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

REFORM OF THE CISTERCIANS. 243
altogether they only contained thirteen monks, and aU of
them lacked the books and vestments necessary for divine
worship.
It is uncertain whether the monasteries in question had
come to be held in commendam because they were ruined and
deserted, or whether the commendatory abbots were respons-
ible for the ruin, but so long as the revenues of the abbeys
passed into ahen hands it was impossible in every case to bring
about a revival of their religious life ; even zealous and
energetic men, who were likely to give them a new impetus,
could not but feel but httle inclination to enter half ruined
monasteries. In these desperate circumstances Pius V. did
all that he could. In a bull of reform for the Cistercians,^
he not only assured them of his own sympathy, declaring that
one of the most pressing of all his many pressing anxieties
was that so many religious houses had been stripped of their
rights and left to fall into ruin, but he also forced the com-
mendatory abbots to leave a sufficient number of religious
in the monasteries, to provide them with all that was necessary,
and to restore the ruined buildings. He further gave the
monks themselves a number of regulations, the observance of
which was calculated to produce a revival of religious life.
In the circumstances of the times Pius V. did not dare to abohsh
the system of commendams itself. This had become wide-
spread, especially in France, where no less than 1040 monas-
teries were held in commendam, ^ but a conference in con-
sistory on this deplorable state of affairs only resulted in
everything being left as before.^
Pius V. had been asked for help by the Cistercian abbots,
but in many cases he took action without waiting to be asked,
driven thereto by the burning zeal which he felt for the restora-
tion of the religious Orders. There is nothing in the Church
^ Of March 8, 1570, Bull. Rom., VII., 813 seqq. On October 23,
1567, Pius v., had granted a brief of protection against the commendatory
abbots ; ibid. 622.
^Theiner, Acta, II., 679.
^ " Decretum est, nunc quidem nihil innovare." Consistory of
Pecember 11, 1570, in Gulik-Eubel, II., 47.