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

272
HISTORY OF THE POPES.
The great degeneracy of many Orders, which is blamed in
the strongest terms in the edicts of Pius V., was not of universal
application. If the Pope spoke in words of bitter reproach
of the Spanish convents of the Conventuals, a testimony to
the generally healthy state of the Observants is to be found
in the fact that he was able to call upon them to reform the
more mitigated branch of their Order. ^ In Italy, at any rate,
the Franciscan Conventuals were, according to the testimony
of Pius IV., " learned and zealous."- Pius V. expressly
praised the stricter Hieronymites,^ and if King Sebastian of
Portugal could not speak well of the Benedictines in his kingdom,
the Papal bull of reform repeats the eulogies pronounced
by the king on the congregations of Montecassino and Valla
dolid.* The briefs issued by the Pope in favour of the Order
to which he himself belonged are very numerous ; these
documents do not give the impression that he found much to
find fault with or to reform in the Dominican Order ; the
paternal love which, as he himself often confessed, he felt for
his Order,^ moved him, not to find fault, but rather to grant
new favours and privileges.^ He sought above all to keep the
1 See supra, p. 251.
^ " sables y celosos en Italia ... no asi in Espafia," Corresp.
dipl., I., 112 n.
^ " ubi [in Spain] multa et insignia sunt monasteria ipsorum
fratrum s. Hieronymi, qui sub segulari observantia et religiosa
vita degentes devotum Altissimo famulatam continue exhibent "
(Bull. Rom., VII., 569). Castagna wrote to Bonelli on October 11,
" Los Jer6nimes tienen muy buena fama en Espafia y les
1568 :
distingue el Rey." Corresp. dipl., II., 416 n.
* Bull. Rom., VIII., 3.
^ Ibid. VII., 801, 904.
* Edict of February 14, 1567, Bull. Rem., VII., 544 (for Majorca) ;
of February 16, 1567, ibid. 546 (for the Irish province) ;
of August
27, 1568, ibid. 699 (since they were the first confirmed by the
Pope, the Dominicans have precedence over the other Mendicant
orders) ; of September i, 1568, ibid. 703
(on the penitentiaries of
S. Maria Maggiore) ; of September 23, 1568, ibid. 714 (for the
college of recently converted Moors at Tortosa) ;
of January 18,
1570, ibid. 801 (on the privileges of the whole Order) ; of June 27,
1570, ibid. 833 (the same) ; of July 21, 1571, ibid. 931 (of thq