from the society of such men as Cardinal tion of heresy as the highest of all human Caraffa, afterwards Paul IV., and Cardinal and divine duties. Pius V. conferred on Ghislieri, at that time chief inquisitor, his friend two successive bishoprics, and known later as Pius V., the most intolerant paved the way to the Papacy for him by and implacable of the new order of Popes, that the future Sixtus V. educated his fiery spirit to that pitch of zeal which made him the greatest pontiff of that age, in whom the spirit of persecution became incarnate, who undertook to war with heresy to the death, and to shut the gates of mercy on all mankind who would not adopt the decrees of the Council of Trent. With such powerful friends as Caraffa, Ghislieri, and Carpi, ecclesiastical promotion was a matter of course with Father Felice Peretti, or Montalto as he now began to be called. He was successively made regent of the convents of his order at Sienna, Naples, and Venice. At Venice he also received the appointment of Inquisitor: and in consequence of the rigorous zeal with which he supported all the pretensions of Rome in that city, he gained increased confidence with the champions of Papal authority, though he excited hostility among the citizens of the Republic.

creating him a cardinal in 1570, when he took the title of Cardinal Montalto, receiving from the Pope at the same time the pension of 100 crowns a month, known as "the dish of the poor cardinal." Up to the time of the election of Gregory XIII. he was an active adviser of Pius V., but during his long disgrace after the elevation of his enemy, he lost "the dish of the poor cardinal," and had to fall back for occupation on his passion for building, which he shared in a humbler way with the great Cardinal Farnese, and other members of the Sacred College. He built the villa on the Esquiline Hill, now called the Villa Massimi, but then the Villa Peretti, constructed on part of the site of the gardens of Mæcenas, and in front of the agger of Servius Tullius. He also built a tomb for Nicholas IV. and repaired the chapel del Presepio in Santa Maria Maggiore. To these occupations, and to the publication of a large edition of the words of Saint Ambrose, who appears to have been his favourite father, and whose bold defiance of Theodosius he constantly quoted as a precedent for himself, he devoted his leisure before his advent to the pontificate.

After having filled various other offices, he became vicar-general of his own Franciscan order, which he proceeded to reform with characteristic severity. Subsequently he went on a mission to Spain in the suite of Cardinal Buoncompagni, afterwards Gregory XIII., with whom Before he removed however to his new however he quarrelled on the road in a house on the Esquiline, a tragic event in way which left no room for reconciliation; his own family, strangely characteristic of so that he lived in forced retirement dur- the time, and of which the fatal beauty of ing the whole thirteen years of Gregory's the famous Vittoria Accoromboni was the pontificate, which immediately preceded cause, agitated all Rome and all Italy. A his own. He revenged himself, however, few years before, when he was named during his retirement by bitter and fre- vicar-general of his order, he had brought quent sarcasms on the government and character of Gregory, and when he himself became Pope, he never failed to contrast the vigour of his own pontificate with the weakness of that of his predecessor; he even had a dream, in which he saw the deceased Pope in the flames of purgatory.

his sister Donna Camilla and her family to Rome. The father of Vittoria Accoromboni, himself of noble family, was then in search of a husband for his daughter, whose manner, wit, speech, and grace fascinated all beholders, and brought forward many suitors for her hand. The chief of these was Paolo Giordano Orsini, Duke Pius V. was the chief benefactor of the of Bracciano, a man of terrible reputation, future Sixtus V.; there was much simi- who was suspected of having murdered larity of character between the two eccle- his first wife, daughter of the Grand Duke siastics, both were ardent, zealous, and of Tuscany, and whose houses and country austere, and both regarded the persecu-castles were mere strongholds of banditti.

cany, was the chief rival of Farnese in the conclave; and although Farnese at his entry into the electoral assembly commanded the nineteen votes of the batch of cardinals created in the last pontificate, Medici still intrigued so as to prevent his obtaining the majority of two-thirds of the cardinals present the number necessary for his election; and, after trying various combinations, came to the conclusion that Montalto was the only papable candidate whom he could play with certainty to prevent the success of Farnese. By diplo

Though he was fifty years of age and had conclaves. His relationship, however, to a repulsive malady, he possessed a strange the ducal family of Parma excited against attraction for and was preferred by Vit- him the jealousy of the Medici, who altoria, who was nevertheless married by ways succeeded in procuring a combinaher father to Francesco Peretti, nephew tion which resulted in his exclusion. On of Cardinal Montalto and son of Donna the present occasion Cardinal Ferdinand Camilla. Soon afterwards, the husband de' Medici, afterwards Grand Duke of Tusof the bride was found murdered in the street. Everybody suspected the Duke of Bracciano to be the real culprit, but the idea of exacting vengeance from the great chief of the Orsini, the possessor of two or three houses in Rome as strong as fortresses, and crowded with bravi and brigands, filled the city with consternation; nothing less than civil war was in prospect under so weak a rule as that of Gregory XIII. To the surprise of all, however, Cardinal Montalto, after giving expression to his sorrow in full consistory, desisted from following up his demand for matic manœuvres, he succeeded in winvengeance. The adventures of Vittoria Accoromboni, and her own subsequent murder by a kinsman of her husband, form the subject of a novel by Tieck; and this singular tale of atrocity and romance riveted the attention of all Italy. The future Pope, wounded as he thus was in his most cherished affections, had a private incentive for undertaking that merciless war against brigandage and the practice of assassination among the nobility which was one of the great achievements of his administration.

ning over the Altemps, the chief of the creatures of Pius IV.; by another clever stratagem he succeeded in intimidating San Sisto, the chief of the creatures of Gregory XIII., who had promised their votes to Farnese, so that Montalto was elected by adoration, as it is termed — that is, all the electors, seeing that opposition was futile, voted by acclamation, and renounced further scrutiny. Sixtus V. was thus chosen on the 24th of April, 1585, and his coronation was celebrated on the first of May following.

The conduct of Montalto, nevertheless, This was the shortest of conclaves. The in the matter of the murder of his nephew, influence of the political factions devoted and his retirement from affairs under to France and Spain and Austria was litGregory XIII., operated in favour of his tle felt in this election, owing to the inelection in the conclave which met, accord-tense rivalry of Medici and Farnese. Even ing to prescription, ten days after the Philip II., who looked upon himself as the death of his predecessor. For Sixtus V., lay vicegerent of God upon earth, exercised like many of the Popes, owed the tiara to little weight in the decision, although his the fact that he was the member of the interest was exerted in favour of Farnese, Sacred College against whom all parties and he found no reason to congratulate himcould find the least aggregate of objec-self on the choice of the Sacred College. tions, and to fulfil this condition, absence The choice of Montalto was, in fact, due to of notoriety and the possession of a neutral circumstances so unforeseen, that the dereputation were the most useful qualifications. The old story of the appearance of the future Pope on crutches at the conclave, as a mark of decrepitude, which he threw aside the moment his election was secure, is altogether rejected by Baron Hübner as apocryphal; but no doubt Sixtus V. owed the votes of his colleagues to their ignorance of his true character.

The most imposing candidate before the election seemed to be the magnificent Farnese, the creature of his uncle Paul III., who built the splended palace now possessed by the King of Naples, and who so nearly attained the pontificate in several

vout ruler of Spain conceived him to have been, in a peculiar manner, marked out for the office by the influence of the Holy Ghost. The new Pope, at the request of San Sisto, to whose decision at the final moment he owed his elevation, took the title of Sixtus V. The retired life which he had led before his accession had induced Medici to speculate on the influence he might retain over a Pontiff of his own creation so entirely unused to affairs, but Sixtus V. very speedily undeceived him in these expectations, for the new Pope was well aware that Medici had only brought about his election as the sole means of keeping out Farnese; and he

displayed immediately after his election a | either of patriotism or of authority. In vigour of character, a tenacity of political such times they attract into their ranks all and ecclesiastical purpose, and an imperious the equivocal elements of the population. force of command which none had expected to find in a man now sixty-four years of age, who had begun his career as a friar, and had been deprived of all office for the last thirteen years of his life.

Every village sends its contingent of rascals-men of loose lives and dangerous characters, at war with law and society. Their adventurous career and their daring create for them strange sympathies in the confused moral sense of the peasantry, who become their allies and abettors in escaping pursuit. In the sixteenth century, Italy was in a condition especially favourable for the propagation and support of this so

Nowhere was the energy of Sixtus more astonishing than in the management of the internal affairs of the Pontifical States. "Severity and hoarding of money," he laid down at once as the maxim of his rule. By the care which he bestowed on the financial malady. The parties of the Guelphs cial condition of his dominions and by his and the Ghibelines were, it is true, exreforms, he very speedily succeeded in tinct; the Free Republics existed no more; rescuing the finances of the Papal Govern- and the petty tyrants who exercised sovment from the ruinous state in which they ereign jurisdiction in their small territohad been left by Gregory XIII. Many of ries had fallen one by one; but the tradihis measures, indeed, violated the princi- tions of former times were still strong, ples of political economy as at present un- the habits engendered by centuries of loderstood, but they were in accordance cal warfare, and by the military system of with the usage and spirit of the age. It is the condottieri had not passed away; the sufficient to state that in less than a year memories of ancient and extinguished libafter his accession, Sixtus had deposited a erties and privileges still survived; and million of golden crowns as the result of the brigands played often but the part of his economy in the Castle of St. Angelo, the ancient fuorusciti in the eyes of their and that he left more than three millions countrymen, by carrying on war against in the treasury there behind him at his the established government. The great death. The possession of so much ready feudal and other nobles, moreover, in money made him one of the richest princes their private quarrels and in their revolts of Europe. The reputation which he thus against the State power, in which they acquired for wealth caused his alliance to invoked the traditions of ancient parties be eagerly sought for; but Sixtus V. jeal- and of local independence, made league ously watched over his treasures, and al- with, and gave protection to, the leading though not sparing of his golden crowns banditti of the time, besides maintaining when they could be employed with a fair troops of bravos and lawless marauders prospect of usefulness either abroad or at in their pay, so that their territorial castles home, yet he carefully kept guard over and their fortified residences in the cities them, and prevented himself from being were often mere strongholds of brigandentangled in such a way in the schemes of age, and their relations with the brigands Philip II. and of the League as would were those of mutual insurance and supsquander the results of his economy with- port. Of such noblemen in Rome, Paolo Giordano, whom we have already menout results. Order in his finances Sixtus V. well un- tioned in connexion with Vittoria Accoderstood could not be effectually secured romboni, was the most terrible representaunless public order established tive; and the public morality of the time throughout his dominions; therefore his was so perverted, that nobles who lived very first thoughts were directed towards surrounded by brigands, and even led sweeping the territory and city of Rome themselves lives of semi-brigandage, were clear of the hordes of banditti and the sys-visited with no public reprobation, and tem of brigandage with which they were some even obtained employments in State then infested. In all ages brigandage has service. Ludovic Orsini, the assassin of exercised a potent influence in the history Vittoria Accoromboni, was a notable exof southern countries. The masnadieri of ample of this. He was at first banished Italy, the partidas of Spain, the guerillas from Rome for an act of vendetta, but he of Portugal, have always been malefactors lived for many years the life of a fuoruscito, more or less of the same race a race and engaged in the service of the Venescattered throughout the countries on tian Republic. Giovanni Battista del which they prey, and ready in all periods Monte was another example. Having a of national trouble to assume the colours feud with the Town Council of Cività of political faction, under the pretext Castellana, he made a league with eight

were

chefs of bandits and their two hundred | ty. The combat lasted for three days, followers, took possession of the town in and spread terror through all Rome, the open day, and massacred his enemies; he whole of the Roman nobles taking up would have killed the podestà himself, had the latter not managed to save himself by flight; after which he became a fuoruscito, and engaged, like Orsini, in the service of Venice. The noble, however, who had fallen under the the ban of the law, did not always seek foreign service in Venice, Ferrara, Tuscany, Spain or France; he also not unfrequently put himself at the head of a faction, and bade defiance to the government in his own castles or in those of his family and friends, until he had become sufficiently formidable to exact a free pardon.

arms in defence of the inviolability of their domiciles. Dead and wounded men were lying about within the precincts of the Vatican, and the Cardinal was obliged to procure a guard of fifty soldiers to return home. The strange end of this conflict was, that the largello, the chief of the sbirri, was, at the demand of the Orsini family, arrested and put to death. For four consecutive days Rome was in a state of terror; all business was suspended, and all the shops closed; and it was only by the patient negotiation of the Cardinal de' Medici, that the Roman nobles were induced to disarm and to dismiss their hired banditti.

Under the government of the unenergetic Gregory XIII., brigandage was carried on on so large and terrible a scale, that Sixtus V. on the morrow of his election down to the middle of the last century, announced his intention, in an address to Tempesti tell us, when people wished to the Conservators of the city, of putting an characterize a feeble government, and a end to this chronic state of terror and dismore atrocious state of brigandage than order. In a short address, after an alluusual, they made use of the expression, sion of some bad taste to the weak gov"Corrono i tempi Gregoriani," "We are in ernment of his predecessor, he enjoined the times of Pope Gregory." The most them to proceed at once to a rigorous adabominable crimes-murder, poisoning, ministration of justice, and said he would robbery, abduction, and violence were of take their heads off if they failed in their daily occurrence. In the capital itself, com- duties. The Conservators retired in a bats were carried on, sometimes for days state of abject terror. When the chief of together, which convulsed the whole city the Orsini, the Duke of Bracciano, the suswith panic. The Papal officers were at-pected assassin of his nephew, appeared tacked frequently by armed bands in the before him, he gave him such a stern look streets, and the Papal sbirri were assaulted at their posts and in their houses, and thrown murdered from the windows three or four at a time. The carriage of Monsignore Mario Savelli, brother of a cardinal, was attacked in open day by four unknown individuals, in the middle of the public promenade, outside the Porta del Popolo, and the prelate shot dead with a harquebuse. Cardinal Montalto himself was exposed on one occasion to great danger. As he was returning home on foot through the streets, followed by a single servant, he found himself in the midst of a skirmish between the lawless young nobles of Rome and the Papal sbirri. The Pontifical police had violated what was considered the privilege of the nobles, by entering the Orsini palace, which was always full of bandits, and seizing a malefactor there. As they were Even before his coronation, he set to leading off their prisoner, they were at work to extirpate brigandage at large tacked by a band of the Roman young throughout his dominions. On the 30th men of fashion of the day, of the Orsini, of April, 1585, the Pope published a bull, Savelli, Rusticucci, Capizucchi, and other addressed to every class of his subjects, families, followed by their retainers. In enjoining them under severe penalties to the medley, Montalto's servant was killed, assist in the pursuit and capture of brigand he himself escaped with difficul- ands. At the sound of an alarm-bell or

and such a speech, that he thought it advisable to fly at once from Rome. The day before his coronation, he inaugurated the stern reign which he contemplated by an act of unheard-of rigour. He had already forbidden the carrying of firearms in the streets. Four young men, who had served in the troop of Sforza, were found with small harquebuses upon them; in spite of all the solicitations of the cardinals, who represented that no execution had ever been known in Rome between the election and the coronation, the Pope was inexorable. The four young culprits were hung from the battlements of the Castle of St. Angelo, at sunrise, on the day after their capture, and their bodies were still hanging when the Pope passed in procession to the ceremony in St. Peter's.

Such was the indomitable character of the malefactors with whom Sixtus V. had to deal. But there were among them, as we have said, men of noble descent, who were at the head of veritable armies. Piccolomini, Duke of Montemarciano, of the noble family of Sienna, was one of them, The impatience of the fiery Pope to put and he had been the terror of the country an end to this scandalous evil was immense. in the reign of Gregory. Lamberto Mala- A year after his accession he complained testa, of the illustrious family of Rimini, to M. de Pisany, the ambassador of Henry was another. He ravaged Romagna, Um- III., that as yet he had only destroyed seven bria, and the Marches of Ancona. Not thousand out of the twenty-seven thou