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

254
HISTORY OF THE POPES.
Premonstratensians, Pius V. revoked his brief and turned in
great displeasure on the Hieronyrriites because, it would seem,
they had begun to carry out the brief too hterally,^ but though
he no longer contemplated the total suppression of the Order,
the Pope did not cease to insist upon the reform, and fresh
brief:-, drawn up by Ormaneto,^ were dispatched, which were
very strict, and aimed at the removal of the existing disorders.
The nuncio was ordered to examine the acts of the visitations
and to proceed against the more serious abuses with the
greatest severity. A reform bull from the Pope then sought
to secure a better state of affairs for the future.^
The reform of the Franciscan convents of the Third Order
met with similar difficulties. These were true rehgious,
because the inmates of these houses for the most part took
true vows, but their manner of life was so far from edifying
that the Pope thought of suppressing them. At first, as the
result of insufficient information, Pius V. had looked upon
them as people living in the world, and had arranged for the
total destruction of their communities. On the representation
of the Provincial, Gordillo, he withdrew this ordinance and
substituted for it an exhortation to embrace the rule of the
Franciscan Observants, placing at the disposal of those who
did not wish to do so certain convents where they could end
their days, but without the right of taking novices. This
arrangement of the Pope's did not please Philip TI., and he
endeavoured to postpone its execution in the hope that he
^To Castagna, March i8, 1568, Bull. Rom., VII., 661 seq.
Philip II. said that the acts of violence of the Hier. nymites against
the Premonstratensians referred to in §2 of this brief were an
invention. To Zuniga May 14, 1568 : Bull. Rom., VII., 530 ;
cf. Corresp. dipl., II., 270, 382, 416, 450.
2 From December 8, 1569, to January 4, 1570, Corresp. dipl.,
III., 234 n.
^ Cf. Corresp. dipl., IV., xxxviii-xU. For the reform of the other
Orders cf. * brief of July 13, 1568, on the Augustinians in Aragon,
of November 3, 1569, to the Bishops of Valencia and Segovia on
the convent of nuns of Las Huelgas in the diocese of Burgos, etc,
Archives of Briefs, Rome,