apal relations would have been prevented. But
the Popes acted with the absolute power which was in the spirit of the
monarchies of that age. When Paul IV. announced to the Sacred College
that he had stripped the house of Colonna of its possessions to enrich
his nephew, and that he was at war with Spain, they listened in silence,
and have been passive ever since. No European sovereignty enjoyed so
arbitrary an authority. Under Julius II. the towns retained considerable
privileges, and looked on their annexation to the Papal State as a
deliverance from their former oppressors. Machiavelli and Guicciardini
say that the Popes required neither to defend nor to administer their
dominions, and that the people were content in the enjoyment of their
autonomy. In the course of the sixteenth century the administration was
gradually centralised in Rome, and placed in the hands of ecclesiastics.
Before 1550 the governors were ordinarily laymen, but the towns
themselves preferred to be governed by prelates. By the close of the
century the independence of the corporations had disappeared; but the
centralisation, though complete, was not vigorous, and practically the
towns and the barons, though not free, were not oppressed.

The modern system of government in the Roman States originated with
Sixtus V. He introduced stability and regularity in the administration,
and checked the growth of nepotism, favouritism, and arbitrary power, by
the creation of permanent congregations. In connection with this measure
the prelates became the upper class of official persons in the State,
and were always expected to be men of fortune. A great burden for the
country was the increase of offices, which were created only to be sold.
No important duties and no fixed salary were attached to them, and the
incumbent had to rely on fees and extortion. In the year 1470 there were
650 places of this kind. In eighty years they had increased to 3500. The
theory was, that the money raised by the sale of places saved the people
from the imposition of new taxes. Innocent XII., in 1693, put an end to
this traffic; but it had continued so long that the ill-effects
survived.

There was a great contrast between the ecclesiastical administration,
which exhibited a dignified stability, resting on fixed rules and
ancient traditions, and the civil government, which was exposed to
continual fluctuation by the change of persons, of measures, and of
systems; for few Popes co