Pope Pius V

Life events

1. Born — 1504

   Antonio Ghislieri was born on 17 January 1504 in Bosco, Duchy of Milan (now Bosco Marengo, Piedmont), to Paolo Ghislieri and Domenica Augeri.

2. Tonsured — 1518

   At the age of fourteen he entered the Dominican Order, taking the name Michele, and passed through the monasteries of Voghera, Vigevano, and Bologna.

3. Ordained — 1528

   Ghislieri was ordained a priest at Genoa in 1528 and was subsequently sent by the Dominican Order to Pavia, where he lectured for sixteen years.

4. Consecrated — 1556

   Pope Paul IV appointed Ghislieri Bishop of Sutri in 1556 and named him inquisitor of the faith in Milan and Lombardy; the following year he was elevated to cardinal and named inquisitor general for all Christendom.

5. Other — 1566

   Elected pope on 8 January 1566 with the support of Cardinal Charles Borromeo and, reputedly, the backing of Philip II of Spain, Ghislieri took the name Pius V and was crowned on 18 January, his 62nd birthday.

6. Wrote — 1570

   Pius V promulgated the 1570 edition of the Roman Missal, standardizing the Mass throughout the Latin Church — a form that remained essentially unchanged for 400 years until Paul VI's revision in 1969–70, after which it became known as the Tridentine Mass.

7. Other — 1570

   On 27 April 1570 Pius issued the bull Regnans in Excelsis, declaring Elizabeth I of England a heretic, releasing her subjects from allegiance to her, and imposing ipso facto excommunication on any who obeyed her.

8. Died — 1572

   Pius V died on 1 May 1572, having suffered from bladder stones and refusing surgical treatment; three stones were found in his bladder after death. He was beatified by Clement X in 1672 and canonized by Clement XI on 22 May 1712.

Relationships

Documented claims

• Pius V organized the Holy League whose combined fleet, under Don John of Austria, defeated the Ottoman navy at the Battle of Lepanto on 7 October 1571; he attributed the victory to Marian intercession and instituted the Feast of Our Lady of Victory. (likely)
• In 1567, Pius V declared Thomas Aquinas the fifth Latin Doctor of the Church and commissioned the first complete edition of Aquinas's opera omnia, produced in 1570 at the Dominican studium generale of Santa Maria sopra Minerva in Rome. (certain)
• Pius V is traditionally credited with establishing the custom of the pope wearing white garments, reportedly because he continued wearing his white Dominican habit after election, though earlier popes also wore white as documented from c. 1274 under Gregory X. (plausible)
• Throughout his pontificate Pius V wore a hair shirt beneath his Dominican habit, was frequently seen barefoot, dismissed the papal court jester — the last pope to have one — and banned horse racing in St. Peter's Square. (likely)
• As a cardinal, Ghislieri rebuked Pope Pius IV directly when the pope sought to make a thirteen-year-old family member a cardinal and to subsidize a nephew from the papal treasury, at the cost of his own authority as inquisitor. (likely)