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

THE POPE AND THE CARDINALS. I45
their position, so that the lower clergy might take their lead
from them.'^ What would have pleased the Pope most would
have been if the princes of the Church would all have adopted
a manner of life after the example of Borromeo. In August,
1566, it is said that he expressed the view that the Cardinals
should not have gold or silver plate at their tables, but only
porcelain, 2 and on another occasion he urged them to have
reading at their meals, ^ though there was no question of any
precept on the subject being enjoined. The Pope, however,
took every opportunity of recommending to the princes of the
Church poverty and apostolic simplicity, and he tried to
influence them in that direction by his own example. At one
of his first consistories he had exhorted them to lead exemplary
lives by pointing out that the heresies of the time had been
brought into being for the most part by the evil Hves led by
ecclesiastics,* and, fourteen days later, he returned to the
same subject ;
it was his wish to abolish the right of sanctuary
exercised by the Cardinals. At the beginning of April he
announced in consistory that it was his intention to reduce
his own court for reasons of economy ;
the Cardinals ought to
follow his example, and be careful to lead exemplary hves, and
wear ecclesiastical dress if they were in orders or in possession
of benefices.^ When he conferred the purple on his nephew
420.
1 Laderciii, 1566, n. 28. Serristori, January 12, 1566, Legaz.,
2 *Avviso di Roma of August 17, 1566, Urb. 1040, p. 274b,
Vatican Library.
^ *Arco, January 19, 1566, State Archives, Vienna.
* Legaz. di Serristori, 420 (January' 12, 1566). Cf. supra, p. 67.
"* *Arco, January 26 and April 6, 1566, State Archives, Vienna.
Cf. *Caligari to Commendone, June 18, 1566, Papal Secret
Archives; *B. Pia, June 5, 1568, Gonzaga Archives, Mantua.
The right of sanctuary in favour of the houses of the Cardinals
and the foreign ambassadors had been revoked by the Pope on
January 23 1566 (Acta consist, in Gulik-Eubel, II., 47 n.). A
limitation of the right of sanctuary for assassins in Spain and
Rousillon
VIL, 617.
made by a brief of October 6, 1567, in Bull. Rom.,
VOL. XVII. 10