Continues with things noted at the pope’s solemn Masses and elsewhere

This chapter provides an account of things noted by the Japanese travellers at the pope’s solemn Masses. Although papal receipts increased steadily throughout the 16th century so too did papal expenditures, notably costs relating to papal borrowing and debt servicing, subsidies to foreign Catholic rulers to advance foreign policy objectives, and outlays for construction works in Rome and elsewhere in the Papal States. In addition, the running costs of the papal palace were high even if Gregory XIII and his successor Sixtus V were more frugal than some of their predecessors. The catacombs had been venerated by pilgrims until the 9th century and after that largely forgotten, although some were still visited. The discovery of an impressive catacomb on the Via Salaria in 1578 caused a sensation and reminded people that there had been a previous long history of church persecution and martyrdom.