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

48
HISTORY OF THE POPES.
provincial chapter of Lombardy elected him Definitor, the
office next in importance to that of Provincial.
In every way Ghislieri was the model of the true religious ;
he refused to wear a mantle because he thought that one who
belonged to a mendicant order should be content with his
cowl. He was a great lover of cleanliness, and used to say
that he had ever loved poverty, but never dirt. He allowed
nothing to interfere with the performance of his duty, and
when, as Prior of Alba, he found himself obliged, for the
safety of his convent, to oppose the Count della Trinita, who
threatened to have him thrown down a well, Ghislieri replied :
" What God wills wfU be done."^
Ghislieri entered upon a very difficult task with his appointment
as Inquisitor of the diocese of Como, which, on account
of its proximity to Switzerland, was likely to be infected with
the new religious ideas. When, in 1550, he confiscated twelve
bales of heretical books, the booksellers affected managed to
win over the bishop's vicar-general and the chapter, which
obliged Ghislieri to appeal to the Inquisition in Rome. This
tribunal summoned the accused before them, which caused so
great a tumult in the city that Ghislieri was obliged to seek
protection from his friend Bernardo Odescalchi. His position
became even more perilous when the governor of Milan,
Ferrante Gonzaga, took the part of his enemies. In order to
clear up the affair, Ghislieri, at the end of 1550, betook him-
self to Rome, where he was brought into contact with the
Cardinals of the Inquisition, and especially with Carafa, who
was quick to recognize in the Lombard a kindred spirit, and
one who was prepared to maintain the purity of the faith with
unbending firmness.
As time went on, no threats and no dangers held any terrors
for Ghislieri when it was a question of doing his duty. When
he was given a mission to Coire, it was suggested to him that
he would do well to travel through the heretical canton of the
Grisons in disguise, but he vigorously refused, saying that he
^ See Catena, 150. The incident is related somewhat differ-
ently by Tiepolo in Mutinelli, I., 51.