said his Carriage was lookt upon to be insolent and proud but it was born with because he was of the darling Faction The Spaniards again bring about the question of the Divine Right of Episcopacy None of those difficulties could dishearten the Spaniards they stood their ground still and Gilberto de Nogueras Bishop of Aliphe started the question again about the Divine Right of Episcopacy He confirmed his opinion by strong Arguments and then proved it to be false that the power of the Church was put into the hands of a single Person he went on and said that the Popes power did not extend to the annulling of Canons and abolishing of Laws and thereupon began to quote the Canons alledged dy Gratian wherein the Ancient Popes acknowledged themselves subject to the Decrees of the Fathers and of their Predecessours But the Cardinal of Warmia one of the Legates interrupted him saying that the question was about the Superiority of Bishops over Priests and that he digressed The Bishop of Aliphe made answer that since they were treating of the Authority of Bishops it was no digression to speak of the power of the Pope who was a Bishop The Archbishop of Granada rose up and made answer in a higher strain he said that others had talked enough of the Pope's Authority and spoke things which were not onely superfluous but pernicious He glanced at the Speech of the General Lainez who had struck down the Bishops and Council under the Pope's Feet The Bishop della Cava the hottest always of the Romish Faction made answer that they who had spoken of it spoke as became them and not as the Bishop of Aliphe Cardinal Simoneta made a sign to the Bishop della Cava to hold his peace and silence being made the Bishop of Aliphe began again But when they perceived that he persisted to cite Canons to prove that the Pope is subject to the Laws the Legate of Warmia interrupted him a second time and so he was forced to hold his tongue and give place to Antonio Maria Salviati Bishop of St. Paul in France who by an exhortation to meekness and peace endeavoured to allay the heats of those Commotions In the Congregation of the fourth of December the Cardinal of Lorrain delivered his opinion concerning the question whether Episcopacy be of Divine or Humane Right He proved by divers passages of the Ancients which made them admire his Memory that it is of Divine Right But on the other hand he alledged several instances of Bishops who had owned that they held all their Authority from the Holy See so that his discourse was so wavering and so full of uncertainty and ambiguity that it was manifest enough he had no mind to declare his positive opinion concerning that Point But the French Prelates who spoke after him were far more sincere and bold for they declared frankly for the Divine Right nevertheless they concluded with the Cardinal that according to their Judgment it was not absolutely necessary to determine that question in the Council So that the first part of their discourse displeased the Legates and Pope's Pensioners and the latter part the Spaniards The truth is the Spaniards and French drove at the same end to wit the maintaining the Authority of Bishops against the ambitious enterprises and covetous self-interessed Practices of the Court of Rome But they took different ways to doe this according to the different humours of their Countrey The Spaniards who are close and cunning were for striking at the root of the Pope's Authority by hidden Mines and were perswaded that if it were one declared that Episcopacy and Residence are of Divine Right the Episcopal Order would retrieve its Credit with the People and so they might with success withstand the attempts made by the Court of Rome upon the Persons and Rights of the Bishops But the French on the other hand who are brisk and forward have not commonly such distant Views nor are they very skilfull in those Politick fetches which are proper to the Italians and Spaniards they shoot streight at the mark and sometimes offend by too great sincerity or to word it better they many times hinder the success of their own designs by imprudent discoveries They judged it therefore necessary without farther Mystery to have it defined that a Council is Superiour to the Pope or at least to have it enacted that the Pope may not dispense with nor derogate from the Canons The Spaniards wished with all their hearts that these Decisions could have been obtained from the Council but they thought it impossible nor could they find a fair occasion to state the Question nor any Pretext to quarrel with the Pope's Authority since they admit of the Council of Florence whereas the French receive the Council of Basil which hath placed a Council above the Pope and reject that of Florence The Cardinal of Lorrain essays means to compose the Controversie about the Divine Right of Episcopacy but is slighted and the Cardinal is angry The Cardinal of Lorrain proposed a new form of Decree to try if he could put an end to that Controversie these words established by Divine Right were not in it but in place of them he put instituted by Jesus Christ The Legates dispatched a Courier to Rome with a Copy of the Cardinal's Draught and the observations of some Doctours of the Canon Law upon it The Cardinal complained of that procedure that having given them the project of a Decree before it had been proposed in Congregation they had so far abused his Confidence and thereupon took occasion to expostulate with them for the unjust Jealousies which the Italians conceived of the French and for the impertinent Proverb that was often in their mouth from the Spanish Scab we are fallen into the French Disease for so they call that foul Distemper which the French call the Neapolitan Disease The French being netled at these Railleries and besides intending to prosecute their design of bringing the Pope under the Power of a Council resolved among themselves to speak more boldly in the Congregation of the seventeenth of December Lansac who set them upon it being unwilling that the Legates should be surprised gave them a hint of it by telling the Bishop of Avranches who was to speak that he should deliver his opinion freely A free Discourse of the Bishop of Avranches and that the King his Master was powerfull enough to bear him out in it The Bishop spoke and not onely proved Episcopacy to be of Divine Right but that the Authority of the Pope differed onely in Degree from that of Bishops that it is circumscribed by the Boundaries of Canons and praised the Custome of the Parliaments of France which declare Bulls that are contrary to the Canons to be abusive and prohibit the Execution of them This Discourse was impatiently heard but it was winked at and the Pope's Party took care for the future to speak with greater
contracted by the Children of Persons of Honour and Quality without the Consent of their Parents as well for strengthening Paternal Authority as for preventing the Mischiefs which many times attend such Marriages The Divines of the second Chamber examined the third and fourth Articles which concerned Divorce Polygamy and the Prohibition to marry in certain times Father Soto a Spanish Jacobin maintained that it was not lawfull to dissolve a Marriage nay not for the Cause of Adultery He confessed that married Folks might be separated from bed and board but not so as to allow those who are so separated to marry with others he alledged that to be the meaning of St. Paul when he permits married Believers to remain separated in case their unbelieving Wives will not live with them He gave several interpretations to the words of Jesus Christ which seem to allow a Divorce for the Cause of Adultery but stuck to none of them which was a great Argument that he was not so clear in that Point as he would have seemed to be As to Polygamy he proved is to be contrary to the Law of Nature and for the Prohibitions to marry in certain times he said there was no need to make a grievance of that seeing it was easie to obtain a Dispensation from the Bishop to marry in prohibited times About the substance of the question there was no great dispute but the Spanish Divines caught hold of that occasion to speak of the necessity of the Residence of Bishops that they might be able to give Dispensations with Prudence Wisedom and with Knowledge of the Cause Upon naming the Tie that is betwixt a Husband and a Wife which is like to that whereby a Bishop is united to his Church a Cordelier named John Ramirez took occasion to speak again about Residence and shew'd that it was no more in the Pope's Power to draw a Bishop from his See and translate him into another than to snatch a Husband from his Wife The Pope's Party on the contrary took occasion to speak of the Sovereign Authority of the Holy See upon account that the two Articles which were under Debate stand condemned in the Decretals of Popes They magnified that Authority beyond all bounds and stretched it even to the dispensing against Canons against the Ordinances of the Apostles and against all the Laws of God They alledged the Canon Si Papa which runs in these terms If one surprise the Pope neglecting his own Salvation and that of his Brethren unfruitfull and remiss in his works concealing the good which does most hurt to his own and the Salvation of others though he lead to Hell innumerable crouds of People there to be eternally punished with him Decret Grat. Dist 40. Nevertheless no man ought to undertake to reprove him or punish him for his faults because he who ought to judge all the World ought not to be judged by any unless it be found that he errs in the Faith A Decision attributed to one Boniface a Martyr and Archbishop of Mentz When the second Chamber had spoken the Legates past by the third and came to the fourth because they had promised the Cardinal of Lorrain not to meddle with the Celibat of Priests the Examination whereof was committed to the third Chamber The business of the fourth Chamber was to treat of the Degrees of Consanguinity and John de Verdun a French Benedictine giving his opinion upon the matter took in hand to refute what had been said in favour of the Pope about Dispensations and spoke all that he durst to weaken the Papal Authority He acknowledged that in Humane Laws there was occasion for Dispensations because Legislatours cannot foresee all Cases but he absolutely denied that the Law of God could be dispensed with The Pope said he is not Master and the Church is not his Servant and Dispensations ought onely to be the Explanations of Laws and by Consequence ought not to overthrow them so that the Pope by dispensing cannot take off the obligation that lies upon men to obey the Law James Alain a Divine of the Bishop of Vannes spoke with the same vigour and sunk the Authority of the Pope below a Council affirming that the Power of dispensing was properly given to the Church The Emperour much dissatisfied with the Council and the Pope consults about important Points which concerned the Authority of the Pope and the Liberty of the Council and not immediately to the Pope Whilst these questions were debated amongst the Divines the Prelates minded other Affairs Commendene Bishop of Zante whom the Legates had sent to the Emperour returned to Trent without any Success in his Negotiation for the Emperour desired time to answer the Propositions which the Legates had made to him However this Deputy found that the Emperour was extremely dissatisfied with the Council and that he was resolved to take some Course to remedy the Disorders that reigned in it that he intended to demand a very considerable Reformation and to settle it so firmly that none should be able to shake it He told the Presidents also that he made no doubt but that the Spaniards had intelligence with the Emperour because the Count de Luna designed for the Embassie of Trent had answered those who complained of the boldness of the Spanish Bishops that he could not meddle in it and that these Prelates spoke according to their Conscience They were therefore satisfied in General that the Emperour aimed at great matters but could not precisely tell what they might be These Secrets were not long shrouded under the veil of secrecy for one Father Camisco a Jesuit and another Father Nattale sent from Trent to Inspruck by General Lainez sounded the bottom of these Mysteries They found that the Emperour had proposed seventeen Articles to be consulted by his Divines and Counsellours For instance Whether it was convenient that the Pope should be so much Master of the Council as he was so that nothing should be proposed nor concluded but what the Court of Rome pleased Whether the Pope happening to die the Election of his Successour did not belong to the Council What is the Power of the Emperour when the See is vacant and the Council open Whether Ambassadours ought not to have a deliberative Vote in Council when they treat of matters that regard the Peace of Christendom Whether the Pope could dissolve or suspend the Council without the Consent of the Emperour and Christian Princes Whether it ought to be suffered that the Legates alone should have the Power of proposing What means ought to be used to set the Council at Liberty and to prevent all violence and fraud therein What Course ought to be taken to repress the insolence of the Italians who stopt all deliberations and to prevent their private Cabals By what means ought the Court of Rome to be hindered from ordering what is to be done in the Council And whether it would consist with the Majesty of
and Tyranny could make use of What then had been done or rather what had not been done if as the Protestants desired the Pope's Authority had been directly struck at and the subversion of his Grandeur openly attempted If the Council of Trent had but only offered at what was actually done by the Council of Constance that is the declaring of the Pope to be subject to the Council the Court of Rome would rather have set all Christendom in confusion that have suffer'd it The Presidents had express Orders if that Point came at all into question immediately to break up the Council and return to Rome reason 7 7. Seventh cause of Rejection The Council of Trent hath erred even by the Confession oâ— those that would have us submit to it But I would very fain know why we should be obliged to receive the Decisions of the Council of Trent since the Roman Church her self does not receive them Why should it be expected from us that we should look upon this Council as Infallible when thousands of the Roman Communion do believe that the Council hath de facto erred and in consequence of that Belief do refuse to submit to it and daily reject its Canons This last reason for our rejecting that Council is indeed of high importance we shall therefore enlarge a little upon it and evidently make it appear that those that would exact of us a Submission to this Council have themselves no regard to its Authority and that upon the score of its having erred I shall not press upon the Council for having forbid Non-Residence under grievous Penalties which yet is now universally connived at for having forbidden Pluralities and yet there are now no Eminent Prelats but are guilty of it for having forbidden to give Dispensations but in Cases of great moment and yet now at Rome they are denied to none but to such as want Mony that matter of mighty moment for which only they are granted For I very well know that to these and to a hundred other particulars in which I could instance it will presently be replyed that they are Corruptions indeed but that those Corruptions indeed but that those Corruptions do not hinder the Decrees of the Council from being just and good And the Popes Flatterers will add that he is not bound by the Decrees of the Council but has Power to dispence with the Canons when he thinks fit But I speak of Decrees made by this Council and rejected by an infinite number of People Decrees that never were suffered to take place in France after all the endeavors of the Court of Rome The French Kings their Parliaments and Bishops dislike several things in the Decrees of this Council Reasons why the Council of Trent is not received in France 1. That the Council hath done and suffered many things that suppose and confirm a Superiority of the Pope over Councils 2. That it hath confirmed the Papal Encroachments upon Ordinaries Ses 2. Res. c. 8. by Exemption of Chapters and Privileges of Regulars who are both withdrawn from Episcopal Jurisdiction 3. That it hath not restored to the Bishops certain Functions appertaining to their Office and taken from them otherwise than to execute them as Delegates of the See of Rome 4. That it hath infringed the Privileges of Bishops of being judged by their Metropolitan and the Bishops of the Province by permitting a Removal of great Causes to Rome and giving Power to the Pope to name Commissioners to judg the Accused Bishop 5. That it hath declared that neither Princes Magistrates nor People are to be consulted in the placing and setling of Bishops 6. That it hath empowered Bishops to proceed in their Jurisdictions by Civil Pains by Imprisonment and by Seisure of Temporalties 7. That it hath made Bishops the Executors of all Donations for Pious Uses 8. That it hath given them a superintendency over Hospitals Colleges and Fraternities with Power of disposing their Goods and Revenues notwithstanding that those matters had been always managed by Lay-men 9. That it hath ordained that Bishops shall have the examining of all Notaries Royal and Imperial with Power to deprive or suspend notwithstanding any Opposition or Appeal 10. That it hath given Power to Bishops with consent of two Members of their Chapter and of two of their Clergy to take and retrench part of the Revenue of Hospitals nay to take away Feodal Tithes belonging to Lay-men 11. That it hath made Bishops the Masters of Foundations of Piety as Churches Chappels and Hospitals so as that those that have the care and Government of them are obliged to be accomptable to the Bishops 12. That in confirming Ecclesiastical Exemptions it hath wholly ascribed to the Pope and the Spiritual Judges all Power of judging the Causes of accused Bishops as if Sovereign Princes had lost the Right they have over their Subjects as soon as they became Ecclesiasticks 13. That it hath empowered the Ordinaries and Judges Ecclesiastical in quality of Delegates of the Holy See to enquire of the Right and Possession of Lay-Patronages and to quash and annul them if they were not of great necessity and well founded 14. That in prohibiting Duels it had declared that such Emperor King or Prince as should shew favour to Duelling should therefore be Excommunicated and deprived of the Seignory of the Place holding of the Church where the Duel was sought 15. That it hath permitted the Mendicant Fryars to possess Immoveables 16. That it hath ordained an Establishment of Judges it calls Apostolick in all Dioceses with Power to judg of Spiritual and Ecclesiastical matters in prejudice of the Ordinaries 17. That it hath declared that Matrimonial Causes are of the Churches Jurisdiction 18. That it hath enjoyned Kings and Princes to leave Ecclesiasticks the free and intire Possession of the Jurisdiction granted them by the Holy Canons and General Councils that is to say Usurped by the Clergy over the Civil Power These are the principal Points disputed in France Those that tend to the diminution of the Authority and Privileges of Bishops to enlarge the Roman Power are rejected by the Bishops and those that would extend the Power of Bishops to the prejudice of the Civil Authority are rejected by the Parliaments Between both this Council as enacting contrary to the Rights and Liberties of the Gallican Church was never at all received in France so as to obtain the force of a Law Why then should that Assembly give Law to us Protestants that is rejected by so great a part of the Church of Rome If it hath not erred why do Roman Catholicks as they will be termed refuse to receive it And if it hath erred what reason is there to press us to receive it I know what is answered to this that matters of Faith and of Discipline must be distinguished that the Council did not nor could not err in matters of Faith and Doctrine and that it was only mistaken in points
all the Magistrates of the Christian World do affirm the Council to have erred That Exemptions of Ecclesiasticks is a point of Doctrine wherein it is confessed that the Council erred I go on to the Exemptions of Ecclesiasticks which are of near affinity to the preceding Article The Bishops of the Council of Trent in the Decree we just spake of by them intitled the Reformation of Princes had made little Sovereigns of the Clergy independent of the Secular Power exempted from pleading before a Temporal Judge for whatsoever Cause or Crime 'T is true this Decree did not pass by reason of the great opposition made by the Ambassadors But the Council endeavoured to supply the matter for in the twentieth Chapter of General Reformation in the 25th Session it ordains that the Immunities Exemptions and Privileges of Ecclesiasticks be ratified and confirmed to them according to the Constitutions of Popes and Councils and according to the holy Canons Now these Constitutions and these Canons the observance whereof it commands are those that withdraw Ecclesiasticks from the Power of Secular Judgment and subject them only to the Judges of the Church And indeed since the Council the Clergy have with the utmost vigour endeavoured the maintaining themselves in the possession of these Privileges Every body knows the famous Quarrel that upon this occasion happened between Pope Paul V. and the Venetians and made so great a noise in the beginning of this present Century The Republick of Venice in the year 1605. made a Law forbidding Ecclesiasticks to acquire Lands and fixt Possessions and before that there was another Law in force restraining the building of Churches Hospitals and Monasteries without leave obtained of the Senate At the same time the Republick caused to be imprisoned Brandolino Valde-Marino Abbot of Nerveze and Scipione Saracino Canon of Vicenza the first as being guilty of Rapine and Theft accused oâ— poysoning his Father and his Brother oâ— Incest with his Sister of having caused several Persons to be assassinated and oâ— employing Magick to corrupt Womenâ— the second for having broken off the Seal put upon the Bishops Court by the Magistrates and for attempting the chastity of a Widow of Quality with most villaâ—nous outrages Pope Paul V. looked up on these Laws and the imprisoning of thesâ— Men as breaches of the Privileges of thâ— Clergy that the Council of Trent haâ— confirmed He commanded the Venetian to abrogate these Laws and to send thâ— two Prisoners to be tryed by the Nuncâ— at Venice forasmuch as the proceeding of the Republick in this matter was contrary to the Canons and Constitutions of the Councils And upon the Republicks refusing to do it in the year 1606. he thundred his Bull of Excommunication and Interdiction against it The business was made up in the year 1607. by the mediation of the King of France and by the negotiation of Cardinal de Joyeuse and Cardinal du Perron The Interdict was taken off but the Republick was obliged to give up the Prisoners to the Pope and to suspend the execution of those Laws till the Parties that is to say the Church and the State had setled the matter These Ecclesiastical Immunities were things unknown to the Primitive times The great and good Emperour Constantine did in Person or by Commission hear and determine the Crimes of Ecclesiasticks without excepting so much as Cases of Schism and Heresie It is true he established a Tribunal of the Church Sozomer l. 1. c. 9. Eujeb de vita Constant l 4. c. 27. Niceph. l. 7.46 and gave a sort of Jurisdiction to Bishops for the affairs of Ecclesiasticks But still they acted as the Emperours Delegates in those Tribunals and we see that Constantine did often â—re hear Causes wherein the Bishops had before given Sentence Tom. 2. Ep. 162. St. Austin tells us that in the business of the That the diminution of Episcopal Authority is another Point of Doctrine wherein the Council of Trent is acknowledged to have erred It is not extremely necessary to enlarge upon the wrong done by the Council of Trent to Bishops in taking from them the power of hearing all the greater Causes in impowering them in most Episcopal Functions to act only as the Popes Commissaries and in confirming the Privileges of Chapters and Monasteries which dispense them from acknowledging the Ordinaries to be their Superiours The Bishops themselves do sufficiently complain of these wrongs and they have reason for by the Priviledge granted to Monks of immediate depending on the Holy See the great and numerous Congregations of Clugny and of the Cistercians all the Houses of the Mendicants and the new Order of Jesuits are not only withdrawn from Episcopal Jurisdiction but are become so many sworn Enemies to Episcopacy Besides which by the Exemption of Chapters those Assemblies are so many thorns in the Bishops sides giving them a thousand disturbances and tiring them out by their oppositions The accused Bishops are contrary to the Canons forced and dragged to Rome to be tried their Causes are removed from their Metropolitan and Synod of the Province from whom they might expect Justice and those that seek their ruine do procure their Enemies to be named by the Pope for Commissioners to decide their Causes There is an instance of this in the troubles that hapned in France about the Doctrine of Jansenius There were four Bishops that after the condemnation of Jansenius by Innocent X. and Alexander VII kept a wrangling and cavilling a little too long in the Jesuits opinion upon the distinction of Right and Fact to avoid signing of the Formulary The good Fathers procured a Brief from the Court of Rome to interdict them by Commissaries named by the Pope These four Bishops who were the Bishops of Alez of Pamiers of Beauvais and of Anger 's defended themselves against the Interdiction by Circular Letters and by divers publick Writings wherein they cite the Ancient Canons the fifteenth of the Council of Antioch in the year 341. the seventh of the Council of Sardica 351. the Capitula of Adrian I. the Decisions of Leo IV. and of Benedict III. his Successor who lived about the middle of the Ninth Century By all which it appears that accused Bishops to be Canonically condemned ought to be tried by their fellow-Bishops of the same Province They trace the possession of this Right through the following Centuries and at length they shew that the Regulations of the Council of Trent and the Concordat between Francis I. and Leo X. cannot prejudice the Right of the Bishops and so long a Possession for that the Parliaments the Universities and the Clergy of France opposed the Concordat and the Cardinal of Lorrain made opposition in the name of all the Clergy of France then when the Gentlemen of beyond the Mountains made the Decree that impeaches this usage Which say they hath served for a ground of the refusal In the Circular Letter of the four Bishops to all the
Bishops of France p. 8. that this Kingdom hath always made to submit to it and to several other Regulations about Discipline as being found contrary to the Liberties of this Church which the Kings the Clergy and the Parliaments of France have always so carefully preserved These Gentlemen are then persuaded that the Council of Trent hath in this point wronged the Bishops But one cannot commit a Wrong without Injustice nor do an Injustice without Error Whence it follows that it is not to be denied by these Gentlemen but that according to them the Council hath erred Yet still say they it is but an Error in Discipline And still they must give me leave to tell them that this reply is nothing but a meer illusion For it is a real Point of Doctrine to know how far the Rights of Bishops do or do not extend It is a clear Case that all the Grievances the Bishops complain of depend upon the question Whether Bishops were instituted by Jesus Christ and are the Apostles Successors For if Bishops are by Divine Right and not of Papal Institution it is manifest that the Pope cannot deprive them of a power he did not give them nor can so much as lessen that power If a Bishop does jure divino watch over the conduct of those of his Diocess there is no man that by any right can take a part of his Flock from him or forbid him to execute his Pastoral Charge in any instance for no man hath power to alter what God hath established On the contrary if the Pope hath conferred upon Bishops all the Authority they have he may revoke lessen or enlarge it at his pleasure nor could the Bishops then have any cause to complain for he may make use of his just right and power If the Pope be absolute Master of the Church and Bishops but his Substitutes he may proceed judicially against them as he thinks most fit by a Synod by Commissaries or by himself And the Bishops know it very well for the Spanish Bishops who stickled so much in the Council that the Residence and Institution of Bishops might be declared to be jure divino had no other end in it but to strengthen the Episcopal Dignity and shake off the Papal Yoke that oppressed them The Authors of those Writings that have made so much noise in the world about the affair of Signatures are likewise perfectly convinced of this truth For speaking of the wrongs done to Bishops by the Court of Rome they tell us that the Popes Ministers take delight to shew in Act and by Example what the Roman Doctors teach in their Books Circular Letter of the four Bishops p. 15. That the Pope is the absolute Master and Sovereign of the Church That Bishops are but his Vicars holding all their power from him That he either does or does not hearken to them as he thinks fit That if he makes answer when they consult him he does them grace and favour but does them no wrong if he refuse to answer To this erroneous and false opinion of the Doctors Partisans of the Court of Rome they oppose the pure truth of the Gospel that is Page 14. That all Bishops do succeed to the Apostles That the Pope by Divine Right is their Head and Superiour but not the sole Bishop That they derive their power from Christ himself That it is the Holy Ghost that hath set them over the Flock that the Great Shepherd hath acquired by his bloud that each might govern as his Vicar that portion that falls to his lot c. that they are so inferiour to the Pope as to be yet his Brethren and Collegues in that only Episcopat of which each of them holds an intire part according to the Fathers This is truly the state of the Question and can this be thought to be a mere matter of Discipline Or can it be other than a Point of Doctrine When the French and Spaniards did so mightily insist in the Council to have it declared that Bishops are not the Popes Vicars nor set up by him but established by Christ and when on the other side the Partisans of the Court of Rome opposed this design with so much violence every where preaching up the Pope to be the sole Bishop that the Ordinaries are but a succession of Commissaries holding all their Authority from the Holy See was this Controversie considered by the two Parties as a matter of Discipline Was it not considered in the Examen of the Sacrament of Orders which is a Point of Doctrine And not touched in the Chapters of Reformation to which was referred all that concerned Discipline The Bishops could not prevail to have it declared that their Order is by Divine Right but at least they hindred that no Decree was made for declaring them only the Popes Vicars Yet that is of no great service to them for in all the Decrees of the Council they are still treated as the Popes Vicars And it must needs be acknowledged that the Council in declaring that the Pope hath power to abridge the Authority of Bishops to hinder their Episcopal Functions to try them in Person or by his Commissaries hath sufficiently declared them to be no more than his Vicars So we have another Point of Doctrine wherein two thirds of Europe agree that the Council of Trent hath erred That the People ought to have part in Canonical Elections that herein also the Council of Trent hath erred by the Confession of many Roman Catholicks I go on to Canonical Elections Those persons that within thirty or forty years past have made themselves so much talked of in the World for that extraordinary appearance of zeal to restore the ancient lustre of the Church those persons I say do consider this matter of Canonical Elections as a Point of highest importance They lament that favour interest and birth are the only steps that raise to Ecclesiastical Dignities and that the custom of elevating to Prelacy by Election and Canonical ways those who are most worthy of it is now no more in use They complain of it with much grief and know not how to forgive the memory of Chancellour du Prat who is accused to have abolished the Pragmatick Sanction First Dialogue of the Parishioners of Sr. Hil. du Mont. p. 10. that is as they express it The pure observation of the ancient Canons in the Church of France and to have made the Concordat of Francis I. with Leo X. which ruined the Apostolical Discipline in France abolished Canonical Elections and subjected the Church of France to a deplorable servitude They tell us in the marginal refutations of M. d' Ambrun's Petition to the King Page 10. that in several Parish Churches there have been for a long time Publick Prayers to God for the abolishing the Concordat and the re-establishing Canonical Elections We must not say these Gentlemen have reason lest it give offence for if
Rome Whilst they stayed for new Orders from thence they caused some regulations to be made about the manner of proceeding that matters might be carried more orderly It was ordained that for the future three kinds of Congregations should be held one wherein the Divines should examine matters of Doctrine the other for handling the affair of Reformation into which the Doctors of the Canon Law should be admitted and lastly a third sort which was onely to consist of Prelates to form the Decrees concerning Doctrine and Reformation To comply with the Germans who desired that the matter of Reformation of Discipline should be taken in hand before all things else the Legates gave way to the resuming the matter of Lectures and Preaching which had been already moved before the last Session A considerable debate on the subject of Preaching the Mendicant Fryars having invaded the Pulpits and had been referred to another time The great corruption of the Clergy and the supine ignorance of the Priests in past ages was the cause that the Bishops and Priests who had the cure of Souls did wholly abandon the care of instruction and the charge of Preaching The Colleges and Mendicant Fryars seized the Pulpits which they found empty and obtained privileges from Popes to Preach every where without the Permission of the Ordinaries that is of the Bishops and the Monks had now a possession of two or three hundred years to confirm their Title The Bishops bestirred themselves vigorously to recover the possession of their rights and demanded the revocation of those privileges the Monks defended their cause and many writings and great debates were thereupon occasioned on both sides The Divines and Canonists were consulted and most part gave their opinions in writing the Legates in the mean time under pretence that the reading of these Papers would take up too much of the Councils time caused an abstract of them to be made which should be read in a solemn and general Congregation But because that abridgement was probably defective or partial one Braccio Martello Bishop of Fiesole opposed the reading of it and spoke with a great deal of freedom he told them plainly that their deliberations ought not to come packt to them from other places meaning Rome nor that it was fit that two or three Persons should be the sole Arbitrators in all affairs intimating the Legates and that therefore it was necessary that all should hear the reasons and that in their full extent that they might be the more able to comprehend their strength and pass their Judgment upon them in the assembly This discourse choaked the Legates who not onely rebuked him upon the spot but wrote to Rome also to have him banished the Council and the Bishop of Chioza prohibited to return thither any more This last Bishop had had a little too bold dispute with the Legate Pool concerning the opinion of Antony Marinier the Carmelite touching Traditions he had defended the opinion of the Carmelite complaining that there was no liberty allowed in the Council and in consequence of that he had absented himself presently after the Session under pretence of being indisposed The Pope however was more prudent than the Legates for though he was no less resolved than they to oppress the liberty of the Council yet he thought it fit to observe measures and to wink at the actions of those two Bishops The abstract was then read notwithstanding the opposition of the Bishop of Fiesole and the Bishops alledged their reasons upbraiding the predicant Monks with Avarice with the Collections and Alms which they erogated under colour of Preaching and instructing Souls The Monks on the other hand pleaded that they could not be accused of Usurpation since by permission from the chief Pastor of the Church they had stept into the Pulpits which they found forsaken This Article as well as others must wait for its decision from Rome The Pope wrote to the Legates that they should endeavour to maintain the privileges of the Universities and Monks but withall find out some expedient to satisfie the Bishops But if the Bishops intended to make themselves absolute Masters within their Diocesses to the prejudice of the exemptions granted by the Popes that they should not fail to oppose it and to defend the Monks against the Bishops because the Monks depending immediately on the holy See have been always the chief supports of its Authority and have been very usefull for bringing down the Bishops The expedient which was at length found was to re-establish according to the ancient custome in Cathedral Churches a Doctor of Divinity for reading of Lectures The name of that office was still in being in Cathedral Churches for there was one in the chapter called the Scholasticus to whose office there was a Prebend annexed as being chief of the Lecturers and he himself ought to be a Professour of Divinity the superintendance of that affair was without any difficulty granted to the Bishops But it was not so easie a matter to allow them the same power over Monasteries wherein they also intended to re-establish the custome of Lectures of Divinity for instructing those to House The Legates could not endure that the Bishops should have the oversight of that though the business was not about the Mendicant Fryars but onely simple Monks for fear of detracting from the privileges that had been granted by the Popes and of emancipating the Monasteries from the holy See to subject them again to the Bishops Whilst they were sticking at this point A considerable overture of Sebastiano Pighino for contenting the Bishops without diminishing the Authority of the holy See Sebastiano Pighino Auditour of the Rota made an overture that brought the Council out of these difficulties His opinion was that the Bishops ought to have power to re-establish the Lectures of Theology in Monasteries not in quality of Bishops but as Delegates of the holy See that is to say that they should act in that affair by the Pope's Authority and as it were in his name It is incredible of what use this invention was in the sequel of the Council and it was a fetch always employed when any thing was to be restored to the Bishops without diminution of the Authority which the Pope had usurped over them That so well contrived expedient was presently laid hold of for it was Enacted that Parochial Churches united to Monasteries and which depended on no Diocess should for the future be under the Direction of the Metropolitan as Delegate of the holy See In like manner because there were Preachers who had obtained privileges from Rome to answer to none but the Pope it was ordained that they might be punished by the Bishops in the same quality of Commissioners delegated by the Pope As to the matter of Preaching the privilege was continued to the Monks but to give some satisfaction to the Bishops it was ordained that it should be in their power to admit or reject
the Caution and Circumspection that he could he got a promise from Charles that he would maintain the dignity of the holy See which the Emperour gave with Complements that had perhaps more of Civility than Sincerity They were somewhat apprehensive at Rome that the Choice of the place would not please the King of France because he had no reason to take it well to see a Council held in Germany by reason of the Clashings that he had with the Emperour Nevertheless Trivulcio Bishop of Tolon the Nuncio sent about that affair did so well acquit himself of the Commission that he had to manage the King of France that he compassed his ends he prevailed with him to accept of the Place and engaged him to defend the Papal Authority if the Imperialists should attempt the lessening of it year 1550 At the same time the Emperour held a Diet at Ausbourg whither the Bishop of Siponto came to wait on him in name of the Pope to bring him his consent to the return of the Council to Trent and to demand some things of him First because that the place might be suspected by the French that the Emperour would give that Nation all the security that might reasonably be demanded to the end that they might send their Prelates to the Council as he on his part had promised Henry that the Council should make no Impeachments of the Liberties of the Gallicane Church Secondly that the Actions of the Council might be hastened on to lessen the great expence that the Pope was at during the sitting of it Thirdly that he would oblige the Protestants to submit to it and to receive the Decisions which had been already past therein And in the fourth place that he would be pleased to take upon him the Care of maintaining the Authority of the holy See against the attempts of so many ill affected People As to the first the Emperour answered that it was just that France should have all manner of satisfaction To the second that it was very reasonable that the Council should be employed in business so long as it continued To the third that in the last Diet he had obtained the consent of the Protestants to submit to the Council but that it was not time to discourse the Question to wit whether the things that have been decided might be reviewed or not that that was more proper to be handled in the Council And as to the last his Answer was that he had always been the Protectour of the Dignity of the holy See and that he would still continue to be so The Pope was not very well satisfied with the Answer to the third Article For the Court of Rome was resolved never to consent that the matters decided in the former Sessions should be again reviewed and according to the Answer of Charles the Pope was afraid that his design was to favour the Lutherans who demanded the revising of the Decrees But he dissembled his thoughts as to the answer and acted as if that Article had been really concluded and upon that foot formed the Bull of Convocation Charles continued the Diet at Ausbourg and pressed the Protestants hard to confirm the promise that they made him of submitting to the Council But the Ambassadours of some Protestant Princes and amongst others of the Electour of Saxony declared that they could not submit to it unless these conditions were granted them 1. That the Decrees which had been made at Trent might be reviewed 2. That the Council should be free 3. That the Protestant-Divines might have a Vote in it 4. That the Pope should not preside therein 5. That the Bishops should be freed from the Oath which they had taken to the Pope However the greatest part of the Protestants pretended to submit to the Council with less Limitation because at that Diet as at the former the Emperour was in arms and they had not liberty to speak what they thought The Emperour had desired of the Pope that he would send him the Minute of the Bull of Convocation before he published it But the Pope would not as not thinking it consistent with his Dignity nor the Character of Head of the Church to submit the Examination of Bulls before they were formed to the Judgment and Censure of a Secular Prince He sent it him dated closed up and sealed but not as yet published The Bull of Convocation was sent to the Emperour who did not presently propose it to the Protestants because it was too high and lofty It was not presently communicated to the Protestants because the Emperour thought that it would onely serve to incense them the more seeing the Pope extremely magnified his Authority therein He called himself the Vicar of Jesus Christ and took solely to himself the power of calling and presiding in Councils The Emperour used all the interest that he could at Rome with the Pope to make him alter it but the Pope continued firm and inflexible in his resolution and fell even into a kind of Passion when the proposal was made to him And that he might put a stop to the Suits and Importunities that were made to him about that affair he published a Brief for the Publication and Confirmation of the Bull causing both of them to be affixed on the Gates of the Churches of St. Peter and St. John of Lateran The Emperour therefore finding that he could obtain nothing caused the Bull to be read in the Diet where it produced the very effects which he had foreseen The Protestants recalled their promise and the Catholicks themselves condemned that haughty and lofty Conduct at so unseasonable a time Charles essayed to allay the disorders promising positively that notwithstanding the expressions in the Bull he would so order matters that all even the Protestants themselves should receive satisfaction he past his word that he would keep himself within near distance of the Council where he might have an Eye upon the Conduct and Proceedings of that Assembly And so on the thirteenth of February 1551. the Recess of the Diet was made the Conclusion whereof was that after the re-establishment of the Council at Trent all Germany should with a submissive spirit expect what should there be decreed that the Emperour should be there and give orders that all might freely propose what they had to say and that he should bring matters so about that the Controversies should be decided by the Scriptures and Fathers That did not at all please the Court of Rome and they easily perceived that that Edict was made to lash the Bull. The Pope in the Bull declared that he alone had Right to govern the Council to preside therein and to prescribe the manner of proceeding and the Emperour in the Recess engaged himself to govern the Council according as the should think convenient Nay more he promised therein matters which he could not perform without obliging the Council to follow a Conduct quite opposite to that which
Deacon three Bishops whereas for Consecrating a Bishop three are sufficient and one for Ordaining a Priest How difficult a matter was it to get so many Bishops together and how chargeable must that be especially in Germny where Bishops are very thin and at a great distance one from another These Degradations were performed with great Ceremonies in Pontifical Habit and extraordinary concourse of People The matter was very long canvassed but the Council Judged it not expedient to abolish the use of Degradations onely it was thought fit to find out some way of facilitating them that they might be done with less trouble Whilst the Council was thus taken up the Cardinal Legate had time to receive news from Rome So soon as it came without telling the Council that he had written and without communicating his answers he called the General Congregation and had it concluded according as it was resolved by the Pope that they should grant the Protestants a safe Conduct in general terms and that they should refer the point of the Cup to another Session Amongst the points that were to be handled again the Communion of young Children was one and the Article of retrenching the Cup was divided into three others thereby to multiply them and that they might not be necessitated to resume a Controversie which had already been decided for one point omitted or forgot session 13 Thirteenth Session the eleventh of October 1551 The eleventh of October the Session was held with the usual Ceremonies Mass was said by the Bishop of Majorca and the Sermon Preached by the Archbishop of Torne Then were read the Decree the Chapters of Doctrine the Canons and the Anathema's for asserting the Real Presence the Sacramental Manducation Transubstantiation the Concomitancy the Adoration of the Sacrament the Reservation of the Kinds the Necessity of Confession and the other points that were opposed by the Lutherans and Protestants The Decree of Reformation began with a grave Exhortation to Bishops to use their Jurisdiction moderately then it ordained that it should not be lawfull to Appeal from the Judgment of Bishops before Definitive Sentence That when there is place for an Appeal and that the Pope shall grant Commission in partibus that is on the Places that none shall be Commissionated but the Metropolitan or his great Vicar and if they be suspected that none can be Commissionated but neighbouring Bishops To lessen the difficulty of Degradations it ordained that one Bishop with as many Abbots as the Canons required Bishops might Degrade Clerks To satisfie the Bishops as to Exemptions it ordained that the Bishops might Judge of these Exemptions and of Favours obtained upon false Suggestions and annull them in quality of Subdelegates of the holy See But the Council reserved to the Pope the Cognisance of greater Causes and that the Causes of Bishops wherein the nature of the crime required Personal appearance should be brought before the Pope and be determined by him In the same Decree of Reformation there were some other Regulations that tended a little to the satisfaction of the Bishops that they might the more casily bear the Yoke of the Church of Rome but in all those places where any thing of Authority was granted them they had no power to act but in quality of the Delegates of the holy See After that a Decree for deferring the Article of the Cup and the Safe-conduct which the Council granted the Protestants were publickly read The Ambassadours of the Electour of Brandenburg a Protestant Prince appear at the Council At the same Session appeared Christopher Strasfen and John Hofman Ambassadours from Joachim Electour of Brandenburg a Protestant Prince Christopher Strasfen one of the Ambassadours made a long speech wherein in very civil but general terms he assured the Fathers of the Council of the respect his Master had for them and mentioned nothing at all of the matter of Religion The Council made answer by their Promooter and amongst other things told him that with much Joy the Fathers had heard from his mouth that that Prince submitted to the Council and promised to obey its Decrees In the mean while the Ambassadour had said no such thing but they thought they had gained a great point in so interpreting the Complements and civil Expressions that the Ambassadour had made use of All men made observations upon the Conduct of the Electour and the Council It was easily perceived that the Electour intended to observe the best measures he could with the Council that the Court of Rome might not cross the Election of his Son Frederick to the Archbishoprick of Magdebourg which had been made by the Chapter but the prudence of the Council was much more admired who had so dextrously turned the sense of the Electour's Complements to an engagement of submission According to the intimation that was made to the Abbot of Bellosana they intended to have given an answer to the King of France but no Abbot appeared he returned by order of his Master immediately after he had made his Protestation It was not the mind of the Court of France that the Ambassadour should expect the Session to enter into a debate which could not in the conclusion but be of troublesome consequence since the Pope and Spaniards who were the Parties in that affair must also have been the Judges The Apparitours made a Proclamation at the Church-door that if any one was there for the most Christian King he should appear but though no man appeared yet the answer was read which contained Complaints of the King's proceedings and Protestations on the part of the Council that they wore not assembled upon any private interest but for the general good of all Christendom and the extirpation of Heresies after all they prayed him to send his Prelates to the Council not to make use of any other means but to think of his Name of the most Christian King and to sacrifice his particular Quarrels to the general good of Christendom The Decrees of the Session were forthwith printed and all People reflected upon them according to their several Passions and Interests The Protestants failed not to observe a contradiction betwixt the first Chapter of Doctrine and the sourth with the second Canon In the first Chapter the Council saith that hardly can one express the manner of the Real Presence of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist and in the sourth Chapter it saith that that manner hath been convenienter proprie called Transubstantiation and in the second Canon the Council saith that it is apâ—issime called so it was likewise thought that the Council had made use of a kind of an improper and incommodious expression as to the point of Consecration because it says that Jesus Christ after the Benediction declared that that which he gave was his Real Body which seems to insinuate that the change was made by the Benediction so that these words This is my Body could be no more but a
of a peculiar Gift and Character These Points were handled in so dry knotty and tedious a manner that the Prelates who were present at the Disputations were quite sick of them and that made them resolve to be short about these differences and to define nothing but in general terms The sixth Article concerned the Unctions and the other Ceremonies of Ordination to know whether they were essential to that Sacrament That was not so easily agreed upon All the Divines were satisfied indeed to make a distinction betwixt those which were of absolute necessity and those which were less necessary but when it came to be determined which were the less necessary Ceremonies opinions varied extremely A Portuguese Divine Doctor of the Canon Law called Melchior Cornelio shew'd that the Imposition of hands was the onely Ceremony that could be termed essential because the Apostles made use of it and never gave Ordination without that Imposition He went a little farther and proved that that Ceremony was not of absolute necessity because the most famous Doctors of the Canon Law such as Hostiensis Johannes Andreas and others do affirm that the Pope can confer Orders by saying onely Be thou a Priest Innocent IV. Who is reckoned the Father of all the Canonists and who hath made an Apparatus upon the Decretals saith the same that a Priest may be made Priest by a word of him that giveth Orders From all which he concluded that it ought not to be defined that these Ceremonies are necessary because the degree of the necessity cannot be limited and that it ought to be enough to condemn those who affirm that they are Superfluous or Pernicious During these Conferences of the Divines the Prelates were busie about the matter of Reformation and had many Conferences among themselves concerning it Every day Assemblies were held upon that Subject at the Solicitation of the Ambassadours of Princes The Imperialists and French were loud in representing their Grievances and spoke of them to so many that it was the whole town-talk in Trent This gave the Legates á great deal of trouble but on the other hand also The Presidents make a Collection of the Demands of the French and Germans for a Reformation and send it to the Pope it did them some good for they were ashamed to see that they were the onely men who opposed that Reformation which all Europe so passionately desired Wherefore at length as if they had resolved to make some steps towards a Reformation they made a Collection of all the Proposals of the Imperialists and French and sent it to Rome that the Pope might give them Orders what to doc about it The Pope was vexed to see the Instructions which the King of France had sent his Ambassadours he designed to put an end to the Council at least with the year and by these instructions he found that not onely they demanded of him a delay but also that they intended still to cut out work for the Council for a long time He had many long Conferences upon that Subject with the Ambassadour of France residing at his Court He told him that when he desired the least compliance from the Fathers of the Council immediately they cried out that he oppressed their Liberty that therefore he could not oblige the Prelates to a delay to which they had a deadly aversion because they were weary of the long stay that they had already made at Trent At the same time he cunningly struck at the Cardinal of Lorrain saying that there was no necessity to wait for him for handling Points of Doctrine which he did not in the least scruple at as being a good Catholick but that it was proper for him to be present at the Reformation that he might come in for his share as being a second Pope who enjoyed near a Million of Livres a year in Church Livings and possest several Benefices whilst he himself being Pope enjoyed but one wherewith he was content that for his part he had not been wanting to reform himself and his Officers that he would doe more still but that such Reformations would sink his Revenues and that the smaller Rents he had the less he would be in a condition to defend the Church against Hereticks He father said that he wished with all his heart that they might come to particulars concerning those abuses of which a Reformation was desired and that then experience would shew that most of them come from Princes because the abuses of the Court of Rome which men kept so great a stir about consisted chiefly in the promotions of undeserving men to great Benefices to which they were presented by Kings and in Dispensations that were extorted from him by the violent solicitations of Princes That the other abuses which were not in the Court of Rome but in the several Provinces of the Church sprung from the same source to wit the had use that Princes made of their Authority in their Presentations to great Benefices The Spaniards find means of having the question examined whether Episcopacy be of Divine Right and thereupon violent debates arise The fourth Congregation of Divines had in charge to examine the Superiority of the Bishop over the Priest At first they made a distinction betwixt the power of Consecrating and Celebrating the Sacrifice and the power of pardoning sins According to the Doctrine of St. Thomas and Bonaventure they said that the power of Consecrating was alike in the Bishop and Priest because in that properly consists the power of Orders but that the power of pardoning sins was greater in the Bishop than in the Priest because that power consists not barely in that which is called the power of Orders but is made up also of the power of Jurisdiction They made several reflexions thereupon which were of no great importance nor occasioned much debate for they all unanimously agreed upon that Superiority of the Bishop over the Priest But the Spaniards had pitcht upon this Article as the most proper to bring in the Question which they intended should be defined in spight of the Legates to wit whether Episcopacy be of Divine Right or not that is to say whether Bishops hold their Authority immediately of Jesus Christ or onely of the Pope They proposed to themselves great advantages from the decision of that Controversie because by having it determined that the Bishop is of Divine Institution and that he derives his Authority from Jesus Christ and not from the Pope they pretended to render their Character more considerable and secure it from the attempts of the Court of Rome For if the Authority of Bishops proceeds immediately from Jesus Christ it follows clearly that men can doe nothing to the prejudice of it And if the Pope be not the Original of that Authority it is evident that he hath no power to lessen it nor to exempt from under it those that are subjected thereunto as he dayly doth The Legates at first were
not sensible of these Consequences and therefore they could not devise from whence sprung that eagerness of the Spaniards upon this Point but they soon smelt it out and vigorously withstood it So then the Spaniards according to their project put their Divines upon the breaking of the Ice and beginning the Dispute Michael Oroncuspe Divine to the Bishop of Pampelona was the first that proposed the matter he alledged that in the design of condemning the Lutherans the question moved properly upon this hinge by what Right Bishops were Superior to Priests that as to the Superiority the Lutherans could not deny it but yet maintained it to be a mere Humane Constitution that if then it were true that that Superiority was a Humane Establishment it would be unreasonable to make it Heresie in the Lutherans that they abolished an Order which was not appointed immediately by God that for his own part he lookt upon it as a most certain truth that a Bishop is Superiour to a Priest by Divine Right but that he could proceed no farther because he was prohibited by the Legates John Fonseca a Divine of the Archbishop of Granada observed not so strict measures He said in the beginning of his discourse that he did not conceive why that question was not allowed to be spoken to and for what reason it could be prohibited He laid open the importance of the matter and proved by Reason by the Fathers and by the Scriptures that Bishops are the Successours of the Apostles as the Pope is of St. Peter that both the one and the other have immediately received their Authority from Jesus Christ as Supreme Courts and Inferiour Judicatures have been alike established by the Prince whence it is that Supreme Courts cannot encroach upon the Authority of Inferiour Judges because the Authority of both flows from the Prince who hath set proper Limits to those several Tribunals Cardinal Simoneta with extreme impatience listened to this discourse which was delivered with as great earnestness He turned several times about to his Collegues and was ready to have interrupted the Divine but he durst not because he saw that all the Prelates heard him with extraordinary attention Anthony Grassâ—t a Jacobin Monk enforced this truth with new Arguments and carried it farther on He affirmed that Bishops were not obliged to give an account of their Administration but to Jesus Christ alone He urged the exhortation of St. Paul to the Bishops of Ephesus that they should feed the Flock over which the Holy Ghost had made them Overseers If it be by the Holy Ghost said he it is not by the Pope He could not forbear to lash out against those who in former Conferences had said that the Pope divides the Flock among the Bishops and said it was to open a door to a kind of Schism which St. Paul found fault with in the Church of Corinth where they said I am of Peter and I am of Paul affirming that all Bishops had right to say with St. Paul for me I am of Jesus Christ He said that the Pope was onely the Minister and Instrument of Jesus Christ and therefore what is done in the Church ought not to be attributed to him but to Jesus Christ who is the Principal Efficient Cause He perceived that his Discourse had been a little too bold and fearing that the Legates might enjoyn him silence and bring him into trouble he therefore made a kind of Apology and said that he had gone farther than he thought to have done and that he had forgot that it had been prohibited to speak to that Point But the Legates saw into the Intrigue and knew it to be a design laid by the Spaniards and particularly the Archbishop of Granada but finding that the discourses that were made had left a deep Impression upon the minds of those that were concerned they thought it necessary to refute reasons by reasons since matters were gone so far Therefore they enjoyned the four Divines who were still to speak to refute the Spaniards and to prove that Bishops hold all their Authority from the Pope and not from Jesus Christ that the onely Episcopacy of Divine Right is that of the Pope who hath received Orders to place Bishops in several Churches and who hath also power to enlarge or restrain their Authority and to depose suspend or translate them to other places When the Disputes of the Divines were over the Legates had a mind to propose the matter of Reformation but they knew not how to set about it They durst not offer at Trifles as had been done in former Sessions and it was very difficult for them to propose important Points there being none wherewith some body would not be displeased The Reformation of the Bishops and Clergy exceedingly pleased the Ambassadours but that displeased the Bishops that which pleased the Bishops and Clergy could not give content to the Ambassadours for that tended to lessen the Power that Princes had acquired over the Clergy by the abolishing of Canonical Elections and by the Right of Nomination to great Benefices And in fine that which might please the Ambassadours and Bishops at the same time displeased the Pope for that tended to the Diminution of the Greatness of the Court of Rome So that being overwhelm'd by these Perplexities they wrote to the Pope giving him notice at the same time that the Spaniards pressed hard to have Episcopacy to be declared of Divine Right They put the Pope also in mind that this was the place where they had promised to state again the Point of the Divine Right of Residence to wit when they treated of the Sacrament of Orders They acquainted him that having sounded the Prelates they found threescore stedfast for the Divine Right of Residence and that there was nothing to be got of them that the Marquess of Pescara had done all that lay in his Power to perswade the Spanish Bishops but without any effect that the Spaniards murmured that there should be a design of referring that Article of Residence to his Holiness as the Point of the Cup had been and said if they intended to go on in that manner it was very needless to call a Council at a great charge for deciding matters of small importance and refer the great affairs to the Pope This advice that came to the Pope from Trent with the news which he received from other places gave him great disturbance For he had certain intelligence from several parts that the Cardinal of Lorrain was coming to the Council with design to have the Election of the Popes so regulated The Cardinal of Lorrain prepares to goe to the Council and the Pope is allarmed at it that the Prelates beyond the Alpes might have a share in that Dignity and be chosen in their turn He was allarmed at this news wrote of it to all the Italian Princes and laid before them what a prejudice it would be to suffer other Nations to share in
mentioned and demanded that it might be declared to be of Divine Right And then he vigorously proved that Bishops hold their Authority from Jesus Christ He brought a great many Arguments from Antiquity to evince that Bishops heretofore did not carry themselves towards the Pope as to a Sovereign Master that they called him their Brother and Collegue and for instance alledged the Letters of St. Cyprian and St. Austin to the Bishops of Rome He refuted smartly and in way of Raillery what the Divines of the Pope's Party said that either the Apostles were made by St. Peter or if they were made by Jesus Christ it was a personal Privilege and ought not to descend to Bishops as the Successours of the Apostles He maintained and explained the opinion of St. Cyprian touching the Episcopat that it is one but that it is divided amongst all Bishops of which every one has an entire share He said that the Pope was a Bishop as he and all others were because they were all Brethren that the Pope indeed was Chief of the College of Bishops but that notwithstanding that Headship he was still their Collegue having received his Authority from one and the same Master The Cardinal of Warmia according to the design that was laid interrupted the Archbishop of Granada telling him that they had no Controversie about that matter with the Lutherans To which the Archbishop replied that it was not so that they had Controversie concerning that with the Lutherans seeing the Confession of Ausburg puts no difference betwixt a Bishop and a Priest but what was a Humane Constitution And so the Legates could not carry the point of imposing silence on the Prelates for the Bishops insisted upon the same Subject and the Archbishops of Zara and Braganza stood stiffly up for the Proposition of Granada that it should be inserted in the seventh Article that the Superiority of the Bishop over the Priest is of Divine Right and maintained this Thesis by several Authorities that the Power of Bishops proceeds immediately from Jesus Christ Nine and fifty Prelates were of the same opinion and the number in all appearance had been much greater had not a great many been absent some because they were really sick and others because they pretended to be so that they might not be concerned in a Dispute that would produce nothing but trouble to those that should speak their mind freely as it had happened in the Debate about Residence The Bishop of the five Churches joyned with the rest in the opinion of the Divine Right of Episcopacy But above all an Hungarian Prelate a Cordelier called George Zischovid Bishop of Seigna delivered his Judgment on that particular in such a manner astunn'd all the Pope's Party For he said that it could never have entered his thoughts that a Council would have called in question whether Bishops were of Divine Institution or not and it was the same thing as if the Council it self should question the Divine Right of its own Authority For if Bishops said he be not of Divine Right the Council is onely an Assembly of Secular men wherein Jesus Christ presides not No man gives that which he hath not the whole is of the same nature with its parts and so by consequence it cannot be said that Councils derive their Authority from God He proceeded and said farther that the Bishops who made up this Council had been very bold to pronounce Anathema's if they thought their Authority to be onely from a man He prosecuted his Argument with so much vigour and made the truth of it so perspicuous that the Assembly was surprised at his Discourse The Legates found now that no means were to be neglected on this occasion they did not at first perceive what was drove at but they quickly came to understand that no less was thereby aimed at than the wresting the Keys out of the Pope's hands and the giving them to all Bishops in General they saw that the design was to make Bishops equal to the Pope onely allowing him the Dignity of Precedency This put them to their shifts how to ward that blow They set their usual Engines to work and solicited the Pope's Creatures to the end they might carry it by Faction and Parties And at the same time to quiet the Spaniards they resolved to grant them somewhat by framing a Canon in these terms that Bishops have from God the Power of Orders without mentioning the Power of Jurisdiction and sent Father Soto to solicite the Spaniards to be satisfied with that but there was nothing to be done with them This method not succeeding the Legates essayed to employ the Fathers about other matters to take their thoughts off from this and at length endeavoured to have the Decision of that Point referred to the Pope Nothing could be done in this unless they could bring over a considerable number of Votes and therefore to perswade some and to give a fair pretext of retractation to others who might be gained by tampering they set on Father Lainez General of the Jesuits This Oratour appeared in the lists with a premeditated Speech and if the truth were known composed by the four Jesuits who were at the Council and especially by Caviglione The Harangue of Lainez General of the Jesuits against the Bishops and the Divine Right of Episcopacy and what it produced That he might have leasure enough to enlarge the Legates designed him the whole time of a Congregation And therefore they made him absent himself from the last Congregation which was to be held upon that Subject and wherein he was to speak the last of all and held a Congregation on purpose to give him a hearing He spoke very handsomely for the space of two hours with a great deal of Rhetorick and Vehemence He laid down for his Point that in the Pope alone all the Power of the Church resides and this he endeavoured to prove by Scripture by the Fathers and by Reason He forgot not the Testimony of St. Cyprian who saith that there is but one onely Episcopat but he turned it into a quite different sense to that which the Archbishop of Granada had given it For he pretended that according to the Judgment of that Saint there is but one Bishop as one Episcopacy and that the Pope is that one Bishop who gives the Administration of the Power wherewith he is invested to others under him as he thinks good He maintained that Jesus Christ gave St. Peter alone the Commission of seeding his sheep when he said to him feed my Lambs and that St. Peter gave it to the rest in these words which are to be read in the fifth Chapter of his first Epistle feed the Flock which is among you that all Authority proceeds from the Pope that though Jesus Christ himself sent out the Apostles yet in that he did the Office of St. Peter that Bishops in all their Actions are no more but the Delegates and Substitutes
moderation The Cardinal of Lorrain as it had been concerted came not to that Congregation wherein the Bishop of Avranches had spoken with so much Liberty and the Pretext he took for his absence was the death of the King of Navarre of which he had the news the same day The death of this Prince was like to have changed the Countenance of the Council for the Cardinal of Lorrain was tempted to return to France because there was like to be a great alteration of Assairs in that Kingdom and he could have been willing to have been there to take a share in the Government The following Congregation was taken up in Ceremonies of Thanksgiving for the Election of Maximilian King of Bohemia who was chosen King of the Romans That was the thing the Emperour had been driving at for a long time and so soon as it was accomplished he entered into Conference with the Protestant Princes to perswade them to submit to the Council They met about it and having consulted together in common they presented to the Emperour the answer which they promised some twenty months before in the Assembly of Naumburg In that answer they declared that from all that was done in the Council of Trent they appealed to a free Council and proposed ten Conditions which they knew well enough would not be granted them upon which they promised to come to the Council and submit to it For instance they demanded that it might not be called by the Pope that he should not preside in it that he should be subject to it that all things should be decided in it by the word of God alone that the Divines of the Ausburg Confession might have a Decisive Vote in it that matters should not always be carried by Plurality of Votes but by those which were most consonant to truth c. The Emperour received the Writing and in General Terms promised to endeavour the setling of Peace The Decree of Residence is completed and it is not decided whether it he of Divine Right or not After so much time and so many words spent about the Article of the Divine Right of Episcopacy nothing was ye concluded because the Legates expected the Decision from Rome Whilst this was expecting they published the Chapter of Residence wherein without deciding whether it be of Divine Right or not it was commanded under Penalties and Reward The Cardinal of Lorrain who was Archbishop of Reims and who in all appearance had no design to reside there gave his opinion about the necessity of Residence in his ordinary manner overturning in one period what he had set up in another At the same time the Legates communicated to the Ambassadours of Princes some Articles of Reformation which related to several Abuses about the Sacrament of Orders against the next Session But the Ambassadours and particularly these of the Emperour and Germans valued them but very little because they sound none of the Heads which they had proposed amongst them Reasons that shew it impossible that the Demands which all made for a Reformation should have any Success They complained that they were still amused with Trifles and that the more weighty matters were neglected It was really a rare and edifying reflexion to consider with what fervour and zeal the Ambassadours and most of the Prelates demanded Reformation It may be said that the Pope Princes and Bishops all of them demanded it and agreed to the Point in General But when it came to particulars they could not jump together in any one thing because of the prodigious diversity of interests and because every one was for reforming his Neighbour but would not be medled with himself The Court of Rome consented cordially to the Reformation of the Bishops and Princes provided it might be let alone The Bishops desired the Reformation of the Court of Rome and of Princes to get themselves out of the reach of the attempts of the Secular Power and of the Pope but they could not endure that their own Coppy-hold should be touched either as to their Authority or the Diminution of their Revenues Princes and Kings demanded the Reformation of the Clergy both in the Head and Members but they would in no terms let goe the means they had in their hands of oppressing the Church hindering Canonical Elections and conferring Benefices upon whom they thought sit The People who alone as being disinteressed could labour most effectually in that Reformation had neither Vote nor Credit in the Council And therefore all that great design of Reformation must needs vanish in smoke Since the Legates had made way for falling again upon the Point of Residence by causing the Chapter to be read which they had framed for decreeing it the Prelates began to speak again upon the same Subject The Cardinal of Lorrain assembled all the French at his house and would hear them speak to that Point where they all with one consent concluded Residence to be of Divine Right In one of the subsequent Congregations Alberto Duimio Bishop of Veglia and Island of Scavonia delivered his opinion with much force he demonstrated the same thing by a great many Reasons and Arguments which none before him had done but barely declared their Judgment upon the Point without insisting in the probation of it He laid great stress upon the saying of our Saviour that the good shepherd goes before his sheep and the sheep follow him for they know his Voice He could not throughly handle nor dive to the bottom of that Subject without hinting at many things contrary to the Interests of the Court of Rome and the Pope's Authority and Cardinal Simoneta durst not interrupt him because of the Scuffle that some days before happened upon occasion of the Bishop of Guadix who had been interrupted but he took him up privately and rebuked him sharply for having spoken against the Pope The Bishop made the best excuse he could and some days after desired leave to be gone upon Pretext of indisposition which was very willingly granted him About that time the Controversie concerning Residence changed Countenance there was now no bringing of Arguments and Testimonies to prove it to be of Divine Right and they who judged it to be of Humane Right took no more pains to find out reasons to confirm their Sentiment They thought it enough to overcome the contrary Party by the Consequences of their Doctrine for said they that opinion tends directly to the Ruine of the Authority of the Pope because by asserting the Divine Right of Residence it takes from him the Power of transferring diminishing dividing uniting and changing Episcopal Sees and indeed that was the design of the Spaniards But they dissembled it and wanted not reasons to prove that the Divine Right of Residence would advance the Papal Dignity and render it more considerable because when Bishops did reside the Revenue towards the Clergy would encrease and by consequence the Authority of the Pope as being
the Chief of Bishops And so from that time forward the Greatness of the Pope was the onely hinge upon which moved that Controversie about Residence A Minute of a Decree is made at Rome concerning the Authority of the Pope and Bishops which was rejected by the Bishops in Council The Pope was so much afflicted for the death of his Nephew Frederico Borromeo that he fell dangerously sick considering his great age And yet the troubles he received from the Council vexed him more than the death of his Kinsman He held frequent Congregations of Cardinals for determining those two Controversies which made so much noise about the Institution of Episcopacy and Residence As to that of Institution he gave his answer at last that it was an erroneous opinion that Episcopacy as to the Power of Jurisdiction was of Divine Right and instituted by Jesus Christ unless it were in this Sense that Jesus Christ does all that the Pope doth and concluded that these words of Divine Right ought to be wholly left out or that the Decree must be made in this form That Jesus Christ hath instituted Bishops to be made by the Pope with such Authority as he should think fit to give them for the good of the Church it being still in his Power to enlarge or restrain it As to the Point of Residence he gave Orders that it should not be declared of Divine Right because he would retain to himself the Power of dispensing with it so that whatsoever they did they should have a care that nothing were enacted contrary to his Authority As to the Prorogation of the Session he wrote in General Terms that it should not be put off above a Fortnight nor yet held unless all matters were in a readiness The Legates thought that the Decree about the Institution of Episcopacy and of the Pope's Power over Bishops in the form that it was sent from Rome would never be admitted in the Council and therefore they found themselves obliged to write a second time and send the Bishop of Vintimiglia to the Pope Because the matter of Cup was referred to the Pope the Duke of Bavaria having no more to demand of the Council as to that Point sent a solemn Embassy to Rome for obtaining of it This Embassy went by Trent and the Ambassadours had Conferences with the Legates and Cardinal of Lorrain That allarmed the Spaniards who always opposed the Restitution of the Cup. At the same time the news of the Battel of Dreux came to Trent which was fought the seventeenth of December The Catholicks gave out that they had obtained the Victory though they lost in it almost double the number that the Protestants had lost for they lost five thousand men and the Protestants but three But they alledged that they continued Masters of the Field The two Generals were taken Prisoners the Prince of Conde on the side of the Protestants and the Constable on the Catholicks side This was a fatal Year for the terrible Divisions that rent France in pieces no less that fourteen Armies at one time on foot which on both sides committed fearfull disorders Admiral Coligny after that Battel notwithstanding the taking of the Prince of Conde kept his Army together and made even some progress Nevertheless there was a Thanksgiving at Trent for the Victory as if it had been real when indeed it was but imaginary They were perswaded at Rome that the Huguenots were totally routed and that so there was no more need of a Council wherefore some were of opinion that it should either be dissolved or suspended But the Pope had better news than the rest and saw very well that it was not yet time to dissolve the Council He thought he did enough if he could retain the Power and Authority that he had got over it The Emperour's design of coming to Inspruck in the Neighbourhood of Trent filled him with new Jealousies He made no doubt but that he had secret intelligences with Spain and France and he could not see into the Bottome of it So much he knew in General that these intelligences tended to the lessening of his Authority and the Reformation of the Abuses of his Court. And therefore to prevent Reformations from those hands through which the Court of Rome had not mind to pass he published a Brief dated the twenty seventh of December whereby he reformed some Corruptions of the Rota and made also some other slight Reformations of his Court This in the main came to nothing at all but however it was usefull to his Legates and Pensioners at Trent for they made answer to those who demanded the Reformation of the Court of Rome that seeing the Pope made it his business to reform himself the Council might very well spare themselves the trouble The year one thousand five hundred sixty and two was concluded with a Congregation held the thirtieth of December wherein it was resolved to put off the Session for a Fortnight 1563. The French present their Memoires containing 34 Demands They are sent to Rome and the Pope is allarmed at them To begin the New Year one thousand five hundred and sixty three the French presented four and thirty Articles concerning the Reformation which they desired Most part of them regarded the Reformation of the Clergy and the abuses in Ordination and in preferring undeserving men both as to manners and learning Some of them also related to the Court of Rome and tended to the diminution of its Revenues The fourteenth of these Articles demanded a prohibition of the Plurality of Benefices the sixteenth that the Sacraments might be administred gratis In the seventeeth they demanded Divine Service in the Vulgar Tongue that is to say that the chief Prayers should be said in French as well as in Latin The eighteenth proposed the Communion in both kinds and required the revival of the Decree of Gelasus The twenty sixth demanded the Restitution of the Jurisdiction of Bishops in all their Dioceses over all that lived within them not excepting Monasteries unless the Chiefs of Orders and the Monasteries where the Generals of Orders did reside The nine and twentieth desired Reformation of the abuse which the People made of Images the abuse of Pilgrimages Fraternities Relicks and Indulgences The thirtieth demanded restitution of the custome of publick Pennance as it had been in the primitive Church The Legates and Pope's Party disliked these demands and the manner wherein they were presented for that was with the usual Threat that if they had not satisfaction in admitting their Proposals they would provide for themselves by a National Council The Legates sent these Articles to the Pope being very sure that he could not read them but with extraordinary trouble especially seeing one of the Propositions demanded the abolition of Annates and of all the other means which are used at Rome for hooking in Money from the Provinces They commissioned the Bishop of Viterbo to carry these Memoires to
came to the turn of the Spaniards and French speak many difficulties were started against the Decrees as they had been conceived by the Cardinals First this Clause was objected against that Bishops hold a chief rank depending on the Bishop of Rome that was thought to be an ambiguous expression but after some debate they who made the objection consented to have it said a chief rank under the Pope Some also did not like that it should be said that Bishops are admitted by the Pope in partem solicitudinis because that signified clearly enough that Bishops are appointed by the Pope and not by our Lord Jesus Christ but above all they stumbled at the Article of the Pope's Authority and that the Canon gave him the Pope to govern the Church Universal The French thought that by these words the Pope had a design to establish a Superiority over the Council They were nevertheless willing it should be said that he hath the power to rule all the Churches ecclesias universas but not the Church Universal ecclesiam universalem Most part fansied that to be a very nice distinction and of little solidity But the rest maintained that by giving the Pope power to govern the Church Universal they exalted his Tribunal above the Church whereas the Tribunal of the Church is exalted above that of the Pope They alledged that there was a great difference betwixt being exalted above all Churches that is to say above every Particular Church and being exalted above the Church Universal that is whole Church taken together and assembled in a Council This occasioned great debate the Pope's Party alledged the Authority of the Council of Florence which had made use of these terms and that did a little puzzle the Spaniards because their Countrey own the Council of Florence for a General Council But the French set light by that Authority and opposed to it the Councils of Constance and Basil which have defined the Superiority of a Council over the Pope Upon this occasion there arose a great contest betwixt the Italians and French for the Italians maintained that the Council of Florence was a General Council that that of Basil was Schismatical and the other of Constance partly approved and partly rejected But the French on the contrary denied the Council of Florence to have been a lawfull Council and said that the others of Constance and Basil were lawfull and General The Legates well perceived that no good would come of these contests and therefore that they might have time to sent to Rome the Censures which the Bishops on the other side of the Alpes had made upon the Decree composed by the Pope touching the Institution of Bishops and the Authority of the Holy See they employed the Congregations about the Point of Residence The Cardinals of Lorrain and Madruccio the day before had mode a Project of Decision concerning the Controversie of Residence which displeased not the Legates But the Presidents having had time to reflect upon it observed a Clause that gave them Umbrage which was that Bishops are obliged by the Command of God to guide their Flocks and to watch in Person over them They knew very well that the Pope would make a sinister interpretation of these words and think that they favoured the opinion of the Divine Right of Residence and therefore they left it out of their own heads and presented in the Congregation the Minute corrected after their own way That action choaked the Cardinals of Lorrain and Madruccio Lorrain protested that for the future he would not meddle in any thing and Cardinal Madruccio said that in the Council there was another secret Council which took all the Authority to it self The Legates finding that they gained no ground put a stop to the Congregations in expectation of an answer from Rome and the Pope's Party began to make Factions that they might break up the Council for good and all At this the Cardinal of Lorrain broke out and acted with less reserve than he had formerly done He complained that there was a design of breaking up the Council he spoke to the Ambassadours of Princes that their Masters might intercede with the Pope not onely for the Continuation of the Council but especially that it might be left to its liberty saying that nothing could be proposed or resolved upon but what pleased the Legates that the Legates did nothing but what the Pope thought fit and that Decisions even about the smallest matters must be expected from Rome that if matters went on still in that manner they would make a pacification in France whereby all should have liberty to live as they thought good untill the holding of a free Council that for his own part he would have patience untill the next Session but that if affairs went no better he would protest and withdraw and carry all the French along with him that they might celebrate a National Council at Home The French Ambassadour residing at Rome made the same Expostulations and Menaces that the Cardinal did at Trent But the Pope began to be accustomed to that noise and was not a whit startled at these Bugbears of National Synods He made answer that the Council was more than free that it was even licentious that if the Italians made any Factions and Cabals he knew nothing of it but that yet they were forced upon it if they did so by the violence of the Bishops beyond the Alpes who endeavoured to trample under foot the Authority of the Holy See The Bishop of the five Churches the Emperour's Ambassadour for the Kingdom of Hungary went about the same time to wait on his Master and to inform him of the Factions and Conduct of the Italians The Archbishop of Granada and those of his Party entreated him to procure from the Emperour a Letter to the King of Spain praying him to solicite a Reformation The Legates were informed of this and looked upon all that Conduct as an effect of the Councils of the Cardinal of Lorrain and to Countermine that League they deputed John Francisco Commendone Bishop of Zante to the Emperour under pretext of Justifying the Council in that they had not as yet proposed the Articles of Reformation which his Imperial Majesty had presented b his Ambassadours Seeing these misunderstandings grew dayly greater and greater the Legates sufficiently perplexed sent a writing to all the Ambassadours begging the Assistance of their Councils in the present Junctures The French slipt not that occasion to tell their minds freely and therefore said that the Council was made use of to encrease corruptions instead of lessening them that a stop ought to be put to those shamefull underhand dealings which were continually practised that they ought not to labour to raise the Pope above the Church Universal that the best way was to follow the Decrees of the Council of Constance And farther added that one cause of disagreement was that the Clark of the Council did not faithfully set
of Marriage The matter of Marriage is pitcht upon In these Conferences fresh Debates arose about Clandestine Marriages The French demanded that all Marriages of Children in the Family contracted without the Consent of their Parents should be declared null The Cardinal of Lorrain seconded that Demand and shew'd the Justice of it by many reasons and Authorities But the Archbishop of Otranto who was always opposite to the Cardinal of Lorrain withstood it alledging that it was to give Lay-men Power over Sacraments though most of those who spoke in this Congregation were of opinion that the whole matter should be laid aside About the end of the Congregation the Ambassadours of Venice came in and represented that the Kingdoms of Cyprus and Candia with the Islands of Zante Corfeu and Cephalonia were under the Dominion of their Republick and that it was the Custome of the People of those Countries who were of the Greek Church to repudiate their Wives when they were guilty of Adultery they therefore prayed the Council so to frame their Decree that it might do no prejudice to the Custome of those People In the following Congregation the Demand of the Venetians was taken into Consideration and many thought it reasonable especially because the Greeks had not been cited and that it was not just to condemn People without being heard Others thought that the Greeks were sufficiently cited by the Publication and General Convocation of the Council But the Party that favoured the Venetians Demand grew stronger by the Conjunction of those who could not digest the Anathematising of the opinion That Adultery dissolves a former and gives the innocent party Power to contract a new Marriage because it had been the opinion of St. Ambrose and the Greeks Fathers The Council therefore found out a mean they did not pronounce Anathema against those who say that Adultery dissolves Marriage but against those who say that the Church errs in affirming That Adultery dissolves not Marriage This was found afterwards to be a pretty pleasant distinction The Council then returned to the Demand of the French about Clandestine Marriages and this head was as warmly disputed as if nothing had been as yet said to it Cardinal Madruccio and two Legates the Cardinals of Warmia and Simoneta held that they could not be annulled and seemed as if they intended to oppose any resolution to the contrary Lainez General of the Jesuits scattered abroad Copies of a Writing that maintained the Validity of these Clandestine Marriages and proved that they could not be annulled This Debate took up several Congregations and to encrease the Difficulty the Bishop of Sulmona maintained that it was a matter of Doctrine because the question was about the Nature of Clandestine Marriages to know whether they be Sacraments and that the Authority of the Church was likewise concerned in it to wit whether she have Power to rescind Marriages and annull a Sacrament and that by Consequence that Point could not be handled amongst the Chapters of Reformation His design was to put the French to new straits because as it hath been observed before many more Votes are required for forming a Decree about Doctrine than making a Decision concerning Reformation Others opposed this opinion of the Bishop of Sulmona and that not without Passion saying that the Power of the Church ought never to be brought into question but that it ought always to be supposed and that opinion carried it so that it was concluded that that Chapter should remain amongst the Articles of Reformation Opinions varying and each Party maintaining their Sentiments with heats Francis de Beaucaire Bishop of Mets had the honour of finding a form of a Decree which satisfied the different Parties And that was it which is in force at present All were almost content with it because it is ambiguous and every one finds his Sentiment therein for it Anathematises those who say that Clandestine Marriages are not true Sacraments and yet it prohibits such affirming that the Church hath always detested them An hundred thirty and five Votes were for the opinion of the Bishop of Mets and fifty six against it About this time the Council was in some trouble by reason that the King of Spain declared that he had a design of setling the Inquisition in the State of Milan This news allarmed all the Prelates of Lombardy and Naples also who concluded that if the Inquisition were once established in the Milanese without doubt it would likewise be introduced into Naples The City of Milan sent Deputies to the Pope to the King of Spain and to the Council for preventing of that blow The Envoys declared that many of the chief Citizens were ready to leave the Countrey because they knew very well that the Design of the Spanish Inquisition is not always the Preservation of the Faith but that its chief Aim is to drain those that are rich and hath no other prospect for most part but worldly advantage This put the Council to some trouble because of the great number of People concerned The Duke of Sessa Governour of Milan finding so great opposition and having had some Information that the Milanese hatched a design of doeing what the People of the Low Countries had done who turned Protestants to avoid the Inquisition abandoned the Enterprise In the mean time the Pope to whom the Observations and Additions which the Ambassadours had made as to the thirty eight Articles of Reformation proposed by the Legates were sent found them not at all to his mind He perceived amongst them Demands that were grievous both to himself and his Court and that made him more ardently desire that a Period might be put to the Council which obliged him to write to his Nuncio's that resided in the Courts of Europe that they would press the Princes to assist him in bringing of it to a Conclusion He wrote also to the Legates that by any means they should make an end and that in order thereunto they should grant every thing that they could not refuse But the Count de Luna stood always in the way and used endeavours to cross that speedy Conclusion he backt the Spaniards and Italians who were scandalized that Assemblies were so often kept at the Houses of the Legates where none were admitted but Cardinals the Archbishop of Otranto and some Favorites but that hindered not the Legates from keeping such Assemblies still Of the thirty eight articles of Reformation they had already left out six at the desire of the Ambassadours and moreover the Emperour's Ambassadours by new Orders from their Master and being seconded by the Count de Luna made fresh instances that the Reformation of Princes should not be proposed that Session which at length was granted so that the Articles were reduced to twenty one And Cardinal Simoneta and the Pope's Adherents took all the pains they could to shape them into such a form as might not in the least encroach upon the Authority of the
that for the sake of peace he might well remit them to be examined and setled by a free Council and that by consequence upon his refusing to do it the Protestants have reason to consider as a Party and an Adversary in the Controversie that Council that the Pope hath convened wherein he presided and over which he reigned with absolute Dominion That the Church of Rome having once given Judgment upon the Controversie and an Appeal being brought she could not proceed to a second Judgment But to evince more plainly this truth That the Protestants have reason to consider the Council of Trent as their Adverse Party it is to be remarked that the matters in question were not novel but for the greater part had been already decided either by Councils or by Papal Constitutions or by a Custom universally approved by the Roman Church The second Council of Nice had decreed the adoration of Images Transubstantiation the Real Presence adoration of the Sacrament Auricular Confession had been passed into Laws by Innocent III. in the fourth Council of Lateran held in the year 1215. The Cup in the Sacrament was taken from the Laity by Decree of the Council of Constance held in the year 1414. Purgatory and the seven Sacraments were made Articles of Faith by the Council of Florence in the years 1438 and 1439. In a word there was scarce any of the controverted Points that had not been decided All that the Protestants did amounted to no other than an endeavour to be relieved from the hardships of Judgments already given Truly and properly speaking they were Appellants from the Decisions of the Roman Church to the Holy Scripture How great was then the injustice to set up that Church for Judge of a Cause against which she had already given Judgment and from which Judgment the Protestants had appealed When there arise new and doubtful matters in a Church there is no doubt but that Church hath a right to Judge of them and to assemble her Councils to that end For instance in the time of Berengarius the dispute about the Real Presence was revived which had lain buried in forgetfulness since Bertrand and Paschasius The Church of Rome having not as then decided the matter Berengarius had no reason but to hear the Judgment of the Church having first done all in him in order to the prevalence of truth Had the Church decreed unjustly in the matter he might then have refused to acquiesce in the Judgment for that the Conscience cannot submit but where it is fully convinced that the Decision is in conformity to the Word of God But when a Church hath once pronounced upon a matter and an Appeal be rightly made she hath then certainly no power to give a second Sentence in the same Cause or if she doth no consequence as of a new Condemnation can be justly drawn from it Since therefore the Church of Rome had already passed her Decree upon the Points in question before the Council of Trent we must look upon her as a Judge become a Party as having long before declared against the truth But can it in conscience be thought that the Prelates assembled at Trent came thither with intent to deliberate whether the natural Body of Christ be in the Eucharist whether the Sacrament shall have the Worship of Latria Were they not resolved already ere they came to Trent Came they not meerly to condemn the Lutherans and not upon any inquisition after truth Had they not almost all an implacable hatred to the Protestants Did they not solicit Princes to destroy them with Fire and Sword And are these qualifications to be desired in Judges If it be asked how then the Assembly should have been composed to have given content to the Protestants I answer it should have been as the Lutherans of Germany desired it The Bishops should have been absolved from their Oaths of fidelity to the Pope The Council of Basil did it in a time when there was less need than when the Council of Trent sate The Protestant Divines should have been called the more moderate persons of each party should have been chosen the Bishops should have been prevailed with to lay aside all passion and prejudice the truth should have been sought with a sincere mind and the Word of God been only consulted for it The one might have hoped that persons so qualified by such a conduct might have reached the truth reason 2 But tho we should renounce all that I have yet said tho we should own the Council of Trent for a lawful and natural Judge of our Controversies with the Roman Church 2. Second cause of rejecting the Council of Trent tho it were duly assembled in could not be infallible yet were we in no sort obliged to receive and comply with all her Decisions with an absolute resignation and a blind credulity to which nothing can move one but the fond supposition of the infallibility of Councils Not to descend to an Examen of the particular faults of the Council of Trent it is impossible to persuade ones self that a Council that is to say an Assembly in which there is no Prophet nor any man inspired of the Holy Ghost is not liable to err and for my part I very much question whether there be in the world any one person that seriously thinks so I will admit that to have recourse to an infallible living Judge would be of high importance to the World The Church of Rome strongly supports her self by the artifice of possessing the People with the belief of her infallibility But when it comes to be enquired where it is that this infallibility doth reside one knows not where to find it Some place it in the Pope alone others in the Council alone and a third sort in Pope and Council united Those that place it in the Councils seem to have greater reason than such as would fix it to the person of the Pope For Councils are indeed the undoubted Judges of controversies in the Church So that if there be any infallible Judge in the Church it should be them As it certainly is most probable that the wisdom of many in conjunction should be of greater prevalence and purity than that of any single person The Pope whose Authority is meer Usurpation cannot be an infallible Judge nor hath God given to the Bishop of Rome any power to judge of controversies in the name of the Catholick Church Yet after all that appears so much to favour the Councils it must be confessed that the opinion that fixes the infallibility of the Roman Church upon the Pope is much easier to defend than that which ascribes it to the Council For this latter opinion that makes Councils to be infallible is perhaps the most vain and empty Notion that was ever started I pass the proofs brought from Scripture for each opinion they are much of an equal weight The Text I have prayed for thee
Convention by themselves in Thrace but others on the contrary do affirm that the whole Assembly was Orthodox However there was at least three hundred of them Orthodox that were met together from all Parts The holy Confessour Hosius Bishop of Cordoua did preside in it St. Athanasius was re-established in his See by it and the Nicene Creed was also by it explained according to truth Nevertheless this very Council has not been able to obtain to pass for legitimate St. Austin formally rejects it nor is it reckoned among the first six De. Conciliis l. 1. c 7. Bellarmine indeed so far favours it as to account it among those that are in part rejected and in part approved If the Ancients had believed that General Councils were infallible I cannot see why they should reject this it having all the marks of Universality Gratus Bishop of Carthage was present at it with five and thirty African Bishops more and yet the African Church never received it she took so little notice of it that sixty or eighty years after she had no manner of knowledge of its Canons which appears by the History of the great Contest between the Church of Africk and the Bishops of Rome in the Affair of Pelagius upon the right of Appealls Celestius a Pelagian who had been condemned by the Councils of Africk obtained of Pope Zosimus to be acquitted of all the Censures that had been given against him The Africans opposed it affirming that the Canons permitted not that one accused of Heresie should be tried out of his own Province or but by his own Synod and that the Bishop of Rome had no authority to receive the Appeals of such as stood condemned by the Bishops of Africk Zozimus produced a Canon as of the Council of Nice which permitted Appeals to Rome Tho it was not really a Canon of that Council but of the Council of Sardica The Africans were surprized at it and knew not on the sudden what to reply for in their Copies of the Canons of the Council of Nice there was no such Canon to be found so that not knowing from whence it might be taken because they knew nothing of the Council of Sardica or its Canons there was need of time to clear the mystery The fifth General Council upon the Cause of Arius was the Council of Milan held about the year 354. Ruffinus plainly says that many of the Orthodox fell into the snares of Heresie Hist l. 1. c. 20. And indeed the Bishops that held for Athanasius and the term Consubstantial were in fine banished by the Emperour Constantius Could there be a more famous Council than was that of Ariminum in Italy There were present and assisting in it no fewer than six hundred Bishops of which four hundred of the Eastern Church and two hundred of the West If we may believe Socrates Hist l. 2. c. 29. there was nothing done in this Council repugnant to the Faith of the Church But he is not in this to be credited He thought perhaps it would be a mighty service to the Church to prevaricate in her behalf and deny that this Great Council was of the number of those that favoured Arianism But it is undeniable that this Synod sunk under the violence of the Emperour Constantius and was over reached by the cunning and artifice of Vrsacius Bishop of Singidunum and of Valens Bishop of Mursa The testimony of Athanasius in the Book by him written concerning the Council of Ariminum puts the matter beyond all doubt especially when we consider the concurrent evidence of S. Austin in the fourteenth Chapter of his third Book against Maximin and of St. Hilary in his Book de Synodis adversus Arianos where we find the Letters of Liberius Bishop of Rome to the Eastern Bishops wherein he avers that the Fathers of the Council of Ariminum overcome by the Emperour and by the cheats of Valence and Vrsacius had pronounced contrary to the Faith of the Church but were again perfectly returned from their error and had each of them pronounced Anathema against the Confession of Faith made by the Council of Ariminuw We have thus already five General Councils that have erred about the same matter In the Cause of Eutiches who confounded the two Natures of Christ there were two General Councils assembled The first was at Ephesus in the year 449. convened by Theodosius the younger a Prince truly Catholick All the Patriarchs were present at it Juvenal Patriarch of Jerusalem Dioscorus of Alexandria Domnus of Antioch Flavian of Constantinople and by his Legats Leo Bishop of Rome Nothing was wanting to the Legality or Universality of this Council For to say that this Council was Illegal because not convened by the Pope and that the Patriarch of Alexandria and not the Popes Legates did preside therein is a very vain Allegation the weakness of which however in this place we are not concerned to shew For we oppose not such as make the Pope Superiour to Councils and all the Authority of Councils to depend upon the Popes Pleasure We oppose such as make the Council Superiour to the Pope and hold a Council to be nothing the less legal or less infallible for not being under the Popes direction such as look upon the Councils of Constance and of Basil as most holy Councils tho the Popes did not preside in them and such in fine as require us to submit to the Council of Trent upon its own Authority This General Council of Ephesus tho legally assembled and according to the Canons is notwithstanding a detestable Convention that justified the Heretick Eutiches confirmed his Doctrine and deposed Flavian Patriarch of Constantinople a most holy and Orthodox person About nineteen years before there had been held another General Council at the same City of Ephesus in the Cause of Nestorius who affirmed there was to Persons in Christ This Heresie was there condemned and Truth triumphed This certainly makes an essential difference between these two Councils tho otherwise there be none that I can see as to Form and Externals unless that Error was victorious in the second Council with less scandal than truth overcame in the first For it is true indeed that Dioscorus President of the second Council of Ephesus did with much facility cause the Heresie of Eutiches to prevail the Popes Legats and some few others having been only a little roughly treated whilst in the first Council of Ephesus which is the third received General Council there was a horrible Schism occasioned by Cyril of Alexandria and John of Antioch who made Parties and deposed each other Socrat. l. 7. c. 33. Evagrius l. 1. c. 4. The Emperour was forced to interpose in the matter and to make use of his Authority to appease so dreadful a Sedition It is apparent from all these Considerations that tho the Council of Trent could be considered as a General Council that would not bind us to believe it infallible nor
made Heresie of the most trivial matters all the wild Opinions of Fanatique Sectaries were imputed to them Nor was any difficulty made of open and manifest contradictions in order to represent the Doctrine of the Protestants in hideous colours Sometimes they were made Pelagians denying Original Sin sometimes of the Sect of the Manichees who denied Free Will Yet is there nothing so wide and remote as are the two Heresies of Pelagius and the Manichees Man by this last Sect was deprived of all his freedom and by the other Free Will was established upon the ruines of Grace But with the Council of Trent the End it seems which was the blackening of the Protestants was enough to consecrate the basest and vilest Means If there was any that had so much remaining honesty as to interpret the Protestant Sentiments a little favourably there was an immediate exclamation of Heresie Heresie Was any thing fair to be expected from such a sort of Judges But indeed what other procedure could be expected from a Council composed as this The Judges were Bishops and the Advocates were Monks both which by their particular interests were the implacable Enemies of the Protestants The Bishops saw plainly that nothing less than their absolute ruine was threatned that the reforming of their softness their Luxury and the pravity of their Manners would not alone suffice but that a reduction of their vast Revenues their large Dioceses and their Despotique Sway over the Church and Clergy was no less intended That it was endeavoured to bring them down to plain Pastors or at least to subject them to their Clergy and to take away that Pomp that Wealth and Power they so much idolize Let any one judg what kind of Sentiments they must needs have for those that designed them so much ill As for the Monks who explained matters and pleaded before the Bishops against the Lutherans they looked upon the Protestants as upon a sort of people that had resolved their ruine and the ruine of all Monasteries that would have all the Wealth and Revenues restored back that these Religious Houses enjoyed under a pretence of Piety They strove out of Revenge to make the Lutherans odious For they well knew the Lutherans did not spare them but openly accused their Vows of Tyranny their seeming Sanctity of deep Hypocrisie their Houses of being sinks of filth and Impurity their Retreats of being places where Men are nourished in Sloth and in a sort of life that shrouds under a Veil of Austerity the greatest softness and Luxury He is little acquainted with humane Nature that knows not how mightily the motives of Interest and Revenge do inslave the Mind and depress Reason I do not therefore wonder at the implacable hatred of the Council to the Protestants I should rather wonder had it been otherwise but I affirm that this known and visible Hatred gave just cause to the Protestants to reject the Council reason 6 6. Sixth Reason to reject iâ— It was not a free Council But could the Council have clear'd it self of this Hatred taken up both by interest and inclination yet the Protestants could have looked for no good from it for that it was the slave the creature of the Court of Rome and wholly depended on it This is so very notorious that to deny or to question it is to lose all sense of shame and modesty The Emperor and the King of France and Spain complained of it highly These complaints were made publickly in the face of the World discoursed written and repeated daily and in various forms as in this History shall be shown Nothing was proposed in the Council but by the Pope's Order and by the mouth of his Legats nor did it determine of any thing but by the express direction of the Court of Rome When difficulties were found in any Affair so that it went no just as the Legats would but thwarted a little the Papal Interest the Presidents of the Council never wanted specious pretences to procrastinate the matter and these delays were purely to gain time to consult the Pope's pleasure in the business and to know in what manner it should be decided and this was called a giving time for allaying Mens Passions that so the Holy Ghost might become Master of their Minds and might govern their Resolutions When the Pope's Orders were arrived the Presidents employed their Pensioners in Caballing and secret working of the matter but if those Intrigues miscarried the business was remitted to another Session But if no Arts would do they took off the Masque and plainly told the Council that such was the Pope's pleasure Besides the Pope had in the Council under the management of Cardinal Simoneta five or six rude tumultuous Persons who abused and affronted any Man making hideous noises by kicking and striking the Benches with Hands and Feet upon the delivering of an Opinion that did not please them Nay these surious men came frequently to reproachful Revilings and even to Blows Cardinal Pallavicini himself tells us that the Bishop della Cava one of these so disorderly Persons did one day box another Bishop and tore away part of his Beard for having with some freedom delivered his Opinion The Bishop of Alista who was maintaining that Bishops were instituted by Christ was interrupted by Cardinal Simoneta with Be silent insolent Man and let others speak If any Man was disrelished for maintaining Opinions contrary to the Italian Theology he was either wearied by rudeness and ill treatment forced to beg leave to retire or made to be recalled by his Superiours if he had any or otherwise plainly driven from the Assembly When Pius IV. was reproached with the little liberty he gave the Bishops in that Council he onely excused it by retorting upon Princes that they left them yet less liberty than he did To deal truly what the Pope said was not altogether groundless for the poor Bishops were the Slaves of Princes as well as of the Pope The Pope himself made use of the Authority of Princes to restrain the over forwardness of some Prelats Thus he obtained Letters from the King of Spain and from the Marquess de Pescara his Embassadour at the Council and Governour of Milan to hinder the Spanish Prelats from favouring such as were desirous to set bounds to the Papal Power From what happened in the Disputes about the Residence and Power of Bishops by Divine Right it is easie to conjecture what would have happened had the Lutheran Tenents found Partisans in the Council The Spaniards the French and the Germans insisted upon the Councils declaring the Residence and Jurisdiction of Bishops to be jure divino they had their particular Intrigue in it as the course of this History will shew But the Interest of the Court of Rome lay in direct opposition and that the Point might not be decided in favour of the Bishops To effect which no stone was left unturned no means untried that Artifice Violence
of Discipline But we shall find this Answer to be a great Illusion First of all it is very hard to comprehend why the Church should be indued with an Infallible Spirit only in points of Doctrine and not in matters that should establish Order and Government For certainly it is of the Essence of the Church to be governed according to the intention of God and of Christ as certainly as it is Essential to it to be guided in all Truth Suppose it impossible to retain all the speculative Truths and therefore that Anarchy Confusion and Disorder become prevalent what sort of Church should we have But the better to dissipate this Illusion it is to be observed that there is no Point of Discipline but hath a strict Union with some Point of Right and that there are some Points of Discipline that are Points of Doctrine likewise and of the first Class too For example the Roman Hierarchy the disposition of that great and mighty Clergy distinguished into Priests Bishops Arch bishops Patriarchs Primates over whom is placed their great Head whom they intitle Christs Vicar and Lieutenant upon Earth Is not that a Point of Discipline All that respects the Guidance and Government of the Church the Persons their Characters their Charges their Dignities their Authority and Jurisdiction are they not of the Discipline of the Church If with this Pretext it should be objected to the Romanists Gentlemen your Hierarchy in the whole and in all its parts is a meer matter of Discipline the Church might possibly err concerning it and it is therefore fit to review and re-examine it What would they reply to it Methinks they would answer that it is a Point of Discipline which is also a Point of Doctrine and of Right At least the Council of Trent hath so defined it and hath treated of the Hierarchy under the head of matters of Doctrine There are indeed three kinds of Doctrine the first are purely Speculative as the Mystery of the Trinity the Incarnation and the Redemption the second are Practical respecting our Manners and of this kind are the Moral Precepts that are the Rules for governing our Life and directing our Conscience and the third are those Practical Doctrines that respect the Guidance and Government of the Church that is to say that there must be a Ministry in the Church that Believers ought to obey their Guides that the Residence of Bishops is by Divine Right that the Pastors are instituted by our Lord Jesus Christ that there must be a Lawful Call to the Ministry that so there may be a Right of governing the Church that such Government may not be Tyrannical that the Church may not withdraw Believers from their Lawful Lords in Temporal matters It is most clear that all these are Points of Doctrine respecting Discipline So that a Council that errs in Points of Discipline that have an inseparable Connexion with those Doctrinals does by necessary consequence err in Doctrine But to render this General Consideration the more sensible I will particularly apply it to some Principal Articles of Discipline wherein it is confessed that the Council of Trent hath exceeded the limits of its Power and which I will make out to be Articles of Doctrine also so that such as will confess that Council to have erred in Discipline shall be constrained to acknowledge that it hath erred in Doctrine and in matters of Faith That the Popes Superiority over Councils is a Point of Doctrine and was decided in the Council of Trent Let us begin with the Article of the Superiority of the Council over the Pope or of the Pope over the Council Few are ignorant with what heat this Question has constantly been argued ever since the Councils of Constance and Basil both of which pronounced the Pope inferiour to a General Council and the Gallican Church makes it an Article of her Faith to maintain the decisions of those Councils But I would fain be informed whether it be an Article of Faith or of Discipline yet I think there is no doubt but it will be avowed for a Point of Doctrine it having always been considered as such It is also certainly a Point of Discipline for all that respects the Form of the Churches Government may fitly be brought under the head of Discipline This important matter the Council of Trent hath decided in favour of the Pope and yet the Gallican Church still perseveres in the contrary belief She believes therefore that the Council erred in a Point of Doctrine I know it will be said That the Council of Trent hath not decided that the Pope is Superiour to Councils Men may talk as they please but things for all that will continue as they are It is true that among the Decrees and Canons of that Council there is none that says in express terms The Pope is Superiour to Councils and can be judged by none but the effect of such Decision is apparent in all the Acts and through the whole Conduct of this Council It is necessary for establishing the Sovereignty of a Temporal Prince that the States of his Country make a formal Declaration and thereby acknowledge him their Master and their Sovereign Is it not enough that they obey him that they suspend their resolutions are convened and dissolved at his pleasure that in their Acts they stile him their Lord and their King and that they own that all they do is nothing unless confirmed by his Authority I believe there are none so unreasonable as to deny this to be of equal Value with any express Declaration of Sovereignty We shall therefore make it unquestionably clear that the carriage of the Council of Trent towards the Pope hath been in all points such In order to this it is to be remembred that the fifth Council of Lateran considered by the Court of Rome as a General Council assembled by Julius II. begun in the year 1512 under Leo X. had repealed annulled and abrogated the Pragmatick Sanction which was an Abstract of the Decisions of the Councils of Basil and Constance made at Bourges in the year 1438. by Order of Charles VII in a solemn Assembly of all the Clergy of France and of the Parliaments The grand design of it was to abase the Pope and to retrench the Tyrannical part of his Power the very Basis of all the Regulations and Proceedings of this Assembly being founded upon the Principle of the Subjection of Popes to Councils But then comes Julius II. in his Council of Lateran and re-establishes the Popes Superiority over the Council declaring null and void all that had been done in prejudice of it by the Councils of Constance and Basil Twenty eight years after was the first Convocation of the Council of Trent Between these there had been no General Council nor any thing in prejudice of that Superiority that was so re-established by the Council of Lateran On the contrary there was something actually done of
Points upon which they were to deliberate telling them you shall speak only as I direct you you shall debate the Propositions that I shall make you and you shall not dare to exceed the bounds I set you Yet such was one of the Decrees of the Council signed by all the Fathers and made at the opening of the third and most solemn Convocation of the Council Was there any thing done to remedy the consequences of this Clause Truly just nothing in effect There was a little Decree made and little it signified to pacifie dissatisfied minds it was that the Legats a little before the end of the Council should declare that it was not intended by this Clause to prejudice the liberty of the Council nor at all to alter the manner of proceeding that former Councils had observed but it is not said that there was no intent to prejudice the opinion that subjects the Council to the Pope Those that shall read this History will find by what passed from the twenty second to the twenty third Session what Endeavours were used by the Court of Rome to slide in a Decree among the Acts of the Council to establish the Popes Supremacy There was a Minute of such a Decree sent from Rome wherein it was said that the Pope hath power to govern the Universal Church Ecclesiam universalem The Emperour and the French joyned to oppose it as easily penetrating the Design of exalating the Pope over the whole Church of making him absolute Master of it and by consequence placing him above Councils Well then and what was the issue of the Dispute The Court of Rome feigned to yield the Point and the Decree did not pass but yet the thing was after cunningly done in another Decree where the very words are used but in a way that seems as if it was without design It is in the first Chapter of General Reformation in the last Session where it is said that the Pope has the Administration of the Vniversal Church These words do plainly signifie that the Pope is sole Bishop that the others are but his Delegates and by consequence that he is the Monarch and Superiour of the Church whether it be considered together as a Body or disjunctly in its Parts If the words might admit of another construction yet the very Council it self did thus interpret them and therefore for a time did reject them tho afterwards it received them by inadvertence And this is another express Decision that exalts the Pope above the whole Church It would certainly be tiresom to the Reader should I produce all the Proofs that might be brought to shew that the Council of Trent hath acknowledged the Pope for Superiour For I should then be obliged to speak of the Bulls of Convocation that were registred and received by the Council in which the sole power of convening Councils and presiding in them is ascribed to the Pope contrary to the Decisions of the Councils of Constance and Basil I should also speak of the Bulls of Suspension sent by the Popes to their Legats by which as Masters and Superiours they impowered them to suspend and to dissolve the Council I should in fine be obliged to speak of all that was done in those two important Controversies that made so much noise in the Council that is whether the Episcopal Order were of Christs Institution and whether the Residence of Ecclesiasticks be Jure Divino But I shall leave the Readers to make due Reflections upon the Legats presiding in the Council and their management of affairs I shall only offer two Proofs but the most convincing that can be The first shall be the last Chapter of Reformation in the last Session In this Chapter the Council declares That all that hath been ordained concerning the Reformation of Manners and Ecclesiastical Discipline is so ordained as that the Council will thereby manifest to all the world that the Authority of the holy Apostolick See remains whole and untouched That is to say that the Pope is not bound by the Canons nor tied from dispensing with them when he thinks fit This is not our Gloss but the Court of Rome's it is the plain intent of the Council that framed the Decree it is agreeable to constant and continual Practice for the Pope de facto does daily dispense with the Canons of this Council It could not more plainly be pronounced that the Pope is Master and Sovereign of the Council nor could any thing be more directly contrary to the Decisions of the Council of Constance This latter Council speaks thus in the fourth and fifth Session The holy Synod of Constance duly assembled being a General Council and representing the Catholick Church is empowered immeditely from Jesus Christ which every person of whatsoever condition or dignity tho even of the Papal dignity is bound to obey in all things that relate to Faith the extirpation of Heresie and the Reformation of the Church as well in the Head as in the Members That is to say the Council of Constance declares that the Pope is bound to obey the Canons of the Council And the Council of Trent declares that the Authority of the Council reaches not to the Pope but leaves his Power untouched One of the two Councils has therefore certainly erred for their Decisions are in direct contrariety to each other The last Proof I shall urge is the Confirmation of its Decrees which the Council of Trent desired of the Pope If that does not suppose that without such Confirmation the Decrees of the Council were of no force as the Court of Rome pretends it signifies just nothing If the Validity of the Decisions of a General Council depends upon the Popes Confirmation it it into Propositions and then it runs thus The Church hath Power over the Temporalties of Kings and private Persons can take away their Possessions and give them to others can proceed to Sentence and Execution by Corporal punishment by Imprisonment and Sequestration can take cognisance of the validity of Wills and Testaments can oblige Laymen to give an account of their management of Donations for pious Uses hath Power to exercise all manner of Judicature and in Matrimonial Causes exclusive to all other Tribunals In a word can hear and determine all matters Civil and Criminal Is there not reason then to allow this for Doctrine Is not Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction matter of Doctrine Hath not the Council of Trent treated of it in the Chapter of Order as of a point of Doctrine If the Jurisdiction of the Church be a matter of Doctrine is it not absurd to say that the Decrees to which such Jurisdiction does extend are meerly points of Discipline Are not the Whole and its Parts of one nature Iâ— the Jurisdiction of the Church considered together and in gross belongs to Doctrine why not the parts the branches the extent of it likewise Thus have we another point of Doctrine in which the Gallican Church and
they chance to agree in any opinion with us it is presently made a crime Neither is it here extremely important whether they are in the right or not It is enough for us that they zealously condemn whatsoever favours the abolition of Canonical Elections For thereby they are necessarily engaged to condemn that Canon of the Council of Trent which pronounces an Anathema against such as hold Session 23. Canon 7. that Orders may not be conferred without the consent or call of the People or of the Secular Powers Methinks Canonical Elections should be such as are made according to the ancient Canons and in the Form prescribed by the Custom and Constitutions of the ancient Church Those that have any sort of knowledge of Antiquity can never say that the ancient Canons do declare with the Council of Trent that the consent and the call of the People is not necessary to a lawful Ordination There is no going on with instances to the Primitive times for that were to oppress the Reader with the multitude as well as to convince him by the strength of Testimonies I shall therefore pass by Matthias and Barsabas who were presented to God to chuse one by Lot to compleat the number of the Apostles Acts 1.13 and their being elected by the whole Assembly of Brethren I shall say nothing of St. Cyprian's refusing to establish a Sub-Deacon or a Chanter without consulting his People Epist 33 34. 37. In the Ordination of Clerks says this holy Martyr to his People we are wont my dear Brethren to consult you and to weigh in a Publick Assembly the manners and vertues of such as are to be received It is he that says in his 68 Epistle that chiefly to the People belongs the right of electing of Priests worthy of that Vocation and to reject the unworthy It is he that describing the Canonical Election of a Bishop Epist 55. § 7. says That he is elected and chosen by the suffrages of all the People with peace that is without divided opinions and without heats and contests I shall not mention the People of Cyzicus who chose themselves a Bishop as Socrates tells us in the seventh Book of his History Chapter 28. Theodoret in his fourth Book Chapter 22. speaks of a Letter of Peter Bishop of Alexandria Successor to St. Athanasius where in accusing the Ordination of Lucius a pretended Bishop he acquaints us what were Canonical Ordinations That man was not established by the Assembly of Bishops by the suffrage of the Clergy and at the request of the People The same thing is to be seen in the Synodal Epistle of the Council of Constantinople the second General where the Fathers say Theodor. Hist l. 6. c. 9. That they have established Nectarius Bishop of Constantinople in the presence of the Emperour Theodosius and by the approbation of all the Clergy and of all the People I shall not speak of the Election of St. Ambrose Bishop of Milan which was done by the People nor shall I bring an hundred other Proofs than I am able to produce to demonstrate that the voice of the People is necessary in all Canonical Ordinations and Elections I will only say that in those Ages wherein the Discipline of the Church began extremely to relax it was yet acknowledged that according to the ancient Canons Elections ought to be made by the Votes of the People or at least by their consent Gratian who lived about the middle of the twelfth Century does in his Decretal bring divers proofs of this matter For instance in the Canon quanto there is an Extract out of the second Book of the Epistles of St. Gregory the Great drawn from Epist 30. Distinct 63. Chap. 69. wherein the Pope after the death of Laurence Bishop of Milan orders to Elect him a Successor not by the Votes of the Clergy only but of all the People And because many of the People of Milan were at that time retired to Genoa to avoid the Calamities of War Gregory requires that persons be sent to Genoa to take the Votes of the absent In the Canon Plebs Diotrensis he relates an Ordinance of Gelasius who lived in the year 492. by which that Pope declares that a Bishop is to be chosen by the suffrage of all the People Leo I. was Bishop of Rome thirty or forty years before this Gelasius In the 87. of his Epistles he says it is necessary to render an Election Canonical that the chief of the Laity do give their Votes as Gratian reports it in the same Distinction in the Canon Vota civium Again in the Canon Sacrorum we have an Ordinance drawn from the Capitula of Charlemagne and of Louis le Delonnaire his Son which declares that Bishops are to be elected and established by the Votes of the People and of the Clergy and not otherwise One might descend yet lower to the Canonical Elections made by the Votes of the People nearer to our times But it is not needful and possibly what we have already spoken of this matter is superfluous this Article not being contested It remains then only to remark that this so constant practice of the pure and primitive Church is condemned as Heretical by the Council of Trent It will without question be replied that this Canon of the Council concerns only the Ordination of Priests and not the Election of Bishops that the Council only condemns the Lutheran Opinion that Vocation depends of the People and does not condemn the Canonical Election of Bishops made by the Votes of the People But the Canon immediately following shews the vanity of this reply wherein the Council declares that such Bishops as have been promoted by the only authority of the Pope without any Assembly of Bishops consent of Clergy or suffrage of the People are true and lawful Bishops and Anathema is pronounced against all that believe otherwise Is not that a condemnation of the Sentiments of the Fathers who say that a Bishop who is not elected by his Clergy chosen by his People and consecrated in an Assembly of Bishops is not a true Bishop When the Council says that a Bishop who is neither elected by his Clergy chosen by his People nor Consecrated by other Bishops is yet a lawful Bishop if sent by the Pope If this be not to anathematise Canonical Elections there is no such thing as common sense or else it is come in fashion for things to be expressed by terms of just opposite signification How can it be that it is not intended to exclude the People from the right of giving their Suffrages in the Election of Bishops by the Canon which says that Consent and Vocation are not necessary to the validity of Ordination For if the People have no voice in the Election of a Priest how is it that they may vote in the Election of Bishops superiour to Priests If it be further replied that the Election and the Ordination
all the Divines within their Jurisdiction the Bishop of Constance sent thither James le Fevre his great Vicar who was after Bishop of Vienna This man did what lay in his Power to break up the Assembly and to obstruct all Debates about matters of Religion Zuinglius persisted and in fine the Assembly being dissolved the Senate made an order that the Doctrine of the reformed Religion should be preached with full liberty This so sudden and violent growth of the Distemper made all People wish for a general Council as the onely remedy for restoring peace and tranquillity to the Church The Princes desired it in hopes by that means to provide against the Usurpations of the Priests and Bishops who daily invaded the Estates of Seculars the People longed for it for the reformation of the manners of the Clergy which were horribly corrupted the See of Rome seemed to desire it to support its tottering Authority but Luther and his Adherents protested from the beginning that they would not submit to it unless it were free and the Controversies decided onely by the word of God The Pope dreaded this remedy worse than the Disease he apprehended an Assembly where his Authority might be struck at and those Abuses reformed from which the Court of Rome reaped so much profit besides all this he was at a stand about the choice of the place he would with all his heart have held the Council either at Rome or in any other Town of the Ecclesiastick state where he might have been absolute Master but he foresaw that this design must meet with great opposition however his death which happened about the latter end of the year 1521 put an end to all his perplexities ADRIAN VI. After the death of Leo X. Adaian VI. is chosen in his place On the Ninth of January 1522 Adrian born in Utrecht was chosen in his place this Election was somewhat rare because Adrian at that time was absent from Rome and himself not so much as known there he was then in Biscaye and at Victoria received the News of his promotion but arrived in Rome about the end of August the same year Adrian was reckoned an honest and well meaning man P. Adrian desires to reform the Church that did not approve the disorders year 1522 of the Court of Rome he looked upon the Doctrine of Luther as foolish and stupid not thinking it capable to make any great progress but that those who had embraced that party had onely done it to be revenged of the Clergy for the oppression they suffered from them and for the aversion they had to the manners of the Church-men so that purposing by all means to pacifie these troubles he took a resolution of reforming the Court of Rome As for the Doctrine he was onely of opinion to give some Explanations concerning the Efficacy of Indulgences declaring that that Efficacy depends upon the works of those that receive the Indulgences so that they who neglect or perform amiss the works imposed upon them receive no benefit from the Indulgences but in proportion to their works Cardinal Cajetan a man consummated in School Divinity was at the bottom of the same Judgment with Adrian but he told him however that that Doctrine was not to be divulged because it would extinguish the Zeal that People had for Indulgences and lessen the Authority of the Pope for said he if once the People be perswaded that the Efficacy of Indulgences depends upon their own good works they will look upon themselves as the cause of the benefit they reap from them and set light by the Pope and the present that he makes them and farther they will easily be induced to believe that their good works alone are sufficient to procure them a full remission if they be allowed to think that the Efficacy of Indulgences depends upon their good works These reasons did preponderate with Adrian insomuch that he joyned in opinion with the Cardinal who thought fit that the rigour of the ancient penitential Canons should be revived that thereby the Necessity of Indulgences might appear because when Sinners should see themselves obnoxious to twenty or thirty years Penance according to the Canons they would then easily acknowledge the absolute Necessity of Indulgences to ease them from such severe pains but the Congregation appointed by the Pope to enquire into that affair could not digest that resolution and Laurence Pucci Cardinal of Santiquatro powerfully withstood it But he could not succeed in the design of that Reformation Adrian in the mean while did not wholly lay aside the design of reformation he sent for John Peter Caraffa Archbishop of Chieti and Marcel Cazel Bishop of Cajeta that he might have the assistance of their Councils because both were held in great reputation for probity and knowledge in the Discipline of the Church He was minded to have abolished the use of Dispensations and to have cut off every thing that looked like Simony but when he came to cast about for the means of effecting this he found himself in great Perplexity At length Francis Soderin Cardinal of Volterre put a stop to all these specious designs of reformation He told the Pope that that was the way to puff up the Lutheran party that it would be a great blow to the Authority of the Church by a reformation to confess her possibility of erring that Hereticks would from thence draw great advantages and that the holy See would by that means lose all its credit in the minds of the People he concluded that Croisades were the onely expedient to root out growing Heresies which he confirmed by the Instance of that great success obtained by Innocent III. in the ruine of the Albigenses by the way of force Adrian yeilded to his reasons seeing he could doe no more but sigh in secret for the Disorders which he could not remedy publickly In the mean while he sent Francis Cherigat Bishop of Fabriano to the Diet at Nuremberg he wrote to the Princes Adrian sends a Letter into Germany confessing that the Church and Court of Rome are corrupted and particularly to the Duke of Saxony exhorting them to extirpate the Lutherans by Fire and Sword He confessed to them that there were great abused in the Court of Rome and that the original of all the Mischief came from thence promising to remedy it and in the first Place to reform the holy See in imitation of our Lord Jesus Christ who in reforming of Jerusalem began at the Temple out of which he drove the Merchants and Money-changers but he excused himself that that was not the business of one day at the same time he complained of the disorders of the Regular and Secular Priests of Germany of which the one forsook their Monasteries to live again in the World and the others married to the great Scandal of the Church The Diet made answer in a kind of ambiguous manner but which did insinuate to the
accused of having favoured the Lutherans and had much adoe to justifie himself and to get off A fourth interview betwixt the Pope and the Emperour After the conclusion of the Diet the Emperour went to Italy and had an interview with the Pope in the City of Luca where the matter they chiefly treated of was the holding of a Council The Pope had heretofore called one at Vicenza but he was forced to suspend the Convocation first till Easter in the year 1539. and afterwards by a Bull of the 13th of June the same year the suspension was prolonged untill it should please the Pope to take it off In the Conference of Luca the Pope and the Emperour remained stedfast in their resolution of holding the Council at Vicenza but the Venetians to whom this City belonged recalled the consent they had given They were afraid of offending the Turk with whom they had just concluded a Peace because in that Council Overtures were to be proposed of making War against the Infidels This is the reason that was alledged but the true reason perhaps was that they were not very willing the City should be in a manner abandoned to so many Strangers as must needs flock thither upon account of the Council The Pope declares that he will call the Council at Trend but it is retarded by the War betwixt the Emperour and the King of France The year 1541. being thus spent next year after a Diet of the Empire was held The Pope sent thither John Morone Bishop of Modena and declared that since he could not agree neither with the Duke of Mantua nor the Venetians about holding of a Council either at Mantua or Vicenza he was resolved it should be held at Trent The Protestants would not accept that proposition however the Pope published his Bull dated January 22. and appointed the opening of the Council to be the first of November following About the same time the War broke out between the Emperour and the King of France This last declared War the same year and published reproachfull Manifesto's against the Emperour which War prevented the effect of the Bull of Convocation In the mean time the Pope sent his Legates to Trent and the Emperour his Ambassadours but after they had continued there seven months they were fain to separate because no Prelates came except some of the Kingdom of Naples and of the Ecclesiastick state whom the Pope and the Emperour had sent with their Ambassadours Francis the first King of France foreseeing that it would be imputed to him as a great crime to have obstructed the holding of a Council by so unseasonable a declaration of War to excuse himself with the Pope made Edicts against the Protestants of his Kingdom which he caused to be rigorously put in execution The Pope in the mean time as common Father both to the Emperour and the King of France endeavoured to make them friends but could not succeed in it He had another interview with the Emperour betwixt Parma and Piacenza A fifth interview of the Emperour and Pope but no talk then of a Council or the affairs of Religion The interest of the Emperour obliged him to draw the Pope to his side against the King of France which he attempted to doe and even to procure money of him for the charges of the War On the other hand the Pope had an eye upon the Dutchy of Milan which he desired might return to his Family year 1543 and would have had the Emperour give the investiture of it to Octavio Farnese his Nephew who had married Margaret natural Daughter to Charles the fifth They broke off without concluding any thing being jealous one of another and parted seemingly very well satisfied because both well understood the art of disguising their thoughts The Emperour having no assurances of the Pope addressed himself to Henry King of England and made a League with him against France That incensed the Pope extremely who complained publickly that a Prince who ought to be Protectour of the Church should make alliance with an Excommunicate King He added moreover that since the beginning of the Troubles Charles had carried it with an extreme tenderness towards the Protestants and to render that conduct of the Emperour the more odious he compared it with that of the King of France who had made so many severe Edicts and rigorous Laws against the Innovatours for maintaining the Religion and Papal authority This War and these mutual misunderstandings put a stop to all thoughts of a Council for that year 1543. The year following there was a Diet held at Spire A Diet at Spire where the Emperour gives a new Edict of liberty till the next Council wherein the Emperour represented the pains he had taken for obtaining a Council telling them that it had been called but that the Arms of France hindred its sitting Endeavours were there used to compose the affairs of Religion and the result was that the Emperour who had need of the Protestants made and Edict of Pacification to last till the sitting of the Council That Edict allowed the Lutherans not onely year 1544 the liberty of their Religion but also the peaceable possession of the Benefices which they enjoyed in the Church and ordered Memoirs to be made and presented to the next Diet wherein a form of Reformation should be stated that so all men might know what they were to take for matters of Faith untill the meeting of the next Council The Pope was touched to the quick at the proceedings of this Diet which were very favourable to the Protestants and thereupon wrote smart Letters to the Emperour telling him that he plainly wronged his Conscience and endangered his Salvation by adventuring to judge of matters of Faith and to call Assemblies that might be taken for National Synods by no other authority but his own That these Assemblies were invasions upon the authority of the Holy See since that consisting onely of Lay-men they notwithstanding decided matters of Religion without the power or concurrence of the Pope He besought him to annull all that had been done and in case of refusal threatned to force him to it by other and more severe courses THE HISTORY OF THE Council of TRENT BOOK II. PAUL III. THE War between the Emperour and King of France had hitherto hindered the opening of the Council but that War which lasted not much above a Year The Peace between the Emperour and K. of France revives the proposals of a Council being ended by the Peace that was concluded at Crespy December 24. 1544. both Princes obliged themselves to use their best endeavours for the preservation of the ancient Religion and Union of the Church and for the Reformation of the Court of Rome And that they might the better succeed in these three great Designs they concluded it necessary to press the convocation of a Council The Pope willing to have all the Honour of it alone so soon as
Naples did not obtain what he desired With ten Bishops at Trent the Congregation began to handle Preliminaries Till the end of April there were no more than three or four Bishops arrived at Trent but at length the third of May they made up the Number of Ten with whom a Congregation was held for regulating the Preliminaries wherein in there was a great deal of discourse but nothing concluded proposals were made about the Ornaments which the Legates were to have about empty places that were to be left for the Pope and the Emperour and the rights of precedence amongst the German Bishops who were Princes but nothing was concluded on save onely that they must expect till the Council were assembled in a fuller body There was indeed a great deal of discourse about the time of opening the Council and there was one reason that pleaded for a delay to wit the small number of Bishops but there were others that urged the hastening of it and the Chief was that thereby a stop might be put to the Enterprises of Princes and especially to those of the Emperour who upon all occasions offered at the deciding of matters of Religion which perhaps he might be more cautious in doing if once the Council were opened After all there considerations it was concluded that they should expect advice from Cardinal Farnese who was Legate with the Emperour The Prelates at Trent are weary of staying but they are stopt and money ordered to be given to the poor Bishops About the end of May there were got together at Trent twenty Bishops five Generals of Orders and an Auditour of the Rota the first comers were already very weary of delay and were therefore called in Raillery The hot-headed Gentlemen but their Zeal quickly cooled They began in good earnest to think of withdrawing and the most part without Ceremony plainly begg'd leave to return home others desired liberty to goe to Venice and other neighbouring Towns to buy Clothes and change the Air under pretence of some indisposition but the Legates suffered none to depart Most of these Prelates were poor Italian Bishops sent by the Pope who declared themselves unable to subsist there at their own charges It is true the Pope had remitted all tenths to those Bishops that should goe to the Council but that not much encrease the Revenues of those poor Bishops and therefore the Legates were fain to give them Money to encourage them to stay Others there were who made use of the Emperour's conduct for a Colour of withdrawing saying that they could not endure to see the Council so disparaged and slighted by his endeavouring to judge of matter of Religion the decision whereof belonged properly to it but notwithstanding all their impatience the Prelates were necessitated to bear with these delays and to wait five Months June July August September and October before the Council could be opened The Emperour who plaid his game with the Protestants and did not intend to exasperate them stopt all and held matters in suspence Sometimes he flattered the Lutherans with the hopes of preventing the sitting of the Council provided they consented to what he desired of them and sometimes again he threatned them with the Council that would arm all Christendom against them Don Diego de Mendoza his Ambassadour returned to his Embassie at Venice entreating the Legates not to open the Council without his presence The true cause of all this Conduct was that the Emperour intended not that the Council should proceed against the Lutherans before the had made his Peace with the Turk that so he might not have too many Enemies at the same time to encounter These delays put the Pope out of all Patience he many times repented the calling of the Council and if he could have done it with honour would certainly have revoked all that had been done thus not daring to break up and dissolve the Council it was said that he intended to remove it to a place where his Power and Authority was greater At length he resolved to sent the Bishop of Caserta to the Emperour to make an end of that affair and to bring him to consent to one of these three things either to the Opening or to the Suspension or to the Translation of the Council The Emperour consents to the opening of the Council conditionally and the Pope is angry The Emperour rejected the Suspension and Translation but persisted in starting difficulties as to the Opening because he was willing to expect the issue of the approaching Diet which was called at Ratisbonne in the Month of January however he consented to the opening of the Council in the Month of October provided that nothing concerning the Lutherans were brought under debate and nothing but the matter of Reformation taken into Consideration This last fetch of the Emperours in regard of the Lutherans put the Pope out of Patience however without any shew of discontent at that answer he resolved to act by himself and the last of October wrote to his Legates that without farther delay they should open the Council on the thirteenth of December This was very gratefull News to the Prelates assembled at Trent but the Legates were troubled to see that the French Bishops who were but three in number were recalled by their King for that did insinuate as if France designed not to approve of that Council nor to have any hand in it These small heart-burnings however hindred not but that the least things that concerned the Glory and Authority of the Pope were carefully looked after advice was therefore given that in opening of the Council the Bull that appointed it should be read to the end that all that was done in the Council might appear to depend on the Authority of the holy See with prospect of establishing thereby the Pope's Superiority over the Council and so the Bull was sent according as the Legates had desired session 1 At length the thirteenth of December came on which the Pope had ordered the opening of the Council and for the greater Solemnity the Pope appointed a Jubile at Rome and that all should after three days fasting confess and receive the Sacrament The twenty five Prelates that were at Trent made a solemn Procession in their Pontificals The Church was hung with Tapestry the Cardinal di Monte first Legate said the Mass of the Holy Ghost The Sermon of the Bishop of Bitonto is disliked by many and Cornelius de Muis Bishop of Bitonto made a Sermon after which the Legates made a long Discourse about the necessity of holding a Council and what their procedure ought to be therein The Discourse of the Legates was pretty well liked but the Bishop's Sermon was found to be stuft with a pedantick and idle strain of Eloquence He largely proved the necessity of holding a Council laid before them the Disorders of the Church made a long Encomium on the Pope and another somewhat shorter on the
presence of all the rest read the Decrees and the others gave no other Vote but placet or non placet A Debate concerning the Title of the Council and the words representing the universal Church Whilst the second Session was expected wherein there was nothing as yet to be done the Legates proposed a Decree for regulating the manner of living Christianly at Trent during the sitting of the Council this Decree was read with the Title of the Council the form of which had been sent by the Pope in these words The most holy and sacred Oecumenick and universal Council of Trent the Apostolick Legates presiding therein The French who had their prospects to favour the opinions that prevail in France touching the Superiority of a Council over the Pope desired these words to be added Representing the universal Church most of the Bishops were of the same opinion but the Legates opposed it because the Councils of Constance and Basil had used that clause with design to establish the Superiority of the Church and General Councils over the Pope John de Salazar Bishop of Lanciano maintained the opinion of the Legates vigorously insisting that that clause should not be added because the ancient Councils had never used it But he was also of opinion that the clause The Apostolick Legates presiding therein ought to be left out because it was not of ancient use He farther added that great and pompous Titles of Councils were not to be affected since every thing there ought to favour of Moderation and Humility The Legates took the first part of the Advice of the Bishop of Lanciano and past by the second so that notwithstanding all opposition the Title stood as it had been sent from Rome The rest of the Decree past without any difficulty for it could not be called in question seeing it contained nothing but exhortations to all to lead a Christian honest and a sober Life It enjoyned all the Members of the Council that were Priests to say Mass at least once every Sunday and in the conclusion of the Decree they Council declared that if any one in the Assemblies should speak out of his turn or sit out of his place he should not thereby sustain any prejudice nor yet forfeit nor acquire any right session 2 The seventh of January the second Session was held 1546. in the which were present twenty eight Bishops four Archbishops three Abbots of the Congregation of Mount Cassin four Generals of Orders who with the three Legates and the Cardinal Bishop and Lord of Trent made up an Assembly of three and forty Persons This company met in the house of the first Legate and from thence went in great Pomp through a lane of Musqueteers to the Cathedral So soon as the Prelates entred the Church the Souldiers drew up round the place and gave a Volley then was Mass said and a Sermon preached after which the Decree was read and all answered with a Placeâ— except the French who persisted in demanding the words universam ecclesiam representans to be added to the Title This being done the next Session was appointed to be on the fourth of February year 1546 The Legates complaine that there appeared division in the very Session and pretend to enter upon business There was no Congregation held untill the thirteenth of January wherein the Legates complained that opposition had been made to the Title of the Council even in the Session alledging that it was neither prudence nor wisedom publickly to break out into diversity of Sentiments because nothing could prevail more to bring the Lutherans to submit to the Council than the harmony union that should appear in their Proceedings Afterwards they gave it out that they intended to enter into matters of importance as the Prelates desired They proposed to them the three Heads contained in the Pope's Bull for which the Council was called to wit the extirpation of Heresies the reformation of Discipline and the restauration of Peace they asked the Bishops counsels concerning the Order wherein these three Points ought to be handled beseeching them to pray for the assistance of God in it and to come prepared for treating thereof in the next Congregation This was so much time gained during which the Legates expeded Letters from Rome They had wrote to Rome to know if the Pope would be satisfied that they should remit any thing as to the words in the Title representing the Universal Church but in particular they acquainted him that they were informed by Cardinal Pacieco that the Emperour had enjoyned the Spanish Bishops to repair to the Council and that therefore it was necessary that he should send ten or twelve trusty Italian Prelates on whom he might rely to be opposed to the Spaniards that were to come because the Italians who were then at Trent were men of no great interest nor authority The second Congregation was held the eighteenth of January where opinions were given about the method of handling the three above mentioned Heads The Germans alledged that there could be no hopes of success in the extirpation of Heresies before the Church was reformed and that therefore before all things they should set about a Reformation The others though in very small number were for taking a quite opposite Course and that they should begin with matters of Faith There was a third party of opinion that they should treat of Doctrine and Reformation at one and the same time which opinion prevailed in the Sequel but it was not the Legates intention that any thing should be concluded in that Congregation they therefore broke it up and referred the matter to another time This indeed was resolved upon that the Congregations should be regularly held twice a week to wit Munday and Friday to avoid farther trouble in calling them The Legates wrote again to Rome urging that they might at length have instructions sent them as had been promised and money for the poor Bishops because they could no longer amuse the Prelates with Preliminaries that the time of the third Session drew nigh and no body could tell what might be decided in it The Pope was in no haste the Council was least in his thoughts for he was wholly bent upon a War which Cardinal Farnese had the year before concluded with the Emperour against the Lutherans A great party of the Council are for beginning with Reformation but the Legates oppose it During these delays that party of the Prelates which was for beginning the actions of the Council by the reformation of Discipline grew strong and that was quite contrary to the intentions of the Court of Rome which aimed onely at the Lutherans and dreaded a Reformation The Legates therefore who had for a long time dextrously evaded that proposition were at length forced to oppose it openly in a Congregation of the twenty second of January and made use of this reason that stood them in great stead That the Emperour had
he concluded that it was not at all likely that all who had laboured therein were inspired adding withall that it was evident enough that these different Authours were not infallible since many faults were to be found in that Translation It was nevertheless still his opinion that it ought to be preferred before all other versions provided it were first corrected Andreas de Vega was of the same mind that there were faults in the vulgar Translation but was notwithstanding of the opinion that it should be declared Authentick without prejudice to any to consult the Originals They proceeded next to the Article of the sense and interpretation of Scripture It was thought that the liberty that men had taken to themselves in these later years of interpreting Scripture was the cause of the Heresies in Germany And therefore the Council purposed to remedy that by barring private men from expounding the Scriptures according to their fancy Some were for admitting all modern interpretation provided it were not contrary to the Faith and that opinion Cajetan had maintained Others thought that some liberty might be allowed to diversity of interpretation provided they did not clash and contradict one another and these last approved the remark of Cardinal di Cusa who heretofore said that Scripture ought to be interpreted variously according to the times and the Heresies that are to be confuted But most part were of a contrary opinion and judged it necessary to confine Expositours to the Interpretations of the Fathers and not to admit of any new expositions A Cordelier of Mons called Richard went a little farther and said that the Holy Scripture was not now any longer necessary for teaching Divinity which is sufficiently to be found in the Books of the School-men and that at present Scripture was not to be read for the instruction of the People but onely for Devotion The conclusion at length of all these disputes was that the vulgar Translation was declared Authentick with a proviso that it should be corrected and Deputies were appointed to make the amendments But sometime after the Pope put a stop to that work which was begun and caused it to be differred untill new orders in fine all liberty of broaching any new sense of Scripture different from that of the Fathers was taken away In the Congregation of the 29th of March the question was debated whether Canons and Anathema's were to pass upon these points some there were that thought it very hard to declare Hereticks and pronounce Anathema's against those who might question the supreme Authority of the vulgar Translation and take the liberty to observe faults in it but an expedient was found which was to make a Canon touching the necessity of Traditions and the number of Canonical books with Anathema's and to refer the vulgar Translation and what concerned the interpretation of Scripture to the Chapter of Reformation where none were to be used In consequence of this it was moved that means ought to be found to put a stop to the bad use that Libertines and profane People make of the Holy Scriptures some in Magical operations and others in defamatory Libels where they pervert texts of Scripture by wicked and impious Applications The Cardinal di Monte was very hot about this being much concerned at the Pasquinades of Rome by reason of the Disorders of his Life At length it was resolved that a Decree should be made whereby without descending to particulars such kinds of abuses should be Prohibited in general terms and all Printers forbid to print them session 4 On the Eighth of April the day appointed for the fourth Session forty eight Bishops and five Cardinals went in the usual order and with the accustomed Ceremonies to the Cathedral Church after which the Decrees were published declaring Traditions to be of equal Authority with the Holy Scripture the Catalogue of the Canonical Books were regulated the vulgar Translation made Authentick and the licentiousness of Libertines and Printers repressed In the same Session Don Francisco de Toledo the Emperour's Ambassadour caused the Emperour's Commission for Don Diego de Mendoza who was sick at Venice and for himself to be publickly read and then made his Master's Complements to the Council which were returned There first Decrees of the Council were ill relished by the Germans and they did not take it well that so small a number of men should take upon them in quality of a General Council to judge of so important a matter But the Pope was extremely well satisfied with their proceedings and that made him intimately concerned for the affairs of the Council fortifying the Congregation of Cardinals at Rome to whom these affairs were particularly committed he dispatcht three Orders to the Legates who presided in the Council of Trent first that they should publish no Decree without first acquainting him with it secondly that they should not spend time about matters that were not controverted and lastly that they should not suffer the Authority of the Pope to be called in question About the same time the Pope excommunicated the Archbishop of Cologne at the instance of the Bishops of Utrecht Liege and of the Clergy of Cologne The Pope excommunicates Herman Archbishop of Cologne he declared him deposed from his Archbishoprick and absolved his Subjects from their Oath of Allegiance to him as being an Heretick and an Abettour of Hereticks ordained them to submit to the Count of Shawembourg his Coadjutour as to their Archbishop The Emperour who valued not the Ordinances of Rome but as they made for his interest did not immediately upon this excommunication break with the Archbishop but for sometime continued to treat with him as Archbishop of Cologne because he was afraid that if he put him too hard to it he might join in War with the Confederates against him whereas till then he had persevered in his Obedience So that that Sentence did no great harm to the Archbishop but wrought pernicious effects in the minds of the Protestants and those that favoured them This does evidently demonstrate say they that the Council signifies no more than a formal Convocation seeing People are excommunicated for Doctrines which ought to remain undecided untill the Council have pronounced a definitive Sentence Nevertheless sometime after Herman was obliged to resign his Archbishoprick The Synodal actions were again renewed in the Council that the matters might be prepared which were to be Judged in the next Session The Pope had enjoyned his Legates to set on foot the question of original sin but the Germans opposed it and would have them to fall upon the matter of Reformation Don Francisco de Toledo insisted so much thereupon in the Emperour's name that the Legates were forced to tell him in plain terms that they had express orders from the Pope not to meddle with the matter of Reformation and because the Ambassadour was not satisfied with that answer but continued his Instances the Legates wrote about it to
have been Elected This distinction raised more mist before the eyes of the Prelates who were neither great Philosophers nor Divines than it brought light to the question The other six propositions were condemned by unanimous consent particularly that which asserted the perseverance of true Saints and the inamissibility of righteousness They alledged the examples of Saul Solomon Judas and others who had totally fallen from the real righteousness wherewith they had been invested The Decrees are made with a great deal of Difficulty and affected Ambiguity to give all content After matters were thoroughly examined Canons and Decrees must pass upon them But they were in great perplexity how to doe that every Party striving to have the Decrees worded in termes that might favour their opinions Giacomo Cocco Archbishop of Corfu was of the mind that no opinion which could be interpreted in a sound sense should be condemned and therefore he desired that all necessary exceptions and limitations should be put in the Canons for removing all Ambiguity Others opposed that saying that if all interpretations must be inserted it would render the Canons long tedious and intricate But the Bishop of Sinigaglia proposed a method which was approved and followed during the remaining time of the Council He said that there ought to be made in the first place a Decree of Doctrine which should be divided into Chapters that therein the Doctrine of the Church should be declared in a Style and Method capable to give content to all Catholicks and that then another Decree ought to be made containing nothing but the Canons and Anathema's against Hereticks The Legate Cardinal Santa Croce applied all his Pains and Skill in the composing of these Decrees and laboured in it with so much success that he gave content to all because he worded them with so much Ambiguity that every Party found their opinions therein But this was not done without trouble for there were above an hundred Congregations as well of Divines as Prelates held about it and from the beginning of September untill the end of November there past not a day wherein the Cardinal did not peruse his Decrees and alter something in them In a word they found a means to satisfie the Scotists and the Thomists Catarino and his adherents who stood for the certainty that one may have of his own justification and those that opposed it The Decrees were so artificially contrived to please all that Dominico à Soto immediately after wrote three Books de natura gratia and found all his opinions in the decisions of the Council And nevertheless Andreas de Vega a famous Cordelier on the other hand composed fifteen large Books upon the same Subject and found all his opinions in the same Decrees though they were quite opposite to the sentiments of Soto Whilst these matters of Doctrine were in agitation Congregations were also held about Reformation The first thing then that was proposed was the setling of some good Order that none might enter into Episcopal Sees but such as were capable to govern and edifie the Church But the Council despaired of finding remedies proper for the evil because Canonical Elections were abolished and in most places the nomination to Bishopricks belonged either to Kings or to the Pope They considered very well that it was to no purpose to make Canons for it would be impossible to make those Persons ever submit to them So the Council past by that consultation and proceeded to the point of Residence as well of Bishops as of Curates and other Beneficiaries Horrid was the corruption that prevailed in this particular The Bishops knew not what it was to reside nay and if a Living was but sufficient to maintain the Curate and his Vicar he abandoned the care of his Flock and lived where he had a mind From the time of St. Jerome there had been a custome of ordaining Priests without a Title who were not confined to any place nor obliged to Residence St. Jerome himself was one of these Priests he was a Priest of Antioch where he never resided and so was Ruffinus Priest of Aquileia But however these Priests without Churches had no Profits nor Revenues The custome of bearing the Titles and receiving the Profits of Benefices without any Service began in the Latin Church about the seventh Century for then began Princes to reward their Servants with Presentations to vacant Benefices And by degrees was introduced the distinction of Benefices of Residence and Sine-cures or Benefices of Non-residence under pretence that there were Benefices in which one was not obliged to reside The Canonists established this maxim that every Benefice is given for Office that is to say that a Beneficiary is precisely obliged to no more but to say his Breviary for enjoying his Benefice with a good Conscience The Popes had often thundered against the Non-residence of Bishops and other Pastours that had the cure of Souls but they medled not with Benefices that were called Sine-cures because they were glad that all Church-men might not reside that so their Courts might be more numerous and glorious This was such an overspreading and so great a corruption that all were fain to own it But the Bishops to extenuate their fault alledged that no man was obliged to Residence but by the order of the Pope and not the command of God This gave occasion to the starting of a controversie whether Residence be of Divine right and appointment or onely Humane and Papal and Cardinal Cajetan was on their side who thought it to be of Divine right The necessity of Residence that was proposed by the Legates and backt by the Bishops brought this question upon the stage Whether it was of Divine or Humane right We shall find in the sequel what terrible debates this occasioned in the Council though the first time that the question was proposed the heat of dispute was but moderate The Legates thought it enough to propose means to oblige Pastours to Residence but the Monks and especially the Jacobins to tie the knot of this obligation a little faster averred that Residence was necessary by Divine right Two Spanish Monks Bartholomè de Carranza who was afterward Archbishop of Toledo and Dominico â Soto reasoned strongly for that The Canonists and Italian Bishops were of a contrary opinion that the necessity of Residence was onely of Humane right Ambrosio Catarino though a Jacobin was of the same sentiment and said that there was but onely one Episcopate established by Jesus Christ which is that of the Pope that all other Bishops holding their Authority of him were no more obliged to Residence but according as he was pleased to enjoyn them The Spanish Bishops not onely publickly favoured Residence of Divine right but privately encouraged the Jacobins to maintain it stoutly In this they had secret and mysterious designs which they did not communicate to any they aimed at the restauration of the Authority of the Bishops which was born
down and oppressed by the Pope for it once it had been decided that Bishops hold their Authority from Jesus Christ and that they are obliged to reside in the midst of their Flocks to take the care of them not by the command of the Pope but by the appointment of God they perswaded themselves that they might easily provide against the enterprizes of the Court of Rome practised upon the Ordinaries which shall be set forth more at large in the sequel when we shall have a new occasion to speak of this question which was bandied with much more fierceness in the third convocation of the Council under Pius IV. If the Spaniards were cunning enough in disguising the true reasons of their Conduct the Legates were not behind hand in diving into their intentions and therefore they dextrously waved that question by referring it to another Session In pursuance of the matter of Reformation they entred upon the examination of the Exemptions which were granted by the Pope to the prejudice of Ordinaries In the Eastern Church all that is comprehended within the precincts of a Diocess whether Monasteries Churches or Benefices is subject to the jurisdiction of the Bishop of the Diocess But in the Latin Church it is not so in the first place rich and powerfull Abbots to free themselves from the jurisdiction of the Bishops to whom they gave Umbrage and with whom they often quarelled obtained of the Popes to be taken under the Protection of St. Peter and to hold immediately from the holy See The Popes found that that hit very pat with their interests because thereby they acquired Subjects in all places and that he who obtains privileges is obliged to maintain the Authority of him that grants them and therefore they were very liberal in their Exemptions They thereupon took from under the jurisdiction of Bishops those great Societies of Clugny and Cistaux they granted the same privileges to the Chapters of Cathedral Churches and at length all the Orders of the mendicant Friars in their first institution obtained the same privileges of holding immediately from the holy See The Bishops could not but grumble at these Exemptions that deprived them of so many subjects And they would have taken it extremely well it Giacomo Cortese Bishop of Vaison had demanded the abolition of them This affair having been referred to another Session was brought in again with the case of Residence but hardly any thing could be obtained concerning these two Articles As to the first which is the case of Residence it was concluded that the ancient Canons which command Residence under such and such Pains should be reinforced with new Penalties It was therefore decreed that a Bishop who should for six Months together be absent from his Diocess should lose a fourth part of his Temporals that if his absence continued a Year he should forfeit the half of his Revenue and that if he persisted in that fault he should by the Metropolitan be complained of to the Pope to the end that the holy See might take Cognisance thereof and either punish that negligent Pastour or put another in his place that if the non-resident Prelate were a Metropolitan he should be complained of to the Pope by the Eldest of his Suffragans As for inferiour Pastours it was ordered that they might be by the Bishops compelled to Residence and if among the non-resident Curates any one might happen to have an Exemption from the Pope he might nevertheless be forced to Residence by the Bishop acting as the Delegate of the holy See As to the matter of Exemptions it was decreed that no Monk being out of his Convent under pretext of the Privilege of his Order should excuse himself from being punished and corrected by the Ordinary of the place but in this also the Bishop must act as Delegate of the holy See it was likewise ordained that the Chapters of Cathedral and Collegiate Churches might not decline the Jurisdiction of the Bishops as to the visitation and correction of manners And last of all Bishops were prohibited to perform any Episcopal function in the Diocess of another without permission Matters being thus prepared nothing could hinder the holding of the Session nor was the Pope himself of opinion that it should be delayed any longer On the contrary he was glad of that opportunity to nettle the Emperour who instantly desired that no controversie should be decided till he had reduced the Lutherans to a Necessity of submitting to the Council The unions of Great men having no other foundation but interest are never firm nor of long continuance The Pope and the Emperour who had been so good friends in the beginning of the year fell a clashing one with another before it was ended And thereupon the Pope ordered that the Session should be held notwithstanding the opposition of the Emperour's Ambassadours year 1547 The thirteenth of January was the day appointed for that Ceremony Andrea Cornaro Archbishop of Spalato in Dalmatia said high Mass Sixth Session 1547. and Thomas Stella Bishop of Salpi preached the Sermon After this the Decrees were read which contained sixteen Chapters and thirty three Canons concerning Doctrine and five Chapters about Reformation In the Chapters of Doctrine according as it had been resolved upon the Judgment of the Church was declared concerning the points of Justification the nature of Grace the nature of good works the certainty that one may have of his own Justification the necessity of good works the perseverance of Saints free Will and generally concerning all the points that had been agitated amongst the Divines which we have mentioned before in the Canons Anathema was pronounced against all the propositions that were attributed to the Lutherans In the Decree of Reformation Residence was enjoyned the Exemptions of Monks and of Cathedral and Collegiate Churches regulated and the mutual attempts of Bishops upon one anothers rights repressed in the manner as we told you had been agreed upon in the Congregations Censures by the male Contents of the Decrees of this Sessions The Court of Rome made no new reflexions upon these Decrees for to them they were not new but so soon as they came abroad in Germany the Malecontents of whom it was full revenged themselves on the Council by a publick and censorious reflexion that let nothing pass they critisized even to the very expressions and the Grammarians made themselves sport with that flourish which is to be found in the fifth Chapter cum neque homo ipse nihil omnino agat they said it was little better than gibberish and nonsense because every proposition wherein there are two Negatives ought to be resolved into an Affirmative so that that proposition ought to be resolved into this cum etiam homo ipse aliquid omnino agat which is nonsense But the Divines made more important remarks they said that the Doctrine of the Council which affirms that man may resist even to the end the inspirations of
the Holy Ghost does not at all agree with that ancient Prayer of the Church Et ad te nostras etiam rebelles compelle propitius voluntates It was thought that the Council had a design to condemn effectual Grace which St. Austin asserted that is to say Grace effectual in it self they also pickt out contradictions therein as for instance in that which is said in the seventh Chapter that Justice is given in a certain measure according to God's good will and pleasure and the disposition of him that receives it they could not comprehend how Grace was given at the same time according to the good will and pleasure of God and according to the disposition of him that receives it for if it be according to the pleasure of God it is without any respect to dispositions and if God have any regard to dispositions then it depends not absolutely on his pleasure They found another contradiction in that here the Council condemns those who say that men are not able to fulfill the Commandments of God and in the second Session had commanded men to obey the Commandments of God quantum quisque poterit as far as one is able because these terms suppose that every one is not able to fulfill the Law of God By these censures it was made apparent that in a matter purely Theological the Fathers of the Council had made use of many terms borrowed from Philosophy insomuch that without the assistance of Aristotle they could not have made an Article of Faith But above all other there happened one unlucky hit to the Council and made it evident that they had conceived their Decisions with intent to please all men except the Lutherans which was this In the Book which Dominico à Soto wrote de natura gratia which we mentioned before when he comes to treat of the certainty that one may have of his own Justification he proved that the intention of the Council was to condemn the opinion which affirms that one may have such a certainty of his being in the State of Grace as excludes all doubting Catarino that was present at the Council as well as Soto published a Book wherein he asserted that the intention of the Council was not to condemn those who say that one may believe that he is in the State of Grace with as much certainty as one believes an Article of Faith On the contrary that the Council favoured that opinion because it is expressed in the twenty sixth Canon that the righteous man ought to hope for a reward Catarino concluded that a righteous man cannot expect his reward unless he be assured of his Righteousness These two Authours wrote several Books against one another on this subject and even complained to the Council that Decisions and Sentiments were imposed upon them which they had not indeed intended The Council was in perplexity and could not tell what to think of this controversie which made People laugh in their sleeve It was thought strange that the Fathers should not understand their own Decisions and that brought the Bishop of Bitonto's Sermon into mens minds who in the opening of the Council promised the Prelates that the holy Ghost would inspire them as he did Caiaphas who spoke a Prophecy which he understood not session 6 The point of the Sacraments in general of Baptism and extreme unction chosen for the next Session Next day after the sixth Session which was the fourteenth of January the Legates called a general Congregation to make choice of the Controversie which should be decided the next Session they had made a kind of resolution in the beginning to follow the Order of the Confession of Ausbourg and the point of the ministerial function in the Church was the next in order in that Confession to that of Justification But because the point of Administration carried along with it that of the Authority of the Council and the Pope which the Legates would not meddle with they wisely laid it aside and favoured the Divines to whom that subject was not very agreeable neither but for reasons far different from those of the Legates for that is a point the Schoolmen do not much treat of nor are well versed in So it was concluded that the matter of the Sacraments which depend on the ministerial function should be discussed for the Chapter of Doctrine and that they might jointly treat of Reformation as had been resolved it was thought fit to endeavour the Reformation of abuses that had crept into the Administration of the Sacraments The Cardinal di Santa Croce had the Change of presiding in the Congregations for Doctrine and the Cardinal di Monte undertook the Province of moderating in the Congregations of the Canonists for Reformation besides these the matter of Residence was again brought upon the stage the Bishops and particularly the Spaniards pressed to have it declared of Divine right But the Cardinal di Monte a brisk and subtile Protectour of the papal Power perceiving that that would make a considerable breach in his Master's Authority presently alledged reasons for having it deferred till another time he told them that that Subject had been handled too eagerly that they ought to suffer the Stirs of Passion to be composed to make way for the Calm of Charity that so the holy Ghost might breath upon them by his inspirations however he concluded these devout Considerations with a plain and positive prohibition not to meddle with that subject for the present This seemed a little hard and somewhat inconsistent with the Liberty of the Council Nevertheless they condescended to treat of the Causes which hindered Residence the most considerable of which is the Plurality of Benefices To begin with the Point of Doctrine abstracts were made of the Books of the Lutherans that they might know their opinions as to the Sacraments in general and in particular as to Baptism and Confirmation The Articles that were drawn out as to the Sacraments in general were in number fourteen as to Baptism seventeen and as to Confirmation four wherein under the title of Lutheran errours were comprehended all the opinions of the Anabaptists which are rejected by true Protestants All these articles were examined in Congregations and great Debates happened about some of them they began first with the number of the Sacraments The Divines agreed upon the number of seven which had been first defined by the Master of the Sentences and then confirmed by a Decision of the Council of Florence in their instruction to the Armenians But they were not of opinion that this number should be determined to be neither more nor less than seven because of the difficulty of defining a Sacrament in regard that according to the different definitions that may be given of it a thing may be or not be a Sacrament There was some difficulty also started about the opinions of some of the Ancients of whom some had held our Saviour's washing the Apostles feet
Residence to be of Divine right for preventing that intolerable abuse that one man should enjoy several Cathedral Churches for obliging the Cardinals themselves to resign all they had but one which they might enjoy for prohibiting those Unions of Benefices for Life for rescinding and annulling all Dispensations obtained or to be obtained from the Court of Rome without lawfull cause and for giving the Ordinaries power of judging the Validity of the cause for which the Dispensation had been obtained This was signed by twenty Bishops and by Cardinal Pacieco The attempt surprized the Legates because of the boldness of the propositions and that the Bishops had adventured to assemble themselves without their permission These Articles were sent to Rome and at the same time the Cardinal di Monte wrote that it was his advice that that Enterprize ought to be withstood without the least condescension adding withall that it would be convenient to make some Reformation at Rome to stop the Mouth of the Council But above all things the Legates urged that the Italian Bishops who were retired to keep Lent at home in their own Churches should forthwith be sent back to Trent The Pope followed that advice and gave order to his Nuncio at Venice to oblige the Italian Bishops who passed by Venice or who were there still to return with all speed to Trent that they might make head against the Spaniards At the same time he called a Congregation of the Deputies at Rome for examining the Writing That Congregation was not wholly of Cardinal di Monte's opinion they thought it not fit to break with the Spanish Prelates nor peremptorily to refuse all that they demanded They thought it sufficient by answering every Article to elude all their demands and in effect they made a project of answers to be made to them wherein to speak the truth they shewed an Address becoming the Court of Rome the Memoires of it were sent to the Cardinal di Monte the Pope committed the management of that Affair to the Prudence of the Legates and of those who were stiled the well affected whom the Protestants named the slaves of the See of Rome he gave them power either absolutely to reject the demands of the Spaniards or to make use of the qualifications which he sent them according as occasion proved more or less favourable The Pope fearing the Spaniards resolves to remove the Council to Bologna The Court of Rome made great reflexions upon that attempt of the Spaniards and the Pope began to dread a Combination betwixt them and the Germans so that not thinking his Authority safe enough in the Zeal of the Legates and the Recruit of the Italians whom he had sent to the Council he resolved to remove the Council unto a Town where he might neither stand in awe of the Emperour nor of the Bishops of Spain and to that purpose cast his eyes upon the City of Bologna But he was not willing to do it of himself but thought it more proper to have it done by his Legates to the end that if the matter succeeded not all the disgrace might fall upon them and that he himself might onely divide with them the trouble of the disappointment for that end he sent them a Bull bearing date the fifteenth of February 1547. but which was very well known to have been made two years before by that Bull he gave them full power to remove the Council whithersoever they should think fit but at the same time sent orders that they should not mention the Translation till the ensuing Session were over Whilst these resolutions were on foot at Rome the Cardinal di Monte plaid his part he sounded the tempers gained some by promises and drew others over by divers ways that so he might defeat the designs of the Spaniards and indeed it cost him not much pains to accomplish his aim So that in the following Congregations the Spaniards were baulked and could not obtain the handling of the point which they chiefly desired that is the Divine right of Residence They spoke to it indeed with great freedom and a Spanish Monk called Bartholomè di Carranza who was afterwards Bishop of Toledo took the boldness to say that the opinion which held that Residence was onely of Papal right was Diabolical The Cardinal di Santa Croce was of the mind that according to the Memoires sent from the Congregation of Rome something should be granted them but the Legate di Monte stood his ground and carried it that no satisfaction should be given them At length the Legates framed the Decree of Reformation containing fifteen Chapters and proposed it to a general Congregation It should have seemed that by that Decree there had been a design of indulging somewhat to those who demanded a Reformation and especially as to the Plurality of Benefices but in the main there was nothing less because to that Article and to all the rest it was always added saving in all things the Authority of the holy See which rendred all the promises of Reformation useless because the Pope continued still absolute Master of all The Spaniards and particularly the Bishop of Badajox found fault with it would have had that clause left out and that the Pope should not have the power to dispense against the Canons But it was to no purpose for them to protest and declare against it it must needs go so They urged that the Cardinals might be expresly named in the prohibition of possessing several Benefices but that as all the rest was refused them These Decrees which seemed to rectifie the abuse concerning the Plurality of Benefices approved nevertheless a certain constitution of Innocent III. called de Multa which condemning the Plurality of Benefices does notwithstanding permit it provided one have a Dispensation from Rome This to speak properly is to do nothing at all for what is prohibited in shew is in effect permitted by the benefit of Dispensations The Spaniards withstood this desiring that the Pope might not have power to give Dispensations for possessing several Benefices But the Plurality of Votes gained by the Legates were for approving of the Decrees The Reformation of abuses about the administration of the Sacraments was put off to another Session because the matter had not been sufficiently examined session 7 All things being in readiness the seventh Session was held on the third of March. Cariolano Martirano Bishop of St. Mark was to have made the Sermon but he would not because being one of those who had pressed the Reformation and the point of the Divine right of Residence he had been sharply taken up in the Congregation and therefore would not appear at the Session to say a Placet to a thing that did not at all please him nor indeed was it safe for him publickly to oppose the Decrees in a Session He therefore pretended sickness but none of all those learned men that made up the Council was in a
ever done it but that of Basil the least action whereof they scrupled to imitate they added that the coming of the Lutherans to the Council would onely serve to seduce people because they would not forbear their Dogmatical Cant that on the whole if they refused to submit that safe conduct would be dishonourable to the Council from which they required a compliance which ought never to be granted to Hereticks To remove all these difficulties they thought of giving a safe Conduct in general terms wherein the Protestants should not be named but onely designed under the Title of Church-men and Seculars of the German Nation that so if at any other time necessity did require they might say that by these terms none were meant but Catholicks Whilst they were consulting at Rome about the safe Conduct at Trent points of Doctrine were under examination and that inquiry was not so calm and peaceable as the other about the Anathema's and Canons against Protestants for it was impossible to keep the Jacobins and Cordeliers from going together by tho ears about the matter of Transubstantiation The Jacobins pretended that the body of our Saviour is made present in the Eucharist by way of Production because the Body of Jesus Christ without coming down from Heaven where it is in its natural being is rendered present in the Bread by a reproduction of the same substance according to which Doctrine the substance according to which Doctrine the substance of the Bread is changed into the substance of our Lord's Body The Cordeliers on the other hand defended that Transubstantiation which is called Adductive they alledged that our Lord's Body is brought down from Heaven not by a successive but momentany change and that the substance of Bread is not changed into the substance of the Body of Jesus Christ but that the Flesh and Bloud of Jesus Christ succeeds into the place of the substance of the Bread being conveyed thither from another place Each Party maintained their opinions with wonderfull heat branding one anothers with absurdities and contradictions The Electour of Cologne who had had the patience to hear these wretched janglings said very pleasantly that both Parties were in the right when they refuted and charged one another with absurdities but that they seemed all of them to be out of the way when they asserted their opinions because they spoke nothing that was Sense or Intelligible at length seeing there was no declaring for one Party without offending the other they satisfied them both by couching the Decree in very general terms In the same Congregation they discoursed of many abuses that concerned the Eucharist which ought to be reformed such as are the failings in reverence and respect to the holy Sacrament It was complained of that they did not kneel before it that they let it mould in the Pixes that it was administred with little reverence and that they took money from Communicants This last abuse was committed particularly at Rome where the Communicants carried in one hand a hollow Taper and a piece of money in the Taper which was the Priests see It was resolved that Canons should be made against that abuse and many more of the like nature The original of the Jurisdiction of the Tribunals of the Church with their progress At the same time other Congregations were held consisting onely of Doctors of the Canon Law for handling the matter of Discipline the Head that was examined was that of the Jurisdiction of Bishops The end the Bishops proposed to themselves was not the rectifying of the abuses of that Jurisdiction by restraining it to the just and lawfull bounds whereby it was limited in the Apostles time and in the primitive Ages of the Church on the contrary they would have enlarged it by exempting it from the power and attempts of the Court of Rome That Jurisdiction in the first Ages was onely grounded on the sixth Chapter of the first epistle to the Corinthians wherein St. Paul exhorts believers not to bring their Causes before Infidels but to chuse out amongst themselves fit persons to compose their differences but because the Tribunal which St. Paul establishes in that place was merely a tribunal of Charity which had no coercive power so the Sentences that past there were onely Verdicts of Arbitration which men stood by if they thought fit by the six and fiftieth Chapter of the second Book of the Constitutions attributed to St. Clement it appears that the Bishop and Priests met every Munday for determining the affairs of their Flock And it rarely happened that any one appealed from these Decisions because of the great respect that men in those days had for the Church But after the times of persecution were over the Bishops supported by the Emperours who were become Christians erected Real Tribunals the Decrees and Sentences whereof were put in execution by the Authority of the Magistrate It is said that Constantine ordained that the Sentences of Bishops should be without appeal and be put in execution by the Secular Judges and that if one of the Parties should desire that a Process commenced before a Secular Judge might be referred to the Tribunal of the Bishop the reference should be granted in spight of all opposition either from the Judge or the adverse Party In the year three hundred sixty five the Emperour Valens enlarged that Jurisdiction and Possidius reports that St. Austin was taken up in those trials of Civil matters many times even till night which troubled him much because it took him off from the true functions of his Ministery That Law of Constantine in favour of this Tribunal of Bishops was revoked or at least limited by the Emperours Arcadius and Honorius for they ordained that Bishops should decide in no Causes but those of Religion and in Civil matters when both Parties consented to it In the year four hundred and fifty two the Emperour Valentinian confirmed that Law which restrained the power of Bishops Justinian restored to them part of what they had been deprived of allowing them besides the Causes of Conscience power to take cognizance of the Crimes of the Clergy and to perform several other acts of Jurisdiction over Laics And thus by the indiscreet favour of Emperours the power of the Church which is all Spiritual became a Carnal Dominion In the following Ages the Jurisdiction and Authority of the Bishops got ground apace and especially in the Western Church because the chief of the Clergy were the ablest Statesmen they were commonly of Princes Councils and managed and Civil matters That was the reason that in a short time they grew to be sole Judges of all Causes Civil and Criminal of the Clergy and that they extended their Jurisdiction over Laicks under various pretexts for instance they took upon them to Judge of the Validity of last Will and Testaments to make Inventories and apply Seals under pretext that Widows and Orphans are recommended to the care of the Church
Heretofore all contracts were confirmed and ratified by Oath and because an Oath is a matter of Conscience they made themselves Judges of all Causes that related to Contracts and Promises Besides these Jurisdictions they established a Court which they called the Mixt Court wherein they Judged of all civil Causes belonging to the Magistrate if the Court of the Church had by anticipation taken cognizance of the Cause but on the other side if the Magistrate had anticipated them then the Ecclesiastick-Court had no more Power They likewise laid down for a Maxim which brought a great many Causes before them that when the Magistrate neglected or refused to doe Justice then the Cause devolved to the Ecclesiastick-Court And in fine to fill up the measure of corruption in the eleventh Century they laboured to lay down this for a Maxim that Bishops did not derive this great Power from the Concessions of Princes but immediately from Jesus Christ Otherwise if the Bishops had acknowledged that they held these Privileges from Princes Sovereigns would have always had power to punish them and rectifie the abuses committed by them in their Jurisdiction But that they might put themselves out of reach of Animadversion they perswaded People that their Jurisdiction was independent of the Power of Princes At last that they might frame an Empire Paramount over all the States of Christendom the Pope was made Head of that Jurisdiction which the Bishops had usurped and reared up within the space of thirteen hundred years For after that the Bishops had taken from Magistrates a great part of their Jurisdicton the Pope found a way to strip the Ordinaries of the greatest part of their Power by Evocations Appeals and Exemptions So that if on the one hand the Secular Judges complained of the usurpations of the Bishops on the other hand the Bishops complained of the encroachments of the holy See This in general was the matter that then was handled in the Congregations of the Canonists whilst in the others matters of Faith were examined Gropper votes for the abolishing of Episcopal Jurisdiction and Ecclesiastick Tribunals Gropper who was in the Council both as a Lawyer and a Divine reasoned accurately about these abuses of Jurisdiction and shew'd that in the beginning the sentences of Bishops were sentences of Charity that these sentences were rendered not by Officials as now a-days but by the Bishop and Priests assembled in a kind of Consistory or Synod That moreover there was no such thing known as Appeals from those sentences to the Pope that if any Appeal was made it was to their next immediate Superiours which are Synods And therefore he was of opinion that these Synodal Judgments should be restored that the Courts and Judgments of Officials should be abolished and that all Appeals to the Pope immediately without passing through subordinate Superiours should be discharged The Legate Nuncio's and Italians slaves to the Court of Rome listened to this discourse with a great deal of impatience and having consulted together they set on the Promooter of the Council Giovanni Baptista Castello a Bolonian who in a long harangue maintained that it was lawfull to Appeal immediately to the Pope Baptista Castello Promooter of the Council refutes Gropper about the subject of immediate Appeals to the Pope and to bring Actions before the holy See without passing through the Intermedial Judges The Bishops were not satisfied with Gropper's Discourse but far less with that of Castello For he raised the Authority of the Pope to such a pitch that the Italians themselves murmured at it because according to Castello's Maxims the Pope was all in all and the Bishops signified nothing at all and that made the Italians recoyl and talk of accommodation In effect they came to an accommodation and adjusted matters in this manner That there should be no Appeals from the definitive Sentences of Bishops and Officials but in causes criminal and that even in criminal matters it should not be lawfull to Appeal from Interlocutory Sentences untill Definitive Sentence were pronounced But they would not re-establish Synodal Judgments by ruining the Officials The Bishops urged not to be re-established in their ancient right of being Judged by their Synods that is to say by the Metropolitan and their Comprovincials because men are not commonly inclined to facilitate Judgments against themselves and Processes against Bishops are much more difficult when one must go to Rome or procure a Commission from thence than if they could be accused upon the place before their proper Judges which are Synods The power was therefore left to the Pope of Judging them by Commissaries delegated in partibus Onely the Council made some Regulations that none inferiour to the Bishop in Dignity should be chosen as a Commissary of the Pope to Judge him It is one of the Grievances against the Council of Trent and one of the reasons why it is not received in France that contrary to the ancient Canons it deprives Bishops of the right of being Judged by the Metropolitan and their Comprovincials Of Degradations their Original and Progress There was also another great abuse in the Jurisdiction of Bishops of which a Reformation was demanded and that was the manner of Degradations According to the Privileges that have been granted to the Clergy or which they have usurped this Maxim has been long received that the Magistrate has no power over Clerks so long as they remain Clerks So that a Member of the Clergy must be degraded before he can be delivered over to the Secular Power for capital and enormous Crimes where sentence of death is to be pronounced which cannot be given by an Ecclesiastick Court because it imbrues not the hand in Bloud and this custome was confirmed by the Laws of Justinian It was even the custome in preceding Ages that is in the fourth and fifth Century when a Member of the Clergy returned into the World to degrade him by the same Ceremonies whereby he had been installed but in a manner inverse and retrograde that is to say that they clothed him in all his Priestly Habits and then stript him of the same one after another applying words quite contrary to those of Ordination But since about the year six hundred these Degradations were abolished and those who had taken high Orders were prohibited from returning again into the World so that the custome of Degradations is onely retained in Criminal matters when a Member of the Clergy is to be delivered over to the Secular Power to be punished But these Degradations of Clerks convicted must be done according to the new Canons with so many Ceremonies as rendered the punishment of the Members of the Clergy almost impossible That was their Scope and they onely clogg'd Degradations with so many difficulties that they might live in impunity For Degrading a Bishop thirteen Degrading Bishops were required besides twelve Assistants For Degrading a Priest there must be six Bishops for Degrading a
Jurisdictions and there conferred Orders on all that demanded them who could not have otherways obtained them because of their insufficiency This was also prohibited but without making the least mention of the Pope who had granted those Privileges There was another great abuse in the Exercise of Ecclesiastick Jurisdiction and that is when a man was accused before the Bishop's Tribunal he appealed to Rome and by means of money obtained a Judge at his own option to whom Power was given to protect and defend him and to put a stop to all Prosecutions against him and this protection was extended even to the Domestick Servants of the Party accused those Judges were called Conservatours and these Exemptions Conservatory Privileges the Judges Conservatours being many times the Bishops Persecutours That abuse was somewhat moderated but not wholly extirpated for it was indeed enacted that notwithstanding these Conservatory Privileges a man might be sued before the Ordinaries especially in criminal Cases but Universities Colleges Hospitals and Convents were expresly excepted The Bishops cried out mightily against that Exception because it was far more comprehensive than the Rule But nothing could be obtained because for the Grandure of the Court of Rome the Pope would have the Monks and Universities depend immediately on the holy See and the Legate received Orders from Rome not to yeild the least in that point so that the Party of the Court of Rome being the more numerous the rest were fain to give way and take good words for payment It being a grievance that contrary to the ancient Canons Dispensations were granted to wilfull Murtherers to enter into holy Orders that was prohibited in the seventh Chapter There were also some other regulations made against the various ways that Criminals took to avoid Episcopal Correction against Bishops who by Power from the Pope exercised Jurisdiction out of their Dioceses against the abuse of annexing a Church in one Diocese to another Church in another which gave liberty to a Bishop to exercise Jurisdiction in the Diocese of another Bishop and in fine against the abuse of the Right of Patronage The spring-head of all these abuses was the Court of Rome the ancient Canons being clearly against these Corruptions and bad Customs but Dispensations evacuated the Force of Canons the Bishops were therefore for having it decreed that the Court of Rome should not give Dispensations contrary to the Canons but they could never obtain it So that in the whole there was no disorder remedied because the Legate and the Nuncio's would by no means suffer the Pope to be named nor that even the Names of the great Penitentiary and other Ministers of the Chancery should enter into any of the Decrees Now it is an undoubted Maxime amongst the Canonists that in all Laws wherein the Pope is not expresly named all that is enacted can be no way prejudicial to his Authority Insomuch that the Decrees deprived not the Pope of the Power of giving Dispensations in any Cases but served onely to enhaunce the value of Dispensations and to enrich the Chancery The Monks made great instances for obtaining the abolition of Commendums but it was thought sufficient to ordain that Benefices which were not as yet in Commendum when they came to be vacant should onely be given in Title and to the Religious of the same Order and thus the Number of Commendums was not lessened but care taken that they should not encrease The Ambassadours of the Duke of Wirtemberg come to Trent and cannot have Audience Whilst these matters were on foot in the Congregations John Thierry Pleningher and John Heclin Ambassadours of the Duke of Wirtemberg came to the Council They applied themselves to the Count of Montfort the Emperour's Ambassadour that they might have Audience of the Council The Count acquainted the Legate with it who told him that it was the Custome of other Ambassadours to impart their Instructions to the Presidents of the Council and that these of Wirtemberg ought to have done so that they should address themselves to him and that he would receive them with all imaginable Civility The Ambassadours refused to doe that because one of the Articles which they had to demand was that the Pope should not preside in the Council and therefore they could not address themselves to his Legates as Presidents The Legate having received that answer wrote immediately to Rome for instructions It is easie to imagine what the instructions were and indeed they had Orders not to abate a hair in that point but to hazard all and even to break up the Council according to the Power they had if they thought in necessary rather than to suffer the least diminution of the Authority of the holy See About that time the Emperour came to Inspruck which is but a few days Journey from Trent that he might observe the actions of the Council at a nearer distance This gave the Pope some umbrage who would have no other Master over the Council but himself however he dissembled his displeasure session 14 25. November 1551. At length the day prefixed for the Session came which was the five and twentieth of November 1551. And this Session in the collection of the Decrees is reckoned the fourteenth Therein were published the Decrees and Canons which we have mentioned concerning Penance Extreme Unction and the Reformation in favour of Episcopal Jurisdiction The Legate did what he could to hinder the Impression of these Decrees and indeed they were not printed at Ripa where the Printing-house of the Council was but they had Manuscripts of them in Germany which were quickly printed and every one after the usual manner took the liberty to exercise their Talent in censuring of them Next day after the Session the Presidents called a General Congregation to advise about the matters that were to be handled in the following Session and the Points of the Sacrifice of the Mass and the Communion in both kinds were proposed In the following Congregations after the points had been discussed four Chapters of Doctrines were made and thirteen Anathema's but because they signified nothing and were not published as will appear hereafter it is to no purpose to reckon them up at length In the Congregations that were held after Christmass they treated also of the Sacrament of Orders concerning which twelve Articles drawn out of the Books of the Lutherans were proposed and after many Conferences four Chapters of Doctrine and eight Canons with Anathema's past upon them but neither were they published We shall therefore refer the treating of these Points to the History of the third Convocation of the Council under Pius IV. The Council will not hear the Protestants though the Emperour had past his word that they should The Ambassadours of the Duke of Wirtemberg wrote to their Master to give him an account of the Difficulties they met with and to know what he intended they should doe He wrote back to them again
the Emperour and all his Court. At length in August following the peace was concluded at Passau the Landgrave of Hesse was enlarged liberty of Conscience granted to all the banished Ministers recalled and the Interim was abolished THE HISTORY OF THE Council of TRENT BOOK V. JULIUS III. THE Pope finding himself eased of a Burthen that had lain heavy upon him by the breaking up of the Council resolved with himself to keep out of the Briars The Pope has enough of Councils neither does the Emperour care for them and not to run into such straits again Nevertheless to perswade the world that he was concerned at that Rupture or rather to convince them what a useless thing a Council was he himself undertook the Reformation of the Church and for that end appointed a numerous Congregation of Cardinals but this as all the other designs of Reformation presently vanished it produced nothing but a great many Debates so that within a few Months it was wholly laid aside Nor was there any more talk of reassembling the Council which was at this time interrupted for almost ten Years Charles the V. who had been the great stickler for the Convocation of the Council had not now the same interests to prompt him his main design was the greatness of his Family and he had made it his business to render the Empire hereditary as the Kingdom of Spain and his other Dominions were He thought to have accomplished his ends by depressing the Protestant Princes and the Pope and that the Council of Trent was the fittest instrument for that purpose And indeed this Emperour had got so great an Ascendant over the minds of all of his Family that he could perswade them to any thing even contrary to their own interests his Brother Ferdinand was King of the Romans and by consequence apparent Emperour and he had prevailed with him that the Empire should be shared betwixt him and his Son Philip as the Antonins had done heretofore Mary Queen of Hungary their Sister who was wholly at Charles his Devotion for reasons perhaps not fit to be named had perswaded Ferdinand to admit of that partnership but Maximilian Ferdinand's Son perceiving that by that design he was like to be frustrated of the hopes of succeeding his Father in the Empire defeated all the intrigues So that the Prospects of Charles being at an end with his hopes the Council was no more in his thoughts and Julius cared far less for it than he It is true the Rupture of the Council and the peace of Passau had quite exstinguished the Pope's hopes of ever seeing the revolted Germans reduced again to the obedience of the holy See But to comfort himself for the loss of the Germans he drew from a remote Corner of the World I know not what a kind of subjects who submitted themselves to the Authority of his See Sultacan who call'd himself Patriarch of the People which inhabit betwixt Euphrates and the Indies comes to Rome to render homage to the Pope The same course had been taken by Pope Eugenius IV. who whilst they were undermining the Foundations of his Dominions in the Council of Basil on the other hand fed his vanity and underpropt his tottering Dignity by the vain homages of the Greeks who in the Council of Florence came to submit to him and by a counterfeit Pomp of pretended Armenians who desired instruction from him this is a kind of Comedy that takes mightily at Rome Paul III. during his Pontificate had also with great Solemnity and Ceremonies received the homages of one Stephen who had taken the name of Patriarch of Armenia the greater and who came to Rome attended by an Archbishop and two Bishops upon design of recognising the Pope for head of the Church and now under Julius a certain man named Simon Sultacan who called himself Patriarch of all the People that inhabit betwixt the River Euphrates and the Indies came to demand the Confirmation of his Patriarchship from the Pope as from the Vicar of Jesus Christ The Pope made him a Bishop and then gave him the Patriarchal Pall that happy accident was loudly proclaimed abroad and the great encrease that the holy See received by the submission of so many People who owned its Authority was made a matter of great triumph but to these Apparitions of Grandure there succeeded somewhat more substantial for the Glory of the See of Rome year 1553 Edward VI. King of England died the sixth of July 1553. His Father Henry VIII had shaken off the Yoke of the Pope's Power without any innovation in Religion Edward King of England dies his Sister Mary succeeds to him and restores the Catholick Religion 1553. And Edward under the Regence of the Duke of Sommerset had compleated what his Father began and introduced a Reformation into the Church of England But he lived not long enough to establish and confirm that great Work by his last Will he had disinherited his two Sisters Mary and Elizabeth the Daughters of his Father Henry the former Daughter of Catharine of Aragon who was divorced and the second Daughter of Anne Bullen whom Henry had caused to be beheaded He had appointed the Lady Jane Gray his Cosin and Daughter to a Sister of Henry to be Heir of the Crown Jane was proclaimed Queen but her Reign was of short continuance and cost her her Life Mary was advanced to the Crown both by the Privilege of her Birth and by the Will of her Father who had appointed that if Edward should die without Children Mary should succeed and that Elizabeth should succeed to Mary Mary being in the Throne pretended at first that she would alter nothing in Religion though she professed herself to be a Catholick but great hopes were conceived at Rome that this Queen might be usefull in reducing that Kingdom to its ancient Obedience And therefore Julius presently named Cardinal Pool for the Legation of England But the Cardinal durst not undertake the Journey without great Circumspection because he had been banished the Kingdom and degraded of his honour and therefore he wrote to the Queen and negotiated his return by Giovanni Francisco Commendone and having received a favourable answer he set out on his Journey The Parliament of England being called declared the Marriage of Henry VIII with Catharine of Aragon the Queens Mother valid and by consequence pronounced the Divorce unlawfull And the Acts made in the Reign of Edward were Repealed and Religion reinstated in the same condition it was in when Henry died The confirmation of the Marriage of Henry was a great step towards an accommodation with Rome seeing the Marriage of Henry and Catharine could not be declared lawfull without admitting the Dispensation of Julius II. who had dispensed with Henry to Marry his Brother's Widow So that the Parliament by that procedure owned that the Pope has Power to dispence with the Laws of God and by consequence acknowledged him Head of the
Interests for in that Assembly the Annates were taken away the Concordat betwixt Leo X. and Francis I. infringed and the Monks subjected to the Jurisdiction of the Bishops in so much that he gave France almost over for lost The Pope names Legates to preside in the Council and sends them away The time appointed by the Pope for the opening of the Council drawing nigh he deputed Legates to preside in it to wit Hercules de Gonzaga Cardinal of Mantua and Giacomo Puteo Cardinal of Nizza the first because of his interest and extraction and the second because of his ability in the Canon Law being Dean of the Rota At length the Pope received Letters from the Court of France dated the third of March 1561. wherein the King gave an absolute consent to the Council Spain did the like and so the difficulties were by little and little removed but at the same time the Portuguese were said to be coming to the Council with a design to get the Superiority of a Council over the Pope to de defined and that they took instructions about that point The Spaniards as to that were more dreaded than the Portuguese but the French most of all because they have been of a long time possest with that opinion Easter now drew nigh and therefore the Pope pressed the Legates and Italian Bishops to hasten their departure for Trent Cardinal Puteo falling very sick Cardinal Girolamo Seripando a famous Divine was named in his place He had orders to pass by Mantua and to take his Collegue with him but they arrived not at Trent till Easter Tuesday where they found nine Bishops already come About the same time the Duke of Savoy made peace with his Subjects inhabiting the Valleys The War had been unsuccesfull to him he was most commonly worsted and one day lost an Army of seven thousand Men the Waldenses having lost but fourteen of theirs The Agreement was made the fifth of June 1561. and they had certain places allotted them for the free Exercise of their Religion This displeased the Pope exceedingly who had contributed considerable Summs of Money for carrying on the War but Necessity has no Law A Convocation of the Clergy was resolved upon in France and to prevent any Suspicion that the Pope might thereby conceive they assured him that they would treat of nothing but of means to pay off the King's Debts and about matters in general which they might have to propose in Council This did not remove the Pope's Anxiety and therefore he sent the Cardinal of Ferrara to that Assembly to have an Eye over it that nothing might be acted there contrary to his Authority The Protestant party encreased considerably and all France was distinguished by these two Names Papists and Huguenots I shall observe by the bye that this word Huguenot the original of which seems obscure to Authours comes from the Suisse-word Eidgnossen which signifies Associates or Allies Those of Geneva who before the Bishop was expelled from thence resisted his Enterprises for oppressing their Liberties were called Eidgnossen because they were associated with the Cantons of Berne and Fribourg and since the Bishop having been banished and Religion changed they still retained the name of Eidgnossen Allies The Cardinal of Ferrara came therefore into France to oppose the Torrent which threatned an inundation in that Kingdom through the Authority of several great men who were engaged in the party of the Huguenots About the same time there was a train discovered laid by the Clergy of France not onely against the Protestant Religion but against the State also One Artus Desire was apprehended at Orleans with instructions from those of the Clergy who were of the faction of the House of Guise With these instructions he was going into Spain to procure assistance against the Hereticks who could not be sufficiently quelled by a Woman and a Child as the Commission of that Envoy imported This did the Protestants some kindness for it procured an Edict in their favour prohibiting any to molest them or to search their Houses under pretext of discovering their Assemblies the Prisons were opened their Prisoners set at liberty and their banished recalled This Artus was condemned to make the Amende honorable and to perpetual Imprisonment in the Chartreux The Edict of July against the Protestants But that Edict had not the happy effects which might have been expected because of the opposition that the Enemies of the Protestants made against it For in July following another Edict past in Parliament the King being present prohibiting the Exercise of any other Religion except that of the Church of Rome granting nevertheless pardon for what was past and ordering that for the future such as should be accused for Religion should onely be sentenced to banishment At the same time another Edict past for holding a Conference at Poissy betwixt the learned of the one and the other Religion A conference appointed at Poissy betwixt the Roman Catholicks and the Protestants to see if the differences between them could by any fair means be accommodated Several Catholicks opposed it as being a Compliance below the Church to enter the lists with Hereticks but the Cardinal of Lorrain who hoped to make his parts conspicuous on that occasion carried it The Pope was somewhat satisfied with the Edict of July and had been more if the Punishment of the Hereticks had not been mitigated to Banishment but he was extremely offended at the Conference of Poissy and the Edict which appointed it He wrote to the Bishops of France that they had no power to make Edicts in matters which concerned Religion in General that if they adventured upon any thing beyond the reach of their power he would rescind all that they did and proceed against them with all rigour The Bishops did not much value these threats onely assured the Pope that he had no reason to be startled at that Assembly France was an inexhaustible Spring of Troubles for the Pope from thence they flowed daily upon him and it was no small vexation that he received from the Estates at Pontoise wherein upon a debate that arose about Precedence betwixt the Princes and the Cardinals it was judged in favour of the Princes against the Cardinals The Cardinals of Chatillon and Armagnac yielded but those of Tournon Lorrain and Guise withdrew murmuring against their Collegues This vexed the Pope indeed but he was touched to the quick by a letter which he received from the Queen Regent dated the fourth of August wherein she bewailed the sad condition of France and the numerousness of the Protestant Party proposing to him some Remedies which she thought necessary in the present juncture that is several Reformations which according to her Judgment ought to be made in Religion as the taking of Images out of Churches the abolition of the use of Spittle and Exorcisms in Baptism the allowing the Cup to the People the restoring of the Vulgar
which the Briefs and Bulls of the Pope were read wherein besides a Command to hold and open the Council there were several Regulations about the forms that ought to be observed in it and one particularly relating to Precedence which did appoint that the Patriarchs having taken their place after the Cardinals the Archbishops should sit next and after them the Bishops but for avoiding of all Debates which have been occasioned upon account of the Dignities and Privileges of Sees the Prelates should be placed according to their Seniority in promotion without any respect to Dignities enjoying Primacy Bartholomeo di Martiri Archbishop of Braganza in Portugal vigorously opposed this Order and could not endure to think that a Pettie Archbishop of Rosano who has not one Suffragan or of Nissia a little Isle in the Archipelago or of Antivari in Sclavonia who have not so much as one Christian under their Jurisdiction and never reside in their Sees should take place of Archbishops of Churches having Primacy considerable in Dignity and Privileges for no other reason but that of Seniority in Promotion However he must bear with that and be satisfied with a Declaration in writing importing that it was not the intention of the Pope nor Council to derogate from any man's rights but that after the Council was over all men might enjoy their several Privileges In the same Congregation the Spaniards urged that the Council might be reckoned a Continuation of the former and so declared in the first Act of the Session The Bishop of Zante in compliance with the Interests of the Emperour and King of France who desired the contrary opposed it but though the Legates of Mantua and Warmia seconded the opinion of the Bishop of Zante yet the matter past according as it had been resolved at Rome and ordered in the Bull. When the Congregation was ended the Legates drew up and framed the Decree of Commencement into which these words were cunningly inserted proponentibus Legatis whereby it was ordained that no proposal should be made but by the Legates This was a great fetch of Roman Court-policy to exclude the French and Spanish Bishops who as the Pope well foresaw had Proposals to make which tended to the diminution of his Authority and the enlarging of Episcopal Dignity They were apprehensive likewise of Princes who by their Ambassadours might make Overtures disadvantageous to the Holy See and contrary to its Interests and therefore it was thought fit that they who had any thing to propose should apply themselves to the Legates without whose consent nothing could be examined in the Council By this means the Court of Rome was secure from the attempts of those that had no great kindness for it session 17 Session 17. the first of the third Convocation The Session was held January the eighteenth wherein the Decree was read and the question put Fathers are ye pleased that from this day forward all suspension being taken off the General Council of Trent be Celebrated for handling in order the matters which the Legates shall think fit to propose to the Council The Answer was placet But four Spanish Prelates the Archbishop of Granada the Bishops of Orense Leon and Almeria objected against the clause proponentibus legatis and desired an Instrument of their Protestation but they went on for all that and the Legates having written to the Pope about it he would by no means have that clause omitted This business made a great deal of noise in the Sequel but at present the Spaniards bore the brunt alone The next Session was assigned to be the twenty sixth of February At the same time they held an Assembly in France at St. Germain en Laye The Assembly of St. Germain which makes the Edict of January in favour of the Protestants It began the seventeenth of January and the Affairs of the Protestants who encreased mightily were taken into consideration The Queen of Navarre the Prince of Conde and Admiral Coligny with many other great Men and Persons of Quality made powerfull instances in favour of the Protestants that they might have liberty to exercise their Religion which they already did without permission To this Assembly was called a select number of Presidents and able Judges from all the Parliaments in France and the Chancellour made a Judicious and Pithy Speech at the opening of it for the mitigation of Rigour To those who stood stiff for the severity of the Penal Edicts he applied that saying of Cicero that Cato behav'd himself among the Dregs of Romulus as if he had been in the Imaginary Commonwealth of Plato concluding thence that it was necessary to accommodate themselves to the times This Opinion prevailed notwithstanding all the opposition of the Persecutors and the Edict of January past which allowed Liberty to Protestants to assemble out of Towns and to live in the exercise of their Religion under the Kings Permission provided they taught nothing contrary to the Council of Nice and the Old and New-Testament The Parliament of Paris strongly opposed the Confirmation of this Edict but the King commanded it to be done declaring however that the Edict was but granted in provision untill the holding of the General Council The Protestants by this Edict took Courage to shew themselves and it is reported that at that time there were two thousand one hundred and fifty Congregations which they called Churches in France The Council begins with Books to be prohibited and the Indices Expurgatorii the Original of these Indices Expurgatorii They began now to fall to business at Trent and the Legates held a Congregation the seven and twentieth of January wherein three Proposals were made the first concerning the Examination of Books that had been written since the breaking out of Heresie which were to be suppressed Secondly whether it was necessary to cite all those who were concerned in such Books to appear before the Council and thirdly whether it was necessary to invite the Hereticks to Council and grant them a Safe-conduct The first point which related to the discharging of Heretical Books to be read deserved to be well weighed because the matter was new It is true that in the ancient Church they who read the Books of Authours who were Enemies of the truth were censured The Enemies of St. Jerome objected it to him as a Crime that he read and perused the Books of Pagan Writers and he blames himself for it saying that he was one day lasht before the Tribunal of Jesus Christ for his Curiosity in having read too much of the Works of Cicero However they made no Catalogue of the Books of Hereticks or Pagans that they might forbid the reading of them The Emperours indeed did sometimes prohibit the Books of Hereticks Constantine prohibited the Arian Arcadius the Eunomian and Manichean Theodosius the Nestorian and Martian the Eutychian Books but the Bishops medled not with them or at least did not take that Authority upon
Spaniards say that the Presidents spoke in the Style of very humble Servants but acted like very absolute Masters Afterwards the French joyned with the Ambassadours of the Emperour and King of Spain to demand that in the next Session the point of Residence which had been sufficiently examined might be decided they said farther that the King their Master expected that they would treat of Reformation before they entered upon Doctrines that the Protestants seeing the Church reformed might more easily submit to the Decisions that should be made in points of Doctrine Cardinal Simoneta answered cunningly as to the matter of Reformation that it was a difficult point seeing it depended in part on the correction of the abuses which Princes committed in bestowing of Benefices and that he had a special regard to the Kings of France who by virtue of a Concordat made betwixt Leo X. and Francis I. had the Nomination to all great Benefices by which Canonical Elections were abolished This work spoken in season stopt the Ambassadours mouths as to that particular but it was not so easie a matter to stop them as to the point of Residence the excuse that the Legates made being evidently ridiculous for they alledged that the matter had not been sufficiently examined and nevertheless nothing was ever more what the Legates reason wanted in force it had sufficiently in Authority which gives weight to the weakest Arguments so great was the sharpness of contention that this matter occasioned that many of the Bishops beyond the Alpes were just ready to protest and be gone But the Ambassadours who saw that the Pope desired no better than to have an occasion to break up the Council put a stop to that they thought it more expedient to wave the points of Residence and of the Continuation of the Council than to give an occasion of a Rupture Nevertheless the Pope who earnestly sought for an opportunity of dissolving the Council resolved to declare according to the desire of the King of Spain that that Assembly was a continuation of the Council of Paul III. and Julius III. that he might thereby give occasion to the Germans and French to protest and withdraw He therefore sent orders to his Legates to make that Declaration which troubled them extremely They had had much adoe to prevail with the French and Germans not to insist any more on that particular and they could not tell how they could handsomely come off with it They therefore sent to Rome Cardinal Altemps the Pope's Nephew to inform him of the State of Affairs and to take him off of that resolution which would doe great Damage to his Reputation and occasion the dissolution of the Council session 20 And now the fourth of June being come the Session was held wherein the Commissions of the Ambassadours of the Archbishop of Salisburg and King of France were read Cardinal Altemps and the Prelates of the faction of the Court of Rome had been prickt to the quick by Pibrac's harangue so that they resolved to give him an answer this Session in a strain capable to repell the Insolence of that prating Barrister for so they called him Baptist a Castello Promooter of the Council had orders to prepare himself to answer Pibrac's Speech which he did with much sharpness according to his Instructions he made an Apology for the precedent Councils which had been blamed and justified this from the indirect Reflexions that had been cast upon it of swaying with the interests of Princes and giving occasion to the snares of the Devil by a damnable compliance The French were not very well pleased with that Harangue nor indeed was it the Legates intention to please them Afterwards the Decree was read which was onely an Act giving reasons why the Publication of the Decrees was put off till the next Session which was appointed to be the twenty sixth of July They propose in the Congregations to treat of the Communion in both kinds and of the Communion of Children In the Congregation that was held in the Afternoon the same fourth day of June six Articles were proposed concerning matters to be handled in the ensuing Session to wit the Communion of young Children and the Communion in both kinds But they could not tell how to set about it because these Points had been already handled in the Council of Julius and not decided some were of opinion that they should make use of the matter that had been prepared to their hand They alledged that if they must hear the Sentiments of fourscore and eight Divines that were at Council upon that subject it would make tedious work that therefore it was better and a more compendious way to publish the Decrees which were already framed Here the Champians for the Divine Right of Residence took occasion to renew the Quarel and thirty Bishops moved that the Point of the Cup might be adjusted in a few days provided the Method that had been proposed were followed but that it was now time according to the promise that past to treat of the Point of Residence others again warmly opposed it so that heats beginning to arise there was like to have been some noise if the Cardinal of Mantua had not wisely pacified them promising to treat of Residence when they came to handle the Sacrament of Orders But Cardinal Simoneta was not satisfied that the Cardinal of Mantua had inconfiderately engaged to bring the Point of Residence upon the Stage again without the Pope's Order The Germans present their Demands to the Council tending to Reformation which amaze the Pope and oblige him to look to his own Security The Germans had some satisfaction in that they had obtained the Communion in both kinds to be handled and thought it now time to propose the things which they had orders to demand so that according to the instructions they had received from the Emperour they presented to the Legates twenty Articles of Demands tending to Reformation and particularly to the Reformation of the Court of Rome In these Memoires they demanded that the number of Cardinals should not exceed twenty six that no more Dispensations nor Exemptions should be granted against Common Law that the Monasteries should be subjected to the Bishops that Plurality of Benefices should be taken away that Bishops should be obliged to Residence without spending time in cavilling about the question whether it be of Divine right or no that Ecclesiastical Constitutions should be restrained to a less number and that they should not have the same Authority as the Laws of God that it should not be lawfull to excommunicate any but such as were notoriously guilty of mortal Sin that Divine Service should be celebrated in a Language intelligible to the People that whatsoever is not contained in Scripture should be left out of Missals and Breviaries that Priests and Monks should be reformed according to the standard of the ancient institution that somewhat of the Rigour of Positive Laws
should be abated and that in some places the distinction of Meats Lent and the Celibat of Priests should be abolished And these were the Principal heads of their demands The Legates designed if possibly they could to have supprest that Piece which they looked upon as terrible and therefore they gave the Ambassadours a fair and soft answer that these matters could not be moved in the next Session but that they would lay hold on an occasion to discourse them with the Fathers of the Council This answer gave no satisfaction to the Ambassadours and therefore they sent the Archbishop of Prague by Post for new instructions that he might make all haste and be back again before the next Session The Legates on their part also thought fit to acquaint the Pope with what past and dispatcht to him Leonardo Marino Archbishop of Lanciano he had orders to pacifie the Pope and Court of Rome who were much dislatisfied with the whole Council and particularly with the Cardinal of Mantua but the Anxiety of the Pope was doubled when he saw the Proposals of the Germans he well perceived that the Emperour in prospect of having his Son elected King of the Romans liad a design to gain the Protestants he dreaded the arrival of the French Prelates who were to joyn with the Spaniards and Germans and made no doubt but that they would offer bolder Proposals and more prejudicial still to his Authority And this made him seek out Pretexts for raising of Soldiers that so he might be in a condition to maintain his Grandure by the Arms of the Flesh if the Arms of the Spirit did not succeed with him His design of opposing the Enterprises of the Huguenots who troubled the County of Avignon afforded him a very plausible Pretext Under that colour then he levied four thousand Switzers and three thousand German Horse part of them he sent to Avignon and furnished the Duke of Savoy with money to arm for the same cause At the same time he endeavoured to form a League amongst the Ministers of the Princes that were at the Council against the Protestants but no body would consent to it all the Princes excusing themselves upon particular accounts but using this reason in general that it would be a hinderance to the Continuation of the Council That last reason weighed not much with the Pope for the Rupture of the Council which the Princes so much feared was the thing that he most desired and therefore he proposed once again in Consistory the deciding of the Debate about the Continuation of the Council according to the intention of the Spaniards thereby to vex the Germans and French and force them to withdraw In the mean while he complained continually of the manner how he was used and said that Lansac seemed rather the Ambassadour of the Huguenots than of the King of France that he and his Collegues fomented the Divisions and encouraged those that raised the Authority of the Council above the Pope an heretical opinion said he the Abbetters whereof he was resolved to prosecute and punish He accused Lansac of having said that so many German and French Bishops would come as should be strong enough to drive the Idol from Rome He found no less fault with the Cardinals of Mantua Seripando and Warmia his Legates saying that they deserved not to wear the Hat of a Cardinal He sent Carlo Visconts Bishop of Vintimiglia with Orders to watch over their proceedings promising him a Cardinals Cap at the first promotion wherein he was as good as his word He gave him a list of those who were faithfull to the Holy See that he might converse freely and open his heart to them Visconte faithfully discharged his Commission and was a very exact Spie in the Council giving the Pope an account of the least thing that happened there Cardinal Simoneta had given the Pope advice that the Cardinal of Mantua had engaged himself by an express promise to bring the Point of Residence into play again this made him break out into an open passion and he had certainly been transported into some rash action had not the Archbishop of Lanciano arrived very opportunely who acquitted himself extraordinary well of his Commission in justifying the Cardinal He presented to the Pope a Letter signed by more than thirty Bishops who protested to his Holiness that they had not the least design to lessen his Authority by demanding that Residence might be declared to be of Divine Right That calmed him a little and disposed him to receive more patiently the excuses of the Cardinals of Mantua Seripando and Warmia so that by the pains of the Archbishop of Lanciano the Pope became more moderate wrote to the Legates in a softer Style and acquainted the Fathers that he desired the Council might be free that he was not against the deciding of the Point of Residence but that they must wait till the heats and animosities were over In particular he gave orders to tell the Cardinal of Mantua that he was satisfied with his innocence and that with much Joy he acknowledged it Poor Camillo Oliva the Cardinal of Mantua's Secretary had no share in his Master's reconciliation with the Pope for after the death of the Cardinal as that faithfull Servant waited on his Corps to Mantua the Pope upon idle and silly Pretexts caused him to be put into the Inquisition where for many years he suffered inconceivable misery The Divines give their opinion about the Demand of the Cup which the Germans made During this time the Fathers of the Council were employed in examination of the matters which were to be decided in the next Session The Congregations began the ninth of June and continued untill the three and twentieth Threescore Divines were heard upon the Point of the Communion in both kinds but that being a Point of Antiquity for the knowledge of which School-Divinity was of little use they came very ill off about it They all agreed that the Cup was not necessary and endeavoured to prove that from the very times of the Apostles dry Communions had been in use because there is often mention made of breaking of Bread without speaking any thing of Wine They proved the same Communions without the Cup also by the Communion of the Laicks which is frequently mentioned in the writings of the Ancients when any Member of the Clergy fell from his Post he was turned off to the Laick Communion Now said they seeing that Communion of Laicks is distinguished from the Communion of the Clergy it must needs have been different and that difference could be no other but this that the Clergy communicated in both kinds and the People onely in one A little more knowledge in Antiquity would have taught them that the Communion of Laicks was not different from that of the Clergy but onely in Order and Place for the Clergy received in the Chancel and before the People and the People afterward extra cancellos in
of ordaining and confirming belongs not to the Bishop alone excluding the Priest and whether they who thrust themselves into the Ministry without Canonical Ordination are true Ministers 8. Whether Bishops established and installed by the Pope's Authority be lawfull or whether it be necessary that they be established in a Canonical manner The Congregations about these Points began the twenty third of September and were continued untill the second of October The first of the four Congregations examined the first two Articles And all the Divines unanimously agreed that Orders is a true Sacrament For proof of this they brought the Text of St. Paul in the thirteenth Chapter of the Epistle to the Romans and first Verse let every Soul be subject unto the higher Powers quae sunt à Deo ordinata sunt This Argument is somewhat odd as any man may see But yet it is much odder if you 'll take notice that the stress of it rests upon the distinction that was marked in the vulgar Latin by a Comma betwixt these words quae sunt à Deo and those other ordinata sunt The Powers that are of God are ordained that is to say according to the Gloss of these Gentlemen have received the Sacrament of Orders For all that Gloss a man must be very sharp-sighted to see into the force of that Argument and indeed to make good sense of it The opinions were not so uniform as to the second Article to wit whether Orders be one or more Sacraments Peter Soto a Jacobin held that there were as many distinct Sacraments in Orders as there are different Orders to wit seven and for proof of that he found in the Gospel that our Saviour Jesus Christ before he came to the Office of Priest or Sacrificer had gone through all the Inferiour Orders as of Chanter Acolite Porter Reader Deacon and Subdeacon and that he had discharged all these several Employments But the History seemed somewhat uncouth to those who had not read the Gospel with so much attention as that honest Monk had Another Jacobin called Girolamo Bravo was not of that opinion but after a long discourse concluded that it ought not to be decided that the seven Orders make so many distinct Sacraments because of the great diversity of opinions that occur on that Subject amongst the Divines and the ancient and modern Pontifical Doctours he alledged it would be impossible to fix a solid Judgment concerning the nature of Inferiour Orders not excepting even the Deaconship and Subdeaconship because of that variety of opinions He farther added that the common opinion that the lesser Orders are steps to ascend to Priesthood was not very sure and brought several instances from Antiquity of some who had discharged the Office of a Priest without passing through the inferiour Orders The Germans and Spaniards unite to set forward the work of Reformation When this Congregation was up and the Prelates who had been present in it were gone the Bishop of the five Churches stayed behind in the Chamber with some Hungarian Polish and Spanish Prelates He entertained them in discourse and earnestly exhorted them to join together in the design of Reformation to which the Legates would not hearken The Archbishop of Granada then present made answer and thanking the Bishop of the five Churches for his exhortation said that he would assemble the Spaniards to consult about it In effect the Spanish Prelates did meet and concluded that they ought zealously to bestir themselves for that Reformation and that it was necessary to begin at the Court of Rome the corruption whereof was spread over all the rest of the Church They discoursed angrily of the attempts that were daily committed upon the Authority of Bishops and Den Bartholomè Archbishop of Braganza added that the Cardinals must be brought back to their primitive institution that untill the tenth Century they had been no more than ordinary Priests that afterward they had risen by degrees though in the twelfth Century they had been still inferiour to Bishops but that at present the Cardinals were so far above them that they thought they did Bishops a great deal of honour to admit them amongst their domestick Servants But above all things it was resolved at that meeting that they should urge Episcopacy to be declared of Divine Right and cause it to be defined that Bishops held their Authority immediately from Jesus Christ and not from the Pope They found occasion by the seventh of the Articles that had been proposed to enter upon that question Because the intent of that Article being to define that the Bishop is Superiour to the Priest it must be known by what Right he is Superiour whether Divine or Humane They were in hopes to get it defined that the Bishop is Superiour to the Priest by Divine Right and then they imagined that by degrees they might proceed to more important Propositions They therefore chose six of their number Archbishops and Bishops to digest into Order the Heads of Reformation which they ought to press Martin of Cordova Bishop of Tortosa had almost spoilt all their measures because he kept intelligence with the Pope's Party and gave them notice of the intentions of the Spaniards But for all that the Archbishops of Granada and Braganza made a Proposal to the Legates that the Question of the Authority of Bishops and their Superiority over Priests might be brought upon the Stage again a question that had been heretofore proposed in the same Council under Julius III. and decided in the affirmative that a Bishop is of Divine Right but because of the Rupture of the Council left among the Decrees not published The Legates rejected that Proposition and said that it was not a Controversie betwixt the Hereticks and Catholicks and so that it ought not to be medled with The Archbishop of Granada answered that it was the very thing which the Lutherans denied that that difference which is betwixt a Bishop and a Priest is of Divine Right and derived from Jesus Christ they pretending that it is a mere Humane Institution In this Debate the Legates and Archbishop came to pretty high words but he got no ground by it The Spaniards therefore resolved to have the Proposal made by their Divines but on the other hand the Legates slyly raised a report amongst the Divines that that question was laid aside as not to be medled with Whilst things proceeded in this manner the second Congregation consisting of Divines and Doctours of the Canon Law examined the two next Articles one whereof related to the Hierarchy to wit whether it be lawfull and holy and whether the People and Magistrates have right to give their Votes for the Ordination of their Pastours A Canon of Valentia called Thomas Dassio spoke much and used his utmost endeavours to prove 1. That without gross ignorance in Antiquity it could not be doubted but that the Hierarchy was most holy and good 2. That Episcopacy was an Order
different from Priesthood because the Bishop has Characters essentially different from the Priest as the Power to confirm to confer Orders and to make other Consecrations which are peculiar to him as that of the Oil the Crimson and several others He farther said that it was ridiculous to make a Sacrament of the Office of a Porter which was onely to shut a door and might be very well performed by a Lay-man and to deny that honour to the Character of him who alone hath the Power of consecrating Priests and confirming Christians 3. That the simple Tonsure ought to be placed as the lowest and Episcopacy as the highest of Orders 4. That heretofore the People had had a hand in chusing the Members of the Clergy but that it was by a Privilege from the Pope who had afterward taken it from the Laicks because they had made bad use of it In find he concluded that Ordination was solely in the Power of him that confers Orders And therefore it was his Judgment that they should not onely condemn the opinion of the Lutherans as Heretical who will have the People to have a share in the Call of Pastours but that those places in the Pontifical which mention the Suffrages of the People in the Ordination of the Members of the Clergy should be left out and amongst the rest this place which expresly saith That it is not without reason that the Fathers thought fit that the Suffrage of the People should intervene in the Ordination of the Ministers of the Altar to the end the People may be obedient to him who hath received Orders because they themselves have given their consent to the Ordination It would be very tedious to reckon up all the Disputes that were debated in that Congregation every one would needs give him opinion and every one thought it a piece of honour to alledge something that was singular especially about the Question whether Episcopacy be a different Order from Priesthood many words were profusely spent For all were not of the opinion of Thomas Dassio On the contrary there were a great many who maintained that it is onely a Dignity superiour to that of a Priest that gives a Jurisdiction and not a different Order and they backt their opinion by the Authority of Thomas Aquinas and Bonaventure The School-men have made two Powers one which they call Potestas Ordinis the Power of Orders which in their opinion comprehends the Power of pardoning sins offering the body of Jesus Christ in Sacrifice and of administring the other Sacraments except Confirmation and another which is called Potestas Jurisdictionis the Power of Jurisdiction which consists in the Power of inflicting Censures and the Execise of Ecclesiastick Jurisdiction It was very difficult to define in which Power the Hierarchy consisted Some placed it onely in the Power of Orders and thereby they excluded from the Hierarchy Archbishops Bishops Patriarchs and the Pope himself who are notwithstanding the Principal Members therefore for if the Power of Orders make up the essence of the Hierarchy it is manifest that these Dignities are not of the essence of the Hierarchy because they constitute not different Orders according to the Judgment of Divines Others placed the Hierarchy in the Power of Jurisdiction but by that means the Pope Patriarchs Bishops and Archbishops were the onely Members of the Hierarchy and the Priests excluded A third opinion struck in which established the Hierarchy in the one and the other Power both in that of Orders and that of Jurisdiction and this as being the most commodious was submitted to by all the rest They had no less trouble to agree upon that which makes the form of the Hierarchie that is to say what is the essential ground upon which the Character of the Sacrament of Orders of the Hierarchical dignity subsists so that without this a man cannot be a capable Subject neither of Priests Orders nor of Episcopal Archiepiscopal or Papal dignity Some said it was Charity but this opinion was clogg'd with a great difficulty that a Priest losing Charity must be excluded from the Hierarchy and lose his Authority and Right of governing Christian People and opinion attributed to Wicliff Others would have it to be Faith unformed or destitute of Charity But to this it was objected that it was not impossible but that a Prelate might be without that Faith unformed and be inwardly an Infidel that in that case all the acts which he did and all the Sacraments he administred would be of no effect an opinion that might raise great Scruples and put mens Consciences into great perplexities And therefore a third sort placed this form in Baptism but neither did that salve all difficulties because the intention of the Minister in Baptism is necessary and that that intention is more hid than either Faith or Charity So many difficulties appeared every way that they could not tell what to six upon The fourth Article which contained the questions whether all Christians be Sacrificators whether a Priest may become a Laick and whether the Minister of the Gospel has no other office but to Preach was not handled by way of examination but onely by Invectives against the Lutherans The third Congregation which had the examination of the fifth and sixth Articles met not with so great difficulties The question was to know whether the Holy Ghost be given in Ordination All agreed upon it onely some said that the very Person of the Holy Ghost was conferred and others maintained that it was onely by the gift of Grace Some would have the Grace that is conferred is Orders to be the gift of Justification Others said that it was a peculiar gift having a relation to the Office that was to be discharged All agreed likewise that Orders did imprint a Character but some maintained that it was onely imprinted in the higher Orders and others would have every one of the seven Orders to be effectual in stamping a Character Some there were who made use of the distinction of Durandus and said that if by the Character were meant a power to doe a spiritual and supernatural action that then that Character was onely imprinted in the Priesthood but if by the Character they meant a Deputation of a particular Office that it that sense all the Orders might have their Character But that distinction was lookt upon to be dangerous because it favoured the Lutherans for that is really their opinion that the Character consists in the Deputation of a man to a certain charge in such manner that the man being no longer deputed to that Office his Character is extinct There was much more difficulty on the Subject of Episcopacy for the question was brought about again to wit whether it be a particular Order and whether it stamps its Character many were for the Affirmative because he hath two great spiritual actions to perform that is to Confirm and to give Orders and that therefore the standeth in need
of the Holy See so that their Charge is but in Commission and if they be called Ordinaries it is onely because their Commission is perpetual and that they may have Successours that the Council derived no Authority from the Bishops but onely from the Pope and that a Council cannot be reckoned General without the Authority of the Holy See That fifty Prelates who decided important matters in the first Convocation of the Council under Paul III. could not without the Pope be called a General Council nor in that Quality make Decisions which should oblige the Conscience that when the Pope was present at a Council he alone made the Decrees and the Council interposed in no more but their Approbation wherefore on such occasions it is onely said sacro approbante Concilio He farther said that in matters of great importance the Pope needed not the Approbation of the Council which appeared by the Deposition of Frederick II. in the General Council of Lions where Innocent IV. refused the Approbation of the Council lest it might have been thought necessary and thought it enough to say sacro presente Concilio In a word that General broached the Maximes of Italian Theology in savour of the Pope beyond all imagination This extravagant zealous discourse produced very different effects for it ravished the Faction of the Court of Rome but disgusted and offended most of the rest to the highest Degree And particularly the Bishop of Paris protested that in the first Congregation when it should come to his turn to speak he would openly and boldly speak against that Doctrine He said in all places that it was invented by Thomas de Vio Cajetan that he might merit a Cardinals Cap for the good Service that ever since he was born it had been censured by the Sorbonne that the Government of the Church was degenerated into Tyranny and that the Spouse of Jesus Christ was become a slave and in a manner prostituted to the lust of one man That he could no longer endure these Invasions of Episcopal Authority which was encroached upon by every new Order of Monks that start up in the World that it had received a great blow by the planting of those two Seminaries of Clugny and the Cistertians that since the Mendicant Orders appeared in the World the Authority of Bishops was almost wholly suppressed and that in fine to ruine the Church totally that new Society of Jesus which was neither Secular nor Regular was more Pragmatical than all the rest in attempting against Episcopal Authority These discourses which the Bishop of Paris had in all Companies with extraordinary eagerness and zeal rouzed up the drouzy and blew the coals in those who were already all in a flame insomuch that there was a murmuring and universal discontent over the whole Council against the Harangue of the General of the Jesuits and therefore the Legate perceiving that it had wrought an effect quite contrary to what they expected discharged him from publishing it as he had intended But notwithstanding he dispersed several Copies of it partly to get himself Reputation and partly to soften some hasty words that he had let slip in speaking In the mean time the Legates gave not over their tamperings to make a Party against the Spaniards and their Canvassing was so open and apparent that Lansac Ambassadour of France a man of wit and who was free enough in this discourse could not forbear to play upon them One day at a great entertainment there was a discourse started about the form of Ancient Councils wherein Princes by themselves or by their Ambassadours and the Presidents of the Council gave their suffrages whereas neither one nor other gave their Votes in that of Trent It is true for Ambassadours said Lansac they have no Vote here but for our Presidents the Legates they give vota auricularia and whisper their opinions softly in the ear About this time the Legates met with some satisfaction but of short continuance for a certain Spanish Doctor named Zanel betraying his Party presented them with thirteen Articles of Reformation relating to the Spaniards which he was of opinion ought to be set on foot to stop the mouths of those who appeared to be such Zealous Reformers These Articles struck at some Abuses whereof the Reformation would have been very severe to the Spaniards and mortified them extremely But this Counterbatterie could not doe all the execution they desired because these Articles of Reformation depended upon a great many others which related to the Court of Rome and the Legates were not of the mind to Sacrifice their own interest and that of their Master to a little revenge on their Enemies After all they had enough to do to defend themselves they were not in a condition of assaulting others for the Spaniards French and Germans gave them continually the allarm The Bishop of the five Churches received Letters from the Emperour for the Legates to procure of them that nothing but Reformation should be handled which was a fresh Persecution But they stood this brunt and had no regard to the demand They were somewhat indeed pleased that the Ambassadour of Poland of whom they had no apprehension and who was come to pay them homage from afar was arrived at the Council The five and twentieth of October a Congregation was held to receive that Ambassadour whose name was Valentine Herbut Bishop of Premissa But that was not enough to charm away the fear that the coming of the Cardinal of Lorrain put them in he drew nearer and nearer dayly and so did the Jealousies and Apprehensions of the Court of Rome and of their Party at Trent The Cardinal pleased himself in his Journey to give it out that he was going to employ a good many Engines for lessening the Grandure and Revenues of the Court of Rome They therefore sought out means to break his measures and spoil his designs Some Proposed that the surest way to put a stop to the French was to take them on their weak side and to demand the Reformation of their own abuses For they who are most eager in Reforming of others are unwilling to be Reformed themselves The Pope who on his Part thought on all the ways that might prevent the attempts that were levelled against his Authority gave the Legates Order to curb the boldness of the Prelates in a far other manner than they had hitherto done Nay and there were some who advised the Pope to remove to Bologna that so he might be near and keep the Council in awe But the Legates found out a much better Expedient to get out of harms way and that was to transfer suspend or break up the Council the difficulty consisted in the execution of this design and because that was a remedy which they could not make use of they cast about for another They at first thought it most convenient to give time to the tumult to settle which the Tempest of General Lainez discourse had
hold Congregations in his house of French Prelates and Divines And the Legates lookt upon this as an encroachment fearing that if the Spaniards did the same the Council would at last be crumbled into a great many Caballs However seeing they durst not openly oppose it they gained two Traytors one amongst the Spaniards called Bartholome Sabastiani Bishop of Pati in Sicily and the other amongst the French named James Hugonis a Cordelier Doctor of the Sorbonne and Divine to the Cardinal of Lorrain This last Spie gave them a faithfull account of all that past in their Assemblies and discovered to them the Mysteries of the Court of France Amongst other things he told them that most of the evils of France were occasioned by the Queen-Mothers favouring the Hereticks that the Ambassadours who were at Trent were corrupted also that the Cardinal of Lorrain was in reality a good Catholick but that his head run upon some impertinent Reformations as the restoring the Chalice to the People the taking away of Images and the bringing the Vulgar Tongue into use in Divine Service wherein he was seconded by the Duke of Guise and his other Relations but that of all the rest the Bishop of Valence ought to be most suspected because he sided with the Queen for favouring the Hereticks The Bishop of Vintimiglia to whom he imparted every thing that past gave him fifty Crowns of Gold which after some Ceremonious refusal he accepted The Session was to have been held the six and twentieth of November But there was nothing in readiness and it was to little purpose for the Legates to complain of the tediousness of the Prelates in giving their opinions the Session must of necessity be deferred sinedie because they could not tell when matters would be ready During all this the Spaniards abated nothing of their Zeal for having Episcopacy to be declared of Divine Right The Senator Molinez being sent by the Marquess of Pescara from Milan came to Trent to deal with the Spamards that they would condescend but that was to no purpose The Cardinal of Lorrain in one of the private Congregations that were held at his house desired the French Prelates and Divines to give their opinions about that question And they unanimously agreed that Episcopacy was of Divine Right However they were not so eager upon it as the Spaniards to have the Point decided by the Council On the contrary they would have been very well satisfied that the Council should have waved those curious questions as they called them and applied themselves to the matter of Reformation which in their opinion was of far greater Consequence and that they also moved in the publick Congregations and many times warmly urged it In the Congregation of the twenty sixth of November the Bishop of Nimes moved that they should not concern themselves so much about a Controversie of so little Importance wherein there was no more but a strife of words but that some regard ought to be had for other Prelates and for time which was thereby sadly mispent Don Diego Covarruvias Bishop of Rodrigo replied that they had been obliged to give their opinions upon that Subject since the matter had been proposed by the Legates The Cardinals Seripando and Simoneta rose up and denied that the Legates had made the Proposition and because they sound themselves backt by the French they spoke bitterly against the Liberty that the Spaniards took to themselves This matter grew so high that it disgusted the Cardinal of Lorrain who was vexed that he had been the cause of the harsh usage of the Spaniards Whilst they were casting about for means to make dispatch in Business some proposed the deputing of Committees to determine several matters whilst the Council should be taken up about others But this was not embraced by the Italians because it was proposed that these Committees should consist of an equal number of Deputies from every Nation and the Italians who were most numerous in the Council would not lose their advantage but insisted to have proportionably more Deputies in those Congregations which being disliked by the rest the Proposition went no farther In the Congregation of the first of December there happened a scuffle that made great noise Melchior Avosmediano Bishop of Guadix a Spaniard reasoning about the Canons which the Legates had minuted and presented to the Council The Bishop of Guadix basely used for having spoken with some liberty in favour of the Bishops made some reflexions upon a Clause of the last Chapter which imported That Bishops who are called by the Pope are true and lawfull He observed that that kind of expression was Ambiguous that it expressed not what was intended it should seeing all that was intended was to assert that Bishops who are promoted to that Dignity by the Pope without Election and without being inaugurated by other Bishops are notwithstanding true and lawfull Bishops whereas as the Canon stood worded it would seem to insinuate that a Bishop could not be a lawfull Bishop without being called and confirmed by the Pope which was not true To prove this he alledged the instance of the four Suffragans of the Archbishop of Saltzburg who took no confirmation from the Pope and were nevertheless owned to be lawfull Bishops Cardinal Simoneta interrupting him solved the difficulty thus that if the Archbishop of Saltzburg and other Primats confirmed Bishops they did it by Authority from the Pope But Tomaso Cassello Bishop della Cava in the Kingdom of Naples a slave to the Pope and one whom the Legates employed to raise stirs rested not there for starting up he cryed out that the Bishop of Guadix ought to be turned out as a Schismatick Two or three Bishops of the same Faction seconded him and immediately followed a fearfull noise of Tongues Hands and Feet in the Assembly some for the Bishop who was accused of Schism and some against him This exceedingly displeased the Bishops beyond the Alpes who thereby saw what they were to expect when they should offer to speak with any freedom When the noise was over the Cardinal of Lorrain could not forbear to say that it was an insolent Procedure that the Bishop of Guadix had not spoken amiss and if he had been a French Prelate that he himself would have appeal'd to a freer Council that if such things were suffered the French would depart and hold a National Synod in France In effect this poor Bishop had so much reason in what he said that the Council was obliged to alter the Canon according to his advice and instead of Bishops called they said that Bishops promoted by the Pope are lawfull The Congregation met again next day and appointed the Session to be held the seventeenth of the same Month of December The Cardinal of Mantua severely Censured the Tumult which happened the day before the Bishop della Cava would not submit but Justified himself affirming that he had reason to say what he
the Pope and the Cardinal of Lorrain loaded him with Complements for his Holiness desiring him that he would beseech his Holiness not to take it ill that the King and they by Orders from him did demand things which they judged necessary for the wellfare of France and at the same time and by the same hand offered the Pope his Mediation for taking up the differences about the Institution of Bishops and Residence These Memoires of the French Ambassadours were given to the Legates without the hearty condescension of the Prelates of that Nation For there were some Articles amongst them that tended to the Diminution both of the Authority and Revenues of the Bishops which went against the Hair But they consented that they might be presented to the Council in hopes that the Spanish Bishops who are Great Lords and jealous of their Grandure would have opposed them When they saw that the Memoires were sent to Rome they perceived that it would fall to the Pope's share to cut and carve in them as he had done in all the rest and they were afraid that he might compound with the King of France to their Cost in sacrificing to him the interest of the Bishops to make him spare the Court of Rome as it had been done betwixt Francis the First and Leo X. when they made the Concordat And therefore they began to make secret Cabals to get the Articles that concerned them struck out of the Memoires But Lansac perceiving it called them together and rebuked them severely for daring to oppose the Will of the King There were now two Bishops in Deputation at Rome the Bishops of Vintimiglia and Viterbo The first was employed to make fresh Remonstrances about the Subject of the Institution of Bishops and their Residence that the Pope might put the Decree into another form than that which he had formerly sent He arrived the first of January having made his Journey in seven days He gave the Pope an account of all that past in the Council and of the different dispositions of the Members of it The Pope immediately held a Congregation of Cardinals about the Point of the Institution of Bishops which was most urgent And it was there resolved that the Decision should be sent to the Legates in this form That Bishops hold the chief rank in the Church dependant on the Bishop of Rome by whom they are admitted and received in partem solicitudinis It was upon the main the same with the former but the form a little softer and the Pope for a recompence of the qualification which he had suffered to be made in the Canon of the Institution of Bishops would have the Canon that related to his own Authority to run in these terms That the Pope hath Authority to feed and to govern the Church Universal in place of Jesus Christ who hath imparted to him as his Vicar General all his Authority And ordered his Legates that in the Chapter of Doctrine they should enlarge more upon the matter and make use of the Terms of the Council of Florence which saith that the Holy See that is to say the Pope has the Primacy over all the Church that he is the Successour of St. Peter who was Prince of the Apostles that he is the true Vicar of Jesus Christ the Head of all the Churches the Father and Master of all Christians to whom the Lord hath given full power to govern the Church Universal He enjoyned the Legates not to deviate from that form which had been authorised by a General Council At the same time that he might prevent the designs of the French who would have had a Pope elected by the Council in case the present Pope had died he published a Bull wherein he declared that having intention to goe to Bologna in case he should die in his Journey he ordained that his Successour should not be chosen but at Rome The Bishop of Viterbo who was charged with the Memoires of the French arrived a little time after the instructions of the Bishop of Vintimiglia had been dispatched The Pope very impatiently heard the Memoires read but the Bishop of Viterbo pacified him a little by giving him hopes that if he condescended to some of these Articles a part might be cut off and the rest moderated but particularly he gave him ease when he assured him that the greatest part of the French Bishops disliked those Reformations and that they were ready to oppose them The Pope held a Congregation upon that Subject and it was therein resolved that the Articles should be committed to Doctours of the Canon Law to make their observations upon them At the same time the Pope sent Orders to the Cardinal of Ferrara his Legate in France to represent to the King that some of these Propositions tended to the Diminution of the Royal Authority because they deprived the King of the Collation of Benefices and amongst others of Abbeys that the disposal of Benefices was a very commodious Privilege to him for rewarding his faithfull Servants that to raise the Authority of Bishops was not the way to strengthen the Authority of the King and that the more powerfull Bishops were the more troublesome they were to Princes He sent his Legate likewise Orders to give the King the forty thousand Crowns remaining unpay'd of the hundred thousand which he had obliged himself to furnish him but with all that he should not part from them but upon the Condition that he had till them required I mean the abolition of the Pragmatick Sanction in all the Parliaments He prayed also the King to consider that by diminishing the Revenues of the Holy See he would be deprived of means to procure Respect and Obedience that the Tithes of Tithes were by the Law due to the chief Priest and that they had been wisely converted into Annats and concluded with an exhortation to the King that he would sent new Instructions to his Ambassadours He sent likewise to Trent the Censures and Observations which the Canonists and Divines had made upon the Memoires of the French year 1563 The Minute of the Decree concerning the Pope's Authoritycomes from Rome and meets with much contradiction especially from the French The Courier who brought to Trent the Answer to the Remonstrances which the Bishop of Vintimiglia had been charged with arrived on the fourteenth of January and next day was the time appointed for perfixing the day of the Session A Congregation General was held and it was therein resolved that that deliberation should be put off till the fourth of February because they could not as yet certainly tell when matters might be in a readiness The Legates distributed Copies of the Minute of the Decree which was sent from Rome touching the Institution of Bishops and declared that they would begin the Congregations again for consulting about it These Minutes had the approbation of the Patriarchs and oldest Archbishops who gave their opinions first But when it
Emperour and his Son Maximilian now all these Princes desired that the Cup might be rendered to the People February the ninth the Legates held the first Congregation about the Doctrine of Marriage The Divines of the first Chamber examined the first two Articles and Father Salmeron a Jesuit spoke with much Pomp and for all that said but very ordinary things Having concluded that Marriage is a true Sacrament he past to the second Article that relates to Clandestine Marriages and alledged in favour of them the Authority of the Council of Florence which declares that the Validity of Marriages depends solely upon the Consent of the Parties who contract and this Oratour concluded that the opinion of those who assert that Fathers and Mothers may annull them ought to be condemned as an Heresie but allowed the Church the Power of rescinding such Marriages because she is the Mistress of the Sacraments and that it is expedient to annull them to prevent the disorders which those unfortunate Marriages cause in Families Next day Maillard Dean of the Faculty of Paris made a long discourse and concluded with Salmeron that Marriage is a true Sacrament but as to Clandestine Marriages he was not of Salmeron's opinion For he maintained that the Church had not that Power over the Sacraments as to make a Sacrament that was lawfull at one time to become unlawfull at another He alledged for proof the Consecration of the Eucharist saying that the Church could not make a Consecrated Wafer cease to be a Real Sacrament after that it had been some time kept since it was so at first He went through all the Sacraments proving that the Church hath not power to invalidate a Sacrament lawfully administred He shew'd that in all times private Marriages had been valid and that no man ever thought of annulling them His opinion took extremely well but especially the Pope's Party took great pleasure to hear the French Doctour speaking of the Pope call him the Directour and Moderatour of the Roman that is to say the Universal Church They drew great advantage from that Confession and said that it ought to be observed against the Cavils which the Prelates of the same Nation made upon occasion of the Canon about the Authority of the Pope wherein they would not suffer it to be said that he hath Power to rule the Church Universal The French said that there was a great difference betwixt these expressions rule the Universal Church absolutely and rule the Roman that is to say the Universal Church because the term Universal is onely employed to explain that of Roman and that so it ought to extend no farther It cannot be denied but that the distinction is very nice and fine spun and that the difference betwixt those two expressions is not very sensible it had been as well perhaps if Maillard had frankly confest that it dropt from him before he was aware In the Congregation of the Eleventh of February the French presented a Letter from their King wherein he acquainted the Council with the Victory that he had obtained over the Enemies of the Catholick Religion and at the same time demanded Reformation After the Letters were read the Ambassadour Du Ferrier made a Speech The King of France his Letter to the Council followed by a Speech of du Ferrier and having represented the Calamities of the Kingdom of France and the necessity of doing somewhat to remedy them he said that the proper remedy depended on the Council and that the Council in endeavouring that ought to turn their Eyes towards the Holy Scripture that Christians now-a-days were like the Samaritanes of the Town of Sichar who would believe because they saw and not barely upon the report of a Woman that every body at present studied the Scriptures That they should not think it strange if in their Proposition they had omitted the most necessary Points that they had begun with the smallest but that they had more important matters to propose that if they intended to set about the Work of Reformation they must do it in good earnest and that the Fathers who were assembled ought to consider what was the Success of those slight and weak Reformations of the Council of Constance and that which came after which he was not willing to name for fear of offending their ears He meant the Council of Basil whereof the name is odious to all the Favourers of the Court of Rome He laid before them also that the Councils of Florence Lateran and the first of Trent had done nothing for the Church and in that they did nothing they had done a great deal of hurt and given occasion to a Schism of so many People as are separated from it They gave the French Ambassadour a civil answer though in his Speech he had given several nips which touch'd the Pope's Party to the quick He said that he presented the Articles of Reformation principally to the Council These words offended them extremely because they did insinuate that the Ambassadour made far less reckoning of the Pope than he did of the Council Besides they found that by that expression he designed to have a lash at the Clause proponentibus Legatis as intending to intimate that in Quality of Ambassadour he pretended to propose his Articles to the Council himself and not by the Lagates and this perswaded them that France entertained terrible intentions against the Authority of the Pope and they were the more allarmed because Du Ferrier had said that the French had still far more important Proposals to make and that they ought to make greater advances in the work of Reformation than the Councils of Constance and Basil had done The day following the Cardinal of Lorrain parted for Inspruck taking with him nine Prelates and four Divides but he got a promise from the Legates that during his absence they should not treat of the Marriage of Priests In the mean time they continued the Congregations about the matter of Doctrine The first Chamber of Divines which we have already mentioned having heard Salmeron and Maillard unanimously condemned as Heretical the opinion that denies Marriage to be a Sacrament and in like manner declared Clandestine Marriages to be true Sacraments and lawfull Marriages But there was some diversity of opinion about the Sentiments of Salmeron and Maillard in relation to the Power of the Church in annulling secret Marriages some were of Salmeron's opinion and others with Maillard thought that the Power of the Church did not reach so far as to make a Marriage become unlawfull which was lawfull a very little before Amongst those who maintained that the Church had Power to annull Clandestine Marriages some disputed another Point to wit whether it be convenient and profitable to make use of that Power in the present time But most part thought it best that all secret Marriages should be invalidated and some went farther still and were for declaring null and void all Marriages
of the peace by the necessity of the times which admits of no Law But these excuses satisfied not the Council and particularly the Bishops could not digest that the King in the Preface of the Edict of that Pacification did say that he had hopes that either a General or National Council would speedily compose all the publick troubles for that did insinuate as if he distrusted the success of the Council of Trent and tacitely threatned the calling of a National Assembly The two and twentieth of April had been pitcht upon for holding of the Session and the day before a General Congregation was called wherein the Legates were of opinion that it should be deferred untill the third of June But the Cardinal of Lorrain objected that it was a shame to assign so often the day of the Session and never to hold it that therefore it was not fit any more to prefix a day but that the twentieth of May following the Council might meet and consider of a day when it could be held This advice carried it by unanimous consent and though it seemed to be a deliberation of very little consequence nevertheless the Bishops of the Pope's Party conceived Jealousies because the opinion of the Cardinal had been so generally followed They said that the Pope had a great deal of reason to call him the Head of a Party that he alone obstructed the expedition of affairs in Council and the Translation of it to Bologna But as to the prolongation of the Council and delay of the Session the Legates concurred in that as freely as any in hopes that the more Zealous would either be gone or abate their fervour During this intermission of Synodal actions the Spanish Bishops were not negligent in their affairs Their heads ran still upon the design of having Residence and the Institution of Bishops declared to be of Divine Right and at the same time an accident happened that confirmed them in this fond opinion A Jacobin called Peter Soto died at Trent upon his death-bed be wrote a Letter to the Pope by way of Confession and therein as a dying than took the freedom to solicite the Pope that he would sufâ—er Residence and the Institution of Bishops to be declared of Divine Right Another Monk of the same Order and in all likelihood his Kinsman since his name was Louis Soto dispersed Copies of that Letter for the Credit and Reputation of the Deceased One would think that the Authority of a single man and a simple Monk should not be of very great weight but the words of dying men are armed with a Natural Authority that cannot be resisted because they are lookt upon as the Sentiments of a Conscience stript of all Hypocrisie discharging it self towards men that it may be able to appear and render a faithfull account before the Tribunal of God And the Spaniards reckoned them so for that Letter of Soto's revived their Zeal They used all means to gain the Count de Luna the Archbishop of Granada informed him of all that was done in the Council and made him sensible of the slavery it lay under Discoursing one day of the Bishops of Liria and Palti both Spaniards who had fallen over to the Party of the Court of Rome he said they are naughty men who suffer themselves to be loaded like beasts and are good of force and eloquence He succeeded very well in his design of netling the Pope's Party and they on the other hand did not spare him for Cardinal Morone set him off in his Colours and laboured to perswade the Emperour that Lorrain and his French were the Cause of all the Disorders of the Council This Intrigue came to the Cardinal's Knowledge and encreased his Discontents Cardinal Morone comes back to Trent from Inspruck and the Emperour consents to the Conclusion of the Council without any thing dome about Reformation At length Cardinal Morone was dispatched by the Emperour and had no more from him but some general answers The Emperour told him that he would defend the Pope's Authority against Hereticks if need required that he would not goe beyond Inspruck that the Translation of the Council to Bologna was impossible that he could not take his Coronation from the Pope without consulting the Diet that he wished a Reformation might be made at Trent and that all might have liberty to propose there This was the answer that was published but they who knew better the Secret Transactions of that Conference affirmed for a certain that Cardinal Morone had brought the Emperour and King of the Romans to consent to the separation of the Council He made them sensible that it was impossible to obtain any Reformation because every thing that could be proposed would always find some whose interests would oblige them to oppose it and hinder all resolutions because all men are willing to continue in the Condition they are in It was therefore said that there Princes yielded to his reasons and consented that the Council might have an honourable Funeral that is that it should be suffered to disperse it self by little and little for avoiding a scandalous Rupture And indeed it is more than probable that they lost all hopes of obtaining any thing in that Council for their instances ceased or at least diminished and if they made any it was onely because they thought it not prudent by falling off all of a sudden to give occasion of being taken notice of They chose rather to retreat without noise because they were somewhat ashamed that they had not believed that noted Saying of St. Gregory Nazianzen That the troubles of the Church are always encreased by the Assemblies of Bishops and they were unwilling to make open Confession that they were deceived in the Hopes that they had conceived of a Reformation THE HISTORY OF THE Council of TRENT BOOK VIII PIUS IV. CArdinal Morone Legate nominated by the Pope to succeed the Cardinal of Mantua returned from Inspruck where he had been to confer with the Emperour about the affairs of the Council and came to Trent the seventeenth of May. The twentieth of the same Month being appointed for prefixing the day of the following Session they began to treat about that but because nothing was yet in a readiness and that differences were still in fermentation the Legates perceived that it was not convenient to appoint a certain day for the Session Therefore in the Congregation of the nineteenth it was resolved to defer the choice of the day till the tenth of June The Count de Luna Ambassadour of Spain had his publick reception in the Congregation of the one and twentieth of May and them broke out to purpose the difference betwixt the Ambassadours of France and Spain A Contest betwixt the French and Spaniards about Precedence in relation to Precedence the Spaniards upon the most unjust pretensions in the World challenging place before the French Charles the fifth and his Predecessours as well by Father
two Brothers the Duke and Grand Prior. He dealt earnestly with him also to employ his credit with the French Prelates that they would desist from pressing that the Institution of Bishops and their Residence should be declared of Divine Right But the Cardinal would not hear of it he continued stedfast in his design of staying at the Council and as he said of having matters concluded according to truth and reason Upon his return to Trent he bragg'd much how he had resisted the solicitations of the Cardinal of Ferrara but that was the last act of constancy and vigour that came from him for after that time he made so visible and considerable a compliance that he became the chief instrument which the Court of Rome employed for shaking and baffling the vigour of others However he seemed still to retain a little stedfastness in a Conference that he had with Cardinal Morone after his return from Hostia Cardinal Morone to sooth and flatter him told him that he wished he were at the helm of affairs and that he had the same Authority as the Legates had that farther more the Pope desired a Reformation and would set about it that none of the Articles which had been proposed by the several Nations were desired to be left out but those which related to the Court of Rome because the Pope would have the honour of Reforming himself The Cardinal was not catcht in that trap but made answer that saving the respect which was due to the Holy See what concerned the Reformation of the Cardinals and of the Court of Rome might be very well proposed in the Council But he continued not long in that style for the Cardinal received Letters from the Queen informing him that his presence would be far more necessary in France than at Trent she told him that there was no more good to be expected from the Council for France that all that could have been obtained from it would onely have been in order to reunite the French Protestants to the Church but that that was a thing not to be hoped for now since the peace with the Huguenots held good and that therefore the Pope was to be contented She wrote also to the Pope that she would order the French Prelates to concur in any thing that might tend to the speedy Conclusion of the Council and not to dispute his Authority any more From that time forward the Cardinal thought of nothing but of returning to France he was troubled to understand that the peace with the Protestants was like to hold for he mortally hated the Huguenots and feared the growth of the Party not so much out of Zeal for Religion as because he knew that that Party could not be Established but upon the ruines of his Family by reason of the irreconcilable hatred that was betwixt the Princes of the House of Guise and the Great men that were engaged in the interests of the Protestants He considered with himself that to support him against a Party which was like to gather new strength by a Peace he stood in need of the favour of the Pope and therefore he bent all his thoughts for the future to incline him to espouse his Interests by appearing to be wholly at his devotion A new Ambassadour from France comes About the same time the President de Birague the new French Ambassadour arrived and was received in the Congregation of the second of June But because in his Credentials he was not called Ambassadour all the Ambassadours of Princes who commonly come after those of France did not appear that they might not be obliged to take their places after him Birague presented to the Council a Letter from the King wherein he gave once more reasons for the Peace which he had concluded with the Huguenots still protesting that it was done in prospect of reclaiming to the Church those that were gone astray by a surer way than that of Arms that farther he expected that they would aid and assist him in that design by the Reformation which he had demanded and still did demand from the Council Birague's Harangue contained onely the same things somewhat more amplified and seeing the Legates knew what Birague was to say before they had heard him in the Council they were prepared to make an answer to his Speech by complements of condoleing that the King had been in a manner forced to make Peace with the Huguenots They farther added that they disapproved not what he had done exhorting him nevertheless that so soon as his Kingdom were in Peace he would endeavour all he could to cure the wound that Heresie had made in his Territories This answer was communicated to the Cardinal of Lorrain before it was given but he opposed it objecting that the Council ought not to approve the Peace which the King had made with the Huguenots seeing it was so prejudicial to the Church and that therefore they ought to take time to answer This advice was taken and the Legates made answer to Birague that the matters which he had proposed were so weighty that the Council desired time to give an answer to them but the French Ambassadours were extremely vexed with the Cardinal for this action They were about to have written to the Court concerning it but because Lansac was speedily to return they gave it him in Commission to make a report thereof to the King In the mean time the Congregations continued for Examining matters touching the Sacrament of Orders and the Prelates did not stick so closely to the point but that many times they purposely flew out into digressions In one of these Congregations the Bishop of Nimes discoursed freely enough against Annats and against several abuses of the Court of Rome amongst the rest against the Ordination of Priests who were admitted without examination or capacity In another Congregation the Bishop of Cadix a Spaniard shew'd the needlesness of Titulary Bishops whom he called figmenta humana an invention of the Court of Rome and what disorders these Bishops without Bishopricks caused in the exercise of the Discipline of the Church But seeing all the abuses introduced by Papal Authority found instantly Protectors among the Italians the Bishop of Sarzana a Tuscan rose up and defended the Cause of those Titular Bishops Another Spaniard Bishop of Lugo in Gallicia spoke against Dispensations and affirmed that it was not necessary to set Bounds to the Court of Rome as to that matter and to declare the invalidity of those Dispensations or rather that it is impossible to give Dispensations about most things that are so freely dispensed with About this time Angelo Massarelo Bishop of Tilesio in Abruzzo Clark of the Council being grievously tormented with the Stone resolved to be cut of it and desisted from officiating in Person as Clark and this removed one of the difficulties that have been mentioned which was that the Ambassadours of France and Spain having made great instances that he should
be assigned an Assistant for collecting the Acts because they questioned his fidelity they gave him for a Substitute another Italian the Bishop of Campagna in the Kingdom of Naples The first business that he did as Clark was to read the answer which was to be given to Birague of which the Legates had presented a Draught to the Council It was long and perplex'd and it did not therein appear whether the Fathers commended or blamed the action of the King of France in making Peace with the Huguenots The Prelates gave their Votes and the dark and ambiguous strain that it was framed in was cause of diversity of opinions The Cardinal of Lorrain approved it not which was a surprising matter because Cardinal Morone having shew'd it him he seemed to have been satisfied therewith In sine the matter was referred to the Legates and the two Cardinals Madruccio and Lorrain with power to frame that answer as they should judge most convenient A Clashing betwixt the Cardinal of Lorrain and the Archbishop of Otranto June the eleventh the Legates had a solemn consultation for finding out Expedients to settle the differences about the question of the Divine Right of the Institution of Bishops This gave the Cardinal of Lorrain who was present at the Consultation occasion to speak of the Authority of the Pope a question that depends naturally on that of the Institution of Bishops He touched by the bye the opinion of the French that the Pope is Inferiour to a Council declaring that it was not his desire that the Council should Pronounce in favour of that opinion but withall he wished that they would not decide any thing to the contrary The Archbishop of Otranto took him up sharply and spoke bitterly not onely against that opinion but against the Cardinal himself even so far as to accuse him of being the cause of all the troubles which had arisen about that Subject by proposing a project of decision that had given occasion to the debates The matter went so far that the Count de Luna told the Archbishop who was a Subject of the King of Spain that if his Catholick Majesty knew that he had fallen into that ill-timed passion he would not take it well A French Prelate hereupon gave the Legates advice not to call the Archbishop of Otranto any more to Consultations with the Cardinal of Lorrain because the Cardinal was informed that the Archbishop spoke ill of him on all occasions and spared not to call him a man full of Venome Cardinal Morone gave no heed to that advice but answered that he had orders from the Pope to doe nothing without the Archbishop that he had the disposal of forty Votes and that therefore he must not be disobliged The Cardinal of Lorrain was sufficiently vexed both with Cardinal Morone and the Archbishop of Otranto but the design he had of getting into the Pope's favour obliged him to dissemble President Birague having stayed for the Councils Answer as long as became his character went to wait on the Emperour at Inspruck according as he was enjoined by his Commission And his chief business was to confer with the Emperour about the means of transferring the Council unto a place where it might enjoy full liberty The Queen of France had written of that to the King of Spain who disliked the proposition but he wrote to the Count de Luna his Ambassadour that according to the Instructions which he had given him he should press the revocation of the Clause proponentibus legatis for setting the Council at liberty The Count de Luna having declared his Commission to the Legates they answered that the Clause had past with consent of the Council and that it could not be revoked At the same time the Pope was earnestly solicited at Rome to dispense with that Clause and at length to case himself of the trouble that was given him upon that account he wrote to Cardinal Morone that they should Supersede the execution of it but Morone without consulting his Collegues answered plainly that he could not and that he had rather his Holiness would recall them In the Congregation of the fifteenth of June the Prelates pitcht upon the fifteenth of July for the day of the next Session and in the Congregation next day after Another Discourse of General Lainez in favour of the Court of Rome Lainez the General of the Jesuits speaking in his turn undertook to censure and refute all that had been said by others against the Court of Rome And he did it so vehemently and with so much zeal as if he had been treating of matters whereupon the Salvation of mankind depended He made an Apology for Dispensations Annats the Wealth of the Court of Rome and for every thing that others called Abuses He proved the Pope's Superiority over a Council and advanced his Authority not onely over Bishops but the whole Church as far as could be imagined in the same manner as he had done in his former Harangue The French were disgusted at this discourse nor were the Spaniards better satisfied they were perswaded that the Legates had chosen him as their mouth to speak their thoughts for it was observed that they affected to show a particular respect for him When he spoke they made him come out of his place and sit in the middle of the Assembly whereas the other Generals spoke standing and kept themselves in their own places Lainez was never tedious though he had taken up the whole time of Congregations but the others were never short enough This Jesuit sent his excuses to the Cardinal of Lorrain and the French Prelates pretending that he had not the least design of offending them but that he onely aimed at the Sorbonne Doctors whose opinions were not agreeable to the sentiment of the Church This excuse gave a new offence to the French and particularly to the Divines John de Verdun a Benedictine Monk desired leave from the Cardinal to refute Lainez nay even the Cordelier Hugonis though bought by the Pope's Pension offered himself to prove that the proposition which Lainez had asserted that the Tribunal of the Pope is the same as that of Jesus Christ is an Impious and Scandalous Proposition But the Cardinal of Lorrain who had his private views and interests qualified the heat of their Zeal All these Difficulties and Janglings arose upon the Points of Residence and the Institution of Bishops being of Divine Right and therefore the Legates to stop up the Spring of the Divisions laboured incessantly to form a Decree concerning these matters which by its Ambiguity and by clearing nothing at all might give all content They did the Jobb and the Cardinal of Lorrain was satisfied with it but the Pope's Divines and Pensionary Prelates who outdid the Legates in the matter of Zeal for the interests of the Court of Rome found a thousand difficulties in it The draught of it was sent to Rome where they Judged as the
Canonists of Trent had done that the Authority of the Pope over Bishops was not raised high enough insomuch that the diligence and pains of the Legates had no success at this time About this time the Court of Rome was in no little perplexity upon occasion of Maximilian lately Elected King of the Romans who had no great kindness for that Court He resolved to send Ambassadours to the Pope to acquaint him with his Election but he would not doe it in the form that some of his Predecessours had done who had promised and sworn to the Pope whatever he pleased He therefore desired to know what terms he should make use of The matter was taken into deliberation and the Cardinals concluded that he ought to demand Confirmation from the Pope and promise him all obedience as they who had gone before him had done He refused it declaring that his Ambassadour should promise no more in his name but all devotion reverence and complaisance for his Holiness and the Holy See There were great Negotiations about this affair and at length it ended so as that the Ambassadour neither demanded Confirmation nor promised Obedience and yet the Pope in his Answer gave the Confirmation which was not required of him and accepted the Obedience that was not offered This was a Comedy that diverted no body neither the Pope himself nor his Cardinals In the Congregation of the one and twentieth of June the answer which was to be given to President Birague was read and because he was not there it was sent to him in writing About the same time the Council appointed Adamo Fumamo Assistant to the Bishop of Tilesio who continued still ill of the Stone in the Office of Clark of the Council The following Congregations were spent in cavillings about those questions so often canvas'd concerning Residence and the Institution of Bishops And indeed it was all the talk in private Conversations but the Bishops began at length to be weary of it The Spaniards made a great deal to doe about it but most of the rest being cloy'd with such debates were of opinion that these Points should be laid aside This opinion prevailed at length but not without great opposition There were likewise great disputes about a certain Article of Reformation by which the more severe sort would have had a Decree to tie up the hands of those who had the right of Nomination to Bishopricks and oblige them to chuse always the worthiest The Ambassadours of Kings and the Pope's Party opposed this alledging that it was too severe an imposition upon Princes that it was sufficient that they conferred not Bishopricks but upon deserving persons without obliging them to chuse always the worthiest and that it was not Just to deprive the Pope and Kings of the Power of gratifying their faithfull Servants that it was enough that they did not abuse the Power which the Council left them and never put into Bishopricks but deserving men They farther alledged that the Overture that was proposed was absolutely impracticable for these Reformers desired that when a Bishoprick fell to be vacant the Metropolitan should acquaint the Chapter with the name of him that was Nominated that his name should be published in all the Parish Churches of the Town and affixt on the Doors and that afterward the Metropolitan should goe to the Episcopal Town and make a very strict inquiry into the Learning Life and Manners of him that had been Nominated and that all who had any thing to object might be heard Lainez the Jesuit among others represented that this method would be found so difficult and perplexing that it would be impossible to reduce it into practice The Council found out an Expedient for this affair as they did for all others which we shall speak of hereafter The Legates suffered also some Propositions to be made for the Reformation of the Cardinals for the Pope being informed of all that was talkt of at Trent and in the Courts of Princes thought it was his policy and interest not to appear averse from that Reformation He brought it therefore under deliberation both at Trent and at Rome whether that Reformation should be made at Rome or in the Council The Legates and Cardinals who were present aswell as those who aspired to a Hat brought matters so about that this point was not medled with so that it went no farther and was no so much as proposed The Pope had also some thoughts of having Bishops discharged from medling in the management of worldly affairs but Cardinal Simoneta represented to him that the Church-men of France and of other Countries would thereby sustain great prejudice because they were employed in all the Offices of State And thus all the Propositions of Reformation were stifled in the birth The Emperour disgusted at this Conduct and losing all hopes of procuring any benefit from the Council The Emperour loses all hopes of obtaining any good of the Council and leaves Inspruck left Inspruck and at parting wrote to the Cardinal of Lorrain that expecting no good from that Assembly he thought it better to suffer the present Calamities than to occasion greater by applying of Remedies that would not be taken And now we have the Germans aswell as the French overcome and disheartned There were none now but the Spaniards who stood their ground a little for the Emperour wrote to his Ambassadours that they should urge no more the Decision of the question about the Power of the Pope because he well foresaw that to speak of it would be the way to enlarge it and that must be avoided for fear of alienating more and more the minds of the German Protestants The Ambassadours acquainted the Legates with the Emperour's intentions and that came in very pat to confirm the opinion of the Cardinal of Lorrain who was clearly of the mind that they should speak no more of the Institution of Bishops and of the Authority of the Pope The last Debates about the Decrees of the Residence and Institution of Bishops And the last Point is wholly laid aside The Legates at length that they might essay to put an end to these long Debates resolved to hold private Assemblies into which all the most considerable Members of the Council should be admitted to the end that matters being adjusted and resolved upon by the leading men they might be carried without noise and difficulty in the General Congregations In these Assemblies the Legates proposed the Decrees that were framed for the Reformation of Abuses The first ordained that the Metropolitan should examine those who were nominated to Bishopricks that so none but the more deserving should be admitted but the Ambassadours started Objections again grounded on the Interests of Princes from whom the Right of Nomination to Bishopricks was taken by giving Power to Metropolitans to thwart these Nominations under Pretext of the unworthiness of those who were nominated After much Contest it was agreed that that Article
should be left for the following Session The like was done with the last Article which contained a Confession of Faith and the Form of an Oath In that Oath were contained all the Doctrines and Articles of Faith which distinguish the Roman Catholick Belief from that of the Protestants such as are the Superiority of the Pope the Authority of Councils the Truth of Traditions the Number of Seven Sacraments the Real Presence Transubstantiation and the Sacrifice of the Mass It was not onely projected that all who should be received into Ecclesiastick Dignities should swear that they believed all those things but likewise that Princes should admit of no man to any Office whatsoever till first they took that Oath and swore to that Confession Having resolved to lay that Article aside till another time they framed the Decree about Residence leaving out all that might displease those who held it to be of Divine Right and the others who affirmed it onely of Positive Constitution The Cardinal of Lorrain upon this occasion did the Pope great Service He had not long before received a very obliging Letter from him and the Pope had invited him to come to Rome that he might confer with him which the Cardinal had in a manner promised to doe But he durst not absolutely declare himself before he was informed what the Court of France thought of that Journey He did therefore all he could to dispatch business that so the next Session might be held on the prefixed day and that the Council proceeding apace he might make his Journey to Rome see a speedy Conclusion of the Council and then return to France This being his aim he drove at Expedition and was the Cause of stiffing a great Process which was occasioned by a matter of very small importance And that was in relation to the Functions of the Inferiour Orders from the Deacon even to the Porter about which the Divines kept a great Clutter The Custome had been for a long time discontinued of having consecrated Persons to perform the Functions of these Lower Orders as shutting Doors lighting Candles ringing Bells and even Reading these Offices being discharged by Laicks Now the Council thought it necessary to restore the Order and to cause those Functions to be performed by Consecrated Persons according to the Ceremonies of the Roman Pontifical and that with design to silence Libertines who maintained that these Offices were not Sacraments But when the Bishops were about to come to a Conclusion and to frame the Decree they were stopt by a difficulty which is obvious to any man for they who were not of opinion that these Functions should be restored to those who had received Orders asked what Necessity there was of a Spiritual Character for performing of Actions merely Corporeal as shutting of Doors and ringing of Bells The Cardinal of Lorrain gave his opinion that that matter should be left to the Disposal of the Bishops which prevailed All were now for condescending that they might come to an end Nevertheless the Spaniards held out still and persisted to have Residence declared to be of Divine Right as well as the Institution of Bishops The Cardinal of Lorrain brought over several but a great many resisted his Solicitations On the other hand the Archbishop of Otranto and his Adherents who were afraid of the least shadow that might entrench upon the Authority of the Pope would not consent to the Decree that the Legates had drawn up concerning Residence because it said that all who have care of Souls are obliged by the Command of God to look to their Flocks They said that it was impossible to look to their Flocks without residing If one be obliged to look to his Flock by the Command of God he is by Consequence obliged by the Command of God to reside and so Residence must be of Divine Right Nor would they approve of the sixth Canon which faith that the Hierarchy hath been established by Divine Ordinance They were afraid that it might from thence be concluded that all the Orders of that Hierarchy are of Divine and not Papal Institution They said that by that means Episcopacy was declared to be of Divine Right These Minutes had been an hundred times over consulted at Rome the Legates approved of them since they had framed them the Pope's Canonists and Divines were very well satisfied with them but all that was nothing they would needs be more zealous for the Pope than the Pope was for himself Nevertheless in spight of the opposition of that Archbishop on the one hand and of the Archbishop of Granada and Bishop of Segovia on the other the Assembly went on and concluded that the Decrees must pass in that form And now the Consultations being ended and the Decrees framed the General Congregations were begun again the ninth of July for reading and examining the Decrees The Spaniards would not yield yet They made a noise in the Congregation and said that they were abus'd since that now after so long delaying to form the Chapter of the Institution of Bishops there was no notice at all taken of it They renewed their instances to have it declared to be of Divine Right and made the same Complaints and Demands about the Article of Residence But at length the Count de Luna dashed their Constancy for he called them together several times at his house and after many Skirmishes he obtained of the Archbishop of Granada the Bishop of Segovia and the rest of the most forward Prelates that they would be satisfied to deliver their opinions without Passion and insisting in their Oppositions And so on the fourteenth of July which was the Eve of the Session the Legates held the last General Congregation wherein a hundred fourscore and twelve gave their Vote for holding the Session next day and onely twenty eight were against it The Presidents obliged the Spaniards to be silent promising the Count de Luna that so soon as they had defined the Power of the Pope according as it was done by the Council of Florence they should make no more Difficulty to declare the Institution of Bishops to be of Divine Right session 23 The twenty third Session the fifteenth of July At length the fifteenth of July came on which was held that Session which had been so many times prorogued and the Decrees whereof were so impatiently expected The matter of Doctrine was digested into four Chapters and eight Canons with Anathema's In them the Council declared that Orders are a Sacrament that there is a visible Sacrifice under the Gospel for offering up of the very body and very bloud of our Lord that there are greater and lesser Orders by which one mounts as by steps to a greater Order which is that of Priesthood that Orders do imprint a Character and confer the Holy Ghost that Unction is necessary in the Sacrament that the Hierarchy is of Divine Institution that Bishops are superiour to Priests that the Consent
Pope and yet give some satisfaction to those who so urgently demanded Reformation The Legates are willing to satisfie the Bishops by passing the Decree of the Reformation of Princes but that causes great noise The chief Design of the Legates was to please the Bishops because without them there was no concluding of the Council The principal Aim of the Bishops was to enlarge their Power and for accomplishing of that design they demanded three things First that they should have the absolute Collation of all Benefices that had Cure of Souls that so the Curats might depend on them Secondly that the Council would abolish all the Exemptions of Chapters of privileged Churches and of Monks or Regulars who by certain Privileges obtained from the Court of Rome had found a way to decline the Power of their Bishops And thirdly that all those hinderances might be removed which Princes and Secular Magistrates bring to Ecclesiastick Jurisdiction calling that an invasion of Princes when they strive what they can to hinder the Clergy from challenging and taking to themselves the Trials of civil Causes and temporal Jurisdiction The Legates were very well disposed to satisfie the Bishops as to the third Point of their Demand because none but Princes must pay for that whose interest they did not at all consider And therefore in the Articles which they proposed they failed not to insert every thing that could contribute to the retrieving of the Jurisdiction of Bishops to the same State that the Invasions of the Clergy had formerly brought it to And upon these three heads chiefly the Articles of Reformation run for the satisfaction of the Bishops But as to the second Point which concerns the Exemptions of the Regulars or Monks the Legates had no mind to comply too much with the Bishops because that could not be done without Diminution of the Authority and Profits of the Court of Rome of which all the Monks hold immediately And if the Bishops made instances on their side for obtaining that Demand the Generals of Orders who were present in the Council on the other hand vehemently opposed it The Legates had appointed a particular Congregation for the Reformation of Monks and in that Congregation divers good Regulations were made to which the Generals of Orders had submitted because that Monks are pretty well satisfied that the Rules to which they are oblig'd should be severe and hard that being the thing that appears outwardly to the World and which gains them a great Reputation of Sanctity and Austerity But after all since they are the Masters of the Monasteries within doors and of the manner how these Rules are observed the Severity of Orders incommodes them no more than they please themselves But for the matter of Exemptions they would by no means have that medled with They liked it much better to depend on a Master that lived at a distance who could not watch over their Conduct than on a Bishop who would always have his Eyes upon them Nevertheless the reason that they alledged for their refusal was the remisness and relaxation that Bishops allowed themselves in their Conduct and Conversation and franckly said that when Prelates were Masters of Monasteries Bishops lived under a far more severe Discipline than they did at present and that times were changed The Ambassadours also favoured the Monks for the interest sake of Princes who desire not that Bishops should have too much power because they many times abuse it Martin Royas Pontal Rouge Ambassadour from the Great Master and Knights of Malta was received in Congregation the seventh of September Seeing every one minded their Interests his chief demand was that the Council would Ordain that the Possessions and Commendaries which had been taken from them should be restored The Legates acquainted the Pope with the demand of the Ambassadours of Malta and the Pope answered that it was the business of the Council who ought not to neglect it In that and the following Congregations the Articles of Reformation were again treated of which had been so many times altered and corrected by the Legates and they afforded no important Debates The third Article regarded the Authority of Metropolitans or Archbishops Those of that Character and such of them as were present were for having the Ancient Canons reestablished according to which Bishops were subject to visitation correction and to the Government of Metropolitans as Curates are subject to the Bishops Particularly Giovanni Trevisano Patriarch of Venice was mightily for the restitution of those privileges but the Archbishops were not strong enough to gain their Cause The Bishops who were far the Sedition of the Bishops they were forced to propose in Congregation the Decree of the Reformation of Princes which was sometime before laid aside and referred to another Session Abstract of the Decree of the Reformation of Princes It will not be amiss to give an Abstract of it that it may appear what the temper of the Bishops was and how far the Clergy would have carried on their Usurpations upon the Temporal Right of Princes and Magistrates That Decree contained a Preface thirteen Chapters and a Conclusion The Preface mentioned that the Council had a design to prevent the enterprises of Seculars upon the Immunities of the Church and that for that end it revived the Decrees and Holy Canons which were to be observed under pain of Anathema It ordained then that the persons of Churchmen should not be Judged by a Secular Court upon any pretext whatsoever though they should even consent to it that Secular Judges should not offer to meddle with Matrimonial Causes Causes of Heresie Tithes Rights of Patronage Benefices nor with other Causes wherein any thing of the Spirituality is concerned whether they be Civil or Criminal that Secular Princes cannot Establish Judges in Ecclesiastick affairs that Secular Magistrates must not prohibit an Ecclesiastick Judge to proceed against any by Excommunication that neither Emperour Kings nor Princes can make any Edicts or Ordinances concerning the Affairs Goods and Possessions of Churchmen that Churchmen should be maintained in their Temporal Right of high middle and low Jurisdiction that Ecclesasticks should not be obliged to pay any Taxes Imposts Tenths or Subsidies that Princes and Magistrates should not have Power to quarter their Officers Soldiers or Horses in the Houses of Churchmen There were a great many more Articles of the same force and that tended to the same end So the Clergy shook off the lawfull Yoke of Obedience which they owed to their Sovereigns and erected to themselves within their States a temporal Jurisdiction over Christians parallel to that of Kings and wholly independent of their Authority The Conclusion contained an earnest Exhortation to the Observation of these Decrees under the pain of Anathema This was the Piece against which the Ambassadours of France had orders to protest if they intended to pass it which they failed not to doe The Emperour wrote also to Cardinal Morone that
by the Protestation of the French Ambassadours proposed again the Decree of the Reformation of Princes but all the other Ambassadours opposed it so that the Council was obliged to refer it to the following Session The Pope being incensed at the Protestation of the French Ambassadours had a mind to be revenged upon the faction from which he thought it came He therefore resolved to pursue the affair that had been commenced against the five French Bishops The Pope has a mind to proceed against five French Bishops suspected of Heresie and against the Queen of Navarre The King of France opposeth it whom he had caused to be cited before the Tribunal of the Inquisition He was likewise for continuing the Procedures against the Queen of Navarre and therefore on the thirteenth of October he caused Sentence to be published against the five Bishops and a severe Monitory affixed on publick places against Jean Queen of Navarre the Widow of Anthony of Bourbon for depriving her of her Dignities States and Dominions The Cardinal of Lorrain told the Pope that these Procedures were absolutely contrary to the Maxims of France the Liberties of the Gallican Church and that therefore the King would take it ill that he had proceeded to sentence against Bishops primâ instantiâ and far worse that he deprived a Queen and his Allye of her Dominions but the Cardinal represented this faintly and onely for fashion that he might not be accused of combining with the Court of Rome in so evident an Invasion of the Liberties of the Gallican Church As the Cardinal had no design to perswade so neither did he perswade and they proceeded notwithstanding his Remonstrances But the King of France employed more prevalent Instruments for the Sieur d'Oysel the French Ambassadour at Rome by Orders from his Master spoke to the Pope about those two affairs with a great deal of resolution He told him that the King would never suffer that contrary to the Prerogatives of the Majesty of Kings he should proceed to the spoiling and excommunicating a Widow-Queen whose Husband was killed in the Wars against the Huguenots who was his Allye and who had most of her Lands in France that if he went on any farther the King his Master would take the Course his Ancestours had done And as to the business of the five Bishops that the way of proceeding against them was absolutely repugnant to the Customs of France which suffer not that Bishops should be judged any where but upon the place and by their immediate Superiours D'Oysel succeeded so well in his Negotiation that he obtained the Pope's word that there should be no more talk neither of the Queen of Navarre nor of the five Bishops The Cardinal of Lorrain got no great Satisfaction by his writing to the King about Du Ferrier's Speech and the Protestation of the Ambassadours for the Court of France approved the Conduct of the Ambassadours in all they had done and ordered them to stay at Venice untill new orders The King wrote also to the Cardinal of Lorrain and let him know that he did not take it well that he had written to him as he did and to make it appear upon the spot how much the King slighted the Enterprises of the Council he proceeded to the Alienation of Church-Livings without staying for the Pope's consent He caused a Sale of them to be made to the Value of two Millions five hundred thousand Livres and at a very cheap rate Amongst others the Temporal Jurisdiction which till then the Archbishop of Lions had over that City was purchased to the King for thirty thousand Livres All this while the Legates continued the Synodal Actions at Trent They removed some difficulties which the Spaniards still made about the Articles of Reformation for the Spanish Bishops insisted particularly on that which related to the Exemption of Chapters whereby they pretended not to be subject to the Authority of the Ordinaries The Chapters of the Churches of Spain had an Agent at the Council who solicited the Preservation of their Privileges The Legates favoured them for the Interest of the Court of Rome because the Bishops of Spain depend much less on the Pope than the Canons doe for most part of the Bishopricks are in the Nomination of the King whereas the Disposal of the Canonships is almost wholly in the Power of the Pope The Count de Luna declared openly against the Chapters and threatned that if the Bishops had not satisfaction given them as to those and some other Articles and their Demands granted he would stop their coming to the Session This menace obliged the Legates to refer that Article to the following Session and in the mean time the Count de Luna commanded the Deputies of the Chapters instantly to be gone No more difficulty remained but about the Clause proponentibus legatis against which the Count de Luna declared open War The Legates referred it to himself and told him that he should alter that Clause in what manner he pleased but he refusing to take it upon him the Cardinal of Lorrain came from Rome in the very nick of time and cleared all the Scruples for he hit upon a way of satisfying the Count by this canting Explication that by the Clause proponentibus legatis it was not the design to make any Innovation in the manner of proceeding in Ancient Councils And a Chapter was thereupon made at the end of the Decree of General Reformation This difficulty being taken away all consented to the Decrees and the Session was held session 24 The twenty fourth Session Eleventh of November 1563. On the Eleventh of November when after the usual Ceremonies and the reading of some Letters from Princes and Ambassadours Commissions the Chapters of Doctrine about Marriage with the Anathema's that were tackt to them were read The Article concerning Clandestine Marriages was again contested and put to the Vote but most part of the Votes were for leaving it as they had found it The Chapter of Reformation of the Abuses in Marriage being read next came the Chapter of General Reformation So soon as it was read over the Cardinal of Lorrain reiterated the Declaration which he had made in the Congregation the day before that he approved the Decrees provided they did no prejudice to the Privileges Rights and Constitutions of the Kings of France He said farther that the French Nation accepted them not as a perfect Reformation but as a Progress to a more ample Reformation which they expected from the Pope These Decrees are too long to be inserted into this History They contain twelve Anathema's against Errours in Doctrine concerning Marriage ten Chapters of a particular Reformation about the same matter of Marriage twenty Chapters relating to General Reformation and an one and twentieth which was added for the interpretation of the Clause proponentibus legatis There is nothing to be found in all these Articles that tends to a General Reformation such as
and the Legates obliged the Members to be very short in giving their opinions But the Spaniards who desired not the conclusion took their full swing they did not put themselves to the rack but even enlarged their discourses with design to gain time and to prolong the Council untill they might have Orders from the King of Spain The sixth Article of Reformation proposed before the former Session had been referred to this and that Article concerned the exemption of the Chapters of Spain The Spanish Ambassadour and the Bishops of that Nation were their Parties and their Deputy after he had been ordered by the Count de Luna was forced to be gone But the Legates were good Advocates for them and being assured of the assistance of the Italians they were in a fair way of gaining their Cause notwithstanding they were absent Yet the Council found out a means by giving some augmentation to the Bishops Authority over the Chapters but a great deal less than they demanded The resolution of demanding the Confirmation of the Council from the Pope In the Congregation of the twentieth of November the question was debated whether they should demand of the Pope the Confirmation of the Decrees of the Council The Archbishop of Granada maintained that it was not necessary saying that the Fathers in the sixteenth Session which was the last held under Julius III. demanded not the Pope's Confirmation that if they did not imitate their Conduct it would be thought they condemned them The Archbishop of Otranto who had always his eyes in his head for the preservation of the Authority of the Pope replyed that the Fathers of the Council at that time made it sufficiently appear that they held the Confirmation of the Pope to be necessary because they commanded not the observation of the Canons which they had made but onely exhorted to it That opinion prevailed without difficulty but there remained still a scruple to wit whether they should stay for the Pope's Answer at Trent after they had demanded his Confirmation or otherwise whether upon concluding the Council it should be demanded of the Pope and so break up immediately without expecting an Answer The Cardinal of Lorrain whose two Predominant Passions were to dispatch and to please the Pope was of the last opinion and there is nothing more clear than that this Cardinal and the French who were of the mind that the Confirmation of the Decrees of the Council should be demanded of the Pope did exceedingly forget themselves They had kept a great clutter to hinder that the Pope should be declared Superiour to a Council and yet all of a sudden they betray their own Cause by the greatest weakness in the World For to demand the Pope's Confirmation of the Council is a Declaration plain enough that it is inferiour to him no Superiour Court ever demanding the Confirmation of its Decrees from an inferiour The Cardinal of Lorrain who would have all things make for the greater honour of the Council or rather for the greater satisfaction of the Pope essayed to bring back to Trent the French Ambassadours that were at Venice but they would not because that though the Chapter of the Reformation of Princes was revoked yet many other things had passed in the Council to the prejudice of the Liberties of the Gallican Church and the President du Ferrier would not by his presence countenance those bad Regulations When the matter of Reformation was digested into the Method that they intended to have it in the Legates applied themselves to the Doctrine and the Council appointed the Cardinal of Warmia and eight other Prelates to frame the Decree concerning Purgatory the Invocation of Saints Relicks and Images they all jumpt in one design not to start any Controversie that might retard them Nevertheless they found themselves a little puzled about the Article of Purgatory for some were for having the place determined where this Purgatory is as the Council of Florence had done and that it should be defined that the Pains which are suffered there are the Torments of Fire Others objected that all Divines agreed not as to that and that if they should offer to make a Decision thereupon they could not avoid falling into debates which they were willing to shun so that they were of opinion to make use of general terms and to enjoyn Bishops to see that that Doctrine should be carefully taught and this opinion was followed There was no difficulty about the Point of the Invocation of Saints there was somewhat more in relation to Images touching the nature of the Worship that is due to them but it went not far The Decree of the Reformation of Monks is revised Some Prelates were likewise deputed to revise the Reformation of Monks and Nuns and these Deputies joyned with the Congregation which had been appointed a long time before for that Reformation In that Revisal there were but a few matters altered By the third Chapter of this Reformation all the Monasteries of Mendicant Friers were allowed to enjoy Lands and immoveable Possessions notwithstanding the Rule of their Institution which forbids them to possess any thing in proper The General of the Order of the Minims who was a Spaniard demanded that his Order might be excepted out of that indulgence because they would exactly follow the Rule of St. Francis the General of the Capuchins demanded the same and it was granted to both Lainez General of the Jesuits made the same demand but distinguished their Colleges from their houses of Profession saying Bishops and other Beneficiaries to make good use of the Revenues of the Church used these words that they are appointed faithfull Stewards of these Revenues for the good of the Poor That Clause displeased the Bishop of Sulmona and a great many others it is easie to guess at the reason but what ever it was the Clause was struck out In fine it was proposed in the same Congregation to anticipate the day of the Session and to hold it next day and if al could not be dispatched in one day to continue it the day following that so the Acts might be signed on Sunday after and all the Prelates have Liberty to depart Fourteen Spanish Bishops opposed it but the Cardinal of Lorrain and the Imperial Ambassadours dealt earnestly with the Count de Luna to make him condescend to it At length he was willing but upon two Conditions first that the Pope would regulate the matters that remained still to be done and then that it should be inserted in the Chapters of Indulgences that they should not be given Gratis lest that might be prejudicial to the Croisadoes of Spain session 25 The five and twentieth and last Session the 3. December 1563. All difficulties being surmounted on Friday the third of December the Prelates and Ambassadours went to Church with the usual Ceremonies Jerome Ragazzone Titular Bishop of Nazianzo made the Sermon in praise of the Council and recapitulated the
good Laws and Ordinances which were made in it After the Ceremonies were over they read the Decrees concerning Purgatory the Intercession and Invocation of Saints Images and their Worship They also read the Decree for Reformation of Monks containing twenty Chapters to which they added an one and twentieth for a shield to the Pope's Authority lest by inadvertency it might be wounded in some of the Canons of Reformation and to leave him in full liberty to dispense with all the Canons The Council therefore declares in it that all the Decrees have been made with intention that the Authority of the Holy See should remain safe and inviolate without the least encroachment upon it When this was done because it was very late the rest was deferred till next day In this second day they read the Decrees concerning Indulgences the Choice of Meats Fasts and Holy days They made and Act of Reference to the Pope about the Index Expurgatorius Missals Breviaries Ceremonials and the Care of making a Catechism At length the Council caused and Act to be read which declared that the Places that had been assigned to Ambassadours ought not to be any ways prejudicial to the Rights and Privileges of Kings Princes and States whom the Council pretended to leave in the same condition as they were before The Assembly was concluded with Volleys of Acclamations to the Praise of the Pope Emperour Kings Legates and the Fathers Heretofore in Ancient Councils these Acclamations or Benedictions were made in a humming confused manner with a low Voice But at Trent they would have the matter performed in its Formalities It was written down read and sung after the manner of Antiphones The Cardinal of Lorrain pronounced the Acclamations and the Prelates answered This action of the Cardinal was extremely played upon It could not be imagined that he with all his Dignities A mean Action of the Cardinal of Lorrain and large Characters would have condescended to discharge the Office of a Deacon or Chanter It was lookt upon as a low and mean Carriage but the French had a worse opinion of it for besides the baseness of the action they lookt upon it as a Crime of State because in the Acclamations there was no express mention made of the King of France for which the Cardinal was severely checkt upon his return At length all was summ'd up with an Anathema pronounced against Hereticks in General The Council consulted whether they should not expresly Anathematise Luther Zuinglius and the other Heads of Parties as had heretofore been practised in the Case of Nestorius and other Hereticks But the Spanish and Imperial Ambassadours opposed that representing that the Princes were rather the Heads of the Parties in that affair than the Teachers that it would offend them and oblige them to make Leagues together against the Catholick Religion The Council acquiesced to that reason and rested satisfied with a General Anathema All the Prelates were commanded under pain of Excommunication to sign the Decrees before they went away which was done on Sunday They were signed by two hundred fifty and five Hands four Legates two Cardinals three Patriarchs five and twenty Archbishops an hundred fifty and eight Bishops seven Abbots thirty nine Proxies for Absents and seven Generals of Orders The Ambassadours had been enjoined to sign also but because those of France were not there and their Hands not being amongst the rest it would have been a Declaration that they refused to acknowledge the Council all the rest were therefore dispensed with no to sign upon Pretext that it had not been the Custome of Ancient Councils This last Session of the Council gave as little satisfaction as the rest hand done for after all the fair promises of setting about a Reformation there was nothing found that could answer the Expectations of People The nineteenth Chapter of General Reformation contained a very Christian Decree against Duels which were prohibited under very severe Penalties Nevertheless it was observed that the Council herein encroached upon the Right of Kings for it declared the Emperour all Kings Princes and Lords who should countenance Duels to be excommunicated and deprived of the Dominion of the Place holding of the Church wherein Duels should be fought It was not thought in the Power of a mere Ecclesiastick Judicature to deprive Sovereign Princes of their Territories and Temporal Possessions nor to lay Commands upon them under pain of Excommunication The Permission which the Council granted to Mendicants to enjoy Lands and Real Estates was so far from passing for an Article of Reformation that it was lookt upon as a great Corruption and as a fair means put into the hands of Monks to hook in the remainder of the Estates of Christendom whereof they already enjoyed the largest share In general few were satisfied with the Acts of the Council The Spaniards were displeased at the precipitant manner and hurry of concluding it without acquainting their King and expecting his answer But France more than all others because they found therein many things which overthrew the Liberties of the Gallican Church President Du Ferrier during his stay at Venice made it his business to make a Collection of them and upon the return of the Cardinal of Lorrain into France the Cardinal was severely censured for having suffered so many things to pass contrary to the Sentiments and Customs of the Church of France It was objected to him that after he had vigorously asserted the Superiority of a Council over the Pope yet at length he had basely betrayed the Cause seeing he had subscribed to the first Chapter of the General Reformation which grants the Pope Administrationem Ecclesiae the Administration of the Church Universal It was also thought that the opinion of the Pope's Superiority over a Council was sufficiently established by the last Chapter which declares that all things have been decreed without prejudice to the Authority of the Pope which is an evident raising of the Authority of the Holy See above that of the Decrees And above all it was thought that by demanding from the Pope the Confirmation of the Council they had placed his Holiness above a Council It was likewise objected as a fault to the Cardinal of Lorrain that in the one and twentieth Chapter of the General Reformation he had suffered the present Council to be declared the same with that which was held under Julius and Paul III. after that France had taken so much pains to have that Assembly called a new Council But the Parliament of Paris in a particular manner complained that he had suffered the Authority of the King's Judges to be trampled under foot seeing the Council had so far enlarged the Power of Churchmen as made a considerable breach in the Civil Jurisdiction As for instance it allows Bishops to proceed against Laicks by Pecuniary Fines and Imprisonments These oppositions that the Council met with in France were every delightfull to those who were separated
from the Church of Rome and Catholicks themselves took Liberty to speak The whole Discourse both of Catholicks and Protestants was about the Debates and Factions in managing of Affairs especially the matter of Reformation And according to the French way of raillery it was presently in every body's mouth that the Council of Trent had far more Authority than that of the Apostles for whereas the Apostles said It seemeth good to the Holy Ghost and to us the Fathers of Trent said barely It hath seemed good to us quite excluding the Holy Ghost Germany slighted the Council to the highest Degree for the Prelates of that Nation had not been present in this last Convocation which notwithstanding was the most Solemn of all Very few Bishops were there for the Kingdoms if Hungary and Poland none at all from England Swedeland Danemark and the low Countries The French Prelates came onley at the latter end and reckoning them all together with the Spaniards they did not exceed the number of forty Bishops all the rest were Italians of a few more than two hundred Prelates which made up the Council there were above an hundred and fifty from Italy And therefore it had the Name of the Council of the Pope and Italians The Pope confirms the Council by a Bull. The Court of Rome was very glad that the Council was ended they mattered not much what Decrees it had made provided it could make no more The Pope died not then of his sickness and had double Cause of rejoicing at the same time both that he had recovered his health and was also discharged of the burthen of the Council He was so overjoyed that without boggling he declared that he would confirm it and even add some new Reformations That Declaration allarmed the Court of Rome though the Reformations of the Council went not very far however no body was willing to part from any of their Rents and Profits and that nevertheless they must have done had the Decrees of the Council been religiously observed Most of the Cardinals were of opinion that the Pope should moderate the Articles which might incommode the Court of Rome before he confirmed them and alledged that that would serve for two ends First it would as we have said ease them of several incommodious Regulations and then it would confirm the Pope in his Superiority over the Council by reforming it But in fine after that a great many Congregations of Cardinals had been held upon that Subject the opinion of confirming it without any alteration prevailed Some perswaded the Pope to it by Arguments of Piety Honour and Sincerity to his word But the deciding Cast was put in by Hugo Boncompagno Bishop of Vieste in Apulia He alledged that the Confirmation of the Council was so far from diminishing the Authority of the Pope and the Grandure of the Court of Rome that it would much advance it provided a Barriere were set to put a stop to the Rashness of Doctours and hinder them from interpreting the Council according to their several Fancies and Interests It was his advice then that the Judges themselves should be prohibited from medling with the Interpretation of the Sense of the Council and that it should be ordained that in all doubtfull matters recourse should be had to the Holy See and its Interpretations submitted to And thus he made it appear that by so doeing the Court of Rome would always have the absolute Disposal of every thing that pinched them because in confirming the Council the Holy See reserved to it self the Power of interpreting it He said that there was no Law so plain and express nor so rigorous which might not be turned to a commodious and a favourable Sense by means of Exceptions and Qualifications If there be any thing then in the Council that pinches the Holy See and Court of Rome it will be a very easie matter to avoid it by expounding it as one pleases But the Council cannot be made use of said he to the Prejudice of the Court of Rome because all the force of its Execution will depend on the Holy See to which recourse must be had for Interpretation This Overture was worth a Cardinals Cap to the Bishop and it appeared so convenient and good that all agreed to it Thus the matter was resolved upon and the Pope on the six and twentieth of December gave the Bull of Confirmation wherein he forbids under pain of Excommunication the publishing of any Commentaries or Observations upon the Council ordaining in all doubtfull Cases Recourse to be had to the Holy See Within some Months after the Pope made a Promotion of Nineteen Cardinals to reward those who had faithfully served him in the Council and neither Marco Antonio Colonna Archbishop of Taranto nor the Bishop of Vieste were forgotten FINIS ERRATA In the Historical Reflexions Page 20. line 5. reade if according p. 37. l. 26. for of r. from p. 60. l. 20. r. exalting p. 102. l. 6. r. sufficiently p. 113. l. 9. for prompted r. permitted In the History Page 1. l. 1. for fifteenth r. sixteenth p. 60. l. 28. for Madoncio r. Madruccio p. 148. l. 3. r. actu p. 193. l. 3. for had bred r. and bred p. 200. l. 16. betwixt the words sort and made add who p. 245. in the Marginal Note for 19. Session r. 16. p. 251. l. 7. for Dominions r. Dominion p. 275. l. 23. dele it p. 457. l. 8. for Revenue r. Reverence p. 575. l. 3. for means r. mean A TABLE of the most remarkable matters contained in this History A. ADRIAN succeeds to Leo. Page 11 Desires to reform the Church ibid. But cannot succeed in that design of Reformation Page 13 Sends a Letter into Germany confessing that the Church and Court of Rome are corrupted Page 14 He dies Page 16 Altemps Cardinal Nephew of Pope Pius IV. a zealous Protectour of the rights and pretensions of the See of Rome Page 305 Ambassadours Danes Ambassadour of France comes to the Council Page 106 The Emperour's Ambassadour present to the Council five demands in Writing Page 318. The French Ambassadours are received in Council make Speeches and receive no Answer Page 339 They receive new Instructions from France Page 398 Protest against the Decree of the Reformation of Princes and have Orders to withdraw Page 556 They goe to Venice Page 564 Ambrosio Catarino maintains the Opinion of St. Austin and of the Protestants about Works that precede Grace Page 118 And about the certainty that one may have of being in the state of Grace Page 123 His strange Opinion about Predestination Page 132 What his judgment is of the Priests intention in administring Sacraments Page 151 Amiot Bishop of Auxerre protests in Council in name of his Master Henry II. of France Page 198 Arembold of a Genoese Merchant being made a Bishop 〈◊〉 chosen for the distribution of Indulgences in Germany p. 3 He gives that charge to the Jacobins which offends the
Canonical Books p. 83 Free Ordinations p. 330 The Sacrament of Orders handled and reduced to eight Articles p. 400 P. PAcieco a Spanish Cardinal with all the Imperialists oppose the Legates in the treating of the matter of Original Sin p. 95 Paul III. succeeds to Clement VII p. 41 Having made some ineffectual Propositions of a Reformation he resolves upon a Council to be held at Mantua p. 42 His fruitless attempts for the Reformation of the Court of Rome p. 46 He thunders a Bull of Excommunication against Henry VIII King of England p. 47 Declares that he will call the Council at Trent but is retarded by the War betwixt the Emperour and King of France p. 52 Appoints Legates to preside in the Council and sends them to Trent p. 57 He will not have the Bishops appear in Council by Proxy p. 64 Seeks an opportunity of breaking up the Council p. 122 Fearing the Spaniards he resolves to remove the Council to Bologna p. 161 His Death and Successour p. 182 Paul IV. of the Family of the Caraffa's succeeds to Marcello II. p. 258 He is insolent and proud to the highest Degree p. 259 Erects Ireland into a Kingdom by a fetch of State Policy ibid. He is offended at the Diet of Ausburg p. 260 Listens to the perswasion of using Carnal Arms for supporting his Authority p. 262 Creates seven Cardinals notwithstanding the opposition of the Imperialists and the sacred College p. 264 He proposes a Reformations of the Church but it has no Success p. 265 He falls into a rage upon occasion of some Demands made to him by the Ambassadour of Poland p. 266 Sends Cardinal Caraffa his Nephew Legate into France p. 267 He breaks with the Emperour and undertakes a War which proved fatal to him p. 268 Being overcome he makes Peace like a Conguerour p. 271 He revenges himself on his Nephews for the bad success of his Enterprises p. 272 Will not acknowledge Ferdinand for Emperour p. 274 His death attended with ignominious marks of the hatred that the People bore towards him p. 279 Paul Gregoriani Bishop of Zagabria in Sclavonia sent to the Council with Frederick Nausens Bishop of Vienna by the King of the Romans p. 198 Peace betwixt the Emperour and King of France revives the Proposals of a Council p. 56 A Peace concluded betwixt the Emperour and King of France is broken off by Pope Paul IV. p. 267 Penance and Extreme Vnction handled in the fourteenth Session p. 218 Opposition of the Divines to the Decrees concerning Penance of which the President takes no notice p. 221 Philip II. King of Spain labours to settle the Inquisition in the Low Countries p. 277 Erects three Archbishopricks and several Bishopricks ibid. Vses great Cruelties in Spain against Protestants p. 280 Pius IV. called before Giovanni Angelo de Medicis mounts the Pontifical Chair p. 281 Reconciles himself to the Emperour to whom he acknowledges his Predecessour had done wrong ibid. Declares his design of restoring the Council p. 282 Solicites the King of France to take Geneva p. 284 Being afraid of a National Council he resolves to call a General Council p. 285 Forms the Bull of Convocation and again chuses the City of Trent p. 290 He sends Nuncio's to the Protestants to invite them to the Council p. 293 Names the Legates who were to preside in the Council and sends them away p. 295 After many delays at length will have the Council opened p. 305 Is allarmed at the Attempts of the Spaniards and is distrustfull of his Legates p. 334 Is amazed at the Demands of the Germans proposed to the Council about Reformation and thinks of providing for his own Security p. 343 Receives an abstract of the Demands of the Germans and French concerning Reformation p. 411 Is allarmed that the King of France sends the Cardinal of Lorrain to the Council p. 419 Proceeds against five French Bishops suspected of Heresie and against the Queen of Navarre The King of France opposes it p. 566 The Confirmation of the Council is demanded of him All are not agreed in that p. 575 He falls dangerously sick which hastens the Conclusion of the Council p. 580 The Council demands his Confirmation about which some Prelates disagree ibid. He confirms it by a Bull. p. 588 Some months after makes a Promotion of nineteen Cardinals to reward those who had best served him in the Council p. 590 Pool Cardinal who had been Legate in the first Convocation of the Council is sent Legate into England p. 252 He gives the Parliament of England Absolution p. 255 Is made Archbishop of Canterbury p. 264 He dies the same day that Queen Mary died p. 275 The Pope will not permit the Bishops to appear in Council by Proxy p. 64 Popes have an aversion to any thing that bears the Name of Conference p. 257 Have a Custom of changing their Names upon their Promotion to the Papacy ibid. The Abbot Preval speaks freely as to the Popes Authority What happened to him thereupon p. 383 The Pope's Supremacy over other Bishops disputed p. 423 The Minute of a Decree made at Rome concerning the Authority of the Pope and Bishops rejected by the Bishops in Council p. 457 and 465 The Emperour consults about important points relating to the Pope and the Liberty of the Council p. 481 The Pope absolutely rejects the Propositions of the French p. 495 He obliges the Tribunal of the Inquisition to proceed against several French Bishops accused of Heresie p. 497 Vid. Adrian VI. Clement VII Julius III. Leo X. Marcel II. Paul IV. and Pius IV. Predestination is handled and the Council finding nothing to be censured among the Lutherans condemns seven Propositions of the Zuinglians p. 130 A strange opinion of Catarino about Predestination p. 132 Precedence causes a Contest betwixt the French and Spaniards p. 509 c. and 516 c. Priests whether inferiour to Bishops v Episcopacy Single Life of Priests p. 486 Protestants whence they have that Name p. 30 They present their Confession at Ausburg and depart without any accommodation though attempted p. 32 Despise Decrees of the Imperial Chamber of Spire p. 34 Assemble at Smalcalde ibid. Nine Articles of Doctrine touching Original sin which were imputed to them are debated in the IV. Session p. 98 They have a War with the Emperour and Pope p. 107 Their Army commanded by the Electour of Saxony and Landgrave of Hesse p. 110 They revenge themselves on the Pope p. 111 Promise to submit to the Council at the Diet of Ausburg p. 171 Prepare to send their Deputies to the Council p. 196 Find a Contradiction in what was concluded about the Eucharist p. 217 The Council will not hear them though the Emperour had past his word for it p. 230 Cruelties used against them in England by Queen Mary in France by Henry II. and in Germany by Ferdinand King of the Romans p. 256 and 257 They held their first National Synod in France p.
278 Edict of July against them p. 298 Protestations of Amiot Bishop of Auxerre and Ambassadour of France made in Council in Name of his Master p. 198 Of the Spanish Ambassadour at Rome made to the Pope against the Precedence of the King of France p. 514 Of the French against the Decree of the Reformation of Princes p. 561 R. RAtisbonne a Diet held there where sentence past against Luther p. 18 Reformation advances in Germany p. 80 The Spanish Bishops vigorously bestir themselves for a Reformation but without Success p. 159 Reformation in Religion had probably advanced in Spain had it not been for the care of Philip II. p. 281 The Execution of the Edict of Reformation in Germany causes great Troubles p. 180 Twelve Articles tending to Reformation proposed by the Legates p. 323 Nine Chapters of Reformation p. 361 The Germans and Spaniards unite to set forward the work of Reformation p. 403 The Presidents make a Collection of the Demands of the French and Germans for a Reformation and send it to the Pope p. 411 13 Articles of Reformation presented to the Council by Zavel a Spanish Doctour against those of his own Nation p. 429 Reasons shewing it impossible that the Demands which all made for a Reformation should have any Success p. 454 18 Articles of Reformation past in the twenty third Session p. 539 The Decree of Reformation of Monks is reviewed p. 577 Regulations made in several Points which are not liked at Rome p. 177 Residence of Bishops proposed as a Point of Reformation p. 113 A Dispute of the Divines upon that Subject p. 137 In the third Convocation the Council enters upon the Point of Residence p. 324 It is debated with extraordinary heat whether it be of Divine Right ibid. The Legates will not form the Decree of Residence according to the Plurality of Votes and the Spaniards make a great bustle about it p. 327 The Controversie about Residence is revived p. 374 It is proposed again p. 433 The Decree of Residence is framed wherein it is not decided whether it be of Divine Right or not p. 454 The last Debates about the Decrees of Residence and the Institution of Bishops and the last Point is wholly laid aside p. 534 S. SAcraments in general Baptism and Extreme vnction in particular are chosen for Points to be examined in the seventh Session p. 144 A Dispute about the difference of the Sacraments of the Old and New Testament p. 149 Sacrifice of the Mass p. 366 Proofs to confirm it from Scripture are overthrown by Ataide a Portuguese Divine p. 371 c. Great Debates about the Question whether Jesus Christ offered himself when he instituted the Eucharist p. 369 Salmeron the Jesuit speaks with great ostentation p. 474 Safe-conduct granted the Protestants but in such terms as did not satisfie them p. 218 A New Safe-conduct ampler than the former is granted them p. 239 The Duke of Savoy gives Peace to Piedmont p. 296 Saxony v. Elector Frederick The Ambassadours of the Electour come to the Council and speak higher than the rest p. 233 They have Audience of the Council p. 238 The Scriptures chosen for the first matter to be examined in the Council of Trent p. 81 Four Opinions about the Canonical Books p. 83 Sebastiano Pighino Auditour of the Rota makes a considerable Overture for contenting the Bishops without diminishing the Authority of the Holy See p. 94 Seripando Cardinal dies at Trent in the last Convocation of the Council p. 492 Sessions of the Council The First 69. Second 75. Third 80. Fourth 89 Fifth 104. Sixth 141. Seventh 163. Eighth 166. Ninth 168. Tenth 170. Eleventh 192. Twelth 196. Thirteenth 214. Fourteenth 229. Fifteenth 239. Sixteenth 245. Seventeenth 311. Eighteenth 320. Nineteenth 337. Twentieth 341. One and Twentieth 361. Two and Twentieth 391. Twenty third 539. Twenty fourth 569. Twenty fifth and last p. 582 Simoneta Cardinal an able man in the Canon Law p. 305 His way to break up Congregations when matters went contrary to his Intentions p. 353 Original Sin is handled in Council p. 95 Nine Articles concerning that Point imputed to Protestants are censured p. 98 The Prelates understand not the Point and know not how to make Decrees about it p. 101 Soto v. Dominico à Soto Spaniards ignorant in matter of Antiquity p. 356 Spire the Place of the Diet wherein Attempts were used to divide the Protestants p. 29 Sultacan a Patriarch of the East comes to Rome to render Homage to the Pope p. 251 Suspicions entertained by the Court of Rome against the French p. 304 The Switzers receive a Nuncio from the Pope to invite them to the Council p. 294 Synod The first National Synod held by the Protestants in France p. 278 T. THeodore Beza v. Beza The Thomists are divided about the Point of Grace p. 128 Traditions no Point of Faith according to the Opinion of Anthony Marinier p. 83 Trent named by Pope Paul III. for holding of a Council p. 52 He sends Legates thither p. 57 They arrive and stay there a long while alone p. 59 Trivulcio Bishop of Thoulon sent Nuncio into France p. 186 Troubles that put a stop to all thoughts of holding a Council p. 20 They are over and Negotiations concerning matters of Religion begin again ibid. V. VErgerio the Pope's Nuncio has several Conferences with Luther and can neither prevail with him by reasons nor by promises p. 43 Being drawn over by the Lutherans at length declares himself and turns Minister amongst the Grisons p. 84 He writes against the Decrees of the Council p. 541 A famous Victory obtained by the Emperour over the Protestants p. 169 W. WAR for Religion in Suisserland wherein Zuinglius is killed p. 35 War declared by the Pope and Emperour against the Protestants the Emperour gets great advantages and deceives the Pope p. 107 The Duke of Wirtemberg sends Ambassadours to the Council who cannot have Audience p. 228 Works that precede Grace examined and Catarino's opinion concerning them p. 118 Wormes a City upon the Rhine chosen for the Place of a Conference betwixt twelve Doctours of the Roman Church and as many Protestants p. 273 Z. ZAvel a Spanish Doctour presents 13 Articles of Reformation to the Council against those of his own Nation p. 429 Zuinglius stands up against the Collectours of Zurich in Suisserland p. 7 His Reformation gains ground in Suisserland Berne and Basil embrace it p. 28 He is killed in the War for Religion in Suisserland p. 35 Seven Propositions of the Zuinglians concerning Predestination condemned p. 130 Zurich receives the Reformation of Zuinglius p. 10 FINIS
setled by Lay-men with intention that they should be likewise governed by Laicks They said that that was the way whereby the Clergy had appropriated to themselves the Revenues of Colleges Hospitals and Pious Foundations when under pretext of being the Administratours they made themselves absolute Masters of them Now-a-days cried they instead of restoring to Colleges and Hospitals what the Church-men have taken from them they put into their hands what remains and what they have not as yet invaded The Parliament of Paris especially according to its Maximes lookt upon that as an encroachment upon the Civil Jurisdiction because the Clergy medled with and disposed of the Goods of Seculars In the same manner they censured the Decree that gives Bishops power over last Wills and Testaments for that Decree ordains that Alterations made in Wills by permission obtained from Rome is not to take effect untill the Bishop have taken Cognisance whether or not the permission has been obtained by fraud and upon false information They thought Wills to be matters of mere Civil right which the Clergy ought not to meddle in The Pope on the other hand was extremely well satisfied with the Actions of this Session and indeed he could not otherwise chuse since nothing had been done there but according to his instructions and the Orders that the Presidents had punctually observed in spight of the opposition of all those who favoured not his interests He took the surest measures he could for the future that matters might run in the same Chanel He feared the Cardinal of Lorrain knowing him to be a man of vast designs and dreaded the coming of the French who hold Maximes so contrary to his Authority That Assembly of Ambassadours who met at the House of the Imperialists gave him a great deal of Jealousie but he resolved to send a fresh supply of Italian Bishops to overpower the Tramontani by number as well as by caballing And in the mean time sent very civil Complements to the Secretary of the Marquess of Pescara to the Portugal Suisse Venetian and Florentine Ambassadours for the Zeal and Fidelity they had expressed to the Holy See which were not lost for by these Civilities he engaged them more and more to his Interests THE HISTORY OF THE Council of TRENT BOOK VII PIUS IV. THE French Ambassadours were no sooner come from the Session than they received a Dispatch from their Master which ordered them to make fresh instances for a delay New Instructions come to the French Ambassadours It was now too late and therefore according to the Instructions they had received they demanded that at least matters of Doctrine might be laid aside and onely Reformation handled that the French might have time to come before all the Points of Doctrine should be determined seeing there remained no more to be discussed but the Points of the Sacraments of Orders and Marriage which would soon be examined and then the French would onely come to the Close of the Council whereas the head of Reformation being very large considerable progress might be made therein whilst the French were on their way and enough to doe after they were come The Legates desired their Demands in Writing and the Ambassadours presented them Memorials wherein the King in ample manner approved all that had been done as to the Decisions about matters of Faith but withall declared that he could not be satisfied that they proceeded with so much earnestness and precipitation in matters of less importance and did not mind that which was most necessary to wit the Reformation of Manners and Discipline which was the onely means of remedying the present Troubles of the Church that these Decisions of Points of Faith were on the one hand more than needless in respect of Catholicks because they were matters not controverted amongst them and on the other hand they did onely more and more alienate the minds of those who were separated from the Church whom to reduce by such means was a ridiculous fancy After all because the manner of proceeding in the Council was no way consistent with the Liberty of the Ancient Councils where all had freedom to propose what they thought good for the Benefit of the Church the King demanded that the same Liberty might be restored to the Council and particularly to Kings and Princes who sent their Ambassadours thither and that so the Clause Proponentibus Legatis should be struck out The Emperour's Ambassadours presented Memorials which demanded the same things to wit that they should set about the work of Reformation with diligence and that every Nation might have the Liberty to commissionate two Deputies to propose to the Council what might be thought necessary for the good of the Church The Legates made the same answer to both that they could not break off the Method that had been all along observed in handling matters of Faith and Doctrine at the same time that they treated of Reformation and that the manner of proposing to the Legates what any one desired might be handled had been found so good that it was not fit it should be altered The French expressed great dissatisfaction at this Answer They spoke openly of these new recruits of Italians which were every foot sent to the Council to thwart the designs of the Cardinal of Lorrain However the Pope did not lay so much stress on his Italians but that he used all the other means he could to divert the Cardinal of Lorrain from coming to the Council He ordered his Legate in France the Cardinal of Ferrara to speak to him and gave him intimation by other hands that his coming to the Council would procure him no great Reputation because he would find all things there done to his hand The matter of the Sacrament of Orders is handled All the Arts that the French and Germans could use to thwart and prolong the Council were no hinderance to the Legates who spurred them on to the handling of the Point of the Sacrament of Orders which they had reduced into Eight Articles For examination of that matter they appointed four distinct Congregations of Divines which were as so many Chambers giving each Chamber Commission to examine two of them and these are the Articles that were proposed 1. Whether Orders be a true Sacrament instituted by Jesus Christ 2. Whether Orders be one or more Sacraments 3. Whether the Hierarchy consisting of Bishops Archbishops c. be lawfull whether all Christians be Mass-Priests whether the Gall of the People and Magistrate be necessary for the Confirmation of the Ministry and whether a Priest may become a Lay-man 4. Whether under the New Testament there be a visible Sacrifice and a Power to offer up the Body of our Lord. 5. Whether Ordination confers the Holy Ghost and imprints a Character 6. Whether Unction and the other Ceremonies be essential to the Sacrament of Orders 7. Whether the Priest be properly inferiour to the Bishop whether the Power
that advantage with them He thought it also expedient for preventing the designs of the Cardinal of Lorrain to renew the Publication of the Canons which had been heretofore made against the Abuses committed in the Election of Popes He therefore published a Bull to that effect bearing date the Ninth of October 1562. He received also vexatious news from the Court of Spain though that was the Court in Christendom most at his Devotion for he was informed that the King of Spain held Congregations about matters of Reformation that he prepared new Proposals and designed the Count de Luna in quality of a new Ambassadour to carry his Propositions to the Council The Court of Rome in the mean time being very well satisfied with the Marquess of Pescara because he was wholly devoted to the Pope was not willing that he should either have a Collegue or a Successour About the same time the Abbot of Mante was sent to Rome to acquaint the Pope in name of the King of France that the Cardinal of Lorrain with a good number of French Bishops were setting out on their Journey to the Council The news did not at all please him because he always dreaded the Union of the French and Spaniards in the matter of Reformation However he must dissemble and pay Complements with Complements The Pope therefore profest that he expected great assistance from the Cardinal who was the second Ecclesiastick Person in Europe and little inferiour to the Pope but for all that he said he was obliged to hasten the Conclusion of the Council because it was so chargeable to him that if it continued he could not be able to furnish the King the money that he had promised him for the War But to give a hint that he was resolved to stand his ground against the French and to maintain himself in his Sovereign Authority over the Council he concluded with this that for his own part he had no other Authority in the Council but to approve or reject its Decrees seeing without his Confirmation they could have no force By the same Envoy the Pope received very Civil Letters from the Cardinal of Lorrain he endeavoured to get out of the Abbot of Mante what it was that the Cardinal had to propose to the Council but the Abbot answered him onely in general terms The Pope had established a Congregation of Cardinals for consulting about and examining the business of the last intelligence that he had received from Trent and it was the opinion of this Congregation that the Point of Residence ought to be concluded before the arrival of the French that the Legates should use their utmost endeavours to get the matter referred to the Pope that if there was no way to take the Prelates off from handling that Point the next thing to be done was to decree the necessity of Residence under Penalties and Prospect of reward but that they must have a special care not to declare it of Divine Right The same course was agreed upon as to the Divine Right of Episcopacy that the Council must by no means be suffered to declare that the Authority of Bishops is derived immediately from Jesus Christ As to what concerned the Reformation of the Court of Rome that his Holiness must write to the Legates not to offer to meddle with it and that for other parts of Reformation he should leave it wholly to the Council that the Legates should pick out of the Proposals of the Imperialists and the Reformations which the French had made at the Conference of Poissy what they judged most convenient and let them pass by Vote in the Council By this means they thought the Pope might perform the promise which he had often made to the King of France to cause the Decrees of the Assembly of Poissy to be confirmed by the Council But this Congregation of Cardinals found it a harder matter what to determine as to the Conclusion of the Council The Court of Rome passionately desired it but they could not see how it could be so soon accomplished They foresaw that the Cardinal of Lorrain who was shortly to be there would certainly find ways to appose it by proposing a great many new matters to be discussed For besides the design he had of reforming the Abuses committed in the Election of Popes he had many things to offer about the manner of Collation of Benefices the Plurality of Livings the Communion in both kinds the Marriage of Priests and the Divine Service in the vulgar Tongue Some were of opinion that the Cardinal of Ferrara Legate in France should be recalled and the Legation given to the Cardinal of Lorrain hoping that that might work two good effects first that this Commission would retain him in France and then that the honour of it would satisfie that Ambitious Soul who was accused of having made parties to get himself chosen Patriarch in France Others were for sending a fresh supply of Cardinals to Trent to counterbalance the interest and credit of Lorrain So all things well considered the Court of Rome thought it not fit to give the Legates precise Orders as to the Conclusion of the Council but onely to exhort them to carry on things with all possible diligence not to suffer the matter of the Election of the Pope to be touched but rather to break up the Council and to return to Rome Whilst these resolutions were taking at Rome the Council named Prelates for framing the Chapters of Doctrine and the Anathema's concerning the Sacrament of Orders the chief of the Deputies were the Archbishop of Zara and the Bishop of Conimbre both Spaniards They made a Minute of the Decree wherein they inserted that the Bishop is Superiour to the Priest by Divine Right but the Legates opposed that and would not present the Decree in that form under pretext that no Decision ought to be inserted but such as regarded the Articles that had been proposed and that this was none of those eight which had been submitted to the Examination of the Divines So that they not onely struck out that Clause but resolved amongst themselves that if any Spanish Prelate in the Congregations demanded that Article to be inferted the Cardinal of Warmia should interrupt him and assert that that was not a question to be handled in the Council because there was no Controversie about it betwixt the Catholicks and Hereticks The first Congregation of Prelates after that of the Divines was hold the thirteenth of October there the Canons concerning Doctrine were read as they had been amended by the Legates The Patriarchs and Bishops who spoke first approved the Decrees The Discourse of the Archbishop of Granada to prove Episcopacy to be of Divine Right seconded by the Spaniards and many others and oppugned by the Pope's Party but when it came to the Archbishop of Granada's turn to speak he stuck at the seventh Article wherein the Superiority of the Bishop over the Priest was