Post #5847

Finishing the studies of philosophy and theology in Bologna he taught as “major lector” in the Casalese convent of St. Dominic. In 1528 he was ordained priest in Genoa by Cardinal Innocenzo Cybo. During the first years of his ministry, he was designated to the teaching of theology, of which he was lector in the Dominican convents of Pavia, Alba and Vigevano. From 1528 to 1544 he taught philosophy at the University of Pavia and for a short period he was professor of theology at the University of Bologna. He carried out with great praises such office of teaching and he held sacred conferences in several places with immense fruit for the listeners. During the thirties he also obtained various positions in the government of the Dominican Order: in Vigevano he was procurator and prior of the convent, then he was prior in Soncino, in Alba and finally again in Vigevano. He often went outside the convents to exercise the pastoral ministry, preach and judge disputes in some provincial chapters. In July 1539 he was temporarily sent to oversee the reconstruction of the Dominican convent on the island of Sant'Erasmo in Venice. In 1542 he was chosen to hold the office of definitor in the general chapter of the "Utriusque Lombardia" province held in Rome. By the same assembly he was elected Provincial Superior for Lombardy, a position he held for a few months until entering the Holy Inquisition. He sustained the office of inquisitor for a long time with invincible fortitude; and he preserved, not without danger of life, many cities immune from the then meandering heresy. In fact, on the 11th of October 1542 he was appointed commissioner and inquisitorial vicar for the diocese of Pavia. The following year, in Parma, he brought to light by pronouncing the public conclusions of the provincial chapter, consisting of thirty-six theses against the Lutheran heresy. For his exemplary conduct of life, he was appointed inquisitor in Como (1550) and then, at the behest of Pope Julius III, he had the same qualification in Bergamo, where he was charged with conducting an investigation into the bishop Vittore Soranzo, suspected of heresy. Following an assault on his residence, on December 5, 1550, Bro Michele Ghislieri had to flee to Rome, where he arrived on December 24, managing to deliver the dossier relating to Soranzo to Cardinal Gian Pietro Carafa (future Paul IV). Through the intercession of Cardinal Carafa, Ghislieri was appointed Commissioner General of the Roman Inquisition on the 3rd of June 1551, immediately dealing with the trials against Cardinals Reginald Pole, Giovanni Morone and against the Florentine humanist Pietro Carnesecchi. Paul IV, to whom his distinguished virtues made him very dear, appointed him president of the commission in charge of drawing up the Index of forbidden books (1555), promoted him to the bishopric of Nepi and Sutri on the 4th of September 1556 (he was ordained on the 14th of September 1556 by the cardinal Giovanni Michele Saraceni) and inquisitor general in Milan and Lombardy; and the following year (March 15, 1557) he was counted among the cardinal priests of the Roman Church with the title of Santa Maria sopra Minerva, a Dominican church specially elevated to the title of cardinal. On December 14, 1558, in consistory, Paul IV appointed Cardinal Ghislieri "Grand Inquisitor of the Holy Roman and Universal Inquisition" with unlimited and ad vitam faculties. The following year cardinal Giovanni Angelo Medici was elected to the Petrine Throne with the name of Pius IV, Ghislieri was confirmed in his role as inquisitor but the differences with the pontiff, far from the intransigent line of his predecessor, led him to be appointed bishop of Mondovì in Piedmont on March 17, 1560, where he moved; he took possession of the diocese on June 4, 1561. Known that many abuses had entered it, he visited the whole diocese; and things arranged, he returned to Rome, where he was entrusted with the handling of the most serious affairs, which he always decided with justice, apostolic freedom and constancy.