Editing Pope Pius V (section)

===Character and policy===
[[File:Ritratto Pio V Pulzone.jpg|thumb|upright|Portrait by [[Scipione Pulzone]], {{circa|1572}}]]
As a young man, Michele Ghislieri was eager to join the [[Inquisition]]. Under [[Pope Paul IV|Paul IV]], he rose to [[Grand Inquisitor]], and from there ascended to the [[papacy]].

Upon election to the papacy as Pius V, Ghislieri immediately started to get rid of many of the extravagant luxuries then prevalent in the court. One of his first acts was to dismiss the papal [[court jester]], and no subsequent pope had one.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Anderson |first1=Robin |title=St. Pius V: His Life, Times, Virtues and Miracles |date=2009 |publisher=Tan Books |isbn=9780895553546}}</ref> He forbade horse racing in [[St. Peter's Square]]. Severe sanctions were imposed against [[blasphemy]], adultery, and sodomy. These laws quickly made Pius V the subject of Roman hatred; he was accused of trying to turn the city into a vast monastery. He was not a hypocrite: in day-to-day life Pius V was highly ascetic. He wore a hair shirt beneath the simple habit of a Dominican friar and was often seen in bare feet.{{sfn|Norwich|2011|p=319}}

It is said that in "the time of a great famine in Rome, he imported grain at his own expense from Sicily and France [...]; a considerable part of which he distributed among the poor, gratis, and sold the rest to the public below cost."<ref>{{Cite book|title=The lives of the fathers, martyrs, and other principal saints|last=Butler|first= Alban|date=1866|publisher=James Duffy|oclc=8698843}}</ref>