were taken away in the Assembly of the States of France lately held at Orleans should for the future be paid to the Pope he hoping by this means to have him more ready to grant his desires tending to the peace of the Church which the Pope's Ambassador largely promised On the 14th of February a Decree was made concerning the Residence of Bishops and Pastors with great difficulty and opposition which all tended to the obtaining the Judgment of the Council That the Pope has full power to feed and govern the Vniversal Church The French who hold that a Council is above the Pope were contented to conceal their opinion in this point for fear the Pope should take that opportunity to dissolve the Council without any good done by it But then they were resolved to defend their said opinion if it were opposed whatever happened and upon no terms to lose or yield it King Philip also laboured very hard that the power of the Bishops should be raised and that of the Pope and the Conclave brought lower which they of the Pope's party interpreted as a design to diminish the Spanish Liberties because the Bishops and Chapters of Spain would be more subjected to the will of the King than the Court of Rome would By which means they at last prevailed so far upon that jealous Nation that the power of the Bishops in the end was very much abated and that of the Pope was enlarged and exalted and the Bishops were contented to act as the Popes Delegates and by his Authority and in his Name to exercise their Functions About this time it was that the Cardinal of Lorrain went again to the Emperor to Inspruck which caused a great fear in the Pope's party in the Council for that they suspected he went to adjust with that Prince the ways to bring the Papal power under In the beginning of March the Emperor wrote a Letter to the Pope after he had consulted the Bishops of Quinque Ecclesiae The Emperor dislikes the Proceedings of the Council who went to Inspruck to him wherein he signified to his Holiness That after his Son in the last Diet was Elected King of the Romans and Crown'd and that he had visited his Cities upon the Rhine he was come to Inspruck to promote the Affairs of the Church in the Council as became the Supreme Advocate and Procurator of the Church but that to his great grief he understood that things were so far from going as was to be desired and as the publick State of Affairs required that it was to be feared if speedy remedies were not applied the Council would be ended in such manner as it would give offence to all Christendom and become ridiculous to all those who had made a defection from the Church of Rome and fix them more obstinately in those opinions they had embraced tho' very differing from the Orthodox Faith. That there had not been any Session celebrated for a long time and that it was commonly given out the Fathers and Doctors in the Council had contentions and differences amongst themselves which were unworthy of that moderation which they ought to have and tended very much to the detriment of that concord which was hoped for from them and yet these contests frequently broke out to the great satisfaction of their Adversaries That there was a report That the Pope intended to dissolve or suspend the Council and he advised him not to do it because nothing could be more shameful or damageable and which besides would certainly cause a great defection from the Church and bring a great hatred on the Papacy and from thence cause an equal contempt of all the Clergy That this dissolution or suspension would certainly procure the Assembling of National Councils which the Popes have ever opposed as contrary to the Unity of the Church and which those Princes which were well affected to the See of Rome had hitherto hindred in their Dominions but after this they could find no pretence to deny or delay them any longer Therefore he desired the Pope to lay aside that thought and to apply himself seriously to the celebration of the Council allowing the Ancient Liberty to all in its full extent that all things might be dispatched rightly lawfully and in order and thereby the mouths of their Adversaries who sought an opportunity to calumniate might be stopp'd That it would become his Holiness to attend the Council in person if his health would permit it and he earnestly desired he would That he the Emperor if the Pope thought fit would also come thither that they both by their presence might promote the Publick business That the Pope might compose and decide many difficulties which had arisen from his absence The Emperor sent a Copy of this Letter to the Cardinal of Lorrain also and desired he would promote those things which tended to the Glory of God and the good of Christendom The 21th of May the Count de Luna Ambassador for the King of Spain The Ambassador of Spain received in the Council was received in a Congregation and there was a Speech made in the behalf of that Prince in the Assembly by one Pedro Fontidonio de Segovia a Divine who extoll'd above measure the care of his Master in the Affairs of Religion and especially his severity shewn towards Sectaries he said this Prince Married Mary of England only to the end he might restore the Catholick Religion in that flourishing Kingdom He Reproached the French and German Nations for thinking that much was to be indulged to the Hereticks that being won by these Concessions they might be reduced into the bosom of the Church At last he said That they ought so to consult the Salvation of Hereticks and the Majesty of the Church that all things might be done for the promoting the latter rather than for gratifying the former And he exhorted all Princes to imitate the severity of his Master in bridling Hereticks that the Church might be delivered from so many Miseries and the Fathers of Trent from the care of celebrating Councils A little before this time the news of the Peace made with the Protestants of France came first in Generals and soon after the particular Articles The Fathers at Trent much dissatisfied with the Peace made in France This was blamed by the greater part of the Fathers in that Council who said it was to prefer the things of the world before the things of God yea to ruin both the one and the other For the Foundation of a State which is Religion being removed it is necessary that the Temporal should come to desolation whereof the Edict made before was an example which did not cause Peace and Tranquility as was hoped but a greater War than before The truth is these men would have all the world fight out their quarrel to the last man and then if their Catholicks perish they are as unconcerned as for the Hereticks and accordingly ever
regain the Episcopal Authority usurped for the most part by the Pope and it hath made them lose it altogether bringing them into greater servitude On the contrary it was feared and avoided by the See of Rome as a potent means to moderate their exorbitant power which from small beginnings mounted by divers degrees to an unlimited excess and it hath so established and confirm'd the same over that part which remains subject unto it that it was never so great nor so soundly rooted Thus far Polano The Emperor who was come as far as Inspruck to promote the Council The Emperor goes from Inspruck before the Council was ended finding that his being there did not only no good as he thought it would but rather the contrary the Popish Prelates suspecting his designs were against the Authority of the Court of Rome and were accordingly afraid of every thing so that the Difficulties and Suspicions did turn into bitterness and encrease in number Therefore having other business which would turn more to his Advantage he left that place and returned home but he wrote first to the Cardinal of Lorrain His sense of the Council That the Impossibility of doing good in the Council being palpable he thought it was the duty of a Christian and wise Prince rather to support the present evil with patience than by labouring to cure it to cause a greater By which he seems to mean that any enormities were to be endured from the See of Rome rather than to forsake it and so correct them The Catholick Princes being blinded and misled by their Education The Reasons why the Council had no better success and not understanding that the right of calling Councils was in themselves as it was of old in the Christian Emperors who call'd all the Ancient General Councils thought that they should by force of Arguments and modesty extort some Reformation from them but when they saw they could not agree amongst themselves what was absolutely necessary France and the Empire asking more than King Philip was willing to admit and the Pope being as stoutly resolved whatever happened not to suffer his Power Grandeur or Wealth to be abated Lastly when they all saw that the Protestants would never submit to any Council that was call'd and managed by the Pope or his Legates they all became weary of it and desired it might be ended as soon as was possible and any way to deliver themselves from the charge trouble and vexation of this unprofitable or rather mischievous Conventicle But then as to the Roman Catholicks of this Age who would fain perswade us that nothing was amiss that there was no need of any Reformation that all the differences arose from misrepresenting the Doctrines and Practices of the Church of Rome and that this Council was one of the most holy Assemblies of Learned Impartial and Religious men that ever sate These I say are a a pleasant parcel of Gentlemen and presume that we are as ignorant of and unconcern'd for the Histories of former times as those who profess to be led by an implicite faith in all they have the confidence to teach them which is a great mistake From this day forward the Protestants renounced all commerce and friendship with the Church of Rome and she has by this Council put her self out of the power of a Reconciliation so that now the Quarrel is put intirely into the hands of God and all humane wisdom is baffl'd for ever Time the Sword or the Providence of God may perhaps at last put an end to it but no Counsel or Device of men ever shall I should here have ended this Continuation The State of Religion in Piedmont but that I have been forced to leave some things unspoken to continue the thread of my Relation which I will now go back to and gather up that the Story may be the more compleat and perfect Whilest the Council was sitting the Cardinal of Ferrara travelling through Piedmont and Savoy found the Affairs of that Country as to Religion not much other than in France In divers places of the Marquisate of Saluzza all the Priests were hunted away and in Cherie and Cuni places belonging to the Duke of Savoy and in many other Cities near unto them many were of the same opinions with the Hugonots and many even in the Duke's Court also did profess them and more were discovered every day And however the Duke had set forth a Proclamation a Month before That all that followed those opinions should within eight days depart out of the Country and some did thereupon depart yet afterwards he commanded there should be no proceedings against them and pardon'd many who were condemn'd by the Inquisition and made their Process void as also those who were in the Inquisition and not condemn'd and gave leave to some that were departed to return About the same time there hapned a great tumult and popular commotion in Bavaria because the Cup was not allowed nor Married men suffered to preach A Tumult in Bavaria for the Cup. which disorder proceeded so far that to appease them the Duke promised in the Diet That if in all the Month of June a resolution were not made in the Council of Trent or by the Pope to give them satisfaction he himself would grant both the one and the other The news of this coming to the Council the Legates dispatched Nicholas Ormonet to perswade the Duke not to make that Grant. To whom the Duke replied That to shew his obedience to the Apostolick See he would use all means to entertain his people as long as he could expecting and hoping that the Council would resolve that which they saw to be necessary notwithstanding the Resolution made before by it Reasons against granting Marriage to the Clergy But the Council had good reason to deny this last because say they it is plain that Married Priests will turn their affections and love to their Wives and Children and by consequence to their House and Country and so that strict dependance which the Clergy hath on the Apostolick See would cease and to grant Marriage to Priests would destroy the Ecclesiastical Hierarchy and make the Pope to be a Bishop of Rome only And in another place they tell us that having House Wife and Children they the Clergy will not depend on the Pope but on their Prince and their love to their Children will make them yield to any prejudice of the Church and they will seek to make the Benefices Hereditary and so in a short space the Authority of the Apostolick See will be coâ—fined within Rome Before Single Life was instituted the See of Rome received no profit from other Nations and Cities and by it is made Patron of many Benefices And the Cup to the Laity of which the Marriage of the Clergy would quickly deprive her And that all would become Hereticks if the Cup were granted to the Laity and so a
the interim were not idle but the Regent reproach'd the Lords of the Congregation so the Protestants were call'd in a Proclamation that they had brought Englishmen frequently into their Houses that came with Messages unto them and returned Answers back to England though they made no Answer to them because they did not think it convenient either to deny it or openly to Avow it for the present and the King of France and Queen Mary wrote each a distinct Letter to the Lord James Stewart threatning him with Punishment as his wickedness deserved and by Word of Mouth let him know That he would rather lose the Crown of France than not be revenged on the Seditious Tumults raised in Scotland And one Octavian a French Captain landed soon after with a French Regiment great Sums of Mony and Ammunition of War and was forthwith sent back by the Regent for one hundred Horse and four Ships of War and in the mean time she fell to Fortifie Isith or Leith expelling all the former Inhabitants and making it a Colony of French only it being a Sea-Port-Town fit to receive Supplies and a Place that might serve the French Companies for a Refuge if they should happen to be reduced to any great streight This was done about September as appears by a Letter of the Nobility about it in that Month. The Regent's Reputation was by this time at so low an Ebb that nothing she said was believed and all she offered suspected About this time Four Divines and two thousand Men sent from France to Convert the Scots M. Pelleuce Bishop of Amiens afterwards Bishop of Sens arrived at Leith attended by three Doctors of the Sorbon Furmer Brochet and Feretier he pretended he came to dispute with the Preachers of the Congregation and he sent to some of the Nobility residing then at Edinburg desiring a Hearing But for fear their Arguments might not prove so effectual as was expected Le Broche a French Knight came over at the same time with two thousand Foot to reinforce their Sylogisms The Congregation-Nobility reject however their armed Logick and would have nothing to do with them The Eighteenth of October the Lords assembled their Forces at Edinburg The Lords of Scotland Arm against them and depose the Regent and the Regent with the Bishop of St. Andrews Glasgow Dunkeld and the Lord Seaton the same day entred Leith And some Messages having pass'd betwixt them they proceeded so far at last as to suspend the Queen-Regent's Commission discharging her of all Authority till the next Parliament prohibiting the Officers to serve under her or by colour of her Authority to exercise their Offices from thenceforth This Decree bears Date the Twenty third of October The Twenty fifth they summoned the Town of Leith She prevails over them commanding all Scots and Frenchmen to depart within twelve hours But failing in this Attempt the Regent took Edinburg and restored the Mass there and all those of the contrary Religion were forced to flee into England or where they could find shelter Hereupon the Queen sent for more Forces and the Marquis d'Elboeuf was sent from Diep with eighteen Ensigns of Horse which were dispersed at Sea by Tempest so that he arrived not at Leith before the Spring of the next year The Lords retired first to Sterling and then to Glasgow where they reform'd all things after their usual manner and in the mean time they sent William Maitland and Robert Melvil to Queen Elizabeth where at last they obtained what they designed in the manner I have express'd The French hearing this resolved to suppress the Lords before the English should come up to their Assistance and thereupon began to waste and spoil the Country to Sterling but though they met with little Resistance yet they could not attain their End. In February an Agreement was made between the English and the Scotch Commissioners year 1560 sent by the Lords for the Preservation of the Scotch Liberties and Freedoms from a French Conquest and for the Expulsion of the French Forces out of Scotland The Scotch Lords go on with their Reformation the Articles of which were Sign'd the Twenty seventh of that Month. About this time the English Fleet under Captain Winter came up and took all the French Ships in the Fyrth of Edinburg which much amazed the French who were then marching for St. Andrews by the Sea-side whereupon they returned to Leith About the same time the Lords of the Congregation reformed Aberdene but the Earl of Huntley coming up in good time saved the Bishop's Palace which had else been reformed to the Ground The English Land-Forces to the number of two thousand Horse The English Forces enter Scotland and besiege Leith and six thousand Foot entred Scotland under the Command of the Lord Gray in the beginning of April The English at first beat the French into Leith and battered the Town very diligently but remitting in their Care and Industry the French made a Sally out of Leith and cut off a great number of the English which made them more vigilant The last of April a Fire happened in the Town which burnt the greatest part of it with much of the Soldiers Provisions The Seventh of May the Town was Storm'd but the Ladders proving too short an hundred and sixty of the English were slain and nothing was gain'd Soon after there came up two thousand English more In the mean time the French King sent to Queen Elizabeth The French proffer to restore Calais to the English that if she would withdraw her Army out of Scotland he would restore Calais to her To which she replied She did not value that Fisher-Town so much as to hazard for it the State of Britain Thereupon the French perceving no Peace could be had without the French were recall'd out of Scotland and disdaining to treat with the Scots who were their Subjects they began a Treaty with the Queen of England In the mean time Mary of Lorain Queen Regent of Scotland died in the Castle of Edinburg the Tenth of June partly of Sickness and partly of Displeasure Before her Death The Death and Character of Mary Queen-Regent of Scotland she sent for the Duke of Wastellerand the Earl of Argile Glencarne Marshall and the Lord James and bewailing the Calamities of Scotland prayed them to continue in Obedience to the Queen their Sovereign and to send both the French and English out of the Kingdom so asking their Pardon and granting them hers she took her leave with many Tears kissing the Nobility one by one and giving the rest her Hand to kiss She was a Wise Good Religious Princess full of Clemency and Charity and would doubtless have prevented the Calamities of Scotland which befel there in the end of her days if she had been left to her own Measures but being governed by the Orders of France she was forced to do and say what she did to her great
Peace which is disliked by Coligni THIS Year there began a sharp Persecution against all that were suspected to favour the Reformation in the Netherlands year 1561 and for the greater terror they burnt the Houses of all those they Convicted for holding private Meetings Perrenot Bishop of Arras A Persecution in the Low-Countries and Cardinal Granvel hoping by this means to prevent the spreading of a Religion in that Country which had made such progresses in Germany and France They that imbraced this Religion were no less scandalized by the multiplying the Bishopricks and thereupon drew up a Confession of their Faith to be exhibited to King Philip beseeching him in the end of it that he would put a stop to the bloody Executions which destroyed so many of his innocent People This Confession was the same in substance with that published by the French Protestants and amongst other things they took particular care to insert That the Civil Magistrate was the Ordinance of God and therefore was to be obeyed Their Tributes to be duly paid and all manner of Respect and Reverence to be shewed to them and that Prayers were to be made to God for their preservation In the month of February The French Affair the new King of France left Orleans and went to Fontainbleau where the Prince of Conde waited upon him and being introduced into the Privy Council asked the Chancellor if there were any Accusation depending against him and was told by him and the whole Council they were intirely satisfied of his innocence and leave was given him to demand an Acquital in the Parliament of Paris And a Decree was made to that purpose and Published by the Order of the Council March 13. after which he went to Paris to prosecute his Discharge before that Court. In the mean time Queen Catharine Queen Catharine favoureth the Protestants the Regent of France seemed very much to favour the Protestant Party and by her Arts and Dissimulation so far prevailed upon the spirit of the King of Navarre who was their Head that he told the Danish Ambassador he did not doubt but he should see the Reformed Religion settled in France within one year The Queen on the other side told Montmorency That she counived at them for the present that she might the more easily elude the designs of the King of Navarre by seeming to comply with him But then she said he and the other great Men of that Kingdom ought to oppose them and to complain that the Religion of their Ancestors was every where violated and despised She designed by this First To divide the great Men in the Point of Religion Secondly To weaken the Interest of the King of Navarre And thirdly To preserve the Romish Religion in France But Montmorency who was her Instrument designed only the last yet he was very active in it The Queen in the interim carried her dissimulation so far that she ordered Jean de Monluc Bishop of Valence who was a great favourer of the Reformation and no Enemy to the Protestants Doctrine to Preach frequently at Court and She and the King were sometimes present at his Sermons He would sometimes speak very freely against the Corruptions that were in the Doctrine and Discipline of the Church and obliquely tax the Papal Authority The favour the Queen shewed to this Bishop made Montmorency suspect that in her Heart she had a kindness for the Protestant Party and that underhand she and Navarre had one and the same design And thereupon he deserted her and joyned with the Guises his till then Mortal Enemies the Duchess de Valentois procuring the Reconciliation Magdalen of Savoy Wife to Montmorency was also an implacable enemy to the Reformation and hated Coligni the Admiral for that and other causes and therefore she perpetually stimulated him against the Protestants Francis Montmorency The younger Montmorency's Advice to his Father Son of the Constable was a person of great Prudence and he wisely advised his Father not to lose the least of his friends in so necessary a time for he foresaw a Tempest would arise in France of what Religion soever they were that it did not become a wise Man to endeavour to gain new friends with the loss of his old ones and to prefer the uncertain friendship of reconciled enemies before the tried affections of his old Acquaintances That if he rejected Conde Coligni and Rochefoucault on the Account of Religion he would deprive his Family of the affistance of three great Men and perhaps the Queen would think never the better of him therefore his advice to his Father was to sit still and let Coligni and the Guises fight it out without taking part on either side and in all probability Guise would be worsted and he would become the Arbitrator of the two contending Religions And in the mean time it was most certain there were many great Errors by length of time crept into the Church which he ought not to defend because they were injurious to the Majesty of God. The good old Gentleman was much moved at this Advice from his Son but made no other answer to it than That he certainly knew that if the Religion were changed the Civil Government would be changed too That he cared not what became of him if his little Masters did well and the Actions of Henry II. might not be called in question who was a wife Prince and his good Master So he perished in his first resolves believing he was obliged to defend the Cause of Religion against his best and most ancient and tried friends The Pope seeing his Jurisdiction and Authority decline so fast in Germany year 1560 England and France The pretended Submission of the Cophthites greedily embraced a pretended Overture made by one Abraham a Syrian Impostor who pretended he was sent by the Copthites an Eastern Sect of Christians to make a submission to the Holy See whereupon he sent Christopher Roderick and John Baptista Elianus two Jesuits to them who gained nothing by this Mission but an exact Account of the Opinions of these Cophthites and a certainty of the Frauds of this pretended Ambassador Abraham who had feign'd this Mission to the Pope for his own Ends. This Mortification was soon after attended by another Livonia falls off from the See of Rome not less afflictive to his Holiness for Gothard Ketler Master of the Teutonick Order in Livonia intirely submitted to Sigismond King of Poland which put an end to that Order when it had flourished there 357 years He was thereupon made Duke of Gurland and Semigallen and Governor of Livonia and Marrying a Wife withdrew himself and his Subjects from the See of Rome The Archbishoprick of Riga was also about the same time changed into a Dukedom John Kothewick ☜ ☜ the last Archbishop of that See embracing the Augustane Confession put himself under the Protection of the Crown of Poland and was by Sigismond made Duke
not God would Punish them After him the Cardinal of Tournon spoke and Thanked the King Queen and Princes for being present and approved highly of what the Chancellor had said but defired a Copy of it which the Chancellor refused though it was seconded by the Cardinal of Lorrain because he perceived they craftily designed to mischief him by it Beza speaks Theodore Beza being next commanded to speak fell upon his Knees and after a Prayer and reciting his Faith complained to God that they had been injuriously treated as Enemies of the Publick Peace Then he shewed wherein they agreed with the Church of Rome and wherein they differed and discoursed of the way of attaining Salvation of Faith Good Works the Word of God the Authority of the Councils and Fathers of the Sacraments and of their use and true Interpretation of Transubstantiation and Consubstantiation and lastly of the Ecclesiastical Order and Discipline and obedience to Princes he was so long and so sharp in some of these things that they had scarce patience to hear him out and the Cardinal of Tournon presently replied with a Voice trembling for Rage Tournon replies with rage That he and the other Prelates had done violence to their Consciences by condescending to this Conference in compliance with his Majesties Commands by hearing these new Evangelists That he foresaw if they were heard many things would be spoken by them injurious to the Majesty of God which would offend the Ears of the King and of all good Men. And therefore he beseeched his Majesty not to believe what was said That if he could have prevented it the King should not have been present but however he desired he would not suffer his Mind to be pre-ingaged in their false Opinions but to suspend till the Bishops had Answered it and the King and the rest there present should know the difference between Falsehood and Truth He Asked a Day to Answer in and prayed the King that he would persevere in the Religion of his Ancestors Lastly he added that but for the respect they bore to the King the Bishops would have arisen and put a stop to those horrible and abominable Words The Queens Answer The Queen calmly said she had done the thing without the Advice of the Parliament of Paris the Princes and Privy Council That no change was designed but that the Disturbances of France might be appeased and Men friendly brought from their Errors into the Old Way which belonged to them to effect The first Dispute was The Points debated about the Lords Supper The second which was the 17th of August was about the Church which the Cardinal of Lorrain said could not Err That if any particular Church did Recourse was to be had to the Head the Church of Rome and the Decrees of a General Council and the Concurrent Opinions of the Ancient Fathers and before all to the Sacred Scriptures explain'd by the Right Sense and Interpretation of the Church As to the Lord's Supper in effect he said That if the Protestants would not embrace their Opinions there was no hope of an Agreement The Cardinal of Tournon thereupon applauded his Harangue and said he was ready to lay down his Life for this Faith intreating the King to continue stedfast in it and was contented Good Man that if the Protestants would subscribe these two Points they should be admitted to dispute all the rest but if they refused this all hearing was to be denied them and they were to be expell'd out of his Dominions Beza desired to Answer him Extempore but the King delayed the Answer to the next day Upon a Petition the Ministers were heard at last again the 24th of September before the Queen only when Beza discoursed of the Church and its Notes which he said were the Preaching of the Word and a Pure Administration of the Sacraments As for the Succession of Persons and Doctrines it had been often interrupted He discoursed of the Ordinary and Extraordinary Vocation of the Universal Church and her Authority of Councils which he affirm'd had and might err of the Dignity of Scripture and whether the Scriptures were to be preferr'd before the Church or did borrow their Authority from the Church Claud d' Espence a learned Man Claud d' Espence opposeth Beza who desired very much the Church might regain her former Peace being Commanded by the Cardinal of Lorrain to answer Beza began with a Declaration that he had a long time wished that there might have been Conferences and said he had ever abhorred those Bloody Proceedings which had been used against those miserable Men. Then he said The Ordination of the Protestant Ministers Questi'd he wondered by what Authority the Protestants took upon them the Office of the Ministery and by whom they were Ordain'd and Instituted and that seeing they had received Imposition of hands from no body how could they be accounted lawful Ministers for it was manifest they had no Ordinary call And they must prove an Extraordinary Vocation by Miracles which they had not And thence he concluded they never came into the Church either by an Ordinary or an Extraordinary call As to Traditions if any Controversie arose about the Sense of Scriptures which could not be otherwise adjusted they must of necessity have recourse to the Fathers who had their Authority from their lawful and ordinary Call or Succession because upon them the Guifts of the Spirit were bestowed As it was written of the Levites whose Answers were not to be question'd That many things were setled by Traditions which were not written in the Scriptures As that the Father was not begotten That the Son was of the same Substance with the Father That Infants were to be Baptized That the Blessed Virgin continued a Virgin after she brought forth That the Decrees of General Councils should be valid and that they cannot err in Matters of Faith and that it cannot be shewn that any of the later Councils have corrected the former Beza replied Beza Replieâ— that the Imposition of hands was no necessary note of a lawful Call The two principal were a due Inquiry into the Doctrine and Manners of the Person and an Election of them to the Ministery That they were not to expect Imposition of hands from the Bishops who opposed the Truth and persecuted those that Preached it And that Miracles were not always necessary to an extraordinary Call which he endeavoured to prove by Isaiah Daniel Amos Zachariah and St. Paul. In the next congress Beza spoke much about the Calling of the Protestant Ministers but in such a manner as tended more to the exasperating of the Prelates than the appeasing them so that these two days were spent in mere squabble without order and to no purpose There was then in France John Laines a Spaniard General of the Jesuits Laines General of the Jesuits his Rudeness in the Conference who came thither with Hippolito d' Este
Cardinal of Ferrara sent by Pope Pius IV. as Legate to the King. This Laines being present this day at the Conference call'd the Protestant Ministers Monkeys Foxes and Monsters and said they were to be turn'd over to the Council call'd by the Pope Then he fell upon the Queen for medling in things that did not belong to her but to the Pope Cardinals and Bishops and he said it was not lawful whil'st a General Council was in being for the Queen to appoint by her private Authority a Conference here The Queen was much enraged at the Insolence of this Man but out of Reverence to the Legate suppress'd her resentment after this Day there were no more Publick Conferences but they Drew out three of a Side and endeavoured to form such an Exposition of the Lord's Supper as both Parties might agree in which in the End proved impossible to be done and so the Conference of Poissi ended which was the first Liberty that was granted to dispute the Established Religion in France and was blamed by some as a thing of ill Example and approved by others as the only means left to prevent the Storm which hung over their heads But it had not that effect so the Ministers and especially Beza who was invited by the Queen were honourably dismiss'd The Fame of this Conference being diffused through Italy and Spain Philip the Second was strangely surprized at it so the Queen sent Jacques de Monbron * In the History of the Council of Trent call'd Jaques de Montbrun a Person of good Birth and Repute to excuse it That Prince would hardly be induced to hear the reason of it and turning him over to the Duke de Alva he blamed their fearfulness and advised them to return to the same Severities which had been used in the Reigns of Henry II. and Francis II. promising his Masters Assistance for the Extirpation of the Protestants Adding That the King had been sclicited to it by the Catholick Nobility and People of France and that he could not neglect their Petition but he must be wanting to himself That he did not fear such vain reproaches as that with foreign Forces he invaded what was anothers because in this Cause the Spanish Forces were no foreigners when the Religion of their Ancestors was at the stake By this it appeared to the Court of France That there was a Correspondence between their Catholicks and the Spaniards and one Arthur Desier a Priest was taken much about this time near Orleans going into Spain with a Letter from some great Men to King Philip to persuade him to undertake the Protection of their Infant King and of the Catholick Religion which was in great danger to be ruin'd for which he was ordered to do Penance by the Parliament of Paris and committed to the Carthusian Monks to be kept a Prisoner for ever but afterwards he made his Escape This Sentence was pronounced against him the 14th of July In the End of this Year A Popish Position gives great Offence in France one Jean Tanquerel a young Divine proposed as his Thesis in a Disputation That the Pope as Christ's only Vicar and the Monarch of the Church can by his Spiritual and Secular Power command all faithful Princes as his Subjects and if they disobey his Precepts deprive them of their Dignities and Kingdoms which being complain'd off to the King the Chancellor sent a Commission to inquire into it and Tanquerel being fled it was ordered that the Parritor of the Theological Faculty should make a Recantation of it in his Name in the School of the Sorbonne before the Dean and all the Fellows and Students of that Faculty in the Presence of the President of the Parliament of Paris the King's Counsel and Solicitor and for the future the Parliament forbad all such questions to be given And ordered the Sorbonne to send two of their Fellows to beg the King's Pardon This Decree passed the 2d of December and was put in Execution ten days after The Pope had till now dreaded a General Council The Council of Trent recall'd as tending to the abatement of his Power and on that score had delayed it till Cosmus Duke of Florence and the fear of a National Council in France prevail'd upon him to reassume that which was began by Paul III. continued by Julius III. and was at last interrupted by the Commotions of Germany The Pope's Bull. In order to this the 19th of November 1559. he Published a Bull for the recalling this Council to Trent at the Feast of Easter of this Year vehemently Exhorting all Patriarchs Archbishops Bishops and Abbats and all others who had the Right or Privilege to Sit and Vote in a General Council by common right or any Privilege or Ancient Custom that at that Day they would be present in the said Council He also Admonished the Emperor Elect and all other Christian Kings and Princes that if they could not be personally present they should send their Ambassadors thither affirming beforehand that he designed nothing by this Council but the Glory of God the Reduction and Salvation of the scattered Sheep and the lasting Peace of Christendom There was soon after a sharp Invective Printed at Ausburg by Paulus Vergerius Bishop of Cabo di Istria in Friule Vergerius opposeth the Council who was a Cardinal and had been imployed by several of the preceding Popes in great Ambassies and had lately left that Church and betaken himself to the Protestants of Germany In it he set forth the Pride Pomp Luxury Ambition Bribery and corrupt Manners of the Court of Rome which he vow'd he well knew and from his heart detested That the Council was not call'd by the Pope to establish the Doctrine of Christ but those Human Inventions which they had brought in contrary to the Commandments of God not to Purge God's fold but to disseminate their inveterate Errors not to restore Christian Liberty but to introduce a miserable Servitude and Oppression on the Souls of Men none but the Bishops and Abbats who should take an Oath prescribed by the Roman Ceremonial Lib. 1. c. III. § XIV being permitted to sit there That all the inferior Clergy and secular Princes had only a right to come be instructed but not to deliberate or vote by which it must needs come to pass that not only all those who had separated from that Church on the account of her gross Errors would not be heard which was promised at first by Paul III. but that also many of the most Skilful and most Learned Doctors of that Church would be excluded from giving any Vote and all Liberty in which only there was any hope of restoring the Peace of the Church would be taken away and a Door opened to let in a Schism which would never have an end The Pope Ambassadors sent to the Protestant Princes to invite them to the Council perceiving that this Complaint would irritate the Minds
the Protestants and accordingly a new Edict was made which was called The Edict of January the principal Heads of which were these That the Protestants should restore the Ecclesiasticks to their Churches Houses Lands Tithes and other goods whatsoever which they had taken from them forthwith and suffer them peaceably to enjoy their Images Crosses and Statues without any molestation or endeavouring to destroy them or doing any other thing that may disturb the publick Peace upon pain of Death without any hope of Mercy That the Protestants should have no publick Meetings Sermons and Prayers or administer any Sacraments publickly or privately by Night or by Day within any City in any manner whatsoever Yet in the mean time till the Controversies of Religion shall be composed by a General Council or the King shall otherwise order it Those who shall go to or frequent their Sermons shall not be molested provided they be had without the Cities And the Magistrates were accordingly commanded not to disquiet but to protect and preserve them from all Injury That all Seditious Persons of what Religion soever they were should be severely punished and all should be bound to discover and deliver them up to Justice a thousand Crowns being imposed upon any person who should receive abet or conceal such Riotous Offender and the Offender to be whipp'd if not able to pay the Penalty That the said Meetings should be without Arms and that no person should Reproach another on the account of Religion or use any Factious Names That the Protestant Ministers should admit none into their Number till they had diligently examined their Lives Conversations and Doctrines That the Magistrates might freely go to their Meetings to see what was done or to apprehend any Criminal who should be treated according to their Dignity and obeyed That the Protestants should hold no Synods Conferences or Consistories but in the presence of a Magistrate That they should create no new Magistrates or make any Laws or Statutes And if they desire any thing by way of Discipline it should be referred to their Authority or if need be be confirmed by them There shall be no Levies of Men or Monies made by them nor any Leagues entered into for their private Defence And as to Alms they shall only take them of such as are willing to give The Civil Laws especially those concerning Holy Days and the Degrees of Consanguinity and Affinity in Marriages shall be observed That their Pastors shall give Security to the Magistrates for the Observing this Edict and promise That they will not preach any Doctrine contrary to the Nicene or Apostles Creeds or the Books of the Old or New Testament nor use any Reproaches against the Catholicks in their Sermons And the same is injoyned the Catholicks in relation to the Protestants No man shall publish any Libels to defame another or sell or cause them to be sold Lastly the Magistrates are hereby commanded to be very diligent in case any Sedition happens to search out the Offenders and punish them without any Appeal to be allowed to such Offenders A Debate being made concerning the Worship of Images Injunctions published by the Queen's Order concerning Images these Propositions were published by the Queen by the Advice of the Bishops of Valence and Seez and Monsieur Bouthillier d' Espence and Picherel That seeing Errors are according to St. Augustin rather to be rooted out of the Minds of Men than out of Churches and other places the Bishops should take order with the Curates to have the People well Instructed and diligently Admonished concerning the right use of them that all Offence or Scandal might be prevented both by the Royal Authority and that of the Church and that if any opposed this he should be treated as a Violater of the Royal Edicts and of the publick Peace Images of the Trinity forbidden That all Figures of the Holy Trinity should be immediately removed out of all Churches and all other publick and private Places as being forbidden by the Holy Scriptures the Councils and Testimonies of the Fathers and only Dissembled or Tolerated by the Sloth of the Bishops and Pastors That the Pictures of all prophane Persons and others who were not to be found in the Authentick Martyrologies of the Church all lascivious and dishonest Pictures and those of Brutes shall be abolished That no Crowns Garlands or Vestments shall be put upon any Images nor Incense nor Candles burnt before them nor shall they be carried in Processions nor any Prayers or Oblations be made to them nor shall they be worshipped with bended Knees because all these things are parts of Worship That all Images but that of the Venerable Holy Cross shall be taken from the Altars and either placed on the Valves or Walls of the Churches so that from henceforth they may neither be saluted kissed prayed to or presented with Gifts That all Images which were wont to be carried on the Shoulders of Men in the Churches and Streets should according to the late Canon of Sens be for ever abolished Beza opposed the retention of the Cross as brought into use by Constantine the Great and one N. Mallard Dean of the Sorbonne in Paris tho' he confessed some ill things had crept into the Church yet he was of opinion that all this Worship of Images ought stoutly to be defended and retained and put out a Book to that purpose so the Thing fell This Order was made the 14th of February The same Month but some few days before it The King of Navar pretends still to promote the Reformation the King of Navar wrote a Letter to the Elector Palatine in which he testified his great desire to promote a Reformation and that he hoped to have found a way to reconcile Differences by the Conference of Poissi But that this Affair had not succeeded according to his wish and that even in the Dispute about Images which seemed to have less of Difficulty they had yet not been able to agree But that whatever Men pretended he would by the help of God endeavour that the Confession of Faith which could not be destroyed without the Ruin of the Peace of the Nation should insensibly be established as far as the Infancy of the King and the present State of Things would permit He wrote also to the same purpose to the Duke of Wirtemberg and to Philip Landtgrave of Hesse The Elector Palatine wrote an Answer dated the 20th of April from Heidelburg wherein he said he was sorry to see the Affections of the Protestants cool in this Affair and therefore he exhorted him to go on in this commendable Design of Reforming Religion When the Edict of January came to be published the Guises and Montmorancy The Edict of January opposed by the Guises and others who were now reconciled and were absent at the time of making it employed all their Industry to prevent its having its effect alledging it was not made as
the Prince publickly That he wondered how they could be prevailed upon to clap up a Peace upon such disadvantageous Conditions when the Affairs of the Protestants were in so flourishing a state That they ought to have remembred that in the beginning of the War the Triumvirate had consented that the Edict of January should be restored and that now two of them the King of Navar and the Duke of Guise were slain and Montmorancy was their Prisoner and consequently a Security for the Prince of Conde Why should not they have had the same Terms That the restraint of the Profession of the Protestant Religion to one place in a Province was to give up that by a dash of the Pen which their Sword could never have obtained That what was granted to the Nobility could not be denied and they would soon see it was safer to serve God in the Suburbs of great Cities than in their Private Families and that it was uncertain whether their Children would be at all like them But however nothing could rescind an Agreement made by common consent Thus ended the first Civil War of France I have transcribed this whole Account of the first Civil War of France from the great Thuanus abridging it as much as was possible and pursuing the Actions only of the great Armies because if I had taken in all he relates of the various Actions between the two Parties in the several great Cities and Provinces it would have swell'd infinitely beyond the design of this Work or otherwise have been so dark as not to be easily intelligible And if the Reader compare this short Account with that given by Davila he will soon see how little the sincerity of that Historian is to be relied on and how small the Reason is for him to treat the Huguenots as Rebels in all the Course of this War. When the War first began the Protestants acted purely on the defensive but after several local Massacres they began to pull down Images and Altars in Revenge for the blood-shed of the other Party and finding to their cost this did but enrage the Roman Catholicks against them and made them the more cruel they fell next upon the Priests and Monks as the Authors of their Calamities this more incensing the Roman Catholicks And they again using the most horrid barbarities that were ever practised by Men the Protestants rose likewise in their Executions on them so that if this War had continued a few years France must have been depopulated Now though in all this the Roman Catholicks were the first Agressors and forced the Protestants to this severity in their own defence yet their Writers cunningly omitting the Provocation or softing the Actions of their own Party set forth at large the Cruelties of the Hereticks as they call them and many times aggravate them above what is true but Thuanus though a Roman Catholick was too great a Man to be guilty of so false a representation and who ever pleaseth to consult him will find I have been very favourable to the Roman Catholicks in this Abstract and have not sought occasions to make them odious without cause A CONTINUATION OF THE HISTORY OF THE Reformation of the Church BOOK IV. The CONTENTS The Cardinal of Ferrara leaves France The Causes of the Delay of the Council The Pope's Legates sent to Trent The Prohibition of Books taken into Consideration The French Ambassadors arrive at Trent The French King's Reflections on the Proceedings of the Council The French Clergy arrive there The Pope's Fear of them Maximilian Son of Ferdinand the Emperor chosen King of the Romans The Emperor dislikes the Proceedings of the Council The Spanish Ambassadors received in the Council The Fathers of Trent much Displeased with the Peace made in France The Queen of Navarr cited to Rome and many of the Bishops by the Inquisition The French King's Declaration against these Proceedings The Queen Mother of France complains of the Council The Pope Gains the Cardinal of Lorrain to his Side That Councils have no Authority over Princes The Ambassadors of France Protest against the Council and retire to Venice The Council ended The Censure of the Council The State of Religion in Piedmont A Tumult in Bavaria for the Cup. The Romish Reasons against granting Marriage to the Clergy and the Cup to the Laity The Siege and Surrender of Havre de Grace Charles the IX declared out of his Minority The Scotch Affairs HAVING thus dispatched what concerns the first French War year 1562 I now return to the Affairs of the Rest of Christendom in the Year 1562. And here I will first begin with the History of the Council of Trent Whilst the recalling this Council was agitated with great heat The Cardinal of Ferrara leaves France the Cardinal of Ferrara the Pope's Legate in France after the Revocation of the Edict of January seeing all things there in the state he desired he took his leave of the King and returned into Italy Before he went however he took care to furnish the King with Money to carry on the Siege of Orleans which he took up of the Bankers of Paris He had raised a vast Expectation of this Council in the minds of all those who had yet any Kindness left in their Hearts for the See of Rome and the more because they thought the Edict of January which had caused the War would then fall of Course it being made only by way of Provision till a Council should determine otherwise As the Cardinal was in his Journey Fifty Horsemen came out of Orleans under the Command of one Monsieur Dampier and surprized all his Mules Horses and Treasures and when he sent a Trumpeter to demand them again the Prince of Conde made Answer That this magnificent and warlike Equipage did not befit Pastors and the Successors of St. Peter but rather Commanders and Generals of War who were in Arms for Religion Yet if he pleased to recal the 200000. Crowns which he had furnished the Triumvirate with to carry on the War against him and the Italian Forces out of France he would then restore all he had taken to his Eminence The Council which was appointed to meet at Easter of the former Year was delay'd to the beginning of this The Causes of the Delay of the Council the Pope putting it off because he was as much afraid of the Spanish Bishops as of the French National Council He had been necessitated to grant great Contributions to King Philip to be levied upon his Clergy and he thought the Bishops would on that score come with exasperated Minds to the Council and all his Thoughts were bent on the keeping the Papal Power undiminished rather than on satisfying the just Compaints of the Nations At last being forced by an unresistable necessity he sent Hercules Gonzaga The Pope's Legates sent to Trent Jerom Seripand and Stanislaus Hosio out of his Bosom to be his Legates at Trent And not long after he
added to them James Simoneta and Mark Sitico Bishop of Altemberg in Transylvania who had orders to open the Council again the Eighteenth of January 1562. That those things might be therein treated of which the * Proponentibus Legatis Legates should propose and in the same Order for the taking away the Calamities of these Times the appeasing the Controversies of Religion the Restraining deceitful Tongues the Correcting the Abuses of depraved Manners and the obtaining a True and Christian Peace by such means as the Holy Council should approve of The French Clergy insisted That mention should be made of a Free and General Council to be call'd for the Quieting of their Differences because their Protestants would never submit to the Determinations of the former Sessions On the contrary the Spaniards professed they would only continue the former Council and therefore they used a middle way and decreed A Council should be Celebrated The Spanish Bishops were as much dissatisfied because all the Power of proposing was given to the Legates and taken from the other Bishops and complained of it to King Philip who Ordered his Ambassador to treat the Pope about it that the Council might be free The Pope Answered the Ambassador That he was not at leisure to dispute about Ablative Cases Positive and the Genders of Words and that he had something else to do And in private he spoke of the Calamities and Dangers of France with the same unconcernedness For when one of the French Cardinals deplored the Danger the See of Rome was in of losing that Kingdom he replied What then if as long as I am Bishop of this City I shall not be forced to abate any thing of the Greatness of my Table and the Magnificence of my Buildings And when they insisted to have the Manners of Men and the Discipline of the Church throughly Reform'd he said In that Particular he would satisfie France to the full and take such Care in it that they should all of them Repent that they had mentioned a Reformation Adding That he foresaw that the Kingdom would be divided on the account of Religion but he did not value the loss of it a Farthing All which Expressions saith Thuanus Are in the Letters of the French Ambassador that was then at Rome out of which I have faithfully Transcribed them and the Letters are now in my Hands The History of this Council is so well described by Petro Soave Polano a Venetian which is in English that I need the less insist upon it but I shall however remark some few things from Thuanus and others for the Enlarging or Confirming the Credit of that History which is much cryed down by the Roman Catholicks as certainly they have good Reason to be offended with that Author who with so much Truth and Impartiality has discovered the Artifices of that Assembly for the keeping up the Grandeur of the Court of Rome and the Suppression and Baffling that Reformation which the most Learned of the Church of Rome then so much desired and panted after The Second Session was held the Twenty sixth of February The Prohibition of Books taken into consideration in which a Decree pass'd against Reading Books suspected of Heresie and a safe Conduct and an Invitation was given to all that would come to the Council Seventeen Bishops were by Name appointed to bring in a Catalogue of such Books as were intended or thought fit to be Prohibited Polano observes that they carried this so high as to deprive Men of that Knowledge which was necessary to defend them from the Vsurpations of the Court of Rome by which means its Authority was maintained and made Great For the Books were Prohibited and Condemned in which the Authority of Princes and Temporal Magistrates is defended from the Vsurpations of the Clergy and of Councils and Bishops from the Vsurpations of the Court of Rome in which their Hypocrisies or Tyrannies are manifested by which the People under pretence of Religion are deceived In summ a better Mystery was never found out than to use Religion to make Men insensible However this may help to keep those in their Church which they now have it doth certainly by Experience render them very Contemptible to all others and unable to defend their Religion which is especially true of their Laity The Fourth of March the business of the Safe Conduct was dispatched in a Congregation A debate whether Episcopacy and Residence are of Divine Right and a Debate was raised and pursued with great Heat by the Spanish Bishops That Episcopacy was instituted by God without any Medium and that Residence and their Pastoral Deligence in feeding their Flock was of Divine Right which they desired might be Confirmed by the Decree of the Council But because this tended to the Establishing the Authority of the Bishops and the Abating that of the Pope his Holiness was much concern'd at it and having consulted the Cardinals about it they by common consent Delayed and by ambiguous Answers deluded the Fathers at Trent and at last totally baffled them in this Point The Second Session was appointed to be the Twelfth of April which was then prorogued to the Fourth of June and from thence to the Fifteenth of the same Month. In the mean time the King of France sent Lewis de Sanct Gelais Sieur de Lanssac The French Ambassadors Arrival Arnold de Ferrier Presiders of Paris and Guy du Faur Sieur de Pibrac his Ambassadors to the Council who arrived at Trent the Nineteenth of May. Lanssac soon after wrote a Letter to give an Account of their being come to the French Resident at Rome in which he said he thought they ought in the first Place to take care that an Event contrary to their Expectation might not attend the Council that the Pope should Order his Legates to shew great patience to those who spake proceed slowly in all things attend the Arrival of those Bishops who were coming and allow a Liberty without condition to all that were to Vote or Speak and not fall under the old Reproach of having the Holy Ghost sent them from Rome in a Portmanteau and lastly that they should take care that what was Decreed at Trent to the Glory of God should not be malignantly Interpreted and Traduced or it may be Corrupted at Rome by a Company of Idle Men He desired therefore he would endeavour to obtain these things of the Pope as he did but the Pope took this Liberty very ill and desired That no Prejudice might be done to his Authority by the French Bishops Adding That he reserved the Reformation of the Ecclesiastical Discipline and of the Court of Rome to himself and that he might with greater Convenience attend this and the Transactions at Trent he intended to go to Bononia The pretence of this Journey was the Crowning of the Emperor in that City who was said to be coming thither for that purpose But the reality was
full to praise Fasting and admonish others to be content with one Benefice The French King had sent Francis de Bolliers Sieur de Manes to dissipate and remove this Jealousie of the Pope's at the approach of the French Bishops and to acquaint his Holiness with his Intentions For that it was commonly said That the Cardinal was sent to get the Transactions in the Conference of Poisey last Year confirm'd by the Synod That the Cup might be granted to the Laity That the Clergy might be allowed Matrimony That the Liturgy might be in the Vulgar Tongue That the Bishops might have but one Diocess and that none should be Elected to that Dignity who could not Preach to the People As to the first Manes excused the Conference of Poisey and said It was appointed by the Queen and the Cardinal for the gaining time and the retarding or keeping back those intestine Commotions they foresaw and for the stopping the Mouths of the Sectaries who complained every where that their Reasons had never been heard That they designed in the Interim to levy Forces so that if they could not convince the Sectaries by Reason they might by force reduce them to their Duty That nothing was done in that Conference And as to the other Points the Cardinal and French Clergy had no other Instructions than what had been sent to the Ambassadors of France and that they brought no prejudged Opinions with them to the Council The Pope was much concern'd upon the Account of a Report that the Bishops of France had moved their King to stop the Payment of First Fruits by the Clergy of France to the See of Rome And he said this was contrary to their Pacts and Agreements with him which was That this Affair should be transacted with the Pope only in a friendly way But then after all nothing so much startled the holy Man as a Report that a Peace was treating secretly with the Protestants and that they would have Liberty given them to Preach and he foresaw that if France were once quieted the Council could not be hurried to a Conclusion but things would be well considered and perhaps the Protestants must be heard in it and amongst them Queen Elizabeth of England which he feared beyond Expression For he thought the Cardinals of Lorrain and Ferrara were so Useful and Necessary to the King of France that he could never have spared them to attend the Council where there was no need of them if he had not had some such pestilent Designs to promote Whereupon he mustered up all the Prelates he could possibly not admitting any Excuse The Popes fears of the French Bishops never to be stopp'd and sent many also who had resigned their Benefices to the Council together with the Coadjutors of other Bishops that so he might have the more Votes believing he was now in the utmost degree of Danger and as if he had not had enough of his own he borrowed some Prelates of his Friends too And amongst them he got leave of the Duke of Savoy that Anthony Bobba Bishop of Cassale who was then that Princes Ambassador in the Court of Rome and Lewis Vanini de Teodolis Bishop de Bertinoro a Person of great Learning and Eloquence who had excused his Attendance in the Council upon his want of Health should now forthwith be dispatched to Trent When this last was going thither he is said to have consolated and strengthened the good Pope in his Anxiety and Fears of the Event with an Assurance That he would certainly get the Victory over the Council which was a very Acceptable Saying to the Pope and that he for that good News Kiss'd the Bishop of Bertinoro when he took his Leave to go to Trent bidding him be careful to get the Victory he had promised him And when after this some flying Reports came to Rome that some Questions were moved in the Council to the prejudice of the Papal Authority by the Bishops he was so moved at it that in the Consistory before all the Cardinals he cried out he and the Romans were betrayed whilest he maintained an Army of Enemies at Trent with great expence By which expression he aimed at the Italian Bishops who were his Pensioners and kept there by him in great numbers And Jo. Baptista Adriani writes He was just upon the Point of inhibiting the Council and had done it if Cosmus Duke of Florence had not averted him from that dangerous and shameful project The 8th Maximilian Son of Ferdinand chosen King of the Romans Polano in his History of the Council of Trent saith the Election was made the 24th of November So that the first date seems to be the day of the opening of the Diet. day of September Maximilian the Eldest Son of Ferdinand the Emperor was chosen King of the Romans at Francfort upon the Maine in a Diet there assembled for that purpose Stroschen a Polander by birth who was then Ambassador for Solyman the Emperor of the Turks was present at Francfort and saw this Ceremony being sent to settle a Truce for eight years between those Princes which had been a long time sought by Busbequius at Constantinople The Emperor was by this League to pay Thirty Millions of Hungarian Duckets for a Tribute by the year In this Diet the Princes of the Augustane Confession and their Allies gave in their opinion concerning the Council in Writing as they promised they would in the Convention at Naumburg They said they could not come to this Impious Council which was Indicted by Pope Pins the Fourth because not so assembled as was prescribed in their Appeals to a pious free and lawful Council given in heretofore in several Diets of Germany This Diet ended about the end of December and the Emperor went by Wormes Spire Weissemburg Strasburg Schlestat and Basil to Friburg in Brisgow being in all places received with great Honour and in the last of these places he held a Diet for Alsatia and then by Constance he went in February to Inspruck where he staid some time on the account of the Council of Trent which he hoped might be ended in the less time if he were near it The French Ambassadors when they came to the Council of Trent were furnished with certain Instructions what they were to ask but had Orders to suppress them till they had conferr'd with the Emperors Ambassadors which happened to have much what the same demands But by this time the Court of France seeing there was no care taken to satisfie the Emperor and that things were carried with great slowness ordered their Ambassador to open their Grievances which were contain'd in Thirty four Articles year 1563 and were accordingly unfolded to the Council the 4th of January as they may be seen at large in Polano his History Pag. 609. I shall not here trouble the Reader with them The 10th of January the King of France ordered his Ambassador to assure the Pope that the Annals which
his care That the King could not neglect the cause of this sorrowful Widow and her Orphan and Children who appeal'd to his fidelity and the Memory of his Ancestors who had in all times of affliction succoured the Princes of Germany Spain and England That Philip the Bold the Son of St. Lewis had with a potent Army defended an Orphan-Queen of Navarr and brought her into France where she was after Married to Philip the Fair from whom Joan the present Queen of Navarr was lineally descended And that John Labrett the Grandfather of this Queen being in like manner persecuted by one of the Popes and driven out of a part of his Kingdom the rest had been defended and preserved by Lewis the Twelfth and his Successors That the Popes themselves have heretofore fled to the French for protection when they have been expelled out of their Sees who had often restored them defended and enriched them with the grant of many Territories That this Queen was so near a Neighbour and such an Allie to the Crown of France that no War could be made upon her without the great damage of France That all Princes were Interested in the Friendship and Peace of their Neighbours and obliged to keep all Wars at a distance from them for the preservation of their own quiet and security Since therefore his Majesty saw by this Bull that there was a design to deprive his Ancient Allies of their Dominions and at pleasure to set up others in their stead he had just reason to fear that as the Spaniards had heretofore on such pretences possess'd themselves of all the Countries to the Pyrenaean Hills so that in time they might pass them too and descend into the Plains of France and so a dismal and destructive War might be rekindled between these powerful Princes to the great hazard and ruin of Christendom Lastly the Queen of Navarr being a Feuditary of the Crown of France and having great Possessions in that Kingdom was under the Protection of the Laws of it and could not be drawn out of it to Rome either in Person or by Proxy no Subject of France being bound to go to Rome but if the Pope had any cause against them he was obliged to send Judges to determine upon the place even in those Cases that came before him by Appeal That therefore this Citation was against the Majesty Law and Security of the Crown of France and tended to the diminishing of the esteem of that King and Kingdom That if the Form of this Proceeding were considered what could be more contrary to the Civil Law than to force a man out of his proper Court and condemn him in another without any hearing For there are Laws That no accused person shall be cited out of the Limits of the Jurisdiction in which he lives and that the Citation shall not be obscure and perfunctory but declared to the proper person or to his family And the Constitution of Pope Boniface the Eighth That Citations set up in certain places of Rome should be of force was recall'd by Clement the Fifth and the Council of Venna as hard and unjust or at least mitigated and it was decreed that they should not be used but when there was no safe coming to the person accused But in France where the Queen of Navarr resides it cannot be pretended that there is no safe coming to her And what can be more contrary to Natural Equity than to condemn unheard It is forbidden by the Canons and Decrees of Councils and there is a noble example of this in Ammianus Marcellinus where Pope Liberius being urged by Constantius to condemn Athanasius chose rather to be banished than to sentence him without hearing And in the Judgment against Sixtus the Third who was accused of Incest Valentinian the Emperor observed the same method and made him appear and answer in a Synod before Fifty Bishops For the same reason the Sentence of Nicholas the First against Lotharius the Son of St. Lewis for having two Wives was thought void and null Nor was this Sentence against the Queen of Navarr of better force because she was absent and unheard That the Popes have always shewn that respect to Crown'd heads as to admonish them by their Legates before they decreed ought against them So Alexander the Third sent two Cardinals to Henry the Second into England when he was accused of the Death of Thomas a Becket A.B. of Canterbury That he might purge himself before them of this crime So of late Clement the Seventh did the like in the case of Henry the Eighth to whom he sent Cardinal Campeius And if it were granted that the Judgment were rightly passed how could the Dominions of the Queen be exposed for a prey and given to the first Invader they belonging to the King as Lord of the Fee Therefore the King believes that the Pope is deceived by false reports and instigated by the craft of his Ministers who not regarding the publick peace have drawn him from his natural goodness to Counsels which are dishonourable to his Holiness and destructive to his Authority and to that of the See of Rome tending to the alienating of the hearts of his friends from him and the disturbing of the Peace of Christendom And his Majesty is the more perswaded of the truth of this because his Holiness so earnestly espoused the Interest of Anthony the Husband of this Queen in his life-time and endeavoured to perswade King Philip to restore to him the Kingdom of Navarr or at least to give him the Island of Sardinia as an Equivalent But then there is nothing more offends the King than the considering that whereas so many Kings Princes and Free States above Forty years since have defected from the See of Rome and committed the offence charged upon the Queen and so by the rule of Justice ought to be first punished as first offending yet the Pope has not proceeded in the same way or with equal severity against any of them so that from hence it is clear that an occasion is sought by her enemies to oppress and ruin her by surprize whilest she is a Widow her Children Orphans the King of France who ought to protect her being a Minor and disturbed by Civil Wars and for this reason the King is the more obliged to defend her from injury and himself from contempt seeing without acquainting him with it they have begun this Process against a Queen so nearly related to him That if this Accusation had been made on the account of Religion and for the Glory of God the Pope ought in the first place to have shewn his care of her soul and from the Word of God to have administred fitting Remedies and not to have proscribed her Kingdoms and Dominions The Deposing of Princes and disposing of their Dominions the cause of great Calamities and given them for a prey to the first Invader The Pope has a Supremacy given him That he
may consult the Salvation of Souls and the repose of Christendom and not that he may deprive Princes of their Kingdoms and dispose of their possessions at his pleasure which the former Popes have never been able to do in Germany and other places without bringing great reproach and dishonour on the Church and disturbances upon the World. That therefore the King desired with the greatest humility that he could or ought that the Sentence against the Q. of Navarr should be revok'd and all the Pope's Ministers should be inhibited from proceeding in this cause by a publick Act and if this were not done the King should be forced against his will to make use of the same remedies his Ancestors had imployed in the like cases according to the Laws and Rights of his Kingdom But before all things he protested he should do this unwillingly and therefore they only should bear the blame who by their rashness had forced him to use the power God had given him in so just a cause and to implore the assistance of his friends against them There was at the same time distinct Memorials and larger Instructions sent to the French Ambassador for the Defence of the Bishops The Bishops defended by the King also and D'Oysel who was an active Minister prevail'd upon the Pope to have the Proceedings against the Bishops stopt and the Sentence against the Queen of Navarr revok'd and abolished So that at this day it is not to be found amongst the Constitutions of Pope Pius the Fourth The 18th of May there having been no consideration had of the XXXIII Articles put into the Council the 4th of January The Queen complains of the Proceedings of the Council the Queen wrote to Lanssac her Ambassador complaining very bitterly of the delays and shifts which had been made in this business and said that the hope good men had hitherto had of the success of this Council and the opinion of their sincerity who met in it would both vanish without any fruit and their dissimulation and connivance would more and more inflame the wrath of God against us who had now made it manifest unto all men that the affairs of the Church needed a Reformation and a severe correction and to that purpose had invited and brought together from all parts of the Earth so many men famous for their Piety and Learning to this Council and if after all this he shall see us still stubbornly resist his will he will be necessitated to punish those men who have hindred so good a work and so necessary to the peace of the Church That therefore the King had wrote to the Cardinal of Lorrain to assemble a Congregation of the French Clergy and after a mature deliberation had amongst themselves to demand earnestly of the Fathers of the Council that these things might be considered and determin'd as soon as was possible But the Cardinal was by this time won over to the Pope's side The Pope gained the Cardinal of Lorrain to his side and was willing to sacrifice the safety of France and the King's Will to the Interest of the former In order to this he delayed the Execution of his Orders from day to day and at last that he might totally disappoint them asked leave of the King to go to Rome believing the Kings Ambassadors would do nothing in his absence And not long after Lanssac obtained leave to return into France Who went to Rome The Cardinal of Lorrain went from Trent towards Rome the 18th of September and with him five of the French Bishops But the other French Ambassadors did nevertheless insist stoutly to have the Articles considered by the Council who that they might elude this pursuit made some Decrees which had some respect to those things the French had desired but which aimed at the granting a Liberty and Immunity to the Clergy against all the Laws Privileges Liberties and Jurisdictions and Lawful Authorities of all Kingdoms States and Princes which being seen by La Ferriere and Du Faur the King's Ambassadors at Trent they by their Master's Order opposed the said Decrees The 27th of September the King by a Letter having commanded his Ambassadors to insist upon their first Demands and to assure the Council that as none of the Christian Princes should exceed him in the fervor of true Piety and a desire to promote the Affairs of the Council so if they still went on to cure the desperate wounds of the Church with a light hand or rather to plaster them over and conceal than cure them whilest they omitted the proper and most necessary remedies and instead of considering the Reformation of the Church turn'd the edge of their Authority against the Power of Princes and the Decrees of Councils he would not have the Presence of his Ambassadors add Authority to such unjust Decrees to the great prejudice of his Royal Dignity and to the Damage of the Liberties of his Kingdom He said also that he had been informed that the Council had entertain'd a design to declare the Marriage of Anthony de Bourbon King of Navarr and Joan his Queen unlawful and to declare Henry his Son a Bastard and he commanded them not to be present at any such Act. Lastly he commanded them to repeat their former demands and if the Fathers of the Council would not grant them then to leave Trent and go to Venice and stay there till they had further Orders from him He told them also that his principal desire was by a serious Reformation of Church-affairs and manners the corruptions in which had caused so many to make defection from the Church of Rome by the Authority of a General Council to unite the divided minds of men in the matters of Religion That his Ambassadors and Proctors had often treated with the Pope and the Fathers of the Council about this and to that end had exhibited the said XXXIV Articles to which no satisfactory return had been made but on the contrary they having lightly touched the business of Reformation had exercised an Authority which belonged not to them against the Rights The Council has no Authority over Princes Liberties and Power of Soveraign Princes That they neither could nor ought to inquire into the Civil Administration which was not subject to their Court nor to derogate from those Constitutions and Customs which had been long enjoyed by Princes nor to Anathematize Kings all which things tended to Sedition and the interruption of the publick Peace That he would not suffer that Authority which he had received from his Ancestors to be weakned by their unjust censures Yea he commanded them to tell the Fathers That if they presumed any more to undermine the Authority of Kings and the Prerogatives of their Betters that they should then also protest against their proceeding and leave Trent Advising the Bishops and Divines of France who were in the Council to promote the Reformation of Religion as much as was
possible for the good of his divided Kingdom and to that end to stay still at Trent But then the King did trust to their wisdom and conscience that they would not approve of by their presence or consent to any thing which was prejudicial to the Royal Authority Prerogative or Dignity of the King or Kingdom of France But however the Council still persisting in their former Methods La Ferriere came into the Council and made a sharp Oration against the Pope and the Council Polano * Pag. 721. in his History of the Council of Trent has the sum of this Oration and Thuanus saith it was pronounced the 22d of September But however I will not trouble the Reader with it here because of its great length this Oration pleased none of the Fathers the French themselves not excepted because he set Princes as the Ministers of God above the Anathema's of the Clergy and made both their persons and revenues subject to the Laws and Authority of Kings telling them too plainly of their great prevarications obstinacy and unwillingness to reform or be reformed But however all the Fathers could do was to bring the Faith of the Ambassadors in question which they soon discuss'd by producing their Instructions This failing they cavell'd at the parts of the Oration and endeavoured to pervert the sense and meaning of it so that Ferriere was forced to publish an Apology for it And soon after this they mended the matter by a sharper Oration in which amongst other things they told the Council plainly The Ambassadors of France put a severet Protestation into the Council That Hadrian the Sixth was in the right when he told the world That what care soever was taken of the lower members of the Church that body could not be restored to its health if the Head also the Pope were not reformed Towards the end they said They protested only against Pius the Fourth They Venerated the Apostolick See the great Pontiff the Holy Church of Rome for the increase of whose Dignity their Ancestors had so often shed their blood and of late had fought in France but it was against the Soveraignty of Pius the Fourth that they protested all whose Decrees and Sentences they refused and despised and seeing there was nothing done at Trent but all was dispatched at Rome and what was here published was rather the Dictates of Pius the Fourth than the Decrees of a General Council they denounced and testified That whatever was decreed in that Convention or should hereafter be decreed or published they being only the Decrees moved by Pius the Fourth they should not be approved by the Most Christian King nor the French nor be taken for the Acts of a General Council And then commanded all their Archbishops Bishops Abbots and Divines to return into France till God should restore to the Catholick Church the ancient form and liberty belonging of right to General Councils and to the Most Christian King his just Rights Thuanus saith he can hardly believe this Oration was made tho' he finds it Printed in the Commentaries of Jacques de Bourdin Secretary of State. But however it shews the sense great men had of the Council of Trent at that time when it was best understood A little before this time the Emperor being about leaving Inspruck The Emperor opposeth the intended Proceedings of the Council against Queen Elizabeth discovered that they consulted at Rome and Trent about proceeding against Queen Elizabeth of England and he wrote to the Pope and the Legates that if the Council would not yield that fruit which was desired that they might see an Union of Catholicks to reform the Church yet at least they should not give occasion to Hereticks to unite themselves more which they would do in case they proceeded against the Queen of England For undoubtedly they would then make a General League against the Catholicks which would be the cause of great Inconveniences We may see by this how hardly this Holy Council was kept from giving the world a Cast of its office in deposing Princes and disposing of their Dominions and absolving their Subjects from their Allegiance tho' we are now told this is none of the Doctrines of that Church but however it is undoubtedly her practice This Admonition was so effectual that the Pope desisted at Rome and revoked the Commission given to that purpose to the Legates at Trent When the French Ambassadors had put these two Rubs in the way of the Council The French Ambassadors leave Trent and go to Venice they retired as the King their Master had before commanded them to Venice and gave an account of what they had done to the Cardinal of Lorrain at Rome and to the King of France this last approved it but the former having made his private Market with the Pope who extremely flattered this proud turbulent vain-glorious Prelate was very much displeased with what the French Ambassadors had done in his absence at Trent But when he came there and found the Ambassadors were supported by the King and that there was no fetching them back from Venice till the things proposed by the Council were revoked he perswaded the Legates to compound the difference and the Infallible Council laid by these Decrees which displeased the Crown of France and passed only a general Decree against the Violaters of the Ecclesiastical privileges and Immunities in the Twenty fifth Session This was the last Session of this Council The last Seffion of the Council of Trent and was held the fifth and sixth of December In it was determin'd the points concerning Purgatory the Invocation of Saints the Worship of Images and Reliques the Prohibition of Duels and all that pertain'd to the Reformation of the Manners of the Clergy All that had been done under Paul the Third Julius the Third and two Years before this in this Convention were then also ratified and confirmed And the Pope was desired to approve the same and so the Council was dismissed with Acclamations The Pope made a grave Oration in a Conclave of the Cardinals and giving God unfeigned thanks that the Council was ended he commended the Emperor the Apostolick Legates and the Bishops and said Tho' he was tree from the obligation of all Laws yet he would cause these to be exactly and inviolably preserved and if any thing was omitted he would supply it The Protestant Ministers of Germany at the same time put out a Protestation against this Council subscribed by many of them Thus ended the Council of Trent The censure of the Council which was desired and procured by Godly men to reunite the Church which began to be divided but hath so established the Schism and made the parties so obstinate that the discords are become irreconcileable And being intended by Princes for the reformation of the Ecclesiastical Discipline hath caused the greatest corruption and deformation that ever was since Christianity began The Bishops hoped to