ven sincere in making them! This is proved by
a revelation lately made of a curious document in the Archives of
Simancas.

[Sidenote: PHILIP'S CONCESSIONS.]

While the ink was scarcely dry on the despatches to Margaret, Philip
summoned a notary into his presence, and before the duke of Alva and
two other persons, jurists, solemnly protested that the authority he had
given to the regent in respect to a general pardon was not of his own
free will. "He therefore did not feel bound by it, but reserved to
himself the right to punish the guilty, and especially the authors and
abettors of sedition in the Low Countries."[801] We feel ourselves at
once transported into the depths of the Middle Ages. This feeling will
not be changed when we learn the rest of the story of this admirable
piece of kingcraft.

The chair of St. Peter, at this time, was occupied by Pius the Fifth, a
pope who had assumed the same name as his predecessor, and who displayed
a spirit of fierce, indeed frantic intolerance, surpassing even that of
Paul the Fourth. At the accession of the new pope there were three
Italian scholars, inhabitants of Milan, Venice, and Tuscany, eminent for
their piety, who had done great service to the cause of letters in
Italy, but who were suspected of too liberal opinions in matters of
faith. Pius the Fifth demanded that these scholars should all be
delivered into his hands. The three states had the meanness to comply.
The unfortunate men were delivered up to the Holy Office, condemned, and
burned at the stake. This was one of the first acts of the new
pontificate. It proclaimed to Christendom that Pius the Fifth was the
uncompromising foe of heresy, the pope of the Inquisition. Every
subsequent act of his reign served to confirm his claim to this
distinction.

Yet, as far as the interests of Catholicism were concerned, a character
like that of Pius the Fifth must be allowed to have suited the times.
During the latter part of the fifteenth century and the beginning of the
sixteenth, the throne had been filled by a succession of pontiffs
notorious for their religious indifference, and their carelessness, too
often profligacy, of life. This, as is well known, was one of the
prominent causes of the Reformation. A reaction followed. It was
necessary to save the Church. A race of men succeeded, of ascetic
temper, remarkable for their austere virtues, but without a touch of
sympathy for the joys or sorrows of their species, and