As Bamber Gascoigne says, ‘Calvin was known as the pope of Geneva, but Pius certainly proved himself the Calvin of Rome.’ Another erstwhile Grand Inquisitor, he proposed to make adultery a capital offence and tried hard to remove the prostitutes from the city. He failed in both tasks but at best Pius V realised that negative measures were not enough and he was largely responsible for acting on the decisions of the Council of Trent, which had sat, on and off, from 1545 to 1560. Together with the Council of Nicaea, and Lateran IV, the Council of Trent was the most important council in the
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