Ben.' _Opere_, vol.iv.p.

161), that no reform, with regard to the tenure of benefices, residence, pluralism, etc., which the Council had decided, was adopted without qualifying expedients which neutralized its spirit.

If the continuance of benefices _in commendam_ ceased, the device of _pensions_ upon benefices was substituted; and a thousand pretexts put colossal fortunes extracted from Church property, now as before, into the hands of Papal nephews.
Witness the contrivances whereby Cardinal Scipione Borghese enriched himself in the Papacy of Paul V.The Council had decreed the residence of bishops in their sees; but it had reserved to the Pope a power of dispensation; so that those whom he chose to exile from Rome were bound to reside, and those whom he desired to have about him were released from this obligation.

On each and all delicate points the Papacy was more autocratic after than before the Council.

One of Sarpi's letters (vol.i.p.