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

CHAPTER II.
Previous Life and Character of Pius V. His First
Measures of Reform.
It is easy to describe the previous life of the new Pope.^ He
was born on St. Antony's Day (January 17th), 1504, at Bosco,
near Alessandria, in the Duchy of Savoy, and he had received
the name of that saint in baptism. His family had been
settled in that place since 1366, ^ but had afterwards fallen
into great poverty. The humble house in which the future
Pope first saw the light is still preserved at Bosco. ^ From
his early youth it was Antony's wish to give himself entirely
to God. His father, Paolo, and his mother, Domenica Augeria,
put no obstacles in his way, though they had not the means
to educate their son, whose duty it became to tend the flocks.
But a certain Bastone came to their aid, and he sent little
Antony, together with his own son Francesco to the
Dominicans at Bosco.'* The friars soon recognized the boy's
^ Of the biographies {cf. App. n. 69) see especially Catena,
2 seq. Cf. also P, Tiepolo, 169 seq.
* See Bruzzone, Storia del comune di Bosco, II., Turin, 1863,
265. Cf. the Roman periodical. Cosmos illustr., 1904, 59 seq. ;
ibid. 1903, 138 seq., proof of the branch of the family at Pinerolo.
The view held by all the older biographers, that the GhisUeri of
Bosco went there in 1445, after their expulsion from Bologna,
seems to be hardly tenable. It was only after the elevation of
Michele to the Papal throne that the Bologna family thought
itself honoured in recognizing him as a descendant of the same
family. Cf. Claretta in Arch. stor. Lonib., X., 710 ; Riv. di
Alessandria, X., 3 (1901), 69 ; Spezi, 12 n. i.
' See Bruzzone in Cosmos illustr., 1904, 56 seq. ; ibid 36 a
reproduction of the house where Pius V. was born.
* This hitherto unknown episode of the youth of Pius V. is
related by Cusano in a *letter of February 2, 1566 (State
Archives, Vienna), printed in App. n. 5.
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