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
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
Pope At Valladolid where he was when the News was brought him he caused the publick rejoycings that then were making there for the Birth of his Son to cease but made no haste for all that to set the Pope at liberty onely sent him great Complements of Condoleance for his Misfortunes and ample Excuses for what had been acted against him and in the mean time let him lie seven Months in Prison Nor would he at all have been dissatisfied it the Pope had been brought into Spain that he might have triumphed over him as he had done before over Francis I. But the Spanish Prelates abhorring that design he durst not push it farther onely he obliged the Pope to accept of ignominious Conditions of Peace and for Caution to give him up the Towns of Ostia Civita Vecchia Civita Castellana and the Citadel of Forli with his tow Nephews Hippolito and Alexander for Hostages This being concluded he had liberty to goe out on the 9th of December but he thought it not fit to expect the prefixed day nor to come out as a released Prisoner he therefore retired by Night on the Eighth under the disguise of a Merchant and went to Monte-Fiascone During the troubles of Italy the affairs of Religion went ill for the interest of the Court of Rome for the City of Berne in Suisserland following the example of Zurich Zuinglius's Reformation gains ground in Suisserland Berne and Basil embrace it received the Doctrine Zuinglius At Basil they broke down the Images and the same year the Cities of Strasbourg Constance and Geneva fell off from their obedience to the Church of Rome These new Preachers had the boldness to preach the Doctrine of Reformation even in Italy and in places subject to the Pope's Dominion and amongst others in the Town of Faenza which belongs to the Ecclesiastick State 1528. The Imperialists quit Rome the Pope makes Peace with the Emperour The year following the countenance of affairs was much changed in Italy The French made great progresses in the Kingdom of Naples and forced the Imperialists to abandon the City of Rome This little interval wrought such an alteration that the Pope was solicited to excommunicate the Emperour and to depose him from the Kingdom of Naples but he found his Party as yet too weak to venture on giving so great a blow He had besides other prospects than those of his Allies a great mind to recover Florence and knew of none but the Emperour that could serve him that Design for as to the Venetians and French he was sufficiently perswaded that if they had the better on 't they would leave the Florentines to their liberty He therefore resolved to be reconciled to the Emperour upon any terms whatsoever Throughout this whole year his discourse was so submissive and humble that for some time it was really thought his afflictions had humbled him in good earnest He often said year 1528 that he would goe in person into Germany and there lead so holy a Life that all might take example from him be converted and return into the bosom of the Church year 1529 By this Conduct Clement succeeded in his Intentions he moved the Emperour to compassion who restored to him Civita Vecchia Ostia and the other cautionary Towns and by the mouth of Francis Guignonez Cardinal of Santacroce made him great offers on his part Amongst other things Charles obliged himself to re-establish Alexander de Medicis the Pope's Nephew in the Principality of Florence and to give him Margaret his natural Daughter in Marriage He promised him also assistance for recovering of the Towns of Cervia Modena Ravenna and Reggio which the Venetians and the Duke of Ferrara had taken from him Nor were the Lutherans forgot in this Treaty for the Emperour promised to employ his Arms against them if no fair means could prevail On his own part he demanded of the Pope the Convocation of a Council but nothing was then fixt upon as to that And thus by this Treaty which was held at Barcelona the See of Rome did as it were in a moment recover its ancient Splendour and Greatness to the amazement of all Europe A Diet at Spire where it is attempted to divide the Lutherans and Zuinglians The same year in the Month of March there was a Diet held at Spire where the Roman Catholicks powerfully bestirred themselves to divide their Adversaries and for that end industriously improved the difference of opinions that was betwixt Luther and Zuinglius concerning the Doctrine of the Eucharist But the prudence of the Landgrave of Hesse hindered year 1529 the effects of those intrigues many and great Debates past in that Diet about Matters of Religion and at length a decree was made ordering the Edict of Wormes to be put in Execution in all places where it had been begun to be executed but as for other places where some innovation had been made matters should continue at least as they were without farther proceeding untill the ensuing Council and that in the mean time no person should be permitted to turn Lutheran after all the Decree ordained that the Celebration of Mass should be permitted every where and that no new opinions should be started The Electour of Saxony with five other Princes and fourteen of the chief Towns of Germany protested against this Decree declaring that they could not recede from the resolutions that had been taken in former Diets whereby every Prince was allowed to live in his own Religion and to have power within his own Territories either to establish the reformation or prohibit the Exercise of the Roman Religion as he should think fit And thereupon they appealed to the Emperour and a free Council from this Protestation the Followers of Luther and Zuinglius got the Name of Protestants The Landgrave of Hess attempts an agreement betwixt Luther and Zuinglius but without success The Landgrave of Hesse having in the last Diet well observed what might be the consequences of the difference in opinion betwixt Luther and Zuinglius formed a design of bringing them to an Agreement and to compass this design he assembled the heads of both parties to a Conference at Marpurg which lasted all the Month of October But these Conferences had no effect flesh and bloud came in for a share and both parties were too much addicted to their Sentiments to yield in any thing Some time after Luther wrote to one of his Friends that he would not expose the Princes of his party to a greater hatred of the Romanists by Adopting the expressions of the Zuinglians which were detested by all men And this probably was the consideration that hindered him from condescending to the agreement proposed The first interview of the Pope and the Emperour at Bologna the Emperour is Crowned there by the Pope In the Treaty concluded betwixt the Emperour and the Pope it was agreed that the Emperour should receive the Imperial Crown from the Pope
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
his Nuncio's in all places that they should exhort the Princes to have their Arms in readiness to constrain the Rebels to return into the bosome of the Church for it was not so much his thought to hold a Council for deciding of Controversies as to take from Princes all pretext of dealing with Protestants in the way of Lenity and Mildness The opinions of the Princes were extremely divided as to that particular The King of Spain approved both the Council and the choice of the place but the French refused the City of Trent and proposed Treves Constance Wormes or Haguenau The Emperour was of the same mind affirming that the Lutherans did abominate the Council which was begun that it would be impossible ever to induce them to come or to submit to the Council if a new one were not called He added that he could not undertake for the Empire before he had assembled a General Diet and that for his hereditary Dominions it would be hard for him to make them come to the Council if the Cup and Marriage of Priests were not again allowed them These proposals did not please the Pope he declared that he would never suffer the matters which had been already decided at Trent to be examined over again if it should cost him his life that as to the Restitution of the Chalice and the Marriage of Priests which were onely of positive right he should refer himself to the Council but that he would act nothing of himself alone though he had Authority to doe so The Assembly at Fontainebleau where it is resolved that a National Council shall be called in France and Severities in the mean time cease The Protestants multiplied in France and the dissentions encreased also The King was therefore obliged to call a numerous Assembly of the chief of the Kingdom to meet at Fontainebleau the twentieth of August in the same year 1560. Jean de Mouluc Bishop of Valence who was no Enemy to the Protestants and who wished for some Reformation in the Church gave his Judgment there for a national Council and for the forbearance of Persecution affirming that People were amazed at the Constancy of those that suffered which made them inform themselves about their Religion he was seconded by a great many more and Admiral Coligny himself presented to the King Petitions that had been delivered to him in Normandy which begg'd that a stop might be put to all Severities untill the Cause should be tried He added that having enquired whence these Petitions came they had made him answer that fifty thousand were ready to set their hands to them The Duke and Cardinal of Guise opposed these opinions and rejecting a national Council voted for the continuance of Severities The conclusion of the Assembly was an Edict ordaining the States to meet at Meaux the tenth of December ensuing and that if a General Council were not called the Bishops of France should assemble the thirteenth of January following that they might take their measures for holding of a national Council and that in the mean time Severities should cease That Assembly of Fontainebleau gave the Pope fresh Jealousies and he was the more afraid of the National Council because he found that the Protestants likewise demanded it He sent therefore orders to the Cardinal of Tournon his Legate in France to endeavour what lay in his power to prevent the Assembly of the Bishops and pressed the affair of calling the General Council He proposed it once again to the Ambassadours and represented to them the disorders that would be occasioned by a National Synod but he could not forbear discovering the true reason of the hatred which he bore to these National Synods in which he had not the absolute power They pretend said he to subject the Pope and Court of Rome to a Council but I am ready to lay down my life rather than to suffer it Pro fide religione volumus mori He would have the Ministers of Princes to give their opinions concerning that affair The Emperour's Ambassadour according to his Master's intention was of the mind that the matter should not be hastened too much that a Diet might be assembled to consult about it but the other Ambassadours consented to a speedy Convocation of the Council according to the intentions of the Pope In the mean time the Politicians looked upon all this eagerness of the Pope to be a kind of Comedy For they thought it a clear case that if he could not avoid a Council he would at least endeavour to put it off untill he had enriched his Family and his Nephews and that afterwards he would be willing to give others good Examples of frugality and moderation and bear more easily with the Reformations that might be made in the Council About the beginning of November Letters came to Rome from the Emperour's Court still pressing that the Council might not be called at Trent and that that Convocation might not pass for a Continuation of the former Council because the Place and that Continuation would be stumbling blocks to the Lutherans and would raise difficulties never to be surmounted France continued likewise in the same mind and the Union of those two great Powers in the same Sentiments put the Pope into a great deal of perplexity and made him thereupon hold several Congregations At length he resolved to pass over all these difficulties he minuted the Bull of Convocation The Pope formes the Bull of Convocation of the Council and still chuses the City of Trent and devised a form that might give content to all as well those who were onely for removing the Suspension of the Council as the rest who desired a Council to be called anew He gave this title to his Bull The Indiction of the Council of Trent which seemed to insinuate that it was to be a new Council but in the body of the Bull he said that he removed the Suspension and made use of the word Continue This middle way contented no body and displeased both parties However the Pope did all he could to perswade Princes to be satisfied and sent orders to his Ministers in France to endeavour to remove all Scruples about the word Continue because that should not hinder but that the affairs which had been decided under Paul and Julius III. might be reviewed if the Council thought it expedient year 1561 The opening of that Assembly was appointed to be on Easterday in the year 1561. And the Pope dispatcht the Bull into all places with Nuncio's to invite not onely Catholick Princes to the Council but all Protestant Princes also He sent the Abbot Martinengo to the Queen of England but she forbid him to enter her Dominions though the Kings that were in alliance with her had used all their interests to perswade her to receive him He had likewise designed to have sent a Nuncio into Muscovy to invite the Czar who is of the Greek Church to come to
When the parts that made up this mighty Body the Empire came to separate and to be formed into several distinct States Kingdoms the Bishop of Rome puts himself into the Emperors place and by pretending a spiritual power still retains those several States and Kingdoms in a spiritual jurisdiction to him that were only at first obliged by the temporal power of the Emperours By this means he continues to assemble the Bishops of those several States and to term such Assembly a general Council Let any discerning person judge whether these Assemblies thus formed by accident as is most apparent can be vested with the priviledge of infallibility There never were any Councils that could truly and properly be called General Councils But after all it is a great abuse of words to give the name of Oecumenical or General Council to a Convention of two or three hundred Bishops out of five or six Nations Euseb de vita Constant l. 4. c. 8. When the Roman Emperours became Christian their Dominions did include the greatest part of Christendom but not the whole There was in Persia a very great number of Churches and those considerable ones in whose favour Constantine wrote to Sapor King of Persia Theod. l. 5. c. 33. Theodoret gives an account of the indiscreet zeal of one Audas a Persian Bishop who in the Reign of Isdigerdes burnt a Temple of the Persian God which was Fire and by that ill managed zeal was the cause of a Persecution of thirty years continuance by which an infinite number of Christians perished there by all manner of torments Th. 〈…〉 The same Theodoret tells us that in the time of Constantine the Gospel was preached in India with success by Aeâ—… and Frumentius and among the Iberians by a captive woman It is certain that these distant Churches sent not their Bishops to the Councils that were held in Countrys subject to the Roman Emperours A Council that might deserve the name of General ought at least to be composed of the Guides of the Church of all the Learned and of all those that have attentively studied the mysteries of Religion There is no place in the world could hold such an Assembly nor were it possible to deliberate in it But alas instead of the prodigious number of Guides and Pastors of the Catholick Church a very few and those almost all of the same Nation are it seems enough to make a General Council For it is certain that the Provinces near the place where the Council is celebrated do supply it with more Bishops and Divines than all the more remote Kingdoms put together and yet this scrap of a Council must pass for the Universal Church must be supposed to be acted by her Spirit and endued with her infallibility Than which there was never certainly a more vain imagination Certain it is that there hath as yet been nothing that can be truely stiled a General Council The ancient Councils had the name of General for that they were in time generally owned by the Church The second General Council consisted of but 150 Bishops and those only of the Provinces neighbouring to Constantinople The latter Councils are composed of yet sewer Nations there are only a few Italians Spaniards French and some Germans but neither the North the South the East nor the greatest part of the West are concerned in them I would very fain learn why the Gallican Church should not be infallible should she form an Assembly of a thousand Divines as she easily may and yet becomes infallible when joyned to Germans Spaniards and Italians It is a mystery beyond comprehension It were fit to produce good proofs for the establishment of this infallibility of Councils or at least to shew they are in possession of it by a Series of examples without interruption As for such proofs they ought to be out of the Holy Scripture But I shall not stand to examine or contest the proofs for that were to enter into Theological disputes whereas we intend here no more than Historical Reflections and such we cannot omit as we conceive will overthrow the infallibility of Councils That many General Councils so called have actually erred Those that maintain the infallibility of these Assemblies that they are pleased to stile General Councils would do well to make out this Assertion of theirs from History They will produce it may be five or six Councils whose Canons are owned by the Christian World But what if we on the other side produce twice as many whose Canons are rejected by the greatest part of Christendom It were much to be wished that we had certain undoubted Characters for distinguishing of true from false Councils For we see that such of them as have established errors are the same in externals with those that have confirmed the truth What difference is there between the most holy Council of Nice which condemned Arianism and the Council of Tyre and Jerusalem which but ten years after in the year 335. condemned St. Athanasius and the Doctrine of the Church It was the good Emperour Constantine that assembled both these Councils and that the latter was General appears by Eusebius Euseb l. 4. de vita Constant who assures us that it was convened from all parts of the Empire from Africk Asia Europe and Egypt it fate first in Tyre and was after removed by Constantine to Jerusalem for the more solemn dedication of the Temple he had there built to the honour of our Saviour In this Council Arianism so prevailed that St. Athanasius was condemned and banished by Constantine to Treves What can be said of the Council of Antioch held concerning St. Athanasius in the year 340 or 341 The holy Bishop was deposed in it Socrates Hist l. 2. c. 7. George made Bishop of Alexandria in his room the Christian Faith was corrupted by it and a Creed conceived in different terms from the Nicene Creed The word Consubstantial was left out and other words were used instead of it which the Arians pretended to be of the same signification Why was not this a General Council Was it not as well as the preceding convened from all parts of the Roman Empire Bellarmine confesses it was a General Council Tom. 2. l. 1. c. 6. de Conciliis and it is clear that it was so esteemed for that the 25 Canons made by it have been received and are still reckoned among the Canons of the Universal Church Distinct 16. Can. 11. Gratian not only took it for a Lawful Council but even thought it had been celebrated by the Orthodox What shall we say of the Council of Sardica Socrat. l. 2. lib. in the year 341 the fourth General upon the Cause of Arius Sozomen l. 3. c. 10. There were present 376 Bishops some say that threescore and sixteen of them were Arians Baronius Annal Tom. 2. ann num 67. 347. and retired from the rest to hold a
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
to Henry Arthur being dead the Father with a dispensation from Pope Julius II. gave her to his second Son by whom she had onely one Daughter alive called Mary Henry who passionately desired to have Male issue sought to Divorce her under colour of invalidity in the dispensation This afforded matter for a long and tedious process which depended from the year 1528. to 1534. In the beginning of this year 1534 affair the Pope being in War with the Emperour gave orders to Cardinal Campeggio his Legate in England so to manage the Trial that the procedures might run in favour of Henry thereby vex Charles V. but a reconciliation being pieced up betwixt the Pope and the Emperour the case of the Divorce betwixt Henry and Catharine changed countenance because the Pope intended to oblige Charles by favouring his Aunt This change provoked Henry so that he prohibited all his Subjects to pay any Peter-pence to the Receivers and the Pope by and Evocation brought the Trial to Rome where the business went very slowly on Henry who could no longer indure these delays published his Divorce with Catharine of Spain and in the year 1535. Married Anne Bullen Sometime after News whether true or false was brought to Rome that there had been a Comedy Acted before the King of England wherein the whole Court of Rome the Pope and Cardinals had been shamefully expos'd and turned into ridicule This was News indeed that over-heated the spleen of all those who thought themselves concerned and set them on revenge which made them out-run the constable in pronouncing Sentence the 24. of March whereby the Marriage of Henry and Catharine was declared good and valid and upon that account Henry ordained to adhere to her and in case of refusal that he should ipso facto be Excommunicated Henry on the other hand took the alarm as hot as they when he had seen this Sentence Well said he let the Pope be Bishop of Rome and for my part I 'll be Master within my own Kingdom And so he was as good as his word for he issued out a Proclamation wherein he declared himself head of the Church of England prohibited the paying of Peter-pence to the Pope's Receivers and got this Declaration confirmed by Act of Parliament though in all other things he retained the Roman Religion and afterwards published severe Proclamations against the Doctrine of Luther In Germany the State of affairs was nothing better they began to take up Arms for King Ferdinand had seised the Dutchy of Wittenberg from Prince Ulrich and the Landgrave of Hesse had by Force of Arms retaken and restored it to its lawfull Master The Emperour who feared that things might not stop here was in good earnest angry with the Pope for starting so many difficulties to obstruct the holding of a Council and thereupon wrote expostulatory Letters to Rome But within a few days after the receipt of these Letters Clement fell sick of a Distemper that carried him out of the world about the end of September 1534. PAUL III. Pope Clement dies Paul III. succeeds him Cardinal Farnese succeeded to him and was chosen the same day the Conclave was shut up At first he took the name of Honorius V. but at his Inauguration he quitted that and took the name of Paul III. He wanted not Vertue though the character he went under was of a reserved and slye man Besides all his other qualities he was consummated in the knowledge of affairs having been Cardinal under six Popes and all along employed in important Negotiations he was also chief of the Cardinals as being Dean of the Sacred College which advantages did not a little facilitate his year 1537 The Pope in the beginning of his Pontificate gave some signs of his intentions to reform the Church but little came on 't Also in the year 1536. Fruitless attempts of Paul III. for the reformation of the Court of Rome he made a Bull for a Reformation and named Cardinals to act in it This also was without effect In fine well perceiving that he would be accused of having made all these steps without any design of touching the abuses of the Court of Rome for his own Justification he resolved to renew his design of reformation He named four Cardinals and five Prelates to whom he gave commission to make an exact collection of all the abuses that deserved amendment They observed four and twenty abuses in the administration of Ecclesiastick affairs and four in the Government of Rome of which they gave the Pope a particular account These articles were examined in a Consistory but Nicolas Schomberg a Jacobin Cardinal of Santo Sixto withstood that reformation and having made use of the same reasons which Francis Soderini Cardinal of Volterre had used in the time of Adrian he had the same success that is to say he took the Pope off from all these designs of Reformation year 1538 The Pope calls a Council in the Town of Vicenza where the Legates goe but no body appears So that Paul III. having now no other affair to mind but that of a Council published a new Bull for convocating it in the City of Vicenza under the Dominion of the Venetians and that the Prelates might have time to repair to the place he appointed the first of May 1538 for the opening of the Assembly Henry King of England who slipt to occasion of exercising his pen against Rome wrote against that Bull as well as against the former and made the same declarations as he had done before protesting year 1538 that he no more owned the Assembly at Vicenza for a true Council than he had done that which was to have been held at Mantua the Legates in the mean time went to Vicenza to make the overture of the Council on the day prefixt And the Pope An interview of the Pope Emperour and K. of France being at Nice where the Emperour and the King of France were come to see him and to confer about means of restoring peace to their subjects endeavoured to perswade them to send their Prelates to Vicenza but both desired time to consult their Bishops about the matter So that the Legates who were to preside in the Council to wit Campeggio Simmonetto and Alexander stayed three Months at Vicenza expecting the Prelates who never came of this they gave the Pope an account who was fain to recall them by a Bull dated July 28. 1538. and to defer the opening of the Council till Easter following This was the year wherein Paul III. The Pope thunders a Bull of Excommunication against Henry VIII King of England losing all patience towards Henry King of England let fly a Bull of Excommunication against him The Pope had entertained hopes of reclaiming him by patience and besides that he was loath to let that thunder go out of his hands which men were grown now almost proof against But Henry proceeded so incorrigibly that there was now no
the Turk unless he did confirm the Edicts of Pacification which had been granted to them The Emperour arrived at Wormes on the sixteenth of May where he was attended by Cardinal Farnese the Legate This Cardinal according to the Instructions he had received solicited the Emperour to employ open Force for the reducing of the Protestants which agreed very well with the Intentions of Charles the Fifth who thereupon discovered himself more than ever he had done before and promised the Legate to take up Arms for suppressing the Lutherans so soon as he had concluded a Truce with the Turk At the same time the Cardinal negotiated the same Affairs with the Catholicks and especially the Church-men that were at the Diet promising them in the name of the Pope money and assistance if they would enter into that holy League These Treaties were carried on under the Seal of greatest Secrecy Nevertheless the Protestants suspected some such thing and were the more confirmed in their conjecture by the Indiscretion of a Cordelier who Preaching before the Emperour King Ferdinand and the Legate turned towards the Emperour and told him that by his Character and Dignity he was obliged to defend the Church by Arms. There was Advice likewise from Rome that the Pope dismissing some Officers of War made them a promise to employ them the Year following These Presages made the Protestants apprehend a severe Storm a coming the Emperour however carried it fair and endeavoured to perswade the Lutherans to submit to the Council and to supply Money for the War against the Turk But they looked upon this as a design to drain them under pretext of a Turkish War that so they might the more easily be opprest and therefore they protest against the Council of Trent and persist in demanding a perpetual and unlimited Edict of Pacification The Emperour made answer that he could not exempt them from a Council to which all Christians ought to be subject and that therefore he could not grant them that Peace in the manner they demanded it The truth is he was very far from granting what they desired seeing his design was to make use of their refusal of submitting to the Council for a pretext of proceeding against them as Rebels But it was not as yet time to open his mind freely because of other important Affairs that lay upon his shoulders He therefore left all things in suspence ordaining the Treaty of Peace to subsist untill the Diet which he appointed in January following to be held in the City of Ratisbonne and for amusing the Protestants he granted a conference to be had about matters of Religion betwixt four Doctors and two Judges of each Party to begin in December for preparing of matters against the opening of the Diet. The Emperour caused Herman Archbishop of Cologne to be summoned to appear at this Diet within thirty days either personally or by his Proctor and that because without declaring himself Lutheran he had embraced the Doctrine of Luther and had upon that Foot endeavoured to reform his Diocess both as to Doctrine and Discipline In order whereunto he had in the Year 1543. Assembled the Clergy Nobility and the most considerable Persons of his Diocess And though he disowned all conformity with the Lutherans yet it was easie to be seen that under the Name of Doctrines consonant to the Holy Scriptures he established many Tenets opposite to those of the Church of Rome Most part of his Clergy opposed this and appealed to the Pope as Head and to the Emperour as Protector of the Church which was the pretext of that Citation The Emperour 's whole Conduct in that Diet and especially this last Action extremely vexed the Court of Rome The Prelates assembled at Trent said openly that the Proceedings of the Emperour were scandalous that to decide Affairs of Religion appoint Conferences name Disputants make Confessions and Formularies of Faith cite Archbishops and Church-Men who were accused of Heresie was an evident arrogating to himself a Supremacy in the Church and an Encroachment on the Council which was immediately to be opened The truth is throughout the whole Conduct of the Emperour it is manifest that his sole design was Greatness and the Advancement of his Authority for he let slip no opportunity of invading the Rights of the Pope and the Authority which the holy See challenges to its self The Pope was extremely netled at The Emperour's Proceedings in relation to the Archbishop of Cologne but durst not break forth into resentment all he did was to thwart that Citation by another for he adjourned the Archbishop within two Months to appear before him in Person The Pope will not have the Bishops appear in Council by Proxy But let us now return to Trent where the Prelates made but very slow progress The Kingdom of Naples had one hundred Bishops but the Viceroy conceiving that the absence of so many Prelates if all went to Trent would occasion a great solitude in the Church did therefore name four to goe in their own Names and as charged with procurations from the rest The Bishops who had all a mind to be concerned in that weighty affair opposed the resolution and the Pope who from time to time was to draw his recruits out of Italy according as his occasions did require resolved likewise to withstand the intentions of the Viceroy by a very severe Bull which was already past This Bull ordained that all who should adventure to appear in Council by Proxy should ipso facto incur the censure of Suspension but the Legates themselves judged it a little too rigorous and therefore wrote to the Pope that he would suffer them to keep it secret And this advice of suppressing it appreared afterwards to have been much the safer by what happened in respect of the Envoys of the Cardinal Electour of Mentz They arrived at Trent the 18th of May and produced their Commissions The Legates made some difficulty to admit them because of the Pope's prohibition of appearing by Proxy and the Envoys of the Electour were ready to withdraw and depart had they not been staid by ample Excuses that were made to them telling them that the Pope's order did not reach Persons of the Quality and Character of their Master who was both a Cardinal and a Prince In the mean time the Legates wrote to Rome to represent to the Pope the necessity of qualifying the severity of that Bull who sent them back orders that they should entertain the Procuratours of the Electour of Mentz with fair words and give them the best satisfaction they could but he durst neither recall nor moderate his Bull because of the Viceroy of Naples who had in effect carried it against the Bishops and had got four to be deputed in name of all the rest These four Bishops durst not own neither at Rome nor Trent that they were charged with procurations from the rest so that in the main the Viceroy of
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
to the Pope had owned him for his Sovereign and had received from him the Pallium and Confirmation in his Patriarchship that he had assured his Holiness that the Religion of his People was in all things agreeable to that of the Roman Church that it used the same Ceremonies and that they had Books as old as the days of the Apostles At length he concluded that the People under the Jurisdiction of that Prelate were so numerous that they reached beyond the River of Ganges and that they were partly under the Dominion of the Turk and Sophie of Persia and partly under the King of Portugal At this last word the Portugal Ambassadour starred up and in his Master's name protested that the Oriental Bishops subjects to his Master acknowledged to Patriarch for their Superiour Afterward they read the Confession of Faith of that Patriarch and the Letter which he wrote to the Council wherein he excused himself that he could not be there because of the great Journey he had already made and was still to make but promised to submit to all that should be Decreed therein The Protestation of the Portugal Ambassadour made the truth of this story to be much doubted The Council came now to their Synodal Actions and first was read the Decree of Doctrine containing nine Chapters and as many Canons with Anathema's establishing the necessity of a perpetual Sacrifice and the truth of the Sacrifice of the Mass as being really Propitiatory They confirmed the Ceremonies of that Sacrifice the Purity of the Canon of the Mass the use of the Latin Tongue in the celebration of that Sacrifice the Masses without Communicants the Masses in honour of the Saints and the mingling of Water with the Wine To this Decree the Fathers gave their consent by a Placet except two or three and twenty who persisted to oppose that Clause which says that Jesus Christ offered up himself in Sacrifice in the first Eucharist The Archbishop of Granada the chief of those who disliked that Clause came not to the Session that he might not have the trouble to see a Doctrine pass for an Article of Faith which in his opinion was so repugnant to Truth But the Legates sent thrice for him and at last forced him to come This constraint put him into such a fret that he had a good mind to renew his opposition that he might be revenged for the Contempt that was put upon him in undervaluing his opinion and it is somewhat strange if he and so many Prelates who brought along with them a spirit of contradiction even to the Session should all of a sudden lay it aside and cloth themselves with a spirit of humility and submission So that it is clear that these Bishops The Bishops apparently ill satisfied with the Infallibility of the Council most of them Spaniards and strict Catholicks were notwithstanding very ill satisfied with the Infallibility of the Council Immediately after the Bishop who did officiate read the Decree of Reformation against the Abuses committed in the Mass which prohibited all treating and bargaining for saying of Masses the suffering of vagabond Priests who were unknown or notoriously infamous to celebrate the saying of Mass in private houses to be present at Service in an undecent habit the using of lascivious Musick in singing of Mass the making of noise speaking or walking in time of Service the celebrating of Mass out of the hours appointed for it the celebrating with unusual Ceremonies the having a certain limited number of Candles at Mass and for conclusion it contain'd an exhortation to the People to repair to Mass in their own Parish Churches at least on Holy days and Sundays In the next place the Decree of general Reformation was read consisting of eleven Chapters containing hardly any thing worth the naming onely some petty Regulations to hinder undeserving Persons from being promoted to Bishopricks It is true that in some places the Decree seems to enlarge the Power of Bishops allowing them the Privilege to enquire into the nature of Dispensations to wit whether they have not been obtained by surreption or obreption stealth or wheadling to visit Hospitals Colleges Fraternities Publick Stocks for rellef of the Poor and to have the direction and oversight of all Pious Houses and Foundations but still with this Clause of Limitation as Delegates of the Holy See The eleventh Chapter decrees that whosoever shall seize the Goods of Churches Benefices or publick Stocks of Charity let him be King or Emperour shall be excommunicated untill he have made restitution and that he may not be absolved but by the Pope Lastly the Decree of referring the matter of the Cup to the Pope was read and seeing it was a Decree that related to a Point of Faith it ought in course to have come after the Decree of the Mass but it was otherways because they could not get votes enough to make it pass as a Point of Doctrine it was an order of the Council that no Point of Doctrine could be established if a considerable Party opposed it though it had been carried by Plurality of Votes but that some casting Votes were sufficient for a Point of Reformation And the Legates who were resolved upon any terms that the matter of the Cup should be referred to the Pope finding that they could not have Votes enough to make it pass for a Point of Doctrine thought it the best way to propose it as a matter of Reformation and therefore it is placed in the Acts amongst the Chapters of Reformation This Maxime that we have been speaking of that a Point of Doctrine is not to be lookt upon as decided when a considerable Party oppose the Decision occasioned some Debates and Scruples as to that Clause of the Decree which asserts that Jesus Christ offered himself in the Eucharist because it had been contradicted by a considerable Party for though there were but three and twenty Prelates that opposed it in the Session yet it had been refuted by a great many in the Congregations and not one of them had changed his opinion The Decrees of this Session gave but small content to any the German Ambassadours indeed were pretty well pleased that the Affair of the Cup was remitted to the Pope but the Emperour himself was not at all satisfied with it because his great aim was to please the German People who had no liking to the Pope's Jurisdiction They would have much rather accepted a favour from the Council a name they did not quarel with than from the Pope whom they could not endure But the People were far more dissatisfied for besides the Emperour's reason they thought they were abused in being remov'd from one Judicature to another seeing the Pope had referred the matter to the Council and that the Council sent it back again to the Pope It was taken very ill also that in the Decree of Reformation the Power of Bishops was extended to Pious Foundations which had been
that number comes far short of most part of the Ancient Councils None of the French spoke neither in this nor in the following Congregation because they waited for the Cardinal of Lorrain The Party of the Court of Rome looked upon these new-comers as a powerfull reinforcement come to the assistance of their Enemies and therefore they doubled their vigilance and thought it best to fortifie themselves by new Councils The Archbishop of Otranto was one of the leading men of that Party and one of the most zealous sticklers for the Grandure of the Pope He had a mind to assemble all those who were linked with him in the same Interests but so as it might not appear to be done with intention to treat of business and for that purpose on the nineteenth of November he made a great Entertainment for the Prelates who were called the well affected He that invited them told them that for the sake and service of the Holy See they should not fail to come It was not doubted but that design was laid for making a League against the French and they had certain notice given them that there had been long Conferences about the Subject in that Assembly An action that M. de l'Isle the French Ambassadour had done at Rome encreased these Umbrages against the French for during an indisposition which by some accident had happened to the Pope that had almost cost him his life he began to tamper and carry on a kind of Negotiation that if the Pope should chance to die the next Pope might be chosen at Trent by Nations and that the See might remain Vacant untill the Reformation should be completed that so the Council might be free and that the Pope Elect might accept of that Reformation according as he should find it setled This vexed the Pope to purpose for besides that these designs did not at all please him men do not like that way of counting before the Host and framing of Designs in prospect of their death All these things together allarmed him mightily so that he held several Congregations of Cardinals wherein he desired them to find out some sure means to secure him from the Enterprises of the Council which as he said he considered as his greatest Enemy He was certainly very faithfully served by his Pensioners and yet it was not altogether to his mind for he complained that all the Bishops whom he entertained were against him and that he sed an Army of Enemies at Trent Notwithstanding he continued still to multiply these Enemies for he sent away all the Italian Bishops that were at Rome even to the Bishop of Aosta Ambassadour there from the Duke of Savoy But he discharged the Archbishop of Torre from going thither because in the time of Paul III. he had maintained the Divine Right of Residence with some Zeal and Fervour He made the same prohibition to the Bishop of Cesana because he was the intimate friend of the Cardinal of Naples whose two Uncles the Carraffa's the Pope had put to death by the hand of the common Executioner besides the Persecutions wherewith he had afflicted himself and so had reason to consider him as an Enemy About the same time he dispatched into France Sebastiano Gualtero Bishop of Viterbo a thorough pac'd Zealot for the Interests of the Court of Rome The pretext of this Embassie was the carrying of forty thousand Crowns to the King being part of an hundred thousand which the Pope had promised him for the War against the Huguenots but the true reason was that he might be a Spie over the Actions of the Council of France The Cardinal of Lorrain is received in Congregation he speaks and after him du Ferrier who offends the Council At length the Cardinal of Lorrain resolved to appear in Congregation the twenty third of November The French and he had agreed that he should first make a Speech and then the Ambassadour Du Ferrier At first the Legates opposed this Resolution saying that in this Council neither under Paul nor Julius it had been allowed that Ambassadours should speak publickly in Congregation but onely on the day of their Reception But at length they suffered themselves to be over perswaded by the Cardinal of Lorrain and permitted Du Ferrier to speak The King's Letters to the Council were then read which contained onely Prayers and general Exhortations to set about a Reformation of the Church The Letters being read the Cardinal spoke and began with a long and pathetick description of the miseries which the Wars about Religion caused in France and prayed the Council to remedy them He insisted upon what he had already said to the Legates that they should avoid all unnecessary questions and then demanded two things in the name of the King of France first that they might have some respect to those who were separated from the Church in granting them all that might be allowed without doing prejudice to the Faith and that they would consider them as Brethren as far as might be Next he demanded in name of the King a Reformation in the Church whereof he laid open the extraordinary Corruptions and there took an occasion to make an ingenious Application to the Clergy of the History of Jonas We we are the cause of the Storm said he throw us into the Sea and the Tempest will cease The Cardinal of Mantua made a civil answer to that Harangue protesting that the Council had always been extremely concerned for the miseries of France and would doe all that was possible to clear the truth confirm the true Service of God and rectifie the manners and the disorders in Discipline The Ambassadour Du Ferrier had leave to speak next and spoke very smartly He told them that his Master demanded that the Church might be restored to its Ancient Lustre and that the good and holy Laws which the Devil had stole away and hid might be brought back from Bondage into the City of God He made use of an Allusion that prickt to the quick the Adorers of the Court of Rome If you ask me said he why France is not in peace and whence proceed those horrible divisions that rend it in pieces I shall answer as Jehu did to Joram when he asked is it peace Jehu What peace so long as c. answered he here he stopt saying ye know the rest And indeed they all supplied what was wanting in the Citation by the rest of the Text What peace so long as the Whoredoms of thy Mother Jezebel and her Witchcrafts are so many He concluded that if they endeavoured not that Reformation all the Bloud that should be spilt would be demanded at their hands This Liberty did exceedingly displease the Pope's Party but they Legates dissembled their discontent because they were afraid of the French The Cardinal of Lorrain holds private Congregations in his house which allarms the Legates and Court of Rome It was the Cardinal of Lorrain's custom afterwards to