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

102 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
Another reason was to be found in the fact that the very
proper attempts to act in concert with the neighbouring
states in putting down brigandage led to frequent and bitter
disputes with Naples.^ The bull which was issued on July
13th, 1566, against those who harboured murderers and
bandits, was made even more severe on August 15th, and
enacted that the death penalty was to be inflicted on the
offenders, and that of banishment on their relatives. ^ In
order to stamp out brigandage, the Pope, in 1567, ordered
the destruction of the forests in the neighbourhood of Rome,^
a thing which led to the spread of malaria, and contributed
in no small degree to the deterioration of the healthiness of
the Compagna, so that every year a large number of the
foreign labourers who had come for the harvests died of
fever. ^
Public safety in the Papal States was threatened, not only
by the brigands, but also by the long established feuds between
the cities, and among the nobles. At Ascoli, Anagni, Citta
di Castello, Sassoferrato, Perugia, and elsewhere, disturbances
broke out which caused the Pope much anxiety, and several
times obliged him to send armed forces against them, a thing
which was especially galling to him, whose high ideals would
^ C/. TiEPOLO, 173; Catena, 51 seq. ; Brosch, I., 238 seq.
See also Corresp. dipl., II., 368. An *Avviso di Roma of
March 26, 1569, relates that two days previously at the
Bridge of St. Angelo had taken place the execution of " Cecone
da S. Lupidio, cappo de'banditi della Marca." Urb. 1041,
p. 47, Vatican Library.
^ See Bull. Rom., VII., 452 seq., 456 seq.
'An *Avviso di Roma of April 26, 1567, relates that between
Porta Prima and Romana the Venetian courier had been attacked
and robbed, that the Pope had ordered him to be compensated,
and had further enacted " che si leviao et abbrugino tutte quelle
machie sino a Prima porta " (Urb. 1040, p. 385, Vatican Library).
Cf. the * brief of December 5, 1567, Papal Secret Archives ; cf.
App. n. 27.
* 9 Sreports Tiepolo in the unpublished part of his *report for
15.60 Cod. 6624, p. 319, Court Library, Vienna.