[Footnote 28:  ’Roma a paragone delli tempi degli altri pontefici si poteva riputar come un onesto monasterio di religiosi’ (op. cit. p. 41).]

At his death the people rose in revolt, broke into the dungeons of the Inquisition, released the prisoners, and destroyed the archives.  The Holy Office was restored, however; and its higher posts of trust soon came to be regarded as stepping-stones to the Pontifical dignity.

The successor of Paul IV. was a man of very different quality and antecedents.  Giovanni Angelo Medici sprang, not from the Florentine house of Medici, but from an obscure Lombard stem.  His father acquired some wealth by farming the customs in Milan; and his eldest brother, Gian Giacomo, pushed his way to fame, fortune, and a title by piracy upon the lake of Como.[29] Gian Giacomo established himself so securely in his robber fortress of Musso that he soon became a power to reckon with.  He then entered the imperial service, was created Marquis of Marignano by the Duke of Milan, and married a lady of the Orsini house, the sister of the Duchess of Parma.  At a subsequent period he succeeded in subduing Siena to the rule of Cosimo de’Medici, who then acknowledged a pretended consanguinity between the two families.[30] The younger brother, Giovanni Angelo, had meanwhile been studying law, practising as a jurist, and following the Court at Rome in the place of prothonotary which, as the custom then was, he purchased in 1527.  Paul III. observed him, took him early into favor, and on the marriage of Gian Giacomo, advanced him to the Cardinalate.  This was the man who assumed the title of Pius IV. on his election to the Papacy in 1559.

[Footnote 29:  In my Sketches and Studies in Italy I have narrated the romantic history of this filibuster.]

[Footnote 30:  Soranzo:  Alberi, vol. x. p. 67.  Pius IV. adopted the arms of the Florentine Medici, and spent 30,000 scudi on carving them about through Rome.  See P. Tiepolo, Ib. p. 174.]

Paul IV. hated Cardinal Medici, and drove him away from Rome.  It is probable that this antipathy contributed something to Giovanni Angelo’s elevation.  Of humble Lombard blood, a jurist and a worldling, pacific in his policy, devoted to Spanish interests, cautious and conciliatory in the conduct of affairs, ignorant of theology and indifferent to niceties of discipline, Pius IV. was at all points the exact opposite of the fiery Neapolitan noble, the Inquisitor and fanatic, the haughty trampler upon kings, the armed antagonist of Alva, the brusque, impulsive autocrat, the purist of orthodoxy, who preceded him upon the Papal throne.[31] His trusted counselor was Cardinal Morone, whom Paul had thrown into the dungeons of the Inquisition on a charge of favoring Lutheran opinions, and who was liberated by the rabble in their fury.[32]

[Footnote 31:  ’Veramente quasi in ogni parte si puo chiamare il rovescio dell’ altro’ (op. cit. p. 50).]