that for the sake of peace he might well remit them to be examined and setled by a free Council and that by consequence upon his refusing to do it the Protestants have reason to consider as a Party and an Adversary in the Controversie that Council that the Pope hath convened wherein he presided and over which he reigned with absolute Dominion That the Church of Rome having once given Judgment upon the Controversie and an Appeal being brought she could not proceed to a second Judgment But to evince more plainly this truth That the Protestants have reason to consider the Council of Trent as their Adverse Party it is to be remarked that the matters in question were not novel but for the greater part had been already decided either by Councils or by Papal Constitutions or by a Custom universally approved by the Roman Church The second Council of Nice had decreed the adoration of Images Transubstantiation the Real Presence adoration of the Sacrament Auricular Confession had been passed into Laws by Innocent III. in the fourth Council of Lateran held in the year 1215. The Cup in the Sacrament was taken from the Laity by Decree of the Council of Constance held in the year 1414. Purgatory and the seven Sacraments were made Articles of Faith by the Council of Florence in the years 1438 and 1439. In a word there was scarce any of the controverted Points that had not been decided All that the Protestants did amounted to no other than an endeavour to be relieved from the hardships of Judgments already given Truly and properly speaking they were Appellants from the Decisions of the Roman Church to the Holy Scripture How great was then the injustice to set up that Church for Judge of a Cause against which she had already given Judgment and from which Judgment the Protestants had appealed When there arise new and doubtful matters in a Church there is no doubt but that Church hath a right to Judge of them and to assemble her Councils to that end For instance in the time of Berengarius the dispute about the Real Presence was revived which had lain buried in forgetfulness since Bertrand and Paschasius The Church of Rome having not as then decided the matter Berengarius had no reason but to hear the Judgment of the Church having first done all in him in order to the prevalence of truth Had the Church decreed unjustly in the matter he might then have refused to acquiesce in the Judgment for that the Conscience cannot submit but where it is fully convinced that the Decision is in conformity to the Word of God But when a Church hath once pronounced upon a matter and an Appeal be rightly made she hath then certainly no power to give a second Sentence in the same Cause or if she doth no consequence as of a new Condemnation can be justly drawn from it Since therefore the Church of Rome had already passed her Decree upon the Points in question before the Council of Trent we must look upon her as a Judge become a Party as having long before declared against the truth But can it in conscience be thought that the Prelates assembled at Trent came thither with intent to deliberate whether the natural Body of Christ be in the Eucharist whether the Sacrament shall have the Worship of Latria Were they not resolved already ere they came to Trent Came they not meerly to condemn the Lutherans and not upon any inquisition after truth Had they not almost all an implacable hatred to the Protestants Did they not solicit Princes to destroy them with Fire and Sword And are these qualifications to be desired in Judges If it be asked how then the Assembly should have been composed to have given content to the Protestants I answer it should have been as the Lutherans of Germany desired it The Bishops should have been absolved from their Oaths of fidelity to the Pope The Council of Basil did it in a time when there was less need than when the Council of Trent sate The Protestant Divines should have been called the more moderate persons of each party should have been chosen the Bishops should have been prevailed with to lay aside all passion and prejudice the truth should have been sought with a sincere mind and the Word of God been only consulted for it The one might have hoped that persons so qualified by such a conduct might have reached the truth reason 2 But tho we should renounce all that I have yet said tho we should own the Council of Trent for a lawful and natural Judge of our Controversies with the Roman Church 2. Second cause of rejecting the Council of Trent tho it were duly assembled in could not be infallible yet were we in no sort obliged to receive and comply with all her Decisions with an absolute resignation and a blind credulity to which nothing can move one but the fond supposition of the infallibility of Councils Not to descend to an Examen of the particular faults of the Council of Trent it is impossible to persuade ones self that a Council that is to say an Assembly in which there is no Prophet nor any man inspired of the Holy Ghost is not liable to err and for my part I very much question whether there be in the world any one person that seriously thinks so I will admit that to have recourse to an infallible living Judge would be of high importance to the World The Church of Rome strongly supports her self by the artifice of possessing the People with the belief of her infallibility But when it comes to be enquired where it is that this infallibility doth reside one knows not where to find it Some place it in the Pope alone others in the Council alone and a third sort in Pope and Council united Those that place it in the Councils seem to have greater reason than such as would fix it to the person of the Pope For Councils are indeed the undoubted Judges of controversies in the Church So that if there be any infallible Judge in the Church it should be them As it certainly is most probable that the wisdom of many in conjunction should be of greater prevalence and purity than that of any single person The Pope whose Authority is meer Usurpation cannot be an infallible Judge nor hath God given to the Bishop of Rome any power to judge of controversies in the name of the Catholick Church Yet after all that appears so much to favour the Councils it must be confessed that the opinion that fixes the infallibility of the Roman Church upon the Pope is much easier to defend than that which ascribes it to the Council For this latter opinion that makes Councils to be infallible is perhaps the most vain and empty Notion that was ever started I pass the proofs brought from Scripture for each opinion they are much of an equal weight The Text I have prayed for thee
to submit blindly to its Decisions reason 3 3. Third reason of rejecting the Council of Trent That it is a Council of the Church of Rome not of the Universal Church But to leave these general Arguments and come up closer to the Council of Trent We say it is a Council of the Roman not of the Catholick or Universal Church and that we can look on it as no other So that were it true that Occumenical Councils were infallible yet the Council of Trent nor any of those held in the Church of Rome since the Schism of the Eastern and Western Churches would have no right to pretend to this priviledg of Infallibility The Schism of those two Churches fell out in the tenth Century beginning indeed toward the end of the ninth since that time the Greek Church hath had no Communion with the Latin It is true there have been several attempts to re-unite them but without success So that the Greeks have had no Voice in the Latin Councils nor the Latins in the Greek Councils for six or seven hundred years The Church of the Latins is not near half of the Christian Church yet she will needs have it that hers are General Councils whilest the Councils of the Southern and Eastern Churches must pass forsooth but for little Consults or a sort of Conventicles It is a prodigious temerity for a Church scarce more than a fourth of the Christian World to set up it self for the Universal Church and to count the rest for nothing All the Churches of the East North and South the Greek Church the Church of the Abyssins who possess all Ethiopia which is a large share of Africa and the Church of the Russians are say they Schismatical Assemblies they have broken the bands of Union with the Head which is the Pope and are no longer worthy of the name of Churches for there are no true Christians but those that are subject to the Holy See which is the band of Unity This indeed is an excellent Principle According to this Hypothesis all the Christians in the East in the South and in the North are condemned to everlasting Perdition What can be imagined so cruel as this Tenet I cannot for my part believe that there is any reasonable Man of the Romish Communion that dares seriously affirm that an innumerable multitude of Christians believing in Jesus Christ and receiving the Canons of the Ancient Councils are yet in a state of Reprobation only for not acknowledging the Papal Supremacy I know very well that this Doctrine is taught but I appeal to the Conscience of those that teach it and am fully perswaded that they cannot but inwardly grant that such Persons may be saved out of the Pope's Communion And were but that Point as openly confessed as it is secretly owned they must then be constrained to acknowledg that the Councils of the Church of Rome are no General Councils For if the Greeks may be saved it is because the Church of which they are Members is a true Church since all Men acknowledg that out of the Church there is no Salvation If then the Greek Church be still a part of the true Church it must necessarily follow that those Councils wherein she has no part cannot be called General Councils nor can have the priviledges of them reason 4 4. Fourth Cause of Rejection The Council of Trent was but a part even of the Latin Church The nearer approaches we make to the Council of Trent the more plainly we discover the imperfections that ruine its Authority with the Protestants We have already seen that this Council is their adverse Party in the Cause that granting it a General Council it could not be infallible that yet it is not a General Council for that three parts of the Christian Church have no part in it it follows that it is then at most but a Council of the Roman Church But alas it is not so much as a General Council even of the Roman Church It is a Council of Italy and of the Italians it is a Council of some sixty odd Bishops whereof many were the Pope's Pensioners This Council was assembled three several times the first time under Paul III. the second time under Julius the 3d. the third time under Pius IV. In the two first there were not above sixty Bishops present almost all Spaniards or Italians Where then is the Universality of a Council consisting of so few Persons Yet have these few adventured to decide the most important Matters There were sixteen Sessions held during the two first Convocations wherein were decided the Controversies of the Scripture Tradition Original Sin Grace Justification Baptism the Eucharist Penance Extream Vnction Sixty Persons undertake to give Laws to all the Consciences of the Christian World and in things not understood by them They must needs be very blind whose Faith can truckle to the Decisions of so small a number of Men of so little Understanding Paul the 4th was very much in the right to say as he often did that it was great folly to send sixty trifling Bishops to the Mountains and imagine that they must presently have the advantage of discerning the Truth rather than the See of Rome where there is always so great a number of excellent Persons who make the Study of Divinity the sole business of their Life I must confess indeed that there were above two hundred Prelats present at the third Convocation of the Council But how There came some fifteen or twenty from France and not till about the end neither There was yet a few more Spaniards But no Germans no Polonians no Hungarians or if there were it was so very few as could never be thought to represent the Nations For it was one of the Policies of the Court of Rome not to permit to Vote by Nations nor that the absent Bishops might Vote by Proxy and that each Bishop spake only for himself There might be about fifty or sixty or some few more French Spanish and German Bishops the rest were Italians and that rest were three parts of four for there was more than one hundred and fifty Not the Lutherans only but all Europe agreed in it that the Council of Trent was purely an Italian a Papal Council reason 5 5. Fifth Reason to reject it The hatred of the Council of Trent to the Protestants If we regard the conduct of this Council we find from thence another reason to reject it Already we have taken notice with what heat and violence that Council acted against those over whom it pretended to be Judg. It hath frequently quitted the quality of Judge to assume that of being the adverse Party and such a Party as cared not to exceed all the bounds of honour and good Faith The Design of making odious the Doctrine of the Lutherans was apparently the reigning Passion of the Council For it countenanced the false extracts made of the Lutheran books and
the Court of Rome who are our determined Adversaries in the Controversie It is against the Pope that the Protestants contend they dispute his quality of Vicar of Jesus Christ of supreme Head of the Church of infallible Judge of Controversies By the dictates of common sense there is nothing so unjust as to establish him for Judge of a Cause against whom the Suit is directly brought But that the Council of Trent was a Council of the Popes not of the Church is most apparent For it was convened by him he presided in it it consisted only of persons who had taken an oath of fidelity to him and were for the greater part his Pensioners And indeed he was so much Master of the Assembly that it acted nothing but as inspired or commanded by him But it will be replied that the Pope being the natural Head of the Church and having the sole right of convening Councils and presiding in them he was not bound to lay aside his Character in favour of the Protestants who unjustly attaqued him Were a King whose Sovereign Power should by some persons be disputed obliged to divest himself of his Royal Dignity submit it to the fantastick humours of men The misfortune is that we are always pester'd with similies that have no manner of similitude A lawful Prince whose rights are clear and indisputable I confess were not obliged to renounce his Royal State But a King whose rights were doubtful false and contested by a Prince of the Royal blond and by the greatest part of his Subjects were obliged for the interests of peace to be content to sit down as a private person and suffer a Judgment of the validity of his Title Is the Pope a Sovereign whose rights are unquestionable Is it acknowledged genenerally that he hath the sole right of convening Councils and presiding in them without whose Authority no Act passed therein should be valid So far from it that the greatest part of the Christian world denies it It is not believed by the Eastern Church nor by the Churches of the North and South or of the Greeks Ethiopians Cophties or Russians that their Councils are unlawful because the Pope doth neither convene them nor preside in them The Protestants may be also reckoned for something not for their number only but chiefly for their reasons For they bring a cloud of Witnesses to demonstrate that the right of convening Councils belongs to the Emperours and that the Bishops of Rome have not always presided in them The first Council of Nice was called by Constantine the Great and Alexander the then Bishop of Constantinople did preside in it The second General Council was called by Theodosius at Constantinople at which neither the Pope nor any of his Legates were present and therefore cannot be said to have presided therein There is nothing farther from truth Râ—pi l. I. ch â—5 34. than what the Cardinal du Perron is pleased to affirm that the first Council of Constantinople besought the Pope to confirm its Decrees On the contrary the Church of Rome opposed her self in all that she was able to what the Council had done She disapproved the Election of Flavius whom the Council had established in the See of Antioch in the place of Meletius who died at Constantinople while the Council sate She favoured Paulinus who had been elected Bishop by a party in the Church of Antioch in separation from the rest She could never relish the Canon of this Council that ordains That the Bishop of Constantinople should have the Prerogatives of honour next to the Bishop of Rome because Constantinople was new Rome And even in the time of Gregory I. L. Ind. 15. Ep. 131. which was in the beginning of the seventh Century the Church of Rome was not as yet reconciled with this Council For Gregory affirms that this Council was not acknowledged in the West Yet after all the opposition of the Roman Church it passes still for a lawful and General Council To this I might add the third General Council assembled at Ephesus the fourth at Calcedon the fifth and sixth at Constantinople all convened by the Emperours and not by the Popes I might add to all these many other proofs of equal weight but being fallen but by accident upon this Dispute I have no intention to enlarge farther upon the proofs Yet I cannot but take notice that Pope Vigilius being at Constantinople in the year 553. when the fifth General Council was there held he would not assist in it nor did preside therein either in Person or by his Legates and yet the Council is received both for lawful and General There is then already just cause to doubt that the Pope hath such a right of convening Councils and presiding in them as to render them unlawful if called or managed by others But this is not all for a considerable part of the Roman Church it self hold this opinion to be most false That the Pope hath the sole right of convening General Councils and presiding in them All the Gallican Church and generally all that own the Councils of Constance and Basil that is to say at least France and Germany are of this Judgment The Council of Constance could not be convened by a lawful Pope for it assembled it self at the solicitation of the Christian Princes and by the authority of the College of Cardinals for the deposing of three Popes who were then sitting the one at Rome being Gregory XII another at Bologna being John XXIII the third at Avignon being Benedict XIII Not one of these Popes could preside in this Council being all thither cited and there condemned as false Popes The Cardinal of Cambray did preside in the third Session Cardinal Vrsini in the fifth John Bishop of Ostia Cardinal and Vice-Chancellour of the Roman Church presided in the seventh and in all the rest till the Election of Martin V. John XXIII being deposed and retired the Council declared in the third Session That by the departure of the Pope the Council was not dissolved but did still continue in its full authority In the Council of Basil Pope Eugenius IV. could not possibly preside for he was there condemned and deposed and Amadeus Duke of Savoy elected in his stead In the seventeenth Session the same Council declares that during the absence of the Presidents the first Prelate shall have the right of presiding without waiting for the Popes Commission This one would imagine doth not seem to import that a Council must be only under the direction of a Pope or of those that are Commissioned by him I am not Ignorant that the Decrees of the Councils both of Basil and of Constance are had in extreme horror by the Court of Rome But I know also that that doth not hinder but that the Gallican Church and divers others do receive and approve them And that suffices to shew that the rights of the Pope were not so clear and uncontested but
Convention by themselves in Thrace but others on the contrary do affirm that the whole Assembly was Orthodox However there was at least three hundred of them Orthodox that were met together from all Parts The holy Confessour Hosius Bishop of Cordoua did preside in it St. Athanasius was re-established in his See by it and the Nicene Creed was also by it explained according to truth Nevertheless this very Council has not been able to obtain to pass for legitimate St. Austin formally rejects it nor is it reckoned among the first six De. Conciliis l. 1. c 7. Bellarmine indeed so far favours it as to account it among those that are in part rejected and in part approved If the Ancients had believed that General Councils were infallible I cannot see why they should reject this it having all the marks of Universality Gratus Bishop of Carthage was present at it with five and thirty African Bishops more and yet the African Church never received it she took so little notice of it that sixty or eighty years after she had no manner of knowledge of its Canons which appears by the History of the great Contest between the Church of Africk and the Bishops of Rome in the Affair of Pelagius upon the right of Appealls Celestius a Pelagian who had been condemned by the Councils of Africk obtained of Pope Zosimus to be acquitted of all the Censures that had been given against him The Africans opposed it affirming that the Canons permitted not that one accused of Heresie should be tried out of his own Province or but by his own Synod and that the Bishop of Rome had no authority to receive the Appeals of such as stood condemned by the Bishops of Africk Zozimus produced a Canon as of the Council of Nice which permitted Appeals to Rome Tho it was not really a Canon of that Council but of the Council of Sardica The Africans were surprized at it and knew not on the sudden what to reply for in their Copies of the Canons of the Council of Nice there was no such Canon to be found so that not knowing from whence it might be taken because they knew nothing of the Council of Sardica or its Canons there was need of time to clear the mystery The fifth General Council upon the Cause of Arius was the Council of Milan held about the year 354. Ruffinus plainly says that many of the Orthodox fell into the snares of Heresie Hist l. 1. c. 20. And indeed the Bishops that held for Athanasius and the term Consubstantial were in fine banished by the Emperour Constantius Could there be a more famous Council than was that of Ariminum in Italy There were present and assisting in it no fewer than six hundred Bishops of which four hundred of the Eastern Church and two hundred of the West If we may believe Socrates Hist l. 2. c. 29. there was nothing done in this Council repugnant to the Faith of the Church But he is not in this to be credited He thought perhaps it would be a mighty service to the Church to prevaricate in her behalf and deny that this Great Council was of the number of those that favoured Arianism But it is undeniable that this Synod sunk under the violence of the Emperour Constantius and was over reached by the cunning and artifice of Vrsacius Bishop of Singidunum and of Valens Bishop of Mursa The testimony of Athanasius in the Book by him written concerning the Council of Ariminum puts the matter beyond all doubt especially when we consider the concurrent evidence of S. Austin in the fourteenth Chapter of his third Book against Maximin and of St. Hilary in his Book de Synodis adversus Arianos where we find the Letters of Liberius Bishop of Rome to the Eastern Bishops wherein he avers that the Fathers of the Council of Ariminum overcome by the Emperour and by the cheats of Valence and Vrsacius had pronounced contrary to the Faith of the Church but were again perfectly returned from their error and had each of them pronounced Anathema against the Confession of Faith made by the Council of Ariminuw We have thus already five General Councils that have erred about the same matter In the Cause of Eutiches who confounded the two Natures of Christ there were two General Councils assembled The first was at Ephesus in the year 449. convened by Theodosius the younger a Prince truly Catholick All the Patriarchs were present at it Juvenal Patriarch of Jerusalem Dioscorus of Alexandria Domnus of Antioch Flavian of Constantinople and by his Legats Leo Bishop of Rome Nothing was wanting to the Legality or Universality of this Council For to say that this Council was Illegal because not convened by the Pope and that the Patriarch of Alexandria and not the Popes Legates did preside therein is a very vain Allegation the weakness of which however in this place we are not concerned to shew For we oppose not such as make the Pope Superiour to Councils and all the Authority of Councils to depend upon the Popes Pleasure We oppose such as make the Council Superiour to the Pope and hold a Council to be nothing the less legal or less infallible for not being under the Popes direction such as look upon the Councils of Constance and of Basil as most holy Councils tho the Popes did not preside in them and such in fine as require us to submit to the Council of Trent upon its own Authority This General Council of Ephesus tho legally assembled and according to the Canons is notwithstanding a detestable Convention that justified the Heretick Eutiches confirmed his Doctrine and deposed Flavian Patriarch of Constantinople a most holy and Orthodox person About nineteen years before there had been held another General Council at the same City of Ephesus in the Cause of Nestorius who affirmed there was to Persons in Christ This Heresie was there condemned and Truth triumphed This certainly makes an essential difference between these two Councils tho otherwise there be none that I can see as to Form and Externals unless that Error was victorious in the second Council with less scandal than truth overcame in the first For it is true indeed that Dioscorus President of the second Council of Ephesus did with much facility cause the Heresie of Eutiches to prevail the Popes Legats and some few others having been only a little roughly treated whilst in the first Council of Ephesus which is the third received General Council there was a horrible Schism occasioned by Cyril of Alexandria and John of Antioch who made Parties and deposed each other Socrat. l. 7. c. 33. Evagrius l. 1. c. 4. The Emperour was forced to interpose in the matter and to make use of his Authority to appease so dreadful a Sedition It is apparent from all these Considerations that tho the Council of Trent could be considered as a General Council that would not bind us to believe it infallible nor
of Discipline But we shall find this Answer to be a great Illusion First of all it is very hard to comprehend why the Church should be indued with an Infallible Spirit only in points of Doctrine and not in matters that should establish Order and Government For certainly it is of the Essence of the Church to be governed according to the intention of God and of Christ as certainly as it is Essential to it to be guided in all Truth Suppose it impossible to retain all the speculative Truths and therefore that Anarchy Confusion and Disorder become prevalent what sort of Church should we have But the better to dissipate this Illusion it is to be observed that there is no Point of Discipline but hath a strict Union with some Point of Right and that there are some Points of Discipline that are Points of Doctrine likewise and of the first Class too For example the Roman Hierarchy the disposition of that great and mighty Clergy distinguished into Priests Bishops Arch bishops Patriarchs Primates over whom is placed their great Head whom they intitle Christs Vicar and Lieutenant upon Earth Is not that a Point of Discipline All that respects the Guidance and Government of the Church the Persons their Characters their Charges their Dignities their Authority and Jurisdiction are they not of the Discipline of the Church If with this Pretext it should be objected to the Romanists Gentlemen your Hierarchy in the whole and in all its parts is a meer matter of Discipline the Church might possibly err concerning it and it is therefore fit to review and re-examine it What would they reply to it Methinks they would answer that it is a Point of Discipline which is also a Point of Doctrine and of Right At least the Council of Trent hath so defined it and hath treated of the Hierarchy under the head of matters of Doctrine There are indeed three kinds of Doctrine the first are purely Speculative as the Mystery of the Trinity the Incarnation and the Redemption the second are Practical respecting our Manners and of this kind are the Moral Precepts that are the Rules for governing our Life and directing our Conscience and the third are those Practical Doctrines that respect the Guidance and Government of the Church that is to say that there must be a Ministry in the Church that Believers ought to obey their Guides that the Residence of Bishops is by Divine Right that the Pastors are instituted by our Lord Jesus Christ that there must be a Lawful Call to the Ministry that so there may be a Right of governing the Church that such Government may not be Tyrannical that the Church may not withdraw Believers from their Lawful Lords in Temporal matters It is most clear that all these are Points of Doctrine respecting Discipline So that a Council that errs in Points of Discipline that have an inseparable Connexion with those Doctrinals does by necessary consequence err in Doctrine But to render this General Consideration the more sensible I will particularly apply it to some Principal Articles of Discipline wherein it is confessed that the Council of Trent hath exceeded the limits of its Power and which I will make out to be Articles of Doctrine also so that such as will confess that Council to have erred in Discipline shall be constrained to acknowledge that it hath erred in Doctrine and in matters of Faith That the Popes Superiority over Councils is a Point of Doctrine and was decided in the Council of Trent Let us begin with the Article of the Superiority of the Council over the Pope or of the Pope over the Council Few are ignorant with what heat this Question has constantly been argued ever since the Councils of Constance and Basil both of which pronounced the Pope inferiour to a General Council and the Gallican Church makes it an Article of her Faith to maintain the decisions of those Councils But I would fain be informed whether it be an Article of Faith or of Discipline yet I think there is no doubt but it will be avowed for a Point of Doctrine it having always been considered as such It is also certainly a Point of Discipline for all that respects the Form of the Churches Government may fitly be brought under the head of Discipline This important matter the Council of Trent hath decided in favour of the Pope and yet the Gallican Church still perseveres in the contrary belief She believes therefore that the Council erred in a Point of Doctrine I know it will be said That the Council of Trent hath not decided that the Pope is Superiour to Councils Men may talk as they please but things for all that will continue as they are It is true that among the Decrees and Canons of that Council there is none that says in express terms The Pope is Superiour to Councils and can be judged by none but the effect of such Decision is apparent in all the Acts and through the whole Conduct of this Council It is necessary for establishing the Sovereignty of a Temporal Prince that the States of his Country make a formal Declaration and thereby acknowledge him their Master and their Sovereign Is it not enough that they obey him that they suspend their resolutions are convened and dissolved at his pleasure that in their Acts they stile him their Lord and their King and that they own that all they do is nothing unless confirmed by his Authority I believe there are none so unreasonable as to deny this to be of equal Value with any express Declaration of Sovereignty We shall therefore make it unquestionably clear that the carriage of the Council of Trent towards the Pope hath been in all points such In order to this it is to be remembred that the fifth Council of Lateran considered by the Court of Rome as a General Council assembled by Julius II. begun in the year 1512 under Leo X. had repealed annulled and abrogated the Pragmatick Sanction which was an Abstract of the Decisions of the Councils of Basil and Constance made at Bourges in the year 1438. by Order of Charles VII in a solemn Assembly of all the Clergy of France and of the Parliaments The grand design of it was to abase the Pope and to retrench the Tyrannical part of his Power the very Basis of all the Regulations and Proceedings of this Assembly being founded upon the Principle of the Subjection of Popes to Councils But then comes Julius II. in his Council of Lateran and re-establishes the Popes Superiority over the Council declaring null and void all that had been done in prejudice of it by the Councils of Constance and Basil Twenty eight years after was the first Convocation of the Council of Trent Between these there had been no General Council nor any thing in prejudice of that Superiority that was so re-established by the Council of Lateran On the contrary there was something actually done of
Points upon which they were to deliberate telling them you shall speak only as I direct you you shall debate the Propositions that I shall make you and you shall not dare to exceed the bounds I set you Yet such was one of the Decrees of the Council signed by all the Fathers and made at the opening of the third and most solemn Convocation of the Council Was there any thing done to remedy the consequences of this Clause Truly just nothing in effect There was a little Decree made and little it signified to pacifie dissatisfied minds it was that the Legats a little before the end of the Council should declare that it was not intended by this Clause to prejudice the liberty of the Council nor at all to alter the manner of proceeding that former Councils had observed but it is not said that there was no intent to prejudice the opinion that subjects the Council to the Pope Those that shall read this History will find by what passed from the twenty second to the twenty third Session what Endeavours were used by the Court of Rome to slide in a Decree among the Acts of the Council to establish the Popes Supremacy There was a Minute of such a Decree sent from Rome wherein it was said that the Pope hath power to govern the Universal Church Ecclesiam universalem The Emperour and the French joyned to oppose it as easily penetrating the Design of exalating the Pope over the whole Church of making him absolute Master of it and by consequence placing him above Councils Well then and what was the issue of the Dispute The Court of Rome feigned to yield the Point and the Decree did not pass but yet the thing was after cunningly done in another Decree where the very words are used but in a way that seems as if it was without design It is in the first Chapter of General Reformation in the last Session where it is said that the Pope has the Administration of the Vniversal Church These words do plainly signifie that the Pope is sole Bishop that the others are but his Delegates and by consequence that he is the Monarch and Superiour of the Church whether it be considered together as a Body or disjunctly in its Parts If the words might admit of another construction yet the very Council it self did thus interpret them and therefore for a time did reject them tho afterwards it received them by inadvertence And this is another express Decision that exalts the Pope above the whole Church It would certainly be tiresom to the Reader should I produce all the Proofs that might be brought to shew that the Council of Trent hath acknowledged the Pope for Superiour For I should then be obliged to speak of the Bulls of Convocation that were registred and received by the Council in which the sole power of convening Councils and presiding in them is ascribed to the Pope contrary to the Decisions of the Councils of Constance and Basil I should also speak of the Bulls of Suspension sent by the Popes to their Legats by which as Masters and Superiours they impowered them to suspend and to dissolve the Council I should in fine be obliged to speak of all that was done in those two important Controversies that made so much noise in the Council that is whether the Episcopal Order were of Christs Institution and whether the Residence of Ecclesiasticks be Jure Divino But I shall leave the Readers to make due Reflections upon the Legats presiding in the Council and their management of affairs I shall only offer two Proofs but the most convincing that can be The first shall be the last Chapter of Reformation in the last Session In this Chapter the Council declares That all that hath been ordained concerning the Reformation of Manners and Ecclesiastical Discipline is so ordained as that the Council will thereby manifest to all the world that the Authority of the holy Apostolick See remains whole and untouched That is to say that the Pope is not bound by the Canons nor tied from dispensing with them when he thinks fit This is not our Gloss but the Court of Rome's it is the plain intent of the Council that framed the Decree it is agreeable to constant and continual Practice for the Pope de facto does daily dispense with the Canons of this Council It could not more plainly be pronounced that the Pope is Master and Sovereign of the Council nor could any thing be more directly contrary to the Decisions of the Council of Constance This latter Council speaks thus in the fourth and fifth Session The holy Synod of Constance duly assembled being a General Council and representing the Catholick Church is empowered immeditely from Jesus Christ which every person of whatsoever condition or dignity tho even of the Papal dignity is bound to obey in all things that relate to Faith the extirpation of Heresie and the Reformation of the Church as well in the Head as in the Members That is to say the Council of Constance declares that the Pope is bound to obey the Canons of the Council And the Council of Trent declares that the Authority of the Council reaches not to the Pope but leaves his Power untouched One of the two Councils has therefore certainly erred for their Decisions are in direct contrariety to each other The last Proof I shall urge is the Confirmation of its Decrees which the Council of Trent desired of the Pope If that does not suppose that without such Confirmation the Decrees of the Council were of no force as the Court of Rome pretends it signifies just nothing If the Validity of the Decisions of a General Council depends upon the Popes Confirmation it it into Propositions and then it runs thus The Church hath Power over the Temporalties of Kings and private Persons can take away their Possessions and give them to others can proceed to Sentence and Execution by Corporal punishment by Imprisonment and Sequestration can take cognisance of the validity of Wills and Testaments can oblige Laymen to give an account of their management of Donations for pious Uses hath Power to exercise all manner of Judicature and in Matrimonial Causes exclusive to all other Tribunals In a word can hear and determine all matters Civil and Criminal Is there not reason then to allow this for Doctrine Is not Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction matter of Doctrine Hath not the Council of Trent treated of it in the Chapter of Order as of a point of Doctrine If the Jurisdiction of the Church be a matter of Doctrine is it not absurd to say that the Decrees to which such Jurisdiction does extend are meerly points of Discipline Are not the Whole and its Parts of one nature Iâ— the Jurisdiction of the Church considered together and in gross belongs to Doctrine why not the parts the branches the extent of it likewise Thus have we another point of Doctrine in which the Gallican Church and
more dallying It was not enough that he had made himself Head of the Church of England but he also rased and burnt the Bones of St. Thomas of Canterbury who was killed in the year 1171. and died a Martyr for the Authority of the Pope He cut off the head of Fisher Bishop of Rochester without respect to the dignity of the Cardinalship with which the Pope had honoured him during his imprisonment as a reward for his vigorous maintaining the interests of the Court of Rome against the attempts of Henry In a word the Pope looking on him as a sinner hardened in impenitence thundered a terrible Bull against him which had been framed in the year 1535. By that Bull he deprived him of his dominions and his adherents of all their Estates He absolved the English and all other his Subjects from their obedience to him prohibited all strangers to have any commerce with that Kingdom and charged all Christian people to rise in arms against him and his dominions bestowing them as a prey upon him that first could conquer them This Bull though more terrible than any that the Predecessours of Paul had ever thundered yet wrought no effect and hindered not but that the Emperour the King of France and other Catholick Princes made Leagues and Alliances with Henry King of England year 1539 An amicable Conference is appointed betwixt the Catholicks and Protestants of Germany Next year which was the year 1539. the affairs of Religion threatned new trouble in Germany because the Catholick Princes had made a League amongst themselves at Nuremberg as the Protestants had made another at Smalcalde which obliged the Emperour and States of the Empire to hold a Diet at Frankfort In this assembly after long debates it was resolved that an amicable conference should be appointed betwixt the Doctours of both parties to try if it were possible to find a mean to satisfie both Nuremberg was pitcht upon for the place of the conference and the opening of it appointed to be the first of August So soon as the news of this was brought to Rome The Pope was startled at it as being done without his Authority and as being a prejudicating of the Council which he had promised not to expect from it the decision of controversies So that he immediately dispatched the Bishop of Monte Pulciano to the Emperour in Spain to perswade him to annull the Decrees of the Diet of Frankfort and to put a stop to that conference But the Emperour thought it not fit to doe any thing nor to declare himself against the conference of Nuremberg he foresaw a storm coming from France and had the Turk likewise to deal with and therefore he resolved at any rate to satisfie the Protestants Nevertheless that conference was not held because the Emperour had other affairs that more nearly concerned him The Emperess died and Ghent with part of the low Countreys revolted so that being taken up with other matters he had no time to mind this But being obliged to goe into Flanders to settle these troubles his brother Ferdinand went thither to wait on him where both together agreed to grant that conference Cardinal Farnese a young man of twenty years of age seconded by the Counsels of Marcello Cervino who was afterward Pope with great vigour opposed it and endeavoured to ward that blow by promising a Council which should speedily be convened he solicited the Emperour to make use of his arms rather than of conferences which could not succeed and which struck at the Pope's Authority The Emperour and Ferdinand continued firm in their resolutions and the Diet was called at Haguenaw where all the Princes were invited to year 1541 appear in person Many Lutheran Ministers and Catholick Doctours came but the Diet was spent in idle Janglings about Preliminaries and seeing heats began to arise the Conference was put off till October the 28th to be held in the City of Wormes A Conference at Wormes which has as little success as the rest where the Pope's Nuncio's if they pleased might be present The Emperour confirmed that Decree condescended to the time and place and sent thither as his Commissioner Granvelle who carried with him his Son that was afterwards Bishop of Arras and Cardinal Thomas Campeggio Bishop of Feltre came thither in quality of the Peope's Nuncio but this Conference lasted but three days Eckius spoke for the Catholicks and Melancthon for the Protestants the subject of their Dispute being about Original Sin But whilst the Pope seemed to give way to the Conference by the presence of his Nuncio who was there at the same time by his Nuncio resident at the Emperour's Court he endeavoured to break it up This Nuncio represented to the Emperour that it could not but engender a Schism make all Germany Lutheran and ruine both the authority of the Pope and Emperour These Reasons or rather some private interests obliged the Emperour to break up the Conference He recalled Granvelle and adjourned the Diet to Ratisbonne The opening of this Diet was in the month of March next year after The Emperour was there in person and for a famous Dispute that happened named the Disputants himself for the Catholicks John Eckius Julius Fluggius and John Groper for the Protestants Melancthon Bucer and John Pistorius the Electour for the Protestants and Granvelle for the Emperour were Moderatours of the Conference Cardinal Contarini who had the reputation of a learned and wise man was there as the Pope's Legate Upon some points they came to an agreement as upon Justification the merit of Works Free-will Original Sin the Scripture c. but in many others nothing could be agreed upon as the Power of the Church the Sacrament of Penance Single Life the Eucharist and the Hierarchy not to name many considerable points that were not medled with The result of the Conference was communicated to the Diet which the Legate pleaded ought to be sent to the Pope for his judgment and approbation and promised a General Council to prevent the holding of a National Synod This Legate did set about the making of some Reformation in the Clergy but that essay was fruitless as all the former had been At length the Emperour made the Edict of the Diet date July the 28th whereby he referred the decision of the Affair either to a General or National Council of Germany or else to another Diet of the Empire In the interim he charged the Protestants to make no Innovation to keep to the Points that had been agreed upon and that none should presume either by perswasion or violence to draw off any from the Roman Catholick Religion But in the mean time by particular and private Grants he allowed all a free exercise of Religion so true it is that the most zealous Princes in appearance have no other Religion but Interest However they were pretty well satisfied at Rome that these Conferences had no effect but Cardinal Contarini was
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
he concluded that it was not at all likely that all who had laboured therein were inspired adding withall that it was evident enough that these different Authours were not infallible since many faults were to be found in that Translation It was nevertheless still his opinion that it ought to be preferred before all other versions provided it were first corrected Andreas de Vega was of the same mind that there were faults in the vulgar Translation but was notwithstanding of the opinion that it should be declared Authentick without prejudice to any to consult the Originals They proceeded next to the Article of the sense and interpretation of Scripture It was thought that the liberty that men had taken to themselves in these later years of interpreting Scripture was the cause of the Heresies in Germany And therefore the Council purposed to remedy that by barring private men from expounding the Scriptures according to their fancy Some were for admitting all modern interpretation provided it were not contrary to the Faith and that opinion Cajetan had maintained Others thought that some liberty might be allowed to diversity of interpretation provided they did not clash and contradict one another and these last approved the remark of Cardinal di Cusa who heretofore said that Scripture ought to be interpreted variously according to the times and the Heresies that are to be confuted But most part were of a contrary opinion and judged it necessary to confine Expositours to the Interpretations of the Fathers and not to admit of any new expositions A Cordelier of Mons called Richard went a little farther and said that the Holy Scripture was not now any longer necessary for teaching Divinity which is sufficiently to be found in the Books of the School-men and that at present Scripture was not to be read for the instruction of the People but onely for Devotion The conclusion at length of all these disputes was that the vulgar Translation was declared Authentick with a proviso that it should be corrected and Deputies were appointed to make the amendments But sometime after the Pope put a stop to that work which was begun and caused it to be differred untill new orders in fine all liberty of broaching any new sense of Scripture different from that of the Fathers was taken away In the Congregation of the 29th of March the question was debated whether Canons and Anathema's were to pass upon these points some there were that thought it very hard to declare Hereticks and pronounce Anathema's against those who might question the supreme Authority of the vulgar Translation and take the liberty to observe faults in it but an expedient was found which was to make a Canon touching the necessity of Traditions and the number of Canonical books with Anathema's and to refer the vulgar Translation and what concerned the interpretation of Scripture to the Chapter of Reformation where none were to be used In consequence of this it was moved that means ought to be found to put a stop to the bad use that Libertines and profane People make of the Holy Scriptures some in Magical operations and others in defamatory Libels where they pervert texts of Scripture by wicked and impious Applications The Cardinal di Monte was very hot about this being much concerned at the Pasquinades of Rome by reason of the Disorders of his Life At length it was resolved that a Decree should be made whereby without descending to particulars such kinds of abuses should be Prohibited in general terms and all Printers forbid to print them session 4 On the Eighth of April the day appointed for the fourth Session forty eight Bishops and five Cardinals went in the usual order and with the accustomed Ceremonies to the Cathedral Church after which the Decrees were published declaring Traditions to be of equal Authority with the Holy Scripture the Catalogue of the Canonical Books were regulated the vulgar Translation made Authentick and the licentiousness of Libertines and Printers repressed In the same Session Don Francisco de Toledo the Emperour's Ambassadour caused the Emperour's Commission for Don Diego de Mendoza who was sick at Venice and for himself to be publickly read and then made his Master's Complements to the Council which were returned There first Decrees of the Council were ill relished by the Germans and they did not take it well that so small a number of men should take upon them in quality of a General Council to judge of so important a matter But the Pope was extremely well satisfied with their proceedings and that made him intimately concerned for the affairs of the Council fortifying the Congregation of Cardinals at Rome to whom these affairs were particularly committed he dispatcht three Orders to the Legates who presided in the Council of Trent first that they should publish no Decree without first acquainting him with it secondly that they should not spend time about matters that were not controverted and lastly that they should not suffer the Authority of the Pope to be called in question About the same time the Pope excommunicated the Archbishop of Cologne at the instance of the Bishops of Utrecht Liege and of the Clergy of Cologne The Pope excommunicates Herman Archbishop of Cologne he declared him deposed from his Archbishoprick and absolved his Subjects from their Oath of Allegiance to him as being an Heretick and an Abettour of Hereticks ordained them to submit to the Count of Shawembourg his Coadjutour as to their Archbishop The Emperour who valued not the Ordinances of Rome but as they made for his interest did not immediately upon this excommunication break with the Archbishop but for sometime continued to treat with him as Archbishop of Cologne because he was afraid that if he put him too hard to it he might join in War with the Confederates against him whereas till then he had persevered in his Obedience So that that Sentence did no great harm to the Archbishop but wrought pernicious effects in the minds of the Protestants and those that favoured them This does evidently demonstrate say they that the Council signifies no more than a formal Convocation seeing People are excommunicated for Doctrines which ought to remain undecided untill the Council have pronounced a definitive Sentence Nevertheless sometime after Herman was obliged to resign his Archbishoprick The Synodal actions were again renewed in the Council that the matters might be prepared which were to be Judged in the next Session The Pope had enjoyned his Legates to set on foot the question of original sin but the Germans opposed it and would have them to fall upon the matter of Reformation Don Francisco de Toledo insisted so much thereupon in the Emperour's name that the Legates were forced to tell him in plain terms that they had express orders from the Pope not to meddle with the matter of Reformation and because the Ambassadour was not satisfied with that answer but continued his Instances the Legates wrote about it to
the Holy Ghost does not at all agree with that ancient Prayer of the Church Et ad te nostras etiam rebelles compelle propitius voluntates It was thought that the Council had a design to condemn effectual Grace which St. Austin asserted that is to say Grace effectual in it self they also pickt out contradictions therein as for instance in that which is said in the seventh Chapter that Justice is given in a certain measure according to God's good will and pleasure and the disposition of him that receives it they could not comprehend how Grace was given at the same time according to the good will and pleasure of God and according to the disposition of him that receives it for if it be according to the pleasure of God it is without any respect to dispositions and if God have any regard to dispositions then it depends not absolutely on his pleasure They found another contradiction in that here the Council condemns those who say that men are not able to fulfill the Commandments of God and in the second Session had commanded men to obey the Commandments of God quantum quisque poterit as far as one is able because these terms suppose that every one is not able to fulfill the Law of God By these censures it was made apparent that in a matter purely Theological the Fathers of the Council had made use of many terms borrowed from Philosophy insomuch that without the assistance of Aristotle they could not have made an Article of Faith But above all other there happened one unlucky hit to the Council and made it evident that they had conceived their Decisions with intent to please all men except the Lutherans which was this In the Book which Dominico à Soto wrote de natura gratia which we mentioned before when he comes to treat of the certainty that one may have of his own Justification he proved that the intention of the Council was to condemn the opinion which affirms that one may have such a certainty of his being in the State of Grace as excludes all doubting Catarino that was present at the Council as well as Soto published a Book wherein he asserted that the intention of the Council was not to condemn those who say that one may believe that he is in the State of Grace with as much certainty as one believes an Article of Faith On the contrary that the Council favoured that opinion because it is expressed in the twenty sixth Canon that the righteous man ought to hope for a reward Catarino concluded that a righteous man cannot expect his reward unless he be assured of his Righteousness These two Authours wrote several Books against one another on this subject and even complained to the Council that Decisions and Sentiments were imposed upon them which they had not indeed intended The Council was in perplexity and could not tell what to think of this controversie which made People laugh in their sleeve It was thought strange that the Fathers should not understand their own Decisions and that brought the Bishop of Bitonto's Sermon into mens minds who in the opening of the Council promised the Prelates that the holy Ghost would inspire them as he did Caiaphas who spoke a Prophecy which he understood not session 6 The point of the Sacraments in general of Baptism and extreme unction chosen for the next Session Next day after the sixth Session which was the fourteenth of January the Legates called a general Congregation to make choice of the Controversie which should be decided the next Session they had made a kind of resolution in the beginning to follow the Order of the Confession of Ausbourg and the point of the ministerial function in the Church was the next in order in that Confession to that of Justification But because the point of Administration carried along with it that of the Authority of the Council and the Pope which the Legates would not meddle with they wisely laid it aside and favoured the Divines to whom that subject was not very agreeable neither but for reasons far different from those of the Legates for that is a point the Schoolmen do not much treat of nor are well versed in So it was concluded that the matter of the Sacraments which depend on the ministerial function should be discussed for the Chapter of Doctrine and that they might jointly treat of Reformation as had been resolved it was thought fit to endeavour the Reformation of abuses that had crept into the Administration of the Sacraments The Cardinal di Santa Croce had the Change of presiding in the Congregations for Doctrine and the Cardinal di Monte undertook the Province of moderating in the Congregations of the Canonists for Reformation besides these the matter of Residence was again brought upon the stage the Bishops and particularly the Spaniards pressed to have it declared of Divine right But the Cardinal di Monte a brisk and subtile Protectour of the papal Power perceiving that that would make a considerable breach in his Master's Authority presently alledged reasons for having it deferred till another time he told them that that Subject had been handled too eagerly that they ought to suffer the Stirs of Passion to be composed to make way for the Calm of Charity that so the holy Ghost might breath upon them by his inspirations however he concluded these devout Considerations with a plain and positive prohibition not to meddle with that subject for the present This seemed a little hard and somewhat inconsistent with the Liberty of the Council Nevertheless they condescended to treat of the Causes which hindered Residence the most considerable of which is the Plurality of Benefices To begin with the Point of Doctrine abstracts were made of the Books of the Lutherans that they might know their opinions as to the Sacraments in general and in particular as to Baptism and Confirmation The Articles that were drawn out as to the Sacraments in general were in number fourteen as to Baptism seventeen and as to Confirmation four wherein under the title of Lutheran errours were comprehended all the opinions of the Anabaptists which are rejected by true Protestants All these articles were examined in Congregations and great Debates happened about some of them they began first with the number of the Sacraments The Divines agreed upon the number of seven which had been first defined by the Master of the Sentences and then confirmed by a Decision of the Council of Florence in their instruction to the Armenians But they were not of opinion that this number should be determined to be neither more nor less than seven because of the difficulty of defining a Sacrament in regard that according to the different definitions that may be given of it a thing may be or not be a Sacrament There was some difficulty also started about the opinions of some of the Ancients of whom some had held our Saviour's washing the Apostles feet
his Legate at Ausbourg to make but a slight opposition to it and then to depart that he might not be present at the publication of the Interim giving him instructions in the mean time to sow Seeds of Jealousie betwixt the German Prelates and the Emperour and to alarm the Protestants by insinuating to them that it was onely an invention to oppress their Liberty and Conscience and that it was no snare laid for the Catholicks of whose faith the Emperour could not make himself Judge The fifteenth of May that Book was read in presence of the Assembly and no body durst contradict it though all were displeased None but the Electour of Mentz spoke and thanked the Emperour of his own head without any Commission from the rest and the Emperour seemed to accept of those thanks as a general approbation Farthermore on the fourteenth of June following Charles caused a Decree of Reformation to be published containing two and twenty Chapters and about one hundred and thirty Ordinances for the Reformation of the Clergy against the Plurality of Benefices concerning the Duty of Preachers the Ceremonies of the Sacraments and their Administration concerning Discipline the Clergy Schools Universities Councils Excommunication c. and very good Regulations were made in all these particulars but that Piece was as ill taken at Rome as the Interim not onely because these Regulations did in no wise jump with the interest of that Court but also because it is a fundamental Law at Rome that no Secular has any right of giving Laws to Church-men Nevertheless that Piece of Tyranny was born with because it could not be helped At the same time an Act past in the Diet commanding Provincial and Diocesan Synods to be held yearly for settling the Decree of Reformation The Diet ended the last day of June and the Edict was published wherein the Emperour engaged himself to procure the Council to be continued at Trent Much opposition made to the Establishment of the Interim After that Charles set about the Execution of the Interim but was almost every where opposed by the Protestants Frederick Duke of Saxony though a Prisoner refused to submit to it and a little Town in Germany made upon that occasion a Remonstrance which deserves to be transmitted to Posterity If our Lives and Fortunes belong to you said they suffer our Conscience at least to be God's If you were perswaded of the truth of this form of faith it would be a powerfull Motive to make us embrace it But seeing you your self look upon it as false why would you have us receive it as true For the truth is the Emperour had no design to perswade the World that he himself had renounced the Doctrines of the Church of Rome which he had either impaired or qualified in his Interim On the contrary in the Preface he prohibited all those who had till then continued in the Roman Communion to make any alteration in Doctrine or Ceremonies Though this opposition was pretty general yet some consented to admit of that Interim or at least pretended to do so But the City of Magdebourg did formally reject it and in such a slighting way too as obliged the Emperour to declare them Rebels and make War against them They maintained that War a long time and obstinately refused to surrender The Emperour had likewise expresly commanded that no man should write against the Interim and nevertheless a whole swarm of writings came forth against that Book both from Protestants and Roman Catholicks Francisco Romeo General of the Jacobins by command of the Pope assembled the most Learned of his Order and caused a smart Refutation of it to be made It had the ill luck also to stir up division amongst the Protestants of Germany that is to say betwixt those who had admitted of it and those who would not and divided them into two Sects for they who in compliance with the Emperour had allowed the re-establishment of the ancient Ceremonies in that justified their own Proceedings maintaining Ceremonies to be things indifferent But the rest objected that weakness to them as a great Crime and separated themselves from them calling them the Indifferent or Adiaphorists The Execution of the Edict of Reformation which the Emperour had made caused as great troubles for the German Prelates who stuck fastest to the Pope desired that at least he might have some hand in the business and therefore the Emperour at their Solicitation acquainted the Pope with all that he had done and prayed him to send Legates to joyn with him in his design of Reforming the Church of Germany The Pope had it least in his thoughts to become the Executor of the Orders of an Emperour whom he looked upon as an Usurper of his Rights Nevertheless that he might not absolutely break with the Germans who he feared might make a general revolt and lest in imitation of Henry the Eighth King of England Charles might declare himself Head of the Church he resolved to send two Legates not for executing the Edict of Reformation but to give Absolution to the. Lutherans who should return into the Bosome of the Church with power to grant all manner of Dispensations even as far as to allow the Communion in both kinds to those who would confess that the Church doth not err in prohibiting it He gave them likewise Authority to abrogate some of the Ceremonies of the Church and to remit somewhat of the ancient Discipline He empowred them not onely to absolve Seculars Princes and Towns but also Apostate Monks who had left their Monasteries allowing them to live abroad in the World provided that under the habit of Secular Priests they should wear that of Regulars This last seemed a pretty odd kind of an Order and a Mystery that no body could tell what to make of He caused Copies of this Bull to be dispersed that so he might thwart the Edict of Charles and retreive the possession of the power of Reforming Manners and Doctrine which the Emperour would have invaded In execution of the Emperour's Edict some Provincial Synods were held in Germany The Archbishop of Cologne called one wherein some good Acts were made concerning Discipline which were approved by Charles the Fifth but no mention at all of matters of Faith The Electour of Mentz observed not the same measures for in his Synod he made eight and forty Decrees about matters of Faith and fifty six concerning the Reformation of Discipline In things that had been decided he followed the Council of Trent and in the rest the most received opinions of the School-men except in the point of Images where he declared that Images are onely appointed for bare Commemoration and not for objects of Devotion and in that of Saints where he asserts that the honour due to Saints is an honour of Society and Dilection and not a Religious Worship The Nuncio's who were named in the year 1548. set not forward on their Journey to Germany
ever done it but that of Basil the least action whereof they scrupled to imitate they added that the coming of the Lutherans to the Council would onely serve to seduce people because they would not forbear their Dogmatical Cant that on the whole if they refused to submit that safe conduct would be dishonourable to the Council from which they required a compliance which ought never to be granted to Hereticks To remove all these difficulties they thought of giving a safe Conduct in general terms wherein the Protestants should not be named but onely designed under the Title of Church-men and Seculars of the German Nation that so if at any other time necessity did require they might say that by these terms none were meant but Catholicks Whilst they were consulting at Rome about the safe Conduct at Trent points of Doctrine were under examination and that inquiry was not so calm and peaceable as the other about the Anathema's and Canons against Protestants for it was impossible to keep the Jacobins and Cordeliers from going together by tho ears about the matter of Transubstantiation The Jacobins pretended that the body of our Saviour is made present in the Eucharist by way of Production because the Body of Jesus Christ without coming down from Heaven where it is in its natural being is rendered present in the Bread by a reproduction of the same substance according to which Doctrine the substance according to which Doctrine the substance of the Bread is changed into the substance of our Lord's Body The Cordeliers on the other hand defended that Transubstantiation which is called Adductive they alledged that our Lord's Body is brought down from Heaven not by a successive but momentany change and that the substance of Bread is not changed into the substance of the Body of Jesus Christ but that the Flesh and Bloud of Jesus Christ succeeds into the place of the substance of the Bread being conveyed thither from another place Each Party maintained their opinions with wonderfull heat branding one anothers with absurdities and contradictions The Electour of Cologne who had had the patience to hear these wretched janglings said very pleasantly that both Parties were in the right when they refuted and charged one another with absurdities but that they seemed all of them to be out of the way when they asserted their opinions because they spoke nothing that was Sense or Intelligible at length seeing there was no declaring for one Party without offending the other they satisfied them both by couching the Decree in very general terms In the same Congregation they discoursed of many abuses that concerned the Eucharist which ought to be reformed such as are the failings in reverence and respect to the holy Sacrament It was complained of that they did not kneel before it that they let it mould in the Pixes that it was administred with little reverence and that they took money from Communicants This last abuse was committed particularly at Rome where the Communicants carried in one hand a hollow Taper and a piece of money in the Taper which was the Priests see It was resolved that Canons should be made against that abuse and many more of the like nature The original of the Jurisdiction of the Tribunals of the Church with their progress At the same time other Congregations were held consisting onely of Doctors of the Canon Law for handling the matter of Discipline the Head that was examined was that of the Jurisdiction of Bishops The end the Bishops proposed to themselves was not the rectifying of the abuses of that Jurisdiction by restraining it to the just and lawfull bounds whereby it was limited in the Apostles time and in the primitive Ages of the Church on the contrary they would have enlarged it by exempting it from the power and attempts of the Court of Rome That Jurisdiction in the first Ages was onely grounded on the sixth Chapter of the first epistle to the Corinthians wherein St. Paul exhorts believers not to bring their Causes before Infidels but to chuse out amongst themselves fit persons to compose their differences but because the Tribunal which St. Paul establishes in that place was merely a tribunal of Charity which had no coercive power so the Sentences that past there were onely Verdicts of Arbitration which men stood by if they thought fit by the six and fiftieth Chapter of the second Book of the Constitutions attributed to St. Clement it appears that the Bishop and Priests met every Munday for determining the affairs of their Flock And it rarely happened that any one appealed from these Decisions because of the great respect that men in those days had for the Church But after the times of persecution were over the Bishops supported by the Emperours who were become Christians erected Real Tribunals the Decrees and Sentences whereof were put in execution by the Authority of the Magistrate It is said that Constantine ordained that the Sentences of Bishops should be without appeal and be put in execution by the Secular Judges and that if one of the Parties should desire that a Process commenced before a Secular Judge might be referred to the Tribunal of the Bishop the reference should be granted in spight of all opposition either from the Judge or the adverse Party In the year three hundred sixty five the Emperour Valens enlarged that Jurisdiction and Possidius reports that St. Austin was taken up in those trials of Civil matters many times even till night which troubled him much because it took him off from the true functions of his Ministery That Law of Constantine in favour of this Tribunal of Bishops was revoked or at least limited by the Emperours Arcadius and Honorius for they ordained that Bishops should decide in no Causes but those of Religion and in Civil matters when both Parties consented to it In the year four hundred and fifty two the Emperour Valentinian confirmed that Law which restrained the power of Bishops Justinian restored to them part of what they had been deprived of allowing them besides the Causes of Conscience power to take cognizance of the Crimes of the Clergy and to perform several other acts of Jurisdiction over Laics And thus by the indiscreet favour of Emperours the power of the Church which is all Spiritual became a Carnal Dominion In the following Ages the Jurisdiction and Authority of the Bishops got ground apace and especially in the Western Church because the chief of the Clergy were the ablest Statesmen they were commonly of Princes Councils and managed and Civil matters That was the reason that in a short time they grew to be sole Judges of all Causes Civil and Criminal of the Clergy and that they extended their Jurisdiction over Laicks under various pretexts for instance they took upon them to Judge of the Validity of last Will and Testaments to make Inventories and apply Seals under pretext that Widows and Orphans are recommended to the care of the Church
Deacon three Bishops whereas for Consecrating a Bishop three are sufficient and one for Ordaining a Priest How difficult a matter was it to get so many Bishops together and how chargeable must that be especially in Germny where Bishops are very thin and at a great distance one from another These Degradations were performed with great Ceremonies in Pontifical Habit and extraordinary concourse of People The matter was very long canvassed but the Council Judged it not expedient to abolish the use of Degradations onely it was thought fit to find out some way of facilitating them that they might be done with less trouble Whilst the Council was thus taken up the Cardinal Legate had time to receive news from Rome So soon as it came without telling the Council that he had written and without communicating his answers he called the General Congregation and had it concluded according as it was resolved by the Pope that they should grant the Protestants a safe Conduct in general terms and that they should refer the point of the Cup to another Session Amongst the points that were to be handled again the Communion of young Children was one and the Article of retrenching the Cup was divided into three others thereby to multiply them and that they might not be necessitated to resume a Controversie which had already been decided for one point omitted or forgot session 13 Thirteenth Session the eleventh of October 1551 The eleventh of October the Session was held with the usual Ceremonies Mass was said by the Bishop of Majorca and the Sermon Preached by the Archbishop of Torne Then were read the Decree the Chapters of Doctrine the Canons and the Anathema's for asserting the Real Presence the Sacramental Manducation Transubstantiation the Concomitancy the Adoration of the Sacrament the Reservation of the Kinds the Necessity of Confession and the other points that were opposed by the Lutherans and Protestants The Decree of Reformation began with a grave Exhortation to Bishops to use their Jurisdiction moderately then it ordained that it should not be lawfull to Appeal from the Judgment of Bishops before Definitive Sentence That when there is place for an Appeal and that the Pope shall grant Commission in partibus that is on the Places that none shall be Commissionated but the Metropolitan or his great Vicar and if they be suspected that none can be Commissionated but neighbouring Bishops To lessen the difficulty of Degradations it ordained that one Bishop with as many Abbots as the Canons required Bishops might Degrade Clerks To satisfie the Bishops as to Exemptions it ordained that the Bishops might Judge of these Exemptions and of Favours obtained upon false Suggestions and annull them in quality of Subdelegates of the holy See But the Council reserved to the Pope the Cognisance of greater Causes and that the Causes of Bishops wherein the nature of the crime required Personal appearance should be brought before the Pope and be determined by him In the same Decree of Reformation there were some other Regulations that tended a little to the satisfaction of the Bishops that they might the more casily bear the Yoke of the Church of Rome but in all those places where any thing of Authority was granted them they had no power to act but in quality of the Delegates of the holy See After that a Decree for deferring the Article of the Cup and the Safe-conduct which the Council granted the Protestants were publickly read The Ambassadours of the Electour of Brandenburg a Protestant Prince appear at the Council At the same Session appeared Christopher Strasfen and John Hofman Ambassadours from Joachim Electour of Brandenburg a Protestant Prince Christopher Strasfen one of the Ambassadours made a long speech wherein in very civil but general terms he assured the Fathers of the Council of the respect his Master had for them and mentioned nothing at all of the matter of Religion The Council made answer by their Promooter and amongst other things told him that with much Joy the Fathers had heard from his mouth that that Prince submitted to the Council and promised to obey its Decrees In the mean while the Ambassadour had said no such thing but they thought they had gained a great point in so interpreting the Complements and civil Expressions that the Ambassadour had made use of All men made observations upon the Conduct of the Electour and the Council It was easily perceived that the Electour intended to observe the best measures he could with the Council that the Court of Rome might not cross the Election of his Son Frederick to the Archbishoprick of Magdebourg which had been made by the Chapter but the prudence of the Council was much more admired who had so dextrously turned the sense of the Electour's Complements to an engagement of submission According to the intimation that was made to the Abbot of Bellosana they intended to have given an answer to the King of France but no Abbot appeared he returned by order of his Master immediately after he had made his Protestation It was not the mind of the Court of France that the Ambassadour should expect the Session to enter into a debate which could not in the conclusion but be of troublesome consequence since the Pope and Spaniards who were the Parties in that affair must also have been the Judges The Apparitours made a Proclamation at the Church-door that if any one was there for the most Christian King he should appear but though no man appeared yet the answer was read which contained Complaints of the King's proceedings and Protestations on the part of the Council that they wore not assembled upon any private interest but for the general good of all Christendom and the extirpation of Heresies after all they prayed him to send his Prelates to the Council not to make use of any other means but to think of his Name of the most Christian King and to sacrifice his particular Quarrels to the general good of Christendom The Decrees of the Session were forthwith printed and all People reflected upon them according to their several Passions and Interests The Protestants failed not to observe a contradiction betwixt the first Chapter of Doctrine and the sourth with the second Canon In the first Chapter the Council saith that hardly can one express the manner of the Real Presence of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist and in the sourth Chapter it saith that that manner hath been convenienter proprie called Transubstantiation and in the second Canon the Council saith that it is apâ—issime called so it was likewise thought that the Council had made use of a kind of an improper and incommodious expression as to the point of Consecration because it says that Jesus Christ after the Benediction declared that that which he gave was his Real Body which seems to insinuate that the change was made by the Benediction so that these words This is my Body could be no more but a
Declaration of the change that was made when the Bread was blest Now that would overthrow the universal belief of the Church of Rome that the change is made by these words hoc est corpus meum which were not pronounced but in the distribution of the Bread and sometime after the Benediction The Priests were very ill satisfied that their Yoke was made heavier by enlarging the Authority of the Bishops over them but above all others the Protestants were dissatisfied at the Decree which was made to delay the examination of the point of the Cup in their Favour Because that supposed that they had consented to admit of all the other Decrees of the Council of Trent and that they onely dissented about this whereas they had always demanded that they should all be reviewed Nor were they satisfied neither with the Safe-conduct suspecting it to be a Cheat all over but chiefly the limitation that was in it in these words in as much as belongs to the Council They looked upon that as a Back-door that the Pope had reserved to himself in case he intended to use violence And therefore without concerting together any resolution they gave about by word of Mouth one from another That they ought not to accept of any Safe-conduct but in the Form that was granted to the Bohemians by the Council of Basil that is to say that it should be absolute without any Reservation that the Council should engage in writing to decide the Controversies by the Scripture and concluded that if this were denied them they should have good reason to recall the promise that they had made to the Emperour of going and submitting to the Council The point of Penance is chosen for the next Session The day following a general Congregation was held for adjusting the point of Penance which was to be handled and decided in the next Session It was moved in the first place that the Divines had transgressed the Laws that had been prescribed to them for their Disputations that they had not avoided the Quirks of the School and nice Questions which had produced scandalous Debates Therefore the Order was renewed for obliging the Divines to prove their Propositions by Scripture the Fathers the Tradition of the Church Councils and the Decisions of Popes But that took as little effect as the rest of the Orders of that nature and particularly of confining the Disputants to a certain time that they should not be tedious in their Discourses They who were deputed to make the Abstracts drew twelve Articles out of the Books of Luther concerning Penance and four about Extreme Unction which were delivered to the Divines and submitted to their Censure For preventing of quarrels that might arise amongst the Divines the Council regulated the Order wherein every one of them should speak the Pope's Divines were to speak first then those of the Emperour and next the Divines of Louvain after them the Divines of the Queen of Hungary then those of the Electours in the Order of the Precedency of their Princes the Secular Priests according to the Order of their Promotion and last of all the Monks or Regulars one after another according to the dignity of their Orders It was also ordained that the Congregations should be held twice a day in the Morning and Afternoon Afterward there was a Collection made of fifteen Articles concerning Reformation to employ the Congregations of the Canonists The Nuncio Bishop of Verona had the charge of presiding in the Congregation of Doctrine and the Archbishop of Siponto the other Nuncio in that of Reformation Whilst these things were carried on at Trent the Pope renewed his Instances with the Switzers to perswade them to send their Divines to the Council and the King of France disswaded them by his Ambassadour Morlay wherein he succeeded by the help and assistance of Vergerio who had formerly been the Pope's Nuncio and was then a Minister in the Countrey of the Grisons And so neither Catholicks nor Protestants sent to the Council nay the Grisons recalled Thomans Plante Bishop of Coira who was at Trent In the following Congregations the matters that had been proposed were examined the Order that had been made concerning the way of examination and the trouble that they had put themselves to to mark the Heads from whence the Proofs were to be taken served for no other end but to multiply discourse and render the disputes more ridiculous The School-way came still in play and because at the same time they would obey the Regulation that ordered them to draw their Proofs from Scripture the Divines puzled themselves to find them out but they applied the Texts in a sense quite different from the true and at every turn put them to the Rack For instance as to the point of Confession there was not a place in the Psalms or any where else in Scripture where the words Confess and Confession did occur but what they interpreted in favour of Auricular Confession and this was the Head they laid greatest stress upon Several Figures of the Old Testament were made to authorise this Confession and a prodigious number of Miracles were alledged both Ancient and Modern which has been wrought either in favour of the Votaries of Confession or against those that slighted it In sine one may safely say that the disputes about this subject wanted both judgment and choice and were ever now and then childish and insipid The disputes being ended the Decree which is to be seen in the Acts of the Council was made and that contained nine Chapters about Penance and three concerning Extreme Unction The first Chapter treats of the necessity and institution of the Sacrament of Penance the second of the difference betwixt the Sacrament of Baptism and that of Penance the third of the parts and fruits of that Sacrament the fourth of Contrition the fifth of Confession the sixth of the Minister of that Sacrament the seventh of Cases reserved the eighth of the necessity and benefit of Satisfaction and the ninth of the works of Satisfaction As to Extreme Unction the first Chapter speaks of the institution of that Sacrament the second of its effect and the third of the minister thereof To these were added fifteen Canons as to the matter of Penance and four about Extreme Unction They could not meet with the same good luck nor use the same art about this matter as they had found in the former Sessions that is Opposition of the Divines as to the Decrees that concern Penance the President takes no notice of it so to frame the Decrees and Canons as to satisfie all the different Parties and make them find their own opinions in them The Divines of Louvain opposed the Chapter and Canon which appointed a Reservation of certain Cases as pensations should be of no force The Bishops also complained that Titular Bishops with a Privilege obtained from the Court of Rome retired into Places out of the Bishop's
of ordaining and confirming belongs not to the Bishop alone excluding the Priest and whether they who thrust themselves into the Ministry without Canonical Ordination are true Ministers 8. Whether Bishops established and installed by the Pope's Authority be lawfull or whether it be necessary that they be established in a Canonical manner The Congregations about these Points began the twenty third of September and were continued untill the second of October The first of the four Congregations examined the first two Articles And all the Divines unanimously agreed that Orders is a true Sacrament For proof of this they brought the Text of St. Paul in the thirteenth Chapter of the Epistle to the Romans and first Verse let every Soul be subject unto the higher Powers quae sunt à Deo ordinata sunt This Argument is somewhat odd as any man may see But yet it is much odder if you 'll take notice that the stress of it rests upon the distinction that was marked in the vulgar Latin by a Comma betwixt these words quae sunt à Deo and those other ordinata sunt The Powers that are of God are ordained that is to say according to the Gloss of these Gentlemen have received the Sacrament of Orders For all that Gloss a man must be very sharp-sighted to see into the force of that Argument and indeed to make good sense of it The opinions were not so uniform as to the second Article to wit whether Orders be one or more Sacraments Peter Soto a Jacobin held that there were as many distinct Sacraments in Orders as there are different Orders to wit seven and for proof of that he found in the Gospel that our Saviour Jesus Christ before he came to the Office of Priest or Sacrificer had gone through all the Inferiour Orders as of Chanter Acolite Porter Reader Deacon and Subdeacon and that he had discharged all these several Employments But the History seemed somewhat uncouth to those who had not read the Gospel with so much attention as that honest Monk had Another Jacobin called Girolamo Bravo was not of that opinion but after a long discourse concluded that it ought not to be decided that the seven Orders make so many distinct Sacraments because of the great diversity of opinions that occur on that Subject amongst the Divines and the ancient and modern Pontifical Doctours he alledged it would be impossible to fix a solid Judgment concerning the nature of Inferiour Orders not excepting even the Deaconship and Subdeaconship because of that variety of opinions He farther added that the common opinion that the lesser Orders are steps to ascend to Priesthood was not very sure and brought several instances from Antiquity of some who had discharged the Office of a Priest without passing through the inferiour Orders The Germans and Spaniards unite to set forward the work of Reformation When this Congregation was up and the Prelates who had been present in it were gone the Bishop of the five Churches stayed behind in the Chamber with some Hungarian Polish and Spanish Prelates He entertained them in discourse and earnestly exhorted them to join together in the design of Reformation to which the Legates would not hearken The Archbishop of Granada then present made answer and thanking the Bishop of the five Churches for his exhortation said that he would assemble the Spaniards to consult about it In effect the Spanish Prelates did meet and concluded that they ought zealously to bestir themselves for that Reformation and that it was necessary to begin at the Court of Rome the corruption whereof was spread over all the rest of the Church They discoursed angrily of the attempts that were daily committed upon the Authority of Bishops and Den Bartholomè Archbishop of Braganza added that the Cardinals must be brought back to their primitive institution that untill the tenth Century they had been no more than ordinary Priests that afterward they had risen by degrees though in the twelfth Century they had been still inferiour to Bishops but that at present the Cardinals were so far above them that they thought they did Bishops a great deal of honour to admit them amongst their domestick Servants But above all things it was resolved at that meeting that they should urge Episcopacy to be declared of Divine Right and cause it to be defined that Bishops held their Authority immediately from Jesus Christ and not from the Pope They found occasion by the seventh of the Articles that had been proposed to enter upon that question Because the intent of that Article being to define that the Bishop is Superiour to the Priest it must be known by what Right he is Superiour whether Divine or Humane They were in hopes to get it defined that the Bishop is Superiour to the Priest by Divine Right and then they imagined that by degrees they might proceed to more important Propositions They therefore chose six of their number Archbishops and Bishops to digest into Order the Heads of Reformation which they ought to press Martin of Cordova Bishop of Tortosa had almost spoilt all their measures because he kept intelligence with the Pope's Party and gave them notice of the intentions of the Spaniards But for all that the Archbishops of Granada and Braganza made a Proposal to the Legates that the Question of the Authority of Bishops and their Superiority over Priests might be brought upon the Stage again a question that had been heretofore proposed in the same Council under Julius III. and decided in the affirmative that a Bishop is of Divine Right but because of the Rupture of the Council left among the Decrees not published The Legates rejected that Proposition and said that it was not a Controversie betwixt the Hereticks and Catholicks and so that it ought not to be medled with The Archbishop of Granada answered that it was the very thing which the Lutherans denied that that difference which is betwixt a Bishop and a Priest is of Divine Right and derived from Jesus Christ they pretending that it is a mere Humane Institution In this Debate the Legates and Archbishop came to pretty high words but he got no ground by it The Spaniards therefore resolved to have the Proposal made by their Divines but on the other hand the Legates slyly raised a report amongst the Divines that that question was laid aside as not to be medled with Whilst things proceeded in this manner the second Congregation consisting of Divines and Doctours of the Canon Law examined the two next Articles one whereof related to the Hierarchy to wit whether it be lawfull and holy and whether the People and Magistrates have right to give their Votes for the Ordination of their Pastours A Canon of Valentia called Thomas Dassio spoke much and used his utmost endeavours to prove 1. That without gross ignorance in Antiquity it could not be doubted but that the Hierarchy was most holy and good 2. That Episcopacy was an Order
of a peculiar Gift and Character These Points were handled in so dry knotty and tedious a manner that the Prelates who were present at the Disputations were quite sick of them and that made them resolve to be short about these differences and to define nothing but in general terms The sixth Article concerned the Unctions and the other Ceremonies of Ordination to know whether they were essential to that Sacrament That was not so easily agreed upon All the Divines were satisfied indeed to make a distinction betwixt those which were of absolute necessity and those which were less necessary but when it came to be determined which were the less necessary Ceremonies opinions varied extremely A Portuguese Divine Doctor of the Canon Law called Melchior Cornelio shew'd that the Imposition of hands was the onely Ceremony that could be termed essential because the Apostles made use of it and never gave Ordination without that Imposition He went a little farther and proved that that Ceremony was not of absolute necessity because the most famous Doctors of the Canon Law such as Hostiensis Johannes Andreas and others do affirm that the Pope can confer Orders by saying onely Be thou a Priest Innocent IV. Who is reckoned the Father of all the Canonists and who hath made an Apparatus upon the Decretals saith the same that a Priest may be made Priest by a word of him that giveth Orders From all which he concluded that it ought not to be defined that these Ceremonies are necessary because the degree of the necessity cannot be limited and that it ought to be enough to condemn those who affirm that they are Superfluous or Pernicious During these Conferences of the Divines the Prelates were busie about the matter of Reformation and had many Conferences among themselves concerning it Every day Assemblies were held upon that Subject at the Solicitation of the Ambassadours of Princes The Imperialists and French were loud in representing their Grievances and spoke of them to so many that it was the whole town-talk in Trent This gave the Legates á great deal of trouble but on the other hand also The Presidents make a Collection of the Demands of the French and Germans for a Reformation and send it to the Pope it did them some good for they were ashamed to see that they were the onely men who opposed that Reformation which all Europe so passionately desired Wherefore at length as if they had resolved to make some steps towards a Reformation they made a Collection of all the Proposals of the Imperialists and French and sent it to Rome that the Pope might give them Orders what to doc about it The Pope was vexed to see the Instructions which the King of France had sent his Ambassadours he designed to put an end to the Council at least with the year and by these instructions he found that not onely they demanded of him a delay but also that they intended still to cut out work for the Council for a long time He had many long Conferences upon that Subject with the Ambassadour of France residing at his Court He told him that when he desired the least compliance from the Fathers of the Council immediately they cried out that he oppressed their Liberty that therefore he could not oblige the Prelates to a delay to which they had a deadly aversion because they were weary of the long stay that they had already made at Trent At the same time he cunningly struck at the Cardinal of Lorrain saying that there was no necessity to wait for him for handling Points of Doctrine which he did not in the least scruple at as being a good Catholick but that it was proper for him to be present at the Reformation that he might come in for his share as being a second Pope who enjoyed near a Million of Livres a year in Church Livings and possest several Benefices whilst he himself being Pope enjoyed but one wherewith he was content that for his part he had not been wanting to reform himself and his Officers that he would doe more still but that such Reformations would sink his Revenues and that the smaller Rents he had the less he would be in a condition to defend the Church against Hereticks He father said that he wished with all his heart that they might come to particulars concerning those abuses of which a Reformation was desired and that then experience would shew that most of them come from Princes because the abuses of the Court of Rome which men kept so great a stir about consisted chiefly in the promotions of undeserving men to great Benefices to which they were presented by Kings and in Dispensations that were extorted from him by the violent solicitations of Princes That the other abuses which were not in the Court of Rome but in the several Provinces of the Church sprung from the same source to wit the had use that Princes made of their Authority in their Presentations to great Benefices The Spaniards find means of having the question examined whether Episcopacy be of Divine Right and thereupon violent debates arise The fourth Congregation of Divines had in charge to examine the Superiority of the Bishop over the Priest At first they made a distinction betwixt the power of Consecrating and Celebrating the Sacrifice and the power of pardoning sins According to the Doctrine of St. Thomas and Bonaventure they said that the power of Consecrating was alike in the Bishop and Priest because in that properly consists the power of Orders but that the power of pardoning sins was greater in the Bishop than in the Priest because that power consists not barely in that which is called the power of Orders but is made up also of the power of Jurisdiction They made several reflexions thereupon which were of no great importance nor occasioned much debate for they all unanimously agreed upon that Superiority of the Bishop over the Priest But the Spaniards had pitcht upon this Article as the most proper to bring in the Question which they intended should be defined in spight of the Legates to wit whether Episcopacy be of Divine Right or not that is to say whether Bishops hold their Authority immediately of Jesus Christ or onely of the Pope They proposed to themselves great advantages from the decision of that Controversie because by having it determined that the Bishop is of Divine Institution and that he derives his Authority from Jesus Christ and not from the Pope they pretended to render their Character more considerable and secure it from the attempts of the Court of Rome For if the Authority of Bishops proceeds immediately from Jesus Christ it follows clearly that men can doe nothing to the prejudice of it And if the Pope be not the Original of that Authority it is evident that he hath no power to lessen it nor to exempt from under it those that are subjected thereunto as he dayly doth The Legates at first were
not sensible of these Consequences and therefore they could not devise from whence sprung that eagerness of the Spaniards upon this Point but they soon smelt it out and vigorously withstood it So then the Spaniards according to their project put their Divines upon the breaking of the Ice and beginning the Dispute Michael Oroncuspe Divine to the Bishop of Pampelona was the first that proposed the matter he alledged that in the design of condemning the Lutherans the question moved properly upon this hinge by what Right Bishops were Superior to Priests that as to the Superiority the Lutherans could not deny it but yet maintained it to be a mere Humane Constitution that if then it were true that that Superiority was a Humane Establishment it would be unreasonable to make it Heresie in the Lutherans that they abolished an Order which was not appointed immediately by God that for his own part he lookt upon it as a most certain truth that a Bishop is Superiour to a Priest by Divine Right but that he could proceed no farther because he was prohibited by the Legates John Fonseca a Divine of the Archbishop of Granada observed not so strict measures He said in the beginning of his discourse that he did not conceive why that question was not allowed to be spoken to and for what reason it could be prohibited He laid open the importance of the matter and proved by Reason by the Fathers and by the Scriptures that Bishops are the Successours of the Apostles as the Pope is of St. Peter that both the one and the other have immediately received their Authority from Jesus Christ as Supreme Courts and Inferiour Judicatures have been alike established by the Prince whence it is that Supreme Courts cannot encroach upon the Authority of Inferiour Judges because the Authority of both flows from the Prince who hath set proper Limits to those several Tribunals Cardinal Simoneta with extreme impatience listened to this discourse which was delivered with as great earnestness He turned several times about to his Collegues and was ready to have interrupted the Divine but he durst not because he saw that all the Prelates heard him with extraordinary attention Anthony Grassâ—t a Jacobin Monk enforced this truth with new Arguments and carried it farther on He affirmed that Bishops were not obliged to give an account of their Administration but to Jesus Christ alone He urged the exhortation of St. Paul to the Bishops of Ephesus that they should feed the Flock over which the Holy Ghost had made them Overseers If it be by the Holy Ghost said he it is not by the Pope He could not forbear to lash out against those who in former Conferences had said that the Pope divides the Flock among the Bishops and said it was to open a door to a kind of Schism which St. Paul found fault with in the Church of Corinth where they said I am of Peter and I am of Paul affirming that all Bishops had right to say with St. Paul for me I am of Jesus Christ He said that the Pope was onely the Minister and Instrument of Jesus Christ and therefore what is done in the Church ought not to be attributed to him but to Jesus Christ who is the Principal Efficient Cause He perceived that his Discourse had been a little too bold and fearing that the Legates might enjoyn him silence and bring him into trouble he therefore made a kind of Apology and said that he had gone farther than he thought to have done and that he had forgot that it had been prohibited to speak to that Point But the Legates saw into the Intrigue and knew it to be a design laid by the Spaniards and particularly the Archbishop of Granada but finding that the discourses that were made had left a deep Impression upon the minds of those that were concerned they thought it necessary to refute reasons by reasons since matters were gone so far Therefore they enjoyned the four Divines who were still to speak to refute the Spaniards and to prove that Bishops hold all their Authority from the Pope and not from Jesus Christ that the onely Episcopacy of Divine Right is that of the Pope who hath received Orders to place Bishops in several Churches and who hath also power to enlarge or restrain their Authority and to depose suspend or translate them to other places When the Disputes of the Divines were over the Legates had a mind to propose the matter of Reformation but they knew not how to set about it They durst not offer at Trifles as had been done in former Sessions and it was very difficult for them to propose important Points there being none wherewith some body would not be displeased The Reformation of the Bishops and Clergy exceedingly pleased the Ambassadours but that displeased the Bishops that which pleased the Bishops and Clergy could not give content to the Ambassadours for that tended to lessen the Power that Princes had acquired over the Clergy by the abolishing of Canonical Elections and by the Right of Nomination to great Benefices And in fine that which might please the Ambassadours and Bishops at the same time displeased the Pope for that tended to the Diminution of the Greatness of the Court of Rome So that being overwhelm'd by these Perplexities they wrote to the Pope giving him notice at the same time that the Spaniards pressed hard to have Episcopacy to be declared of Divine Right They put the Pope also in mind that this was the place where they had promised to state again the Point of the Divine Right of Residence to wit when they treated of the Sacrament of Orders They acquainted him that having sounded the Prelates they found threescore stedfast for the Divine Right of Residence and that there was nothing to be got of them that the Marquess of Pescara had done all that lay in his Power to perswade the Spanish Bishops but without any effect that the Spaniards murmured that there should be a design of referring that Article of Residence to his Holiness as the Point of the Cup had been and said if they intended to go on in that manner it was very needless to call a Council at a great charge for deciding matters of small importance and refer the great affairs to the Pope This advice that came to the Pope from Trent with the news which he received from other places gave him great disturbance For he had certain intelligence from several parts that the Cardinal of Lorrain was coming to the Council with design to have the Election of the Popes so regulated The Cardinal of Lorrain prepares to goe to the Council and the Pope is allarmed at it that the Prelates beyond the Alpes might have a share in that Dignity and be chosen in their turn He was allarmed at this news wrote of it to all the Italian Princes and laid before them what a prejudice it would be to suffer other Nations to share in
of the Holy See so that their Charge is but in Commission and if they be called Ordinaries it is onely because their Commission is perpetual and that they may have Successours that the Council derived no Authority from the Bishops but onely from the Pope and that a Council cannot be reckoned General without the Authority of the Holy See That fifty Prelates who decided important matters in the first Convocation of the Council under Paul III. could not without the Pope be called a General Council nor in that Quality make Decisions which should oblige the Conscience that when the Pope was present at a Council he alone made the Decrees and the Council interposed in no more but their Approbation wherefore on such occasions it is onely said sacro approbante Concilio He farther said that in matters of great importance the Pope needed not the Approbation of the Council which appeared by the Deposition of Frederick II. in the General Council of Lions where Innocent IV. refused the Approbation of the Council lest it might have been thought necessary and thought it enough to say sacro presente Concilio In a word that General broached the Maximes of Italian Theology in savour of the Pope beyond all imagination This extravagant zealous discourse produced very different effects for it ravished the Faction of the Court of Rome but disgusted and offended most of the rest to the highest Degree And particularly the Bishop of Paris protested that in the first Congregation when it should come to his turn to speak he would openly and boldly speak against that Doctrine He said in all places that it was invented by Thomas de Vio Cajetan that he might merit a Cardinals Cap for the good Service that ever since he was born it had been censured by the Sorbonne that the Government of the Church was degenerated into Tyranny and that the Spouse of Jesus Christ was become a slave and in a manner prostituted to the lust of one man That he could no longer endure these Invasions of Episcopal Authority which was encroached upon by every new Order of Monks that start up in the World that it had received a great blow by the planting of those two Seminaries of Clugny and the Cistertians that since the Mendicant Orders appeared in the World the Authority of Bishops was almost wholly suppressed and that in fine to ruine the Church totally that new Society of Jesus which was neither Secular nor Regular was more Pragmatical than all the rest in attempting against Episcopal Authority These discourses which the Bishop of Paris had in all Companies with extraordinary eagerness and zeal rouzed up the drouzy and blew the coals in those who were already all in a flame insomuch that there was a murmuring and universal discontent over the whole Council against the Harangue of the General of the Jesuits and therefore the Legate perceiving that it had wrought an effect quite contrary to what they expected discharged him from publishing it as he had intended But notwithstanding he dispersed several Copies of it partly to get himself Reputation and partly to soften some hasty words that he had let slip in speaking In the mean time the Legates gave not over their tamperings to make a Party against the Spaniards and their Canvassing was so open and apparent that Lansac Ambassadour of France a man of wit and who was free enough in this discourse could not forbear to play upon them One day at a great entertainment there was a discourse started about the form of Ancient Councils wherein Princes by themselves or by their Ambassadours and the Presidents of the Council gave their suffrages whereas neither one nor other gave their Votes in that of Trent It is true for Ambassadours said Lansac they have no Vote here but for our Presidents the Legates they give vota auricularia and whisper their opinions softly in the ear About this time the Legates met with some satisfaction but of short continuance for a certain Spanish Doctor named Zanel betraying his Party presented them with thirteen Articles of Reformation relating to the Spaniards which he was of opinion ought to be set on foot to stop the mouths of those who appeared to be such Zealous Reformers These Articles struck at some Abuses whereof the Reformation would have been very severe to the Spaniards and mortified them extremely But this Counterbatterie could not doe all the execution they desired because these Articles of Reformation depended upon a great many others which related to the Court of Rome and the Legates were not of the mind to Sacrifice their own interest and that of their Master to a little revenge on their Enemies After all they had enough to do to defend themselves they were not in a condition of assaulting others for the Spaniards French and Germans gave them continually the allarm The Bishop of the five Churches received Letters from the Emperour for the Legates to procure of them that nothing but Reformation should be handled which was a fresh Persecution But they stood this brunt and had no regard to the demand They were somewhat indeed pleased that the Ambassadour of Poland of whom they had no apprehension and who was come to pay them homage from afar was arrived at the Council The five and twentieth of October a Congregation was held to receive that Ambassadour whose name was Valentine Herbut Bishop of Premissa But that was not enough to charm away the fear that the coming of the Cardinal of Lorrain put them in he drew nearer and nearer dayly and so did the Jealousies and Apprehensions of the Court of Rome and of their Party at Trent The Cardinal pleased himself in his Journey to give it out that he was going to employ a good many Engines for lessening the Grandure and Revenues of the Court of Rome They therefore sought out means to break his measures and spoil his designs Some Proposed that the surest way to put a stop to the French was to take them on their weak side and to demand the Reformation of their own abuses For they who are most eager in Reforming of others are unwilling to be Reformed themselves The Pope who on his Part thought on all the ways that might prevent the attempts that were levelled against his Authority gave the Legates Order to curb the boldness of the Prelates in a far other manner than they had hitherto done Nay and there were some who advised the Pope to remove to Bologna that so he might be near and keep the Council in awe But the Legates found out a much better Expedient to get out of harms way and that was to transfer suspend or break up the Council the difficulty consisted in the execution of this design and because that was a remedy which they could not make use of they cast about for another They at first thought it most convenient to give time to the tumult to settle which the Tempest of General Lainez discourse had
the Pope and the Cardinal of Lorrain loaded him with Complements for his Holiness desiring him that he would beseech his Holiness not to take it ill that the King and they by Orders from him did demand things which they judged necessary for the wellfare of France and at the same time and by the same hand offered the Pope his Mediation for taking up the differences about the Institution of Bishops and Residence These Memoires of the French Ambassadours were given to the Legates without the hearty condescension of the Prelates of that Nation For there were some Articles amongst them that tended to the Diminution both of the Authority and Revenues of the Bishops which went against the Hair But they consented that they might be presented to the Council in hopes that the Spanish Bishops who are Great Lords and jealous of their Grandure would have opposed them When they saw that the Memoires were sent to Rome they perceived that it would fall to the Pope's share to cut and carve in them as he had done in all the rest and they were afraid that he might compound with the King of France to their Cost in sacrificing to him the interest of the Bishops to make him spare the Court of Rome as it had been done betwixt Francis the First and Leo X. when they made the Concordat And therefore they began to make secret Cabals to get the Articles that concerned them struck out of the Memoires But Lansac perceiving it called them together and rebuked them severely for daring to oppose the Will of the King There were now two Bishops in Deputation at Rome the Bishops of Vintimiglia and Viterbo The first was employed to make fresh Remonstrances about the Subject of the Institution of Bishops and their Residence that the Pope might put the Decree into another form than that which he had formerly sent He arrived the first of January having made his Journey in seven days He gave the Pope an account of all that past in the Council and of the different dispositions of the Members of it The Pope immediately held a Congregation of Cardinals about the Point of the Institution of Bishops which was most urgent And it was there resolved that the Decision should be sent to the Legates in this form That Bishops hold the chief rank in the Church dependant on the Bishop of Rome by whom they are admitted and received in partem solicitudinis It was upon the main the same with the former but the form a little softer and the Pope for a recompence of the qualification which he had suffered to be made in the Canon of the Institution of Bishops would have the Canon that related to his own Authority to run in these terms That the Pope hath Authority to feed and to govern the Church Universal in place of Jesus Christ who hath imparted to him as his Vicar General all his Authority And ordered his Legates that in the Chapter of Doctrine they should enlarge more upon the matter and make use of the Terms of the Council of Florence which saith that the Holy See that is to say the Pope has the Primacy over all the Church that he is the Successour of St. Peter who was Prince of the Apostles that he is the true Vicar of Jesus Christ the Head of all the Churches the Father and Master of all Christians to whom the Lord hath given full power to govern the Church Universal He enjoyned the Legates not to deviate from that form which had been authorised by a General Council At the same time that he might prevent the designs of the French who would have had a Pope elected by the Council in case the present Pope had died he published a Bull wherein he declared that having intention to goe to Bologna in case he should die in his Journey he ordained that his Successour should not be chosen but at Rome The Bishop of Viterbo who was charged with the Memoires of the French arrived a little time after the instructions of the Bishop of Vintimiglia had been dispatched The Pope very impatiently heard the Memoires read but the Bishop of Viterbo pacified him a little by giving him hopes that if he condescended to some of these Articles a part might be cut off and the rest moderated but particularly he gave him ease when he assured him that the greatest part of the French Bishops disliked those Reformations and that they were ready to oppose them The Pope held a Congregation upon that Subject and it was therein resolved that the Articles should be committed to Doctours of the Canon Law to make their observations upon them At the same time the Pope sent Orders to the Cardinal of Ferrara his Legate in France to represent to the King that some of these Propositions tended to the Diminution of the Royal Authority because they deprived the King of the Collation of Benefices and amongst others of Abbeys that the disposal of Benefices was a very commodious Privilege to him for rewarding his faithfull Servants that to raise the Authority of Bishops was not the way to strengthen the Authority of the King and that the more powerfull Bishops were the more troublesome they were to Princes He sent his Legate likewise Orders to give the King the forty thousand Crowns remaining unpay'd of the hundred thousand which he had obliged himself to furnish him but with all that he should not part from them but upon the Condition that he had till them required I mean the abolition of the Pragmatick Sanction in all the Parliaments He prayed also the King to consider that by diminishing the Revenues of the Holy See he would be deprived of means to procure Respect and Obedience that the Tithes of Tithes were by the Law due to the chief Priest and that they had been wisely converted into Annats and concluded with an exhortation to the King that he would sent new Instructions to his Ambassadours He sent likewise to Trent the Censures and Observations which the Canonists and Divines had made upon the Memoires of the French year 1563 The Minute of the Decree concerning the Pope's Authoritycomes from Rome and meets with much contradiction especially from the French The Courier who brought to Trent the Answer to the Remonstrances which the Bishop of Vintimiglia had been charged with arrived on the fourteenth of January and next day was the time appointed for perfixing the day of the Session A Congregation General was held and it was therein resolved that that deliberation should be put off till the fourth of February because they could not as yet certainly tell when matters might be in a readiness The Legates distributed Copies of the Minute of the Decree which was sent from Rome touching the Institution of Bishops and declared that they would begin the Congregations again for consulting about it These Minutes had the approbation of the Patriarchs and oldest Archbishops who gave their opinions first But when it
came to the turn of the Spaniards and French speak many difficulties were started against the Decrees as they had been conceived by the Cardinals First this Clause was objected against that Bishops hold a chief rank depending on the Bishop of Rome that was thought to be an ambiguous expression but after some debate they who made the objection consented to have it said a chief rank under the Pope Some also did not like that it should be said that Bishops are admitted by the Pope in partem solicitudinis because that signified clearly enough that Bishops are appointed by the Pope and not by our Lord Jesus Christ but above all they stumbled at the Article of the Pope's Authority and that the Canon gave him the Pope to govern the Church Universal The French thought that by these words the Pope had a design to establish a Superiority over the Council They were nevertheless willing it should be said that he hath the power to rule all the Churches ecclesias universas but not the Church Universal ecclesiam universalem Most part fansied that to be a very nice distinction and of little solidity But the rest maintained that by giving the Pope power to govern the Church Universal they exalted his Tribunal above the Church whereas the Tribunal of the Church is exalted above that of the Pope They alledged that there was a great difference betwixt being exalted above all Churches that is to say above every Particular Church and being exalted above the Church Universal that is whole Church taken together and assembled in a Council This occasioned great debate the Pope's Party alledged the Authority of the Council of Florence which had made use of these terms and that did a little puzzle the Spaniards because their Countrey own the Council of Florence for a General Council But the French set light by that Authority and opposed to it the Councils of Constance and Basil which have defined the Superiority of a Council over the Pope Upon this occasion there arose a great contest betwixt the Italians and French for the Italians maintained that the Council of Florence was a General Council that that of Basil was Schismatical and the other of Constance partly approved and partly rejected But the French on the contrary denied the Council of Florence to have been a lawfull Council and said that the others of Constance and Basil were lawfull and General The Legates well perceived that no good would come of these contests and therefore that they might have time to sent to Rome the Censures which the Bishops on the other side of the Alpes had made upon the Decree composed by the Pope touching the Institution of Bishops and the Authority of the Holy See they employed the Congregations about the Point of Residence The Cardinals of Lorrain and Madruccio the day before had mode a Project of Decision concerning the Controversie of Residence which displeased not the Legates But the Presidents having had time to reflect upon it observed a Clause that gave them Umbrage which was that Bishops are obliged by the Command of God to guide their Flocks and to watch in Person over them They knew very well that the Pope would make a sinister interpretation of these words and think that they favoured the opinion of the Divine Right of Residence and therefore they left it out of their own heads and presented in the Congregation the Minute corrected after their own way That action choaked the Cardinals of Lorrain and Madruccio Lorrain protested that for the future he would not meddle in any thing and Cardinal Madruccio said that in the Council there was another secret Council which took all the Authority to it self The Legates finding that they gained no ground put a stop to the Congregations in expectation of an answer from Rome and the Pope's Party began to make Factions that they might break up the Council for good and all At this the Cardinal of Lorrain broke out and acted with less reserve than he had formerly done He complained that there was a design of breaking up the Council he spoke to the Ambassadours of Princes that their Masters might intercede with the Pope not onely for the Continuation of the Council but especially that it might be left to its liberty saying that nothing could be proposed or resolved upon but what pleased the Legates that the Legates did nothing but what the Pope thought fit and that Decisions even about the smallest matters must be expected from Rome that if matters went on still in that manner they would make a pacification in France whereby all should have liberty to live as they thought good untill the holding of a free Council that for his own part he would have patience untill the next Session but that if affairs went no better he would protest and withdraw and carry all the French along with him that they might celebrate a National Council at Home The French Ambassadour residing at Rome made the same Expostulations and Menaces that the Cardinal did at Trent But the Pope began to be accustomed to that noise and was not a whit startled at these Bugbears of National Synods He made answer that the Council was more than free that it was even licentious that if the Italians made any Factions and Cabals he knew nothing of it but that yet they were forced upon it if they did so by the violence of the Bishops beyond the Alpes who endeavoured to trample under foot the Authority of the Holy See The Bishop of the five Churches the Emperour's Ambassadour for the Kingdom of Hungary went about the same time to wait on his Master and to inform him of the Factions and Conduct of the Italians The Archbishop of Granada and those of his Party entreated him to procure from the Emperour a Letter to the King of Spain praying him to solicite a Reformation The Legates were informed of this and looked upon all that Conduct as an effect of the Councils of the Cardinal of Lorrain and to Countermine that League they deputed John Francisco Commendone Bishop of Zante to the Emperour under pretext of Justifying the Council in that they had not as yet proposed the Articles of Reformation which his Imperial Majesty had presented b his Ambassadours Seeing these misunderstandings grew dayly greater and greater the Legates sufficiently perplexed sent a writing to all the Ambassadours begging the Assistance of their Councils in the present Junctures The French slipt not that occasion to tell their minds freely and therefore said that the Council was made use of to encrease corruptions instead of lessening them that a stop ought to be put to those shamefull underhand dealings which were continually practised that they ought not to labour to raise the Pope above the Church Universal that the best way was to follow the Decrees of the Council of Constance And farther added that one cause of disagreement was that the Clark of the Council did not faithfully set
Emperour and his Son Maximilian now all these Princes desired that the Cup might be rendered to the People February the ninth the Legates held the first Congregation about the Doctrine of Marriage The Divines of the first Chamber examined the first two Articles and Father Salmeron a Jesuit spoke with much Pomp and for all that said but very ordinary things Having concluded that Marriage is a true Sacrament he past to the second Article that relates to Clandestine Marriages and alledged in favour of them the Authority of the Council of Florence which declares that the Validity of Marriages depends solely upon the Consent of the Parties who contract and this Oratour concluded that the opinion of those who assert that Fathers and Mothers may annull them ought to be condemned as an Heresie but allowed the Church the Power of rescinding such Marriages because she is the Mistress of the Sacraments and that it is expedient to annull them to prevent the disorders which those unfortunate Marriages cause in Families Next day Maillard Dean of the Faculty of Paris made a long discourse and concluded with Salmeron that Marriage is a true Sacrament but as to Clandestine Marriages he was not of Salmeron's opinion For he maintained that the Church had not that Power over the Sacraments as to make a Sacrament that was lawfull at one time to become unlawfull at another He alledged for proof the Consecration of the Eucharist saying that the Church could not make a Consecrated Wafer cease to be a Real Sacrament after that it had been some time kept since it was so at first He went through all the Sacraments proving that the Church hath not power to invalidate a Sacrament lawfully administred He shew'd that in all times private Marriages had been valid and that no man ever thought of annulling them His opinion took extremely well but especially the Pope's Party took great pleasure to hear the French Doctour speaking of the Pope call him the Directour and Moderatour of the Roman that is to say the Universal Church They drew great advantage from that Confession and said that it ought to be observed against the Cavils which the Prelates of the same Nation made upon occasion of the Canon about the Authority of the Pope wherein they would not suffer it to be said that he hath Power to rule the Church Universal The French said that there was a great difference betwixt these expressions rule the Universal Church absolutely and rule the Roman that is to say the Universal Church because the term Universal is onely employed to explain that of Roman and that so it ought to extend no farther It cannot be denied but that the distinction is very nice and fine spun and that the difference betwixt those two expressions is not very sensible it had been as well perhaps if Maillard had frankly confest that it dropt from him before he was aware In the Congregation of the Eleventh of February the French presented a Letter from their King wherein he acquainted the Council with the Victory that he had obtained over the Enemies of the Catholick Religion and at the same time demanded Reformation After the Letters were read the Ambassadour Du Ferrier made a Speech The King of France his Letter to the Council followed by a Speech of du Ferrier and having represented the Calamities of the Kingdom of France and the necessity of doing somewhat to remedy them he said that the proper remedy depended on the Council and that the Council in endeavouring that ought to turn their Eyes towards the Holy Scripture that Christians now-a-days were like the Samaritanes of the Town of Sichar who would believe because they saw and not barely upon the report of a Woman that every body at present studied the Scriptures That they should not think it strange if in their Proposition they had omitted the most necessary Points that they had begun with the smallest but that they had more important matters to propose that if they intended to set about the Work of Reformation they must do it in good earnest and that the Fathers who were assembled ought to consider what was the Success of those slight and weak Reformations of the Council of Constance and that which came after which he was not willing to name for fear of offending their ears He meant the Council of Basil whereof the name is odious to all the Favourers of the Court of Rome He laid before them also that the Councils of Florence Lateran and the first of Trent had done nothing for the Church and in that they did nothing they had done a great deal of hurt and given occasion to a Schism of so many People as are separated from it They gave the French Ambassadour a civil answer though in his Speech he had given several nips which touch'd the Pope's Party to the quick He said that he presented the Articles of Reformation principally to the Council These words offended them extremely because they did insinuate that the Ambassadour made far less reckoning of the Pope than he did of the Council Besides they found that by that expression he designed to have a lash at the Clause proponentibus Legatis as intending to intimate that in Quality of Ambassadour he pretended to propose his Articles to the Council himself and not by the Lagates and this perswaded them that France entertained terrible intentions against the Authority of the Pope and they were the more allarmed because Du Ferrier had said that the French had still far more important Proposals to make and that they ought to make greater advances in the work of Reformation than the Councils of Constance and Basil had done The day following the Cardinal of Lorrain parted for Inspruck taking with him nine Prelates and four Divides but he got a promise from the Legates that during his absence they should not treat of the Marriage of Priests In the mean time they continued the Congregations about the matter of Doctrine The first Chamber of Divines which we have already mentioned having heard Salmeron and Maillard unanimously condemned as Heretical the opinion that denies Marriage to be a Sacrament and in like manner declared Clandestine Marriages to be true Sacraments and lawfull Marriages But there was some diversity of opinion about the Sentiments of Salmeron and Maillard in relation to the Power of the Church in annulling secret Marriages some were of Salmeron's opinion and others with Maillard thought that the Power of the Church did not reach so far as to make a Marriage become unlawfull which was lawfull a very little before Amongst those who maintained that the Church had Power to annull Clandestine Marriages some disputed another Point to wit whether it be convenient and profitable to make use of that Power in the present time But most part thought it best that all secret Marriages should be invalidated and some went farther still and were for declaring null and void all Marriages
contracted by the Children of Persons of Honour and Quality without the Consent of their Parents as well for strengthening Paternal Authority as for preventing the Mischiefs which many times attend such Marriages The Divines of the second Chamber examined the third and fourth Articles which concerned Divorce Polygamy and the Prohibition to marry in certain times Father Soto a Spanish Jacobin maintained that it was not lawfull to dissolve a Marriage nay not for the Cause of Adultery He confessed that married Folks might be separated from bed and board but not so as to allow those who are so separated to marry with others he alledged that to be the meaning of St. Paul when he permits married Believers to remain separated in case their unbelieving Wives will not live with them He gave several interpretations to the words of Jesus Christ which seem to allow a Divorce for the Cause of Adultery but stuck to none of them which was a great Argument that he was not so clear in that Point as he would have seemed to be As to Polygamy he proved is to be contrary to the Law of Nature and for the Prohibitions to marry in certain times he said there was no need to make a grievance of that seeing it was easie to obtain a Dispensation from the Bishop to marry in prohibited times About the substance of the question there was no great dispute but the Spanish Divines caught hold of that occasion to speak of the necessity of the Residence of Bishops that they might be able to give Dispensations with Prudence Wisedom and with Knowledge of the Cause Upon naming the Tie that is betwixt a Husband and a Wife which is like to that whereby a Bishop is united to his Church a Cordelier named John Ramirez took occasion to speak again about Residence and shew'd that it was no more in the Pope's Power to draw a Bishop from his See and translate him into another than to snatch a Husband from his Wife The Pope's Party on the contrary took occasion to speak of the Sovereign Authority of the Holy See upon account that the two Articles which were under Debate stand condemned in the Decretals of Popes They magnified that Authority beyond all bounds and stretched it even to the dispensing against Canons against the Ordinances of the Apostles and against all the Laws of God They alledged the Canon Si Papa which runs in these terms If one surprise the Pope neglecting his own Salvation and that of his Brethren unfruitfull and remiss in his works concealing the good which does most hurt to his own and the Salvation of others though he lead to Hell innumerable crouds of People there to be eternally punished with him Decret Grat. Dist 40. Nevertheless no man ought to undertake to reprove him or punish him for his faults because he who ought to judge all the World ought not to be judged by any unless it be found that he errs in the Faith A Decision attributed to one Boniface a Martyr and Archbishop of Mentz When the second Chamber had spoken the Legates past by the third and came to the fourth because they had promised the Cardinal of Lorrain not to meddle with the Celibat of Priests the Examination whereof was committed to the third Chamber The business of the fourth Chamber was to treat of the Degrees of Consanguinity and John de Verdun a French Benedictine giving his opinion upon the matter took in hand to refute what had been said in favour of the Pope about Dispensations and spoke all that he durst to weaken the Papal Authority He acknowledged that in Humane Laws there was occasion for Dispensations because Legislatours cannot foresee all Cases but he absolutely denied that the Law of God could be dispensed with The Pope said he is not Master and the Church is not his Servant and Dispensations ought onely to be the Explanations of Laws and by Consequence ought not to overthrow them so that the Pope by dispensing cannot take off the obligation that lies upon men to obey the Law James Alain a Divine of the Bishop of Vannes spoke with the same vigour and sunk the Authority of the Pope below a Council affirming that the Power of dispensing was properly given to the Church The Emperour much dissatisfied with the Council and the Pope consults about important Points which concerned the Authority of the Pope and the Liberty of the Council and not immediately to the Pope Whilst these questions were debated amongst the Divines the Prelates minded other Affairs Commendene Bishop of Zante whom the Legates had sent to the Emperour returned to Trent without any Success in his Negotiation for the Emperour desired time to answer the Propositions which the Legates had made to him However this Deputy found that the Emperour was extremely dissatisfied with the Council and that he was resolved to take some Course to remedy the Disorders that reigned in it that he intended to demand a very considerable Reformation and to settle it so firmly that none should be able to shake it He told the Presidents also that he made no doubt but that the Spaniards had intelligence with the Emperour because the Count de Luna designed for the Embassie of Trent had answered those who complained of the boldness of the Spanish Bishops that he could not meddle in it and that these Prelates spoke according to their Conscience They were therefore satisfied in General that the Emperour aimed at great matters but could not precisely tell what they might be These Secrets were not long shrouded under the veil of secrecy for one Father Camisco a Jesuit and another Father Nattale sent from Trent to Inspruck by General Lainez sounded the bottom of these Mysteries They found that the Emperour had proposed seventeen Articles to be consulted by his Divines and Counsellours For instance Whether it was convenient that the Pope should be so much Master of the Council as he was so that nothing should be proposed nor concluded but what the Court of Rome pleased Whether the Pope happening to die the Election of his Successour did not belong to the Council What is the Power of the Emperour when the See is vacant and the Council open Whether Ambassadours ought not to have a deliberative Vote in Council when they treat of matters that regard the Peace of Christendom Whether the Pope could dissolve or suspend the Council without the Consent of the Emperour and Christian Princes Whether it ought to be suffered that the Legates alone should have the Power of proposing What means ought to be used to set the Council at Liberty and to prevent all violence and fraud therein What Course ought to be taken to repress the insolence of the Italians who stopt all deliberations and to prevent their private Cabals By what means ought the Court of Rome to be hindered from ordering what is to be done in the Council And whether it would consist with the Majesty of
two Brothers the Duke and Grand Prior. He dealt earnestly with him also to employ his credit with the French Prelates that they would desist from pressing that the Institution of Bishops and their Residence should be declared of Divine Right But the Cardinal would not hear of it he continued stedfast in his design of staying at the Council and as he said of having matters concluded according to truth and reason Upon his return to Trent he bragg'd much how he had resisted the solicitations of the Cardinal of Ferrara but that was the last act of constancy and vigour that came from him for after that time he made so visible and considerable a compliance that he became the chief instrument which the Court of Rome employed for shaking and baffling the vigour of others However he seemed still to retain a little stedfastness in a Conference that he had with Cardinal Morone after his return from Hostia Cardinal Morone to sooth and flatter him told him that he wished he were at the helm of affairs and that he had the same Authority as the Legates had that farther more the Pope desired a Reformation and would set about it that none of the Articles which had been proposed by the several Nations were desired to be left out but those which related to the Court of Rome because the Pope would have the honour of Reforming himself The Cardinal was not catcht in that trap but made answer that saving the respect which was due to the Holy See what concerned the Reformation of the Cardinals and of the Court of Rome might be very well proposed in the Council But he continued not long in that style for the Cardinal received Letters from the Queen informing him that his presence would be far more necessary in France than at Trent she told him that there was no more good to be expected from the Council for France that all that could have been obtained from it would onely have been in order to reunite the French Protestants to the Church but that that was a thing not to be hoped for now since the peace with the Huguenots held good and that therefore the Pope was to be contented She wrote also to the Pope that she would order the French Prelates to concur in any thing that might tend to the speedy Conclusion of the Council and not to dispute his Authority any more From that time forward the Cardinal thought of nothing but of returning to France he was troubled to understand that the peace with the Protestants was like to hold for he mortally hated the Huguenots and feared the growth of the Party not so much out of Zeal for Religion as because he knew that that Party could not be Established but upon the ruines of his Family by reason of the irreconcilable hatred that was betwixt the Princes of the House of Guise and the Great men that were engaged in the interests of the Protestants He considered with himself that to support him against a Party which was like to gather new strength by a Peace he stood in need of the favour of the Pope and therefore he bent all his thoughts for the future to incline him to espouse his Interests by appearing to be wholly at his devotion A new Ambassadour from France comes About the same time the President de Birague the new French Ambassadour arrived and was received in the Congregation of the second of June But because in his Credentials he was not called Ambassadour all the Ambassadours of Princes who commonly come after those of France did not appear that they might not be obliged to take their places after him Birague presented to the Council a Letter from the King wherein he gave once more reasons for the Peace which he had concluded with the Huguenots still protesting that it was done in prospect of reclaiming to the Church those that were gone astray by a surer way than that of Arms that farther he expected that they would aid and assist him in that design by the Reformation which he had demanded and still did demand from the Council Birague's Harangue contained onely the same things somewhat more amplified and seeing the Legates knew what Birague was to say before they had heard him in the Council they were prepared to make an answer to his Speech by complements of condoleing that the King had been in a manner forced to make Peace with the Huguenots They farther added that they disapproved not what he had done exhorting him nevertheless that so soon as his Kingdom were in Peace he would endeavour all he could to cure the wound that Heresie had made in his Territories This answer was communicated to the Cardinal of Lorrain before it was given but he opposed it objecting that the Council ought not to approve the Peace which the King had made with the Huguenots seeing it was so prejudicial to the Church and that therefore they ought to take time to answer This advice was taken and the Legates made answer to Birague that the matters which he had proposed were so weighty that the Council desired time to give an answer to them but the French Ambassadours were extremely vexed with the Cardinal for this action They were about to have written to the Court concerning it but because Lansac was speedily to return they gave it him in Commission to make a report thereof to the King In the mean time the Congregations continued for Examining matters touching the Sacrament of Orders and the Prelates did not stick so closely to the point but that many times they purposely flew out into digressions In one of these Congregations the Bishop of Nimes discoursed freely enough against Annats and against several abuses of the Court of Rome amongst the rest against the Ordination of Priests who were admitted without examination or capacity In another Congregation the Bishop of Cadix a Spaniard shew'd the needlesness of Titulary Bishops whom he called figmenta humana an invention of the Court of Rome and what disorders these Bishops without Bishopricks caused in the exercise of the Discipline of the Church But seeing all the abuses introduced by Papal Authority found instantly Protectors among the Italians the Bishop of Sarzana a Tuscan rose up and defended the Cause of those Titular Bishops Another Spaniard Bishop of Lugo in Gallicia spoke against Dispensations and affirmed that it was not necessary to set Bounds to the Court of Rome as to that matter and to declare the invalidity of those Dispensations or rather that it is impossible to give Dispensations about most things that are so freely dispensed with About this time Angelo Massarelo Bishop of Tilesio in Abruzzo Clark of the Council being grievously tormented with the Stone resolved to be cut of it and desisted from officiating in Person as Clark and this removed one of the difficulties that have been mentioned which was that the Ambassadours of France and Spain having made great instances that he should
good Laws and Ordinances which were made in it After the Ceremonies were over they read the Decrees concerning Purgatory the Intercession and Invocation of Saints Images and their Worship They also read the Decree for Reformation of Monks containing twenty Chapters to which they added an one and twentieth for a shield to the Pope's Authority lest by inadvertency it might be wounded in some of the Canons of Reformation and to leave him in full liberty to dispense with all the Canons The Council therefore declares in it that all the Decrees have been made with intention that the Authority of the Holy See should remain safe and inviolate without the least encroachment upon it When this was done because it was very late the rest was deferred till next day In this second day they read the Decrees concerning Indulgences the Choice of Meats Fasts and Holy days They made and Act of Reference to the Pope about the Index Expurgatorius Missals Breviaries Ceremonials and the Care of making a Catechism At length the Council caused and Act to be read which declared that the Places that had been assigned to Ambassadours ought not to be any ways prejudicial to the Rights and Privileges of Kings Princes and States whom the Council pretended to leave in the same condition as they were before The Assembly was concluded with Volleys of Acclamations to the Praise of the Pope Emperour Kings Legates and the Fathers Heretofore in Ancient Councils these Acclamations or Benedictions were made in a humming confused manner with a low Voice But at Trent they would have the matter performed in its Formalities It was written down read and sung after the manner of Antiphones The Cardinal of Lorrain pronounced the Acclamations and the Prelates answered This action of the Cardinal was extremely played upon It could not be imagined that he with all his Dignities A mean Action of the Cardinal of Lorrain and large Characters would have condescended to discharge the Office of a Deacon or Chanter It was lookt upon as a low and mean Carriage but the French had a worse opinion of it for besides the baseness of the action they lookt upon it as a Crime of State because in the Acclamations there was no express mention made of the King of France for which the Cardinal was severely checkt upon his return At length all was summ'd up with an Anathema pronounced against Hereticks in General The Council consulted whether they should not expresly Anathematise Luther Zuinglius and the other Heads of Parties as had heretofore been practised in the Case of Nestorius and other Hereticks But the Spanish and Imperial Ambassadours opposed that representing that the Princes were rather the Heads of the Parties in that affair than the Teachers that it would offend them and oblige them to make Leagues together against the Catholick Religion The Council acquiesced to that reason and rested satisfied with a General Anathema All the Prelates were commanded under pain of Excommunication to sign the Decrees before they went away which was done on Sunday They were signed by two hundred fifty and five Hands four Legates two Cardinals three Patriarchs five and twenty Archbishops an hundred fifty and eight Bishops seven Abbots thirty nine Proxies for Absents and seven Generals of Orders The Ambassadours had been enjoined to sign also but because those of France were not there and their Hands not being amongst the rest it would have been a Declaration that they refused to acknowledge the Council all the rest were therefore dispensed with no to sign upon Pretext that it had not been the Custome of Ancient Councils This last Session of the Council gave as little satisfaction as the rest hand done for after all the fair promises of setting about a Reformation there was nothing found that could answer the Expectations of People The nineteenth Chapter of General Reformation contained a very Christian Decree against Duels which were prohibited under very severe Penalties Nevertheless it was observed that the Council herein encroached upon the Right of Kings for it declared the Emperour all Kings Princes and Lords who should countenance Duels to be excommunicated and deprived of the Dominion of the Place holding of the Church wherein Duels should be fought It was not thought in the Power of a mere Ecclesiastick Judicature to deprive Sovereign Princes of their Territories and Temporal Possessions nor to lay Commands upon them under pain of Excommunication The Permission which the Council granted to Mendicants to enjoy Lands and Real Estates was so far from passing for an Article of Reformation that it was lookt upon as a great Corruption and as a fair means put into the hands of Monks to hook in the remainder of the Estates of Christendom whereof they already enjoyed the largest share In general few were satisfied with the Acts of the Council The Spaniards were displeased at the precipitant manner and hurry of concluding it without acquainting their King and expecting his answer But France more than all others because they found therein many things which overthrew the Liberties of the Gallican Church President Du Ferrier during his stay at Venice made it his business to make a Collection of them and upon the return of the Cardinal of Lorrain into France the Cardinal was severely censured for having suffered so many things to pass contrary to the Sentiments and Customs of the Church of France It was objected to him that after he had vigorously asserted the Superiority of a Council over the Pope yet at length he had basely betrayed the Cause seeing he had subscribed to the first Chapter of the General Reformation which grants the Pope Administrationem Ecclesiae the Administration of the Church Universal It was also thought that the opinion of the Pope's Superiority over a Council was sufficiently established by the last Chapter which declares that all things have been decreed without prejudice to the Authority of the Pope which is an evident raising of the Authority of the Holy See above that of the Decrees And above all it was thought that by demanding from the Pope the Confirmation of the Council they had placed his Holiness above a Council It was likewise objected as a fault to the Cardinal of Lorrain that in the one and twentieth Chapter of the General Reformation he had suffered the present Council to be declared the same with that which was held under Julius and Paul III. after that France had taken so much pains to have that Assembly called a new Council But the Parliament of Paris in a particular manner complained that he had suffered the Authority of the King's Judges to be trampled under foot seeing the Council had so far enlarged the Power of Churchmen as made a considerable breach in the Civil Jurisdiction As for instance it allows Bishops to proceed against Laicks by Pecuniary Fines and Imprisonments These oppositions that the Council met with in France were every delightfull to those who were separated