It was not to be expected that a population so corrupt, accustomed for generations to fatten upon the venality and vices of the hierarchy, should welcome those radical reforms which were the best fruits of the Tridentine Council.  They specially disliked the decrees which enforced the residence of prelates and the limitation of benefices held by a single ecclesiastic.  These regulations implied the withdrawal of wealthy patrons from Rome, together with an incalculable reduction in the amount of foreign money spent there.  Nor were the measures for abolishing a simoniacal sale of offices, and the growing demand for decency in the administration of justice, less unpopular.  The one struck at the root of private speculation in lucrative posts, and deprived the Court of revenues which had to be replaced by taxes.  The other destroyed the arts of informers, checked lawlessness and license in the rich, and had the same lamentable effect of impoverishing the Papal treasury.  In proportion as the Curia ceased to subsist upon the profits of simony, superstition, and sin, it was forced to maintain itself by imposts on the people, and by resuming, as Gregory XIII. attempted to do, its obsolete rights over fiefs and lands accorded on easy terms or held by doubtful titles.  Meanwhile the retrenchment rendered necessary in all households of the hierarchy, and the introduction of severer manners, threatened many minor branches of industry with extinction.

These changes began to manifest themselves during the pontificate of Pius IV.  The Pope himself was inclined to a liberal and joyous scale of living.  But he was not remarkable for generosity; and the new severity of manners made itself felt by the example of his nephew Carlo Borromeo—­a man who, while living in the purple, practiced austerities that were apparent in his emaciated countenance.  The Jesuits ruled him; and, through him, their influence was felt in every quarter of the city.[59] ‘The Court of Rome,’ says the Venetian envoy in the year 1565, ’is no longer what it used to be either in the quality or the numbers of the courtiers.  This is principally due to the poverty of the Cardinals and the parsimony of the Popes.  In the old days, when they gave away more liberally, men of ability flocked from all quarters.  This reduction of the Court dates from the Council; for the bishops and beneficed clergy being now obliged to retire to their residences, the larger portion of the Court has left Rome.  To the same cause may be ascribed a diminution in the numbers of those who serve the Pontiff, seeing that since only one benefice can now be given, and that involves residence, there are few who care to follow the Court at their own expense and inconvenience without hope of greater reward.  The poverty of the Cardinals springs from two causes.  The first is that they cannot now obtain benefices of the first class, as was the case when England, Germany, and other provinces were subject to the Holy See, and when