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
the Council The Death of Francis II. the Queen Regent Assembles the States at Orleans The same year on the fifth of December Francis II. King of France died and his Brother Charles IX being but ten years old succeeded him The death of this Prince put the Protestants in heart and made them hope for a change in affairs because the King of Navarre first Prince of the bloud was to have a great share in the Government during the King's Minority Now this King was a declared Protestant and was influenc'd by the Councils of Admiral Coligny a great Protectour of the Protestants The Queen Mother and her Council thought sit to assemble the States at Orleans and to open the Assembly the thirteenth of December where opinions were strongly argued pro and con concerning Liberty of Conscience At length it was concluded that the King should publish an Edict for cessation of Rigours and Criminal Prosecutions upon account of Religion The Edict past and at the same time the King gave orders to the Prelates to prepare themselves to goe to Trent to the Council The Count of Rochfort who spoke for the Gentry presented a Petition in name of the Gentlemen for obtaining permission for the publick Exercise of the reformed Religion but no answer was given to that Petition it was referred to the States which were to meet in May following In the same Estates at Orleans it was ordained that Canonical Elections should be restored that Bishops should be chosen by the Chapters with consent of the People and Nobility that the Annates which were sent to Rome should be abolished that Bishops and Curates should reside that all Abbots and Monks should be subject to the Jurisdiction of Bishops and that no man might give any Lands or Estates to Monasteries The Pope and King of Spain used their utmost endeavours to hinder the effect of the resolution which was taken in the Estates at Orleans concerning the Suspension of Rigours against Protestants they even attempted to bring over the King of Navarre by vain and imaginary hopes not onely of restoring Navarre which the Spaniards kept from him but also of making him King of England which as they said Queen Elizabeth had forfeited by the Crime of Heresie These vain hopes and the natural weakness of that poor Prince made him halt between the two opinions even till his death for though he was in arms against the Protestants when he was killed at the Siege of Rouen yet it is certain his Conscience was not fully satisfied as to the Religion of the Church of Rome The Protestants of Germany met at Namburg to consult what measures they were to take to provide against the inconveniencies that threatned them from the Council They essayed first to compose their own differences that they might not be upbraided with Divisions among themselves and therefore they proposed the fixing of a common Confession of Faith to which all might agree because there was even some difference in the several Editions of the Confession of Ausburg but they could not find means to adjust this As concerning the Council they resolved to petition the Emperour that he would procure one which might be free where the Pope should not preside and wherein the Protestant-Divines might have a Vote They had no hopes of obtaining such a Council but they made the demand that they might have a Pretext not to goe to that which the Pope called at Trent About the same time two Nuncio's arrived in Austria with the Bull of Convocation The Pope sends Nuncio's to the Protestant States to invite them to the Council but they are ill received The Emperour advised them to goe to the Protestants whilst they were assembled at Namburg and sent three Ambassadours with them The Protestants gave a submissive hearing to what the Emperour's Ministers had to propose to them and made them answer that they were much obliged to his Imperial Majesty but that they could not submit to a Council which was not free and wherein Controversies would not be decided purely by the word of God which was the thing they expected As for the Nuncio's they received and heard them civilly but they sent them back the Pope's Briefs sealed up as they had presented them and having considered what answer they should make they thought it best to tell them in plain terms that they acknowledged not the Pope's Jurisdiction that they were not obliged to declare to him their thoughts concerning a Council and that they had acquainted the Emperour with their intentions as to that The Nuncio's met with no better reception at Nuremberg Franckfort Ausburg and in all the other Protestant Towns but the King of Denmark was more rude with them still for he commanded them not to enter within his Dominions and sent them word that neither his Father nor he having ever had any business with the Pope he would receive no Ambassadours from him That answer extremely vexed the Nuncio Commendone who had stopt at Lubeck expecting the King's Passports to come into Denmark And it was no small mortification to the Pope that after he had stoopt so low as to send Nuncio's to those whom he lookt upon as Hereticks he should be slighted by them in that manner but it was still some comfort that his friends made it their business to give it out in all places that that great condescension was an effect of his Singular Piety and Zeal The Switzers received a Nuncio from Rome also and in their Assembly at Bade one of the Burgomasters of Zurich which was a Protestant-Town kissed the Brief when he received it The news of this was very gratefull to the Pope but that was all he got by it for the reformed Cantons refused to come to the Council and the Catholicks promised they would So that every where almost the Nuncio's met with opposition for the Emperour himself made a kind of an ambiguous answer and insisted that that Assembly might pass for a new Council Spain on the other hand stumbled at the title of Indiction and would onely have it to be a removal of the Suspension demanding that it might be expresly declared that that Assembly was a Continuation of the Council of Trent But on the contrary France openly demanded an amendment in the Bull as to the point of Continuation urging that it should no where be called the Continuation of the Council of Trent It was likewise taken ill that the King of France was not expresly named in the Bull seeing the Dignity of so great a Monarch did not admit that he should be cast in with others and onely designed in general terms The Pope had done so because he would not name him before the King of Spain and durst not name him after He made the best excuse he could and gave no great heed to those Remonstrances because he was extremely offended at the proceedings of the Estates at Orleans who had acted so contrary to his Authority 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
untill the year 1549. year 1549 but they met with no extraordinary reception in the places through which they passed They went to wait on the Emperour in the Low-Countries and because they found that their stay in Germany was to no purpose they took the Emperour's Counsel which was to substitute Bishops in their place to see to the execution of the Bull according as they had power to do This substitution then was made but it signified nothing for the Catholicks who persisted in their obedience would not make use of the Indulgence which the Bull allowed and the Protestants on the other hand would hold nothing from the Pope's Liberality JULIUS III. Paul III dies Giovanni Maria di Monte is chosen in his place and takes the Name of Julius III. The same year 1549. on the seventh of November Pope Paul the Third died And immediately upon the news the Cardinal di Monte left Bologna and so the remnant of that Council was dispersed It is the custome to enter into the Conclave for election of a new Pope the tenth day after the death of the former because the Ceremonies of the Funeral last nine days but because many were absent they entred not before the twenty eighth of year 1549 the Month. Notwithstanding this delay Cardinal Pacieco Head of the Prelates who continued at Trent came not before the Conclave was shut up because he had expected the Emperour's Orders which were long a coming The Conclave was divided into three Factions the French the German and that of the Farneses The French were for Cardinal Salviati the Imperialists for Cardinal Pool and the Farneses for one of the Creatures of their Uncle None of the Factions was strong enough to carry it over the rest but at length after they had been shut up in the Conclave ten or eleven weeks the Farneses having joyned with the French they concluded to chuse Cardinal Giovanni Maria di Monte who had been Legate President at Trent and Bologna The Imperialists who could not hinder seemed to give way to it and to concur with the Farneses He was therefore chosen the eighth of February and Crowned the three and twentieth Immediately after his Election he was sworn to continue the Council as it had been agreed upon amongst the Cardinals and on the twenty fourth he took the name of Julius III. He performed the Ceremony of opening the Golden Gate a Ceremony commonly used on Christmas-Eve at the opening of the Jubile The Emperour immediately dispatched Luigi Davila to Rome with Orders so soon as he had made the usual Complements to the Pope upon his Promotion to solicite the re-establishment of the Council The Pope made answer in an ambiguous manner and gave Cardinal Pacieco some grounds to hope that he would not be against the restitution of the Council provided that it might onely serve for the ruine of Hereticks and not for overthrowing the Authority of the holy See What difficulties soever he made as to that yet they quickly began to have hopes of overcoming them because after his exaltation he gave himself wholly over to pleasure and ease Don Diego de Mendoza wrote to the Emperour that the Pope grew effeminate in his pleasures and that he would not retain vigour enough to resist those importunities that might create him trouble Being raised to the height of Dignity he thought himself no longer obliged to live under constraint and therefore giving way to his inclinations he led a pretty easie and soft kind of a life Nay and in the very beginning of his Pontificate he committed an action which confirmed the suspicions that men had conceived that his pleasures had been none of the most gentile and innocent And that was that when according to the custome upon his exaltation to the Papacy he was to dispose of his Cardinals hat he gave it to a man of so base extraction that his name and family are still unknown in the World all that could be said of him was that he was born in the City of Piacenza Giovanni Maria di Monte who was then but Bishop of Siponto and Governour of Bologna took that young boy into his Service and had so great an affection for him that he used him as if he had been his own Son When he was Legate at Trent this Favorite fell sick he sent him to Verona for change of Air and after he had recovered knowing what day he was to return he carried his retinue with him out of Town under pretext of a walk on the rode to Verona where having met him he received him with extraordinary Caresses and at length when he was Pope he obliged his Brother to adopt the Boy who was called Innocent and so gave him the Name of Innocent di Monte making him at the same time both his Nephew and Cardinal Innocent love does not commonly goe so far The Emperour obtains the Council to be re-established in the City of Trent Charles abating nothing of his instances for the re-establishment of the Council at Trent the Pope was at length forced to take advice thereupon The opinions were extremely different according to the various Prospects that he and his Counsellers might have The reasons which obliged Paul III to make that Translation were still in force and Julius being now Pope seemed to be more engaged to maintain it because it had been a work of his own making whilst he was Cardinal But on the other hand he did not find himself so well seated in his Chair as to be able to resist the shocks of those struglings that had given so much trouble to his Predecessour Paul III. though confirmed in the Papacy by a long Possession he therefore resolved to yeild but to keep a Decorum he would have it done in the usual Forms and for that end he concealed his resolution he called an Assembly of Cardinals and others into which he purposely admitted many Imperialists and Spaniards and referred himself to what they should think fit to resolve upon The Imperialists who followed their inclinations and the favourers of the Court of Rome who knew the Pope's secret concluded that the Council could not be called at Bologna and that therefore it must be remitted to Trent The reason that was given out for this and to which Julius pretended to acquiesce was that the matter of the Translation having caused a Process whereof Pope Paul III. had made himself Judge Julius III. being now Pope could not be Judge in a controversie wherein a little before he was a Party being Legate and Cardinal So that he declared that with his fortune he had changed his thoughts and interest and that Pope Julius did not think himself obliged to maintain all that had been done by the Cardinal di Monte he therefore resolved to run the risque of a Council wherein notwithstanding he was much afraid that the Spaniards would attempt something contrary to his Authority but as to that he used all
should be abated and that in some places the distinction of Meats Lent and the Celibat of Priests should be abolished And these were the Principal heads of their demands The Legates designed if possibly they could to have supprest that Piece which they looked upon as terrible and therefore they gave the Ambassadours a fair and soft answer that these matters could not be moved in the next Session but that they would lay hold on an occasion to discourse them with the Fathers of the Council This answer gave no satisfaction to the Ambassadours and therefore they sent the Archbishop of Prague by Post for new instructions that he might make all haste and be back again before the next Session The Legates on their part also thought fit to acquaint the Pope with what past and dispatcht to him Leonardo Marino Archbishop of Lanciano he had orders to pacifie the Pope and Court of Rome who were much dislatisfied with the whole Council and particularly with the Cardinal of Mantua but the Anxiety of the Pope was doubled when he saw the Proposals of the Germans he well perceived that the Emperour in prospect of having his Son elected King of the Romans liad a design to gain the Protestants he dreaded the arrival of the French Prelates who were to joyn with the Spaniards and Germans and made no doubt but that they would offer bolder Proposals and more prejudicial still to his Authority And this made him seek out Pretexts for raising of Soldiers that so he might be in a condition to maintain his Grandure by the Arms of the Flesh if the Arms of the Spirit did not succeed with him His design of opposing the Enterprises of the Huguenots who troubled the County of Avignon afforded him a very plausible Pretext Under that colour then he levied four thousand Switzers and three thousand German Horse part of them he sent to Avignon and furnished the Duke of Savoy with money to arm for the same cause At the same time he endeavoured to form a League amongst the Ministers of the Princes that were at the Council against the Protestants but no body would consent to it all the Princes excusing themselves upon particular accounts but using this reason in general that it would be a hinderance to the Continuation of the Council That last reason weighed not much with the Pope for the Rupture of the Council which the Princes so much feared was the thing that he most desired and therefore he proposed once again in Consistory the deciding of the Debate about the Continuation of the Council according to the intention of the Spaniards thereby to vex the Germans and French and force them to withdraw In the mean while he complained continually of the manner how he was used and said that Lansac seemed rather the Ambassadour of the Huguenots than of the King of France that he and his Collegues fomented the Divisions and encouraged those that raised the Authority of the Council above the Pope an heretical opinion said he the Abbetters whereof he was resolved to prosecute and punish He accused Lansac of having said that so many German and French Bishops would come as should be strong enough to drive the Idol from Rome He found no less fault with the Cardinals of Mantua Seripando and Warmia his Legates saying that they deserved not to wear the Hat of a Cardinal He sent Carlo Visconts Bishop of Vintimiglia with Orders to watch over their proceedings promising him a Cardinals Cap at the first promotion wherein he was as good as his word He gave him a list of those who were faithfull to the Holy See that he might converse freely and open his heart to them Visconte faithfully discharged his Commission and was a very exact Spie in the Council giving the Pope an account of the least thing that happened there Cardinal Simoneta had given the Pope advice that the Cardinal of Mantua had engaged himself by an express promise to bring the Point of Residence into play again this made him break out into an open passion and he had certainly been transported into some rash action had not the Archbishop of Lanciano arrived very opportunely who acquitted himself extraordinary well of his Commission in justifying the Cardinal He presented to the Pope a Letter signed by more than thirty Bishops who protested to his Holiness that they had not the least design to lessen his Authority by demanding that Residence might be declared to be of Divine Right That calmed him a little and disposed him to receive more patiently the excuses of the Cardinals of Mantua Seripando and Warmia so that by the pains of the Archbishop of Lanciano the Pope became more moderate wrote to the Legates in a softer Style and acquainted the Fathers that he desired the Council might be free that he was not against the deciding of the Point of Residence but that they must wait till the heats and animosities were over In particular he gave orders to tell the Cardinal of Mantua that he was satisfied with his innocence and that with much Joy he acknowledged it Poor Camillo Oliva the Cardinal of Mantua's Secretary had no share in his Master's reconciliation with the Pope for after the death of the Cardinal as that faithfull Servant waited on his Corps to Mantua the Pope upon idle and silly Pretexts caused him to be put into the Inquisition where for many years he suffered inconceivable misery The Divines give their opinion about the Demand of the Cup which the Germans made During this time the Fathers of the Council were employed in examination of the matters which were to be decided in the next Session The Congregations began the ninth of June and continued untill the three and twentieth Threescore Divines were heard upon the Point of the Communion in both kinds but that being a Point of Antiquity for the knowledge of which School-Divinity was of little use they came very ill off about it They all agreed that the Cup was not necessary and endeavoured to prove that from the very times of the Apostles dry Communions had been in use because there is often mention made of breaking of Bread without speaking any thing of Wine They proved the same Communions without the Cup also by the Communion of the Laicks which is frequently mentioned in the writings of the Ancients when any Member of the Clergy fell from his Post he was turned off to the Laick Communion Now said they seeing that Communion of Laicks is distinguished from the Communion of the Clergy it must needs have been different and that difference could be no other but this that the Clergy communicated in both kinds and the People onely in one A little more knowledge in Antiquity would have taught them that the Communion of Laicks was not different from that of the Clergy but onely in Order and Place for the Clergy received in the Chancel and before the People and the People afterward extra cancellos in
the Chief of Bishops And so from that time forward the Greatness of the Pope was the onely hinge upon which moved that Controversie about Residence A Minute of a Decree is made at Rome concerning the Authority of the Pope and Bishops which was rejected by the Bishops in Council The Pope was so much afflicted for the death of his Nephew Frederico Borromeo that he fell dangerously sick considering his great age And yet the troubles he received from the Council vexed him more than the death of his Kinsman He held frequent Congregations of Cardinals for determining those two Controversies which made so much noise about the Institution of Episcopacy and Residence As to that of Institution he gave his answer at last that it was an erroneous opinion that Episcopacy as to the Power of Jurisdiction was of Divine Right and instituted by Jesus Christ unless it were in this Sense that Jesus Christ does all that the Pope doth and concluded that these words of Divine Right ought to be wholly left out or that the Decree must be made in this form That Jesus Christ hath instituted Bishops to be made by the Pope with such Authority as he should think fit to give them for the good of the Church it being still in his Power to enlarge or restrain it As to the Point of Residence he gave Orders that it should not be declared of Divine Right because he would retain to himself the Power of dispensing with it so that whatsoever they did they should have a care that nothing were enacted contrary to his Authority As to the Prorogation of the Session he wrote in General Terms that it should not be put off above a Fortnight nor yet held unless all matters were in a readiness The Legates thought that the Decree about the Institution of Episcopacy and of the Pope's Power over Bishops in the form that it was sent from Rome would never be admitted in the Council and therefore they found themselves obliged to write a second time and send the Bishop of Vintimiglia to the Pope Because the matter of Cup was referred to the Pope the Duke of Bavaria having no more to demand of the Council as to that Point sent a solemn Embassy to Rome for obtaining of it This Embassy went by Trent and the Ambassadours had Conferences with the Legates and Cardinal of Lorrain That allarmed the Spaniards who always opposed the Restitution of the Cup. At the same time the news of the Battel of Dreux came to Trent which was fought the seventeenth of December The Catholicks gave out that they had obtained the Victory though they lost in it almost double the number that the Protestants had lost for they lost five thousand men and the Protestants but three But they alledged that they continued Masters of the Field The two Generals were taken Prisoners the Prince of Conde on the side of the Protestants and the Constable on the Catholicks side This was a fatal Year for the terrible Divisions that rent France in pieces no less that fourteen Armies at one time on foot which on both sides committed fearfull disorders Admiral Coligny after that Battel notwithstanding the taking of the Prince of Conde kept his Army together and made even some progress Nevertheless there was a Thanksgiving at Trent for the Victory as if it had been real when indeed it was but imaginary They were perswaded at Rome that the Huguenots were totally routed and that so there was no more need of a Council wherefore some were of opinion that it should either be dissolved or suspended But the Pope had better news than the rest and saw very well that it was not yet time to dissolve the Council He thought he did enough if he could retain the Power and Authority that he had got over it The Emperour's design of coming to Inspruck in the Neighbourhood of Trent filled him with new Jealousies He made no doubt but that he had secret intelligences with Spain and France and he could not see into the Bottome of it So much he knew in General that these intelligences tended to the lessening of his Authority and the Reformation of the Abuses of his Court. And therefore to prevent Reformations from those hands through which the Court of Rome had not mind to pass he published a Brief dated the twenty seventh of December whereby he reformed some Corruptions of the Rota and made also some other slight Reformations of his Court This in the main came to nothing at all but however it was usefull to his Legates and Pensioners at Trent for they made answer to those who demanded the Reformation of the Court of Rome that seeing the Pope made it his business to reform himself the Council might very well spare themselves the trouble The year one thousand five hundred sixty and two was concluded with a Congregation held the thirtieth of December wherein it was resolved to put off the Session for a Fortnight 1563. The French present their Memoires containing 34 Demands They are sent to Rome and the Pope is allarmed at them To begin the New Year one thousand five hundred and sixty three the French presented four and thirty Articles concerning the Reformation which they desired Most part of them regarded the Reformation of the Clergy and the abuses in Ordination and in preferring undeserving men both as to manners and learning Some of them also related to the Court of Rome and tended to the diminution of its Revenues The fourteenth of these Articles demanded a prohibition of the Plurality of Benefices the sixteenth that the Sacraments might be administred gratis In the seventeeth they demanded Divine Service in the Vulgar Tongue that is to say that the chief Prayers should be said in French as well as in Latin The eighteenth proposed the Communion in both kinds and required the revival of the Decree of Gelasus The twenty sixth demanded the Restitution of the Jurisdiction of Bishops in all their Dioceses over all that lived within them not excepting Monasteries unless the Chiefs of Orders and the Monasteries where the Generals of Orders did reside The nine and twentieth desired Reformation of the abuse which the People made of Images the abuse of Pilgrimages Fraternities Relicks and Indulgences The thirtieth demanded restitution of the custome of publick Pennance as it had been in the primitive Church The Legates and Pope's Party disliked these demands and the manner wherein they were presented for that was with the usual Threat that if they had not satisfaction in admitting their Proposals they would provide for themselves by a National Council The Legates sent these Articles to the Pope being very sure that he could not read them but with extraordinary trouble especially seeing one of the Propositions demanded the abolition of Annates and of all the other means which are used at Rome for hooking in Money from the Provinces They commissioned the Bishop of Viterbo to carry these Memoires to