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

REFORM OF THE CURIA. I7I
there was no secret in Rome as to the difficulties which seemed
to make any radical change of the existing conditions almost
impossible.^
The chief obstacle in the way of any complete change in the
Curia lay in the fact that for a long time past many of the
offices therein had been sold for money. ^ More especially
since the time of Sixtus IV. the Popes had often found them-
selves in great financial difficulties, and in order to provide
a remedy the number of official positions which were sold
for large sums was increased ; for example, the position
of clerk, which under CalUxtus III. had been obtainable for
1000 gold florins, had cost twice that sum under Julius II.,
and three times as much under Leo X.^ Anyone who had thus
obtained a post to which an income was attached, naturally
sought to administer it in such a way as to enrich himself ;
complaints that there were no hmits to the venality of the
Roman officials, or to the corruption of the clerks, and indeed
of the whole Papal court, were the inevitable consequence
of such a state of affairs, which even the Popes deplored as
intolerable, but which they were unable to remedy at a single
blow.^ Once so many clerks, procurators, etc., had bought
their offices in good faith they could not be dismissed without
suitable compensation. But whence was to come the means
for suitably compensating a whole army of officials P^
Pius V. had wished from the first to put an end to this un-
seemly state of affairs at aU costs. The holy severity which
animated him found almost ruthless expression when he
replied in 1569 to the complaints of some officials who had
1 * Avviso of July 30, 1569, ibid. 1041, p. 125.
* Cf. GoLLER, II., I, 91 seq.
* Ibid. 92 n.
* For the attempts at reform in this respect, especially in the
case of the Penitentieria, see Goller, II., i, 97 seqq., 145 seqq.
* Cf. Goller, II., i, 94. In the time of Pius IV. we may learn
from the notes on the draft of his bull for the reform of the Peni-
tentieria that several persons had sacrificed their whole property
in order to buy a post in that department ; ibid. 128 and II.,
2, 134. Cf. ibid. 103 a note from the time of Alexander VI.