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

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HISTORY OF THE POPES.
maturely under the heavy burden of his duties, and shortly
after the death of Pius V. he, too, ended his life of labour on
September 5th, 1572.
If Espinosa owed his elevation to foreign influence, that of
Jerome Souchier, the learned abbot-general of the Cistercians,
came entirely from Pius V. himself, who had found in him a
man after his own heart. ^ As had been the case with the
Pope himself, learning and piety had been Souchier's only
delight from youth. After he had entered the Cistercian
Order, his superiors sent him to the University of Paris, whence
he returned a doctor in philosophy and theology. His clear
discernment and calm foresight brought him to the notice of
the Cardinal of Lorraine, and through him to that of Henry II.
and Charles IX. Having been made Abbot of Clairvaux he
took part in the Council of Trent, where his learning and
strong ecclesiastical views won for him the esteem of Cardinals
Hosius and Borromeo. After his return from the Council he
set to work to bring new life into his Order, as abbot-general
of the Cistercians, The dignity of the cardinalate was not
only unexpected by him, but was unwelcome, and he told the
Pope that its weight would prevent him from labouring anj?more
for his own Order, and that he did not possess the neces-
sary qualifications for a prince of the Church. Pius V. suc-
ceeded in reassuring the humble religious on both these points ;
he nmst leave it to the Pope, he was told, who could not forego
the services of such men as he in the discharge of his apostolic
office, to decide who was fit to be a Cardinal and who was not.^
Souchier, however, did not bear the burden of the cardinalate
for long. When the news of his death on November 23rd,
" Would that I
1571, was brought to the Pope, Pius V. said :
could die the death of this just man !
" and at the next con-
sistory he lamented that a great light of the Church had been
extinguished.^
1 *Arco, December 24, 1568, State Archives, Vienna. Cia-
coNias, III., 1033.
^ Brief of May 8, 1568, in Goubau, yg seq. Ciaconius, III.,
1032 seq.
^Ciaconius, III., 1034. Cardella, V., 117.