he was pleased at every Turn to style Universal has never been admitted into that Number and as it was only an Oeconomical and not an Oecumenical Council so we feel to this Day of what Disadvantage it was to the Church besides Truths which have been once established by Councils namely that of Constance can never be shaken afterwards it not being possible that what was once a Truth and dictated by the Holy Spirit should ever be otherwise Now according to this reckoning our Council of Trent must be the Eleventh Synod notwithstanding neither the Pope nor his Legates are willing to have it reckoned so who at the opening thereof were in a great perplexity how to rank it This is the Account of the Universal Synod for albeit there were Councils celebrated by the Apostles and from which all succeeding Councils do derive all their Authority This reckoning commences nevertheless from that of Nice which consisted of 318 Fathers because Christians from the Time of Constantine have had the Liberty to assemble together after that of Nice from which the Canons of General Councils do commence the Councils of Constantinople Ephesus and Chalcedon were celebrated which four having been venerated by St. Austin and St. Gregory as the four Gospels does not lessen the Authority of the following Councils that were lawfully assembled This being premised the way of proceeding in past Universal Councils comes now to be observed and that in order to discover how different it was from the procedure of this present Council and how great Inconveniencies do follow thereupon the way of convocating prosecuting and finishing being quite contrary in those and this Council All the Eight General Councils having been called by the Emperours the Fathers injoying an intire Liberty in the prosecution of them and the whole Authority being lodged in the Body of the Council and if the Pope's Legates did at any time delay their coming the Council if there was an urgent Necessity did its Work without them as appears from the Definition of the Eighth Council made before the Arrival of the Legates which runs thus Having long expected the Arrival of the Vicars of the Elder Rome and it not being just to wait any longer for them it appearing to us an absurd thing to neglect the lost Church of Christ by such delays we do of Necessity denounce c. The same is to be met with in the Gests of the Second Ephesine Council which after having advertized Julius a Bishop Hilarius a Deacon and Dulcitius a Notary the Vicars of Pope Leo that the Council was to assemble next Day desiring them therefore to make haste to come to them upon their not appearing when they were expected Talasius Bishop of Caesarea said Besides that our remaining in this City is a great prejudice to the most Religious and Holy Bishops and their Churches the most Pious and Christian Emperour would have us to hasten the End of this Synod that so he may be acquainted with what shall be decreed therein Wherefore the Synod having done what was proper and convenient for it in having invited the Vicars of the most Holy Friend of God Archbishop Leo I am of opinion that since they have refused to assemble with us that we ought not to use any farther Delays This is to the purpose as to what is doing here at this time Finally whatsoever was offered and commanded to be observed by Universal Councils being for that reason of inviolable Authority it did not want the Confirmation of the Pope to give any thing of Validity to it neither was it for that but for other honest and just Ends that they first began to make use of that Confirmation there being no reason why what is determined by a General Council by the Direction of the Holy Ghost should have its Truth in suspence so as to depend on the Will of any Person for what is once true must be always so This is manifest to all but Parasites or such as seek by Tricks utterly to destroy the Authority of General Councils of which a great deal might be said had I not something else in my Eye at present I shall therefore only observe that the Argument drawn by those People on which they lay so much stress from Pope Leo and his Legates contradicting the Council of Chalcedon as to what it had ordained relating to the Chairs of Constantinople and Alexandria is not of so great Weight as they imagine and represent it to be in their Histories seeing that Council notwithstanding that Contradiction did still adhere to its Determination and which after having been observed for several Years was at last confirmed by the Sixth General Council but to return to the Direction of General Councils There was as has been already observed an entire Liberty in them their whole Authority being lodged in the Body of their Assembly as is plain from the Councils themselves the Pope's Legates having no other than an honorary Presidence in them and the privilege of voting first the Presidents Vt interloquerentur definirent being named by the Emperour and styled Judices discretivi as is plainly to be seen in the Council of Chalcedon and in the Eighth Council also in which in the first Action they spoke as follows Our Emperours have sent us their Servants and who are called his Senators to be discreet Hearers of all that shall be transacted After which the Father 's celebrated the Council and spoke and determined matters with an entire Liberty So that as we have no reason to doubt of their having been assisted by the Holy Ghost in all their Determinations we have as little reason to doubt of the Council it self having ordered and governed every thing for besides that the thing is reasonable in it self it is no more than what is of Divine Right and was expresly determined by the Council of Constance It is manifest likewise from the Council of the Apostles in which St. Peter as we see notwithstanding he was the Prince and Universal Pastor of the Church did not preside with Authority or a co-ercive Power on the contrary it is plain that the whole Power was in the Assembly and as in the fifteenth of the Acts the Determination was pronounced by James so it is said there that Peter rising up in the midst of the Brethren said c. which Action of standing up is an Argument of his not having pretended to an Authoritative Presidency for if he had he would have sate and not have rise to speak as is well observed by Abulensis though Turrecremata and others of his Stamp do interpret this as they think fit the same appears likewise from the Council mentioned in the thirteenth of the Acts where it is said when Samaria had received the Word of God they sent Peter and John c. To which and a great deal more Turrecremata Cajetan and others of their Party give a general Answer that St. Peter did that purely out of
that if they had designed to have had the Church reformed they ought to have done it before they chose a Pope since they might very well have known that when that was once done it would be neither in his Power nor theirs to do it as it was in the time of the Vacancy The Synod's new Pope is said furthermore to have given it a broad Intimation before he dissolved it how he stood affected to their Decrees telling them on a certain occasion and that of his own giving too that he intended to observe every thing that had been conciliarily decreed by them leaving it to them to judg whether what they had decreed concerning a General Council's being superiour to the Pope was reckoned by him among their Conciliary Acts. We are not told how the Council resented this early Distinction from their own Creature if it was ever made by him there being no mention of it in the Acts of the Council but however that were it is certain that from the hour of his Election he intended nothing less than to go on with Councils on the Bottom whereon they had placed them Nevertheless while Peter de Luna lived which he did several Years after the Council of Constance was dissolved he was obliged in Interest not to run down the Authority of an Assembly on whose Authority his own absolutely depended So at the end of four Years after the Dissolution of the Synod of Constance Peter de Luna being still alive he comply'd with the Decree of assembling a General Council at Pavia giving Intimation thereof to all Christian Prelats but in such a manner that they had no reason to think he would be angry with them if they did not repair to it Which Council after he had opened it by four obscure Legats he translated presently to Siena upon a pretence that the Plague was in Pavia that being one of the Reasons for which the Decree of Constance had allowed him to change the appointed place of a Synod But the Legats not having been long at Siena before they found themselves in a full Assembly of Bishops and hearing of more that were coming to them Martin to chastise their Forwardness and to prejudice the World against Councils as if the Plague had followed them wheresoever they went dissolved the Council of a sudden upon the same pretence on which he had translated it thither from Pavia which Pretence the History of the City of Siena tells us was a meer Falshood nothing like the Plague having been at Siena at that time But Peter de Luna being not only alive but having engaged the King of Arragon upon a Quarrel that was between him and Martin to send Embassadors to Siena to maintain his Title to the Papacy Martin was thereby obliged to go on shewing some Respect to the Council of Constance and so did in Obedience to its Decree at the same time he dissolved the Synod of Siena call a Council to meet at the end of seven Years at Basil by which time considering Peter's great Age he did not much doubt but that he would be in his Grave which Council tho Martin lived to convocate and to send a Legat to it he died just before the time it was to have met Eugenius the Fourth who succeeded Martin finding a Council called to sit at Basil by his Predecessor renewed the Convocation thereof and to encourage the Prelats to come to it he named only the Year but not the Day nor the Month whereon it was to meet constituting Cardinal Julianus who was at that time at the Head of an Army in Bohemia his Legat to preside therein Which juggling of the Pope's having been observed by one Alexander a Monk whose Name was high in the Church both for his Learning and Piety he in order to defeat Eugenius who having given the World some Satisfaction in calling the Council was for letting the Year appointed for its sitting both by the Synod of Constance and his Predecessor slip over quietly repaired to Basil and having called together all the Ecclesiasticks that were within and about the City he declared to them that the time being now come for the celebrating of a General Council in Conformity to the Decrees of the Synods of Constance and Siena in their City to which Synod all that have a right to vote in such Assemblies were bound to resort he reckoned he was obliged in Conscience to come and make a publick Declaration thereof upon the Place that so it might be none of his fault if it were not assembled as it ought to be both to maintain the Liberty of the Church and to reform it in its Head and Members But Eugenius having taken no notice of what was done by a private Monk in a fit of Zeal the University of Paris which to give that Great and Learned Body its due was in those days the only standing Authority that on all occasions asserted the Liberty of the Church that the Pope might not dissolve the Council upon a pretence of no Ecclesiasticks having repaired to it when it was called by him dispatched some of its learned Members to Basil to promote its assembling writing at the same time to Sigismund King of the Romans and most of the other Princes of Germany to send their Embassadors and Prelats thither Eugenius being alarm'd by so great a Body's interposing its Authority in the Business writ to his Legat Julianus so soon as he had finish'd his work in Bohemia to repair to Basil in Person and in the mean time to delegate some Ecclesiasticks to go thither and open a Council to those that were so clamorous to have one and accordingly Julianus named John Palmar an Auditor of the Sacred Palace and John de Ragusio the Procurator General of the Dominicans to go and begin the Council at Basil which they did in the Chapter-house of the Cathedral on the 29th of July but without entring upon any Business of moment Julianus who expected the poor Hussites would not have been a Breakfast to his great and zealous Croisado after having destroy'd a few open Towns belonging to them was deserted by his whole Army who as if a pannick Fear had seized them dispersed all of a sudden without having ever seen the face of the People they had been raised by Indulgences to extirpate leaving their whole Baggage which was very rich behind them to the Hussites who drove Julianus to Basil to try whether he was able to manage a Council against them with better Success than he had done an Army But Julianus had not been many days in that City to which great numbers of Ecclesiasticks and others had flock'd before he received Orders from Eugenius to dissolve the Council and to intimate to the Prelats that he designed to call a Synod in a short time at Bononia at which he intended to assist in Person alledging the following Reasons for dissolving of that of Basil 1. That there was not a sufficient
Number of Prelats at Basil to celebrate a General Council 2. That that City was infested with the Heresy of the Hussites 3. That the Princes in its Neighbourhood were in War one with another And lastly that the Greeks who at present seemed well disposed to submit themselves to him were rather for having the Council at Bononia than at Basil Julianus when he first received these Orders notwithstanding he knew the Pope's Reasons for dissolving the Council to be all false seemed inclinable to have obeyed them having forborn for some days after to act as President But having observed that the Princes and Prelats that were at Basil were all resolved notwithstanding the Pope should pretend to dissolve it to go on with the Council and that the Cardinals who were fled thither from Rome would all join with them therein he did not only resume his Presidentship again but was so far from executing the Pope's Orders that he seem'd to go intirely into the Interests of the Council against him and having accordingly summoned all the Embassadors Cardinals and Prelats that were at Basil to assemble on the 7th of December in St. Leonard's Church it was there agreed that the first Session of the Synod should be celebrated in the Cathedral Church on the 14th day of the Month current of which having ordered an Instrument to be drawn up they commanded it to be affixed to the Gates of all the Churches in the City The day of the Session being come and all the Cardinals Embassadors and Prelats being assembled in the Cathedral Julianus after Mass made a long and learned Speech to them which being ended the Bishop of Coutances ascended the Pulpit and with an audible Voice read the Decree of the Council of Constance concerning the frequent Celebration of Councils as also the Instrument of the Nomination of the City of Basil together with Pope Martin and Pope Eugenius's Letters of Convocation after that they made several Orders about freedom of Speech and against such as should hinder any Persons from coming to Basil ordering likewise that the Prelats who assisted at the Council should enjoy the full Profits of their Benefices and naming the Notaries and other Officers of the Synod Eugenius who could not brook to have his Authority thus affronted thunders out from Rome a Bull of Dissolution of the Council in which besides his former fantastical Reasons he added that of the Synod's having invited the Hussites who were declared Hereticks to come and treat with them He also called a Synod at the same time to meet at the end of 18 Months at Bononia and another ten Years after that was dissolved at Avignon being content it seems to supererogate in giving the Church two Councils at the distance of some time and which were to be celebrated in Cities under his temporal Jurisdiction for one that was in being and out of his Territories upon the Bottom of the Council of Constance whose Establishment he reckoned would be broke by his having called new Councils to meet as he had now done But Eugenius after he had given this bold Stroke fearing left Sigismund whom he knew to be a great Friend to Councils and who had his Embassadors at Basil might be displeased with him for what he had done writ Letters to him of the same Date with the Bull of Dissolution to satisfy him of the Necessity there was of calling a Council at Bononia for the Greeks who seemed to be disposed to submit themselves to the Roman Chair To which Banter for it was no better Sigismund returned a severe Answer bearing date the 9th of January telling Eugenius in plain Terms That the Reasons he had given for his having dissolved the Council of Basil were all fantastical it being a Jest to put off the doing of so necessary a Work as the Reformation of the Church upon a Surmise of the Greeks who had for some hundreds of Years been Schismaticks appearing to be inclinable to unite themselves to the Roman See desiring him also to consider what would in all probability be the Consequence of what he had done the Fathers at Basil being resolved notwithstanding his Dissolution to sit and act as a Council and in so doing would be protected by all or most of the Princes of Europe concluding his Letter with this vehement Exhortation We do most earnestly beseech and require your Holiness in our Lord Jesus Christ whose Business this is that considering how what you have done may tend to the Subversion of the Christian Religion you would immediately remedy it by writing to the President and Council that they may proceed in the Name of the Holy Ghost in which they were called to finish the Work they have in hand Neither was Sigismund mistaken in treating what Eugenius alledged concerning an Union with the Greeks as a thing given out only for a Colour Eugenius having after he had made this use of it slighted the Business of that Union when the Greek Emperor's Embassadors came from Constantinople on purpose to treat with him about it which he did to that degree after it had been so far advanced by his Predecessor as to put an end to it It is true that Treaty was afterwards revived by him and that with great Zeal but when we come to that we shall see what was the Reason of it Eugenius was writ to likewise by the Kings of England France c. who upon the Synod's Nuncios coming to their Courts had all declared themselves in its Favour to revoke his pretended Dissolution of it that so he might prevent a Schism And the French Clergy having been called by their King at Bourgis for their Opinion in this Matter did unanimously declare themselves on the side of the Council desiring his Majesty to espouse its Quarrel as the common Concern of the Universal Church The President Julianus writ likewise passionately to his Master to revoke his Bull that was so universally odious telling him in plain Terms that if he did not do it and that speedily too he would raise such a Schism in the Church as had never been seen in it before concluding his Letter to him thus I have called upon Men on this Occasion till I am hoarse I will therefore now call upon Christ and beg him to look with an Eye of Pity on his forsaken Church which he purchased with his own Blood The Synod likewise which was not willing if it could have helpt it to have broke with Eugenius dispatched Nuncios to him to intreat him to revoke the said Bull and to come to them in Person or by his Legats to assist at the Reformation of the Church To all which Remonstrances Eugenius turned a deaf Ear seeming resolved to venture all rather than suffer Councils to go on on the Foot of that of Constance which tho he never mentioned it was the true Ground of his Quarrel with the Basileans and they being sensible that it was so now that they had so
the Synod by the Archbishop of Tarentum and the Bishop of Cervina on the second of February they were after a strict Examination declared by the whole Synod to be satisfactory Eugenius having therein comply'd with every thing the Council had required of him declaring them to be and since they met to have always been a General Council lawfully assembled revoking his Bull of Dissolution and other two Bulls denying the third of the 18th of the Calends of January to have been his he also with this named Legats to preside in the Synod in his Name The Legats with the Cardinal Julianus were Nicolaus Cardinal of the Holy Cross John Archbishop of Tarentum Peter Bishop of Padua and Luis Abbot of St. Justin who having on the 24th of April taken an Oath to act faithfully for the Honour of the Council and to defend all its Decrees but especially the Decree of the Council of Constance of the Subjection of the Pope to the Coercive Power of General Councils in all things belonging to the Faith the Extirpation of Schism and the general Reformation of the Church in its Head and Members as also to give wholsome Counsel according to God and their Consciences and not to reveal to any Person how the Prelats voted nor to depart from the Place of the Synod without its Leave they were admitted Presidents but without being allowed any Coercive Power all Decrees and other Acts of the Council being to be expedited as formerly under its own Seal Here we are told a very odd thing if it is true which is that tho these Prelats were admitted Presidents of the Council as the Pope's Legats and did take the forementioned Oaths as Presidents nevertheless that they took them not in the Pope's but in their own Name a thing naturally so absurd and considering how high the Spirit of the Synod was at this time so incredible that it had need to be very well attested to be believed by any indifferent Person it seems much more probable that those who had the Acts of this Synod for near an Age intirely in their Hands might be tempted to foist such a Passage as this into them especially considering that so great a Point as that of the Pope's having acknowledged a General Council to be superiour to him depends thereon than that such an Assembly should admit Men their Presidents as the Embassadors of a Prince and at the same time allow them to take an Oath of Fidelity to the Assembly in their own and not in their Prince's Name But in whose Name soever these Oaths were taken never were Oaths worse observed than they were the Presidents from the first minute they took their Place in the Synod studying nothing but how to blow it up by creating Factions in it and gaining Prelats to the Pope by Promises of great Preferments Eugenius having been driven out of Rome at this time by the Colonna's and other Citizens to whom he had rendred himself extreamly odious the whole City crying after him Let new Taxes and the Inventors of them perish when he came to Florence writ a very kind Letter to the Council thanking them therein for having so affectionately admitted his Legats Presidents promising faithfully for the future to love them as Sons observe them as Brethren and to be bound up with them in the Blessings of the same Sweetness by a fervent Love But the Synod knowing the Man too well to rely much on any Professions or Promises he could make them now it had brought him to its own Terms would not be diverted by a few good Words from doing what was necessary to the holding of him and all his Successors to them and whereas there were some who pretended that the Pope had never given his Consent to the Decree of the Synod of Constance which declared a General Council to be superior to him they resolved either to remove that Objection or to break with the Pope again and accordingly on the 26th of June they made a Decree declaring that a General Council derived its Authority immediately from Christ and that all Christians of whatsoever State or Dignity the Papal not excepted were bound in Conscience to obey all its Determinations in all matters appertaining to the Faith the Extirpation of Schism and the general Reformation of the Church in its Head and Members To which Decree coming upon them before they were well warm in their Chairs and while their Master was in very bad Circumstances the Presidents gave their Consent so that howsoever it was before the Supremacy of a General Council had now the Pope's Consent to it The Council vainly imagining that it had by this Decree secured its own Supream Authority and that of all future General Councils since none hereafter could without denying the Infallibility of the Church call the Truth thereof in question begun to act as the Supream Church-Authority sending two Cardinals into Italy as the Legats of the Universal Church to reconcile the Princes and People thereof to Eugenius The thing that made the Synod the more forward to send this Embassy into Italy was Eugenius's Adversaries making his being an Enemy to the Council of Basil one of their chief Objections against him which the Synod now he had so affectionately and thorowly adhered to it thought it self bound in Justice to remove The Legats sent by the Synod on this Errand were the Cardinal of the Holy Cross who was one of its Presidents and John Cervantes Cardinal Sancti Petri ad Vincula the former of which is said not to have consented to the forementioned Decree which is just as likely as that of his having taken the Oath of President in his own Name and not in the Pope's it being a very incredible thing that the Synod if the Cardinal had not consented to that their darling Decree would have employ'd him so soon after as their Legat and especially in an Embassy which was to be a Precedent to all future Ages of a General Council's having Authority to send Legats in the Name of the Universal Church But howsoever that were the Cardinal with his Colleague having gone with that Character to Rome after having treated there with the Colonna's who had the chief hand in driving Eugenius out of that City he went to Florence where having caballed with Eugenius how to destroy the Council he was sent back to it again with Instructions that in a short time did its business effectually for as he was reckoned to be one of the most dextrous Statesmen of his time so his main business at Basil was to gain the Cardinals and great Prelats over to Eugenius by Promises of higher Preferments so the Cardinal Capronicus whom Eugenius had pronounced not to be a Cardinal because tho he was named to that Dignity by Martin he had not been publickly declared by him before his Death and the Cardinal Julianus the President and the Cardinal Cervantes who were the Pillars the Council chiefly stood
streights we are in at present and were we but certain that they would not come and had thereupon Orders to hold a Session for to determine the foresaid particulars we should be able to clear matters thereby in giving the Pope his Ministers and others to understand plainly how ill they have guessed at his Majesty's intentions which are open to God and the World and that it has been their designs and the fears arising from them that have been the unhappy instruments of involving us in so many difficulties about the Clauses I have always let what would happen desired that a Session might be held for the determining of the Points of Matrimony as his Majesty had very well ordered even though the Protestants did not come as a great many are now very confident that they will not But whereas what the Legate has now done was a thing I never thought of so it troubles me extreamly because we cannot hold a Session now as I desired without complying with his designs unless some other business could be found in part to supply the place of that which ought to have been the business of that Session or the Legate could be persuaded to suffer the Canons of Reformation to be pronounced therein to which considering how he has ordered matters I believe it will be impossible to bring him All which notwithstanding if we should be able to do no more it will be convenient to hold a Session and should the Protestants but come that would answer all Your Lordship must judge what is most expedient to be done and advise the Embassadors thereof in time to prevent our being reduced to such streights as we shall not know how to get out of What I mentioned above of some Prelates meeting in Junto's is what I acquainted your Lordship withall in my Letter of the 28th since which time they have assembled again in the Monastery of Saint Lawrence and have spoke their minds at large which Meetings have furnished matter for a great deal of talk and have filled the Legate and others with jealousies Whose intentions though they may be good and which notwithstanding they endeavour to conceal I know are the same I communicated to your Lordship that is to Petition for a Reformation and some other things of the same nature nevertheless their assembling so in this juncture of affairs without acquainting Don Francisco with their designs notwithstanding they pretend to do nothing without informing him thereof is a great indiscretion and a very ill thing I have declared my thoughts of it to several people and did advise Don Francisco to find some smooth way to remedy it I say a smooth way because they are a great number and a multitude is a dangerous thing It must therefore be done with mildness for fear of exasperating them which would but provoke them to take more liberty and I do not doubt but he will do it with his customary prudence when any thing else shall offer I shall not fail to advise your Lordship thereof I have added this that your Lordship by joining it to the rest may see that there is matter prepared for the Diligences your Lordship knows of Whose most Illustrious and Reverend Person and State may our Lord protect and prosper for many years as I desire I kiss your Lordship's Hands Doctor Vargas From Trent the last of February 1552. THIS following Treatise of Councils having been writ by Vargas immediately before the Re-assembling of the Trent Synod by Julius the Third is an Evidence of that Synod's having had as little liberty in its first Session under Paul the Third as it had in its second under Julius the Third which Vargas's Letters tell us was none at all And as to the Authority of Vargas's Testimony it is the same as to both those Sessions he having assisted at them both from the beginning to the end as one of the Emperor's Ministers Directions concerning the Government of a Council and the Office of an Embassadour THough this is a Subject of a large Extent I shall endeavour to reduce it within as narrow Bounds as I am able And that both the disease and the remedy may the better be discovered which is my intent I shall derive matters from their first Principles and knowing to whom I speak that I may the better peform the service I owe to God and his Majesty I will deliver my Thoughts freely Now an Universal or Oecumenical Council which are the same being the thing I am here to treat of supposing every Council wherein the Pope or his Legates do assist may whatever is done therein by reason of its Effects be said to be General or Universal nevertheless when we speak of General Councils by way of Excellency we understand those Assemblies which are reckoned to have been such for their having been famous and of great authority and celebrated in a place of Freedom by the Convocation and Concourse of all Nations So from that of Nice which was celebrated in the Time of Pope Sylvester to that that was in the Time of Adrian the Second there were eight Councils which were for the foresaid Reasons reckoned to be General they having been all Assembled by the Emperors and had all the Pope's Legates present in them the Pope in person having never assisted at any of them And so notwithstanding the Popes did both during that â—ime and since assemble divers Councils at Rome however they might style them General they have never been reckoned so but in comparison of the others have still been held only as domestick or particular Councils After the Eighth Synod that of Constance is reckoned to have been the Ninth which was very famous and of great benefit to the Christian Common-wealth The next was that of Basil wherein there were hot Dissentions betwixt Eugenius the Fourth and the Fathers assembled therein Eugenius celebrating a Council at Florence at the same time This does somewhat disturb the reckoning for there being two Councils at the same time and an Altar against an Altar one of them must necessarily have been illegitimate So that they who hold that of Basil to have been valid I mean after Eugenius had broke with it there being no question of its validity before that rupture do reckon it to have been the Tenth Council as they who condemn that of Basil as a Conventicle that brought forth a Basilisk do reckon that of Florence to have been All which notwithstanding in the last Edition of the Councils he that made the Collection doth either rashly or because he would do it call that of Florence the Eighth General Council having either never seen or forgot the Eighth Synod that was in the Time of Adrian the Second not daring to put that of Constance in that Number because it established the Authority of a Council above the Pope For which reason Leo the Tenth assembled a Synod at the Lateran in opposition to it and to that of Basil which though
great risk we shall not be able to procure it The business of the Communion Sub utraque might very well have been remedied without having made such a Noise about it or without our having writ concerning it from hence for we do not know what to write untill we have received advice of things from you and the Legate if he had pleased might have remembred that His Majesty when the Council sat formerly at Trent writ that the matters that are chiefly controverted might not be handled till a convenient time and that his Holiness writ likewise to his Legates to follow His Majesty's directions as to things of that Nature For as you know very well Papers which must be read by His Majesty before they are dispatched cannot be expedited as they might be otherwise and so the Answers to the Embassadour's Letters though they have been writ some days ago yet by reason of His Majesty 's not having as yet seen them they cannot go by this occasion but I shall take care to send them as soon as it is possible It would have had much more Authority if the Fathers had first delivered their Minds concerning matters and the decrees having been formed thereupon had been returned to them again to be voted by them than the taking the second Course you instance in but it being now too late to procure that there is no mention of it in His Majesty's Letters It would likewise considering the Necessities of the Times have been most convenient not to have had the Decrees published till the End of the Council but the contrary Custom being now introduced by their having done otherwise in the former Sessions it will be to no purpose to urge what is proposed by Cologne notwithstanding it was the Practise of all the Ancient Councils for we must be content to take things in the State they are in and make the best we can of them I was glad to hear from the Fiscal Vargas of your having signalized your self so much by the Oration you made The Divine who would have taken place of the Dean might very well have excused giving People occasion to talk of him Don Francisco has writ concerning it and has excepted you by Name His Majesty nor none else having ever imagined that such a pretence could have been started by any body it being most certain that they are all His Majesty's Embassadours as well those of Flanders as those of Spain being all equally the Servants of the same Master and sent on the same Errand I am not unmindfull of your particular business having spoke several times both to Erastus and Secretary Vargas about it so that if you have not had a return you will have one by the first opportunity I have told them often that if those returns were made by the ordinary ways His Majesty whose ceremonies and opinions you are no stranger to would be best pleased with them I cannot forbear shewing great respect to Dr. Velasco as well upon his own Account as upon your Commendation of him I have received the Book of the Decrees which have been passed in this Council for which I kiss your Hands those of the last Session were sent me by Don Francisco of which to speak the truth I have the same opinion that you have it being impossible as they precipitate matters to have them discussed in so short a time as they ought to be If there were any perswading of them to take the most convenient Courses there are several Articles ought to be deferred till the Protestants come We shall see whether what His Majesty writes concerning such matters will be able to remedy things a little for the future The safe Conduct is very defective to the purposes of bringing the Protestants to Trent and of keeping them there Our Lord preserve you From Inspurg the 9th of November 1551. We know not what to advise in case the French should return to the next Session as I suppose they will if not hindred by Varillas's departure to whom if they should say any thing an Answer may be deferred as it was before till the next Session as to an appeal I do not see any ground they can have for it since no Decree has been made to provoke them to it but only an Answer returned to them but in case they should appeal à futuro gravamine they may as I have said be answered afterwards this is all the advice we can give from hence untill we see what they have said and in what form this being a matter that will require to be considered thoroughly as to every word of it A Copy of a Letter of the Bishop of Arras in answer to a Letter of the Bishop of Oren's of the 20th of January 1552. Most Reverend Lord I Have received two Letters from your Lordship the first whereof is full of Complaints upon what His Majesty had writ to your Lordship and the second is a retractation of the suspicion you had of the Embassadour Now as there is nothing that troubles your Lordship that does not give me pain so I do assure you His Majesty's Letter to you gave me a great deal I do not say this to excuse my self who being His Majesty's Minister am bound to obey him and especially when after having endeavoured to satisfie him he commands me absolutely to do it after which I did not think fit to make any farther reply knowing certainly that if I had done it I should have made the business worse His Majesty being in so great a passion at that time that a reply would have served only to have increased his Choler The original of all this was His Majesty's having been informed that there were three of the Prelates absent from Trent at once the Bishop of Segovia having absented himself without leave and the Bishop of Placentia being gone to Venice only for Pastime Now His Majesty being zealous in all the concerns of Religion and being extreamly desirous of reaping some fruit of this Council which though it may not be so much as is necessary yet that it may be as much as can be had and that on his part and theirs who are employed by him nothing should be wanting that is necessary towards the procuring of a Reformation he commanded those Letters to be writ by the dispatch that went to the Embassadour who I do assure your Lordship never writ one word concerning that Affair to His Majesty neither am I able to tell by what way he was informed of it there being a great many People who speak to him of things upon such slight Grounds that one would wonder they are not ashamed to do it Your Lordship's Letter being come to hand I took care to communicate so much of it as was convenient to His Majesty saying several things besides of which your Servant can give you an account The Lady Dona Maria de Lara had spoke to me about it as she has likewise very well as she
many Friends abroad did set about establishing their own Authority by passing the following Decrees 1. That the Sacred Synod of Basil in having been assembled according to the Decrees of the Councils of Constance and Siena and with the Concurrence of the Pope was a lawful General Council 2. That being a lawful General Council all Christians of whatsoever State or Dignity the Papal not excepted were bound to yield Obedience to it in all Matters of Faith the Extirpation of Schism and the general Reformation of the Church in its Head and Members 3. That whosoever of whatsoever State or Dignity the Papal not excepted should deny to yield Obedience to the Statutes of any General Council relating to any of the forementioned Matters deserve to be punished 4. That it should not be lawful for any Member of the Council to absent himself from it or to depart from the City of Basil without leave of the Council From which Decrees they inferred That the Papal nor no other Authority on Earth had Power to prorogue translate or dissolve the General Council of Basil without its own Consent or to hinder any Prelats from repairing to it or to oblige any that assisted at it to withdraw In virtue whereof they admonished Eugenius within the space of three Months by a publick Bull to revoke his pretended Dissolution of them and to come in Person to the Council or being lawfully hindred by his Legats in default whereof they threatned to proceed against him as the Holy Ghost should direct them for the Good of the Church Cardinal Julianus perceiving what a Storm Eugenius was like to raise against himself and the Papacy notwithstanding his Hoarsness called upon him once more telling him in a very loud Note That if he went on opposing the Council he would bring the Indignation of all Europe upon his Back it being plain to every body that the Assembly of Basil was a General Council by the same Authority that he was Pope that is by the Authority of the Synod of Constance concluding his Letter to him thus I have often declared and protested and I do it now again in the sight of God and Men That if your Holiness do not change your Measures you will infallibly be the Cause of a most pernicious Schism Eugenius being taken dangerously sick at this time the Basileans when they heard of it passed a Decree presently That in case of a Vacancy of the Roman See it should not be lawful for the Cardinals to chuse a Pope any where but in the Place where the Council was sitting and fearing lest Eugenius might if he died before his Death have named some Cardinals they decreed likewise That since the multiplying of Cardinals was both prejudicial and chargeable to the Church it should not be lawful for the Pope to create any during the Session of the Council ordering at the same time a Leaden Seal to be made for the Use of the Synod which on the one side was to have the Holy Ghost in the figure of a Dove and on the other The Sacred General Council of Basil and having constituted the Cardinal St. Eustathia Governour and Vicar of the City of Avignion and named Judges and Prosecutors in Matters of Faith and all the other Officers of a Court of Judicature they passed a Decree That no Person belonging to the Council could be called from it to the Court of Rome or to any other Place Eugenius beginning to fear lest the Council which grew every Day stronger and stouter might if he did not do something to mollify them serve him as that of Constance had done John the 23d did much against the grain of his own Nature and the haughty Spirit of his See submit so far as to send three Nuncios to them who having in a publick Audience made long Harangues of the Mischiefs of a Schism and of the great Power Christ had committed to the Pope were answered by the Fathers and dismissed with this Message to their Master that the Sacred Synod could not treat with him until by a publick Bull he had revoked his pretended Dissolution of it and did either come in Person or send his Legats to preside in it And the Prosecutors of the Causes of the Synod after that the Term in the Citation was expired having demanded that Eugenius should be pronounced Contumacious in order to their proceeding farther against him the said Nuncios humbly beseeched the Synod to suspend the passing of that Sentence upon their Master which at the Request of Sigismund was granted and sixty Days more were allowed to him to comply with what was required During which Term Eugenius sent other Nuncios with some Propositions of Accommodation the revoking his late Bull publickly which the Synod insisted on being a thing of so hard digestion that he did not know how to swallow it The Propositions offered by the new Nuncios to the Synod were That Eugenius if they would revoke all the Decrees they had made against him was ready to revoke all in general he had said or done against them and that if they would consent to his having called a Council at Bononia if the Bohemians should refuse to come to that City he was content to allow the Fathers some time to treat with them at Basil on condition that when the Term he had set them was expired they should immediately repair to Bononia Against which City if the Fathers had any just Exception they might name any other City in Italy and if they would not agree to that neither that they should then name twelve of the most moderate Prelats of their own Body in conjunction with the Embassadors to be Judges of the whole Matter who if they should judg it to be most convenient that the Council should sit in Germany should name any City therein for it except Basil The Fathers being extreamly offended with these shuffling Propositions told the Nuncios That they could not sufficiently admire at their Proposals being so involved and clogged with Reservations as if the Matters they came to treat with them were not of a religious Nature and to be handled with Integrity but were Matters of Trade or Commerce and fit only to be treated about by Hucksters A most true Character of all that the Popes did to destroy the Supremacy of Councils Adding That since Eugenius had not by any thing that they had proposed intimated his being ready to revoke his Bull of Dissolution but on the contrary seemed rather to seek to have it confirmed they could not therefore take any notice of their Propositions but must go on with their Proceedings against him as a Contemner of the Authority of General Councils For the farther Security whereof they passed a Decree That no Person should hereafter be capable of being chosen Pope who had not given his Consent and Assent upon Oath to the Doctrine of the Synod of Constance concerning the Supremacy of General Councils and their being