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

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300<br />

HISTORY OF THE POPES.<br />

guise <strong>of</strong> Catholic doctriiie.^ <strong>The</strong> honesty <strong>of</strong> a Pius V. could<br />

only see in such folk dishonest hypocrites and traitors to<br />

<strong>the</strong> Church.<br />

It would <strong>the</strong>n have needed outstanding instances <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong><br />

courage that makes martyrs, as well as deep religious con-<br />

victions, and what is more, many such instances, to have led<br />

<strong>the</strong> Pope to have formed a higher opinion <strong>of</strong> Italian Pro-<br />

testantism, but any such examples <strong>of</strong> strength <strong>of</strong> character<br />

were altoge<strong>the</strong>r lacking during his pontificate. <strong>The</strong> new<br />

believers almost aU made <strong>the</strong>ir abjuration at <strong>the</strong> sight <strong>of</strong><br />

<strong>the</strong> stake, or in any case returned to <strong>the</strong>ir allegiance to <strong>the</strong><br />

Church at <strong>the</strong> last moment.<br />

<strong>The</strong> first autodafe took place on June 23rd, 1566, at <strong>the</strong><br />

Church <strong>of</strong> S. Maria sopra Minerva,^ when fifteen sentences<br />

were pronounced, and fourteen <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> condemned were<br />

present, seven <strong>of</strong> whom were sentenced by false witness to<br />

scourging and <strong>the</strong> galleys, and seven made <strong>the</strong>ir abjuration.<br />

Two <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong>se were specially notorious. One, a heretic whose<br />

name is not known, had had himself circumcised in order<br />

to be able to marry a Jewess, although he already had a wife<br />

in Spain. <strong>The</strong> o<strong>the</strong>r, Pompeo de'Monti, a Neapolitan noble,<br />

and a relative <strong>of</strong> Cardinal Colonna, was handed over to <strong>the</strong><br />

secular arm as a relapsed heretic. As we learn <strong>from</strong> <strong>the</strong><br />

sentence,^ Pompeo, since his relapse was weU known, had<br />

1 Tacchi Venturi, I., 330 seqq. <strong>The</strong> first preachers <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong><br />

reformation in Italy, Fra Galateo, Fra Bartolomeo I'onzio, and<br />

Fra Ubaldo Lupetino, were all apostate monks. Benrath in<br />

Real-Enzyklopadie <strong>of</strong> Herzog, IX ^., 529 seq. Examples <strong>from</strong><br />

<strong>the</strong> time <strong>of</strong> Pius V. see infra 301, 306, 311 seq.<br />

^ Attempts to effect conversions were not wanting at this time.<br />

: *Fra Lattantio Arturo, Raggionamento<br />

Cf. Cod. Vatic., 6317<br />

fatto ad un carcerato inquisito d'heresia (on <strong>the</strong> worship <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong><br />

saints), 1570, Vatican Library.<br />

^ Tiepolo on June 29, 1566, in Mutinelei, I., 48 ; Firmanus,<br />

*Diarium, see App. nn. 35-47. Corresp. dipl., I., 288. *Arco,<br />

June 29, 1566, State Archives, Vienna. Santori, Autobiografia,<br />

XII., 342.<br />

* Preserved in Dublin, and published by Benrath in Rivista<br />

cristiana, VII. (1879), 503-505, and in Allg. Zcitung, 1877, n. 76,<br />

BeilaRe.

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