came to the turn of the Spaniards and French speak many difficulties were started against the Decrees as they had been conceived by the Cardinals First this Clause was objected against that Bishops hold a chief rank depending on the Bishop of Rome that was thought to be an ambiguous expression but after some debate they who made the objection consented to have it said a chief rank under the Pope Some also did not like that it should be said that Bishops are admitted by the Pope in partem solicitudinis because that signified clearly enough that Bishops are appointed by the Pope and not by our Lord Jesus Christ but above all they stumbled at the Article of the Pope's Authority and that the Canon gave him the Pope to govern the Church Universal The French thought that by these words the Pope had a design to establish a Superiority over the Council They were nevertheless willing it should be said that he hath the power to rule all the Churches ecclesias universas but not the Church Universal ecclesiam universalem Most part fansied that to be a very nice distinction and of little solidity But the rest maintained that by giving the Pope power to govern the Church Universal they exalted his Tribunal above the Church whereas the Tribunal of the Church is exalted above that of the Pope They alledged that there was a great difference betwixt being exalted above all Churches that is to say above every Particular Church and being exalted above the Church Universal that is whole Church taken together and assembled in a Council This occasioned great debate the Pope's Party alledged the Authority of the Council of Florence which had made use of these terms and that did a little puzzle the Spaniards because their Countrey own the Council of Florence for a General Council But the French set light by that Authority and opposed to it the Councils of Constance and Basil which have defined the Superiority of a Council over the Pope Upon this occasion there arose a great contest betwixt the Italians and French for the Italians maintained that the Council of Florence was a General Council that that of Basil was Schismatical and the other of Constance partly approved and partly rejected But the French on the contrary denied the Council of Florence to have been a lawfull Council and said that the others of Constance and Basil were lawfull and General The Legates well perceived that no good would come of these contests and therefore that they might have time to sent to Rome the Censures which the Bishops on the other side of the Alpes had made upon the Decree composed by the Pope touching the Institution of Bishops and the Authority of the Holy See they employed the Congregations about the Point of Residence The Cardinals of Lorrain and Madruccio the day before had mode a Project of Decision concerning the Controversie of Residence which displeased not the Legates But the Presidents having had time to reflect upon it observed a Clause that gave them Umbrage which was that Bishops are obliged by the Command of God to guide their Flocks and to watch in Person over them They knew very well that the Pope would make a sinister interpretation of these words and think that they favoured the opinion of the Divine Right of Residence and therefore they left it out of their own heads and presented in the Congregation the Minute corrected after their own way That action choaked the Cardinals of Lorrain and Madruccio Lorrain protested that for the future he would not meddle in any thing and Cardinal Madruccio said that in the Council there was another secret Council which took all the Authority to it self The Legates finding that they gained no ground put a stop to the Congregations in expectation of an answer from Rome and the Pope's Party began to make Factions that they might break up the Council for good and all At this the Cardinal of Lorrain broke out and acted with less reserve than he had formerly done He complained that there was a design of breaking up the Council he spoke to the Ambassadours of Princes that their Masters might intercede with the Pope not onely for the Continuation of the Council but especially that it might be left to its liberty saying that nothing could be proposed or resolved upon but what pleased the Legates that the Legates did nothing but what the Pope thought fit and that Decisions even about the smallest matters must be expected from Rome that if matters went on still in that manner they would make a pacification in France whereby all should have liberty to live as they thought good untill the holding of a free Council that for his own part he would have patience untill the next Session but that if affairs went no better he would protest and withdraw and carry all the French along with him that they might celebrate a National Council at Home The French Ambassadour residing at Rome made the same Expostulations and Menaces that the Cardinal did at Trent But the Pope began to be accustomed to that noise and was not a whit startled at these Bugbears of National Synods He made answer that the Council was more than free that it was even licentious that if the Italians made any Factions and Cabals he knew nothing of it but that yet they were forced upon it if they did so by the violence of the Bishops beyond the Alpes who endeavoured to trample under foot the Authority of the Holy See The Bishop of the five Churches the Emperour's Ambassadour for the Kingdom of Hungary went about the same time to wait on his Master and to inform him of the Factions and Conduct of the Italians The Archbishop of Granada and those of his Party entreated him to procure from the Emperour a Letter to the King of Spain praying him to solicite a Reformation The Legates were informed of this and looked upon all that Conduct as an effect of the Councils of the Cardinal of Lorrain and to Countermine that League they deputed John Francisco Commendone Bishop of Zante to the Emperour under pretext of Justifying the Council in that they had not as yet proposed the Articles of Reformation which his Imperial Majesty had presented b his Ambassadours Seeing these misunderstandings grew dayly greater and greater the Legates sufficiently perplexed sent a writing to all the Ambassadours begging the Assistance of their Councils in the present Junctures The French slipt not that occasion to tell their minds freely and therefore said that the Council was made use of to encrease corruptions instead of lessening them that a stop ought to be put to those shamefull underhand dealings which were continually practised that they ought not to labour to raise the Pope above the Church Universal that the best way was to follow the Decrees of the Council of Constance And farther added that one cause of disagreement was that the Clark of the Council did not faithfully set
THE COUNCIL of TRENT The Representation of the Fathers assembled in the Council of Trent begun about the end of the year 1545. Concluded towards the end of 1563. under the Pontisicate of Paul III. Tulius III. Marcel II. Paul IV. and Pius IV. There were XXV Sessions in which were present VII Cardinals V. whereof were the Popes Legates XVI Ambassadours from Kings Princes Republicks CCL Patriarchs Arch bishops Bishops Abbots and Generals of Orders All Divines and Doctours of the Civil and Canon Law THE HISTORY OF THE Council of TRENT In Eight Books Whereunto is prefixt A Discourse containing Historical Reflexions on Councils and particularly on the Conduct of the Council of Trent proving that the Protestants are not oblig'd to submit thereto Written in French by Peter Jurieu Doctour and Professour of Divinity And now done into English LONDON Printed by J. Heptinstall for Edward Evets at the Green Dragon and Henry Faithorne and John Kersey at the Rose in St. Paul's Church-Yard MDCLXXXIV Historical Reflections ON COUNCILS And particularly on the Council of TRENT PROVING That Protestants are not Obliged to submit thereto I Believe it will by all men readily be granted that since the first appearance of Christianity there hath not hapned an Affair of greater moment than was the separation of the Protestants from the Church of Rome which fell out in the beginning of the last Century It was a mighty rupture that took whole States and Kingdoms from the Roman See Schism is indeed one of the greatest mischiefs which can befall the Church it is an enemy to Charity nay ruinous to it and since Charity is no less necessary to Salvation than Faith Schism that destroys Charity is no less to be feared than Heresie that overthrows the Faith In our present subject we find both Heresie and Schism The mischief is great on either part Those of the separation are Schismaticks if they have not done it upon solid grounds But if the Church from which they separate hath given occasion for such separation and by her own errors made it absolutely necessary the guilt of the Schism falls then upon her From hence arises a great contest to know who it is that must one day answer before the Tribunal of God for this scandalous breach that puts a stop to the progress of Chtistianity sowing among Christians the seeds of variance and contention The Roman Church pretends it to be a Cause already adjudged and determined that famous Assembly the General Council of Trent who could not err having pronounced definitively upon it By this Judgment say they men ought to abide for there will else be no end of Controversie Disputes should not be everlasting but when the Judges have given their final Sentence there can be no further proceeding The Protestants are very far from thinking thus of the matter they pretend a right to review the Cause they cry out against the incompetence of the Judge they complain of undue and irregular proceedings and will admit no other Decision of the truth and antiquity of their Religion than the Holy Scripture as for Tradition Councils and Schools by which they are condemned they look upon them as things doubtful falsified false and apt to occasion illusion and error This Controversie is most certainly of the greatest importance no less than eternal Salvation depends upon it so that it is the interest of all men to examine it to the bottom It were a thing to be wished that we might plead our cause before a disinteressed Judge but it cannot be For all the sincere and worthy persons of Europe have already taken part on one side or the other and those that can still ballance between the two Religions are too ill Christians to have the honour of being Judges in a Cause which properly speaking is the Cause of God But we entreat the Reader that at least for a few hours he will lay aside all manner of prepossession that he may so make the better Judgment of the force of our Arguments My intention is not to enter into the depth of this vast matter for that were to descend to particulars and to examine the right and wrong of every dispute I will only shew that the Protestants are not to be blamed for refusing to submit to the Decisions of the Council of Trent and that from reasons taken from the Council it self I will prove that it is not from giddiness nor from perverseness but from a just and solid resolution that they refuse to submit For it seems reasonable that giving the History of this Council we do also give an account why we conceive our selves not obliged to receive it reason 1 1. First reason of not owning the Council of Trent because it is a Party in the Controversie In the first place the Reformed decline the jurisdiction of this Council as a Judge incompetent because a Party I easily foresee I shall be stop'd short here and that it will be returned upon me that the Churches being a Party is the ordinary refuge of Hereticks Had not the Arians as much right to tell the Council of Nice you are a Party and therefore can be no Judge in the Cause What! is not the Church obliged to maintain the rights of truth against Hereticks and shall this shadow of a pretence be able to deprive her of the power to Judge It is fit however that we be heard in the matter to see if there be not a mighty difference between what we alledge for our selves and what they are pleased to make the Hereticks say The Church is certainly the prop and the pillar of truth as St. Paul speaks that is she is obliged to support it But yet Hereticks must not for that reason look upon the Church as a Party and reject her as unfit to judge of religious Controversies For Legislators and the Garrantees of Laws cannot justly be considered as Parties when they have no other interest in a matter in question but the conservation of the Laws Were it reasonable for a Murderer to harangue his Judges thus Gentlemen you cannot be my Judges you have an interest in the prosecution inasmuch as you have forbidden to commit murder It is an easie thing to foresee what Judgment you will give thus prejudiced as you are by your own Principles and Maximes I demand therefore a fair and equal trial by Judges wholly free from all prepossession There could be nothing so senseless as such kind of talk yet such would be that of Hereticks who should reject the judgment of the Church in Contests of this kind Had the Council of Trent been the Council of the Church and without other interest than to defend the truth we might have appealed from its Judgment had it determined of any thing contrary to truth but we could not have refused to own it as a Council But we affirm that the Council of Trent is not a Council of the Church but of the Pope and of
the Court of Rome who are our determined Adversaries in the Controversie It is against the Pope that the Protestants contend they dispute his quality of Vicar of Jesus Christ of supreme Head of the Church of infallible Judge of Controversies By the dictates of common sense there is nothing so unjust as to establish him for Judge of a Cause against whom the Suit is directly brought But that the Council of Trent was a Council of the Popes not of the Church is most apparent For it was convened by him he presided in it it consisted only of persons who had taken an oath of fidelity to him and were for the greater part his Pensioners And indeed he was so much Master of the Assembly that it acted nothing but as inspired or commanded by him But it will be replied that the Pope being the natural Head of the Church and having the sole right of convening Councils and presiding in them he was not bound to lay aside his Character in favour of the Protestants who unjustly attaqued him Were a King whose Sovereign Power should by some persons be disputed obliged to divest himself of his Royal Dignity submit it to the fantastick humours of men The misfortune is that we are always pester'd with similies that have no manner of similitude A lawful Prince whose rights are clear and indisputable I confess were not obliged to renounce his Royal State But a King whose rights were doubtful false and contested by a Prince of the Royal blond and by the greatest part of his Subjects were obliged for the interests of peace to be content to sit down as a private person and suffer a Judgment of the validity of his Title Is the Pope a Sovereign whose rights are unquestionable Is it acknowledged genenerally that he hath the sole right of convening Councils and presiding in them without whose Authority no Act passed therein should be valid So far from it that the greatest part of the Christian world denies it It is not believed by the Eastern Church nor by the Churches of the North and South or of the Greeks Ethiopians Cophties or Russians that their Councils are unlawful because the Pope doth neither convene them nor preside in them The Protestants may be also reckoned for something not for their number only but chiefly for their reasons For they bring a cloud of Witnesses to demonstrate that the right of convening Councils belongs to the Emperours and that the Bishops of Rome have not always presided in them The first Council of Nice was called by Constantine the Great and Alexander the then Bishop of Constantinople did preside in it The second General Council was called by Theodosius at Constantinople at which neither the Pope nor any of his Legates were present and therefore cannot be said to have presided therein There is nothing farther from truth Râ—pi l. I. ch â—5 34. than what the Cardinal du Perron is pleased to affirm that the first Council of Constantinople besought the Pope to confirm its Decrees On the contrary the Church of Rome opposed her self in all that she was able to what the Council had done She disapproved the Election of Flavius whom the Council had established in the See of Antioch in the place of Meletius who died at Constantinople while the Council sate She favoured Paulinus who had been elected Bishop by a party in the Church of Antioch in separation from the rest She could never relish the Canon of this Council that ordains That the Bishop of Constantinople should have the Prerogatives of honour next to the Bishop of Rome because Constantinople was new Rome And even in the time of Gregory I. L. Ind. 15. Ep. 131. which was in the beginning of the seventh Century the Church of Rome was not as yet reconciled with this Council For Gregory affirms that this Council was not acknowledged in the West Yet after all the opposition of the Roman Church it passes still for a lawful and General Council To this I might add the third General Council assembled at Ephesus the fourth at Calcedon the fifth and sixth at Constantinople all convened by the Emperours and not by the Popes I might add to all these many other proofs of equal weight but being fallen but by accident upon this Dispute I have no intention to enlarge farther upon the proofs Yet I cannot but take notice that Pope Vigilius being at Constantinople in the year 553. when the fifth General Council was there held he would not assist in it nor did preside therein either in Person or by his Legates and yet the Council is received both for lawful and General There is then already just cause to doubt that the Pope hath such a right of convening Councils and presiding in them as to render them unlawful if called or managed by others But this is not all for a considerable part of the Roman Church it self hold this opinion to be most false That the Pope hath the sole right of convening General Councils and presiding in them All the Gallican Church and generally all that own the Councils of Constance and Basil that is to say at least France and Germany are of this Judgment The Council of Constance could not be convened by a lawful Pope for it assembled it self at the solicitation of the Christian Princes and by the authority of the College of Cardinals for the deposing of three Popes who were then sitting the one at Rome being Gregory XII another at Bologna being John XXIII the third at Avignon being Benedict XIII Not one of these Popes could preside in this Council being all thither cited and there condemned as false Popes The Cardinal of Cambray did preside in the third Session Cardinal Vrsini in the fifth John Bishop of Ostia Cardinal and Vice-Chancellour of the Roman Church presided in the seventh and in all the rest till the Election of Martin V. John XXIII being deposed and retired the Council declared in the third Session That by the departure of the Pope the Council was not dissolved but did still continue in its full authority In the Council of Basil Pope Eugenius IV. could not possibly preside for he was there condemned and deposed and Amadeus Duke of Savoy elected in his stead In the seventeenth Session the same Council declares that during the absence of the Presidents the first Prelate shall have the right of presiding without waiting for the Popes Commission This one would imagine doth not seem to import that a Council must be only under the direction of a Pope or of those that are Commissioned by him I am not Ignorant that the Decrees of the Councils both of Basil and of Constance are had in extreme horror by the Court of Rome But I know also that that doth not hinder but that the Gallican Church and divers others do receive and approve them And that suffices to shew that the rights of the Pope were not so clear and uncontested but
that for the sake of peace he might well remit them to be examined and setled by a free Council and that by consequence upon his refusing to do it the Protestants have reason to consider as a Party and an Adversary in the Controversie that Council that the Pope hath convened wherein he presided and over which he reigned with absolute Dominion That the Church of Rome having once given Judgment upon the Controversie and an Appeal being brought she could not proceed to a second Judgment But to evince more plainly this truth That the Protestants have reason to consider the Council of Trent as their Adverse Party it is to be remarked that the matters in question were not novel but for the greater part had been already decided either by Councils or by Papal Constitutions or by a Custom universally approved by the Roman Church The second Council of Nice had decreed the adoration of Images Transubstantiation the Real Presence adoration of the Sacrament Auricular Confession had been passed into Laws by Innocent III. in the fourth Council of Lateran held in the year 1215. The Cup in the Sacrament was taken from the Laity by Decree of the Council of Constance held in the year 1414. Purgatory and the seven Sacraments were made Articles of Faith by the Council of Florence in the years 1438 and 1439. In a word there was scarce any of the controverted Points that had not been decided All that the Protestants did amounted to no other than an endeavour to be relieved from the hardships of Judgments already given Truly and properly speaking they were Appellants from the Decisions of the Roman Church to the Holy Scripture How great was then the injustice to set up that Church for Judge of a Cause against which she had already given Judgment and from which Judgment the Protestants had appealed When there arise new and doubtful matters in a Church there is no doubt but that Church hath a right to Judge of them and to assemble her Councils to that end For instance in the time of Berengarius the dispute about the Real Presence was revived which had lain buried in forgetfulness since Bertrand and Paschasius The Church of Rome having not as then decided the matter Berengarius had no reason but to hear the Judgment of the Church having first done all in him in order to the prevalence of truth Had the Church decreed unjustly in the matter he might then have refused to acquiesce in the Judgment for that the Conscience cannot submit but where it is fully convinced that the Decision is in conformity to the Word of God But when a Church hath once pronounced upon a matter and an Appeal be rightly made she hath then certainly no power to give a second Sentence in the same Cause or if she doth no consequence as of a new Condemnation can be justly drawn from it Since therefore the Church of Rome had already passed her Decree upon the Points in question before the Council of Trent we must look upon her as a Judge become a Party as having long before declared against the truth But can it in conscience be thought that the Prelates assembled at Trent came thither with intent to deliberate whether the natural Body of Christ be in the Eucharist whether the Sacrament shall have the Worship of Latria Were they not resolved already ere they came to Trent Came they not meerly to condemn the Lutherans and not upon any inquisition after truth Had they not almost all an implacable hatred to the Protestants Did they not solicit Princes to destroy them with Fire and Sword And are these qualifications to be desired in Judges If it be asked how then the Assembly should have been composed to have given content to the Protestants I answer it should have been as the Lutherans of Germany desired it The Bishops should have been absolved from their Oaths of fidelity to the Pope The Council of Basil did it in a time when there was less need than when the Council of Trent sate The Protestant Divines should have been called the more moderate persons of each party should have been chosen the Bishops should have been prevailed with to lay aside all passion and prejudice the truth should have been sought with a sincere mind and the Word of God been only consulted for it The one might have hoped that persons so qualified by such a conduct might have reached the truth reason 2 But tho we should renounce all that I have yet said tho we should own the Council of Trent for a lawful and natural Judge of our Controversies with the Roman Church 2. Second cause of rejecting the Council of Trent tho it were duly assembled in could not be infallible yet were we in no sort obliged to receive and comply with all her Decisions with an absolute resignation and a blind credulity to which nothing can move one but the fond supposition of the infallibility of Councils Not to descend to an Examen of the particular faults of the Council of Trent it is impossible to persuade ones self that a Council that is to say an Assembly in which there is no Prophet nor any man inspired of the Holy Ghost is not liable to err and for my part I very much question whether there be in the world any one person that seriously thinks so I will admit that to have recourse to an infallible living Judge would be of high importance to the World The Church of Rome strongly supports her self by the artifice of possessing the People with the belief of her infallibility But when it comes to be enquired where it is that this infallibility doth reside one knows not where to find it Some place it in the Pope alone others in the Council alone and a third sort in Pope and Council united Those that place it in the Councils seem to have greater reason than such as would fix it to the person of the Pope For Councils are indeed the undoubted Judges of controversies in the Church So that if there be any infallible Judge in the Church it should be them As it certainly is most probable that the wisdom of many in conjunction should be of greater prevalence and purity than that of any single person The Pope whose Authority is meer Usurpation cannot be an infallible Judge nor hath God given to the Bishop of Rome any power to judge of controversies in the name of the Catholick Church Yet after all that appears so much to favour the Councils it must be confessed that the opinion that fixes the infallibility of the Roman Church upon the Pope is much easier to defend than that which ascribes it to the Council For this latter opinion that makes Councils to be infallible is perhaps the most vain and empty Notion that was ever started I pass the proofs brought from Scripture for each opinion they are much of an equal weight The Text I have prayed for thee
that thy faith fail not is as good a proof of the Popes infalliblility as is this Where two or three are gathered together in my name there am I in the midst of them to prove that Councils are infallible That General Councils came into the world but by accident But if we consult the light of reason and common sense can any one endure to see infallibility ascribed to these Assemblies that they call General Councils things which have either never been at all or rarely and by accident For as to Diocesan Provincial and National Councils the pretence of infallibility reaches not to them Let us then reflect a little that these General Councils were not known in the Church till the conversion of the Roman Emperours Constantine is the first of these Emperours The Council of Nice held in the year 325. is the first of these General Councils that is to say that for three hundred years together the Church had no such thing as an infallible Judge Bellarmine says very well that the Church having continued without General Councils for three hundred years might as well have done so for three hundred more or even for six or for nine hundred Or it may be it was because there was in those days no need of any Council there were then either no Hereticks or none that openly contended with the Church but a spirit of meekness and submission prevailed among all Believers So far from it that Satan did never sight against the truths of the Gospel nor poison Christendom with more or greater Heresies than in those times The works of Tertullian of Irenaeus of St. Austin and of many others of the Fathers do sufficiently shew it Let us know a little where rested this infallible spirit during the three first Centuries if it be true that it is only to be found in General Councils there having been none during all that time But the Church possibly was not then infallible Could it be ever made out that infallibility were one of the priviledges of the Church it were much more tolerable to allow it to a See that hath been constantly supplied with an uninterrupted Succession of Bishops as that of Rome And it falls more readily under our apprehension of things for the Holy Ghost so to inspire and guide some one particular person than a numerous Assembly whereof the greater part of the members that compose it are very often either counterfeit Christians or men of restless and turbulent minds I think it will not be unworthy of our remark that these Assemblies which they are pleased to entitle General Councils have been but by accident introduced into the Church It is the conversion of the Emperours that occasioned them Let us suppose that the Roman Emperours had continued Pagan as it was very possible there had been then no means of assembling the Clergy of the whole Christian world and consequently the Church had been always abandoned to a spirit of Error The Pagan Emperours would never have suffered the Christians from all parts of the Empire and of the world it self to have met together in a body and united in a Council they would have been jealous that the publick safety might have been endangered from such kind of Assemblies It is therefore evident that the conversion of the Emperors gave occasion to them and for that reason that they are but accidental things But this will be yet more clear if we farther suppose what might also very well have hapned that when the Roman Emperours became Converts to the faith of Christ they had lost the greatest part of their Empire and retained no more than Italy or some less considerable Province It is certain that in such case they could not have assembled the Clergy of the whole Christian World For the neighbouring Princes at enmity with them would never have permitted the Bishops subject to them to transport themselves into an enemies Country lest they might there be seduced to revolt and shake off the Dominion of their new Masters From all which it is most apparent that it was very possible that there might never have been any General Council known in the Church and that what hath been is purely by accident But such things as are ordained of God for preservation of the truth cannot be said to have fallen out by accident Besides according to the order of Gods Providence in the Government of the Church Councils were designed to judge infallibly of Controversies why hath it not pleased God to remove those obstructions that hindred the forming of these Councils under the Pagan Emperours For tho it is true that jealousie of State might have proved a powerful obstacle yet it is as true that as great difficulties have been surmounted All time were not alike averse to Christianity There have been among the Heathen Emperours some that were favourable to it and what could not have been done at one time might have been effected at another nevertheless this design of a General Council came never into any mans head till Constantine Was it ever known for the first three hundred years together that the Bishops had any intent of assembling from all parts of the World Or is it so much as read in any Author that they complained for not being able to do it If it be true that these Assemblies are the unerring Guides of the Church the Fathers of the three first Centuries could not be ignorant of it if they knew it it was a most supine and wretched negligence not to use their utmost efforts for the assembling these infallible Judges to have put an end to the many differences that then disquieted the Church or if they found it absolutely impossible for them to convene them it is yet a strange insensibility never so much as to lament the affliction of such an incapacity Tertullian in his Book de Prescriptionibus tells us all the several methods by him conceived most proper for convincing of Hereticks What an astonishing thing is it that he should not speak one word of doing it by General Councils a way so sure so ready so infallible It must certainly be that the Fathers never dreamt of these infallible Judges I conclude therefore that to deal sincerely one must needs confess that the zeal of Constantine did alone occasion that Assembly that is called the first General Council and by the Model of which the rest were formed For the better determining a great Controversie he was desirous to convene as many Bishops as he could even all that were in the large extent of his vast Empire that so their Decision might be the more solemn and efficacious And this is the original of General Councils The Christian Emperours called together the Bishops from all parts of the Roman Empire That Empire was called in the stile not of the Church only but of the Apostles also the whole world and the Councils have taken from thence the name of General or Universal Councils
When the parts that made up this mighty Body the Empire came to separate and to be formed into several distinct States Kingdoms the Bishop of Rome puts himself into the Emperors place and by pretending a spiritual power still retains those several States and Kingdoms in a spiritual jurisdiction to him that were only at first obliged by the temporal power of the Emperours By this means he continues to assemble the Bishops of those several States and to term such Assembly a general Council Let any discerning person judge whether these Assemblies thus formed by accident as is most apparent can be vested with the priviledge of infallibility There never were any Councils that could truly and properly be called General Councils But after all it is a great abuse of words to give the name of Oecumenical or General Council to a Convention of two or three hundred Bishops out of five or six Nations Euseb de vita Constant l. 4. c. 8. When the Roman Emperours became Christian their Dominions did include the greatest part of Christendom but not the whole There was in Persia a very great number of Churches and those considerable ones in whose favour Constantine wrote to Sapor King of Persia Theod. l. 5. c. 33. Theodoret gives an account of the indiscreet zeal of one Audas a Persian Bishop who in the Reign of Isdigerdes burnt a Temple of the Persian God which was Fire and by that ill managed zeal was the cause of a Persecution of thirty years continuance by which an infinite number of Christians perished there by all manner of torments Th. 〈…〉 The same Theodoret tells us that in the time of Constantine the Gospel was preached in India with success by Aeâ—… and Frumentius and among the Iberians by a captive woman It is certain that these distant Churches sent not their Bishops to the Councils that were held in Countrys subject to the Roman Emperours A Council that might deserve the name of General ought at least to be composed of the Guides of the Church of all the Learned and of all those that have attentively studied the mysteries of Religion There is no place in the world could hold such an Assembly nor were it possible to deliberate in it But alas instead of the prodigious number of Guides and Pastors of the Catholick Church a very few and those almost all of the same Nation are it seems enough to make a General Council For it is certain that the Provinces near the place where the Council is celebrated do supply it with more Bishops and Divines than all the more remote Kingdoms put together and yet this scrap of a Council must pass for the Universal Church must be supposed to be acted by her Spirit and endued with her infallibility Than which there was never certainly a more vain imagination Certain it is that there hath as yet been nothing that can be truely stiled a General Council The ancient Councils had the name of General for that they were in time generally owned by the Church The second General Council consisted of but 150 Bishops and those only of the Provinces neighbouring to Constantinople The latter Councils are composed of yet sewer Nations there are only a few Italians Spaniards French and some Germans but neither the North the South the East nor the greatest part of the West are concerned in them I would very fain learn why the Gallican Church should not be infallible should she form an Assembly of a thousand Divines as she easily may and yet becomes infallible when joyned to Germans Spaniards and Italians It is a mystery beyond comprehension It were fit to produce good proofs for the establishment of this infallibility of Councils or at least to shew they are in possession of it by a Series of examples without interruption As for such proofs they ought to be out of the Holy Scripture But I shall not stand to examine or contest the proofs for that were to enter into Theological disputes whereas we intend here no more than Historical Reflections and such we cannot omit as we conceive will overthrow the infallibility of Councils That many General Councils so called have actually erred Those that maintain the infallibility of these Assemblies that they are pleased to stile General Councils would do well to make out this Assertion of theirs from History They will produce it may be five or six Councils whose Canons are owned by the Christian World But what if we on the other side produce twice as many whose Canons are rejected by the greatest part of Christendom It were much to be wished that we had certain undoubted Characters for distinguishing of true from false Councils For we see that such of them as have established errors are the same in externals with those that have confirmed the truth What difference is there between the most holy Council of Nice which condemned Arianism and the Council of Tyre and Jerusalem which but ten years after in the year 335. condemned St. Athanasius and the Doctrine of the Church It was the good Emperour Constantine that assembled both these Councils and that the latter was General appears by Eusebius Euseb l. 4. de vita Constant who assures us that it was convened from all parts of the Empire from Africk Asia Europe and Egypt it fate first in Tyre and was after removed by Constantine to Jerusalem for the more solemn dedication of the Temple he had there built to the honour of our Saviour In this Council Arianism so prevailed that St. Athanasius was condemned and banished by Constantine to Treves What can be said of the Council of Antioch held concerning St. Athanasius in the year 340 or 341 The holy Bishop was deposed in it Socrates Hist l. 2. c. 7. George made Bishop of Alexandria in his room the Christian Faith was corrupted by it and a Creed conceived in different terms from the Nicene Creed The word Consubstantial was left out and other words were used instead of it which the Arians pretended to be of the same signification Why was not this a General Council Was it not as well as the preceding convened from all parts of the Roman Empire Bellarmine confesses it was a General Council Tom. 2. l. 1. c. 6. de Conciliis and it is clear that it was so esteemed for that the 25 Canons made by it have been received and are still reckoned among the Canons of the Universal Church Distinct 16. Can. 11. Gratian not only took it for a Lawful Council but even thought it had been celebrated by the Orthodox What shall we say of the Council of Sardica Socrat. l. 2. lib. in the year 341 the fourth General upon the Cause of Arius Sozomen l. 3. c. 10. There were present 376 Bishops some say that threescore and sixteen of them were Arians Baronius Annal Tom. 2. ann num 67. 347. and retired from the rest to hold a
to submit blindly to its Decisions reason 3 3. Third reason of rejecting the Council of Trent That it is a Council of the Church of Rome not of the Universal Church But to leave these general Arguments and come up closer to the Council of Trent We say it is a Council of the Roman not of the Catholick or Universal Church and that we can look on it as no other So that were it true that Occumenical Councils were infallible yet the Council of Trent nor any of those held in the Church of Rome since the Schism of the Eastern and Western Churches would have no right to pretend to this priviledg of Infallibility The Schism of those two Churches fell out in the tenth Century beginning indeed toward the end of the ninth since that time the Greek Church hath had no Communion with the Latin It is true there have been several attempts to re-unite them but without success So that the Greeks have had no Voice in the Latin Councils nor the Latins in the Greek Councils for six or seven hundred years The Church of the Latins is not near half of the Christian Church yet she will needs have it that hers are General Councils whilest the Councils of the Southern and Eastern Churches must pass forsooth but for little Consults or a sort of Conventicles It is a prodigious temerity for a Church scarce more than a fourth of the Christian World to set up it self for the Universal Church and to count the rest for nothing All the Churches of the East North and South the Greek Church the Church of the Abyssins who possess all Ethiopia which is a large share of Africa and the Church of the Russians are say they Schismatical Assemblies they have broken the bands of Union with the Head which is the Pope and are no longer worthy of the name of Churches for there are no true Christians but those that are subject to the Holy See which is the band of Unity This indeed is an excellent Principle According to this Hypothesis all the Christians in the East in the South and in the North are condemned to everlasting Perdition What can be imagined so cruel as this Tenet I cannot for my part believe that there is any reasonable Man of the Romish Communion that dares seriously affirm that an innumerable multitude of Christians believing in Jesus Christ and receiving the Canons of the Ancient Councils are yet in a state of Reprobation only for not acknowledging the Papal Supremacy I know very well that this Doctrine is taught but I appeal to the Conscience of those that teach it and am fully perswaded that they cannot but inwardly grant that such Persons may be saved out of the Pope's Communion And were but that Point as openly confessed as it is secretly owned they must then be constrained to acknowledg that the Councils of the Church of Rome are no General Councils For if the Greeks may be saved it is because the Church of which they are Members is a true Church since all Men acknowledg that out of the Church there is no Salvation If then the Greek Church be still a part of the true Church it must necessarily follow that those Councils wherein she has no part cannot be called General Councils nor can have the priviledges of them reason 4 4. Fourth Cause of Rejection The Council of Trent was but a part even of the Latin Church The nearer approaches we make to the Council of Trent the more plainly we discover the imperfections that ruine its Authority with the Protestants We have already seen that this Council is their adverse Party in the Cause that granting it a General Council it could not be infallible that yet it is not a General Council for that three parts of the Christian Church have no part in it it follows that it is then at most but a Council of the Roman Church But alas it is not so much as a General Council even of the Roman Church It is a Council of Italy and of the Italians it is a Council of some sixty odd Bishops whereof many were the Pope's Pensioners This Council was assembled three several times the first time under Paul III. the second time under Julius the 3d. the third time under Pius IV. In the two first there were not above sixty Bishops present almost all Spaniards or Italians Where then is the Universality of a Council consisting of so few Persons Yet have these few adventured to decide the most important Matters There were sixteen Sessions held during the two first Convocations wherein were decided the Controversies of the Scripture Tradition Original Sin Grace Justification Baptism the Eucharist Penance Extream Vnction Sixty Persons undertake to give Laws to all the Consciences of the Christian World and in things not understood by them They must needs be very blind whose Faith can truckle to the Decisions of so small a number of Men of so little Understanding Paul the 4th was very much in the right to say as he often did that it was great folly to send sixty trifling Bishops to the Mountains and imagine that they must presently have the advantage of discerning the Truth rather than the See of Rome where there is always so great a number of excellent Persons who make the Study of Divinity the sole business of their Life I must confess indeed that there were above two hundred Prelats present at the third Convocation of the Council But how There came some fifteen or twenty from France and not till about the end neither There was yet a few more Spaniards But no Germans no Polonians no Hungarians or if there were it was so very few as could never be thought to represent the Nations For it was one of the Policies of the Court of Rome not to permit to Vote by Nations nor that the absent Bishops might Vote by Proxy and that each Bishop spake only for himself There might be about fifty or sixty or some few more French Spanish and German Bishops the rest were Italians and that rest were three parts of four for there was more than one hundred and fifty Not the Lutherans only but all Europe agreed in it that the Council of Trent was purely an Italian a Papal Council reason 5 5. Fifth Reason to reject it The hatred of the Council of Trent to the Protestants If we regard the conduct of this Council we find from thence another reason to reject it Already we have taken notice with what heat and violence that Council acted against those over whom it pretended to be Judg. It hath frequently quitted the quality of Judge to assume that of being the adverse Party and such a Party as cared not to exceed all the bounds of honour and good Faith The Design of making odious the Doctrine of the Lutherans was apparently the reigning Passion of the Council For it countenanced the false extracts made of the Lutheran books and
all the Magistrates of the Christian World do affirm the Council to have erred That Exemptions of Ecclesiasticks is a point of Doctrine wherein it is confessed that the Council erred I go on to the Exemptions of Ecclesiasticks which are of near affinity to the preceding Article The Bishops of the Council of Trent in the Decree we just spake of by them intitled the Reformation of Princes had made little Sovereigns of the Clergy independent of the Secular Power exempted from pleading before a Temporal Judge for whatsoever Cause or Crime 'T is true this Decree did not pass by reason of the great opposition made by the Ambassadors But the Council endeavoured to supply the matter for in the twentieth Chapter of General Reformation in the 25th Session it ordains that the Immunities Exemptions and Privileges of Ecclesiasticks be ratified and confirmed to them according to the Constitutions of Popes and Councils and according to the holy Canons Now these Constitutions and these Canons the observance whereof it commands are those that withdraw Ecclesiasticks from the Power of Secular Judgment and subject them only to the Judges of the Church And indeed since the Council the Clergy have with the utmost vigour endeavoured the maintaining themselves in the possession of these Privileges Every body knows the famous Quarrel that upon this occasion happened between Pope Paul V. and the Venetians and made so great a noise in the beginning of this present Century The Republick of Venice in the year 1605. made a Law forbidding Ecclesiasticks to acquire Lands and fixt Possessions and before that there was another Law in force restraining the building of Churches Hospitals and Monasteries without leave obtained of the Senate At the same time the Republick caused to be imprisoned Brandolino Valde-Marino Abbot of Nerveze and Scipione Saracino Canon of Vicenza the first as being guilty of Rapine and Theft accused oâ— poysoning his Father and his Brother oâ— Incest with his Sister of having caused several Persons to be assassinated and oâ— employing Magick to corrupt Womenâ— the second for having broken off the Seal put upon the Bishops Court by the Magistrates and for attempting the chastity of a Widow of Quality with most villaâ—nous outrages Pope Paul V. looked up on these Laws and the imprisoning of thesâ— Men as breaches of the Privileges of thâ— Clergy that the Council of Trent haâ— confirmed He commanded the Venetian to abrogate these Laws and to send thâ— two Prisoners to be tryed by the Nuncâ— at Venice forasmuch as the proceeding of the Republick in this matter was contrary to the Canons and Constitutions of the Councils And upon the Republicks refusing to do it in the year 1606. he thundred his Bull of Excommunication and Interdiction against it The business was made up in the year 1607. by the mediation of the King of France and by the negotiation of Cardinal de Joyeuse and Cardinal du Perron The Interdict was taken off but the Republick was obliged to give up the Prisoners to the Pope and to suspend the execution of those Laws till the Parties that is to say the Church and the State had setled the matter These Ecclesiastical Immunities were things unknown to the Primitive times The great and good Emperour Constantine did in Person or by Commission hear and determine the Crimes of Ecclesiasticks without excepting so much as Cases of Schism and Heresie It is true he established a Tribunal of the Church Sozomer l. 1. c. 9. Eujeb de vita Constant l 4. c. 27. Niceph. l. 7.46 and gave a sort of Jurisdiction to Bishops for the affairs of Ecclesiasticks But still they acted as the Emperours Delegates in those Tribunals and we see that Constantine did often â—re hear Causes wherein the Bishops had before given Sentence Tom. 2. Ep. 162. St. Austin tells us that in the business of the That the diminution of Episcopal Authority is another Point of Doctrine wherein the Council of Trent is acknowledged to have erred It is not extremely necessary to enlarge upon the wrong done by the Council of Trent to Bishops in taking from them the power of hearing all the greater Causes in impowering them in most Episcopal Functions to act only as the Popes Commissaries and in confirming the Privileges of Chapters and Monasteries which dispense them from acknowledging the Ordinaries to be their Superiours The Bishops themselves do sufficiently complain of these wrongs and they have reason for by the Priviledge granted to Monks of immediate depending on the Holy See the great and numerous Congregations of Clugny and of the Cistercians all the Houses of the Mendicants and the new Order of Jesuits are not only withdrawn from Episcopal Jurisdiction but are become so many sworn Enemies to Episcopacy Besides which by the Exemption of Chapters those Assemblies are so many thorns in the Bishops sides giving them a thousand disturbances and tiring them out by their oppositions The accused Bishops are contrary to the Canons forced and dragged to Rome to be tried their Causes are removed from their Metropolitan and Synod of the Province from whom they might expect Justice and those that seek their ruine do procure their Enemies to be named by the Pope for Commissioners to decide their Causes There is an instance of this in the troubles that hapned in France about the Doctrine of Jansenius There were four Bishops that after the condemnation of Jansenius by Innocent X. and Alexander VII kept a wrangling and cavilling a little too long in the Jesuits opinion upon the distinction of Right and Fact to avoid signing of the Formulary The good Fathers procured a Brief from the Court of Rome to interdict them by Commissaries named by the Pope These four Bishops who were the Bishops of Alez of Pamiers of Beauvais and of Anger 's defended themselves against the Interdiction by Circular Letters and by divers publick Writings wherein they cite the Ancient Canons the fifteenth of the Council of Antioch in the year 341. the seventh of the Council of Sardica 351. the Capitula of Adrian I. the Decisions of Leo IV. and of Benedict III. his Successor who lived about the middle of the Ninth Century By all which it appears that accused Bishops to be Canonically condemned ought to be tried by their fellow-Bishops of the same Province They trace the possession of this Right through the following Centuries and at length they shew that the Regulations of the Council of Trent and the Concordat between Francis I. and Leo X. cannot prejudice the Right of the Bishops and so long a Possession for that the Parliaments the Universities and the Clergy of France opposed the Concordat and the Cardinal of Lorrain made opposition in the name of all the Clergy of France then when the Gentlemen of beyond the Mountains made the Decree that impeaches this usage Which say they hath served for a ground of the refusal In the Circular Letter of the four Bishops to all the
they chance to agree in any opinion with us it is presently made a crime Neither is it here extremely important whether they are in the right or not It is enough for us that they zealously condemn whatsoever favours the abolition of Canonical Elections For thereby they are necessarily engaged to condemn that Canon of the Council of Trent which pronounces an Anathema against such as hold Session 23. Canon 7. that Orders may not be conferred without the consent or call of the People or of the Secular Powers Methinks Canonical Elections should be such as are made according to the ancient Canons and in the Form prescribed by the Custom and Constitutions of the ancient Church Those that have any sort of knowledge of Antiquity can never say that the ancient Canons do declare with the Council of Trent that the consent and the call of the People is not necessary to a lawful Ordination There is no going on with instances to the Primitive times for that were to oppress the Reader with the multitude as well as to convince him by the strength of Testimonies I shall therefore pass by Matthias and Barsabas who were presented to God to chuse one by Lot to compleat the number of the Apostles Acts 1.13 and their being elected by the whole Assembly of Brethren I shall say nothing of St. Cyprian's refusing to establish a Sub-Deacon or a Chanter without consulting his People Epist 33 34. 37. In the Ordination of Clerks says this holy Martyr to his People we are wont my dear Brethren to consult you and to weigh in a Publick Assembly the manners and vertues of such as are to be received It is he that says in his 68 Epistle that chiefly to the People belongs the right of electing of Priests worthy of that Vocation and to reject the unworthy It is he that describing the Canonical Election of a Bishop Epist 55. § 7. says That he is elected and chosen by the suffrages of all the People with peace that is without divided opinions and without heats and contests I shall not mention the People of Cyzicus who chose themselves a Bishop as Socrates tells us in the seventh Book of his History Chapter 28. Theodoret in his fourth Book Chapter 22. speaks of a Letter of Peter Bishop of Alexandria Successor to St. Athanasius where in accusing the Ordination of Lucius a pretended Bishop he acquaints us what were Canonical Ordinations That man was not established by the Assembly of Bishops by the suffrage of the Clergy and at the request of the People The same thing is to be seen in the Synodal Epistle of the Council of Constantinople the second General where the Fathers say Theodor. Hist l. 6. c. 9. That they have established Nectarius Bishop of Constantinople in the presence of the Emperour Theodosius and by the approbation of all the Clergy and of all the People I shall not speak of the Election of St. Ambrose Bishop of Milan which was done by the People nor shall I bring an hundred other Proofs than I am able to produce to demonstrate that the voice of the People is necessary in all Canonical Ordinations and Elections I will only say that in those Ages wherein the Discipline of the Church began extremely to relax it was yet acknowledged that according to the ancient Canons Elections ought to be made by the Votes of the People or at least by their consent Gratian who lived about the middle of the twelfth Century does in his Decretal bring divers proofs of this matter For instance in the Canon quanto there is an Extract out of the second Book of the Epistles of St. Gregory the Great drawn from Epist 30. Distinct 63. Chap. 69. wherein the Pope after the death of Laurence Bishop of Milan orders to Elect him a Successor not by the Votes of the Clergy only but of all the People And because many of the People of Milan were at that time retired to Genoa to avoid the Calamities of War Gregory requires that persons be sent to Genoa to take the Votes of the absent In the Canon Plebs Diotrensis he relates an Ordinance of Gelasius who lived in the year 492. by which that Pope declares that a Bishop is to be chosen by the suffrage of all the People Leo I. was Bishop of Rome thirty or forty years before this Gelasius In the 87. of his Epistles he says it is necessary to render an Election Canonical that the chief of the Laity do give their Votes as Gratian reports it in the same Distinction in the Canon Vota civium Again in the Canon Sacrorum we have an Ordinance drawn from the Capitula of Charlemagne and of Louis le Delonnaire his Son which declares that Bishops are to be elected and established by the Votes of the People and of the Clergy and not otherwise One might descend yet lower to the Canonical Elections made by the Votes of the People nearer to our times But it is not needful and possibly what we have already spoken of this matter is superfluous this Article not being contested It remains then only to remark that this so constant practice of the pure and primitive Church is condemned as Heretical by the Council of Trent It will without question be replied that this Canon of the Council concerns only the Ordination of Priests and not the Election of Bishops that the Council only condemns the Lutheran Opinion that Vocation depends of the People and does not condemn the Canonical Election of Bishops made by the Votes of the People But the Canon immediately following shews the vanity of this reply wherein the Council declares that such Bishops as have been promoted by the only authority of the Pope without any Assembly of Bishops consent of Clergy or suffrage of the People are true and lawful Bishops and Anathema is pronounced against all that believe otherwise Is not that a condemnation of the Sentiments of the Fathers who say that a Bishop who is not elected by his Clergy chosen by his People and consecrated in an Assembly of Bishops is not a true Bishop When the Council says that a Bishop who is neither elected by his Clergy chosen by his People nor Consecrated by other Bishops is yet a lawful Bishop if sent by the Pope If this be not to anathematise Canonical Elections there is no such thing as common sense or else it is come in fashion for things to be expressed by terms of just opposite signification How can it be that it is not intended to exclude the People from the right of giving their Suffrages in the Election of Bishops by the Canon which says that Consent and Vocation are not necessary to the validity of Ordination For if the People have no voice in the Election of a Priest how is it that they may vote in the Election of Bishops superiour to Priests If it be further replied that the Election and the Ordination
Emperour he praised the Legates severally and made some bald Puns and Allusions upon their Names then turning to the Bishops he told them that they should open their hearts to receive the Holy Ghost which if they did not God would nevertheless open their Lips as he did to Balaam and Caiaphas This last passage pleased no body for the Prelates did not take it well to be compared to false Prophets nor was it well digested by the rest that he promised a Spirit of Prophecy and Infallibility to men that might be as wicked as Balaam or Caiaphas but nothing was taken worse of this Oratour than when he compared the Council to the Trojan horse into the body of which all Bishops ought to enter This was reckoned an odious comparison and the discontented were busie in emproving that thought and making their best on 't saying that the Council would prove like the Trojan horse that is to say a treacherous Engine to set the World in a flame These Ceremonies being over the Decree was read and all that was done in that first Session was the putting the question to the Prelates Are ye willing that the Council be opened to which they all answered Placet the next Session was appointed to be the seventh of January following and this being done the Legates wrote to Rome for Instructions about the way of Consulting Voting and Concluding that was to be observed in the Council For instance if the Persons of Hereticks and their Heresies should be condemned at one and the same time what Seal should be made use of and especially if the Votes should be taken by the individual Persons or by the Nations they belonged to this last way had been practised in the Councils of Basil and Constance that is to say the Votes past there by Nations In expectation of an answer the Prelates were amused with the consideration of very trivial matters as what manner of Cloaths the Prelates should wear out of Festival-days if they should appear in secular Habits or otherwise At length the answer came which ordered the Legates not to make too much haste but to spin out the time in matters of small importance untill they should adjust at Rome the best measures for the way of proceeding in the Council But without farther delay the Pope determined the matter of Voting that it should not be by Nations because thereby they would lose the benefit that was expected from the Italians who were in great Numbers to be sent to the Council The Pope sent also Money to his poor Prelates and made no Mystery of it as if he feared to be accused of having bought Votes because said he when a Council is assembled the Head of the Church is obliged to such Works of Charity What was the form of the Council of Trent and what had been that of the ancient Councils When the Pope's Answer was come the Cardinal di Monte began to propose to the Prelates the order wherein matters were to be examined before they should be brought to conclusion and sentence past thereon He went not so far back as the ancient Councils for a Pattern but stoptat the last Council of Lateran that was called against Lewis XII by Julius II. where himself had assisted in quality of Archbishop of Siponto Certainly if a model had been borrowed from the Ancient Church the Council of Trent would not have observed the method that they followed for there is nothing more different than the ancient and modern Councils In the first Ages of Christianity the fervour of the Zeal and Charity of the primitive Christians easily put an end to the little differences that sprung up in the Church without such great Assemblies they met without Ceremony and without any great observation of Forms every one gave his judgment according as God gave him knowledge and put it into his heart and the ancientest or ablest Man presided by Election When the Church had weathered the Storms of Persecution the Emperours took upon them the Care of its Government they called Councils and either presided in them themselves or by their Ambassadours nay and pronounced interlocutory Decrees in differences that occurred Thus Constantine moderated the Council of Nice Marcellinus represented the same Emperour at the Conference which was held in Africa betwixt the Catholicks and Donatists Candidian presided in the Council of Ephesus in the Name of Theodosius the younger The Emperour Martian was personally present in the Council of Chalcedon and Constantine termed Pogonatus in that of Constantinople which was held in the Palace and is called in Trullo It was the chief Magistrate then who prescribed the form commanding some to speak and others to be silent In those days there was no distinction made betwixt Congregations and Sessions when they met it was to give their opinions concerning the differences that were to be decided or the Doctrine they were to judge of sometimes they made an end in one Session sometimes more were required The Disputes Examinations and Conferences which were held for clearing of matters were termed the Acts of the Council as well as the Decisions and Canons they were not kept secret but freely communicated to all but in later Councils affairs are much altered Princes have been wholly excluded and deprived of all right of sitting in Councils as Judges they onely now assist as Witnesses and Spectatours Heretofore even Lay-men though they were not Princes were admitted but the Church-men now have driven them thence The Popes have taken to themselves the Power of calling Councils and deprived Sovereigns of the same By a distinction heretofore unknown the Congregations are distinguished from Sessions the Congregations have been appointed for debating examining and resolving on matters and the Sessions onely for the Ceremony of publishing the Points that were agreed upon in the Congregations In fine it hath been given out that onely the Decrees and Canons ought to pass for the Acts of the Council And therefore it is that all the Debates and Conferences of Trent have been suppressed and nothing published but the Decrees thereof with design to keep from the knowledge of the publick the heats and diversity of Sentiments which broke out with no small scandal during the whole sitting of that Council The Pattern then of proceeding in the Council of Trent was taken from the later occidental Councils and especially from the last Council of Lateran It was resolved upon that matters should be examined privately in Assemblies called Congregations that in the publick Sessions all things might be carried decently and without Contest The Congregations were likewise distinguished into Particular and General when a matter had been canvassed in Particular Congregations appointed by the Presidents it was reported to a General Congregation of all the Prelates where it was sully determined At length the matters concluded upon were published and this was done with great Ceremony in the Cathedral-church where after Mass and Sermon one Prelate in
have been Elected This distinction raised more mist before the eyes of the Prelates who were neither great Philosophers nor Divines than it brought light to the question The other six propositions were condemned by unanimous consent particularly that which asserted the perseverance of true Saints and the inamissibility of righteousness They alledged the examples of Saul Solomon Judas and others who had totally fallen from the real righteousness wherewith they had been invested The Decrees are made with a great deal of Difficulty and affected Ambiguity to give all content After matters were thoroughly examined Canons and Decrees must pass upon them But they were in great perplexity how to doe that every Party striving to have the Decrees worded in termes that might favour their opinions Giacomo Cocco Archbishop of Corfu was of the mind that no opinion which could be interpreted in a sound sense should be condemned and therefore he desired that all necessary exceptions and limitations should be put in the Canons for removing all Ambiguity Others opposed that saying that if all interpretations must be inserted it would render the Canons long tedious and intricate But the Bishop of Sinigaglia proposed a method which was approved and followed during the remaining time of the Council He said that there ought to be made in the first place a Decree of Doctrine which should be divided into Chapters that therein the Doctrine of the Church should be declared in a Style and Method capable to give content to all Catholicks and that then another Decree ought to be made containing nothing but the Canons and Anathema's against Hereticks The Legate Cardinal Santa Croce applied all his Pains and Skill in the composing of these Decrees and laboured in it with so much success that he gave content to all because he worded them with so much Ambiguity that every Party found their opinions therein But this was not done without trouble for there were above an hundred Congregations as well of Divines as Prelates held about it and from the beginning of September untill the end of November there past not a day wherein the Cardinal did not peruse his Decrees and alter something in them In a word they found a means to satisfie the Scotists and the Thomists Catarino and his adherents who stood for the certainty that one may have of his own justification and those that opposed it The Decrees were so artificially contrived to please all that Dominico à Soto immediately after wrote three Books de natura gratia and found all his opinions in the decisions of the Council And nevertheless Andreas de Vega a famous Cordelier on the other hand composed fifteen large Books upon the same Subject and found all his opinions in the same Decrees though they were quite opposite to the sentiments of Soto Whilst these matters of Doctrine were in agitation Congregations were also held about Reformation The first thing then that was proposed was the setling of some good Order that none might enter into Episcopal Sees but such as were capable to govern and edifie the Church But the Council despaired of finding remedies proper for the evil because Canonical Elections were abolished and in most places the nomination to Bishopricks belonged either to Kings or to the Pope They considered very well that it was to no purpose to make Canons for it would be impossible to make those Persons ever submit to them So the Council past by that consultation and proceeded to the point of Residence as well of Bishops as of Curates and other Beneficiaries Horrid was the corruption that prevailed in this particular The Bishops knew not what it was to reside nay and if a Living was but sufficient to maintain the Curate and his Vicar he abandoned the care of his Flock and lived where he had a mind From the time of St. Jerome there had been a custome of ordaining Priests without a Title who were not confined to any place nor obliged to Residence St. Jerome himself was one of these Priests he was a Priest of Antioch where he never resided and so was Ruffinus Priest of Aquileia But however these Priests without Churches had no Profits nor Revenues The custome of bearing the Titles and receiving the Profits of Benefices without any Service began in the Latin Church about the seventh Century for then began Princes to reward their Servants with Presentations to vacant Benefices And by degrees was introduced the distinction of Benefices of Residence and Sine-cures or Benefices of Non-residence under pretence that there were Benefices in which one was not obliged to reside The Canonists established this maxim that every Benefice is given for Office that is to say that a Beneficiary is precisely obliged to no more but to say his Breviary for enjoying his Benefice with a good Conscience The Popes had often thundered against the Non-residence of Bishops and other Pastours that had the cure of Souls but they medled not with Benefices that were called Sine-cures because they were glad that all Church-men might not reside that so their Courts might be more numerous and glorious This was such an overspreading and so great a corruption that all were fain to own it But the Bishops to extenuate their fault alledged that no man was obliged to Residence but by the order of the Pope and not the command of God This gave occasion to the starting of a controversie whether Residence be of Divine right and appointment or onely Humane and Papal and Cardinal Cajetan was on their side who thought it to be of Divine right The necessity of Residence that was proposed by the Legates and backt by the Bishops brought this question upon the stage Whether it was of Divine or Humane right We shall find in the sequel what terrible debates this occasioned in the Council though the first time that the question was proposed the heat of dispute was but moderate The Legates thought it enough to propose means to oblige Pastours to Residence but the Monks and especially the Jacobins to tie the knot of this obligation a little faster averred that Residence was necessary by Divine right Two Spanish Monks Bartholomè de Carranza who was afterward Archbishop of Toledo and Dominico â Soto reasoned strongly for that The Canonists and Italian Bishops were of a contrary opinion that the necessity of Residence was onely of Humane right Ambrosio Catarino though a Jacobin was of the same sentiment and said that there was but onely one Episcopate established by Jesus Christ which is that of the Pope that all other Bishops holding their Authority of him were no more obliged to Residence but according as he was pleased to enjoyn them The Spanish Bishops not onely publickly favoured Residence of Divine right but privately encouraged the Jacobins to maintain it stoutly In this they had secret and mysterious designs which they did not communicate to any they aimed at the restauration of the Authority of the Bishops which was born
seventeen who said non placet nisi prius consulto sanctissimo c. The Plurality was evidently for the Divine Right of Residence since there were sixty eight Votes to thirty three besides the thirteen who were for it with submission to the good will and pleasure of the Pope so that it ought to have been concluded but instead of that the Faction of the Court of Rome started great Debates and the rest of the Congregation was spent in much confusion which obliged the Legates to dismiss the Assembly and having consulted together they resolved to acquaint the Pope with all that had past and to expect his answer This was not managed so privately The Spaniards make a great bustle because the Legates will not frame the Decree of Residence according to the Plurality of Votes but that it came to the knowledge of the Spaniards who were for Residence Jure Divino they openly complained of it and said that it was a palpable oppression that though a matter had been put to the Vote and debated with all the Formalities yet they would not submit to the Plurality of Suffrages that they sent to Rome for the Decision of a point which had been lawfully determined in the Council that that violent conduct contrary to the Liberty of a Council had given ground to the blasphemous saying which was in every body's mouth that the Holy Ghost which presided in the Council came weekly from Rome in the Cloak-back of a Courrier and that nothing was more unlike a free Council than the Assembly at Trent In a subsequent Congregation they would have brought the matter about again but their minds were so exasperated that they could not be perswaded to speak with moderation insomuch that the Cardinal of Warmia who presided in it was necessitated to break off the discourse and speak of another subject To busie the Prelates he proposed that they would think of means of procuring the liberty of the English Catholick Bishops who were in Prison that they might come to the Council It was reckoned a very civil Proposal but very impossible to be effected because no body was in a condition to constrain Elizabeth and she was in no disposition to value the Remonstrances of the Council Whilst the point of Residence was in agitation other Articles of Reformation which had been proposed by the Legates were also started in the same Congregations Of Priests without Benefice The Scope of one of these Articles was to hinder the Ordination of Priests without a Title that is to say without a Benefice or an Estate of their own sufficient to maintain them because that was the cause of the vast numbers of Indigent and Vagabond Priests The Ancient Canons provided that no man should be received into the Order of Priesthood if he had not a Benefice sufficient to maintain him and a Flock also to take the cure of that Priests might not be without employment The Council of Chalcedon amongst others prohibited Ordinations of Priests who had not a call to some Church Long after that Alexander III. in the third Lateran Council held in the year 1160. ordered that no Priest should be ordained without a Title unless he had an Estate sufficient to maintain himself But all this care has not as yet been able to prevent the being of a great many Vagabond and Mendicant Priests since the fortunes of such men which are commonly very small being spent they must needs fall into Poverty The Spaniards who held Residence to be of Divine Right made it a Remedy against all Evils and alledged it would prevent the disorder they had before them because then Clerks could not be made without Benefices nor Priests in Title of Estates without a Flock and without doubt they were in the right Others thought it hard that men other ways qualified for Orders should because of Poverty be rejected and said that it was no shame for the Poor Clergy to labour with their hands in imitation of the first Preachers of the Gospel that after all the Poverty of Priests was usefull to the Church and facilitated the means of performing Offices for the Dead which the Rich Priests would not take the pains to doe seeing an Itinerane Priest without Benefice or Estate says Mass for the Dead at a much cheaper rate than they who are rich and have the cure of Souls This opinion was not well relished because it would have had Priests who wanted business in the Church to labour with their hands for a lively hood which was not thought suitable to the Dignity of the Character But another way to prevent the Poverty of Priests was proposed and that was that a Bishop should ordain no man a Priest who had not a Benefice or Fortune sufficient for his maintenance and to hinder the squandering away of their Patrimonies that it should be enacted that they could not be alienated Gabriel le Veneur a French man Bishop of Evreux did with much reason oppose this alledging that the temporal Estates of Clergy-men were subject to temporal Laws which many times appointed Alienation and that though it were not so yet such a constitution would be a fair means to make Priests remiss in paying their debts Of Free Ordinations The third Article related to the Money that is given when one receives Orders not onely to the Bishop and his Secretary but to the Clark or Notary that expedes the Orders Our Saviour said freely ye have received freely give for eluding the force of this Law about the tenth Century they hit upon a knack of distinguishing in Ordination the Collation of Orders from the Collation of the Benefice they would not own the taking of any thing for Orders because it is a Spiritual Grace which cannot be sold but they would be payed for conferring the Benefice which is a Temporal Estate and this kind of Simony got footing afterwards under the name of Annates or first fruits fees writing seals and other titles The abuse encreased by the institution of Itinerant Bishops who now-a-days are called Suffragans They are a kind of Lieutenants to Bishops who perform the Ecclesiastick and Episcopal Functions of the Diocess whilst the true Bishops in title who enjoy the Revenues are wholly taken up with the cares of the World These Suffragan Bishops having no Benefice nor Revenues were forced for a subsistence to draw Presents and take Alms from those on whom they conferred Orders The rich Bishops who could easily dispense with Alms let fly against that abuse and called it downright Simony On the contrary the poor Bishops who were present wanted not arguments to prove that they might take free gifts from those who received Orders they alledged that such as would hinder those free gifts had a design to extinguish Charity that the reasons which they made use of struck at all voluntary offerings that are made at Confession at Mass and at Funerals But the strongest of all their reasons was
Command to his Disciples but to doe precisely that which he himself had done for it is evident that these words doe this signifie doe that which I have just now done so that it is a matter of the highest consequence to know what it was that Jesus Christ did that is to say whether he sacrificed himself in the institution of his Supper for if he did not sacrifice himself neither did he command that he should be sacrificed They who held that Jesus Christ sacrificed himself maintained that it was absolutely necessary to assert that truth because the chief Argument of Hereticks against the Sacrifice of the Mass was that Jesus Christ did not sacrifice himself in the Eucharist But the opposite Party proved by irrefragable Arguments that our Saviour could not have sacrificed himself in the Eucharist They affirmed that the Mass is a Sacrifice of Commemoration of the Sacrifice on the Cross that Jesus Christ was not as yet sacrificed on the Cross when he instituted the Eucharist and that so he could not make a Commemorative Sacrifice of that which was not as yet come to pass They farther urged that neither the Canon of the Mass nor the Scripture nor the Fathers spoke any thing of our Lord 's having sacrificed himself But more particularly they said that either the Sacrifice of our Lord in the Eucharist was Propitiatory or not if it was Propitiatory that then the Sacrifice of the Cross was needless because the Sins of Mankind were expiated by the Sacrifice of the Eucharist and that if that was not Propitiatory neither can this be since it is the same that our Saviour offered In the Congregation of the twenty fourth of July it came to the turn of the Divines of the King of Portugal to speak One of them named Ataide took a Medium to prove the Sacrifice of the Mass Ataide a Portuguese Divine overthrows all the Arguments drawn by the others from Scripture for the Sacrifice of the Mass and departs which surprised many for he overthrew all the Arguments taken from Scripture in examining the several Passages he evidently demonstrated that nothing could be concluded from them to prove that the Mass was a Sacrifice he resumed also all the reasons of the Protestants and set them off in their full force and in fine concluded that the Sacrifice of the Mass was built upon no other Foundation but Tradition It may easily be imagined how this discourse was taken And therefore James Paiva Andradius a Portuguese Divine also did what lay in his Power to make amends for that fault he recapitulated all the Protestant Arguments that were proposed by Ataide and answered them assuring the Council that his Collegue had onely proposed them with design to have them refuted The Ambassadours and Portuguese Prelates endeavoured likewise to justifie him to the Legates Nevertheless within a few days after he left Trent and it is no hard matter to guess at the reason of it Amongst the last Divines that spoke was Antonino Da Valtellina a Jacobin who was not of opinion that the Council should confirm by Decree the Ceremonies of the Roman Mass and enlarged much to prove that there had been always great Diversities of Ceremonies in the Church For a proof of thâ—â— he instanced the Ambrosian the Gregorian and Roman Orders which are Rituals differing one from another the different Liturgies of St. James of St. Mark and of St. Chrysostome He mentioned also the Mozarabick Service heretofore in use in Spain into which Horses and Moresk dancing were brought in as Ceremonies signifying great Mysteries Gregory VII abolished that Service but even at the time of the Council of Trent it was still in use on certain days and in some certain places of Spain He therefore concluded that if the Roman Ceremonies were established by Decree it was to condemn those Ancient Churches who used not all those Ceremonies This discourse highly offended the Council but the Bishop of the five Churches seconded him and affirmed that they who condemned what he said were ignorant The truth is it was his concern to have that opinion pass that so under Pretext of Uniformity of Ceremonies he might not be denied that which he had demanded for Germany I mean that the Germans might not be obliged to follow the Ceremonies of the Roman Church particularly the want of the Cup and the use of the Latin tongue in Divine Service When the Congregations of Divines had made an end the Bishops assembled for forming the Decrees but the same Difficulties that were started amongst the Divines arose likewise in the Congregations of the Prolates Martin Perez Bishop of Segovia who had been in the Council which was held under Julius was of opinion that nothing was to be done but onely to 〈◊〉 what was then digested concerning that controversie Cardinal Seripando was not of that mind but alledged that the Canons and Decrees which had been framed at that time might expose the Doctrine of the Church to calumny and might give advantage to Hereticks because they were long instructions which give occasion to long refutations and against which the Hereticks find always means to make troublesome exceptions that to correct what had been done was not the way but that the Council must set to work a fresh to adjust the matters which opinion was followed They therefore fell to the making of new Decrees but they found it no easie task to pitch upon the reasons that ought to be inserted in the Decree for confirming the Sacrifice of the Mass some approving one reason and others rejecting it Cardinal Seripando one of the Legates and the Archbishop of Granada were on their side who said that it ought not to be put into the Decree that Jesus Christ sacrificed in the first Eucharist And on the other hand the Cardinal of Warmia was for them who would have that Clause to be inserted and this caused a great deal of Debate as we shall see hereafter In the Congregation of the thirteenth of August the Proxies of the Bishops of Ratisbonne and Basil were received The City of Basil was reformed and owned not their Bishop giving him onely the Title of Bishop of Porentruto but the Council strove to doe him the greater honour that they might comfort him for the loss of his Bishoprick And this being done they fell again upon the point of the Sacrifice of the Mass The Archbishop of Lanciano was of opinion that for ending all differences they should pass by the Chapters of Doctrine and onely make Canons with Anathema's as the Council had already done concerning the Points of Original sin the Sacraments in general and the Sacrament of Baptism Ottaviano Preconio Archibishop of Palermo speaking next opposed what had been said shewing that they ought not to omit the Declaration of the Doctrine of the Church nor the reasons which confirm it for fear of Hereticks because what course soever were taken they would never be quiet but that the
Emperour and his Son Maximilian now all these Princes desired that the Cup might be rendered to the People February the ninth the Legates held the first Congregation about the Doctrine of Marriage The Divines of the first Chamber examined the first two Articles and Father Salmeron a Jesuit spoke with much Pomp and for all that said but very ordinary things Having concluded that Marriage is a true Sacrament he past to the second Article that relates to Clandestine Marriages and alledged in favour of them the Authority of the Council of Florence which declares that the Validity of Marriages depends solely upon the Consent of the Parties who contract and this Oratour concluded that the opinion of those who assert that Fathers and Mothers may annull them ought to be condemned as an Heresie but allowed the Church the Power of rescinding such Marriages because she is the Mistress of the Sacraments and that it is expedient to annull them to prevent the disorders which those unfortunate Marriages cause in Families Next day Maillard Dean of the Faculty of Paris made a long discourse and concluded with Salmeron that Marriage is a true Sacrament but as to Clandestine Marriages he was not of Salmeron's opinion For he maintained that the Church had not that Power over the Sacraments as to make a Sacrament that was lawfull at one time to become unlawfull at another He alledged for proof the Consecration of the Eucharist saying that the Church could not make a Consecrated Wafer cease to be a Real Sacrament after that it had been some time kept since it was so at first He went through all the Sacraments proving that the Church hath not power to invalidate a Sacrament lawfully administred He shew'd that in all times private Marriages had been valid and that no man ever thought of annulling them His opinion took extremely well but especially the Pope's Party took great pleasure to hear the French Doctour speaking of the Pope call him the Directour and Moderatour of the Roman that is to say the Universal Church They drew great advantage from that Confession and said that it ought to be observed against the Cavils which the Prelates of the same Nation made upon occasion of the Canon about the Authority of the Pope wherein they would not suffer it to be said that he hath Power to rule the Church Universal The French said that there was a great difference betwixt these expressions rule the Universal Church absolutely and rule the Roman that is to say the Universal Church because the term Universal is onely employed to explain that of Roman and that so it ought to extend no farther It cannot be denied but that the distinction is very nice and fine spun and that the difference betwixt those two expressions is not very sensible it had been as well perhaps if Maillard had frankly confest that it dropt from him before he was aware In the Congregation of the Eleventh of February the French presented a Letter from their King wherein he acquainted the Council with the Victory that he had obtained over the Enemies of the Catholick Religion and at the same time demanded Reformation After the Letters were read the Ambassadour Du Ferrier made a Speech The King of France his Letter to the Council followed by a Speech of du Ferrier and having represented the Calamities of the Kingdom of France and the necessity of doing somewhat to remedy them he said that the proper remedy depended on the Council and that the Council in endeavouring that ought to turn their Eyes towards the Holy Scripture that Christians now-a-days were like the Samaritanes of the Town of Sichar who would believe because they saw and not barely upon the report of a Woman that every body at present studied the Scriptures That they should not think it strange if in their Proposition they had omitted the most necessary Points that they had begun with the smallest but that they had more important matters to propose that if they intended to set about the Work of Reformation they must do it in good earnest and that the Fathers who were assembled ought to consider what was the Success of those slight and weak Reformations of the Council of Constance and that which came after which he was not willing to name for fear of offending their ears He meant the Council of Basil whereof the name is odious to all the Favourers of the Court of Rome He laid before them also that the Councils of Florence Lateran and the first of Trent had done nothing for the Church and in that they did nothing they had done a great deal of hurt and given occasion to a Schism of so many People as are separated from it They gave the French Ambassadour a civil answer though in his Speech he had given several nips which touch'd the Pope's Party to the quick He said that he presented the Articles of Reformation principally to the Council These words offended them extremely because they did insinuate that the Ambassadour made far less reckoning of the Pope than he did of the Council Besides they found that by that expression he designed to have a lash at the Clause proponentibus Legatis as intending to intimate that in Quality of Ambassadour he pretended to propose his Articles to the Council himself and not by the Lagates and this perswaded them that France entertained terrible intentions against the Authority of the Pope and they were the more allarmed because Du Ferrier had said that the French had still far more important Proposals to make and that they ought to make greater advances in the work of Reformation than the Councils of Constance and Basil had done The day following the Cardinal of Lorrain parted for Inspruck taking with him nine Prelates and four Divides but he got a promise from the Legates that during his absence they should not treat of the Marriage of Priests In the mean time they continued the Congregations about the matter of Doctrine The first Chamber of Divines which we have already mentioned having heard Salmeron and Maillard unanimously condemned as Heretical the opinion that denies Marriage to be a Sacrament and in like manner declared Clandestine Marriages to be true Sacraments and lawfull Marriages But there was some diversity of opinion about the Sentiments of Salmeron and Maillard in relation to the Power of the Church in annulling secret Marriages some were of Salmeron's opinion and others with Maillard thought that the Power of the Church did not reach so far as to make a Marriage become unlawfull which was lawfull a very little before Amongst those who maintained that the Church had Power to annull Clandestine Marriages some disputed another Point to wit whether it be convenient and profitable to make use of that Power in the present time But most part thought it best that all secret Marriages should be invalidated and some went farther still and were for declaring null and void all Marriages
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
Convention by themselves in Thrace but others on the contrary do affirm that the whole Assembly was Orthodox However there was at least three hundred of them Orthodox that were met together from all Parts The holy Confessour Hosius Bishop of Cordoua did preside in it St. Athanasius was re-established in his See by it and the Nicene Creed was also by it explained according to truth Nevertheless this very Council has not been able to obtain to pass for legitimate St. Austin formally rejects it nor is it reckoned among the first six De. Conciliis l. 1. c 7. Bellarmine indeed so far favours it as to account it among those that are in part rejected and in part approved If the Ancients had believed that General Councils were infallible I cannot see why they should reject this it having all the marks of Universality Gratus Bishop of Carthage was present at it with five and thirty African Bishops more and yet the African Church never received it she took so little notice of it that sixty or eighty years after she had no manner of knowledge of its Canons which appears by the History of the great Contest between the Church of Africk and the Bishops of Rome in the Affair of Pelagius upon the right of Appealls Celestius a Pelagian who had been condemned by the Councils of Africk obtained of Pope Zosimus to be acquitted of all the Censures that had been given against him The Africans opposed it affirming that the Canons permitted not that one accused of Heresie should be tried out of his own Province or but by his own Synod and that the Bishop of Rome had no authority to receive the Appeals of such as stood condemned by the Bishops of Africk Zozimus produced a Canon as of the Council of Nice which permitted Appeals to Rome Tho it was not really a Canon of that Council but of the Council of Sardica The Africans were surprized at it and knew not on the sudden what to reply for in their Copies of the Canons of the Council of Nice there was no such Canon to be found so that not knowing from whence it might be taken because they knew nothing of the Council of Sardica or its Canons there was need of time to clear the mystery The fifth General Council upon the Cause of Arius was the Council of Milan held about the year 354. Ruffinus plainly says that many of the Orthodox fell into the snares of Heresie Hist l. 1. c. 20. And indeed the Bishops that held for Athanasius and the term Consubstantial were in fine banished by the Emperour Constantius Could there be a more famous Council than was that of Ariminum in Italy There were present and assisting in it no fewer than six hundred Bishops of which four hundred of the Eastern Church and two hundred of the West If we may believe Socrates Hist l. 2. c. 29. there was nothing done in this Council repugnant to the Faith of the Church But he is not in this to be credited He thought perhaps it would be a mighty service to the Church to prevaricate in her behalf and deny that this Great Council was of the number of those that favoured Arianism But it is undeniable that this Synod sunk under the violence of the Emperour Constantius and was over reached by the cunning and artifice of Vrsacius Bishop of Singidunum and of Valens Bishop of Mursa The testimony of Athanasius in the Book by him written concerning the Council of Ariminum puts the matter beyond all doubt especially when we consider the concurrent evidence of S. Austin in the fourteenth Chapter of his third Book against Maximin and of St. Hilary in his Book de Synodis adversus Arianos where we find the Letters of Liberius Bishop of Rome to the Eastern Bishops wherein he avers that the Fathers of the Council of Ariminum overcome by the Emperour and by the cheats of Valence and Vrsacius had pronounced contrary to the Faith of the Church but were again perfectly returned from their error and had each of them pronounced Anathema against the Confession of Faith made by the Council of Ariminuw We have thus already five General Councils that have erred about the same matter In the Cause of Eutiches who confounded the two Natures of Christ there were two General Councils assembled The first was at Ephesus in the year 449. convened by Theodosius the younger a Prince truly Catholick All the Patriarchs were present at it Juvenal Patriarch of Jerusalem Dioscorus of Alexandria Domnus of Antioch Flavian of Constantinople and by his Legats Leo Bishop of Rome Nothing was wanting to the Legality or Universality of this Council For to say that this Council was Illegal because not convened by the Pope and that the Patriarch of Alexandria and not the Popes Legates did preside therein is a very vain Allegation the weakness of which however in this place we are not concerned to shew For we oppose not such as make the Pope Superiour to Councils and all the Authority of Councils to depend upon the Popes Pleasure We oppose such as make the Council Superiour to the Pope and hold a Council to be nothing the less legal or less infallible for not being under the Popes direction such as look upon the Councils of Constance and of Basil as most holy Councils tho the Popes did not preside in them and such in fine as require us to submit to the Council of Trent upon its own Authority This General Council of Ephesus tho legally assembled and according to the Canons is notwithstanding a detestable Convention that justified the Heretick Eutiches confirmed his Doctrine and deposed Flavian Patriarch of Constantinople a most holy and Orthodox person About nineteen years before there had been held another General Council at the same City of Ephesus in the Cause of Nestorius who affirmed there was to Persons in Christ This Heresie was there condemned and Truth triumphed This certainly makes an essential difference between these two Councils tho otherwise there be none that I can see as to Form and Externals unless that Error was victorious in the second Council with less scandal than truth overcame in the first For it is true indeed that Dioscorus President of the second Council of Ephesus did with much facility cause the Heresie of Eutiches to prevail the Popes Legats and some few others having been only a little roughly treated whilst in the first Council of Ephesus which is the third received General Council there was a horrible Schism occasioned by Cyril of Alexandria and John of Antioch who made Parties and deposed each other Socrat. l. 7. c. 33. Evagrius l. 1. c. 4. The Emperour was forced to interpose in the matter and to make use of his Authority to appease so dreadful a Sedition It is apparent from all these Considerations that tho the Council of Trent could be considered as a General Council that would not bind us to believe it infallible nor
Bishops of France p. 8. that this Kingdom hath always made to submit to it and to several other Regulations about Discipline as being found contrary to the Liberties of this Church which the Kings the Clergy and the Parliaments of France have always so carefully preserved These Gentlemen are then persuaded that the Council of Trent hath in this point wronged the Bishops But one cannot commit a Wrong without Injustice nor do an Injustice without Error Whence it follows that it is not to be denied by these Gentlemen but that according to them the Council hath erred Yet still say they it is but an Error in Discipline And still they must give me leave to tell them that this reply is nothing but a meer illusion For it is a real Point of Doctrine to know how far the Rights of Bishops do or do not extend It is a clear Case that all the Grievances the Bishops complain of depend upon the question Whether Bishops were instituted by Jesus Christ and are the Apostles Successors For if Bishops are by Divine Right and not of Papal Institution it is manifest that the Pope cannot deprive them of a power he did not give them nor can so much as lessen that power If a Bishop does jure divino watch over the conduct of those of his Diocess there is no man that by any right can take a part of his Flock from him or forbid him to execute his Pastoral Charge in any instance for no man hath power to alter what God hath established On the contrary if the Pope hath conferred upon Bishops all the Authority they have he may revoke lessen or enlarge it at his pleasure nor could the Bishops then have any cause to complain for he may make use of his just right and power If the Pope be absolute Master of the Church and Bishops but his Substitutes he may proceed judicially against them as he thinks most fit by a Synod by Commissaries or by himself And the Bishops know it very well for the Spanish Bishops who stickled so much in the Council that the Residence and Institution of Bishops might be declared to be jure divino had no other end in it but to strengthen the Episcopal Dignity and shake off the Papal Yoke that oppressed them The Authors of those Writings that have made so much noise in the world about the affair of Signatures are likewise perfectly convinced of this truth For speaking of the wrongs done to Bishops by the Court of Rome they tell us that the Popes Ministers take delight to shew in Act and by Example what the Roman Doctors teach in their Books Circular Letter of the four Bishops p. 15. That the Pope is the absolute Master and Sovereign of the Church That Bishops are but his Vicars holding all their power from him That he either does or does not hearken to them as he thinks fit That if he makes answer when they consult him he does them grace and favour but does them no wrong if he refuse to answer To this erroneous and false opinion of the Doctors Partisans of the Court of Rome they oppose the pure truth of the Gospel that is Page 14. That all Bishops do succeed to the Apostles That the Pope by Divine Right is their Head and Superiour but not the sole Bishop That they derive their power from Christ himself That it is the Holy Ghost that hath set them over the Flock that the Great Shepherd hath acquired by his bloud that each might govern as his Vicar that portion that falls to his lot c. that they are so inferiour to the Pope as to be yet his Brethren and Collegues in that only Episcopat of which each of them holds an intire part according to the Fathers This is truly the state of the Question and can this be thought to be a mere matter of Discipline Or can it be other than a Point of Doctrine When the French and Spaniards did so mightily insist in the Council to have it declared that Bishops are not the Popes Vicars nor set up by him but established by Christ and when on the other side the Partisans of the Court of Rome opposed this design with so much violence every where preaching up the Pope to be the sole Bishop that the Ordinaries are but a succession of Commissaries holding all their Authority from the Holy See was this Controversie considered by the two Parties as a matter of Discipline Was it not considered in the Examen of the Sacrament of Orders which is a Point of Doctrine And not touched in the Chapters of Reformation to which was referred all that concerned Discipline The Bishops could not prevail to have it declared that their Order is by Divine Right but at least they hindred that no Decree was made for declaring them only the Popes Vicars Yet that is of no great service to them for in all the Decrees of the Council they are still treated as the Popes Vicars And it must needs be acknowledged that the Council in declaring that the Pope hath power to abridge the Authority of Bishops to hinder their Episcopal Functions to try them in Person or by his Commissaries hath sufficiently declared them to be no more than his Vicars So we have another Point of Doctrine wherein two thirds of Europe agree that the Council of Trent hath erred That the People ought to have part in Canonical Elections that herein also the Council of Trent hath erred by the Confession of many Roman Catholicks I go on to Canonical Elections Those persons that within thirty or forty years past have made themselves so much talked of in the World for that extraordinary appearance of zeal to restore the ancient lustre of the Church those persons I say do consider this matter of Canonical Elections as a Point of highest importance They lament that favour interest and birth are the only steps that raise to Ecclesiastical Dignities and that the custom of elevating to Prelacy by Election and Canonical ways those who are most worthy of it is now no more in use They complain of it with much grief and know not how to forgive the memory of Chancellour du Prat who is accused to have abolished the Pragmatick Sanction First Dialogue of the Parishioners of Sr. Hil. du Mont. p. 10. that is as they express it The pure observation of the ancient Canons in the Church of France and to have made the Concordat of Francis I. with Leo X. which ruined the Apostolical Discipline in France abolished Canonical Elections and subjected the Church of France to a deplorable servitude They tell us in the marginal refutations of M. d' Ambrun's Petition to the King Page 10. that in several Parish Churches there have been for a long time Publick Prayers to God for the abolishing the Concordat and the re-establishing Canonical Elections We must not say these Gentlemen have reason lest it give offence for if
both of Priest and Bishop are to be distinguished that the People may have voice in the Election but can have none in the Ordination I answer that Ordination is but a consequent of Election and when the People vote in the Election of a Pastour they do it to the Ordination But in the Roman Church the People have no voice neither for Election nor Ordination This therefore ought to be a fixed and determined Point among all that wish for the re-establishing of Canonical Elections i. e. that the Council of Trent hath erred in destroying them It only remains to see whether it be an Error simply in Discipline or in Doctrine But this can admit of no difficulty the two Canons of the Council of Trent which ruine Canonical Elections are in the Decree of the Doctrine of the Sacrament of Orders and not in that of Reformation which relates to Discipline And indeed it is clearly a Point of Doctrine that absolutely depends upon that great Principle maintained against the Court of Rome by the Followers of Gerson that is that the Keys were given not to the Person of St. Peter but to the whole Church This says the Author of the Apology for Gerson is the principal Point of the Controversie In Prafations that this most Orthodox Doctor lays down as does St. Austin for a most strong and firm support of the Sentiments of the Vniversity of Paris that Jesus Christ immediately and by himself gave the Keys to the whole Church in General and considered as a Body to the intent that the power of them might be exercised by one And consequently St Peter and the other Prelates considered apart are in possession of the Keys but ministerially and instrumentally as representing the whole Church to which the Keys do appertain principally and in respect of dominion Vide Tract 124. in Joh. and Tract 50. It is certain that St. Austin's opinion is that Christ gave the Keys to the whole Church in general as composed of the People and of the Clergy Now it that be so most certainly the Votes both of the People and of the Clergy are necessary to a lawful Ordination For if the Keys belong to Christians in general they are not to be intrusted but by a general consent This may suffice to shew that the Council of Trent hath erred even by the confession of a great part of the Church of Rome and that it hath erred in points of Doctrine I will only add a word or two about Clandestine Marriages The Council in Session 24. hath declared them to be null This is a point of Doctrine for it is a question that directly touches the matter of Sacraments that is to say Whether the Church can invalidate an action which was till then a true Sacrament For the Council declares that Clandestine Marriages are true Sacraments and at the same time declares them to be null and void It must therefore have a Power of annulling true Sacraments And this is a question of Right and a point of Doctrine if ever there were any Nevertheless upon this point which is a matter of Doctrine the Church of Rome does not conceive her self bound to believe that the Council hath not erred Treatise of the Interdâ—â—â— of Paul V. First Propositiâ—â— The Divines of the Republick of Venice tell us that the Decree of the Invalidity of Clandestine Marriages which belongs to the matter of the Sacrament according to the universal Opinion is not obligatory in places where the Council hath not been promulgated So that it is agreed on all hands that in such places Clandestine Marriages are good To conclude it were unjust to oblige us to have a better Opinion of the Council of Trent than the very Fathers of that Council had But to consider the manner of their words and actions it is a very hard matter to think that they themselves were convinced that that Assembly was infallible There can be nothing more true and more judicious than what was said by Baptista Cigale Bishop of Albenga when the Canons upon the matter of the Sacraments were to be formed That no Man ever quitted his Opinion meerly because condemned and that when Doctors remit matters to the Judgment of the Church it is no more than a civility and should not be abused This Man spake as he thought and I am mistaken if one that talks thus be well satisfied that Councils are infallible If an instance be required of the truth of this expression of the Bishop of Albenga it is found in this very Council in the conduct of the Arch-Bishop of Granada and of the Spaniards upon the question Whether our Lord did Sacrifice himself in the Institution of the Eucharist It is certainly an important question the famous Controversie of the Sacrifice of the Mass depending absolutely upon it The Arch-Bishop and his Partizans after the decision of the matter persevered in their Opinion and even in their opposition until the very moment the Decree was published They were not in all appearance convinced that the Council was infallible but on the contrary they seemed strongly persuaded that it had erred in a point of Doctrine of great importance These are the Principal reasons brought by the Protestants to evince that they cannot with justice be obliged to submit to the Decisions of the Council of Trent They have also other Reasons that persuade them that they are obliged not to submit to it as that they believe that this Council hath established Errors that destroy the true Religion But it is not our intent to report or examine them It is manifest that the understanding of the Reasons we have produced does wholly depend upon knowing the History of this Council And consequently it is highly necessary for all such Protestants to be well instructed in this History as are desirous to be able to defend the refusal they make as Protestants to submit to the Council of Trent The difficulty may be to find a faithful Historian who may be credited in the matter For it is certain that every one is not to be believed in it We are told that the Collections that the Lutherans may have made upon the conduct of the Council can deserve but little Faith that they were Parties that Objects are strangely transformed by Passion and that a relation by the Pen of an Author partial and by assed carries with it the tincture of his Passions But it hath pleased God in his Providence to raise up even in the Church of Rome a Wise a Moderate a Judicious and sincere Man one that in a word was the greatest Man of his Age who hath carefully wrote this History He has all the Perfections required to compleat an Historian Of great Judgment and Abilities strong and clear Sense perfectly instructed in Affairs of a vast penetration and one that wanted no kind of assistance needful to the compleating his Work When this Author began to appear in the World the
memory of the Council of Trent was still fresh in Mens Minds so that he may very well pass for a contemporary Author He was a Neighbour to the place where the things he writes of had been transacted He lived in a City full of Curious Persons who had collected Memorials of what had passed in this great Affair and was himself one that kept correspondence with all the Learned Men of Europe Nay he had great intimacy with Oliva Camillo who had been Secretary to the Cardinal of Mantua Legat and President of the Council in the last Convocation and there is no doubt but he drew considerable advantages to his Work from such a Person who had been an Eye-witness of all that had passed Now since this Author was neither Lutheran nor Protestant he is not in reason to be suspected of the Church of Rome and as he was no servile Idolater of the Roman Court he ought not to be suspected of the Protestants There shines indeed throughout his whole Work an Air of sincerity and honesty which happily united to his vast Abilities has made him pass as unquestionably the ablest of his Age in the Art of writing History But in an Age so depraved as ours it is dangerous to be honest The Sincerity of Father Paul hath raised against him a multitude of Enemies The Court of Rome endeavours to make him pass for a Villain an Impostor and the most Profligate of Men and his Work for a malevolent and poisonous Satyr And yet to so many important Truths by him laid open to the World nothing but Scurrilities are opposed till at last after forty years Cardinal Pallavicini it seems bethought himself to publish a new History of the Council of Trent or if you please an Answer to Father Paul for he cites him and refutes him in every Page This Work appeared with all the External Advantages that can well recommend a Book It had Pope Alexander VII to whom it was dedicated for Patron and for Author one of the so called Princes of the Church One that was of a Society well acquainted with the Arts of engaging Mens Minds and one that in this Work defended a Darling Cause favoured and supported by the Number and Quality of its Partisans And yet with all this he has not been able to attract all that applause and approbation that the Court of Rome had hoped Men judged that he came much too late to instruct them in the Transactions of this Council Nor indeed is an Opinion once setled so easily shaken off After having left not be forgotten he takes care to have it repeated in an Epistle Dedicatory that he causes his Bookseller to make to the second Volume Yet all that knew him affirm him to have been one of the most Wise and Pious Men of great Moderation in his Passions and very Religious The Proof the Cardinal brings of his Accusation is this that Father Paul having all the Heretical Opinions did yet live in the Communion of the Catholick Church which shewed a setled Contempt of Religion This sure is a rash way of reasoning It is true that by the Principles of the Court of Rome Father Paul was a Heretick for he did not believe that the Pope was absolute Lord of the Church that he had Power to Excommunicate Princes and interdict their Dominions at his pleasure He did not believe there was any Obligation for a blind Obedience to the Pope's Commands He did believe it very possible for the Pope to err and that there is no submission due to his Errors And he highly disapproved that corruption in Discipline and Manners every where prevalent but chiefly in the Papal Court I must confess that according to the Principles of Cardinal Pallavicini and those of his Party this is enough to make him pass at Rome for Impious and an Atheist And yet Father Paul in all his contests with the Pope for the Republick of Venice hath always spoken of what they call the Holy See with the greatest respect imaginable He lived and died in his Religion with the greatest Devotion in the World He was most exact in the observation of all the Ceremonies of his Church And though he was of a nice and tender Constitution yet would he never dispence with himself in the keeping of Lent even to seventy years of Age. In a word he was an Atheist after the same manner that an infinite number of Persons of Vertue and Honour in France Flanders and Germany are so who will not be Slaves to the Court of Rome who wish that several things were reformed in the Church and yet disapprove the Separation of the Protestants It had been a surprizing thing for a Jesuit to write the History of Lutheranism without frequent Blows at Father Paul It is not therefore to be wondered at if Father Maimbourg treats him sometimes a little roughly Though it must yet be said that he does it with less rudeness than the Cardinal As I do not judg it needful to enter into the Particulars of the Accusations of Cardinal Pallavicini for the justification of Father Paul because it would draw me too far so for the same reason I shall not amuse my self to justifie him in certain matters wherein Father Maimbourg accuses him though it were very easie to shew that Father Paul is more in the right than Father Maimbourg But yet I cannot but here take some notice of what a sufficient known Author says in a little Book containing Reflections upon History and upon the Art of writing History This Author judges of the Quality and Merit of Historians methinks after a very Magisterial manner Among others he speaks of Father Paul and says Pag. 125. Never was anything written with greater wit or with less reason and truth He is facetious upon all occasions that he may not be thought angry and is much too airy in a subject so serious If this Author had consulted Thuanus to whom the French owe some respect his History being an honour to their Country he would not have given such a Character of the Historian of the Council of Trent for he would have seen that these two great men do perfectly agree For my part by our modern Authors good leave I shall much rather give credit to M. de Salo a famous Counsellour in the Parliament of Paris Author of the first Journals under the name of the Sieur de Hedouville And thus he speaks in the Journal of 23 of March 1665. As Cardinal Pallavicini has ordered it one cannot read nor understand his Book without also reading Father Paul's And then there is some danger that History being very well done that one may prefer it before the Cardinals which may be truer but is not more probable It is easie to ununderstand the meaning of these words from so prudent a person as M. de Hedouville I am tempted to believe that the Author of the Reflections upon the Art of writing History has never read
Concupiscence without doubt original Sin remains also So that all the question comes to this to know whether after Baptism Concupiscence ought to be called Sin as the Protestants pretend or barely a decay and sickness of Nature as the Catholicks would have it that was no very important question then and yet all were agreed except the Carmelite Antony Marinier that there was enough in it to fasten Heresie on the Lutherans He was willing to acknowledge with all the rest that original Sin does not remain after Baptism but he thought it an excess of severity to condemn the contrary opinion as heretical He maintained that both the one and the other might be safely said that original Sin remains after Baptism and that it does not remain that St. Austin had expressed himself two manner of ways that seem contrary that in his Books to Boniface he hath said that Concupiscence was not Sin but both the cause and effect of Sin and that on the contrary in his Books against Julian he hath expresly said that Concupiscence is Sin the cause of Sin and the effect of Sin and that therefore it was evident that according to his thought one may hold the one or other opinion without Heresie and say that Concupiscence after Baptism is a Sin or is not a Sin This discourse created many Jealousies against the Carmelite and made them suspect him to be infected with Lutheranism and the rather because he had been observed before that to have said many things in his Sermons agreable to the Doctrine of the Lutherans Amongst other things he had said that we ought to put all our trust in God and not to rely on our works that all the vertues of Heathens were real Sins and that a man might have some assurance of his being in the state of Grace One of the Articles that was to be condemned respected the Punishments that are due to original Sin and to which Infants that die without Baptism are obnoxious The opinion of St. Austin and of Gregory of Rimini a famous School-man which condemns such Infants to everlasting Torments was unanimously rejected by all The Cordelier Divines who were at the Council maintain'd that the place to which these Infants were confined was not under the Earth but upon the Earth and in the light others added that they were taken up in reasoning about the works of Nature and that they tasted that satisfaction which men find in the discovery of curious matters But Catarino went a great deal farther and allotted them a kind of supernatural Bliss saying that in the place where God put them they should be visited by Angels and Saints he laboured all he could to get the opinion of St. Austin condemned but to no purpose It was indeed disapproved but out of the respect that was had to that Saint they would not declare it heretical The sentiment of the Jacobins which placed these Infants in a Limbus where they are without sorrows and pain but deprived of Beatitude and Joy prevailed and was most approved The Prelates understand not the matter of original Sin and know not how to make Decrees about it After these long Conferences of the Divines were over the Prelates held their Congregations for forming the Decrees and Canons But they knew not how to set about it for it is a thorny question and part of the Bishops understood it not Most part were of opinion that they should not define original Sin nor propose heads of Doctrine to declare the Judgment of the Church concerning that matter They who better understood the question opposed that saying that Councils were called as well for instructing Believers as for condemning of Hereticks and therefore they ought to declare what true Christians ought to believe as well as what they ought not But the Bishop of Sinigaglia and Gieronimo Seripande General of the Augustines who insisted on that gained no ground for it behoved the Bishops before they could lay down heads of Doctrine touching that thorny question to be well instructed in it and they resolved not to trouble themselves about that though perhaps when they had taken all the pains they could they might not have been able so to have fathomed the point as to have explained it clearly They therefore thought it enough to form Canons seconded with Anathema's And the first of them condemns those who deny that Adam lost original Righteousness by his rebellion The second is against those who deny that original Sin is transmitted from Adam to his Posterity The third Anathematises those who say that original Sin is not fully washed away by Baptism The fourth condemns those who say that Baptism is not of absolute Necessity for purging away original Pollution and the fifth at length pronounces a Curse against those who hold Concupiscence after Baptism to be a Sin A Dispute betwixt the Jacobins and Cordelier about the immaculate Conception of the blessed Virgin Upon occasion of the second Anathema pronounced against those who deny that the Sin of Adam is communicated to all his Posterity there arose a great dispute betwixt the Cordeliers and Jacobins concerning the manner how the Decree was to be couched The Cordeliers being engaged in the Party of Scotus who was of their order maintain the immaculate Conception of the blessed Virgin And the Jacobins who follow St. Thomas deny it About the Year eleven hundred and thirty six the Canons of Lions started that opinion of the immaculate Conception and would have established a Service for celebrating it but St. Bernard opposed it The Thomists opposed that Sentiment untill the Year thirteen hundred at which time Johannes Scotus a Cordelier made a Probleme of that opinion and judged it probable afterward the Cordeliers pusht it on from probability to certainty and made it almost an Article of Faith On the contrary the Jacobins persisted in the Sentiment of St. Bernard and St. Thomas and this sowed the seeds of a War which hath lasted three hundred Years and does still continue betwixt those two Parties The University of Paris hath embraced the opinion of the Cordeliers several Popes have declared for it and some against it Pope John XXII favoured the Jacobins because of the hatred he bore to the Cordeliers who stood for the Party of the Emperour Lewis of Bavaria whom he had excommunicated Sixtus IV. who was a Cordelier openly favoured his order and made a Bull in the Year fourteen hundred and seventy four whereby he prohibited any to censure the opinion of the immaculate Conception as heretical and confirmed the new Service that had been made for celebrating the Festival of that Conception This War continued still very hot at the time of the Council And therefore the Jacobins endeavoured to obtain that it might be declared in general terms without any exception that the Corruption of Adam was transmitted to all men that so the blessed Virgin might be comprehended therein On the other part the Cordeliers pleaded that she
might be excepted from the general rule The Court of Rome was consulted upon the matter and the answer from thence was that they should not meddle with that controversie so that the Legates declared that they were not assembled to pronounce upon differences that Catholicks had amongst themselves but onely to condemn Hereticks The Council therefore not to offend either of the Parties but to satisfie the Cordeliers without condemning the Jacobins added a clause to the end of the Decree that it was not their intention in all that had been said to doe any prejudice to the opinion of the immaculate Conception but that the mind of the Council was that the Constitution of Sixtus IV. should be observed session 5 Things being thus prepared and the Legates having thereupon acquainted the Court of Rome all that had been done was approved of the Session was held the seventeenth of June and after the Ceremonies were over the Decrees were publickly read by the Bishop that had officiated There were two Decrees one concerning Doctrine and the other about Reformation the first contained the five Canons against the errours of the Lutherans and other Protestants about original Sin which have been mentioned before In the second Decree there were two articles the first related to the Lectures of Divinity which were to be re-established in Cathedral and Collegiate Churches It ordained that in such Churches able men should be chosen for making Lectures of Divinity upon the Scripture that the same should be done in Monasteries that the Abbots should take the care of that and in case of their neglect that the Bishop might compell them to it but still by a Power delegated from the holy See And in fine that the Readers in Divinity before they began to make their Lectures should be approved by the Bishop excepting those of Cloysters whom the Council did not oblige to demand that approbation The second Article of the Decree of Reformation did regulate the matter of Preaching and Preachers It ordained that the Bishops should preach themselves and that if they could not they should fill their places with men fit to instruct and edifie that the Curates should be obliged to make Sermons or Prones at least every Sunday and all holy Days that the Preachers who should preach in Parishes under the Jurisdiction of Bishops should have licence from them before they take possession of the Pulpits that the Preachers in Cloysters should at least take the Bishops Blessing that if these Preachers should prove to be Hereticks or scandalous they might be suspended by the Ordinaries that if they had a Privilege from the Pope that exempted them from the Jurisdiction of the Bishops yet they might still be suspended and punished by them as Delegates of the holy See and that the Collectours should neither preach themselves nor cause others to preach up the sale of Indulgences This being done the next Session was appointed to be held the nine and twentieth of July and before the breaking up of the present Peter Danes Ambassadour of Francis I. King of France was received into the Council he delivered his Master's Letters Peter Danes Ambassadour of France comes to the Council and there makes a long Speech and backt them with an eloquent Speech wherein he did with much pomp enumerate the great obligations that the holy See had to the Crown of France he told them what Charlemaigne had done in favour of the Popes how Adrian the first had granted him the Power of creating the Pope and how the goodness of Lewis le Debonaire had made him remit and for himself and his Successours renounce that right he enlarged much in demonstrating the Zeal that the Kings of France have always had for the maintenance of the Purity of Doctrine in the Church and the Propagation of the Christian Faith At length he concluded with his Master Francis the First whom he commended for his Care and Prudence in hindering the growth of Heresie within his Dominions telling them that by the Rigour of his Edicts he had provided so well that no Assembly of Protestants had as yet met within his Territories Hercules Severolla Proctour of the Council answered him in a sew words he thanked the most Christian King for having sent to the Council told the Ambassadour that his arrival was very gratefull to them assured him that they had always had a great veneration for the Gallicane Church and promised that the Council would on all occasions be ready to doe her all good offices for the future Whilst the Council of Trent are darting Anathema's against the Protestants the Pope and Emperour prepare another sort of arms against them The treaty which the year before was begun by Cardinal Farnese was completed by the Cardinal of Trent within a few days after the last Session War is declared betwixt the Pope the Emperour and the Protestants the Emperour gets great advantages and the Pope is deceived by the Emperour In this treaty the Emperour obliged himself to reduce the Lutherans to the obedience of the holy See because they refused to submit to the Council The Pope on his part promised to furnish the Emperour with twelve thousand Foot and five hundred Horse and two hundred thousand Crowns for the Charges of the War besides he permitted the Emperour to sell of Lands belonging to Monasteries as much as might amount to fifteen hundred thousand Livers and to have for one year the half of the Revenues of the Church of Spain on condition that he should have a share in the advantages of the Conquests that should be made and that nothing should be granted the Protestants especially in matters of Religion without the Pope's consent there was also a secret Article whereby the Pope obliged himself to excommunicate the King of France if he took up arms against Charles during this War To strengthen this League the Pope solicited several other Princes to enter into it and amongst others the Catholick Cantons of Suisserland but they would not espouse the Party This treaty was kept secret betwixt them and the Emperour desired it should be so that he might the more easily pretend that it was no War for Religion He published therefore in his manifesto's that he had taken up arms to reduce Rebels who by violence had invaded the Estates of the Church making Abbey and Bishops lands hereditary to themselves and who made alliances with Strangers contrary to his own and the interests of the Empire The design of this Politick fetch was to retain those Lutherans on his side who were not engaged in League with the Confederates and indeed several of them furnished the Emperour with Troops amongst whom were Maurice of Saxony and Albert of Brandebourg On the other side the Landgrave of Hesse the Electour of Saxony and the rest of the Protestants published a Manifesto wherein they laid open the Mystery of that League and shew'd it to be a War for Religion of which the
down and oppressed by the Pope for it once it had been decided that Bishops hold their Authority from Jesus Christ and that they are obliged to reside in the midst of their Flocks to take the care of them not by the command of the Pope but by the appointment of God they perswaded themselves that they might easily provide against the enterprizes of the Court of Rome practised upon the Ordinaries which shall be set forth more at large in the sequel when we shall have a new occasion to speak of this question which was bandied with much more fierceness in the third convocation of the Council under Pius IV. If the Spaniards were cunning enough in disguising the true reasons of their Conduct the Legates were not behind hand in diving into their intentions and therefore they dextrously waved that question by referring it to another Session In pursuance of the matter of Reformation they entred upon the examination of the Exemptions which were granted by the Pope to the prejudice of Ordinaries In the Eastern Church all that is comprehended within the precincts of a Diocess whether Monasteries Churches or Benefices is subject to the jurisdiction of the Bishop of the Diocess But in the Latin Church it is not so in the first place rich and powerfull Abbots to free themselves from the jurisdiction of the Bishops to whom they gave Umbrage and with whom they often quarelled obtained of the Popes to be taken under the Protection of St. Peter and to hold immediately from the holy See The Popes found that that hit very pat with their interests because thereby they acquired Subjects in all places and that he who obtains privileges is obliged to maintain the Authority of him that grants them and therefore they were very liberal in their Exemptions They thereupon took from under the jurisdiction of Bishops those great Societies of Clugny and Cistaux they granted the same privileges to the Chapters of Cathedral Churches and at length all the Orders of the mendicant Friars in their first institution obtained the same privileges of holding immediately from the holy See The Bishops could not but grumble at these Exemptions that deprived them of so many subjects And they would have taken it extremely well it Giacomo Cortese Bishop of Vaison had demanded the abolition of them This affair having been referred to another Session was brought in again with the case of Residence but hardly any thing could be obtained concerning these two Articles As to the first which is the case of Residence it was concluded that the ancient Canons which command Residence under such and such Pains should be reinforced with new Penalties It was therefore decreed that a Bishop who should for six Months together be absent from his Diocess should lose a fourth part of his Temporals that if his absence continued a Year he should forfeit the half of his Revenue and that if he persisted in that fault he should by the Metropolitan be complained of to the Pope to the end that the holy See might take Cognisance thereof and either punish that negligent Pastour or put another in his place that if the non-resident Prelate were a Metropolitan he should be complained of to the Pope by the Eldest of his Suffragans As for inferiour Pastours it was ordered that they might be by the Bishops compelled to Residence and if among the non-resident Curates any one might happen to have an Exemption from the Pope he might nevertheless be forced to Residence by the Bishop acting as the Delegate of the holy See As to the matter of Exemptions it was decreed that no Monk being out of his Convent under pretext of the Privilege of his Order should excuse himself from being punished and corrected by the Ordinary of the place but in this also the Bishop must act as Delegate of the holy See it was likewise ordained that the Chapters of Cathedral and Collegiate Churches might not decline the Jurisdiction of the Bishops as to the visitation and correction of manners And last of all Bishops were prohibited to perform any Episcopal function in the Diocess of another without permission Matters being thus prepared nothing could hinder the holding of the Session nor was the Pope himself of opinion that it should be delayed any longer On the contrary he was glad of that opportunity to nettle the Emperour who instantly desired that no controversie should be decided till he had reduced the Lutherans to a Necessity of submitting to the Council The unions of Great men having no other foundation but interest are never firm nor of long continuance The Pope and the Emperour who had been so good friends in the beginning of the year fell a clashing one with another before it was ended And thereupon the Pope ordered that the Session should be held notwithstanding the opposition of the Emperour's Ambassadours year 1547 The thirteenth of January was the day appointed for that Ceremony Andrea Cornaro Archbishop of Spalato in Dalmatia said high Mass Sixth Session 1547. and Thomas Stella Bishop of Salpi preached the Sermon After this the Decrees were read which contained sixteen Chapters and thirty three Canons concerning Doctrine and five Chapters about Reformation In the Chapters of Doctrine according as it had been resolved upon the Judgment of the Church was declared concerning the points of Justification the nature of Grace the nature of good works the certainty that one may have of his own Justification the necessity of good works the perseverance of Saints free Will and generally concerning all the points that had been agitated amongst the Divines which we have mentioned before in the Canons Anathema was pronounced against all the propositions that were attributed to the Lutherans In the Decree of Reformation Residence was enjoyned the Exemptions of Monks and of Cathedral and Collegiate Churches regulated and the mutual attempts of Bishops upon one anothers rights repressed in the manner as we told you had been agreed upon in the Congregations Censures by the male Contents of the Decrees of this Sessions The Court of Rome made no new reflexions upon these Decrees for to them they were not new but so soon as they came abroad in Germany the Malecontents of whom it was full revenged themselves on the Council by a publick and censorious reflexion that let nothing pass they critisized even to the very expressions and the Grammarians made themselves sport with that flourish which is to be found in the fifth Chapter cum neque homo ipse nihil omnino agat they said it was little better than gibberish and nonsense because every proposition wherein there are two Negatives ought to be resolved into an Affirmative so that that proposition ought to be resolved into this cum etiam homo ipse aliquid omnino agat which is nonsense But the Divines made more important remarks they said that the Doctrine of the Council which affirms that man may resist even to the end the inspirations of
Sentiment of the Lutherans that any Character was imprinted in the Sacraments why they might not be reiterated there was some dispute Dominico à Soto would have had it defined that that Character is founded on Scripture others were of a contrary opinion because neither Gratian nor the Master of the Sentences say any thing as to that and that Scotus confesses that it can neither be maintained by Scripture nor the Fathers but onely by the Authority of the Church And it is to be observed that that is the manner of this Authour when he would smoothly condemn an opinion It was decided against the tenth Article of the Doctrine attributed to the Lutherans that it is false That a wicked Minister cannot administer a true Sacrament Against the Eleventh that it is false that all Christians of what Sex or Condition soever may preach the word and administer all the Sacraments Against the Twelfth that it belongs not to all Pastours to encrease or diminish the Ceremonies of the Sacraments A remarkable opinion of Catarino about the intention that is necessary in him that administers the Sacrament On occasion of the thirteenth Article which regards the intention that is thought necessary for the Validity of a Sacrament there arose great Debates The Council of Florence had determined it to be necessary and that was a Knot not to be untied but Ambrosio Catarino Bishop of Minori started a very considerable opinion he strongly urged that the intention of the Priest could not be necessary because if so the Salvation of Souls would depend on the will of a man who might be so wicked as to administer the Sacraments without intention he aggravated the inconveniences of that opinion by this argument that if a Child baptised without intention should become a Bishop he not being truly baptised all the Priests that he might ordain would not be Priests and could not administer true Sacraments and that so many Millions of Souls would perish by the Crime of one single man He therefore concluded that the intention which is necessary is an external intention that may be gathered from the Ceremonies and is signified by visible actions which fully agrees with the opinion of the Protestants that overture was rejected though the Council was stunned with the weight of his reasons no man being in a condition to make him an Answer They decided against the fourteenth without any Dispute that it is false That the Sacraments have onely been instituted for the quickning of Faith There happened much less Dispute about the seventeen Articles of Baptism for without any Debate it was defined 1. That in the Roman Church there is true Baptism secondly that it is absolutely necessary to Salvation In the third place that Baptism administred by Hereticks is true Baptism and so of all the other propositions that were attributed to the Protestants which were condemned with great Unanimity The last of the Articles about Confirmation which related to the manner of administring it occasioned a somewhat greater Noise The Divines would have the Bishop onely to be the Minister of Confirmation but the action of Pope Gregory the Great puzled them This Pope permitted a simple Priest to confirm But the Cordeliers and all the School of Scotus who attribute this Power onely to the Bishop alledged that that had never been but once permitted by St. Gregory and that perhaps that action was no true Sacrament Thomas did indeed confess that properly the Bishop is the Minister of Confirmation but he said that a Priest might administer it by a permission from the Pope Whilst these matters were canvassing in the Congregation for Doctrine in the other Congregation where the Cardinal di Monte presided they treated about the means of reforming the abuses which had crept into the Administration of the Sacraments and it was ordained 1. That the Sacraments of the Church should be conferred gratis and no man allowed to take any Profit Alms or voluntary Gift upon any pretext whatsoever 2. That the Sacrament of Baptism should not be administred but in Churches and that in Mother Churches where there are baptismal Fonts and Chapels except in Cases of Necessity and when the Children of Great Princes were to be baptised 3. That no excommunicate Person should be admitted to be a Godfather nor any other under the age of fourteen and that they should not admit but of one God-father besides that there were some Orders made for regulating the Decency of Baptism but they are not very important There was not so much jangling amongst the Canonists about Reformation as had been among the Divines concerning the matter of Doctrine and yet they had much adoe to agree about the gratuitous way of administring the Sacraments The rigider sort would not have had it allowed to the Church-men to accept of any Present Alms or voluntary Offering under pretence of any contrary Custome and pressed hard these words of the Gospel freely have ye received freely give they added many Canons denouncing Anathema's out of the ancient Councils against that kind of Simony The Cardinal di Monte who otherways was not very zealous for Reformation powerfully backt that Party But others more remiss maintained that voluntary Offerings might be taken they produced for themselves a Canon of the fourth Council of Carthage which allows the taking of what is offered by him that brings a Child to be baptised above all they defended their Cause by the sixty sixth Chapter of the fourth Council of Lateran held under Innocent the third which permits it as a laudable Custome to give Offerings at the Administration of the Sacraments The Cardinal di Monte made answer that that sixty sixth Chapter of the fourth Council of Lateran ought to be understood of Offerings that have been always setled in the Church as Tithes first Fruits and Offerings that are made at the Altar and because they could not agree upon the matter they referred it to a general Congregation but the same difficulties hindred the Conclusion of that Point there also In the general Congregation they had much adoe to agree about the form of the Decrees concerning the Doctrine of the Sacraments At length they framed fourteen Canons with Anathema's concerning the Doctrine of the Sacraments in general ten about that of Baptism and three concerning that of Confirmation The Divines desired that besides the Anathema's Chapters might be drawn up as had been done in the point of Justification for publishing and declaring the Doctrine of the Church But they found it to be a very difficult matter by reason of the diversity of opinions They could not be so fortunate in this as they had been in the preceding Session when they found Ambiguous Terms that gave content to all for on the present Subject they could not hit upon Terms which did not cross either one side or other and that they had no mind to do being willing to please all Parties So that the Council resolved to rest
without which in those Churches they could not bind nor have the force of a Law The sober discreet and charitable sort made a third Party blamed the King as having given the Council a mortal stab and laid a ground for a prejudice against it which would be very hard to remove Could one think or perswade himself that the Holy Ghost could have presided in that Council against which a most Christian King Eldest Son of the Church and a great Persecutor of all new Sects had made a Protestation however the King of France stopt not there he published a Manifesto against the Pope and made a prohibition that no money should be carried to Rome upon pretext of Dispensations Annates or any other Title That Manifesto was verified in Parliament where a great liberty was taken in speaking especially against Dispensations which they termed Shams and Tricks incapable of giving any assurance to Consciences Whilst Henry proceeded in this manner against the Pope that he might not be suspected of Heresie he doubled his persecutions against the Protestants made more rigorous Edicts against them and inflicted severe punishments upon a great many He likewise made a distinction betwixt the holy See and the Pope and Court of Râ—me for he protested that he still retained the same Reverence for the holy See though he was preparing to give the Pope his hands full on 't This distinction did not go down neither at Rome nor Trent the Italians maintained that the Pope and the holy See were one and the same thing The French said no and proved it by the Authority of Victor III. and Stephen IV. who though both were Popes yet confessed that the holy See was their Lord and Master The Council falls upon business and chuses the point of the Eucharist for Doctrine and the Jurisdiction of Bishops for Reformation These oppositions of the French King did not put a stop to the Synodal actions at Trent for next day after the Session a general Congregation was held wherein a Committee of Fathers was appointed for drawing up Articles concerning the Eucharist and to give them to be examined by the Divines they also discoursed of Reformation and made choice of the point of Jurisdiction which the Bishops complained was wholly taken from them by Evocations Appeals Exemptions and Commissions directed from the Court of Rome They who had Commission to enquire into the matter of Doctrine extracted ten Articles concerning the Eucharist from the Books of the Zuinglians and Lutherans amongst which they intermingled errours which could neither be imputed to Zuinglius nor Luther For the examination of these Articles an Order was made that the Divines should prove their opinions by Scripture the Fathers and Councils avoiding all nice and superfluous Questions but this Order was not acceptable to the Italians who were very quaint in School-Divinity but ignorant in all things else the Germans liked it somewhat better because the Disputes which they had had with the Lutherans had obliged them to study Languages the Fathers Councils and the Scripture The Italians made Speeches against that Method and pleaded the cause of Ratiocination against Authorities They alledged that there needed no more but a good Memory to collect passages and that that Method gave the Lutherans the Victory who were excellent in such kind of Collections and skilfull in Grammar-learning for the interpretation of passages They had as good have said nothing for the Order past though to no great purpose for it hindered not Scholastick Disputations as will appear hereafter They came to the examination of the Articles concerning the Sacrament of the Eucharist every one gave his opinion thereupon and it suffered no great debate The second was against those who say that Jesus Christ is not eaten sacramentally but spiritually several thought the question to be of no great importance because the Hereticks did not deny but that our Saviour Jesus Christ was eaten sacramentally The third was against the opinion of Impanators who maintain the assumption of Bread and its hypostatick Union with the body of our Lord but they were told that that opinion which was the opinion of Robert Abbot of Tuits was dead with himself above four hundred years ago and that it had no asserters There was some Dispute on the Jacobins side about the necessity of Confession before the Communion which is mentioned in the last of these ten Articles and they affirmed that many able and holy Catholicks had been of the judgment that it was not always necessary The eighth and ninth Articles that relate to the Communion in both kinds took up longer time The Divines enlarged in proving that the Communion in one kind was sufficient but the Dispute lasted not long for they came to an agreement to reduce those ten Articles into seven Canons fortified with Anathema's against the enemies of the Real Presence Transubstantiation Adoration Communion under one kind and against those who condemn the other Opinions and Rites of the Church of Rome in relation to the Eucharist It was likewise resolved that Chapters should be made on this head as had been done about the point of Justification and not to rest barely on Canons as was done in the matter of the Sacraments in general This rejoyced the Italians who thought they had got their revenge on the Germans because for forming of those Chapters of Doctrine recourse must be had to their School-Divinity which had been neglected in framing of the Canons These Chapters were reduced to eight in number of which there was one that handled the point of the Communion in both kinds against the Protestants Upon this occasion the Count de Montfort and the rest of the Emperour's Ambassadours interposed and alledged that the matter of the Cup was a popular thing known of all and that it was one of the stumbling-blocks to the Protestants of Germany that it ought not to be decided unless they were present at the Council that to come thither as they had promised they desired a safe Conduct from the Council as well as from the Emperour They demanded that safe Conduct and prayed that they might forbear treating about matter of Doctrine and apply themselves to Reformation wherein they would find business enough The Legates and Nuncio's refused to supersede the examination of points of Doctrine but insisted not much on the Article of retrenching the Cup nor the safe Conduct They expressed themselves onely in general terms telling them that they would next Session take it into consideration and immediately acquainted the Pope with all The Pope took Council about the matter the result of which was that though there was no hopes of reclaiming the Lutherans yet that they might have no pretext of complaining they should defer the point of retrenching the Cup but that that delay should not extend beyond three Months The matter of a safe Conduct suffered more difficulty for most part were against the granting of it because no Council had
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
as he thought good nay and being one day at table he lasht out so far as to say in the presence a great many persons of Illustrious Quality that he would subject all Princes under this foot stamping on the ground with his foot he added that he would rather turn all things topsy turvy and set fire to the four Corners of the World than to commit the least base action in derogating from his Authority The Pope listens to the persuasion of useing carnal Arms for supporting his Authority This lofty and proud humour was yet more and more fomented by his Nephew Charles Caraffa who from a Captain being become Cardinal carried along with him into the Church all the violent inclinations of War As for the Pope he stood it out merely by his haughtiness and did not think he stood in need of other Arms than those which the Character of Pope put into his hands he perswaded himself that by his Spiritual Weapons he could doe whatsoever he pleased for never man valued himself more upon the account of Fortune than he because all things had ever succeeded with him Nevertheless seeing he entertained vast thoughts and aimed at all he easily let himself be perswaded that he ought to make use of all Insomuch that if on the one hand the Uncle was inclineable enough of himself to employ the Power of the Church with utmost rigour the Nephew on the other hand put it in his head to fortifie the Spiritual Power by Temporal Arms and the Pope consented to it but he would have that Union of the Arms of the World with those of the Church to be made very secretly and not to appear sooner than was necessary He therefore treated very secretly with the King of France to take the Kingdom of Naples from the House of Austria and to transfer it to the Crown of France on condition that a good part of it should be annexed to the Ecclesiastick State That affair was managed privately at Rome first with the Cardinal of Lorrain and afterward with the Cardinal de Tournon For the carrying on these great designs the Pope resolved to create a great number of Cardinals who might depend on him as being his Creatures Upon his Elevation he had taken an Oath to make but a few Cardinals because the Sacred College was already too numerous So soon as mention was made of this promotion so contrary to what he had promised and so opposite to the Emperour's interest to whom the Pope intended to raise as many Enemies as he made Cardinals the Sacred College and especially the Imperialists resolved to oppose it The Pope had notice of that called a Consistory on the twentieth of December and so soon as he had taken his place he told them that he would grant Audience to none that he himself would onely speak that he had weighty matters to propose and that none must interrupt him The Cardinal of St. Jago a Spaniard rising to speak to him he puncht him several times on the breast and thrust him back When all were set down after this Preface he complained of the rumours that were spread abroad that he could not lawfully create more than four Cardinals because of the Oath that had been exacted from him at his Inauguration He told them that he would have them know that the Pope could not be bound by any Engagement nor by any Man nor indeed bind himself by any Oath that to think the contrary was Heresie from which out of Favour and Grace he absolved those who by such an opinion had incurred the penalties due to Hereticks because he was willing to believe that they were not obstinately engaged in it but that if any one persisted to think or speak so he would put him in the Inquisition telling them plainly that he would make Cardinals and that he would not be contradicted He named seven one of whom to wit Gropper a Divine of Cologne refused the Hat In England Cardinal Pool who till then would not take the orders of Priesthood was made Priest and four Months after Archbishop of Canterbury in the place of Cranmer who was burnt In Germany the People of Austria demanded of Ferdinand Liberty of Conscience Ferdinand refused it under pretext that he was bound by Oath to the Church nevertheless he granted them the Cup conditionally untill the next Council and prohibited them to endeavour any change in the rest of the Ceremonies The Duke of Bavaria made also the same prohibition within his Territories and allowed the Cup to his People But the Palatinate was wholly reformed for the Electour being dead his Nephew succeeded him and so soon as he was fixt he forbid the Mass and the Exercise of the Roman Religion within his Territories Pope Paul who omitted nothing that might make for his Reputation and confirm his Authority undertook to reform the Church and for that end established a great Congregation composed of an hundred and fifty Persons The Pope proposes a Reformation of the Church but that proposal had no success which he divided into three Chambers he assigned them first the matter of Simony to be examined but that is a nice point it is the Spring-head of all the Wealth of the Court of Rome Some were for the rigour in cutting off all manner of ways whereby money is taken for spiritual things The Pope himself seemed to favour that opinion so far that he said he would not grant any Matrimonial Dispensations but the heat of that Zeal lasted not long for the opposition was so great and the Difficulties so terrible that all was laid aside some proposed to him the Calling of the Council again for carrying on of that Reformation and indeed at his Inauguration he had sworn so to doe but he laughed at that saying that he had nothing to doe with a Council that he was above those things and that it was a great silliness to have sent twice already threescore Bishops and forty Divines the weakest of all the Mountaineers to determine Controversies of the highest Nature as if these good Folks had had more knowledge and capacity than the Vicar of Jesus Christ adding notwithstanding that provided the Council were held at Rome he would not be against it But especially when he came to know what toleration King Ferdinand and the Duke of Bavaria had granted their Subjects to communicate under both kinds he took the Alarm and looked upon that action as an attempt hardly to be remedied without a Council The Ambassadour of Poland sent to Complement him upon his exaltation The Pope falls into a rage upon occasion of some demands made to him by the Ambassadour of Poland proposed to him some Demands in name of that State which vexed him much more than the Actions of Ferdinand and the Duke of Bavaria had done The first was that they might have liberty to celebrate Mass in the Vulgar Tongue the second that the Communion might be administred
that Bishops might very well take some small present for conferring Orders since at Rome vast summs of money were exacted for bestowing the Pallium on Metropolitans that Pope Innocent III. in the fourth Lateran Council had decreed that for the administration of Sacraments believers should make those voluntary offerings which at present they would condemn For all these reasons one Denis Bishop of Milopotamo in Candia went a great deal farther than any who had spoken before him He alledged that the Clergy was not near the tenth part of the People and yet they had the Tithes which is the tenth part of the fruits of the Earth besides a great deal of Lands which they possess that amounts to much more that if there were poor Bishops it was not to be imputed to the Poverty of the Church but to the bad distribution of its wealth and that so it was not to be suffered that the Church should take money in consideration of services for which she was so well payed he added that it was not enough to prohibit Bishops to take any thing for conferring of Orders unless they were likewise hindered from making money of those things that goe before Orders for instance in the Chanceries of Bishops they granted Letters which were called Dimissorial whereby a man was allowed to provide himself of an Ordainer where he thought good and for these Letters money was taken In like manner at Rome permissions were granted for money to receive Orders out of the times appointed for that And therefore he moved that these abuses might be remedied The Legates approved of that opinion as to Dimissorial Letters which onely regard the Bishop's Chanceries but as to the Permissions that were given at Rome for money that Court being a noli me tangere Cardinal Simoneta said that it belonged to the Pope and not to the Council to meddle with that In this manner the Legates without having the Superiority of the Pope over a Council plainly asserted acted in all things as if that Superiority had been unquestionable for if the Council were above the Pope it would have power to reform the Court of Rome Amongst other considerations that were made on that subject it was moved that Notaries and Clarks who wrote and dispatcht the Orders ought not to be barred from taking of money because it was a mere temporal Office and such men ought to live by their Callings Of daily Distributions The fourth Article concerned Prebends and the Distributions in Cathedral and Collegiate Churches which have a Chapter and Canons Heretofore the Canons lived in common and ate all at one Table or at least they had a daily Distribution of what was necessary for them This Distribution was made after Divine Service where they had assisted at the hours appointed by the Canons and hence it is that the hours appointed for Prayers have been called Canonical hours and those that did officiate at the Service Canonici or Canons In the beginning this Distribution was made in specie or in Money but that lasted not long and instead of those Distributions which were made daily the Revenues were divided and each Canon had a Dividend which Dividends were called Prebends When Distributions were in use it made the Canons diligent in waiting on Service because nothing was given to the absent but so soon as Cathedral and Collegiate Revenues were divided into Prebends every one received his Rent though he did no Service and this made the Canons very negligent in performing their Duties which negligence was thought to stand in need of Reformation It is true that in some Collegiate Churches the custome of daily Distributions still continued but in many places they were so small that the Canons did not think it worth their while to attend for so inconsiderable a Profit Luca Bisantio a poor Prelate but a good man Bishop of Cataro in Sclavonia was for obliging the Canons by Censures and Deprivation of Profits to be punctual in attending Divine Service But the Council was of opinion rather to convert some of the Prebends into daily Distributions that so the profit and advantage might engage the Canons to attendance The other Points were also examined and met with no great difficulty but were regulated as we shall see hereafter The Pope is alarmed at the Attempts of the Spaniards and is distrustfull of his Legates When the news of what had past at Trent came to the Pope The Court of Rome was much startled both at the heats wherewith the point of the Divine Right of Residence had been debated and at the vigorousness of the Spaniards in asserting the Liberty of the Council The Pope began to be Jealous of and to distrust his own Legates particularly the Cardinal of Mantua who was suspected not to be firm enough to the interests of the Holy See The Pope likewise had some high words with de Vargas the Spanish Ambassadour concerning the Clause proponentibus Legatis The Ambassadour represented to him that if the Clause had been barely that the Legates should propose this would not have excluded the Prelates from the liberty of proposing also but that that proponentibus Legatis in the Ablative case as Grammarians say imported an exclusion of all others The Pope answered disdainfully that he had something else to doe than to mind cujus generis casus that he was no Grammarian and that these terms were sincerely and without prevarication employed to express his thoughts In this manner he continued firm in his resolution to alter nothing in that Clause and endeavoured by some excuses to put off the King of Spain who had declared that he did not take it well that words so prejudicial to the liberty of the Council should have been inserted in the Decree The Point of Residence was consulted at Rome in several Congregations of Cardinals and Ambassadours they saw very well into the consequences of that opinion which the Spaniards would have had asserted and the Cardinals who held Bishopricks knew that to oblige them to Residence by the Law of God was the way to rob them of their Benefices seeing they always attended at the Court of Rome But which is more than all the Court of Rome perceived very well that the intention of the Bishops was to make themselves absolute over their Flocks and Independent of the Holy See However the Pope dissembled that he knew any thing of the design of the Bishops and acted as if the Question had onely been about obliging the Bishops to Residence And therefore having well weighed the matter he declared that he â—â—erved it to himself that he would issue out a Bull enjoyning all Bishops to Residence under pain of losing their Bishopricks that he alone had the Power of putting the Laws of Jesus Christ in execution by that command that was given to St. Peter seed my Sheep and that after all it was no great matter on what Right Residence was founded whether Divine or Ecclesiastick
Doctrine contained four Chapters and as many Canons with Anathema's wherein was decided 1. That believing Laicks are not obliged by command to communicate in both kinds 2. That the Church had very good ground for taking away the Cup and that she hath power to doe so 3. That he who receives the bread alone receives Jesus Christ entirely and is not deprived of any saving Grace 4. That the Communion of Children is not necessary In all this no notice was taken of the question whether it was expedient to allow the Cup to People that demanded it because that point was reserved for another Session as they had promised the Germans and was accordingly by a Decree referred to the following Session which is inserted in the Acts of the Council The nine Chapters of Reformation were also read The first ordains that the Collation of Orders the Dimissorial and Testimonial Letters the Seal and other things of that nature shall be given gratis without so much as taking any voluntary offering The second that no man shall receive Orders if he have not a Benefice or at least an Estate of his own to subsist on which Estate is not to be alienated without the consent of the Bishop The third that in Cathedral and Collegiate Churches where there are no Distributions or where they are but small the Bishop may convert a third of the Prebends into Distributions The fourth that in great Parishes the Curates shall take the assistance of a sufficient number of Vicars and that such as are of too large an extent shall be divided and provided with new Rectours if that be judged necessary The fifth that Bishops may make Unions to perpetuity of Benefices that have cure of Souls when they are not singly sufficient for the Subsistence of a Curate The sixth that Curates who are negligent in their Duties shall have Vicars appointed them whether they will or not and that part of the profits of the Living shall be allotted to these Vicars and that if the Curates continue in Scandal they shall be deprived of their Benefices The seventh that the Bishops as Delegates of the holy See may annex the Benefices of decayed and demolished Churches to other Churches and cause Parochial Churches to be repaired The eighth that the Bishops also as Delegates of the holy See may visit Monasteries that are in Commendum to settle the observation of Discipline therein And the last Chapter abolished the Collectours or Alms-gatherers These Collectours were a sort of men who under Pretext of some pious work as the building an Hospital for the Sick the bringing up of Orphans or the like obtained Letters of Recommendation from the Bishop and with these Letters run over a whole Countrey to gather Collections under the notion of Almsdeeds Some of them also obtained a Licence from the Pope that they might not be hindered by the Bishops in their Collections This custome had degenerated into a horrid abuse in that these Collectours treated with the Court of Rome that part of the purchase should be brought thither nay and it was even specified in the Bull how much the Collectour was to keep for himself and how much he was to pay out so publickly was that Corruption tolerated Of these gatherings a very small portion was employed in the charitable Work which served for a Pretext and the rest went into the Pocket of the Collectours and of those that had got them the Privilege Many time also they who obtained from Rome Patents to empower them to gather Charity farmed out their right to the off-scourings of the People who to make the most of their Farm by a thousand damnable Tricks frightned the People out of their wits and money They put themselves into strange Antick dresses and carried about with them bells and other tinckling instruments preached up counterfeit Indulgence and denounced a thousand Evils to those who refused them contributions and these were the Collectours that were then abolished This was all the Product of eight whole Months labour during which nothing was to be seen but Couriers without intermission posting from Rome to Trent and from Trent to Rome continual Treaties Negotiations and Conferences betwixt the Ambassadours of all the Princes in Europe and the Legates not to mention the infinite number of consultations and deliberations amongst the Prelates who were four times more in number than they were in the two first Convocations of the Council These great Engines having wrought so little People could not forbear to apply the Proverb Parturiunt montes nascetur ridiculus mus The discontented and those professed Criticks that stand in awe of no Tribunal made their observations that there was no great need of meeting at Trent to blast the Memory of the Fathers of the Church by deciding a question concerning the Communion of young Children in such a manner as made the Judgment of the Ancients Heresie who would have Infants immediately after Baptism to receive the Communion and particularly they could not but condemn that Decree as absolutely unnecessary because now-a-days no body laboured to introduce the custome again But the less censorious could not forbear to mark a great want of Judgment in the second Canon which under Pain of an Anathema condemns those that will not believe that the Church had good reason to retrench the Cup. All men wondered that that refusing of the Cup being lookt upon as a matter of Humane Right since by a formal Decree of the Council it was left in suspence whether it should be restored or no should notwithstanding be decided under Anathema as a matter of Divine Right that the Church had reason in refusing it Matters are prepared for the following Session and the Presidents are reconciled This Session being over the Legates thought fit to prepare matters for the next but the Court of Rome judged it absolutely necessary to make the Cardinals of Mantua and Simoneta friends before they proceeded any farther For this reconciliation the Pope imployed the Mediation of Cardinal Gonzaga Uncle to the Cardinal of Mantua and of Alexander Simoneta Brother to the Cardinal of the same name both of them wrote so effectually to their Relations that the peace was made and the Sunday after the Session Simoneta dined with the Cardinal of Mantua They consulted together what means were to be used to satisfie the Pope as to the Point of Residence and the King of Spain as to the Demand he made that the present Council might be declared a Continuation of the former But to extricate them out of these Difficulties a Letter came very opportunely from the King of Spain which ordered the Marquess of Pescara not to insist any more for having the Continuation of the Council declared provided all words that might import that it was a new Council were avoided The same Letter gave orders to acquaint the Spanish Prelates that the King commended their Zeal in making so many instances for having Residence to be declared
the Pope and the Cardinal of Lorrain loaded him with Complements for his Holiness desiring him that he would beseech his Holiness not to take it ill that the King and they by Orders from him did demand things which they judged necessary for the wellfare of France and at the same time and by the same hand offered the Pope his Mediation for taking up the differences about the Institution of Bishops and Residence These Memoires of the French Ambassadours were given to the Legates without the hearty condescension of the Prelates of that Nation For there were some Articles amongst them that tended to the Diminution both of the Authority and Revenues of the Bishops which went against the Hair But they consented that they might be presented to the Council in hopes that the Spanish Bishops who are Great Lords and jealous of their Grandure would have opposed them When they saw that the Memoires were sent to Rome they perceived that it would fall to the Pope's share to cut and carve in them as he had done in all the rest and they were afraid that he might compound with the King of France to their Cost in sacrificing to him the interest of the Bishops to make him spare the Court of Rome as it had been done betwixt Francis the First and Leo X. when they made the Concordat And therefore they began to make secret Cabals to get the Articles that concerned them struck out of the Memoires But Lansac perceiving it called them together and rebuked them severely for daring to oppose the Will of the King There were now two Bishops in Deputation at Rome the Bishops of Vintimiglia and Viterbo The first was employed to make fresh Remonstrances about the Subject of the Institution of Bishops and their Residence that the Pope might put the Decree into another form than that which he had formerly sent He arrived the first of January having made his Journey in seven days He gave the Pope an account of all that past in the Council and of the different dispositions of the Members of it The Pope immediately held a Congregation of Cardinals about the Point of the Institution of Bishops which was most urgent And it was there resolved that the Decision should be sent to the Legates in this form That Bishops hold the chief rank in the Church dependant on the Bishop of Rome by whom they are admitted and received in partem solicitudinis It was upon the main the same with the former but the form a little softer and the Pope for a recompence of the qualification which he had suffered to be made in the Canon of the Institution of Bishops would have the Canon that related to his own Authority to run in these terms That the Pope hath Authority to feed and to govern the Church Universal in place of Jesus Christ who hath imparted to him as his Vicar General all his Authority And ordered his Legates that in the Chapter of Doctrine they should enlarge more upon the matter and make use of the Terms of the Council of Florence which saith that the Holy See that is to say the Pope has the Primacy over all the Church that he is the Successour of St. Peter who was Prince of the Apostles that he is the true Vicar of Jesus Christ the Head of all the Churches the Father and Master of all Christians to whom the Lord hath given full power to govern the Church Universal He enjoyned the Legates not to deviate from that form which had been authorised by a General Council At the same time that he might prevent the designs of the French who would have had a Pope elected by the Council in case the present Pope had died he published a Bull wherein he declared that having intention to goe to Bologna in case he should die in his Journey he ordained that his Successour should not be chosen but at Rome The Bishop of Viterbo who was charged with the Memoires of the French arrived a little time after the instructions of the Bishop of Vintimiglia had been dispatched The Pope very impatiently heard the Memoires read but the Bishop of Viterbo pacified him a little by giving him hopes that if he condescended to some of these Articles a part might be cut off and the rest moderated but particularly he gave him ease when he assured him that the greatest part of the French Bishops disliked those Reformations and that they were ready to oppose them The Pope held a Congregation upon that Subject and it was therein resolved that the Articles should be committed to Doctours of the Canon Law to make their observations upon them At the same time the Pope sent Orders to the Cardinal of Ferrara his Legate in France to represent to the King that some of these Propositions tended to the Diminution of the Royal Authority because they deprived the King of the Collation of Benefices and amongst others of Abbeys that the disposal of Benefices was a very commodious Privilege to him for rewarding his faithfull Servants that to raise the Authority of Bishops was not the way to strengthen the Authority of the King and that the more powerfull Bishops were the more troublesome they were to Princes He sent his Legate likewise Orders to give the King the forty thousand Crowns remaining unpay'd of the hundred thousand which he had obliged himself to furnish him but with all that he should not part from them but upon the Condition that he had till them required I mean the abolition of the Pragmatick Sanction in all the Parliaments He prayed also the King to consider that by diminishing the Revenues of the Holy See he would be deprived of means to procure Respect and Obedience that the Tithes of Tithes were by the Law due to the chief Priest and that they had been wisely converted into Annats and concluded with an exhortation to the King that he would sent new Instructions to his Ambassadours He sent likewise to Trent the Censures and Observations which the Canonists and Divines had made upon the Memoires of the French year 1563 The Minute of the Decree concerning the Pope's Authoritycomes from Rome and meets with much contradiction especially from the French The Courier who brought to Trent the Answer to the Remonstrances which the Bishop of Vintimiglia had been charged with arrived on the fourteenth of January and next day was the time appointed for perfixing the day of the Session A Congregation General was held and it was therein resolved that that deliberation should be put off till the fourth of February because they could not as yet certainly tell when matters might be in a readiness The Legates distributed Copies of the Minute of the Decree which was sent from Rome touching the Institution of Bishops and declared that they would begin the Congregations again for consulting about it These Minutes had the approbation of the Patriarchs and oldest Archbishops who gave their opinions first But when it
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