years, carrying to the grave with him the hatred of the Romans, whom his severities had exasperated. He was a man of great address, and very fruitful in his resources. He adorned Rome with several public edifices; but these ornaments tended greatly to impoverish it. If he was the instrument of raising his relations in the world, it must be allowed, at least, that the greater part of them did him honour.
Pius V. (S. Michael Ghisleri), born at Boschi or Bosco, in the diocese of Fortona, on the 17th of January 1504, was, according to Abbe de Choisy, son to a senator of Milan. He turned a Dominican friar. Paul IV. informed of his merit and virtue, gave him the bishopric of Sutri, created him cardinal in 1557, and made him inquisitor-general of the faith among the Milanese and in Lombardy; but the severity with which he exercised his office obliged him to quit that country. He was sent to Venice, where the ardour of his zeal met with still greater obstacles. Pius IV. added to the cardinal's hat the bishopric of Mondovi. After the death of that pontiff, he was advanced to St Peter's chair in 1566. The Romans expressed but little joy at his coronation: he was very sensible of it, and said, "I hope they will be as sorry at my death as they are at my election;" but he was mistaken. Raised by his merit to the first ecclesiastical preferment in Christendom, he could not divest himself of the severity of his character; and the situation in which he found himself rendered, perhaps, that severity necessary. One of his first objects was to repress the luxury of the clergy, the pride of the cardinals, and
the licentious manners of the Romans. He caused the decrees of reformation enacted by the Council of Trent to be put in execution; he prohibited bull-baiting in the Circus; he expelled from Rome the women of the town; and allowed the cardinals to be prosecuted for their debts. The errors which overflowed the Christian world gave him great uneasiness. After having employed gentle and lenient measures in the reclaiming of heretics, he had recourse to severity, and some of them ended their days in the flames of the inquisition. He particularly displayed his zeal for the grandeur of the holy see in 1568, by ordaining that the bull In cœna domini, which was published at Rome every year on Monday Thursday, and which Clement XIV. suppressed, should be published likewise throughout the whole church. That bull, the work of several sovereign pontiffs, principally regards the jurisdiction of the ecclesiastical and civil power. It mathematizes those who appeal from the decrees of popes to a general council; those who favour the appellants; the universities which teach that the pope is subject to a general council; the princes who would restrain the ecclesiastical jurisdiction, or who exact contributions from the clergy. It was rejected by all the sovereign states, excepting a very few. In 1580, some bishops having endeavoured to introduce it into their dioceses, the parliament caused their temporalities to be seized upon, and declared those guilty of high treason who should imitate the fanaticism of those prelates. Pius V. for some time meditated an expedition against the Turks. He had the courage to make war on the Ottoman empire, by forming a league with the Venetians and Philip II. king of Spain. This was the first time that the standard of the two keys was seen displayed against the crescent. The naval armies came to an engagement, on the 7th of October 1571, in Lepanto bay, in which the confederate Christian princes obtained a signal victory over the Turks, who lost above 30,000 men, and near 200 galleys. This success was principally owing to the pope, who exhausted both his purse and person in fitting out that armament. He died of the gravel six months after, on the 30th of April 1572, aged 68. He repeated often, in the midst of his sufferings, "O Lord! increase my pains and my patience." His name will for ever adorn the list of Roman pontiffs. It is true, that his bull against Queen Elizabeth, and his other bull in favour of the inquisition, with his rigorous prosecution of heretics both in France and Ireland, prove that he had more zeal than sweetness in his temper; but in other respects he possessed the virtues of a saint and the qualities of a king. He was the model of the famous Sixtus Quintus, to whom he gave an example of amassing in a few years such savings as were sufficient to make the holy see be regarded as a formidable power. Sultan Selim, who had no greater enemy than this pope, caused public rejoicings to be made at Constantinople for his death during the space of three days. The pontificate of Pius is also celebrated for the condemnation of Bains, the extinction of the order of Humiliates, and the reformation of that of the Cistercians. He was canonized by Clement XI. in 1712. There are extant several of his letters, printed at Anvers in 1640, in 4to. Felibian, in 1672, published his Life, translated from the Italian of Agatio di Somma; but we cannot vouch for the fidelity of the translation.