This indifference was combined with lukewarmness in the prosecution of reforms.  The Datatario still enriched itself by the composition of benefices, and the Camera by the composition of crimes.  Pius V., on the contrary, embodied in himself those ascetic virtues which Carlo Borromeo and the Jesuits were determined to propagate throughout the Catholic world.  He never missed a day’s attendance on the prescribed services of the Church, said frequent Masses, fasted at regular intervals, and continued to wear the coarse woolen shirt which formed a part of his friar’s costume.  In his piety there was no hypocrisy.  The people saw streams of tears pouring from the eyes of the Pontiff bowed in ecstacy before the Host.  A rigid reformation of the churches, monasteries, and clergy was immediately set on foot throughout the Papal States.  Monks and nuns complained, not without cause, that austerities were expected from them which were not included in the rules to which they vowed obedience.  The severity of the Inquisition was augmented, and the Index Expurgatorius began to exercise a stricter jurisdiction over books.  The Pope spent half his time at the Holy Office, inquiring into cases of heresy of ten or twenty years’ standing.  From Florence he caused Carnesecchi to be dragged to Rome and burned; from Venice the refugee Guido Zanetti of Fano was delivered over to his tender mercies; and the excellent Carranza, Archbishop of Toledo, was sent from Spain to be condemned to death before the Roman tribunal.  Criminal justice, meanwhile, was administered with greater purity, and the composition of crimes for money, if not wholly abolished, was moderated.  In the collation to bishoprics and other benefices the same spirit of equity appeared; for Pius inquired scrupulously into the character and fitness of aspirants after office.

The zeal manifested by Pius V. for a thorough-going reform of manners may be illustrated by a curious circumstance related by the Venetian ambassador in the first year of the pontificate.[62] On July 26, 1566, an edict was issued, compelling all prostitutes to leave Rome within six days, and to evacuate the States of the Church within twelve days.  The exodus began.  But it was estimated that about 25,000 persons, counting the women themselves with their hangers-on and dependents, would have to quit the city if the edict were enforced.[63] The farmers of the customs calculated that they would lose some 20,000 ducats a year in consequence, and prayed the Pope for compensation.  Meanwhile the roads across the Campagna began to be thronged by caravans, which were exposed to the attacks of robbers.  The confusion became so great, and the public discontent was so openly expressed, that on August 17 Pius repealed his edict and permitted the prostitutes to reside in certain quarters of the city.

[Footnote 62:  Mutinelli, Storia Arcana, etc., vol. i. pp. 51-54.]

[Footnote 63:  Assuming the population of Rome to have been about 90,000 at that date, this number appears incredible.  Yet we have it on the best of all evidences, that of a resident Venetian envoy.]