SPANISH-AUSTRIAN ASCENDANCY It was high time, after the sack of Rome in 1527, that Charles V. should undertake Italian affairs. By the treaty of Barcelona in 1529 the pope and emperor made terms. By that of Cambrai in the same year France relinquished Italy to Spain. Charles then entered the port of Genoa, and on Nov. 5, met Clement VII. at Bologna. He there received the imperial crown, and summoned the Italian princes for a settlement of all disputed claims. Fran cesco Sforza, the last and childless heir of the ducal house, was left in Milan till his death, which happened in 1535• The republic of Venice was respected in her liberties and Lombard territories. The Este family received a confirmation of their duchy of Modena and Reggio, and were invested in their fief of Ferrara by the pope. The marquisate of Mantua was made a duchy; and Florence was secured, as we have seen, to the Medici. The great gainer by this settlement was the papacy, which held the most sub stantial Italian state, together with a prestige that raised it far above all rivalry. The rest of Italy became but a dependence upon Spain. Charles V., it must be remembered, achieved his conquest and confirmed his authority far less as emperor than as king of Spain. A Spanish viceroy in Milan and another in Naples, supported by Rome and by the minor princes who followed the policy dictated to them from Madrid, were sufficient to preserve the whole peninsula in a state of somnolent inglorious servitude. From 153o until 1796, that is, for a period of nearly three cen turies, the Italians had no history of their own. Italy only too often became the theatre of desolating and distracting wars. But these wars were fought for the most part by alien armies; the points at issue were decided beyond the Alps; the gains accrued to foreign royal families. Italy, intellectually first among the peoples, was now politically and practically last ; and nothing to her historian is more heartrending than to watch the gradual extinction of her spirit in this age of slavery.
In 1534 Alessandro Farnese, who owed his elevation to his sister Giulia, one of Alexander VI.'s mistresses, took the tiara
with the title of Paul III. He conferred the duchy of Parma on his family, and his descendants held it until 1731. Paul M.'s pontificate was further marked by important changes in the Church. In 154o he approved of Loyola's foundation, and se cured the powerful militia of the Jesuit order. The Inquisition was established with almost unlimited powers in Italy, and the press was placed under its jurisdiction. Henceforth it was im possible to publish or to utter a word which might offend the despots of Church or State.
In 1556, Philip II., by the abdication of his father, Charles V., became king of Spain. He already ruled the Two Sicilies and the duchy of Milan. In the next year Ferdinand, brother of Charles, was elected emperor. Gian Pietro Caraffa, who was made pope in 1555 with the name of Paul IV., endeavoured to revive the ancient papal policy of leaning upon France. He encouraged the duke of Guise to undertake the conquest of Naples, as Charles of Anjou had been summoned by his predecessors. But such schemes only led to a languid, lingering Italian campaign, which was settled by Philip's victories over the French at St. Quentin and Gravelines. The peace of Cateau Cambresis, signed in 1559, left the Spanish monarch undisputed lord of Italy. Of free com monwealths there now survived only Venice, which, together with Spain, achieved for Europe the victory of Lepanto in 1573; Genoa, which, after the ineffectual Fieschi revolution in 1547, abode be neath the rule of the great Doria family, and held a feeble sway in Corsica; and the two insignificant republics of Lucca and San Marino.
Rise of Savoy.—The future hope of Italy, however, was grow ing in a remote and hitherto neglected corner. Emmanuel Phili bert, duke of Savoy, represented the oldest and not the least illustrious reigning house in Europe, and his descendants were destined to achieve the unity and independence of Italy (see