Saint Pie V.

Despite the quickening tempo of works on the Counter-Reformation, such as recent studies of the papal state, Catholic confessionalisation, the cult of the saints, or missionary activity in the non-European world, there has been relatively little interest in the history of the papacy or individual popes. Nicole Lemaitre's book is the first examination of a Counter-Reformation pope's life and career by a contemporary historian. Given the personality of Pius V, pope from 1566 to 1572, and later saint, such a study is of concern to anyone interested in the sixteenth century.

Pius V is a formidable subject for a biographer, who faces the difficult task of making him comprehensible to our age which almost by definition is unsympathetic to the pope's doctrinal, moral and ethical norms. Ludwig von Pastor's two-volume biography, still the standard work despite its dated value judgments, was written from the perspective of a Catholic who shared many of the pope's views. A reader's first question is obviously how far the work under review differs from Pastor's, and what new approach it brings to the study of Pius V.

Saint Pie V is divided into three parts: the first traces Michele Ghislieri's career before his election to the papacy, while the second and third are entitled respectively 'Sovereign of the Tridentine Church', and 'Sovereign of Christianity?'. Sixteen chapters are arranged in straightforward fashion. As might be expected, they discuss topics like Ghislieri's activities as inquisitor, his efforts to implement the decrees of the Council of Trent, to reform the Roman Curia, and to guide Catholic Europe in battle against Protestants and Turks.

Unfortunately there is little new here. While the author is familiar with a good deal of recent secondary literature, she has not done the necessary archival work which is absolutely indispensable for a modern biography. There are sixteen references to relatively unimportant manuscripts in the Vatican Library, but not a single one to material in the Vatican Archive. Her extremely brief and general mention of Pius V's attempt to reform the Curia, for example, would have benefited from a study of available documents. They would have prevented her from generalisations such as that venality was effectively abolished (p. 140).

Errors mar the text. For example, Cardinal Pole and Cardinal Morone are numbered among the founders of the Inquisition and made members of a 'circle' of Viterbo presided over by Vittorio Colonna (p. 54), and the Capuchins are said to have been founded in Bologna (p. 65). More disturbing are outdated statements about Italian spirituali or the ideas of Juan de Valdes, and a superficial discussion of the trial and execution of Pietro Carnesecchi. In fact, the ...