he would never suffer neither as Emperour nor Archduke that the Council should offer to make such a Reformation to the prejudice of the Jurisdiction of Princes But the Conduct of the French upon that occasion was much more vigorous In the Congregation of the two and twentieth of November they had the patience to hear a long Harangue wherein one of the Prelates strove to prove that the disorders of the Church proceeded from Princes and that Care must be taken to reform them Du Ferrier protests against that Decree and makes a Speech that cuts the Prelates to the quick that since the Acts concerning that were ready there was no more to be done but to produce them The President Du Ferrier started up and made his Protestation by word of mouth in a long and witty discourse delivered briskly in words that cut to the heart He laughed at all the petty Reformations which the Council had made for the Clergy made a Comparison betwixt the Canons of the Council and the Ancient Canons of the Discipline of the Primitive Church wherein it was not permitted to Bishops to be absent from their Flocks three months of the year as the present Council allowed wherein Beneficiaries had not the liberty which the Council granted to dispose of the Revenues of their Benefices to the prejudice of the Poor to whom properly they belong And so went over all the Abuses authorised by the Council of Trent comparing them with the Severity of the Ancient Discipline He alledged that the Reformation of Princes which was proposed tended directly to the Ruine of the Liberties of the Gallican Church but that the King knew very well how to maintain them that he would make use of his Right in laying hold on the goods of the Church when his occasions did require it that it was an intolerable Attempt to excommunicate Kings even without a hearing as that Decree ordained that they should concern themselves with spiritual matters and not with the Affairs of Princes with which they had nothing to doe that the Kings of France had made Ordinances in Ecclesiastick matters and that the Church of France had been governed according to its Laws above four hundred years before the Compilation of the Decretals that Kings held their Power onely of God and that it belongs not to Churchmen to reform them that if they had a mind to reform Princes they should first think of reforming themselves and become like St. Ambrose St. Austin and St. Chrysostome and that that would be the way to make Princes imitate the Examples of the Theodosius's of Honorius Arcadius and the Valentinians This Harangue put the Council out of all patience and even the French Prelates themselves there arose a murmuring and confused Noise amongst them which was like to have broken out into some scandalous Transport had not the Legates to prevent it dismissed the Assembly The Bishops spoke all the Evil they could devise against his Speech to make it pass for Heretical and Nicolas Pelue Archbishop of Sens and Jerome de la Souchieres Abbot of Clervaux had big words with Du Ferrier about it They reported every where that that Protestation was made without Orders from the King that Du Ferrier was a Creature of the King of Navarre that he was suspected of Heresie and that he ought to be put into the Inquisition Others had scraped together some Notes of that Harangue but because Du Ferrier found them false he published it himself and sent a copy of it to the Cardinal of Lorrain with a Letter wherein he told him that he could not abandon the Royal Authority which for the space of four hundred years had been attempted upon by the Court of Rome that as a Frenchman and a Member of Parliament he was obliged to assert the Rights of his King and the opinions of his Faculty And that it was not just that the Council made up of the slaves of the Court of Rome should be Judge in its own Cause So soon as Du Ferrier's Speech appeared in publick the Council caused it to be refuted by a nameless Authour Du Ferrier made his defence and instead of recanting he confirmed all that he had said or written These Writings encreased the Provocation and the Bishops revenged themselves by reviling not so much the Ambassadours as the Court of France They accused the Queen Mother of openly favouring the Hereticks They affirmed that she was governed by the Chatillons who were declared Hereticks by the Chancellour de l'Hopital and the Bishop of Valence who were suspected of Heresie After that Protestation the Ambassadours of France The French Ambassadours goe to Venice having staid a Fourtnight longer at Trent retired to Venice according to the Orders they had from Court. Before they went away they declared to the few French Prelates that remained that it was the King's Intention they should oppose the fifth and sixth Articles of Reformation which were proposed because these Articles drew the Causes and Persons of Bishops out of the Kingdom whereas according to the Liberties of the Gallican Church the Members of the Clergy ought to be judged primâ instantiâ upon the place and by their immediate Superiours When the news of the French Ambassadour's Protestation came to Rome it caused great heart-burnings in the Pope's Court. No man was so much afflicted as the Cardinal of Lorrain because it was an unlucky accident that brought great Prejudice to the Negotiation that he was a managing with the Pope for the Grandeur of himself and Family He pacified the Pope the best he could blaming the Ambassadours and promising to write to the King that he might procure reparation of that Scandal He did indeed write and in such terms as well discovered that he had sacrificed the Interests of his King and the opinions of his Countrey to the design of pleasing the Pope whom he would engage in his private concerns The Pope wrote also to Trent that they should still goe on and that if the French Ambassadours had a mind to be gone they should not hinder them but withall give them no occasion of withdrawing that after all they should prepare to hold the Session immediately upon the return of the Cardinal of Lorrain and put an end to the Council that now he had got the better of the Germans and French and that none but the Spaniards remained to be overcome The truth is the Count de Luna not onely crossed the Pope's design of shortning the Council but also made it his business to obtain an Alteration of the Clause proponentibus legatis He continually charged a fresh and never left off soliciting Cardinal Morone even amidst the troubles that were occasioned by the Protestation of the French till at length the Cardinal was fain to promise that they should endeavour to give him satisfaction in the ensuing Session what this satisfaction was we shall see hereafter The Legates being pressed by the Bishops who were not baulked
the pomp and lustre of the Court of Rome composed of Cardinals Abbots and the rest of the numerous Officers L. 8. c. 17. He pretends that it is by this splendour that Infidels and Mahometans may be converted to the Faith 7. And the better to bring in Infidels and preserve to the Church those that are already of it according to Cardinal Pallavicini the Court of Rome treasures up delights and pleasures affects Shews and Theaters and therein to out-do the magnificence of the World that so the World may be vanquished by its own Weapons L. 1. c. 3. 8. In all respects according to Pallavicini the Court of Rome sets itself to make Laws to flatter Sense L. 1. c. 25. It is not says he Gods intent to root out of our minds our natural Inclinations Men are naturally fond of Pleasre Wealth and Honour and averse to Poverty and meaness c. Introduct c. 8. it is fit to accommodate the Laws and form the Church according to these inclinations regard must be had to the dregs of Adam and to what sort of People we live among It is a Maxim not absolutely true that Evil is not to be suffered to the end that Good may come of it The Cardinal proves it by the Example of those dissolute Women who are prompted to prostitute themselves L. 2. c. 8. Come sivide nella permissione delle meretrici According to this Maxim things must be suited to the Frailties of the Persons of which the Church consists and they must be so governed as God and Nature send them into the World 9. L 9 c 9. He represents the Church of Rome as averse to Reformation L. 9. c 16. It is a Word says he that will always sound ill not onely in the Ears of the Courtiers but of the strictest Fraternities And therefore he confesses that the Reformation made by the Council of Trent was very inconsiderable and yet it is despised at Rome where its Canons are dispensed with and its Decisions eluded because the Council ordained that no Dispensation should be granted but for weighty Reasons L. 23. c. 8. It is judged says he that the great Sums that are given for the purchase of Dispensations are a sufficient Reason to grant them 10. According to Cardinal Pallavicini Men are called by the Court of Rome to the Priesthood and other sacred Functions whose business is the Salvation of Souls by the hope of Pleasure Wealth and Greatness From thence is the Spring and Origine of their Vertue from thence their Calling and that which awakens and animates their Zeal is the hope cherished by each Individual of becoming a Bishop L. 1. c. 25. a Cardinal L. 3. c. 10. and even Pope Thus Ambition and the desire of Glory are the Spurs that quicken and excite Men in the service of the Church L. 12. c. 5. It is therefore that the Church heaps up Riches Crosiers Mitres and Benesices to draw Men by these cords of Humanity Judg then what must be the Zeal of these Pastors who are only moved by these worldly things to consecrate themselves to God L. 8. c. 17. And yet says Pallavicini the Court of Rome holds that Abundance is the Breast that nourishes Vertue in the Church L. 23. c. 3. L. 1. c. 25. And therefore in the same Spirit he maintains that humane Felicity and temporal Prosperity may be sound at Rome and in the Pope as in their natural Spring That all the World ought to pay Tribute there to support the Majesty of that Court And that as the Sacraments though Corporal are the Sources of Spiritual Graces so the Goods of this World are Springs of Vertue in the Church L. 23. c. 12. L. 8. c. 17. L. 6. c. 3. 11. As for the Pope according to the Maxims of the Court of Rome he is Monarch of the Universe his Power unlimited and independent of all Creatures all Kings ought to be his Tributaries and he may dispose of the Estates of all Men though against their will L. 1. c. 25. L. 2. c. 26. The Pope is as the Stomach of the Body of the Church to receive all the Goods of the World and distribute them to the Members of the Clergy L. 24. c. 10. He says it were no harm if the Pope were actually Master of all the possessions of the World to distribute to each according to his merit without any regard to the rights of Inheritance by which those matters descend from men to their Posterity 12. As for Councils they are say they more than unprositable Assemblies they are the most Fatal Conjunctions that are made in the Heaven of the Church He owns that the Court of Rome L. 16. c. 10. when the convening of the Council of Trent was spoken of Introduct c. 10. was extremely fearful and apprehensive of it and did all that was possible to prevent it and that chiefly because Councils are apt to meddle in reforming It would be therefore a tempting of God to assemblies a General Council L. 16. c. 10. and such Assemblies do commonly threaten a Schism 13. L. 1. c. 25. He says it is a folly to think of reforming the Present Church according to the Model of the Ancient Church He makes Lainez say L. 21. c. â—â— that those who required the re-establishing of Canonical Elections were provoked thereto by instinct of the Devil L. 23. c. 10. He says it is great foolishness to believe that what is Ancient is better than what is New that the Church was in her Infancy when she was so severe but that now her Decrees are of a riper and more advanced Age L. 1. c. 25. that Societies change as Bodies do and are to be governed according to their Age that the Church is to live after another manner in a more refined world L. 6. c. 4. that what is called corruption is a refined conduct of Ecclesiastical affairs requisite for the times Introduct c. 8. that to talk of the Worlds being worse now than heretofore is nothing but vain prattle and the Sentiments of those whose minds are enslaved to Vulgar Opinions that it were as ridiculous to go about to reduce the Church to her first Purity and Simplicity L. 1. c. 15. as to think to oblige men to live upon Acorns The first Councils understood nothing with their holiness and simplicity The Council of Trent was composed of men of Worth and Parts that understood the World When Philip II. took Trent in his way to Spain the Legates made him a Magnificent Reception They causes a Palace to be erected upon the River of Adige three hundred paces from the City and treated him there with a noble Entertainment with a Comedy Dancing and all sorts of Divertisements that Prince himself dancing there Father Paul had forgotten this Notable Passage tho so singular and remarkable The Ancient Councils consisting
said his Carriage was lookt upon to be insolent and proud but it was born with because he was of the darling Faction The Spaniards again bring about the question of the Divine Right of Episcopacy None of those difficulties could dishearten the Spaniards they stood their ground still and Gilberto de Nogueras Bishop of Aliphe started the question again about the Divine Right of Episcopacy He confirmed his opinion by strong Arguments and then proved it to be false that the power of the Church was put into the hands of a single Person he went on and said that the Popes power did not extend to the annulling of Canons and abolishing of Laws and thereupon began to quote the Canons alledged dy Gratian wherein the Ancient Popes acknowledged themselves subject to the Decrees of the Fathers and of their Predecessours But the Cardinal of Warmia one of the Legates interrupted him saying that the question was about the Superiority of Bishops over Priests and that he digressed The Bishop of Aliphe made answer that since they were treating of the Authority of Bishops it was no digression to speak of the power of the Pope who was a Bishop The Archbishop of Granada rose up and made answer in a higher strain he said that others had talked enough of the Pope's Authority and spoke things which were not onely superfluous but pernicious He glanced at the Speech of the General Lainez who had struck down the Bishops and Council under the Pope's Feet The Bishop della Cava the hottest always of the Romish Faction made answer that they who had spoken of it spoke as became them and not as the Bishop of Aliphe Cardinal Simoneta made a sign to the Bishop della Cava to hold his peace and silence being made the Bishop of Aliphe began again But when they perceived that he persisted to cite Canons to prove that the Pope is subject to the Laws the Legate of Warmia interrupted him a second time and so he was forced to hold his tongue and give place to Antonio Maria Salviati Bishop of St. Paul in France who by an exhortation to meekness and peace endeavoured to allay the heats of those Commotions In the Congregation of the fourth of December the Cardinal of Lorrain delivered his opinion concerning the question whether Episcopacy be of Divine or Humane Right He proved by divers passages of the Ancients which made them admire his Memory that it is of Divine Right But on the other hand he alledged several instances of Bishops who had owned that they held all their Authority from the Holy See so that his discourse was so wavering and so full of uncertainty and ambiguity that it was manifest enough he had no mind to declare his positive opinion concerning that Point But the French Prelates who spoke after him were far more sincere and bold for they declared frankly for the Divine Right nevertheless they concluded with the Cardinal that according to their Judgment it was not absolutely necessary to determine that question in the Council So that the first part of their discourse displeased the Legates and Pope's Pensioners and the latter part the Spaniards The truth is the Spaniards and French drove at the same end to wit the maintaining the Authority of Bishops against the ambitious enterprises and covetous self-interessed Practices of the Court of Rome But they took different ways to doe this according to the different humours of their Countrey The Spaniards who are close and cunning were for striking at the root of the Pope's Authority by hidden Mines and were perswaded that if it were one declared that Episcopacy and Residence are of Divine Right the Episcopal Order would retrieve its Credit with the People and so they might with success withstand the attempts made by the Court of Rome upon the Persons and Rights of the Bishops But the French on the other hand who are brisk and forward have not commonly such distant Views nor are they very skilfull in those Politick fetches which are proper to the Italians and Spaniards they shoot streight at the mark and sometimes offend by too great sincerity or to word it better they many times hinder the success of their own designs by imprudent discoveries They judged it therefore necessary without farther Mystery to have it defined that a Council is Superiour to the Pope or at least to have it enacted that the Pope may not dispense with nor derogate from the Canons The Spaniards wished with all their hearts that these Decisions could have been obtained from the Council but they thought it impossible nor could they find a fair occasion to state the Question nor any Pretext to quarrel with the Pope's Authority since they admit of the Council of Florence whereas the French receive the Council of Basil which hath placed a Council above the Pope and reject that of Florence The Cardinal of Lorrain essays means to compose the Controversie about the Divine Right of Episcopacy but is slighted and the Cardinal is angry The Cardinal of Lorrain proposed a new form of Decree to try if he could put an end to that Controversie these words established by Divine Right were not in it but in place of them he put instituted by Jesus Christ The Legates dispatched a Courier to Rome with a Copy of the Cardinal's Draught and the observations of some Doctours of the Canon Law upon it The Cardinal complained of that procedure that having given them the project of a Decree before it had been proposed in Congregation they had so far abused his Confidence and thereupon took occasion to expostulate with them for the unjust Jealousies which the Italians conceived of the French and for the impertinent Proverb that was often in their mouth from the Spanish Scab we are fallen into the French Disease for so they call that foul Distemper which the French call the Neapolitan Disease The French being netled at these Railleries and besides intending to prosecute their design of bringing the Pope under the Power of a Council resolved among themselves to speak more boldly in the Congregation of the seventeenth of December Lansac who set them upon it being unwilling that the Legates should be surprised gave them a hint of it by telling the Bishop of Avranches who was to speak that he should deliver his opinion freely A free Discourse of the Bishop of Avranches and that the King his Master was powerfull enough to bear him out in it The Bishop spoke and not onely proved Episcopacy to be of Divine Right but that the Authority of the Pope differed onely in Degree from that of Bishops that it is circumscribed by the Boundaries of Canons and praised the Custome of the Parliaments of France which declare Bulls that are contrary to the Canons to be abusive and prohibit the Execution of them This Discourse was impatiently heard but it was winked at and the Pope's Party took care for the future to speak with greater
THE COUNCIL of TRENT The Representation of the Fathers assembled in the Council of Trent begun about the end of the year 1545. Concluded towards the end of 1563. under the Pontisicate of Paul III. Tulius III. Marcel II. Paul IV. and Pius IV. There were XXV Sessions in which were present VII Cardinals V. whereof were the Popes Legates XVI Ambassadours from Kings Princes Republicks CCL Patriarchs Arch bishops Bishops Abbots and Generals of Orders All Divines and Doctours of the Civil and Canon Law THE HISTORY OF THE Council of TRENT In Eight Books Whereunto is prefixt A Discourse containing Historical Reflexions on Councils and particularly on the Conduct of the Council of Trent proving that the Protestants are not oblig'd to submit thereto Written in French by Peter Jurieu Doctour and Professour of Divinity And now done into English LONDON Printed by J. Heptinstall for Edward Evets at the Green Dragon and Henry Faithorne and John Kersey at the Rose in St. Paul's Church-Yard MDCLXXXIV Historical Reflections ON COUNCILS And particularly on the Council of TRENT PROVING That Protestants are not Obliged to submit thereto I Believe it will by all men readily be granted that since the first appearance of Christianity there hath not hapned an Affair of greater moment than was the separation of the Protestants from the Church of Rome which fell out in the beginning of the last Century It was a mighty rupture that took whole States and Kingdoms from the Roman See Schism is indeed one of the greatest mischiefs which can befall the Church it is an enemy to Charity nay ruinous to it and since Charity is no less necessary to Salvation than Faith Schism that destroys Charity is no less to be feared than Heresie that overthrows the Faith In our present subject we find both Heresie and Schism The mischief is great on either part Those of the separation are Schismaticks if they have not done it upon solid grounds But if the Church from which they separate hath given occasion for such separation and by her own errors made it absolutely necessary the guilt of the Schism falls then upon her From hence arises a great contest to know who it is that must one day answer before the Tribunal of God for this scandalous breach that puts a stop to the progress of Chtistianity sowing among Christians the seeds of variance and contention The Roman Church pretends it to be a Cause already adjudged and determined that famous Assembly the General Council of Trent who could not err having pronounced definitively upon it By this Judgment say they men ought to abide for there will else be no end of Controversie Disputes should not be everlasting but when the Judges have given their final Sentence there can be no further proceeding The Protestants are very far from thinking thus of the matter they pretend a right to review the Cause they cry out against the incompetence of the Judge they complain of undue and irregular proceedings and will admit no other Decision of the truth and antiquity of their Religion than the Holy Scripture as for Tradition Councils and Schools by which they are condemned they look upon them as things doubtful falsified false and apt to occasion illusion and error This Controversie is most certainly of the greatest importance no less than eternal Salvation depends upon it so that it is the interest of all men to examine it to the bottom It were a thing to be wished that we might plead our cause before a disinteressed Judge but it cannot be For all the sincere and worthy persons of Europe have already taken part on one side or the other and those that can still ballance between the two Religions are too ill Christians to have the honour of being Judges in a Cause which properly speaking is the Cause of God But we entreat the Reader that at least for a few hours he will lay aside all manner of prepossession that he may so make the better Judgment of the force of our Arguments My intention is not to enter into the depth of this vast matter for that were to descend to particulars and to examine the right and wrong of every dispute I will only shew that the Protestants are not to be blamed for refusing to submit to the Decisions of the Council of Trent and that from reasons taken from the Council it self I will prove that it is not from giddiness nor from perverseness but from a just and solid resolution that they refuse to submit For it seems reasonable that giving the History of this Council we do also give an account why we conceive our selves not obliged to receive it reason 1 1. First reason of not owning the Council of Trent because it is a Party in the Controversie In the first place the Reformed decline the jurisdiction of this Council as a Judge incompetent because a Party I easily foresee I shall be stop'd short here and that it will be returned upon me that the Churches being a Party is the ordinary refuge of Hereticks Had not the Arians as much right to tell the Council of Nice you are a Party and therefore can be no Judge in the Cause What! is not the Church obliged to maintain the rights of truth against Hereticks and shall this shadow of a pretence be able to deprive her of the power to Judge It is fit however that we be heard in the matter to see if there be not a mighty difference between what we alledge for our selves and what they are pleased to make the Hereticks say The Church is certainly the prop and the pillar of truth as St. Paul speaks that is she is obliged to support it But yet Hereticks must not for that reason look upon the Church as a Party and reject her as unfit to judge of religious Controversies For Legislators and the Garrantees of Laws cannot justly be considered as Parties when they have no other interest in a matter in question but the conservation of the Laws Were it reasonable for a Murderer to harangue his Judges thus Gentlemen you cannot be my Judges you have an interest in the prosecution inasmuch as you have forbidden to commit murder It is an easie thing to foresee what Judgment you will give thus prejudiced as you are by your own Principles and Maximes I demand therefore a fair and equal trial by Judges wholly free from all prepossession There could be nothing so senseless as such kind of talk yet such would be that of Hereticks who should reject the judgment of the Church in Contests of this kind Had the Council of Trent been the Council of the Church and without other interest than to defend the truth we might have appealed from its Judgment had it determined of any thing contrary to truth but we could not have refused to own it as a Council But we affirm that the Council of Trent is not a Council of the Church but of the Pope and of
the Court of Rome who are our determined Adversaries in the Controversie It is against the Pope that the Protestants contend they dispute his quality of Vicar of Jesus Christ of supreme Head of the Church of infallible Judge of Controversies By the dictates of common sense there is nothing so unjust as to establish him for Judge of a Cause against whom the Suit is directly brought But that the Council of Trent was a Council of the Popes not of the Church is most apparent For it was convened by him he presided in it it consisted only of persons who had taken an oath of fidelity to him and were for the greater part his Pensioners And indeed he was so much Master of the Assembly that it acted nothing but as inspired or commanded by him But it will be replied that the Pope being the natural Head of the Church and having the sole right of convening Councils and presiding in them he was not bound to lay aside his Character in favour of the Protestants who unjustly attaqued him Were a King whose Sovereign Power should by some persons be disputed obliged to divest himself of his Royal Dignity submit it to the fantastick humours of men The misfortune is that we are always pester'd with similies that have no manner of similitude A lawful Prince whose rights are clear and indisputable I confess were not obliged to renounce his Royal State But a King whose rights were doubtful false and contested by a Prince of the Royal blond and by the greatest part of his Subjects were obliged for the interests of peace to be content to sit down as a private person and suffer a Judgment of the validity of his Title Is the Pope a Sovereign whose rights are unquestionable Is it acknowledged genenerally that he hath the sole right of convening Councils and presiding in them without whose Authority no Act passed therein should be valid So far from it that the greatest part of the Christian world denies it It is not believed by the Eastern Church nor by the Churches of the North and South or of the Greeks Ethiopians Cophties or Russians that their Councils are unlawful because the Pope doth neither convene them nor preside in them The Protestants may be also reckoned for something not for their number only but chiefly for their reasons For they bring a cloud of Witnesses to demonstrate that the right of convening Councils belongs to the Emperours and that the Bishops of Rome have not always presided in them The first Council of Nice was called by Constantine the Great and Alexander the then Bishop of Constantinople did preside in it The second General Council was called by Theodosius at Constantinople at which neither the Pope nor any of his Legates were present and therefore cannot be said to have presided therein There is nothing farther from truth Râ—pi l. I. ch â—5 34. than what the Cardinal du Perron is pleased to affirm that the first Council of Constantinople besought the Pope to confirm its Decrees On the contrary the Church of Rome opposed her self in all that she was able to what the Council had done She disapproved the Election of Flavius whom the Council had established in the See of Antioch in the place of Meletius who died at Constantinople while the Council sate She favoured Paulinus who had been elected Bishop by a party in the Church of Antioch in separation from the rest She could never relish the Canon of this Council that ordains That the Bishop of Constantinople should have the Prerogatives of honour next to the Bishop of Rome because Constantinople was new Rome And even in the time of Gregory I. L. Ind. 15. Ep. 131. which was in the beginning of the seventh Century the Church of Rome was not as yet reconciled with this Council For Gregory affirms that this Council was not acknowledged in the West Yet after all the opposition of the Roman Church it passes still for a lawful and General Council To this I might add the third General Council assembled at Ephesus the fourth at Calcedon the fifth and sixth at Constantinople all convened by the Emperours and not by the Popes I might add to all these many other proofs of equal weight but being fallen but by accident upon this Dispute I have no intention to enlarge farther upon the proofs Yet I cannot but take notice that Pope Vigilius being at Constantinople in the year 553. when the fifth General Council was there held he would not assist in it nor did preside therein either in Person or by his Legates and yet the Council is received both for lawful and General There is then already just cause to doubt that the Pope hath such a right of convening Councils and presiding in them as to render them unlawful if called or managed by others But this is not all for a considerable part of the Roman Church it self hold this opinion to be most false That the Pope hath the sole right of convening General Councils and presiding in them All the Gallican Church and generally all that own the Councils of Constance and Basil that is to say at least France and Germany are of this Judgment The Council of Constance could not be convened by a lawful Pope for it assembled it self at the solicitation of the Christian Princes and by the authority of the College of Cardinals for the deposing of three Popes who were then sitting the one at Rome being Gregory XII another at Bologna being John XXIII the third at Avignon being Benedict XIII Not one of these Popes could preside in this Council being all thither cited and there condemned as false Popes The Cardinal of Cambray did preside in the third Session Cardinal Vrsini in the fifth John Bishop of Ostia Cardinal and Vice-Chancellour of the Roman Church presided in the seventh and in all the rest till the Election of Martin V. John XXIII being deposed and retired the Council declared in the third Session That by the departure of the Pope the Council was not dissolved but did still continue in its full authority In the Council of Basil Pope Eugenius IV. could not possibly preside for he was there condemned and deposed and Amadeus Duke of Savoy elected in his stead In the seventeenth Session the same Council declares that during the absence of the Presidents the first Prelate shall have the right of presiding without waiting for the Popes Commission This one would imagine doth not seem to import that a Council must be only under the direction of a Pope or of those that are Commissioned by him I am not Ignorant that the Decrees of the Councils both of Basil and of Constance are had in extreme horror by the Court of Rome But I know also that that doth not hinder but that the Gallican Church and divers others do receive and approve them And that suffices to shew that the rights of the Pope were not so clear and uncontested but
that for the sake of peace he might well remit them to be examined and setled by a free Council and that by consequence upon his refusing to do it the Protestants have reason to consider as a Party and an Adversary in the Controversie that Council that the Pope hath convened wherein he presided and over which he reigned with absolute Dominion That the Church of Rome having once given Judgment upon the Controversie and an Appeal being brought she could not proceed to a second Judgment But to evince more plainly this truth That the Protestants have reason to consider the Council of Trent as their Adverse Party it is to be remarked that the matters in question were not novel but for the greater part had been already decided either by Councils or by Papal Constitutions or by a Custom universally approved by the Roman Church The second Council of Nice had decreed the adoration of Images Transubstantiation the Real Presence adoration of the Sacrament Auricular Confession had been passed into Laws by Innocent III. in the fourth Council of Lateran held in the year 1215. The Cup in the Sacrament was taken from the Laity by Decree of the Council of Constance held in the year 1414. Purgatory and the seven Sacraments were made Articles of Faith by the Council of Florence in the years 1438 and 1439. In a word there was scarce any of the controverted Points that had not been decided All that the Protestants did amounted to no other than an endeavour to be relieved from the hardships of Judgments already given Truly and properly speaking they were Appellants from the Decisions of the Roman Church to the Holy Scripture How great was then the injustice to set up that Church for Judge of a Cause against which she had already given Judgment and from which Judgment the Protestants had appealed When there arise new and doubtful matters in a Church there is no doubt but that Church hath a right to Judge of them and to assemble her Councils to that end For instance in the time of Berengarius the dispute about the Real Presence was revived which had lain buried in forgetfulness since Bertrand and Paschasius The Church of Rome having not as then decided the matter Berengarius had no reason but to hear the Judgment of the Church having first done all in him in order to the prevalence of truth Had the Church decreed unjustly in the matter he might then have refused to acquiesce in the Judgment for that the Conscience cannot submit but where it is fully convinced that the Decision is in conformity to the Word of God But when a Church hath once pronounced upon a matter and an Appeal be rightly made she hath then certainly no power to give a second Sentence in the same Cause or if she doth no consequence as of a new Condemnation can be justly drawn from it Since therefore the Church of Rome had already passed her Decree upon the Points in question before the Council of Trent we must look upon her as a Judge become a Party as having long before declared against the truth But can it in conscience be thought that the Prelates assembled at Trent came thither with intent to deliberate whether the natural Body of Christ be in the Eucharist whether the Sacrament shall have the Worship of Latria Were they not resolved already ere they came to Trent Came they not meerly to condemn the Lutherans and not upon any inquisition after truth Had they not almost all an implacable hatred to the Protestants Did they not solicit Princes to destroy them with Fire and Sword And are these qualifications to be desired in Judges If it be asked how then the Assembly should have been composed to have given content to the Protestants I answer it should have been as the Lutherans of Germany desired it The Bishops should have been absolved from their Oaths of fidelity to the Pope The Council of Basil did it in a time when there was less need than when the Council of Trent sate The Protestant Divines should have been called the more moderate persons of each party should have been chosen the Bishops should have been prevailed with to lay aside all passion and prejudice the truth should have been sought with a sincere mind and the Word of God been only consulted for it The one might have hoped that persons so qualified by such a conduct might have reached the truth reason 2 But tho we should renounce all that I have yet said tho we should own the Council of Trent for a lawful and natural Judge of our Controversies with the Roman Church 2. Second cause of rejecting the Council of Trent tho it were duly assembled in could not be infallible yet were we in no sort obliged to receive and comply with all her Decisions with an absolute resignation and a blind credulity to which nothing can move one but the fond supposition of the infallibility of Councils Not to descend to an Examen of the particular faults of the Council of Trent it is impossible to persuade ones self that a Council that is to say an Assembly in which there is no Prophet nor any man inspired of the Holy Ghost is not liable to err and for my part I very much question whether there be in the world any one person that seriously thinks so I will admit that to have recourse to an infallible living Judge would be of high importance to the World The Church of Rome strongly supports her self by the artifice of possessing the People with the belief of her infallibility But when it comes to be enquired where it is that this infallibility doth reside one knows not where to find it Some place it in the Pope alone others in the Council alone and a third sort in Pope and Council united Those that place it in the Councils seem to have greater reason than such as would fix it to the person of the Pope For Councils are indeed the undoubted Judges of controversies in the Church So that if there be any infallible Judge in the Church it should be them As it certainly is most probable that the wisdom of many in conjunction should be of greater prevalence and purity than that of any single person The Pope whose Authority is meer Usurpation cannot be an infallible Judge nor hath God given to the Bishop of Rome any power to judge of controversies in the name of the Catholick Church Yet after all that appears so much to favour the Councils it must be confessed that the opinion that fixes the infallibility of the Roman Church upon the Pope is much easier to defend than that which ascribes it to the Council For this latter opinion that makes Councils to be infallible is perhaps the most vain and empty Notion that was ever started I pass the proofs brought from Scripture for each opinion they are much of an equal weight The Text I have prayed for thee
that thy faith fail not is as good a proof of the Popes infalliblility as is this Where two or three are gathered together in my name there am I in the midst of them to prove that Councils are infallible That General Councils came into the world but by accident But if we consult the light of reason and common sense can any one endure to see infallibility ascribed to these Assemblies that they call General Councils things which have either never been at all or rarely and by accident For as to Diocesan Provincial and National Councils the pretence of infallibility reaches not to them Let us then reflect a little that these General Councils were not known in the Church till the conversion of the Roman Emperours Constantine is the first of these Emperours The Council of Nice held in the year 325. is the first of these General Councils that is to say that for three hundred years together the Church had no such thing as an infallible Judge Bellarmine says very well that the Church having continued without General Councils for three hundred years might as well have done so for three hundred more or even for six or for nine hundred Or it may be it was because there was in those days no need of any Council there were then either no Hereticks or none that openly contended with the Church but a spirit of meekness and submission prevailed among all Believers So far from it that Satan did never sight against the truths of the Gospel nor poison Christendom with more or greater Heresies than in those times The works of Tertullian of Irenaeus of St. Austin and of many others of the Fathers do sufficiently shew it Let us know a little where rested this infallible spirit during the three first Centuries if it be true that it is only to be found in General Councils there having been none during all that time But the Church possibly was not then infallible Could it be ever made out that infallibility were one of the priviledges of the Church it were much more tolerable to allow it to a See that hath been constantly supplied with an uninterrupted Succession of Bishops as that of Rome And it falls more readily under our apprehension of things for the Holy Ghost so to inspire and guide some one particular person than a numerous Assembly whereof the greater part of the members that compose it are very often either counterfeit Christians or men of restless and turbulent minds I think it will not be unworthy of our remark that these Assemblies which they are pleased to entitle General Councils have been but by accident introduced into the Church It is the conversion of the Emperours that occasioned them Let us suppose that the Roman Emperours had continued Pagan as it was very possible there had been then no means of assembling the Clergy of the whole Christian world and consequently the Church had been always abandoned to a spirit of Error The Pagan Emperours would never have suffered the Christians from all parts of the Empire and of the world it self to have met together in a body and united in a Council they would have been jealous that the publick safety might have been endangered from such kind of Assemblies It is therefore evident that the conversion of the Emperors gave occasion to them and for that reason that they are but accidental things But this will be yet more clear if we farther suppose what might also very well have hapned that when the Roman Emperours became Converts to the faith of Christ they had lost the greatest part of their Empire and retained no more than Italy or some less considerable Province It is certain that in such case they could not have assembled the Clergy of the whole Christian World For the neighbouring Princes at enmity with them would never have permitted the Bishops subject to them to transport themselves into an enemies Country lest they might there be seduced to revolt and shake off the Dominion of their new Masters From all which it is most apparent that it was very possible that there might never have been any General Council known in the Church and that what hath been is purely by accident But such things as are ordained of God for preservation of the truth cannot be said to have fallen out by accident Besides according to the order of Gods Providence in the Government of the Church Councils were designed to judge infallibly of Controversies why hath it not pleased God to remove those obstructions that hindred the forming of these Councils under the Pagan Emperours For tho it is true that jealousie of State might have proved a powerful obstacle yet it is as true that as great difficulties have been surmounted All time were not alike averse to Christianity There have been among the Heathen Emperours some that were favourable to it and what could not have been done at one time might have been effected at another nevertheless this design of a General Council came never into any mans head till Constantine Was it ever known for the first three hundred years together that the Bishops had any intent of assembling from all parts of the World Or is it so much as read in any Author that they complained for not being able to do it If it be true that these Assemblies are the unerring Guides of the Church the Fathers of the three first Centuries could not be ignorant of it if they knew it it was a most supine and wretched negligence not to use their utmost efforts for the assembling these infallible Judges to have put an end to the many differences that then disquieted the Church or if they found it absolutely impossible for them to convene them it is yet a strange insensibility never so much as to lament the affliction of such an incapacity Tertullian in his Book de Prescriptionibus tells us all the several methods by him conceived most proper for convincing of Hereticks What an astonishing thing is it that he should not speak one word of doing it by General Councils a way so sure so ready so infallible It must certainly be that the Fathers never dreamt of these infallible Judges I conclude therefore that to deal sincerely one must needs confess that the zeal of Constantine did alone occasion that Assembly that is called the first General Council and by the Model of which the rest were formed For the better determining a great Controversie he was desirous to convene as many Bishops as he could even all that were in the large extent of his vast Empire that so their Decision might be the more solemn and efficacious And this is the original of General Councils The Christian Emperours called together the Bishops from all parts of the Roman Empire That Empire was called in the stile not of the Church only but of the Apostles also the whole world and the Councils have taken from thence the name of General or Universal Councils
made Heresie of the most trivial matters all the wild Opinions of Fanatique Sectaries were imputed to them Nor was any difficulty made of open and manifest contradictions in order to represent the Doctrine of the Protestants in hideous colours Sometimes they were made Pelagians denying Original Sin sometimes of the Sect of the Manichees who denied Free Will Yet is there nothing so wide and remote as are the two Heresies of Pelagius and the Manichees Man by this last Sect was deprived of all his freedom and by the other Free Will was established upon the ruines of Grace But with the Council of Trent the End it seems which was the blackening of the Protestants was enough to consecrate the basest and vilest Means If there was any that had so much remaining honesty as to interpret the Protestant Sentiments a little favourably there was an immediate exclamation of Heresie Heresie Was any thing fair to be expected from such a sort of Judges But indeed what other procedure could be expected from a Council composed as this The Judges were Bishops and the Advocates were Monks both which by their particular interests were the implacable Enemies of the Protestants The Bishops saw plainly that nothing less than their absolute ruine was threatned that the reforming of their softness their Luxury and the pravity of their Manners would not alone suffice but that a reduction of their vast Revenues their large Dioceses and their Despotique Sway over the Church and Clergy was no less intended That it was endeavoured to bring them down to plain Pastors or at least to subject them to their Clergy and to take away that Pomp that Wealth and Power they so much idolize Let any one judg what kind of Sentiments they must needs have for those that designed them so much ill As for the Monks who explained matters and pleaded before the Bishops against the Lutherans they looked upon the Protestants as upon a sort of people that had resolved their ruine and the ruine of all Monasteries that would have all the Wealth and Revenues restored back that these Religious Houses enjoyed under a pretence of Piety They strove out of Revenge to make the Lutherans odious For they well knew the Lutherans did not spare them but openly accused their Vows of Tyranny their seeming Sanctity of deep Hypocrisie their Houses of being sinks of filth and Impurity their Retreats of being places where Men are nourished in Sloth and in a sort of life that shrouds under a Veil of Austerity the greatest softness and Luxury He is little acquainted with humane Nature that knows not how mightily the motives of Interest and Revenge do inslave the Mind and depress Reason I do not therefore wonder at the implacable hatred of the Council to the Protestants I should rather wonder had it been otherwise but I affirm that this known and visible Hatred gave just cause to the Protestants to reject the Council reason 6 6. Sixth Reason to reject iâ— It was not a free Council But could the Council have clear'd it self of this Hatred taken up both by interest and inclination yet the Protestants could have looked for no good from it for that it was the slave the creature of the Court of Rome and wholly depended on it This is so very notorious that to deny or to question it is to lose all sense of shame and modesty The Emperor and the King of France and Spain complained of it highly These complaints were made publickly in the face of the World discoursed written and repeated daily and in various forms as in this History shall be shown Nothing was proposed in the Council but by the Pope's Order and by the mouth of his Legats nor did it determine of any thing but by the express direction of the Court of Rome When difficulties were found in any Affair so that it went no just as the Legats would but thwarted a little the Papal Interest the Presidents of the Council never wanted specious pretences to procrastinate the matter and these delays were purely to gain time to consult the Pope's pleasure in the business and to know in what manner it should be decided and this was called a giving time for allaying Mens Passions that so the Holy Ghost might become Master of their Minds and might govern their Resolutions When the Pope's Orders were arrived the Presidents employed their Pensioners in Caballing and secret working of the matter but if those Intrigues miscarried the business was remitted to another Session But if no Arts would do they took off the Masque and plainly told the Council that such was the Pope's pleasure Besides the Pope had in the Council under the management of Cardinal Simoneta five or six rude tumultuous Persons who abused and affronted any Man making hideous noises by kicking and striking the Benches with Hands and Feet upon the delivering of an Opinion that did not please them Nay these surious men came frequently to reproachful Revilings and even to Blows Cardinal Pallavicini himself tells us that the Bishop della Cava one of these so disorderly Persons did one day box another Bishop and tore away part of his Beard for having with some freedom delivered his Opinion The Bishop of Alista who was maintaining that Bishops were instituted by Christ was interrupted by Cardinal Simoneta with Be silent insolent Man and let others speak If any Man was disrelished for maintaining Opinions contrary to the Italian Theology he was either wearied by rudeness and ill treatment forced to beg leave to retire or made to be recalled by his Superiours if he had any or otherwise plainly driven from the Assembly When Pius IV. was reproached with the little liberty he gave the Bishops in that Council he onely excused it by retorting upon Princes that they left them yet less liberty than he did To deal truly what the Pope said was not altogether groundless for the poor Bishops were the Slaves of Princes as well as of the Pope The Pope himself made use of the Authority of Princes to restrain the over forwardness of some Prelats Thus he obtained Letters from the King of Spain and from the Marquess de Pescara his Embassadour at the Council and Governour of Milan to hinder the Spanish Prelats from favouring such as were desirous to set bounds to the Papal Power From what happened in the Disputes about the Residence and Power of Bishops by Divine Right it is easie to conjecture what would have happened had the Lutheran Tenents found Partisans in the Council The Spaniards the French and the Germans insisted upon the Councils declaring the Residence and Jurisdiction of Bishops to be jure divino they had their particular Intrigue in it as the course of this History will shew But the Interest of the Court of Rome lay in direct opposition and that the Point might not be decided in favour of the Bishops To effect which no stone was left unturned no means untried that Artifice Violence
and Tyranny could make use of What then had been done or rather what had not been done if as the Protestants desired the Pope's Authority had been directly struck at and the subversion of his Grandeur openly attempted If the Council of Trent had but only offered at what was actually done by the Council of Constance that is the declaring of the Pope to be subject to the Council the Court of Rome would rather have set all Christendom in confusion that have suffer'd it The Presidents had express Orders if that Point came at all into question immediately to break up the Council and return to Rome reason 7 7. Seventh cause of Rejection The Council of Trent hath erred even by the Confession oâ— those that would have us submit to it But I would very fain know why we should be obliged to receive the Decisions of the Council of Trent since the Roman Church her self does not receive them Why should it be expected from us that we should look upon this Council as Infallible when thousands of the Roman Communion do believe that the Council hath de facto erred and in consequence of that Belief do refuse to submit to it and daily reject its Canons This last reason for our rejecting that Council is indeed of high importance we shall therefore enlarge a little upon it and evidently make it appear that those that would exact of us a Submission to this Council have themselves no regard to its Authority and that upon the score of its having erred I shall not press upon the Council for having forbid Non-Residence under grievous Penalties which yet is now universally connived at for having forbidden Pluralities and yet there are now no Eminent Prelats but are guilty of it for having forbidden to give Dispensations but in Cases of great moment and yet now at Rome they are denied to none but to such as want Mony that matter of mighty moment for which only they are granted For I very well know that to these and to a hundred other particulars in which I could instance it will presently be replyed that they are Corruptions indeed but that those Corruptions indeed but that those Corruptions do not hinder the Decrees of the Council from being just and good And the Popes Flatterers will add that he is not bound by the Decrees of the Council but has Power to dispence with the Canons when he thinks fit But I speak of Decrees made by this Council and rejected by an infinite number of People Decrees that never were suffered to take place in France after all the endeavors of the Court of Rome The French Kings their Parliaments and Bishops dislike several things in the Decrees of this Council Reasons why the Council of Trent is not received in France 1. That the Council hath done and suffered many things that suppose and confirm a Superiority of the Pope over Councils 2. That it hath confirmed the Papal Encroachments upon Ordinaries Ses 2. Res. c. 8. by Exemption of Chapters and Privileges of Regulars who are both withdrawn from Episcopal Jurisdiction 3. That it hath not restored to the Bishops certain Functions appertaining to their Office and taken from them otherwise than to execute them as Delegates of the See of Rome 4. That it hath infringed the Privileges of Bishops of being judged by their Metropolitan and the Bishops of the Province by permitting a Removal of great Causes to Rome and giving Power to the Pope to name Commissioners to judg the Accused Bishop 5. That it hath declared that neither Princes Magistrates nor People are to be consulted in the placing and setling of Bishops 6. That it hath empowered Bishops to proceed in their Jurisdictions by Civil Pains by Imprisonment and by Seisure of Temporalties 7. That it hath made Bishops the Executors of all Donations for Pious Uses 8. That it hath given them a superintendency over Hospitals Colleges and Fraternities with Power of disposing their Goods and Revenues notwithstanding that those matters had been always managed by Lay-men 9. That it hath ordained that Bishops shall have the examining of all Notaries Royal and Imperial with Power to deprive or suspend notwithstanding any Opposition or Appeal 10. That it hath given Power to Bishops with consent of two Members of their Chapter and of two of their Clergy to take and retrench part of the Revenue of Hospitals nay to take away Feodal Tithes belonging to Lay-men 11. That it hath made Bishops the Masters of Foundations of Piety as Churches Chappels and Hospitals so as that those that have the care and Government of them are obliged to be accomptable to the Bishops 12. That in confirming Ecclesiastical Exemptions it hath wholly ascribed to the Pope and the Spiritual Judges all Power of judging the Causes of accused Bishops as if Sovereign Princes had lost the Right they have over their Subjects as soon as they became Ecclesiasticks 13. That it hath empowered the Ordinaries and Judges Ecclesiastical in quality of Delegates of the Holy See to enquire of the Right and Possession of Lay-Patronages and to quash and annul them if they were not of great necessity and well founded 14. That in prohibiting Duels it had declared that such Emperor King or Prince as should shew favour to Duelling should therefore be Excommunicated and deprived of the Seignory of the Place holding of the Church where the Duel was sought 15. That it hath permitted the Mendicant Fryars to possess Immoveables 16. That it hath ordained an Establishment of Judges it calls Apostolick in all Dioceses with Power to judg of Spiritual and Ecclesiastical matters in prejudice of the Ordinaries 17. That it hath declared that Matrimonial Causes are of the Churches Jurisdiction 18. That it hath enjoyned Kings and Princes to leave Ecclesiasticks the free and intire Possession of the Jurisdiction granted them by the Holy Canons and General Councils that is to say Usurped by the Clergy over the Civil Power These are the principal Points disputed in France Those that tend to the diminution of the Authority and Privileges of Bishops to enlarge the Roman Power are rejected by the Bishops and those that would extend the Power of Bishops to the prejudice of the Civil Authority are rejected by the Parliaments Between both this Council as enacting contrary to the Rights and Liberties of the Gallican Church was never at all received in France so as to obtain the force of a Law Why then should that Assembly give Law to us Protestants that is rejected by so great a part of the Church of Rome If it hath not erred why do Roman Catholicks as they will be termed refuse to receive it And if it hath erred what reason is there to press us to receive it I know what is answered to this that matters of Faith and of Discipline must be distinguished that the Council did not nor could not err in matters of Faith and Doctrine and that it was only mistaken in points
of Discipline But we shall find this Answer to be a great Illusion First of all it is very hard to comprehend why the Church should be indued with an Infallible Spirit only in points of Doctrine and not in matters that should establish Order and Government For certainly it is of the Essence of the Church to be governed according to the intention of God and of Christ as certainly as it is Essential to it to be guided in all Truth Suppose it impossible to retain all the speculative Truths and therefore that Anarchy Confusion and Disorder become prevalent what sort of Church should we have But the better to dissipate this Illusion it is to be observed that there is no Point of Discipline but hath a strict Union with some Point of Right and that there are some Points of Discipline that are Points of Doctrine likewise and of the first Class too For example the Roman Hierarchy the disposition of that great and mighty Clergy distinguished into Priests Bishops Arch bishops Patriarchs Primates over whom is placed their great Head whom they intitle Christs Vicar and Lieutenant upon Earth Is not that a Point of Discipline All that respects the Guidance and Government of the Church the Persons their Characters their Charges their Dignities their Authority and Jurisdiction are they not of the Discipline of the Church If with this Pretext it should be objected to the Romanists Gentlemen your Hierarchy in the whole and in all its parts is a meer matter of Discipline the Church might possibly err concerning it and it is therefore fit to review and re-examine it What would they reply to it Methinks they would answer that it is a Point of Discipline which is also a Point of Doctrine and of Right At least the Council of Trent hath so defined it and hath treated of the Hierarchy under the head of matters of Doctrine There are indeed three kinds of Doctrine the first are purely Speculative as the Mystery of the Trinity the Incarnation and the Redemption the second are Practical respecting our Manners and of this kind are the Moral Precepts that are the Rules for governing our Life and directing our Conscience and the third are those Practical Doctrines that respect the Guidance and Government of the Church that is to say that there must be a Ministry in the Church that Believers ought to obey their Guides that the Residence of Bishops is by Divine Right that the Pastors are instituted by our Lord Jesus Christ that there must be a Lawful Call to the Ministry that so there may be a Right of governing the Church that such Government may not be Tyrannical that the Church may not withdraw Believers from their Lawful Lords in Temporal matters It is most clear that all these are Points of Doctrine respecting Discipline So that a Council that errs in Points of Discipline that have an inseparable Connexion with those Doctrinals does by necessary consequence err in Doctrine But to render this General Consideration the more sensible I will particularly apply it to some Principal Articles of Discipline wherein it is confessed that the Council of Trent hath exceeded the limits of its Power and which I will make out to be Articles of Doctrine also so that such as will confess that Council to have erred in Discipline shall be constrained to acknowledge that it hath erred in Doctrine and in matters of Faith That the Popes Superiority over Councils is a Point of Doctrine and was decided in the Council of Trent Let us begin with the Article of the Superiority of the Council over the Pope or of the Pope over the Council Few are ignorant with what heat this Question has constantly been argued ever since the Councils of Constance and Basil both of which pronounced the Pope inferiour to a General Council and the Gallican Church makes it an Article of her Faith to maintain the decisions of those Councils But I would fain be informed whether it be an Article of Faith or of Discipline yet I think there is no doubt but it will be avowed for a Point of Doctrine it having always been considered as such It is also certainly a Point of Discipline for all that respects the Form of the Churches Government may fitly be brought under the head of Discipline This important matter the Council of Trent hath decided in favour of the Pope and yet the Gallican Church still perseveres in the contrary belief She believes therefore that the Council erred in a Point of Doctrine I know it will be said That the Council of Trent hath not decided that the Pope is Superiour to Councils Men may talk as they please but things for all that will continue as they are It is true that among the Decrees and Canons of that Council there is none that says in express terms The Pope is Superiour to Councils and can be judged by none but the effect of such Decision is apparent in all the Acts and through the whole Conduct of this Council It is necessary for establishing the Sovereignty of a Temporal Prince that the States of his Country make a formal Declaration and thereby acknowledge him their Master and their Sovereign Is it not enough that they obey him that they suspend their resolutions are convened and dissolved at his pleasure that in their Acts they stile him their Lord and their King and that they own that all they do is nothing unless confirmed by his Authority I believe there are none so unreasonable as to deny this to be of equal Value with any express Declaration of Sovereignty We shall therefore make it unquestionably clear that the carriage of the Council of Trent towards the Pope hath been in all points such In order to this it is to be remembred that the fifth Council of Lateran considered by the Court of Rome as a General Council assembled by Julius II. begun in the year 1512 under Leo X. had repealed annulled and abrogated the Pragmatick Sanction which was an Abstract of the Decisions of the Councils of Basil and Constance made at Bourges in the year 1438. by Order of Charles VII in a solemn Assembly of all the Clergy of France and of the Parliaments The grand design of it was to abase the Pope and to retrench the Tyrannical part of his Power the very Basis of all the Regulations and Proceedings of this Assembly being founded upon the Principle of the Subjection of Popes to Councils But then comes Julius II. in his Council of Lateran and re-establishes the Popes Superiority over the Council declaring null and void all that had been done in prejudice of it by the Councils of Constance and Basil Twenty eight years after was the first Convocation of the Council of Trent Between these there had been no General Council nor any thing in prejudice of that Superiority that was so re-established by the Council of Lateran On the contrary there was something actually done of
Points upon which they were to deliberate telling them you shall speak only as I direct you you shall debate the Propositions that I shall make you and you shall not dare to exceed the bounds I set you Yet such was one of the Decrees of the Council signed by all the Fathers and made at the opening of the third and most solemn Convocation of the Council Was there any thing done to remedy the consequences of this Clause Truly just nothing in effect There was a little Decree made and little it signified to pacifie dissatisfied minds it was that the Legats a little before the end of the Council should declare that it was not intended by this Clause to prejudice the liberty of the Council nor at all to alter the manner of proceeding that former Councils had observed but it is not said that there was no intent to prejudice the opinion that subjects the Council to the Pope Those that shall read this History will find by what passed from the twenty second to the twenty third Session what Endeavours were used by the Court of Rome to slide in a Decree among the Acts of the Council to establish the Popes Supremacy There was a Minute of such a Decree sent from Rome wherein it was said that the Pope hath power to govern the Universal Church Ecclesiam universalem The Emperour and the French joyned to oppose it as easily penetrating the Design of exalating the Pope over the whole Church of making him absolute Master of it and by consequence placing him above Councils Well then and what was the issue of the Dispute The Court of Rome feigned to yield the Point and the Decree did not pass but yet the thing was after cunningly done in another Decree where the very words are used but in a way that seems as if it was without design It is in the first Chapter of General Reformation in the last Session where it is said that the Pope has the Administration of the Vniversal Church These words do plainly signifie that the Pope is sole Bishop that the others are but his Delegates and by consequence that he is the Monarch and Superiour of the Church whether it be considered together as a Body or disjunctly in its Parts If the words might admit of another construction yet the very Council it self did thus interpret them and therefore for a time did reject them tho afterwards it received them by inadvertence And this is another express Decision that exalts the Pope above the whole Church It would certainly be tiresom to the Reader should I produce all the Proofs that might be brought to shew that the Council of Trent hath acknowledged the Pope for Superiour For I should then be obliged to speak of the Bulls of Convocation that were registred and received by the Council in which the sole power of convening Councils and presiding in them is ascribed to the Pope contrary to the Decisions of the Councils of Constance and Basil I should also speak of the Bulls of Suspension sent by the Popes to their Legats by which as Masters and Superiours they impowered them to suspend and to dissolve the Council I should in fine be obliged to speak of all that was done in those two important Controversies that made so much noise in the Council that is whether the Episcopal Order were of Christs Institution and whether the Residence of Ecclesiasticks be Jure Divino But I shall leave the Readers to make due Reflections upon the Legats presiding in the Council and their management of affairs I shall only offer two Proofs but the most convincing that can be The first shall be the last Chapter of Reformation in the last Session In this Chapter the Council declares That all that hath been ordained concerning the Reformation of Manners and Ecclesiastical Discipline is so ordained as that the Council will thereby manifest to all the world that the Authority of the holy Apostolick See remains whole and untouched That is to say that the Pope is not bound by the Canons nor tied from dispensing with them when he thinks fit This is not our Gloss but the Court of Rome's it is the plain intent of the Council that framed the Decree it is agreeable to constant and continual Practice for the Pope de facto does daily dispense with the Canons of this Council It could not more plainly be pronounced that the Pope is Master and Sovereign of the Council nor could any thing be more directly contrary to the Decisions of the Council of Constance This latter Council speaks thus in the fourth and fifth Session The holy Synod of Constance duly assembled being a General Council and representing the Catholick Church is empowered immeditely from Jesus Christ which every person of whatsoever condition or dignity tho even of the Papal dignity is bound to obey in all things that relate to Faith the extirpation of Heresie and the Reformation of the Church as well in the Head as in the Members That is to say the Council of Constance declares that the Pope is bound to obey the Canons of the Council And the Council of Trent declares that the Authority of the Council reaches not to the Pope but leaves his Power untouched One of the two Councils has therefore certainly erred for their Decisions are in direct contrariety to each other The last Proof I shall urge is the Confirmation of its Decrees which the Council of Trent desired of the Pope If that does not suppose that without such Confirmation the Decrees of the Council were of no force as the Court of Rome pretends it signifies just nothing If the Validity of the Decisions of a General Council depends upon the Popes Confirmation it it into Propositions and then it runs thus The Church hath Power over the Temporalties of Kings and private Persons can take away their Possessions and give them to others can proceed to Sentence and Execution by Corporal punishment by Imprisonment and Sequestration can take cognisance of the validity of Wills and Testaments can oblige Laymen to give an account of their management of Donations for pious Uses hath Power to exercise all manner of Judicature and in Matrimonial Causes exclusive to all other Tribunals In a word can hear and determine all matters Civil and Criminal Is there not reason then to allow this for Doctrine Is not Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction matter of Doctrine Hath not the Council of Trent treated of it in the Chapter of Order as of a point of Doctrine If the Jurisdiction of the Church be a matter of Doctrine is it not absurd to say that the Decrees to which such Jurisdiction does extend are meerly points of Discipline Are not the Whole and its Parts of one nature Iâ— the Jurisdiction of the Church considered together and in gross belongs to Doctrine why not the parts the branches the extent of it likewise Thus have we another point of Doctrine in which the Gallican Church and
all the Magistrates of the Christian World do affirm the Council to have erred That Exemptions of Ecclesiasticks is a point of Doctrine wherein it is confessed that the Council erred I go on to the Exemptions of Ecclesiasticks which are of near affinity to the preceding Article The Bishops of the Council of Trent in the Decree we just spake of by them intitled the Reformation of Princes had made little Sovereigns of the Clergy independent of the Secular Power exempted from pleading before a Temporal Judge for whatsoever Cause or Crime 'T is true this Decree did not pass by reason of the great opposition made by the Ambassadors But the Council endeavoured to supply the matter for in the twentieth Chapter of General Reformation in the 25th Session it ordains that the Immunities Exemptions and Privileges of Ecclesiasticks be ratified and confirmed to them according to the Constitutions of Popes and Councils and according to the holy Canons Now these Constitutions and these Canons the observance whereof it commands are those that withdraw Ecclesiasticks from the Power of Secular Judgment and subject them only to the Judges of the Church And indeed since the Council the Clergy have with the utmost vigour endeavoured the maintaining themselves in the possession of these Privileges Every body knows the famous Quarrel that upon this occasion happened between Pope Paul V. and the Venetians and made so great a noise in the beginning of this present Century The Republick of Venice in the year 1605. made a Law forbidding Ecclesiasticks to acquire Lands and fixt Possessions and before that there was another Law in force restraining the building of Churches Hospitals and Monasteries without leave obtained of the Senate At the same time the Republick caused to be imprisoned Brandolino Valde-Marino Abbot of Nerveze and Scipione Saracino Canon of Vicenza the first as being guilty of Rapine and Theft accused oâ— poysoning his Father and his Brother oâ— Incest with his Sister of having caused several Persons to be assassinated and oâ— employing Magick to corrupt Womenâ— the second for having broken off the Seal put upon the Bishops Court by the Magistrates and for attempting the chastity of a Widow of Quality with most villaâ—nous outrages Pope Paul V. looked up on these Laws and the imprisoning of thesâ— Men as breaches of the Privileges of thâ— Clergy that the Council of Trent haâ— confirmed He commanded the Venetian to abrogate these Laws and to send thâ— two Prisoners to be tryed by the Nuncâ— at Venice forasmuch as the proceeding of the Republick in this matter was contrary to the Canons and Constitutions of the Councils And upon the Republicks refusing to do it in the year 1606. he thundred his Bull of Excommunication and Interdiction against it The business was made up in the year 1607. by the mediation of the King of France and by the negotiation of Cardinal de Joyeuse and Cardinal du Perron The Interdict was taken off but the Republick was obliged to give up the Prisoners to the Pope and to suspend the execution of those Laws till the Parties that is to say the Church and the State had setled the matter These Ecclesiastical Immunities were things unknown to the Primitive times The great and good Emperour Constantine did in Person or by Commission hear and determine the Crimes of Ecclesiasticks without excepting so much as Cases of Schism and Heresie It is true he established a Tribunal of the Church Sozomer l. 1. c. 9. Eujeb de vita Constant l 4. c. 27. Niceph. l. 7.46 and gave a sort of Jurisdiction to Bishops for the affairs of Ecclesiasticks But still they acted as the Emperours Delegates in those Tribunals and we see that Constantine did often â—re hear Causes wherein the Bishops had before given Sentence Tom. 2. Ep. 162. St. Austin tells us that in the business of the That the diminution of Episcopal Authority is another Point of Doctrine wherein the Council of Trent is acknowledged to have erred It is not extremely necessary to enlarge upon the wrong done by the Council of Trent to Bishops in taking from them the power of hearing all the greater Causes in impowering them in most Episcopal Functions to act only as the Popes Commissaries and in confirming the Privileges of Chapters and Monasteries which dispense them from acknowledging the Ordinaries to be their Superiours The Bishops themselves do sufficiently complain of these wrongs and they have reason for by the Priviledge granted to Monks of immediate depending on the Holy See the great and numerous Congregations of Clugny and of the Cistercians all the Houses of the Mendicants and the new Order of Jesuits are not only withdrawn from Episcopal Jurisdiction but are become so many sworn Enemies to Episcopacy Besides which by the Exemption of Chapters those Assemblies are so many thorns in the Bishops sides giving them a thousand disturbances and tiring them out by their oppositions The accused Bishops are contrary to the Canons forced and dragged to Rome to be tried their Causes are removed from their Metropolitan and Synod of the Province from whom they might expect Justice and those that seek their ruine do procure their Enemies to be named by the Pope for Commissioners to decide their Causes There is an instance of this in the troubles that hapned in France about the Doctrine of Jansenius There were four Bishops that after the condemnation of Jansenius by Innocent X. and Alexander VII kept a wrangling and cavilling a little too long in the Jesuits opinion upon the distinction of Right and Fact to avoid signing of the Formulary The good Fathers procured a Brief from the Court of Rome to interdict them by Commissaries named by the Pope These four Bishops who were the Bishops of Alez of Pamiers of Beauvais and of Anger 's defended themselves against the Interdiction by Circular Letters and by divers publick Writings wherein they cite the Ancient Canons the fifteenth of the Council of Antioch in the year 341. the seventh of the Council of Sardica 351. the Capitula of Adrian I. the Decisions of Leo IV. and of Benedict III. his Successor who lived about the middle of the Ninth Century By all which it appears that accused Bishops to be Canonically condemned ought to be tried by their fellow-Bishops of the same Province They trace the possession of this Right through the following Centuries and at length they shew that the Regulations of the Council of Trent and the Concordat between Francis I. and Leo X. cannot prejudice the Right of the Bishops and so long a Possession for that the Parliaments the Universities and the Clergy of France opposed the Concordat and the Cardinal of Lorrain made opposition in the name of all the Clergy of France then when the Gentlemen of beyond the Mountains made the Decree that impeaches this usage Which say they hath served for a ground of the refusal In the Circular Letter of the four Bishops to all the
Bishops of France p. 8. that this Kingdom hath always made to submit to it and to several other Regulations about Discipline as being found contrary to the Liberties of this Church which the Kings the Clergy and the Parliaments of France have always so carefully preserved These Gentlemen are then persuaded that the Council of Trent hath in this point wronged the Bishops But one cannot commit a Wrong without Injustice nor do an Injustice without Error Whence it follows that it is not to be denied by these Gentlemen but that according to them the Council hath erred Yet still say they it is but an Error in Discipline And still they must give me leave to tell them that this reply is nothing but a meer illusion For it is a real Point of Doctrine to know how far the Rights of Bishops do or do not extend It is a clear Case that all the Grievances the Bishops complain of depend upon the question Whether Bishops were instituted by Jesus Christ and are the Apostles Successors For if Bishops are by Divine Right and not of Papal Institution it is manifest that the Pope cannot deprive them of a power he did not give them nor can so much as lessen that power If a Bishop does jure divino watch over the conduct of those of his Diocess there is no man that by any right can take a part of his Flock from him or forbid him to execute his Pastoral Charge in any instance for no man hath power to alter what God hath established On the contrary if the Pope hath conferred upon Bishops all the Authority they have he may revoke lessen or enlarge it at his pleasure nor could the Bishops then have any cause to complain for he may make use of his just right and power If the Pope be absolute Master of the Church and Bishops but his Substitutes he may proceed judicially against them as he thinks most fit by a Synod by Commissaries or by himself And the Bishops know it very well for the Spanish Bishops who stickled so much in the Council that the Residence and Institution of Bishops might be declared to be jure divino had no other end in it but to strengthen the Episcopal Dignity and shake off the Papal Yoke that oppressed them The Authors of those Writings that have made so much noise in the world about the affair of Signatures are likewise perfectly convinced of this truth For speaking of the wrongs done to Bishops by the Court of Rome they tell us that the Popes Ministers take delight to shew in Act and by Example what the Roman Doctors teach in their Books Circular Letter of the four Bishops p. 15. That the Pope is the absolute Master and Sovereign of the Church That Bishops are but his Vicars holding all their power from him That he either does or does not hearken to them as he thinks fit That if he makes answer when they consult him he does them grace and favour but does them no wrong if he refuse to answer To this erroneous and false opinion of the Doctors Partisans of the Court of Rome they oppose the pure truth of the Gospel that is Page 14. That all Bishops do succeed to the Apostles That the Pope by Divine Right is their Head and Superiour but not the sole Bishop That they derive their power from Christ himself That it is the Holy Ghost that hath set them over the Flock that the Great Shepherd hath acquired by his bloud that each might govern as his Vicar that portion that falls to his lot c. that they are so inferiour to the Pope as to be yet his Brethren and Collegues in that only Episcopat of which each of them holds an intire part according to the Fathers This is truly the state of the Question and can this be thought to be a mere matter of Discipline Or can it be other than a Point of Doctrine When the French and Spaniards did so mightily insist in the Council to have it declared that Bishops are not the Popes Vicars nor set up by him but established by Christ and when on the other side the Partisans of the Court of Rome opposed this design with so much violence every where preaching up the Pope to be the sole Bishop that the Ordinaries are but a succession of Commissaries holding all their Authority from the Holy See was this Controversie considered by the two Parties as a matter of Discipline Was it not considered in the Examen of the Sacrament of Orders which is a Point of Doctrine And not touched in the Chapters of Reformation to which was referred all that concerned Discipline The Bishops could not prevail to have it declared that their Order is by Divine Right but at least they hindred that no Decree was made for declaring them only the Popes Vicars Yet that is of no great service to them for in all the Decrees of the Council they are still treated as the Popes Vicars And it must needs be acknowledged that the Council in declaring that the Pope hath power to abridge the Authority of Bishops to hinder their Episcopal Functions to try them in Person or by his Commissaries hath sufficiently declared them to be no more than his Vicars So we have another Point of Doctrine wherein two thirds of Europe agree that the Council of Trent hath erred That the People ought to have part in Canonical Elections that herein also the Council of Trent hath erred by the Confession of many Roman Catholicks I go on to Canonical Elections Those persons that within thirty or forty years past have made themselves so much talked of in the World for that extraordinary appearance of zeal to restore the ancient lustre of the Church those persons I say do consider this matter of Canonical Elections as a Point of highest importance They lament that favour interest and birth are the only steps that raise to Ecclesiastical Dignities and that the custom of elevating to Prelacy by Election and Canonical ways those who are most worthy of it is now no more in use They complain of it with much grief and know not how to forgive the memory of Chancellour du Prat who is accused to have abolished the Pragmatick Sanction First Dialogue of the Parishioners of Sr. Hil. du Mont. p. 10. that is as they express it The pure observation of the ancient Canons in the Church of France and to have made the Concordat of Francis I. with Leo X. which ruined the Apostolical Discipline in France abolished Canonical Elections and subjected the Church of France to a deplorable servitude They tell us in the marginal refutations of M. d' Ambrun's Petition to the King Page 10. that in several Parish Churches there have been for a long time Publick Prayers to God for the abolishing the Concordat and the re-establishing Canonical Elections We must not say these Gentlemen have reason lest it give offence for if
they chance to agree in any opinion with us it is presently made a crime Neither is it here extremely important whether they are in the right or not It is enough for us that they zealously condemn whatsoever favours the abolition of Canonical Elections For thereby they are necessarily engaged to condemn that Canon of the Council of Trent which pronounces an Anathema against such as hold Session 23. Canon 7. that Orders may not be conferred without the consent or call of the People or of the Secular Powers Methinks Canonical Elections should be such as are made according to the ancient Canons and in the Form prescribed by the Custom and Constitutions of the ancient Church Those that have any sort of knowledge of Antiquity can never say that the ancient Canons do declare with the Council of Trent that the consent and the call of the People is not necessary to a lawful Ordination There is no going on with instances to the Primitive times for that were to oppress the Reader with the multitude as well as to convince him by the strength of Testimonies I shall therefore pass by Matthias and Barsabas who were presented to God to chuse one by Lot to compleat the number of the Apostles Acts 1.13 and their being elected by the whole Assembly of Brethren I shall say nothing of St. Cyprian's refusing to establish a Sub-Deacon or a Chanter without consulting his People Epist 33 34. 37. In the Ordination of Clerks says this holy Martyr to his People we are wont my dear Brethren to consult you and to weigh in a Publick Assembly the manners and vertues of such as are to be received It is he that says in his 68 Epistle that chiefly to the People belongs the right of electing of Priests worthy of that Vocation and to reject the unworthy It is he that describing the Canonical Election of a Bishop Epist 55. § 7. says That he is elected and chosen by the suffrages of all the People with peace that is without divided opinions and without heats and contests I shall not mention the People of Cyzicus who chose themselves a Bishop as Socrates tells us in the seventh Book of his History Chapter 28. Theodoret in his fourth Book Chapter 22. speaks of a Letter of Peter Bishop of Alexandria Successor to St. Athanasius where in accusing the Ordination of Lucius a pretended Bishop he acquaints us what were Canonical Ordinations That man was not established by the Assembly of Bishops by the suffrage of the Clergy and at the request of the People The same thing is to be seen in the Synodal Epistle of the Council of Constantinople the second General where the Fathers say Theodor. Hist l. 6. c. 9. That they have established Nectarius Bishop of Constantinople in the presence of the Emperour Theodosius and by the approbation of all the Clergy and of all the People I shall not speak of the Election of St. Ambrose Bishop of Milan which was done by the People nor shall I bring an hundred other Proofs than I am able to produce to demonstrate that the voice of the People is necessary in all Canonical Ordinations and Elections I will only say that in those Ages wherein the Discipline of the Church began extremely to relax it was yet acknowledged that according to the ancient Canons Elections ought to be made by the Votes of the People or at least by their consent Gratian who lived about the middle of the twelfth Century does in his Decretal bring divers proofs of this matter For instance in the Canon quanto there is an Extract out of the second Book of the Epistles of St. Gregory the Great drawn from Epist 30. Distinct 63. Chap. 69. wherein the Pope after the death of Laurence Bishop of Milan orders to Elect him a Successor not by the Votes of the Clergy only but of all the People And because many of the People of Milan were at that time retired to Genoa to avoid the Calamities of War Gregory requires that persons be sent to Genoa to take the Votes of the absent In the Canon Plebs Diotrensis he relates an Ordinance of Gelasius who lived in the year 492. by which that Pope declares that a Bishop is to be chosen by the suffrage of all the People Leo I. was Bishop of Rome thirty or forty years before this Gelasius In the 87. of his Epistles he says it is necessary to render an Election Canonical that the chief of the Laity do give their Votes as Gratian reports it in the same Distinction in the Canon Vota civium Again in the Canon Sacrorum we have an Ordinance drawn from the Capitula of Charlemagne and of Louis le Delonnaire his Son which declares that Bishops are to be elected and established by the Votes of the People and of the Clergy and not otherwise One might descend yet lower to the Canonical Elections made by the Votes of the People nearer to our times But it is not needful and possibly what we have already spoken of this matter is superfluous this Article not being contested It remains then only to remark that this so constant practice of the pure and primitive Church is condemned as Heretical by the Council of Trent It will without question be replied that this Canon of the Council concerns only the Ordination of Priests and not the Election of Bishops that the Council only condemns the Lutheran Opinion that Vocation depends of the People and does not condemn the Canonical Election of Bishops made by the Votes of the People But the Canon immediately following shews the vanity of this reply wherein the Council declares that such Bishops as have been promoted by the only authority of the Pope without any Assembly of Bishops consent of Clergy or suffrage of the People are true and lawful Bishops and Anathema is pronounced against all that believe otherwise Is not that a condemnation of the Sentiments of the Fathers who say that a Bishop who is not elected by his Clergy chosen by his People and consecrated in an Assembly of Bishops is not a true Bishop When the Council says that a Bishop who is neither elected by his Clergy chosen by his People nor Consecrated by other Bishops is yet a lawful Bishop if sent by the Pope If this be not to anathematise Canonical Elections there is no such thing as common sense or else it is come in fashion for things to be expressed by terms of just opposite signification How can it be that it is not intended to exclude the People from the right of giving their Suffrages in the Election of Bishops by the Canon which says that Consent and Vocation are not necessary to the validity of Ordination For if the People have no voice in the Election of a Priest how is it that they may vote in the Election of Bishops superiour to Priests If it be further replied that the Election and the Ordination
both of Priest and Bishop are to be distinguished that the People may have voice in the Election but can have none in the Ordination I answer that Ordination is but a consequent of Election and when the People vote in the Election of a Pastour they do it to the Ordination But in the Roman Church the People have no voice neither for Election nor Ordination This therefore ought to be a fixed and determined Point among all that wish for the re-establishing of Canonical Elections i. e. that the Council of Trent hath erred in destroying them It only remains to see whether it be an Error simply in Discipline or in Doctrine But this can admit of no difficulty the two Canons of the Council of Trent which ruine Canonical Elections are in the Decree of the Doctrine of the Sacrament of Orders and not in that of Reformation which relates to Discipline And indeed it is clearly a Point of Doctrine that absolutely depends upon that great Principle maintained against the Court of Rome by the Followers of Gerson that is that the Keys were given not to the Person of St. Peter but to the whole Church This says the Author of the Apology for Gerson is the principal Point of the Controversie In Prafations that this most Orthodox Doctor lays down as does St. Austin for a most strong and firm support of the Sentiments of the Vniversity of Paris that Jesus Christ immediately and by himself gave the Keys to the whole Church in General and considered as a Body to the intent that the power of them might be exercised by one And consequently St Peter and the other Prelates considered apart are in possession of the Keys but ministerially and instrumentally as representing the whole Church to which the Keys do appertain principally and in respect of dominion Vide Tract 124. in Joh. and Tract 50. It is certain that St. Austin's opinion is that Christ gave the Keys to the whole Church in general as composed of the People and of the Clergy Now it that be so most certainly the Votes both of the People and of the Clergy are necessary to a lawful Ordination For if the Keys belong to Christians in general they are not to be intrusted but by a general consent This may suffice to shew that the Council of Trent hath erred even by the confession of a great part of the Church of Rome and that it hath erred in points of Doctrine I will only add a word or two about Clandestine Marriages The Council in Session 24. hath declared them to be null This is a point of Doctrine for it is a question that directly touches the matter of Sacraments that is to say Whether the Church can invalidate an action which was till then a true Sacrament For the Council declares that Clandestine Marriages are true Sacraments and at the same time declares them to be null and void It must therefore have a Power of annulling true Sacraments And this is a question of Right and a point of Doctrine if ever there were any Nevertheless upon this point which is a matter of Doctrine the Church of Rome does not conceive her self bound to believe that the Council hath not erred Treatise of the Interdâ—â—â— of Paul V. First Propositiâ—â— The Divines of the Republick of Venice tell us that the Decree of the Invalidity of Clandestine Marriages which belongs to the matter of the Sacrament according to the universal Opinion is not obligatory in places where the Council hath not been promulgated So that it is agreed on all hands that in such places Clandestine Marriages are good To conclude it were unjust to oblige us to have a better Opinion of the Council of Trent than the very Fathers of that Council had But to consider the manner of their words and actions it is a very hard matter to think that they themselves were convinced that that Assembly was infallible There can be nothing more true and more judicious than what was said by Baptista Cigale Bishop of Albenga when the Canons upon the matter of the Sacraments were to be formed That no Man ever quitted his Opinion meerly because condemned and that when Doctors remit matters to the Judgment of the Church it is no more than a civility and should not be abused This Man spake as he thought and I am mistaken if one that talks thus be well satisfied that Councils are infallible If an instance be required of the truth of this expression of the Bishop of Albenga it is found in this very Council in the conduct of the Arch-Bishop of Granada and of the Spaniards upon the question Whether our Lord did Sacrifice himself in the Institution of the Eucharist It is certainly an important question the famous Controversie of the Sacrifice of the Mass depending absolutely upon it The Arch-Bishop and his Partizans after the decision of the matter persevered in their Opinion and even in their opposition until the very moment the Decree was published They were not in all appearance convinced that the Council was infallible but on the contrary they seemed strongly persuaded that it had erred in a point of Doctrine of great importance These are the Principal reasons brought by the Protestants to evince that they cannot with justice be obliged to submit to the Decisions of the Council of Trent They have also other Reasons that persuade them that they are obliged not to submit to it as that they believe that this Council hath established Errors that destroy the true Religion But it is not our intent to report or examine them It is manifest that the understanding of the Reasons we have produced does wholly depend upon knowing the History of this Council And consequently it is highly necessary for all such Protestants to be well instructed in this History as are desirous to be able to defend the refusal they make as Protestants to submit to the Council of Trent The difficulty may be to find a faithful Historian who may be credited in the matter For it is certain that every one is not to be believed in it We are told that the Collections that the Lutherans may have made upon the conduct of the Council can deserve but little Faith that they were Parties that Objects are strangely transformed by Passion and that a relation by the Pen of an Author partial and by assed carries with it the tincture of his Passions But it hath pleased God in his Providence to raise up even in the Church of Rome a Wise a Moderate a Judicious and sincere Man one that in a word was the greatest Man of his Age who hath carefully wrote this History He has all the Perfections required to compleat an Historian Of great Judgment and Abilities strong and clear Sense perfectly instructed in Affairs of a vast penetration and one that wanted no kind of assistance needful to the compleating his Work When this Author began to appear in the World the
memory of the Council of Trent was still fresh in Mens Minds so that he may very well pass for a contemporary Author He was a Neighbour to the place where the things he writes of had been transacted He lived in a City full of Curious Persons who had collected Memorials of what had passed in this great Affair and was himself one that kept correspondence with all the Learned Men of Europe Nay he had great intimacy with Oliva Camillo who had been Secretary to the Cardinal of Mantua Legat and President of the Council in the last Convocation and there is no doubt but he drew considerable advantages to his Work from such a Person who had been an Eye-witness of all that had passed Now since this Author was neither Lutheran nor Protestant he is not in reason to be suspected of the Church of Rome and as he was no servile Idolater of the Roman Court he ought not to be suspected of the Protestants There shines indeed throughout his whole Work an Air of sincerity and honesty which happily united to his vast Abilities has made him pass as unquestionably the ablest of his Age in the Art of writing History But in an Age so depraved as ours it is dangerous to be honest The Sincerity of Father Paul hath raised against him a multitude of Enemies The Court of Rome endeavours to make him pass for a Villain an Impostor and the most Profligate of Men and his Work for a malevolent and poisonous Satyr And yet to so many important Truths by him laid open to the World nothing but Scurrilities are opposed till at last after forty years Cardinal Pallavicini it seems bethought himself to publish a new History of the Council of Trent or if you please an Answer to Father Paul for he cites him and refutes him in every Page This Work appeared with all the External Advantages that can well recommend a Book It had Pope Alexander VII to whom it was dedicated for Patron and for Author one of the so called Princes of the Church One that was of a Society well acquainted with the Arts of engaging Mens Minds and one that in this Work defended a Darling Cause favoured and supported by the Number and Quality of its Partisans And yet with all this he has not been able to attract all that applause and approbation that the Court of Rome had hoped Men judged that he came much too late to instruct them in the Transactions of this Council Nor indeed is an Opinion once setled so easily shaken off After having left not be forgotten he takes care to have it repeated in an Epistle Dedicatory that he causes his Bookseller to make to the second Volume Yet all that knew him affirm him to have been one of the most Wise and Pious Men of great Moderation in his Passions and very Religious The Proof the Cardinal brings of his Accusation is this that Father Paul having all the Heretical Opinions did yet live in the Communion of the Catholick Church which shewed a setled Contempt of Religion This sure is a rash way of reasoning It is true that by the Principles of the Court of Rome Father Paul was a Heretick for he did not believe that the Pope was absolute Lord of the Church that he had Power to Excommunicate Princes and interdict their Dominions at his pleasure He did not believe there was any Obligation for a blind Obedience to the Pope's Commands He did believe it very possible for the Pope to err and that there is no submission due to his Errors And he highly disapproved that corruption in Discipline and Manners every where prevalent but chiefly in the Papal Court I must confess that according to the Principles of Cardinal Pallavicini and those of his Party this is enough to make him pass at Rome for Impious and an Atheist And yet Father Paul in all his contests with the Pope for the Republick of Venice hath always spoken of what they call the Holy See with the greatest respect imaginable He lived and died in his Religion with the greatest Devotion in the World He was most exact in the observation of all the Ceremonies of his Church And though he was of a nice and tender Constitution yet would he never dispence with himself in the keeping of Lent even to seventy years of Age. In a word he was an Atheist after the same manner that an infinite number of Persons of Vertue and Honour in France Flanders and Germany are so who will not be Slaves to the Court of Rome who wish that several things were reformed in the Church and yet disapprove the Separation of the Protestants It had been a surprizing thing for a Jesuit to write the History of Lutheranism without frequent Blows at Father Paul It is not therefore to be wondered at if Father Maimbourg treats him sometimes a little roughly Though it must yet be said that he does it with less rudeness than the Cardinal As I do not judg it needful to enter into the Particulars of the Accusations of Cardinal Pallavicini for the justification of Father Paul because it would draw me too far so for the same reason I shall not amuse my self to justifie him in certain matters wherein Father Maimbourg accuses him though it were very easie to shew that Father Paul is more in the right than Father Maimbourg But yet I cannot but here take some notice of what a sufficient known Author says in a little Book containing Reflections upon History and upon the Art of writing History This Author judges of the Quality and Merit of Historians methinks after a very Magisterial manner Among others he speaks of Father Paul and says Pag. 125. Never was anything written with greater wit or with less reason and truth He is facetious upon all occasions that he may not be thought angry and is much too airy in a subject so serious If this Author had consulted Thuanus to whom the French owe some respect his History being an honour to their Country he would not have given such a Character of the Historian of the Council of Trent for he would have seen that these two great men do perfectly agree For my part by our modern Authors good leave I shall much rather give credit to M. de Salo a famous Counsellour in the Parliament of Paris Author of the first Journals under the name of the Sieur de Hedouville And thus he speaks in the Journal of 23 of March 1665. As Cardinal Pallavicini has ordered it one cannot read nor understand his Book without also reading Father Paul's And then there is some danger that History being very well done that one may prefer it before the Cardinals which may be truer but is not more probable It is easie to ununderstand the meaning of these words from so prudent a person as M. de Hedouville I am tempted to believe that the Author of the Reflections upon the Art of writing History has never read
the History of Father Paul because he says that that Historian makes mirth with every thing and is much too airy in so serious a subject Whereas never was any Work of a more different Character more wise more moderate more free from foolish trisling mirth So that because in the body of so large a Work there are found some few Railleries of Persons dissatisfied with the Council reported with the fidelity of an exact Historian to call this a continual drolling is willingly to expose his Reputation and his Judgment But if in this particular I was much surprized I could hardly believe my eyes in reading another Period some few Pages following in the same Book That this History is a Satyr upon the Roman Church and Religion Pag. 130. of which he exposes a train of knaveries to be revenged of the Pope for deluding him with the vain hopes of being made a Cardinal This is surprizing indeed and permission and with a Preface giving it high Eulogies of Sincerity But France is not a place where Libels and Satyrs against the Roman Church are published with approbation and permissión True it is that Father Paul lays open the very bottom of the conduct of the Roman Court and plainly shews it to be governed meerly by humane Policy Yet are his Enemies very imprudent to impute that to him as a Crime because that Imputation constrains his Defenders to make it apparent that the History of Cardinal Pallavicini is a thousand times more injurious to the Council of Trent and to the Court of Rome than is that written by Father Paul This latter indeed is accused to have expressed discontent and spite against that Court for discovering the Maxims of its Policy and shewing its aim to be onely Power and Greatness and that it had no regard to the Interests of Piety and Religion But it is most certain that Cardinal Pallavicini does expose it under that Character extreamly more than Father Paul The Father contents himself with remarking its Conduct and giving us the History of its Actions without saying much of its Maxims But the Cardinal gives us the naked View of all the Maxims of the Roman Polity shews us the very Basis of it and that it consists of humane and carnal things blended with things dangerous and criminal It is true that in proposing the Maxims of this Polity he undertakes also to defend it and makes a mighty merit of it in those that are the Guides and Directors of the Roman Church whilest those that are of contrary Sentiments pass with him for sottish ignorant and blind Zealots But in praising these Criminal Maxims he does not make them better The difference between Father Paul and Cardinal Pallavicini is this Father Paul in giving us the History of the Polity of the Court of Rome has done it in such a manner as plainly shews his dislike of it and Pallavicini represents it too as it is but wounds it deeper by his Apology than its Enemies do by their most severe Invectives For had he gone about to shew us that the Maxims of the Court of Rome and the Principles of its Morals are directly opposite to the Spirit of Christ and Christianity he could have gone no better way to work The Gospel represents the Church as a Society of People who should take up their Cross â—enounce the World and worldly Maxims and Policies and even themselves who should despise the Pomp the Wealth and Pleasures of the World and onely glory in their sufferings their Poverty their Mortification and their Good Works and who should draw Unbelievers to the Yoke of Christ by ways of mildness by humility and by the exercise of a sincere and ardent Charity But let us see after what sort Pallavicini represents the Roman Church 1. L. 1. c. 23. He confesses that she mixes in her conduct carnal and worldly Polity that her present Government is framed by the rules of this World and maintains that to be according to the intention of Christ 2. Ibidem He confesses that the Churches aim is to augment her Wealth and Glory and says that she ought to endeavour to possess the perfection of humane happiness for that Christ hath framed her in the most fit manner to enjoy such happiness and so as that if Plato and Aristotle were living they would avow that according to the Rules of their worldly Wisdom and Philosophy L. 12. c. 3. there could not be a more noble and excellent form of Republick than the Christian 3. And therefore as according to the Idea of the Wise Men of this World a Republick to be fortunate and well formed ought to be opulent flourishing in Wealth abounding in pleasures and full of Wise Men according to humanity L. 19 c. 9. L. 17. c. 10. L. 23. c. 3. Introd c. 6. L. 24. c. 12. so he will needs have it that the Church should be the same and confesses that the Church of Rome is formed upon this Idea 4. In owning that this Church makes use of all the ways accused for Simonical to heap up Money he undertakes to defend this Simony and all the means she uses to maintain her Opulence as First-Fruits Pensions Commendams Pluralities frequent Jubilees Indulgences and Dispensations given for mony 5. L. 1. c. 2. alibi passim Introd c. 10. He ridicules those that would reform the Church according to the Model and Idea that the Gospel gives us of it He terms such a Reformation an imaginary Whimsey only sought by People pushed on by blind Zeal and filled with extravagant conceptions Men that are enslaved to vulgar Opinions L. 1. c. 25. L. 16. c. 10. who know nothing of the World nor have any understanding in Affairs Pope Adrian VI. who acknowledged the corruption of the Court of Rome and was willing to have reformed it was according to Cardinal Pallavicini one of those blind Zealots who feed themselves with vain imaginations His designs were abstracted Ideas L. 2. c. 6. lovely in contemplation but whose form bare no proportion to the condition of the matter He was to blame to make so free a confession of the corruption of the Court of Rome L. 2. c. 7. it was too severely to censure his Predecessors and an indiscreet Zeal In a word such kind of People are the very Pests of publick Tranquillity 6. L. 17. c. 14. According to Pallavicini nothing is more horrid to the Church than Poverty and she ought to nourish this abhorrence in the minds of Men and her self strive to avoid this evil L. 9. c. 9. Those therefore who say that the greater part of the Goods of the Church ought to be given to the poor are the Churches Enemies and the Cardinal maintains that to do so were directly contrary to the humane happiness of the Church to Gods Institution and to Nature Ibidem He approves very well that the Goods of the Church be employed to maintain
Pope that all the Mischief sprung from the Court of Rome and that therefore before any violent course could be used against the Lutherans it was necessary to attempt the Reformation of the Ecclesiasticks they demanded that the Annates which had been formerly appointed for carrying on the War against the Turks might be no more sent to Rome but that they should remain in the Empire in the hands of a Receiver to be named for which he should be accountable In a word they solicited the Pope speedily to call a free Council in Germany where all as well Seculars as Church-men might have free liberty to speak their opinions This discourse did not at all please the Nuncio and therefore he addressed himself in a manner not very satisfactory to the Diet for his answer tended onely to let them know that Germany ought to suffer with patience and expect the Reformation from the holy See and withall told them that he took it ill that in demanding a Council the Diet had added these words with the Consent of his Imperial Majesty The secular Princes who felt the oppression stopt not there they met by themselves and formed that famous writing which they called centum gravamina the hundred Grievances the Nuncio had notice of it but he departed before it was drawn up fair and therefore they themselves sent it to the Pope These hundred Grievances related chiefly to the oppression that the Seculars suffered from the Church-men the Usurpation of their Estates by the Clergy the means practised by the Church-men and Court of Rome to pillage the People the Annates Reservations abuse of Commendums the selling of the Sacraments and Burying the Exemptions of the Clergy and the manner of transferring Causes from Civil to Ecclesiastick Courts And because the Emperour Charles the V. was then in Spain the Diet that was held in his absence did both act and speak with greater Liberty so the Recess that is to year 1523 say the Decree of the Diet past sixth of March 1523. and immediately thereafter all the Memoires of it were printed to wit the Pope's Brief the Nuncio's instructions the Diets answer and the hundred Grievances Those that were engaged in the Interests of the Court of Rome were not well pleased to find in the Brief the frank and ingenuous Confession of Adrian that the original of the Mischief proceeded from the Corruption of his Court and the looseness of the Discipline and Manners of the Church This Diet did certainly much forward the Affairs of the Lutherans but Adrian lived not long after the Return of his Nuncio for he died the 13th of September 1523. without being much lamented by the Court of Rome who stood in awe of his Probity and the sincere Intentions which he still retained in his Heart of reforming the Abuses of that Court. CLEM. VII Adrian dies without any thing done Julius of Medicis is chosen in his place by the name of Clement VII On the nineteenth of November Julius of Medicis Cosin to Leo X. was chosen Pope who took the name of Clement VII he was certainly a man of less vertue than Adrian but of more wit greater politick cunning and address and more skill in the true interests of the Court of Rome He took a course quite opposite to that of Adrian and was not of opinion to acknowledge so frankly the disorders which he intended not to meddle with Nevertheless seeing he observed in the centum gravamina He sends another Legate into Germany to the Diet at Nuremberg that most of the Articles referred to the German Clergy he thought fit in some things to satisfie the Germans He therefore sent Laurence Campeggio Cardinal of St. Anastase to the Diet at Nuremberg which was held in the year 1524. year 1524 he gave him his instructions to act and speak in that Diet as if he had been wholly ignorant of what had past the year before under Adrian for the Cardinal spoke not a word of the hundred Grievances but onely offered a Reformation of the inferiour Clergy The Diet made answer that they were in the same mind as they had been the year before and that they had given in writing what they demanded and what they thought necessary for composing the troubles of Religion The Cardinal answered that neither the Pope nor he had ever heard of any Writings being presented to the College of Cardinals that indeed some Copies of the centum gravamina had been seen at Rome but that it was not believed that that Writing had been framed by the Princes of the Empire but was rather looked upon as the work of some private person a great enemy to the Court of Rome He added that the Pope was ready to satisfie the Germans touching the Reformation and that he himself had a full power to set about it The Diet built no great hopes upon these fair promises however they deputed some Princes to confer with the Cardinal but these conferences produced nothing at all for the Princes persisted in demanding the Reformation of the Court of Rome and the Cardinal refused it nor would he engage any farther than in reforming the Clergy of Germany In that he was as good as his word for he made a kind of Reformation which reached onely the puny Clergy but it was rejected by the Diet who perceived that it made onely for raising the power and greatness of the Prelates by lessening their inferiours The 18. of April the Diet pass'd their Edict the Emperour being absent as he was the year before Amongst other things it was concluded in that Recess that a free Council should by the Pope and consent of the Emperour with all expedition be convened in Germany that the States of the Empire should assemble at Spire to examine Luther's Books and to advise about the measures that ought to be taken concerning matters of Religion till that Council were called and in the mean time that the Magistrates should take care that the Gospel should be preached according to the Doctrine of Authours approved by the Church and that no Pamphlets or Books injurious to the Court of Rome should be published The Legate assembles the Catholick Princes at Ratisbonne and obtains a Decree against Luther The Legate being altogether dissatisfied with these resolutions prevailed with the Catholick Princes to assemble at Ratisbonne where in presence of Ferdinand the Emperour's Brother he got a Decree past against the Lutherans which commanded that the Edict of Wormes should in all points be put in execution against Luther He did more for he perswaded those Princes to admit of that gentle Reformation of the Clergy whereof he had proposed the Scheme and in a word got these Catholick Princes to enter into a League defensive for the preservation of their Estates and Religion The rest of the Princes and States of Germany without whom this Assembly at Ratisbonne was held complained loudly against it but the Cardinal Legate did not much
been able to stir up so many people all would again return into the Bosome of the Church from which they had fallen off Next year was employed in negotiating an accommodation betwixt the Catholick and Protestant parties wherein the Elector of Mentz and the Palatine endeavoured all that lay in their power But the Emperour finding that such tentatives for healing of Religion would never succeed persisted in his thoughts of calling a Council He wanted a pretext for using of Force and hoped to find one in a Council because the Protestants would be obliged to submit to it and if they year 1533 refused he would have law on his side to force them He therefore sent to Rome to represent to the Pope and College of Cardinals the necessity of calling a Council without any delay The Emperour presses a Council and not obtaining it makes his first Edict in favour of Protestants This demand was seconded by the Ambassador of the King of France and though the Pope was resolved not to grant yet durst he not flatly refuse it He therefore consented to it but under conditions that rendred the thing impossible for he purposed the holding of a Council at Bologna Piacenza or in some other Town of the Ecclesiastick State well foreseeing that the Germans would never agree to that He also declared that none but Bishops and Abbots should have a decisive Vote which was not the free Council that the Germans so urgently desired The Emperour perceiving that nothing was to be expected on that side at length resolved to restore Peace to Germany which he did by the Edict of Nuremberg dated July 23 1532. whereby he gave full liberty to all States Princes Towns and private Persons to enjoy and live in the Religion that they had chosen without molesting of others and without being molested by any till the sitting of the next Council which the Pope should be solicited to call within six months and open within a year This was the first Edict of toleration that the Protestants obtained in Germany which extremely netled the Court of Rome Things however were husht up and after all they found that the Emperour was not so much to be blamed For the Protestants obstinately refused to make head against Solyman who with a formidable Army was coming to powr in upon Austria unless that indulgence were granted them So that the fear of the Turks whom Charles had to doe with was the sole cause of his moderation A second interview betwixt the Pope and the Emperour the Pope refuses a Council but after grants it on conditions which the Protestants refuse to accept So soon as that War was ended and the Turks driven out of Austria the Emperour renewed his design of concluding the affairs of Religion in Germany He made a journey into Italy and had a second interview with the Pope at Bologna In this interview they had a fresh conference about the necessity of holding a Council the Pope persisted to oppose it and if at any time he seemed to condescend yet stood he firm that the Council should be held upon the conditions he had proposed Charles who had no other interest in the affair than that of his Authority which he desired to settle by obliging the Germans to live under the same Laws was not very much troubled upon what conditions a Council were held provided the Lutherans accepted them They therefore agreed betwixt themselves to send Ambassadors to the Elector of Saxony to incline him to accept of the conditions proposed by the Pope The Elector desires leave to communicate the affairs to the Assembly of Protestants which was to be held at Smalcalde the 23 of June the same year And indeed he did so but the Assembly rejected the Pope's propositions and persisted in demanding a free Council to be held in Germany where every one might have freedom to speak their minds and wherein judgment should be pronounced according to the word of Go without any respect had to the Authority of the Pope Traditions or Canons Their Answer was long and argumentative of which Copies were sent to the Pope and the Emperour and afterwards Printed with the Pope's propositions The Pope dissatisfied with the Emperour enters into a league with the King of France This interveiw of the Pope and Emperour did not all contribute to the cementing of their friendship for they began to entertain Jealousies one of another the Pope could not relish those reiterated instances that the Emperour made to him for calling a Council to which he had an incurable aversion But above all that which most increased their misunderstanding was the Judgment given by the Emperour upon the debate which the Pope had with the Duke of Ferrara concerning the Towns of Rheggio and Modena Both parties agreed to refer that affair to the determination of the Emperour that as Umpire he might give Sentence therein The Emperour pronounced against the Pope and confirmed the Duke of Ferrara in the possession of those two Towns So that the Pope being ill satisfied with the Emperour took a resolution of entring into a strict alliance with the King of France and at the same time to raise the Grandure of his Family he Married Catharine of Medicis his Neice to Henry second Son to that King and for the accomplishment and confirmation of the Treaty the Pope gave the King of France an interveiw at Marseilles Amongst other things that past at that interveiw the Pope required of the King that he would use his interest with the Protestants of Germany and especially with the Landgrave of Hesse to take them off from demanding a Council or that they should demand it on conditions more easie for the Court of Rome The King attempted it but could not succeed however the Landgrave of Hesse yielded in some things and consented that the Council might not be held in Germany provided the place of its meeting were out of Italy and in a Town where the Council might be free The King himself proposed to the Pope the Town of Geneva an dundertook to get the Protestants to accept of it This proposal seemed strange to the Pope who perceived that the King of France was no fit Agent to transact matters according to the intentions of the Court of Rome and therefore they thanked him for the pains he had taken and desired him to proceed no farther so that a stop was put to that Negotiation in the beginning of the year 1534. year 1534 Henry King of England shakes off the Pope's authority without any innovation in Religion The same year the Court of Rome had the trouble to see one of the most considerable Members of the Roman Church fall off from it whilst they endeavoured to recover Germany they lose England Henry VIII had Married Catharine Infanta of Spain Aunt by the Mother to the Emperour Charles V. This Princess by a former Marriage had been Wife to Prince Arthur elder Brother
Emperour he praised the Legates severally and made some bald Puns and Allusions upon their Names then turning to the Bishops he told them that they should open their hearts to receive the Holy Ghost which if they did not God would nevertheless open their Lips as he did to Balaam and Caiaphas This last passage pleased no body for the Prelates did not take it well to be compared to false Prophets nor was it well digested by the rest that he promised a Spirit of Prophecy and Infallibility to men that might be as wicked as Balaam or Caiaphas but nothing was taken worse of this Oratour than when he compared the Council to the Trojan horse into the body of which all Bishops ought to enter This was reckoned an odious comparison and the discontented were busie in emproving that thought and making their best on 't saying that the Council would prove like the Trojan horse that is to say a treacherous Engine to set the World in a flame These Ceremonies being over the Decree was read and all that was done in that first Session was the putting the question to the Prelates Are ye willing that the Council be opened to which they all answered Placet the next Session was appointed to be the seventh of January following and this being done the Legates wrote to Rome for Instructions about the way of Consulting Voting and Concluding that was to be observed in the Council For instance if the Persons of Hereticks and their Heresies should be condemned at one and the same time what Seal should be made use of and especially if the Votes should be taken by the individual Persons or by the Nations they belonged to this last way had been practised in the Councils of Basil and Constance that is to say the Votes past there by Nations In expectation of an answer the Prelates were amused with the consideration of very trivial matters as what manner of Cloaths the Prelates should wear out of Festival-days if they should appear in secular Habits or otherwise At length the answer came which ordered the Legates not to make too much haste but to spin out the time in matters of small importance untill they should adjust at Rome the best measures for the way of proceeding in the Council But without farther delay the Pope determined the matter of Voting that it should not be by Nations because thereby they would lose the benefit that was expected from the Italians who were in great Numbers to be sent to the Council The Pope sent also Money to his poor Prelates and made no Mystery of it as if he feared to be accused of having bought Votes because said he when a Council is assembled the Head of the Church is obliged to such Works of Charity What was the form of the Council of Trent and what had been that of the ancient Councils When the Pope's Answer was come the Cardinal di Monte began to propose to the Prelates the order wherein matters were to be examined before they should be brought to conclusion and sentence past thereon He went not so far back as the ancient Councils for a Pattern but stoptat the last Council of Lateran that was called against Lewis XII by Julius II. where himself had assisted in quality of Archbishop of Siponto Certainly if a model had been borrowed from the Ancient Church the Council of Trent would not have observed the method that they followed for there is nothing more different than the ancient and modern Councils In the first Ages of Christianity the fervour of the Zeal and Charity of the primitive Christians easily put an end to the little differences that sprung up in the Church without such great Assemblies they met without Ceremony and without any great observation of Forms every one gave his judgment according as God gave him knowledge and put it into his heart and the ancientest or ablest Man presided by Election When the Church had weathered the Storms of Persecution the Emperours took upon them the Care of its Government they called Councils and either presided in them themselves or by their Ambassadours nay and pronounced interlocutory Decrees in differences that occurred Thus Constantine moderated the Council of Nice Marcellinus represented the same Emperour at the Conference which was held in Africa betwixt the Catholicks and Donatists Candidian presided in the Council of Ephesus in the Name of Theodosius the younger The Emperour Martian was personally present in the Council of Chalcedon and Constantine termed Pogonatus in that of Constantinople which was held in the Palace and is called in Trullo It was the chief Magistrate then who prescribed the form commanding some to speak and others to be silent In those days there was no distinction made betwixt Congregations and Sessions when they met it was to give their opinions concerning the differences that were to be decided or the Doctrine they were to judge of sometimes they made an end in one Session sometimes more were required The Disputes Examinations and Conferences which were held for clearing of matters were termed the Acts of the Council as well as the Decisions and Canons they were not kept secret but freely communicated to all but in later Councils affairs are much altered Princes have been wholly excluded and deprived of all right of sitting in Councils as Judges they onely now assist as Witnesses and Spectatours Heretofore even Lay-men though they were not Princes were admitted but the Church-men now have driven them thence The Popes have taken to themselves the Power of calling Councils and deprived Sovereigns of the same By a distinction heretofore unknown the Congregations are distinguished from Sessions the Congregations have been appointed for debating examining and resolving on matters and the Sessions onely for the Ceremony of publishing the Points that were agreed upon in the Congregations In fine it hath been given out that onely the Decrees and Canons ought to pass for the Acts of the Council And therefore it is that all the Debates and Conferences of Trent have been suppressed and nothing published but the Decrees thereof with design to keep from the knowledge of the publick the heats and diversity of Sentiments which broke out with no small scandal during the whole sitting of that Council The Pattern then of proceeding in the Council of Trent was taken from the later occidental Councils and especially from the last Council of Lateran It was resolved upon that matters should be examined privately in Assemblies called Congregations that in the publick Sessions all things might be carried decently and without Contest The Congregations were likewise distinguished into Particular and General when a matter had been canvassed in Particular Congregations appointed by the Presidents it was reported to a General Congregation of all the Prelates where it was sully determined At length the matters concluded upon were published and this was done with great Ceremony in the Cathedral-church where after Mass and Sermon one Prelate in
Rome Whilst they stayed for new Orders from thence they caused some regulations to be made about the manner of proceeding that matters might be carried more orderly It was ordained that for the future three kinds of Congregations should be held one wherein the Divines should examine matters of Doctrine the other for handling the affair of Reformation into which the Doctors of the Canon Law should be admitted and lastly a third sort which was onely to consist of Prelates to form the Decrees concerning Doctrine and Reformation To comply with the Germans who desired that the matter of Reformation of Discipline should be taken in hand before all things else the Legates gave way to the resuming the matter of Lectures and Preaching which had been already moved before the last Session A considerable debate on the subject of Preaching the Mendicant Fryars having invaded the Pulpits and had been referred to another time The great corruption of the Clergy and the supine ignorance of the Priests in past ages was the cause that the Bishops and Priests who had the cure of Souls did wholly abandon the care of instruction and the charge of Preaching The Colleges and Mendicant Fryars seized the Pulpits which they found empty and obtained privileges from Popes to Preach every where without the Permission of the Ordinaries that is of the Bishops and the Monks had now a possession of two or three hundred years to confirm their Title The Bishops bestirred themselves vigorously to recover the possession of their rights and demanded the revocation of those privileges the Monks defended their cause and many writings and great debates were thereupon occasioned on both sides The Divines and Canonists were consulted and most part gave their opinions in writing the Legates in the mean time under pretence that the reading of these Papers would take up too much of the Councils time caused an abstract of them to be made which should be read in a solemn and general Congregation But because that abridgement was probably defective or partial one Braccio Martello Bishop of Fiesole opposed the reading of it and spoke with a great deal of freedom he told them plainly that their deliberations ought not to come packt to them from other places meaning Rome nor that it was fit that two or three Persons should be the sole Arbitrators in all affairs intimating the Legates and that therefore it was necessary that all should hear the reasons and that in their full extent that they might be the more able to comprehend their strength and pass their Judgment upon them in the assembly This discourse choaked the Legates who not onely rebuked him upon the spot but wrote to Rome also to have him banished the Council and the Bishop of Chioza prohibited to return thither any more This last Bishop had had a little too bold dispute with the Legate Pool concerning the opinion of Antony Marinier the Carmelite touching Traditions he had defended the opinion of the Carmelite complaining that there was no liberty allowed in the Council and in consequence of that he had absented himself presently after the Session under pretence of being indisposed The Pope however was more prudent than the Legates for though he was no less resolved than they to oppress the liberty of the Council yet he thought it fit to observe measures and to wink at the actions of those two Bishops The abstract was then read notwithstanding the opposition of the Bishop of Fiesole and the Bishops alledged their reasons upbraiding the predicant Monks with Avarice with the Collections and Alms which they erogated under colour of Preaching and instructing Souls The Monks on the other hand pleaded that they could not be accused of Usurpation since by permission from the chief Pastor of the Church they had stept into the Pulpits which they found forsaken This Article as well as others must wait for its decision from Rome The Pope wrote to the Legates that they should endeavour to maintain the privileges of the Universities and Monks but withall find out some expedient to satisfie the Bishops But if the Bishops intended to make themselves absolute Masters within their Diocesses to the prejudice of the exemptions granted by the Popes that they should not fail to oppose it and to defend the Monks against the Bishops because the Monks depending immediately on the holy See have been always the chief supports of its Authority and have been very usefull for bringing down the Bishops The expedient which was at length found was to re-establish according to the ancient custome in Cathedral Churches a Doctor of Divinity for reading of Lectures The name of that office was still in being in Cathedral Churches for there was one in the chapter called the Scholasticus to whose office there was a Prebend annexed as being chief of the Lecturers and he himself ought to be a Professour of Divinity the superintendance of that affair was without any difficulty granted to the Bishops But it was not so easie a matter to allow them the same power over Monasteries wherein they also intended to re-establish the custome of Lectures of Divinity for instructing those to House The Legates could not endure that the Bishops should have the oversight of that though the business was not about the Mendicant Fryars but onely simple Monks for fear of detracting from the privileges that had been granted by the Popes and of emancipating the Monasteries from the holy See to subject them again to the Bishops Whilst they were sticking at this point A considerable overture of Sebastiano Pighino for contenting the Bishops without diminishing the Authority of the holy See Sebastiano Pighino Auditour of the Rota made an overture that brought the Council out of these difficulties His opinion was that the Bishops ought to have power to re-establish the Lectures of Theology in Monasteries not in quality of Bishops but as Delegates of the holy See that is to say that they should act in that affair by the Pope's Authority and as it were in his name It is incredible of what use this invention was in the sequel of the Council and it was a fetch always employed when any thing was to be restored to the Bishops without diminution of the Authority which the Pope had usurped over them That so well contrived expedient was presently laid hold of for it was Enacted that Parochial Churches united to Monasteries and which depended on no Diocess should for the future be under the Direction of the Metropolitan as Delegate of the holy See In like manner because there were Preachers who had obtained privileges from Rome to answer to none but the Pope it was ordained that they might be punished by the Bishops in the same quality of Commissioners delegated by the Pope As to the matter of Preaching the privilege was continued to the Monks but to give some satisfaction to the Bishops it was ordained that it should be in their power to admit or reject
might be excepted from the general rule The Court of Rome was consulted upon the matter and the answer from thence was that they should not meddle with that controversie so that the Legates declared that they were not assembled to pronounce upon differences that Catholicks had amongst themselves but onely to condemn Hereticks The Council therefore not to offend either of the Parties but to satisfie the Cordeliers without condemning the Jacobins added a clause to the end of the Decree that it was not their intention in all that had been said to doe any prejudice to the opinion of the immaculate Conception but that the mind of the Council was that the Constitution of Sixtus IV. should be observed session 5 Things being thus prepared and the Legates having thereupon acquainted the Court of Rome all that had been done was approved of the Session was held the seventeenth of June and after the Ceremonies were over the Decrees were publickly read by the Bishop that had officiated There were two Decrees one concerning Doctrine and the other about Reformation the first contained the five Canons against the errours of the Lutherans and other Protestants about original Sin which have been mentioned before In the second Decree there were two articles the first related to the Lectures of Divinity which were to be re-established in Cathedral and Collegiate Churches It ordained that in such Churches able men should be chosen for making Lectures of Divinity upon the Scripture that the same should be done in Monasteries that the Abbots should take the care of that and in case of their neglect that the Bishop might compell them to it but still by a Power delegated from the holy See And in fine that the Readers in Divinity before they began to make their Lectures should be approved by the Bishop excepting those of Cloysters whom the Council did not oblige to demand that approbation The second Article of the Decree of Reformation did regulate the matter of Preaching and Preachers It ordained that the Bishops should preach themselves and that if they could not they should fill their places with men fit to instruct and edifie that the Curates should be obliged to make Sermons or Prones at least every Sunday and all holy Days that the Preachers who should preach in Parishes under the Jurisdiction of Bishops should have licence from them before they take possession of the Pulpits that the Preachers in Cloysters should at least take the Bishops Blessing that if these Preachers should prove to be Hereticks or scandalous they might be suspended by the Ordinaries that if they had a Privilege from the Pope that exempted them from the Jurisdiction of the Bishops yet they might still be suspended and punished by them as Delegates of the holy See and that the Collectours should neither preach themselves nor cause others to preach up the sale of Indulgences This being done the next Session was appointed to be held the nine and twentieth of July and before the breaking up of the present Peter Danes Ambassadour of Francis I. King of France was received into the Council he delivered his Master's Letters Peter Danes Ambassadour of France comes to the Council and there makes a long Speech and backt them with an eloquent Speech wherein he did with much pomp enumerate the great obligations that the holy See had to the Crown of France he told them what Charlemaigne had done in favour of the Popes how Adrian the first had granted him the Power of creating the Pope and how the goodness of Lewis le Debonaire had made him remit and for himself and his Successours renounce that right he enlarged much in demonstrating the Zeal that the Kings of France have always had for the maintenance of the Purity of Doctrine in the Church and the Propagation of the Christian Faith At length he concluded with his Master Francis the First whom he commended for his Care and Prudence in hindering the growth of Heresie within his Dominions telling them that by the Rigour of his Edicts he had provided so well that no Assembly of Protestants had as yet met within his Territories Hercules Severolla Proctour of the Council answered him in a sew words he thanked the most Christian King for having sent to the Council told the Ambassadour that his arrival was very gratefull to them assured him that they had always had a great veneration for the Gallicane Church and promised that the Council would on all occasions be ready to doe her all good offices for the future Whilst the Council of Trent are darting Anathema's against the Protestants the Pope and Emperour prepare another sort of arms against them The treaty which the year before was begun by Cardinal Farnese was completed by the Cardinal of Trent within a few days after the last Session War is declared betwixt the Pope the Emperour and the Protestants the Emperour gets great advantages and the Pope is deceived by the Emperour In this treaty the Emperour obliged himself to reduce the Lutherans to the obedience of the holy See because they refused to submit to the Council The Pope on his part promised to furnish the Emperour with twelve thousand Foot and five hundred Horse and two hundred thousand Crowns for the Charges of the War besides he permitted the Emperour to sell of Lands belonging to Monasteries as much as might amount to fifteen hundred thousand Livers and to have for one year the half of the Revenues of the Church of Spain on condition that he should have a share in the advantages of the Conquests that should be made and that nothing should be granted the Protestants especially in matters of Religion without the Pope's consent there was also a secret Article whereby the Pope obliged himself to excommunicate the King of France if he took up arms against Charles during this War To strengthen this League the Pope solicited several other Princes to enter into it and amongst others the Catholick Cantons of Suisserland but they would not espouse the Party This treaty was kept secret betwixt them and the Emperour desired it should be so that he might the more easily pretend that it was no War for Religion He published therefore in his manifesto's that he had taken up arms to reduce Rebels who by violence had invaded the Estates of the Church making Abbey and Bishops lands hereditary to themselves and who made alliances with Strangers contrary to his own and the interests of the Empire The design of this Politick fetch was to retain those Lutherans on his side who were not engaged in League with the Confederates and indeed several of them furnished the Emperour with Troops amongst whom were Maurice of Saxony and Albert of Brandebourg On the other side the Landgrave of Hesse the Electour of Saxony and the rest of the Protestants published a Manifesto wherein they laid open the Mystery of that League and shew'd it to be a War for Religion of which the
down and oppressed by the Pope for it once it had been decided that Bishops hold their Authority from Jesus Christ and that they are obliged to reside in the midst of their Flocks to take the care of them not by the command of the Pope but by the appointment of God they perswaded themselves that they might easily provide against the enterprizes of the Court of Rome practised upon the Ordinaries which shall be set forth more at large in the sequel when we shall have a new occasion to speak of this question which was bandied with much more fierceness in the third convocation of the Council under Pius IV. If the Spaniards were cunning enough in disguising the true reasons of their Conduct the Legates were not behind hand in diving into their intentions and therefore they dextrously waved that question by referring it to another Session In pursuance of the matter of Reformation they entred upon the examination of the Exemptions which were granted by the Pope to the prejudice of Ordinaries In the Eastern Church all that is comprehended within the precincts of a Diocess whether Monasteries Churches or Benefices is subject to the jurisdiction of the Bishop of the Diocess But in the Latin Church it is not so in the first place rich and powerfull Abbots to free themselves from the jurisdiction of the Bishops to whom they gave Umbrage and with whom they often quarelled obtained of the Popes to be taken under the Protection of St. Peter and to hold immediately from the holy See The Popes found that that hit very pat with their interests because thereby they acquired Subjects in all places and that he who obtains privileges is obliged to maintain the Authority of him that grants them and therefore they were very liberal in their Exemptions They thereupon took from under the jurisdiction of Bishops those great Societies of Clugny and Cistaux they granted the same privileges to the Chapters of Cathedral Churches and at length all the Orders of the mendicant Friars in their first institution obtained the same privileges of holding immediately from the holy See The Bishops could not but grumble at these Exemptions that deprived them of so many subjects And they would have taken it extremely well it Giacomo Cortese Bishop of Vaison had demanded the abolition of them This affair having been referred to another Session was brought in again with the case of Residence but hardly any thing could be obtained concerning these two Articles As to the first which is the case of Residence it was concluded that the ancient Canons which command Residence under such and such Pains should be reinforced with new Penalties It was therefore decreed that a Bishop who should for six Months together be absent from his Diocess should lose a fourth part of his Temporals that if his absence continued a Year he should forfeit the half of his Revenue and that if he persisted in that fault he should by the Metropolitan be complained of to the Pope to the end that the holy See might take Cognisance thereof and either punish that negligent Pastour or put another in his place that if the non-resident Prelate were a Metropolitan he should be complained of to the Pope by the Eldest of his Suffragans As for inferiour Pastours it was ordered that they might be by the Bishops compelled to Residence and if among the non-resident Curates any one might happen to have an Exemption from the Pope he might nevertheless be forced to Residence by the Bishop acting as the Delegate of the holy See As to the matter of Exemptions it was decreed that no Monk being out of his Convent under pretext of the Privilege of his Order should excuse himself from being punished and corrected by the Ordinary of the place but in this also the Bishop must act as Delegate of the holy See it was likewise ordained that the Chapters of Cathedral and Collegiate Churches might not decline the Jurisdiction of the Bishops as to the visitation and correction of manners And last of all Bishops were prohibited to perform any Episcopal function in the Diocess of another without permission Matters being thus prepared nothing could hinder the holding of the Session nor was the Pope himself of opinion that it should be delayed any longer On the contrary he was glad of that opportunity to nettle the Emperour who instantly desired that no controversie should be decided till he had reduced the Lutherans to a Necessity of submitting to the Council The unions of Great men having no other foundation but interest are never firm nor of long continuance The Pope and the Emperour who had been so good friends in the beginning of the year fell a clashing one with another before it was ended And thereupon the Pope ordered that the Session should be held notwithstanding the opposition of the Emperour's Ambassadours year 1547 The thirteenth of January was the day appointed for that Ceremony Andrea Cornaro Archbishop of Spalato in Dalmatia said high Mass Sixth Session 1547. and Thomas Stella Bishop of Salpi preached the Sermon After this the Decrees were read which contained sixteen Chapters and thirty three Canons concerning Doctrine and five Chapters about Reformation In the Chapters of Doctrine according as it had been resolved upon the Judgment of the Church was declared concerning the points of Justification the nature of Grace the nature of good works the certainty that one may have of his own Justification the necessity of good works the perseverance of Saints free Will and generally concerning all the points that had been agitated amongst the Divines which we have mentioned before in the Canons Anathema was pronounced against all the propositions that were attributed to the Lutherans In the Decree of Reformation Residence was enjoyned the Exemptions of Monks and of Cathedral and Collegiate Churches regulated and the mutual attempts of Bishops upon one anothers rights repressed in the manner as we told you had been agreed upon in the Congregations Censures by the male Contents of the Decrees of this Sessions The Court of Rome made no new reflexions upon these Decrees for to them they were not new but so soon as they came abroad in Germany the Malecontents of whom it was full revenged themselves on the Council by a publick and censorious reflexion that let nothing pass they critisized even to the very expressions and the Grammarians made themselves sport with that flourish which is to be found in the fifth Chapter cum neque homo ipse nihil omnino agat they said it was little better than gibberish and nonsense because every proposition wherein there are two Negatives ought to be resolved into an Affirmative so that that proposition ought to be resolved into this cum etiam homo ipse aliquid omnino agat which is nonsense But the Divines made more important remarks they said that the Doctrine of the Council which affirms that man may resist even to the end the inspirations of
satisfied with Anathema's and that opinion prevailed the rather because the contrary was very judiciously opposed by Giovanni Baptista Cigale Bishop of Albinga who told them that never any man had forsaken his opinion because it had been condemned and that though all Catholicks do profess that they will refer themselves to the judgment of the Church nevertheless they do not do so but more obstinately defend their opinion when once it is condemned The Protestations said he that the Doctors make of submitting to the judgment of the Church are but Complements and terms of Civility which are not so to be abused as to be taken literally they are to be answered by a civil conduct and charitable deportment Every one was convinced of the truth of this in their own Consciences and therefore they yielded to that reason So that there was no decision made touching the questions in controversie amongst the Catholicks themselves that they might not condemn any nor give occasion to a spirit of Defection The Legates acquainted the Pope with all these difficulties and whilst they expected an answer they fell to treat of other matters In the Congregation of the twenty fifth of January the business of Reformation was proposed they came to speak of the remisness of Bishops in the discharge of their Duties and the Legates who were not vexed to see the blame laid at the Bishops doors and that they were look'd upon as the cause of all the disorders opposed nothing that was moved upon that Subject so the Prelates sported themselves with an imaginary liberty in declaming against themselves Giovanni Salazar Bishop of Lanciano was not so patiently heard because he attributed the source of all the evils to the abuses of the Court of Rome however he was suffered to speak But Cornelius Muis Bishop of Bitonto that spoke next refuted him and made it appear that the disorders proceeded from Kings who had the nomination to Bishopricks The abuse of the Plurality of Benefices and its various sources From this they went on to that thorny matter about Plurality of Benefices which was a hinderance to Residence because a Prelate who had two Bishopricks could not be in two places This Plurality of Benefices was introduced three manner of ways First under pretext that one Benefice alone was not enough for the maintainance of a Minister at the Altar more were given him and Benefices were distinguished into Compatible and Incompatible The Compatible are such as do not oblige to Residence and have not the cure of Souls the Incompatible are those that bind to Residence Though in the beginning they might make some scruple of annexing Incompatible Benefices yet they made none in joyning those that were called Compatible Now the sufficiency of a Benefice was reckoned according to the quality of the Incumbent for as a Gentleman or a Lord could not subsist at so easie a rate as an ordinary man so they allotted him more Compatible Benefices according to the Character he bore of Abbot Bishop or Cardinal The second cause of the multiplication of Benefices are Commendums Heretofore when a Benefice was vacant and for some reason as of Plague or War it was not possible to proceed so soon to the Election of a Successour he that had the right of Patronage recommended the care of the Benefice to some Person with whose prudence he was well satisfied during the time of the vacancy this Commendatary received the Fruits and was accountable for them But in progress of time it came to pass that under divers pretexts the Commendataries disposed of the Revenues of the Benefice and retarded as much as lay in their power the Election of him who ought to possess the Benefice in Title To put a stop to these disorders it was ordained that these Commendums should not continue above six Months But the Popes began quickly to grant them for much longer time and at length granted them for Life giving liberty to the Commendataries to enjoy the Profits during Life By this means a man could enjoy but one Benefice in Title but he might possess several in Commendum and even Bishopricks and smaller Cures were thus bestowed This was a very great abuse at which the Adherents of Luther complained much but the Court of Rome were so far from being ashamed of this abuse that they shew'd a prodigious instance of it at the very same time when the Lutherans most fiercely declamed against the corruptions of the Church and that was in the year 1534. when Clement VII gave all the Benefices in Christendom in Commendum to his Nephew Hippolito de Medicis for six Months to count from the day that he took possession of them with Power to take up all the Rents and to apply them to his proper use In a word the last way of evading the Canons which prohibited Plurality of Benefices was the Annexing of Benefices The Pope was wont to cast together forty or fifty Benefices and though they were in several Kingdoms yet that was reckoned but the enjoying of one Benefice according to the Canons because of many Benefices they had made but one But lest this Union of Benefices might in progress of time lessen the number of Livings it was appointed to last no longer than the Life of the Incumbent in whose favour it had been granted and that by his Death the Benefices should be reputed ipso facto disunited There was a necessity of abolishing these three abuses for hindring the Plurality of Benefices and the Prelates as to that gave their opinions with a great deal of liberty They spared not the Cardinals who possessed several Bishopricks nor the Court of Rome that by Dispensations favoured that corruption The Legates who feared that the matter might be pusht on too far seconded the overture that was made by the Bishop of Albinga of referring it to the Pope They said that it was a matter that principally concerned the Court of Rome and that it would be a disgrace to the Pope to be thought incapable of Reforming his own Court The Legates wrote immediately to Rome about it and the Pope gladly received the proposition He removed to Rome the whole affair of that Reformation by a Bull but the Legates durst not shew it because it was too ample the Pope therein taking too much Authority to himself and because the Bishops also who seemed to consent to that Reference opposed it The Spanish Bishops were so far from the opinion of referring the matter to Rome The Spanish Bishops vigorously bestir themselves for a Reformation but without success that they themselves undertook to give a model of that Reformation They drew up a censure in writing which contained eleven Articles for a very strict Reformation as for regulating the exactness that ought to be had in the examination of Bishops and Curates when they were to be preferred to Churches for obliging Cardinal Bishops to reside at least six Months in their Bishopricks for declaring
Residence to be of Divine right for preventing that intolerable abuse that one man should enjoy several Cathedral Churches for obliging the Cardinals themselves to resign all they had but one which they might enjoy for prohibiting those Unions of Benefices for Life for rescinding and annulling all Dispensations obtained or to be obtained from the Court of Rome without lawfull cause and for giving the Ordinaries power of judging the Validity of the cause for which the Dispensation had been obtained This was signed by twenty Bishops and by Cardinal Pacieco The attempt surprized the Legates because of the boldness of the propositions and that the Bishops had adventured to assemble themselves without their permission These Articles were sent to Rome and at the same time the Cardinal di Monte wrote that it was his advice that that Enterprize ought to be withstood without the least condescension adding withall that it would be convenient to make some Reformation at Rome to stop the Mouth of the Council But above all things the Legates urged that the Italian Bishops who were retired to keep Lent at home in their own Churches should forthwith be sent back to Trent The Pope followed that advice and gave order to his Nuncio at Venice to oblige the Italian Bishops who passed by Venice or who were there still to return with all speed to Trent that they might make head against the Spaniards At the same time he called a Congregation of the Deputies at Rome for examining the Writing That Congregation was not wholly of Cardinal di Monte's opinion they thought it not fit to break with the Spanish Prelates nor peremptorily to refuse all that they demanded They thought it sufficient by answering every Article to elude all their demands and in effect they made a project of answers to be made to them wherein to speak the truth they shewed an Address becoming the Court of Rome the Memoires of it were sent to the Cardinal di Monte the Pope committed the management of that Affair to the Prudence of the Legates and of those who were stiled the well affected whom the Protestants named the slaves of the See of Rome he gave them power either absolutely to reject the demands of the Spaniards or to make use of the qualifications which he sent them according as occasion proved more or less favourable The Pope fearing the Spaniards resolves to remove the Council to Bologna The Court of Rome made great reflexions upon that attempt of the Spaniards and the Pope began to dread a Combination betwixt them and the Germans so that not thinking his Authority safe enough in the Zeal of the Legates and the Recruit of the Italians whom he had sent to the Council he resolved to remove the Council unto a Town where he might neither stand in awe of the Emperour nor of the Bishops of Spain and to that purpose cast his eyes upon the City of Bologna But he was not willing to do it of himself but thought it more proper to have it done by his Legates to the end that if the matter succeeded not all the disgrace might fall upon them and that he himself might onely divide with them the trouble of the disappointment for that end he sent them a Bull bearing date the fifteenth of February 1547. but which was very well known to have been made two years before by that Bull he gave them full power to remove the Council whithersoever they should think fit but at the same time sent orders that they should not mention the Translation till the ensuing Session were over Whilst these resolutions were on foot at Rome the Cardinal di Monte plaid his part he sounded the tempers gained some by promises and drew others over by divers ways that so he might defeat the designs of the Spaniards and indeed it cost him not much pains to accomplish his aim So that in the following Congregations the Spaniards were baulked and could not obtain the handling of the point which they chiefly desired that is the Divine right of Residence They spoke to it indeed with great freedom and a Spanish Monk called Bartholomè di Carranza who was afterwards Bishop of Toledo took the boldness to say that the opinion which held that Residence was onely of Papal right was Diabolical The Cardinal di Santa Croce was of the mind that according to the Memoires sent from the Congregation of Rome something should be granted them but the Legate di Monte stood his ground and carried it that no satisfaction should be given them At length the Legates framed the Decree of Reformation containing fifteen Chapters and proposed it to a general Congregation It should have seemed that by that Decree there had been a design of indulging somewhat to those who demanded a Reformation and especially as to the Plurality of Benefices but in the main there was nothing less because to that Article and to all the rest it was always added saving in all things the Authority of the holy See which rendred all the promises of Reformation useless because the Pope continued still absolute Master of all The Spaniards and particularly the Bishop of Badajox found fault with it would have had that clause left out and that the Pope should not have the power to dispense against the Canons But it was to no purpose for them to protest and declare against it it must needs go so They urged that the Cardinals might be expresly named in the prohibition of possessing several Benefices but that as all the rest was refused them These Decrees which seemed to rectifie the abuse concerning the Plurality of Benefices approved nevertheless a certain constitution of Innocent III. called de Multa which condemning the Plurality of Benefices does notwithstanding permit it provided one have a Dispensation from Rome This to speak properly is to do nothing at all for what is prohibited in shew is in effect permitted by the benefit of Dispensations The Spaniards withstood this desiring that the Pope might not have power to give Dispensations for possessing several Benefices But the Plurality of Votes gained by the Legates were for approving of the Decrees The Reformation of abuses about the administration of the Sacraments was put off to another Session because the matter had not been sufficiently examined session 7 All things being in readiness the seventh Session was held on the third of March. Cariolano Martirano Bishop of St. Mark was to have made the Sermon but he would not because being one of those who had pressed the Reformation and the point of the Divine right of Residence he had been sharply taken up in the Congregation and therefore would not appear at the Session to say a Placet to a thing that did not at all please him nor indeed was it safe for him publickly to oppose the Decrees in a Session He therefore pretended sickness but none of all those learned men that made up the Council was in a
the Council was not obliged to hear him since the Letter gave not the Council the Title which belonged to them yet they would without prejudice give him Audience Vargas spoke smartly to perswade them to return to Trent But the Cardinal Legate answered proudly that he was President of the sacred Council Legate of Paul III. the Vicar of Jesus Christ that he declared the Council to have been lawfully transferred and that no threatnings could hinder him from continuing it On the contrary he threatned the Emperour that if he endeavoured to obstruct it he should incur the Penalties imposed by the Canons Upon that Answer Velasco read the Protestation wherewith he was charged which in the end came to this The Emperour protests at Rome and at Bologna against the Pope and his Council of Bologna that the Translation of the Council was null and unlawfull with all that had followed or might follow thereupon declaring that the Answer which the Pope and they had given was fraudulent and illusory and that the Emperour should not be obliged to answer for the Mischiefs that might arise from that matter Mendoza likewise on the other side having kneeled down in a full Consistory made the same Protestation to the Pope and having turned towards the Cardinals and protested also against them he withdrew leaving the Paper which he had read behind him This blow did a little amaze the Pope but he quickly came to himself again the Roman Policy was not at a stand in this Juncture they saw that matters would not long subsist in the Biass that was taken And therefore with a Sovereign and matchless Piece of Policy the Pope resolved to bring that affair about another way he well perceived that by that Act of Protestation he himself was brought in as a Party and that was an evident prejudice to the Character of a supreme Judge who can be judged by no man which he claims as his Right He therfore pretended to have understood that that Protestation was not made against him but against the Council and in a Consistory held the first of February 1548 he made answer to Mendoza that in quality of Judge he was very willing to take Cognisance of that Controversie which the Emperour had with the Council of Bologna that he removed the Cause to his own Judgment and that he had named four Cardinals Paris Burgos Pool Crescencio to make a Report to him about it but that was accompanied with long Complaints against that violent way of procedure which was never used but by those who had shaken off the Yoke of Obedience The Imperialists set light by that distinction they would not run into the noose and Mendoza declared that he had Orders to make the Protestation in the form wherein it had been made year 1548 In effect the Pope did all he could to make himself Judge of that affair that so he might not be looked upon as a Party He wrote to the Bishops at Trent that he was ready to hear them he discharged those of Bologna from entring upon any Synodal action untill the Process should be decided The Bishops at Trent answered cunningly to the Pope's Remonstrances insisted with him to remit the Council to Trent and accepted not of the Offer which the Pope made of judging in that matter The Bishops at Bologna were acquainted with the Letter that came from Trent they examined the Articles of it and made answer to them And then as if the Process had been sufficiently stated they pressed the Pope to give Judgment But he durst not because no body appeared to plead the cause of those of Trent and besides that he had no mind to clash any more with the Emperour out of whose hands he would willingly have got Piacenza He therefore bestirred himself with all imaginable care to obtain that place to be again restored to his Family but the Emperour refused to give it back This put the Pope into a Passion and made him threaten to excommunicate those that held it But Charles was not much concerned at these Menaces he briskly answered the Pope that his Conduct did infinitely displease him and that he should take notice that he could no longer suffer the Calumnies which the Court of Rome spread abroad of him as if he intended to make a Schism in the Church because he demanded the re-establishment of the Council at Trent that as to the City of Piacenza it was a Town of the Dutchy of Milan which the Popes had unjustly invaded within a few years that if the Church had any Right to it he should make it out and that he would doe him Justice The Pope essayed to cut out work for the Emperour by means of the Venetians and French but he found them in no disposition to it for he being now upwards of fourscore Years of Age it could not be expected that a League with him could either be succesfull or of long Continuance and besides his own interest being deeply concerned he was not willing to furnish the necessary expence for the War nor to part from such sums of money as he needs must lay out to make any considerable Levies amongst the Venetians The Emperour makes the Interim and a Decree of Reformation at the Diet of Ausbourg These misunderstandings and clashings having put the Emperour out of all hopes of bringing back the Council to Trent he took pretty odd measures at the Diet of Ausbourg He resolved to regulate the Affairs of Religion himself and for that end he named three Divines Julius Phlug Michael Helding Titular Bishop of Sidon and Johannes Agricola of Islebe by whose means he framed a certain Formulary of Faith about all matters of Religion to which he would oblige all the People of Germany to submit untill the Council should define them and therefore that famous Piece was called the Interim It contained thirty five Chapters wherein they endeavoured to qualifie those Doctrines of the Church of Rome which most offended the Protestants as for instance the Marriage of Priests was thereby allowed the Communion in both kinds granted the Sacrifice of the Mass was not called Propitiatory Liberty was allowed to cut off such Ceremonies as tended to superstition the Pope was onely acknowledged head of the Church for Union sake and for preventing of Schism and the power of Bishops was declared of Divine right When this Work came to Rome it met with many Opponents most part were of opinion that it ought to be opposed by the most violent means and strongest Antidotes not onely because it was an unparallel'd undertaking for a secular Prince to meddle in settling the Affairs of Religion but also because the Catholick Religion was notoriously wounded by that Interim But the Pope saw farther than all the rest he smelt out what happened that the Emperour had fallen upon the way of making both Parties against him and therefore he dissembled the dissatisfaction which he conceived at that attempt ordered
his Legate at Ausbourg to make but a slight opposition to it and then to depart that he might not be present at the publication of the Interim giving him instructions in the mean time to sow Seeds of Jealousie betwixt the German Prelates and the Emperour and to alarm the Protestants by insinuating to them that it was onely an invention to oppress their Liberty and Conscience and that it was no snare laid for the Catholicks of whose faith the Emperour could not make himself Judge The fifteenth of May that Book was read in presence of the Assembly and no body durst contradict it though all were displeased None but the Electour of Mentz spoke and thanked the Emperour of his own head without any Commission from the rest and the Emperour seemed to accept of those thanks as a general approbation Farthermore on the fourteenth of June following Charles caused a Decree of Reformation to be published containing two and twenty Chapters and about one hundred and thirty Ordinances for the Reformation of the Clergy against the Plurality of Benefices concerning the Duty of Preachers the Ceremonies of the Sacraments and their Administration concerning Discipline the Clergy Schools Universities Councils Excommunication c. and very good Regulations were made in all these particulars but that Piece was as ill taken at Rome as the Interim not onely because these Regulations did in no wise jump with the interest of that Court but also because it is a fundamental Law at Rome that no Secular has any right of giving Laws to Church-men Nevertheless that Piece of Tyranny was born with because it could not be helped At the same time an Act past in the Diet commanding Provincial and Diocesan Synods to be held yearly for settling the Decree of Reformation The Diet ended the last day of June and the Edict was published wherein the Emperour engaged himself to procure the Council to be continued at Trent Much opposition made to the Establishment of the Interim After that Charles set about the Execution of the Interim but was almost every where opposed by the Protestants Frederick Duke of Saxony though a Prisoner refused to submit to it and a little Town in Germany made upon that occasion a Remonstrance which deserves to be transmitted to Posterity If our Lives and Fortunes belong to you said they suffer our Conscience at least to be God's If you were perswaded of the truth of this form of faith it would be a powerfull Motive to make us embrace it But seeing you your self look upon it as false why would you have us receive it as true For the truth is the Emperour had no design to perswade the World that he himself had renounced the Doctrines of the Church of Rome which he had either impaired or qualified in his Interim On the contrary in the Preface he prohibited all those who had till then continued in the Roman Communion to make any alteration in Doctrine or Ceremonies Though this opposition was pretty general yet some consented to admit of that Interim or at least pretended to do so But the City of Magdebourg did formally reject it and in such a slighting way too as obliged the Emperour to declare them Rebels and make War against them They maintained that War a long time and obstinately refused to surrender The Emperour had likewise expresly commanded that no man should write against the Interim and nevertheless a whole swarm of writings came forth against that Book both from Protestants and Roman Catholicks Francisco Romeo General of the Jacobins by command of the Pope assembled the most Learned of his Order and caused a smart Refutation of it to be made It had the ill luck also to stir up division amongst the Protestants of Germany that is to say betwixt those who had admitted of it and those who would not and divided them into two Sects for they who in compliance with the Emperour had allowed the re-establishment of the ancient Ceremonies in that justified their own Proceedings maintaining Ceremonies to be things indifferent But the rest objected that weakness to them as a great Crime and separated themselves from them calling them the Indifferent or Adiaphorists The Execution of the Edict of Reformation which the Emperour had made caused as great troubles for the German Prelates who stuck fastest to the Pope desired that at least he might have some hand in the business and therefore the Emperour at their Solicitation acquainted the Pope with all that he had done and prayed him to send Legates to joyn with him in his design of Reforming the Church of Germany The Pope had it least in his thoughts to become the Executor of the Orders of an Emperour whom he looked upon as an Usurper of his Rights Nevertheless that he might not absolutely break with the Germans who he feared might make a general revolt and lest in imitation of Henry the Eighth King of England Charles might declare himself Head of the Church he resolved to send two Legates not for executing the Edict of Reformation but to give Absolution to the. Lutherans who should return into the Bosome of the Church with power to grant all manner of Dispensations even as far as to allow the Communion in both kinds to those who would confess that the Church doth not err in prohibiting it He gave them likewise Authority to abrogate some of the Ceremonies of the Church and to remit somewhat of the ancient Discipline He empowred them not onely to absolve Seculars Princes and Towns but also Apostate Monks who had left their Monasteries allowing them to live abroad in the World provided that under the habit of Secular Priests they should wear that of Regulars This last seemed a pretty odd kind of an Order and a Mystery that no body could tell what to make of He caused Copies of this Bull to be dispersed that so he might thwart the Edict of Charles and retreive the possession of the power of Reforming Manners and Doctrine which the Emperour would have invaded In execution of the Emperour's Edict some Provincial Synods were held in Germany The Archbishop of Cologne called one wherein some good Acts were made concerning Discipline which were approved by Charles the Fifth but no mention at all of matters of Faith The Electour of Mentz observed not the same measures for in his Synod he made eight and forty Decrees about matters of Faith and fifty six concerning the Reformation of Discipline In things that had been decided he followed the Council of Trent and in the rest the most received opinions of the School-men except in the point of Images where he declared that Images are onely appointed for bare Commemoration and not for objects of Devotion and in that of Saints where he asserts that the honour due to Saints is an honour of Society and Dilection and not a Religious Worship The Nuncio's who were named in the year 1548. set not forward on their Journey to Germany
ever done it but that of Basil the least action whereof they scrupled to imitate they added that the coming of the Lutherans to the Council would onely serve to seduce people because they would not forbear their Dogmatical Cant that on the whole if they refused to submit that safe conduct would be dishonourable to the Council from which they required a compliance which ought never to be granted to Hereticks To remove all these difficulties they thought of giving a safe Conduct in general terms wherein the Protestants should not be named but onely designed under the Title of Church-men and Seculars of the German Nation that so if at any other time necessity did require they might say that by these terms none were meant but Catholicks Whilst they were consulting at Rome about the safe Conduct at Trent points of Doctrine were under examination and that inquiry was not so calm and peaceable as the other about the Anathema's and Canons against Protestants for it was impossible to keep the Jacobins and Cordeliers from going together by tho ears about the matter of Transubstantiation The Jacobins pretended that the body of our Saviour is made present in the Eucharist by way of Production because the Body of Jesus Christ without coming down from Heaven where it is in its natural being is rendered present in the Bread by a reproduction of the same substance according to which Doctrine the substance according to which Doctrine the substance of the Bread is changed into the substance of our Lord's Body The Cordeliers on the other hand defended that Transubstantiation which is called Adductive they alledged that our Lord's Body is brought down from Heaven not by a successive but momentany change and that the substance of Bread is not changed into the substance of the Body of Jesus Christ but that the Flesh and Bloud of Jesus Christ succeeds into the place of the substance of the Bread being conveyed thither from another place Each Party maintained their opinions with wonderfull heat branding one anothers with absurdities and contradictions The Electour of Cologne who had had the patience to hear these wretched janglings said very pleasantly that both Parties were in the right when they refuted and charged one another with absurdities but that they seemed all of them to be out of the way when they asserted their opinions because they spoke nothing that was Sense or Intelligible at length seeing there was no declaring for one Party without offending the other they satisfied them both by couching the Decree in very general terms In the same Congregation they discoursed of many abuses that concerned the Eucharist which ought to be reformed such as are the failings in reverence and respect to the holy Sacrament It was complained of that they did not kneel before it that they let it mould in the Pixes that it was administred with little reverence and that they took money from Communicants This last abuse was committed particularly at Rome where the Communicants carried in one hand a hollow Taper and a piece of money in the Taper which was the Priests see It was resolved that Canons should be made against that abuse and many more of the like nature The original of the Jurisdiction of the Tribunals of the Church with their progress At the same time other Congregations were held consisting onely of Doctors of the Canon Law for handling the matter of Discipline the Head that was examined was that of the Jurisdiction of Bishops The end the Bishops proposed to themselves was not the rectifying of the abuses of that Jurisdiction by restraining it to the just and lawfull bounds whereby it was limited in the Apostles time and in the primitive Ages of the Church on the contrary they would have enlarged it by exempting it from the power and attempts of the Court of Rome That Jurisdiction in the first Ages was onely grounded on the sixth Chapter of the first epistle to the Corinthians wherein St. Paul exhorts believers not to bring their Causes before Infidels but to chuse out amongst themselves fit persons to compose their differences but because the Tribunal which St. Paul establishes in that place was merely a tribunal of Charity which had no coercive power so the Sentences that past there were onely Verdicts of Arbitration which men stood by if they thought fit by the six and fiftieth Chapter of the second Book of the Constitutions attributed to St. Clement it appears that the Bishop and Priests met every Munday for determining the affairs of their Flock And it rarely happened that any one appealed from these Decisions because of the great respect that men in those days had for the Church But after the times of persecution were over the Bishops supported by the Emperours who were become Christians erected Real Tribunals the Decrees and Sentences whereof were put in execution by the Authority of the Magistrate It is said that Constantine ordained that the Sentences of Bishops should be without appeal and be put in execution by the Secular Judges and that if one of the Parties should desire that a Process commenced before a Secular Judge might be referred to the Tribunal of the Bishop the reference should be granted in spight of all opposition either from the Judge or the adverse Party In the year three hundred sixty five the Emperour Valens enlarged that Jurisdiction and Possidius reports that St. Austin was taken up in those trials of Civil matters many times even till night which troubled him much because it took him off from the true functions of his Ministery That Law of Constantine in favour of this Tribunal of Bishops was revoked or at least limited by the Emperours Arcadius and Honorius for they ordained that Bishops should decide in no Causes but those of Religion and in Civil matters when both Parties consented to it In the year four hundred and fifty two the Emperour Valentinian confirmed that Law which restrained the power of Bishops Justinian restored to them part of what they had been deprived of allowing them besides the Causes of Conscience power to take cognizance of the Crimes of the Clergy and to perform several other acts of Jurisdiction over Laics And thus by the indiscreet favour of Emperours the power of the Church which is all Spiritual became a Carnal Dominion In the following Ages the Jurisdiction and Authority of the Bishops got ground apace and especially in the Western Church because the chief of the Clergy were the ablest Statesmen they were commonly of Princes Councils and managed and Civil matters That was the reason that in a short time they grew to be sole Judges of all Causes Civil and Criminal of the Clergy and that they extended their Jurisdiction over Laicks under various pretexts for instance they took upon them to Judge of the Validity of last Will and Testaments to make Inventories and apply Seals under pretext that Widows and Orphans are recommended to the care of the Church
Heretofore all contracts were confirmed and ratified by Oath and because an Oath is a matter of Conscience they made themselves Judges of all Causes that related to Contracts and Promises Besides these Jurisdictions they established a Court which they called the Mixt Court wherein they Judged of all civil Causes belonging to the Magistrate if the Court of the Church had by anticipation taken cognizance of the Cause but on the other side if the Magistrate had anticipated them then the Ecclesiastick-Court had no more Power They likewise laid down for a Maxim which brought a great many Causes before them that when the Magistrate neglected or refused to doe Justice then the Cause devolved to the Ecclesiastick-Court And in fine to fill up the measure of corruption in the eleventh Century they laboured to lay down this for a Maxim that Bishops did not derive this great Power from the Concessions of Princes but immediately from Jesus Christ Otherwise if the Bishops had acknowledged that they held these Privileges from Princes Sovereigns would have always had power to punish them and rectifie the abuses committed by them in their Jurisdiction But that they might put themselves out of reach of Animadversion they perswaded People that their Jurisdiction was independent of the Power of Princes At last that they might frame an Empire Paramount over all the States of Christendom the Pope was made Head of that Jurisdiction which the Bishops had usurped and reared up within the space of thirteen hundred years For after that the Bishops had taken from Magistrates a great part of their Jurisdicton the Pope found a way to strip the Ordinaries of the greatest part of their Power by Evocations Appeals and Exemptions So that if on the one hand the Secular Judges complained of the usurpations of the Bishops on the other hand the Bishops complained of the encroachments of the holy See This in general was the matter that then was handled in the Congregations of the Canonists whilst in the others matters of Faith were examined Gropper votes for the abolishing of Episcopal Jurisdiction and Ecclesiastick Tribunals Gropper who was in the Council both as a Lawyer and a Divine reasoned accurately about these abuses of Jurisdiction and shew'd that in the beginning the sentences of Bishops were sentences of Charity that these sentences were rendered not by Officials as now a-days but by the Bishop and Priests assembled in a kind of Consistory or Synod That moreover there was no such thing known as Appeals from those sentences to the Pope that if any Appeal was made it was to their next immediate Superiours which are Synods And therefore he was of opinion that these Synodal Judgments should be restored that the Courts and Judgments of Officials should be abolished and that all Appeals to the Pope immediately without passing through subordinate Superiours should be discharged The Legate Nuncio's and Italians slaves to the Court of Rome listened to this discourse with a great deal of impatience and having consulted together they set on the Promooter of the Council Giovanni Baptista Castello a Bolonian who in a long harangue maintained that it was lawfull to Appeal immediately to the Pope Baptista Castello Promooter of the Council refutes Gropper about the subject of immediate Appeals to the Pope and to bring Actions before the holy See without passing through the Intermedial Judges The Bishops were not satisfied with Gropper's Discourse but far less with that of Castello For he raised the Authority of the Pope to such a pitch that the Italians themselves murmured at it because according to Castello's Maxims the Pope was all in all and the Bishops signified nothing at all and that made the Italians recoyl and talk of accommodation In effect they came to an accommodation and adjusted matters in this manner That there should be no Appeals from the definitive Sentences of Bishops and Officials but in causes criminal and that even in criminal matters it should not be lawfull to Appeal from Interlocutory Sentences untill Definitive Sentence were pronounced But they would not re-establish Synodal Judgments by ruining the Officials The Bishops urged not to be re-established in their ancient right of being Judged by their Synods that is to say by the Metropolitan and their Comprovincials because men are not commonly inclined to facilitate Judgments against themselves and Processes against Bishops are much more difficult when one must go to Rome or procure a Commission from thence than if they could be accused upon the place before their proper Judges which are Synods The power was therefore left to the Pope of Judging them by Commissaries delegated in partibus Onely the Council made some Regulations that none inferiour to the Bishop in Dignity should be chosen as a Commissary of the Pope to Judge him It is one of the Grievances against the Council of Trent and one of the reasons why it is not received in France that contrary to the ancient Canons it deprives Bishops of the right of being Judged by the Metropolitan and their Comprovincials Of Degradations their Original and Progress There was also another great abuse in the Jurisdiction of Bishops of which a Reformation was demanded and that was the manner of Degradations According to the Privileges that have been granted to the Clergy or which they have usurped this Maxim has been long received that the Magistrate has no power over Clerks so long as they remain Clerks So that a Member of the Clergy must be degraded before he can be delivered over to the Secular Power for capital and enormous Crimes where sentence of death is to be pronounced which cannot be given by an Ecclesiastick Court because it imbrues not the hand in Bloud and this custome was confirmed by the Laws of Justinian It was even the custome in preceding Ages that is in the fourth and fifth Century when a Member of the Clergy returned into the World to degrade him by the same Ceremonies whereby he had been installed but in a manner inverse and retrograde that is to say that they clothed him in all his Priestly Habits and then stript him of the same one after another applying words quite contrary to those of Ordination But since about the year six hundred these Degradations were abolished and those who had taken high Orders were prohibited from returning again into the World so that the custome of Degradations is onely retained in Criminal matters when a Member of the Clergy is to be delivered over to the Secular Power to be punished But these Degradations of Clerks convicted must be done according to the new Canons with so many Ceremonies as rendered the punishment of the Members of the Clergy almost impossible That was their Scope and they onely clogg'd Degradations with so many difficulties that they might live in impunity For Degrading a Bishop thirteen Degrading Bishops were required besides twelve Assistants For Degrading a Priest there must be six Bishops for Degrading a
Deacon three Bishops whereas for Consecrating a Bishop three are sufficient and one for Ordaining a Priest How difficult a matter was it to get so many Bishops together and how chargeable must that be especially in Germny where Bishops are very thin and at a great distance one from another These Degradations were performed with great Ceremonies in Pontifical Habit and extraordinary concourse of People The matter was very long canvassed but the Council Judged it not expedient to abolish the use of Degradations onely it was thought fit to find out some way of facilitating them that they might be done with less trouble Whilst the Council was thus taken up the Cardinal Legate had time to receive news from Rome So soon as it came without telling the Council that he had written and without communicating his answers he called the General Congregation and had it concluded according as it was resolved by the Pope that they should grant the Protestants a safe Conduct in general terms and that they should refer the point of the Cup to another Session Amongst the points that were to be handled again the Communion of young Children was one and the Article of retrenching the Cup was divided into three others thereby to multiply them and that they might not be necessitated to resume a Controversie which had already been decided for one point omitted or forgot session 13 Thirteenth Session the eleventh of October 1551 The eleventh of October the Session was held with the usual Ceremonies Mass was said by the Bishop of Majorca and the Sermon Preached by the Archbishop of Torne Then were read the Decree the Chapters of Doctrine the Canons and the Anathema's for asserting the Real Presence the Sacramental Manducation Transubstantiation the Concomitancy the Adoration of the Sacrament the Reservation of the Kinds the Necessity of Confession and the other points that were opposed by the Lutherans and Protestants The Decree of Reformation began with a grave Exhortation to Bishops to use their Jurisdiction moderately then it ordained that it should not be lawfull to Appeal from the Judgment of Bishops before Definitive Sentence That when there is place for an Appeal and that the Pope shall grant Commission in partibus that is on the Places that none shall be Commissionated but the Metropolitan or his great Vicar and if they be suspected that none can be Commissionated but neighbouring Bishops To lessen the difficulty of Degradations it ordained that one Bishop with as many Abbots as the Canons required Bishops might Degrade Clerks To satisfie the Bishops as to Exemptions it ordained that the Bishops might Judge of these Exemptions and of Favours obtained upon false Suggestions and annull them in quality of Subdelegates of the holy See But the Council reserved to the Pope the Cognisance of greater Causes and that the Causes of Bishops wherein the nature of the crime required Personal appearance should be brought before the Pope and be determined by him In the same Decree of Reformation there were some other Regulations that tended a little to the satisfaction of the Bishops that they might the more casily bear the Yoke of the Church of Rome but in all those places where any thing of Authority was granted them they had no power to act but in quality of the Delegates of the holy See After that a Decree for deferring the Article of the Cup and the Safe-conduct which the Council granted the Protestants were publickly read The Ambassadours of the Electour of Brandenburg a Protestant Prince appear at the Council At the same Session appeared Christopher Strasfen and John Hofman Ambassadours from Joachim Electour of Brandenburg a Protestant Prince Christopher Strasfen one of the Ambassadours made a long speech wherein in very civil but general terms he assured the Fathers of the Council of the respect his Master had for them and mentioned nothing at all of the matter of Religion The Council made answer by their Promooter and amongst other things told him that with much Joy the Fathers had heard from his mouth that that Prince submitted to the Council and promised to obey its Decrees In the mean while the Ambassadour had said no such thing but they thought they had gained a great point in so interpreting the Complements and civil Expressions that the Ambassadour had made use of All men made observations upon the Conduct of the Electour and the Council It was easily perceived that the Electour intended to observe the best measures he could with the Council that the Court of Rome might not cross the Election of his Son Frederick to the Archbishoprick of Magdebourg which had been made by the Chapter but the prudence of the Council was much more admired who had so dextrously turned the sense of the Electour's Complements to an engagement of submission According to the intimation that was made to the Abbot of Bellosana they intended to have given an answer to the King of France but no Abbot appeared he returned by order of his Master immediately after he had made his Protestation It was not the mind of the Court of France that the Ambassadour should expect the Session to enter into a debate which could not in the conclusion but be of troublesome consequence since the Pope and Spaniards who were the Parties in that affair must also have been the Judges The Apparitours made a Proclamation at the Church-door that if any one was there for the most Christian King he should appear but though no man appeared yet the answer was read which contained Complaints of the King's proceedings and Protestations on the part of the Council that they wore not assembled upon any private interest but for the general good of all Christendom and the extirpation of Heresies after all they prayed him to send his Prelates to the Council not to make use of any other means but to think of his Name of the most Christian King and to sacrifice his particular Quarrels to the general good of Christendom The Decrees of the Session were forthwith printed and all People reflected upon them according to their several Passions and Interests The Protestants failed not to observe a contradiction betwixt the first Chapter of Doctrine and the sourth with the second Canon In the first Chapter the Council saith that hardly can one express the manner of the Real Presence of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist and in the sourth Chapter it saith that that manner hath been convenienter proprie called Transubstantiation and in the second Canon the Council saith that it is apâ—issime called so it was likewise thought that the Council had made use of a kind of an improper and incommodious expression as to the point of Consecration because it says that Jesus Christ after the Benediction declared that that which he gave was his Real Body which seems to insinuate that the change was made by the Benediction so that these words This is my Body could be no more but a
as he thought good nay and being one day at table he lasht out so far as to say in the presence a great many persons of Illustrious Quality that he would subject all Princes under this foot stamping on the ground with his foot he added that he would rather turn all things topsy turvy and set fire to the four Corners of the World than to commit the least base action in derogating from his Authority The Pope listens to the persuasion of useing carnal Arms for supporting his Authority This lofty and proud humour was yet more and more fomented by his Nephew Charles Caraffa who from a Captain being become Cardinal carried along with him into the Church all the violent inclinations of War As for the Pope he stood it out merely by his haughtiness and did not think he stood in need of other Arms than those which the Character of Pope put into his hands he perswaded himself that by his Spiritual Weapons he could doe whatsoever he pleased for never man valued himself more upon the account of Fortune than he because all things had ever succeeded with him Nevertheless seeing he entertained vast thoughts and aimed at all he easily let himself be perswaded that he ought to make use of all Insomuch that if on the one hand the Uncle was inclineable enough of himself to employ the Power of the Church with utmost rigour the Nephew on the other hand put it in his head to fortifie the Spiritual Power by Temporal Arms and the Pope consented to it but he would have that Union of the Arms of the World with those of the Church to be made very secretly and not to appear sooner than was necessary He therefore treated very secretly with the King of France to take the Kingdom of Naples from the House of Austria and to transfer it to the Crown of France on condition that a good part of it should be annexed to the Ecclesiastick State That affair was managed privately at Rome first with the Cardinal of Lorrain and afterward with the Cardinal de Tournon For the carrying on these great designs the Pope resolved to create a great number of Cardinals who might depend on him as being his Creatures Upon his Elevation he had taken an Oath to make but a few Cardinals because the Sacred College was already too numerous So soon as mention was made of this promotion so contrary to what he had promised and so opposite to the Emperour's interest to whom the Pope intended to raise as many Enemies as he made Cardinals the Sacred College and especially the Imperialists resolved to oppose it The Pope had notice of that called a Consistory on the twentieth of December and so soon as he had taken his place he told them that he would grant Audience to none that he himself would onely speak that he had weighty matters to propose and that none must interrupt him The Cardinal of St. Jago a Spaniard rising to speak to him he puncht him several times on the breast and thrust him back When all were set down after this Preface he complained of the rumours that were spread abroad that he could not lawfully create more than four Cardinals because of the Oath that had been exacted from him at his Inauguration He told them that he would have them know that the Pope could not be bound by any Engagement nor by any Man nor indeed bind himself by any Oath that to think the contrary was Heresie from which out of Favour and Grace he absolved those who by such an opinion had incurred the penalties due to Hereticks because he was willing to believe that they were not obstinately engaged in it but that if any one persisted to think or speak so he would put him in the Inquisition telling them plainly that he would make Cardinals and that he would not be contradicted He named seven one of whom to wit Gropper a Divine of Cologne refused the Hat In England Cardinal Pool who till then would not take the orders of Priesthood was made Priest and four Months after Archbishop of Canterbury in the place of Cranmer who was burnt In Germany the People of Austria demanded of Ferdinand Liberty of Conscience Ferdinand refused it under pretext that he was bound by Oath to the Church nevertheless he granted them the Cup conditionally untill the next Council and prohibited them to endeavour any change in the rest of the Ceremonies The Duke of Bavaria made also the same prohibition within his Territories and allowed the Cup to his People But the Palatinate was wholly reformed for the Electour being dead his Nephew succeeded him and so soon as he was fixt he forbid the Mass and the Exercise of the Roman Religion within his Territories Pope Paul who omitted nothing that might make for his Reputation and confirm his Authority undertook to reform the Church and for that end established a great Congregation composed of an hundred and fifty Persons The Pope proposes a Reformation of the Church but that proposal had no success which he divided into three Chambers he assigned them first the matter of Simony to be examined but that is a nice point it is the Spring-head of all the Wealth of the Court of Rome Some were for the rigour in cutting off all manner of ways whereby money is taken for spiritual things The Pope himself seemed to favour that opinion so far that he said he would not grant any Matrimonial Dispensations but the heat of that Zeal lasted not long for the opposition was so great and the Difficulties so terrible that all was laid aside some proposed to him the Calling of the Council again for carrying on of that Reformation and indeed at his Inauguration he had sworn so to doe but he laughed at that saying that he had nothing to doe with a Council that he was above those things and that it was a great silliness to have sent twice already threescore Bishops and forty Divines the weakest of all the Mountaineers to determine Controversies of the highest Nature as if these good Folks had had more knowledge and capacity than the Vicar of Jesus Christ adding notwithstanding that provided the Council were held at Rome he would not be against it But especially when he came to know what toleration King Ferdinand and the Duke of Bavaria had granted their Subjects to communicate under both kinds he took the Alarm and looked upon that action as an attempt hardly to be remedied without a Council The Ambassadour of Poland sent to Complement him upon his exaltation The Pope falls into a rage upon occasion of some demands made to him by the Ambassadour of Poland proposed to him some Demands in name of that State which vexed him much more than the Actions of Ferdinand and the Duke of Bavaria had done The first was that they might have liberty to celebrate Mass in the Vulgar Tongue the second that the Communion might be administred
created Pope was become the proudest and most insupportable man living The Resignation of Charles did not put an end to the War of Naples The Duke of Guise was forced to march into Italy to the assistance of the Pope he had a design to have stopt at Lombardy to make a Diversion but the Pope would have him on any terms to march forward into the Kingdom of Naples where he did nothing at all And now the Pope to make good his promise created ten Cardinals but they were neither French men nor devoted to the French interest as he had promised which a little disgusted that Nation On the other side the Court of Rome had no great reason to be much satisfied with the Succours of France for notwithstanding their assistance the Duke of Alva took the Town of Signey and threatned the same to Pagliano The Pope being alarmed at this great Success opened his grievances in a consistory of Cardinals to whom amongst other things he told that he resolutely expected Martyrdom but the Cardinals could not well conceive how he could die a Martyr in a War which he had kindled by his treachery and ambition At the same time the French were defeated at St. Quentin in Picardy by the Forces of the K. of Spain which forced the K. of France to recall his Forces out of Italy and the Pope was constrained to make peace with the Duke of Alva but though he had been worsted yet would he needs make his peace as if he had been victorious The Pope being overcome makes peace like a Conquerour He would neither suffer the Colonna's to be mentioned in the Treaty nor himself to be accused of having violated the Law of Nations by imprisoning the Ministers of the Emperour and King of Spain but on the contrary the Duke of Alva must come to Rome in person to beg on his Knees absolution for himself and in name of the King his Master Never was there any thing more haughty and indeed the Inundation of the Tyber which at that time overflowed all the City of Rome and ruined the Fortifications of the Castle of St. Angelo was lookt upon as an effect of that prodigious pride which provoked Divine Vengeance One thing is reported of this Pope which very well shews his humour in order to this war he had raised Troops amongst the Grisons and they being Protestants according to the usual Insolence of Soldiers made havock in all Churches where they past even to the pulling down of Images The Cardinals of the Inquisition complained of this but the Pope answered year 1558 were repealed and the Roman Religion wholly banished the Kingdom About the same time another thing happened which overwhelmed the Pope in trouble and that was that in the Diet of Ausbourg the Acts of the last Years Conference which ended without any Success having been examined the Emperour confirmed the Liberty of Religion according to the Pacification at Passau and the Recesses of the Diets which had been held afterward The Pope could not hinder nor oppose it by his Legates for he had excluded himself from all Negotiation with Germany by the affront and injury he had done to Ferdinand And to mortifie him for good and all peace was concluded at Cambray the third of April betwixt the Kings of France and Spain So that he found himself left alone forsaken of all men hated of those two Princes betwixt whom he had kindled a War instead of quenching it as it was the Duty of the Common Father of the Church In that Treaty the two Kings obliged themselves mutually to endeavour the Reformation of the Church and the Calling of a Council for rooting out of Heresies Philip and Henry were both great Persecutours of Protestants especially Philip of Spain who thought it not enough to use Fire and Sword in a most cruel manner within his own Dominions but sent Ambassadours to all Neighbouring Princes to solicite them to take the same violent Courses against Protestants Perhaps there was more of resentment and revenge than Zeal for Religion in this Conduct for he had a mortal hatred to the Protestants of Germany because they had been the Cause that he was not named King of the Romans in the Diet of Ausbourg in the Year 1551. for the reformed States favoured Ferdinand and Maximilian his Son who opposed the Election of Philip. From the time of the first Edict of Charles the fifth there had been above fifty thousand men put to death by most cruel Torments in the low Countreys but this being not sufficient to Philip he made a League with France for the total Subversion of the Reformation The Cardinal of Lorrain in France and Granvel Bishop of Arras were the great sticklers for that Enterprise For putting of this design in execution Philip had a great mind to have brought the Inquisition into the low Countreys but his Father Charles the V. having heretofore succeeded so ill in that design that he was forced to leave it off he feared that that Enterprise might cost him more trouble than it had done his Father To cut off some of the Difficulties that might happen he resolved to begin with the multiplication of Bishopricks in hopes that these Bishops might contribute much to the accomplishment of his design There were but two Bishopricks in all the low Countreys Utrecht and Cambray all the rest of the Clergy were under the Jurisdiction of German and French Bishops and these two Bishops were also Suffragans to Strangers Philip drew his Territories from under a foreign spiritual Jurisdiction and erected into Bishopricks Namur Antwerp Balise-duc Ghent Bruges Ipres St. Omer Harlem Midleburg Leuvarden Groninguen Ruremonde and Deventer and established three Archbishopricks Cambray Malines and Utrecht The People perceived very well what that tended to and therefore they grew more obstinate and became inclinable to embrace the Reformation refusing to pay any Taxes till the Spanish Soldiers were removed Henry II. on his part did all that lay in his power to ruine the Protestants in his Kingdom He resolved to be present at the famous Mercurial which was held the fifteenth of June this was the name that was given to the Assemblies which met on Wednesdays for examining and correcting the manners of the Judges of Parliament Matters of Religion were to be treated of there and the King would hear the Judges argue that affair that he himself might know who were infected with new opinions After that Assembly he caused Lewis le Fevre and Anne du Bourg both Judges to be apprehended because they had been of opinion that some favour should be shew'd in punishing People who were onely guilty said they in discovering the Corruptions of the Court of Rome The first national Synod of the Protestants in France The Protestants notwithstanding the rigour of Persecutions went on with their business and framed a Discipline in the Church they met at St. Germain and held their first national Synod there
Interests for in that Assembly the Annates were taken away the Concordat betwixt Leo X. and Francis I. infringed and the Monks subjected to the Jurisdiction of the Bishops in so much that he gave France almost over for lost The Pope names Legates to preside in the Council and sends them away The time appointed by the Pope for the opening of the Council drawing nigh he deputed Legates to preside in it to wit Hercules de Gonzaga Cardinal of Mantua and Giacomo Puteo Cardinal of Nizza the first because of his interest and extraction and the second because of his ability in the Canon Law being Dean of the Rota At length the Pope received Letters from the Court of France dated the third of March 1561. wherein the King gave an absolute consent to the Council Spain did the like and so the difficulties were by little and little removed but at the same time the Portuguese were said to be coming to the Council with a design to get the Superiority of a Council over the Pope to de defined and that they took instructions about that point The Spaniards as to that were more dreaded than the Portuguese but the French most of all because they have been of a long time possest with that opinion Easter now drew nigh and therefore the Pope pressed the Legates and Italian Bishops to hasten their departure for Trent Cardinal Puteo falling very sick Cardinal Girolamo Seripando a famous Divine was named in his place He had orders to pass by Mantua and to take his Collegue with him but they arrived not at Trent till Easter Tuesday where they found nine Bishops already come About the same time the Duke of Savoy made peace with his Subjects inhabiting the Valleys The War had been unsuccesfull to him he was most commonly worsted and one day lost an Army of seven thousand Men the Waldenses having lost but fourteen of theirs The Agreement was made the fifth of June 1561. and they had certain places allotted them for the free Exercise of their Religion This displeased the Pope exceedingly who had contributed considerable Summs of Money for carrying on the War but Necessity has no Law A Convocation of the Clergy was resolved upon in France and to prevent any Suspicion that the Pope might thereby conceive they assured him that they would treat of nothing but of means to pay off the King's Debts and about matters in general which they might have to propose in Council This did not remove the Pope's Anxiety and therefore he sent the Cardinal of Ferrara to that Assembly to have an Eye over it that nothing might be acted there contrary to his Authority The Protestant party encreased considerably and all France was distinguished by these two Names Papists and Huguenots I shall observe by the bye that this word Huguenot the original of which seems obscure to Authours comes from the Suisse-word Eidgnossen which signifies Associates or Allies Those of Geneva who before the Bishop was expelled from thence resisted his Enterprises for oppressing their Liberties were called Eidgnossen because they were associated with the Cantons of Berne and Fribourg and since the Bishop having been banished and Religion changed they still retained the name of Eidgnossen Allies The Cardinal of Ferrara came therefore into France to oppose the Torrent which threatned an inundation in that Kingdom through the Authority of several great men who were engaged in the party of the Huguenots About the same time there was a train discovered laid by the Clergy of France not onely against the Protestant Religion but against the State also One Artus Desire was apprehended at Orleans with instructions from those of the Clergy who were of the faction of the House of Guise With these instructions he was going into Spain to procure assistance against the Hereticks who could not be sufficiently quelled by a Woman and a Child as the Commission of that Envoy imported This did the Protestants some kindness for it procured an Edict in their favour prohibiting any to molest them or to search their Houses under pretext of discovering their Assemblies the Prisons were opened their Prisoners set at liberty and their banished recalled This Artus was condemned to make the Amende honorable and to perpetual Imprisonment in the Chartreux The Edict of July against the Protestants But that Edict had not the happy effects which might have been expected because of the opposition that the Enemies of the Protestants made against it For in July following another Edict past in Parliament the King being present prohibiting the Exercise of any other Religion except that of the Church of Rome granting nevertheless pardon for what was past and ordering that for the future such as should be accused for Religion should onely be sentenced to banishment At the same time another Edict past for holding a Conference at Poissy betwixt the learned of the one and the other Religion A conference appointed at Poissy betwixt the Roman Catholicks and the Protestants to see if the differences between them could by any fair means be accommodated Several Catholicks opposed it as being a Compliance below the Church to enter the lists with Hereticks but the Cardinal of Lorrain who hoped to make his parts conspicuous on that occasion carried it The Pope was somewhat satisfied with the Edict of July and had been more if the Punishment of the Hereticks had not been mitigated to Banishment but he was extremely offended at the Conference of Poissy and the Edict which appointed it He wrote to the Bishops of France that they had no power to make Edicts in matters which concerned Religion in General that if they adventured upon any thing beyond the reach of their power he would rescind all that they did and proceed against them with all rigour The Bishops did not much value these threats onely assured the Pope that he had no reason to be startled at that Assembly France was an inexhaustible Spring of Troubles for the Pope from thence they flowed daily upon him and it was no small vexation that he received from the Estates at Pontoise wherein upon a debate that arose about Precedence betwixt the Princes and the Cardinals it was judged in favour of the Princes against the Cardinals The Cardinals of Chatillon and Armagnac yielded but those of Tournon Lorrain and Guise withdrew murmuring against their Collegues This vexed the Pope indeed but he was touched to the quick by a letter which he received from the Queen Regent dated the fourth of August wherein she bewailed the sad condition of France and the numerousness of the Protestant Party proposing to him some Remedies which she thought necessary in the present juncture that is several Reformations which according to her Judgment ought to be made in Religion as the taking of Images out of Churches the abolition of the use of Spittle and Exorcisms in Baptism the allowing the Cup to the People the restoring of the Vulgar
the Decree of Gratian. In the Congregation of the tenth of July Leonard Haller Titular Bishop of Philadelphia moved that it was necessary to stay for the Germans as a few days before Daniel Barbaro Patriarch of Aquileia had demanded that they might stay for the French to the end that the Council might be called General as being made up of all Nations for there were none but Spaniards and Italians in it and these Italians almost all of them the Pope's Pensioners who most cunningly stood up for the Interests of the Court of Rome There were even some that said publickly enough that that Council was not the Council of the Universal Church but of the Pope since he did in it what he pleased and these were those who had spoken with some freedom as to the Point of Residence The Papal Party had a great pique against them which appeared so plainly that they did not think themselves secure enough even at Trent and therefore they thought of withdrawing some of them had already obtained leave amongst whom were Egidio Foscararo Bishop of Modena the Bishops of Viviers Acqui and the Archbishop of Surriento But the Ambassadour of Portugal having represented that that would do hurt to the reputation of the Council seeing the cause of their departure was generally known they were detained by fair promises of better usage for the future However there was no notice taken of the demand that was made of waiting for the coming of the German and French Prelates In the following Congregations the Chapters of Reformation were read and some Bishops spoke with a great deal of liberty As to the Point of free Ordinations the Bishop of Vegla an Island near Sclavonia said that it would be to no purpose to lay a restraint upon ordaining Bishops not to take money if at the same time it were not Decreed that no fees should be taken at Rome for Dispensations to receive Orders out of the usual times and before the Age appointed that the greatest expence was there and that the small gratuities given at Ordinations was nothing to it He farther said that when any such Dispensations were presented to him it was his custome to ask if they had cost any money and that if he found they had been bought he rejected and did not value them As to the Point concerning those that got into Priests Orders without a sufficient Estate to maintain them the Bishop of the five Churches spoke with great freedom that it was of much more importance to prevent a mans entering into Orders without having a Church and Cure to serve than to hinder him upon the account of wanting an Estate and that it was very disgracefull to the Church to have priests who had no other Employment but to live idly and take their ease upon a good fat Benefice In one of the Articles of Reformation it was ordained that great Parishes should be divided into two that they might be the better served whereupon the same Bishop said that that was good but that it was much better to divide the Bishopricks which are of so great extent that it is not possible for one man to take the care of so many Souls These opinions pleased no body neither the Prelates nor the Presidents Afterward the Bishop of Sidonia an Hungarian took the boldness to say that all these petty Reformations of the Members of the Church signified nothing so long as the Head continued without Reformation that it behoved them to begin with the greater matters and that the lesser would pass without any difficulty This liberty was very offensive to the Legates and therefore they met to consult about means of repressing that boldness John Baptista Castello Promooter of the Council who had discharged the same office in the Council under Julius III. said that the course must be taken which had been used by Cardinal Crescentio who enjoyned the Prelates silence when they did in the least deviate from the Subject that had been proposed But the Cardinal of Warmia did not approve that conduct and affirmed that God had not blest the Council of Julius because he approved not those violent methods of Cardinal Crescentio that after all it was impossible to avoid contests in Councils The Cardinal of Mantua was of the same Judgment So that they thought it sufficient to limit every one to a certain time in speaking and to make it short that so they might not have leisure to speak many things which might give disgust The day for holding the Session which was the sixteenth of July drew nigh and the Germans who had consented that nothing should be moved in it about the permission of the Cup demanded now a great deal more and urged that nothing might be done at all that so they might give time to their Bishops to come The Legates to prevent the disgrace of being so long without doing any thing would needs have the Chapters of Doctrine and Reformation which had been minuted to be published And they must be read overagain in the Congregation before they could be published in the Session which was not done without debate In the second Chapter of Doctrine these words were slipt in that the Church might as well take away the use of the Cup as it had changed the form of Baptism Jacobo Gilberto de Nogueras Bishop of Aliphe a Spaniard starting up said that that was Blasphemy because the Church had no Power to change the form of Sacraments nor to alter any thing that is essential to them and that in effect the form of Baptism had never been changed that hint was taken notice of and the Clause left out In the third Chapter it is said that he who is barred from the Cup is not deprived of any Grace necessary to Salvation and that therefore the Church has Power to retrench it The Cardinal of Warmia one of the Legates set on by some Divines observed as to that that thence it might be inferred that the Church may wholly take away the Eucharist because it is not necessary to Salvation and desired some alteration in that Clause But Cardinal Simoneta being vexed at what had past in the Congregation told the Cardinal of Warmia that he had very imprudently suffered himself to be put upon in making that Overture and that if he would everlastingly give ear to those Doctours accustomed to the cavillings of the School nothing could be concluded in the next Session The Cardinal of Warmia submitted excusing himself in that what he had done was designed for a good end In the Congregation that was held the day before the Session there happened some Debates still as in all the rest but they were not very considerable and continued not long session 21 Now it was the sixteenth of July 16. July the day appointed for the Session and the Legates Ambassadours and Prelates went to the Church with the usual Ceremonies After Mass and Sermon the Decrees were read the Decree of
Doctrine contained four Chapters and as many Canons with Anathema's wherein was decided 1. That believing Laicks are not obliged by command to communicate in both kinds 2. That the Church had very good ground for taking away the Cup and that she hath power to doe so 3. That he who receives the bread alone receives Jesus Christ entirely and is not deprived of any saving Grace 4. That the Communion of Children is not necessary In all this no notice was taken of the question whether it was expedient to allow the Cup to People that demanded it because that point was reserved for another Session as they had promised the Germans and was accordingly by a Decree referred to the following Session which is inserted in the Acts of the Council The nine Chapters of Reformation were also read The first ordains that the Collation of Orders the Dimissorial and Testimonial Letters the Seal and other things of that nature shall be given gratis without so much as taking any voluntary offering The second that no man shall receive Orders if he have not a Benefice or at least an Estate of his own to subsist on which Estate is not to be alienated without the consent of the Bishop The third that in Cathedral and Collegiate Churches where there are no Distributions or where they are but small the Bishop may convert a third of the Prebends into Distributions The fourth that in great Parishes the Curates shall take the assistance of a sufficient number of Vicars and that such as are of too large an extent shall be divided and provided with new Rectours if that be judged necessary The fifth that Bishops may make Unions to perpetuity of Benefices that have cure of Souls when they are not singly sufficient for the Subsistence of a Curate The sixth that Curates who are negligent in their Duties shall have Vicars appointed them whether they will or not and that part of the profits of the Living shall be allotted to these Vicars and that if the Curates continue in Scandal they shall be deprived of their Benefices The seventh that the Bishops as Delegates of the holy See may annex the Benefices of decayed and demolished Churches to other Churches and cause Parochial Churches to be repaired The eighth that the Bishops also as Delegates of the holy See may visit Monasteries that are in Commendum to settle the observation of Discipline therein And the last Chapter abolished the Collectours or Alms-gatherers These Collectours were a sort of men who under Pretext of some pious work as the building an Hospital for the Sick the bringing up of Orphans or the like obtained Letters of Recommendation from the Bishop and with these Letters run over a whole Countrey to gather Collections under the notion of Almsdeeds Some of them also obtained a Licence from the Pope that they might not be hindered by the Bishops in their Collections This custome had degenerated into a horrid abuse in that these Collectours treated with the Court of Rome that part of the purchase should be brought thither nay and it was even specified in the Bull how much the Collectour was to keep for himself and how much he was to pay out so publickly was that Corruption tolerated Of these gatherings a very small portion was employed in the charitable Work which served for a Pretext and the rest went into the Pocket of the Collectours and of those that had got them the Privilege Many time also they who obtained from Rome Patents to empower them to gather Charity farmed out their right to the off-scourings of the People who to make the most of their Farm by a thousand damnable Tricks frightned the People out of their wits and money They put themselves into strange Antick dresses and carried about with them bells and other tinckling instruments preached up counterfeit Indulgence and denounced a thousand Evils to those who refused them contributions and these were the Collectours that were then abolished This was all the Product of eight whole Months labour during which nothing was to be seen but Couriers without intermission posting from Rome to Trent and from Trent to Rome continual Treaties Negotiations and Conferences betwixt the Ambassadours of all the Princes in Europe and the Legates not to mention the infinite number of consultations and deliberations amongst the Prelates who were four times more in number than they were in the two first Convocations of the Council These great Engines having wrought so little People could not forbear to apply the Proverb Parturiunt montes nascetur ridiculus mus The discontented and those professed Criticks that stand in awe of no Tribunal made their observations that there was no great need of meeting at Trent to blast the Memory of the Fathers of the Church by deciding a question concerning the Communion of young Children in such a manner as made the Judgment of the Ancients Heresie who would have Infants immediately after Baptism to receive the Communion and particularly they could not but condemn that Decree as absolutely unnecessary because now-a-days no body laboured to introduce the custome again But the less censorious could not forbear to mark a great want of Judgment in the second Canon which under Pain of an Anathema condemns those that will not believe that the Church had good reason to retrench the Cup. All men wondered that that refusing of the Cup being lookt upon as a matter of Humane Right since by a formal Decree of the Council it was left in suspence whether it should be restored or no should notwithstanding be decided under Anathema as a matter of Divine Right that the Church had reason in refusing it Matters are prepared for the following Session and the Presidents are reconciled This Session being over the Legates thought fit to prepare matters for the next but the Court of Rome judged it absolutely necessary to make the Cardinals of Mantua and Simoneta friends before they proceeded any farther For this reconciliation the Pope imployed the Mediation of Cardinal Gonzaga Uncle to the Cardinal of Mantua and of Alexander Simoneta Brother to the Cardinal of the same name both of them wrote so effectually to their Relations that the peace was made and the Sunday after the Session Simoneta dined with the Cardinal of Mantua They consulted together what means were to be used to satisfie the Pope as to the Point of Residence and the King of Spain as to the Demand he made that the present Council might be declared a Continuation of the former But to extricate them out of these Difficulties a Letter came very opportunely from the King of Spain which ordered the Marquess of Pescara not to insist any more for having the Continuation of the Council declared provided all words that might import that it was a new Council were avoided The same Letter gave orders to acquaint the Spanish Prelates that the King commended their Zeal in making so many instances for having Residence to be declared
not sensible of these Consequences and therefore they could not devise from whence sprung that eagerness of the Spaniards upon this Point but they soon smelt it out and vigorously withstood it So then the Spaniards according to their project put their Divines upon the breaking of the Ice and beginning the Dispute Michael Oroncuspe Divine to the Bishop of Pampelona was the first that proposed the matter he alledged that in the design of condemning the Lutherans the question moved properly upon this hinge by what Right Bishops were Superior to Priests that as to the Superiority the Lutherans could not deny it but yet maintained it to be a mere Humane Constitution that if then it were true that that Superiority was a Humane Establishment it would be unreasonable to make it Heresie in the Lutherans that they abolished an Order which was not appointed immediately by God that for his own part he lookt upon it as a most certain truth that a Bishop is Superiour to a Priest by Divine Right but that he could proceed no farther because he was prohibited by the Legates John Fonseca a Divine of the Archbishop of Granada observed not so strict measures He said in the beginning of his discourse that he did not conceive why that question was not allowed to be spoken to and for what reason it could be prohibited He laid open the importance of the matter and proved by Reason by the Fathers and by the Scriptures that Bishops are the Successours of the Apostles as the Pope is of St. Peter that both the one and the other have immediately received their Authority from Jesus Christ as Supreme Courts and Inferiour Judicatures have been alike established by the Prince whence it is that Supreme Courts cannot encroach upon the Authority of Inferiour Judges because the Authority of both flows from the Prince who hath set proper Limits to those several Tribunals Cardinal Simoneta with extreme impatience listened to this discourse which was delivered with as great earnestness He turned several times about to his Collegues and was ready to have interrupted the Divine but he durst not because he saw that all the Prelates heard him with extraordinary attention Anthony Grassâ—t a Jacobin Monk enforced this truth with new Arguments and carried it farther on He affirmed that Bishops were not obliged to give an account of their Administration but to Jesus Christ alone He urged the exhortation of St. Paul to the Bishops of Ephesus that they should feed the Flock over which the Holy Ghost had made them Overseers If it be by the Holy Ghost said he it is not by the Pope He could not forbear to lash out against those who in former Conferences had said that the Pope divides the Flock among the Bishops and said it was to open a door to a kind of Schism which St. Paul found fault with in the Church of Corinth where they said I am of Peter and I am of Paul affirming that all Bishops had right to say with St. Paul for me I am of Jesus Christ He said that the Pope was onely the Minister and Instrument of Jesus Christ and therefore what is done in the Church ought not to be attributed to him but to Jesus Christ who is the Principal Efficient Cause He perceived that his Discourse had been a little too bold and fearing that the Legates might enjoyn him silence and bring him into trouble he therefore made a kind of Apology and said that he had gone farther than he thought to have done and that he had forgot that it had been prohibited to speak to that Point But the Legates saw into the Intrigue and knew it to be a design laid by the Spaniards and particularly the Archbishop of Granada but finding that the discourses that were made had left a deep Impression upon the minds of those that were concerned they thought it necessary to refute reasons by reasons since matters were gone so far Therefore they enjoyned the four Divines who were still to speak to refute the Spaniards and to prove that Bishops hold all their Authority from the Pope and not from Jesus Christ that the onely Episcopacy of Divine Right is that of the Pope who hath received Orders to place Bishops in several Churches and who hath also power to enlarge or restrain their Authority and to depose suspend or translate them to other places When the Disputes of the Divines were over the Legates had a mind to propose the matter of Reformation but they knew not how to set about it They durst not offer at Trifles as had been done in former Sessions and it was very difficult for them to propose important Points there being none wherewith some body would not be displeased The Reformation of the Bishops and Clergy exceedingly pleased the Ambassadours but that displeased the Bishops that which pleased the Bishops and Clergy could not give content to the Ambassadours for that tended to lessen the Power that Princes had acquired over the Clergy by the abolishing of Canonical Elections and by the Right of Nomination to great Benefices And in fine that which might please the Ambassadours and Bishops at the same time displeased the Pope for that tended to the Diminution of the Greatness of the Court of Rome So that being overwhelm'd by these Perplexities they wrote to the Pope giving him notice at the same time that the Spaniards pressed hard to have Episcopacy to be declared of Divine Right They put the Pope also in mind that this was the place where they had promised to state again the Point of the Divine Right of Residence to wit when they treated of the Sacrament of Orders They acquainted him that having sounded the Prelates they found threescore stedfast for the Divine Right of Residence and that there was nothing to be got of them that the Marquess of Pescara had done all that lay in his Power to perswade the Spanish Bishops but without any effect that the Spaniards murmured that there should be a design of referring that Article of Residence to his Holiness as the Point of the Cup had been and said if they intended to go on in that manner it was very needless to call a Council at a great charge for deciding matters of small importance and refer the great affairs to the Pope This advice that came to the Pope from Trent with the news which he received from other places gave him great disturbance For he had certain intelligence from several parts that the Cardinal of Lorrain was coming to the Council with design to have the Election of the Popes so regulated The Cardinal of Lorrain prepares to goe to the Council and the Pope is allarmed at it that the Prelates beyond the Alpes might have a share in that Dignity and be chosen in their turn He was allarmed at this news wrote of it to all the Italian Princes and laid before them what a prejudice it would be to suffer other Nations to share in
the Chief of Bishops And so from that time forward the Greatness of the Pope was the onely hinge upon which moved that Controversie about Residence A Minute of a Decree is made at Rome concerning the Authority of the Pope and Bishops which was rejected by the Bishops in Council The Pope was so much afflicted for the death of his Nephew Frederico Borromeo that he fell dangerously sick considering his great age And yet the troubles he received from the Council vexed him more than the death of his Kinsman He held frequent Congregations of Cardinals for determining those two Controversies which made so much noise about the Institution of Episcopacy and Residence As to that of Institution he gave his answer at last that it was an erroneous opinion that Episcopacy as to the Power of Jurisdiction was of Divine Right and instituted by Jesus Christ unless it were in this Sense that Jesus Christ does all that the Pope doth and concluded that these words of Divine Right ought to be wholly left out or that the Decree must be made in this form That Jesus Christ hath instituted Bishops to be made by the Pope with such Authority as he should think fit to give them for the good of the Church it being still in his Power to enlarge or restrain it As to the Point of Residence he gave Orders that it should not be declared of Divine Right because he would retain to himself the Power of dispensing with it so that whatsoever they did they should have a care that nothing were enacted contrary to his Authority As to the Prorogation of the Session he wrote in General Terms that it should not be put off above a Fortnight nor yet held unless all matters were in a readiness The Legates thought that the Decree about the Institution of Episcopacy and of the Pope's Power over Bishops in the form that it was sent from Rome would never be admitted in the Council and therefore they found themselves obliged to write a second time and send the Bishop of Vintimiglia to the Pope Because the matter of Cup was referred to the Pope the Duke of Bavaria having no more to demand of the Council as to that Point sent a solemn Embassy to Rome for obtaining of it This Embassy went by Trent and the Ambassadours had Conferences with the Legates and Cardinal of Lorrain That allarmed the Spaniards who always opposed the Restitution of the Cup. At the same time the news of the Battel of Dreux came to Trent which was fought the seventeenth of December The Catholicks gave out that they had obtained the Victory though they lost in it almost double the number that the Protestants had lost for they lost five thousand men and the Protestants but three But they alledged that they continued Masters of the Field The two Generals were taken Prisoners the Prince of Conde on the side of the Protestants and the Constable on the Catholicks side This was a fatal Year for the terrible Divisions that rent France in pieces no less that fourteen Armies at one time on foot which on both sides committed fearfull disorders Admiral Coligny after that Battel notwithstanding the taking of the Prince of Conde kept his Army together and made even some progress Nevertheless there was a Thanksgiving at Trent for the Victory as if it had been real when indeed it was but imaginary They were perswaded at Rome that the Huguenots were totally routed and that so there was no more need of a Council wherefore some were of opinion that it should either be dissolved or suspended But the Pope had better news than the rest and saw very well that it was not yet time to dissolve the Council He thought he did enough if he could retain the Power and Authority that he had got over it The Emperour's design of coming to Inspruck in the Neighbourhood of Trent filled him with new Jealousies He made no doubt but that he had secret intelligences with Spain and France and he could not see into the Bottome of it So much he knew in General that these intelligences tended to the lessening of his Authority and the Reformation of the Abuses of his Court. And therefore to prevent Reformations from those hands through which the Court of Rome had not mind to pass he published a Brief dated the twenty seventh of December whereby he reformed some Corruptions of the Rota and made also some other slight Reformations of his Court This in the main came to nothing at all but however it was usefull to his Legates and Pensioners at Trent for they made answer to those who demanded the Reformation of the Court of Rome that seeing the Pope made it his business to reform himself the Council might very well spare themselves the trouble The year one thousand five hundred sixty and two was concluded with a Congregation held the thirtieth of December wherein it was resolved to put off the Session for a Fortnight 1563. The French present their Memoires containing 34 Demands They are sent to Rome and the Pope is allarmed at them To begin the New Year one thousand five hundred and sixty three the French presented four and thirty Articles concerning the Reformation which they desired Most part of them regarded the Reformation of the Clergy and the abuses in Ordination and in preferring undeserving men both as to manners and learning Some of them also related to the Court of Rome and tended to the diminution of its Revenues The fourteenth of these Articles demanded a prohibition of the Plurality of Benefices the sixteenth that the Sacraments might be administred gratis In the seventeeth they demanded Divine Service in the Vulgar Tongue that is to say that the chief Prayers should be said in French as well as in Latin The eighteenth proposed the Communion in both kinds and required the revival of the Decree of Gelasus The twenty sixth demanded the Restitution of the Jurisdiction of Bishops in all their Dioceses over all that lived within them not excepting Monasteries unless the Chiefs of Orders and the Monasteries where the Generals of Orders did reside The nine and twentieth desired Reformation of the abuse which the People made of Images the abuse of Pilgrimages Fraternities Relicks and Indulgences The thirtieth demanded restitution of the custome of publick Pennance as it had been in the primitive Church The Legates and Pope's Party disliked these demands and the manner wherein they were presented for that was with the usual Threat that if they had not satisfaction in admitting their Proposals they would provide for themselves by a National Council The Legates sent these Articles to the Pope being very sure that he could not read them but with extraordinary trouble especially seeing one of the Propositions demanded the abolition of Annates and of all the other means which are used at Rome for hooking in Money from the Provinces They commissioned the Bishop of Viterbo to carry these Memoires to
the Pope and the Cardinal of Lorrain loaded him with Complements for his Holiness desiring him that he would beseech his Holiness not to take it ill that the King and they by Orders from him did demand things which they judged necessary for the wellfare of France and at the same time and by the same hand offered the Pope his Mediation for taking up the differences about the Institution of Bishops and Residence These Memoires of the French Ambassadours were given to the Legates without the hearty condescension of the Prelates of that Nation For there were some Articles amongst them that tended to the Diminution both of the Authority and Revenues of the Bishops which went against the Hair But they consented that they might be presented to the Council in hopes that the Spanish Bishops who are Great Lords and jealous of their Grandure would have opposed them When they saw that the Memoires were sent to Rome they perceived that it would fall to the Pope's share to cut and carve in them as he had done in all the rest and they were afraid that he might compound with the King of France to their Cost in sacrificing to him the interest of the Bishops to make him spare the Court of Rome as it had been done betwixt Francis the First and Leo X. when they made the Concordat And therefore they began to make secret Cabals to get the Articles that concerned them struck out of the Memoires But Lansac perceiving it called them together and rebuked them severely for daring to oppose the Will of the King There were now two Bishops in Deputation at Rome the Bishops of Vintimiglia and Viterbo The first was employed to make fresh Remonstrances about the Subject of the Institution of Bishops and their Residence that the Pope might put the Decree into another form than that which he had formerly sent He arrived the first of January having made his Journey in seven days He gave the Pope an account of all that past in the Council and of the different dispositions of the Members of it The Pope immediately held a Congregation of Cardinals about the Point of the Institution of Bishops which was most urgent And it was there resolved that the Decision should be sent to the Legates in this form That Bishops hold the chief rank in the Church dependant on the Bishop of Rome by whom they are admitted and received in partem solicitudinis It was upon the main the same with the former but the form a little softer and the Pope for a recompence of the qualification which he had suffered to be made in the Canon of the Institution of Bishops would have the Canon that related to his own Authority to run in these terms That the Pope hath Authority to feed and to govern the Church Universal in place of Jesus Christ who hath imparted to him as his Vicar General all his Authority And ordered his Legates that in the Chapter of Doctrine they should enlarge more upon the matter and make use of the Terms of the Council of Florence which saith that the Holy See that is to say the Pope has the Primacy over all the Church that he is the Successour of St. Peter who was Prince of the Apostles that he is the true Vicar of Jesus Christ the Head of all the Churches the Father and Master of all Christians to whom the Lord hath given full power to govern the Church Universal He enjoyned the Legates not to deviate from that form which had been authorised by a General Council At the same time that he might prevent the designs of the French who would have had a Pope elected by the Council in case the present Pope had died he published a Bull wherein he declared that having intention to goe to Bologna in case he should die in his Journey he ordained that his Successour should not be chosen but at Rome The Bishop of Viterbo who was charged with the Memoires of the French arrived a little time after the instructions of the Bishop of Vintimiglia had been dispatched The Pope very impatiently heard the Memoires read but the Bishop of Viterbo pacified him a little by giving him hopes that if he condescended to some of these Articles a part might be cut off and the rest moderated but particularly he gave him ease when he assured him that the greatest part of the French Bishops disliked those Reformations and that they were ready to oppose them The Pope held a Congregation upon that Subject and it was therein resolved that the Articles should be committed to Doctours of the Canon Law to make their observations upon them At the same time the Pope sent Orders to the Cardinal of Ferrara his Legate in France to represent to the King that some of these Propositions tended to the Diminution of the Royal Authority because they deprived the King of the Collation of Benefices and amongst others of Abbeys that the disposal of Benefices was a very commodious Privilege to him for rewarding his faithfull Servants that to raise the Authority of Bishops was not the way to strengthen the Authority of the King and that the more powerfull Bishops were the more troublesome they were to Princes He sent his Legate likewise Orders to give the King the forty thousand Crowns remaining unpay'd of the hundred thousand which he had obliged himself to furnish him but with all that he should not part from them but upon the Condition that he had till them required I mean the abolition of the Pragmatick Sanction in all the Parliaments He prayed also the King to consider that by diminishing the Revenues of the Holy See he would be deprived of means to procure Respect and Obedience that the Tithes of Tithes were by the Law due to the chief Priest and that they had been wisely converted into Annats and concluded with an exhortation to the King that he would sent new Instructions to his Ambassadours He sent likewise to Trent the Censures and Observations which the Canonists and Divines had made upon the Memoires of the French year 1563 The Minute of the Decree concerning the Pope's Authoritycomes from Rome and meets with much contradiction especially from the French The Courier who brought to Trent the Answer to the Remonstrances which the Bishop of Vintimiglia had been charged with arrived on the fourteenth of January and next day was the time appointed for perfixing the day of the Session A Congregation General was held and it was therein resolved that that deliberation should be put off till the fourth of February because they could not as yet certainly tell when matters might be in a readiness The Legates distributed Copies of the Minute of the Decree which was sent from Rome touching the Institution of Bishops and declared that they would begin the Congregations again for consulting about it These Minutes had the approbation of the Patriarchs and oldest Archbishops who gave their opinions first But when it
came to the turn of the Spaniards and French speak many difficulties were started against the Decrees as they had been conceived by the Cardinals First this Clause was objected against that Bishops hold a chief rank depending on the Bishop of Rome that was thought to be an ambiguous expression but after some debate they who made the objection consented to have it said a chief rank under the Pope Some also did not like that it should be said that Bishops are admitted by the Pope in partem solicitudinis because that signified clearly enough that Bishops are appointed by the Pope and not by our Lord Jesus Christ but above all they stumbled at the Article of the Pope's Authority and that the Canon gave him the Pope to govern the Church Universal The French thought that by these words the Pope had a design to establish a Superiority over the Council They were nevertheless willing it should be said that he hath the power to rule all the Churches ecclesias universas but not the Church Universal ecclesiam universalem Most part fansied that to be a very nice distinction and of little solidity But the rest maintained that by giving the Pope power to govern the Church Universal they exalted his Tribunal above the Church whereas the Tribunal of the Church is exalted above that of the Pope They alledged that there was a great difference betwixt being exalted above all Churches that is to say above every Particular Church and being exalted above the Church Universal that is whole Church taken together and assembled in a Council This occasioned great debate the Pope's Party alledged the Authority of the Council of Florence which had made use of these terms and that did a little puzzle the Spaniards because their Countrey own the Council of Florence for a General Council But the French set light by that Authority and opposed to it the Councils of Constance and Basil which have defined the Superiority of a Council over the Pope Upon this occasion there arose a great contest betwixt the Italians and French for the Italians maintained that the Council of Florence was a General Council that that of Basil was Schismatical and the other of Constance partly approved and partly rejected But the French on the contrary denied the Council of Florence to have been a lawfull Council and said that the others of Constance and Basil were lawfull and General The Legates well perceived that no good would come of these contests and therefore that they might have time to sent to Rome the Censures which the Bishops on the other side of the Alpes had made upon the Decree composed by the Pope touching the Institution of Bishops and the Authority of the Holy See they employed the Congregations about the Point of Residence The Cardinals of Lorrain and Madruccio the day before had mode a Project of Decision concerning the Controversie of Residence which displeased not the Legates But the Presidents having had time to reflect upon it observed a Clause that gave them Umbrage which was that Bishops are obliged by the Command of God to guide their Flocks and to watch in Person over them They knew very well that the Pope would make a sinister interpretation of these words and think that they favoured the opinion of the Divine Right of Residence and therefore they left it out of their own heads and presented in the Congregation the Minute corrected after their own way That action choaked the Cardinals of Lorrain and Madruccio Lorrain protested that for the future he would not meddle in any thing and Cardinal Madruccio said that in the Council there was another secret Council which took all the Authority to it self The Legates finding that they gained no ground put a stop to the Congregations in expectation of an answer from Rome and the Pope's Party began to make Factions that they might break up the Council for good and all At this the Cardinal of Lorrain broke out and acted with less reserve than he had formerly done He complained that there was a design of breaking up the Council he spoke to the Ambassadours of Princes that their Masters might intercede with the Pope not onely for the Continuation of the Council but especially that it might be left to its liberty saying that nothing could be proposed or resolved upon but what pleased the Legates that the Legates did nothing but what the Pope thought fit and that Decisions even about the smallest matters must be expected from Rome that if matters went on still in that manner they would make a pacification in France whereby all should have liberty to live as they thought good untill the holding of a free Council that for his own part he would have patience untill the next Session but that if affairs went no better he would protest and withdraw and carry all the French along with him that they might celebrate a National Council at Home The French Ambassadour residing at Rome made the same Expostulations and Menaces that the Cardinal did at Trent But the Pope began to be accustomed to that noise and was not a whit startled at these Bugbears of National Synods He made answer that the Council was more than free that it was even licentious that if the Italians made any Factions and Cabals he knew nothing of it but that yet they were forced upon it if they did so by the violence of the Bishops beyond the Alpes who endeavoured to trample under foot the Authority of the Holy See The Bishop of the five Churches the Emperour's Ambassadour for the Kingdom of Hungary went about the same time to wait on his Master and to inform him of the Factions and Conduct of the Italians The Archbishop of Granada and those of his Party entreated him to procure from the Emperour a Letter to the King of Spain praying him to solicite a Reformation The Legates were informed of this and looked upon all that Conduct as an effect of the Councils of the Cardinal of Lorrain and to Countermine that League they deputed John Francisco Commendone Bishop of Zante to the Emperour under pretext of Justifying the Council in that they had not as yet proposed the Articles of Reformation which his Imperial Majesty had presented b his Ambassadours Seeing these misunderstandings grew dayly greater and greater the Legates sufficiently perplexed sent a writing to all the Ambassadours begging the Assistance of their Councils in the present Junctures The French slipt not that occasion to tell their minds freely and therefore said that the Council was made use of to encrease corruptions instead of lessening them that a stop ought to be put to those shamefull underhand dealings which were continually practised that they ought not to labour to raise the Pope above the Church Universal that the best way was to follow the Decrees of the Council of Constance And farther added that one cause of disagreement was that the Clark of the Council did not faithfully set
Emperour and his Son Maximilian now all these Princes desired that the Cup might be rendered to the People February the ninth the Legates held the first Congregation about the Doctrine of Marriage The Divines of the first Chamber examined the first two Articles and Father Salmeron a Jesuit spoke with much Pomp and for all that said but very ordinary things Having concluded that Marriage is a true Sacrament he past to the second Article that relates to Clandestine Marriages and alledged in favour of them the Authority of the Council of Florence which declares that the Validity of Marriages depends solely upon the Consent of the Parties who contract and this Oratour concluded that the opinion of those who assert that Fathers and Mothers may annull them ought to be condemned as an Heresie but allowed the Church the Power of rescinding such Marriages because she is the Mistress of the Sacraments and that it is expedient to annull them to prevent the disorders which those unfortunate Marriages cause in Families Next day Maillard Dean of the Faculty of Paris made a long discourse and concluded with Salmeron that Marriage is a true Sacrament but as to Clandestine Marriages he was not of Salmeron's opinion For he maintained that the Church had not that Power over the Sacraments as to make a Sacrament that was lawfull at one time to become unlawfull at another He alledged for proof the Consecration of the Eucharist saying that the Church could not make a Consecrated Wafer cease to be a Real Sacrament after that it had been some time kept since it was so at first He went through all the Sacraments proving that the Church hath not power to invalidate a Sacrament lawfully administred He shew'd that in all times private Marriages had been valid and that no man ever thought of annulling them His opinion took extremely well but especially the Pope's Party took great pleasure to hear the French Doctour speaking of the Pope call him the Directour and Moderatour of the Roman that is to say the Universal Church They drew great advantage from that Confession and said that it ought to be observed against the Cavils which the Prelates of the same Nation made upon occasion of the Canon about the Authority of the Pope wherein they would not suffer it to be said that he hath Power to rule the Church Universal The French said that there was a great difference betwixt these expressions rule the Universal Church absolutely and rule the Roman that is to say the Universal Church because the term Universal is onely employed to explain that of Roman and that so it ought to extend no farther It cannot be denied but that the distinction is very nice and fine spun and that the difference betwixt those two expressions is not very sensible it had been as well perhaps if Maillard had frankly confest that it dropt from him before he was aware In the Congregation of the Eleventh of February the French presented a Letter from their King wherein he acquainted the Council with the Victory that he had obtained over the Enemies of the Catholick Religion and at the same time demanded Reformation After the Letters were read the Ambassadour Du Ferrier made a Speech The King of France his Letter to the Council followed by a Speech of du Ferrier and having represented the Calamities of the Kingdom of France and the necessity of doing somewhat to remedy them he said that the proper remedy depended on the Council and that the Council in endeavouring that ought to turn their Eyes towards the Holy Scripture that Christians now-a-days were like the Samaritanes of the Town of Sichar who would believe because they saw and not barely upon the report of a Woman that every body at present studied the Scriptures That they should not think it strange if in their Proposition they had omitted the most necessary Points that they had begun with the smallest but that they had more important matters to propose that if they intended to set about the Work of Reformation they must do it in good earnest and that the Fathers who were assembled ought to consider what was the Success of those slight and weak Reformations of the Council of Constance and that which came after which he was not willing to name for fear of offending their ears He meant the Council of Basil whereof the name is odious to all the Favourers of the Court of Rome He laid before them also that the Councils of Florence Lateran and the first of Trent had done nothing for the Church and in that they did nothing they had done a great deal of hurt and given occasion to a Schism of so many People as are separated from it They gave the French Ambassadour a civil answer though in his Speech he had given several nips which touch'd the Pope's Party to the quick He said that he presented the Articles of Reformation principally to the Council These words offended them extremely because they did insinuate that the Ambassadour made far less reckoning of the Pope than he did of the Council Besides they found that by that expression he designed to have a lash at the Clause proponentibus Legatis as intending to intimate that in Quality of Ambassadour he pretended to propose his Articles to the Council himself and not by the Lagates and this perswaded them that France entertained terrible intentions against the Authority of the Pope and they were the more allarmed because Du Ferrier had said that the French had still far more important Proposals to make and that they ought to make greater advances in the work of Reformation than the Councils of Constance and Basil had done The day following the Cardinal of Lorrain parted for Inspruck taking with him nine Prelates and four Divides but he got a promise from the Legates that during his absence they should not treat of the Marriage of Priests In the mean time they continued the Congregations about the matter of Doctrine The first Chamber of Divines which we have already mentioned having heard Salmeron and Maillard unanimously condemned as Heretical the opinion that denies Marriage to be a Sacrament and in like manner declared Clandestine Marriages to be true Sacraments and lawfull Marriages But there was some diversity of opinion about the Sentiments of Salmeron and Maillard in relation to the Power of the Church in annulling secret Marriages some were of Salmeron's opinion and others with Maillard thought that the Power of the Church did not reach so far as to make a Marriage become unlawfull which was lawfull a very little before Amongst those who maintained that the Church had Power to annull Clandestine Marriages some disputed another Point to wit whether it be convenient and profitable to make use of that Power in the present time But most part thought it best that all secret Marriages should be invalidated and some went farther still and were for declaring null and void all Marriages
contracted by the Children of Persons of Honour and Quality without the Consent of their Parents as well for strengthening Paternal Authority as for preventing the Mischiefs which many times attend such Marriages The Divines of the second Chamber examined the third and fourth Articles which concerned Divorce Polygamy and the Prohibition to marry in certain times Father Soto a Spanish Jacobin maintained that it was not lawfull to dissolve a Marriage nay not for the Cause of Adultery He confessed that married Folks might be separated from bed and board but not so as to allow those who are so separated to marry with others he alledged that to be the meaning of St. Paul when he permits married Believers to remain separated in case their unbelieving Wives will not live with them He gave several interpretations to the words of Jesus Christ which seem to allow a Divorce for the Cause of Adultery but stuck to none of them which was a great Argument that he was not so clear in that Point as he would have seemed to be As to Polygamy he proved is to be contrary to the Law of Nature and for the Prohibitions to marry in certain times he said there was no need to make a grievance of that seeing it was easie to obtain a Dispensation from the Bishop to marry in prohibited times About the substance of the question there was no great dispute but the Spanish Divines caught hold of that occasion to speak of the necessity of the Residence of Bishops that they might be able to give Dispensations with Prudence Wisedom and with Knowledge of the Cause Upon naming the Tie that is betwixt a Husband and a Wife which is like to that whereby a Bishop is united to his Church a Cordelier named John Ramirez took occasion to speak again about Residence and shew'd that it was no more in the Pope's Power to draw a Bishop from his See and translate him into another than to snatch a Husband from his Wife The Pope's Party on the contrary took occasion to speak of the Sovereign Authority of the Holy See upon account that the two Articles which were under Debate stand condemned in the Decretals of Popes They magnified that Authority beyond all bounds and stretched it even to the dispensing against Canons against the Ordinances of the Apostles and against all the Laws of God They alledged the Canon Si Papa which runs in these terms If one surprise the Pope neglecting his own Salvation and that of his Brethren unfruitfull and remiss in his works concealing the good which does most hurt to his own and the Salvation of others though he lead to Hell innumerable crouds of People there to be eternally punished with him Decret Grat. Dist 40. Nevertheless no man ought to undertake to reprove him or punish him for his faults because he who ought to judge all the World ought not to be judged by any unless it be found that he errs in the Faith A Decision attributed to one Boniface a Martyr and Archbishop of Mentz When the second Chamber had spoken the Legates past by the third and came to the fourth because they had promised the Cardinal of Lorrain not to meddle with the Celibat of Priests the Examination whereof was committed to the third Chamber The business of the fourth Chamber was to treat of the Degrees of Consanguinity and John de Verdun a French Benedictine giving his opinion upon the matter took in hand to refute what had been said in favour of the Pope about Dispensations and spoke all that he durst to weaken the Papal Authority He acknowledged that in Humane Laws there was occasion for Dispensations because Legislatours cannot foresee all Cases but he absolutely denied that the Law of God could be dispensed with The Pope said he is not Master and the Church is not his Servant and Dispensations ought onely to be the Explanations of Laws and by Consequence ought not to overthrow them so that the Pope by dispensing cannot take off the obligation that lies upon men to obey the Law James Alain a Divine of the Bishop of Vannes spoke with the same vigour and sunk the Authority of the Pope below a Council affirming that the Power of dispensing was properly given to the Church The Emperour much dissatisfied with the Council and the Pope consults about important Points which concerned the Authority of the Pope and the Liberty of the Council and not immediately to the Pope Whilst these questions were debated amongst the Divines the Prelates minded other Affairs Commendene Bishop of Zante whom the Legates had sent to the Emperour returned to Trent without any Success in his Negotiation for the Emperour desired time to answer the Propositions which the Legates had made to him However this Deputy found that the Emperour was extremely dissatisfied with the Council and that he was resolved to take some Course to remedy the Disorders that reigned in it that he intended to demand a very considerable Reformation and to settle it so firmly that none should be able to shake it He told the Presidents also that he made no doubt but that the Spaniards had intelligence with the Emperour because the Count de Luna designed for the Embassie of Trent had answered those who complained of the boldness of the Spanish Bishops that he could not meddle in it and that these Prelates spoke according to their Conscience They were therefore satisfied in General that the Emperour aimed at great matters but could not precisely tell what they might be These Secrets were not long shrouded under the veil of secrecy for one Father Camisco a Jesuit and another Father Nattale sent from Trent to Inspruck by General Lainez sounded the bottom of these Mysteries They found that the Emperour had proposed seventeen Articles to be consulted by his Divines and Counsellours For instance Whether it was convenient that the Pope should be so much Master of the Council as he was so that nothing should be proposed nor concluded but what the Court of Rome pleased Whether the Pope happening to die the Election of his Successour did not belong to the Council What is the Power of the Emperour when the See is vacant and the Council open Whether Ambassadours ought not to have a deliberative Vote in Council when they treat of matters that regard the Peace of Christendom Whether the Pope could dissolve or suspend the Council without the Consent of the Emperour and Christian Princes Whether it ought to be suffered that the Legates alone should have the Power of proposing What means ought to be used to set the Council at Liberty and to prevent all violence and fraud therein What Course ought to be taken to repress the insolence of the Italians who stopt all deliberations and to prevent their private Cabals By what means ought the Court of Rome to be hindered from ordering what is to be done in the Council And whether it would consist with the Majesty of
set about forming the Decrees and Canons concerning the Matter of Marriage against the next Session In the Congregation of the two and twentieth of July the Legates produced the Canons concerning the matter of Marriage much in the same form as they stand in at present There was no Difficulty about Marriage and the single life of Priests The Emperour King of France and Duke of Bavaria had indeed desired that Priests might be allowed to marry but when the Bishop of the five Churches the Emperour's Ambassadour and the Archbishop of Prague moved the Council to make some more reflexion upon that Point they were scarcely heard Nevertheless the Pope had but very lately before given fresh Promises to the Duke of Bavaria to give him satisfaction as to that matter because the People of his Countrey had made an Insurrection that they might obtain from their Prince the Restitution of the Cup and Permission for married men to Preach The greatest Debates were about Clandestine Marriages The French Ambassadours demanded that they should be declared null An hundred and thirty fix Votes were for it fifty six opposed it and ten would not declare for either side At length the Prelates agreed to Reform the Canon in the manner as now it goes that is that Clandestine Marriages are true Marriages and real Sacraments whilst the Church does not annull them that the Church hath always detested them and for the future declares that all who are Married or Betrothed without the presence of two or three Witnesses at least are incapable of contracting and that by Consequence the Marriage shall be null In the same Congregation the Canons and Anathema's were read the fifth of which Canons pronounces Anathema against those who maintain the Divorces which are permitted by the Code of Justinian to be lawfull that is to say such as are made upon the account of Heresie and refusal of Cohabitation The Cardinal of Lorrain got this Canon added to give a blow to the Calvinists who teach that the refusal of Cohabitation is a lawfull reason for a man to divorce from his Wife The seventh Canon condemns those who assert that Adultery dissolves Marriage At first it was proposed without Anathema out of some respect that still remained for the opinion of St. Ambrose and the Greek Fathers but notwithstanding that Consideration it was thought fit to add the Anathema In the following Congregations there was much Discourse about the Obstacles of contracting Marriage which spring from the Prohibition of marrying within certain remote Degrees not onely of natural but spiritual kindred such as Gossipships or the Relations betwixt Godfathers and Godmothers It was represented that in some places twenty Godfathers and as many Godmothers were sometimes invited and that it many times happens that such not knowing one another for Godfathers and Godmothers marry together without Dispensation and run into the Guilt of Sin Others said upon occasion of the Prohibition of Marriage within remote Degrees that People have not always by them Books of Genealogy so that having forgot their distant Kindred they marry within the Degrees and engage themselves into bonds which by the Laws of the Church are unlawfull They therefore demanded that all these Prohibitions might be abolished or at least that Bishops might have Power to dispense with them that so People might not be put to the trouble of writing or sending to the Court of Rome about matters of so small importance The Council had no great regard to these Remonstrances onely prohibited the multiplying of Godfathers and Godmothers But the Sticklers for the Court of Rome would not yield an Inch in Relation to Prohibited Degrees lest such Condescension might be looked upon by the Lutherans as a gaining of the Cause and might diminish the Revenues of the Pope And indeed it may be said that they made the Yoke of Dispensations heavier for it was ordained that no more Dispensations should be granted in Prohibited Degrees how remote soever they might be unless very pressing reasons required the contrary The Legates propose the Decree of the Reformation of Princes The Ambassadours oppose it This being done the Legates were obliged to propose the Articles of Reformation They offered thirty eight of them which related both to the Abuses committed by Princes in invading the Rights of the Church and the several Abuses that were crept into the Clergy The Cardinal of Lorrain who made it all his business to please the Pope and hasten the Conclusion of the Council advised the Legates to cut off the most part of these Articles and especially those that might meet with greatest Difficulty This Overture surprised the Cardinal of Warmia he could not conceive what was become of that great Zeal which the Cardinal of Lorrain in the beginning pretended for Reformation The Cardinal who perceived his Surprise told him that he ought not to look upon his Condescension as strange that he still retained the same Zeal and the same Intentions but that he had learnt by Experience that nothing was to be expected from the Council concerning Reformation These Articles were communicated to the Ambassadours of Princes and all of them made their several additions and observations according to the interests of the Masters Most of the Ambassadours observations tended to the curbing of the Pope's Authority and putting a stop to the Attempts upon the Ordinaries others drove at the lessening the Authority of Bishops and opposing the Encroachment of the Clergy upon the Civil Jurisdiction The observations of the French Ambassadours were the highest of all for they demanded that the number of Cardinals should not exceed twenty four that the Nephews of the Pope in being or of a Cardinal should not be promoted to a Hat that Cardinals should not possess Bishopricks that all Pretexts of holding several Benefices should be taken away that Criminal Causes of Bishops should not be judged out of the Kingdom that Bishops should have Power to absolve in all Cases that Preventions Resignations in favour Mandates or Mandamus's Reversions and all other unlawfull ways of obtaining Benefices should be abolished that Churchmen should meddle no more in Secular Affairs and that nothing should be done to the prejudice of the Laws of France and Liberties of the Gallican Church But all the Ambassadours agreed to demand a forbearance of handling the Articles of the Reformation of Princes untill another Session The Legates having gathered together all these observations assembled themselves with the two Cardinals Madruccio and Lorrain to consult what they should doe about them The Cardinal of Lorrain was still of opinion that all such Articles as might occasion Debate should be left out and particularly such as were like to be opposed by the Ambassadours The Legates sent to Rome the Articles which they had proposed to the Council with the Observations of the Ambassadours and whilst they waited for an answer on the Eleventh of August they began the Congregations for finishing and completing the Canons
of Marriage The matter of Marriage is pitcht upon In these Conferences fresh Debates arose about Clandestine Marriages The French demanded that all Marriages of Children in the Family contracted without the Consent of their Parents should be declared null The Cardinal of Lorrain seconded that Demand and shew'd the Justice of it by many reasons and Authorities But the Archbishop of Otranto who was always opposite to the Cardinal of Lorrain withstood it alledging that it was to give Lay-men Power over Sacraments though most of those who spoke in this Congregation were of opinion that the whole matter should be laid aside About the end of the Congregation the Ambassadours of Venice came in and represented that the Kingdoms of Cyprus and Candia with the Islands of Zante Corfeu and Cephalonia were under the Dominion of their Republick and that it was the Custome of the People of those Countries who were of the Greek Church to repudiate their Wives when they were guilty of Adultery they therefore prayed the Council so to frame their Decree that it might do no prejudice to the Custome of those People In the following Congregation the Demand of the Venetians was taken into Consideration and many thought it reasonable especially because the Greeks had not been cited and that it was not just to condemn People without being heard Others thought that the Greeks were sufficiently cited by the Publication and General Convocation of the Council But the Party that favoured the Venetians Demand grew stronger by the Conjunction of those who could not digest the Anathematising of the opinion That Adultery dissolves a former and gives the innocent party Power to contract a new Marriage because it had been the opinion of St. Ambrose and the Greeks Fathers The Council therefore found out a mean they did not pronounce Anathema against those who say that Adultery dissolves Marriage but against those who say that the Church errs in affirming That Adultery dissolves not Marriage This was found afterwards to be a pretty pleasant distinction The Council then returned to the Demand of the French about Clandestine Marriages and this head was as warmly disputed as if nothing had been as yet said to it Cardinal Madruccio and two Legates the Cardinals of Warmia and Simoneta held that they could not be annulled and seemed as if they intended to oppose any resolution to the contrary Lainez General of the Jesuits scattered abroad Copies of a Writing that maintained the Validity of these Clandestine Marriages and proved that they could not be annulled This Debate took up several Congregations and to encrease the Difficulty the Bishop of Sulmona maintained that it was a matter of Doctrine because the question was about the Nature of Clandestine Marriages to know whether they be Sacraments and that the Authority of the Church was likewise concerned in it to wit whether she have Power to rescind Marriages and annull a Sacrament and that by Consequence that Point could not be handled amongst the Chapters of Reformation His design was to put the French to new straits because as it hath been observed before many more Votes are required for forming a Decree about Doctrine than making a Decision concerning Reformation Others opposed this opinion of the Bishop of Sulmona and that not without Passion saying that the Power of the Church ought never to be brought into question but that it ought always to be supposed and that opinion carried it so that it was concluded that that Chapter should remain amongst the Articles of Reformation Opinions varying and each Party maintaining their Sentiments with heats Francis de Beaucaire Bishop of Mets had the honour of finding a form of a Decree which satisfied the different Parties And that was it which is in force at present All were almost content with it because it is ambiguous and every one finds his Sentiment therein for it Anathematises those who say that Clandestine Marriages are not true Sacraments and yet it prohibits such affirming that the Church hath always detested them An hundred thirty and five Votes were for the opinion of the Bishop of Mets and fifty six against it About this time the Council was in some trouble by reason that the King of Spain declared that he had a design of setling the Inquisition in the State of Milan This news allarmed all the Prelates of Lombardy and Naples also who concluded that if the Inquisition were once established in the Milanese without doubt it would likewise be introduced into Naples The City of Milan sent Deputies to the Pope to the King of Spain and to the Council for preventing of that blow The Envoys declared that many of the chief Citizens were ready to leave the Countrey because they knew very well that the Design of the Spanish Inquisition is not always the Preservation of the Faith but that its chief Aim is to drain those that are rich and hath no other prospect for most part but worldly advantage This put the Council to some trouble because of the great number of People concerned The Duke of Sessa Governour of Milan finding so great opposition and having had some Information that the Milanese hatched a design of doeing what the People of the Low Countries had done who turned Protestants to avoid the Inquisition abandoned the Enterprise In the mean time the Pope to whom the Observations and Additions which the Ambassadours had made as to the thirty eight Articles of Reformation proposed by the Legates were sent found them not at all to his mind He perceived amongst them Demands that were grievous both to himself and his Court and that made him more ardently desire that a Period might be put to the Council which obliged him to write to his Nuncio's that resided in the Courts of Europe that they would press the Princes to assist him in bringing of it to a Conclusion He wrote also to the Legates that by any means they should make an end and that in order thereunto they should grant every thing that they could not refuse But the Count de Luna stood always in the way and used endeavours to cross that speedy Conclusion he backt the Spaniards and Italians who were scandalized that Assemblies were so often kept at the Houses of the Legates where none were admitted but Cardinals the Archbishop of Otranto and some Favorites but that hindered not the Legates from keeping such Assemblies still Of the thirty eight articles of Reformation they had already left out six at the desire of the Ambassadours and moreover the Emperour's Ambassadours by new Orders from their Master and being seconded by the Count de Luna made fresh instances that the Reformation of Princes should not be proposed that Session which at length was granted so that the Articles were reduced to twenty one And Cardinal Simoneta and the Pope's Adherents took all the pains they could to shape them into such a form as might not in the least encroach upon the Authority of the
Pope and yet give some satisfaction to those who so urgently demanded Reformation The Legates are willing to satisfie the Bishops by passing the Decree of the Reformation of Princes but that causes great noise The chief Design of the Legates was to please the Bishops because without them there was no concluding of the Council The principal Aim of the Bishops was to enlarge their Power and for accomplishing of that design they demanded three things First that they should have the absolute Collation of all Benefices that had Cure of Souls that so the Curats might depend on them Secondly that the Council would abolish all the Exemptions of Chapters of privileged Churches and of Monks or Regulars who by certain Privileges obtained from the Court of Rome had found a way to decline the Power of their Bishops And thirdly that all those hinderances might be removed which Princes and Secular Magistrates bring to Ecclesiastick Jurisdiction calling that an invasion of Princes when they strive what they can to hinder the Clergy from challenging and taking to themselves the Trials of civil Causes and temporal Jurisdiction The Legates were very well disposed to satisfie the Bishops as to the third Point of their Demand because none but Princes must pay for that whose interest they did not at all consider And therefore in the Articles which they proposed they failed not to insert every thing that could contribute to the retrieving of the Jurisdiction of Bishops to the same State that the Invasions of the Clergy had formerly brought it to And upon these three heads chiefly the Articles of Reformation run for the satisfaction of the Bishops But as to the second Point which concerns the Exemptions of the Regulars or Monks the Legates had no mind to comply too much with the Bishops because that could not be done without Diminution of the Authority and Profits of the Court of Rome of which all the Monks hold immediately And if the Bishops made instances on their side for obtaining that Demand the Generals of Orders who were present in the Council on the other hand vehemently opposed it The Legates had appointed a particular Congregation for the Reformation of Monks and in that Congregation divers good Regulations were made to which the Generals of Orders had submitted because that Monks are pretty well satisfied that the Rules to which they are oblig'd should be severe and hard that being the thing that appears outwardly to the World and which gains them a great Reputation of Sanctity and Austerity But after all since they are the Masters of the Monasteries within doors and of the manner how these Rules are observed the Severity of Orders incommodes them no more than they please themselves But for the matter of Exemptions they would by no means have that medled with They liked it much better to depend on a Master that lived at a distance who could not watch over their Conduct than on a Bishop who would always have his Eyes upon them Nevertheless the reason that they alledged for their refusal was the remisness and relaxation that Bishops allowed themselves in their Conduct and Conversation and franckly said that when Prelates were Masters of Monasteries Bishops lived under a far more severe Discipline than they did at present and that times were changed The Ambassadours also favoured the Monks for the interest sake of Princes who desire not that Bishops should have too much power because they many times abuse it Martin Royas Pontal Rouge Ambassadour from the Great Master and Knights of Malta was received in Congregation the seventh of September Seeing every one minded their Interests his chief demand was that the Council would Ordain that the Possessions and Commendaries which had been taken from them should be restored The Legates acquainted the Pope with the demand of the Ambassadours of Malta and the Pope answered that it was the business of the Council who ought not to neglect it In that and the following Congregations the Articles of Reformation were again treated of which had been so many times altered and corrected by the Legates and they afforded no important Debates The third Article regarded the Authority of Metropolitans or Archbishops Those of that Character and such of them as were present were for having the Ancient Canons reestablished according to which Bishops were subject to visitation correction and to the Government of Metropolitans as Curates are subject to the Bishops Particularly Giovanni Trevisano Patriarch of Venice was mightily for the restitution of those privileges but the Archbishops were not strong enough to gain their Cause The Bishops who were far the Sedition of the Bishops they were forced to propose in Congregation the Decree of the Reformation of Princes which was sometime before laid aside and referred to another Session Abstract of the Decree of the Reformation of Princes It will not be amiss to give an Abstract of it that it may appear what the temper of the Bishops was and how far the Clergy would have carried on their Usurpations upon the Temporal Right of Princes and Magistrates That Decree contained a Preface thirteen Chapters and a Conclusion The Preface mentioned that the Council had a design to prevent the enterprises of Seculars upon the Immunities of the Church and that for that end it revived the Decrees and Holy Canons which were to be observed under pain of Anathema It ordained then that the persons of Churchmen should not be Judged by a Secular Court upon any pretext whatsoever though they should even consent to it that Secular Judges should not offer to meddle with Matrimonial Causes Causes of Heresie Tithes Rights of Patronage Benefices nor with other Causes wherein any thing of the Spirituality is concerned whether they be Civil or Criminal that Secular Princes cannot Establish Judges in Ecclesiastick affairs that Secular Magistrates must not prohibit an Ecclesiastick Judge to proceed against any by Excommunication that neither Emperour Kings nor Princes can make any Edicts or Ordinances concerning the Affairs Goods and Possessions of Churchmen that Churchmen should be maintained in their Temporal Right of high middle and low Jurisdiction that Ecclesasticks should not be obliged to pay any Taxes Imposts Tenths or Subsidies that Princes and Magistrates should not have Power to quarter their Officers Soldiers or Horses in the Houses of Churchmen There were a great many more Articles of the same force and that tended to the same end So the Clergy shook off the lawfull Yoke of Obedience which they owed to their Sovereigns and erected to themselves within their States a temporal Jurisdiction over Christians parallel to that of Kings and wholly independent of their Authority The Conclusion contained an earnest Exhortation to the Observation of these Decrees under the pain of Anathema This was the Piece against which the Ambassadours of France had orders to protest if they intended to pass it which they failed not to doe The Emperour wrote also to Cardinal Morone that
good Laws and Ordinances which were made in it After the Ceremonies were over they read the Decrees concerning Purgatory the Intercession and Invocation of Saints Images and their Worship They also read the Decree for Reformation of Monks containing twenty Chapters to which they added an one and twentieth for a shield to the Pope's Authority lest by inadvertency it might be wounded in some of the Canons of Reformation and to leave him in full liberty to dispense with all the Canons The Council therefore declares in it that all the Decrees have been made with intention that the Authority of the Holy See should remain safe and inviolate without the least encroachment upon it When this was done because it was very late the rest was deferred till next day In this second day they read the Decrees concerning Indulgences the Choice of Meats Fasts and Holy days They made and Act of Reference to the Pope about the Index Expurgatorius Missals Breviaries Ceremonials and the Care of making a Catechism At length the Council caused and Act to be read which declared that the Places that had been assigned to Ambassadours ought not to be any ways prejudicial to the Rights and Privileges of Kings Princes and States whom the Council pretended to leave in the same condition as they were before The Assembly was concluded with Volleys of Acclamations to the Praise of the Pope Emperour Kings Legates and the Fathers Heretofore in Ancient Councils these Acclamations or Benedictions were made in a humming confused manner with a low Voice But at Trent they would have the matter performed in its Formalities It was written down read and sung after the manner of Antiphones The Cardinal of Lorrain pronounced the Acclamations and the Prelates answered This action of the Cardinal was extremely played upon It could not be imagined that he with all his Dignities A mean Action of the Cardinal of Lorrain and large Characters would have condescended to discharge the Office of a Deacon or Chanter It was lookt upon as a low and mean Carriage but the French had a worse opinion of it for besides the baseness of the action they lookt upon it as a Crime of State because in the Acclamations there was no express mention made of the King of France for which the Cardinal was severely checkt upon his return At length all was summ'd up with an Anathema pronounced against Hereticks in General The Council consulted whether they should not expresly Anathematise Luther Zuinglius and the other Heads of Parties as had heretofore been practised in the Case of Nestorius and other Hereticks But the Spanish and Imperial Ambassadours opposed that representing that the Princes were rather the Heads of the Parties in that affair than the Teachers that it would offend them and oblige them to make Leagues together against the Catholick Religion The Council acquiesced to that reason and rested satisfied with a General Anathema All the Prelates were commanded under pain of Excommunication to sign the Decrees before they went away which was done on Sunday They were signed by two hundred fifty and five Hands four Legates two Cardinals three Patriarchs five and twenty Archbishops an hundred fifty and eight Bishops seven Abbots thirty nine Proxies for Absents and seven Generals of Orders The Ambassadours had been enjoined to sign also but because those of France were not there and their Hands not being amongst the rest it would have been a Declaration that they refused to acknowledge the Council all the rest were therefore dispensed with no to sign upon Pretext that it had not been the Custome of Ancient Councils This last Session of the Council gave as little satisfaction as the rest hand done for after all the fair promises of setting about a Reformation there was nothing found that could answer the Expectations of People The nineteenth Chapter of General Reformation contained a very Christian Decree against Duels which were prohibited under very severe Penalties Nevertheless it was observed that the Council herein encroached upon the Right of Kings for it declared the Emperour all Kings Princes and Lords who should countenance Duels to be excommunicated and deprived of the Dominion of the Place holding of the Church wherein Duels should be fought It was not thought in the Power of a mere Ecclesiastick Judicature to deprive Sovereign Princes of their Territories and Temporal Possessions nor to lay Commands upon them under pain of Excommunication The Permission which the Council granted to Mendicants to enjoy Lands and Real Estates was so far from passing for an Article of Reformation that it was lookt upon as a great Corruption and as a fair means put into the hands of Monks to hook in the remainder of the Estates of Christendom whereof they already enjoyed the largest share In general few were satisfied with the Acts of the Council The Spaniards were displeased at the precipitant manner and hurry of concluding it without acquainting their King and expecting his answer But France more than all others because they found therein many things which overthrew the Liberties of the Gallican Church President Du Ferrier during his stay at Venice made it his business to make a Collection of them and upon the return of the Cardinal of Lorrain into France the Cardinal was severely censured for having suffered so many things to pass contrary to the Sentiments and Customs of the Church of France It was objected to him that after he had vigorously asserted the Superiority of a Council over the Pope yet at length he had basely betrayed the Cause seeing he had subscribed to the first Chapter of the General Reformation which grants the Pope Administrationem Ecclesiae the Administration of the Church Universal It was also thought that the opinion of the Pope's Superiority over a Council was sufficiently established by the last Chapter which declares that all things have been decreed without prejudice to the Authority of the Pope which is an evident raising of the Authority of the Holy See above that of the Decrees And above all it was thought that by demanding from the Pope the Confirmation of the Council they had placed his Holiness above a Council It was likewise objected as a fault to the Cardinal of Lorrain that in the one and twentieth Chapter of the General Reformation he had suffered the present Council to be declared the same with that which was held under Julius and Paul III. after that France had taken so much pains to have that Assembly called a new Council But the Parliament of Paris in a particular manner complained that he had suffered the Authority of the King's Judges to be trampled under foot seeing the Council had so far enlarged the Power of Churchmen as made a considerable breach in the Civil Jurisdiction As for instance it allows Bishops to proceed against Laicks by Pecuniary Fines and Imprisonments These oppositions that the Council met with in France were every delightfull to those who were separated
wherein Francis Morel was President The Pope on his part did all that lay in his Power to encourage those two Kings and seeing he extremely dreaded a Council and yet passionately desired the Ruine of the Protestants he importuned those Princes to settle the Inquisition extolling and praising it as the onely means to extirpate Heresies The Protestants of Germany interceded with Henry year 1559 that he would put a stop to the rigour of his Persecutions though all in vain but one more powerfull than they stept in for providence permitted that the King of France was killed on the second of July by Montgommeri Henry King of France is killed Count de Lorge who in a Turnement run a Lance into his Eye The Protestants looked upon the death of the King as a Miracle in all its Circumstances they published several small Pamphlets wherein they observed that the King was killed by Captain de Lorge whom he had employed to apprehend the two suspected Judges after that famous Mercurial of the fifteenth of June they added that he was smitten in the Eye as a Punishment for his swearing that with his Eyes he would see Anne du Bourg burnt All these unseasonable observations did onely hasten the death of poor Anne du Bourg for the Queen being incensed by these Libels pressed the Judges to condemn him which they did contrary to their inclinations The Pope was extremely afflicted at the news of the Death of Henry whom he lookt upon as his Protectour against the attempts of the Germans and Spaniards upon the Authority of the holy See But he stood not long in need of a Protectour in this World The Pope dies Pius IV. of the House of Medicis is chosen for he died the eighteenth of August the same year on his Death-bed he commended nothing to the Cardinals but the Inquisition as the onely means of preserving the Church Paul was no sooner dead but the People who had more than a hatred for him rose in a terrible fury they beat off the head of his Statue dragg'd the Statue through the City opened the Prisons that he had filled year 1559 with wretched People and let out all the Prisoners and the Convent of Minerva the Monks whereof had the Charge of the Inquisition narrowly escaped being burnt The Cardinals also took Cardinal Morone out of the Castle of St. Angelo to which he had been committed by the late Pope and all the Caraffa's Arms were defaced torn in pieces and broken down wherever they were found On the fifth of September the Cardinals went into the Conclave the See was vacant almost three Months and the Factions that usually happen on such occasions retarded the Election untill the four and twentieth of December PIUS IV. Philip uses great Cruelty in Spain against the Protestants During that time Philip left the low Countreys and went to Spain he was near being cast away in a storm and being buried in the same waves that had swallowed up his rich Furniture and part of his Retinue When he was arrived in Spain he made it his chief care to choak the Seeds of new opinions that had been sown there the very day he arrived at Sevil which was the twenty fourth of September he caused John Pontio of Leon Son of the Count of Baileno and twelve other men and women of Quality to be burnt as Lutherans He caused the Effigies of Constantin Pontio who sometimes before died in the Prison of the Inquisition to be burnt he had been the Emperour's Confessour and in his Armes Charles gave up the Ghost so that it was thought he did not much consult the honour of his Father in that action for if the Directour of his Conscience was a Lutheran it was strange if he himself was not tainted with Lutheranism from thence he went to Valladolid and caused eight and twenty Gentlemen of the Countrey to be burnt in his presence and committed to Prison Bartholomè de Carranza whom we mentioned in the Acts of the first Convocation of the Council and who was afterwards made Archbishop of Toledo To be accused was enough to make a man guilty in the Judgment of Philip for in reality the Archbishop of Toledo was innocent and the Council held under Pius IV. in the year 1563. having appointed Doctours to examine the Book for which he was accused approved the Book notwithstanding that Cazdellun Secretary of the Embassy at the Council and the Count de Luna Embassadour of Spain both opposed it These Torments and Cruelties made the Spaniards who in their hearts had an Aversion to the See of Rome conceal themselves And certainly the Roman Church hath this obligation to Philip that he hindered the Change of Religion in Spain for in all appearance the Reformation would have made as great progress there as it had done elsewhere At length December 24th at night Cardinal Giovanni Angelo de Medicis was chosen Pope who took the name of Pius IV. Immediately upon his promotion he put a stop to the disorders which the hatred of the House of Caraffa had raised in the City and reconciled himself to the Emperour Ferdinand to whom he acknowledged his Predecessour had been in the wrong There was however some little debate about the Terms which the Pope would have had the Count D' Arco the Emperour 's year 1560 Ambassadour use in making him the Complements of his Master for the Count had Orders to make use of the word Reverence but the Pope would have the Emperour promise him Obedience Cardinal Pacieco a Spaniard advised the Count to stick exactly to his Commission But the Cardinals Morone and Madruocio prevailed more with him and so the matter went as the Pope would have it The Ceremony of his Coronation was performed the first of January 1560. and the eleventh of the same Month he called a Congregation of Cardinals wherein he declared to them his design of restoring the Council He dreaded it as all other Popes had done but he looked upon it as an unavoidable evil foreseeing that he would be so solicited to it as that he could not deny it He therefore resolved to doe the thing with good Grace and made known his intention to the Ambassadours of Princes The Duke of Savoy after an Embassie of obedience sent to Rome to obtain liberty from the Pope to hold a Conference with those of his Subjects inhabiting the Vallies of Piedmont who had fallen off from the Church of Rome These People who before the Reformation had separated themselves from the Roman Communion joyned with the City of Geneva so soon as it had shaken off the Jurisdiction of the Pope The Duke had put a great many of them to Death and sent others to the Galleys They suffered patiently a long while but at length they put it to deliberation if they could lawfully put themselves in a posture of defence against their Sovereign Opinions were divided and part of them took up Arms. However the