general Positions as the Ground-work of his Opinion as that the Pope of Rome is head of the Universal Church That the Church of Rome is the Chief of all others and that in Matters relating to Faith and Religion it cannot err no more than a Council where the Pope is present That the Holy Scripture receives all its Force and Authority from the Church and Pope of Rome as from a most certain Rule and that they who think otherwise who follow not the Doctrins of the Church of Rome or question its Authority are without doubt Hereticks Having laid down this for a Ground he comes to debate the Matter To this Writing Luther afterwards made Answer and in his Preface to Silvester told him That he admired more than understood his Positions and then following his Example in his own Defence laid down some Positions also but such as were drawn from Holy Scripture Wherein he affirmed That we are not to believe the Doctrins of all Sorts of Men but prudently to weigh all Things and embrace that which is agreeable to the Word of God And that no Doctrin was to be received though never so Specious besides that which was left us by the Prophets and Apostles That the Writers who came nearest to them were to be admitted but that we were to judge of the rest And that as to Indulgences the Collectors ought not to forge any Novelties but therein follow the Direction of the Canon Law. Afterwards he objects against him That he alledged no Text of Scripture and only quoted the Opinion of Thomas who himself had handled most things according to his own Fancy without the Authority of Scripture wherefore he rejects both and for so doing gives for his Warrant not only the Injunction of S. Paul but also the Example of S. Austin That it is an usual thing with Lawyers to say That nothing was to be asserted but what was clearly grounded on the Law and that in Divinity it was far less tolerable to admit of any Allegation without the Authority and Testimony of Scripture That S. Paul commands That they who teach the People should be furnished not with Syllogisms or the various Devices of Men but with sound Doctrin left to us by Divine Inspiration but that because most part slighted that Command thick Darkness had overspread the Church and jangling about frivolous and needless Questions had broke into it Having thus made Way for himself he comes to the Refutation and towards the End says That he was not at all moved at his Threats nor his lofty and swelling Expressions for that though he might be put to Death yet Christ still lived and was Immortal to whom all Glory and Honour ought to be given That if afterwards he intended to have another Brush he must make use of other Weapons and that else he would come but sorrily off with his old Friend Thomas Silvester makes his Reply That he was exceedingly pleased That he submitted to the Determination of the Pope of Rome and wished that therein he might have spoken truly and from his Heart Luther had twitted him with Ambition and Flattery which he altogether disowned but strongly defended Thomas Aquinas affirming That his whole Doctrin was so well Received and Approved of by the Church of Rome that it was even preferred before all other Writings He therefore rebuked him for speaking with so little Reverence of so great a Man and told him That he looked upon it as an Honour to be called a Thomist But that nevertheless he was also acquainted with the Writings of other Men which sometime or other he would make appear To this Preface he subjoyned a Short Book wherein he strangely commended the Power of the Pope of Rome so that he raised him above Councils and all the Canons and affirmed That the Force of Scripture depended wholly on his Authority Thomas Aquinas being nobly descended gave himself altogether to the Study of Learning and leaving Italy came first to Cologn and then to Paris where he attained to the chief Place amongst the Learned Men of his Age and published many Books both in Philosophy and Divinity He had been a Fryer of the Dominican Order and the Scholar of Albertus Magnus and about fifty Years after his Death was Canonized a Saint by Pope John XXII He had indeed been a rare Champion for the Papal Dignity for he gave him Power not only over all Bishops the Universal Church and Kings but also both Spiritual and Civil Jurisdiction affirming it to be necessary to Salvation That all Men should be Subject unto him and that he had full Power in the Church both to call Councils and to confirm the Decrees of the same Nay and that from National or Provincial Synods Appeals might lawfully be made unto him In short he attributed all things unto him save only that he could not make new Articles of Faith nor abrogate those which were handed down to us from the Apostles and Fathers He wrote also largely of Indulgences and made the Pope an absolute Monarch in dispensing them He is said to have died in the Year one thousand two hundred and seventy four and because of the sharpness of his Wit he is commonly called the Angelical Doctor To Silvester's Reply Luther made Answer only by an Epistle to the Reader wherein he affirms That little Book of his to be so stuffed with Lies and Horrid Blasphemies against God that the Devil himself appeared to be the Author of it That if the Pope and Cardinals were of the same Judgment and that if that was the Doctrin taught at Rome it was no more to be doubted but that Rome was the very Seat of Antichrist and that happy was Greece Bohemia and all the rest who had separated from it That if the Pope did not restrain him and force him to retract his Writings he protested that he Dissented from him and not only acknowledged not the Church of Rome but would look upon it for the Future as an Impure Sink of Errours wholly Devoted to Impiety That new and unheard of Elogies of the Pope of Rome were cunningly and craftily devised daily with intent that there might be no place for a Lawful Council since his Flatteries raised him above a Council and affirmed That the true Sense and Meaning of the Scriptures was to be sought from him as from an Infallible Judge That if they went on in this Madness and Imposed so upon the World with their Juggles there remained no other Remedy but that the Magistrates should Punish them That Thieves Robbers and such like Malefactors were put to Death but that it was more Reasonable That all Men should joyn in repressing these most pernicious Enemies of the Commonwealth of Christendom That their Pope was no more than other Men and no less obliged by the Laws of God than the Meanest Person whatsoever and that they who taught otherwise offered the highest Injury to the Divine Majesty
Christian Liberty according to their own Inclinations and Affections that with greater licentiousness they may do what they please This Age is far more Corrupt than former Ages have been and therefore requires that Men should act more circumspectly also There are some of your Works that cannot be condemned but it is to be feared That the Devil hath set you upon it in the mean time to publish others inconsistent with Religion and Piety that so all your Books might be promiscuously condemned together For those which you have published last are a sufficient Proof that the Tree is to be known by the Fruit and not by the Blossom You are not ignorant how carefully the Scripture warns us to beware of the Devil by Day and of the Arrow that flyeth by Night that Enemy of Mankind ceaseth not to lay Snares for us and under a fair Pretext many times entraps us and misleads us into Error You ought to think therefore both of your own Salvation and other Mens too and consider if it be fitting that those whom Christ by his own Death hath redeemed from everlasting Death should by your Fault Books and Sermons be seduced from the Church and so perish again from the Church I say whose Dignity all Men ought reverently to acknowledge For in Human Affairs there is nothing better than the Observation of the Laws and as no State nor Government can subsist without Laws so also unless we religiously maintain the most Holy Decrees of our Fore-fathers nothing will be more troublesome than the State of the Church which of all others ought to be the most calm and setled These Noble and Virtuous Princes here present out of the singular Love and Affection they bear to the Publick and particularly also for your own well-fare have thought fit to admonish you of these things for without doubt if you obstinately persist in your Opinions and yield in nothing the Emperour as he hath plainly enough already intimated his Resolution will banish you the Empire and not suffer you to have any footing within the Bounds of Germany so that it concerns you seriously to reflect upon your own Condition To these things Luther made Answer For the Care and Concern ye have for me most Noble Princes I give you most hearty Thanks And indeed for such Illustrious Persons to vouchsafe to take this Pains and Trouble for so mean a Man as I is an Act of extraordinary Condescension But now as to Councils I am far from finding Fault with all yet cannot but blame that of Constance and have very just Cause so to do Huss defined the Church to be the Congregation of God's Elect and both this Doctrin and that saying of his That he believed the Holy Church were condemned by the Prelates of that Council who themselves deserved rather to have been condemned For what he said was Orthodox and Christian I will therefore suffer any thing yea sooner lose my Life than forsake the clear Rule of the Word of God for we must obey God rather than Men And as to the Scandal which is objected unto me I neither can nor ought to be accountable for it for there is a great Difference betwixt the Scandals of Charity and those of Faith the first consisting in Life and Manners which by all means are to be avoided whilst the other arising from the Word of God are not at all to be regarded for Truth and the Will of our Heavenly Father ought not to be dissembled though the whole World should be offended thereat The Scripture calleth Christ himself a Work of Offence and that equally belongs to all who preach the Gospel I know we ought to obey the Laws and Magistrates I have always taught the People so and my Writings bear witness how much I ascribe to the Dignity of the Laws But again as to Ecclesiastical Decrees the Reason is quite different for if the Word of God were purely taught if the Bishops and Pastors of the Church discharged their Duty as Christ and his Apostles have enjoyned them there would be no need of laying that hard and intolerable Yoke of Human Laws upon the Minds and Consciences of Men I am not ignorant neither that the Scripture admonishes us not to trust our own Judgment which is a true saying and I shall be willing to comply with it and not to do any thing obstinately provided only I may have Leave to profess the Doctrin of the Gospel Having so said he was ordered to withdraw and after some Consultation Vey among other things began to exhort him to submit his Books to the Sentence of the Emperour and Princes Why not said he I will never seem to decline the Judgment of the Emperour and States of the Empire nor of no mans else provided they take for their Guide the Scripture and Word of God which speaketh so plainly for me that unless I be thereby convicted of Errour I cannot change my Opinion For S. Paul commandeth us Not to believe even an Angel coming from Heaven if he should preach another Doctrin Wherefore I humbly beg of you That you would intercede for me with the Emperour that I may be suffered to live with a good Conscience and if I can but obtain that I shall be ready to do any thing Then said the Elector of Brandenburg to him Is this your meaning then That you will not submit unless you be convinced by Holy Scripture It is Sir answered Luther or else by most evident Reasons Wherefore when the Council was broke up the Archbishop of Treves called him to him and in presence of some of his Domesticks made Eckius the Lawyer again admonish him but he having pleaded much for the Roman Papacy could gain no ground upon him and so no more was done at that Time. The next day after the Elector of Treves plyed him again urging him to submit without Condition to the Judgment of the Emperour and Princes but that was in vain In the Afternoon again some who were sent for to the Lodgings of the Elector of Treves put it to him That he would submit at least to the next General Council To this he agreed provided the Controversie should be managed according to the Rule of Holy Scripture Afterwards the Eelctor of Treves had a Conference with him in private all the Company being removed and asked his Judgment How that grievous and dangerous Evil could be remedied The best Counsel that could be given said he was that which Gamaliel gave the Scribes and Pharisees Not to fight against God. In fine when the Bishop could not prevail he courteously dismissed him promising to take care That he should have a Safe-Conduct for returning Home Not long after Eckius the Lawyer came to him by Order of the Bishop and told him Since said he you have rejected the Admonitions of the Emperour and Princes the Emperour will henceforth do what he ought in Duty And now he commands you immediately to
to such a height That the most Holy Host that Unleavened Bread which represents the Body of Christ was scarcely safe in the Priest's Hands That these were matters of such moment as justly deserved to be bewailed That for their parts they could no longer endure them especially seeing lately in their last Convention some of the Clergy their Confederates had by a common and publick Deputation implored their Aid That these things being so they prayed them To leave their new Doctrine and continue in the ancient Religion of their Fore-fathers But that if they thought themselves in any thing agrieved and oppressed by the Pope and those that depended on him as Cardinals Bishops Prelates and the like for that they invaded sold or exchanged Church-Livings or that they usurped to themselves too great a Jurisdiction and applyed that Power which ought only to be exercised in Spiritual to Civil and Temporal Affairs That if these and many other things of that kind were burthen some and uneasie unto them they were not against the having of them reformed for that they themselves were extreamly displeased thereat and would willingly consult with them how they might cast off that Burthen On the one and twentieth day of March the Senat of Zurich gave their Answer That for these five Years now past their Ministers had preached the Gospel among them which in the beginning seemed to them to be a new kind of Doctrin indeed because they had not heard the like before but that when they came to understand that the scope and end of it was only to shew That the only Author and Finisher of Man's Salvation was Jesus Christ who shed his precious Blood and laid down his Life for the Sins of the World and alone delivered wretched Men from Eternal Death being the only Mediator betwixt God and Man they could not but with servent Desires imbrace such glad Tydings That great had been the Harmony and Consent which was in ancient Times among the Apostles and those who in the Ages after them embraced the Doctrine of Christ which they hoped would be new also among all who applyed their Minds to it rejecting Human Traditions that had no Ground in the Word of God That if Luther or any Man else taught so it was well done and yet his Name ought not to be objected to any as if they believed the Doctrine only because he taught it for that that was a malicious Aspersion and reproachful to the Word of God That moreover though they adored Christ alone and had their recourse to him yet did they not therefore offer any Injury either to the Virgin Mary or the other Saints for that all these when they were upon Earth expected Salvation only through the Name of Christ That there was now such a Light revealed that most People within their City diligently searched and read the Scriptures nor could the Ministers of the Church wrest the Scripture which all Men had in their Hands so that Schism and Heresie ought not to be objected to them but might be justly imputed to those who for worldly Gain Pomp and Honour turned the Word of God to what Sense they pleased That they were charged with Errour indeed but that it could not be made out that the Bishops of Constance Basil and Coyre and some Universities also had been several times desired to do it but nothing of that kind had been hitherto performed That besides to their last Assembly none came from the Bishops nor from them neither except some from Schafheusen and San Gall that they who were then present having diligently considered the matter agreed in Opinion with them That as to what the Bishops said That it was not lawful for them to make the Scriptures so common it was unreasonable for it being their Duty to take heed that the Sheep should not go astray it was but just that they should bring into the Way such as were out of it but that seeing they did not do it and referred all things to the Fathers and Councils they were resolved to hearken not to what Men decreed but to what Christ commanded That their Teachers and Ministers gave no Cause to Divisions in the State but that that Fault lay at their Doors who for their own Profit and Advantage taught Doctrins contrary to the Word of God for that they were those who led Men into Errour and grievously offended God who was therefore provoked to punish that Boldness with various Calamities That all that Difference and Dissension proceeded from their Covetousness who were afraid to lose any of their Profits But that if these Men followed the true Doctrin and made it their Task to enquire what God's Will was and not what Men willed there was no doubt but that they would cast off all Lust Pride and Avarice and apply themselves to the Study of Peace and Concord That many Vices unknown in former Ages had now overspread the World which the Ministers of their City freely reproved exhorting Men to the Fear of God but that if most People were not reformed by their Sermons and did not bring forth Fruit worthy of that Doctrin it was not the Fault of the Seed sown but of the Ground that received it That it was plainly to be seen That the People within their Territories did not live in that Rioting and Intemperance which reigned every where else and that particularly the Men of their Country followed not as heretofore Foreign and Mercenary Wars which doubtless cherished and fomented many Vices That as to the eating of Flesh and Egs though it might be lawfully done and was not prohibited by Christ yet they had made a Law to restrain the rashness of the People who might thereby give Offence That God was the Author of Marriage who allowed it to all That S. Paul also enjoyned That a Minister of the Church should be the Husband of one Wife and that seeng Bishops for a little Money gave Priests leave to keep Concubines a thing of foul Example and that they neither could nor would be without Women they thought it not good to resist God who instituted Matrimony That the Case was the same with the Women who are said to have vowed Chastity for they lookt upon that kind of Obligation and Vow not to be pleasing to God and that since all People had not the Gift of Continence it was in their Judgment far better for them to marry than to live in impure Celibacy That Convents and Colledges of Regulars were heretofore instituted for the Poor and Needy but that now these Revenues were for the most part enjoyed by those who had enough of their own besides to live on Nor was it reasonable that one Man should possess alone what was sufficient for the Subsistence of many That therefore it seemed just to them that these Goods should be again converted to the use of the Poor wherein nevertheless they used that Moderation that the present Possessors should enjoy
upon which they refus'd the Council they thought it convenient to set them down in writing which Paper they afterwards publish'd in Print where they address themselves to foreign Princes and Nations to this effect Paul the Third say they hath lately publish'd a Bull in which he hath intimated a Council at Mantua which will be opened upon the 23th of May and hath offer'd some Reasons why these Measures were pitch'd upon Besides he hath dispatch'd his Nuncios to foreign Kings and Princes both Germans and others to acquaint them with the Council and invite them either to come thither themselves or send their Embassadors and in regard we have been solicited by him and by the Emperor upon this account we think our selves oblig'd to demonstrate how dangerous and disadvantageous a Compliance with him in this Point will be not only to us but to all Christendom And though we proceed upon none but justifiable grounds yet when we consider the temper of our Adversaries we have reason to believe they will censure our actions and interpret them in the worst sense For it 's likely in order to the bringing us and the whole Cause under their Jurisdiction they will not stick to affirm that we will not abide by any Trial nor submit to any Judge That we contemn other Nations which have been often remarkable for a great many Men of Learning They will say also that it 's a wicked thing to refuse Submission to the determinations of a Council which is the highest Tribunal of the Church and ought to be obeyed by all Persons They will likewise pretend as if we were asham'd of our Tenents and durst not bring them into view or that we watched an opportunity to make an unnecessary Breach and could not reconcile our selves to the Peace of Christendom Now if this Charge against us were true it were not only wicked in it self but it would be a kind of a Calamity to hear it For these reasons we are under a necessity of publishing our own Justification and we hope the consequence of it will be that all honest Men both in Germany and other places will not only forbear believing any thing of this nature of us but that they will make it their business that this most important Affair may be rightly manag'd and that it may not be in the Pope's Power to Tyrannize over apparent Truth and suppress it under the pretended and venerable Authority of a Council For we will not only make it appear that we hold no Opinions in Religion but what are sound and Orthodox but likewise that we aim at nothing but the Glory of God and the good of the Commonwealth and that no Man can justly charge us with obstinancy and perverseness And in the first place how far we are from contemning the Judgment of other Nations and of the Church is evident by our endeavouring to prevent the Pope and his Party from setting up for Judges and that all things may be debated by proper and unsuspected Persons which they believe is the unanimous desire of all good Men For in regard in some Countries there are now extant several ancient Books complaining of false Doctrin Immorality wicked Ceremonies and Practices which were then crept into the Church they do not question but that in those very places there are at this day several Persons of Learning and Piety who understand the true Doctrin though at present they are brow-beaten and overaw'd into silence by the Pope's Tyranny Now these are the Men who ought to appear in Councils that they may speak their mind freely for that is not to be accounted a lawful Council which is govern'd by the Pope and his Party who maintain their unorthodox Tenents by dint of Violence and Power and according to their old custom make Canons contrary to the Word of God. For our Saviour when he erected his Supream Tribunal upon Earth ordered That whatever required Reformation should be brought before the Church in which very words all manner of Tyranny and Dominion is excluded Farther they asperse us falsely if they say we are afraid to make our publick Appearance and will not endure the Light. For in the Diet at Ausburgh we made an open Profession of our Doctrin in the Presence of the Emperor and all the States of the Empire Besides this very Religion is publickly taught in our Dominions several of our Subjects have written Books of it and own'd it in Print and many of our Adversaries confess that our Writers have recover'd a great number of ancient Tenents which before were quite smother'd and suppress'd For now the true Doctrin is come to Light again which gives us the right notion of Repentance of Faith in Christ of Remission of Sins of good Works Religious Worship the use of the Sacraments the Power of the Keys of Magistracy Humane Traditions and such like Neither to speak in St. Paul's Language are we asham'd of the Gospel but wish above all things that we had an opportunity to declare our sense of these Points in the most publick Audience And whereas it 's objected to our Party as if they had reviv'd old condemn'd Heresies and therefore there is no need of any farther Dispute or Examination of the Cause this Suggestion is false and those who have read our Confession and the Defence annex'd to it will not require much Apology from us For the Doctrin which we Profess is no new one but was approv'd by the Primitive Church as may be made good to a demonstration Neither have we receiv'd any Heresie or wicked Opinion but on the contrary our Divines have regain'd the Doctrin of the Ancients in several Points which the Popes and Monks had suppress'd It is another Calumny to say that we are pleas'd with publick Animosities and Divisions for we are sorry at our very Souls that Christendom is so miserably distracted and earnestly desire a Council in order to a Reconciliation And since the Pope and his Adherents have condemn'd that Doctrin which is both true and necessary to be believ'd since they punish and persecute the Professors of it and excite others to follow their Example we could do no less than reprove them for their Cruelty and Insolence For God requireth us to Honour him by an open Confession and to hold any farther Correspondence with the Pope when he rages at such a barbarous rate would be a very wicked Alliance Besides it cannot be deni'd but we perform all Offices and undergo all Burthens which the Commonwealth requires as well as the rest of the States from whence it appeareth that we would willingly comply with others in Religion too if our Consciences would give us leave especially when we understand what danger hangeth over our Heads upon this account For the Popes for many years last past have told us pretty plainly what they would be at and how busie they have been in exasperating the Passions of Princes against us Now to run all these
Throne So did the Electors also every one according to his Degree behind him And over the Emperour the Trumpeters were placed on a kind of Stage Then advanced Duke Maurice's first Squadron and putting Spurs to their Horses came gallopping towards the Pavillion as the Custom is Duke Maurice himself in the mean time with his other Squadron was posted over against them accompanied by a croud of Princes and Great Men and twelve Trumpeters were ranked immediately before him Out of that Company presently advanced Henry Duke of Brunswick Wolffgang Brother to the Elector Palatine and Duke Albert of Bavaria who having gallopped their Horses to the place alighted and going up to the Emperour humbly begg'd his Imperial Majesty that it would please him to confer upon Duke Maurice the publick Investiture and Ensigns of Principality and Electorship The Emperour consulting with the Electors answered by the Mouth of the Archbishop of Mentz That he was willing provided he came and demanded it in person When Duke Maurice had received this Answer he speeded forward with the whole Body Before him were carried ten Banners with the Arms of so many Countries as he desired to be Invested in So having alighted and kneeling down before the Emperour he begg'd the same thing as also did Hoier Count Mansfield in name of his Brother Augustus The Emperour therefore made answer by the Mouth of the Archbishop of Mentz That seeing they had both done him faithful Service he gave to Duke Maurice and his Male-Issue or if he had none to his Brother Augustus and the Heirs of his Body the Electorship of Saxony and all the Lands and Possessions of John Frederick except so much as had been before made over to his Children Then the Archbishop of Mentz read over the Oath which the Electors take and when Duke Maurice had said it over after him and taken it the Emperour gave him a Sword and by that Ceremony put him in a manner into possession He returned him thanks promising him all Fidelity and Obedience Afterwards the Emperour gave Duke Maurice the Banners we mentioned which were immediately thrown amongst the people as it is customary John Frederick might have seen and indeed did behold all this Ceremony from the House where he lodged for it stood in the same Market place Bucer who was sent for as we have already said came at length to Ausburg and was entertained at the Elector of Brandenburg's Court. And now the Book about Religion which as it is mentioned before was ordered to be Complied was Finished The Elector of Brandenburg presents it as it was written to Bucer and desires him to Subscribe to it but upon perusal finding that the Popish Doctrine was therein establish'd he made answer That he could not approve it The Elector of Brandenburg took that very ill and was extremely angry with him for he lookt upon it to be a moderate Book as Islebius had persuaded him Granvel pressed him to it also by Messengers and promised him large rewards if he would approve it But when he could not prevail by fair promises he began to threaten which made Bucer return home but not without danger for there were Garisons of Spaniards all over the Dutchy of Wirtemberg as has been said before In the Month of April the Archbishop of Cologne who was lately made a Priest said his first Mass The Emperour King Ferdinand and a great many Princes were present whom afterwards he entertained at a most Magnificent Dinner At this time Muleasses King of Tunis whom thirteen years before the Emperour had restored to his Kingdom having expelled Barbarossa as has been said in the ninth Book came to Ausberg His Eldest Son had invaded his Kingdom and put out his Eyes And therefore the poor banished Prince came out of Africa to implore the Emperours help as not long after another of his Sons came also That Book which was made concerning Religion treats first of the State of Man both before and since his Fall of Redemption by Christ of Charity and good Works of the assurance of the Remission of Sins of the Church of Vows of Authority of the Ministers of the Church of the Pope of the Sacraments of the Sacrifice of the Mass of the Commemoration Invocation and Intercession of Saints of the Remembrance of those who are dead in the Faith of the Communion to be joyned with the Sacrifice of Ceremonies and the use of the Sacraments Now amongst other things there are these Doctrines in it that those Works which are more than what God commands and commonly called Works of Supererogation are to be commanded That Man cannot without doubting believe that his Sins are forgiven him That the Church hath the Power of interpreting Scriptures of drawing and explaining Doctrines from them the Power of Jurisdiction of deciding in doubtful Cases by a Council and of making Canons That there is one Head over the rest to wit the Pope by Virtue of the Prerogative granted to Peter That the Government of the Universal Church is committed to him by Christ yet so as that the rest of the Bishops have a share in that Cure every one in his own Church That by Confirmation and Chrism the Holy Ghost is received to enable us to resist the temptations of the Devil the World and the Flesh and that a Bishop is the only Minister of that Sacrament That the Sins which we remember are to be confessed to a Priest That by satisfaction which consists in the Fruits of Repentance especially in Fasting Alms-deeds and Prayer the causes of Sin are rooted out and Temporal Punishments either taken quite away or mitigated That extreme Unction hath been in the Church ever since the Apostles time that it might either relieve the Body or fortifie the Mind it self against the fiery Darts of the Devil That then it is to be administred when the hour of Death seemeth to draw nigh That Marriage contracted without the Parents consent ought to stand good but that Children are in Sermons to be admonished to ask the advice of their Parents That Christ at his last Supper instituted the Sacrament of his Body and Blood First that it should be received by Believers as the saving Food of their Souls and then that it should be offered up in memory of his Death and Passion For that there are in all two Sacrifices of Christ one a bloody Sacrifice upon the Cross and another wherein under the form of Bread and Wine he offered up his own Body and Blood to the Father and afterwards commanded his Apostles and their Successors to do the same in remembrance of him to the end of the World That by the first Mankind was reconciled to God the Father but by this unbloody Sacrifice Christ is offered up and represented to the Father not that he may again make satisfaction for Sins but that by Faith we may apply to our selves the Redemption purchased to us by his Death That in
thereupon mention has been made in the third Book And because a Decree past at Constance that the next subsequent Council should be held five years after another seven years after that and so for the future one every tenth year the Fathers met again at Basil But because the Bohemians were not as yet reconciled the Affair was managed betwixt them by Letters and Messengers and at the Town of Egra a Draught of a safe Conduct was made which if the Fathers did admit of the Bohemians did not refuse said they to come And so soon as the Deputies whom they had sent had declared their Commission the Fathers did approve and set their Seals to that form of safe Conduct which they sent to them with a most friendly Letter exhorting them to prepare themselves that when the safe Conduct also of the Emperour Sigismund should be brought to them they might be in readiness to undertake the Journey This was done in the fourth Session in the year 1432. Now what kind of safe Conduct that of the Fathers was it shall be at length delcared in the following Book Duke Maurice then being by his Divines informed of this makes application to the Emperour and urges the precedent of Basil as the latest and most suitable to the Age. For the Protestants were much in the same case as the Bohemians had been in formerly and for the same causes in a manner was the Council of Trent called that that of Basil had heretofore been to wit that Heresies might be rooted out that peace and tranquillity might be restored to the State and that the Church might be purged from Vices and reformed On the Twenty sixth day of August in the Morning after Sermon the Doctors and Preachers of the Church of Ausburg ten in number with the School-Masters were sent for to the Lodgings of the Bishop of Arras every one by himself When they were come thither some sooner some later not knowing what the matter was they were commanded to keep a part and not to talk to one another afterwards they were called in order one after another into a Hall where the Bishop of Arras sate with Hasen Selden Malvenda and some others Selden was Spokesman and as he was bid proposed the Questions Whether or not in the Lords Supper there was as much contained under one Kind as under both Next How many Sacraments they believed there were And lastly Why they did not teach according to the form prescribed by the Emperour three years ago whereas they had promised to do so no less than the Senate it self and all the States had done They answered every one for himself severally That Christ instituted the whole Supper and that his Institution ought to be followed That there is mention made but of two Sacraments in the holy Scriptures Baptism and the Lords Supper That they received not that Form of Doctrine because it disagreed with the holy Scripture Here the Bishop of Arras took them up in a great heat Do ye think then said he that the Emperour cannot make Laws and prescribe Rules in Spiritual Affairs as well as in Temporal What the Emperour may do we do not now dispute said they but as we said we neither received that Form nor can we indeed approve it With that he fell into a greater passion and in a rage bestowed some bitter and reproachful words upon them When also they spake as they did of the Sacraments Selden the Lawyer as being Interpreter rebuked them sharply So they were ordered to withdraw and stay without being attended by a Guard who placed them severally that they might not come together Presently some of the chief Senators were called and when these came the Ministers were all brought in together and strict charge given them That within three days they should depart out of the City before Sun setting the third day That they should never preach any more within the Empire nor as far as the Emperours Jurisdiction extended That they should not speak with any of their Friends or Relations nor tell any Man the cause of their departure That they should not write back to any in the City nor give an account of what course had been taken with them and all these things with hands lifted up as the custom was they were made to Swear against their wills Then the Town Council was enjoyned to put a stop to all preaching in the Lutheran Churches until the Emperours farther pleasure should be known in the matter The same course was afterwards also taken with the Schoolmasters and with those of Memmingen and others in Schwabia who had been also sent for and came thither for the one was prohibited to teach and the other to return home any more And when one of them urged that his Wife was near her time and therefore earnestly begg'd that he might be suffered only to go and see her The Bishop of Arras turning to his Company He calls her a Wife said he who is a Harlot Thus then were they forced to be gone which occasioned much sorrow in the City but the Citizens shewed them all the kindness they could in Presents and other Instances of Liberality When it came to the Ears also of the captive Duke of Saxony he sent Messengers to comfort them and to help them with Money at their departure The reason why the Emperour did do so was thought to be first because he was egg'd on to it by some then that upon enquiry he had found the Ministers to have obstructed the execution of his Decree about Religion And lastly that he had been informed of the consent and agreement of the Divines of Saxony Schwabia and Strasburg And it is believed they lookt upon this as the best course that could be taken to banish them that so the Fathers at Trent might have the less work to do and an easie victory their Adversaries having none hardly left whom they might send to oppose them Being thus banished then and forced to flie they went some into Switzerland and some to other places Many were terrified at the report of this For no Man doubted but what had been done there would also be practised in other places But at the same time that all Men lay under this consternation the French King made War against the Emperour seized some Dutch Ships and made prize of them and took several Towns in Piedmont and Turin and amongst the rest Cherie and St. Damian by the Conduct and Command of the Duke of Brisack As to the Ships that were taken the Imperialists published a Declaration importing That in time of Peace when the Emperour expected nothing less than a War and had commanded his Subjects to be quiet a French Captain come up with them and sent them word that in honour to the Queen of Scots whom he had on board they should after the old and ancient custom Strike Sail and give him so many Guns and
the Lawful Succession is transmitted without any interruption The Cardinal of Lorraine had design'd in the former Reign to make a Speech in the Name of the three Estates which was then not opposed but now the Commons would not suffer it because contrary to the Ancient Usage And for that they had some things to object against the Cardinal himself Jean l' Ange an Advocate of the Parliament of Bourdeaux spoke for the Commons and remarked three great Faults in the Clergy Ignorance Covetousness and Excessive Luxury which had given Being to the new Errors and Scandal to the People That the Preaching of the Word of God which was the chief cause of the instituting Bishops was totally neglected and they thought it a shameful thing and beneath their Dignity And by their Example the Curates had learned to neglect their Duty too and had ordered the Mass to be sung by Illiterate and Unworthy Stipendaries That the excessive Pomp and Avarice of the Clergy who pretended by it to promote the Glory of God had raised an Envy and an hatred of them in the Minds of the People And therefore he desired that a Council might be assembled by the order of the King to remedy these Mischiefs After him James de Silty Comte de Roquefort made a Bold and an Elegant Oration in the Name of the Nobility and taxed the Clergy for invading the Rights and oppressing the People under Pretence of the Jurisdictions granted them by the Ancient Kings of France That therefore the King ought in the first place to take care to reform the Clergy and assign good Pensions to those that Preached the Word of God as had been done by many of his Ancestors which he named Jean Quintin le Bourguinon made a long tedious Speech in the behalf of the Clergy to shew I. That the Assembly of the three Estates were instituted for the providing for the Sacred Discipline II. That the King might understand the Complaints of his People and provide for the Necessities of his Kingdom by their Advice and not for the Reformation of the Church Which could not Err and which neither hath nor ever shall have the least Spot or Wrinkle but shall ever be Beautiful But then he ingenuously confest That the Sacred Discipline was very much declined from its Ancient Simplicity That therefore the Revivers of the the Ancient Heresies were not to be heard and all that had Meetings separate from the Catholicks were to be esteemed Favourers of Sectaries and to be punished Therefore he desired the King to compel all his Subjects within his Dominions to Live and Believe according to the Form prescribed by the Church That the Insolence of the Sectaries was no longer to be endured who despising the Authority of the Ancients and the Doctrine received by the Church would be thought alone to understand and imbrace the Gospel That this was the next step to a Rebellion and that they would shortly shake off the Yoak of the Civil Magistrate and with the same Boldness fight against their Prince that they now imployed against the Church if Care were not speedily taken He desired that all Commerce between them and the Catholicks might be forbidden and that they might be treated like Enemies and that those who were gone out of the Kingdom on the account of Religion might be banished That it was the King's Duty to draw the Civil Sword and put all those to Death who were infected with Heresie to defend the Clergy and restore the Elections of Bishops to the Chapters the want of which had caused great Damages to the Church That it had been observed That the very Year the Pope granted the King the Nomination of Bishops this Schism began and has ever since spread it self for in the 1517 Luther Zuinglius and Oecolampadius set up and Calvin followed them This Speech incensed the whole Assembly against him and especially the Protestants who published so many Libels and Satyrs against him that he soon after died of Shame and Grief He was no ill Man but was a better Decretalist than a Divine and had never well thought whether a Reformation were needfull or no But then it ought also to have been considered that he did not speak his own Single judgment but had his matter prescribed him by the Clergy for whom he spoke After some days the King Signified to the Bishops that they should prepare themselves for the Council which was now recall'd at Trent and the Judges and Prefects were commanded to discharge all that were Imprison'd for Religion only and leave all that were suspected the free injoyment of their Estates and Goods And it was made Capital to reproach or injure one the other on the Account of Religion After which the Assemly was Prorogued to the Month of May of the next Year There was in Piedmont a Valley called by the Name of Perosia and St. Martin Inhabited by about 15000 Souls whose Ancestors about 400 Years since had upon the Preaching of Waldus Speronus and Arnaldus made a defection from the Church of Rome and had at times been severely treated for it by the French under whom they had been but by the last Treaty were assigned to the Duke of Savoy This People about the Year 1555 had imbraced the Reformation and had suffered it to be publickly preached tho it was forbidden by the Council at Turin which the Year following sent one of its own Members to inquire after the Offenders and to punish them to whom the Inhabitants of this Valley delivered the Confesson of their Faith Declaring that they profess'd the Doctrin contained in the Old and New Testament and comprehended in the Apostles Creed and admitted the Sacraments Instituted by Christ the IV first Councils viz. those of Nice Constantinople Ephesus and Chalcedon and the Ten Commandments c. That they believed the Supreme civil Magistrates were Instituted by God and they were to be obeyed and that who soever resisted them fought against God. They said they had received this Doctrin from their Ancestors and that if they were in any error they were ready to receive instruction from the Word of God and would presently renounce any heretical or erroneous Doctrin which should be so shewen to them Thereupon a Solemn Dispute was in shew appointed concerning the Sacrifice of the Mass Auricular Confession Tradition Prayers and Oblations for the Dead and the Ceremonies of the Church and her Censures all which were rejected by them they alledging that they were humane Inventions and contrary to the Word of God. This Confession was sent by the Duke of Savoy to the King of France who about a year after return'd Answer That he had caused it to be Examin'd by his learned Divines who had all condemn'd it as Erroneous and contrary to true Religion and therefore the King commanded them to reject this Confession and to Submit to the Holy Church of Rome and if they did not do so their
be parallell'd in any age since the Apostles and there having followed it a great Commotion in the Civil State as is usual Tho I was not the fittest person to undertake this Work yet at the request of many good Men I entred upon it for the glory of God and with great fidelity and diligence have brought it down to our own Times And I have some hope that all who are not highly prejudiced will confess that I have not given the Reins to my Passions in any thing in this affair and that I have behaved my self perhaps with more Moderation than any other Writer For though I willingly profess that Doctrine of the Gospel which by the mercy of God was now restored and rejoyce exceedingly that I am a Member of the Reformed Church yet I have carefully abstained from all exasperating Language and simply delivered every thing as it came to pass I call God to Witness also that I never designed to injure or hurt any mans reputation falsly for what a madness would it have been to have delivered any thing otherwise than it was in an affair which is fresh in all mens memory And I hope those who are intimately acquainted with me have never yet discovered any such vanity in me And yet if after all I have by chance committed any Error or Mistake I will readily confess it when ever I shall be shewn it and also caution my Reader openly that he may not be mislead by me as I have said in my Preface As to the pains I have taken and the diligence I have used in this Work no man could possibly have done more to find out the Truth as many men can bear me Witness and the very Work it self will in great part shew In this History of Religion I could not omit what concerned the Civil Government because as I have already said they are interwoven each with th' other especially in our times so that it was not possible to separate them This union of the Sacred and Civil State is sufficiently discovered in the Scriptures and is the cause that the change of Religion in any Nation is always attended presently with offences distractions contentions strifes tumults factions and wars For this cause Christ saith the Son shall be against the Father and the Daughter against the Mother and that his Doctrine would not bring Peace but a Sword and raise a fiery contention amongst the nearest relations And that this has ever been the state of affairs since the beginning of the World cannot be denied and is also very manifest from the thing it self For in our Times no sooner did this benefit vouchsafed us by God and the Doctrine of the Gospel begin to be preached against the Papal Indulgences and the Traditions of Men but presently all the World but especially the Clergy became tumultuous and unquiet This occasioned the bringing this affair before the Dyet or Publick Convention of the States of Germany and when there upon some Princes and free Cities imbraced this Doctrine this fire spread it self and the cause was exagitated with great variety till at last it burst out into a War. Now in the Description I have made of it will appear what care and diligence the Emperor imployed to put a stop to this dissention what the Protestants also from time to time Answered and what Conditions they frequently offered And when it came to a War the event was various and perplexed as for instance the Emperor to give one Example out of many wrote to some of the Princes and Cities and afterwards Published in Print a Declaration of his intentions and designs This Declaration was the foundation of the Emperors cause and by the Laws of History was to be represented together with the Answer of the Adverse Party For without this what kind of History would it be thought which should only represent what one party said And yet in this how I behaved my self how I managed my Style and tempered it may be easily seen by comparing my Latin Version of that Declaration with the German Edition of it to which I refer my self When the War was prolonged till the Winter came on the Emperor at last prevail'd upon the return of his Enemies into their Countries These his Victories and Triumphs first in the Upper Germany and then the Electorate of Saxony are related by me with great Truth And I observe the same method every where For I neither take from nor add to any mans Actions more than the truth of the thing requires and allows And in truth it is apparent this has been done by few For the greatest part of the Writers give their own Judgments both of the things and persons they mention in their Histories To omit the more Ancient Historians we know how Platina has Written the Lives of the Popes and Philip Comines a Knight has in our Memory published an Illustrious History of his own Times and among other things which he there delivers tells us that after Charles the Hardy Duke of Burgundy was slain before Nancy in Battel Lewis XII King of France ravished from his Daughter and Heir Artois and both the Burgundies and altho Comines was a sworn Subject of France and a Counseller to that Prince yet he saith this was ill done About XXIV years since Peter Bembus was imployed by the Senate of Venice to Write the Story of the War between that State and Maximilian the First Emperor of Germany Lewis King of France and Julius II Pope of Rome and some others which he hath done in twelve Books And he too tells us how Lewis XII denounced War against the Venetians and that his Herald appearing before the Senate and the Duke spoke these Words Luredano Duke of Venice and ye the rest of the Citizens of Venice Lewis King of France my Master has commanded me to tell you that he is coming with an Army against you because like a parcel of perfidious men yea have possessed your selves by force and fraud of the Towns belonging to the Pope and other Princes and are rest lesly endeavouring by crafty means to Ravage and subject under your Dominion all that belongs to your Neighbours which he is now resolved to require at your hands Perhaps some may think that Bembus ought to have taken no notice of these Words because they reflect so bitterly upon his Country-men but he thought otherwise and transcrib'd them from the Publick Records into his History adding the Answer which was given with equal sharpness to the Herald and this Work was after Printed with the Privilege of the Senate at Venice Paulus Jovius besides his Lives of the Illustrious Men has lately Published two Tomes of the History of our Time how freely he Writes will appear to any one who reads them and although he treats the Germans very injuriously yet his Work comes forth with many Privileges to defend it He that pleaseth may examine what he saith Tom. II. Fol. 9. and in the Life
we mentioned came to Norimberg and January 1 sent from thence the Pope's Letters we spoke of to the Senate of Strasburg offering his Service if they pleased to write him an Answer Zuinglius began now to give great Offence and whilst many both within and without the City preached against his Doctrin as Impious and Erroneous but especially the Dominican Fryers and that he justified the same offering to prove it to be consonant to the Holy Scriptures the Senate of Zurich called a Convocation of all the Clergy within their Jurisdiction to meet at Zurich January 29 about the Difference in Religion where all men should be heard as much as was Requisite They invited also the Bishop of Constance by Letters either to come himself or send one in his Place So then a numerous Assembly met at the Day appointed and among others John Faber whom the Bishop sent to represent him to whom the Burgomaster of the Town made a Speech to this Effect That because there was a great Dissension arisen about Religion the present Assembly had been called That if any man had ought to say against the Doctrin of Zuinlius he might freely propound the same Now Zuinlius had before comprized his Doctrin into certain Heads and common places to the number of sixty seven Articles and had published them to the end that all might come prepared to Argue and Dispute the Matter openly in the Assembly Wherefore when now the Burgomaster had done speaking he again propounded them and invited them to fall to the Dispute With that Faber having declared the Cause of his being sent endeavoured to persuade them That that was a Debate not proper for such a Place and that it belonged to a General Council which was shortly to be called But Zuinglius urging him to Dispute and if he had any thing to say not to dissemble it He made answer That he would refute his Doctrin in Writing Thus they two having exchanged many Words and no Body else appearing to take up the Cudgels the Senate dissolved the Assembly and proclaimed throughout their Territories That the Traditions of Men being laid aside the Gospel should be purely taught from the Books of the Old and New Testament THE HISTORY OF THE Reformation of the Church BOOK IV. The CONTENTS Pope Adrian by his Legate propounded several things confessing that now for many Years there had been various and grievous Corruptions in the Court of Rome The Princes of Germany answer him and declare upon what Conditions they would have a Council An alteration of Affairs in Denmark King Christiern flyeth The Imposts of Germany First-Fruits and Vacances are treated of Mention is made of the Pall of Archbishops Two Augustine Fryers are burnt at Brussels Luther interprets the Decree made at Norimberg He publishes some Books The King of England makes a heavy complaint of Luther Pope Adrian dies to whom Clement succeeds Troubles arise in Switzerland about the Doctrin of Zuinglius and at Strasburg about the Marriage of Priests Campegius is sent by Pope Clement Legate to the Dyet of Norimberg where he writes to Duke Frederick and then exhorts the Princes in a Speech he made to them To which they answer and he again replies thereunto The Switzers expostulate with those of Zurich who answer the Ambassadours of the other Cantons The Bishop of Constance's Book in defence of Images Which nevertheless are thrown down and burnt throughout all the Canton of Zurich The Emperour sends an Ambassadour to the Dyet of Norimberg The Senate and Bishop of Strasburg bring their Controversie before Cardinal Campegius After the Dyet is over Ferdinand and others make a League against the Reformation BEsides the Letters we mentioned Pope Adrian gave his Legates Instructions in Writing that he should signifie to the Princes How much he was grieved at the Troubles and Seditions which were occasioned by Luther not only because of the Damage that thereby accrued to mens Souls and the Ruine and Dissipation of the Flock which Christ had committed to his keeping but also because such a mischievous thing should have happened among that Nation and People from whom he derived his Birth and Being and who had always been a People free from the very least Suspicion of Heresie That therefore it was his most earnest Desire That some speedy Remedy might forthwith be applyed to the Evil lest by longer Delay the same thing might happen to the Germans which heretofore befel the Bohemians That for his own part he would spare neither Pains nor Charges in that Affair That therefore he besought them that according to their several Abilities they would do the same there being many and weighty Reasons for their so doing as the Glory and Honour of God which was chiefly violated by that Heresie all the Ceremonies and Rites of the Church being thereby not only impaired but in a manner quite abolished Charity and Brotherly Love since he that directed not him into the right way who was gone astray must be accountable to God for his Omission The Shame and Disgrace of the Nation since Germany which was wont to be chiefly praised for Religion was now by reason of that Defection fallen into Contempt and Ignominy Their own Fame and Reputation for since they might easily make an End both of Luther and of his Heresies if they did it not they would seem to be very sickle and inconstant and to degenerate from their Ancestors who left behind them at Constance a noble Instance of their Virtue and was it not a most heinous Injury that he did both to themselves and their Fore-fathers for since these followed the Religion of the Roman Catholick Church they were in his Judgment who condemned that Religion all debarred from Salvation That they should consider and weigh with themselves what the Purpose of these Men was and what their Doctrin drove at Which was nothing else than under a Colour of Christian Liberty to endeavour the Subversion of all Laws and all Respect and Obedience to Magistrates and that though Luther seemed at first only to impugn the Ecclesiastical Power as Impious and Tyrannical yet it was his Drift that having once persuaded People That Christians were by no Laws obliged to obey the Magistrate he might open a way for all Men to break out into what extravagant Courses they pleased And that therefore they themselves lay thereby exposed to great Dangers That as yet indeed they cunningly and craftily disguised their Purpose flattering the Magistrate That with impunity they might be suffered to wreak their Spleen and Malice upon the Church-men But that these being once oppressed without doubt they would try their Fortune also with the rest That they themselves now plainly saw and felt by Experience the Animosities Hatred Quarrels and Troubles which that Heresie had already occasioned in the State and it was to be feared That if these Evils were not timely repressed God who had given them the Power of the Sword
grievous and scandalous Crimes That they nevertheless who were satisfied with the Punishment enjoyned by the Canon Law were much to be recommended for that Moderation but that they who clapt up in Prison and in Chains Rack'd Tormented and put Priests to Death for contracting Marriage or forsaking their Order were greatly to be detested Wherefore he besought the Princes that seeing their Adversaries did not obey the Decree they had made but boldly and licentiously opposed it they would also pardon those who through frailty of Nature that they might not wound their own Consciences or run into manifest Sin should not exactly observe that last Clause of the same for that it was very unreasonable that their potent Adversaries should have liberty to violate those things which they ought and might most easily observe and that other poor Men should be punished for transgressing a Law which it was not in their power to observe since all had not the Gift of Continence and that Vows of Chastity were not only foolish but contrary also to good Manners and honest living Afterwards he published a Book at the desire of some about the Ordaining of Ministers and dedicated it to the Magistrates of Prague to which he annexed a Treatise wherein he proved that the Church had the Right and Power of judging all Doctrins and of appointing Ministers In the first place he defined the Church to be where-ever the purity of the Gospel was taught but that Bishops and such other Prelates were Images and Heads without Brains that none of them did their duty in any Nation or among any People and especially in Germany Not long after he wrote about avoiding the Doctrins of Men affirming nevertheless in the Preface to his Book that he did not at all justifie those who boldly despised all Human Laws and Traditions and in the mean time did nothing that belonged to the duty of a true Christian Afterwards he prescribed a Form how Mass and the Communion should be celebrated in the Church of Wittemberg saying That hitherto he had proceeded leisurely because of the infirmity of many and being satisfied only with Doctrin had made it his aim to root out Errours and pernicious Opinions of Mens minds But that now when many were confirmed it was time not to suffer ungodly Rites and Ceremonies any longer in the Church but that the purity of Doctrin should be accompanied with sincerity of Worship without Hypocrisie or Superstition To this Piece he subjoyned another Treatise concerning decent and pious Ceremonies to be observed in the Church and another of the Abomination of Private Mass which they call the Canon in the Preface to which he mentions how that in his Books and Sermons having often exhorted Men to the Abrogation of the Popish Mass he had been therefore called Seditious but that it was an injury done unto him for that he had never taught the People publickly to abolish false Worship by their own authority nor had he indeed allowed that to the Magistrate unless the Rulers of the Church should obstinately maintain Errours and because that was a horrid Profanation of the Lord's Supper as the more learned now acknowledged he had therefore been at the pains to write that Piece that the People might also understand and that they might avoid those usual Sacrifices of the Mass as they would the Devil himself and to confirm what he said he set down the whole Canon of the Mass and shewed it to be full of Blasphemies against God. Among the other learmed Men of Germany that favoured Luther Vlrick Hutton a Nobleman of Franconia was one who about the latter end of August this year died in the Territory of Zurich There are some Pieces of his extant which shew him to have been a Man of an excellent and sharp Wit. In the former Book we mentioned how Luther answered Henry King of England which when the King had read he wrote to the Princes of the House of Saxony Duke Frederick his Brother John and to his Cousin George and having made a heavy complaint of Luther he represented to them the great dangers that his Doctrin was like to bring upon them and all Germany and that they were not to be slighted and neglected for that the prodigious success of the Turks whose Cruelty spread now so far owed its Rise to one or two profligate Wretches and that the neighbouring Bohemia was a warning unto them how much it concerned them to prevent an Evil in the beginning He also admonished them not to suffer Luther to publish the New Testament in the Vulgar Tongue for that his Artifices were now so well known that there was no doubt to be made but that by a bad Translation he would corrupt and pervert the purest Orignals To that Letter Duke George wrote a very kind Answer bitterly inveighing against Luther also whose Books he said as the most pernicious of Enemies he had prohibited in all his Territories for that ever since he had allowed him to Dispute at Leipsick he well perceived what he would come to at last That it heartily grieved him also that he had writ so bitterly against his Majesty which Libel he had prohibited to be Sold or Read within his Dominion having punished the Bookseller who first brought the Copy of it into his Country In the former Diet of Norimberg besides Matters of Religion the Princes took also into deliberation how they might settle Peace and establish Judicatures what Punishments were to be inflicted on those who obeyed not the Laws of the Empire and how they might raise present and constant Aids against the Turk But as to these two last Points nothing could be concluded wherefore they were put off to another time and Diet And because some things were enacted in that Diet which the Cities of the Empire perceived would redound to their prejudice they all sent Embassadors upon that account to the Emperor in Spain These arriving at Valladolid August the Sixth and having Audience three days after the Emperor gave them a very Gracious and Princely Answer within a few days but withal told them That the Pope had complained to him by Letters of Strasburg Norimber and Ausburg as if they favoured the Doctrin of Luther That he expected better things of them but that however he could not pass it by in silence that they might have a care to obey his and the Pope's Edicts which he was consident they would do They justified themselves assuring his Majesty that their Cities were no ways wanting in readiness to fulfil his Will and Pleasure In the mean time September the Thirteenth Pope Adrian dies to whom succeeded Clement VII of the Family of Medices Of all the Switzers none but the People of Zurich followed the Doctrin of Zuinglius most of the other Cantons vexed and murmured at it And therefore in a Convention of States held for that purpose at Berne there were some who grievously accused Zuinglius and to
called that he promised them this upon his Royal Word but on this Condition still That in the mean time they should follow the same Religion which he and the rest of the Princes professed For that to procure the calling of a Council and yet to suffer things to continue at such uncertainties and not to put a stop to those Innovations all men did see how prejudicial that must needs prove both to himself and others They having consulted returned this Answer That they had not caused any new Sect nor separated from the Christian Church That they heartily thanked his Majesty for that he was not against a Council and begg'd that with the first opportunity an Holy and Free Council might be called in Germany as it had been decreed both in the last and former Dyet of Spire but that to receive the Rites and Doctrins of the Church of Rome which were now abolished they could not do it with a safe Conscience After long Deliberation the Emperour caused Truchses to tell them That he had carefully read over and perused the Memoires of the Conference and found that they dissented very much from the Christian Church That he wondred also at the Condescension of the Commissioners who had granted so many things and at their stiffness in not accepting what had been offered That whereas they grounded their demanding of a Council upon the Decrees of the Empire they had no Right to do so since they rejected the last Decree of Spire against which they had protested and appealed from it though he looked upon their Appeal as void and null since it was but reasonable that the smaller number should be determined by the greater and what an inconsiderable Party were they if compared with the Pope with himself and the rest of the Princes That therefore he desired to know of them if they were willing to enter into any further Treaty and Conference for that he would spare no pains nor trouble that he might by any means make way for Concord and Agreement but that if they refused a Treaty and would needs pursue their designs then he must do as became the Protector of the Church And that because it was drawing towards Night he gave them till next morning to consider on the matter Next day when all the States were met at the hour appointed Pontane a Lawyer made answer in Name of the Duke of Saxony and his Associates to this effect That if the Emperour understood the whole Affair as it was acted he would then believe their former Relation Nor did they doubt but their Doctrin would be judged consonant to the Word of God in the Judgment of an Holy and Free Council And that so it was the less to be wondred at that they did not accept of what had been lately granted and offered That that Appeal was for necessary Causes made only against that part of the Decree which struck at the Doctrin of the Gospel and the Custom of the Primitive Church That in all things else they obeyed it That besides at the very opening of that Dyet and long before the Decree was made a Council had been promised them by his Deputies Nor so only neither but in all the Dyets of the Empire that had constantly been the Opinion of all That since then they had appealed to his Imperial Majesty and a free Council they were in hopes that he would not derogate from their Appeal until a lawful Sentence should pass thereupon That it was not a place to dispute whether or not in this Controversie the smaller number should be concluded by the greater That that had indeed been the chief Reason which had obliged them to appeal and that they would in Council give their Reasons more fully for what they had done That therefore since all former Dyets had decreed a Council without any limitation or condition they earnestly desired that he would not rescind those Decrees but therein condescend to the Will and Resolution of the rest of the States That they rendred his Majesty most hearty Thanks That he was pleased to offer them a farther Conference and Treaty but that seeing it easily appeared by the Acts of the last Conference that they had condescended as far as possibly they could and that he himself wondred at the Papists for granting so much it might with small Difficulty be gathered what his Majesty's Judgment was in the case so that it would be in vain to appoint any other Treaty because it would bring a Delay and hindrance to other Affairs But that they were very willing to consult of any way that might preserve the Peace of the Empire until the meeting of a Council as they had said at first and that in the mean time they would do nothing but what they should think pleasing both to God and to a lawful Council also After they had been commanded to withdraw they were at length called in again and because it was a weighty affair the Emperour said he would consider of it and withal desired the Duke of Saxony as being the chief of the Party not to depart from the Dyet George Truchses and Veh a Lawyer of Baden propounded some things privately concerning the Mass and Vows in order to a Reconciliation but that was in vain And therefore the Emperour commanded a Committee to be chosen for framing a Decree The Parties chosen were the Archbishop of Mentz the Elector of Brandenburg the Bishops of Saltsburg Strasburg and Spire George Duke of Saxony William Duke of Bavaria and Henry Duke of Brunswick When the Duke of Saxony was thinking of returning home the Emperour September the eighteenth desired of him that he would stay but four Days longer In the mean time the Princes of the Committee drew up the Form of a Decree and September the two and twentieth the Emperour sent for the Duke of Saxony and his Associates to come to Court and in a full Assembly of the Princes caused that to be read which concerned Religion which was That the Duke of Saxony and his Associates had exhibited a Confession of their Faith which had afterwards been refuted by Testimonies of Scripture and that through the Pains that he himself and the rest of the States had been at things were after brought to this pass that they had received some Doctrins of the Church and rejected others which being so that therefore to shew how desirous he was of Peace and how far from acting any thing unadvisedly or out of Private Interest he was graciously pleased to grant them time to consult until the fifteenth Day of April that in the mean time they might consider with them selves and come to a Resolution if in the remaining Points of Doctrin they would acquiesce to what the Pope he himself and the whole Christian World besides professed That in the mean while it was his Will and Pleasure that all Men throughout the Empire should live in Peace that the Duke of
must lay his Contrivance deep and lead by degrees to the main Design Indeed to go in a singular and negligent Habit to put on a grave and mortify'd Face to look almost always upon the ground to practise Fasting not to touch a Peny to abstain from eating Flesh to pretend an aversion to Matrimony to account Magistracy a prophane Office to refuse the offer of Greatness and Government and to make Profession of extraordinary Humility This makes way for the Kingdom of Darkness by the Arts of Dissimulation and Secresie and is so well contriv'd a Method that it is possible for wise Men to be circumvented by it But impudently to Vsurp a Kingdom and marry as many Wives as his Lewdness has a mind to can be the contrivance of none but some raw unpractis'd Devil or if he does understand his business God has so bound him in Chains that he has not the liberty to shew any more Cunning which is done without doubt to make us stand in awe of his Majesty and to excite us to Repentance before he is provok'd to let loose a more experienced Enemy who will set upon us in a much more formidable manner For if this whiffling Grammaticaster has been able to make such a Disturbance what do we think will be Issue when Satan of greater parts and understanding shall pour in upon us I mean a Devil who understands Law and Divinity indeed we need not much fear thaâ— this Clumsie Goblin will do any great harm I believe all the People in the Town are not pleas'd with his Diversion but that most of them are heartily sorry for it and with sighs and tears wait for a Deliverance from God as we know it happen'd some years since in the Insurrection of the Boars And I wish with all my heart there was never a subtiller Devil in the World than this of Munster For if God does not withdraw the assistance of his Word I am perswaded there are very few will give any Credit to this dull and sottish Pretender Though when the Wrath of God is kindled there is no Error so absurd and ill put together but that Satan may make it pass As we see it has happen'd in the Religion of Mahomet for though it 's all made up of Folly yet when once the light of God's Word was extinguish'd it gather'd strength and spread it self into that Extent and Prevalency which we now now see And the same Fate had happened to Germany if God had not defeated the Design and Attempts of Muncer for Satan by the Divine Permission can blow up the least Spark into a mighty Conflagration neither is there any way so likely to put it out as by the Word of God and since the Armour of the Enemy is all of it Incorporeal it is to no purpose to draw up Horse and Cannon against him But our Princes and Bishops go another way to work they obstruct the preaching of the Gospel which alone is able to cure the Minds and Affections of Men and go on rufling with Punishments and Executions in hopes to get the Body out of the Devil's Clutches never considering that they leave him in possession of the Heart and Soul which is much the better part of the Man. I expect they will have the same Success in this Affair which the Jews had who went about to destroy Christ by Punishment and Crucifixion Now as to those things which are reported and written concerning the people of Munster I believe there is nothing but truth in them and that which confirms me in this opinion is the Book which was lately publish'd by them in which they give a pleasant Description of their Frensie First they talk very absurdly about the Doctrin of Faith as also concerning Christ as if he was not the Son of Mary according to their Style though they grant him descended from the Line of David but they do not sufficiently explain the Point It being the Devil's method to foster a monstrous Production This indeed he plainly intimates that it 's impossible for the Seed of Mary or the Flesh to redeem us but his argument is ill founded for the Scripture saith That Christ is born of the Virgin Mary which word in all Languages relates to the Foetus which being conceiv'd and form'd out of the flesh and blood of its Mother is brought forth into the World. Another piece of their folly is shewn in condemning the Baptism of former Ages as a prophane Practise for they don't account it a Divine Institution but only a bare Humane Ordinance Now if every thing which comes from the Wicked or belongs to them is to be despis'd and rejected I very much wonder why they do not throw away the Gold and Silver and the other Goods which they have plunder'd from the Wicked and make some new matter for themselves for Baptism as well as those is the effect of God's Power and appointment when a wicked Man swears he Prophanes the Name of the true God but if there was no such thing as the Name of the true God for him to swear by then he would not be guilty of any Transgression He that Steals or Robs upon the High-way breaks the Command of God but upon the supposition there was no such real Command he is then no Sinner in like manner if the former Baptism be nothing at all then those who are baptiz'd with it are not chargeable with any fault why therefore do they abominate this Baptism as a wicked thing when according to their own assertion it is nothing at all If as they say the Marriages of precedent Generations are to be esteem'd no better than Fornication and Adultery because according to their Cant they were contracted by persons who wanted Faith I desire to know Whether they do not confess themselves to be all Sons of Whores Now if they are all base born and illegitimate why do they enjoy the Possessions of their own City and fore-Fathers Indeed since they are such sort of People it may reasonably be expected that they should not possess any thing by right of Inheritance but if they would have a creditable Title they ought to raise themselves new Fortunes in their newly invented Matrimony for it does not become such Saints such religious Ones as they are to live upon these whorish and ill-gotten Estates much less to take them away by force and robbery from other Men As touching the ridiculous Kingdom which they pretend to there are so many and such apparent Villanies in this one thing that there needs no further enlargement upon it possibly what I have said already may seem superflous and unnecessary especially since this argument has already been sufficiently managed and explain'd by others In the Diet at Wormes which King Ferdinand conven'd in April at the instance of the Princes and in which he assisted by his Agents The Cities which had contributed no mony made a protestation at first that their coming
now how unfortunate such Methods will be and what will be the end of them so wise a Person as the Emperor must needs fore-see As for them they desir'd nothing more than Peace and were willing to gratifie the Emperor in every thing which lay in their power but with this condition That every one might have the liberty to profess the true Religion which request being granted they should be more ready to comply with the Emperor's and King Ferdinand's Demands in reference to the Turks and the Imperial-Chamber As touching the Council to which they were invited by the Emperor they had seen a Copy of the Bull which was publish'd by Paul the Third upon this occasion by which they perceiv'd that the Pope's Designs and the Emperor's were not the same For notwithstanding Adrian the Sixth had frankly confess'd by his Nuncio at the Diet at Nurembergh that almost all things were very much out of order of Rome and promis'd to use his endeavours that these Irregularities should be rectify'd in the first place yet his Successor Clement the Seventh who sent this Nuncio to another Diet in Germany two years after went a quite different way to work insomuch that the Embassadors of the Emperor and the rest of the Princes made a Decree there for the calling of a free Council in Germany that the Church might be clear'd of all Errors and Corruptions in practice which had insensibly crept into it This Decree was afterwards approv'd by the Emperor at the Mediation of the Elector of Mentz and the Palsgrave But a year after Pope Clement propos'd a Council of a very different Form from that which was agreed on in the Diet and appointed Italy for the place which they then refus'd to consent to which Proposition was afterwards renew'd by Paul the Third his Nuncio to whom they return'd the same answer as before that the Pope is now carrying on the same Design appears by his Bull though he does not think it proper to speak out so much as Clement did For where he speaks of Heresies which are lately sprung up they have reason to believe he meaneth their Doctrin which he has as it were condemn'd before-hand under that notion for what a severe opinion he has of their Religion intending no less than the utter Extirpation of it is plain by those Punishments with which he Percutes innocent People only for the profession of it and yet at the same time he hath the Impudence to pretend as if he only design'd to purge the Church of those gross Errors and Corruptions which have been so long and so sharply complain'd of by so many Men of Piety and Learning With these Subtilties he had prevail'd upon the Emperor to call upon them to attend the Council which his Majesty would never have done if he had understood his Holiness's Tricks With the same flattering Pretences he solicits Kings and Princes and themselves among the rest to admit the Council that by this means he may hook them in to applaud and defend his wicked Project and by their approbation of the Council condemn their own Doctrin themselves which Artifice Julian the Apostate formerly made use of to circumvent the Christians in his Army And notwithstanding the Pope gives such apparent signs of being their Adversary yet he continues to arrogate the authority of a Judge to himself which is contrary to all right and reason and is backed in this usurpation by the rest of the Prelates who are tied to him by Oaths and several other Obligations Now how unreasonable such a Claim is and how dangerous to be granted the Emperor and other Princes they presume may easily understand For by the blessing of God their Divines had abundantly shewed that the Popes had broached several Errors in the Church and maintained Tenents not only contrary to the Word of God but to the ancient Councils and Fathers That they had made a great many Laws without any Warrant from God Almighty by which the true notion of Religion was quite stifled and suppressed therefore they intended when they had the opportunity of a lawful Assembly to accuse the Pope and his Adherents of these high Misdemeanors and to prove the Crimes charg'd upon them Besides by what wicked Practices by what uncreditable and indirect Methods of force and deceit they raise themselves to these Dignities what a lewd life they lead what a scandalous example they set how perfectly they abandon their Function how they neglect the people committed to their care and riot in all manner of immorality is so notorious a Truth that to talk any further of it would be superfluous Therefore neither for these reasons can the Pope have any Authority no not by his own Canon-Law to intimate a Council much less to preside in it neither ought his sworn Adherents take upon them the Office of a Judge since they have not so much as a right to Vote in a lawful Council Farther they said That Italy was made the Seat of the Council in direct opposition and contempt of what was decreed by the Emperor and the State of Germany Neither as yet had they any assurance that other Christian Princes would like the place and moreover they had great reason to suspect it was not safe for them and their Party to come thither For notwithstanding they may have a safe Conduct drawn up in ample and satisfactory manner yet because those places are most possess'd by the Popes Vassals who mortally hate the Reformed Doctrin they must lie expos'd to Treachery and secret Practices which are very formidable dangers in that Country and since this Debate is of the most important nature imaginable it being impossible for the World to produce a greater for the eternal happiness or misery of Men is concern'd in it and since the weightiness of the Affair obligeth them to appear there in considerable numbers with their Divines and Pastors of their Churches and not trust a matter of such Consequence with their Embassadors and Proxies it would be very inconvenient for them to be forc'd to travel out of the Empire and go into Italy and leave their Country and Subjects without a Guard and their Churches without Pastors for any considerable time especially at this juncture when there are such Misunderstandings and Animosities among the Germans therefore they earnestly beseech the Emperor that he would please to allow the Reasons they had laid before him a full and distinct consideration and since he was the chief Magistrate to whom the support of the true Religion did more especially belong that he would make it his principal Endeavour that the right way of Worshiping God might be taught under the Countenance of Law and spread into a farther extent As for themselves they embrac'd no Doctrin that was wicked nor aim'd at any thing but the Glory of God. This Answer of theirs concerning the Council was approv'd by the Embassadors of George Duke of Brandenburgh and of the Cities of
Soldier they fell into discourse about the present state of Affairs and of the Reports brought to the Emperour When Solmes began to tell him what sort of Rumors were dispersed all over Germany of the Emperour he denied all affirming no such thing to have ever entered his thoughts that he was so great a lover of Peace that to the prejudice of his own Affairs he was now going to the Diet of the Empire nor did he doubt but should the Landgrave come to him he would be kindly entertained and that it was his opinion that by all means he should come for in so doing since perhaps he intended not to be at Ratisbonne he might justifie himself and party know the Emperour's thoughts from his own mouth and freely discourse of publick Affairs nay and that by that means also all the suspicion and distrust raised by rumours and reports on both sides might be mutually removed but that if he desired a Conference he would do well to come with a small Attendance and by that generous and frank proceeding shew how much he relied upon the Emperour's Honour and Integrity So soon as the Landgrave had understood this from Solmes he writes to Naves February the twentieth and to remove all suspicion he partly declares what was done at Franckfurt and then tells him that there had been a Report raised of the Emperour as if he intended a War and that amongst other Commanders he had sent Orders to Albert Marquess of Brandenbourg to raise about a thousand Horse but that the Count of Solmes had upon his relation assured him that it was a false Rumour and that because Granvell also wrote the same thing he would rather trust them than the flying Reports of the Vulgar for he and his Allies were in very good hopes that the Emperour would by no means recede from the Acts and Decree of Spire especially seeing there was no cause why he should That as to the Conference whereof Solmes spake to him in his Name he was not against it but that he must first acquaint his Allies with the Matter of whom he would be willing that some though but a few were present thereat We told before how the Emperour had appointed a Conference of learned Men to be held at Ratisbonne and commanded all to be present by the beginning of December but he prorogued it afterward to the thirteenth of the same Month. Upon the Emperour's account came thither Peter Malvenda a Spaniard Eberard Billick a Carmelite Frier John Hofmester an Augustine Frier and John Cochleus Divines George Loxan Caspar Caltentan George Ilsinger and Bartholomew Latome Witnesses and Hearers which number the Emperour had encreased for before there were but two appointed as hath been said From the Protestants came Bucer Brentzen George Major Ethard Snerfius Divines Volrat Count Waldeck Balthazar Gutlingen Laurence Zouchey a Lawyer and George Volchemere Witnesses The Papists had Ambrose Pelary a Dominican and the Protestants John Pistorius Martin Frecht and Vitus Thierry supernumerary The first of January came Maurice Bishop of Aichstadt appointed President of the Conference by the Emperour and some days after Frederick Count of Furstemberg his Colleague At length on the twenty-seventh day of January the Conference began and the Presidents having premised a few things relating to their own persons the burden imposed upon them and the delay exhorted the Divines that in so weighty and so holy a Matter they would not be swayed by passion but act sincerely having before their eyes the Fear of God and a respect to Unity and Concord lastly they promised Diligence Fidelity and Uprightness They afterwards told them that it was the Emperour's command that the Confession of the Protestants exhibited heretofore at Ausbourg should be handled in this Conference omitting the three first Articles Of the Trinity the Incarnation of the Word and Original Sin for that the former two were not controverted and that this last had been sufficiently debated already But that the other Heads of Doctrine should be handled in order to wit Of Justification the Remission of Sins the fulfilling of the Law Faith Good Works Merit the Sacraments Purgatory Praying for the Dead the Worshipping and Invocation of Saints Relicks Images Monastick Vows the Single Life of Priests the Distinction of Meats Holy Days Ecclesiastical Traditions the Church the Power of the Keys of the Hierarchy and the Authority of the Pope Bishops and Councils These things thus stated the Protestants who saw what kind of Adversaries they had to engage with desired that all their Conference and Acts might be taken in Writing by Clarks and Publick Notaries that the Emperour and Princes might understand the whole Matter and the Arguments and Probations of either side But the Presidents on the other hand alledged that that would be too tedious and that it would be enough that the chief Points were only set down besides they would have nothing that pass'd to be divulged and appointed the Forenoon for the Conference After much debate it was agreed upon that two on each side should take in Writing all that was said that the Acts should be put into a Chest to be kept secret and communicated to none unless the rest were present The Presidents allow this to be done provided it were the Emperour's pleasure from whom they had no Instructions as to that Matter The Protestants also accept the same Conditions yet so that they may have liberty to acquaint their own Princes with what it concerns them to know and what they may desire to be informed of by them This order being taken then Peter Malvenda a Parisian Divine on the fifth day of February began and having made a long preamble in the commendation of the Emperour he largely handled that Point of Doctrine concernine Justification and in a very scholastick manner too But Bucer interrupting told him that was contrary to the Law of the Conference and the Method prescribed by the Emperour that their Doctrine the Confession of Ausbourg lying before them he should out of that Book pitch upon the Chapter of Justification and if he had any thing to say against it either refute or object in order However he went on and concluded ascribing much to Man 's Free Will and affirming that Man is not justified by Faith alone but by Hope and Charity also Next day Bucer shew'd that five Years before the Article of Justification had been adjusted in the Conference of Ratisbonne and declared what the Emperour and the rest of the Princes and States at that time decreed concerning it which he desired might be recorded then observing the Order prescribed by the Emperour he repeated the same Article and divided it into four Heads That a man is not justified before God through his own Works or Merits but that he is freely justified through Christ by Faith when he believeth both that he is received into Grace and that his Sins are pardoned
he had promised you Supplies against us That your Majesty sued to the Turk for a Truce was a thing many wise men wondered at and could not but conclude it was for some great Matter seeing you were at peace with the King of France but now that your Majesty says you do it for the sake of the Publick I have nothing indeed to say to the contrary for it is long since Germany stood in need of some ease from the great Charges it hath been at We did indeed earnestly demand a Council but it was a free pious Council and that in Germany too now that we do not reckon the Council of Trent for such we fully declared to your Majesty at Wormes for all Laicks as they call us being excluded the Bishops and others who are bound by Oath to the Pope take to themselves solely the Power of Judging and Decreeing That I should propose some way for accommodation in Religion is a thing Sir I dare not venture upon without the concurrence of my Allies and I 'm sure that if I did so I should have but little thanks from either side for my pains but in the mean time provided it draw not into consequence I do not refuse a Conference with such as your Majesty shall please to appoint for that purpose The truth is I have no great hopes in the Council but believe that a Provincial Assembly of Germany might not prove unuseful for other People differ too much from us as yet in Opinions and Doctrine but in Germany matters are now come to that pass that they cannot be changed so that nothing could be better than if your Majesty would allow a liberty of Religion there but so that all should live together quietly and in peace I make no doubt but that the Conference you appointed at Ratisbonne was done by your Majesty with a very good intent but I had it from those that were present How some bitter Monks bring again under debate Points that were adjusted some Years since in the same place and are of so bad a Life and Conversation that no good at all can be expected from them Without all doubt the Archbishop of Cologne is a good Man and does what he does purely because he thinks it his Duty especially seeing the Decree of the Diet at Ratisbonne commits the care of the Reformation of his Church to him which truly he set about in a very moderate manner taking away no more than what was necessary should be and making but very small Alterations in the Goods of the Church Now the Book he published for that purpose agrees with the Holy Scriptures and is backed by the Testimonies of the ancient Doctors Tertullian Augustine Ambrose and others who lived nearest the Age of the Apostles if any harsh course then be taken against him for that matter it will be a warning to others who have made far greater Alterations To this the Emperour replied That he passed by the Treaty of Franckfort neither did believe the things that were told him of it nor had given any cause why he should but that yet he was much better satisfied by his discourse That he had indeed procured a Council to be called that it might both be beneficial to the Publick and that the Fathers who were there might of their own accord reform themselves and that it was none of his design that violence should be offered to those of the Augustan Confession because of any Decree that might pass there that the Conference of Ratisbonne was appointed for that very reason which had begun very well indeed if it had continued so That the Archbishop of Cologne though he had promised to supersede and delay did nevertheless proceed and force men to do as he would have them That it was the intent of the Decree of Ratisbonne that the Bishops should reform their own Churches but not introduce a new Faith and Religion and that it was added besides that they should draw up a formulary of Reformation and give it in to be considered of in the next Diet of the Empire but that he having turned out the ordinary Ministers and Pastors of the Church had of himself appointed new ones nay and more that he withheld the Revenues and Stipends of the Canons and appropriated part of them to himself carrying all things by his Edicts with a high hand so that the Clergy being necessitated to implore his help and protection he could not but according to the Power and Character he bore put a stop to him by contrary Edicts and Commands that in fine he was well pleased that the Conference betwixt his Commissioners and him should in no ways be captious nor ensnaring To which the Landgrave made answer That it exceedingly rejoyced him to see his gracious Majesty so well-affected towards Germany and his Associates and that he prayed God he might persevere in the same mind For said he if your Majesty according to that excellent Judgment God has endowed you with do but seriously consider and weigh with yourself how advantageous Germany is to your Majesty your Kingdoms and Provinces you 'l find that there is nothing more to be wished for than that all Ranks and Qualities may rejoyce and delight in you their chief Magistrate and your Majesty again use them as loving and dutiful Subjects For truly if Germany happen to be weakened it will recound chiefly to your Majesty's disadvantage I have likewise most joyfully heard what your thoughts and intentions are concerning the Decrees of the Council but that they should reform themselves is a thing I fear not to be expected for they are bound by Oath to the Pope judge alone in their own cause and though they stand in need chiefly of a reformation yet they look upon that as a thing can do them no great good and which will prove prejudicial to their yearly Revenues I doubt things are not carried at the Conference of Ratisbonne in the way and method they should be for not only Copies of the Proceedings are denied but also in the beginning our Commissioners were not allowed to have Clarks and Notaries As to the Archbishop of Cologne I can say no more but what I have already said He is a Shepherd and therefore desires to give good and wholsom Food to his Flock He thinks that to be his Duty and therefore caused a Form of Reformation to be drawn up nay and those who are now his Adversaries and especially Gropper were in the beginning most desirous of a Reformation but when they find it is come to that they shuffle and draw back Here the Emperour interrupting Ha said he what can that good Man reform He has hardly a smattering in the Latine Tongue In all his life-time he never said but three Masses of which I myself heard two nor does he know so much as the very Rudiments of Learning But he carefully peruses German Books answered he and what I know
prescribed by Law and the crime of neglect of Duty and slighting the Obedience they promised to him by Oath That his Nuncio would tell them the rest whom he prayed them to give credit to The Clergy and Colledge of Cologne vigorously pursued their Process at Rome against the Archbishop So that on the sixteenth of April the Pope pronounced sentence against him That forasmuch as unmindful of his own salvation he had several ways offended against the Rules and Doctrine of the Church and Apostolical Traditions against the Rites and Ceremonies of the Christian Religion in the Church accustomed contrary to the Censure of Leo X. published against Luther and his Adherents he therefore deprives him of the Communion of the Church of his Archbishoprick and all other his Benefices Priviledges Dignities and Faculties charging and commanding all People within his Territories and Jurisdiction not to obey him in any thing for the future he also absolves them from their Oath of Allegiance to him enjoyns him silence and awardeth him to pay to the contrary Party all the Costs of Suit. The Bishops of Liege and Utricht with the University of Louvain were joyned with those of Cologne in the Action This Sentence was in the Month of August following printed at Rome So soon as the Emperour came to Ratisbonne and was informed of what had pass'd in the Conference by the Presidents thereof he was extreamly offended at the departure of the Divines and by his circulatory Letters over Germany complains much of it and earnestly presses the Princes to come themselves in person From the Protestants there came only Deputies there were also present Duke Maurice Duke Erick of Brunswick John and Albert of Brandenbourg the Bishops of Trent Ausbourg Bamberg Wirtsbourg Passaw and Hildesseim About the latter end of May King Ferdinand came thither also June the second the Protestants make application to the Emperour complain of the Murder of John Diazi and demand Justice to be done upon the murderer all the Emperour told them was that he would advise about it with his Brother and when they had applied themselves to Ferdinand his Answer was to the same purpose With the Protestants were the Deputies of the Prince Palatine the Archbishop of Cologne Munster Norimberg Ratisbonne and Norlinguen The third day after the Emperour assembles all the States and in his Speech tells them the reasons of calling the Diet. That it was known to them how that most weighty Affairs of the Empire because of the absence of many remaining undetermined in the former Diet of Wormes had been referred to this Assembly but that he did not himself come at the appointed day in the beginning of January it was partly because of his indisposition and partly because the Conference began later than he had expected That he had had respect also to the bitter Winter-season and was unwilling to put them to any unnecessary charges and that though he had business enough to do at home yet he had undertaken the Journey and was the first that came contrary indeed to his expectation since the rest according to his example ought to have preferred the publick before their own private concerns However that he was still confident that they who were detained by sickness would come and the rest send their Deputies with full power and commission That moreover there had been a Conference of learned men appointed at Wormes which had indeed commenced and given him ample hopes that it would have continued so that when he and the other Princes had met here they might have found the Conferours minding their business and have taken cognizance of what had been transacted by them but that now they themselves were sensible that the Conference was dissolved and broken up without any fruit That seeing now it was his earnest desire to pacifie Germany by removing all dissensions about Religion he prayed them to communicate to him what more they thought it fit for him to do in the case that at length he might in discharge of his duty and trust enact somewhat for the publick good That moreover since it was absolutely necessary to the Empire that the Judicature of the Imperial Chamber should be reformed and seeing the manner how that was to be done was already prescribed by Law he did require that they whose right it was should provide Assessors and defray all the charges and not put him to more expences who was already overburdened with charches upon account of the Empire for that it was an intolerable thing and without precedent that Germany should be without Laws and Justice That the Debate about the Turkish War was also put off to this time but that last year the French King had sent him advice that there was hopes of obtaining a Truce and promised his aid and assistance for procuring it and because that not long since the States had given him supplies and that in many places the Crop did not answer expectation he had thought it convenient to give Germany a little relief that it might be able when occasion required to support the necessary charges so that by the mediation of the French King he had made Truce with the Turk for one year but that now since it expired at the end of October and was otherwise often violated as he was informed by his Brother King Ferdinand nor was it known what the issue thereof might prove it was wholly his opinion that seeing the matter required it they would now perform what formerly they had promised concerning supplies and that he on his part would do all that lay in his power both by counsel and acting for the safety and protection of the Empire It is the custom of the Electors to communicate and consult together but at this time the Deputies of the Electors of Mentz and Treves separated from those of Cologne the Palatine Saxony and Brandenbourg struck in with the Papists and having consulted the matter approved the Council of Trent and entreated the Emperour that he would maintain the same and perswade the Protestants to go thither and submit themselves to the Judgment and Decrees thereof The Protestants on the other hand beseech the Emperour that he would maintain Peace and the equal administration of Justice that he would refer the matter of Religion to a lawful Council of Germany a Diet of the Empire or a Conference of learned men to be managed according to a prescribed Rule and Method alledging that the Council of Trent was not the Council that was decreed and promised them in the Diets of the Empire Whilst these matters are under debate a sudden report flies abroad of great preparations for War that were making by the Emperour King Ferdinand and the Pope For since the Emperour had peace with the King of France and the Turk had granted a Truce for this year it was thought a fit time to attempt somewhat Some Bishops and the Emperours
all over the City Here lived at that time one Wolfgang Musculus an eminent Minister of the Church He finding Affairs in a staggering condition the Senate timorous and that he could not approve the Book departed and went to Bern in Switzerland John Brentius was at Hall in Schwabia and had been in great danger two years before when upon the breaking up of the Protestants Camp the Emperour came to Hall but was now in far greater For at that time a little before the Emperours coming which was in the beginning of December some of the Spanish Guards having entred the Town march streight to his House and desire to be let in else they threaten grievously Being admitted they grew very insolent and sawcy Wherefore having no other place of refuge he sends his Wife and Family to the Town Hospital and follows himself shortly after leaving a Man at home to supply them with Victuals and all things necessary Next day after cometh a Noble Spaniard of the Dignified Clergy who turning out the others takes the whole House to himself and going into the Study makes a diligent search there Having there found some familiar Letters written to Brentius by some of his Friends concerning the sad troubles of the Times he endeavours to expose him to the hatred of his Countrymen and Party by divulging the Letters By the Advice of his Friends then in a sharp and cold Winter Night he removes to a Neighbouring Place in the Country that his presence might not be prejudicial to the Citizens But when the Emperour arrived at Hall and behaved himself graciously not seeming to take any offence at the Doctrine and Worship of the place Brentius returned home thither again and discharged the Office of his Ministery until this time that the Emperour would have the Decree made about Religion to be received indifferently by all For he as all the Learned Men throughout Germany were being commanded to give his Judgment of that Book Though he was sensible of his own danger yet that he might discharge his Duty towards his Church he affirmed it to be contrary to the holy Scriptures and proved it so in Writing This Piece coming into the Papists hands Granvell sends Orders to the Deputies of Hall in the Emperours Name as he said that they should use their endeavours to have him brought in Chains to Ausburg But he having notice of this from his Friends withdrew into a Neighbouring Country Nor was it long after before a Troop of Spaniards came to Hall whose Commander went streight to Brentius his House where he carefully hunted up and down in search of Booty if any were to be got but most part of the Houshold Furniture had been already removed by the Neighbours So then the poor Man after he had preached amongst them and taught them for the space of six and twenty years is now banished Nay his Wife also though at that time afflicted with a dangerous Sickness whereof not long after she died was banished too so that the poor Wretch was forced to wander up and down with six Children not knowing what to do or whither to go for Relief and Shelter in so great consternation were all Men because of the Spaniards And to increase her sorrows at the same time she knew not what was become of her Husband However when Ulrick Duke of Wirtemberg came to be informed of the Calamity of Brentius though he was in very great danger himself yet he harboured him and his Family privately Now most of the Cities of Schwabia submitting to the Emperours Authority promised to obey his Commands Wherefore the Preachers every where removed that they might not do any thing unsuitable to their profession Andrew Osiander therefore left Norimberg and went to Prussia Spire and Wormes had each but one Preacher who also fled for safety William Count of Nassaw suffered Erasmus Sancerius to depart for the same reason The Duke of Wirtemberg also whose Country was full of Spanish Garisons as hath been said having received the Emperours Orders causes the Book that now was published to be read in the Churches and by Proclamation commands that no Man presume to act contrary to it gives liberty for any that pleased to say Mass for the future charges his Subjects not to molest or disturb any Priest and turns away from about him those Ministers that did not submit to the Decree amongst whom was Erard Schnepfius The Emperour sets Granvell and the Bishop of Arras upon the Duke of Saxony Prisoner to persuade him to obey the Decree and to follow the Doctrine of the published Book And though they tempted him with promises and gave him some hopes of liberty yet he constantly persevered in his opinion Why said he last year when the Emperour proposed Conditions unto me this was also one that I should approve both his and the Councils future Decrees concerning Religion but finding that I was not to be moved by terrour or any fear of danger to consent thereunto he waved that Condition and never after mentioned any thing of Religion unto me This I then looked upon as a very singular favour and being eased of that importunity as of a very heavy burden I bore more easily and with a more chearful Mind all the other Conditions whereby the Emperour disposed of me and my Fortune at his pleasure hoping that my Religion at least might be my own But now that he again urges and commands me to subscribe to the Decree that hath been made I here protest that I have been so brought up from my Youth and then by the reading of holy Books have been so confirmed that I do believe this Doctrine to be altogether consonant to the Writings of the Prophets and Apostles and that it cannot be convicted of any Errour And it was upon this very ground that my Father and I and some other Princes heretofroe exhibited a Confession of that Doctrine in Writing and referred it to a lawful Council Since then God has enlightened me with the knowledge of his Word I cannot forsake the known Truth unless I would purchase to my self Eternal Damnation wherefore if I should admit of that Decree which in many and most material Points disagrees with the holy Scriptures I should condemn the Doctrine of JESUS CHRIST which I have hitherto professed and in words and speech approve what I know to be Impious and Erroneous But what would that be else than with gawdy and painted words first to mâ—â—k God and then the Emperour And can there be any greater Crime than that For it is no less than the Sin against the Holy Ghost of which Christ so earnestly admonishes us to have a care and which is never to be pardoned These things being so and seeing my Conscience is in this manner tied up I most earnestly and by the Mercies of God that by the offering up of his own Son he bestowed upon Mankind pray and beseech the
left Ausburg it was verily believed that he intended to come to Strasburg and many were terrified at what had lately happened to Constance Wherefore several of the Nobility Merchants and some others fearing to lose their Estates and being loth to offend the Emperour having in the Senate renounced their freedom in the City removed to other places not without the murmuring and censure of many The Emperour having removed from Ausburg where he left a Garison to secure the change he had made both in the Religion and Government marched with the rest of the Forces to Ulm. When he came there he dissolved the Town-Council and appointed a new one ordering the Ministers amongst whom was Martin Frecht to be clapt up in Prison because they rejected the Decree about Religion Thus the new Council being wholly at the Emperours devotion received the Decre During the sitting of the Dyet at the request of Granvel they had desired Frecht to go to Ausburg and assist in the settling the Affair of Religion and that he might lodge either with Pflug Sidonius or Islebius which he pleased But he refused it as a suspicious thing and the rather that none of his Profession were there from the other Cities Being afterwards enjoyned to give his Opinion of this Decree that was made and how far he approved it he drew up his Mind concerning that in Writing Now when the Emperour came to Ulm the Council sent for him and the rest of the Ministers and ask'd them their Judgment They answer as before shewing what they approved and what they condemned in the Decree Being asked Why since those of Ausburg had sworn to submit to it and yet preached the Gospel they did not do the same It was unknown to them said they what these men had done nor was it their parts to be accountable for the actions of others That when at first they were called to the Ministery they had promised upon Oath to preach to them the pure and sincere Doctrine of the Gospel without the mixture of human Traditions that if the Council did now dislike that way they should release them from their Oath At that time they were sent home but sent for again in the afternoon and then some commissionated by the Council told them The Emperour say they has arrested you Prisoners to day and now ye shall be sent to his Palace God guide you by his holy Spirit They make answer That since it was God's good Will and Pleasure they refused no danger and prayed in like manner for them So soon as they were come out of the Council some Sergeants led them to Court thinking that they would be brought before the Emperour But when they had waited a long while and a great croud of People was gathered together they were carried to the House of one George Bessever a Common-Council man they were Granvel and the Bishop of Arras lodged Being at length called in when after a long debate Granvel urged them to submit to the Emperours Decree and they again gave their Reasons why they could not They were severely rebuked But the rest being ordered to withdraw a little they take a milder course with Frecht and speak him very fair However he persisting in his Opinion they try the rest also severally and of them four continued constant but two fell off Hasen and Selden were all this while present with Granvel and the Bishop of Arras Presently after they were put into Fetters and sent to the Common Gaol under a guard of Spaniards and Germans commanded by John Count of Nassaw And as they passed by Frecht's House he espied his Brother George looking out at the Window whom he called to to have a care of his Wife and Family but George praying for him and his Companions and bidding them to be of good courage was for that word carried to Prison himself and this happened on the sixteenth of August After they had been kept four days Prisoners in the Town on the fifth day when the Emperour went away they were iâ— their Chains put into a Cart and carried to Kirchin under a guard of about two hundred Spaniards Having continued there eight days in the custody of Captain Altesteye's Germans they were delivered over to the keeping of Madronio a Spanish Captain The Emperour went from Ulm to Spire about the later end of August Whilst he was there one came from him to Strasburg to carry away the 12 great Guns which they promised to give the year before on the last of August The Pope at the desire of the Emperour dispatched three Bishops into Germany to wit of Favo Verona and Ferentino but what their Instructions were it shall be related in its proper place The Emperour making but a short stay at Spire came to Mentz and from thence went down the Rhine into the Netherlands taking with him in several Boats his Prisoners the Duke of Saxony and Landgrave who had been lately brought from Hall in Swabia after that his Wife had again made intercession for him The Landgrave had a Town called Sanguer and a Castle upon a steep Hill lying upon the Rhine And when the Emperour came hither in the night time he lay at Anchor and having only put a Shoar a Guard commanded all to stay on board in their Vessels The Senate of Strasburg as we said a little before was ordered to give their answer within a Month Wherefore upon the Emperours coming to Spire on the second of September Deputies came thither unto him to wit James Sturmey Matthew Giger and Lnvis Grempen Not finding him at Spire they follow after to Mentz and when they had given the Emperour notice of their arrival because the German Counsellors whom he commonly made use of were absent they are commanded to follow him to Cologne In the mean while the Bishop of Strasburg writing to the Clergy that lived in the City required them by his Letter dated the fourth of September to obey the Decree of the Empire and conform to the Rule prescribed At that time he sent also the Emperours Letters to the same purpose which as we said were written the tenth day of July And wrote also to the Senate that they would not hinder or molest them When the Deputies of Strasburg were come to Cologne on the eighth of September they deliver the Emperour another French Letter from the Senate to this purpose Although when we made our Peace with Your Majesty most victorious Emperour we did not promise to obey what should be decreed And though we never did give our consent that matters of Religion should be handled after that manner yet we are ready as far as may be to comply with Your Majesty in all things not only Civil but Ecclesiastical We are very sensible that Your Majesty and the rest of the Princes will have no regard to our Remonstrances and that it is but reasonable that we should follow your
up in the Market-place and there and about the Church keep Guard 'till the Council break up These are for the most part sent for out of the Country to be ready against the day of the Session though the Town also supply a good many When they are come into the Church Mass is said that being over the Decrees of the Council are read and then a day appointed for the next Session Then also if any Ambassador have ought to say he is heard But by reason of the many various and most cumbersom Ceremonies that are used in every thing the day is far spent before their Business is over and then the Legate returns home in the same Pomp as he came The Pope's Legate takes the first place in the Council next to him the Cardinal of Trent then the Legates Collegues and after them the Electoral Archbishops On the left hand sit the Ambassadors of the Emperour and other Princes And the middle Benches are filled by the Archbishops Bishops and other Prelates taking place according to the Seniority of their Consecration September the second Subjects were given to the Divines to be discussed and that they might give their Opinions of them that so they might be decided in the next Session Now in giving their Opinions this method was prescribed That they should insist upon the Holy Scriptures Apostolical Traditions received and approved Councils and the Authorities of the Fathers that they should use Brevity abstain from unnecessary and superfluous Questions and avoid all Jangling and Contention As to the Order it was thought fit that the Pope's Divines should speak first and then the Emperours and so of the rest The Pope's Legate also for the finding out of the Truth and the confuting of false Opinions as they said gave them leave to read all sorts of Books There were a great many Divines present Spanish Italians and Germans whom the Pope Emperour and his Sister Queen Mary the Governess of the Low Countries had sent besides those whom the Electors of Cologne and Treves and some Spanish and Italian Bishops also brought with them All things were to be examined by them and no Man who had not the Title of Doctor as they call it was permitted to speak But in favour to the Bishops of Cologne and Treves John Gropper a Civilian and John Delph a Divine but under Doctors Degree were admitted And because in some former Sessions in Anno 1546 and the year following new Canons were made concerning Original Sin Justification Free-will and the Seven Sacraments in general and particular Decrees made concerning Baptism and Confirmation it was resolved That all these standing in force they should proceed to other things and in the first place to the Sacrament of the Eucharist Then Points were assigned to the Divines with these Instructions that they should search and try if they were Heretical and to be condemned by the holy Council And these Points were gathered out of the Books of Luther Zuinglius Bucer and other Protestant Writers Now in this manner do the Divines handle the matter They all meet daily in the Legate's Lodgings and there for several hours and in the order we mentioned every one discourses of a Point without any interruption yet so that they still submit all they say to the Judgment of the Church of Rome for none of the Protestants were present This place is open indifferently to all Men. The Pope's Legate and generally all the Fathers are there but none speak except the Divines and their several Sayings and Opinions are marked down by Clerks When they have all discoursed which then was done commonly in a Months time the Bishops meet at the Legate's Lodgings and examine the Opinions of the Divines registred by the Clerks Then some of every Nation are chosen out of the whole number that then are present who having weighed all the Opinions out of them frame that which they call a Doctrine what ought to be determined and believed in every point Afterwards they Condemn in few words but with a severe Censure the contrary Doctrine and Errors as they call them And at length all these things are reported to the whole Assembly When they are fully agreed a publick Session is held as we said before where the Decrees are read aloud and then the Bishops are asked if they approve them To which they severally answer with a Placet And so then some Divines tell their Opinions of the several Points but the Bishops only and with them a few Mitred Prelates have the power of Determining What is so decreed they command to be reverenced as Sacred and Holy and call them Canons These things indeed are acted publickly but they who are more intimately acquainted with the Affairs of Rome say That all the Decrees are already framed at Rome by the Pope's order and sent in due time to the Legate that the Divines in their Reasonings may follow that Form and Prescript for the Pope maintains several of them and many Bishops also there And it is a jocose Proverb used by some That the Holy Ghost comes ever now and then from Rome to Trent in a Cloak-bag because the Pope sent Letters with his Orders and Instructions by Post from Rome September the fourth Count Heideck came to Magdâ—burg and Duke Maurice sent by him the Conditions of Peace formerly proposed so moderated that they resolved to proceed in the Treaty In the mean time there was a Cessation of Arms which was afterward also prolonged for many days as shall be said hereafter The French King now at variance with the Pope published an Edict wherein having enlarged much upon the injury done him by the Pope upon the cause of the War of Parma and why he had taken Octavio into his protection he commands under a most severe penalty That no more Money be for the future carried to Rome for since Money was the Sinews of War what madness would it be with his and his Subjects Treasure to maintain and strengthen the power of his Enemy That it was the proper Office of the Popes to take up the differences of Princes and that did Paul III. who being almost worn out by Age made a long progress to Nizza to make the Emperour and his Father friends but that Julius took a quite different course who having lately called a Council which was indeed very necessary to the publick had stirred up a War against him on purpose that he might exclude all the Church of France which was one of the chief and that so no lawful Council might be had wherein the Errors and Faults both of the Head and Members might be reformed This Edict of the King 's was published at Paris the seventh of September when a few days before another Edict of his and a most severe one too was published against the Lutherans which partly confirmed the former Decrees of that nature and partly where they seemed not smartly
being brought of the taking of Ausburg by surrender they fly for it Crescentio the Legate being frightened by an Apparition fell sick and despaired of Life what ever his Servants and Physicians could do or say to comfort him IN order to a pacification Duke Maurice held a Convention of his own States about the end of September at Wittemberg whither as it had been agreed upon the City of Magdeburg sent their Deputies who ten days after returned home under the safe Conduct of Marquess Albert of Brandeburg We told you before how Duke Maurice had by Letters interceded with the Emperour that his Divines might have a safe Conduct from the Council the Emperour therefore sent Orders to his Ambassadors to prefer the Matter to the Fathers and bring it to pass A Session was then held on the eleventh of October wherein was read first a Decree explaining the Doctrine of the Corporal Presence of Christ in the Sacrament of the Eucharist of the manner of its Institution of Transubstantiation as they call it of the Worship and Adoration of this Sacrament of keeping of the Host and of carrying it about to the Sick and of the Preparation that is required for the worthy Receiving thereof And then all Christians are forbidden to believe or teach otherwise than according to the Doctrine of that Decree Then were the Canons read over and in them were all the Points condemned which as we said before had been drawn out of the Books of Luther and others nevertheless to comply with the Emperour they left four of them undecided â—o wit Whether or not it be necessary to Salvation and commanded by the Law of God that all receive the Sacrament in both kinds whether he who receives it only in one kind receives less than he who takes it in both whether the Church erred when she appointed that the Priests only should receive in both kinds and the rest under one whether the Sacrament be to be given also to young Children The Protestants they said desired to be heard as to these Points before the Council determined any thing in them and to have a safe Conduct to come Since therefore they had hitherto earnestly lookt for their coming and were in good hopes that they might return to the ancient Unity and Concord of the Church they granted them a safe conduct to come and return home and did defer the decision of these Points 'till the twenty fifth day of January that by that day they might be present and alledge what they had to say That then also because of the Affinity that was betwixt the two the Sacrifice of the Mass should be handled These things then were publickly read by them as if their Adversaries had desired only to be heard concerning those matters whereas no such thing had ever entered into their Thoughts Besides Duke Maurice no body had made address to the Emperour and he also did it in the manner we mentioned before there being far greater matters to be propounded than those were But what the design was in giving out that Sham one may guess it though nothing can be positively affirmed though one of two it must needs be for either they had had a lame and sinistrous account of Duke Maurice's demand or they themselves cunningly misunderstood it which is the more likely of the two because of the safe Conduct which they gave for when Duke Maurice desired a safe Conduct for his People in the same form and manner as the Bohemians of old obtained one They in a few words and very superficially drew up a draught without the usual formalities to wit that all Germans indifferently might come to the Council and freely debate confer and treat about the Matters there to be handled either in full Council or with some Commissioners appointed and that either by Word or Writing as they pleased without contumelious and reproachful Language or Reflections and when they should think fit to depart and return home that the Council as to that granted them safe Conduct so far as was in their power And that they might also for the Crimes committed or to be committed though they were most grievous and savoured of Heresie choose to themselves Judges at their own discretion The same day the eleventh of October they made some Canons touching Reformation which related to their own Jurisdiction And then the twenty fifth of November was appointed to be the day of the next Session when Penance and Extream Unction should be handled Joachim Elector of Brandeburg sent also his Ambassador Christopher Strassen a Lawyer to offer his Duty and Obeisance and the Ambassador made a long Harangue indeed concerning the good Intentions of his Master They make answer That with great pleasure they had heard all his Speech especially that part of it wherein the Prince submits himself wholly to the Council and promises to observe the Decrees thereof that they were in hopes that what had been now said by him would be effectually performed by the Prince his Master Upon the death of John Albert who had enjoyed the spacious and rich Archbishoprick of Magdeburg as we said Frederick the Elector of Brandeburg's Son was by the Chapter chosen Archbishop But the Matter stuck at Rome and could not be dispatched it being a great Obstacle in the way that as it was publickly known the Elector Joachim had before been of the Protestant Religion To remove that suspicion therefore was the Ambassador whom I named sent who used his utmost diligence by sawning and cajoling to work upon the Prelates Peace was concluded at Wittemberg and though the Siege was not presently raised yet October the twelfth they began to have friendly Meetings together At the same time Duke Maurice made those of Catzenelbogen a People of the Dominion of Hess who three years before had by the Emperour's Sentence been taken from the Landgrave then Prisoner as we said before to swear Allegiance to him with the consent of the Landgrave's Sons and that because of an Hereditary League as he said betwixt the Houses of Hess and Saxony whereby for want of Heirs Male the one is to succeed to the other No Man doubted but that this was an injury done to the Emperour who had pronounced the Sentence and that it tended to some new commotion and all wondred what would come on 't yet hardly any notice was taken of it in the Emperour's Court but all was seemingly connived at About this time the Duke of Somerset Uncle to the King of England was a second time apprehended and with him the Lord Paget the Lord Gray and some others John Duke of Northumberland had then the chief Government and the reason of his apprehension was said to be That he had conspired the death of Northumberland as he himself alledged for that by a late Law was made Felony amongst them About the fifteenth of October the Pope made George Martinhausen
to Trent that he might joyn with the Ambassadours of Duke Maurice and the Duke of Wirtemberg in negotiating the common concern To this City were associated Esling Ravensburg Ruteling Bibrach and Lindaw who gave him full Commission to act joyntly also in their name But why those of Frankfurt and especially Norimberg did not send it may be doubted They of Ulm had already changed their Religion according to the Emperours Prescript From Ausburg and other places all the Doctors had been lately taken as was said before so that it was not in their power to send though if no such thing had been done the Senate would have acted nothing in that Affair without the Emperours leave In the Month of November the Pope in one day created thirteen Cardinals all Italians for these are as the Guards which they usually provide for their own defence and security On the five and twentieth of November the Session was held in the accustomed manner Where the Degrees were read First concerning Penance that it is a Sacrament instituted by Christ and necessary to those who after Baptism fall into sin That it is also a distinct Sacrament from Baptism and as it were a Planck for Salvation after Shipwrack That Christ's words whereby he gives the Holy Ghost to his Apostles ought to be understood of the Power of remitting Sins by this Sacrament That for the Remission of Sins three things are required to wit Contrition Confession and Satisfaction And that Contrition is a true and profitable sorrow which prepares Man for Grace That Confession or the secret way of revealing Sins to a Priests is of Divine Institution and necessary to Salvation That all the Sins which one remembers and their circumstances are to be confessed That once a year at least one ought to confess and that chiefly in time of Lent That Absolution is not a bare Declaration that Sins are forgiven but a Judicial Act That Priests only though they be never so sinful have Power of Absolving That Bishops reserve to themselves some Cases and Offences from which other Priests cannot Absolve is rightly done That although the guilt be remitted yet the punishment is not and that Satisfaction consists in Works not in Faith That by the Penance which God either inflicts the Priest enjoyns or we chuse of our own accord Sins are expiated in as far as concerneth the temporal Punishment That satisfactions whereby Sins are atoned are part of Gods Worship That the Priest hath the Power of binding and loosing and therefore may impose Penance upon him that confesses his Sins And so much of Penance Extreme Unction they decreed to be a Sacrament instituted by Christ that it both confers Grace remitteth Sins and comforteth the Sick That the use of this Sacrament is the same that the Apostle St James spake of that the Elders also whom he mentions are not the Elders in years but Priests who are the only true Ministers of this Sacrament This Doctrine they commanded to be taught and observed and those that taught or believed otherwise they cursed and anathematized as wicked and pestiferous wretches Next day after the Session Letters came from the Duke of Wirtemberg to his Ambassadours wherein he ordered them to proceed and produce the written draught of the Confession of their Doctrine in the Session of the twenty fifth of November Since therefore they came a little too late that it was a long while to the next Session and that Count Monfort also was absent they applied themselves to the Cardinal of Trent acquainting him that they had some things to propose in Council in name of their Prince That it ought to have been done in the last Session but that the Letters came too late when the occasion was over That therefore they entreated him who was a German born that for the love of his Country and the sake of the Prince whom he knew he would assist them in the Matter and so far prevail with the Fathers that they would all meet and give them an Audience He made them ample promises of his Favour and good Will and told them that he would acquaint the Popes Legate with their desire but that it had been agreed upon amongst the Fathers that no man should be admitted to propound any thing publickly unless it were first known what the matter were That the French Ambassadour had given occasion to that resolution when not long since an undecent kind of Hubbub and scurvy noise was by his means raised in the publick Session Wherefore he desired to know what it was in short they were about to demand They being very hot upon the Matter shewed him their Letter of Instructions But when by that Letter he found that they had some Writing of Doctrine to present he dismissed them with hopes that within a few days the Matter might be brought about Next day he sent for them and told them That he had acquainted the Legate with their business and to confirm what he said had shewn him the Letter of Instructions But that he took it in great indignation that they should think of presenting a Writing and that it was his Opinion that it was very absurd and misbecoming that they who ought reverently to receive and obey the Rule of Doctrine set before them should offer to prescribe to their Superiours That at that time indeed he could obtain no more of him but that he would urge him once more about the Matter bidding them withal not to despair Some days after when upon the approach of Maximilian of Austria the Cardinal was to go as far as Mantua to meet him he advised the Ambassadours of Wirtemburg since he was necessitated for some time to be absent to make their application to Don Francisco de Toledo the Emperours Ambassadour That by Virtue of his Character and Authority he could do them great kindnesses and that he would willingly do it were it no more but for his sake who had recommended the Affair unto him In compliance with this Counsel they address themselves to the Ambassadour Who having promised them great Matters dismissed them But next time they came again he began to excuse himself upon pretext of the ensuing Disputations of the Divines at which the Fathers were to be present but that when these were over he would not neglect the occasion of doing them service It is probable that he had received just such another answer from the Legate as the Cardinal had before But that he might not put them out of all hopes he had pretended this Reason especially since he knew that the Emperour both urged the Council and that it was stipulated by a publick Decree of the Empire that all should have liberty to propose what Matters they pleased In the mean time the Deputy of Strasburg waited upon the Emperours Ambassadour William of Poictieres in the absence of Montfort And seeing the Case of all was alike and their Power the same
also preached no more after that pretending Sickness April the first Duke Maurice and his Associates besieged Ausburg and three days after took iâ— by surrender as shall be related in the following Book April the fifth the Ambassadours of Wirtemberg being sent for came to the House of Don Francisco de Toledo taking with them as they had been enjoyned two Divines Brentius and John Marbach of Strasburg The Ambassadour Poictieres spoke and told them first That the Ambassadours had been very zealous in pursuing the common concern but then that because of the Sickness of the Legate Crescentio neither his Collegues nor the Fathers would act any thing in his absence Lastly that it was not their fault if no progress were made and that they would not omit any thing for the future that might contribute to the furthering of business and of this he made a protestation The others having consulted together made answer That they were very sensible of their Zeal and the diligence they had used but that they had expected something else and a more certain Answer to their Demands to have been communicated to those that sent them But that now since the matter was so they were to take the next course With that the Ambassadours replied That he did not intend by what he said nor was he to be so understood as if there remained no more hopes of acting That it was well done in them and according to Duty to acquaint their Magistrates with the whole state of Affairs Nor did he doubt but that when they should come to hear of all they would both wonder at this delay and cessation and take it ill But that however he pray'd them patiently to bear the tediousness of a few days more That in the mean time they would endeavour that they should have a plain and positive answer To which they made answer That for their sakes they were very willing to do so Next day Messengers and Letters came post haste with the news of Ausburg's being taken and that the Princes were marching streight towards the Alpes to possess themselves of the Passes and stop all the ways Whereupon the Militia was raised all over the Country of Tirol and Soldiers listed with Orders to Muster at Inspruck All the German Bishops were now gone none remained but the Proxies of the Bishops of Spire and Munster when this news was brought the Italian Bishops presently fled for it carrying their Goods by Water down the River Adige So that the Wirtemberg Ambassadours started thereat and seeing that the Council broke up of their own accord they went to the Emperours Ambassadours and acquainted them that they also and the Divines were resolved to return home They seemed much against it at first and told them That until they knew the Emperours pleasure therein they could not consent to it But when they could not prevail they desired to have the reasons of their departure given them in Writing that they might excuse themselves to the Emperour and the Fathers The Ambassadour Poictieres put the question also that if after they were gone the Fathers did proceed to action what would the Divines say To which the Ambassadours having consulted with the Divines said That they would answer it and so April the eighth in the Morning they delivered to them the Writing they required Therein they declared when the Confession of Divines was exhibited wherefore the Divines came How they had in vain solicited till then to have had answer to their demands How to that very day there had been no hopes of any future action That now also a War was broken out so that not only the German Bishops but the Italians also went away and that all the States were so involved in troubles that there was nothing to be expected at present That they did not think it prudent neither to make any progress in the absence of the Roman Bishops That if hereafter that Affair happened to be duely and orderly treated they supposed their Prince would not be wanting That it was the Opinion of the Divines that many Decrees had been made both in this and in the former Council which could not but be found fault with if they were brought under a lawful Examination That if the Fathers should now proceed it was credible that the same course would be taken That nevertheless if perhaps either the Decrees already made should be corrected or that such things should afterwards be decreed as were agreeable to the holy Scriptures they made no doubt but they would be embraced with most willing and obedient Minds That that would be most acceptable to them as had been demonstrated in some places of the Confession exhibited Which Writing they both judged to be pious and would be ready to explain it more fully when occasion called for it That therefore they prayed them to take their departure in good part That they had liberty indeed granted them by the safe conduct to depart thence whensoever they pleased and were not obliged to give any Man a reason for their so doing but that the many civilities they had received from them obliged them not to baulk that small Duty such as it was So then they took their leave and departed in the Afternoon and a few hours after they met upon the rode the Cardinal of Trent coming post from Brixen to his own City who being informed That they belonged to Wirtemberg asked who was Brentius and spoke to him most courteously We said before that the Fathers did nor all look one way The Spanish Bishops indeed seemed the most active and diligent of all Some of the Germans also pretended that there was great need of Reformation But this was the mind of those who all entertained the best thoughts that Ecclesiastical Discipline and Manners should be reformed That Luxury Ambition and Examples of impure and dishonest Lives should be removed that every one should mind his own Cure and that no single person should enjoy more Livings than one Besides they had it in their thoughts as it should seem to confine the Popes Power within certain bounds and not allow his Court so much Authority and Jurisdiction over all Provinces These and some other things they comprehended under the name of Reformation and acknowledging that they belonged properly unto them and required amendment But as to Doctrine they neither owned themselves guilty of any Error nor would they allow that a Council could err and believed that their Adversaries would be at length forced to come over and obey the Council as appeared plainly enough from the French Kings Letter and the form of the safe Conduct It confirmed them in this Hope and Opinion that they thought there were not many Professors of that Doctrine remaining the most part being either dead or banished as it has been said of Schwabia It was the common talk there too that within a few Months all Matters relating to Doctrine would be
met but in a very ill Temper On the seventeenth day of that Month the Queen dyed in the forty third Year of her Age when she had reigned five Years four Months and eleven Days Her Death was for some Hours concealed and then it was communicated to the House of Lords by the Lord Chancellour who sent for the House of Commons and the Lord Chancellour signified to them also the Queen's Death and both Houses presently agreed to proclaim Elizabeth her Sister Queen wishing her a long and a happy reign The great Thuanus contrary to his Custom passeth over Queen Mary without any Character he could say little that was good of heâ— and would say nothing that was ill Those of her own Religion are now so sensible of the Errors of her Government that they are more put to it for Apologies than Panigyricks on her Memory In Germany a Dyet was appointed to meet at Frankford the twenty fourth of February to which the Ambassadours named by Charles V before his Voyage into Spain came and delivered his Resignation of the Empire by which he had transferred his Authority to Ferdinand his Brother then King of the Romans to the Electors who after a short deliberation accepted the same and in a solemn manner elected and admitted Ferdinand to the Empire and afterwards crowned him After his return to Vienna he sent Martin Gusman his Lord High Chamberlain to Rome to acquaint the Pope with the Resignation of Charles V and his Advancement to the Empire and to assure his Holiness of his good Affections to that See. The morose Old Gentleman would not admit the Ambassadour but left the business to be discussed by the Cardinals who were appointed for that purpose who must needs make a great business of it and resolved That what had been done at Frankford was of no Validity because the Holy See had not consented to it and Christ's Vicar who was entrusted with the Keys of the Celestial and Terrestial Government without whose Consent neither Charles could be discharged from the Empire nor Ferdinand be admitted That no Resignation or Deprivation could be made to or by any other than the Pope Besides what was done at Frankford had been transacted by Men infected with Heresie who had lost all that Grace and Power which belonged to them whilst they were Members of the Church of Rome That therefore Ferdinand was to appear within three Months before the Pope's Tribunal to answer for his Misdemeanours and to shew his Repentance and then without doubt he would obtain Pardon from this meek Father With much more to the same purpose Ferdinand was of another Temper and ordered his Ambassadour to return if he were not admitted within three Days leaving a Protestation behind him This a little quelled the Pope who admitted him to a Private Audience the thirteenth of July when the Pope excused himself for not having granted his Request sooner for want of Leisure and Time to examine all the Difficulties which were proposed in this Affair by the Cardinals and seeing his Lordship could stay no longer at Rome he might return when he pleased and he would send an Ambassadour to the Emperour so he called Charles V notwithstanding his Resignation as soon as was possible And thus this thing stood till the Death of Pope Paul III. Charles V late Emperour of Germany being at last overpowered by the many Diseases which oppressed him died the twenty first of September In this Prince saith Thuanus Fortune and Virtue strove to Crown his Deserts with the utmost degree of Temporal Felicity And for my part I take him for the best Pattern which can possibly be given of a virtuous Prince in this or any former Age. His last Words were these Continue in me my dear Saviour that I may continue in thee He lived fifty eight Years six Months and twenty five Days and was Emperour of Germany thirty six Years Thuanus saith of him That no part of his Life was destitute of some commendable Action yet he shew'd the greatness of his Soul most visibly in the close of it Before he was wont to conquer others in this he overcame himself and reflecting on a better Life renounced this present which was lyable to so many Chances before he dyed and having so many Years lived to the good of others began now to live only to God and himself In all that two Years which went next before his Dissolution he lived in the Society of some Monks of the Order of S. Jerome and by the Advice of one Constantin his Confessor applied himself chiefly to the reading of S. Bernard and fixing his Soul only on God thus he argued That he was unworthy by his own Merits to obtain the Kingdom of Heaven but his Lord God who had a double Right to it that of Inheritance from his Father and that of the Merits of his Passion was content with the first as to himself and has left the second to me by whose Gift I may justly claim it and trusting to this Faith I shall not be ashamed For neither can the Oyl of Mercy be put in any other Vessel than that of Faith That this is the only Confidence of that Man who forsakes himself and relies upon his Lord That to trust any otherwise to ones own Merits was not of Faith but Perfidy That Sins were forgiven by the Mercy of God and therefore we ought to believe that none but God can blot them out against whom only we have sinned in whom is no sin and by whom alone our sins are forgiven us These Doctrins were afterwards thought in Spain to approach so near those of the Lutherans that his Confessor was burnt for an Heretick after he was dead and some others that were about him had hard measure after his Death on that account and Lucas Osiander affirms in express Terms That Charles V dyed a Lutheran in the Point of Justification Queen Elizabeth presently after her settlement dispatched Messengers to all the Princes of Christendom giving notice of her Sister's Death and her Succession and among them to the Pope also by Sir Edward Karn then Resident at Rome His Holiness in his usual Stile replyed That England was held in Fee of the Apostolick See That she could not succeed being illegitimate nor could he contradict the Declarations made in that matter by his Predecessors Clement VII and Paul III He said it was a great boldness in her to assume the Crown without his Consent for which in Reason she deserved no Favour at his Hands Yet if she would renounce her Pretentions and refer herself wholly to him he would shew a Fatherly Affection to her and do every thing for her that could consist with the Dignity of the Apostolick See. It was great pity this generous Pope should fall into such Heretical Times his great Soul would certainly have wrought Wonders before the Days of Luther but now alass all this Papal Meekness
intervals though he did not see them that they should presently fly for their lives And at the same instant two of those who had betaken themselves to Mus come and having got notice of the Enemies approach advise the Minister of the Church and the rest of those few Guards that as we said were left with the Women to be gone having shewed them a steep way through the Wood by which they might escape all danger in their flight Hardly were these gone when the raging Soldiers came in shouting and making a heavy noise and with drawn Swords preparing for the butchâ—ry However at that time they forbear to kill but having committed many insolencies and robbed the poor things of all their Money and Provisions they carry them away Prisoners They had purposed to have used them more basely but a Captain of Horse prevented it who by chance coming in threatned them and commanded them to march streight to Meinier so that they proceeded no farther but leaving the Women there who were about five hundred in number they carry off the Cattel and Booty In the mean time Meinier came to Merindole and finding it forsaken by the Inhabitants â—he plunders and sets it on fire which was ushered in by a very cruel action for having found there one single Youth he commands him to be tied to an Olive-tree and there shot to death He marches next to Cabriere and begins to batter the Town but by the mediation of Captain Poulain he perswades the Towns people upon promise of indempnity to open the Gates which being done and the Soldiers let in after a little pause all were put to the Sword without respect to Age or Sex. Many fled to the Church others to other places and some into the Wine-Cellar of the Castle but being halled out into a Meadow and stript naked they were all put to the Sword not only the Men but also the Women and many of these with Child too Meinier also shuts up about forty Women in a Barn full of Hay and Straw and then sets it on fire and after that the poor creatures having attempted but in vain to smother the fire with their Cloaths which for that end they had pull'd off betook themselves to the great Window at which the Hay is commonly pitched up into the Barn with a purpose to leap down from thence they were kept in with Pikes and Spears so that all of them perished in the flames and this happened the twentieth of April Meinier after this sends part of his Forces to besiege the Town of Coste but when they were just upon their march those were found who as we said a little before had fled into the Wine-Cellar of the Castle a noise being thereupon raised as if there had been some ambush laid the Soldiers are recalled who put every Man of them to the Sword. The number of the slain as well in the Town as abroad in the Fields amounted to Eight hundred The young Infants which survived the fury were for the most part rebaptized by the Enemy Affairs thus dispatched at Cabriere the Forces are sent to Coste The Lord of that Town had transacted before-hand with the Inhabitants that they should carry their Arms into the Castle and in four places make breaches in their Walls which if they did he promises them that he would use his interest which he knew could easily prevail with Meinier that they should receive no damage Being over-perswaded they obey and he departs with a purpose seemingly to treat and intercede for them but he was not gone far before the Soldiers met him who nevertheless proceeded in their march and attacked the place At first onset they did but little but next day they more briskly renew the assault and having burnt all the Suburbs about they easily become Masters of the place and the rather that the Night before most had deserted the Town and fled having got down over the Walls by Ropes After the victorious had put all that stood in their way to Fire and Sword they run into a Garden adjoyning the Castle and there satiate their Lust upon the Women and young Girls promiscuously who in great fear and consternation had fled thither and for a Day and Night's time that they kept them shut up there so inhumanly and barbarously they used them that the big belly'd Women and younger Girls shortly after died of it In the mean time the Merindolanes and many others who wandered with them over the Woods and Rocks being taken were either sent to the Galleys or put to death and many also were starved Not far also from the Town of Mus we mentioned before some five and twenty Men had got into a Cave and kept lurking there but being betrayed all of them were either smothered with smoak or burnt so that no kind of cruelty was omitted Some however that had escaped this butchery got to Geneva and the places thereabouts Now when the News of this was brought into Germany many were highly offended thereat and the Swizers who are not of the Popish Religion interceded with the French King that he would be merciful to those who had fled their Countrey But the King made them answer that he had just cause for what he had done and that what he did within his own Territories and how he punished the guilty concerned them no more to know than it did him what was done amongst them The Year before the Waldenses had sent the King a Confession of their Faith in Writing thereby to clear their innocence And the Heads of their Doctrine are Of God the Father Creator of all things Of the Son the Mediator and Advocate for Mankind Of the Holy Ghost the Comforter and Teacher of Truth Of the Church which they say is the Congregation of all the Elect and has Jesus Christ for the Head. Of the Ministers of the Church who they say are to be turned out if they perform not their Duty Of the Magistrate whom they confess to be God's Minister for protecting the Good and punishing the Bad that not only Honour but also Tribute and Custom is due to them according to the example of Christ who himself payed Custom Of Baptism which they say is an external and invisible Sign which represents to us both the renewing of the Spirit and the mortification of the Members Of the Lord's Supper which they say is a giving of thanks and commemoration of the benefits received by Christ. Of Matrimony which being a holy thing and instituted by God they think ought not to be denyed to any Of Good Works which they teach are to be done and practised as the Holy Scriptures declare Of false Doctrines which because they lead us away from the true Worship they say ought to be avoided In short they alledge the Old and New Testament for the Rule of their Faith and profess to believe all that is contained in the
Apostles Ceeed Lastly They pray the King to give credit to their relation for that if any other report be made of their Belief and Doctrine they offer to prove it false provided they may be heard The King was then engaged in a War and therefore the Matter rested but Peace being made it broke out again and at the instigation of some flamed into this so hainous a cruelty Mention was made before of the Spaniards whom the Emperour had sent into Winter-Quarters in Lorrain These having done a great deal of mischief in those places by orders from the Emperour take the Field in the Month of April and having marched to Strasbourg and passed the Rhine there they advance through Shwabia into Austria to the number of Three thousand Foot. At this time died Louis Duke of Bavaria the Brother of William leaving no Issue behind him for it had been agreed betwixt them that he should not Marry that the Inheritance might not be dismembred Great friendship and familiarity past betwixt him and Henry Duke of Brunswick For as we said they were the chief of the League made against the Protestants and the Duke of Brunswick being driven out of his Countrey fled first to him The Emperour came now to Wormes May the sixteenth and next day Cardinal Farnese I dare not affirm what the cause of this Man's coming was but it was certainly thought that he came to stir up a War against the Lutherans He acted indeed nothing publickly nor in his way from Rome did he pass through the Duke of Wirtemberg's Countrey but resting sometime at Delinghen a Town upon the Danube belonging to the Cardinal of Ausbourg he struck off another way King Ferdinand had written to the Duke of Wirtembourg that for his sake he would give him safe conduct and be civil to him to which the Duke made answer that he had rather indeed he had taken any other way but that nevertheless if he had a mind to pass through his Countrey for his sake he should be welcome But he as we said took another way and came to Wormes the day after the Emperour arrived The Emperour having made Peace with the King of France sollicited also some other Potentates that they would assist at the ensuing Council and taking that occasion his Embassadour whom he sent to the King of Poland declared to him That for many Years now past it had been the Emperour's chief care that all Christians in the World would undertake a common War against the Turk and that now almost all were inclinable to it but that the Controversie about Religion was the only hindrance to the same now that that might be removed and that the desire of the Protestants might be satisfied who still insisted upon a Council after much pains and care the Emperour had now procured a Council to be called at Trent That therefore he besought him that he would send his Embassadours thither who by their presence might honour that solemn Assembly and confirm the Decrees that should be made therein concerning religious matters But that because the Emperour thought that the Protestants who were always obstinate would neither forsake the Confession of Ausbourg nor yet obey the publick Decrees the thing it self required that Kings and Princes should interpose and unless they did obey fall upon them as the disturbers both of Church and State Now seeing he amongst others had the reputation of a Pious and Christian King it was the Emperour's desire that he would both think of the Turkish War and subscribe to the Council of Trent and that if the Protestants returned not to their Duty he would assist him with Council and Force which other Kings had likewise promised to do The King of Poland's answer was That he longed to see that day when Christian Kings and Princes putting an end to all civil and intestine Wars would convert their united Forces against the Turk and that then he should not be the last That as to the Council and Protestants he would do any thing that might conduce to the tranquility of Church and State nor would he be wanting on occasion to assist the Emperour his Friend and Allie in his greatest dangers At that time it was written from Rome That though the Pope had called the Council and sent his Legates already to Trent yet he was so desirous of a Lutheran War that he had promised an assistance of Twelve thousand Foot and Five hundred Horse that Captains and other Officers were also secretly listed by him but when it was represented to him that the Season was too far spent for doing any important Action and that another occasion was to be expected he had presently communicated the same to his Commanders and put them in hopes against the next Year On Whitsun-munday an Italian Franciscan Fryer preached before the Emperour King Ferdinand Cardinal Farnese the Bishop of Ausbourg Granvell c. and in his Sermon digressing to the Lutherans after he had bitterly inveighed against them It is time said he most powerful Emperour that at length you do your Duty too long indeed have you delayed the business ought to have been done long since God has honoured you with great Blessings and made you the Defender of his Church wherefore exert your strength and utterly destroy that pestilent sort of Men. For it is not fit they should longer see the Sun who so defile and confound all things nor must you say it shall be done for now even now I say it ought to be done and no delay interposed How many thousand Souls do you think are in daily danger of eternal damnation through their madness all which unless you apply a Remedy God will require at your hands It is said that Granvell was offended at that alarm either that he counterfeited displeasure or that he perceived it gave the Protestants a warning to be upon their guard Not many days after that Sermon Cardinal Farnese departed secretly in the night-time and made all hast back to Rome Much about the same time was published Luther's Book written in the Vulgar Language with this Title Against the Papacy of Rome constituted by Satan in which Book he first answers the Pope's Brief wherein in a high strain he dehorted the Emperour from medling with the Administration of Religion as we mentioned before then he most amply refutes those places of Scripture which the Pope makes use of for the confirmation of his Supremacy and retorts them upon him He put a Picture before his Book which plainly represented the Subject thereof The Pope sitting in a lofty Chear stretching forth his joyned Hands in solemn pomp but with the Ears of an Ass a great many Devils of various shapes surround him of which some set a triple Crown upon his Head with a Sir-reverence on the top of it others with Ropes let him down into the middle of Hell looking dreadfully underneath others bring Wood and