Despite the heavy labors and anxieties of his office, his piety did not diminish. he abolished lavish feasts and the use of fancy carriages by cardinals. He visited churches barefoot and cared for the poor and sick of Rome. An English nobleman was converted to the faith upon seeing this holy man kiss the feet of a beggar who was covered in ulcerous sores. He also fought German emperor Maximilian II's attempt to abolish celibacy among the clergy, excommunicated Elizabeth I for her imprisonment of Mary Stuart and her attacks upon the catholic faithful in England, and helped stem the tide of the Turkish threat from the east.