he dare to summon again the
council that had been prorogued, for fear that some stronger power
should use it against himself. He chafed under the Spanish yoke,
coming nearer to a conflict with Charles V and his son Philip II than
any pope had ventured to do. He even thought of threatening Philip
with the Inquisition, but was restrained by prudence. In his purpose
of freeing Italy from foreign domination he accomplished nothing
whatever.

[Sidenote: Pius IV, 1560-5]

Pius IV was a contrast to the predecessor whom he hated. John Angelo
Medici, of Milan, not connected with the Florentine family, was a
cheerful, well-wishing, beneficent man, genial and fond of life, a son
of the Renaissance, a patron of art and letters. The choice of a name
often expresses the ideals and tendencies of a pope; that of Pius was
chosen perhaps in imitation {385} of Pius II, Aeneas Sylvius
Piccolomini, the most famous humanist to sit on the fisherman's throne.
And yet the spirit of the times no longer allowed the gross
licentiousness of the earlier age, and the cause of reform progressed
not a little under the diplomatic guidance of the Milanese. In the
first place, doubtless from personal motives, he made a fearful example
of the kinsmen of his predecessor, four of whom he executed chiefly for
the reason that they had been advanced by papal influence. This
salutary example practically put an end to nepotism; at least the
unfortunate nephews of Paul IV were the last to aspire to independent
principalities solely on the strength of kinship to a pope.

[Sidenote: Reforms]

The demand for the continuation and completion of the general council,
which had become loud, was acceded to by Pius who thought, like the
American boss, that at times it was necessary to "pander to the public
conscience." The happy issue of the council, from his point of view,
in its complete submissiveness to the papal prerogative, led Pius to
emphasize the spiritual rather than the political claims of the
hierarchy. In this the church made a great gain, for, as the history
of the time shows plainly, in the game of politics the papacy could no
longer hold its own against the national states surrounding it. Pius
leaned heavily on Philip, for by this time Spain had become the
acknowledged champion of the church, but he was able to do so without
loss of prestige because of the gradual separation of the temporal from
the spiritual power.

Among his measures the m