d with the utmost rigour and
punctuality, would wear no finer garments than before ... arose at an
extremely early hour in the morning, and took no _siesta_. If we doubted
the depth of his religious earnestness, we may find a proof of it in his
declaration, that the Papacy was unfavourable to his advance in piety;
that it did not contribute to his salvation and to his attainment of
Paradise; and that, but for prayer, the burden had been too heavy for
him. The happiness of a fervent devotion, which often moved him to
tears, was granted him to the end of his life. The people were excited
to enthusiasm, when they saw him walking in procession, barefooted and
bareheaded, with the expression of unaffected piety in his countenance,
and with his long snow-white beard falling on his breast. They thought
there had never been so pious a Pope; they told each other how his very
look had converted heretics. Pius was kind, too, and affable; his
intercourse with his old servants was of the most confidential kind. At
a former period, before he was Pope, the Count della Trinita had
threatened to have him thrown into a well, and he had replied, that it
must be as God pleased. How beautiful was his greeting to this same
Count, who was now sent as ambassador to his court! 'See,' said he, when
he recognized him, 'how God preserves the innocent.' This was the only
way in which he made him feel that he recollected his enmity. He had
ever been most charitable and bounteous; he kept a list of the poor of
Rome, whom he regularly assisted according to their station and their
wants." The writer, after proceeding to condemn what he considers his
severity, ends thus: "It is certain that his deportment and mode of
thinking exercised an incalculable influence on his contemporaries, and
on the general development of the Church of which he was the head. After
so many circumstances had concurred to excite and foster a religious
spirit, after so many resolutions and measures had been taken to exalt
it to universal dominion, a Pope like this was needed, not only to
proclaim it to the world, but also to reduce it to practice; his zeal
and his example combined produced the most powerful effect."[70]

8.

It is not to be supposed that a Saint on whom lay the "solicitude of
all the churches," should neglect the tradition, which his predecessors
of so many centuries had bequeathed to him, of zeal and hostility
against the Turkish power. He was only six years