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

" CONFIDENTIAL SIMONY."
23I
In accordance with the warning of the Council, the Pope was
very cautious in granting new indulgences. ^
The zealous reformer fought with special vigour against
the so-caUed "confidential simony," by which a benefice
was taken in charge {confidentia) ,
generally by a bishop or a
Cardinal, on behalf of somebody else, either because the latter
had not yet reached the canonical age, and was perhaps still
a child, who could only obtain the actual possession {access^is)
of the benefice much later, or else because he intended at a
later date to resume the benefice {regressus) which he had
to all appearance resigned. These " confidenze " made it
possible for certain bishoprics and benefices to become practi-
cally hereditary in famihes, passing from one relative to
another, and as often as not were in quite unworthy hands.
The Council of Trent and Paul IV. had prohibited this abuse ;2
Pius V. expressly declared that before everything else, and
more than anything else, he had from the first had at heart
a determination to root it out.^ Nobody but the Pope was
in a position to act with the necessary authority against this
plague, because the principle delinquents, the so-called
" custodini " were for the most part Cardinals and bishops,
against whom it was not easy to take judicial proceedings.^
For this reason Pius V., as a first step, reserved to himself
the decision of all disputes which had arisen on the subject of
" confidenze."^ There then followed a careful investigation
1 *" Non concede piu indulgentie plenarie di colpa et di pena,
ma solo concede indulgentie per 7 anni, per un giorno solo."
Avviso di Roma of Mcarch i. 1567. Urb. 1040, p. 364b. Vatican
Library'.
- Sess. 25, de ref., c. 7. For Paul IV. see Vol. XIV. of this work.
p. 197 seq.
^Motuproprio published on January 5, 1567. §5. Bull. Rom.
510. Laderchi (1568, n. II) wrongly assigns the edict to 1568.
As early as May, 1566 the Pope declared that on account of the
bull of Paul IV. forbidding further " regressi," those granted by
Pius IV. could not be allowed. *Arco, May 18, 1566, State
Archives, Vienna.
» Motuproprio of January 5, 1567, §4-
"Ibid. §5.