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

THE ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE. lOl
Pius V.'s interference with questions of justice, however, was
not always just or reasonable ; he sometimes pronounced
hasty sentences which he afterwards had to revoke. Tiepolo
says that the Pope never tempered a criminal sentence with
mercy, and that generally he would have liked to have made
it more severe.^ No rank or dignity could obtain any mitigation
of the punishment. A noble Roman lady who had
committed homicide was executed, and that publicly, which
was quite unusual, in spite of the intercession of the Con-
servatori and many Cardinals. ^ A circular addressed to the
governors of the Papal States in August, 1568, urged them to
employ nothing but severity, and to show no mercy. It was
estimated that more executions took place at that time in a
single month than in four years under Pius IV. ^ Many,
including light offenders, took to flight before this excessive
severity, with the result that the bands of robbers who infested
some parts of the Papal States, and especially the mountainous
districts towards Naples,* were constantly on the increase,
which was one of the reasons why the Pope's praiseworthy
efforts to deal with this pest were only partially successful.^
the death sentence. Cf. Pastor, Dekrete, 16, n. See Rodo-
CANACHi, St.-Ange, 173. Ibid. 175, the trial of Matteo Minale.
^ TiEPOLO, 173. From Firmanus, *Diarium (Miscell., Arm.
XII., 31 in Papal Secret Archives) it is evident how frequent
death sentences were.
2 See Tiepolo in Mutinelli, I., 78-79.
' See the *report of Cusano from Rome, August 17, 1568, State
Archives, Vienna. Cf. Mutinelli, I., 92.
* A *Ietter from Cardinal Bonelli to Francesco Ghislieri, gover-
nor of Ascoli, dated Rome, April 17, 1566 (in 191 1 in the possession
of the antiquarian Luzzietti) deals with the bandits who had
taken refuge in the Abruzzi. For the bandits at Teramo, see
Riv. Abrnzsese, XXVII., (1912) 458 seq.
^ In his *report of June 7, 1567 (State Archives, Vienna) Arco
tells of an expeditionary force against the bandits. For the
outbreak of brigandage in 1570, see Hirn, Erzherzog Ferdinand II.
von Tirol, I., 505 n. i. For the whole subject cf. Laderchi, 1566,
n. 122 seq.