The history of the popes, from the close of the middle ages : drawn ...

PIUS V. AND IMMORALITY. 9I
to send to the Pope a deputation of forty citizens to ask
for the recall of the decree, which had alreadj' been put into
force. The deputation—and they could have expected
nothing else—met with a stern refusal.. Such shame, the
Pope said, could not be tolerated in holy Rome ; he would
rather change his residence to some other less tainted place.
A written protest^ was equally unsuccessful, nor was even
the intervention of the ambassadors of Spain, Portugal and
Florence of any avail.
Pius V. remained inexorable on the subject of the ex-
pulsion of the more notorious courtesans. By August loth
most of them had already left Rome, and others were pre-
paring to do so, though many had been converted. The fact
that some of those who had been expelled had been killed
by highwaymen told in favour of those who were still in Rome.
These were accordingly not expelled, but had to put a stop
to their public disorders, and a segregated quarter was
assigned to them near the Ripetta, which they were not to
leave either by day or night under pain of a public whipping.
By this severity Pius V. hoped to induce them either to
leave Rome or to be converted. For this purpose special
sermons were arranged for them, as was also done in the case
of the Jews. On September 5th, 1566, a fresh order for the
expulsion of those who were quite incorrigible was issued.^
^ See ibid. There are many copies in manuscript (Berlin,
Royal Library ; Inf. polit., XII., 230 seq. ; Paris, Bibliotheque
Nationale [see Marsand, I., 630, 757
seq.], Mazarin Library,
Cod. 1779, p. 220 seq.) of an " Epistola a N.S^® P. Pio V. nella
quale si esorta S.S*'^' a tolerare in Roma gl'Hebrei at le cortegiane,"
dated August 13, 1566, printed in Rev. des etudes juives, July, 1892,
which among other things elaborates the argument that, by
driving out the aforesaid persons " V-S*-^ non havra poi chi
ridurre al bene ne che punire al male." If he drives them out
now, they may all be lost, whereas it might be possible to convert
them if they remained !
" See the *letter of Arco, August 3, 1566, State Archives,
Vienna.
' See *Avvisi di Roma in App. nn. 16 to 25, and in Bertolotti,