Pius V

Italian pope (1566-1572)

• Born: January 17, 1504
• Birthplace: Bosco, duchy of Milan (now in Italy)
• Died: May 1, 1572
• Place of death: Rome, Papal States (now in Italy)

Pius V effected the Catholic reforms dictated by the Council of Trent, attempted to stem the spread of Protestantism, participated in the Inquisition, and was largely responsible for the naval defeat of the Ottoman Empire at Lepanto. His piety, religious zeal, and dedication led to his canonization.

Early Life

Antonio Ghislieri, who would become Pope Pius (PI-uhs) V, was born in the small town of Bosco. His parents, Paolo and Dominica (née Augeria), were poor, and the future pope worked as a shepherd as a youth. Through the generosity of a more prosperous neighbor, he was put under the tutelage of the Dominican friars at Bosco; two years later, at fourteen, he was sent to the Dominican convent at Voghera. After beginning his novitiate at the Convent of Vigevano, he received his Dominican habit in 1520 and assumed his religious name, Michael, the following year. During this time, he developed his scholarly talent and practiced the monastic ideals of austerity, simplicity, and self-denial. His character and conduct as a pope were shaped in large part by his early life in the monastery.

An avid student, Ghislieri attended the University of Bologna, and he later became an equally successful teacher of philosophy and theology, which he taught at several Dominican friaries. In 1528, he was raised to the priesthood at Genoa and for the next several years served at various Dominican convents, where his piety, humility, and dedication won for him the respect of his colleagues he was elected prior at four of the friaries. During this time, he also became confessor to many important people, among them the governor of Milan, yet he remained humble and, unlike many of his clerical peers, traveled everywhere by foot.

In 1542, the humble priest’s life was changed by an act that ultimately led to his elevation to the Papacy. As a result of religious schism, notably the spread of Martin Luther’s doctrine, a papal bull instituted the Roman Inquisition. Because of Ghislieri’s skill at refuting the so-called Lutheran heresies he had been summoned to Parma in 1543 to combat Lutheran doctrine and attacks on pontifical authority he became inquisitor in the diocese of Patvia in 1543. It was his zealous role in the Inquisition that brought him to the attention of church leaders and his eventual election as Pope Pius V.

Life’s Work

Although he was almost forty years old when he began his inquisitorial career, Pius’s life’s work and place in history are inextricably related not only to his pontificate but also to the Inquisition. In the relentless pursuit of his duties, he was often embroiled in disputes with a populace, including clergy, that was sympathetic to Luther. After he confiscated twelve bales of “heretical” books and excommunicated the guilty parties in Como, he barely escaped an enraged crowd. He was vindicated in Rome and, as inquisitor of Bergamo, dealt severely with a Luther supporter, Bishop Vittorio Soranzo, who was subsequently imprisoned, convicted, deposed as bishop, and exiled to Venice.

In 1551, he became, despite his objections, prefect of the Palace of the Inquisition, and in 1558, he became the first and the only grand inquisitor of the Roman Catholic Church. Ecclesiastical advancement accompanied his increasing role in the Inquisition. In 1556, he became bishop of Sutri and Nepi, then bishop of Mondovi; in 1557, he was named Cardinal Alessandrino (after the large city near his birthplace). So secure was his position that the 1559 election of Pope Pius IV, which adversely affected other cardinals, left him untouched. In fact, he demonstrated that his principles were more important than politics when he opposed Pius IV’s elevation of a relative youngster to a position of authority in the Church.

On Pius IV’s death, Cardinal Alessandrino became, through the efforts of Cardinal Borromeo, Pope Pius V. While his papacy lasted only six years, he presided over a church under siege from without and undermined from within. The Turks of the Ottoman Empire were a constant threat, and the Reformation sects in Germany, France, England, and the Lowlands were rapidly gaining converts, a disturbing development since church and state were one in the sixteenth century. Unfortunately, the Catholic princes Philip II of Spain, Maximilian II of Germany, and Sigismund Augustus of Poland were protective of their own power, unwilling to offend powerful Protestants, or bent on achieving their own ends. Pius also had to contend with clergy who did not share his enthusiasm for the reforms of the concluded Council of Trent (1545-1563) and with clergy who had been tainted by Lutheran doctrine.

Pius moved quickly to effect the reforms dictated by the Council of Trent, reforms that were consistent with his monastic life, his idealism, and his piety. During his papacy, the Catechismus Romanus (for pastoral use) appeared, the reform of the Breviary was completed, the Missale Romanum was printed, and three new masses were composed. Besides the liturgical reforms, he brought about an improvement in public morals in a Rome accustomed to the luxury-loving Renaissance popes. His internal reforms, which can be seen as a Counter-Reformation or reaction to Reformation inroads, can also be regarded as the Church’s efforts to reform itself, efforts that had begun before Luther’s break with the Church.

In Germany, where the Reformation was solidly established, Pius’s efforts to influence Maximilian II (who was also the Holy Roman Emperor) were unsuccessful, for the emperor pursued a policy of conciliating the Catholics without alienating the Protestants. Despite the efforts of Commendone, the pope’s nuncio (representative) to Germany, Maximilian was unwilling to move beyond the Augsburg Confession of 1530, which was unacceptable to the pontiff, and the emperor continued to let his Protestant subjects practice their religion. When his numerous concessions to Maximilian proved fruitless, Pius responded with an action that angered the emperor because it encroached on political matters. In an attempt to recapture the ancient rights of papal authority, which had been diminished by his predecessors, Pius crowned Cosimo I de’ Medici as grand duke of Tuscany in 1569.

The same erosion of papal authority had occurred in Spain, where Philip II shared Maximilian’s concern about the threat to Caesaropapistical rights, rights that political rulers had gained at the expense of the Papacy. Philip II was reluctant to have the imprisoned archbishop Carranza moved to Rome for his heresy trial, and Pius succeeded in moving Carranza only after making financial concessions and conducting protracted negotiations with Philip. Though, like Maximilian II, Philip vowed his support of Pius, the Spanish king was equally reluctant to grant the pope’s request that he send his troops to subdue the rebellious Netherlanders. The political/ecclesiastical conflict was heightened by Pius’s unpopular papal bull prohibiting bullfighting and cruelty to animals in general, but Philip was also guilty of making civil inroads on papal authority. When Pius attempted to curb civil authority in his papal bull of 1568, In Coena Domini, Philip essentially ignored it and never really relinquished his regal rights to Pius V.

Even in Poland, a Catholic stronghold, there were problems. Although the Catholics were able to prevail over the Protestants at the 1570 diet in Warsaw, Pius’s nuncio to Poland could not persuade Sigismund Augustus to reform the monasteries or to join the league against the Turkish threat. The Polish monarch’s recalcitrance was caused in part by the pope’s unwillingness to grant him a divorce from Queen Catherine of Habsburg.

England’s king Henry VIII had divorced Catherine of Aragon in 1534, which caused England’s break with Rome and the Catholic Church. Pius later failed in his attempt to return the country to the Catholic faith, however. Unsuccessful in gaining support for Mary, Queen of Scots, from Philip or from the duke of Alva, Pius excommunicated Queen Elizabeth I , a Protestant, in 1570. His Regnans in Excelsis, which also freed Catholics from the obligation to obey her, was countered by Elizabeth’s repressive anti-Catholic measures. Elizabeth was the last monarch to be excommunicated by a pope.

Only in the Netherlands and in France did Pius win convincing victories for the Church. Philip finally dispatched the duke of Alva to crush the revolt in the Netherlands; the duke was only partly successful, and his brutality was notable even when judged by sixteenth century standards. In France, the civil war was ended in 1569 at Jarnac, where the Catholics won a decisive victory.

The pope’s greatest achievement, however, was the defeat of the Turkish forces at Lepanto in 1571. Although the Ottoman Empire had invaded Hungary and threatened not only Venice but also Italy, only Pius seemed aware of the danger. Through the pope’s negotiating skills and his financial commitment to the cause, Philip was persuaded to join Venice against the Turks. Under the command of Don Juan of Austria, the Christian fleet sailed to battle against the Ottoman forces, which had already overrun Nicosia and Famagusta in Cyprus. The Christian victory at Lepanto marked the high point of Pius’s efforts for the Catholic Church.

Soon after the battle, the pope’s health, which had never been good, deteriorated, and he died on May 1, 1572. One hundred years later, Pope Clement X beatified Pius V, and on May 22, 1712, he was canonized by Pope Clement XI.

Significance

That no pope had been canonized in the 350 years that preceded Pius’s canonization vividly demonstrates the esteem that he enjoyed within the Catholic Church. His efforts to effect the reforms dictated by the Council of Trent, his own monastic piety, his missionary zeal (during his papacy many missionaries were sent to South America, especially Brazil), and his lack of personal ambition these traits reflect the saintliness of the pope known as the Pope of the Holy Rosary. History, however, has not been kind to Pius V, whose redemption of Sixtus of Siena must be measured against the strict censorship and the brutal torture of the Inquisition he endorsed and supported.

Pius was motivated by his ambition for the Catholic Church, threatened by the Turks and the Protestant Reformers, beset by internal apathy, and undermined by the political ambitions of rulers whose expanding powers eroded traditional papal authority. From the Church’s perspective, church and state were the same, and political threats were religious threats (England, the Ottoman Empire, the Protestant German states) that ultimately threatened a civilization synonymous with the Church. Given the besieged condition of such an integrated world, Pius’s extreme measures can be understood, if not justified.

The Western world was, however, irrevocably fragmented politically and theologically, and Pius’s attempts to return to an earlier unified age were futile. In fact, his efforts to restore lost papal authority were not realistic, given the religious ferment and the political ambitions of rulers. Philip ignored Pius’s papal bull of 1568, and Elizabeth’s response to her excommunication revealed that weapon to be futile and obsolete. The world was effectively divided between the temporal and spiritual realms, and even the glorious victory at Lepanto was followed by apathy and dissension among the Catholic allies. Although he did not restore the Church’s power and did not prevent the spread of Protestantism, Pius did achieve some success at reforming the Church and did enhance the image of the Papacy, which had been in decline.

Bibliography

Antony, C. M. Saint Pius V: Pope of the Holy Rosary. New York: Longmans, Green, 1911. A short biography from a Roman Catholic perspective, the book was one of the sources for Browne-Olf’s The Sword of Saint Michael (1943). The book is rich in anecdotes and provides information about the details of the pope’s canonization.

Browne-Olf, Lillian. The Sword of Saint Michael: Saint Pius V, 1504-1572. Milwaukee, Wis.: Bruce, 1943. One of the few biographies in English, the book vindicates Pius and suffers from such a Roman Catholic bias that it equates World War II with the Reformation and Adolf Hitler with Martin Luther. Nevertheless, the book is helpful at showing the Reformation in context. Contains a select bibliography.

Collins, Michael. The Fisherman’s Net: The Influence of the Papacy on History. Chester Springs, Pa.: Dufour Editions, 2003. A survey of the influence of the office of the Papacy and of specific popes on the course of world history, from Saint Peter through John Paul II.

Daniel-Rops, H. The Catholic Reformation. Translated by John Warrington. New York: E. P. Dutton, 1962. An evenhanded evaluation of Pius that praises his reforms, summarizes his relations with Maximilian and Elizabeth, and discusses his “draconian orders for the hunting down of heresy, free thinking, and the faintest scent of Protestant sympathies.” Daniel-Rops describes Pius’s outlook as “largely medieval.”

Rendina, Claudio. The Popes: Histories and Secrets. Translated by Paul D. McCusker. Santa Ana, Calif.: Seven Locks Press, 2002. Massive, comprehensive study of the biographies, historical significance, personal experiences, political and religious milieus, and controversies surrounding each of the popes from Saint Peter to John Paul II. Includes bibliographic references and index.

Seppelt, Francis X., and Clement Löffler. A Short History of the Popes: Based on the Latest Researches. St. Louis, Mo.: B. Herder, 1932. A short overview of the pope’s most important achievements, which are seen as church reform and monastic life. His role in the Inquisition is virtually ignored except for an observation that he could be “harsh and severe when offenses were committed against ecclesiastical discipline.”

Von Ranke, Leopold. The History of the Popes During the Last Four Centuries. 3 vols. London: G. Bell & Sons, 1913. The first volume contains an overview of Pius from the perspective of a German Protestant. While granting the pope’s achievements, the author does portray Pius as an obstinate zealot who insisted on obedience and as a persecutor of innocence and purity. Consequently, Pius’s role in the Inquisition is stressed, and his sainthood is not mentioned.

Walsh, William Thomas. Characters of the Inquisition. Reprint. Port Washington, N.Y.: Kennikat Press, 1969. Examines the inquisitorial spirit from the time of Moses to the twentieth century. Walsh focuses on the relationship between Philip and Pius, discusses the Carranza affair, and concludes that Spain ruthlessly trampled on the rights of the Catholic Church.

Wright, A. D. The Early Modern Papacy: From the Council of Trent to the French Revolution, 1564-1789. New York: Longman, 2000. Examination of both the scope and the limitations of the powers of the popes after the Council of Trent. Emphasizes the multiple, potentially conflicting obligations of the popes to the city of Rome, the Italian church, the transnational Catholic Church, the Papal States, and other specific religious and political entities.