and Tyranny could make use of What then had been done or rather what had not been done if as the Protestants desired the Pope's Authority had been directly struck at and the subversion of his Grandeur openly attempted If the Council of Trent had but only offered at what was actually done by the Council of Constance that is the declaring of the Pope to be subject to the Council the Court of Rome would rather have set all Christendom in confusion that have suffer'd it The Presidents had express Orders if that Point came at all into question immediately to break up the Council and return to Rome reason 7 7. Seventh cause of Rejection The Council of Trent hath erred even by the Confession oâ— those that would have us submit to it But I would very fain know why we should be obliged to receive the Decisions of the Council of Trent since the Roman Church her self does not receive them Why should it be expected from us that we should look upon this Council as Infallible when thousands of the Roman Communion do believe that the Council hath de facto erred and in consequence of that Belief do refuse to submit to it and daily reject its Canons This last reason for our rejecting that Council is indeed of high importance we shall therefore enlarge a little upon it and evidently make it appear that those that would exact of us a Submission to this Council have themselves no regard to its Authority and that upon the score of its having erred I shall not press upon the Council for having forbid Non-Residence under grievous Penalties which yet is now universally connived at for having forbidden Pluralities and yet there are now no Eminent Prelats but are guilty of it for having forbidden to give Dispensations but in Cases of great moment and yet now at Rome they are denied to none but to such as want Mony that matter of mighty moment for which only they are granted For I very well know that to these and to a hundred other particulars in which I could instance it will presently be replyed that they are Corruptions indeed but that those Corruptions indeed but that those Corruptions do not hinder the Decrees of the Council from being just and good And the Popes Flatterers will add that he is not bound by the Decrees of the Council but has Power to dispence with the Canons when he thinks fit But I speak of Decrees made by this Council and rejected by an infinite number of People Decrees that never were suffered to take place in France after all the endeavors of the Court of Rome The French Kings their Parliaments and Bishops dislike several things in the Decrees of this Council Reasons why the Council of Trent is not received in France 1. That the Council hath done and suffered many things that suppose and confirm a Superiority of the Pope over Councils 2. That it hath confirmed the Papal Encroachments upon Ordinaries Ses 2. Res. c. 8. by Exemption of Chapters and Privileges of Regulars who are both withdrawn from Episcopal Jurisdiction 3. That it hath not restored to the Bishops certain Functions appertaining to their Office and taken from them otherwise than to execute them as Delegates of the See of Rome 4. That it hath infringed the Privileges of Bishops of being judged by their Metropolitan and the Bishops of the Province by permitting a Removal of great Causes to Rome and giving Power to the Pope to name Commissioners to judg the Accused Bishop 5. That it hath declared that neither Princes Magistrates nor People are to be consulted in the placing and setling of Bishops 6. That it hath empowered Bishops to proceed in their Jurisdictions by Civil Pains by Imprisonment and by Seisure of Temporalties 7. That it hath made Bishops the Executors of all Donations for Pious Uses 8. That it hath given them a superintendency over Hospitals Colleges and Fraternities with Power of disposing their Goods and Revenues notwithstanding that those matters had been always managed by Lay-men 9. That it hath ordained that Bishops shall have the examining of all Notaries Royal and Imperial with Power to deprive or suspend notwithstanding any Opposition or Appeal 10. That it hath given Power to Bishops with consent of two Members of their Chapter and of two of their Clergy to take and retrench part of the Revenue of Hospitals nay to take away Feodal Tithes belonging to Lay-men 11. That it hath made Bishops the Masters of Foundations of Piety as Churches Chappels and Hospitals so as that those that have the care and Government of them are obliged to be accomptable to the Bishops 12. That in confirming Ecclesiastical Exemptions it hath wholly ascribed to the Pope and the Spiritual Judges all Power of judging the Causes of accused Bishops as if Sovereign Princes had lost the Right they have over their Subjects as soon as they became Ecclesiasticks 13. That it hath empowered the Ordinaries and Judges Ecclesiastical in quality of Delegates of the Holy See to enquire of the Right and Possession of Lay-Patronages and to quash and annul them if they were not of great necessity and well founded 14. That in prohibiting Duels it had declared that such Emperor King or Prince as should shew favour to Duelling should therefore be Excommunicated and deprived of the Seignory of the Place holding of the Church where the Duel was sought 15. That it hath permitted the Mendicant Fryars to possess Immoveables 16. That it hath ordained an Establishment of Judges it calls Apostolick in all Dioceses with Power to judg of Spiritual and Ecclesiastical matters in prejudice of the Ordinaries 17. That it hath declared that Matrimonial Causes are of the Churches Jurisdiction 18. That it hath enjoyned Kings and Princes to leave Ecclesiasticks the free and intire Possession of the Jurisdiction granted them by the Holy Canons and General Councils that is to say Usurped by the Clergy over the Civil Power These are the principal Points disputed in France Those that tend to the diminution of the Authority and Privileges of Bishops to enlarge the Roman Power are rejected by the Bishops and those that would extend the Power of Bishops to the prejudice of the Civil Authority are rejected by the Parliaments Between both this Council as enacting contrary to the Rights and Liberties of the Gallican Church was never at all received in France so as to obtain the force of a Law Why then should that Assembly give Law to us Protestants that is rejected by so great a part of the Church of Rome If it hath not erred why do Roman Catholicks as they will be termed refuse to receive it And if it hath erred what reason is there to press us to receive it I know what is answered to this that matters of Faith and of Discipline must be distinguished that the Council did not nor could not err in matters of Faith and Doctrine and that it was only mistaken in points
Heretofore all contracts were confirmed and ratified by Oath and because an Oath is a matter of Conscience they made themselves Judges of all Causes that related to Contracts and Promises Besides these Jurisdictions they established a Court which they called the Mixt Court wherein they Judged of all civil Causes belonging to the Magistrate if the Court of the Church had by anticipation taken cognizance of the Cause but on the other side if the Magistrate had anticipated them then the ecclesiastick-Ecclesiastick-Court had no more Power They likewise laid down for a Maxim which brought a great many Causes before them that when the Magistrate neglected or refused to doe Justice then the Cause devolved to the ecclesiastick-Ecclesiastick-Court And in fine to fill up the measure of corruption in the eleventh Century they laboured to lay down this for a Maxim that Bishops did not derive this great Power from the Concessions of Princes but immediately from Jesus Christ Otherwise if the Bishops had acknowledged that they held these Privileges from Princes Sovereigns would have always had power to punish them and rectifie the abuses committed by them in their Jurisdiction But that they might put themselves out of reach of Animadversion they perswaded People that their Jurisdiction was independent of the Power of Princes At last that they might frame an Empire Paramount over all the States of Christendom the Pope was made Head of that Jurisdiction which the Bishops had usurped and reared up within the space of thirteen hundred years For after that the Bishops had taken from Magistrates a great part of their Jurisdicton the Pope found a way to strip the Ordinaries of the greatest part of their Power by Evocations Appeals and Exemptions So that if on the one hand the Secular Judges complained of the usurpations of the Bishops on the other hand the Bishops complained of the encroachments of the holy See This in general was the matter that then was handled in the Congregations of the Canonists whilst in the others matters of Faith were examined Gropper votes for the abolishing of Episcopal Jurisdiction and Ecclesiastick Tribunals Gropper who was in the Council both as a Lawyer and a Divine reasoned accurately about these abuses of Jurisdiction and shew'd that in the beginning the sentences of Bishops were sentences of Charity that these sentences were rendered not by Officials as now a-days but by the Bishop and Priests assembled in a kind of Consistory or Synod That moreover there was no such thing known as Appeals from those sentences to the Pope that if any Appeal was made it was to their next immediate Superiours which are Synods And therefore he was of opinion that these Synodal Judgments should be restored that the Courts and Judgments of Officials should be abolished and that all Appeals to the Pope immediately without passing through subordinate Superiours should be discharged The Legate Nuncio's and Italians slaves to the Court of Rome listened to this discourse with a great deal of impatience and having consulted together they set on the Promooter of the Council Giovanni Baptista Castello a Bolonian who in a long harangue maintained that it was lawfull to Appeal immediately to the Pope Baptista Castello Promooter of the Council refutes Gropper about the subject of immediate Appeals to the Pope and to bring Actions before the holy See without passing through the Intermedial Judges The Bishops were not satisfied with Gropper's Discourse but far less with that of Castello For he raised the Authority of the Pope to such a pitch that the Italians themselves murmured at it because according to Castello's Maxims the Pope was all in all and the Bishops signified nothing at all and that made the Italians recoyl and talk of accommodation In effect they came to an accommodation and adjusted matters in this manner That there should be no Appeals from the definitive Sentences of Bishops and Officials but in causes criminal and that even in criminal matters it should not be lawfull to Appeal from Interlocutory Sentences untill Definitive Sentence were pronounced But they would not re-establish Synodal Judgments by ruining the Officials The Bishops urged not to be re-established in their ancient right of being Judged by their Synods that is to say by the Metropolitan and their Comprovincials because men are not commonly inclined to facilitate Judgments against themselves and Processes against Bishops are much more difficult when one must go to Rome or procure a Commission from thence than if they could be accused upon the place before their proper Judges which are Synods The power was therefore left to the Pope of Judging them by Commissaries delegated in partibus Onely the Council made some Regulations that none inferiour to the Bishop in Dignity should be chosen as a Commissary of the Pope to Judge him It is one of the Grievances against the Council of Trent and one of the reasons why it is not received in France that contrary to the ancient Canons it deprives Bishops of the right of being Judged by the Metropolitan and their Comprovincials Of Degradations their Original and Progress There was also another great abuse in the Jurisdiction of Bishops of which a Reformation was demanded and that was the manner of Degradations According to the Privileges that have been granted to the Clergy or which they have usurped this Maxim has been long received that the Magistrate has no power over Clerks so long as they remain Clerks So that a Member of the Clergy must be degraded before he can be delivered over to the Secular Power for capital and enormous Crimes where sentence of death is to be pronounced which cannot be given by an Ecclesiastick Court because it imbrues not the hand in Bloud and this custome was confirmed by the Laws of Justinian It was even the custome in preceding Ages that is in the fourth and fifth Century when a Member of the Clergy returned into the World to degrade him by the same Ceremonies whereby he had been installed but in a manner inverse and retrograde that is to say that they clothed him in all his Priestly Habits and then stript him of the same one after another applying words quite contrary to those of Ordination But since about the year six hundred these Degradations were abolished and those who had taken high Orders were prohibited from returning again into the World so that the custome of Degradations is onely retained in Criminal matters when a Member of the Clergy is to be delivered over to the Secular Power to be punished But these Degradations of Clerks convicted must be done according to the new Canons with so many Ceremonies as rendered the punishment of the Members of the Clergy almost impossible That was their Scope and they onely clogg'd Degradations with so many difficulties that they might live in impunity For Degrading a Bishop thirteen Degrading Bishops were required besides twelve Assistants For Degrading a Priest there must be six Bishops for Degrading a
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
Pope and yet give some satisfaction to those who so urgently demanded Reformation The Legates are willing to satisfie the Bishops by passing the Decree of the Reformation of Princes but that causes great noise The chief Design of the Legates was to please the Bishops because without them there was no concluding of the Council The principal Aim of the Bishops was to enlarge their Power and for accomplishing of that design they demanded three things First that they should have the absolute Collation of all Benefices that had Cure of Souls that so the Curats might depend on them Secondly that the Council would abolish all the Exemptions of Chapters of privileged Churches and of Monks or Regulars who by certain Privileges obtained from the Court of Rome had found a way to decline the Power of their Bishops And thirdly that all those hinderances might be removed which Princes and Secular Magistrates bring to Ecclesiastick Jurisdiction calling that an invasion of Princes when they strive what they can to hinder the Clergy from challenging and taking to themselves the Trials of civil Causes and temporal Jurisdiction The Legates were very well disposed to satisfie the Bishops as to the third Point of their Demand because none but Princes must pay for that whose interest they did not at all consider And therefore in the Articles which they proposed they failed not to insert every thing that could contribute to the retrieving of the Jurisdiction of Bishops to the same State that the Invasions of the Clergy had formerly brought it to And upon these three heads chiefly the Articles of Reformation run for the satisfaction of the Bishops But as to the second Point which concerns the Exemptions of the Regulars or Monks the Legates had no mind to comply too much with the Bishops because that could not be done without Diminution of the Authority and Profits of the Court of Rome of which all the Monks hold immediately And if the Bishops made instances on their side for obtaining that Demand the Generals of Orders who were present in the Council on the other hand vehemently opposed it The Legates had appointed a particular Congregation for the Reformation of Monks and in that Congregation divers good Regulations were made to which the Generals of Orders had submitted because that Monks are pretty well satisfied that the Rules to which they are oblig'd should be severe and hard that being the thing that appears outwardly to the World and which gains them a great Reputation of Sanctity and Austerity But after all since they are the Masters of the Monasteries within doors and of the manner how these Rules are observed the Severity of Orders incommodes them no more than they please themselves But for the matter of Exemptions they would by no means have that medled with They liked it much better to depend on a Master that lived at a distance who could not watch over their Conduct than on a Bishop who would always have his Eyes upon them Nevertheless the reason that they alledged for their refusal was the remisness and relaxation that Bishops allowed themselves in their Conduct and Conversation and franckly said that when Prelates were Masters of Monasteries Bishops lived under a far more severe Discipline than they did at present and that times were changed The Ambassadours also favoured the Monks for the interest sake of Princes who desire not that Bishops should have too much power because they many times abuse it Martin Royas Pontal Rouge Ambassadour from the Great Master and Knights of Malta was received in Congregation the seventh of September Seeing every one minded their Interests his chief demand was that the Council would Ordain that the Possessions and Commendaries which had been taken from them should be restored The Legates acquainted the Pope with the demand of the Ambassadours of Malta and the Pope answered that it was the business of the Council who ought not to neglect it In that and the following Congregations the Articles of Reformation were again treated of which had been so many times altered and corrected by the Legates and they afforded no important Debates The third Article regarded the Authority of Metropolitans or Archbishops Those of that Character and such of them as were present were for having the Ancient Canons reestablished according to which Bishops were subject to visitation correction and to the Government of Metropolitans as Curates are subject to the Bishops Particularly Giovanni Trevisano Patriarch of Venice was mightily for the restitution of those privileges but the Archbishops were not strong enough to gain their Cause The Bishops who were far the Sedition of the Bishops they were forced to propose in Congregation the Decree of the Reformation of Princes which was sometime before laid aside and referred to another Session Abstract of the Decree of the Reformation of Princes It will not be amiss to give an Abstract of it that it may appear what the temper of the Bishops was and how far the Clergy would have carried on their Usurpations upon the Temporal Right of Princes and Magistrates That Decree contained a Preface thirteen Chapters and a Conclusion The Preface mentioned that the Council had a design to prevent the enterprises of Seculars upon the Immunities of the Church and that for that end it revived the Decrees and Holy Canons which were to be observed under pain of Anathema It ordained then that the persons of Churchmen should not be Judged by a Secular Court upon any pretext whatsoever though they should even consent to it that Secular Judges should not offer to meddle with Matrimonial Causes Causes of Heresie Tithes Rights of Patronage Benefices nor with other Causes wherein any thing of the Spirituality is concerned whether they be Civil or Criminal that Secular Princes cannot Establish Judges in Ecclesiastick affairs that Secular Magistrates must not prohibit an Ecclesiastick Judge to proceed against any by Excommunication that neither Emperour Kings nor Princes can make any Edicts or Ordinances concerning the Affairs Goods and Possessions of Churchmen that Churchmen should be maintained in their Temporal Right of high middle and low Jurisdiction that Ecclesasticks should not be obliged to pay any Taxes Imposts Tenths or Subsidies that Princes and Magistrates should not have Power to quarter their Officers Soldiers or Horses in the Houses of Churchmen There were a great many more Articles of the same force and that tended to the same end So the Clergy shook off the lawfull Yoke of Obedience which they owed to their Sovereigns and erected to themselves within their States a temporal Jurisdiction over Christians parallel to that of Kings and wholly independent of their Authority The Conclusion contained an earnest Exhortation to the Observation of these Decrees under the pain of Anathema This was the Piece against which the Ambassadours of France had orders to protest if they intended to pass it which they failed not to doe The Emperour wrote also to Cardinal Morone that
England writes against Luther p. 9. Shakes off the Pope's Authority without any innovation in Religion p. 39 Is excommunicated by Pope Paul III. p. 47 Henry II. King of France succeeds to Francis I. p. 167 He clashes with the Pope and sends not his Prelates to the Council p. 193 Causes Amiot his Ambassadour to protest against the Council p. 198 Then publishes a Manifesto against the Pope p. 200 Does all that lies in his Power to ruine the Protestants in his Kingdom p. 278 His death p. 279 Herman Archbishop of Cologne is excommunicated by the Pope and obliged to resign his Archbishoprick p. 90 Of the Hierarchy of the Church p. 405 I. IAmes Lainez General of the Jesuits creates no small trouble to the Council about Precedence p. 377 His Speech against the Divine Right of Episcopacy and what it produced p. 426 Another Discourse of his in favour of the Court of Rome p. 529 The Imperialists leave the City of Rome p. 28 Indices Expurgatorii and their Original p. 313 The Inquisition setled at Naples and causes a great Sedition p. 170 The Intention of the Priest in administring the Sacraments according to the Judgment of Ambrosio Cararino p. 151 The Interim made by the Emperour at the Diet of Ausburg p. 176 Much opposition made to the Establishment of it p. 179 Interviews betwixt the Emperour and the Pope the first the second 37. the third p. 44 An Interview of the Pope Emperour and King of France p. 47 A fourth Interview betwixt the Pope and the Emperour p. 52 A fifth p. 53 Julius II. Excommunicated Lewis XII King of France p. 2 He dies ibid. Julius III. formerly named John Maria di Monte succeeds to Paul III. p. 182 He clashes with the King of France p. 193 Sends into France Ascamo della Corna his Nephew to hinder the King from protecting the Duke of Parma and from calling a national Council p. 195 At one dash creates fourteen Italian Cardinals p. 232 His Death and Successour p. 257 The Jurisdiction of Bishops is the matter as to Reformation for the thirteenth Session p. 201 The Jurisdiction of the Tribunals of the Church their Original and Progress p. 206 Gropper votes for its abolition p. 210 Divers Regulations concerning Episcopal Jurisdiction p. 225 Justification and Imputed Righteousness p. 121 K. KAtherine of Medicis Queen Regent of France assembles the States at Orleans p. 291 Her designs for Reformation p. 299 and 312 L. LAinez v. James Lainez The Landgrave of Hesse attempts an Agreement betwixt Luther and Zuinglius but without Success p. 30 Is made Prisoner by the Emperour p. 169 The Legates complain that there appeared Division in the very Session and pretend to enter upon business p. 76 Oppose the beginning with Reformation p. 78 Make a Translation of the Council upon Pretext of bad Air. p. 164 Propose the Decree of the Reformation of Princes and the Ambassadours oppose it p. 546 The more they press the mater the greater noise it makes p. 553 The Protestation of the French Ambassadours against that Decree p. 556 The Legates press the Conclusion of the Council p. 572 Leo. X. created Pope and his Character p. 2 Causes Indulgences to be published in Germany by the advice of Cardinal Santiquatro and gives a great part of the profit of them to his Sister p. 3 Publishes a Bull for the Indulgences p. 6 Thunders a Bull against Luther and his Doctrine p. 7 Lewis XII King of France excommunicated by Pope Julius II. p. 2 Forms a Party against Julius II. and gets the Cardinals to assemble at Pisa for Election of another Pope ibid. Lewis d'Avila sent by the Emperour to Rome to solicite the Re-establishment of the Council p. 183 Luigi di Catanea and Dominico à Soto differ about the Point of Grace p. 128 Luther publishes Theses against the Doctrine of Indulgences which are answered by other Theses set out by John setzel a Jacobin who caused the Theses of Luther to he burnt p. 5 He is cited to appear at Ausburg before Cardinal Cajetan p. 6 Has two Conferences with the Cardinal without success and appeals to a Council ibid. He burns the Pope's Bull and Book of Decretals p. 8 Is cited to Wormes before the Emperour Charles V. ibid. But would neither recant nor condemn his Doctrine p. 9 An Edict past against him at Wormes ibid. Confirmed by a Decree at Ratisbonne p. 18 Abstracts are made of Lutheran Writings p. 145 M. THE Malecontents pass a severe censure vpon the Decrees of the Council p. 141 Mantua chosen by Paul III. for the place of holding the Council p. 44 The Cardinal of Mantua Legate dies at Trent p. 486 Marcello II. created Pope will not change his Name according to the Custom of other Popes and whence what Custom hath arisen p. 257 His Character and death that happened by an Apoplexy two and twenty days after his Exaltation p. 258 Marriage is reduced to eight Articles p. 473 Decrees and Canons are formed concerning that matter p. 544 Clandestine Marriages occasion fresh Debates p. 548 Mary succeeds her Brother Edward to the Crown of England and restores the Catholick Religion p. 252 She is rigorous against the Protestants p. 256 Her death p. 274 Marinier a Carmelite is not of opinion that Traditions should be made a Point of Faith p. 83 Will have the Name of Justifying Faith onely giv'n to that which works by Charity p. 117 Defends with Ambrosio Catarino the opinion that one may be certain of being in the State of Grace p. 123 Mass v. Sacrifice Maurice invested by the Emperour in the Electorate of Saxony whereof his Cousin Frederick had been dispossessed p. 171 Takes up Arms for the Liberty of Germany and of Religion p. 243 Maximilian King of Bohemia and of the Romans suspected of Lutheranism p. 286 Melancthon named with Bucer and Pistorius to speak for the Protestants p. 50 Is one of twelve who were opposed to a like number of Catholick Doctours in the Conference of Wormes p. 273 Mendicant Friars raise a great Debate upon occasion of Preaching and the Pulpits which they had seized p. 91 Misunderstanding betwixt the Pope and the Council and amongst the Fathers of the Council themselves p. 337 Morone Cardinal Legate in Spain under Julius III. p. 257 Is appointed first President of the Council by Pius IV. p. 489 Comes to Trent and went to the Emperour at Inspruck p. 448 Returns to the Council p. 506 N. NAvagiero Cardinal named Legate for presiding in the Council arrives at Trent with orders to endeavour a strict Reformation p. 502 Naumburg a Town of upper Saxony where the Protestant Princes held an Assembly p. 293 Nuncio's ill received by the Protestants in Germany p. 244 Nuremberg the Place of the Diet where the Hundred Grievances were presented p. 17 O. OCtavio Farnese Duke of Parma General of the Pope's Forces p. 111 Offerings and Oblations in what manner they may be permitted p. 154 Opinions about
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
Residence to be of Divine right for preventing that intolerable abuse that one man should enjoy several Cathedral Churches for obliging the Cardinals themselves to resign all they had but one which they might enjoy for prohibiting those Unions of Benefices for Life for rescinding and annulling all Dispensations obtained or to be obtained from the Court of Rome without lawfull cause and for giving the Ordinaries power of judging the Validity of the cause for which the Dispensation had been obtained This was signed by twenty Bishops and by Cardinal Pacieco The attempt surprized the Legates because of the boldness of the propositions and that the Bishops had adventured to assemble themselves without their permission These Articles were sent to Rome and at the same time the Cardinal di Monte wrote that it was his advice that that Enterprize ought to be withstood without the least condescension adding withall that it would be convenient to make some Reformation at Rome to stop the Mouth of the Council But above all things the Legates urged that the Italian Bishops who were retired to keep Lent at home in their own Churches should forthwith be sent back to Trent The Pope followed that advice and gave order to his Nuncio at Venice to oblige the Italian Bishops who passed by Venice or who were there still to return with all speed to Trent that they might make head against the Spaniards At the same time he called a Congregation of the Deputies at Rome for examining the Writing That Congregation was not wholly of Cardinal di Monte's opinion they thought it not fit to break with the Spanish Prelates nor peremptorily to refuse all that they demanded They thought it sufficient by answering every Article to elude all their demands and in effect they made a project of answers to be made to them wherein to speak the truth they shewed an Address becoming the Court of Rome the Memoires of it were sent to the Cardinal di Monte the Pope committed the management of that Affair to the Prudence of the Legates and of those who were stiled the well affected whom the Protestants named the slaves of the See of Rome he gave them power either absolutely to reject the demands of the Spaniards or to make use of the qualifications which he sent them according as occasion proved more or less favourable The Pope fearing the Spaniards resolves to remove the Council to Bologna The Court of Rome made great reflexions upon that attempt of the Spaniards and the Pope began to dread a Combination betwixt them and the Germans so that not thinking his Authority safe enough in the Zeal of the Legates and the Recruit of the Italians whom he had sent to the Council he resolved to remove the Council unto a Town where he might neither stand in awe of the Emperour nor of the Bishops of Spain and to that purpose cast his eyes upon the City of Bologna But he was not willing to do it of himself but thought it more proper to have it done by his Legates to the end that if the matter succeeded not all the disgrace might fall upon them and that he himself might onely divide with them the trouble of the disappointment for that end he sent them a Bull bearing date the fifteenth of February 1547. but which was very well known to have been made two years before by that Bull he gave them full power to remove the Council whithersoever they should think fit but at the same time sent orders that they should not mention the Translation till the ensuing Session were over Whilst these resolutions were on foot at Rome the Cardinal di Monte plaid his part he sounded the tempers gained some by promises and drew others over by divers ways that so he might defeat the designs of the Spaniards and indeed it cost him not much pains to accomplish his aim So that in the following Congregations the Spaniards were baulked and could not obtain the handling of the point which they chiefly desired that is the Divine right of Residence They spoke to it indeed with great freedom and a Spanish Monk called Bartholomè di Carranza who was afterwards Bishop of Toledo took the boldness to say that the opinion which held that Residence was onely of Papal right was Diabolical The Cardinal di Santa Croce was of the mind that according to the Memoires sent from the Congregation of Rome something should be granted them but the Legate di Monte stood his ground and carried it that no satisfaction should be given them At length the Legates framed the Decree of Reformation containing fifteen Chapters and proposed it to a general Congregation It should have seemed that by that Decree there had been a design of indulging somewhat to those who demanded a Reformation and especially as to the Plurality of Benefices but in the main there was nothing less because to that Article and to all the rest it was always added saving in all things the Authority of the holy See which rendred all the promises of Reformation useless because the Pope continued still absolute Master of all The Spaniards and particularly the Bishop of Badajox found fault with it would have had that clause left out and that the Pope should not have the power to dispense against the Canons But it was to no purpose for them to protest and declare against it it must needs go so They urged that the Cardinals might be expresly named in the prohibition of possessing several Benefices but that as all the rest was refused them These Decrees which seemed to rectifie the abuse concerning the Plurality of Benefices approved nevertheless a certain constitution of Innocent III. called de Multa which condemning the Plurality of Benefices does notwithstanding permit it provided one have a Dispensation from Rome This to speak properly is to do nothing at all for what is prohibited in shew is in effect permitted by the benefit of Dispensations The Spaniards withstood this desiring that the Pope might not have power to give Dispensations for possessing several Benefices But the Plurality of Votes gained by the Legates were for approving of the Decrees The Reformation of abuses about the administration of the Sacraments was put off to another Session because the matter had not been sufficiently examined session 7 All things being in readiness the seventh Session was held on the third of March. Cariolano Martirano Bishop of St. Mark was to have made the Sermon but he would not because being one of those who had pressed the Reformation and the point of the Divine right of Residence he had been sharply taken up in the Congregation and therefore would not appear at the Session to say a Placet to a thing that did not at all please him nor indeed was it safe for him publickly to oppose the Decrees in a Session He therefore pretended sickness but none of all those learned men that made up the Council was in a
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
created Pope was become the proudest and most insupportable man living The Resignation of Charles did not put an end to the War of Naples The Duke of Guise was forced to march into Italy to the assistance of the Pope he had a design to have stopt at Lombardy to make a Diversion but the Pope would have him on any terms to march forward into the Kingdom of Naples where he did nothing at all And now the Pope to make good his promise created ten Cardinals but they were neither French men nor devoted to the French interest as he had promised which a little disgusted that Nation On the other side the Court of Rome had no great reason to be much satisfied with the Succours of France for notwithstanding their assistance the Duke of Alva took the Town of Signey and threatned the same to Pagliano The Pope being alarmed at this great Success opened his grievances in a consistory of Cardinals to whom amongst other things he told that he resolutely expected Martyrdom but the Cardinals could not well conceive how he could die a Martyr in a War which he had kindled by his treachery and ambition At the same time the French were defeated at St. Quentin in Picardy by the Forces of the K. of Spain which forced the K. of France to recall his Forces out of Italy and the Pope was constrained to make peace with the Duke of Alva but though he had been worsted yet would he needs make his peace as if he had been victorious The Pope being overcome makes peace like a Conquerour He would neither suffer the Colonna's to be mentioned in the Treaty nor himself to be accused of having violated the Law of Nations by imprisoning the Ministers of the Emperour and King of Spain but on the contrary the Duke of Alva must come to Rome in person to beg on his Knees absolution for himself and in name of the King his Master Never was there any thing more haughty and indeed the Inundation of the Tyber which at that time overflowed all the City of Rome and ruined the Fortifications of the Castle of St. Angelo was lookt upon as an effect of that prodigious pride which provoked Divine Vengeance One thing is reported of this Pope which very well shews his humour in order to this war he had raised Troops amongst the Grisons and they being Protestants according to the usual Insolence of Soldiers made havock in all Churches where they past even to the pulling down of Images The Cardinals of the Inquisition complained of this but the Pope answered year 1558 were repealed and the Roman Religion wholly banished the Kingdom About the same time another thing happened which overwhelmed the Pope in trouble and that was that in the Diet of Ausbourg the Acts of the last Years Conference which ended without any Success having been examined the Emperour confirmed the Liberty of Religion according to the Pacification at Passau and the Recesses of the Diets which had been held afterward The Pope could not hinder nor oppose it by his Legates for he had excluded himself from all Negotiation with Germany by the affront and injury he had done to Ferdinand And to mortifie him for good and all peace was concluded at Cambray the third of April betwixt the Kings of France and Spain So that he found himself left alone forsaken of all men hated of those two Princes betwixt whom he had kindled a War instead of quenching it as it was the Duty of the Common Father of the Church In that Treaty the two Kings obliged themselves mutually to endeavour the Reformation of the Church and the Calling of a Council for rooting out of Heresies Philip and Henry were both great Persecutours of Protestants especially Philip of Spain who thought it not enough to use Fire and Sword in a most cruel manner within his own Dominions but sent Ambassadours to all Neighbouring Princes to solicite them to take the same violent Courses against Protestants Perhaps there was more of resentment and revenge than Zeal for Religion in this Conduct for he had a mortal hatred to the Protestants of Germany because they had been the Cause that he was not named King of the Romans in the Diet of Ausbourg in the Year 1551. for the reformed States favoured Ferdinand and Maximilian his Son who opposed the Election of Philip. From the time of the first Edict of Charles the fifth there had been above fifty thousand men put to death by most cruel Torments in the low Countreys but this being not sufficient to Philip he made a League with France for the total Subversion of the Reformation The Cardinal of Lorrain in France and Granvel Bishop of Arras were the great sticklers for that Enterprise For putting of this design in execution Philip had a great mind to have brought the Inquisition into the low Countreys but his Father Charles the V. having heretofore succeeded so ill in that design that he was forced to leave it off he feared that that Enterprise might cost him more trouble than it had done his Father To cut off some of the Difficulties that might happen he resolved to begin with the multiplication of Bishopricks in hopes that these Bishops might contribute much to the accomplishment of his design There were but two Bishopricks in all the low Countreys Utrecht and Cambray all the rest of the Clergy were under the Jurisdiction of German and French Bishops and these two Bishops were also Suffragans to Strangers Philip drew his Territories from under a foreign spiritual Jurisdiction and erected into Bishopricks Namur Antwerp Balise-duc Ghent Bruges Ipres St. Omer Harlem Midleburg Leuvarden Groninguen Ruremonde and Deventer and established three Archbishopricks Cambray Malines and Utrecht The People perceived very well what that tended to and therefore they grew more obstinate and became inclinable to embrace the Reformation refusing to pay any Taxes till the Spanish Soldiers were removed Henry II. on his part did all that lay in his power to ruine the Protestants in his Kingdom He resolved to be present at the famous Mercurial which was held the fifteenth of June this was the name that was given to the Assemblies which met on Wednesdays for examining and correcting the manners of the Judges of Parliament Matters of Religion were to be treated of there and the King would hear the Judges argue that affair that he himself might know who were infected with new opinions After that Assembly he caused Lewis le Fevre and Anne du Bourg both Judges to be apprehended because they had been of opinion that some favour should be shew'd in punishing People who were onely guilty said they in discovering the Corruptions of the Court of Rome The first national Synod of the Protestants in France The Protestants notwithstanding the rigour of Persecutions went on with their business and framed a Discipline in the Church they met at St. Germain and held their first national Synod there
Duke knowing that they had not been prompted to that by a Spirit of Rebellion resolved to try fair means with them But at Rome the proposal was rejected with indignation they counsel'd him to use force which he followed and for eighteen Months waged War against these Wretches In the beginning of the same year a great Conspiracy was hatcht in France The Conspiracy of Amboise they who were engaged in the Plot were put upon it as much through interest of State as of Religion The House of Guise were absolute Masters both of the King's person and mind and this being a grievance to many they formed a Party and entered into a Confederacy for putting a stop to the fury of the Persecution and at the same time for rescuing the person of Francis the Second out of the hands of the Princes of Guise But the Plot was discovered the Court went from Blois to Amboise where there is a Citadel part of the Conspirators were taken and put to Death and so that Conspiracy of which one Renaudé was the chief was quickly dispersed and brought to naught The Protestants in the mean while encreased amidst all these Persecutions and that made the King's Council look out for other means of composing the troubles than what had been employed hitherto it was concluded that a Council of the whole Nation must be called but Cardinal d' Armagnac who was wholly for the interest of the Court of Rome and was as good as any Inquisitor against the Protestants withstood that resolution Monluc Bishop of Valence was of opinion for calling a national Synod and that prevailed This resolution was signified to the Pope but he approved not of it On the contrary he complained publickly at Rome against the King's proceedings who by a Declaration of the eighteenth of March had pardoned all who upon account of Religion had taken up Arms against him The Pope said it was the cause of God and that no Prince has power to pardon such Crimes that besides national Councils were good for nothing but to breed Schisms that there was need of a General Council and that he intended to convene it without delay The Pope solicites the King of France to take Geneva He sent into France the Bishop of Viterbo to represent the same things and that he might employ the King and take him off from thinking of that national Synod he essayed to perswade him to bend his forces against the City of Geneva He also solicited the Duke of Savoy and the King of Spain to the same Enterprise the King of Spain being a Neighbour to Geneva by the Franche Comte The Savoyard would have been very willing provided he could have kept Geneva for himself nor perhaps would the King of Spain have been against that but he knew very well that the King of France would never allow it to be in any other Prince's Possession and therefore he chose rather to suffer the new Religion to reign there than to see it in the hands of the French who were already too near Neighbours to the County of Burgundy which then belonged to the King of Spain so that that matter went no farther The King of Spain who thought it not proper to unite with the King of France for the Ruine of Geneva as he had been solicited by the Pope thought himself obliged at least to comply with the Pope's inclinations in disswading the French from holding a national Council For that effect he sent into France Antiono de Toledo Prior of Leon with instructions to offer France forces and assistance for the destruction of the Hereticks and it is certain that he could not doe more than what he did to satisfie the Pope by the Ruine of the Protestants The Court of France did not much listen to these Proposals they would indeed have been willing to have had Geneva but they feared the Switsers and the stirs that the Huguenots might raise in France during that War As to the matter of the Council they were stedfast in their design of calling a national one in France giving the Pope in the mean time assurance that nothing should be attempted in it contrary to his Authority But he could not trust too much to that he was very apprehensive of the French Prelates who were accused to be infected with Heresie and were at least prepossest with some Tenets which they call the Privileges of the Gallican Church and with Maximes that sute not with that Supremacy which is challenged by the Court of Rome The apprehension of this made the Pope absolutely resolve to call the General Council The Pope resolves to call a General Council But he was at a stand as to the place he would have been very willing to have held it at Bologna but he did not expect that the Prelates would come thither Milan was offered him but he would not accept of it unless the Citadel were put into his hands during the sitting of the Council The King of Spain for all he was so good a Catholick could not be brought to condescend to that for as to the point of worldly affairs and interests the Pope and other Princes are trusted much alike At length he concluded upon the City of Trent where it had been already assembled There happened two considerable matters which confirmed him in his resolution of hastening the Convocation of the Council the one was the Revolt of Scotland which banished Mary the Queen regent and fell off from the Church of Rome the other was the Jealousie that they had of Maximilian King of Bohemia Son to the Emperour Ferdinand Maximilian King of Bohemia and the Romans is suspected of Lutheranism who was always thought too favourable to the Protestants Paul IV. had accused him as an Abbetter of Heresie and one day he made an answer to the Pope's Ambassadours that much encreased the suspicion that they had of him The Pope's Nephew Maroo Altemps exhorting Maximilian in behalf of Pius IV. to continue a good Catholick promising him on the one hand that if he did the Pope would corroborate the pretentions he had to the Empire and on the other hand threatning that if he persisted to give Causes of Suspicion he would never confirm him King of the Romans but would deprive him of all his Territories Maximilian made answer to the promises that were made him of favour and assistance that he was very much obliged to his Holiness but that the Salvation of his Soul was much dearer to him than all worldly Enjoyments Now at Rome this kind of style was lookt upon as an infallible sign of Lutheranism and as the badge of those who were Enemies to the holy See All these reasons made the Pope on the third of June call together the Ambassadours of Princes and told them more plainly than hitherto he had done his design of re-establishing the Council at Trent ordering them to acquaint their Masters with the same He himself wrote to
Reformation having first twitted them with the absence of the German Prelates who of all others stood most in need of being reformed they resolved to give them some satisfaction And therefore on the Eleventh of March the Legates called a General Congregation wherein they proposed twelve or thirteen Articles relating to Reformation as concerning Residence The Legates propose twelve Articles tending to Reformation Promoâ—ions to Holy Orders Priests without a Title the Plurality of Titles and of Priests in great Parishes the annexing of Benefices that had Cure of Souls Unions made under pretext that the Benefices are two small if taken separately for the maintenance of a Curate daily Distributions the Validity of Clandestine Marriages concerning the abuses committed by Collectours or Alms-gatherers and some other matters of the like nature which shall be mentioned hereafter but a Rumour began now to be spread abroad that the Germans stirred again and levied Soldiers which alarmed the Council and for some time put a stop to all Deliberations and interrupted the Congregations so that the fourteenth of March the day appointed for the Session past without any thing done and Easter-holy-days coming on afterwards was the cause of another delay The sixteenth of March the Council gave Audience to Ferdinando d' Avalos Marquess of Pescara Ambassadour from the King of Spain and Governour of Milan wherein the usual Complements were mutually interchanged In the Congregation of the Eighteenth the Ambassadour of the Duke of Tuscany was also received in that of the twentieth of March the Ambassadours of the Catholick Cantons of Switzerland had Audience And in the Congregation of the sixth of April the Council admitted Andrea Dudicio Bishop of Tinâ—â— and Giovanni Colosvarino Bishop of Canadia the Deputies of the Clergy of Hungary The first of those two Andrea Dudicio is famous not onely for Learning but also because he turned Protestant afterward declaring that nothing had more inclined him to that change than what he had seen in the Council of Trent After the Easter-holy-days the Congregations were held without interruption from the seventh of April untill the eighteenth and therein the matters which had been proposed in the Congregation of the Eleventh of March were brought under Debate In the first place the point of Residence was argued with strange heats They enter upon the Point of the Residence of Bishops the Pope's faction essayed to put a stop to that deliberation alledging that it was a matter concluded under Paul III and that the care of putting in execution what had been decreed should be left to the People But the Archbishop of Granada and the rest of the Spaniards were for bringing the matter under examination again saying that a more effectual means had been proposed to oblige to Residence And the question if it be of Divine right is again started This Point is argued with extraordinary heat than those that were pitcht upon in the first Convocation and that was to declare it to be of Divine Right which presently put the Council into a Fermentation Paulus Jovius Bishop of Nocera who made himself remarkable by the singularity of his reasons was against the having it declared either necessary or of Divine Right He alledged that the Churches wherein Bishops resided were not a whit better governed than those wherein Bishops made no Residence and was so plain as to urge the Church of Rome it self for an instance which was full of Corruptions notwithstanding that for many ages the Pope had continually resided there He added that if Residence were declared to be of Divine Right it would prove a Source of Rebellion because when an heretical or scandalous Bishop was got into possession of a Church the Pope could never be able to punish him seeing under pretext that Residence is of Divine Right he might refuse to leave his See to come to an appearance that upon the same Principle the Curates also would find a means to decline the Jurisdiction of their Bishops alledging that by the Law of God they are placed immediate Pastours of their Flocks Giovanni Baptista Bernardo Bishop of Aiace stood up for the Divine Right of Residence nevertheless he was not of opinion that that question should be debated in the Council because that since the Council had no other aim but to oblige all to Residence it would be enough to make a Decree prohibiting all Bishops to discharge any secular office or employment in the Courts of Princes and that then he was pretty sure that few Bishops would be seen abroad out of their own Churches The Bishop of the five Churches a Hungarian vigorously opposed this overture and in a long Discourse made it out that for the space of eight hundred years Prelates had been employed in secular Affairs not onely with great Success but much Honour also to the Church and profit and advantage to States and that a custome of so long continuance ought not to be condemned Here the Bishops who were for the Divine Right of Residence made it visibly appear that their own hearts deceived them if they thought themselves prompted on by the Zeal that a good Pastour ought to have for the conduct of his Flock for they listened to the opinion of the Bishop of the five Churches with extraordinary delight and gave it great applause Nevertheless nothing could be more opposite to the design they had of asserting the necessity of Residence for it is manifest that worldly Business and Employments wherein Bishops are entangled are the greatest obstruction of Residence But both they and the Bishop of the five Churches jumpt in one and the same design to wit the Advancement of Episcopal dignity And therefore they liked any thing that made for that though it were by quite opposite courses all maintained their opinions in this cause with inconceivable heat and it was no easie matter to gather the Votes that the result might be known Cardinal Simoneta Legate held Residence to be of Positive Right and the Cardinal of Mantua thought it to be of Divine Right but durst not declare himself openly because of the Court of Rome which could not endure that opinion all that he ventured to doe was to affirm that the Plurality of Votes was on that side He had two Legates who joyned with him to wit the Cardinals of Warmia and Seripando But Altemps the Pope's Nephew was for Cardinal Simoneta who both maintained that the Plurality of Votes was for the Positive Right for determining this difference a General Congregation was held on the twentieth of April wherein the Presidents prayed the Fathers to give their Judgments upon the point of the Divine Right of Residence by a placet or non placet that that Article might speedily be decided When the Votes were gathered there were sixty eight who said absolutely placet for the Divine Right thirty three who voted absolutely non placet thirteen who said placet consulto prius sanctissimo Domino nostro and
down the opinions and that therefore he ought to have an Assistant The Imperialists made Remonstrances much of the same nature and particularly pressed the necessity of Joyning an Assistant to the Clark of the Council The other mean low spirited Ambassadours made answer in general terms that they must continue the Council and endeavour an Union amongst the Members Whilst affairs were in this condition the Council being under a kind of suspension and no Congregation held the Bishop of Vintimiglia returned from Rome fraighted with Civilities and Complements from the Pope to all the Prelates and provisions also of Employments and Pensions which the Pope gave to some of the Council The Bishop of Aosta Ambassadour of the Duke of Savoy arrived and the Legates perceiving that they gained nothing by interrupting the Congregations and that it gave ground for murmurings and private Assemblies where the spirit of discord and faction grew dayly stronger and stronger resolved to begin Congregations again and to take the occasion of receiving the Ambassadour of Savoy They therefore sent the Bishop of Sinigaglia to the Cardinal of Lorrain to know of him if there were no means to satisfie the Bishops of France and to tell him that the terms of governing the Church Universal whereat they took so great offence are used by St. Bernard an Author which the Cardinal very much approved of The Cardinal answered steadfastly that the French Bishops did their Duty that all France fixed their eyes upon them to observe their Conduct that the French would never suffer that kind of expression which gives the Pope the Power of governing the Universal Church and that if it were again proposed the Ambassadours would not fail to protest in name of the King and of sixscore Bishops because it would overthrow the received opinion in France that the Pope ought to be subject to a Council When the Legates had received this answer they lost all hopes of gaining the French the Spaniards also grew more and more inflexible and Martin Gazdellun whom we mentioned before being lately come from Spain confirmed them in their steadfastness for having examined how all things went he said that he evidently perceived that the Council was not free and commending the Archbishop of Granada for his vigour and constancy he assured him that the King was extremely well satisfied with his Conduct and that if the Archbishoprick of Toledo came to be void his Majesty would bestow it upon him For all that they began to hold Congregations again and in one of the last of January the Ambassadour of Savoy was publickly received where he made and received the usual Complements The Congregations continued and so did their Divisions also The Pope's Party were closely lincked together and those who were not so favourable to the See of Rome on the other hand stood firm in their design of having the institution of Episcopacy and Residence declared to be of Divine Right The Legates and the rest of the Pope's Party saw that it was no time to carry it by open force they resolved therefore to let the heats cool and to tire out some so as to make them depart and to blunt the edge of others by long attendance and delay and so they took a resolution of putting off the Session They got the Cardinal of Lorrain to condescend to that delay but very aukwardly for he still complained of the Factions and private Cabals of the Italians protested that he consented to that delay onely out of complaisance The business was proposed in Congregation the third of February by the Cardinal of Mantua It was opposed but the Legates at length carried it that the Session should be Prorogued till the two and twentieth of April after Easter The Cardinal of Lorrain was nor vexed at that resolution though he seemed to take it ill For he was glad that matters might be protracted that he might see what became of the Pope who was old and always valitudinary He desired also to know how the affairs of France went that he might accordingly adjust his measures During this Interval the Legates resolved to bring under examination the matter of Marriage and though the French Ambassadours instantly urged that they might treat of Reformation they could not obtain it for the Presidents were resolved to spin out the time about matters that sew were any way concerned in Eight Articles concerning Marriage were proposed First whether Marriage be a Sacrament instituted by God or a humane Constitution They enter upon the matter of Marriage and reduce it to eight Articles 2. Whether Parents can annull the Clandestine Marriages of the Children 3. Whether it be lawfull after a man hath divorced his Wife for the Cause of Fornication to take another whilst the first is alive 4. Whether Polygamy be allowed to Christians and whether the Prohibition of Marrying at certain times be Tyrannical 5. Whether Marriage ought to he preferred before a single life or the single life before Marriage 6. Whether the Priests in the West may lawfully contract Marriage notwithstanding the Vow of Celibat or the Ecclesiastick Law 7. Whether Marriage ought not to be contracted within the Degrees of Consanguinity which are forbidden in the eighteenth Chapter of Leviticus without diminishing or adding any thin thereunto 8. Whether impotency and ignorance of what one does in contracting are the onely Causes that can dissolve a Marriage contracted and whether the Cognisance of Matrimonial Causes belongs to Secular Princes These eight Articles were divided amongst four Chambers of Doctours as those of the Sacrament of Order had been Whilst this was in agitation The Cardinal of Lorrain prepared to goe and wait on the Emperour at Inspruck The Bishop of Reims the most Christian King's Ambassadour at the Court of his Imperial Majesty cane to Trent to accompany the Cardinal to that Court and this Journey renewed and encreased the Suspicions against France The Court of Rome was sensible that the Cardinal was very ill satisfied with the Council and when he parted from Trent he wrote as much to the Pope himself and complained to him of the Factions and Conduct of the Council telling his Holiness with all that if things continued to be carried after that rate all that he could doe was to pray that God Almighty would inspire the Council It was very well known likewise that the Emperour's intentions were as far from favouring the Pope as those of the French were and that was another allarm The Spaniards also feared that the Cardinal of Lorrain might have a design of conferring with the Emperour and King of the Romans about means for obtaining the Concession of the Cup for they had good intelligence that the German Princes and French Ambassadours intended to make new instances to the Council about it The Suspicions of the Spaniards seemed to have ground enough because the Duke of Bavaria the Archbishop of Saltsburg and the Arch Duke Ferdinand were to be at Inspruck with the
two Brothers the Duke and Grand Prior. He dealt earnestly with him also to employ his credit with the French Prelates that they would desist from pressing that the Institution of Bishops and their Residence should be declared of Divine Right But the Cardinal would not hear of it he continued stedfast in his design of staying at the Council and as he said of having matters concluded according to truth and reason Upon his return to Trent he bragg'd much how he had resisted the solicitations of the Cardinal of Ferrara but that was the last act of constancy and vigour that came from him for after that time he made so visible and considerable a compliance that he became the chief instrument which the Court of Rome employed for shaking and baffling the vigour of others However he seemed still to retain a little stedfastness in a Conference that he had with Cardinal Morone after his return from Hostia Cardinal Morone to sooth and flatter him told him that he wished he were at the helm of affairs and that he had the same Authority as the Legates had that farther more the Pope desired a Reformation and would set about it that none of the Articles which had been proposed by the several Nations were desired to be left out but those which related to the Court of Rome because the Pope would have the honour of Reforming himself The Cardinal was not catcht in that trap but made answer that saving the respect which was due to the Holy See what concerned the Reformation of the Cardinals and of the Court of Rome might be very well proposed in the Council But he continued not long in that style for the Cardinal received Letters from the Queen informing him that his presence would be far more necessary in France than at Trent she told him that there was no more good to be expected from the Council for France that all that could have been obtained from it would onely have been in order to reunite the French Protestants to the Church but that that was a thing not to be hoped for now since the peace with the Huguenots held good and that therefore the Pope was to be contented She wrote also to the Pope that she would order the French Prelates to concur in any thing that might tend to the speedy Conclusion of the Council and not to dispute his Authority any more From that time forward the Cardinal thought of nothing but of returning to France he was troubled to understand that the peace with the Protestants was like to hold for he mortally hated the Huguenots and feared the growth of the Party not so much out of Zeal for Religion as because he knew that that Party could not be Established but upon the ruines of his Family by reason of the irreconcilable hatred that was betwixt the Princes of the House of Guise and the Great men that were engaged in the interests of the Protestants He considered with himself that to support him against a Party which was like to gather new strength by a Peace he stood in need of the favour of the Pope and therefore he bent all his thoughts for the future to incline him to espouse his Interests by appearing to be wholly at his devotion A new Ambassadour from France comes About the same time the President de Birague the new French Ambassadour arrived and was received in the Congregation of the second of June But because in his Credentials he was not called Ambassadour all the Ambassadours of Princes who commonly come after those of France did not appear that they might not be obliged to take their places after him Birague presented to the Council a Letter from the King wherein he gave once more reasons for the Peace which he had concluded with the Huguenots still protesting that it was done in prospect of reclaiming to the Church those that were gone astray by a surer way than that of Arms that farther he expected that they would aid and assist him in that design by the Reformation which he had demanded and still did demand from the Council Birague's Harangue contained onely the same things somewhat more amplified and seeing the Legates knew what Birague was to say before they had heard him in the Council they were prepared to make an answer to his Speech by complements of condoleing that the King had been in a manner forced to make Peace with the Huguenots They farther added that they disapproved not what he had done exhorting him nevertheless that so soon as his Kingdom were in Peace he would endeavour all he could to cure the wound that Heresie had made in his Territories This answer was communicated to the Cardinal of Lorrain before it was given but he opposed it objecting that the Council ought not to approve the Peace which the King had made with the Huguenots seeing it was so prejudicial to the Church and that therefore they ought to take time to answer This advice was taken and the Legates made answer to Birague that the matters which he had proposed were so weighty that the Council desired time to give an answer to them but the French Ambassadours were extremely vexed with the Cardinal for this action They were about to have written to the Court concerning it but because Lansac was speedily to return they gave it him in Commission to make a report thereof to the King In the mean time the Congregations continued for Examining matters touching the Sacrament of Orders and the Prelates did not stick so closely to the point but that many times they purposely flew out into digressions In one of these Congregations the Bishop of Nimes discoursed freely enough against Annats and against several abuses of the Court of Rome amongst the rest against the Ordination of Priests who were admitted without examination or capacity In another Congregation the Bishop of Cadix a Spaniard shew'd the needlesness of Titulary Bishops whom he called figmenta humana an invention of the Court of Rome and what disorders these Bishops without Bishopricks caused in the exercise of the Discipline of the Church But seeing all the abuses introduced by Papal Authority found instantly Protectors among the Italians the Bishop of Sarzana a Tuscan rose up and defended the Cause of those Titular Bishops Another Spaniard Bishop of Lugo in Gallicia spoke against Dispensations and affirmed that it was not necessary to set Bounds to the Court of Rome as to that matter and to declare the invalidity of those Dispensations or rather that it is impossible to give Dispensations about most things that are so freely dispensed with About this time Angelo Massarelo Bishop of Tilesio in Abruzzo Clark of the Council being grievously tormented with the Stone resolved to be cut of it and desisted from officiating in Person as Clark and this removed one of the difficulties that have been mentioned which was that the Ambassadours of France and Spain having made great instances that he should
be assigned an Assistant for collecting the Acts because they questioned his fidelity they gave him for a Substitute another Italian the Bishop of Campagna in the Kingdom of Naples The first business that he did as Clark was to read the answer which was to be given to Birague of which the Legates had presented a Draught to the Council It was long and perplex'd and it did not therein appear whether the Fathers commended or blamed the action of the King of France in making Peace with the Huguenots The Prelates gave their Votes and the dark and ambiguous strain that it was framed in was cause of diversity of opinions The Cardinal of Lorrain approved it not which was a surprising matter because Cardinal Morone having shew'd it him he seemed to have been satisfied therewith In sine the matter was referred to the Legates and the two Cardinals Madruccio and Lorrain with power to frame that answer as they should judge most convenient A Clashing betwixt the Cardinal of Lorrain and the Archbishop of Otranto June the eleventh the Legates had a solemn consultation for finding out Expedients to settle the differences about the question of the Divine Right of the Institution of Bishops This gave the Cardinal of Lorrain who was present at the Consultation occasion to speak of the Authority of the Pope a question that depends naturally on that of the Institution of Bishops He touched by the bye the opinion of the French that the Pope is Inferiour to a Council declaring that it was not his desire that the Council should Pronounce in favour of that opinion but withall he wished that they would not decide any thing to the contrary The Archbishop of Otranto took him up sharply and spoke bitterly not onely against that opinion but against the Cardinal himself even so far as to accuse him of being the cause of all the troubles which had arisen about that Subject by proposing a project of decision that had given occasion to the debates The matter went so far that the Count de Luna told the Archbishop who was a Subject of the King of Spain that if his Catholick Majesty knew that he had fallen into that ill-timed passion he would not take it well A French Prelate hereupon gave the Legates advice not to call the Archbishop of Otranto any more to Consultations with the Cardinal of Lorrain because the Cardinal was informed that the Archbishop spoke ill of him on all occasions and spared not to call him a man full of Venome Cardinal Morone gave no heed to that advice but answered that he had orders from the Pope to doe nothing without the Archbishop that he had the disposal of forty Votes and that therefore he must not be disobliged The Cardinal of Lorrain was sufficiently vexed both with Cardinal Morone and the Archbishop of Otranto but the design he had of getting into the Pope's favour obliged him to dissemble President Birague having stayed for the Councils Answer as long as became his character went to wait on the Emperour at Inspruck according as he was enjoined by his Commission And his chief business was to confer with the Emperour about the means of transferring the Council unto a place where it might enjoy full liberty The Queen of France had written of that to the King of Spain who disliked the proposition but he wrote to the Count de Luna his Ambassadour that according to the Instructions which he had given him he should press the revocation of the Clause proponentibus legatis for setting the Council at liberty The Count de Luna having declared his Commission to the Legates they answered that the Clause had past with consent of the Council and that it could not be revoked At the same time the Pope was earnestly solicited at Rome to dispense with that Clause and at length to case himself of the trouble that was given him upon that account he wrote to Cardinal Morone that they should Supersede the execution of it but Morone without consulting his Collegues answered plainly that he could not and that he had rather his Holiness would recall them In the Congregation of the fifteenth of June the Prelates pitcht upon the fifteenth of July for the day of the next Session and in the Congregation next day after Another Discourse of General Lainez in favour of the Court of Rome Lainez the General of the Jesuits speaking in his turn undertook to censure and refute all that had been said by others against the Court of Rome And he did it so vehemently and with so much zeal as if he had been treating of matters whereupon the Salvation of mankind depended He made an Apology for Dispensations Annats the Wealth of the Court of Rome and for every thing that others called Abuses He proved the Pope's Superiority over a Council and advanced his Authority not onely over Bishops but the whole Church as far as could be imagined in the same manner as he had done in his former Harangue The French were disgusted at this discourse nor were the Spaniards better satisfied they were perswaded that the Legates had chosen him as their mouth to speak their thoughts for it was observed that they affected to show a particular respect for him When he spoke they made him come out of his place and sit in the middle of the Assembly whereas the other Generals spoke standing and kept themselves in their own places Lainez was never tedious though he had taken up the whole time of Congregations but the others were never short enough This Jesuit sent his excuses to the Cardinal of Lorrain and the French Prelates pretending that he had not the least design of offending them but that he onely aimed at the Sorbonne Doctors whose opinions were not agreeable to the sentiment of the Church This excuse gave a new offence to the French and particularly to the Divines John de Verdun a Benedictine Monk desired leave from the Cardinal to refute Lainez nay even the Cordelier Hugonis though bought by the Pope's Pension offered himself to prove that the proposition which Lainez had asserted that the Tribunal of the Pope is the same as that of Jesus Christ is an Impious and Scandalous Proposition But the Cardinal of Lorrain who had his private views and interests qualified the heat of their Zeal All these Difficulties and Janglings arose upon the Points of Residence and the Institution of Bishops being of Divine Right and therefore the Legates to stop up the Spring of the Divisions laboured incessantly to form a Decree concerning these matters which by its Ambiguity and by clearing nothing at all might give all content They did the Jobb and the Cardinal of Lorrain was satisfied with it but the Pope's Divines and Pensionary Prelates who outdid the Legates in the matter of Zeal for the interests of the Court of Rome found a thousand difficulties in it The draught of it was sent to Rome where they Judged as the
he would never suffer neither as Emperour nor Archduke that the Council should offer to make such a Reformation to the prejudice of the Jurisdiction of Princes But the Conduct of the French upon that occasion was much more vigorous In the Congregation of the two and twentieth of November they had the patience to hear a long Harangue wherein one of the Prelates strove to prove that the disorders of the Church proceeded from Princes and that Care must be taken to reform them Du Ferrier protests against that Decree and makes a Speech that cuts the Prelates to the quick that since the Acts concerning that were ready there was no more to be done but to produce them The President Du Ferrier started up and made his Protestation by word of mouth in a long and witty discourse delivered briskly in words that cut to the heart He laughed at all the petty Reformations which the Council had made for the Clergy made a Comparison betwixt the Canons of the Council and the Ancient Canons of the Discipline of the Primitive Church wherein it was not permitted to Bishops to be absent from their Flocks three months of the year as the present Council allowed wherein Beneficiaries had not the liberty which the Council granted to dispose of the Revenues of their Benefices to the prejudice of the Poor to whom properly they belong And so went over all the Abuses authorised by the Council of Trent comparing them with the Severity of the Ancient Discipline He alledged that the Reformation of Princes which was proposed tended directly to the Ruine of the Liberties of the Gallican Church but that the King knew very well how to maintain them that he would make use of his Right in laying hold on the goods of the Church when his occasions did require it that it was an intolerable Attempt to excommunicate Kings even without a hearing as that Decree ordained that they should concern themselves with spiritual matters and not with the Affairs of Princes with which they had nothing to doe that the Kings of France had made Ordinances in Ecclesiastick matters and that the Church of France had been governed according to its Laws above four hundred years before the Compilation of the Decretals that Kings held their Power onely of God and that it belongs not to Churchmen to reform them that if they had a mind to reform Princes they should first think of reforming themselves and become like St. Ambrose St. Austin and St. Chrysostome and that that would be the way to make Princes imitate the Examples of the Theodosius's of Honorius Arcadius and the Valentinians This Harangue put the Council out of all patience and even the French Prelates themselves there arose a murmuring and confused Noise amongst them which was like to have broken out into some scandalous Transport had not the Legates to prevent it dismissed the Assembly The Bishops spoke all the Evil they could devise against his Speech to make it pass for Heretical and Nicolas Pelue Archbishop of Sens and Jerome de la Souchieres Abbot of Clervaux had big words with Du Ferrier about it They reported every where that that Protestation was made without Orders from the King that Du Ferrier was a Creature of the King of Navarre that he was suspected of Heresie and that he ought to be put into the Inquisition Others had scraped together some Notes of that Harangue but because Du Ferrier found them false he published it himself and sent a copy of it to the Cardinal of Lorrain with a Letter wherein he told him that he could not abandon the Royal Authority which for the space of four hundred years had been attempted upon by the Court of Rome that as a Frenchman and a Member of Parliament he was obliged to assert the Rights of his King and the opinions of his Faculty And that it was not just that the Council made up of the slaves of the Court of Rome should be Judge in its own Cause So soon as Du Ferrier's Speech appeared in publick the Council caused it to be refuted by a nameless Authour Du Ferrier made his defence and instead of recanting he confirmed all that he had said or written These Writings encreased the Provocation and the Bishops revenged themselves by reviling not so much the Ambassadours as the Court of France They accused the Queen Mother of openly favouring the Hereticks They affirmed that she was governed by the Chatillons who were declared Hereticks by the Chancellour de l'Hopital and the Bishop of Valence who were suspected of Heresie After that Protestation the Ambassadours of France The French Ambassadours goe to Venice having staid a Fourtnight longer at Trent retired to Venice according to the Orders they had from Court. Before they went away they declared to the few French Prelates that remained that it was the King's Intention they should oppose the fifth and sixth Articles of Reformation which were proposed because these Articles drew the Causes and Persons of Bishops out of the Kingdom whereas according to the Liberties of the Gallican Church the Members of the Clergy ought to be judged primâ instantiâ upon the place and by their immediate Superiours When the news of the French Ambassadour's Protestation came to Rome it caused great heart-burnings in the Pope's Court. No man was so much afflicted as the Cardinal of Lorrain because it was an unlucky accident that brought great Prejudice to the Negotiation that he was a managing with the Pope for the Grandeur of himself and Family He pacified the Pope the best he could blaming the Ambassadours and promising to write to the King that he might procure reparation of that Scandal He did indeed write and in such terms as well discovered that he had sacrificed the Interests of his King and the opinions of his Countrey to the design of pleasing the Pope whom he would engage in his private concerns The Pope wrote also to Trent that they should still goe on and that if the French Ambassadours had a mind to be gone they should not hinder them but withall give them no occasion of withdrawing that after all they should prepare to hold the Session immediately upon the return of the Cardinal of Lorrain and put an end to the Council that now he had got the better of the Germans and French and that none but the Spaniards remained to be overcome The truth is the Count de Luna not onely crossed the Pope's design of shortning the Council but also made it his business to obtain an Alteration of the Clause proponentibus legatis He continually charged a fresh and never left off soliciting Cardinal Morone even amidst the troubles that were occasioned by the Protestation of the French till at length the Cardinal was fain to promise that they should endeavour to give him satisfaction in the ensuing Session what this satisfaction was we shall see hereafter The Legates being pressed by the Bishops who were not baulked
the People demanded but rather the Pope's Yoke upon the Clergy and the Clergy's upon the People was made heavier In the fifth Chapter of the General Reformation the Pope reserves to himself the Cognisance of all Criminal Causes of Bishops which are called the greater taking them from the Metropolitans and Provincial Synods The Decree ordains that when the Pope shall give any one a Commission in partibus that Commission shall onely extend to the taking of Informations In the twelfth Canon about Marriage the Council pronounces Anathema against those who shall deny that the Tryal of Matrimonial Causes belongs to the Church Some who pretend to a little skill in Antiquity could not but observe that from the beginning it was not so that all Laws concerning Marriage had been made by Emperours and that the Causes which did arise from those Laws were tryed by the secular Magistrates Nay more it s known that some Gothick Kings gave Dispensations for forbidden Degrees and in the Formularies of Cassiodorus the style of these Dispensations is still to be seen There were some who expected some good from the fourteenth Chapter of the General Reformation which revokes cancells and annuls and Constitutions or Customes of paying any thing for the purchase of Titles and the possession of Benefices they were in hopes that that Article if rightly interpreted would overthrow the Annats which are pay'd to the Pope for the taking possession of Benefices but experience hath evinced that that was the wrong way of interpreting the Decree The Eighth Chapter ordains that they who have sinned publickly should make publick repentance and it was hoped that that would be an advance towards the ancient Discipline But there is a Clause rarely well put in ni aliter Episcopo videatur for it hath not as yet seemed good to the Bishops to doe any thing in Execution of that Decree They who are jealous of the rights of Princes and secular Magistrates besides what we have already observed did not take it well that the Council in the sixth Chapter of the Reformation of Marriage should ordain that he who deflowers a Woman shall give her a Portion whether he Marry her or not for they looked upon that as a mere civil Constitution that cannot come under the Cognisance of an Ecclesiastick Judge Those who had no great kindness for the Council and sought to make themselves merry at its cost laughed a little at the Canon which prohibits Clandestine Marriages because it pronounceth an Anathema against those who deny that these Marriages are true Sacraments and yet subjoins that the Church hath always detested them This seemed to be an odd Clinch that the Church should declare she detested true Sacraments The one and twentieth Chapter about the Clause proponentibus legatis made sport also for a great many The Chapter declared that by that Clause there was no design of changing any thing in the manner that had been observed in ancient Councils nor of giving or taking from any one any right contrary to ancient Constitutions When all was done the Council at a conclusion and that the Legates had drawn all the advantage from this Clause that they could expect they come in at last with a Declaration that it was not their intention forsooth to doe prejudice to any body This could not pass without a remark that it looked very like the man's excuse who having given another a box on the Ear said that he had not done it with an intention to offend him It was observed that for the future the Pope had found out an excellent way to keep Councils in Bondage that there was no more to be done but in the beginning to make such a Clause as this let the Members quarrel about it during the whole sitting of the Council and then declare in the end when the business is done that it was not thereby designed to restrain any man's Liberty The Council precipitates to its end the Count de Luna and the Spaniards oppose it We are now at length come to the actions which immediately went before the last Session The countenance of affairs is now much to be altered no more of those long delays that held all Europe in suspence the Council joggs not on fair and soft to its end it runs post precipitates and all conspire to a conclusion The Pope stoops under the Burthen of the Council he intends upon any terms to shake it off the French who expect no more from that Assembly follow the Cardinal of Lorrain that hath struck in with the Pope The Germans abandon the Council as a Patient past hopes of recovery and none remain but the Spaniards who would march on gravely and step by step in the rest as they had done all along till then But they are not able of themselves alone not resist that torrent of impatience which hurried the Council to its end There remained still to be handled the matters of Indulgences Worship of Saints Purgatory Images and Fasts and that was enough to have employed the Council for several years after the rate that the former Points were managed The matter of Indulgences alone would have taken up the Council for several Months if it had been examined as the Point of Justification was but all was dispatched in a fortnights time That they might attain to this speedy Expedition the Legates and Cardinal of Lorrain agreed together that all which remained should be dispatched in one Session The Cardinal of Lorrain and Imperial Ambassadours undertook to prepare the Members for it by spreading of Reports that the Emperour desired that it might be concluded before Christmass and that the French were to depart in the Month of December that therefore matters ought to be so ordered that all things should be expeded before their departure They who were weary of their stay at Trent received the news with all imaginable Joy and on the fifteenth of November Cardinal Morone assembled at his house a Cabal of the Council and desired the Prelates to give their opinions as to the Conclusion of it that was so wished for All consented to it except the Count de Luna Ambassadour of Spain but the Legates were resolved to step over all difficulties The Decree which was minuted by the Clergy for the Reformation of Princes and against which the French Ambassadours had protested was one of the most ticklish Points The Legates therefore resolved to let that alone and yet to doe somewhat for the satisfaction of the Clergy which was that reviving the ancient Canons without specifying them they should put in an exhortation to Princes to preserve the Church in her privileges and even to make restitution of the rights which had been usurped upon the Clergy by secular Judges But no Anathema's nor threatnings were added they onely made use of terms full of respect to Sovereigns The Pope having well consulted the matter of Rome ordered it to pass so The Council held dayly two Congregations
from the Church of Rome and Catholicks themselves took Liberty to speak The whole Discourse both of Catholicks and Protestants was about the Debates and Factions in managing of Affairs especially the matter of Reformation And according to the French way of raillery it was presently in every body's mouth that the Council of Trent had far more Authority than that of the Apostles for whereas the Apostles said It seemeth good to the Holy Ghost and to us the Fathers of Trent said barely It hath seemed good to us quite excluding the Holy Ghost Germany slighted the Council to the highest Degree for the Prelates of that Nation had not been present in this last Convocation which notwithstanding was the most Solemn of all Very few Bishops were there for the Kingdoms if Hungary and Poland none at all from England Swedeland Danemark and the low Countries The French Prelates came onley at the latter end and reckoning them all together with the Spaniards they did not exceed the number of forty Bishops all the rest were Italians of a few more than two hundred Prelates which made up the Council there were above an hundred and fifty from Italy And therefore it had the Name of the Council of the Pope and Italians The Pope confirms the Council by a Bull. The Court of Rome was very glad that the Council was ended they mattered not much what Decrees it had made provided it could make no more The Pope died not then of his sickness and had double Cause of rejoicing at the same time both that he had recovered his health and was also discharged of the burthen of the Council He was so overjoyed that without boggling he declared that he would confirm it and even add some new Reformations That Declaration allarmed the Court of Rome though the Reformations of the Council went not very far however no body was willing to part from any of their Rents and Profits and that nevertheless they must have done had the Decrees of the Council been religiously observed Most of the Cardinals were of opinion that the Pope should moderate the Articles which might incommode the Court of Rome before he confirmed them and alledged that that would serve for two ends First it would as we have said ease them of several incommodious Regulations and then it would confirm the Pope in his Superiority over the Council by reforming it But in fine after that a great many Congregations of Cardinals had been held upon that Subject the opinion of confirming it without any alteration prevailed Some perswaded the Pope to it by Arguments of Piety Honour and Sincerity to his word But the deciding Cast was put in by Hugo Boncompagno Bishop of Vieste in Apulia He alledged that the Confirmation of the Council was so far from diminishing the Authority of the Pope and the Grandure of the Court of Rome that it would much advance it provided a Barriere were set to put a stop to the Rashness of Doctours and hinder them from interpreting the Council according to their several Fancies and Interests It was his advice then that the Judges themselves should be prohibited from medling with the Interpretation of the Sense of the Council and that it should be ordained that in all doubtfull matters recourse should be had to the Holy See and its Interpretations submitted to And thus he made it appear that by so doeing the Court of Rome would always have the absolute Disposal of every thing that pinched them because in confirming the Council the Holy See reserved to it self the Power of interpreting it He said that there was no Law so plain and express nor so rigorous which might not be turned to a commodious and a favourable Sense by means of Exceptions and Qualifications If there be any thing then in the Council that pinches the Holy See and Court of Rome it will be a very easie matter to avoid it by expounding it as one pleases But the Council cannot be made use of said he to the Prejudice of the Court of Rome because all the force of its Execution will depend on the Holy See to which recourse must be had for Interpretation This Overture was worth a Cardinals Cap to the Bishop and it appeared so convenient and good that all agreed to it Thus the matter was resolved upon and the Pope on the six and twentieth of December gave the Bull of Confirmation wherein he forbids under pain of Excommunication the publishing of any Commentaries or Observations upon the Council ordaining in all doubtfull Cases Recourse to be had to the Holy See Within some Months after the Pope made a Promotion of Nineteen Cardinals to reward those who had faithfully served him in the Council and neither Marco Antonio Colonna Archbishop of Taranto nor the Bishop of Vieste were forgotten FINIS ERRATA In the Historical Reflexions Page 20. line 5. reade if according p. 37. l. 26. for of r. from p. 60. l. 20. r. exalting p. 102. l. 6. r. sufficiently p. 113. l. 9. for prompted r. permitted In the History Page 1. l. 1. for fifteenth r. sixteenth p. 60. l. 28. for Madoncio r. Madruccio p. 148. l. 3. r. actu p. 193. l. 3. for had bred r. and bred p. 200. l. 16. betwixt the words sort and made add who p. 245. in the Marginal Note for 19. Session r. 16. p. 251. l. 7. for Dominions r. Dominion p. 275. l. 23. dele it p. 457. l. 8. for Revenue r. Reverence p. 575. l. 3. for means r. mean A TABLE of the most remarkable matters contained in this History A. ADRIAN succeeds to Leo. Page 11 Desires to reform the Church ibid. But cannot succeed in that design of Reformation Page 13 Sends a Letter into Germany confessing that the Church and Court of Rome are corrupted Page 14 He dies Page 16 Altemps Cardinal Nephew of Pope Pius IV. a zealous Protectour of the rights and pretensions of the See of Rome Page 305 Ambassadours Danes Ambassadour of France comes to the Council Page 106 The Emperour's Ambassadour present to the Council five demands in Writing Page 318. The French Ambassadours are received in Council make Speeches and receive no Answer Page 339 They receive new Instructions from France Page 398 Protest against the Decree of the Reformation of Princes and have Orders to withdraw Page 556 They goe to Venice Page 564 Ambrosio Catarino maintains the Opinion of St. Austin and of the Protestants about Works that precede Grace Page 118 And about the certainty that one may have of being in the state of Grace Page 123 His strange Opinion about Predestination Page 132 What his judgment is of the Priests intention in administring Sacraments Page 151 Amiot Bishop of Auxerre protests in Council in name of his Master Henry II. of France Page 198 Arembold of a Genoese Merchant being made a Bishop 〈◊〉 chosen for the distribution of Indulgences in Germany p. 3 He gives that charge to the Jacobins which offends the