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

206 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
matters dealing with the rate of exchange^ and the payment
of interest, 2 have no relation to the decrees of the Council,
and still less was this the case with his renewal of the con-
stitution of Paul IV., directed against those who denied the
doctrine of the Most Holy Trinity and the principal truths of
Christology.^
The Council itself had recognized the right of the Holy See
to interpret, or where there was any doubt to define more
clearly, the decrees of the assembly, and Pius exercised this
right with regard to certain matrimonial impediments
which had been formulated at Trent, the meaning and scope
of which he now determined more exactly in special
decrees.^
Several other questions which had been mooted at Trent,
but which for various reasons had not been settled, were
subsequently approved and sanctioned by the Apostolic See.
Several Spanish bishops, for example, had proposed to the
Council the prohibition of bull-fights,^ but in the time of
Pius IV. it had been considered very doubtful in Rome
to Hosius : " Non est, quod de coniugio sacerdotum, de calice
vel aliis huiusmodi multum timeamus " (in Cyprianus, 405 ; cf.
Braunsberger, Pius V., 41). Phillip II., however, in a letter to
Cardinal Ricci of June 11, 1568 thought it opportune to take
steps even with Pius V. to prevent the concession of the marriage
of priests in Germany : *" Dovendo D. Pietro di Avila trattare
con S. S*'^ da mia parte sopra vari affari e pregarla in primo logo
di non accordare il matrimonio ai sacerdoti di Germania secondo
r istanza fattane per esser un affare della piu grande importanza,
gU ho commandato ancora di participarvi tutto. Ricci Archives,
Rome.
1 Bull of January 28, 1571, Bull. Rom., VII., 884 seq.
^Decrees of January 19, 1569, and June 10, 1570, ibid. 736,
738 ; cf. Laderchi, 1570, n. 164.
3 Bull of October i, 1568, Bull. Rom., VII.. 722 seq.
* The impediments of spiritual relationship and affinity (sess. 24,
de matr. c. 2 and 4) in a brief of August 20 1566, and that of public
honesty Ubid. c. 3) in a brief of July i, 1568. Bull. Rom., VII.,
476. 678.
' Susta, II., 117, n. 53 seq.