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

PIUS V. AND THE INQUISITION. 29I
only thus could security and peace be restored to the Church.^
After an audience with Pius V., the Inquisitor of Brescia
gave it as his opinion in March, 1566, that in all that con-
cerned the tribunal of the faith the Pope stood in need of the
bit rather than the spur ;2 a short time afterwards the
Venetian ambassador, Tiepolo, wrote that nothing lay so
near the heart of the Pope as the Inquisition.^ Under his
government all appearance of any readiness to offend against
it or to favour heresy had to be carefully avoided. Cardinal
Sirleto, a few weeks after the election of Pius V., thought it
advisable to send a special warning to Commendone on the
subject. The Pope, so he wrote by Caligari, is very scrupulous
in matters of faith ; Commendone must be on his guard
against having any private conversation with the heretics,
or, like Cardinal Este at Poissy, attending their sermons,
for Pius V. would take any such act very ill."* When, in the
last year of the Pope's life, the case of the Count of Cajazzo
was being considered by the Holy Office, Cardinal Rambouillet
dared to say a word on his behalf, but Pius V. silenced him
abruptly, saying that it ill beseemed one who wore the Car-
dinal's robes to speak on behalf of anyone accused by the
Inquisition.^
^ Bull of December 21, 1566, Bull. Rom., VII., 499.
- Tiepolo on March 9, 1566, in Mutinelli, I., 37. For Pius V.'s
great strictness in all that concerned religion, see also the *report of
the Este ambassador of February 23, 1566, State Archives, Modena.
'Tiepolo on July 20, 1566, in Mutinelli, I., 50. In like
manner *Arco, June 29, 1566, State Archives, Vienna.
* *" che Nostro Signore e molto scrupuloso nelle cose della
fede. . . . Nostro
Signore haveria malissimo e qui sono raolti
osservatori delle sue attioni." Caligari to Commendone, February
2, 1566, Lett. d. princ, XXIII., Papal Secret Archives.
* *" Mai vi si conviene, Monsignore, a parlare in difesa d' uno
inquisito havendo I'habito che havete." (Avviso di Roma of
Januarj- 31, 1571, Urb. 1042, p. 15, Vatican Library). Cajazzo,
however, after a " canonical purgation " was dismissed by the
Inquisition (*Avvisi di Roma of September 15 and 27, 15 71, ibid.
120, 123). On September S, 1571, Arco *announces that his
liberation was imminent. State Archives, Vienna.