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

PIUS V. AND THE INQUISITION. 293
commission, namely that the consensus of even two of its
number gave legal force to its decisions.^
About the middle of February, 1566, it was feared in Rome
that in the administration of the Inquisition the new Pope
would follow in the footsteps of Paul IV., the more so as the
procurator-fiscal of the tribunal had taken up his abode
at the Vatican, and held long consultations with the head
of the Church. 2 It was a fact that the Pope, following the
example of Paul IV., was frequently present at the meetings
of the Inquisition, and that in his decrees on matters con-
cerning the tribunal of the faith he closely imitated those of
the Carafa Pope.'^ A decree of July 28th, 1569, according
to which an accused person, once he had been convicted of
heresy or had confessed to it, was to be forced to fuUer con-
fession by means of torture, is directly reminiscent of Paul
IV. ^ When he enacted that all the decisions arrived at at a
meeting of the Inquisition were to be issued in the name of
the Cardinal Inquisitors, even though they resulted from
a Papal order,'' or when he laid it down that participation
in the acts of the tribunal of the faith carried with it no sort
of irregularity,^ or that heresy involved the immediate for-
feiture of all ecclesiastical benefices,' Pius V. was using the
very words of the edicts of Paul IV. An edict of Pius V.
^Motu pro]Drio "Cum felicis " (without date), Bull, Rom.,
VII., 502.
- *Cusano, P'ebruary 16, 1566, State Archives, Vienna.
'^ The contrast with Pius IV. is shown in the decrees which 1
have published, even as regards their exterior form. While those
issued under Pius IV. all appear under the names of the Inquisitors,
of the 14 issued under Pius V., 7 bear the name of the Pope at
their head ;
see Pastor, Dekretc, 28.
* Ibid. 31. Diana, 580.
' Decree of March 14, 1566, in Pastor, loc. cit., 29 ; it is in
literal conformity with that of Paul IV. of May 28, 1556 ; ibid. 19.
•^ Decree of December 9, 1567, ibid. 30 ; cf. the decree of Paul IV.
of April 29, 1557, ibid. 21.
'The corresponding decree of Paul IV. of June 17, 1556, ibid.
19 (in Diana, 178, with the date July 18, 1556) was renewed by
Pius V. (Diaxa, 579 ; cf. Pastor, loc. cit. 23, n. 2).