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
the Turk unless he did confirm the Edicts of Pacification which had been granted to them The Emperour arrived at Wormes on the sixteenth of May where he was attended by Cardinal Farnese the Legate This Cardinal according to the Instructions he had received solicited the Emperour to employ open Force for the reducing of the Protestants which agreed very well with the Intentions of Charles the Fifth who thereupon discovered himself more than ever he had done before and promised the Legate to take up Arms for suppressing the Lutherans so soon as he had concluded a Truce with the Turk At the same time the Cardinal negotiated the same Affairs with the Catholicks and especially the Church-men that were at the Diet promising them in the name of the Pope money and assistance if they would enter into that holy League These Treaties were carried on under the Seal of greatest Secrecy Nevertheless the Protestants suspected some such thing and were the more confirmed in their conjecture by the Indiscretion of a Cordelier who Preaching before the Emperour King Ferdinand and the Legate turned towards the Emperour and told him that by his Character and Dignity he was obliged to defend the Church by Arms. There was Advice likewise from Rome that the Pope dismissing some Officers of War made them a promise to employ them the Year following These Presages made the Protestants apprehend a severe Storm a coming the Emperour however carried it fair and endeavoured to perswade the Lutherans to submit to the Council and to supply Money for the War against the Turk But they looked upon this as a design to drain them under pretext of a Turkish War that so they might the more easily be opprest and therefore they protest against the Council of Trent and persist in demanding a perpetual and unlimited Edict of Pacification The Emperour made answer that he could not exempt them from a Council to which all Christians ought to be subject and that therefore he could not grant them that Peace in the manner they demanded it The truth is he was very far from granting what they desired seeing his design was to make use of their refusal of submitting to the Council for a pretext of proceeding against them as Rebels But it was not as yet time to open his mind freely because of other important Affairs that lay upon his shoulders He therefore left all things in suspence ordaining the Treaty of Peace to subsist untill the Diet which he appointed in January following to be held in the City of Ratisbonne and for amusing the Protestants he granted a conference to be had about matters of Religion betwixt four Doctors and two Judges of each Party to begin in December for preparing of matters against the opening of the Diet. The Emperour caused Herman Archbishop of Cologne to be summoned to appear at this Diet within thirty days either personally or by his Proctor and that because without declaring himself Lutheran he had embraced the Doctrine of Luther and had upon that Foot endeavoured to reform his Diocess both as to Doctrine and Discipline In order whereunto he had in the Year 1543. Assembled the Clergy Nobility and the most considerable Persons of his Diocess And though he disowned all conformity with the Lutherans yet it was easie to be seen that under the Name of Doctrines consonant to the Holy Scriptures he established many Tenets opposite to those of the Church of Rome Most part of his Clergy opposed this and appealed to the Pope as Head and to the Emperour as Protector of the Church which was the pretext of that Citation The Emperour 's whole Conduct in that Diet and especially this last Action extremely vexed the Court of Rome The Prelates assembled at Trent said openly that the Proceedings of the Emperour were scandalous that to decide Affairs of Religion appoint Conferences name Disputants make Confessions and Formularies of Faith cite Archbishops and Church-Men who were accused of Heresie was an evident arrogating to himself a Supremacy in the Church and an Encroachment on the Council which was immediately to be opened The truth is throughout the whole Conduct of the Emperour it is manifest that his sole design was Greatness and the Advancement of his Authority for he let slip no opportunity of invading the Rights of the Pope and the Authority which the holy See challenges to its self The Pope was extremely netled at The Emperour's Proceedings in relation to the Archbishop of Cologne but durst not break forth into resentment all he did was to thwart that Citation by another for he adjourned the Archbishop within two Months to appear before him in Person The Pope will not have the Bishops appear in Council by Proxy But let us now return to Trent where the Prelates made but very slow progress The Kingdom of Naples had one hundred Bishops but the Viceroy conceiving that the absence of so many Prelates if all went to Trent would occasion a great solitude in the Church did therefore name four to goe in their own Names and as charged with procurations from the rest The Bishops who had all a mind to be concerned in that weighty affair opposed the resolution and the Pope who from time to time was to draw his recruits out of Italy according as his occasions did require resolved likewise to withstand the intentions of the Viceroy by a very severe Bull which was already past This Bull ordained that all who should adventure to appear in Council by Proxy should ipso facto incur the censure of Suspension but the Legates themselves judged it a little too rigorous and therefore wrote to the Pope that he would suffer them to keep it secret And this advice of suppressing it appreared afterwards to have been much the safer by what happened in respect of the Envoys of the Cardinal Electour of Mentz They arrived at Trent the 18th of May and produced their Commissions The Legates made some difficulty to admit them because of the Pope's prohibition of appearing by Proxy and the Envoys of the Electour were ready to withdraw and depart had they not been staid by ample Excuses that were made to them telling them that the Pope's order did not reach Persons of the Quality and Character of their Master who was both a Cardinal and a Prince In the mean time the Legates wrote to Rome to represent to the Pope the necessity of qualifying the severity of that Bull who sent them back orders that they should entertain the Procuratours of the Electour of Mentz with fair words and give them the best satisfaction they could but he durst neither recall nor moderate his Bull because of the Viceroy of Naples who had in effect carried it against the Bishops and had got four to be deputed in name of all the rest These four Bishops durst not own neither at Rome nor Trent that they were charged with procurations from the rest so that in the main the Viceroy of
were to be followed Besides these there was a fifth Article proposed to be examined to wit if these matters should be condemned with Anathema's There waited on the Council about thirty Divines most part Monks who till then had been of no use but in making some Sermons in praise of the Pope and Council but now there is work cut out for them for they were employed to open the matters and to make the first inquiry into the controversies and hereupon they discoursed in Congregations appointed for that purpose in presence of the Prelates who afterward gave their Judgment upon what they had learnt in the Congregations of the Divines But the Divines had no Vote in consulting and forming the Decrees The heads above mentioned were therefore stated in the Congregation and left to the disputations of the Divines As to the first head that concerned traditions they were almost all very well agreed that they ought to be received as a part of the revelation of God's Will Antony Marinier is not of opinion that the necessity of Traditions should be made a point of faith But Antony Marinier a Carmelite Monk started a considerable opinion he did not think it pertinent to make that a point of Faith because for asserting the absolute necessity of Traditions one of these two things must be granted Either that God had forbidden to write the whole revelation of his will or that the Prophets and Apostles had written their books at random without design of transmitting that revelation by Scripture and that hence it was that part of that revelation had been written and the rest unwritten he urged that the first could not be proved to wit that God had for bidden to commit all his revelation to writing and that the second was injurious to providence which guided both the Conduct and Pen of these holy Writers He gave therefore his opinion that they should follow the Course of the Fathers who had made use of Traditions when there was occasion without making their necessity a matter of Faith This opinion was not at all like and Cardinal Pool one of the Legates censured it severely saying that it had been sitter to have been started in a Conference of Lutherans in Germany than in a Council Four opinions about the Canonical Books Upon the Article of the Canonical Books there were four opinions some were for ranking them into two Classes that in the first should be placed the Books which had never been contested and in the second those which had this was the Opinion of Luigi di Catanea a Jacobin who grounded it upon the Authorities of St. Jerome and Cardinal Cajetan who had both done so some were for having them divided into three Orders the first of those whereof no doubt was ever made the second of those which had been heretofore questioned but which now are received and the third of those of which no perfect Certainty was ever pretended to The third opinion was for reducing them into a Catalogue without any distinction and in a word some were for naming expresly those Books that had been controverted to the end they might be declared Canonical The Book of Baruch gave them more trouble than the rest because no Pope nor Council had ever cited it for Canonical but a certain Person made a shamefull remark that the Church read part of it in the Desk and that was enough to canonize it By the Eighth of March the Divines had made an end of their Conferences about the Articles proposed to them and next day the Prelates assembled in Congregation to consult conclude and form the Decrees They past the Article of Traditions ordaining the same Authority to be given to them Vergerio drawn over by the Lutherans at length openly declares himself as to the written word and referred to another time the point concerning Canonical Books some days after Don Francisco de Toledo the second of the Emperour's Ambassadours Collegue to Don Diego de Mendoza came to Trent and the same time Vergerio who had a Bishoprick bordering on Germany arrived there also This man was famous for many Nunciatures that he performed in Germany and several Conferences which he had with Luther and the Lutherans by Commission from the Pope But instead of convincing the Lutherans in these Conferences the Lutherans had convinced him and Vergerio had not so well disguised his Sentiments but that he had raised himself an Enemy one Fryar Hannibal an Inquisitour who stirred up a Sedition of the People of his Diocess against him He came therefore to the Council to justifie himself but was ill received and referred to the Pope Instead of going to Rome he resolved to return to his Bishoprick hoping to find the Tumult quieted But the Nuncio that was at Venice sent him orders to the contrary and was preparing to proceed against him by order of the Court of Rome In sine Vergerio took the Course of declaring himself openly and retreating into a place of safety he fled into the Countrey of the Grisons where he made a publick Profession of the Lutheran Doctrine and afterward wrote many things against the Pope and Church of Rome In the Congregation of the 15th of March it was ordained that all the Canonical Books of Scripture should be equally approved of and no distinction made amongst them but there happened great Debates about the vulgar Translation Luigi di Catanea a Jacobin was of opinion that the method of Cardinal Cajetan ought to be followed who had recourse to the Greek and Hebrew texts and had them interpreted to him word for word because he understood not the Languages This Cardinal was wont in his last days to say that they who contented themselves with the Latin text had not the word of God pure and without mixture of errours this Jacobin stood stiff for the Originals against Translations but the Plurality of Votes were for the vulgar Latin and for having its Authority to be absolutely established without any reserve And some were even for having it declared that the Authour of that Translation was guided by a Spirit of Prophecy One reason that influenced the Patrons of the vulgar Translation was that if they re-established the original Greek and Hebrew in their ancient Authority the Grammarians would for the future be the Masters of Theology and the Divines and Inquisitours be obliged to learn the Languages But there were some learned men in that Assembly who could not endure to have it said that the Latin interpreter had a Spirit of Prophecy Isidorus Clarius a Bressian Abbot of St. Benet an able man and versed in the knowledge of Languages refuted that opinion he gave a History of that version and shew'd it to be made up of an ancient Latin Translation which was called the Italick and the version of St. Jerome he endeavoured to prove that it was not the work of one man but of many and that it being made up of pieces patcht together
the Council was not obliged to hear him since the Letter gave not the Council the Title which belonged to them yet they would without prejudice give him Audience Vargas spoke smartly to perswade them to return to Trent But the Cardinal Legate answered proudly that he was President of the sacred Council Legate of Paul III. the Vicar of Jesus Christ that he declared the Council to have been lawfully transferred and that no threatnings could hinder him from continuing it On the contrary he threatned the Emperour that if he endeavoured to obstruct it he should incur the Penalties imposed by the Canons Upon that Answer Velasco read the Protestation wherewith he was charged which in the end came to this The Emperour protests at Rome and at Bologna against the Pope and his Council of Bologna that the Translation of the Council was null and unlawfull with all that had followed or might follow thereupon declaring that the Answer which the Pope and they had given was fraudulent and illusory and that the Emperour should not be obliged to answer for the Mischiefs that might arise from that matter Mendoza likewise on the other side having kneeled down in a full Consistory made the same Protestation to the Pope and having turned towards the Cardinals and protested also against them he withdrew leaving the Paper which he had read behind him This blow did a little amaze the Pope but he quickly came to himself again the Roman Policy was not at a stand in this Juncture they saw that matters would not long subsist in the Biass that was taken And therefore with a Sovereign and matchless Piece of Policy the Pope resolved to bring that affair about another way he well perceived that by that Act of Protestation he himself was brought in as a Party and that was an evident prejudice to the Character of a supreme Judge who can be judged by no man which he claims as his Right He therfore pretended to have understood that that Protestation was not made against him but against the Council and in a Consistory held the first of February 1548 he made answer to Mendoza that in quality of Judge he was very willing to take Cognisance of that Controversie which the Emperour had with the Council of Bologna that he removed the Cause to his own Judgment and that he had named four Cardinals Paris Burgos Pool Crescencio to make a Report to him about it but that was accompanied with long Complaints against that violent way of procedure which was never used but by those who had shaken off the Yoke of Obedience The Imperialists set light by that distinction they would not run into the noose and Mendoza declared that he had Orders to make the Protestation in the form wherein it had been made year 1548 In effect the Pope did all he could to make himself Judge of that affair that so he might not be looked upon as a Party He wrote to the Bishops at Trent that he was ready to hear them he discharged those of Bologna from entring upon any Synodal action untill the Process should be decided The Bishops at Trent answered cunningly to the Pope's Remonstrances insisted with him to remit the Council to Trent and accepted not of the Offer which the Pope made of judging in that matter The Bishops at Bologna were acquainted with the Letter that came from Trent they examined the Articles of it and made answer to them And then as if the Process had been sufficiently stated they pressed the Pope to give Judgment But he durst not because no body appeared to plead the cause of those of Trent and besides that he had no mind to clash any more with the Emperour out of whose hands he would willingly have got Piacenza He therefore bestirred himself with all imaginable care to obtain that place to be again restored to his Family but the Emperour refused to give it back This put the Pope into a Passion and made him threaten to excommunicate those that held it But Charles was not much concerned at these Menaces he briskly answered the Pope that his Conduct did infinitely displease him and that he should take notice that he could no longer suffer the Calumnies which the Court of Rome spread abroad of him as if he intended to make a Schism in the Church because he demanded the re-establishment of the Council at Trent that as to the City of Piacenza it was a Town of the Dutchy of Milan which the Popes had unjustly invaded within a few years that if the Church had any Right to it he should make it out and that he would doe him Justice The Pope essayed to cut out work for the Emperour by means of the Venetians and French but he found them in no disposition to it for he being now upwards of fourscore Years of Age it could not be expected that a League with him could either be succesfull or of long Continuance and besides his own interest being deeply concerned he was not willing to furnish the necessary expence for the War nor to part from such sums of money as he needs must lay out to make any considerable Levies amongst the Venetians The Emperour makes the Interim and a Decree of Reformation at the Diet of Ausbourg These misunderstandings and clashings having put the Emperour out of all hopes of bringing back the Council to Trent he took pretty odd measures at the Diet of Ausbourg He resolved to regulate the Affairs of Religion himself and for that end he named three Divines Julius Phlug Michael Helding Titular Bishop of Sidon and Johannes Agricola of Islebe by whose means he framed a certain Formulary of Faith about all matters of Religion to which he would oblige all the People of Germany to submit untill the Council should define them and therefore that famous Piece was called the Interim It contained thirty five Chapters wherein they endeavoured to qualifie those Doctrines of the Church of Rome which most offended the Protestants as for instance the Marriage of Priests was thereby allowed the Communion in both kinds granted the Sacrifice of the Mass was not called Propitiatory Liberty was allowed to cut off such Ceremonies as tended to superstition the Pope was onely acknowledged head of the Church for Union sake and for preventing of Schism and the power of Bishops was declared of Divine right When this Work came to Rome it met with many Opponents most part were of opinion that it ought to be opposed by the most violent means and strongest Antidotes not onely because it was an unparallel'd undertaking for a secular Prince to meddle in settling the Affairs of Religion but also because the Catholick Religion was notoriously wounded by that Interim But the Pope saw farther than all the rest he smelt out what happened that the Emperour had fallen upon the way of making both Parties against him and therefore he dissembled the dissatisfaction which he conceived at that attempt ordered
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
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
of Discipline But we shall find this Answer to be a great Illusion First of all it is very hard to comprehend why the Church should be indued with an Infallible Spirit only in points of Doctrine and not in matters that should establish Order and Government For certainly it is of the Essence of the Church to be governed according to the intention of God and of Christ as certainly as it is Essential to it to be guided in all Truth Suppose it impossible to retain all the speculative Truths and therefore that Anarchy Confusion and Disorder become prevalent what sort of Church should we have But the better to dissipate this Illusion it is to be observed that there is no Point of Discipline but hath a strict Union with some Point of Right and that there are some Points of Discipline that are Points of Doctrine likewise and of the first Class too For example the Roman Hierarchy the disposition of that great and mighty Clergy distinguished into Priests Bishops Arch bishops Patriarchs Primates over whom is placed their great Head whom they intitle Christs Vicar and Lieutenant upon Earth Is not that a Point of Discipline All that respects the Guidance and Government of the Church the Persons their Characters their Charges their Dignities their Authority and Jurisdiction are they not of the Discipline of the Church If with this Pretext it should be objected to the Romanists Gentlemen your Hierarchy in the whole and in all its parts is a meer matter of Discipline the Church might possibly err concerning it and it is therefore fit to review and re-examine it What would they reply to it Methinks they would answer that it is a Point of Discipline which is also a Point of Doctrine and of Right At least the Council of Trent hath so defined it and hath treated of the Hierarchy under the head of matters of Doctrine There are indeed three kinds of Doctrine the first are purely Speculative as the Mystery of the Trinity the Incarnation and the Redemption the second are Practical respecting our Manners and of this kind are the Moral Precepts that are the Rules for governing our Life and directing our Conscience and the third are those Practical Doctrines that respect the Guidance and Government of the Church that is to say that there must be a Ministry in the Church that Believers ought to obey their Guides that the Residence of Bishops is by Divine Right that the Pastors are instituted by our Lord Jesus Christ that there must be a Lawful Call to the Ministry that so there may be a Right of governing the Church that such Government may not be Tyrannical that the Church may not withdraw Believers from their Lawful Lords in Temporal matters It is most clear that all these are Points of Doctrine respecting Discipline So that a Council that errs in Points of Discipline that have an inseparable Connexion with those Doctrinals does by necessary consequence err in Doctrine But to render this General Consideration the more sensible I will particularly apply it to some Principal Articles of Discipline wherein it is confessed that the Council of Trent hath exceeded the limits of its Power and which I will make out to be Articles of Doctrine also so that such as will confess that Council to have erred in Discipline shall be constrained to acknowledge that it hath erred in Doctrine and in matters of Faith That the Popes Superiority over Councils is a Point of Doctrine and was decided in the Council of Trent Let us begin with the Article of the Superiority of the Council over the Pope or of the Pope over the Council Few are ignorant with what heat this Question has constantly been argued ever since the Councils of Constance and Basil both of which pronounced the Pope inferiour to a General Council and the Gallican Church makes it an Article of her Faith to maintain the decisions of those Councils But I would fain be informed whether it be an Article of Faith or of Discipline yet I think there is no doubt but it will be avowed for a Point of Doctrine it having always been considered as such It is also certainly a Point of Discipline for all that respects the Form of the Churches Government may fitly be brought under the head of Discipline This important matter the Council of Trent hath decided in favour of the Pope and yet the Gallican Church still perseveres in the contrary belief She believes therefore that the Council erred in a Point of Doctrine I know it will be said That the Council of Trent hath not decided that the Pope is Superiour to Councils Men may talk as they please but things for all that will continue as they are It is true that among the Decrees and Canons of that Council there is none that says in express terms The Pope is Superiour to Councils and can be judged by none but the effect of such Decision is apparent in all the Acts and through the whole Conduct of this Council It is necessary for establishing the Sovereignty of a Temporal Prince that the States of his Country make a formal Declaration and thereby acknowledge him their Master and their Sovereign Is it not enough that they obey him that they suspend their resolutions are convened and dissolved at his pleasure that in their Acts they stile him their Lord and their King and that they own that all they do is nothing unless confirmed by his Authority I believe there are none so unreasonable as to deny this to be of equal Value with any express Declaration of Sovereignty We shall therefore make it unquestionably clear that the carriage of the Council of Trent towards the Pope hath been in all points such In order to this it is to be remembred that the fifth Council of Lateran considered by the Court of Rome as a General Council assembled by Julius II. begun in the year 1512 under Leo X. had repealed annulled and abrogated the Pragmatick Sanction which was an Abstract of the Decisions of the Councils of Basil and Constance made at Bourges in the year 1438. by Order of Charles VII in a solemn Assembly of all the Clergy of France and of the Parliaments The grand design of it was to abase the Pope and to retrench the Tyrannical part of his Power the very Basis of all the Regulations and Proceedings of this Assembly being founded upon the Principle of the Subjection of Popes to Councils But then comes Julius II. in his Council of Lateran and re-establishes the Popes Superiority over the Council declaring null and void all that had been done in prejudice of it by the Councils of Constance and Basil Twenty eight years after was the first Convocation of the Council of Trent Between these there had been no General Council nor any thing in prejudice of that Superiority that was so re-established by the Council of Lateran On the contrary there was something actually done of
Points upon which they were to deliberate telling them you shall speak only as I direct you you shall debate the Propositions that I shall make you and you shall not dare to exceed the bounds I set you Yet such was one of the Decrees of the Council signed by all the Fathers and made at the opening of the third and most solemn Convocation of the Council Was there any thing done to remedy the consequences of this Clause Truly just nothing in effect There was a little Decree made and little it signified to pacifie dissatisfied minds it was that the Legats a little before the end of the Council should declare that it was not intended by this Clause to prejudice the liberty of the Council nor at all to alter the manner of proceeding that former Councils had observed but it is not said that there was no intent to prejudice the opinion that subjects the Council to the Pope Those that shall read this History will find by what passed from the twenty second to the twenty third Session what Endeavours were used by the Court of Rome to slide in a Decree among the Acts of the Council to establish the Popes Supremacy There was a Minute of such a Decree sent from Rome wherein it was said that the Pope hath power to govern the Universal Church Ecclesiam universalem The Emperour and the French joyned to oppose it as easily penetrating the Design of exalating the Pope over the whole Church of making him absolute Master of it and by consequence placing him above Councils Well then and what was the issue of the Dispute The Court of Rome feigned to yield the Point and the Decree did not pass but yet the thing was after cunningly done in another Decree where the very words are used but in a way that seems as if it was without design It is in the first Chapter of General Reformation in the last Session where it is said that the Pope has the Administration of the Vniversal Church These words do plainly signifie that the Pope is sole Bishop that the others are but his Delegates and by consequence that he is the Monarch and Superiour of the Church whether it be considered together as a Body or disjunctly in its Parts If the words might admit of another construction yet the very Council it self did thus interpret them and therefore for a time did reject them tho afterwards it received them by inadvertence And this is another express Decision that exalts the Pope above the whole Church It would certainly be tiresom to the Reader should I produce all the Proofs that might be brought to shew that the Council of Trent hath acknowledged the Pope for Superiour For I should then be obliged to speak of the Bulls of Convocation that were registred and received by the Council in which the sole power of convening Councils and presiding in them is ascribed to the Pope contrary to the Decisions of the Councils of Constance and Basil I should also speak of the Bulls of Suspension sent by the Popes to their Legats by which as Masters and Superiours they impowered them to suspend and to dissolve the Council I should in fine be obliged to speak of all that was done in those two important Controversies that made so much noise in the Council that is whether the Episcopal Order were of Christs Institution and whether the Residence of Ecclesiasticks be Jure Divino But I shall leave the Readers to make due Reflections upon the Legats presiding in the Council and their management of affairs I shall only offer two Proofs but the most convincing that can be The first shall be the last Chapter of Reformation in the last Session In this Chapter the Council declares That all that hath been ordained concerning the Reformation of Manners and Ecclesiastical Discipline is so ordained as that the Council will thereby manifest to all the world that the Authority of the holy Apostolick See remains whole and untouched That is to say that the Pope is not bound by the Canons nor tied from dispensing with them when he thinks fit This is not our Gloss but the Court of Rome's it is the plain intent of the Council that framed the Decree it is agreeable to constant and continual Practice for the Pope de facto does daily dispense with the Canons of this Council It could not more plainly be pronounced that the Pope is Master and Sovereign of the Council nor could any thing be more directly contrary to the Decisions of the Council of Constance This latter Council speaks thus in the fourth and fifth Session The holy Synod of Constance duly assembled being a General Council and representing the Catholick Church is empowered immeditely from Jesus Christ which every person of whatsoever condition or dignity tho even of the Papal dignity is bound to obey in all things that relate to Faith the extirpation of Heresie and the Reformation of the Church as well in the Head as in the Members That is to say the Council of Constance declares that the Pope is bound to obey the Canons of the Council And the Council of Trent declares that the Authority of the Council reaches not to the Pope but leaves his Power untouched One of the two Councils has therefore certainly erred for their Decisions are in direct contrariety to each other The last Proof I shall urge is the Confirmation of its Decrees which the Council of Trent desired of the Pope If that does not suppose that without such Confirmation the Decrees of the Council were of no force as the Court of Rome pretends it signifies just nothing If the Validity of the Decisions of a General Council depends upon the Popes Confirmation it it into Propositions and then it runs thus The Church hath Power over the Temporalties of Kings and private Persons can take away their Possessions and give them to others can proceed to Sentence and Execution by Corporal punishment by Imprisonment and Sequestration can take cognisance of the validity of Wills and Testaments can oblige Laymen to give an account of their management of Donations for pious Uses hath Power to exercise all manner of Judicature and in Matrimonial Causes exclusive to all other Tribunals In a word can hear and determine all matters Civil and Criminal Is there not reason then to allow this for Doctrine Is not Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction matter of Doctrine Hath not the Council of Trent treated of it in the Chapter of Order as of a point of Doctrine If the Jurisdiction of the Church be a matter of Doctrine is it not absurd to say that the Decrees to which such Jurisdiction does extend are meerly points of Discipline Are not the Whole and its Parts of one nature Iâ— the Jurisdiction of the Church considered together and in gross belongs to Doctrine why not the parts the branches the extent of it likewise Thus have we another point of Doctrine in which the Gallican Church and
Leo X. of the House of Medicis was chosen in his place the eleventh of March 1513 who quickly re-united the separated Cardinals and reconciled the King of France to the holy See Leo X. had many good qualities for a Prince but few of those that are requisite for a good Pope he was liberal generous gentile civil courteous and a lover of men of learning but he was not over Devout nor much addicted to the affairs of Religion He was magnificent and very expensive insomuch that for a supply to this profusion he was soon forced to betake himself to the means often practised by the Court of Rome for raising of Money Leo X. sends Indulgences into Germany I mean the emission and publication of Indulgences Laurence Pucci Cardinal of Santiquatro advised him to this expedient The original of the tribute of Indulgences and it was a kind of Tribute that took its rise in the Church after the eleventh Century and owes its original to the Croisades which were made at that time for the expedition and conquest of the Holy Land Urban II. granted Indulgences to all that would list themselves under the Cross and engage in that expedition In subsequent Croisades the same Indulgences were granted to those who not being able to goe in person did send a Souldier to the Holy War at length those who desired the benefit of the Indulgences but would neither goe nor send to the War purchased their exemption by money In process of time whensoever the Court of Rome stood in need of money they published a distribution of Indulgences in favour of all that would contribute to their necessities Then were Rates set on Sins and he that had a mind to compound knew what he was to pay for the Crime he desired a Pardon for Leo X. caused therefore a Sale of these Pardons to be published in all the Provinces subject to the Church of Rome and gave to his Sister Magdalene married to Francesco Cibo Natural Son to Pope Innocent VIII the profits that did accrue from the distribution of these Indulgences in the Province of Saxony and a great part of Germany Magdalene for raising of this Tribute made use of one Arembold who from a Genoese year 1520 of the Lutherans from the Church of Rome for on the one hand the Universities of Louvain and Cologne burnt the writings of Luther Luther burns the Pope's Bull and the Book of Decretals and on the other Luther assembled the University of Wittemberg and obtained a sentence whereby not onely the Pope's Bull but all the Decretals were condemned to the flames which was accordingly executed At the same time for his own Justification he published a Manifesto wherein he accuses the Pope as a Tyrant for having usurped a Supremacy over Kings and Princes and corrupted the Doctrine of the Church the Pope was thought to have raised this storm by his Precipitance and by an unseasonable and ill weighed Zeal nor indeed could the more moderate approve the Bull of Leo they thought it violent and were amazed that with so little formality he had ventured to decide matters of so great importance And as every one had a lash at that Bull so the Grammarians were pleased to play upon a Period in it consisting of four hundred words inserted betwixt these two inhibentes omnibus and these other nè praefatos errors asserere praesumant The Emperour Charles the Fifth after the Death of his Grandfather Maximilian being in the Year 1520 chosen Emperour next year after held a Diet at Wormes concerning the Affairs of Religion Luther cited to Wormes before the Emperour Charles the Fifth Luther was cited thither came under safe conduct of the Emperour and appeared before him on the 17th of April there he was exhorted to burn his Books and to recant but he answered with the same resolution that brought him thither for his friends had done all they could to divert him from that Journey and had no other answer from him but that if year 1521 all the Devils in Hell had conspired against him yet would he not be hindered from going thither from appearing and maintaining his opinions all that can terrifie a man or daunt a heart was employed against Luther in that Diet but without any success He would neither recant nor condemn his Doctrine for no more could be obtained from him but an acknowledgment that his manner of writing was too eager and violent which he promised to mend for the future they were about to secure his Person notwithstanding the Emperour 's safe conduct according to the procedure of the Council of Constance in relation to John Huss but the Electour Palatine withstood it and Charles the Fifth himself being unwilling either to stain his reputation or violate his promise by such a Treachery sent him home resolving to prosecute him by fair means and to give him his hands full on 't in an open Trial. Accordingly he was the same year and in the same Assembly accused and sentenced by an Edict past the 8th of May whereby Luther's writings were condemned to be burnt The Edict of Wormes against Luther his Person to be seized within twenty days and committed to prison with strict prohibition to all Princes and States to harbour or relieve him but for all this the Electour of Saxony secured him in a Castle where he continued Nine months no man knowing where he was And now did every one reckon it an honour to appear in publick against him the University of Paris condemned his Doctrine Henry the Eighth of England Henry VIII King of England writes against him who had followed his Studies in order to have been Archbishop of Canterbury before the Death of his Elder brother wrote likewise against him for the seven Sacraments and the Authority of the Pope Leo X. was gratefull to that Prince and in recompence gave him the Title of Defender of the Faith which the Kings of England bear to this day Luther answered all these writings not sparing Henry the Eighth whom without any respect to his dignity he answered with much sharpness and severity All Europe was presently full of these writings and the heat of the controversie and quality of those who engaged in the quarrel excited the Curiosity of many every one was willing to know and pry into the matter under debate and that was the reason why many espoused the Party of those who condemned Corruptions and demanded the Reformation of the Church Zurich receives the reformation of Zuinglius At the same time Zuinglius made great Progresses at Zurich The Bishop of Constance having sent thither the Pope's Bull and the Edict of the Emperour exhorted the Senate to banish Zuinglius and to continue in Submission and Obedience to the Church of Rome but Zuinglius wrote back to the Bishop concerning that matter and to all the Cantons of Suisserland The Senate at length appointed an Assembly of
all the Divines within their Jurisdiction the Bishop of Constance sent thither James le Fevre his great Vicar who was after Bishop of Vienna This man did what lay in his Power to break up the Assembly and to obstruct all Debates about matters of Religion Zuinglius persisted and in fine the Assembly being dissolved the Senate made an order that the Doctrine of the reformed Religion should be preached with full liberty This so sudden and violent growth of the Distemper made all People wish for a general Council as the onely remedy for restoring peace and tranquillity to the Church The Princes desired it in hopes by that means to provide against the Usurpations of the Priests and Bishops who daily invaded the Estates of Seculars the People longed for it for the reformation of the manners of the Clergy which were horribly corrupted the See of Rome seemed to desire it to support its tottering Authority but Luther and his Adherents protested from the beginning that they would not submit to it unless it were free and the Controversies decided onely by the word of God The Pope dreaded this remedy worse than the Disease he apprehended an Assembly where his Authority might be struck at and those Abuses reformed from which the Court of Rome reaped so much profit besides all this he was at a stand about the choice of the place he would with all his heart have held the Council either at Rome or in any other Town of the Ecclesiastick state where he might have been absolute Master but he foresaw that this design must meet with great opposition however his death which happened about the latter end of the year 1521 put an end to all his perplexities ADRIAN VI. After the death of Leo X. Adaian VI. is chosen in his place On the Ninth of January 1522 Adrian born in Utrecht was chosen in his place this Election was somewhat rare because Adrian at that time was absent from Rome and himself not so much as known there he was then in Biscaye and at Victoria received the News of his promotion but arrived in Rome about the end of August the same year Adrian was reckoned an honest and well meaning man P. Adrian desires to reform the Church that did not approve the disorders year 1522 of the Court of Rome he looked upon the Doctrine of Luther as foolish and stupid not thinking it capable to make any great progress but that those who had embraced that party had onely done it to be revenged of the Clergy for the oppression they suffered from them and for the aversion they had to the manners of the Church-men so that purposing by all means to pacifie these troubles he took a resolution of reforming the Court of Rome As for the Doctrine he was onely of opinion to give some Explanations concerning the Efficacy of Indulgences declaring that that Efficacy depends upon the works of those that receive the Indulgences so that they who neglect or perform amiss the works imposed upon them receive no benefit from the Indulgences but in proportion to their works Cardinal Cajetan a man consummated in School Divinity was at the bottom of the same Judgment with Adrian but he told him however that that Doctrine was not to be divulged because it would extinguish the Zeal that People had for Indulgences and lessen the Authority of the Pope for said he if once the People be perswaded that the Efficacy of Indulgences depends upon their own good works they will look upon themselves as the cause of the benefit they reap from them and set light by the Pope and the present that he makes them and farther they will easily be induced to believe that their good works alone are sufficient to procure them a full remission if they be allowed to think that the Efficacy of Indulgences depends upon their good works These reasons did preponderate with Adrian insomuch that he joyned in opinion with the Cardinal who thought fit that the rigour of the ancient penitential Canons should be revived that thereby the Necessity of Indulgences might appear because when Sinners should see themselves obnoxious to twenty or thirty years Penance according to the Canons they would then easily acknowledge the absolute Necessity of Indulgences to ease them from such severe pains but the Congregation appointed by the Pope to enquire into that affair could not digest that resolution and Laurence Pucci Cardinal of Santiquatro powerfully withstood it But he could not succeed in the design of that Reformation Adrian in the mean while did not wholly lay aside the design of reformation he sent for John Peter Caraffa Archbishop of Chieti and Marcel Cazel Bishop of Cajeta that he might have the assistance of their Councils because both were held in great reputation for probity and knowledge in the Discipline of the Church He was minded to have abolished the use of Dispensations and to have cut off every thing that looked like Simony but when he came to cast about for the means of effecting this he found himself in great Perplexity At length Francis Soderin Cardinal of Volterre put a stop to all these specious designs of reformation He told the Pope that that was the way to puff up the Lutheran party that it would be a great blow to the Authority of the Church by a reformation to confess her possibility of erring that Hereticks would from thence draw great advantages and that the holy See would by that means lose all its credit in the minds of the People he concluded that Croisades were the onely expedient to root out growing Heresies which he confirmed by the Instance of that great success obtained by Innocent III. in the ruine of the Albigenses by the way of force Adrian yeilded to his reasons seeing he could doe no more but sigh in secret for the Disorders which he could not remedy publickly In the mean while he sent Francis Cherigat Bishop of Fabriano to the Diet at Nuremberg he wrote to the Princes Adrian sends a Letter into Germany confessing that the Church and Court of Rome are corrupted and particularly to the Duke of Saxony exhorting them to extirpate the Lutherans by Fire and Sword He confessed to them that there were great abused in the Court of Rome and that the original of all the Mischief came from thence promising to remedy it and in the first Place to reform the holy See in imitation of our Lord Jesus Christ who in reforming of Jerusalem began at the Temple out of which he drove the Merchants and Money-changers but he excused himself that that was not the business of one day at the same time he complained of the disorders of the Regular and Secular Priests of Germany of which the one forsook their Monasteries to live again in the World and the others married to the great Scandal of the Church The Diet made answer in a kind of ambiguous manner but which did insinuate to the
Pope that all the Mischief sprung from the Court of Rome and that therefore before any violent course could be used against the Lutherans it was necessary to attempt the Reformation of the Ecclesiasticks they demanded that the Annates which had been formerly appointed for carrying on the War against the Turks might be no more sent to Rome but that they should remain in the Empire in the hands of a Receiver to be named for which he should be accountable In a word they solicited the Pope speedily to call a free Council in Germany where all as well Seculars as Church-men might have free liberty to speak their opinions This discourse did not at all please the Nuncio and therefore he addressed himself in a manner not very satisfactory to the Diet for his answer tended onely to let them know that Germany ought to suffer with patience and expect the Reformation from the holy See and withall told them that he took it ill that in demanding a Council the Diet had added these words with the Consent of his Imperial Majesty The secular Princes who felt the oppression stopt not there they met by themselves and formed that famous writing which they called centum gravamina the hundred Grievances the Nuncio had notice of it but he departed before it was drawn up fair and therefore they themselves sent it to the Pope These hundred Grievances related chiefly to the oppression that the Seculars suffered from the Church-men the Usurpation of their Estates by the Clergy the means practised by the Church-men and Court of Rome to pillage the People the Annates Reservations abuse of Commendums the selling of the Sacraments and Burying the Exemptions of the Clergy and the manner of transferring Causes from Civil to Ecclesiastick Courts And because the Emperour Charles the V. was then in Spain the Diet that was held in his absence did both act and speak with greater Liberty so the Recess that is to year 1523 say the Decree of the Diet past sixth of March 1523. and immediately thereafter all the Memoires of it were printed to wit the Pope's Brief the Nuncio's instructions the Diets answer and the hundred Grievances Those that were engaged in the Interests of the Court of Rome were not well pleased to find in the Brief the frank and ingenuous Confession of Adrian that the original of the Mischief proceeded from the Corruption of his Court and the looseness of the Discipline and Manners of the Church This Diet did certainly much forward the Affairs of the Lutherans but Adrian lived not long after the Return of his Nuncio for he died the 13th of September 1523. without being much lamented by the Court of Rome who stood in awe of his Probity and the sincere Intentions which he still retained in his Heart of reforming the Abuses of that Court. CLEM. VII Adrian dies without any thing done Julius of Medicis is chosen in his place by the name of Clement VII On the nineteenth of November Julius of Medicis Cosin to Leo X. was chosen Pope who took the name of Clement VII he was certainly a man of less vertue than Adrian but of more wit greater politick cunning and address and more skill in the true interests of the Court of Rome He took a course quite opposite to that of Adrian and was not of opinion to acknowledge so frankly the disorders which he intended not to meddle with Nevertheless seeing he observed in the centum gravamina He sends another Legate into Germany to the Diet at Nuremberg that most of the Articles referred to the German Clergy he thought fit in some things to satisfie the Germans He therefore sent Laurence Campeggio Cardinal of St. Anastase to the Diet at Nuremberg which was held in the year 1524. year 1524 he gave him his instructions to act and speak in that Diet as if he had been wholly ignorant of what had past the year before under Adrian for the Cardinal spoke not a word of the hundred Grievances but onely offered a Reformation of the inferiour Clergy The Diet made answer that they were in the same mind as they had been the year before and that they had given in writing what they demanded and what they thought necessary for composing the troubles of Religion The Cardinal answered that neither the Pope nor he had ever heard of any Writings being presented to the College of Cardinals that indeed some Copies of the centum gravamina had been seen at Rome but that it was not believed that that Writing had been framed by the Princes of the Empire but was rather looked upon as the work of some private person a great enemy to the Court of Rome He added that the Pope was ready to satisfie the Germans touching the Reformation and that he himself had a full power to set about it The Diet built no great hopes upon these fair promises however they deputed some Princes to confer with the Cardinal but these conferences produced nothing at all for the Princes persisted in demanding the Reformation of the Court of Rome and the Cardinal refused it nor would he engage any farther than in reforming the Clergy of Germany In that he was as good as his word for he made a kind of Reformation which reached onely the puny Clergy but it was rejected by the Diet who perceived that it made onely for raising the power and greatness of the Prelates by lessening their inferiours The 18. of April the Diet pass'd their Edict the Emperour being absent as he was the year before Amongst other things it was concluded in that Recess that a free Council should by the Pope and consent of the Emperour with all expedition be convened in Germany that the States of the Empire should assemble at Spire to examine Luther's Books and to advise about the measures that ought to be taken concerning matters of Religion till that Council were called and in the mean time that the Magistrates should take care that the Gospel should be preached according to the Doctrine of Authours approved by the Church and that no Pamphlets or Books injurious to the Court of Rome should be published The Legate assembles the Catholick Princes at Ratisbonne and obtains a Decree against Luther The Legate being altogether dissatisfied with these resolutions prevailed with the Catholick Princes to assemble at Ratisbonne where in presence of Ferdinand the Emperour's Brother he got a Decree past against the Lutherans which commanded that the Edict of Wormes should in all points be put in execution against Luther He did more for he perswaded those Princes to admit of that gentle Reformation of the Clergy whereof he had proposed the Scheme and in a word got these Catholick Princes to enter into a League defensive for the preservation of their Estates and Religion The rest of the Princes and States of Germany without whom this Assembly at Ratisbonne was held complained loudly against it but the Cardinal Legate did not much
Pope At Valladolid where he was when the News was brought him he caused the publick rejoycings that then were making there for the Birth of his Son to cease but made no haste for all that to set the Pope at liberty onely sent him great Complements of Condoleance for his Misfortunes and ample Excuses for what had been acted against him and in the mean time let him lie seven Months in Prison Nor would he at all have been dissatisfied it the Pope had been brought into Spain that he might have triumphed over him as he had done before over Francis I. But the Spanish Prelates abhorring that design he durst not push it farther onely he obliged the Pope to accept of ignominious Conditions of Peace and for Caution to give him up the Towns of Ostia Civita Vecchia Civita Castellana and the Citadel of Forli with his tow Nephews Hippolito and Alexander for Hostages This being concluded he had liberty to goe out on the 9th of December but he thought it not fit to expect the prefixed day nor to come out as a released Prisoner he therefore retired by Night on the Eighth under the disguise of a Merchant and went to Monte-Fiascone During the troubles of Italy the affairs of Religion went ill for the interest of the Court of Rome for the City of Berne in Suisserland following the example of Zurich Zuinglius's Reformation gains ground in Suisserland Berne and Basil embrace it received the Doctrine Zuinglius At Basil they broke down the Images and the same year the Cities of Strasbourg Constance and Geneva fell off from their obedience to the Church of Rome These new Preachers had the boldness to preach the Doctrine of Reformation even in Italy and in places subject to the Pope's Dominion and amongst others in the Town of Faenza which belongs to the Ecclesiastick State 1528. The Imperialists quit Rome the Pope makes Peace with the Emperour The year following the countenance of affairs was much changed in Italy The French made great progresses in the Kingdom of Naples and forced the Imperialists to abandon the City of Rome This little interval wrought such an alteration that the Pope was solicited to excommunicate the Emperour and to depose him from the Kingdom of Naples but he found his Party as yet too weak to venture on giving so great a blow He had besides other prospects than those of his Allies a great mind to recover Florence and knew of none but the Emperour that could serve him that Design for as to the Venetians and French he was sufficiently perswaded that if they had the better on 't they would leave the Florentines to their liberty He therefore resolved to be reconciled to the Emperour upon any terms whatsoever Throughout this whole year his discourse was so submissive and humble that for some time it was really thought his afflictions had humbled him in good earnest He often said year 1528 that he would goe in person into Germany and there lead so holy a Life that all might take example from him be converted and return into the bosom of the Church year 1529 By this Conduct Clement succeeded in his Intentions he moved the Emperour to compassion who restored to him Civita Vecchia Ostia and the other cautionary Towns and by the mouth of Francis Guignonez Cardinal of Santacroce made him great offers on his part Amongst other things Charles obliged himself to re-establish Alexander de Medicis the Pope's Nephew in the Principality of Florence and to give him Margaret his natural Daughter in Marriage He promised him also assistance for recovering of the Towns of Cervia Modena Ravenna and Reggio which the Venetians and the Duke of Ferrara had taken from him Nor were the Lutherans forgot in this Treaty for the Emperour promised to employ his Arms against them if no fair means could prevail On his own part he demanded of the Pope the Convocation of a Council but nothing was then fixt upon as to that And thus by this Treaty which was held at Barcelona the See of Rome did as it were in a moment recover its ancient Splendour and Greatness to the amazement of all Europe A Diet at Spire where it is attempted to divide the Lutherans and Zuinglians The same year in the Month of March there was a Diet held at Spire where the Roman Catholicks powerfully bestirred themselves to divide their Adversaries and for that end industriously improved the difference of opinions that was betwixt Luther and Zuinglius concerning the Doctrine of the Eucharist But the prudence of the Landgrave of Hesse hindered year 1529 the effects of those intrigues many and great Debates past in that Diet about Matters of Religion and at length a decree was made ordering the Edict of Wormes to be put in Execution in all places where it had been begun to be executed but as for other places where some innovation had been made matters should continue at least as they were without farther proceeding untill the ensuing Council and that in the mean time no person should be permitted to turn Lutheran after all the Decree ordained that the Celebration of Mass should be permitted every where and that no new opinions should be started The Electour of Saxony with five other Princes and fourteen of the chief Towns of Germany protested against this Decree declaring that they could not recede from the resolutions that had been taken in former Diets whereby every Prince was allowed to live in his own Religion and to have power within his own Territories either to establish the reformation or prohibit the Exercise of the Roman Religion as he should think fit And thereupon they appealed to the Emperour and a free Council from this Protestation the Followers of Luther and Zuinglius got the Name of Protestants The Landgrave of Hess attempts an agreement betwixt Luther and Zuinglius but without success The Landgrave of Hesse having in the last Diet well observed what might be the consequences of the difference in opinion betwixt Luther and Zuinglius formed a design of bringing them to an Agreement and to compass this design he assembled the heads of both parties to a Conference at Marpurg which lasted all the Month of October But these Conferences had no effect flesh and bloud came in for a share and both parties were too much addicted to their Sentiments to yield in any thing Some time after Luther wrote to one of his Friends that he would not expose the Princes of his party to a greater hatred of the Romanists by Adopting the expressions of the Zuinglians which were detested by all men And this probably was the consideration that hindered him from condescending to the agreement proposed The first interview of the Pope and the Emperour at Bologna the Emperour is Crowned there by the Pope In the Treaty concluded betwixt the Emperour and the Pope it was agreed that the Emperour should receive the Imperial Crown from the Pope
promised the Protestants that if the Council made no progress in the decision of Controversies he himself would call a Diet to end all differences in Religion They therefore alledged that if they did not first meddle with matters of Doctrine they could not hinder the Germans from taking a course of their own without expecting the Decisions of the Council In was thereupon concluded that the matter of Reformation and of Doctrine A debate about the Seal that the Council was to use for their Letters should goe hand in hand together there arose also some debates about the Seal which the Council should make use of in sealing the Letters that they might have occasion to write to the Pope to give him thanks and to Kings to invite them to send their Prelates to the Council Most part were for the Councils having a Seal and some proposed to have it of Lead with the Image of the holy Ghost on one side and the name of the Council on the Reverse others proposed other forms but the Legates had no mind to any of them they cunningly told them there was no Engraver at Trent that they must therefore send to Venice which would be tedious and that it were better at present to make use of the chief Legate's Seal This seemed to be no great matter but however there was somewhat in it for the Court of Rome were not for the Councils having a proper Seal that so all its Authority might in every thing seem to depend on the Pope Inferiour and dependant Courts seal their orders with the Seal of the Prince and they had a mind to bring the Council to that And thus did the Legates find ways of amusing the Prelates that they might gain time according to the Pope's intentions till their instructions were sent them But in this they found no matter that could deserve a decision the day of the Session approached and they could not imagine what excuse to make since they intended neither to treat of any Article of Doctrine nor of Reformation At length Cardinal Pool hit upon a very seasonable expedient To amuse the Council the Creed is published that in that Session the symbol of the Creed of the Church of Rome ought to be confirmed and published The sharper sighted alledged that it was to expose the Council to derision to publish and confirm a Creed which for twelve hundred years had been universally received in the Church at a time when there were so many controversies to be determined But that reason had no effect and the Legates were overjoyed to have found out that Biass to take them off from litigious contests The Decree past upon it notwithstanding all the opposition of those who said that after the pursuits and negotiations of twenty years they were now at length assembled to hear the rehearsal of the Creed Third Session The Session was held the fourth of February and the Prelates went in body to the Church with the usual Ceremonies though in secular habit but took their Pontificals when they came into the Church Peter Tagliava Archbishop of Palermo officiated and Ambrosio Catarino of Siena a Jacobin Monk made the Sermon Afterwards according to the Decree of the Council the Creed was read with a Preface importing that therein they imitated the ancient Councils which secured themselves with that shield against Heresies before they began to act any thing Then was read the other Decree whereby the next Session was appointed to be the eighth of April that is two Months after The Legates used a pretext for that long interval that it behoved them to expect the coming of many Prelates who were on their Journey to the Council The Reformation advances in Germany The opening of the Council and the small matters that were acted in it hindered not but that the affairs of Religion proceeded in the same manner as before in Germany the Reformation advanced in some states whilst it was opposed in others The Elector Palatin re-established the Communion under both kinds the marriage of Priests and the Divine Service in the vulgar tongue and that was a beginning of Reformation that at that time went no farther The Conference at Ratisbonne which produced nothing The conference of Ratisbonne which the Emperour had appointed the year before began in the Month of January and the Emperour deputed the Bishop of Eichstadt and the Count of Furstemberg to preside therein in his name But it had no happy issue for the Emperour 's own Deputies without doubt according to the instructions and intentions of their Master who had no other design by these conferences but to amuse the Protestants and give Jealousie to the Pope first crost and then broke it off However his design being to find a pretext of War with the Protestants he made a great noise about the rupture of that conference came to Ratisbonne in Person wrote and complained of it to all the Princes of the Empire The same year Martin Luther died in his great Climacterick being sixty three years of age on the tenth of February The death of this Man filled all the Catholicks with Joy who verily believed that the great work of the pretended Reformation would certainly fall to the ground after the death of him that first set his hand to it The Council of Trent looked upon that accident as a presage that Heresie should be overthrown by its Authority since that in the beginning of its Actions the great Haeresiarcha was fallen But such kind of Prognosticks are not always certain as experience hath demonstrated After the third Session which was held the fourth of February the Legates wrote to Rome At length they prepare to begin the Examination of matters and chuse that of the Scriptures shewing the impossibility of holding the Members of the Council any longer in suspence or of putting them off with trifles as had been done till then The Pope therefore at length gave consent that they should set to work in good earnest and the Legates were of opinion that they ought first to begin with the subject of the Scripture The Council had been in doubt where to begin for confuting and censuring the Doctrine of Luther some were for following the order of the confession of Ausbourg but others thought that that would be too great an honour for the Confession they liked better to have abstracts made of their Books and to follow the order that the Divines should think most proper The Doctrine of the Protestants that they intended to condemn was reduced to four Heads The first was concerning the sufficiency of holy Scriptures and the necessity of Traditions the second of the Canonical Books and their number the third was about the Authority of the Vulgar Translation and the necessity of having recourse to the Originals the fourth related to the Intelligibleness and Perspicuitie of the Scripture the sense that it ought to be taken in and the Interpreters that
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
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
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
his Legate at Ausbourg to make but a slight opposition to it and then to depart that he might not be present at the publication of the Interim giving him instructions in the mean time to sow Seeds of Jealousie betwixt the German Prelates and the Emperour and to alarm the Protestants by insinuating to them that it was onely an invention to oppress their Liberty and Conscience and that it was no snare laid for the Catholicks of whose faith the Emperour could not make himself Judge The fifteenth of May that Book was read in presence of the Assembly and no body durst contradict it though all were displeased None but the Electour of Mentz spoke and thanked the Emperour of his own head without any Commission from the rest and the Emperour seemed to accept of those thanks as a general approbation Farthermore on the fourteenth of June following Charles caused a Decree of Reformation to be published containing two and twenty Chapters and about one hundred and thirty Ordinances for the Reformation of the Clergy against the Plurality of Benefices concerning the Duty of Preachers the Ceremonies of the Sacraments and their Administration concerning Discipline the Clergy Schools Universities Councils Excommunication c. and very good Regulations were made in all these particulars but that Piece was as ill taken at Rome as the Interim not onely because these Regulations did in no wise jump with the interest of that Court but also because it is a fundamental Law at Rome that no Secular has any right of giving Laws to Church-men Nevertheless that Piece of Tyranny was born with because it could not be helped At the same time an Act past in the Diet commanding Provincial and Diocesan Synods to be held yearly for settling the Decree of Reformation The Diet ended the last day of June and the Edict was published wherein the Emperour engaged himself to procure the Council to be continued at Trent Much opposition made to the Establishment of the Interim After that Charles set about the Execution of the Interim but was almost every where opposed by the Protestants Frederick Duke of Saxony though a Prisoner refused to submit to it and a little Town in Germany made upon that occasion a Remonstrance which deserves to be transmitted to Posterity If our Lives and Fortunes belong to you said they suffer our Conscience at least to be God's If you were perswaded of the truth of this form of faith it would be a powerfull Motive to make us embrace it But seeing you your self look upon it as false why would you have us receive it as true For the truth is the Emperour had no design to perswade the World that he himself had renounced the Doctrines of the Church of Rome which he had either impaired or qualified in his Interim On the contrary in the Preface he prohibited all those who had till then continued in the Roman Communion to make any alteration in Doctrine or Ceremonies Though this opposition was pretty general yet some consented to admit of that Interim or at least pretended to do so But the City of Magdebourg did formally reject it and in such a slighting way too as obliged the Emperour to declare them Rebels and make War against them They maintained that War a long time and obstinately refused to surrender The Emperour had likewise expresly commanded that no man should write against the Interim and nevertheless a whole swarm of writings came forth against that Book both from Protestants and Roman Catholicks Francisco Romeo General of the Jacobins by command of the Pope assembled the most Learned of his Order and caused a smart Refutation of it to be made It had the ill luck also to stir up division amongst the Protestants of Germany that is to say betwixt those who had admitted of it and those who would not and divided them into two Sects for they who in compliance with the Emperour had allowed the re-establishment of the ancient Ceremonies in that justified their own Proceedings maintaining Ceremonies to be things indifferent But the rest objected that weakness to them as a great Crime and separated themselves from them calling them the Indifferent or Adiaphorists The Execution of the Edict of Reformation which the Emperour had made caused as great troubles for the German Prelates who stuck fastest to the Pope desired that at least he might have some hand in the business and therefore the Emperour at their Solicitation acquainted the Pope with all that he had done and prayed him to send Legates to joyn with him in his design of Reforming the Church of Germany The Pope had it least in his thoughts to become the Executor of the Orders of an Emperour whom he looked upon as an Usurper of his Rights Nevertheless that he might not absolutely break with the Germans who he feared might make a general revolt and lest in imitation of Henry the Eighth King of England Charles might declare himself Head of the Church he resolved to send two Legates not for executing the Edict of Reformation but to give Absolution to the. Lutherans who should return into the Bosome of the Church with power to grant all manner of Dispensations even as far as to allow the Communion in both kinds to those who would confess that the Church doth not err in prohibiting it He gave them likewise Authority to abrogate some of the Ceremonies of the Church and to remit somewhat of the ancient Discipline He empowred them not onely to absolve Seculars Princes and Towns but also Apostate Monks who had left their Monasteries allowing them to live abroad in the World provided that under the habit of Secular Priests they should wear that of Regulars This last seemed a pretty odd kind of an Order and a Mystery that no body could tell what to make of He caused Copies of this Bull to be dispersed that so he might thwart the Edict of Charles and retreive the possession of the power of Reforming Manners and Doctrine which the Emperour would have invaded In execution of the Emperour's Edict some Provincial Synods were held in Germany The Archbishop of Cologne called one wherein some good Acts were made concerning Discipline which were approved by Charles the Fifth but no mention at all of matters of Faith The Electour of Mentz observed not the same measures for in his Synod he made eight and forty Decrees about matters of Faith and fifty six concerning the Reformation of Discipline In things that had been decided he followed the Council of Trent and in the rest the most received opinions of the School-men except in the point of Images where he declared that Images are onely appointed for bare Commemoration and not for objects of Devotion and in that of Saints where he asserts that the honour due to Saints is an honour of Society and Dilection and not a Religious Worship The Nuncio's who were named in the year 1548. set not forward on their Journey to Germany
January but onely with the Character of a Bishop but in the twenty fourth of February he presented his Commission and made a long discourse in praise of his Master at that meeting the Fathers of the Council were strictly enjoyned Secrecy About the same time Lewis de Saint Gelais Lord of Lansac was sent from France Ambassadour extraordinary to Rome The Pope was highly offended that the liberty of preaching had been granted to the Protestants by the Edict of January and Lansac's chief instructions were to excuse that action He cast the blame upon the misfortune of the times and the impossibility of resisting so great a Torrent because most of the great men were engaged in that Party The Pope was not satisfied with these excuses saying that he prayed God to pardon those who were the cause of so many evils The Designs of the Queen of France for Reformation However designs of afar different nature were hatching in France which would have netled the Pope much more if he had known them The Queen mother sent for the Bishops of Valence and Seez the Doctours Bouthilier Dispense Picherel and Maillard famous Divines to St. Germain that they might consult together about the Reformation of the abuses committed in the use of Images They were all almost of opinion to prohibit the making of any Images of the Trinity the rendering any worship to other Images and the carrying of any in procession but the Cross But Nicholas Maillard Dean of the Sorbonne did so oppose it that in this nothing was concluded no more than in the Conference at Poissy These Conferences were procured by the King of Navarre who favoured the Reformation but durst not advance towards it but slowly The Princes of the House of Guise the Duke and Cardinal of Lorrain entertained far contrary designs to those of the King of Navarre but by an action they did at this time they easily made it appear that what they would have had taken for Zeal in Religion was a piece of carnal Wisedom that struck at the Ruine of a Party which obstructed their way to the Crown They had a Conference at Saverne with the Duke of Wirtemberg a Protestant Prince and his Ministers In this Conference they endeavoured to engage the Lutherans in a League against the Protestants of France under Pretext that the Huguenots of France were Zuinglians and different from them in their opinion about the Eucharist These so Catholick Princes were very willing to enter into Alliance with Hereticks that did them no prejudice for the Ruine of other Hereticks who stood too much in their way as they thought but this Conduct created Jealousies in the minds both of the Pope and King of France because the King did not like that his Subjects should entertain secret Conferences with Strangers and the Pope understood not the meaning of such a Union with Hereticks and it was this interview perhaps that gave occasion to the Rumour that was spread abroad afterwards that the Cardinal of Lorrain was very favourable to the Confession of Ausburg Nay it was reported of him that after the Council of Trent he should have said that he had been once of the opinion of that Confession but that after the Decisions of the Council he had submitted session 18 February 26 the Session was held wherein there happened some Contests about Precedence betwixt the Portuguese and Hungarian Ambassadours The Ambassadour of Hungary as being a Bishop sate on the left side of the Church on the Legates right hand in the rank of the Prelates and he of Portugal as being a Secular sate on the right side where the Ambassadours and Oratours of Princes were placed So that in that respect they could have no Debate but the Quarel broke out when the Instructions of their Princes were to be read To compose this difference without prejudicing the Rights of the Parties the Council ordered that these Instructions should be read according to the order of time wherein they had been presented and so Portugal went first Then the Pope's Brief whereby the matter of the Index was referred to the Council was read for seeing Pope Paul had medled in that affair the Council thinking that the Holy See had taken the Cognisance thereof to it self would not undertake the Examination of it without the Pope's permission Last of all the Decree was read by Antonio Helio Patriarch of Jerusalem who had officiated This Decree imported that the matter of the Index was referred to a Committee named by the Council that the Council invited all who had made Separation from the Roman Church to peace and reconciliation promising in Congregation to grant them a Safe-conduct in the same form as had been formerly granted and the next Session was appointed to be the 14th of March The Legates had written to Rome to know in what form they should invite those who had shaken off the Yoke of the Church to repentance and of what extent the Safe-conduct should be The Pope judged it not convenient to grant an oblivion nor to invite Hereticks because it was his opinion it would be to no purpose and for the Safe-conduct he thought it might be granted in General terms according to the form of that which was given to the Germans in the year 1552. but he would not condescend that the same Safe-conduct should be granted to those who lived under the Inquisition Nevertheless he would not have that exception mentioned lest it might be thought that the Pope had not a Supreme Power over the Tribunal of the Inquisition and that he could not exempt any from the Rigours of the same In the beginning of March the Council held several Congregations about that point and at length the Legates brought matters so about that the resolutions of the Council agreed exactly with the Sentiments of the Pope So they adjusted the form of the Decree which was divided into three Articles In the first the Council granted the Germans a Safe-conduct in the same form as it had been granted them before In the second this Safe-conduct was extended to all places where they preached and publickly taught Doctrines contrary to the Doctrine of the Church In the third it contained this Qualification that though the Safe-conduct seemed not to extend to all Nations yet none who would return into the bosome of the Church should be excluded from the benefit of the Oblivion and that a Safe-conduct was also intended for that third sort But as to these last the Council did not perform the promise The German Ambassadours were still for pressing a Reformation and now the Emperour's Ministers desired that they would write to the Protestants to invite them to the Council As to this last point the Legates answered that that was the way to expose the Councils Letters to the danger of being used by the Protestants as the Nuncio's of his Holiness had been already served that is with insolence and indignity As to the matter of
Spaniards say that the Presidents spoke in the Style of very humble Servants but acted like very absolute Masters Afterwards the French joyned with the Ambassadours of the Emperour and King of Spain to demand that in the next Session the point of Residence which had been sufficiently examined might be decided they said farther that the King their Master expected that they would treat of Reformation before they entered upon Doctrines that the Protestants seeing the Church reformed might more easily submit to the Decisions that should be made in points of Doctrine Cardinal Simoneta answered cunningly as to the matter of Reformation that it was a difficult point seeing it depended in part on the correction of the abuses which Princes committed in bestowing of Benefices and that he had a special regard to the Kings of France who by virtue of a Concordat made betwixt Leo X. and Francis I. had the Nomination to all great Benefices by which Canonical Elections were abolished This work spoken in season stopt the Ambassadours mouths as to that particular but it was not so easie a matter to stop them as to the point of Residence the excuse that the Legates made being evidently ridiculous for they alledged that the matter had not been sufficiently examined and nevertheless nothing was ever more what the Legates reason wanted in force it had sufficiently in Authority which gives weight to the weakest Arguments so great was the sharpness of contention that this matter occasioned that many of the Bishops beyond the Alpes were just ready to protest and be gone But the Ambassadours who saw that the Pope desired no better than to have an occasion to break up the Council put a stop to that they thought it more expedient to wave the points of Residence and of the Continuation of the Council than to give an occasion of a Rupture Nevertheless the Pope who earnestly sought for an opportunity of dissolving the Council resolved to declare according to the desire of the King of Spain that that Assembly was a continuation of the Council of Paul III. and Julius III. that he might thereby give occasion to the Germans and French to protest and withdraw He therefore sent orders to his Legates to make that Declaration which troubled them extremely They had had much adoe to prevail with the French and Germans not to insist any more on that particular and they could not tell how they could handsomely come off with it They therefore sent to Rome Cardinal Altemps the Pope's Nephew to inform him of the State of Affairs and to take him off of that resolution which would doe great Damage to his Reputation and occasion the dissolution of the Council session 20 And now the fourth of June being come the Session was held wherein the Commissions of the Ambassadours of the Archbishop of Salisburg and King of France were read Cardinal Altemps and the Prelates of the faction of the Court of Rome had been prickt to the quick by Pibrac's harangue so that they resolved to give him an answer this Session in a strain capable to repell the Insolence of that prating Barrister for so they called him Baptist a Castello Promooter of the Council had orders to prepare himself to answer Pibrac's Speech which he did with much sharpness according to his Instructions he made an Apology for the precedent Councils which had been blamed and justified this from the indirect Reflexions that had been cast upon it of swaying with the interests of Princes and giving occasion to the snares of the Devil by a damnable compliance The French were not very well pleased with that Harangue nor indeed was it the Legates intention to please them Afterwards the Decree was read which was onely an Act giving reasons why the Publication of the Decrees was put off till the next Session which was appointed to be the twenty sixth of July They propose in the Congregations to treat of the Communion in both kinds and of the Communion of Children In the Congregation that was held in the Afternoon the same fourth day of June six Articles were proposed concerning matters to be handled in the ensuing Session to wit the Communion of young Children and the Communion in both kinds But they could not tell how to set about it because these Points had been already handled in the Council of Julius and not decided some were of opinion that they should make use of the matter that had been prepared to their hand They alledged that if they must hear the Sentiments of fourscore and eight Divines that were at Council upon that subject it would make tedious work that therefore it was better and a more compendious way to publish the Decrees which were already framed Here the Champians for the Divine Right of Residence took occasion to renew the Quarel and thirty Bishops moved that the Point of the Cup might be adjusted in a few days provided the Method that had been proposed were followed but that it was now time according to the promise that past to treat of the Point of Residence others again warmly opposed it so that heats beginning to arise there was like to have been some noise if the Cardinal of Mantua had not wisely pacified them promising to treat of Residence when they came to handle the Sacrament of Orders But Cardinal Simoneta was not satisfied that the Cardinal of Mantua had inconfiderately engaged to bring the Point of Residence upon the Stage again without the Pope's Order The Germans present their Demands to the Council tending to Reformation which amaze the Pope and oblige him to look to his own Security The Germans had some satisfaction in that they had obtained the Communion in both kinds to be handled and thought it now time to propose the things which they had orders to demand so that according to the instructions they had received from the Emperour they presented to the Legates twenty Articles of Demands tending to Reformation and particularly to the Reformation of the Court of Rome In these Memoires they demanded that the number of Cardinals should not exceed twenty six that no more Dispensations nor Exemptions should be granted against Common Law that the Monasteries should be subjected to the Bishops that Plurality of Benefices should be taken away that Bishops should be obliged to Residence without spending time in cavilling about the question whether it be of Divine right or no that Ecclesiastical Constitutions should be restrained to a less number and that they should not have the same Authority as the Laws of God that it should not be lawfull to excommunicate any but such as were notoriously guilty of mortal Sin that Divine Service should be celebrated in a Language intelligible to the People that whatsoever is not contained in Scripture should be left out of Missals and Breviaries that Priests and Monks should be reformed according to the standard of the ancient institution that somewhat of the Rigour of Positive Laws
the Decree of Gratian. In the Congregation of the tenth of July Leonard Haller Titular Bishop of Philadelphia moved that it was necessary to stay for the Germans as a few days before Daniel Barbaro Patriarch of Aquileia had demanded that they might stay for the French to the end that the Council might be called General as being made up of all Nations for there were none but Spaniards and Italians in it and these Italians almost all of them the Pope's Pensioners who most cunningly stood up for the Interests of the Court of Rome There were even some that said publickly enough that that Council was not the Council of the Universal Church but of the Pope since he did in it what he pleased and these were those who had spoken with some freedom as to the Point of Residence The Papal Party had a great pique against them which appeared so plainly that they did not think themselves secure enough even at Trent and therefore they thought of withdrawing some of them had already obtained leave amongst whom were Egidio Foscararo Bishop of Modena the Bishops of Viviers Acqui and the Archbishop of Surriento But the Ambassadour of Portugal having represented that that would do hurt to the reputation of the Council seeing the cause of their departure was generally known they were detained by fair promises of better usage for the future However there was no notice taken of the demand that was made of waiting for the coming of the German and French Prelates In the following Congregations the Chapters of Reformation were read and some Bishops spoke with a great deal of liberty As to the Point of free Ordinations the Bishop of Vegla an Island near Sclavonia said that it would be to no purpose to lay a restraint upon ordaining Bishops not to take money if at the same time it were not Decreed that no fees should be taken at Rome for Dispensations to receive Orders out of the usual times and before the Age appointed that the greatest expence was there and that the small gratuities given at Ordinations was nothing to it He farther said that when any such Dispensations were presented to him it was his custome to ask if they had cost any money and that if he found they had been bought he rejected and did not value them As to the Point concerning those that got into Priests Orders without a sufficient Estate to maintain them the Bishop of the five Churches spoke with great freedom that it was of much more importance to prevent a mans entering into Orders without having a Church and Cure to serve than to hinder him upon the account of wanting an Estate and that it was very disgracefull to the Church to have priests who had no other Employment but to live idly and take their ease upon a good fat Benefice In one of the Articles of Reformation it was ordained that great Parishes should be divided into two that they might be the better served whereupon the same Bishop said that that was good but that it was much better to divide the Bishopricks which are of so great extent that it is not possible for one man to take the care of so many Souls These opinions pleased no body neither the Prelates nor the Presidents Afterward the Bishop of Sidonia an Hungarian took the boldness to say that all these petty Reformations of the Members of the Church signified nothing so long as the Head continued without Reformation that it behoved them to begin with the greater matters and that the lesser would pass without any difficulty This liberty was very offensive to the Legates and therefore they met to consult about means of repressing that boldness John Baptista Castello Promooter of the Council who had discharged the same office in the Council under Julius III. said that the course must be taken which had been used by Cardinal Crescentio who enjoyned the Prelates silence when they did in the least deviate from the Subject that had been proposed But the Cardinal of Warmia did not approve that conduct and affirmed that God had not blest the Council of Julius because he approved not those violent methods of Cardinal Crescentio that after all it was impossible to avoid contests in Councils The Cardinal of Mantua was of the same Judgment So that they thought it sufficient to limit every one to a certain time in speaking and to make it short that so they might not have leisure to speak many things which might give disgust The day for holding the Session which was the sixteenth of July drew nigh and the Germans who had consented that nothing should be moved in it about the permission of the Cup demanded now a great deal more and urged that nothing might be done at all that so they might give time to their Bishops to come The Legates to prevent the disgrace of being so long without doing any thing would needs have the Chapters of Doctrine and Reformation which had been minuted to be published And they must be read overagain in the Congregation before they could be published in the Session which was not done without debate In the second Chapter of Doctrine these words were slipt in that the Church might as well take away the use of the Cup as it had changed the form of Baptism Jacobo Gilberto de Nogueras Bishop of Aliphe a Spaniard starting up said that that was Blasphemy because the Church had no Power to change the form of Sacraments nor to alter any thing that is essential to them and that in effect the form of Baptism had never been changed that hint was taken notice of and the Clause left out In the third Chapter it is said that he who is barred from the Cup is not deprived of any Grace necessary to Salvation and that therefore the Church has Power to retrench it The Cardinal of Warmia one of the Legates set on by some Divines observed as to that that thence it might be inferred that the Church may wholly take away the Eucharist because it is not necessary to Salvation and desired some alteration in that Clause But Cardinal Simoneta being vexed at what had past in the Congregation told the Cardinal of Warmia that he had very imprudently suffered himself to be put upon in making that Overture and that if he would everlastingly give ear to those Doctours accustomed to the cavillings of the School nothing could be concluded in the next Session The Cardinal of Warmia submitted excusing himself in that what he had done was designed for a good end In the Congregation that was held the day before the Session there happened some Debates still as in all the rest but they were not very considerable and continued not long session 21 Now it was the sixteenth of July 16. July the day appointed for the Session and the Legates Ambassadours and Prelates went to the Church with the usual Ceremonies After Mass and Sermon the Decrees were read the Decree of
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
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
of a peculiar Gift and Character These Points were handled in so dry knotty and tedious a manner that the Prelates who were present at the Disputations were quite sick of them and that made them resolve to be short about these differences and to define nothing but in general terms The sixth Article concerned the Unctions and the other Ceremonies of Ordination to know whether they were essential to that Sacrament That was not so easily agreed upon All the Divines were satisfied indeed to make a distinction betwixt those which were of absolute necessity and those which were less necessary but when it came to be determined which were the less necessary Ceremonies opinions varied extremely A Portuguese Divine Doctor of the Canon Law called Melchior Cornelio shew'd that the Imposition of hands was the onely Ceremony that could be termed essential because the Apostles made use of it and never gave Ordination without that Imposition He went a little farther and proved that that Ceremony was not of absolute necessity because the most famous Doctors of the Canon Law such as Hostiensis Johannes Andreas and others do affirm that the Pope can confer Orders by saying onely Be thou a Priest Innocent IV. Who is reckoned the Father of all the Canonists and who hath made an Apparatus upon the Decretals saith the same that a Priest may be made Priest by a word of him that giveth Orders From all which he concluded that it ought not to be defined that these Ceremonies are necessary because the degree of the necessity cannot be limited and that it ought to be enough to condemn those who affirm that they are Superfluous or Pernicious During these Conferences of the Divines the Prelates were busie about the matter of Reformation and had many Conferences among themselves concerning it Every day Assemblies were held upon that Subject at the Solicitation of the Ambassadours of Princes The Imperialists and French were loud in representing their Grievances and spoke of them to so many that it was the whole town-talk in Trent This gave the Legates á great deal of trouble but on the other hand also The Presidents make a Collection of the Demands of the French and Germans for a Reformation and send it to the Pope it did them some good for they were ashamed to see that they were the onely men who opposed that Reformation which all Europe so passionately desired Wherefore at length as if they had resolved to make some steps towards a Reformation they made a Collection of all the Proposals of the Imperialists and French and sent it to Rome that the Pope might give them Orders what to doc about it The Pope was vexed to see the Instructions which the King of France had sent his Ambassadours he designed to put an end to the Council at least with the year and by these instructions he found that not onely they demanded of him a delay but also that they intended still to cut out work for the Council for a long time He had many long Conferences upon that Subject with the Ambassadour of France residing at his Court He told him that when he desired the least compliance from the Fathers of the Council immediately they cried out that he oppressed their Liberty that therefore he could not oblige the Prelates to a delay to which they had a deadly aversion because they were weary of the long stay that they had already made at Trent At the same time he cunningly struck at the Cardinal of Lorrain saying that there was no necessity to wait for him for handling Points of Doctrine which he did not in the least scruple at as being a good Catholick but that it was proper for him to be present at the Reformation that he might come in for his share as being a second Pope who enjoyed near a Million of Livres a year in Church Livings and possest several Benefices whilst he himself being Pope enjoyed but one wherewith he was content that for his part he had not been wanting to reform himself and his Officers that he would doe more still but that such Reformations would sink his Revenues and that the smaller Rents he had the less he would be in a condition to defend the Church against Hereticks He father said that he wished with all his heart that they might come to particulars concerning those abuses of which a Reformation was desired and that then experience would shew that most of them come from Princes because the abuses of the Court of Rome which men kept so great a stir about consisted chiefly in the promotions of undeserving men to great Benefices to which they were presented by Kings and in Dispensations that were extorted from him by the violent solicitations of Princes That the other abuses which were not in the Court of Rome but in the several Provinces of the Church sprung from the same source to wit the had use that Princes made of their Authority in their Presentations to great Benefices The Spaniards find means of having the question examined whether Episcopacy be of Divine Right and thereupon violent debates arise The fourth Congregation of Divines had in charge to examine the Superiority of the Bishop over the Priest At first they made a distinction betwixt the power of Consecrating and Celebrating the Sacrifice and the power of pardoning sins According to the Doctrine of St. Thomas and Bonaventure they said that the power of Consecrating was alike in the Bishop and Priest because in that properly consists the power of Orders but that the power of pardoning sins was greater in the Bishop than in the Priest because that power consists not barely in that which is called the power of Orders but is made up also of the power of Jurisdiction They made several reflexions thereupon which were of no great importance nor occasioned much debate for they all unanimously agreed upon that Superiority of the Bishop over the Priest But the Spaniards had pitcht upon this Article as the most proper to bring in the Question which they intended should be defined in spight of the Legates to wit whether Episcopacy be of Divine Right or not that is to say whether Bishops hold their Authority immediately of Jesus Christ or onely of the Pope They proposed to themselves great advantages from the decision of that Controversie because by having it determined that the Bishop is of Divine Institution and that he derives his Authority from Jesus Christ and not from the Pope they pretended to render their Character more considerable and secure it from the attempts of the Court of Rome For if the Authority of Bishops proceeds immediately from Jesus Christ it follows clearly that men can doe nothing to the prejudice of it And if the Pope be not the Original of that Authority it is evident that he hath no power to lessen it nor to exempt from under it those that are subjected thereunto as he dayly doth The Legates at first were
of the Holy See so that their Charge is but in Commission and if they be called Ordinaries it is onely because their Commission is perpetual and that they may have Successours that the Council derived no Authority from the Bishops but onely from the Pope and that a Council cannot be reckoned General without the Authority of the Holy See That fifty Prelates who decided important matters in the first Convocation of the Council under Paul III. could not without the Pope be called a General Council nor in that Quality make Decisions which should oblige the Conscience that when the Pope was present at a Council he alone made the Decrees and the Council interposed in no more but their Approbation wherefore on such occasions it is onely said sacro approbante Concilio He farther said that in matters of great importance the Pope needed not the Approbation of the Council which appeared by the Deposition of Frederick II. in the General Council of Lions where Innocent IV. refused the Approbation of the Council lest it might have been thought necessary and thought it enough to say sacro presente Concilio In a word that General broached the Maximes of Italian Theology in savour of the Pope beyond all imagination This extravagant zealous discourse produced very different effects for it ravished the Faction of the Court of Rome but disgusted and offended most of the rest to the highest Degree And particularly the Bishop of Paris protested that in the first Congregation when it should come to his turn to speak he would openly and boldly speak against that Doctrine He said in all places that it was invented by Thomas de Vio Cajetan that he might merit a Cardinals Cap for the good Service that ever since he was born it had been censured by the Sorbonne that the Government of the Church was degenerated into Tyranny and that the Spouse of Jesus Christ was become a slave and in a manner prostituted to the lust of one man That he could no longer endure these Invasions of Episcopal Authority which was encroached upon by every new Order of Monks that start up in the World that it had received a great blow by the planting of those two Seminaries of Clugny and the Cistertians that since the Mendicant Orders appeared in the World the Authority of Bishops was almost wholly suppressed and that in fine to ruine the Church totally that new Society of Jesus which was neither Secular nor Regular was more Pragmatical than all the rest in attempting against Episcopal Authority These discourses which the Bishop of Paris had in all Companies with extraordinary eagerness and zeal rouzed up the drouzy and blew the coals in those who were already all in a flame insomuch that there was a murmuring and universal discontent over the whole Council against the Harangue of the General of the Jesuits and therefore the Legate perceiving that it had wrought an effect quite contrary to what they expected discharged him from publishing it as he had intended But notwithstanding he dispersed several Copies of it partly to get himself Reputation and partly to soften some hasty words that he had let slip in speaking In the mean time the Legates gave not over their tamperings to make a Party against the Spaniards and their Canvassing was so open and apparent that Lansac Ambassadour of France a man of wit and who was free enough in this discourse could not forbear to play upon them One day at a great entertainment there was a discourse started about the form of Ancient Councils wherein Princes by themselves or by their Ambassadours and the Presidents of the Council gave their suffrages whereas neither one nor other gave their Votes in that of Trent It is true for Ambassadours said Lansac they have no Vote here but for our Presidents the Legates they give vota auricularia and whisper their opinions softly in the ear About this time the Legates met with some satisfaction but of short continuance for a certain Spanish Doctor named Zanel betraying his Party presented them with thirteen Articles of Reformation relating to the Spaniards which he was of opinion ought to be set on foot to stop the mouths of those who appeared to be such Zealous Reformers These Articles struck at some Abuses whereof the Reformation would have been very severe to the Spaniards and mortified them extremely But this Counterbatterie could not doe all the execution they desired because these Articles of Reformation depended upon a great many others which related to the Court of Rome and the Legates were not of the mind to Sacrifice their own interest and that of their Master to a little revenge on their Enemies After all they had enough to do to defend themselves they were not in a condition of assaulting others for the Spaniards French and Germans gave them continually the allarm The Bishop of the five Churches received Letters from the Emperour for the Legates to procure of them that nothing but Reformation should be handled which was a fresh Persecution But they stood this brunt and had no regard to the demand They were somewhat indeed pleased that the Ambassadour of Poland of whom they had no apprehension and who was come to pay them homage from afar was arrived at the Council The five and twentieth of October a Congregation was held to receive that Ambassadour whose name was Valentine Herbut Bishop of Premissa But that was not enough to charm away the fear that the coming of the Cardinal of Lorrain put them in he drew nearer and nearer dayly and so did the Jealousies and Apprehensions of the Court of Rome and of their Party at Trent The Cardinal pleased himself in his Journey to give it out that he was going to employ a good many Engines for lessening the Grandure and Revenues of the Court of Rome They therefore sought out means to break his measures and spoil his designs Some Proposed that the surest way to put a stop to the French was to take them on their weak side and to demand the Reformation of their own abuses For they who are most eager in Reforming of others are unwilling to be Reformed themselves The Pope who on his Part thought on all the ways that might prevent the attempts that were levelled against his Authority gave the Legates Order to curb the boldness of the Prelates in a far other manner than they had hitherto done Nay and there were some who advised the Pope to remove to Bologna that so he might be near and keep the Council in awe But the Legates found out a much better Expedient to get out of harms way and that was to transfer suspend or break up the Council the difficulty consisted in the execution of this design and because that was a remedy which they could not make use of they cast about for another They at first thought it most convenient to give time to the tumult to settle which the Tempest of General Lainez discourse had
the Pope and the Cardinal of Lorrain loaded him with Complements for his Holiness desiring him that he would beseech his Holiness not to take it ill that the King and they by Orders from him did demand things which they judged necessary for the wellfare of France and at the same time and by the same hand offered the Pope his Mediation for taking up the differences about the Institution of Bishops and Residence These Memoires of the French Ambassadours were given to the Legates without the hearty condescension of the Prelates of that Nation For there were some Articles amongst them that tended to the Diminution both of the Authority and Revenues of the Bishops which went against the Hair But they consented that they might be presented to the Council in hopes that the Spanish Bishops who are Great Lords and jealous of their Grandure would have opposed them When they saw that the Memoires were sent to Rome they perceived that it would fall to the Pope's share to cut and carve in them as he had done in all the rest and they were afraid that he might compound with the King of France to their Cost in sacrificing to him the interest of the Bishops to make him spare the Court of Rome as it had been done betwixt Francis the First and Leo X. when they made the Concordat And therefore they began to make secret Cabals to get the Articles that concerned them struck out of the Memoires But Lansac perceiving it called them together and rebuked them severely for daring to oppose the Will of the King There were now two Bishops in Deputation at Rome the Bishops of Vintimiglia and Viterbo The first was employed to make fresh Remonstrances about the Subject of the Institution of Bishops and their Residence that the Pope might put the Decree into another form than that which he had formerly sent He arrived the first of January having made his Journey in seven days He gave the Pope an account of all that past in the Council and of the different dispositions of the Members of it The Pope immediately held a Congregation of Cardinals about the Point of the Institution of Bishops which was most urgent And it was there resolved that the Decision should be sent to the Legates in this form That Bishops hold the chief rank in the Church dependant on the Bishop of Rome by whom they are admitted and received in partem solicitudinis It was upon the main the same with the former but the form a little softer and the Pope for a recompence of the qualification which he had suffered to be made in the Canon of the Institution of Bishops would have the Canon that related to his own Authority to run in these terms That the Pope hath Authority to feed and to govern the Church Universal in place of Jesus Christ who hath imparted to him as his Vicar General all his Authority And ordered his Legates that in the Chapter of Doctrine they should enlarge more upon the matter and make use of the Terms of the Council of Florence which saith that the Holy See that is to say the Pope has the Primacy over all the Church that he is the Successour of St. Peter who was Prince of the Apostles that he is the true Vicar of Jesus Christ the Head of all the Churches the Father and Master of all Christians to whom the Lord hath given full power to govern the Church Universal He enjoyned the Legates not to deviate from that form which had been authorised by a General Council At the same time that he might prevent the designs of the French who would have had a Pope elected by the Council in case the present Pope had died he published a Bull wherein he declared that having intention to goe to Bologna in case he should die in his Journey he ordained that his Successour should not be chosen but at Rome The Bishop of Viterbo who was charged with the Memoires of the French arrived a little time after the instructions of the Bishop of Vintimiglia had been dispatched The Pope very impatiently heard the Memoires read but the Bishop of Viterbo pacified him a little by giving him hopes that if he condescended to some of these Articles a part might be cut off and the rest moderated but particularly he gave him ease when he assured him that the greatest part of the French Bishops disliked those Reformations and that they were ready to oppose them The Pope held a Congregation upon that Subject and it was therein resolved that the Articles should be committed to Doctours of the Canon Law to make their observations upon them At the same time the Pope sent Orders to the Cardinal of Ferrara his Legate in France to represent to the King that some of these Propositions tended to the Diminution of the Royal Authority because they deprived the King of the Collation of Benefices and amongst others of Abbeys that the disposal of Benefices was a very commodious Privilege to him for rewarding his faithfull Servants that to raise the Authority of Bishops was not the way to strengthen the Authority of the King and that the more powerfull Bishops were the more troublesome they were to Princes He sent his Legate likewise Orders to give the King the forty thousand Crowns remaining unpay'd of the hundred thousand which he had obliged himself to furnish him but with all that he should not part from them but upon the Condition that he had till them required I mean the abolition of the Pragmatick Sanction in all the Parliaments He prayed also the King to consider that by diminishing the Revenues of the Holy See he would be deprived of means to procure Respect and Obedience that the Tithes of Tithes were by the Law due to the chief Priest and that they had been wisely converted into Annats and concluded with an exhortation to the King that he would sent new Instructions to his Ambassadours He sent likewise to Trent the Censures and Observations which the Canonists and Divines had made upon the Memoires of the French year 1563 The Minute of the Decree concerning the Pope's Authoritycomes from Rome and meets with much contradiction especially from the French The Courier who brought to Trent the Answer to the Remonstrances which the Bishop of Vintimiglia had been charged with arrived on the fourteenth of January and next day was the time appointed for perfixing the day of the Session A Congregation General was held and it was therein resolved that that deliberation should be put off till the fourth of February because they could not as yet certainly tell when matters might be in a readiness The Legates distributed Copies of the Minute of the Decree which was sent from Rome touching the Institution of Bishops and declared that they would begin the Congregations again for consulting about it These Minutes had the approbation of the Patriarchs and oldest Archbishops who gave their opinions first But when it
of Marriage The matter of Marriage is pitcht upon In these Conferences fresh Debates arose about Clandestine Marriages The French demanded that all Marriages of Children in the Family contracted without the Consent of their Parents should be declared null The Cardinal of Lorrain seconded that Demand and shew'd the Justice of it by many reasons and Authorities But the Archbishop of Otranto who was always opposite to the Cardinal of Lorrain withstood it alledging that it was to give Lay-men Power over Sacraments though most of those who spoke in this Congregation were of opinion that the whole matter should be laid aside About the end of the Congregation the Ambassadours of Venice came in and represented that the Kingdoms of Cyprus and Candia with the Islands of Zante Corfeu and Cephalonia were under the Dominion of their Republick and that it was the Custome of the People of those Countries who were of the Greek Church to repudiate their Wives when they were guilty of Adultery they therefore prayed the Council so to frame their Decree that it might do no prejudice to the Custome of those People In the following Congregation the Demand of the Venetians was taken into Consideration and many thought it reasonable especially because the Greeks had not been cited and that it was not just to condemn People without being heard Others thought that the Greeks were sufficiently cited by the Publication and General Convocation of the Council But the Party that favoured the Venetians Demand grew stronger by the Conjunction of those who could not digest the Anathematising of the opinion That Adultery dissolves a former and gives the innocent party Power to contract a new Marriage because it had been the opinion of St. Ambrose and the Greeks Fathers The Council therefore found out a mean they did not pronounce Anathema against those who say that Adultery dissolves Marriage but against those who say that the Church errs in affirming That Adultery dissolves not Marriage This was found afterwards to be a pretty pleasant distinction The Council then returned to the Demand of the French about Clandestine Marriages and this head was as warmly disputed as if nothing had been as yet said to it Cardinal Madruccio and two Legates the Cardinals of Warmia and Simoneta held that they could not be annulled and seemed as if they intended to oppose any resolution to the contrary Lainez General of the Jesuits scattered abroad Copies of a Writing that maintained the Validity of these Clandestine Marriages and proved that they could not be annulled This Debate took up several Congregations and to encrease the Difficulty the Bishop of Sulmona maintained that it was a matter of Doctrine because the question was about the Nature of Clandestine Marriages to know whether they be Sacraments and that the Authority of the Church was likewise concerned in it to wit whether she have Power to rescind Marriages and annull a Sacrament and that by Consequence that Point could not be handled amongst the Chapters of Reformation His design was to put the French to new straits because as it hath been observed before many more Votes are required for forming a Decree about Doctrine than making a Decision concerning Reformation Others opposed this opinion of the Bishop of Sulmona and that not without Passion saying that the Power of the Church ought never to be brought into question but that it ought always to be supposed and that opinion carried it so that it was concluded that that Chapter should remain amongst the Articles of Reformation Opinions varying and each Party maintaining their Sentiments with heats Francis de Beaucaire Bishop of Mets had the honour of finding a form of a Decree which satisfied the different Parties And that was it which is in force at present All were almost content with it because it is ambiguous and every one finds his Sentiment therein for it Anathematises those who say that Clandestine Marriages are not true Sacraments and yet it prohibits such affirming that the Church hath always detested them An hundred thirty and five Votes were for the opinion of the Bishop of Mets and fifty six against it About this time the Council was in some trouble by reason that the King of Spain declared that he had a design of setling the Inquisition in the State of Milan This news allarmed all the Prelates of Lombardy and Naples also who concluded that if the Inquisition were once established in the Milanese without doubt it would likewise be introduced into Naples The City of Milan sent Deputies to the Pope to the King of Spain and to the Council for preventing of that blow The Envoys declared that many of the chief Citizens were ready to leave the Countrey because they knew very well that the Design of the Spanish Inquisition is not always the Preservation of the Faith but that its chief Aim is to drain those that are rich and hath no other prospect for most part but worldly advantage This put the Council to some trouble because of the great number of People concerned The Duke of Sessa Governour of Milan finding so great opposition and having had some Information that the Milanese hatched a design of doeing what the People of the Low Countries had done who turned Protestants to avoid the Inquisition abandoned the Enterprise In the mean time the Pope to whom the Observations and Additions which the Ambassadours had made as to the thirty eight Articles of Reformation proposed by the Legates were sent found them not at all to his mind He perceived amongst them Demands that were grievous both to himself and his Court and that made him more ardently desire that a Period might be put to the Council which obliged him to write to his Nuncio's that resided in the Courts of Europe that they would press the Princes to assist him in bringing of it to a Conclusion He wrote also to the Legates that by any means they should make an end and that in order thereunto they should grant every thing that they could not refuse But the Count de Luna stood always in the way and used endeavours to cross that speedy Conclusion he backt the Spaniards and Italians who were scandalized that Assemblies were so often kept at the Houses of the Legates where none were admitted but Cardinals the Archbishop of Otranto and some Favorites but that hindered not the Legates from keeping such Assemblies still Of the thirty eight articles of Reformation they had already left out six at the desire of the Ambassadours and moreover the Emperour's Ambassadours by new Orders from their Master and being seconded by the Count de Luna made fresh instances that the Reformation of Princes should not be proposed that Session which at length was granted so that the Articles were reduced to twenty one And Cardinal Simoneta and the Pope's Adherents took all the pains they could to shape them into such a form as might not in the least encroach upon the Authority of the
and Tyranny could make use of What then had been done or rather what had not been done if as the Protestants desired the Pope's Authority had been directly struck at and the subversion of his Grandeur openly attempted If the Council of Trent had but only offered at what was actually done by the Council of Constance that is the declaring of the Pope to be subject to the Council the Court of Rome would rather have set all Christendom in confusion that have suffer'd it The Presidents had express Orders if that Point came at all into question immediately to break up the Council and return to Rome reason 7 7. Seventh cause of Rejection The Council of Trent hath erred even by the Confession oâ— those that would have us submit to it But I would very fain know why we should be obliged to receive the Decisions of the Council of Trent since the Roman Church her self does not receive them Why should it be expected from us that we should look upon this Council as Infallible when thousands of the Roman Communion do believe that the Council hath de facto erred and in consequence of that Belief do refuse to submit to it and daily reject its Canons This last reason for our rejecting that Council is indeed of high importance we shall therefore enlarge a little upon it and evidently make it appear that those that would exact of us a Submission to this Council have themselves no regard to its Authority and that upon the score of its having erred I shall not press upon the Council for having forbid Non-Residence under grievous Penalties which yet is now universally connived at for having forbidden Pluralities and yet there are now no Eminent Prelats but are guilty of it for having forbidden to give Dispensations but in Cases of great moment and yet now at Rome they are denied to none but to such as want Mony that matter of mighty moment for which only they are granted For I very well know that to these and to a hundred other particulars in which I could instance it will presently be replyed that they are Corruptions indeed but that those Corruptions indeed but that those Corruptions do not hinder the Decrees of the Council from being just and good And the Popes Flatterers will add that he is not bound by the Decrees of the Council but has Power to dispence with the Canons when he thinks fit But I speak of Decrees made by this Council and rejected by an infinite number of People Decrees that never were suffered to take place in France after all the endeavors of the Court of Rome The French Kings their Parliaments and Bishops dislike several things in the Decrees of this Council Reasons why the Council of Trent is not received in France 1. That the Council hath done and suffered many things that suppose and confirm a Superiority of the Pope over Councils 2. That it hath confirmed the Papal Encroachments upon Ordinaries Ses 2. Res. c. 8. by Exemption of Chapters and Privileges of Regulars who are both withdrawn from Episcopal Jurisdiction 3. That it hath not restored to the Bishops certain Functions appertaining to their Office and taken from them otherwise than to execute them as Delegates of the See of Rome 4. That it hath infringed the Privileges of Bishops of being judged by their Metropolitan and the Bishops of the Province by permitting a Removal of great Causes to Rome and giving Power to the Pope to name Commissioners to judg the Accused Bishop 5. That it hath declared that neither Princes Magistrates nor People are to be consulted in the placing and setling of Bishops 6. That it hath empowered Bishops to proceed in their Jurisdictions by Civil Pains by Imprisonment and by Seisure of Temporalties 7. That it hath made Bishops the Executors of all Donations for Pious Uses 8. That it hath given them a superintendency over Hospitals Colleges and Fraternities with Power of disposing their Goods and Revenues notwithstanding that those matters had been always managed by Lay-men 9. That it hath ordained that Bishops shall have the examining of all Notaries Royal and Imperial with Power to deprive or suspend notwithstanding any Opposition or Appeal 10. That it hath given Power to Bishops with consent of two Members of their Chapter and of two of their Clergy to take and retrench part of the Revenue of Hospitals nay to take away Feodal Tithes belonging to Lay-men 11. That it hath made Bishops the Masters of Foundations of Piety as Churches Chappels and Hospitals so as that those that have the care and Government of them are obliged to be accomptable to the Bishops 12. That in confirming Ecclesiastical Exemptions it hath wholly ascribed to the Pope and the Spiritual Judges all Power of judging the Causes of accused Bishops as if Sovereign Princes had lost the Right they have over their Subjects as soon as they became Ecclesiasticks 13. That it hath empowered the Ordinaries and Judges Ecclesiastical in quality of Delegates of the Holy See to enquire of the Right and Possession of Lay-Patronages and to quash and annul them if they were not of great necessity and well founded 14. That in prohibiting Duels it had declared that such Emperor King or Prince as should shew favour to Duelling should therefore be Excommunicated and deprived of the Seignory of the Place holding of the Church where the Duel was sought 15. That it hath permitted the Mendicant Fryars to possess Immoveables 16. That it hath ordained an Establishment of Judges it calls Apostolick in all Dioceses with Power to judg of Spiritual and Ecclesiastical matters in prejudice of the Ordinaries 17. That it hath declared that Matrimonial Causes are of the Churches Jurisdiction 18. That it hath enjoyned Kings and Princes to leave Ecclesiasticks the free and intire Possession of the Jurisdiction granted them by the Holy Canons and General Councils that is to say Usurped by the Clergy over the Civil Power These are the principal Points disputed in France Those that tend to the diminution of the Authority and Privileges of Bishops to enlarge the Roman Power are rejected by the Bishops and those that would extend the Power of Bishops to the prejudice of the Civil Authority are rejected by the Parliaments Between both this Council as enacting contrary to the Rights and Liberties of the Gallican Church was never at all received in France so as to obtain the force of a Law Why then should that Assembly give Law to us Protestants that is rejected by so great a part of the Church of Rome If it hath not erred why do Roman Catholicks as they will be termed refuse to receive it And if it hath erred what reason is there to press us to receive it I know what is answered to this that matters of Faith and of Discipline must be distinguished that the Council did not nor could not err in matters of Faith and Doctrine and that it was only mistaken in points
the Holy Ghost does not at all agree with that ancient Prayer of the Church Et ad te nostras etiam rebelles compelle propitius voluntates It was thought that the Council had a design to condemn effectual Grace which St. Austin asserted that is to say Grace effectual in it self they also pickt out contradictions therein as for instance in that which is said in the seventh Chapter that Justice is given in a certain measure according to God's good will and pleasure and the disposition of him that receives it they could not comprehend how Grace was given at the same time according to the good will and pleasure of God and according to the disposition of him that receives it for if it be according to the pleasure of God it is without any respect to dispositions and if God have any regard to dispositions then it depends not absolutely on his pleasure They found another contradiction in that here the Council condemns those who say that men are not able to fulfill the Commandments of God and in the second Session had commanded men to obey the Commandments of God quantum quisque poterit as far as one is able because these terms suppose that every one is not able to fulfill the Law of God By these censures it was made apparent that in a matter purely Theological the Fathers of the Council had made use of many terms borrowed from Philosophy insomuch that without the assistance of Aristotle they could not have made an Article of Faith But above all other there happened one unlucky hit to the Council and made it evident that they had conceived their Decisions with intent to please all men except the Lutherans which was this In the Book which Dominico à Soto wrote de natura gratia which we mentioned before when he comes to treat of the certainty that one may have of his own Justification he proved that the intention of the Council was to condemn the opinion which affirms that one may have such a certainty of his being in the State of Grace as excludes all doubting Catarino that was present at the Council as well as Soto published a Book wherein he asserted that the intention of the Council was not to condemn those who say that one may believe that he is in the State of Grace with as much certainty as one believes an Article of Faith On the contrary that the Council favoured that opinion because it is expressed in the twenty sixth Canon that the righteous man ought to hope for a reward Catarino concluded that a righteous man cannot expect his reward unless he be assured of his Righteousness These two Authours wrote several Books against one another on this subject and even complained to the Council that Decisions and Sentiments were imposed upon them which they had not indeed intended The Council was in perplexity and could not tell what to think of this controversie which made People laugh in their sleeve It was thought strange that the Fathers should not understand their own Decisions and that brought the Bishop of Bitonto's Sermon into mens minds who in the opening of the Council promised the Prelates that the holy Ghost would inspire them as he did Caiaphas who spoke a Prophecy which he understood not session 6 The point of the Sacraments in general of Baptism and extreme unction chosen for the next Session Next day after the sixth Session which was the fourteenth of January the Legates called a general Congregation to make choice of the Controversie which should be decided the next Session they had made a kind of resolution in the beginning to follow the Order of the Confession of Ausbourg and the point of the ministerial function in the Church was the next in order in that Confession to that of Justification But because the point of Administration carried along with it that of the Authority of the Council and the Pope which the Legates would not meddle with they wisely laid it aside and favoured the Divines to whom that subject was not very agreeable neither but for reasons far different from those of the Legates for that is a point the Schoolmen do not much treat of nor are well versed in So it was concluded that the matter of the Sacraments which depend on the ministerial function should be discussed for the Chapter of Doctrine and that they might jointly treat of Reformation as had been resolved it was thought fit to endeavour the Reformation of abuses that had crept into the Administration of the Sacraments The Cardinal di Santa Croce had the Change of presiding in the Congregations for Doctrine and the Cardinal di Monte undertook the Province of moderating in the Congregations of the Canonists for Reformation besides these the matter of Residence was again brought upon the stage the Bishops and particularly the Spaniards pressed to have it declared of Divine right But the Cardinal di Monte a brisk and subtile Protectour of the papal Power perceiving that that would make a considerable breach in his Master's Authority presently alledged reasons for having it deferred till another time he told them that that Subject had been handled too eagerly that they ought to suffer the Stirs of Passion to be composed to make way for the Calm of Charity that so the holy Ghost might breath upon them by his inspirations however he concluded these devout Considerations with a plain and positive prohibition not to meddle with that subject for the present This seemed a little hard and somewhat inconsistent with the Liberty of the Council Nevertheless they condescended to treat of the Causes which hindered Residence the most considerable of which is the Plurality of Benefices To begin with the Point of Doctrine abstracts were made of the Books of the Lutherans that they might know their opinions as to the Sacraments in general and in particular as to Baptism and Confirmation The Articles that were drawn out as to the Sacraments in general were in number fourteen as to Baptism seventeen and as to Confirmation four wherein under the title of Lutheran errours were comprehended all the opinions of the Anabaptists which are rejected by true Protestants All these articles were examined in Congregations and great Debates happened about some of them they began first with the number of the Sacraments The Divines agreed upon the number of seven which had been first defined by the Master of the Sentences and then confirmed by a Decision of the Council of Florence in their instruction to the Armenians But they were not of opinion that this number should be determined to be neither more nor less than seven because of the difficulty of defining a Sacrament in regard that according to the different definitions that may be given of it a thing may be or not be a Sacrament There was some difficulty also started about the opinions of some of the Ancients of whom some had held our Saviour's washing the Apostles feet