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

150
HISTORY OF THE POPES.
a way that they were only able to exercise them in a very
Umited degree. This ordinance was of great importance, for
the Pope thus took into his own hands the full disposal of a
great number of benefices in every diocese, and at the same
time very greatly limited the influence of the Cardinals.
It must have been especially painful to the noble soul of
Pius V. that even his nephew BoneUi was not able to stand,
like another Borromeo, the sudden change from the sheltered
walls of a convent to the possession of great power, and that
he should have found himself caUed upon to make strict
provisions even in his case.^
It was the unhappy Innocenzo del Monte, however, who
gave the Pope the greatest trouble. On m^any different
occasions it had been made evident how inexcusable had been
the action of Julius III. when he had raised such a man to the
purple. 3 Pius IV. had kept this man, who had been depraved
from his youth, a prisoner in the Castle of St. Angelo for
sixteen months,^ and under PiusV., del Monte was again placed
in the same prison on account ol further charges,^ though the
^ *" Questa e stata una fatione notabilissima et tornara a
molto servito di questa corte, poi che il Papa rit nera collatione,
de benefici in tutte le diocesi, si che puoco piii havranno i cardenali
dei vescovi ordinari." B. Pia to Luzzara on May 3, 1567, Gonzaga
Archives, Mantua.
^ Cusano, June 23, 1571, State Archives, Vienna. Cf. *Avviso
di Roma of July 4, 1571, Urb. 1042, p. 78b, Vatican Library.
' Cf. Vol. XIII. of this work, p. 71.
* Bruzzone published in the Messagero, an. XXXIII., no. 198,
of July 18, 191 1, the request for pardon made by del Monte, with
; Rodocan-
a fuU confession of his guilt. Cf. Gulik-Eubel, 35
ACHi, St. Ange, 165. For the fresh punishment of del Monte
see *Avvisi di Roma of August 4 and 14, 1566, Urb. 1040, Vatican
Library.
5 *Avvisi di Roma of May 7, 14, 18, 21, 25 and 28, 1569, Urb.
1041, p. 70, 76, 80, 87, 83, 84, Vatican Library. *Arco, Ma}' 25,
1569, State Archives, Vienna. Cf. the *citation of del Monte of
January 28, 1568, for a scandal committed in the territory of
Siena, in Brevia, Arm. 44, t. 'X3, p. 132, Papal Secret Archives:
charge given on January 30, 1568, to the Jesuit Rodriguez to get