convenient to erect more a license to build was not onely granted but contributions made thereunto by the publick liberality and munificence so when it was necessary to set bounds and limits thereunto this Senate made use of their own Power alone without any diminution to the Canons of the Church And whereas the Pope hath a Power to restrain the Clergy from alienating their Lands and Estates to the Laiety without his consent and dispensation so also hath the temporal Prince the like Authority to forbid and inhibit all Lay-persons from making alienation of their Estates unto the Church Nor do Ecclesiastical persons lose any thing by this restriction but rather procure a benefit for when the temporal Power is weakned by such alienation this State which is the Bulwark of Christendom will not be able to withstand the common Enemy nor afford due protection either to the Clergy or Laiety And therefore the Senate doth not believe that they have incurred the Ecclesiastical Censure considering that Secular Princes have received that Power from God of making Laws which no other humane Authority is able to take from them and much less have the Briefs of your Holiness any place or prevalence in matters purely temporal which are clearly distinct from those which are spiritual to which the Papal Power doth singly extend Nor can this Senate imagine that your Holiness who is full of Piety and Religion will persist in these your Comminations until the cause hath first been fully examined and discussed And thus much they thought fit in short to make known unto your Holiness referring all things to be treated and explained more at large by their Ambassadour Extraordinary These Letters of the Senate being arrived at Rome were presented to the Pope by the hands of the Ambassadour who immediately opened and read them but the Contents so little pleased him that he was angry and froward all the time that they were in reading and in fine he told the Ambassadour that those Letters were no Answer to his Admonitory Briefs that the Answer was frivolous and insignificant that the matter was clear and evident on his side and that therefore he was resolved to proceed unto Sentence that the Senate must resolve to submit and obey for his cause was the cause of God Et Portae Inferi non praevalebunt adversus eam If the Monks of Padoua had purchased more Lands than were requisite or consistent with the welfare of the State upon address made to him he could have applyed a Remedy but the Senate proceeding in another manner were Tyrants Usurpers and Men of Principles different from their Ancestours wherefore he exhorted them not to deceive themselves with the thoughts of protracting the time in hopes of deciding the Dispute by his death for that in case he received not satisfaction therein in the space of fifteen days he would then proceed to execution of his Sentence The fifteen days were scarce expired when the Ambassadour Nani acquainted the Pope that Duodo was dispatched from Venice in quality of Ambassadour Extraordinary to inform his Holiness more amply of all matters to which the Pope replied that there was no need of farther expostulations the matter was clear and he would be obeyed But notwithstanding the Pope's hast time was protracted till towards the end of March when Duodo the Ambassadour Extraordinary arrived at Rome to whom the Pope would not have patience to grant all the methods of Complements but immediately at his arrival admitted him to Audience when the Ambassadour largely discoursing on every point in Controversie concluded that the Senate could not yield to the Demands of his Holiness without betraying that Power which God had put into their hands But the Pope making no reply to the Arguments in particular adhered close to the Conclusion that Ecclesiastical persons were exempted Jure Divino from the Secular Dominion that he had heard enough from Nani of this kind of reasoning that the Cause was God's and must prevail This resolution of the Pope being made known at Venice the Senate thought fit to communicate these their differences to the Ministers of forein Princes desiring their Opinions on those Points From which the Spanish Ambassadour excused him not desiring to concern his Master in those matters which might yield the least displeasure to the Pope but the Imperial and French Ambassadours were much more frank and open in their Opinions for the first did allow and approve the reasons of the Senate alledging the Customs of his own Country the French Comte where the same things were practised and Monsieur de Fresnes the French Ambassadour declared that he could not understand those Papal Laws which deny unto Princes the Government of their own State and therefore the Republick was much to be commended for preferring their liberty before any other respect At Rome the Cardinals of Verona and Vicenza used all the Interest and persuasions they were able to induce the Pope to defer the promulgation of his Sentence for some time putting him in mind that the Spiritual Arms were not to be exercised but in cases where they were sure to prevail Then said the Pope I shall make use of the Temporal and in the mean time to manifest to the World my patience and tenderness towards them I shall grant them the term of twenty four days to consider and repent and accordingly having formed and printed his Monitory on the 17th of April he caused it to be read and published in the Consistory After which he added That he had greatly studied this Point and having consulted with the most famous Canonists the general Opinion of them all was that the Republick acted contrary to the Authority of the Apostolick Sea and against the liberties and immunities of the Church alledging in his favour the Council of Simmaco and of Lions under Pope Gregory with other Decrees made by the Councils of Constance and Basil and that the same was so declared in the case against Henry II. against the Kings of Castile and other Kings and caused a Constitution made by Innocent III. to be read and to proceed the more regularly in this important matter the Votes of the Cardinals were distinctly required the number of Cardinals then present in the Consistory were forty one all which did either in few words assent or more at large produce the Authority of the Canonists in confirmation of the Pope's reasons And indeed little less than this free concurrence could be expected from them for though some few out of a zeal towards the Ecclesiastical liberty might really be possessed with this Opinion yet the generality were guided by other Principles some perhaps were unwilling to displease the Pope in expectation of preferments of themselves or Friends others had a prospect of arising to the Popedom and for that cause were willing to exalt its Power every one had some consideration or other for his own benefit but not such consideration as was required in study of the
which by some side-wind or far-fetched notion of Spiritual Concernment reduced almost every thing under cognisance of the Church According to this natural course of worldly affairs Lewis the 14th the most Christian King being high and prosperous in his fortune resolved to put a period to the process for the Regale which had continued near thirty years and at last in the year 1673. came to a conclusion and Declaration was made That the King had Right of Regale in all his Dominions without distinction except onely in those Sees that had purchased their exemption from it And therefore all Bishops who had not yet registred their Oaths of Fidelity in the Chambers of Accounts were required to do it and to take out a Writ upon it for closing the Regale otherwise rheir Bishopricks were still to be looked on as under it All the Bishops of France unwilling to incurr the displeasure of their successful Monarch submitted excepting the Bishops of Alet and Pamiers It was now under the Reign of Clement X. an old doating Pope who having his parts and understanding enfeebled by old Age he committed the management of the Pontificate to the sole direction of Cardinal Paluzzi afterwards adopted by the Pope and called Altieri a Person who from his first beginning was distastful to the Court of France and not until this time well reconciled unto it as we have at large declared in the foregoing Life This was the time I say when open Claim to the Regale was renewed in favour of the King and when the Pope himself was scarce able to distinguish his Interest and Altieri was so thwarted and opposed by the Court of France that he had enough to do to conserve his own personal Interest much less to vindicate and contend for the Rights of the Church in a case so litigious as this In January 1676. the King 's Right was claimed in disposal of the Deanry of Alet the Dispute of which was left unto the Bishop to maintain for the Pope being under the foregoing Circumstances took little cognisance thereof either by himself or his Cardinal But this good Pope dying in the month of August next following the Controversie fell to the lot of Innocent the 11th to maintain and to dispute in opposition to the eldest Son of the Church This quarrel was increased by a Contest at Pamiers where one Paucet was provided in Right of the Regale to be Arch-deacon of Pamiers but was rejected by the Bishop and Chapter howsoever the Regale prevailed for the Arch-Bishop of Tholouse was on their side and gave judgment in favour of the Regalist But on the contrary the Bishop of Pamiers acquiesced not with this Sentence but made his appeal to the Pope who was now engaged in the Controversie and the matter lodged in his hands Wherefore the Pope in the year 1678 wrote his Brief to the French King and in soft and yet pressing terms complained of the Innovasions made on the Liberties of the Church and the Authority of the Council of Lions and after several Arguments to persuade him to desist from this Enterprise he concludes that he cannot forget those Popes his Predecessours who upon the like occasions had endured long and great afflictions But these Allegations satisfied not the King who pretended that the Rights of the Regale were inherent in the Crown and had been enjoyed by his Ancestors and by them derived down to himself The Pope on the other side affirmed that the Secular Powers had no right to things sacred but as it was derived to them by the Authority of the Church and that the Church had not granted any such Right having expresly limited it by the Council of Lions which hath now been observed four hundred years This Controversie seemed to lie dormant from September 1678. to December 1679. until it was again revived and stirred in the See of Pamiers in that point which concerned the vacant Benefices and the mean Profits for the King's Officers seized on them likewise so that the good old Bishop had nothing to live on the last twenty months of his life but the Oblations and Charities of his People On this occasion the Pope wrote to the Cardinal d' Estreé to interpose in this Affair as being a Person more than ordinarily concerned in the dignity of the Apostolical See To which the Cardinal made answer in the style of a Court-Bishop extolling the King's merit his zeal for the Faith and respect for the Apostolical Chair what he had done for the suppression of Calvinism and Heresie within his Dominions and how bravely he had defended the Christian Cause against the Turks and in fine he laid down the dangers which would follow if any dissention should arise between the King and the Church At length Cardinal d' Estreé was dispatched to Rome with a Letter of Credence and Orders to treat immediately with the Pope himself but it seems his Negotiations produced little alteration for the Pope continued steddy and constant to his Principles And on the other side the Parliament of Paris became as zealous for the King 's Right and Authority for which the King's Attorney General pleading made little esteem of the Pope's Censures which were passed for Obedience to the King's Orders The Church said he may indeed have an Authority to punish Men for Heresie and an ill life but the World was now too well enlightned not to discern that the Thunders of Rome had been for several Ages vainly employed for extending its Authority beyond all due bounds the limits of which were to be found in the Canons of the Church by which the Pope as well as others ought to govern himself And therefore desired that the last Brief sent by the Pope might be suppressed which was accordingly done by a Judgment of the Court of Parliament on the last of March 1681. And to give a farther Authority to this Judgment an Extraordinary Assembly was called of all the Bishops then residing at Paris where were present six Arch-Bishops twenty six Bishops and six that were named to Bishopricks to whom the Agents of the Clergy represented the Invasions made on the Liberties of the Gallican Church by the Pope's Briefs both in general concerning the Regale and in particular in the Affair at Pamiers and the Nunneries and concerning a Book of Gerbais a Dr. of Sorbonne De causis Majoribus which were equally contrary both to Church and State to the Canons and the Concordate by which the Pope upon a simple Complaint without any Appeal did by the plenitude of his Power judg at Rome concerning the validity of Elections and the Authority of Arch-Bishops and Primats c. The issue of which Assembly was this They asserted the Authority of National Churches for judging of all matters both of Faith and Manners and in the conclusion agreed to make an Address to the King praying him to give leave either for a National Council or an Assembly General the latter
Pope again that he would please to Anathematize Rodolphus who endeavour'd to get possession of his Kingdom Which Gregory refusing to do Henry was so angry that he studied day and night to ruin the Pope In the mean while lest Sedition should be wanting in Christendom Michael and Andronicus his Son who had been by force depriv'd of the Empire of Constantinople by Nicephorus Bucamor came for refuge to Gregory who not only excommunicated Nicephorus but employ'd Rogerius a feudatary of the Roman Church to restore Michael with whom he discours'd at Ceperano to the Empire In pursuance of which command he got a Navy and leaving his younger Son Rogerius in Italy he took Boëmund his other Son along with him and sailed first to Valona but pitch'd his Camp near Durazzo resolving to make sure of that City which was so convenient for the carrying on of the War But Dominick Sylvius Duke of Venice who was of Nicephorus's party beat Rogerius from the Siege with great loss on both sides But not long after Nicephorus was betray'd by Alexius Mega General of his Forces and made a Prisoner the City being given up for three days to be plunder'd by the Soldiers according to compact Nicephorus himself was taken in the Church of Sancta Sophia but his life 〈◊〉 upon condition that he would take upon him the habit of a Monk for as long as he lived Gregory seeing that Henry was incited against the Church by some seditious Bishops called a great Synod and forbad Gilbert Arch-bishop of Ravenna for his pride and malice the exercise of his Episcopal or Priestly function under pain of an Anathema or Curse For when he was summon'd to appear before the Sea Apostolick being conscious of his crimes he would not obey the Citation for which alone he deserv'd the penalty of an Anathema He likewise censured Roland of Treviso for that when he was Legat in order to a Peace between him and Henry he sowed the seeds of discord and not unity to get a Bishoprick by the bargain 〈◊〉 did he spare Hugo Cardinal of St. Clements who had seditiously and heretically conspired with Cadolus Bishop of Parma In fine he chose three at the same Assembly to wit Bernard the Deacon the other Bernard Abbat of Marseilles and Odo Arch-bishop of Treves to go Legates à Latere from the Sea Apostolick to compose all differences between Henry and Rodolphus For the wise Pope saw that such a quarrel unless it were timely ended would occasion great calamities one time or other to Christendon But because he well knew that there would not be lacking such mischievous men as would endeavour to hinder it because it was their interest to foment rather than remove the dissention he gave the Legates Letters Apostolical to the several Princes and States written after this manner We taking notice of the weakness covetousness and ambition of mankind do charge all manner of persons whether Kings Arch-bishops Bishops Dukes Counts Marquesses or Knights that either out of pride cunning or covetousness they give no hindrance to our Legats whilst they negotiate the Peace And whosoever shall be so rash as to contravene this Order which I hope none will and shall hinder our Legats from composing a Peace I bind him under an Anathema both in Spirituals and Temporals by Apostolick Power and take away from him the advantage of any Victory he has gain'd that he may at least be confounded and be converted by a double penance He likewise commanded the Legates to call a Diet in Germany and deliberately examine who of the two Kings had the right and accordingly by the consent of all good Men to assign him the Kingdom whose cause was justest and that He when he should hear what they had determin'd would confirm it by the authority of God and S. Peter than which there cannot be greater But in the mean while Gregory lest the Church of Rome should suffer by Simony called a Council and therein confirm'd the Decrees of his Predecessors made to put a stop to that evil in these words We following the example of our Predecessors as we have formerly in other Councils do decree and ordain by the authority of Almighty God that whoever for the future accepts of a Bishoprick an Abbacy or any other Ecclesiastical preferment from a Layman shall not by any means be esteemed a Bishop an Abbat or a Clergy man nor let the same person dare to approach the Apostolical Sea before he has repented and left the place that he gain'd by ambition and contumacy which is the sin of Idolatry And under the same Censures we bind Kings Dukes and Princes who shall dare to confer Bishopricks or other Ecclesiastical Dignities upon any person against Law and Reason Furthermore we confirm the sentence of Anathema which was justly given against Theobald Archbishop of Milan and Gilbert Arch-bishop of Ravenna as also against Roland Arch-bishop of Treviso and we lay the same Censure upon Peter who was formerly Bishop of Redona but is now an Usurper in the Church 〈◊〉 Narbonne Moreover we deny S. Peter's favour and entrance into the Church to all such till they have repented and satisfied for their offences be they Normans Italians or any other Nation who have in the least injured or violated the Marcha di Termo in Ancona the Dutchy of Spoleto Campagna di Roma Sabina Tivoli Palestrina Frascati or Alba or the parts that lie toward the Tuscan Sea Add to these the Monastery of St. Benedict and all the Country of Cassino as also Benevent in Abruzzo But if any one pretends a just cause for taking what he has not yet restored let him demand justice of us or our Officers and if they are not satisfied we grant them leave to take back as much as will satisfie them not excessively like Robbers but as becomes Christians and such Men who only retake what is their own and desire not other mens goods fearing the anger of God and the Curse of S. Peter After that he confirmed the Curse against Henry afresh in these words Blessed Peter and thou Paul Doctor of the Gentiles I beseech you to hearken unto me a little and hear me in mercy for you are Disciples and Lovers of Truth and what I say is true I undertake this cause for Truths sake that my Brethren whose salvation I desire may obey me more willingly and that they may know how I rely upon your assistance next to that of Christ and his Virgin Mother whilst I resist the wicked and am a present guard continually to the faithful For I did not ascend this Sea willingly but against my inclinations even with tears in my eyes that they should think such a worthless Man as me fit to sit in such a lofty Throne But this I say because I did not chuse you but you me and imposed this heavy burden upon my shoulders But the Sons of Belial are risen up against me since I have ascended the Mount
the Cardinals to send some Bishops before to Pavia to begin it that seeming to be the most commodious place for it Thither therefore he immediately sent Peter Donatus Arch-Bishop of Candia James Camplo Bishop of Spoleto Peter Rosatius Abbot of Aquilegia Frier Leonard a Florentine and General of the Preachers to open the Council But they found no body yet come from France or Germany onely two Abbots of Burgundy therefore they thought fit to defer it till one at least should be come from each Nation little of moment being to be transacted without universal consent But while they waited their coming on a sudden Pavia was visited so severely with a Plague that with the Popes leave the Presidents of the Council remov'd to Sienna whither people came from all Nations more readily and in greater numbers than to Pavia Alphonsus King of Aragon who was an Enemy to Martin for giving the Title of King of Naples and Sicily to Lewis which himself desired sent his Embassador to the Council with Order to delay it as much as he could and to bring about the Cause of the Anti-pope Peter Luna yet alive in Panischola either by Promises or Bribes to those who had greatest Authority in the Council Wherefore Martin who knew very well how great a calamity such a thing would bring upon the Church and what danger there was in delays commanded the Council to be immediately dissolv'd approving first of the Decrees made in it that concern'd matters of Faith And lest he might seem to fear a General Council he order'd that another should be held at Basil seven years after Thus did that prudent subtil Man root out the seeds of Schism and Discord that were sown in the Council of Siena Alphonso then complain'd of Martin publickly that by his means he was put by the Kingdom which Joan designed for him and Lewis was made Heir in his room Martin easily confuted this charge and told him that Lewis was confirm'd Heir to Joan by Alexander V. and John XXIII long before and that all the blame ought to be laid on the Queen and not upon him whose business it was to strengthen rather than weaken the Churches Feudataries unless they had committed some heinous Offence against the Sea of Rome and that he did not see why Lewis might not be lawful Heir to Joan who was Crown'd by his Order But when Brachius saw the Pope involv'd in so many Affairs and so distracted by reason of the quarrel between him and Alphonso he got many of the Church-Towns by force and laid close Siege to Aquila a City in the Kingdom of Naples The Pope was angry at that and raising a good sufficient Army he attempted to relieve Aquila assisted by the Army of the Queen and Lewis and not far from Aquila he conquer'd and kill'd Brachius in the open Field The Sfortians were in that Battel under the conduct of Francis Son to Sforza who some years before going over the River Piscara which the Ancients call'd Aternus was drown'd Brachius's body was brought to Rome and buried in an unhallow'd place without the Porta di Sancto Lorenzo Upon this Victory there was so great tranquillity besides that Perugia Todi and Assisi with some other Towns which Brachius had possession of were reduced to the Church that they thought Augustus's happy days were come again into the World Then people lived at ease and could walk even in the Night through the Woods without any danger no Robbers being abroad no Russians and Thieves for he cut off Tartalia Lauellus and other Usurpers that got their living rather by Rapine than War But the Hereticks of Bohemia who plagu'd the Catholicks of Germany continually with Heresie and Arms seemed to interrupt this Peace and happiness To make them therefore submit to Reason and to the Church he admonish'd them first of all very gravely and when that would not do he sent Legats into Germany to stir up the Catholicks to Arms. And first he sent Henry Cardinal of S. Eusebius thither alone then Bartholomew of Piacenza and last of all he recall'd them and sent Julian Caesarinus Cardinal of S. Angelo who receiv'd great damage from the Enemy not by his own fault but by the cowardise of his Soldiers However Martin was not discouraged at it but made greater preparations against the Hereticks onely before he set about such a grand Affair he resolv'd to compose and quiet Italy For when the Peace was made by Martin between Philip and the Venetians the Florentines bore a grudg at Ladislaus Son to Paul Guinisius Lord of Lucca for the assistance he gave Philip in the preceding War and now he not being mention'd in the Articles of that Peace they laid hold on it as a fair opportunity to subdue the City and having raised an Army under Nicolas Fortebrachius and taken some Castles thereabout they laid Siege to it Whereupon Philip by the entreaty of Paul and for fear lest if Lucca fell into the hands of the Florentines he should find them the sharper as being the nearer Enemies he first sent Francis Sforza into Parma with a great body of Horse to raise Foot-soldiers there Who passing the Apennine in the beginning of Spring put the Florentines into such a fright that before he came into the Cloudy Vale as the Inhabitants call it the Enemies had removed their Camp and raised their Siege from before Lucca out of fear And his coming was so much the more welcome to the Lucceses because when their Enemies were subdu'd and the Usurper taken they thought to become absolute freemen by Francis's assistance But the Florentines bribing Francis with fifty thousand pounds he left the people of Lucca in a worse condition than ever having promised for that Sum not to serve Philip for six months Then the Lucceses were besieged more close than before Whereupon Philip at the request of Martin who also pitied the case of the Lucceses sent Nicolas Piceninus thither with a great Body of Horse presently who vanquish'd and routed the Enemy and not only raised the Siege but march'd thence and took many Castles belonging to Pisa and Volaterra by storm and did the Sieneses a kindness who then made War upon the Florentines Martin being now undisturb'd by any forein Foe apply'd his mind to adorn the City and Churches of Rome and to that purpose repaired the Portico of S. Peters which was falling down and paved the Lateran Church with Mosaic work cieled it anew and began those Paintings there which were done by the hand of the famous Gentilis He likewise repaired the old Palace that was ready to fall near the Twelve Apostles where he lived some years The Cardinals follow'd his Example and re-edified their Churches as fast as they could so that now Rome look'd something like a City He also created certain Cardinals of which his Nephew Prosper Columna Cardinal of S. George was one In the mean time Peter Luna dy'd at Panischola but lest the
and expedition in the design upon Florence but whilst these things were meditating Letters came from the Electoral College to the Emperor earnestly intreating him that he would be pleased speedily to return into Germany to consider about the matter of Summoning a General Council for Reformation of Religion and Election of his Brother Ferdinand to be King of the Romans and also to prepare matters for resistance of the Turk who had sworn to return thither again in a short time These matters seeming of considerable importance were the cause that the Emperor changed his resolution of proceeding to Rome and was Crowned at Bologna by the hand of the Pope at which there was a great confluence of people tho not that magnificence and pomp as had been usual at the Inauguration of other Emperors The day of his Coronation was the Feast of S. Matthias a day thrice auspicious to him being the day of his Nativity the day on which he took the French King Prisoner and the day on which he was invested in the Imperial Dignity This Solemnity being past the Emperor prepared for his Journey into Germany howsoever before his departure the Pope having setled his own business with him touching the subjection of Florence other matters of difference relating to the Venetians to the Investiture of Francis Sforza into the Dutchy of Milan and Alfonso d' Este Duke of Ferrara were referred by compromise to the sentence and determination of the Emperor the expectation of which judgment gave for some time quiet and repose to the Affairs of Italy After which the Emperor proceeded to Germany and the Pope returned to Rome where after some short time he received the joyful news of the surrender of Florence which having endured a long Siege by the Emperors Army under the command of the Prince of Aurange and after his death of Don Ferrand de Gonzaga yielded it self by common consent of the people to the government of twelve Citizens who being of the Faction of the Medices did without attending the Declaration of the Emperor leave Florence entirely to the pleasure and disposal of the Pope at whose instance and persuasion the Emperor declared Alexander de Medicis Prince and Duke of Florence and the same right of Honor and Dignity to descend from him to his Heirs for ever the which power and title hath since that time continued in that Illustrious Family Whilst these things were acted in Italy a Diet was assembled at Ausbourg at which Ferdinand the Emperors Brother was elected King of the Romans where also notice being taken of the great increase of the Lutheran Doctrin which had spread it self in all parts of Germany and had taken root in the greatest and most Princely Families it was concluded by all sides and parties as well Lutherans as others that the only means to reform Affairs and confirm those Doctrins which were sound and Orthodox was only in the Power and Authority of a General Council for the moderate Party which was inclined to the Papal Interest considering the many abuses crept into the Church and the exorbitant power of the Clergy hoped that a Council would reduce matters to more equal terms The Lutherans on the other side having formed a great and numerous Party did apprehend that many of the dignified Clergy that were to be Members of that Council would prove well inclined and affected to them where matters being debated with freedom and candor the nakedness of the Church of Rome would be exposed and its Corruptions discovered This being the general sense of all Germany which the Emperor was willing to satisfie he sent to the Pope urging him to summon a Council to persuade him whereunto he desired him to recal unto his memory the personal Conferences they had entertained at Bologna and the assurances he had there given him of faithfulness and adherence to the Church promising him that neither his Authority nor Dignity should be brought into any danger for that he would be there present in person to over-awe any contrivances which might be designed against either Nothing could come more ungrateful than this Proposition to the Pope and Cardinals who were not willing to expose the excessive abuses and exactions of the Court of Rome to the test of a Council where perhaps the authority of Indulgences the largeness of Dispensations and other Errors being discussed would give admission into those secrets which were not to be touched or opened The Pope also had some secret reserves of his own which he would not have committed to the scrutiny of a a Council he was not willing perhaps to have it debated that he was born Illigitimate which incapacitates him of being a Cardinal and consequently of being Pope Nor would he have the suspicion of Simony with which he practised with Cardinal Colonna called into question besides many other particulars of which he feared to be censured by the Council upon consideration of all which after consultations had with the Cardinals deputed to the discussion of that matter many reasons were given to the Emperor against the present Assembling of such a Council but when the time should appear more seasonable that then the Indictions might be regulated with many proper and cautious circumstances as that the Council should be celebrated in Italy and that the Pope should be personally present at it and that the Lutherans should promise to submit the determination and decision of their Controversies and Opinions to the judgment and sentence of a Council and in the mean time desist from the declaration or propagation of their Doctrins the which being a matter difficult and unpracticable the proposition for a Council became ineffectual and the thoughts thereof laid aside until the Reign of another Pope Tho the Pope did not think fit to gratifie the desires of the Emperor and all Germany with a General Council yet the Emperor not unmindful of the Arbitration he had accepted for settlement of the Affairs of Italy did about the beginning of the year 1531. reassume the consideration of those matters In the first place therefore he decreed that the City of Florence should be governed by the same Magistrates and by the same model and form of rule as it had formerly been in the time of the Medices that Alexander the Popes Nephew should be chief in the Government and so successively his Heirs for ever all the ancient Privileges and Immunities formerly granted by him or his Predecessors were again restored and confirmed with condition notwithstanding of forfeiture in case the Magistrates or People of that City should attempt any thing against the authority and greatness of the Medices the which Sentence he pronounced with a Despotick power not by virtue of a compromise or reference to him by the parties concerned but by an Authority inherent in the Imperial Dignity And tho this determination was pleasing to the Pope yet by the other relating to the Duke of Ferrara he was much offended for
from his Master the King withdrawn himself wherefore none appearing to receive and hear the Answer Order was given to have the Answer which was prepared for that time to be publickly read in the Council the substance whereof was this That the Council was not conscious of having given any such offence to his Majesty that he should have cause to pass such hard Censures upon it that it had been at first convened by the Authority of Paul the 3d. and now continued under this Pope Julius and therefore could not be suspected of having had it 's original from any private Designs of advancing particular interests as his Majesty would insinuate and therefore they desired his Majesty would be pleased to send his Bishops to the Council that they might concur in this holy Work which was carried on with no other aim than a just and a sincere intention to settle Religion on its true basis and to produce peace and quietness in the World Adding farther That in case his Majesty should upon any private considerations or animosities decline this happy Union denying the pretence and attendance of his Ministers at this Sacred Assembly that yet notwithstanding they were well assured that all those Acts performed there would have the same force and Authority obligatory upon Men's Consciences as if his Majesty had by the presence of his Ambassadours and Bishops concurred therein Nor did the French King onely deny to send his own Subjects to the Council but also prevailed with the Suisses and Grisons by his Ambassadours to do the like who being well acquainted with the secret Designs and Intrigues of the Court of Rome instilled that prejudice in their minds to this Council that as well Catholicks as Protestants then assembled in a Diet at Basil denied and disclaimed all concurrence with that Council and as an evidence thereof recalled Thomas Plant Bishop of Coire from thence Notwithstanding all these difficulties and oppositions the Council proceeded in their Decrees and determined eleven Points with Anathema against all such who should not close in faith and in belief thereof First against those who should deny the very Body and Blood of Jesus Christ together with his Soul and Deity to be really and substantially contained in the Eucharist but confess it to be only in sign or figure or mystically the which conversion of the Elements of Bread and Wine into the Body and Blood of Christ they called Transubstantiation Secondly against those who should hold that the whole Sacrament of the Eucharist is not contained in one of these two Species Thirdly against those who hold that the Body and Blood of Christ is then onely contained in the Species when the same is received and not before or after Fourthly against those who hold that the chief fruit and benefit of this Sacrament is the remission of sins Fifthly against those who hold that Christ in the Eucharist is not to be adored with the Service of Latria or carried in Procession or publickly exposed to Worship and Adoration Sixthly against those who being come to the age of discretion shall not communicate once a year and that at Easter with five other Points relating to the Sacrament all which were confirmed as irrevocable and immovable fundamentals of which it was not lawful to doubt much less to dispute These and other Points being already passed in the Council were taken as granted and concluded and therefore were not to be again re assumed to Debate But now in regard the matter of the Passports to be given to the Protestants was again to be considered it was judged fit that the Tenure thereof should be restrained with prudent cautions that when the Dissenting Party should intermix with their Assembly it should not be in their Power to unravel those Doctrines which had been already setled and determined but giving them for granted should proceed to examine other Points of lesser moment which they limited to four Articles First Whether it were necessary to Salvation that Christ's faithful People should receive the Sacrament of the Eucharist in both kinds Secondly Whether he that receives in one kind alone receives less than he that communicates in both Thirdly Whether the Church be guilty of an Error in having ordained that the Laity should communicate in one kind only And then Fourthly Whether the Sacrament of the Eucharist may be given to Children These Points of limitation being thus laid down the Preamble to the Passports ran in this manner That whereas the Protestants did desire to be heard upon these Points before they were finally determined and for the end they might have free and safe admission to this Council without any let hinderance or interruption whatsoever It was therefore by the Authority of this Council ordered and enacted That out of a desire and zeal they had to reduce the erring Christians into the true way of the Gospel they did with humble charity condescend unto their Demands giving and granting unto them the publick faith and assurance to come and repair freely to this Council and there to debate of the preceding Particulars Provided that they came and gave their personal attendance there in Council at or before the 25th of January next following and in the mean time that the Points being frequently debated and discussed might be prepared and made ready for determination against the end of that Month. The Tenour of this Passport being read and considered by the Protestants appeared strangely captious and such as gave them just occasion of astonishment and admiration for considering that the Protestants had not onely in all their Diets but in all their publick Remonstrances and Writings avowed their resolutions to hear all matters in Dispute to be examined in their presence and that without such personal intercourse and consent they would never receive or obey any Precepts or Articles which should be enjoyned or imposed upon them from Trent it seemed strangely magisterial and surprizing that the Council should assume a liberty to say that the Protestants desired to be heard onely upon those four Points it being most evident that the Design of the Passport was no other than to delude unthinking Men by a fair appearance of invitation and safe Conduct and yet keep the Authority of the Pope and of the Roman Church upon its guard and reserve wherefore the Protestants rejecting the allurements of such feigned Disguises by general agreement resolved not to repair unto the Council unless it were under the protection of such a safe Conduct as was given be the Council of Basil to the Bohemians one Clause of which was That the Holy Scriptures should be the Judg of all Controversies which in case they could not obtain they might have wherewith to excuse themselves before the Emperour The Pope having understood these resolutions of the dissenting Germans more earnestly urged the coming of the Catholick Suisses to the Council with whom also the Emperour joyned in the Invitation but the French King had
so charmed them by his Ambassadours who being a Person well versed in all the Intrigues and contrivances of the Court of Rome had wrote a Treatise on that Subject sufficient to create in them a Diffidence and jealousie of the Roman Counsels and so exposed the Designs intended against them that not onely the Protestant but also the Catholick Swissers did at a Diet held at Bade unanimously concur not to send their Deputies to Trent by which the Grisons also taking an Alarm conceived a jealousie that some thing was contriving at Rome to their prejudice and for that reason recalled Thomas Plant the Bishop of Coire from his residence with the Council Whilest these matters were in Treaty two Ambassadours from the Duke of Wirtemberg arrived at Trent whose Commission was publickly to represent the Confession of their Doctrine before the Council giving them to understand that in case they would admit their Divines to a Debate and grant them a free Passport as large and ample in the Tenure of it as was that of Basil that then they should appear in the Council and expound and explicate their Doctrine and Tenents according to the true sense and meaning of them but before these Divines were admitted it was ordered by the Legat that they should first present and make known to the President the Summary of their Commission that so it might be considered whether the particulars therein contained were such as were lawful and which might be regularly admitted into the Council which was the method of their proceedings But the Ambassadours whose Instructions were not to own or acknowledg the Authority of the Pope or power of convoking or presiding in Council either in Person or by his Deputies could not be persuaded to make applications to the President being a matter contrary to the principal Article resolved in Germany About the same time also being the beginning of November the Emperour arrived at Inspruck which being a City not above three days journey from Trent was for that present made the place of his residence that so he might with more ease receive daily Advices of the proceedings of the Council and be more near at hand to administer assistance to his Wars at Parma The news of the Emperours near approach did not much disturb the thoughts of the Pope who depended on the reiterated Promises which the Emperour had made him of being firm and steady to the interest of the Church and the Court of Rome But to the Ambassadours of Wirtemberg he studied not much to give a Reply or new Instructions to his Legat but onely recommended to him a firm constancy in defence of the Papal Authority which having in the time of Paul the third convened that Council and which had by the same Power been ever since continued he ought not in the least Point give way to schismatical and seditious motions but with courage and zeal defend the Right and Title which the Pope singly had both to Assemble and to preside as Head in all Ecclesiastical Councils The Ambassadours having continued at Trent without being heard pressed very earnestly for a Dispatch and that their Doctrines might be read in the Council and a safe Conduct granted to their Protestant Brethren according to the form of that given at Basil that so they might have liberty to deliver their Doctrines and Argue and Dispute in maintenance thereof without interruption or danger to their Persons But the Legat would not yield to either of the Propositions saying That as to their Doctrines they were already notified in their own Books and lay before the Council to consider and either to approve or condemn them and that the Censure given ought to be conclusive and received with humility and submission as a final Determination And whereas they desired that their Doctrines should be read in the Council it seemed as if the Dissenters intended to give Laws and Precepts and teach the Church what was Orthodox and what Erronious And as to the form of the Passport in any other latitude than what had lately been prescribed it seemed so insufferable an indignity to the Council and to the Church of God to have their former resolutions questioned and again unravelled that all good Christians were obliged to engage their Lives for the prevention thereof At the same time the City of Strasbourg and five other Towns sent their Ambassadours to Trent with the like Orders to represent their Doctrines before the Council who finding the same repulse did jointly address themselves to the Emperour complaining that contrary to the Promises of his Imperial Majesty their Doctrines could not be read in the Council or received into consideration but the Emperour being willing to content them acquainted them that the Ambassadours of Saxony were shortly expected and that when they came they should have a fair hearing and be admitted to a charitable and friendly Conference On the seventh of January 1552. the Ambassadours from Maurice Elector of Saxony arrived at Trent to the great joy of the other Electours and Prelats of Germany who uniting together in the same Interest made their first Addresses and applications to the Emperor's Embassadours acquainting them that their Princes being desirous to cultivate Union and Charity amongst Christians had sent their Divines to the Council who were moderate Men learned in the Law and Gospel and such as were lovers of Peace and Christian Charity and that all the other Protestant Princes would in like manner send their Ministers to the Council under the protection of such a Passport or safe Conduct as had been granted at Basil Provided that all matters and Points already Determined might be again examined and called into question and the Pope not admitted to preside as Chief of the Council but be equally liable to the Sentences and Censures of the same with other Bishops And in the mean time their desire was to be admitted directly to the Council without any intermediate Addresses to Crescentio the Pope's Legat and that in publick Assembly their Commissions might be read and their Doctrines exposed to publick consideration But these Proposals though gently received and hearkned unto by the Emperour's Ambassadours who were unwilling to disoblige the Electours of Saxony and Brandenbourg were violently opposed by the Pope's Legat and Nuncios who alledged that it was a matter of high indignity to the Council which represented the Church Catholick to have their Decrees and Determinations canvassed and reversed by an inconsiderable number of Sectaries who seemed to come prepared and armed rather to confound than establish the Council for seeing that their Principles were to disown the Pope's Authority on which that Council was founded and then to be admitted to a freedom of Speech in which they might vent their blasphemous Doctrines and reproaches to the dishonour of the Apostolical See was such an Indulgence to Impiety and a betraying the Power of the Church as rather than admit were ready to sacrifice their lives
into whose hands he had committed the most important Government of the Ecclesiastical State for they having misbehaved themselves the Pope in a publick Consistory discharged Cardinal Caraffa of his Government and Legantine Power in Bologna the Duke of Palvano he dismissed from being General of the Ecclesiastical Army and Admiral of the Gallies belonging to the Church and the Marquis of Montebello from being Captain of his Guards which Sentence against them the Pope thundring with impetuous Rage certain Cardinals would have offered something to mitigate his fury and extenuate the faults of his Nephews but those Lenitives adding more flame to his Fury he instantly charged the Cardinal Caraffa without farther delay to depart from Rome and remain confined to the City Indivina and the other two unto their respective Castles in places of these he constituted other grave Prelats whom he esteemed able and worthy to bear that share of Government which by reason of the infirmity of his old age he was uncapable to support And having thus disposed the Affairs of his Temporal Government he returned his thoughts to perfect that Reformation which he had then projected when he first came to the Papal Chair believing that the accomplishment thereof would be the greatest Ornament of the Apostolical Sea and give it a reputation over all the World In pursuance whereof he erected a Congregation composed of twenty four Cardinals and forty five Prelats and other Persons of the most wise and learned of all the Court to the number of one hundred and fifty These he divided into three Classes or Chambers to each of which he allotted eight Cardinals and fifteen Bishops and as many others as made up the number of fifty the chief incumbence and business of whom was to examine and enquire into the several degrees and natures of Simony the which being stated and concluded by this Congregation Coppies thereof were taken and published and sent to all Universities and Schools of learned Men requiring them to take notice of the particular Cases stated and concluded by the Holy Sea which was the Chief Doctor and Cathedratical Casuist in all Points of Religion and Conscience And though he himself as he affirmed had no need of such Regulations being well acquainted with the mind of Christ and versed in the Duty of that Office to which he was called yet that he might in all his endeavours for Reformation forestall the Objection which might be made him of Physitian cure thy self he resolved to begin at home and reform the Crimes of Simony which were objected as the crying sins of the Court of Rome and that when he had gone so far he would then remonstrate unto other Princes the Simony of their own Courts which was more rife and more intolerable in them than was ever allowed or practised at Rome But when the particular Cases of Simony came distinctly to be handled instancing in what manner Money might be taken and in what not there arose such diversities of Opinions that at length the conclusions came to be laid before the Pope as the ultimate Moderator of all Differences the which he having with some perplexity considered he finally resolved That it was not lawful to receive any Price Money Alms or any reward whatsoever for conferring any spiritual Graces or Benefices Ecclesiastical and that as to the Dispensations in cases of Matrimony though it had been the custom to receive Money for them he resolved that the same should never be again brought into practice by himself Howsoever so many scruples and Objections arose in many particular matters that nothing could ever be drawn to general Heads and so being environed by difficulties which procured delays nothing came to a full resolution the which a certain Cardinal having observed proposed to have these Questions reserved for a General Council at which the Pope being moved with extreme Choler replied That he had no need of any Council being the supreme Head and above it but the Cardinal being desirous to mollifie and appease his anger with some qualifications of his Speech said that though it was true that a Council was not necessary for giving force and Authority to the Pope's Determinations yet it might be convenient to have a Council for settlement of that Uniformity of Worship which was necessary in all Christian Churches to which the Pope assenting farther added That in case he should at any time call a Council that the same should be held at Rome and not at Trent which was in the midst and almost the Nest of the Lutherans Moreover in case he should at any time call a Council it should be composed of none but Catholicks for that they might with as much reason admit a Turk to those Debates and Consults of Religion as a Lutheran or any other Heretick and that it was unreasonable and preposterous to send sixty able and learned Bishops and forty Doctors to a Town within the Mountains as had been done twice already on supposition that they were better able to govern the World than the Vicar of Jesus Christ joined to the wisdom of his College of Cardinals who were selected out of the most wise religious and excellent personages of the Chistian Church During his time this Pope at four several Ordinations created nineteen Cardinals and changed the Festival of St. Peter which by antient Canons was celebrated on the 18th of January to the end of June supposing that season of the year most convenient for that Solemnity It is certain that this Pope intended well and designed with the strictest severity the reformation of Manners but his way of acting therein was so fierce and with those disobliging circumstances having a motion with his Head which spoke anger and spight that he could perform nothing though never so holy and laudable but what was ill censured by evil Tongues and indeed he was generally hated and that even by good Men. And though all the good actions which this Pope performed were done with so ill a meen as made them appear bad yet he had the good Conduct and fortune to prove a successful Instrument in making that memorable Peace between Philip King of Spain and Henry King of France for which happiness and Rejoycing Tilts and Tornaments being appointed at the French Court King Henry himself acting a part in it was unfortunately slain and his Son Francis II. being then a Youth succeeded in his Throne About which time the Pope being fallen into a Dropsie with which finding himself to decay and his end approach he summoned all the Cardinals to his Chamber desiring them to cast their thoughts upon some Person excellently qualified both for holiness of Life and Wisdom whom they might judg worthy to succeed him in the Apostolical Chair but in an especial manner he recommended to them the continuance of the Inquisition to which he gave the Epithet of most Holy declaring to have by good experience proved that the same had been the support of his
of the Catholick Religion had by the Authority of the Inquisition established condemned some to the Gallies and others to the Fire yet finding that these severities operated little upon minds already prepossessed with an Opinion of Religion and Conscience he was desirous to make trial of the more gentle and soft means of Instructions lest his People becoming desperate under their hardship and torments should be persuaded to believe it lawful to take up Arms in defence of their Persons and their Religion The Pope ill relished this Proposal declaring that he would never consent to have his Authority put to compromise or his Power compounded for that he was well acquainted with what obstinacy the Hereticks maintained their Doctrines which were never to be confuted but by the Sword the which he esteemed to be the most effectual way of Instruction and having persuaded the Duke to that remedy a War was begun in the Valleys which continued for a long time Nor were the disturbances in France less grievous than in Savoy where many were put to death for no other cause than for their zeal to the true reformed Religion and the salvation of their own Souls though it is true that many who were ambitious and desirous of Novelty did under this guise and cloak of Religion and with pretence of rescuing the King and the Dignity of the Sovereign Magistrate from the usurpations and tyranny of the Duke of Guise and his Party take up Arms and enter into Rebellion against their King but being afterwards beaten and many killed others were afterwards tried and for their Offences justly condemned to die and to all others who being misguided by Religion should lay down their Arms in the space of twenty four hours Proclamation was made that they should be received to mercy by a full and plenary Pardon from his Majesty But now the humours of the People being moved and hopes conceived of obtaining liberty of Conscience great tumults were raised in Provence Languedoc Poitou and other places so that how to suppress these tumults and quiet the minds of the people which were feavered with the heats of Religion was the great matter debated in the Councils of France and whereas it was objected by the Cardinal Armagnac that no Ecclesiastical remedy could be applyed without the assent and concurrence of the Pope this scruple was soon exploded by the contrary Opinion of the most of the Council who alledged that God had given to every Nation a full Power and Authority within it self to provide remedies necessary and agreeable to the present government of their State without having recourse to forein and far distant Powers for as it were unreasonable in case of fire and terrible incendiations within the City of Paris to expect till waters were brought from the Tybur to extinguish the flames and in the mean time neglect the use of the more near and convenient streams of the Seine and Mearne so also would it be in this great conflagration of civil-War to neglect remedies at home until we can fetch them from remote and distant Countries In short therefore it was agreed that a National Council should be assembled composed of all the Prelats of the Kingdom whose business it should be to consult and find out means to give a stop to the growing evils and to the course of those infections which were ready to poison and overwhelm the whole Kingdom Howsoever lest this Edict for summoning a National Council should be ill taken by the Pope and interpreted for a point of disrespect to the Apostolical Sea without his consent thereunto or at least an intimation given thereof it was ordered that the Ambassadour residing at Rome should by word of mouth represent the many dangers and growing evils within the Kingdom of France which could be cured by no other remedy than a National Assembly and that the dangers thereof were so pressing as not to admit the slow Methods of forein Assistance These matters being exactly in this manner represented to the Pope were very ill resented by him judging that such an Assembly of Prelats could not be convened without a breach of the Ecclesiastical Canons nor without prejudice to the Papal Authority which to make more clearly appear he resolved to dispatch the Bishop of Viterbo into France to make known unto his Majesty That such an Assembly was never admitted by former Popes in any Country or Kingdom whatsoever they being well assured that such a meeting would serve to no other end than to administer unto greater division and confusion and produce a Schism in the Church Catholick and That it would serve farther to exalt the pride of the Prelats inspiring them with an Opinion of some superiour Authority inherent in them above that of the Pope or of the King but if he would apply a true and an effectual remedy none could be so successful as a General Council which he had resolved shortly to assemble and that in the mean time nothing could be so available as that the Bishops be commanded to repair to their respective Dioceses and the Curats to their Parishes and there to watch over their Flocks and hinder Thieves and Wolves from breaking within the Fold and finally desired that their Spiritual Authority might be reinforced by the Power of the Civil Magistrate and the Arms of Regal force The Bishop of Viterbo being with these Instructions dispeeded into France he was farther commanded in his Journey thither to negotiate matters in the same form at the Court of Savoy and to incite the Duke to make War upon Geneva which they called the Nest of Heresie and the root from whence sprang all the false Doctrines of the new Religion the Bishop accordingly did not fail on his part to represent all matters to the Duke agreeable to his Instructions and found in him a ready disposition to embrace all the Proposals made him by the Pope especially the Enterprise against Geneva provided that with the consent both of Spain and France he might possess and enjoy that City This Demand was easily admitted on the side of Spain but they well knew that it would never be granted by France which had long aspired to that Dominion to which the Spaniards would accord being more willing to see that place the Capital Throne of the new Religion than a Seat of the French Power for that being near to the Dukedom of Burgundy might prove an ill Neighbour to that part of the Spanish Dominions Howsoever that the King of Spain might follow the Pope's inclinations in concurrence with the French as far as prudence and caution directed he dispatched Don Antonio de Toledo his Ambassadour into France to offer unto that King his utmost assistance and to joyn his Arms unto his for the total ruin and extirpation of Heresie But the Court of France would yield no ear to either of these Propositions they would gladly indeed have had the possession of Geneva but the Enterprise seemed difficult
Master Order and command all the Prelats of the French Nation to retire unto their respective Dioceses until such time as a more free and lawful Council were convened To this high pitch and degree of Dissention were both Parties transported that no other event or issue thereof was expected than a speedy and rash dissolution of the Council of which every one growing weary wished to see an end of their fruitless labours but the Spanish Ambassadour remitting something of his former heat desired time to acquaint his Master with all the preceding passages in which Interval these Heats abated and the Council proceeded to other matters And now after all these Stirs and Combustions and the many Protestations which the Cardinal of Lorain made against the Pope and his complaints against the abuses and corruptions of the Court of Rome on a sudden his humour and affections changed without any visible causes which might move him thereunto so that now instead of inveighing against the Pope or being the Chief in private Cabals against him he with wonderful address applyed himself to the Legats and received the flatteries of Cardinal Moron with a pleasing rellish contenting himself to hear the Legats tell him that they desired to act nothing without his privity wishing that he would bear a share of the burthen with them being infinitely satisfied to have all their Affairs guided by his direction But this dearness between them lasted not long before the Queen Regent wrote a Letter to the Cardinal in which she required his speedy return into France where his presence would be much more serviceable to the Crown than it could be at Trent from whence no good effect either towards Peace or Reformation could be expected That having now concluded a Peace with her Protestant Subjects which seemed to be well established and permanent there was no farther necessity of giving them other satisfaction from Acts of the Council or concessions of the Pope and therefore that for the future he should give Order to the French Clergy not to combat with the Papal Authority but rather to be concurring in whatsoever might fortifie and confirm the same To which part and action the Cardinal seemed easily to incline in regard that standing on ill terms with the Protestants who were mortal Enemies to the House of Guise he found it necessary to support himself with the favour of the Court of Rome to which notwithstanding all former quarrels and Piques he professed himself a true Friend and an obedient Servant And now a new Ambassadour called Birague arrived at Trent from the Court of France with Letters rendering an account unto the Council of the Peace lately concluded with the Protestants for which and for the Articles granted to them in the free exercise of their Religion there was such a necessity that without such an accord the Crown and welfare of France would have been exposed to utmost extremity the which being performed with design of reducing the straying and wandering Sheep into the path and fold of the Church it was hoped that the Council would put a good Interpretation on this transaction and approve of this Cure and remedy which was unavoidable The Council being doubtful what Answer to make unto this Letter desired time to consider thereof intending to dispeed it by the Ambassadour Lansac who was preparing for his return into France Birague having in the mean time Commission to pass unto the Court of the Emperor And now the Congregation proceeded to examine the Point about Ecclesiastical Ordinations in the discussing of which the Bishops did not so strictly adhere to the matter in hand but that they made frequent excursions into the abuses of the Court of Rome and thence descended to the old controverted Points about the Divine Right of Episcopacy and Residences which were never mentioned without Heats and Quarrels In the treating of which Lainez General of the Jesuits undertook to give a more home-blow than any had done before him which he did with so much heat and vehemence as if the salvation of mankind had depended thereupon He took that occasion also to excuse Dispensations the Impositions and Taxes laid by the Church the Riches of the Court of Rome and all those things which are commonly termed Abuses thence he proceeded to exalt the Papal Authority above the Council above all the Church nay above the Clouds and higher than we can imagine the which Discourse tho displeasing both to the Spaniards and French and all but the Pensioners of Rome was highly applauded by the Legats to whom his long Orations did never seem tedious as if they had chosen him for the Interpreter and Explainer of all their thoughts and designs to which end when his turn came to speak he was commanded to take his place in the middle of the Assembly and heard always with patience and applause of the Legats when the Chiefes of other Orders were ordered to speak in their places and were brow-beaten and discouraged Howsoever a certain Benedictin Monk offered to confute Lainez and prove that the Position maintained by him namely That the Tribunal of the Pope is the same with that of Jesus Christ was impious and scandalous But the Cardinal of Lorain who had now changed his Designs and Interests moderated the zeal and heats of both Parties and the Legats laboured to pen such a Determination of that matter as might by the subtilty and ambiguity of those words seem to content all Parties which Instrument though the Cardinal of Lorain seemed to remain satisfied yet the Canonists of Trent and Pensioners of Rome made a thousand difficulties imagining that the words did not screw or strain up the Papal Authority to its true Note and degree About this time Maximilian who was no great Friend to the Pope having been lately chosen King of the Romans sent his Ambassadour to Rome to give him notice of his Election but not in the same method which his Predecessours had practised who promised and swore to whatsoever the Popes imposed upon them for before he would pass that Point he desired first to know what terms the Pope would require of him to which answer was made by the Cardinals That he should acknowledg his confirmation to the Pope's Authority and swear Obedience to him in such manner as his Predecessours had formerly practised which though the Ambassadour in the name of his Master refused to do in such strict sense as the Pope required and would onely promise Devotion Reverence and compliance with the Apostolical Chair yet the Pope was pleased to accept thereof and interpret those Expressions to be equivalent to the term of Obedeince and accordingly granted the Confirmation which was never demanded and accepted the Obedience which was never offered At a Congregation held on the 21th of June all things were preparing against the Session appointed for the 15th of July following that nothing might then obstruct the proceedings or give occasion to defer the time as
being once celebrated is of force and not to be again dissolved but by Authority and dispensation of the Church After divers debates thereupon the Bishop of Metz was so happy as to find a form of words for that Canon which contented all Parties which was this That though the Church hath ever forbidden and detested Clandestine Marriages yet whosoever denies Clandestine Marriage to be a Sacrament let him be Anathema The marriage of Priests admitted now of no farther difficulty for though the Emperor the King of France and the Duke of Bavaria demanded that priviledg in behalf of their People yet that Point was now laid aside and all instances in that matter were denied to be heard or admitted to farther question or examination in the Council After this the Legats proposed thirty eight Articles in order to a Reformation which contained the many abuses and encroachments which Secular Princes had made upon the Rights of the Church but the Cardinal of Lorain was for abbreviating the Articles and for cutting off all those which might administer matter of Controversie so that by a speedy dispatch thereof the Council might tend towards a conclusion which caused many to wonder that the zeal which he had so warmly evidenced at first for a Reformation should so soon vanish and be evaporated A Copy of these Articles being communicated to the Ambassadours every one made his observations reflections and additions thereunto as was most consistent with the affairs of their respective Masters For the chief Remarks and alterations of the Ambassadours tended to something which might abate the Power and Authority of the Pope over the Ordinaries and the jurisdiction of the Bishops themselves over the Civil and Municipal Courts But the French were the most severe of any in the rules of Reformation For they would have the number of Cardinals restrained to twenty four that the Nephews of Popes during the life of the Pope should not be capable to receive a Cardinals Hat that Cardinals should be made uncapable to hold Bishopricks that criminal causes against Bishops should not be judg'd at other Tribunals than such as are within the Dominions of France That Bishops should be endued with plenary Power to give absolution in all Cases That Ecclesiastical persons should not be concerned or intermedle in secular Affairs and in short that they do no act or thing which may infringe the Law of France or intrench on the Liberties of the Gallican Church These particulars for reformation of the Church thus delivered were to be prepared against the next Session and as resolved so to be enacted and for Reformation of the Courts of Princes it was by agreement of the Ambassadours reserved as the chief matter and subject for a subsequent Session These Proposals were in no manner acceptable to the Pope who could not endure such fatal attempts on the Power and prerogative of the Church to avoid which nothing could be a defence or remedy but onely the dissolution of the Council to which end he earnestly wrote to all his Nuncios residing in the Courts of forein Princes commanding them to use their utmost art and skill to persuade the respective Princes to be aiding and concurring herein And farther gave orders to his Legats at Trent to grant freely whatsoever could not be refused and with all decent speed to put a final end and conclusion to the Council but this Design encountred some rubs and obstructions from the Spanish Ambassadour and others of that Party who complained of the private Cabals which the Legats held with certain Cardinals and other Confidents in exclusion of the Spanish Interest But their complaints were little regarded by the Legats whose greatest incumbence then was to satisfy the Bishops without whose concurrence the Council could not be dissolved For now the intention of the Bishops being to make use of this occasion to enlarge their Power and obtain some priviledges which were derogatory to the Papal Chair made that point of gaining the good will of the Bishops to be the more difficult because that their pretences of subjecting Monasteries and regulation of Friers and certain priviledged Churches to the Episcopal Jurisdiction which were exempted from it by Orders of the Pope found most opposition from the Generals of the respective Orders and indeed the Ambassadours themselves did not much favour this Demand which seem'd too highly to advance and exalt the pride and power of the Bishops Whilest these things were under Debate the French Ambassadours received a large Pacquet from their Master in answer to the late Proposals projected for a Model to reform abuses in the Courts of Princes the which much displeased the King and his Ministers of State who wondered at the daring attempts of the Clergy on the King 's Royal Power and Authority under a pretence of Reformation contenting themselves in the mean time with a slight and superficial review of their own abuses and therefore persuaded the Fathers of the Council to attend unto matters purely Spiritual and to such Acts as might serve to reform corruptions crept into the Church and to correct the debauched lives of Priests and Monks the scandal of which had been the cause of all the Schism in the Church rather than to intermedle with the sacred Prerogative of Kings or abett and maintain the Clergy in their opposition and contumacy against their Sovereign Thus much the Ambassadours had Orders to signifie to the Council with farther Instructions that in case they should notwithstanding this intimation proceed to encroach on the King's Regalia that then they should make their Protest and retire to Venice all which the Ambassadours made known to the Cardinal of Lorain and declared to the Legats requiring the Bishops to supersede their pretensions to those honours and priviledges which were the sole Right and Prerogative of Kings The Bishops who were resolutely bent to maintain those Emoluments which so nearly concerned them protested before the Legats that they would neither enter more into the Congregation nor give their advice or Voice in any matter unless they were first secured of the Rights to which they pretended which a hundred of them obliged themselves by solemn Oath never to remit All which violent Contests took up so much time that when the 15th of September was come which was the day before the Session nothing was duly prepared in order to pass into a Canon and therefore the time was prorogued until the 11th of November that so in the interim the Cardinal of Lorain might have sufficient time to make his Journey to Rome where he was greatly desired by the Pope and all that Party The Cardinal being arrived at Rome was received with all the joy and honours imaginable he was lodged in the Pope's Palace and immediately in Person visited by him which was a Complement that never Pope had made before to any under that character of a Cardinal After which there passed such kindness between them at several private
by common Voice that the intention of the Council in all and every of their Canons was to maintain the Papal Dignity in its antient Power and Authority without any abatement or diminution thereof And finally an Act was read and published whereby it was declared That the place or rank which any Ambassadour or Representative had holden or possessed in that Council should give no Title or ground of claim for the like degree or place for the future the Council not pretending to determine any thing in prejudice of the rights and priviledges of Kings Princes or States Lastly at the breaking up of the Council Excommunications and Anathemas were read against all Hereticks in general mentioning Luther Zuinglius or others in particular And then the period was closed with loud acclamations in praise of the Pope the Emperor the Kings the Legats and all the Fathers which was performed in a different manner to the practice of other Councils which ended with acclamations and blessings pronounced with the confused noise or murmurings of the whole Assembly but at Trent it was performed by way of Responses or Antiphonas in which the Cardinal of Lorain pronounced the first Sentence and was again answered by all the Prelats which being the part of a Deacon or Chanter seemed an Office too mean to be personated by his Eminence and not onely gave subject of railery to the World but subjected him to a thousand Censures at his return home where it was charged upon him that in the Acclamations or Antiphonas then made there was no mention of the King of France And in the last place it was ordained That all the Prelats should sign the Decrees before their departure upon pain of Excommunication for execution whereof a form of Congregation being appointed the Hands or subscriptions consisted of four Legats two Cardinals three Patriarchs twenty five Arch-Bishops two hundred sixty eight Bishops seven Abbots thirty nine Procurators or Substitutes in behalf of such as were absent and seven Generals of the Religious Orders the subscriptions of the Ambassadours were not required to avoid the late Contestations and Disputes about place And yet notwithstanding this number of Bishops there was not one of Germany present in the last Convocation which was far the most numerous and solemn of any for Hungary or Poland there were very few Bishops present there appeared not one for Sweden Denmark England or the Low-Countries The Bishops of France which came onely towards the latter end being joyned with the Bishops of Spain could not in all make above the number of forty so that of the two hundred and odd Bishops of which this Council was composed there was at least one hundred and fifty of them Italians who were Creatures and Pensioners of the Pope For which reason this Assembly was justly termed the Council of the Pope and his Italians The Council being in this manner broken up every one returned to his home and Country and all things being concluded to the satisfaction of the Pope caused great joy in the Court of Rome where the Legats and the other Favourers thereof were received and welcomed with applause and commendations and the Pope to gratifie his Friends who had taken such pains and served so well in this important Affair promoted nineteen of them to the Dignity of Cardinals and amongst the rest the Arch-Bishop of Taranto was in a singular manner remembred and gratified Nor had the Pope so much taken up his thoughts with the Council but that being transported with a spirit of munificence and Building he could attend to raise and continue his Name by mighty and Excellent Structures and figuring to himself a model of the antient Rome as if he intended to have restored it to its antique glory he commanded the antient Monuments to be conserved the Streets restored and at his great expence the Aqueducts which brought the Water from distant places to the City to be again repaired It was this Pope who re-built the Baths of Diocletian upon Mount Quirinus converting them into a Church and to a Monastery which he personally consecrated He fortified the Castle of St. Angelo and repaired the ruins of the Castle of Civita Vecchia and made many other Structures for convenience and Ornament of the City Whilest he was intent upon these Affairs a certain number of Villains designed to have murthered him and to have perpetrated this wickedness at the time when he was busied in reading a Paper which they were to consign into his hand the Person who was to deliver him the Writing was one Acolti and the Contents or substance thereof was a persuasion to resign up his Papal Authority into the hands of such a Person whom they should describe to him for they pretended to have received a Revelation and seen a Vision that the Successour to this Pope should be of an Angelical Spirit elected by the common consent of all Christendom that he should become the Universal Monarch of all the World reform the Manners of Mankind teach them to live up to the perfection of humane Life and in short convert all People and Nations to the Christian Faith Acolti having delivered his Paper and being about to strike the fatal blow his heart failed him upon which one of the Assassinates discovering the Conspiracy they were all seized and justly executed with such torments as the blackness of the Crime deserved Not long after this being on the 10th of December 1565. the Pope died having governed five years eleven months and a half he had during his time created forty five Cardinals some out of favour to Princes and others in reward of their own worth and merit and had he lived his intention was to have made up his number a full hundred so that they might have been called Centum Patres But he died in the 77th year of his age and his body was buried in the Baths of Diocletian lately converted into a Church by him and called Sancta Maria Angelorum And the Sea was vacant twenty nine days PIVS V. PIVS the Fourth being dead and his funeral Rites after the accustomed manner being performed the Cardinals entered the Conclave to the number of fifty two and by common consent with the concurrence of Cardinal Borromeus afterwards canonized for a Saint and of Cardinal Farnese the two leading Men at that time elected Anthony Ghisler to the Succession in the Papal Chair This Anthony Ghisler so called by Papyrius Massonius but by Cicarella named Michael was born of mean and ordinary Parents at a Town called Boschi not far from Alexandria della paglia which lies between Montferrat and the State of Milan he was entered into the Order of Jacobin Friers at the age of fourteen years and then changed his name to Michael he was ordained Priest at Genua and proved a most strenuous Preacher and Master of a most powerful and moving Eloquence he was afterwards constituted Prior of his Convent of Vigevani and Commissary
of which was consented unto by his Majesty and summoned to meet the first of October following Thus far concerning the Regale we have extracted in short by way of Epitome from the Treatise of Dr. Burnet on that Subject Now as to what follow'd The Assembly met at the time appinted at the opening of which the Bishop of Meaux preached a most Eloquent Sermon with much applause After which the point of the Regale was put to the question and argued learnedly on both sides and in conclusion the greatest part were of Opinion that the Right unto the Regalia were inherent in the Crown and that the pretensions thereunto were Usurpations by the Church as appears by this following Declaration The Declaration of the Clergy of the Gallican Church concerning the Ecclesiastical Power We the Arch-Bishops and Bishops Representatives of the Gallican Church being by command of his Majesty assembled at Paris together with others of the Clergy in the same manner delegated with us after long debate and mature consideration have thought fit to declare and determine these several particulars following 1. First That a Power is given by God to St. Peter and his Successours who are the Vicars of Christ and to the Church to order and regulate all Spiritual matters but not to intermeddle in Civil or Temporal matters according to that saying of our Lord My Kingdom is not of this World And again Give unto Caesar the things that are Caesars and unto God the things which are Gods And agreeable hereunto is that of the Apostle Let every Soul be subject to the higher powers for there is no power but of God the powers which are are ordained of God and whosoever resisteth the power resisteth the Ordinance of God Wherefore Kings and Princes by the Law of God are not liable in Temporal matters to the Ecclesiastical Power nor by the Power of the Keys can they be Deposed either directly or indirectly or can their Subjects be absolved from their Fealty and Obedience to them or from their Oaths of Allegiance the which we confirm and determine as principles not onely necessary for conservation of the publick peace and tranquillity but for the better government of the Church and as truths agreeable to the Word of God the tradition of the Fathers and to the example and practise of Saints and Holy Men. 2. Secondly That the Apostolical See and the Successours of St. Peter who are the Vicars of Christ have a full and plenary power in all Spiritual matters in such manner as is given to them by the Holy Oecumenical Synod of Constance which is received by the Apostolical See and in such manner as hath been confirmed by the constant use and practise of the Popes of Rome and the whole Church and observed by the Religion of the Gallican Church and decreed by the Authority of the General Councils in the fourth and fifth Sessions And the Gallican Church doth condemn the Opinions of those who esteeming those Decrees of doubtful Authority do endeavour to restrain them to certain times of Schism and to invalidate the present power thereof 3. Thirdly Hence it is that the 3d exercise of the Apostolical power is to be regulated by Canons established by the Spirit of God and thereunto all the World is to bear respect and Reverence Likewise the Rules Manners and Institutions received by the Kingdom and Church of France as also the customs of our Forefathers are to remain unalterable the which is a clear demonstration of the greatness of the Apostolical See that the Statutes and Ordinances thereof are established and confirmed by and with the consent of the Churches 4. Fourthly In questions of Faith the Pope is Chief Judg and his Decrees extend themselves to the Churches in general and to every one in particular nor can his judgment be repealed unless by the consent and determination of the Universal Church 5. Fifthly These particulars received from the Doctrine of our Fore-fathers we have by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost Decreed to send unto all the Gallican Churches and the Bishops presiding over them And we do all concur in the same sence and meaning of them Subscribed by Arch-Bishops and Bishops and Clergy as before related and registred as required by the King's Attorney General March 23. 1682. The Pope who during his Reign had not as yet assumed any to the degree of Cardinal to supply the places of those who were dead the College was diminished twenty six in their number which when the Pope considered and that old Men were every day dying and falling off he was inspired to replenish the places with a supply of sixteen new Cardinals which were these that follow 1. John Baptista Spinola of sixty seven years of Age a Genoese who was Governour of Rome and Secretary of the Congregation of Regulars 2. Anthony Pignatelli a Napolitan of sixty six years of age Bishop of Lecca and Master of the Pope's Chamber 3. Stephen Brancaccio a Napolitan of sixty four years of age 4. Stephen Agostini of sixty five years of age Arch-Bishop of Heraclea and Datary to the Pope 5. Francis Bonvisi of Luca aged sixty three years Arch-Bishop of Thessalonica and Nuntio residing at Vienna 6. Savo Mellini a Roman aged thirty seven years Arch-Bishop of Cesarea and Nuntio in Spain 7. Frederick Visconti of Milan aged sixty three Auditor of the Rota and Arch-Bishop of Milan 8. Marco Gallio of Como aged sixty nine years Bishop of Rimini and Vice-gerent of Rome 9. Flaminio del Tayo of Siena aged eighty years Auditor of the Rota and Chief Penitentiary 10. Raymond Capizucchi a Roman aged sixty nine years Master of the Palace 11. John Baptista de Luca a Napolitan aged sixty four years Auditor to the Pope 12. Laurentio Brancati of Laurea in Calabria aged sixty four years Library-keeper of the Vatican 13. Vrbano Lacchetti of Florence aged forty four years Auditor of the Apostolical Chamber 14. John Francisco Ginetti a Roman aged sixty years Treasurer of the Apostolical Chamber 15. Benedict Pamfilio aged twenty eight years Grand Prior of Rome 16. Michael Angelo Ricci aged sixty five years Secretary of the Congregation of Indulgences The other ten Hats remaining were kept in the hand of the Pope for a reserve wherewith to gratifie Kings and Princes whensoever they should desire to have some of their own Creatures preferred to that Dignity All the sixteen preceding Cardinals took their promotion very patiently and without much reluctancy excepting Tayo who was eighty years of age and Ricci both which made some modest refusals as unworthy of that great honour but the Pope instantly constraining them they with humility submitted And here it is observable that this Pope is not very forward to create Cardinals but rather inclinable to lessen and reduce their number which of late years hath increased to that degree as to become a burthen to the Church But to return unto the Assembly at Paris which after many Debates and deliberate
to act in any thing without the counsel and advice of them and consent of the people and that he would examine the Causes and the merits thereof in their presence and moreover he reproves certain Priests for their irregular proceedings in cases of judgment threatning to give an account thereof unto the people This charity and plain dealings of the Bishops gained them such reputation that their advice and sentence was almost in all matters followed and admitted by the people whose charity in after-Ages growing cold and careless of the mutual good and benefit each of other came by degrees to cast off this burdensom Office of Judgment and to remit it solely to the Incumbence of the Bishop who also degenerating from the primitive humility easily gave way to the allurements of ambition and under the disguise of Charity and Vertue embraced the Authority of passing sentence without the assistance or consultation with co-ordinate Judges So soon as the persecutions ceased great loads of business Cases and Trials at Law devolved upon the Bishop so that then he was forced to erect a Tribunal of Justice and contrive Methods and rules for Judicial proceedings howsoever in those times of simplicity and innocence things were not so wholly corrupted but that though the antient Discipline of remitting matters to the determination of the Church did cease yet sincerity and uprightness in passing Sentence still continued The which when Constantine the Emperour observed and considered the great difference there was between the captious and litigious proceedings of secular Advocats and Proctors who made Law-suits and wranglings their benefit and Trade and the honest and conscientious Methods and determinations of the Clergy he ordained that the Sentence of the Bishop should be definitive and without appeal with power to grant an injunction to all proceedings at Common Law in case the party agrieved should desire to have recourse to the Episcopal judgment and jurisdiction in his case Hence it came to pass that the Sentence of the Bishop was made a judgment of Court and put in execution by the hands of the secular Magistrate and this jurisdiction was farther amplified and increased in the year 365. by the Decree of the Emperour Valens But the extent of this Authority established by the Law of Constantine being afterwards abused by the corruption of succeeding Bishops was recalled by the Emperours Arcadius and Honorius and confined to causes purely religious without Courts or formal processes of Law and without power to intermeddle in civil differences unless the parties concerned should on both sides agree to remit their case by way of Arbitration or compromise to the Sentence of the Bishop But in regard the Bishops of Rome had for a long time been powerful in that City little notice was taken of this Injunction until in the year 452. it was again enforced and renewed by Valentinian the Emperour But not long afterwards the succeeding Emperours restored part of that Authority which had been taken from them and Justinian again erected their Courts of Judicature to which he assigned all Causes about Religion complaints and differences between the Clergy Ecclesiastical Fines and forfeitures with power to determine Cases between Lay-persons who should by way of Umpirage or Arbitration refer themselves to the Episcopal Court and in this manner did that charitable correction and that plain and sincere way of ending and composing differences between Brethren instituted by Christ Jesus begin to degenerate into that Dominion which our Saviour had forbidden to his Apostles And farther to strengthen and confirm this Episcopal Authority so soon as the Empire was divided and that the Western Provinces were separated from the Eastern Dominions then were many of the Bishops taken into the Councils of Princes whereby the Secular Power being annexed to their Spiritual capacity served much to advance and raise the reputation and Authority of the Episcopal Dignity so that two hundred years had not passed in this manner before the Bishops arrogated to themselves a Power to judg the Clergy in all Cases both Criminal and Civil And to extend their Jurisdiction farther they framed a Term called Mixed Actions in which the Bishop as well as the Secular Magistrate might grant Process that is in matters where the Judg had not been diligent or cold and remiss or dilatory in his proceedings then the Bishop might take the Causes out of his hands by which pretence and usurpation little business remained for the Secular Courts And farther by vertue hereof they established a general standing Rule as unalterable as a fundamental of Faith that in Cases where the Magistrate was remiss or delayed to do Justice those Causes did ipso facto devolve to the cognizance of the Bishop Had the Prelats stuck at this point and not proceeded farther it had been pretty tolerable for then a Power might have remained still in the hands of the Civil Magistrate to moderate and retrench the excesses of Ecclesiastical encroachments as occasion served but those who had imposed this yoak on the people thought fit for their own security to rivet it in such manner about their necks that it could never be shaken off again having to that purpose forged a principle in their own Shops under the Title of a fundamental point of Faith That the Bishops power of judging in Causes as well temporal as spiritual took not its Original and Authority from the Decrees or connivence of Emperours or from the will and pleasure of the people or by custom or prescription but from a right inherent in the Episcopal Dignity and conferred thereupon by the institution of Christ himself As appears in the History of the Council of Trent wrote by Father Paul Sarpi This was certainly a bold and a hardy Assertion which could so easily have been refuted by those who had read the Codes of Theodosius and Justinian with the Capitularies of Charles the Great and Concessions and Ordinances of succeeding Princes both of the Eastern and Western Empire in reading and considering which a Man must be strangely blind or stupid who cannot observe by what ways and Methods the excess and exorbitance of Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction was introduced into the World And indeed it is strange to consider that on the bare foundation of that Spiritual Power to bind and loose given by Christ to his Church and by that Ordinance of St. Paul to compose differences between the Brethren and prevent their going to Law before Infidels should by a long tract of time and by several Artifices and subtil contrivances be erected a Temporal Tribunal the most extensive and most considerable of any that ever was in the World and that in the midst of divers Kingdoms and Principalities of Europe there should be an other State established independent on the Publick which is such a Model and form of Political Government as never any of the Antient Legislators could ever fansie or imagine to be consistent with the Sovereignty of a Temporal Prince
kiss He was a man of so obliging a temper that no person went away sad out of his Presence And being so happy as to have a Contemporary Emperour like himself he designed to hold a Council vpon the account of the Monothelites Only he waited the time till Constantine should return from the War who had vanquish'd the Saracens and made them tributary to the Roman Empire But the Bulgarians advancing out of Scythia into Thrace and the Emperour endeavouring to put a check to their motion he was with great loss routed between Hungary and Moesia Hereupon he found himself obliged to strike up a peace with them upon disadvantageous terms permitting them to inhabit Hungary and Moesia though that Concession in the event proved a great benefit to the State of Christianity For these are the men who for this seven hundred and seventy years since have maintained a continual War and been the Bulwark of Christendom against the Turks Well a Peace being upon these Conditions concluded Pope Agatho sends to Constantinople his Legates John Bishop of Porto and John a Deacon of Rome Them Constantine receiv'd with all expressions of respect and very affectionately advised them to lay aside all Cavils and sophistical wranglings and Controversies and sincerely to endeavour the uniting the two Churches There were present at this Synod two hundred and eighty nine Bishops and by the Command of the Emperour there were brought out of the Library of Constantinople those Books from whence the Opinions and Determinations of the Ancients might be collected Gregory Patriarch of Constantinople and Macarius Bishop of Antioch perverting the sense of the Fathers maintain'd only one Will and Operation in Christ. But the Orthodox pressing hard with their Reasons and Authorities they thereby reclaimed Gregory and Macarius adhering obstinately to his Opinion they 〈◊〉 him and his Followers and made Theophanes an Orthodox Abbat Bishop of Antioch in his stead This Affair being thus successfully managed that thanks might be return'd to God for this Union of the two Churches in heart and mind John Bishop of Porto on the Octave of Easter in the presence of the Emperour Patriarch and the People of Constantinople in the Church of S. Sophia celebrates the Mass in Latin all that were present approving that way and condemning those that thought otherwise This was the sixth General Council consisting of two hundred and eighty nine Bishops held at Constantinople wherein upon the Authority of Cyril Athanasius Basil Gregory Dionysius Hilary Ambrose Augustine and Hierom it was concluded that there were two Wills and Operations in Christ and their pertinacy was exploded who asserted one Will only from whence they were called Monothelites The first General Council of three hundred and eighteen Bishops was as we have already said held at Nice in the Pontificate of Julius and the Reign of Constantine against Arius who asserted several Substances in the Trinity The second at Constantinople of an hundred and fifty Bishops in the Reign of Gratian and the Pontificate of Damasus against Macedonius and Eudoxus who denied the Holy Ghost to be God The third in Ephesus of two hundred Bishops in the Reign of Theodosius the second and the Pontificate of 〈◊〉 against Nestorius Bishop of Constantinople who denied the Blessed Virgin to be the Mother of God and made Christs Humanity and Divinity two Persons asserting separately one to be the Son of God the other the son of Man The fourth at Chalcedon a City over against Constantinople of six hundred and thirty Prelates in the Pontificate of Leo and the Reign of Martian against Eutyches Abbat of Constantinople who durst affirm that our Saviour after his Incarnation had but one Nature The fifth at Constantinople against Theodorus and all other Hereticks who asserted the Virgin Mary to have brought forth Man only not God-man in which Synod it was concluded that the Blessed Virgin should be styled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the Mother of God Concerning the sixth Synod we have spoken already in which the Letters of Damianus Bishop of Pavia and Mansuetus Arch-bishop of Milain were very prevalent the principal Contents of them these viz. The true Faith concerning Christ God and Man is that we believe two Wills and two Operations in him Our Saviour says with respect to his Divinity I and my Father are one but with relation to his Humanity My Father is greater than I. Moreover as Man he was found asleep in the Ship as God he commanded the Winds and the Sea As for our Agatho in whose time after two Ecclipses one of the Moon another of the Sun there followed a grievous Pestilence having been in the Chair two years six months sifteen days he died and was buried in S. Peter's January the 10th The See was then vacant one year five months LEO II. LEO the second a Sicilian Son of Paul was as appears by his Writings a person throughly learned in the Latin and Greek Languages Having also good skill in Musick he composed Notes upon the Psalms and very much improved all Church Musick He ordained likewise that at the Celebration of the Mass the Pax should be given to the people Moreover he so vigorously maintained and asserted the sixth Synod of which we have spoken in the Life of Agatho that he Excommunicated all those whom in the presence of Constantine that Synod had condemned He also repress'd the pride of the Bishops of Ravenna a matter before attempted by Pope Agatho and ordained that the Election of the Clergy of Ravenna should be invalid unless it were confirmed by the Authority of the Roman See whereas before they presuming upon the power of their Exarchs managed all things arbitrarily owning no subjection to any but mating even the Popes themselves He likewise solemnly decreed that no person promoted to the dignity of an Archbishop should pay any thing for the use of the Pall or upon any other score a Decree which I could wish it were observed at this day seeing how many Evils have arisen through Bribery While Leo was busied in these matters Rhomoaldus Duke of Beneventum having raised a great Army possess'd himself of Taranto Brindisi and all Puglia and his Wife Theodata a devout Lady out of the spoils of the War built a Church in honour to S. Peter not far from Beneventum and a Nunnery Rhomoaldus dying was succeeded by his Son Grimoaldus who deceasing without Issue male left the Dukedom to his Brother Gisulphus Our Leo who besides his great Learning and Eloquence was also an extraordinary person for Devotion and Charity and by his Doctrine and Example very much promoted Justice Fortitude Clemency and Good Will among all men having been in the Chair only ten months died and June the 28th was accompanied to his burial in the Church of S. Peter with the tears of all men who deplored the loss of him as of a Common Father After his Death the See was vacant eleven months twenty one days The time
with all the low part between Via lata Campidoglio and the Aventine was so much under water that another deluge was feared many houses were born down by it Trees forc'd up by the roots and Corn that was sown was quite wash'd away and the same happened again the same year in December To make up these losses or to make them more tolerable the Pope omitted no manner of good Office or kindness to the Citizens At this time Michael Son of Theophilus Emperor of Constantinople sent Embassadors with Presents to Rome to visit the Apostolick Sea and his Holiness The Presents were a large Paten and Chalice of Gold with precious stones of great value This was that Michael who having taken Basilius to be his Partner in the Empire was murdered by him that he might reign alone His Embassadors were kindly received and sent home with Presents Nicolas being earnestly intent upon the Conservation of the Pontifical Dignity deprived John Arch Bishop of 〈◊〉 for 〈◊〉 to obey a Citation from the Apostolic Chair to answer some accusations Whereupon he goes to Pavia and procures of the Emperor Lewis commendatory Letters to the Pope and to his Embassadors that they should get leave that Arch-bishop John should have a safe conduct to come to Rome and plead his own Cause which the Pope readily granted And John in a great Convention of Prelates being allow'd liberty of Speech onely confess'd himself guilty and beg'd pardon of the Pope and of all that were present By which Confession and the Intercession of the Auditors the Pope was persuaded to receive him into favour upon these Conditions That he should 〈◊〉 his Error before the Synod that he should promise to come to Rome once a year if possible that he should not be capable of consecrating any Bishop in Romagna however canonically elected without leave first obtain'd from the Sea Apostolick and that he should not hinder any of those Bishops from coming to Rome as often as they pleased that he should not introduce any exaction custom or usage contrary to the sacred Canons and lastly that under the penalty of Anathema he should not alter or meddle with the treasure of holy Church without the consent of the Pope nor should without the same allowance receive any thing secular These holy Institutions were so highly approved by the whole Synod that thrice they all shouted Righteous is the judgment of the supreme Prelate just is the decree of the Universal Bishop All Christians agree to this wholsom Institution We all say think and judg the same thing Then John in the sight of them all took his Oath and gave it under his hand that he would observe the Articles Thus the Convocation was dissolved and John return'd to Ravenna The Pope having overcome this trouble rebuilt the Church of our Lady then call'd the Old afterwards the New Church and adorned it with excellent Paintings He by Letters and good Admonitions converted the King of Bulgaria to the Christian Faith with all his Realm to whom he sent Bishops and Priests to confirm the young 〈◊〉 driving out Photinus who had craftily disseminated erroneous Opinions among them He procured a Peace between Lewis the Emperor and Andalisio Duke of Benevent and repelled the Saracens who had made an Incursion as far as the same Benevent Lastly with the consent of the Emperor he decreed that no Emperor or other Lay-man should thrust himself into any Convocation of the Clergy except the debate was concerning matters of Faith and then his Opinion was that they might reasonably be present 'T is said that at this time S. Cyril brought the body of S. Clement from the Chersonese in Pontus to Rome and plac'd it in the Church now called S. Clement's where a little while after himself also was buried Nicolas now who was a great exemplar of all the Virtues one man could be endued with died the seventh year ninth month and thirteenth day of his 〈◊〉 and was buried according to his last Will in S. Peter's Church porch Some Authors say that the Sea was then vacant eight years seven months and nine days HADRIAN II. HADRIAN the second a Roman Son of Talarus a Bishop was a familiar friend of Pope Sergius who having once given him forty Julio's when he came home he gave them to his Steward to give to the Beggers and poor strangers that were at his door which the Steward going to do saw the number was so great that 't would not serve a quarter of them and so he return'd and told Hadrian Who hereupon takes the money and coming to the poor folks gave every one three Julio's and reserv'd to himself as many for his own use at which Miracle the Steward being astonish'd Dost thou see says Hadrian how good and bountiful the Lord is to those that are liberal and charitable to the Poor By this and other Virtues he grew into so high estimation with all men that when the Consultation was held for making a new Pope they unanimously elected him and brought him against his will from the Church of S. Mary ad Proesepe to the Lateran and immediately created him Pope nor regarding the consent of any person in a proceeding so tumultuary which gave great offence to the Embassadors of the Emperor who came on purpose upon this occasion but could not as they ought interpose the Imperial Authority in this Election But satisfaction was made to them by remonstrating that it was impossible in so great a tumult to moderate the violent inclinations of the multitude they were desired therefore to concur with the Clergy and People and according to custom to congratulate as Pope this excellent man whom they had chosen This at last the Embassadors did though they saw plainly that the Clergy and People did arrogate to themselves the full power of creating a Pope without expecting the consent of any Temporal Prince and this perhaps in order to enlarge the Liberties of holy Church by making it a Custom Soon after arriv'd Letters from Lewis highly applauding this action of the Romans and commending them that they had proceeded so religiously and sincerely in this Affair without waiting for the approbation of any one whose ignorance of the fitness of the Canditates might render them incompetent Judges in the case For how said he can it be that one that is a Foreiner and a Stranger should be able in another Countrey to distinguish who is most worthy To the Citizens therefore does it properly belong and to those who have had familiarity with and knowledg of the Competitors Hadrian then being made Pope took diligent care of all matters relating to Religion and by word example and authority both of himself and his Predecessors exhorted all men to good and holy lives particularly he shew'd himself a strenuous desender of those that had been oppressed by Injustice and the power of great men He caused a Council to be called at Constantinople where Photius a seditious
of St. Giles Hugo Magnus King Philip of France's Brother and the two Roberts whereof one was Earl of Normandy and the other of Flanders together with Stephen Earl of Chartres who passing over the Alps into Italy came first to Rome Where when they had visited the SSts Tombs and Shrines and received the Pope's Benediction they went to Brundusium with an intent to go from thence into Albania But because one Port would not hold 'em all some went to Bari and some to Otranto But Boemund who we told you had taken Melfi being desirous of glory left Melfi and went upon the same Expedition with twelve thousand choice and young Italians And this his Valour so prevail'd with his Brother Roger that he laid down his Arms and promised that for the future all things betwixt him and his Brother should be equally shared and presently sent his Son Tancred who was desirous to go into the War along with his Brother By this time Peter the Eremite was come to Constantinople and pitching his Camp in the Suburbs did so much damage to the Citizens not voluntarily but through the licentiousness of his Soldiers that the Greeks wish'd 'em all cut off Alexius the Emperour was very much concerned for the injuries which his Subjects suffer'd and therefore forced Peter for want of forage to pass the Bosphorus before he was willing However being compelled to it Peter and his Men went over and first going to Nicodemia and then to Nicopoli attaqued that City though it was well guarded by the Saracens But they wanting provisions to maintain the Siege and the Christian Soldiers dying apace they were worsted by the Sarazens and forced to raise their Siege but besides that received such damage in their flight that Reginald General of the Germans renounced the Christian faith and surrender'd himself to them and Peter went as it were back like an Ambassadour to Constantinople without any Soldiers to attend him This was welcome news to Alexius who hoped that the Christians upon such a discomfiture would quit that Expedition But in the mean while other supplies came in and Alexius finding that he could not beat 'em back with open force he set upon 'em in the Night time as they were pitching their Camp in the Suburbs of Constantinople but to no purpose for they that were posted there maintain'd their Camp with great courage till the rest of the Soldiers awaked got to their Arms. They fought too the next day with small damage on either side Then Boemund was sent to Alexius in the name of the Army and partly by Menaces partly by Promises induced him to enter into a League upon these terms That they should not onely pass through his Territories with safety but have all necessaries supply'd and that whatever they took from the Saracens should be his except Jerusalem When he had so done he repassed the Bosphorus and arrived first at Nicomedia and then at Nicopolis which was briskly defended by the Turks within Both Saracens and Turks being Allies at that time in the War against the Christians sixty thousand Turks who lay upon the adjacent Mountains made signs to the Townsmen to sally out while they set upon the Christian Camp but were so briskly repulsed that they return'd to the Mountains without doing any execution Yet it was difficult to take the City because all kind of Provisions were carried into it by a Lake that joins to it till the Lake being fill'd with small Vessels from Constantinople the Townsmen were so streightned for want of necessaries that fifty two days after the beginning of the Siege they surrender'd the Turks who were in Garrison there being permitted to march out with their Arms and Baggage After which the Christians fortified Nicopoli and then left it and being forced to travel through Deserts they divided their Army into two parts But it so happen'd that Boemund sound out a 〈◊〉 place near a certain River where designing to stay and refresh his Men who were weary of travelling on a sudden the Turks and Saracens under the conduct of Soliman set upon him and had certainly overpower'd him with multitudes had not Hugo and Godfrey with forty thousand Horse come to his aid 〈◊〉 as they heard of it They fought very smartly and a great while on both sides nor could the Battel be ended but by the Night coming upon them and in that fight it was found next day that there were forty thousand men slain either Turks Medes Syrians Chaldeans Saracens or Arabians But nevertheless Soliman made all the haste possible from thence and bragging in all places that he was Victor he met ten thousand Arabs who were acoming to the Army whom he carried with him into Lycaonia to intercept the Christians passage and hinder Provisions from being carry'd thither But the Christians being supply'd by the Corn then almost ripe upon the ground arrived first at Iconium the chief City of that Country and having taken that by surrender possess'd themselves of Heraclea and Tarsos with the same success Then Baldwin a Man of great Courage and Wit first got a Signiory in Asia for he had Tarso and all that he took in that Country bestowed upon him and not long after made himself Master of Edessa and Manista From thence the bigger Army went into Cilicia now called Armenia minor which submitting upon the first Onset they made Palinurus an Armenian who had fought on the Christian side Governour of it Afterward they took Coesarea in Cappadocia and then march'd on toward Antioch over the high Mountains At that time Cassianus was King of Antioch formerly called Reblata but that same King who formerly govern'd all Asia double wall'd it and called it by his own name and built about it four hundred and sixty Towers Here was also once St. Peter's Sea and here were born Luke the Evangelist and that Theophilus to whom Luke directs his Gospel and the Acts of the Apostles and here Men that were regenerate by Baptism were first called Christians and lived there a thousand years under Christian Government Moreover it appears that there were one hundred and sixty Bishops under the Patriarch of Antioch before the Barbarians took it and that there were in it three hundred and sixty Parish Churches In the year therefore of our Redemption 1491. Antioch began to be besieged with great application At which time Urban who was vexed with tumultuous insurrections shut himself up for two years in the House of one Peter Leo a noble Citizen near St. Nicolas's Church But when John Paganus a most seditious Fellow was dead he was a little more at liberty and then he applied himself to settle the State of the Church For he received into favour the Arch-bishop of Millain before deposed because he had been consecrated by one Bishop against the Canon and custom of Holy Church he having by way of penance changed his habit and lived in a Monastery voluntarily and holily upon that account And
Duke of Millain and took Bernabos's Son and Nephews into the City Then Philip by the persuasions of his Friends married Beatrice Fazinus's Widow who was very Rich and had Authority with the Soldiers that had fought under her Husband Fazinus By this means he had all the Cities that paid homage to Fazinus presently surrender'd to him and drew Carmignola and Siccus Montagnanus who had seditiously divided the Legion between them after Fazinus's death to come to fight under his Colours by the perswasions of Beatrice Which two Commanders Philip made use of afterward and by their assistance drave Bernabos's Son Astorgius out of Millain but kill'd him at the taking of Monza Things went thus in Millain and thereabouts when John Francis Gonzaga Son to Francis that was deceased went with a competent Army of Horse and Foot to guard Bologna at the command of Pope John under whose Banner he then fought For Malatesta of Rimini stipendiary to King Ladislaus laid close Siege to the City at that time He therefore by the aid of the Bolognians fought several sharp Battels with the Enemies in which he had the better and defended the City most gloriously The Winter following Pope John was invaded by Ladislaus which made him remove from Rome to Florence and thence to Bologna Nor did he stay there long but he went to Mantoua where he was splendidly entertain'd by John Francis Gonzaga whom he took along with him at his departure thence together with great part of his Forces to Lodi whither he knew the King of Hungary would come For he trusted much to that Prince whose faithfulness and integrity he had such experience of in the Bolognian Wars though he had been tempted by Malatesta with gifts and promises to revolt to the Kings party But after when the Pope and the King did not think themselves sufficiently safe at Lauden they sent John Francis to Mantoua whether they said they 'd go with all speed to prepare for their coming and for the reception of such a multitude He went and quickly made all things ready and then returned to Cremona where he heard the Pope and the King by that time were arrived After that he conducted them to Mantoua where all the people came thronging out to meet them and they were much more kindly receiv'd than was expected Now in these several meetings at Lodi Cremona and Mantoua it was consider'd how they should remove Ladislaus out of Campagna di Roma Ombria and Tuscany for he had taken Rome and many other Towns belonging to the Church They saw that Italy could not be freed from the distractions of War by any other means and therefore they thought it convenient to advise concerning a supply to carry on the Affair not at Mantoua but Bologna when they were come thither But they had greater concerns still upon them For John being urged to call a Council by consent of all Nations for the removal of the Schism immediately sent two Cardinals into Germany to advise with the Princes of France and Germany and choose a convenient place for a Council to be held at Upon enquiry Constance a City within the Province of Mentze seemed to be most commodious for the purpose Thereupon they all went thither by a certain Day according to Order so likewise did Pope John himself though some advised him to the contrary because they told him they fear'd if he went thither as Pope he would return thence as a private person and so it fell out For going thither with certain Men that were excellent in all sorts of Learning he puzled the Germans so long with tedious Disputations that they could not tell what to Decree But Sigismund came up who gave every body leave to say what they pleased and then great and grievous Crimes were laid to the Popes charge upon which he went privately in disguise from Constance to Scaphusa for fear some dangerous Plot might be contrived against him Scaphusa was a City belonging to the Duke of Austria whither several Cardinals also that he had created betook themselves But they being called again by Authority of the Council John fled from Scaphusa to Friburgh designing to go if possibly he could with safety to the Duke of Burgundy But by the care of the Council John was taken and imprison'd near Constance in the Isle of S. Mark in the fourth year of his Pontificate and the tenth month Then the Council began to enquire the reason of his flight and choose several persons of great gravity and Learning as Delegates to examine and weigh the Objections made against John and make an orderly report of it to the Council There were above forty Articles proved against him of which some contain'd faults which he was so habituated to that he could not avoid them and therefore they were judged contrary to the Faith and some of them were likely to bring a scandal upon Christianity in general if they were not condemned in him Wherefore since they all agreed in the same Opinion John who was deservedly and justly deposed approved of their Sentence though pronounced against him And thereupon he was presenty sent to Lewis the Bavarian who was Gregory the 12th's Friend to be kept in custody till further Order from the Council Accordingly he was block'd up in the Castle of Haldeberg which was a very well fortified place for three years without any Chamberlain or Servant to attend him that was an Italian All his keepers were Germans with whom he was fain to talk by Nods and Signs because he neither understood the Teutonick Language nor they the Italian They say John was deposed by those very Men and them alone that were formerly his Friends For those that were of Gregory and Benedict's Party were not yet come to the Council These Men therefore that they might make their Deprivation of him just and perfect with one accord publish'd a Synodical Decree wherein they affirm'd that a general Council lawfully called was the Supream Authority next to Christ Grant but this fundamental Point and the Pope himself is inferiour to a Council Whereupon Gregory was forced by the persuasions of the Emperor Sigismund to send some Person to the Council because he would not go himself to approve of their proceedings in his Name So he sent Charles Malatesta an excellent Man who seeing them all agree to make Gregory also lay down all claim to the Papacy he stood forth before 'em all and sitting down in a Chair that was made as stately as if Gregory himself had been there he read the Instrument of Renunciation over and presently deposed Gregory for which free act of his he was made Legate of Millain by all the Council But this Person not long after dy'd at Recanati of grief as some say for his so sudden Deprivation before the time appointed For he was clearly for deferring the business as long as he could as placing some hope in delay But he died before Martin came to be Pope
and was buried in the Church of Recanati Now though two Popes were removed there remained a third who gave 'em more trouble than the other two and that was Peter Luna called Benedict XIII as I told you before But to force him to resign Sigismund went personally with some Agents of the Council to the Kings of England and France and perswaded them for the sake of Christianity so much endanger'd by the Schism to assist him now that the other two had laid down in the removal of Benedict who answering him to his mind he went straight to Ferdinand King of Aragon whose Subjects generally stood for Benedict who agreed among other Articles either to persuade Benedict to resign or to cause his People to withdraw their subjection to him as Gregory and John had done in the Council and to submit to the Council But Benedict kept in his strong Castle and would not comply persisting that he was Christ's true Vicar and that the City of Constance where Pope John had been forc'd even by his own Friends to exauctorate himself was not a place of Freedom requisite for a General Council The Spanish Nobility seeing Benedicts obstinacy followed the Order of the Council and came over to the rest Now things were carried in the Council by the Suffrages of five Nations Italy France Germany Spain and England And whatsoever was Decreed by their Votes was confirm'd and publish'd by a Beadle publick Notary before the Court as a general Act. By this Authority Benedict when the matter had been bandied for some time was deprived of the Popedom the Nations that were of his side being either absent or rejected especially the Scots and the Earl of Armagnac In the same Council the Heresie of John Wickliffe was condemned and two of his followers to wit John Hus and Jerome his disciple as heads of the Heresie were burnt because they affirm'd among other Errors That Ecclesiastical Men ought to be poor for that all People were offended at their great wealth and Luxury Matters being thus composed and mention made concerning Reforming the Church and manners of the Clergy they thought that could not be done whilst the Sea was vacant Then they Discours'd about electing a new Pope that the Decrees of that Council might have the more Authority And in order to it they resolv'd to choose six good Men out of every Nation who together with the Cardinals should go into the Conclave and choose a new Pope Novemb. 8. 1417. they went into the Conclave and by consent of 32 Cardinals and all the several Nations contrary to the expectation of all Men in the presence of many of the Schismaticks Otho Columna a Nobleman of Rome and Cardinal Deacon of S. George was made Pope upon S. Martins day Novem. 11. when the Sea had been without a true Pope for four years And this was done so much to the satisfaction of all Men that the joy was inexpressible The Emperor was so mightily pleased at it that he went into the Conclave and gave 'em thanks without any respect to his own Dignity for choosing so good a Man and one so fit to support Christianity which was almost decay'd And then falling down prostrate before the Pope he kiss'd his feet with great Veneration whilst the Pope on the contrary embraced him and valued him as a Brother and gave him thanks that by his means and industry Peace was restored once more to the Church of God But the reason why he would be called Pope Martin was because the Election was upon S. Martins day Whilst these things were transacted at Constance Ladislaus dying as he was going against the Florentines the cry at Rome was To Arms and for Liberty Whereupon Peter Mattheucii was forced against his Will to assume the Government of the City though afterward he relinquish'd the Office when he understood that a Legate whom Pope John had design'd to send thither would shortly come with a Senator of Bologna As soon as they were come they put Paul Palonius and John Cincius two seditious Citizens to death The year following Brachius Montonius came with an Army to Rome and getting into the City began to storm the Castle S. Angelo which was defended by a strong Garison of Queen Joans who succeeded her Brother Ladislaus in the Kingdom But when Sfortia the Queens General came up he not onely raised the Siege but beat Brachius out of the City the Romans siding with neither Party John Columna was kill'd in that fight by a private Soldier that formerly had fought under Paul Vrsin whom Lewis Columna in Brachius's Army had formerly kill'd at Fuligno Now the Soldier had a mind to kill Lewis to revenge Pauls death but John who was innocent died for it as he was going to save Lewis Whilst Rome was in this tempestuous condition rowing to and fro it conceived at length some hope of quiet upon Martin's being chosen MARTIN V. MARTIN the Fifth a Roman formerly called Otho Columna was made Pope in the Council by the general consent of all the Nations and Cardinals at a time when he as well as the Church was in a declining condition For he had been well educated by his Parents care from his Childhood and when he grew up he studied the Canon Law at Perugia from whence he return'd to the City and for his integrity and learning was made Referendary by Pope Vrban VI. Which place he acquitted with so much humanity justice and mildness that he was created Cardinal Deacon by Innocent VII Nor did that make him forego his natural Disposition For he was more courteous than before and lent his assistance to all that wanted it yet so as not to meddle much in publick matters So that when there were many Debates in the Council of Constance by reason of the Factions he took the middle way and seemed to incline to neither Party but always studied the general good Being therefore beloved by the Emperor the Cardinals and indeed by all Men he was chosen Pope In which Office he was not idle but active and careful hearing refuting and approving persuading disuading exhorting or deterring those that came before him according to reason and the merits of the Cause For he was very accessible and never denied a reasonable request besides that he was a Man of great prudence in Debates For he would tell what ought to be done as soon as a thing was proposed to him He was short in his Speeches and wary in his Actions insomuch that people saw a thing effected before they could imagine he had thought of it His Discourse was full of Sentences nor did any word come from him so often as Justice frequently turning to his Attendants and Familiars especially them that govern'd Cities and Provinces and saying Love Justice ye that judg the Earth Indeed the Church of God wanted such a Pope at that time to sit at the Helm and steer S. Peter's Boat then batter'd with Waves of Schism and
Sedition into a safe Port. He therefore having obtained this great Dignity and seeing the Hydras head which might grow out again and multiply was still left that is Benedict formerly called Peter Luna who kept with some few Cardinals and Prelates in a place that might be called the very Fort of Schism Whilst some People of Aragon were at a stand which way to incline He by approbation of the Council sent Alemannus Ademarius a very learned Man whose Tomb is still to be seen in new S. Maries a Florentine and Cardinal of S. Eusebius as Legate à Latere into Aragon to admonish Peter upon Ecclesiastical Penalties and Censures to resign the Pontificate Nay even the Cardinals that were on Peter's side when they heard this ultimate resolution of the Pope and Council went to Peter and desired him at last to remove all Schism out of the Church of God with which Christendom had been for so many years afflicted and told him that John and Gregory had done the same in order to save the Church from ruin Peter gave 'em some slight answer and told 'em he could not do it but he would agree with Martin if all were true which people said of his integrity and humanity and bid 'em let him alone to manage the business and trouble themselves no more about it But of the four Cardinals who went to him two observing his obstinacy immediately revolted from him to Martin And those two that continued on his side were presently counted Anti-Cardinals one of which was a Carthusian and the other called Julian Dobla Upon this all Spain acknowledged Martins Authority and so did the Scots and those of Armagnac not long after And so all Christendom except one Peninsula owned the Authority of Martin This great Affair thus setled by the pains and industry of the Ecclesiastick and secular Princes especially of Sigismund the Emperor they began to talk of reforming the manners of both the Laiety and Clergy which were debauched with too much Licence But because the Council of Constance had lasted already four years to the great inconvenience of Prelates and their Churches it was Martin's pleasure and the Opinion of the Council that weighty Affair should be deferred till some more seasonable opportunity it being he said a work that would require much time and deliberation because as Jerome says every Country has its peculiar Manners and Customs which cannot be easily remov'd without great disturbance Now because the Schism from a small beginning had lasted a long time to the great disadvantage of Christendom upon notice that John XXIII was escaped out of custody fearing lest he should call another Council he publish'd a Decree concerning the calling of Councils That from the end of the Council at Constance no other Council should be held within five years and after that within seven and from thence it was drawn out to ten years and was made a Law That every ten years a General Council should be held in some convenient place to treat of matters of Faith and the common good of Christendom In confirmation whereof by the approbation of the Council Martin publish'd his Bulls But he abrogated all Decrees that were made during the Schism before his Pontificate except such as were made to promote faith or good manners That all Men might know he intended to call a Council he publickly advised concerning a commodious place for it and at last chose Pavia by general approbation and gave out his Breves to this purpose Martin Bishop and Servant of Gods Servants for the future remembrance of the thing being desirous to have Obedience paid to the Decree of this General Council upon a Debate had concerning a Place where the next Council shall be holden we do with the approbation and consent of the said Council and by the Authority of these presents appoint the City of Pavia for that purpose And let no man contravene this our Decree upon pein of the displeasure of God Almighty and of his Apostles SS Peter and Paul Given and enacted at Constance in the publick Council-House April 18. in the first year of our Pontificate And now he was willing the Council should be dissolv'd wherefore calling a full Assembly with the good liking of the Emperor and of all the rest he commanded Ibaldo Cardinal of S. Vitus to dismiss them which he did by saying Sirs Depart in peace Every one now having leave to be gone the Pope was desired on the one side by the Emperor and the Germans that he would tarry some time in their Country and by the French Princes on the other side to go into France but he told 'em he could not do it by any means because he said the Churches Patrimony was torn and spoiled by Usurpers in Italy whilst the Pope was absent and that the City of Rome which was the Metropolis of Christendom was almost ruin'd for want of the presence of its Governour so much it had suffer'd by Plague Famine Sword Fire and Sedition beside that the Churches and Chappels of the holy Martyrs by the Pope's absence were either in ruins or ready to fall and therefore he must be gone thither He desired 'em to take that kindly which reason and necessity forced him to and that they would let him sit in Peter's Chair since they had unanimously chosen him Pope That the Church of Rome was the Mother and the Head of all other Churches and therefore the Pope ought to reside there lest the true Pilot should be displaced from the Stern to the Stem to the great hazard and detriment of both Passengers and Sailers i.e. all Christian Men. So he went from Constance through Savoy into Italy and arrived at Millain where he was very kindly received by Duke Philip and all his People who gave him all the respect imaginable Philip was at that time in Arms endeavouring to recover his paternal inheritance which the Usurpers kept from him with great bravery and courage for having once tasted how pleasant it was to govern they were not easily turn'd out of possession However Carmignola Philip's chief Commander press'd Pandulphus Malatesta very hard who having taken Pergamo by bribing the Governour to betray the Castle moved toward Brescia and would have quickly strip'd him of all his Dominions had he not been aided by the Venetians with great sums of Money and stout Cavalry or had not Pope Martin persuaded Philip to make a Peace with Pandulphus which was accordingly afterward composed and agreed upon at Mantoua in the presence of Martin and by the Umpirage of John Francisco upon these terms to wit That Pandulphus paying a yearly Tribute should keep Brescia so long as he lived but should not have Power to give it away by Will because at his Death it naturally devolv'd upon Philip. But the next year Pandulphus broke his Peace by endeavouring by Men and Money to keep Cabrinus Fundulus in the possession of Cremona For Philip made War against him
Francis whom he had left behind him in Ancona when Cardinal Firmanus was Legat was vanquish'd by Francis Sfortia But the year after Philip took courage and advised Eugenius to endeavour the recovery of Bologna promising to supply him with Men and bear his share in the charge of the War By which the Pope was so wrought upon that he made a League with Alphonso and sent Sigismund Malatesta with a great body of Horse into Ancona against Francis that when the Florentines were otherwise imploy'd Bologna might be forced to surrender Now Philip had sent William Montferrat and Charles Gonzaga before with a great Army who entering the Territory of Bologna in an Hostile manner plunder'd all before ' em But the Florentines who were concern'd for the danger of their Allies dispatch'd Astorgius Faventinus with one thousand five hundred Horse and two hundred Foot to aid the Bolognians till farther order from them and the Venetians Things stood thus in Romagna when Philip on the sudden sent for Francis Picenninus from Ancona and gave him order to go with a great Army upon May Day against the Cremoneses who apprehended no such thing He went as he was commanded and took a great many of the Country Fellows and strook such terrour into the Citizens by battering their Walls both Night and Day that he had very near taken the City But the Venetians and Florentines were troubled at the danger which Francis and their Friends were in and resolv'd to defend Cremona and Bologna at the same time and sent Tibertus Brandolinus a very active Commander who taking along with him the Bologneses and the Auxiliaries from Florence march'd toward the Enemy who did not well agree among themselves and were encamp'd at a Town call'd St. John's and when he had brought William Monferrat over to the Bolognians by Promises and Presents and easily routed Charles he quickly retrieved all the Towns which the Enemy had in their hands Bologna being thus quieted and the Auxiliaries of Florence and Venice divided by order into two parts the one half were sent to avoid Francis Sfortia whom Eugenius and Alphonso had beaten as far as the Walls of Vrbino and the other half to the Cremoneses who were hard put to it by Francis Picenninus The Venetians resolving upon an open rupture with Philip sent Embassadours to him to denounce War unless he would desist from the Siege of Cremona But they were answer'd by a Messenger for they could not speak with Philip himself that they might be safer any where than at Millain At which the Venetians were very angry and commanded Michelot Cotignola their General who was then at Brescia to march forthwith into Cremona which Philip had got most part of and engage the Enemy wherever he met them He readily obey'd their Commands and passing the River Oglio at Casale with all expedition found the Enemy encamped upon the Po in an Island which having forded he attack'd them in their Camp and soon routed them taking a great part of their Cavalry After that he recover'd all the Towns and freed Cremona from the Siege and having augmented his Army by Lewis Gonzaga's additional Forces who had reduced Platina and some Castles in Cremona to the Venetians they march'd toward Geradada and left nothing for Philip but Crema Then crossing the River they entred Millain filling all places with fire and rapine And when they had taken Monte di Briausa and Brevio where there is a Bridg over the Adda they attaqued Leco which those within stoutly defended and batter'd their Ships so severely that whole Men might have got in at the sides of 'em so that having lost many Men and being in great want of Forage they were fain to depart without accomplishing their Design for fear of Francis Sfortia who they heard was privately gone over to Philip's Party Mean time Aloisius Patavinus the Pope's Legat General of the Forces which went against Francis Sfortia into Ancona hearing that Italiano and James Gatuano who had fought partly under Philip and partly under Eugenius were revolting to Francis he commanded them to be taken before they could arrive there and put to Death for both of 'em had one thousand five hundred Horse under them Francis Sfortia was much concern'd at that and finding himself not able to sustein the shock of his Enemies any longer being set upon by so many at a time and assisted by no body by the persuasions of Eugenius and Alphonso who envied the Venetians success he left Ancona and went into Philip's Army over which he was made General Eugenius now lest he should seem to mind nothing but War made Nicolas Tolentinas of the Order of S. Austin who was famous for Miracles a Saint and went personally in Procession from S. Peter to S. Austin's attended by all the Clergy the Roman People and the Cardinals After that he expelled the Canons Secular from the Lateran and admitted onely the Regulars He also built the Portico that goes from that Church to the Sancta Sanctorum and repaired the Cloister for the Priests to live in He also augmented the painting of the Church which Martin had formerly begun and carried the Mitre of S. Sylvester which was brought to Rome from Avignion in his own hands from the Vatican to the Lateran with great veneration of all the Priests and People of Rome Afterward King Alphonso came to Tivoli and would have treated with Eugenius about the management of the War but he heard he was sick and so-stay'd for some time there Eugenius had a great mind to have plagu'd the Florentines for helping his Enemies and doubted not but if he attaqued them with his own the King 's and Philip's Forces all together he might bring that City to what he pleased But all his Designs were frustrated by his Death for he dy'd in the sixteenth year of his Pontificate February 23. 1446. He was a Man of great inconstancy at the beginning of his Reign he was led away by ill Counsels and disturb'd all things to that degree that he incited the Roman People to War and gave Authority to the Council of Basil which was the original of much mischief by approving of their Decrees in Letters Apostolical But in process of time when he came to himself he acted very prudently and with good resolution He had a very venerable aspect but was rather grave than eloquent in his Speech an indifferent Scholar though a knowing Man especially in History He was bountiful to all more especially Learned Men whose company he loved For he admitted Leonard Aretinus Charles Poggius Aurispa Trapezuntius and Blondus very learned Men to be his Secretaries He was not easily provoked to anger for injuries done him or by the Calumnies jibes or scoffs of any He was a great Patron of all Schools especially that at Rome where he had all kind of Learning taught He loved the Religious wonderfully and gave 'em many Priviledges besides Revenues which he added to
though it was offer'd him And afterward when he was sent Embassadour from Felix to Frederick the Emperour he so far prevailed upon him by his ingenuity that he made him a Poet Laureat his Companion and a Prothonotary which in Germany is a Secretary of State Not long after he was made a Counsellour of State and shew'd such Learning and Authority that he was reckon'd the most ingenuous Man there by far although he wanted not Rivals and Detractors When Eugenius and the Emperour first treated about putting an end to the Schism and Aeneas went to the Pope upon that account he stay'd some time at Siena where his Friends desired him not to go to Eugenius for they feared the Pope would use him severely because his Authority was often opposed as people said by Aeneas in Epistles and Orations at the Council of Basil But he was resolute and trusting to his own innocence slighted the intreaties of his Relations and went to Rome where in the first place he acquitted himself before Eugenius in an elegant Oration for submitting to their Opinion who approv'd of the Council of Basil And when he had so done he began to treat with him about that which the Emperour sent him to negotiate Thereupon two Agents were sent from Eugenius into Germany of whom one was Sarzanus and the other John Carvagialla by whose good management and Aeneas's industry together the Neutrality as I told you in the Life of Nicolas was taken off But that it might appear really to be so and not in words onely the Emperour sent Aeneas himself to Rome to make a publick Declaration of Submission in all matters to Eugenius in the name of himself and all Germany Eugenius dying about this time Aeneas was President of the Conclave till another Pope was chosen in the room of the deceased there being no Orator in the City more fit for so great an Employment Nicolas being chosen Pope he had leave to depart and as he went into Germany he having been made Sub Deacon by Eugenius was made Bishop of Trieste that Bishop being just then dead by the Pope and the Emperour without his own knowledg After which Philip Viconti dying without an Heir the Emperour sent him Envoy to Millain where he made an Oration concerning the descent of the Inheritance of that City and exhorting to Allegiance which if they preserv'd inviolate they might enjoy their liberty still He was sent thither another time when they were besieged by Francis Sfortia and suffer'd great extremities in defence of their Liberty at which time he enter'd the City with great hazard alone for his Collegues left him at Como and durst not go on for fear But he departed thence without any success and whilst the Emperour sent him to Alphonso King of Aragon the Pope Nicolas made him Bishop of Siena the place of his Nativity And when the Emperour and Alphonso had contracted an Alliance by Marriage he return'd into Germany where he persuaded the Emperour to go as soon as possible into Italy and receive his Imperial Crown Upon that advice Frederick went thither but sent Aeneas before to meet and complement his Wife Leonora who was to come from Portugal into Tuscany Who when he came to Siena stay'd not long there but he began to be suspected by the people as if he design'd because the Emperour was coming to turn out the populace and make the Government an Aristocracy Aeneas therefore to free the people from that jealousie went to Talamone where he thought Leonora would arrive and yet the people were not satisfied For they banish'd the Nobility into the Country for a time and a little while after according to the mutable humour of the Mobile gave 'em leave to come back again when they understood the integrity of the Emperour and the modesty of Aeneas Hence he went to Pisa where he heard the Portugueses were landed and brought the Infanta who was committed to his sole care to the Emperour then at Siena Then going to Rome he managed all things whilst the Emperour was crown'd both private and publick Afterward the Emperour went to visit Alphonso and left Ladislaus a Princely Youth whom the Hungarians and Bohemians had often endeavour'd to steal away from him under the tutelage of Aeneas who kept him very faithfully When the Emperour came back to Rome and had given the Pope thanks he went for Ferrara and having made Borsius d' Este Duke of Modena he departed And no sooner was he come into Germany but he presently dispatch'd away Aeneas by the Pope's Order as Envoy extraordinary into Bohemia and all the Cities of Austria For there was a Controversie between them and the Emperour about King Ladislaus whom they would needs have him send into their Country But the Dispute was ended and a Peace made between 'em so that Aeneas was not long after sent to the Assembly at Ratisbone where he in the name of the Emperour and in the presence of Philip Duke of Burgundy and Lewis of Bavaria spoke of the Turks cruelty and calamities of Christendom with such vehemency and passion that he forced sighs and tears from every one there but especially he seemed so far to animate the Duke of Burgundy that a War was decreed immediately by general consent though it was after laid aside through the ambition and folly of those who thought too well of themselves And now Aeneas was grown old and tired with the tedious Journeys he had taken into forein parts wherefore he resolv'd to return to Siena his native Country but the Emperour easily chang'd his mind by telling him that he yet design'd to make War upon the Turks Thereupon he was sent to the Convention at Frankfort where all the German Princes were met together and in a grave long Oration persuaded them with many reasons to undertake that dangerous but necessary War And indeed he seemed to move 'em all exceedingly though it is natural for those to cool soon whose affections are quickly heated There was also a third Convention in Cittanova about the same thing wherein Aeneas employ'd all his endeavours to bring about what he desired exhorting every one of them both in publick and private to assist in that War upon which the safety of all Europe the Liberty of both Princes and people and the honour of Christianity did depend And just as he expected to do the business there was news brought that Pope Nicolas was dead which put all things into a new Confusion For the Convention broke up and the Germans desirous of Novelty endeavour'd to persuade the Emperour no longer to obey the Pope unless he would grant them some certain Demands for they said the Germans were in a worse condition than either the French or Italians whose Servants they might be termed unless things were alter'd especially to the Italians And truly the Emperour had hearken'd to those Mutineers if Aeneas with his gravity had not interposed and told the Emperour That
Germany to hinder if possible by their Preaching and Disputations the farther spreading of these Doctrins The Emperor Charles the Fifth in a Diet at Ratisbon made a publick and solemn Edict against Luther and his Conclusions the University of Paris condemned them and the King of England Henry VIII wrote a Book against them for which he afterwards received from this Pope Leo the Title of Defender of the Faith But Luther being a man of great courage and supported by the favour of the Duke of Saxony little regarded either the Arguments of the School-men or the Authority of the Princes saying That the Prophet forbad to trust in men or Princes before whose judgment the Word of God and the sentence of Scripture was to be preferred These disturbances in Germany were followed by the like in Switzerland where Zuinglius by force of Argument disputed in favour of the Doctrin of Luther which caused such confusions and discord that for the settlement and quiet thereof the Senate of Zurich convened all the Preachers and Doctors of their Country and requested the Bishop of Constance to depute such wise and learned persons as he should think fit to assist at this Conference for determination of the matters in question Great numbers of people being assembled at this Convocation Zuinglius proposed his Thesis and all the points in dispute and offered to answer the Arguments of any Opponent which should be set up against him Peter Faber a man holy in his life and of profound judgment having heard and weighed all the strength of Argument which the Jacobins and others had alledged refused as Moderator in those Controversies to determin any thing in those matters which more properly belonged to the cognizance of that General Council which was shortly by Authority of the Pope and the consent of all the Christian Princes to meet and assemble consisting of all the Prelates of Christendom This Sentence gave Zuinglius advantage to advance his Doctrin and say that these were but delays to amuse the people and lull them in their ignorance that doubtful matters were proper to be treated and discussed and determined by the Authority of General Councils but that matters certain and clear by Scripture which was the Word of God and the rule of our lives and confirmed by the practice of the Primitive Christians stood in need of no other Authority than their own plain evidence to confirm them In fine the Assembly broke up and the Senate concluded with this result that the Gospel should be Preached according to the Canon of the Old and new Testament and not according to the Decrees and Constitutions of men This matter began daily in the Court of Rome to seem of greater importance fearing lest it should greatly shake the Power of the Popes and abate the profits of the Church of Rome and discompose the Union of the Christian Religion for which occasion many Consistories were summoned at Rome and many Consultations held in the Chamber of the Pope amongst the Cardinals and Divines for remedy of this growing evil The Duke of Saxony and Luther were at these Meetings condemned and Excommunications thundered out against them with most grievous Anathemaes the which served only to exasperate the Duke of Saxony and caused him to become a more severe and vehement Protector of that Cause which began now to dilate and spread more diffusely amongst the people by how much the more it was persecuted by vigorous and violent courses At length the Court of Rome as well as other People and Nations did conclude that the only means to quiet mens minds and settle them in a true Belief and Faith was to establish all doubts and Controversies by the Authority of a General Council the which was desired by Princes and Lords of Countries in hopes that thereby the disorderly lives of Priests and Friers would be regulated and reduced to their Primitive Constitutions and that the Regalia and Temporal Jurisdictions which had long been usurped by the Ecclesiastical Power would at length be restored to the Secular Dignity of Princes But to reduce matters to this estate they did not judg it necessary that Ecclesiasticks should be the sole Members to compose such an Assembly whose interest it was to maintain their own Corruptions and determin all matters in favour of themselves against the Rights and Prerogatives of Christian Princes in whose Affairs their consents and Suffrages ought to be consulted The common people also who had some competent knowledg in the Affairs of the world were desirous of a Council in hopes and expectation that the libidinous Power of the Church which had for a long time tyrannized over them might at length be limited and moderated and that the Exactions which were charged upon them under the specious pretences of Alms and Indulgences might not be forced and distrained by the violence and rudenesses of the Episcopal Officers The Court of Rome did likewise desire a Council in hopes the Authority of the Church which began to be shaken by the opposition of Adversaries and the encroachments which Princes made on its Jurisdiction might thereby be confirmed but they were for having it regulated according to the practices of modern times which should not touch on the present Abuses and evil customs introduced in favour of the Papal Power but such an one as was called by the preceding Pope and Assembled at the Lateran which had produced many happy and advantageous successes for it had extinguished the Schisms of the Cardinals reduced the Kingdom of France which before was separated to an Union and abolished that Sanction which highly entrenched on the Temporal and Spiritual Monarchy of Rome and lastly had conferred the collation of Benefices on the Pope which was the great foundation of the Papal Grandeur Howsoever Pope Leo still doubted that this remedy was not entirely adapted to the nature of this evil for tho the power of a Council might have an influence over Princes and great Prelates against whom their Decrees and Determinations might avail yet could not reach the minds of the common people or produce that real alteration and change which was necessary for the quiet and settlement of the Ecclesiastical State In this condition of affairs Leo died about the end of the year 1521. But these Divisions and Dissentions in Spiritual Controversies did not only disquiet the Pope but likewise the Plots of certain Cardinals which designed against his Life and Government of which a discovery being made several of them were deprived of their Hats and Ecclesiastical Benefices and Alfonso Petrucci being chief in the number of the Conspirators was taken and strangled by a Negro Slave in the Castle of St. Angelo at Rome Adrian da Cornetro being fled and escaped from Justice was for ever without hopes of Restauration deprived of the Character and Honor of Cardinal Raphael Riario and Bendinello Sauli were suspended but afterwards restored to the Dignity of Cardinals Saderini was condemned to live in
the Pope delegated to consult thereof and tho the Marriage was the main point which moved the Pope to undertake this Journey yet it was in the last place and as it were accidentally and by the by treated of The first thing assumed was the proposal about a General Council but that was soon rejected and executed with the same reasons and replies as were given to the Emperor In the next place the King of Englands case was warmly insisted upon by the Commissioners of the French King as it had been formerly agreed between the two Kings at Bulloin but those instances produced little effect for the Ministers of the King of England being in a huff were always to the diminution of the Popes Authority appealing to a Council with which the Pope referred their Cause to be farther debated at his return to Rome and the French King being desirous in all things to satisfie and comply with the Pope he told him that it would not be displeasing to him in case he proceeded against that King according to the Rule of Justice and the ancient Canons of Ecclesiastical Censure by which fair and friendly compliance the Pope would not refuse at the instance of the French King to create four Cardinals tho much against his own inclinations fearing thereby to have rendered the French Faction too strong which already was more prevalent in the Court of Rome than the Pope desired In the last place tho the first in design the Marriage between the Duke of Orleans and the Pope's Niece was treated and concluded and the parties married by the Pope himself by which a strict and firm Alliance and friendship being created between the French King and the Pope it seemed as if all those professions of amity and good will which had lately interceded at Bologna between the Emperor and the Pope had vanished or signified little and now amongst other Articles it being capitulated that the Duke of Orleans should be invested in the Dukedom of Milan it was with no less wonder considered that the interest of Francis Sforza the true and right Heir to that Dutchy and for which both this and other Popes had so earnestly contended could so easily be made void and transferred over to a Forein Prince who could pretend no other right thereunto than the might and power of his own Arms. With entertainment of these Affairs a months time being spent at Marseille the Pope returned to Rome where so soon as he arrived he foretold his own death acquainting his Friends and Domesticks about his person that he had not long to live and therefore in order to his Burial he commanded the Ring to be provided and the Vestments in which Popes were usually interred howsoever before his death he thundered out his Bulls of Excommunication against Henry VIII King of England and all the people of his Realm with which the King being highly incensed immediately withdrew his Obedience from the Papal Sea and declared himself Head under Jesus Christ of the Church of England forbidding mony to be transported out of England to Rome and commanded the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury to renounce his Title of Legate from the Pope the which was the beginning of that blessed Reformation which hath purged the Church of England from Errors rendred it pure in its Doctrin introduced the true and glorious light of the Gospel which will with Gods assistance for ever remain sure and immovable in despight of all the contrivances either of the Fanatical irreligious malice or the power or policies of the Roman Church And moreover it was the beginning of that liberty which we now enjoy and the enrichment of this flourishing Nation which now keeps its Treasures and Acquisitions to its self which in former days were emptied into the Coffers of the Pope to make Foreiners opulent and its people poor But to return to Pope Clement being taken with a pain in his stomach a Fever ensued upon it of which according to his own prediction he departed this life the 25th day of September 1534. leaving behind him in the Castle of S. Angelo many Jewels in the Pontifical Chamber infinite Offices but a very small sum of mony he had at divers Ordinations created three and thirty Cardinals all which except Cardinal De Medicis were made to please others rather than himself He had been exalted to the Popedom with wonderful felicity and with the general applauses and grand expectations of the world but in a short time he fell strangely in their opinion for being of a temper naturally irresolute and diffident suffered himself to be divided by his two familiar friends men differing in their humors affections and interests which laid him low in the esteem of mankind and hated and detested by the Romans and yet he was sober abstemious and a greater conqueror of himself but accounted covetous of no fidelity or faithfulness to his word nor readily inclined to do any man a good office unless forced thereunto by some constraining necessity and yet he was grave and well advised in his actions if timorousness had not oftentimes corrupted his judgment He proved such diversity of fortunes that it is hard to determin whether his bad or his good fortune was greatest for what evil can be compared to the sacking of Rome which he beheld with his own eyes his own and the long imprisonment of the Cardinals the desolation of his own Country of which he was an instrument for the promotion only of the Family of the Medices He died in the 67th year of his age having held the Papal Chair ten years ten months and seven days His Corps were first interred in the Church of S. Peter but afterwards transported to the Minerva by his own Relations and laid by the Body of Pope Leo the tenth over which they erected a stately Monument of Marble PAVL III. THE Funeral Rites of Clement VII being performed with due solemnity the Cardinals entered the Conclave the 12th of October 1534. and the same day towards night agreed unanimously in their Election and published Alexander Farnese Dean of the College of Cardinals to be with general consent chosen Pope The motives which the Cardinals might have to hasten with such facility and unanimous assent this election might be various for his family was great and ancient He had been forty years a Cardinal and thereby acquired a competent knowledg of the Affairs of the world and of the practices of the Court of Rome and being 68 years of age and of a weak and tender constitution of body the more robust and ambitious Cardinals expected that his Reign could not be long before he made way for one of them And in regard that in all the actions and negotiations of his life he had ever shewed an indifferency not inclining either to the Imperial or French Faction the parties of neither side did make it their business or concernment to oppose him for tho the Family of Farnese were Guelfs and
Assembling was deferred from May until the first of November following The month of November approaching near the Pope published an other Bull appointing the Council to be held at Vicenza a City under the Jurisdiction of the Venetians upon the first of May next in the year 1538. deputing for his Legates the Cardinals Campeggio Simonetta and Jeronimo Alexandro alledging for cause of such prolongation the nearness of the Winter which would be very incommodious to those who were to travel thither from remote parts Howsoever upon divers obstacles and inconveniences thereupon occurring the place for meeting of this Council was altered and the time deferred for some years after as will appear by the sequel hereof In the mean time Henry the Eighth King of England who in the year 1535. was by Act of Parliament Authorized Head of the Church of England did now absolutely throw off all Obedience to the Papal Sea at which time the whole Clergy of England was charged by the Kings Learned Council to be in a Praemunire for supporting and maintaining the Legantine power of Cardinal Wolsey and were thereupon called by Process into the Kings Bench but before that day of appearance came they in their Convocation concluded an humble submission in writing and offered the King a hundred thousand pounds to have their Pardon by Parliament which offer after some pause and deliberation was accepted and their pardon promised Until this time the Popes that is Clement VII and this present Paul the third had subtilly dissembled matters between them and Henry King of England intending if necessity had required to have confirmed his Divorce from Queen Catharine to which end Cardinal Campeggio was sent into England and joyned in Commission with the Cardinal of York with Authority to give Sentence in favour of the King and that the matter might receive a speedy dispatch and not be spun out by length of time required in the solemnity of Judgment and passing Sentence a Brief was ready framed and drawn up and the Bull or Seal thereunto affixed whereby the Marriage with Queen Catherine was made null and void in the most ample manner and with Terms and Clauses so full as nothing could be more expressive nor more large than that Instrument with instructions notwithstanding not to present or publish the same unless they received assurances that Henry would continue firm and constant in his Obedience to the Authority of the Church and in this manner things stood and thus far had proceeded in the year 1528. Clement the Seventh being then Pope and so remained in suspense until the time of this present Paul the Third when Henry bidding defiance to the Papal Authority proceeded to actions never to be reconciled with that Church whereupon the Pope issued out his Bull dated the 30th of August 1535. whereby he cited King Henry to appear personally before him and the College of Cardinals at Rome to give answer to all those Cruelties Sacrileges Adulteries and other Crimes whereof he stood accused and in case of refusal he pronounced him and all his Subjects to remain under censure of Excommunication declaring him actually deprived of his Crown and Kingdom his Subjects absolved from all Obedience all actions of Religion interdicted and forbidden to be performed or celebrated in his Dominions commanding all Ecclesiastical persons to depart from his Kingdoms and the Nobles to rise up in Rebellion against him But all this lightning and thunder of Excommunication did little terrifie the resolved mind of King Henry but rather incensed him to proceed in that course which since that time hath laid the happy beginning of that blessed Reformation under which by Gods mercy we enjoy the true and glorious light of the Gospel On these terms England stood in reference to the Pope when publication was made of a General Council to be held at Mantoua and then altered to Vicenza in which case King Henry judging himself concerned in despight of his Excommunication published a Manifesto in his own name and in the name of all his Nobility whereby he protested against any such Convocation assembled by the Popes Authority as being in it self of none effect excepting also against the place as unsecure and the Country as infested with continual Wars But whereas he was desirous of a General Council as being the only means whereby to reform the dissolute matters of the Clergy and suppress the exorbitant Tyrannies and Usurpations of the Clergy he should willingly give his consent thereunto provided that such Convocation were assembled by the Authority of the Christian Kings and Princes who had the sole power and disposal of such matters for as to the Pope he esteemed him only as a Bishop in his own Diocess with no farther extent of Jurisdiction than that which reacheth thereunto the which also was most reasonable at this time when the abuses of the Court of Rome were the chief matters to be reformed and to be presented to the cognisance and censure of such a Council Besides this great defection of England from the Papal Obedience which gave a fatal blow to the Church of Rome the Doctrin of Luther daily grew and dilated it self in all parts of Germany and France with much disturbance for allaying of which and establishment of the truth of the Gospel there was no other remedy mentioned and cried up by all parties but a General Council but this admitted of so many scruples disputes and nicities as to the time and place that nothing could as yet be resolved In the mean time the Turks taking advantage upon the discord amongst Christians entered Dalmatia with Fire and Sword and took the strong Town of Clissa which the pope had fortified with all sorts of Provisions and Ammunition which misfortune the Pope greatly resenting ordered solemn Processions to be made in Rome at which he was present in person and walked on foot and sent his Legates to most Christian Princes exhorting them to lay aside the Quarrels and Wars amongst themselves and unite together against the Common Enemy in order whereunto a League was made between the Pope the Emperor and the Venetians the conditions whereof were that the Emperor should set 82 Gallies to Sea and the Venetians the like number and the Pope 38 with which force of 200 Sail they agreed to invest the Turks Dominions in some parts of Greece Andrea D'Oria was constituted Admiral of the Emperors Fleet Vicenzo Capello of the Venetians and Marco Grimano Patriarch of Aquileia of the Popes and in case any descent were made or Forces landed then Fernando Gonzaga Vice-King of Sicily was to be Generalissimo or Commander in Chief but the success did not answer so great preparations which proved rather dishonorable than advantagious for this formidable Fleet being at Sea near the Promontory of Antium had sight of the Fleet of Barbarosso and might with much ease have charged and vanquished them but Andrea D'Oria the Emperors Admiral refused to engage so that leaving the
Enemy they all divided themselves into three Squadrons under their respective Commanders sailing away in manner of a flight to the great ignominy and shame of the Christian Arms which inglorious action did greatly displease the Pope and more especially the Venetians who instead of some great benefit which they expected in return for all their expence and hazard lost Castlenuovo which was soon afterwards taken by the Enemy Howsoever this publick Disgrace was in some manner repaired by the favour and good will of the Emperor towards the Pope whh bestowed on his Son Pier-luigi the City of Novara and gave Margaret of Austria the Widow of Alexander de Medicis in marriage to his Nephew Ottavio with a Portion of 250 thousand Ducats It happened about this time that Francis Naria da Meltro Duke of Camerin died the Pope immediately resolved to make seizure of Camerino pretending that that place was devolved to the Church ever since the death of John Maria Varano whom Leo X. had made Duke of that place for that he leaving no Heirs Male Feltro had by Usurpation taken possession of that place in right only of Julia the Daughter of John Maria Varano whom his Son Guido Vbaldo had taken to Wife and held the same in despight of Clement the late Pope And now whereas the present Duke was a youth of tender age and no experience the Pope made use of this opportunity to lay his claim which he had concealed during the life of the old Duke and to make it good raised an Army and marched against Camerino with which this young Duke being terrified surrendred the place without other difficulty to the Pope who having satisfied all pretenders to any Arrears by disbursement of great sums of mony he invested his Nephew Ottavio Farnese in the place creating him Duke of Camerino chief Prefect of Rome and Censuary of the Church By this and other expences the Chamber was greatly exhausted of its Treasure to recruit which the Pope laid new Gabels and Impositions on all Commodities in his Dominions and especially upon Salt the which so discontented the People of Perugia that from a mutiny they took Arms and appeared in open Rebellion but being soon queâ—led by the Popes Forces all their Immunities and Privileges were seized whereby they were forced to send their Messengers to Rome with all humility and submission to beg Pardon from the Pope promising all Loyalty and Obedience for the future Ascanius Colonna making also some disturbance on the like occasion was for his contumacy deprived of his Estate in Campagna Paliano was dismantled and his Fortress of Rocca entirely demolished Things being thus reduced and settled in the Temporal State he converted his thoughts to the quiet and security of the Church and considering that disturbances in the world proceeded commonly from want of good Instruction and corruption of manners he commanded the Bishops to their respective Diocesses enjoyning them to reside there and teach their Flocks with good Lectures by their own exemplary lives In the year 1540. he augmented and enlarged the Immunities and Privileges of the Chamber and the Authority of the Referendaries He gave liberty to Clergy men to dispose of their Estates by Testament without leave or interruption of the Apostolical Chamber He gave liberty also to Jews which were converted to Christianity to dispose of their Estates according to their own will and pleasure and reformed many abuses in the administration of Civil and Criminal Causes and towards the end of this year constituted Cardinal Farnese his Nephew Legate at Avignon in the place of the Cardinal D'Auch deceased The Pope as we have declared before shewing himself unresolved in the matter of a Council being very wavering as to the time and place tho he seemed always ready to agree thereunto and from the first time that he was created Pope evidenced an earnest desire above all things to comply with the Christian Princes in that particular at length the Emperor and Princes of Germany finding their Country tossed and embroiled with various disputes of Religion resolved to call a Diet at Regensburg supposing that a National Assembly might settle and determin Controversies in want and for defect of a General Council and in pursuance thereof a Diet was opened at Regensburg about the beginning of March 1541. At this Diet the Emperor himself was present with great hopes that all Controversies about Religion would be here determined and Germany united in the same opinion Hereunto the Pope sent Cardinal Gaspar Contarini to be his Legat a person of excellent prudence and learning accompanied with several others well instructed in the Interest of the Court of Rome and with publick Notaries skilful in drawing up Authentick Acts and Forms of Law to whom above all things it was committed in charge not to receive any Papers or Memorials which might tend to the least abatement or diminution of the Papal Authority but in such case to break up abruptly referring those matters to the determination of a General Council In short after long Conferences and Debates the Diet broke up on the 28th of July the Emperor referring all that had been done or transacted there to a General Council or to a National Synod of Germany or to a Diet of the Empire promising to go himself into Italy to treat with the Pope on that matter and in case the Pope should appear refractory thereunto that then notwithstanding he would within the space of eighteen months by virtue of his own Authority issue forth his Writs for calling a Diet of the Empire for setling the Affairs of Religion and prevail with the Pope to send his Legat to it And in the mean time he commanded the Protestants not to receive any other new Doctrins than such as had already been debated and enjoyned the Bishops to reform the abuses of their Churches He forbad also the dissolution of Monasteries or any seizure to be made on the Estate of the Church and any person or persons whatsoever to change or alter his or their Religion And for the better satisfaction and contentment of the Protestants that in those points which were still under Controversie he left every man free and at liberty in his own judgment and farther that such Monasteries as were not yet demolished should still remain but howsoever should be reduced to a Godly and Christian way of practice That the Goods of the Church should not be seized but left for maintainance of the Ministers without any distinction or difference relating to their Sect in Religion He also prorogued the Assembly at Ausburg until such time as the points there in Controversie could come to the decision of a General Council or a Diet of the Empire After this the Emperor passed into Italy and at Luca met the Pope where in a long discourse he treated at large concerning a Council and the management of a War against the Turks the result of which was this That
the Pope should send a Nuntio into Germany to advise the Diet which was to be held at Spira on the beginning of the next year following and assure them of his resolution to assemble a General Council at Vicenza at the time formerly prefixed But in regard this City was under the Dominion of the Venetians the Pope thought fit to intimate first this intention to the Senate before he signified this resolution at Spira the which was advisedly considered for the Venetians rejected the proposal being jealous of the ill consequences which the concourse of such multitudes might produce to their State and in regard they had lately made a Peace with the Sultan they apprehended that a Treaty and Consultation held in one of their Towns for uniting in a Confederacy against him and carrying on a War might be the occasion of a Rupture and breach of the Peace which lately they had with great charge and much labour concluded upon which answer from the Venetians the Pope was forced to take other measures In the mean time the Cardinal Coutarini lay under the severe censure of the Pope having been accused for behaving himself with too much easiness at Regensburg in matters which concerned the interest of the Church for that he seemed as if he had been a little shaken and staggered with the subtil Arguments against the Doctrin of Transubstantiation and heard with too much indifferency the discourses which tended to the diminution of the Papal Authority But the Cardinal Fregosa being his friend defended him in despight of all his enemies until such time as returning to the Pope at Luca he rendered such an account of all matters transacted in his Embassy as gave the Pope entire satisfaction This was the state of Affairs towards the end of the year 1541. when at the beginning of 1542. the Pope dispatched John Mora the Bishop of Modena to the Diet held at Spira under Ferdinand the Emperors brother giving them to understand that the Pope continued his resolution of holding a General Council which he had for some time deferred in expectation of that good issue which it was hoped the Diets and National Conventions would have produced in the settlement of Religion but seeing that those means had failed he now again re-assumed his former deliberation about a Council which he should gladly cause to be assembled in Germany were not the fatigues of so long a Journey and the alteration of Air dangerous to a person of his age and therefore after he had thought of Mantoua Vicenza Ferrara Bologna and Piacenza for places proper and convenient for such a Convention He did at length pitch upon Trent as a City without exception being situated on the Frontiers of Germany and therefore did now unalterably appoint a Council there to be opened on the 13th of August next ensuing desiring all those there present at this Diet that they would lay aside all Animosities and Factions and appear at this Council with clear and sincere souls to favour the cause of God and the truth of the Gospel Upon this proposal Ferdinand and the other Princes which favoured the Cause of the Roman Church returned their thanks to the Pope saying that since there was no City in Germany judged convenient for this Council that they were contented with this assignment of Trent where they promised to come and there to be assistant But the Protestants refused to accept of this intimation alledging that the Pope had neither Authority to indict a Council nor that Trent was a place convenient for it which was the cause that no farther resolution was taken hereupon at this Diet. Howsoever the Pope proceeded forward in his intention and published his Bull dated the two and twentieth of May for assembling a Council at Trent to meet on the first of November following the which was dispatched from Rome to all the Princes of Christendom but without any great success For in the month of July Francis the French King had denounced War against the Emperor having in a Manifesto published his reasons for it in such severe terms as greatly reflected on the honor of the Emperor and which so much provoked him to anger in that ill humor wherein he was newly returned from his unhappy adventure before Algier into Spain that when the Bull was delivered ro him he gave this answer that he was in no manner satisfied therewith in regard that it made no distinction in the terms and stile thereof between him and the King of France for tho he had refused no pains nor spared expence to compass the assembling of a Council and that the French King on the contrary had endeavoured by his Embassadors at Spira to nourish discords and so to embroil the affairs of Religion as to put them into a condition beyond all hopes or possibility of accommodation yet this Bull treated the disservices of the French with the same equality of merit as it did the unwearied zeal of Him the Emperor whose great incumbence it had always been to render faithful and effectual Offices of Duty to the Church And then rehearsing the many provocations the French King had given him he desired the Pope to consider if the Behaviour of that King towards him did correspond with a design or intention of advancing the interest of Christendom or did appear with such a face or guise of Peace and Reconciliation as was necessary at such a time when a General Council was to be convened of which we may then conceive the most promising assurances of success when it commences with Candor Friendship and Charity which are the best and most excellent dispositions towards the establishment of truth and peace But seeing that the French King hath ever countermined and disturbed this course some other way was to be found for the settlement of Religion besides a Council and in the mean time he desired that the Pope would attribute the disappointment thereof to the French King only to whom it was necessary that he should declare himself a publick enemy in case he ever hoped to expect good from a Council in the settlement of Peace and Religion in the world The French King being well assured that the War which he had commenced at this unseasonable time would certainly be interpreted as prejudicial to Religion and as if he favoured the Protestant cause did therefore to forestal such suggestions publish most severe Edicts against the Protestants forbidding them to assemble at any Meetings causing all their Books written in defence of their Doctrin to be burnt and enjoyning the Sorbonists to make severe inquisitions concerning such who observed not Fish days or days of Abstinence or said not their Prayers in Latin or in any manner contradicted or withstood the Principles or Doctrins of the Catholick Church Moreover he wrote an Apology for himself to the Pope in answer to what the Emperor had accused him of recalling to memory the hard and sacrilegious usage which he had practised against
only that hereupon Julio Orâ—â—no was dispeeded with thirty Companies of Foot to Guard and defend the Confines of Hungary and thus the Pope having spent five days at Busetto with no other advantage to his Affairs he returned again to Bologna where he celebrated the Feast of S. Peter the Apostle About this time Barbarosso who had been instigated by the French to do all the damage they were able to the Emperor had coasted along the shore by Naples and having slaid some time before the Isle of 〈…〉 they at length appeared near Civita Vecchia at the mouth of the 〈…〉 which gave such an alarm to Rome that the Inhabitants had certainly abandoned the City and fled to the Mountains had not Poline the French Envoy aboard the Fleet of Barbarosso written a Letter to Cardinal Rodolfo giving him assurance that there was no design upon Rome with which the tumult was quieted and their fears dissipated Now began the year 1544. which was very remarkable for the unexpected Peace concluded between the Emperor and the French King on the 18th of September at Crespy a Castle in Valois after the bloody Battel of Cerisoles the which was received with extreme joy by all the Christian Princes and especially by Pope Paul who being returned from Bologna to Rome had lately made solemn Processions for the Peace and quiet of Christendom the which unexpected news surprising the Pope was interpreted by him as a return of those Prayers and Supplications he had made for Peace tho inwardly he conceived some secret resentments that he had not been concerned as Mediator in it Upon this news of Peace the Pope thought it seasonable to publish an other Sessions of the Council to Commence in March following which had on occasion of the late Wars been prorogued but this hasty indiction of a Council was not pleasing to the Emperor who expected to have been first consulted esteeming that it had been more agreeable to his Authority and more acceptable to the humor of Germany had he been made the principal Author of this Council Howsoever that he might seem to be the first mover of the work and the Pope only to act in the second place he issued out many Commissions to the Prelates of Spain and of the Low-Countries and to many Divines at Lovain to meet together and consider of several Theses and Propositions which were to be debated in the Council which being reduced to six and thirty Heads he required their solution of them positively without any proofs or references to Holy Scripture All which solutions being made were confirmed by the Emperor 's Magisterial Authority and Edicts requiring all people to yield entire faith and belief thereunto And farther the Emperor not being able to conceal the displeasure he had conceived against the Pope vented his choler frequently to the Nuntio in very severe and sharp terms and whereas the Pope in the month of December had created thirteen Cardinals those three which were Spaniards amongst them were forbidden by the Emperor to accept the Dignity or to take the Title or wear the Habit. Tho the Emperor had testified this open displeasure against the Pope yet he so far complied with him as to send Don Diego de Mendoza who had lately been his Embassador at Venice with ample Commission to the Council of Trent as did also the other Princes who were in amity with the Pope but the Protestants who had sent their Commissioners to the Diet at Worms over which Ferdinand presided in the place of the Emperor refused to send their Embassadors to Trent alledging that the Assembly held at that place was not legitimate nor could be termed with the quality and character of a General Council The Pope being highly incensed at this refusal and separation of the Protestants which he esteemed an affront to the Papal Authority dispatched his Nephew the Cardinal Farnese in quality of Legate with ample instructions to the Emperor wherein besides some other particular interests he encharged him most especially to incite the Emperor to make a War of Religion against the Protestant Princes of which he conceived the greater hopes in regard that by frequent advices from his Nuntio he was assured of the displeasure and disdain the Emperor had of the Protestant Cause and that he willingly gave ear to those suggestions which advised him to compel their Assents and Compliance by force of Arms. To this Proposition the Emperor made answer that he acknowledged this Counsel which the Pope gave him to be good and almost necessary and which he resolved to follow but howsoever that it was to be executed with its due caution and that a Truce was first to be concluded with the Turk which was secretly treating and then that some discords and dissentions were to be sowed amongst the Protestant Princes for that being united together their numbers were so formidable and great that instead of maintaining the Catholick Religion he should put it into apparent danger and hazard which a doubtful state of War may produce This Treaty tho secretly carried was yet suspected by the Protestant Princes who took a most sensible alarm from the Sermon of a Cordelier Frier that preached one day before the Emperor King Ferdinand and the Legate and used many invective Speeches against the Lutherans he told the Emperor plainly that it was his duty to defend the Church by force of Arms and that God had put the Sword into his hands for extirpation of this Heresie and destruction of this pest of mankind which he ought not to suffer to live in this world This Sermon and discourse made great noise being interpreted for the sense of the Legate and to be an effect of the Treaty which he secretly held with the Pope and that the Frier Preached in that manner by his order wherefore to abate and surcease those reports the Cardinal departed secretly by night and with all expedition returned into Italy In the mean time the Debates at the Diet at Worms proceeded where the Emperor in person endeavoured to persuade the Princes to contribute towards a War against the Turk which they absolutely refused to do until assurance were given them that the Peace between them and the Emperor should be continued and maintained without any respect to the determinations and conclusions at Trent which they could not esteem a General Council or to have any Power and Authority to oblige them to an observation of those Decrees and Canons which were formed therein to which the Emperor replied that he could not assure them of Peace or observation of any Articles which should exempt them from the determination of that Council to which all Christians were obliged to submit and that he should not know how to to excuse himself to other Kings and Princes in case he should endeavour to procure that exemption for Germany only from obedience to the Council which was chiefly convened in respect and in order to the settlement of their
or at least withdraw from any Meetings where such matters were Debated or Acts Decreed But notwithstanding these positive refusals the Emperor's Ambassadours endeavoured to induce the Pope's Party to admit the Dissenters to audience in the Council for that their very entrance to it did imply a tacite owning of the Pope's Authority though the usual Ceremonies and Compliments which were but superficial Points were pretermitted by them the which would be an act most religious and Christian for perhaps such charitable condescension would be a means to prevent a War which might endanger the safety of the whole Church to which the Cardinal of Toledo one of the Emperor's Party farther added That he had often heard in Sermons how that the salvation of one Soul was so dear and precious to Jesus Christ that for the saving thereof he would descend on Earth and be again crucified and then said he let us consider if we imitate this example in case for the saving of all Germany we should deny to recede from the least punctilio of our honour and prerogative At length to be short after many Debates and consultations in despight of the Legat and his Adherents the Authority of the three Electours and the Cardinal Madrutio promoted by the mediation of the Imperial Ambassadors prevailed But then another difficulty arose concerning the treatment of these Ambassadours when introduced to the Council with what place and precedency was to be granted to them and how and where the Divines were to be seated who expected a rank and freedom of Voice and suffrage equal with others which seemed very dangerous to be yielded to known Hereticks who by Antient Canons and Papal Decretals were never admitted to a Communion or Society with other Christians unless having first renounced their Errors they desired with humility to be taught and directed this Point though at first disputed with the same difficulties as the former yet at length it was concluded That the necessity ought to excuse the transgression of such Canons which after mature deliberation had been dispensed within all the Diets of Germany and that the like might be safely practised at this Council in case that in the Preamble to this Admission it were declared that such Indulgence was yielded out of charity and compassion to the end that Men who were gone astray and fallen into error might be reclaimed and reduced to the true Faith and Orthodox Doctrine of the Church And though the Legat would not yield to any of these means of Accommodation yet it was concluded against him that on the 24th of this month of January a General Convocation should be held at which the Ambassadours of Saxony should be received and heard and that in the mean time the Divines who remained at some distance from Trent might repair thither and that the 25th should be the day of Session which being agreed a Committee was chosen to draw up this Decree together with the Preamble to the Admission and the safe Conduct The Imperial Ministers having made this report to the Protestants and signified in an eloquent Speech the tenderness the Council had for them and willingness to condescend to their weak Consciences the Protestants retired a while and having considered the minutes of the safe Conduct made their exceptions to it being in four particulars different to that of Basil formerly granted to the Bohemians and on which they were obliged by their Instructions to insist As first That in Council they might have a Vote and free suffrage Secondly That the holy Scripture and practice of the Primitive Church Antient Councils and Fathers who were Expositors of the Scriptures might be the Judges of all Controversies Thirdly That all Ambassadours during the continuance of the Council might have the free Exercise of their Religion in their own Lodgings Fourthly That nothing should be said or acted which might tend to the defamation of their Religion or render it ridiculous These particulars being offered to the Council were generally concluded to be unreasonable and such as might ensnare their wisdom in inextricable difficulties and therefore it was resolved not to change or alter any thing in the Minutes of the Safe Conduct in expectation that the Protestants observing their resolution and constancy might with time be induced to condescend to their terms Matters being thus protracted till the 24th of January the General Convocation was held at the House of the Legat where the Electors all the Fathers and the Emperor's Ambassadours were present who having taken their Places the Ambassadours of Saxony were called in who having made their Reverence and Salutes to the Assembly one of them began his Speech with this Compellation Reverendissimi Amplissimi Patres Domini My Lord and Master Maurice Elector of Saxony after his hearty Wishes and Prayers that God would inspire all your Counsels with his Holy Spirit hath commanded me to let you know that he hath a long time desired to see a General Christian and free Council held and celebrated wherein all Errors might be refuted and abuses in the Church corrected and reformed and that the Holy Scriptures might be made the Rule of our faith and practice in which good work that he might be assistant he hath sent his Divines to represent their Confession to this Council being commanded to abide at some Leagues distant until a safe Conduct could be procured for them for having understood that according to a constitution of the Council of Constance it was not necessary to keep faith with Hereticks or those who were so reputed and that the Bohemians being sensible of such Tenants had with due caution armed themselves with assurance of safe Conduct under the Seal of the Council of Basil so in like manner his Master the Elector did desire and expect the security of safe Conduct for his Divines Counsellors and their domestick Servants in a more ample and large form than what appeared in that Draught and Copy which had lately been presented to him Which request being granted and admission given to the Divines to take their place in Council his next Proposition was to have them heard upon those Points and Articles which were in Controversie between the Protestants and the Catholicks and though the same had already been determined by the Council yet that they might again be revised and examined and determined by the Word of God and according to the common belief of all Christian Nations After these Ambassadours had finished their Oration those of Wirtemberg were introduced who having delivered their Message almost to the same intent and purpose with the former they were caused to retire and after a Debate whether any addition or alteration should be made in the form of Safe Conduct it was generally concluded in the Negative lest by giving the liberty proposed the Council should be intrigued in most inextricable Disputes of which Volumes had been wrote already without hopes of arriving at any definitive Sentence or Determination
agreement between Leo X. and Francis the First was made void and all Friars and other Religious were made subject to the Bishop of their Diocese So that France seemed in a manner to be lost onely Spain being a people not given much to innovation adhered to the Pope's Authority and to a Continuation of the Old Council The Feast of Easter approaching which was the time appointed for the opening the Council the Pope deputed the Cardinals of Mantoua Warmia Seripanda and Simonette to be his Legats and Presidents of the Council and hastned all the Bishops of Italy to repair unto Trent that so they might counterballance the number of the French and Spanish Bishops who came as was believed with no other intention than to gain one Point which was that a General Council in its Determinations was superiour and above the Authority of the Pope a Position which the Bishops of Italy who had the honour of being the Head of all the Clergy ought on no terms whatsoever to admit But as yet there was a very thin appearance of Bishops at Trent for the eyes of all were fixed on the issue which the Convention of the Estates at Orleans and the Conference at Poissy would produce which in every Act struck at the Pope's Authority and exposed unto the people the corruptions and abuses of the Roman Sea In fine after all the Queen Regent wrote a Letter to the Pope wherein she represented to him the great numbers of Protestants in France and the daily encrease of them to suppress which a Reformation in many things was necessary as namely to take away Images out of the Churches the Spittle and Exorcisms in Baptism to grant the Eucharistical Chalice to the Laiety to admit the Divine Service in the vulgar Tongue and expunge the late Festival of Corpus Christi out of the Kalendar All and every Point of which were such mortal blows to the Church that the Pope could not think thereof with any patience nor give other answer thereunto than that those and other matters should be deferred to the decision of the Council With these expectations and Discourses the time was protracted until the month of December by which time there was a considerable appearance of Bishops at Trent so that the Pope commanded without farther delay that the Council should be commenced but by reason of some other Obstructions and at the desire of the Emperor's Ambassadours it was again deferred until the middle of January following The first Session was held the 18th of January at which the first preliminary afforded great matter of Dispute for it was there to be made a standing Rule That nothing should be propounded but what was first moved by the Legats Proponentibus Legatis which being opposed by four Spanish Prelats was notwithstanding over-ruled by the greater number and the next Sessions appointed for the 26th of February following In the mean time on the 17th of January the Edict was made at St. Germaines whereby the Protestants had liberty given them to have their Churches or Temples without the Cities to live under the protection of the King in observance of their own Discipline Provided that they taught nothing contrary to the Doctrine of the Old and New Testament and to the Council of Nice At Trent after several Congregations held there another Sessions commenced the 26th of February at which some matters were determined in relation to Precedency and the Index Expurgatorius and then the Council adjourned until the 14th of March which time being come nothing passed at that Session worthy of observation onely they adjourned until the 14th of May and then again to the 4th of June At the beginning of this Session the Marquis of Pescara who was Ambassadour for Spain instantly urged that this Council might be declared a Continuation of the former under Paul and Julius but the Emperor's Ambassadours made such fierce opposition that nothing for that time was concluded therein after which the Marquis de Pescara departed from Trent upon pretence that the affairs of his Government required his presence at Milan though in reality it was to avoid a concurrence with the French Ambassadours who were then upon their Journey to Trent namely the Lord of Lansac Ferrier who was a President of Parliament and Fabre Lord of Pibrac one also of the Long-Robe who arrived two or three days after the departure of the Spanish Ambassadour And now misunderstandings encreased between the Court of Rome and the Council of Trent the Cardinal of Mantoua himself who was one of the Pope's Legats being suspected of not having had sufficient zeal for the Authority of the Court of Rome because he had not seconded the Votes of the Spanish Party who would have declared this present Council a Continuation of the former so that it came to be debated at Rome whether it were not necessary to recall the Cardinal of Mantoua from his Presidency or to place some other Collegue in Commission above him On the other side the Council was as much dissatisfied with the Court of Rome as the Court of Rome was with Trent because that many things were designed there to moderate the Papal Authority and give a greater latitude of Power to Princes and Arch-Bishops in the exercise both of the spiritual and temporal jurisdiction nor were the Prelats free from all variance amongst themselves whose interests several times interfering one with other administred subject of Dispute which ended in Reproaches and Obloquies of one against the other The French Ambassadours being admitted to Audience in a Congregation assembled the 26th of May Fibrac made a very eloquent and pathetical Oration wherein he reproved the indiscreet and ill-guided zeal of those who would not part with one insignificant ceremony to gain the common quiet and peace of the Church and the salvation of many souls He also openly declaimed against the violence imposed in the Council which ought to have been free And considering that preceding Councils had for some Ages past suffered their Opinions and Sentiments to be overswayed by a superiour Power and serve an interest for whose sake they were not assembled he did therefore now exhort the Fathers then present that they would take such measures as might without mixture of other considerations cure and heal the Diseases of the Church produce Peace and propagate Charity in the World and secure the Flock of Christ from usurpation and Oppression This Speech so startled the Council that the Prolocutor having nothing to reply gave an end to the Congregation of that Day On the 4th of June a Session was held in which the Commissions of Ambassadours were read and an Answer given by the Prolocutor to the Speech of Pibrac which was ill resented by the French and then the Session ended and another appointed on the 16th of July In the mean time several Congregations were held whereat the chief matter debated was the administration of the Sacrament of the Holy Communion to
Tongue were all confirmed as likewise that the Mass might be performed without other Communicants than the Priest onely that it might be celebrated in honour of the Saints and that the Wine ought to be used with a mixture of Water To which particulars the Fathers gave their Placet 22 or 23 only excepted amongst which the chief was the Arch-Bishop of Granada who could by no means be persuaded to relish the Doctrine that Jesus Christ did offer himself in the first institution of the Holy Eucharist Moreover other Decrees were read and passed relating to the regulation of Bishopricks giving the Bishops full power to inspect the nature of Dispensations whether they were fairly or subreptitiously procured as also Authority to visit Hospitals and Colledges and survey the Buildings of religious Foundations with this clause and under this Character howsoever as being Delegates of the Holy Sea Likewise other things passed of no great moment with which this Session was concluded The Decrees of this Session were satisfactory to very few for the Emperor remained highly displeased that the matter of the Cup was referred to the Pope well knowing that the concession of this Point would have been much more acceptable to his Subjects from the Council than from the Pope against whom they had demonstrated a detestable aversion Exceptions were also made to that Decree which gives the Bishops a Power over religious Houses contrary to the intention of the Donors who desired that the Revenues and management thereof should be administred by Lay-persons for thus said they was the manner how the Clergy possessed themselves of the Lands and Revenues of Hospitals and Colledges and other religious Foundations making themselves Owners and absolute Masters of what they were onely Stewards and Administrators and this formerly the Parliament of Paris looked upon as an Usurpation and encroachment of the Clergy on the civil Right and Jurisdiction the like judgment also they gave of Wills and Testaments the inspection into which by the Bishop was judged an intrenchment of the Secular Power Howsoever the Pope remained extreamly satisfied with the conclusion of this Session all things having been managed according to his own Orders and Instructions And now for the future he resolved to stand upon his guard and countermine the Plots and Artifices of the Cardinal of Lorain who came as he was well assured with vast designs as did also the French Bishops who were armed with Maxims diametrically opposite to his Authority against whom and the other Ultramontanes he resolved to reinforce his numbers and power in the Council by new recruits of Italian Bishops The same day that this last Session was concluded the French Ambassadours received Letters from their Master requiring them to move the Council that a stop might be given to their proceedings in matters of Doctrine until the Bishops from France should arrive and that in the mean time they would prepare matters tending to the Reformation of manners and abuses crept into the Church which was the only Sovereign remedy capable to cure the distempers of the Church the which Instructions the Ambassadours having made known to the Legats by whom according to due Order all matters were proposed received this Answer from them That they could not invert the Rule and method already designed for decision of the Doctrines of Faith and reformation of Manners but were forced to proceed in their usual course without any delay and interruption and if their King had any thing to propose it might be done by them his Ambassadours whom he had deputed to represent his concernments at the Council This Answer did little please the Ambassadors so that they appeared openly discontented and the Pope on the other side fearing lest the power and wisdom of the Cardinal of Lorain should be stronger than his Auxiliaries of Italian Bishops endeavoured by his Legat in France to take him off persuading him that his Negotiations in the Council could procure him no reputation in regard that all things were already done and concluded And indeed they were much in the right for the Legats having a desire to dispatch and put a period to the Council were resolved to hearken unto no delays but to proceed to the two Articles of Doctrine namely the Sacraments as they called them of Ordination and Marriage which were the onely Points remaining to be examined and determined On which Points the Congregations began to treat on the 25th of September and continued their Discourses and Treatises thereupon until the second of October But all the Disputes which arose upon these Subjects seemed impertinent and loss of time to the Bishop of quinque Ecclesiae and the other Hungarian Prelats as also to the Polanders and Spaniards who at a private Conference amongst themselves concluded that their meeting was chiefly with design to reform abuses in manners which were crept into the Church rather than to determine matters of Faith that in this work it was necessary to begin the Reformation at the Court of Rome which was the Head and source from whence the streams ought to be derived in their purity reflecting with deep sense of displeasure on the encroachments which the Court of Rome made on their Episcopal Dignity and in order hereunto the Arch-Bishop of Braganca was of Opinion that the first thing to be done was to reduce the Cardinals to their primary Institution for that until the 10th Century they were mere Priests and onely began from that time to exalt their Dignities and yet until the 12th Century they were esteemed inferiour to Bishops though since that time by several degrees and steps they have so elevated and promoted their quality with Titles and extention of Power that a Bishop is esteemed to have had honour sufficient in being onely admitted a domestick Chaplain to a Cardinal and therefore to bring the Episcopal Dignity again into request it were necessary to have it expresly declared by the Council that that Hierarchy is Jure Divino and that Bishops hold their Power and Authority immediately from Jesus Christ and not from the Pope The which question came at a seasonable and an opportune time to be discussed for one Article under consideration being then to define that the Order of Episcopacy was above that of Priesthood it fell naturally into the Enquiry Whether that Superiority was by Divine Right or not Now the Legats at first not comprehending the meaning and design why this question was proposed with so much heat suffered it to proceed to a free examination but so soon as they discovered by the Bishop of Fortosa who was a Spaniard and yet Pensioner of Rome that the Arch-Bishops of Granada and Barganca intended on the consequences of this Determination to infer that their Order being established by Divine Right and not received from the Papal Chair their Power would seem more inherent in themselves and less dependant on the Supreme Bishop So that the Legats being awakened by this intimation denied
imaginations which Men conceive of Reliques Pilgrimages and Indulgences That the Doctrine and practice of Penance should be again renewed and established according to the custom of the Primitive Church All or most of which Articles were ungrateful to the Legats both for the substance of them and circumstances with which they were delivered the Ambassadours at the same time declaring that in case they were not granted such provisions would be made in France by a National Council as were agreeable to the State of their Affairs Howsoever the Legats seemed favourably to accept them and dispatched them to the Pope by the Bishops of Viterbo And now by this time the Pope was ready to make a return of the conclusions he had made in the Point about Residencies dispatched from Trent by the Bishop of Ventimille the matter of which though couched with great Art and in such ambiguous terms as might admit of various interpretations yet that artificial fraud could not pass on such subtil Heads who for their Learning and experience were chosen out of the wisest Men of Europe for they easily discovered the Pope's intent to advance himself above an Universal Council they could have been contented to have admitted him the Chief super Ecclesias Vniversas but not super Ecclesiam Vniversalem that is over all Churches in particular but not over the Universal Church as it was aggregated into one body in a General Council Hereupon great Contests arose the Pensioners of Rome produced in favour of the Pope's Authority a Canon made by the Council of Florence which having been received by the Spaniards gave them some trouble in what manner to make an Answer thereunto But the French who had never received the Articles of that Council for Canonical opposed the Councils of Constance and Basil against it which had determined that General Councils were superiour to the Pope but the Italians who maintained that the Council of Basil was Schismatical and that the Canons of Constance were partly received and partly rejected so heated their French Opponents that Reasons and Arguments being on both sides declined the Dispute ended with high words and reproaches of one against the other Which the Legats well observing and that there could be no good issue of such high Contests desired time to remit these matters to the Pope's Censures and so proceeded again to the Point about Residencies the which having already caused inextricable difficulties for the Pope's words did not please the Council the Cardinal of Lorain proposed something by way of Accommodation putting in some gentler terms which might serve the turn of both Parties but the Legats penetrating with their accustomary Acuteness into the words found that the sense would bear an Interpretation which might be expounded in favour of the Opinion that Residencies were constituted by Divine Right Wherefore slighting or laying aside the words which the Cardinal had projected they framed another according to their own humour and presented it to the Congregation the which so incensed the Cardinal of Lorain that from thence forward he began to deal plainly and express himself in free and high terms protesting that for the future he would meddle no farther for that he observed a secret Combination which in Cabinet Consults assumed to its self an Authority to dispose matters differing from the Sentiments of the General Council That the Legats sought nothing more than occasions to break up the Council in discontent That nothing was acted but according to the will of the Legats who moved by such measures only as they received from the Pope whose resolution in every thing they expected from Rome according to that old saying That the Holy Ghost was brought every week from Rome to Trent in the Courriers Portmantle That he for his part was resolved to have patience until the next Session at which if matters were not managed with more fair proceedings he was resolved to retire into France with his French Nation then at the Council where renouncing all farther applications to Rome or Trent they were resolved to assemble a National Council by which they would establish such a form of Concordat as should be agreeable to the present state of their Country and which might secure the safety of the King and the quiet of his People To the same purpose the French Ambassadour expressed himself at Rome but the Pope who had been long used to such kind of Menaces and a noise about National Councils little regarded their Censures or Threats but briskly answered That the Council was free even to a licentiousness that if there were Parties and Factions they were unknown to him and were only made by the Vltramontane Bishops whose design was to trample on the Authority of the Papal Chair And in this manner such distractions and Disputes arose at Trent occasioned by the Power and Interest which the Cardinal of Lorain had there with the greatest part of the Clergy that the Congregations were for some time suspended until the Cardinal of Ventimille returned from Rome freighted with abundance of Complements and Salutes and especially with supplies of Mony for the Pope's Pensioners and then the Congregations being again commenced and with them the Discords renewed it was agreed that the next Session should be deferred until the 22th of April which was presently after Easter The Cardinal of Lorain though he seemed outwardly to consent hereunto with some reluctancy and onely in compliance with the rest of the Council yet in reality he was well enough pleased hoping that a short time would put an end to the life of this Pope who was very aged and infirm when he imagined that his Greatness and Authority would be very instrumental in promoting such a Person to the Papacy as would be facil and easie in granting every thing agreeable to his desires And now to allay a little the heats about the Divine Right of Episcopacy and Residencies the Council diverted their thoughts and Discourse to eight several Points relating to Marriage During which time and the Interval between that and the next Session the Cardinal of Lorain took the opportunity to visit the Emperor's Court at Inspruck which administred great cause of jealousie to the Pope who not onely observed the Cardinal's dissaffection from his proceedings in the Council but likewise from his Letter wherein complaining of the many Factions and Intrigues which his Italian Bishops had caused he concludes that if matters were carried on with the same Measures there would remain nothing more for him either to consider or act than onely to pray unto God to direct the Council with his Holy Inspiration The Cardinal of Lorain being arrived at Inspruck where he remained five days had frequent Conferences with the Emperor and his Son the King of the Romans touching the many disorders and corruptions of the Council at Trent as also of the means how and in what manner the Cup might be restored to the Laiety how Marriage might be granted and dispensed
to Priests and Divine Service performed in the Vulgar Tongue but more especially their thoughts were busied about reformation of the Church and the dissolute Manners both of the Head and Members of it The Cardinal being returned to Trent kept all his Discourses and Negotiations at Inspruck as a Secret declaring himself onely in general terms that he observed in the Emperor a passionate desire of a Reformation but yet without any diminution or abatement of the Papal Authority About this time the Cardinal of Mantoua died who was the first President of the Council by whose decease the Cardinal Seripanda being the next Legat took on him that Office until such time as the Pope nominated two other Cardinals namely Moron and Navagier to succeed into his place the which he did with admirable expedition to prevent the instances which the French might make in the behalf of the Cardinal of Lorain And now the Point of Celibacy or single lives of Priests which was one of the eight particulars relating to Marriage came into question which was reserved until the time that the Cardinal of Lorain could be there present in handling of which all the Divines agreed that it was Heresie to believe that the Priests of the Western Church being under a Vow and an Ecclesiastical Canon to the contrary were capable of entering into a lawful State of Marriage onely the difficulty was whether it was in the Power of the Pope in some cases to grant a Dispensation to a Priest against his Vow of Celibacy and Chastity and whether the present emergencies and necessities were such as might induce the Pope to grant such Dispensations In discussing of which question it was confessed that the Oriental Churches did frequently confer Holy Orders on Persons who were already married but yet that it was never their custom to give liberty to unmarried Priests to change the State of their single life But others extended this liberty yet farther not restraining even Monks from that satisfaction in maintenance of which they alledged the Authority of St. Austin whose Opinion it was That Monks taking Wives their Marriage was Legal though it was undecent and what rendered them Prevaricators from their Vows to God and their Promises to the World In fine though the generality of Voices would not proceed so far as to make the marriage of Monks lawful yet by Plurality of Votes it was carried that in some cases a Dispensation might be granted for a Priest to marry for which Sentence and for hazarding that question on its tryal the Pope much blamed his Legats in excuse of which they alledged their inabibility to withstand the earnest instances which the Emperors and the Duke of Bavaria's Ambassadours had made in that particular About this time the Cardinal of Lorain received the bad news of the death of his Brother the Duke of Guise who was murthered by a Ruffian before the City of Orleans which allarm'd the Cardinal and caused him to set a more secure Watch and Guard over his own Person nor was the Council less concerned in the death of this great Man who was esteemed the Head and Chief Protector of the Catholick Party in France Amidst these troubles the Bishop of quinque Ecclesiae returned from Inspruck to Trent bringing two Letters with him from the Emperor one whereof was to the Council instantly exhorting them to labour in the work of Reformation and another to the Pope earnestly entreating him not to dissolve the Council lest thereby he should give scandal to the Hereticks and cause them to reproach and divide both the Church and its Assemblies But above all he desired that the Council might be free and not confined by the Orders of his Court nor by such Methods of proceeding as stop'd the mouths of all but his Legats there being nothing to be propounded but by their words Proponentibus Legatis and in fine he complained that after all the labours and Disputes of the Bishops and Divines to set things right there was no conclusion or establishment of any matter until it had first received its approbation from Rome This bold Letter which the Emperor adventured to write with more plain dealing than ever Charles V. or his other Predecessors durst to use highly offended the Pope causing him to return a smart Answer to it in terms very disobliging to the Emperour telling him amongst other things that he was very acute in observing the Disorders of the Council but in the mean time was blind in discerning from whence they proceeded which if well considered were chiefly from himself and from others who instead of receiving Laws were pleased to give them and that had he followed the example of Constantine and Theodosius those divisions and discords which appear in the Council would never entered or would speedily have vanished Howsoever the Emperor still continuing to oppose the Pope joyned with the Cardinal of Lorain and the French Party to examine and confute the arguments which the Papal Faction brought to sustain the clause of Regens Ecclesiam Vniversalem which set up the Pope above the Authority of a General Council So that the Pope perceiving that there was no hopes of gaining either the Emperor or the French to his side resolved to joyn himself to the Spaniards who having received the Council of Florence were easily persuaded to admit the clause against which the others had objected So that the Pope having his chief support from the Spanish party treated the Ambassadour of that Nation with a distinguishing kindness and respect for which reason the Count de Luna then Ambassadour for Spain at the Emperor's Court wrote to the Secretary of the Embassy at Trent as also to the Arch-Bishop and Bishop of Granada Leon and Segovia desiring them to persuade the other Spanish Bishops to moderate their passions against the Court of Rome and convert them into a zeal for the Papal Interest so that the like inclinations swaying that whole Nation the Count d' Avila who was Ambassadour for Spain at Rome became extreamly partial to the Pope's side for when the Imperialists at a Conference with the Pope demanded that the Cup might be given to the Laiety and that Priests might be permitted to marry the Spaniards opposed both by which Divisions the Pope gladly made his excuse to determine neither Point pretending in that doubtful condition to refer all to the determination of the Council About this time the Cardinal Seripanda one of the Legats died as had not long before his Colleague the Cardinal of Mantoua so that for some time the Congregation adjourned until the supply of new Legats were come from Rome who were daily expected And now the Pope who with long delays and general terms had wearied out the patience of those who expresly contended for a Reformation began to consider of the ways and means how he might absolutely throw off the thoughts of it and handsomly acquit himself with the French Nation thereupon He was once
inclined as was said to have granted all the Points demanded which did not intrench upon the Papal Authority and voluntarily have yielded a License for Priests to marry and to the Laiety the Communion in both kinds but then considering that these concessions would open a gate to other Demands and to such a croud of Novelties which pressing in at this breach might ruine and over-run all the constitutions and Canons of the Church he therefore resolved to keep himself firm to the present State of Principles and Governments which he doubted not but to maintain in case he could work off the Emperor from the French Party to which end he ordered the Cardinal of Moron who was to succeed into the place of one of the deceased Legats to pass from Trent to Inspruck there to treat with the Emperor and representing to him how fatal such Novelties would be to the Church endeavour to persuade him not to insist farther on those Points but leaving the French to their own Opinions to take part with the Pope and the King of Spain whose friendship was more stable and secure than that of France At this time news came to Trent that the King had concluded a Peace at Orleans with his Protestant Subjects and it was suggested at Rome that this Peace was made by contrivance of the French Bishops who secretly and in their hearts were tainted with Heresie at which the Pope was so incensed that at a Congregation of Cardinals convened the 31. of March he ordered the Judges of the Court of Inquisition to proceed against such Persons as were Instrumental in that Peace and accordingly Coligny Cardinal of Chatillon St. Romain Arch-Bishop of Axi John de Monlue Bishop of Valence the Bishop of Troye the Bishop of Pamiers and the Bishop of Chartres were all accused of Heresie and cited to appear at Rome before the Tribunal of the Inquisition By these Accidents the quarrels of France encreasing both at Trent and at Rome the French Divines being displeased both with their ill treatment and with the long delays in all matters at Trent resolved to take their leave of the Council which the Legats easily granted and to which the French Ambassadours so readily assented that they even forced them to retire by denying to them their Pensions in case they continued in that station against the pleasure of the King howsoever three Friers who were Pensioners of Rome continued still there at the Pope's charge resolving to see the utmost issue of all those Affairs The 22. of April having been the day formerly appointed for the Session a general Congregation was held the day before at which the Legats declaring that matters were not prepared for a Session did propose that it might be again deferred until the 3d. of June following to which the Cardinal of Lorain replyed that it seemed derogatory to the wisdom and gravity of that Council so often to appoint times for a Session and then again to subject them to farther delays wherefore it would be much more advisable to prefix the 21th of May following for the time when a day should precisely be appointed for holding a Session This Proposition so generally pleased the Council that with a common Voice they assented thereunto and though this unanimous concurrence with the Cardinal in this matter of small importance administred subject both of jealousie and envy to the Legats yet they could well enough rellish any thing of delay in hopes that the most violent and hot spirits being wearied with long expectation would either abate of their mettle or else retire in despair or discontent The Cardinal Moron was detained at Inspruck for a longer time than he expected by reason that the Emperor suffered all his Papers and Memorials to be inspected and examined by certain of his own Divines which the Cardinal highly resented as an indignity to the Pope whose Proposals were more sacred than to be exposed to the censures of a few silly Priests and indeed it was believed that this manner of treatment proceeded from the dictates of the Cardinal of Lorain who at that time had dispatched one of his Gentlemen to the Emperor desiring him to speak plainly to the Cardinal Moron giving him to understand that the Council ought to be free and not to be translated from Trent unto any other place as some had contrived out of no good intent to the publick welfare In the mean time the Pope was dealing with those Ambassadours who resided with him at Rome to prevail with their Masters to refer all Disputes about Reformation to himself rather than to the Council for that the abuses in Discipline were never esteemed the causes of Heresies as plainly appeared in the Primitive Church where Heresies were very importunate and troublesom notwithstanding the purity of their Government and the incorruption of their Manners That it was impossible to extract a Reformation from the common consent of such different Interests most of which being guided by a zeal without prudence served onely to discover the nakedness of the Church and make it manifest to all the World that her Evils were incurable After a long vacation for some weeks a Congregation was held on the 14th of May when the Cardinal of Lorain made a long and Eloquent Oration about Bishops and the means how to prevent the abuses in their Election he first began with those of France which was onely an Introduction to his Satyr against the Court of Rome which he termed the source and original of all the abuses and corruptions in the Church he inveyed chiefly against those Cardinals who held Pluralities of Bishopricks shewing that all the tricks and contrivances for holding several Benefices in Commendam and the like were only Artifices to delude that wise God who would neither be mocked nor deceived Which Discourse might proceed well enough from the mouth of another though it became not the Cardinal who was known to possess a Revenue from the Church of a million of Livers per annum to all which the Cardidinal Moron who was newly returned from the Emperor replyed with great sharpness nor sparing the Cardinal himself in the least which served to enflame those Feuds which had taken their Original from former causes And now upon return of Cardinal Moron from the Emperor every one began to discourse of the issue which his Negotiations had produced on which Subject the common report was that the Emperor had promised to defend the Authority of the Pope against the opposition and resistance of Hereticks That he would not pass beyond Inspruck nor consent to have the Council removed from Trent to Bologna nor could he accept the Proposition of coming to Bologna and there be crowned by the hands of the Pope without the advice and consent of a Diet. This as we said was what appeared above-board and the more common Discourse of the Town but the truth and the secret of it was this That the Cardinal Moron had persuaded
such use of his Trade that all the Popes his Predecessours for above fifty years before had not thundered out so many Briefs Monitories and Excommunications as he had done in the space onely of five years In order to this design of advancing the Ecclesiastical Power to which all his thoughts were applyed he constituted a new Congregation at Rome whose business it was to contrive ways and means to amplifie and enlarge the Authority and Dominion of the Church and all the Nuntios or Ministers which he sent to Christian Princes were all prepared and composed of the same humour having special Instructions to cry up the Vertue and sacred force of the Ecclesiastical Authority amongst these Champions none was more zealous than Oratio Mathei Bishop of Gierace whom the Pope had made his Nuntio at Venice where one day making a Speech before the Doge and Council he had the impertinence or rather the impudence to say That Alms-deeds and other works of Charity and Piety and frequent Communion in the Holy Sacrament and the most sublime works of Christian devotion ad nihilum valent were all nothing unless they were attended with respect and favour to the Ecclesiastical liberty and authority To which he added That the Pope had commanded him to persist in this Opinion to the death and accordingly he was resolved to endure martyrdom rather than be remiss or cold in advancement of the Papal Authority And these words he delivered with such arrogance and supercilious affectation that he seemed to say I am Pope in this place and expect no Reply or Contest but onely Obedience Howsoever at first for several Months this design was not prosecuted with such heat as the importance of the matter did require for we must allow some abatement and allay for the joy and satisfaction which the Pope would take within himself for his late Atchievements And likewise upon farther thoughts he judged it not convenient to erect the Congregation he designed for that it would be a means to lay open and discover his contrivances and make Princes more jealous a proof whereof was given by the Congregation which was constituted for management of the Affairs of England which served onely to give better light and aim to King James than reigning and to render him more watchful and observing over all the actions and designs of the Papists in England And moreover the Pope having passed some few days of joy after his Inauguration was possessed with a melancholly caused by an hypocondriacal Fancy that he should speedily depart this life which gave some retardment for a while to the heat of his actions and indeed the ground of his apprehension proceeded from a common report about Rome that the Image of the Virgin of Subiaco had sweated which commonly fore-runs the death of Popes also a Dutch Astrologer had predicted that Clement VIII should die in March and that after him Leo and Paul should succeed and both Reign for a short time The thoughts hereof so disturbed and perplexed his mind that for the space of five Months he could not apply himself to any business of moment until in the Month of September certain of his Friends being desirous to cure this melancholly assembled all the Astrologers and Diviners together in the House of the Pope's Brothers where having had a Consultation they all concluded that there had been certain black and unhappy Influences which threatned the life of the Pope but being now past and blown over there remained nothing but chearful and auspitious Omens which promised long life and happiness and great successes unto him Thus being relieved of his Melancholly his thoughts were at liberty to reassume the design to advance the Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction in order to which his first beginning was to persuade the King that the Council of Trent might be received in France In Spain he laboured to gain an exemption for the Jesuits that they might be freed from payment of their Tenths At Naples he endeavoured to have had the Marquess of Morcone called the Regent of Ponte sent to Rome for condemning a Book-seller to the Gallies for printing libellous Pamphlets the which he pretending to belong to the Inquisition was an encroachment on the Ecclesiastical Power and therefore merited the Censure and punishment of the Church He also took away certain Rents and Benefices belonging to the religious Order of Malta and conferred them on Cardinal Borghese who was his Nephew by the Sisters side called Scipio of the Family of Caffarelli a youth of twenty three years of age But these and other matters of this nature made no great noise and only served to open the gate or way to particulars of greater importance the which soon afterwards happened in two considerable Instances The first related to the Republick of Luca which observing that many of their Citizens having professed the Protestant Religion were retired from their Habitations and Country had in the times of former Popes forbidden and interdicted them from all Commerce or correspondence with their fellow-Citizens the which Act though well approved by the Pope to be in it self both pious and commendable yet he pretended that such Act of Interdiction belonged to the Ecclesiastical and not to the Civil Power and therefore required that the same should be cancelled and made void that so place and room might be opened for the Censure of the Church The second related to the City of Genoua where at the Jesuits Colledg an Oratory or Chappel was set up for Christian exercises and here the Citizens of this Congregation agreed amongst themselves to favour none with their Votes at the Election of Magistrates but such as were entered and enrolled in this Confraternity This resolution being made known to the Supreme Rulers of the City they immediately dissolved the Congregation not knowing what might be the ill effects and consequences of such Sedition This and other matters of like nature were ill resented by the Pope as encroachments on the Ecclesiastical liberty wherefore he commanded that such Orders be reversed and if not then he threatned them with Censures and Excommunications But the Pope began to deal more roundly with the State of Venice for being very urgent with them to assist the Emperor with Money towards his Wars against the Turks in Hungary he exacted it in such a manner as Kings and Emperors require contributions from their Subjects which though the Venetians could not digest without secret resentments yet their Answer was with much modesty That though the Senate would gladly contribute towards a War against the Turk yet being at high charge and expence to conserve their own State and secure themselves against those fears and jealousies which were given them by their Neighbours they could not apply their nerves and sinews of War to any design but what tended to their own security at home This Answer seemed very strange to the Pope who had learned from the doctrine of the modern Casuists That Popes might lay
the which practice though endeavoured for the space of above five hundred years to be introduced is yet contrary to the Scriptures and the Example of Christ and his Saints That the Doctrine which teaches that in case of Controversie between the Pope and a Prince it may be lawful to persecute such a Prince either by open War or secret Treason and that Dispensations may be given to Subjects to rebel against such a Prince is a damnable seditious and sacrilegious Position That by Divine Law the Clergy are not exempted from subjection to the Secular Power either as to their Persons or Estates though by many immunities and priviledges granted to them by the favour of pious Princes from Constantine to Frederick II. several exemptions have been granted according to the exigence of times and convenience of places That the Exemptions which Popes have given to the Clergy from the Secular Power have not been received in many places and where they have been received the Concessions and Grants are no farther obligatory to the Prince than whilest they are consistent with the present state and convenience of the Publick Another Point insisted upon was this That the Pope was not Infallible but onely in such matters wherein God had promised him his Divine assistance which according to the Doctrine of some Modern Divines was onely in necessary points of Faith And that the Power of binding and loosing was onely Clave non Errante That according to the Doctrine of St. Austin An Excommunication against a multitude or against any one who Commands in Chief is dangerous and sacrilegious That the new name of Blind Obedience invented by Ignatius Loyola was unknown to the antient Church and every good Divine the which as it takes away our Election and desire of knowledg in every good work so it exposes Men to the danger of offending God and hath been the cause of those many Seditions which have arisen in the World for the space of forty years past The Popish Party on the other side proceeded on these Maxims That the temporal Power of Princes is subject to the Ecclesiastical on which ground the Pope hath Power to depose Princes from their Authority for Errours committed in their Government when the Pope judges it may be beneficial to the Church That the Pope hath Power to absolve Subjects from Allegiance to their Prince the which some moderate and modest Men explaining said not that Christ had given this temporal Power absolutely to the Pope but indirectly as it was necessary to the better Government of the Spiritual but others who were more bold did not think it worth the while to mince the matter but confidently wrote That the Pope was endued with all Authority both in Heaven and Earth and made Supreme over all Princes of the World who were his Vassals and may punish them for their faults and errours that he is the Supreme Temporal Monarch over all the World and appeals may be made to the Pope from all Temporal Princes That he can give Laws to all Princes and annull theirs As to the Exemption of the Clergy they all denied that they were subject to the temporal Law and that this priviledg was not given them by the favour of Princes but as some would have it Jure Divino others by the Constitutions and Decrees of Councils and Popes but in this they all agreed that they were not subject to the Prince not so much as in cases of Treason and that they were not obliged to obey the Laws of the Land wherein they lived but onely Vi Directivâ And some were so bold as to proceed so far as to say that the Clergy were Judges whether the Laws of Princes were just or not and whether the people were obliged to obey them That in regard the Pope who hath the Spirit of God cannot err his Sentences are to be observed whether they be just or unjust That so powerful and authentick is the Opinion of the Pope that it ought to prevail against all other determinations of the World That the Pope is God upon Earth the Sun of â—â—stice and light of Religion that the sentence of God and of thâ— Pope are the same and their Tribunal the same but it is very observable what Bellarmine asserted That to restrain obedience due to the Pope unto matters appertaining onely to the Soul is to reduce it to nothing that St. Paul appealed unto Caesar who was not his Judg and not to St. Peter was because he would not make himself in those days ridiculous That the antient Popes professed subjection to the Emperours was to comply with the humour and affection of those times Others also have added That the Empire of the Pope was to be introduced by degrees and insisted upon with some moderation out of respect to the infirmities of Princes who were lately become Proselytes to the Church But to return now to the matter of Treaty Towards the end of August an other Overture was made which was the summary of all this Negotiation though various things were afterwards treated without any effect For about the 17th of August Monsieur de Fresnes the French Minister at Venice did in the name of his Master propose as entrance to an Accommodation That the Senate should suspend the Execution of those Laws which gave offence to the Pope conditionally that the Pope suspend the Censures of his Monitory for the space of four or six Months but if this Expedient would not be accepted then it was proposed That the Prisoners should be consigned into the hands of the Pope at the instance and desire of the King without prejudice to the Right and Reason of the Senate for that it was necessary to give some colour of submission and condescention to the demands of the Pope there being no President that any Pope did ever recal his Boles unless that which by Authority of the Council of Constance was repealed These Proposals being debated in the Senate it was in the first place concluded and agreed That the liberty of the Publick was to be conserved and preferred before all other worldly respects whatsoever That the Prisoners indeed might be resigned into the hands of the Pope at the instance and request of the French King without being made a precedent in like cases or be a prejudice to the Liberty in times to come but that to suspend the force of the Laws was a certain violation of it and a shake of the Foundation of that Government which had for many hundreds of years been rooted and established for that every suspension of a Law doth argue either weakness in the Authority or in the Council which being the substance of this Consult it was given for Answer to Monsieur de Fresnes the French Ambassadour as also to the Spanish Ambassadour de Cardenas who insisted on the like Terms Whilest these things were negotiating by the forein Ministers and that the Senate was resolved to adhere to that
displeasing to Innocent whose anger was the more encreased on the score of other abuses introduced into Rome by pretended priviledges of forein Ministers who assumed to themselves a jurisdiction as we have said within certain limits which they chalked out to themselves to make a Sanctuary or place of refuge for Criminals and out-lawed persons And considering by how much more the Franchises and priviledges of publick Representatives encreased in Rome by so much was the Pope's Authority diminished and abated he therefore grievously took occasion to complain in the Consistory of the ill use which Ambassadours and other Ministers made of their priviledges to the great scandal and reproach of the Government that he had long expected that the Princes themselves should have renounced such irregular pretences and out of love to justice have become instrumental to bring wicked men to punishment rather than to be Protectours of Assassinates and out-lawed persons but seeing that his expectations and patience was all in vain he was now resolved for discharge of his Duty and Conscience to provide for the security of his own People Howsoever he could not without some sad reflections on the indiscreet and unreasonable importunities of some forein Ministers find himself constrained to take such measures in his Affairs as would prove displeasing to them for that it was unreasonable whilst his mind was employed in cares and contrivances for the propagation of the faith for reformation of the Ecclesiastical Discipline for the establishment of Peace and Concord between Christian Princes and other matters conducing to the good and benefit of the Commonweal of all Christendom he should be disturbed and interrupted in these proceedings by the very Ministers of those Princes for whose welfare and for the peace of whose People he was in continual care and labour wherefore not being able longer to support such impertinences he was resolved to become Master in Rome as other Princes were in their own Dominions and in pursuance thereof he published an Edict forbidding all persons whatsoever to affix the Arms of any great personage over his Shop it being a mark that that Family had renounced the Authority of their Prince the Pope and put themselves under the protection of that Ambassadour or Prince or Nobleman whose Arms they had affixed over the Portal of the House or entrance to the Shop This resolute Act much surprized the minds of those whom it concerned and especially the Spaniards who made a false judgment of the temper of Odescalchi conceiving him to be so wary and cautious in his actions that he would never engulf himself in the same circumstances of Affairs which had given a disturbance to his Predecessour during the whole course of his Pontificate Howsoever the Pope continuing firm and constant in his resolution the Spaniards remitted something of the stiffness of their pride for considering that the circumstances of their present Affairs would not admit of a disunion with Rome the Ambassadour desired to have Audience of the Pope the which was refused to him until the Nuntio had received Audience at Naples and that the King of Spain by special Letters under his own hand had desired that his Ambassadour might be heard on some emergencies and urgent occasions upon which and at the persuasions of the Cardinals Barberino and Cibo the Ambassadour was admitted to Audience which having produced a true and right understanding between both Parties the Ambassadour departed with ample satisfaction acquiescing in the late proceedings of the Court The Thorns which have ever been most prickly and pungent in the sides of Popes were their Contests with Kings or crowned Heads or when the Spiritual or Ecclesiastical Authority contended with the Temporal as may appear by that notable Controversie between Paul V. and the Republick of Venice and in other matters of smaller moment between Kings and Popes both before and since that time The point of the Regalia hath been an antient Dispute for many Ages in France the which was in some sort determined in the year 1431. by the Council of Basil where it was ordained that Cathedral Churches and others should have a freedom of Elections This afterwards was confirmed by a great Assembly of French Clergy gathered at Bourges and addressed to the King Charles the 7th desiring him to undertake the protection of that Council At that time the Council of Basil sent to the King an abstract of their Decrees consisting of thirty seven Articles by which Decennial Councils and the Authority of Councils above the Pope was established c. together with an abstract of the Decree they had made concerning Elections All which were considered at that Assembly where the Dauphin and the chief Nobility of France were present and by their advice the famous Pragmatick Sanction was made in confirmation of those Articles which was observed during the Reign of Charles the 7th but Lewis the eleventh esteeming it the Interest of France to maintain a good correspondence with the Papacy was inclinable to wave the advantage of this Sanction In the beginning of the Reign of Charles the 8th an Assembly of States being called at Tours the third Estate petitioned that the Pragmatick Sanction might be again renewed and confirmed calling those who were preferred by the Court to be Court-Bishops so it was again put into force and practice much to the displeasure of the Pope notwithstanding which Lewis the 12th made a perpetual Edict in confirmation of it Francis the first succeeding to the Crown and having vast designs in Italy thought it not his interest to stand at a distance with the Pope and therefore was willing to treat with him about the abolition of the Pragmatick Sanction on such terms as might reconcile his own prerogative with the Pope's Authority This design occasioned an Interview between the King and the Pope at Bologna and thence the Concordat was produced which was afterwards put into the form of a Bull and confirmed by the Council at Lateran The sum of which was this the King and the Pope agreed to divide the Promotions to all Prelacies between them for the King was to nominate the Person within six months after a vacancy and the Pope was to confirm him if no lawful exception did lie against him All which is so fully and learnedly treated by Dr. Burnet in his History of the Regale or Rights of Princes in disposing of Ecclesiastical Benefices and Church Lands and deduced down to this present time that there is no place left for our enlargement thereupon unless we add some few and short remarks on the behaviour of this Innocent XI towards his most Christian Majesty on this occasion It is manifest by History that when the Emperours flourished with great Power and Riches they created Popes or at least they had the confirmation of them and when Emperours were low and were oppressed by adverse Fortune the Popes forced them to be beholding to the extensive reach of the Ecclesiastical jurisdiction
when he petition'd with all humility to send him a Pall he did it and restor'd him to his Authority in this form of words We are persuaded by thy Letter to send thy Brotherhood a Pall together with the Blessing of the Sea Apostolick which kind of Honour was never before conferr'd upon any person absent from us After that he gave a Pall and several priviledges to the Arch bishop of Toledo who came to Rome and swore fidelity to the Pope and made him Primate of all Spain But he laid a Curse upon the King of Portugal and all the Diocese of St. James because he had thrown the Bishop of that Province into Prison without hearing what he had to say for himself About the same time Henry Bishop of Soissons came to Urban at Rome and freely quitted his Bishoprick which he had received from the King of France without any hopes of Restitution Whereupon Urban lest his Diocese should suffer for want of a Bishop restored him to his Bishoprick though he were unwilling to take it but he was sworn in this manner I for the future will not communicate with any that are excommunicated by this Sea wittingly and willingly nor will I ever be present at the Consecrations of those that accept of Bishopricks or Abbies against Law and Reason from Laymen and so help me God and this holy Gospel I never intend to break my resolution So also they say he dealt with the Bishop of Bellay Nor can any one say he was pertinacious for doing so for he knew how and when to alter his mind upon occasion which every good Man should do For when he had admitted a Clerk whom Gibert the Anti-Pope had made a Sub deacon to second Orders he chang'd his mind because it was a thing of ill Example and like to be of very pernicious consequence He confirm'd the Order of Cistercians which was first set up in Burgundy and some say the Carthusians began their Order in his time though others say it was in the time of Victor III. But when Urban had settled the Church of God not onely by his pains and Example but by his Writings too which he set forth against the Hereticks he died near St. Nicolas's in the House of Peter Leo an eminent Citizen twelve years four months and nineteen days after he came to the Popedom upon the 28th of August His Body was carried over Tiber to avoid the contrivances of his Enemies who would have done him an injury if possible after death and buried very honourably in St. Peter's at the Vatican PASCHAL II. PASCHAL the Second before call'd Raynerius an Italian of Romagna whose Father's name was Crescentius and his Mother Alphacia was chosen Pope about that time when the Christians fought in Asia and took Antioch into which they were lett by Pyrrhus an eminent Citizen For he admired Böemunds valour so much that he promised to surrender the City to 'em if the rest of the Christians would let Böemund be Governour of it The Christians when they enter'd the City spared almost all but onely that they were severe upon the Saracens and Cassianus their King who fled to the Mountains was kill'd by the Armenians They had taken all but the Castle which whilest Böemund attaqued he was shot through the thigh with an Arrow which pained him so that he was fain to desist from the Siege for several days But when Corbanes the King of persia's General came up with Sensadolus Castianus's Son to retake Antioch Böemund was by that time well of his Wound met and would have engaged ' em But the Enemy kept up in the Mountains and could not be tempted to fight by any means Whereupon Böemund being necessitated for lack of Provisions was resolv'd to fight 'em though the place was much to his disadvantage So he order'd that Lance wherewith Longinus pierced Christ's side which they found in St. Andrew's Church at Antioch to be carry'd before 'em as the best Ensign they could have and marching up to 'em he defeated them with the slaughter of an hundred thousand though at first they made a brisk resistance Besides that they say there were fifteen thousand Camels taken in their Camp and so much plunder carry'd off that from the greatest extremity of want they were advanced to the greatest abundance of all things necessary The Governour of the Castle when he knew of it surrender'd the Castle to Böemund and embraced the Christian Faith and all that were in the Garrison if they would do the like were permitted to march off with Bag and Baggage whither they pleased After that there arose a great debate betwixt Böemund and Raymund when Böemund demanded Antioch and Raymund said it belong'd to the Emperour of Constantinople by the contract they had before freely made But the Priests to whom it was referr'd gave it to Böemund without any more ado In the mean time Hugo Magnus who was gone to Constantinople to compose things died and then the other Officers all but Raymund who besieged Caesarea in Cappadocia resolv'd to go to Jerusalem with their Army and rendezvouz'd in Lycia But by the way they attempted to take Tortosa and after they had spent three months in vain they raised the Siege and march'd to Tripoli the petit King of which place furnish'd 'em liberally with Mony Provisions and Arms and thereby obtain'd a Peace upon Condition that he if Jerusalem were taken should embrace the Christian Religion Hence they removed and passing by Coesarea in Palestine came at five encampings to Jerusalem which stands upon an high Hill and is divided also by several Dales so that it cannot be besieged but by a very great Army Beside there wants Fountains and River-waters which are necessary for an Army For there is no other rivolet but Siloe and that very little in the Summer time and sometimes nothing at all which runs down Mount Sion into the Valley of 〈◊〉 Yet there are a great many Cisterns in the City and the Countrey to furnish the Citizens with Water but cannot supply great Armies and Beasts of carriage Notwithstanding the Christians got what Provisions they could and attaqued the City in four places very fiercely whilest the Jerusalemites defended it as stoutly and upon the 13th of July they took it by storm the thirty ninth day after they began to besiege it in the year 1499. four hundred and ninety years after the Saracens took it under the Reign of Heraclius Godfrey was most to be commended in that action for that he first master'd that part of the Wall which was allotted for him and his Brother to storm and help'd Balion down into the City to open the Gates for the Christians at whose entrance there was such a slaughter both in the City and especially in the Temple that Men were above the ancles in bloud And the same day they had taken the Temple too if Night had not come upon ' em However the next day the Attaque was
arrived his hands and raised thereupon two millions and five hundred thousand Livres By this time the Cardinal of Lorain was returned and the eleventh of November came which was the day appointed for the Session after the usual ceremonies of which were performed the Article about Clandestine Marriages was read and after some Contests thereupon was passed by plurality of Voices but yet it did not pass the raillery of some witty Men who reflected on the words of the Canon which pronounces Anathema against those who deny Clandestine Marriage to be a true Sacrament and yet in the conclusion saith that the Church hath ever disapproved and detested it Afterwards the Decrees of General Reformation were read which are too long to be here inserted upon passing of which the Cardinal of Lorain declared that the French Nation did so far accept them as they were not prejudicial to the Priviledges Rights and antient Constitutions of the Kings of France Howsoever amongst all the Chapters of General Reformation there was not one Point of those many touched which the People of divers Nations required nothing being therein contained or resolved but what served to advance the Pope's Authority over the Clergy and warrant the Power of the Clergy in oppression of the People Amongst these Points of General Reformation there was one which made void all Titles or Rights to Benefices which were obtained by Simony which in the Opinion of some would have ruined the greatest part of the Pope's Annates or yearly Income had it been strictly observed but this was as duly obeyed as the Canon which prohibits Cardinals to enjoy plurality of benefices in both which time and experience have shewn us how little either the one or the other hath been regarded Another Chapter which ordained that those who had publickly sinned should do publick Penance seemed as if it designed to restore the Primitive Discipline but that was again spoiled by this clause Ni aliter Episcopo videatur with these and matters of the like nature this Session concluded And now the Scene of Affairs began much to change their face for every one growing weary of Disputes passed every thing almost without examination or contest The Pope was infinitely tired and fainted under the burthen of the Council The French who now expected no benefit from this Assembly followed the dictates of the Cardinal of Lorain who had intirely devoted himself to the Papal Interest The Germans had long since abandoned the Council despairing of any good or cure from it onely the Spaniards to whom delays have been always pleasing and to whom by force of gravity all fatigues of long continuance are rendered Ease were those who willingly would have protracted the longer course of the Council but not being able to stem the Torrent with which other Nations precipitated the Council to a conclusion they yielded to the same humour and concurred with the Cardinal of Lorain and others in their Design to put an end to the Council at the next Session The Points about Indulgences on which Luther had grounded his first quarrel with the Pope Adoration of Saints Purgatory Images and Fasts were all slubber'd over and passed in the space of fifteen days The greatest difficulty was that which related to the Reformation of Princes against which the Ambassadours of France had so seriously protested which being a knotty and insuperable Point it was resolved to leave it undecided and in lieu thereof to perform something for the better satisfaction of the Clergy allowing unto the Bishops some enlargement of Power over their respective Chapters But as to the Decree which was drawn up for reforming and moderating the Authority of Princes they thought fit in lieu thereof to renew the tenure of the Antient Canons not enforcing them with Menaces or Anathemas but onely with exhortations to Princes to conserve and maintain the Church in its priviledges concluding with gentle terms full of respect to the Sovereign Power The expressions of this Article being thus moderated to the satisfaction as the Cardinal of Lorain imagined of temporal Princes he endeavoured to persuade the French Ambassadours to return again from Venice to Trent which they absolutely refused to do for though the Article for reforming Princes ' was revoked yet several other Acts being pass'd to the prejudice of the Gallican Church the Ambassadours pretended that their return and presence would imply or argue a concurrence or an assent to all the Decrees of the Council Notwithstanding this refusal the Council proceeded forward to consider of the reformation of Friers Monks Abbots and other Religious in respect to whom few Rules were altered onely some additions were made according to the Proposals and desires of the Generals of the respective Orders All other things as we have said proceeded smoothly the Point of Indulgences being superficially touched for considering the many difficulties comprehended in that question which might if distinctly treated have taken up a long time in the examination of every Point it was thought fit to couch all in few words prohibiting the abuses thereof in general terms Thus did matters hasten towards an end but what did more eagerly precipitate a conclusion was the Pope's indisposition of health for it was feared in case the Pope should die during the Session that then the Council would by the example of that of Constance take upon themselves a Power of electing an other so that notwithstanding the opposition of the Spaniards who desired to proceed with gravity and phlegm until they could receive an answer of what they had wrote to Madrid the ultimate Session was appointed for the 9th of December but in regard that time seemed too long to Persons impatient of an end the day was shortned to the third of that month and to be continued on the day following in case the Affairs seemed too weighty and various to be ended at one sitting The Spanish Ambassadour with fourteen of his Bishops not being able to withstand this general Torrent promised to concur with the others on these two conditions First That the Pope should regulate all matters not determined by this Council And secondly That in the Chapters of Indulgences the word gratis should not be used lest it should prejudice the Indulgences granted by the Crusada of Spain All the difficulties being now overcome the Session was held on Friday the 3d. of December at which after the Sermon and usual Ceremonies all the Acts prepared according to form were read but being too long for the work of one day the remaining part was left until the day following at the conclusion of all fearing lest in any of the Decrees of Reformation some words should have escaped which might seem to entrench or diminish the Pope's Authority it was determined that the Interpretation of the Canons and the liberty to dispense with any of them should remain in the breast and at the free pleasure and will of the Pope in confirmation of which it was publickly declared