were to be followed Besides these there was a fifth Article proposed to be examined to wit if these matters should be condemned with Anathema's There waited on the Council about thirty Divines most part Monks who till then had been of no use but in making some Sermons in praise of the Pope and Council but now there is work cut out for them for they were employed to open the matters and to make the first inquiry into the controversies and hereupon they discoursed in Congregations appointed for that purpose in presence of the Prelates who afterward gave their Judgment upon what they had learnt in the Congregations of the Divines But the Divines had no Vote in consulting and forming the Decrees The heads above mentioned were therefore stated in the Congregation and left to the disputations of the Divines As to the first head that concerned traditions they were almost all very well agreed that they ought to be received as a part of the revelation of God's Will Antony Marinier is not of opinion that the necessity of Traditions should be made a point of faith But Antony Marinier a Carmelite Monk started a considerable opinion he did not think it pertinent to make that a point of Faith because for asserting the absolute necessity of Traditions one of these two things must be granted Either that God had forbidden to write the whole revelation of his will or that the Prophets and Apostles had written their books at random without design of transmitting that revelation by Scripture and that hence it was that part of that revelation had been written and the rest unwritten he urged that the first could not be proved to wit that God had for bidden to commit all his revelation to writing and that the second was injurious to providence which guided both the Conduct and Pen of these holy Writers He gave therefore his opinion that they should follow the Course of the Fathers who had made use of Traditions when there was occasion without making their necessity a matter of Faith This opinion was not at all like and Cardinal Pool one of the Legates censured it severely saying that it had been sitter to have been started in a Conference of Lutherans in Germany than in a Council Four opinions about the Canonical Books Upon the Article of the Canonical Books there were four opinions some were for ranking them into two Classes that in the first should be placed the Books which had never been contested and in the second those which had this was the Opinion of Luigi di Catanea a Jacobin who grounded it upon the Authorities of St. Jerome and Cardinal Cajetan who had both done so some were for having them divided into three Orders the first of those whereof no doubt was ever made the second of those which had been heretofore questioned but which now are received and the third of those of which no perfect Certainty was ever pretended to The third opinion was for reducing them into a Catalogue without any distinction and in a word some were for naming expresly those Books that had been controverted to the end they might be declared Canonical The Book of Baruch gave them more trouble than the rest because no Pope nor Council had ever cited it for Canonical but a certain Person made a shamefull remark that the Church read part of it in the Desk and that was enough to canonize it By the Eighth of March the Divines had made an end of their Conferences about the Articles proposed to them and next day the Prelates assembled in Congregation to consult conclude and form the Decrees They past the Article of Traditions ordaining the same Authority to be given to them Vergerio drawn over by the Lutherans at length openly declares himself as to the written word and referred to another time the point concerning Canonical Books some days after Don Francisco de Toledo the second of the Emperour's Ambassadours Collegue to Don Diego de Mendoza came to Trent and the same time Vergerio who had a Bishoprick bordering on Germany arrived there also This man was famous for many Nunciatures that he performed in Germany and several Conferences which he had with Luther and the Lutherans by Commission from the Pope But instead of convincing the Lutherans in these Conferences the Lutherans had convinced him and Vergerio had not so well disguised his Sentiments but that he had raised himself an Enemy one Fryar Hannibal an Inquisitour who stirred up a Sedition of the People of his Diocess against him He came therefore to the Council to justifie himself but was ill received and referred to the Pope Instead of going to Rome he resolved to return to his Bishoprick hoping to find the Tumult quieted But the Nuncio that was at Venice sent him orders to the contrary and was preparing to proceed against him by order of the Court of Rome In sine Vergerio took the Course of declaring himself openly and retreating into a place of safety he fled into the Countrey of the Grisons where he made a publick Profession of the Lutheran Doctrine and afterward wrote many things against the Pope and Church of Rome In the Congregation of the 15th of March it was ordained that all the Canonical Books of Scripture should be equally approved of and no distinction made amongst them but there happened great Debates about the vulgar Translation Luigi di Catanea a Jacobin was of opinion that the method of Cardinal Cajetan ought to be followed who had recourse to the Greek and Hebrew texts and had them interpreted to him word for word because he understood not the Languages This Cardinal was wont in his last days to say that they who contented themselves with the Latin text had not the word of God pure and without mixture of errours this Jacobin stood stiff for the Originals against Translations but the Plurality of Votes were for the vulgar Latin and for having its Authority to be absolutely established without any reserve And some were even for having it declared that the Authour of that Translation was guided by a Spirit of Prophecy One reason that influenced the Patrons of the vulgar Translation was that if they re-established the original Greek and Hebrew in their ancient Authority the Grammarians would for the future be the Masters of Theology and the Divines and Inquisitours be obliged to learn the Languages But there were some learned men in that Assembly who could not endure to have it said that the Latin interpreter had a Spirit of Prophecy Isidorus Clarius a Bressian Abbot of St. Benet an able man and versed in the knowledge of Languages refuted that opinion he gave a History of that version and shew'd it to be made up of an ancient Latin Translation which was called the Italick and the version of St. Jerome he endeavoured to prove that it was not the work of one man but of many and that it being made up of pieces patcht together
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
which the Briefs and Bulls of the Pope were read wherein besides a Command to hold and open the Council there were several Regulations about the forms that ought to be observed in it and one particularly relating to Precedence which did appoint that the Patriarchs having taken their place after the Cardinals the Archbishops should sit next and after them the Bishops but for avoiding of all Debates which have been occasioned upon account of the Dignities and Privileges of Sees the Prelates should be placed according to their Seniority in promotion without any respect to Dignities enjoying Primacy Bartholomeo di Martiri Archbishop of Braganza in Portugal vigorously opposed this Order and could not endure to think that a Pettie Archbishop of Rosano who has not one Suffragan or of Nissia a little Isle in the Archipelago or of Antivari in Sclavonia who have not so much as one Christian under their Jurisdiction and never reside in their Sees should take place of Archbishops of Churches having Primacy considerable in Dignity and Privileges for no other reason but that of Seniority in Promotion However he must bear with that and be satisfied with a Declaration in writing importing that it was not the intention of the Pope nor Council to derogate from any man's rights but that after the Council was over all men might enjoy their several Privileges In the same Congregation the Spaniards urged that the Council might be reckoned a Continuation of the former and so declared in the first Act of the Session The Bishop of Zante in compliance with the Interests of the Emperour and King of France who desired the contrary opposed it but though the Legates of Mantua and Warmia seconded the opinion of the Bishop of Zante yet the matter past according as it had been resolved at Rome and ordered in the Bull. When the Congregation was ended the Legates drew up and framed the Decree of Commencement into which these words were cunningly inserted proponentibus Legatis whereby it was ordained that no proposal should be made but by the Legates This was a great fetch of Roman Court-policy to exclude the French and Spanish Bishops who as the Pope well foresaw had Proposals to make which tended to the diminution of his Authority and the enlarging of Episcopal Dignity They were apprehensive likewise of Princes who by their Ambassadours might make Overtures disadvantageous to the Holy See and contrary to its Interests and therefore it was thought fit that they who had any thing to propose should apply themselves to the Legates without whose consent nothing could be examined in the Council By this means the Court of Rome was secure from the attempts of those that had no great kindness for it session 17 Session 17. the first of the third Convocation The Session was held January the eighteenth wherein the Decree was read and the question put Fathers are ye pleased that from this day forward all suspension being taken off the General Council of Trent be Celebrated for handling in order the matters which the Legates shall think fit to propose to the Council The Answer was placet But four Spanish Prelates the Archbishop of Granada the Bishops of Orense Leon and Almeria objected against the clause proponentibus legatis and desired an Instrument of their Protestation but they went on for all that and the Legates having written to the Pope about it he would by no means have that clause omitted This business made a great deal of noise in the Sequel but at present the Spaniards bore the brunt alone The next Session was assigned to be the twenty sixth of February At the same time they held an Assembly in France at St. Germain en Laye The Assembly of St. Germain which makes the Edict of January in favour of the Protestants It began the seventeenth of January and the Affairs of the Protestants who encreased mightily were taken into consideration The Queen of Navarre the Prince of Conde and Admiral Coligny with many other great Men and Persons of Quality made powerfull instances in favour of the Protestants that they might have liberty to exercise their Religion which they already did without permission To this Assembly was called a select number of Presidents and able Judges from all the Parliaments in France and the Chancellour made a Judicious and Pithy Speech at the opening of it for the mitigation of Rigour To those who stood stiff for the severity of the Penal Edicts he applied that saying of Cicero that Cato behav'd himself among the Dregs of Romulus as if he had been in the Imaginary Commonwealth of Plato concluding thence that it was necessary to accommodate themselves to the times This Opinion prevailed notwithstanding all the opposition of the Persecutors and the Edict of January past which allowed Liberty to Protestants to assemble out of Towns and to live in the exercise of their Religion under the Kings Permission provided they taught nothing contrary to the Council of Nice and the Old and New-Testament The Parliament of Paris strongly opposed the Confirmation of this Edict but the King commanded it to be done declaring however that the Edict was but granted in provision untill the holding of the General Council The Protestants by this Edict took Courage to shew themselves and it is reported that at that time there were two thousand one hundred and fifty Congregations which they called Churches in France The Council begins with Books to be prohibited and the Indices Expurgatorii the Original of these Indices Expurgatorii They began now to fall to business at Trent and the Legates held a Congregation the seven and twentieth of January wherein three Proposals were made the first concerning the Examination of Books that had been written since the breaking out of Heresie which were to be suppressed Secondly whether it was necessary to cite all those who were concerned in such Books to appear before the Council and thirdly whether it was necessary to invite the Hereticks to Council and grant them a Safe-conduct The first point which related to the discharging of Heretical Books to be read deserved to be well weighed because the matter was new It is true that in the ancient Church they who read the Books of Authours who were Enemies of the truth were censured The Enemies of St. Jerome objected it to him as a Crime that he read and perused the Books of Pagan Writers and he blames himself for it saying that he was one day lasht before the Tribunal of Jesus Christ for his Curiosity in having read too much of the Works of Cicero However they made no Catalogue of the Books of Hereticks or Pagans that they might forbid the reading of them The Emperours indeed did sometimes prohibit the Books of Hereticks Constantine prohibited the Arian Arcadius the Eunomian and Manichean Theodosius the Nestorian and Martian the Eutychian Books but the Bishops medled not with them or at least did not take that Authority upon
Bishops of France p. 8. that this Kingdom hath always made to submit to it and to several other Regulations about Discipline as being found contrary to the Liberties of this Church which the Kings the Clergy and the Parliaments of France have always so carefully preserved These Gentlemen are then persuaded that the Council of Trent hath in this point wronged the Bishops But one cannot commit a Wrong without Injustice nor do an Injustice without Error Whence it follows that it is not to be denied by these Gentlemen but that according to them the Council hath erred Yet still say they it is but an Error in Discipline And still they must give me leave to tell them that this reply is nothing but a meer illusion For it is a real Point of Doctrine to know how far the Rights of Bishops do or do not extend It is a clear Case that all the Grievances the Bishops complain of depend upon the question Whether Bishops were instituted by Jesus Christ and are the Apostles Successors For if Bishops are by Divine Right and not of Papal Institution it is manifest that the Pope cannot deprive them of a power he did not give them nor can so much as lessen that power If a Bishop does jure divino watch over the conduct of those of his Diocess there is no man that by any right can take a part of his Flock from him or forbid him to execute his Pastoral Charge in any instance for no man hath power to alter what God hath established On the contrary if the Pope hath conferred upon Bishops all the Authority they have he may revoke lessen or enlarge it at his pleasure nor could the Bishops then have any cause to complain for he may make use of his just right and power If the Pope be absolute Master of the Church and Bishops but his Substitutes he may proceed judicially against them as he thinks most fit by a Synod by Commissaries or by himself And the Bishops know it very well for the Spanish Bishops who stickled so much in the Council that the Residence and Institution of Bishops might be declared to be jure divino had no other end in it but to strengthen the Episcopal Dignity and shake off the Papal Yoke that oppressed them The Authors of those Writings that have made so much noise in the world about the affair of Signatures are likewise perfectly convinced of this truth For speaking of the wrongs done to Bishops by the Court of Rome they tell us that the Popes Ministers take delight to shew in Act and by Example what the Roman Doctors teach in their Books Circular Letter of the four Bishops p. 15. That the Pope is the absolute Master and Sovereign of the Church That Bishops are but his Vicars holding all their power from him That he either does or does not hearken to them as he thinks fit That if he makes answer when they consult him he does them grace and favour but does them no wrong if he refuse to answer To this erroneous and false opinion of the Doctors Partisans of the Court of Rome they oppose the pure truth of the Gospel that is Page 14. That all Bishops do succeed to the Apostles That the Pope by Divine Right is their Head and Superiour but not the sole Bishop That they derive their power from Christ himself That it is the Holy Ghost that hath set them over the Flock that the Great Shepherd hath acquired by his bloud that each might govern as his Vicar that portion that falls to his lot c. that they are so inferiour to the Pope as to be yet his Brethren and Collegues in that only Episcopat of which each of them holds an intire part according to the Fathers This is truly the state of the Question and can this be thought to be a mere matter of Discipline Or can it be other than a Point of Doctrine When the French and Spaniards did so mightily insist in the Council to have it declared that Bishops are not the Popes Vicars nor set up by him but established by Christ and when on the other side the Partisans of the Court of Rome opposed this design with so much violence every where preaching up the Pope to be the sole Bishop that the Ordinaries are but a succession of Commissaries holding all their Authority from the Holy See was this Controversie considered by the two Parties as a matter of Discipline Was it not considered in the Examen of the Sacrament of Orders which is a Point of Doctrine And not touched in the Chapters of Reformation to which was referred all that concerned Discipline The Bishops could not prevail to have it declared that their Order is by Divine Right but at least they hindred that no Decree was made for declaring them only the Popes Vicars Yet that is of no great service to them for in all the Decrees of the Council they are still treated as the Popes Vicars And it must needs be acknowledged that the Council in declaring that the Pope hath power to abridge the Authority of Bishops to hinder their Episcopal Functions to try them in Person or by his Commissaries hath sufficiently declared them to be no more than his Vicars So we have another Point of Doctrine wherein two thirds of Europe agree that the Council of Trent hath erred That the People ought to have part in Canonical Elections that herein also the Council of Trent hath erred by the Confession of many Roman Catholicks I go on to Canonical Elections Those persons that within thirty or forty years past have made themselves so much talked of in the World for that extraordinary appearance of zeal to restore the ancient lustre of the Church those persons I say do consider this matter of Canonical Elections as a Point of highest importance They lament that favour interest and birth are the only steps that raise to Ecclesiastical Dignities and that the custom of elevating to Prelacy by Election and Canonical ways those who are most worthy of it is now no more in use They complain of it with much grief and know not how to forgive the memory of Chancellour du Prat who is accused to have abolished the Pragmatick Sanction First Dialogue of the Parishioners of Sr. Hil. du Mont. p. 10. that is as they express it The pure observation of the ancient Canons in the Church of France and to have made the Concordat of Francis I. with Leo X. which ruined the Apostolical Discipline in France abolished Canonical Elections and subjected the Church of France to a deplorable servitude They tell us in the marginal refutations of M. d' Ambrun's Petition to the King Page 10. that in several Parish Churches there have been for a long time Publick Prayers to God for the abolishing the Concordat and the re-establishing Canonical Elections We must not say these Gentlemen have reason lest it give offence for if
memory of the Council of Trent was still fresh in Mens Minds so that he may very well pass for a contemporary Author He was a Neighbour to the place where the things he writes of had been transacted He lived in a City full of Curious Persons who had collected Memorials of what had passed in this great Affair and was himself one that kept correspondence with all the Learned Men of Europe Nay he had great intimacy with Oliva Camillo who had been Secretary to the Cardinal of Mantua Legat and President of the Council in the last Convocation and there is no doubt but he drew considerable advantages to his Work from such a Person who had been an Eye-witness of all that had passed Now since this Author was neither Lutheran nor Protestant he is not in reason to be suspected of the Church of Rome and as he was no servile Idolater of the Roman Court he ought not to be suspected of the Protestants There shines indeed throughout his whole Work an Air of sincerity and honesty which happily united to his vast Abilities has made him pass as unquestionably the ablest of his Age in the Art of writing History But in an Age so depraved as ours it is dangerous to be honest The Sincerity of Father Paul hath raised against him a multitude of Enemies The Court of Rome endeavours to make him pass for a Villain an Impostor and the most Profligate of Men and his Work for a malevolent and poisonous Satyr And yet to so many important Truths by him laid open to the World nothing but Scurrilities are opposed till at last after forty years Cardinal Pallavicini it seems bethought himself to publish a new History of the Council of Trent or if you please an Answer to Father Paul for he cites him and refutes him in every Page This Work appeared with all the External Advantages that can well recommend a Book It had Pope Alexander VII to whom it was dedicated for Patron and for Author one of the so called Princes of the Church One that was of a Society well acquainted with the Arts of engaging Mens Minds and one that in this Work defended a Darling Cause favoured and supported by the Number and Quality of its Partisans And yet with all this he has not been able to attract all that applause and approbation that the Court of Rome had hoped Men judged that he came much too late to instruct them in the Transactions of this Council Nor indeed is an Opinion once setled so easily shaken off After having left not be forgotten he takes care to have it repeated in an Epistle Dedicatory that he causes his Bookseller to make to the second Volume Yet all that knew him affirm him to have been one of the most Wise and Pious Men of great Moderation in his Passions and very Religious The Proof the Cardinal brings of his Accusation is this that Father Paul having all the Heretical Opinions did yet live in the Communion of the Catholick Church which shewed a setled Contempt of Religion This sure is a rash way of reasoning It is true that by the Principles of the Court of Rome Father Paul was a Heretick for he did not believe that the Pope was absolute Lord of the Church that he had Power to Excommunicate Princes and interdict their Dominions at his pleasure He did not believe there was any Obligation for a blind Obedience to the Pope's Commands He did believe it very possible for the Pope to err and that there is no submission due to his Errors And he highly disapproved that corruption in Discipline and Manners every where prevalent but chiefly in the Papal Court I must confess that according to the Principles of Cardinal Pallavicini and those of his Party this is enough to make him pass at Rome for Impious and an Atheist And yet Father Paul in all his contests with the Pope for the Republick of Venice hath always spoken of what they call the Holy See with the greatest respect imaginable He lived and died in his Religion with the greatest Devotion in the World He was most exact in the observation of all the Ceremonies of his Church And though he was of a nice and tender Constitution yet would he never dispence with himself in the keeping of Lent even to seventy years of Age. In a word he was an Atheist after the same manner that an infinite number of Persons of Vertue and Honour in France Flanders and Germany are so who will not be Slaves to the Court of Rome who wish that several things were reformed in the Church and yet disapprove the Separation of the Protestants It had been a surprizing thing for a Jesuit to write the History of Lutheranism without frequent Blows at Father Paul It is not therefore to be wondered at if Father Maimbourg treats him sometimes a little roughly Though it must yet be said that he does it with less rudeness than the Cardinal As I do not judg it needful to enter into the Particulars of the Accusations of Cardinal Pallavicini for the justification of Father Paul because it would draw me too far so for the same reason I shall not amuse my self to justifie him in certain matters wherein Father Maimbourg accuses him though it were very easie to shew that Father Paul is more in the right than Father Maimbourg But yet I cannot but here take some notice of what a sufficient known Author says in a little Book containing Reflections upon History and upon the Art of writing History This Author judges of the Quality and Merit of Historians methinks after a very Magisterial manner Among others he speaks of Father Paul and says Pag. 125. Never was anything written with greater wit or with less reason and truth He is facetious upon all occasions that he may not be thought angry and is much too airy in a subject so serious If this Author had consulted Thuanus to whom the French owe some respect his History being an honour to their Country he would not have given such a Character of the Historian of the Council of Trent for he would have seen that these two great men do perfectly agree For my part by our modern Authors good leave I shall much rather give credit to M. de Salo a famous Counsellour in the Parliament of Paris Author of the first Journals under the name of the Sieur de Hedouville And thus he speaks in the Journal of 23 of March 1665. As Cardinal Pallavicini has ordered it one cannot read nor understand his Book without also reading Father Paul's And then there is some danger that History being very well done that one may prefer it before the Cardinals which may be truer but is not more probable It is easie to ununderstand the meaning of these words from so prudent a person as M. de Hedouville I am tempted to believe that the Author of the Reflections upon the Art of writing History has never read
the History of Father Paul because he says that that Historian makes mirth with every thing and is much too airy in so serious a subject Whereas never was any Work of a more different Character more wise more moderate more free from foolish trisling mirth So that because in the body of so large a Work there are found some few Railleries of Persons dissatisfied with the Council reported with the fidelity of an exact Historian to call this a continual drolling is willingly to expose his Reputation and his Judgment But if in this particular I was much surprized I could hardly believe my eyes in reading another Period some few Pages following in the same Book That this History is a Satyr upon the Roman Church and Religion Pag. 130. of which he exposes a train of knaveries to be revenged of the Pope for deluding him with the vain hopes of being made a Cardinal This is surprizing indeed and permission and with a Preface giving it high Eulogies of Sincerity But France is not a place where Libels and Satyrs against the Roman Church are published with approbation and permissión True it is that Father Paul lays open the very bottom of the conduct of the Roman Court and plainly shews it to be governed meerly by humane Policy Yet are his Enemies very imprudent to impute that to him as a Crime because that Imputation constrains his Defenders to make it apparent that the History of Cardinal Pallavicini is a thousand times more injurious to the Council of Trent and to the Court of Rome than is that written by Father Paul This latter indeed is accused to have expressed discontent and spite against that Court for discovering the Maxims of its Policy and shewing its aim to be onely Power and Greatness and that it had no regard to the Interests of Piety and Religion But it is most certain that Cardinal Pallavicini does expose it under that Character extreamly more than Father Paul The Father contents himself with remarking its Conduct and giving us the History of its Actions without saying much of its Maxims But the Cardinal gives us the naked View of all the Maxims of the Roman Polity shews us the very Basis of it and that it consists of humane and carnal things blended with things dangerous and criminal It is true that in proposing the Maxims of this Polity he undertakes also to defend it and makes a mighty merit of it in those that are the Guides and Directors of the Roman Church whilest those that are of contrary Sentiments pass with him for sottish ignorant and blind Zealots But in praising these Criminal Maxims he does not make them better The difference between Father Paul and Cardinal Pallavicini is this Father Paul in giving us the History of the Polity of the Court of Rome has done it in such a manner as plainly shews his dislike of it and Pallavicini represents it too as it is but wounds it deeper by his Apology than its Enemies do by their most severe Invectives For had he gone about to shew us that the Maxims of the Court of Rome and the Principles of its Morals are directly opposite to the Spirit of Christ and Christianity he could have gone no better way to work The Gospel represents the Church as a Society of People who should take up their Cross â—enounce the World and worldly Maxims and Policies and even themselves who should despise the Pomp the Wealth and Pleasures of the World and onely glory in their sufferings their Poverty their Mortification and their Good Works and who should draw Unbelievers to the Yoke of Christ by ways of mildness by humility and by the exercise of a sincere and ardent Charity But let us see after what sort Pallavicini represents the Roman Church 1. L. 1. c. 23. He confesses that she mixes in her conduct carnal and worldly Polity that her present Government is framed by the rules of this World and maintains that to be according to the intention of Christ 2. Ibidem He confesses that the Churches aim is to augment her Wealth and Glory and says that she ought to endeavour to possess the perfection of humane happiness for that Christ hath framed her in the most fit manner to enjoy such happiness and so as that if Plato and Aristotle were living they would avow that according to the Rules of their worldly Wisdom and Philosophy L. 12. c. 3. there could not be a more noble and excellent form of Republick than the Christian 3. And therefore as according to the Idea of the Wise Men of this World a Republick to be fortunate and well formed ought to be opulent flourishing in Wealth abounding in pleasures and full of Wise Men according to humanity L. 19 c. 9. L. 17. c. 10. L. 23. c. 3. Introd c. 6. L. 24. c. 12. so he will needs have it that the Church should be the same and confesses that the Church of Rome is formed upon this Idea 4. In owning that this Church makes use of all the ways accused for Simonical to heap up Money he undertakes to defend this Simony and all the means she uses to maintain her Opulence as First-Fruits Pensions Commendams Pluralities frequent Jubilees Indulgences and Dispensations given for mony 5. L. 1. c. 2. alibi passim Introd c. 10. He ridicules those that would reform the Church according to the Model and Idea that the Gospel gives us of it He terms such a Reformation an imaginary Whimsey only sought by People pushed on by blind Zeal and filled with extravagant conceptions Men that are enslaved to vulgar Opinions L. 1. c. 25. L. 16. c. 10. who know nothing of the World nor have any understanding in Affairs Pope Adrian VI. who acknowledged the corruption of the Court of Rome and was willing to have reformed it was according to Cardinal Pallavicini one of those blind Zealots who feed themselves with vain imaginations His designs were abstracted Ideas L. 2. c. 6. lovely in contemplation but whose form bare no proportion to the condition of the matter He was to blame to make so free a confession of the corruption of the Court of Rome L. 2. c. 7. it was too severely to censure his Predecessors and an indiscreet Zeal In a word such kind of People are the very Pests of publick Tranquillity 6. L. 17. c. 14. According to Pallavicini nothing is more horrid to the Church than Poverty and she ought to nourish this abhorrence in the minds of Men and her self strive to avoid this evil L. 9. c. 9. Those therefore who say that the greater part of the Goods of the Church ought to be given to the poor are the Churches Enemies and the Cardinal maintains that to do so were directly contrary to the humane happiness of the Church to Gods Institution and to Nature Ibidem He approves very well that the Goods of the Church be employed to maintain
of men un-refined gave no Entertainments with Balls and Comedies This is the Picture Pallavicini gives us of the Conduct and Maxims of the Council and of the Court of Rome And has he not given it an admirable Description Has Father Paul done any thing like it Has he ever said any thing more injurious to it Or is it possible for the greatest Enemies of the Church of Rome to give a more hideous Portraiture of the Morals by which they govern themselves at Rome Let it be no more said that Father Paul under the name of a History of the Council of Trent hath made a Satyr against the Court of Rome For a hundred such Enemies as Father Paul can never prove so injurious to it as the Illustrious Historian has who undertook its defence But let it suffice to have spoken thus much of Father Paul's Work a word or two now of our own In reading Father Paul's History one may remark two things The first that it is filled with things absolutely necessary to be known of all men but more particularly of the Protestants The second thing is that it is full of Theological Disputes and Reflections which makes it indeed most useful for Divines but less fit for others There is scarce any but a Profess'd Divine who could have the patience to read a Folio Volume of seven or eight hundred Pages of which two Thirds are most subtil and intricate School Disputes Which having already been tedious to the Bishops who were of the Audience it is not to be thought strange that they are now tiresom to the Readers So that altho this Work be exquisite in its kind yet it must needs be owned that it is useful but to a few The Original is in a Language that not many in this Country understand The Translation that we have of it is not new enough to satisfie such as can suffer nothing in our Language that has an air of Antiquity Both the Translation and the Original are full of Graces that can never decay And yet it is not to be denied but this Work hath lost some of its Beauties by changing Language For these Reasons it falls out that this excellent Book is not so much read as it ought to be It has been therefore conceived that the rendring this Work more Popular would be of great use to the World And that is the Design of the present Undertaking there being nothing of importance forgotten here yet Brevity is observed And as for the Theological Disputes you have here all that is Essential in them for the knowledge of the Nature and State of the Controversies that were managed in the Council of Trent You have the Principal Arguments made use of by the several Parties for maintaining their Opinions But the tedious Discourses of the Divines and Prelates which Father Paul reports at length and with great exactness are here omitted This History will at least serve for these two ends the one to occasion that abundance of People will inform themselves in the Conduct of this Council who had never done it if they had no other means but that of Father Paul's Voluminious Work The other to refresh the memory of those that have read that Work and let them review in little what there they saw more at large In some places there is a diversity as to Order between this History and that of Father Paul his being written in form of a Journal which is the most proper indeed for exactness but is not always so pleasing to the Reader Great Affairs very rarely happen without interruption several things intervene and one and the same day may produce divers great Events So that in observing the Order of Days one is obliged to take the Reader from a subject of which he would fain see the Issue and that makes him uneasie In this History therefore the Connexion of things is observed which in that of Father Paul are divided And tho I have here observed the Order and Number of Books yet there are many things in Father Paul's History at the end of the Books which are at the beginning here Nay there are some in a quite different Book as the circumstances of the great Quarrel between the French and Spaniards for Precedence They are dispersed in the three last Books of Father Paul but are here brought all together in the beginning of the eighth Book This hint was necessary because such as may have the Curiosity to read any Transaction at length or to compare the two Histories not finding their matter just where they looked for it might question the fidelity of the Present Historian But I begin to perceive that the length of this Discourse is a little contrary to the Design of this Work For it being composed in favour of those who have little leisure or inclination for long Reading it is to be feared they will complain we have been somewhat too tedious in the Introduction THE HISTORY OF THE Council of TRENT BOOK I. LEO. X. IN the beginning of the fifteenth Century the See of Rome being then universally acknowledged as Supreme in all the Western Provinces the state of the Church was peaceable and quiet enough There was indeed in the Valleys of Piedmont a remnant of people supposed to be descended from the Waldenses and Albigenses that retained the Opinions and Worship of their Ancestours and could neither be totally destroyed nor yet reduced to obedience and subjection but these Mountaneers being a dull and ignorant sort of people were incapable of forming any considerable party or of propagating their Sentiments amongst others and the rather because that all their Neighbours were possest with a bad opinion of them and had them generally in abhorrence and detestation year 1513 There were also in Bohemia some of the same Waldenses who went by the name of Picards and some of the followers of John Huss called Calixtins and Subutraquists because they did communicate in both kinds But these last cannot be said to have been enemies seeing in all things else they were conformable to the Church of Rome and though all these Separatists could have united and joined together in judgment and interest yet were they unable to make any great party or to cause any considerable revolutions Contests betwixt Pope Julius II. and Lewis XII of France It is true that in the beginning of the same Century the Church of Rome had been threatned with a Schism through the conduct oâ— Pope Julius II. a man of a turbulent haughty spirit and a lover of War for in the contests he had with Lewis XII of France he had proceeded even to the excommunication of that Prince Lewis on the other side made a party against Julius and the Cardinals whom he had gained to his Faction were assembled at Pisa in order to the holding of a Council and electing of another Pope but the Death of Julius happening opportunely at that time put a period to those differences
Pope that all the Mischief sprung from the Court of Rome and that therefore before any violent course could be used against the Lutherans it was necessary to attempt the Reformation of the Ecclesiasticks they demanded that the Annates which had been formerly appointed for carrying on the War against the Turks might be no more sent to Rome but that they should remain in the Empire in the hands of a Receiver to be named for which he should be accountable In a word they solicited the Pope speedily to call a free Council in Germany where all as well Seculars as Church-men might have free liberty to speak their opinions This discourse did not at all please the Nuncio and therefore he addressed himself in a manner not very satisfactory to the Diet for his answer tended onely to let them know that Germany ought to suffer with patience and expect the Reformation from the holy See and withall told them that he took it ill that in demanding a Council the Diet had added these words with the Consent of his Imperial Majesty The secular Princes who felt the oppression stopt not there they met by themselves and formed that famous writing which they called centum gravamina the hundred Grievances the Nuncio had notice of it but he departed before it was drawn up fair and therefore they themselves sent it to the Pope These hundred Grievances related chiefly to the oppression that the Seculars suffered from the Church-men the Usurpation of their Estates by the Clergy the means practised by the Church-men and Court of Rome to pillage the People the Annates Reservations abuse of Commendums the selling of the Sacraments and Burying the Exemptions of the Clergy and the manner of transferring Causes from Civil to Ecclesiastick Courts And because the Emperour Charles the V. was then in Spain the Diet that was held in his absence did both act and speak with greater Liberty so the Recess that is to year 1523 say the Decree of the Diet past sixth of March 1523. and immediately thereafter all the Memoires of it were printed to wit the Pope's Brief the Nuncio's instructions the Diets answer and the hundred Grievances Those that were engaged in the Interests of the Court of Rome were not well pleased to find in the Brief the frank and ingenuous Confession of Adrian that the original of the Mischief proceeded from the Corruption of his Court and the looseness of the Discipline and Manners of the Church This Diet did certainly much forward the Affairs of the Lutherans but Adrian lived not long after the Return of his Nuncio for he died the 13th of September 1523. without being much lamented by the Court of Rome who stood in awe of his Probity and the sincere Intentions which he still retained in his Heart of reforming the Abuses of that Court. CLEM. VII Adrian dies without any thing done Julius of Medicis is chosen in his place by the name of Clement VII On the nineteenth of November Julius of Medicis Cosin to Leo X. was chosen Pope who took the name of Clement VII he was certainly a man of less vertue than Adrian but of more wit greater politick cunning and address and more skill in the true interests of the Court of Rome He took a course quite opposite to that of Adrian and was not of opinion to acknowledge so frankly the disorders which he intended not to meddle with Nevertheless seeing he observed in the centum gravamina He sends another Legate into Germany to the Diet at Nuremberg that most of the Articles referred to the German Clergy he thought fit in some things to satisfie the Germans He therefore sent Laurence Campeggio Cardinal of St. Anastase to the Diet at Nuremberg which was held in the year 1524. year 1524 he gave him his instructions to act and speak in that Diet as if he had been wholly ignorant of what had past the year before under Adrian for the Cardinal spoke not a word of the hundred Grievances but onely offered a Reformation of the inferiour Clergy The Diet made answer that they were in the same mind as they had been the year before and that they had given in writing what they demanded and what they thought necessary for composing the troubles of Religion The Cardinal answered that neither the Pope nor he had ever heard of any Writings being presented to the College of Cardinals that indeed some Copies of the centum gravamina had been seen at Rome but that it was not believed that that Writing had been framed by the Princes of the Empire but was rather looked upon as the work of some private person a great enemy to the Court of Rome He added that the Pope was ready to satisfie the Germans touching the Reformation and that he himself had a full power to set about it The Diet built no great hopes upon these fair promises however they deputed some Princes to confer with the Cardinal but these conferences produced nothing at all for the Princes persisted in demanding the Reformation of the Court of Rome and the Cardinal refused it nor would he engage any farther than in reforming the Clergy of Germany In that he was as good as his word for he made a kind of Reformation which reached onely the puny Clergy but it was rejected by the Diet who perceived that it made onely for raising the power and greatness of the Prelates by lessening their inferiours The 18. of April the Diet pass'd their Edict the Emperour being absent as he was the year before Amongst other things it was concluded in that Recess that a free Council should by the Pope and consent of the Emperour with all expedition be convened in Germany that the States of the Empire should assemble at Spire to examine Luther's Books and to advise about the measures that ought to be taken concerning matters of Religion till that Council were called and in the mean time that the Magistrates should take care that the Gospel should be preached according to the Doctrine of Authours approved by the Church and that no Pamphlets or Books injurious to the Court of Rome should be published The Legate assembles the Catholick Princes at Ratisbonne and obtains a Decree against Luther The Legate being altogether dissatisfied with these resolutions prevailed with the Catholick Princes to assemble at Ratisbonne where in presence of Ferdinand the Emperour's Brother he got a Decree past against the Lutherans which commanded that the Edict of Wormes should in all points be put in execution against Luther He did more for he perswaded those Princes to admit of that gentle Reformation of the Clergy whereof he had proposed the Scheme and in a word got these Catholick Princes to enter into a League defensive for the preservation of their Estates and Religion The rest of the Princes and States of Germany without whom this Assembly at Ratisbonne was held complained loudly against it but the Cardinal Legate did not much
value that his intention being onely to serve his Master according to his humour by staving off the Council and making a Reformation by the sole authority of the Pope without the interposition of any other And indeed as affairs stood Pope Clement was convinced that the calling of a Council was the most pernicious counsel that could be given him The Emperour is dissatisfied with the Diet of Nuremberg and writes thereupon sharply States of Germany The Emperour who was in Spain was as ill satisfied with the Edict of Nuremberg as the Legate was because the thought they had encroached upon his authority in treating of affairs of that importance in this absence He thereupon wrote to the Princes of the Empire pretty sharply letting them to know that he did not take it well that they had infringed the Edict of Wormes by which al Luther's Books were prohibited seeing by the Decree of Nuremberg none but defamatory Libels violent and reproachfull Writings were forbidden He blamed them for having been too high and peremptory in their way of demanding a Council that it was the Pope's concern and his own and that they ought to have applied themselves to him that he might have obtained it of the Pope However as to the main he confessed that he agreed with them in opinion concerning the necessity of a Council which he promised to take care of and have it convened in such time and place as that himself might be present After all he charged them to assemble to more at Spire and commanded them to obey the Edict of Wormes The Germans could not tell what to make of this imperious style who were not wont to be so treated by the Emperours Charles his Predecessours but the Emperour knew what he did he thought thereby to draw the Pope to his side against the King of France with whom he was then in War year 1525 The supervenient Troubles stifle all thoughts of a Council All things seemed now to look as if a Council should be held maugre the intentions of the Court of Rome but the following year 1525. produced such troubles and dismal revolutions that there was a necessity of breaking off all Negotiations in Germany the Bores revolted from their obedience to the Princes and Magistrates and being animated by a furious spirit of Anabaptism which began that year to appear they broke out into strange and astonishing disorders in the Countreys bordering on the Rhine The Battel of Pavia was fought in Italy and King Francis the first there taken Prisoner which success so raised the heart of Charles that he thought nothing impossible for him to atchieve This made the States of Germany begin to be jealous of their Liberty and to enter into a League against the Emperour when at the same time the Pope grew likewise apprehensive of that Prince's power in Italy year 1526 The Troubles being over the Negotiations about matters of Religion were again renewed The year following the Negotiations about the affairs of Religion were again set on foot and about the end of June the States of the Empire met and held a Diet at Spire where were read the Emperour's Letters which pressed the execution of the Edict of Wormes Hereupon there arose great Debates some being for and others against it and nothing less than a fatal rupture seemed to be threatned but Ferdinand Brother to the Emperour thought it no seasonable Juncture to carry it too stifly in that affair and therefore he condescended to the making of an ambiguous Decree whereby it was enacted that the several Princes should in their own States govern matters of Religion so as that they might be able to give the Emperour a good account of the same to whom Embassadours were to be sent to entreat him that within the space of a year he would endeavour the calling of a Council in Germany either General for all Christendom or National for the German Nation alone year 1526 The Pope clashes with the Emperour and absolves Francis of his oaths that he had taken in Prison The same year the Pope began to clash with the Emperour The King of France being delivered out of Prison the Pope treated an Alliance with him dispensed with all the Oaths he had taken during his captivity and made a League against Charles into which he drew the Princes of Italy and called it the Holy League This Treaty was kept secret for some time but the Pope being no longer able to endure the conduct and actions of the Emperour which tended evidently to the diminution of the Papal authority broke forth and wrote two Briefs to him the one dated January 23. and the other the day after the first was sharp full of invectives and complaints against the conduct of the Emperour but particularly he expostulated with him for his invasions of the Rights of the Holy See in that he undertook every where to make Edicts and Orders concerning matters of Religion the cognisance whereof belonged onely to the Pope The second was much milder and took no more notice of the former than if it had never been The design of this Intrigue was to terrifie Charles by the threats of the first Brief and to soften him by the promises of the second but that trick would not take Charles who yielded to him neither in haughtiness nor cunning answered him in the same manner by two Letters of which the latter was delivered just next day after the former and were each of them suited to the different style of the Pope's Briefs In the first he found fault with the Pope's conduct as not becoming the character of a true Pastor and having justified his actions by a long Narrative of all he had done from the beginning of the troubles he protested that if what he wrote did not satisfie him he would appeal to a holy general Council His answer to the second Brief was in a softer style and both his Letters were seconded with an Address to the College of Cardinals wherein Charles spared not the Pope exhorting them to call a Council if the Pope should seem refractary and promising them his assistance therein but withall declared that if they granted not what he desired he would by his Imperial authority provide for the affairs of the Church according as he should think convenient These Letters wounded the Pope to the Heart and brought him to an open Declaration resolving to employ all his force both Spiritual and Temporal against the Emperour He therefore caused his Forces to march towards Lombardy to joyn the Venetians and the other Confederates The Emperour provides work enough for the Pope within Rome by means of the Colonna's who enter the City in Arms and plunder the Vatican who were in league for preserving the liberty of Italy Whilst these Negotiations were on foot the Emperour fomented Divisions in Rome and openly favoured a powerfull Faction formed against the Pope by the House of Colonna Cardinal Pompeio
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
wherein Francis Morel was President The Pope on his part did all that lay in his Power to encourage those two Kings and seeing he extremely dreaded a Council and yet passionately desired the Ruine of the Protestants he importuned those Princes to settle the Inquisition extolling and praising it as the onely means to extirpate Heresies The Protestants of Germany interceded with Henry year 1559 that he would put a stop to the rigour of his Persecutions though all in vain but one more powerfull than they stept in for providence permitted that the King of France was killed on the second of July by Montgommeri Henry King of France is killed Count de Lorge who in a Turnement run a Lance into his Eye The Protestants looked upon the death of the King as a Miracle in all its Circumstances they published several small Pamphlets wherein they observed that the King was killed by Captain de Lorge whom he had employed to apprehend the two suspected Judges after that famous Mercurial of the fifteenth of June they added that he was smitten in the Eye as a Punishment for his swearing that with his Eyes he would see Anne du Bourg burnt All these unseasonable observations did onely hasten the death of poor Anne du Bourg for the Queen being incensed by these Libels pressed the Judges to condemn him which they did contrary to their inclinations The Pope was extremely afflicted at the news of the Death of Henry whom he lookt upon as his Protectour against the attempts of the Germans and Spaniards upon the Authority of the holy See But he stood not long in need of a Protectour in this World The Pope dies Pius IV. of the House of Medicis is chosen for he died the eighteenth of August the same year on his Death-bed he commended nothing to the Cardinals but the Inquisition as the onely means of preserving the Church Paul was no sooner dead but the People who had more than a hatred for him rose in a terrible fury they beat off the head of his Statue dragg'd the Statue through the City opened the Prisons that he had filled year 1559 with wretched People and let out all the Prisoners and the Convent of Minerva the Monks whereof had the Charge of the Inquisition narrowly escaped being burnt The Cardinals also took Cardinal Morone out of the Castle of St. Angelo to which he had been committed by the late Pope and all the Caraffa's Arms were defaced torn in pieces and broken down wherever they were found On the fifth of September the Cardinals went into the Conclave the See was vacant almost three Months and the Factions that usually happen on such occasions retarded the Election untill the four and twentieth of December PIUS IV. Philip uses great Cruelty in Spain against the Protestants During that time Philip left the low Countreys and went to Spain he was near being cast away in a storm and being buried in the same waves that had swallowed up his rich Furniture and part of his Retinue When he was arrived in Spain he made it his chief care to choak the Seeds of new opinions that had been sown there the very day he arrived at Sevil which was the twenty fourth of September he caused John Pontio of Leon Son of the Count of Baileno and twelve other men and women of Quality to be burnt as Lutherans He caused the Effigies of Constantin Pontio who sometimes before died in the Prison of the Inquisition to be burnt he had been the Emperour's Confessour and in his Armes Charles gave up the Ghost so that it was thought he did not much consult the honour of his Father in that action for if the Directour of his Conscience was a Lutheran it was strange if he himself was not tainted with Lutheranism from thence he went to Valladolid and caused eight and twenty Gentlemen of the Countrey to be burnt in his presence and committed to Prison Bartholomè de Carranza whom we mentioned in the Acts of the first Convocation of the Council and who was afterwards made Archbishop of Toledo To be accused was enough to make a man guilty in the Judgment of Philip for in reality the Archbishop of Toledo was innocent and the Council held under Pius IV. in the year 1563. having appointed Doctours to examine the Book for which he was accused approved the Book notwithstanding that Cazdellun Secretary of the Embassy at the Council and the Count de Luna Embassadour of Spain both opposed it These Torments and Cruelties made the Spaniards who in their hearts had an Aversion to the See of Rome conceal themselves And certainly the Roman Church hath this obligation to Philip that he hindered the Change of Religion in Spain for in all appearance the Reformation would have made as great progress there as it had done elsewhere At length December 24th at night Cardinal Giovanni Angelo de Medicis was chosen Pope who took the name of Pius IV. Immediately upon his promotion he put a stop to the disorders which the hatred of the House of Caraffa had raised in the City and reconciled himself to the Emperour Ferdinand to whom he acknowledged his Predecessour had been in the wrong There was however some little debate about the Terms which the Pope would have had the Count D' Arco the Emperour 's year 1560 Ambassadour use in making him the Complements of his Master for the Count had Orders to make use of the word Reverence but the Pope would have the Emperour promise him Obedience Cardinal Pacieco a Spaniard advised the Count to stick exactly to his Commission But the Cardinals Morone and Madruocio prevailed more with him and so the matter went as the Pope would have it The Ceremony of his Coronation was performed the first of January 1560. and the eleventh of the same Month he called a Congregation of Cardinals wherein he declared to them his design of restoring the Council He dreaded it as all other Popes had done but he looked upon it as an unavoidable evil foreseeing that he would be so solicited to it as that he could not deny it He therefore resolved to doe the thing with good Grace and made known his intention to the Ambassadours of Princes The Duke of Savoy after an Embassie of obedience sent to Rome to obtain liberty from the Pope to hold a Conference with those of his Subjects inhabiting the Vallies of Piedmont who had fallen off from the Church of Rome These People who before the Reformation had separated themselves from the Roman Communion joyned with the City of Geneva so soon as it had shaken off the Jurisdiction of the Pope The Duke had put a great many of them to Death and sent others to the Galleys They suffered patiently a long while but at length they put it to deliberation if they could lawfully put themselves in a posture of defence against their Sovereign Opinions were divided and part of them took up Arms. However the
them In process of time it became a Custome to make Catalogues of Apocryphal Books that is of Books not approved as Pope Gelasus did in the end of the fifth Century But the reading of those Books was not prohibited it served onely for a Rule to Believers that they might know what to rely upon and what Doctrines they were to receive or to reject Since the year eight hundred there are some instances of Books condemned and prohibited by Popes but these instances are very rare Martin the fifth condemned Wiclef and his followers and excommunicated them nevertheless he did not prohibit their Books Leo the tenth was the first that brought this Custome most in vogue for he prohibited the reading of all Luther's Books under pain of Excommunication and since that the Popes in the Bull de Coena Domini have excommunicated all those who read the Books of Hereticks In these Prohibitions the Books were not named but in General which caused nothing but Confusion because dangerous Books not being distinguished by the Names of their Authours and Titles one must read over a Book to know whether it were dangerous or not and when that was done it was not so easie a matter to agree upon the nature of what was contained in it some maintaining the Book to be good and others condemning it as naught Therefore the Inquisitours in several places for their own use made Catalogues of Books the reading of which they intended to prohibit Philip King of Spain a zealous Prince against the progress of the new Doctrine in the year 1558. caused all the Books which the Inquisition of Spain had prohibited to be reduced into a more ample Catalogue and to be printed Pope Paul IV. did the like at Rome and these are the ancientest and most famed Indices Expurgatorii Pope Paul besides Authours who were reckoned Hereticks put into his Catalogue many of the Works of Authours that past for Catholicks nay and some Books which had been approved by Popes amongst others Erasmus his Annotations upon the New-Testament which Leo X. had approved by a Brief That Pope who was so zealous for the greatness of his See crouded into his Catalogue all the Authours whom he did not think favourable enough to the Holy See of Rome They proceeded so far as absolutely and under pain of Excommunication to prohibit the reading of all Books which had been printed by some certain Printers who were named to the number of threescore and two and the Penalties annexed to these prohibitions were so rigorous that the Pope reserved to himself the absolution of those who had incurred the Censures of prohibited Books The excessiveness of this rigour was complained of to Pope Pius IV. who referred the whole matter to the Council As to this point Opinions were extremely divided some thought it not fit to meddle with what had been done by Paul IV. that that Catalogue was absolutely to be approved and that so the best Course that could be taken was not to take any notice of that affair What matter said Luigi Beccatelli Archbishop of Ragusa though amongst those prohibited Books there may be some Works that deserve not to be blasted there are but too many Books in the World since printing hath been invented It were better to prohibit a thousand good Books since there would be enough still remaining than not to prohibit a bad one But Thomas de St. Felix Bishop Della Cava was of a contrary opinion his Judgment was that that matter ought to be re-examined because the Tramontani especially the French abhorred every thing that came from the Tribunal of the Inquisition on the contrary they had a Veneration for a Council and therefore they did not regard what was done by the Inquisitours if the Council did not interfere besides said he Laws which cannot be obeyed must of necessity be moderated Indeed so great was the number of prohibited Books and the Censures so severe that it was impossible but many must needs incur the pain of Excommunication They who were of this opinion urged also that in the Examination of Books care should be taken not to condemn men without a hearing and that therefore the Parties concerned if they were Catholicks ought to be called or the Authours themselves if they were still alive or their Relations who concerned themselves for the reputation of the deceased some were even for calling the Protestant Authours before their works were condemned As to the matter of the Safe-conduct opinions varied also The Cardinals of Mantua and some others were for granting a very General one with an oblivion for all that was past but the Inquisitours of Spain withstood that because they were apprehensive that under the protection of a General Safe-conduct and of that oblivion a great many Spaniards might pull off the Vizard and declare themselves Protestants As to the first of these points it was resolved that the Expurgatory Index should be reviewed and that Deputies should be named for that effect As to the second that notice should be given to the Parties concerned that the Council was ready to hear them if they had any thing to say in their own Justification and the matter of the Safe-conduct was referred to another time February the fifth Cardinal Altemps the Pope's Nephew and fifth Legate arrived and next day after Anthony Muglits Archbishop of Prague the Emperour's Ambassadour was received into the Congregation He pretended to have place above Cardinal Madruccio as representing the Emperour but he could not obtain it The ninth of the same month Ferdinando Martinez Mascarenno Ambassadour of Portugal was received into the Council which must needs have the patience to hear the long Harangue of a certain Doctour of his Retinue in praise of the King of Portugal and the Ambassadour and on the Eleventh the Sieur Sigismund Thurin the Emperour's second Ambassadour was received with very little Ceremonies In this Congregation of the Eleventh Commissioners were appointed to frame the Index Expurgatorius to wit George Draskevits Bishop of the five Churches the Emperour's Ambassadour for the Kingdom of Hungary John Trevisano Patriarch of Venice four Archbishops nine Bishops one Abbot and two Generals of Orders In the Congregation held the thirteenth of the same Month the Emperour's Ambassadours presented five Demands in writing first that they would spare the terms of Continuation of the Council secondly that the next Session might be delayed thirdly that they would not irritate those of the Confession of Ausburg by condemning their Books fourthly that the Protestants might have a very ample Pasport and fifthly that Secrecy might be enjoyned in all matters that should be handled in the Congregations These five Demands were by the Legates in a manner granted to the Ambassadours At the same time George Draskevits Bishop of the five Churches the Emperour's third Ambassadour whom he sent from the Kingdom of Hungary appeared at Trent in Quality of Ambassadour he had been in the Council ever since
set about forming the Decrees and Canons concerning the Matter of Marriage against the next Session In the Congregation of the two and twentieth of July the Legates produced the Canons concerning the matter of Marriage much in the same form as they stand in at present There was no Difficulty about Marriage and the single life of Priests The Emperour King of France and Duke of Bavaria had indeed desired that Priests might be allowed to marry but when the Bishop of the five Churches the Emperour's Ambassadour and the Archbishop of Prague moved the Council to make some more reflexion upon that Point they were scarcely heard Nevertheless the Pope had but very lately before given fresh Promises to the Duke of Bavaria to give him satisfaction as to that matter because the People of his Countrey had made an Insurrection that they might obtain from their Prince the Restitution of the Cup and Permission for married men to Preach The greatest Debates were about Clandestine Marriages The French Ambassadours demanded that they should be declared null An hundred and thirty fix Votes were for it fifty six opposed it and ten would not declare for either side At length the Prelates agreed to Reform the Canon in the manner as now it goes that is that Clandestine Marriages are true Marriages and real Sacraments whilst the Church does not annull them that the Church hath always detested them and for the future declares that all who are Married or Betrothed without the presence of two or three Witnesses at least are incapable of contracting and that by Consequence the Marriage shall be null In the same Congregation the Canons and Anathema's were read the fifth of which Canons pronounces Anathema against those who maintain the Divorces which are permitted by the Code of Justinian to be lawfull that is to say such as are made upon the account of Heresie and refusal of Cohabitation The Cardinal of Lorrain got this Canon added to give a blow to the Calvinists who teach that the refusal of Cohabitation is a lawfull reason for a man to divorce from his Wife The seventh Canon condemns those who assert that Adultery dissolves Marriage At first it was proposed without Anathema out of some respect that still remained for the opinion of St. Ambrose and the Greek Fathers but notwithstanding that Consideration it was thought fit to add the Anathema In the following Congregations there was much Discourse about the Obstacles of contracting Marriage which spring from the Prohibition of marrying within certain remote Degrees not onely of natural but spiritual kindred such as Gossipships or the Relations betwixt Godfathers and Godmothers It was represented that in some places twenty Godfathers and as many Godmothers were sometimes invited and that it many times happens that such not knowing one another for Godfathers and Godmothers marry together without Dispensation and run into the Guilt of Sin Others said upon occasion of the Prohibition of Marriage within remote Degrees that People have not always by them Books of Genealogy so that having forgot their distant Kindred they marry within the Degrees and engage themselves into bonds which by the Laws of the Church are unlawfull They therefore demanded that all these Prohibitions might be abolished or at least that Bishops might have Power to dispense with them that so People might not be put to the trouble of writing or sending to the Court of Rome about matters of so small importance The Council had no great regard to these Remonstrances onely prohibited the multiplying of Godfathers and Godmothers But the Sticklers for the Court of Rome would not yield an Inch in Relation to Prohibited Degrees lest such Condescension might be looked upon by the Lutherans as a gaining of the Cause and might diminish the Revenues of the Pope And indeed it may be said that they made the Yoke of Dispensations heavier for it was ordained that no more Dispensations should be granted in Prohibited Degrees how remote soever they might be unless very pressing reasons required the contrary The Legates propose the Decree of the Reformation of Princes The Ambassadours oppose it This being done the Legates were obliged to propose the Articles of Reformation They offered thirty eight of them which related both to the Abuses committed by Princes in invading the Rights of the Church and the several Abuses that were crept into the Clergy The Cardinal of Lorrain who made it all his business to please the Pope and hasten the Conclusion of the Council advised the Legates to cut off the most part of these Articles and especially those that might meet with greatest Difficulty This Overture surprised the Cardinal of Warmia he could not conceive what was become of that great Zeal which the Cardinal of Lorrain in the beginning pretended for Reformation The Cardinal who perceived his Surprise told him that he ought not to look upon his Condescension as strange that he still retained the same Zeal and the same Intentions but that he had learnt by Experience that nothing was to be expected from the Council concerning Reformation These Articles were communicated to the Ambassadours of Princes and all of them made their several additions and observations according to the interests of the Masters Most of the Ambassadours observations tended to the curbing of the Pope's Authority and putting a stop to the Attempts upon the Ordinaries others drove at the lessening the Authority of Bishops and opposing the Encroachment of the Clergy upon the Civil Jurisdiction The observations of the French Ambassadours were the highest of all for they demanded that the number of Cardinals should not exceed twenty four that the Nephews of the Pope in being or of a Cardinal should not be promoted to a Hat that Cardinals should not possess Bishopricks that all Pretexts of holding several Benefices should be taken away that Criminal Causes of Bishops should not be judged out of the Kingdom that Bishops should have Power to absolve in all Cases that Preventions Resignations in favour Mandates or Mandamus's Reversions and all other unlawfull ways of obtaining Benefices should be abolished that Churchmen should meddle no more in Secular Affairs and that nothing should be done to the prejudice of the Laws of France and Liberties of the Gallican Church But all the Ambassadours agreed to demand a forbearance of handling the Articles of the Reformation of Princes untill another Session The Legates having gathered together all these observations assembled themselves with the two Cardinals Madruccio and Lorrain to consult what they should doe about them The Cardinal of Lorrain was still of opinion that all such Articles as might occasion Debate should be left out and particularly such as were like to be opposed by the Ambassadours The Legates sent to Rome the Articles which they had proposed to the Council with the Observations of the Ambassadours and whilst they waited for an answer on the Eleventh of August they began the Congregations for finishing and completing the Canons
Conspiracy of Amboise p. 283 A Council denied to the Emperour unless upon conditions which the Protestants would not accept p. 36 But afterwards granted upon conditions that are rejected by the Protestants p. 37 Called but in vain at Mantua and Vicenza p. 42 46 And then at Trent p. 52 Where with ten Bishops that were arrived the Congregation began to handle Preliminaries p. 65 The form of the Council of Trent and what had been that of ancient Councils p. 71 A Debate concerning the Title of the Council p. 74 About the Order p. 77 About the Seal to be used for Letters p. 78 To amuse the Council the Creed is published p. 79 But three moderate Divines at the Council p. 116 The Council is puzzled in forming Decrees and essays by their ambiguity to give all content p. 133 It is transported to Bologna under pretext of bad Air at Trent p. 166 And divided part of the Prelates removing to Bologna and part staying at Trent p. 167 c. It is opened again at Trent for the second Convocation p. 192 And suspended because of the War of Germany p. 245 The Pope has enough of Councils neither does the Emperour care for them p. 249 The Council opened again at Trent under Pope Pius IV. p. 311 It begins with the Books to be prohibited and the Indices Expurgatorii p. 313 It is publickly said that the Council is not the Council of the Vniversal Church but of the Pope p. 357 The Bishops complain that the Council is taken up about trifles p. 386 Some Bishops apparently ill satisfied with the Infallibility of the Council p. 393 A Letter from the Emperour to the Pope and Council about the Disorders of the Council p. 490 The Council ill satisfied with the Peace of Orleans that the King of France had made with the Huguenots p. 499 The Legates seek out means of concluding the Council speedily and the Count de Luna opposes it p. 441 New troubles are started p. 551 The Council precipitates to its end the Spaniards oppose it p. 572 Confirmation of the Council demanded of the Pope but all are not of that mind p. 575 The Council is confirmed by a Bull of Pius IV. p. 588 Croisades their Original p. 3 The Cup demanded by the French p. 304 And by the Germans about which the Divines give their Opinions p. 347 Both join in that point p. 355 The restoring of it to the Germans is moved p. 380 It is referred to the Pope p. 385 Cruelties practised in several Kingdoms against Protestants p. 256 D. DAnes Ambassadour of France comes to the Council and makes a long Harangue p. 106 Decrees made with a great deal of difficulty and affected Ambiguity to give all content p. 133 The Decrees concerning Penance opposed by the Divines p. 221 The Decree about the Reformation of Princes cause great Trouble v. Legates An abstract of that Decree p. 560 Degradations their Original and Progress p. 212 Diet of Nuremberg where the hundred Grievances were presented p. 17 Diet of Ratisbonne where a Decree past against Luther p. 18 Diet of Spire where Attempts were made to divide the Protestants p. 29 Diet of Ausburg where the Protestants present their Confessions and depart without accommodation though attempted p. 32 Another Diet as Spire where the Emperour gives a new Edict of Liberty till the next Council p. 54 Another at Ausburg where the Protestants promise to submit to the Council p. 171 There the Emperour makes the Interim and a Decree of Reformation p. 176 A Third Diet at Ausburg for composing the troubles of Religion p. 257 Where an Edict of Liberty is made which offends the Pope p. 261 A Diet at Naumburg in Saxony p. 293 Daily Distributions p. 332 Dominico à Soto and Luigi di Catanea both Jacobins and Thomists differ about the Point of Grace p. 128 E. EDict of Wormes against Luther p. 9. Edict of January in favour of the Protestants made at St. Germains en Laye p. 312 Edward King of England dies and Mary his Sister succeeds to him who restores the Catholick Religion p. 252 The Electorate of Saxony transferred to the Branch of Maurice p. 171 The Electour of Brandenburg sends his Ambassadours to the Council p. 215 Elizabeth Queen of England succeeds Mary her Sister and re-establishes the Reformation p. 274 Emperour v. Charles V. England during the Reign of Henry VIII shakes off the Pope's Authority without any innovation in Religion p. 39 The Catholick Religion is maintained there by Queen Mary 〈◊〉 the death of Edward her Brother to whom she succeeded p. 252 Episcopacy and Vehement Contests about the Point p. 413 c. 422 c. 435 c. 448. and elsewhere The Eucharist serves for matter to be treated in the tenth Session p. 170 Exemptions granted by the Pope in prejudice of Ordinaries p. 138 ExtremeVnction and Penance handled in the fourteenth Session p. 218 F. FArnese v. Paul III. and Octavio Farnese Du Ferrier Ambassadour of France learned in Antiquity p. 356 He speaks in Congregation after the Cardinal of Lorrain and his Speech nettles the Council p. 442 Another Speech of his after the reading of the French King's Letters in Council which acquainted the Fathers with his Victory over the Protestants p. 476 He protests against the Decree of the Reformation of Princes and makes a Speech which pricks the Prelates to the quick p. 561 Francis I. absolved by Pope Clement VII from the Oaths which he had taken in Prison p. 21 He dies p. 167 Francis II. dies and Katherine of Medicis his Mother assembles the States at Orleans p. 291 The French present their Memoires containing thirty four Demands p. 460 Frederick Electour of Saxony is made Prisoner wounded and condemned to death by the Emperour Charles V. p. 169 Can neither be moved by Prayers nor threats p. 171 Frederick Nauseus Bishop of Vienna sent to the Council with Paolo Gregoriani Bishop of Zagabria in Sclavonia by the King of the Romans p. 198 Free will handled in the VI. Session p. 125 G. GIacomo Cocco Archbishop of Corsou is of the mind that no opinion which could be interpreted in a sound sense should be condemned p. 133 Grace serves for matter to the Council in the VI. Session p. 113 Catarino's opinion about works that precede Grace p. 118 A Dispute about the Preparations to Grace and the Merit of Congruity p. 119 A Debate about the certainty that one may have of being in the State of Grace p. 123 The Thomists are divided about the matter of Grace â—il â—a p. 128 The hundred Grievances proposed to the Pope at the Diet of Nuremberg p. 17 The Grisons recall Thomas Planta Bishop of Coire p. 220 Gropper a Divine and Lawyer votes for the abolition of Episcopal Jurisdiction and Ecclesiastick Tribunals p. 210 He is refuted by Baptista Castello Promooter of the Council about the Subject of immediate appeal to the Pope p. 211 H. HEnry VIII King of