At the same epoch, the foreigners who dominated Italy, threw themselves with the enthusiasm of fanaticism into this Revival.

Spain furnished Rome with the militia of the Jesuits and with the engines of the Inquisition.

The Papacy was thus able to secure successes in Italy which were elsewhere only partially achieved.

It followed that the moral, social, political and intellectual activities of the Italians at this period were controlled and colored by influences hostile to the earlier Renaissance.

Italy underwent a metamorphosis, prescribed by the Papacy and enforced by Spanish rule.