uno for unico supremo capite whereas it ought entirely to have been left out as an importune and unseasonable thing at this time and in this place for what occasion is there in the treating and discussing the Doctrine of Order to make any mention of Jurisdiction and what can be more impertinent than to be always thus inculcating the Pope's power which though great is not such as the Legate pretends it is For which reason the Legate would not suffer nor so much as hear of the Name of Basil being put in the safe Conduct where it is said Praxis Christi primitivae ecclesiae notwithstanding the whole of what was contained in that passage is put into it I shall not fail according to my duty to advise your Lordship of all that is done here whose most Illustrious and Reverend Person and State may our Lord prosper and continue for many Years as I desire I kiss your Lordship's Hands Doctor Vargas From Trent the 25th of January 1552. P. S. Don Francisco intends to write speedily in whose Letters your Lordship will meet with a full Relation of all Affairs This I do for your Lordship having writ to no body else at this time I must return to put you in mind that it is necessary the fore-mentioned business should be carefully looked after for the Legate has very ill designs going on and appears to be resolute in them for he goes about Negotiating for Votes as if his Life lay at stake which he looks upon as a very honourable Employment I know the Presidents particularly he of Verona do not think well of this and are much against adding those Clauses and that principally which saith Unius dispensatione c. no such thing having ever been done before but the Presidents are things the Legate makes as little account of as he do's of other people Dr. Vargas's Letter of the 19th of January 1552 to the Bishop of Arras Most Illustrious and Reverend Lord HIS Majesty's Dispatch is just now arrived and is as full as was necessary or as I could have desired or as might be expected coming thorow your Lordship's hands Don Francisco after our having had some discourse together about the execution thereof immediately dispatched away this Express which is in such hast as will not suffer me to inlarge neither is it necessary I should since Don Francisco has done it I am and that for good reasons extreamly sollicitous to know what his Majesty would have done in case the Legate should not be persuaded to comply with what he desires For tho' it is true that he can have no reason for his refusing to do it he nevertheless continues very obstinate seeming to be resolved by one way or other to hinder or avoid any Congress with the Protestants in which affair we shall be sure to have trouble enough with him I pray God it do not end in such a disturbance as he desires and is now labouring to raise upon his being defeated of his so much desired Prorogation by his Majesty's having got the determination of the Doctrines to be suspended as it was reasonable they should and that without having the Session put off which would have been attended with several inconveniencies I need not here take notice of having some days ago acquainted your Lordship with them In case the Legate should not be prevailed withall but should persist in his obstinacy as he is like enough to do and that after a boisterous manner when he once comes to see how much the Pope's and his own Reputation are concerned therein it will then be necessary for his Majesty's honour that we on our part should be so provided for a disturbance as to be able to make it notorious that his Majesty is not to blame for it For whenever any such contention shall arise in the end the Pope will be sure to throw the fault upon his Majesty whom we ought therefore to take care to vindicate which we may do easily and without giving offence by keeping our selves always upon the Defensive or by having no great regard to the Pope's friendship from which if it hangs by so slender a thread as this is we can never expect any great matters For should the Synod be interrupted on this occasion it will be of great moment to us and especially as to the Affairs of Germany to make it manifest to God and all the World that his Majesty was no ways the Cause of it whose Honour notwithstanding his Endeavours have proved abortive will be maintained thereby As to the first of these ways if it is taken we must manage it as well as we can with the Legates But for the second we must wait till we have his Majesty's Answer about it which the sooner it comes the better it will be Your Lordship may be pleased to consider likewise Whether it would not be convenient to prepare the Prelates for to oppose the Legate in his designs and that the Envoys of Wirtenbourg and Strasbourg should present their Propositions in a Congregation before the meeting of the Session that so the Prelates may know the better what they are to insist on that in case any disturbance should happen publick Instruments may be made thereof that what is done may not be left in Words and private Transactions with the Legate who will afterwards be sure to deny all and will so disguise things as to make them appear as he would have them Farthermore if the Legate should notwithstanding all we can do to prevent it create some disturbance either by not holding a Session or by celebrating of one and carrying his Point therein by a majority for I have formerly told your Lordship what Work was going on here it will then be convenient that our Embassadors should have a publick Instrument prepared which shall in few words and a civil style contain the whole force and substance of the Business which Instrument may be delivered to the Legate and Presidents either at their own Houses or in the Synod at a Congregation or at the Session when the Legate shall begin to move the Points he is driving at It being expedient both for God and his Majesty's Service if this should come to end in a Tragedy that there should remain some publick Instruments thereof to testifie the truth of Things to the present and all future Ages Your Lordship may be pleased to consider what is fit to be done for whatever your do prescribe will certainly be most convenient I have enlarged more than the haste the Currier is in could well dispense with I shall ere long give your Lordship an account of a Business you will be astonished at which is the Legate's having foisted several Passages into the Doctrine of Order which must of necessity ruine all Of which before I observed it and spoke of it there was not one that fell into the Account and indeed considering how things are managed here I do not at
the Letters you have writ to me which as you observe have been many and large You will understand by the dispatch this goes by all that is here I shall not therefore inlarge neither in truth can I do it though I were willing being at this time so besieged by business that I have not one moment of leisure and so can only kiss your Hands for your great Care and Vigilancy and the Trouble you give your self in writing to me particularly concerning all that occurs which is always done by you with a Zeal conformable to your great Prudence and Learning for which you may rest satisfied I have a just Esteem neither am I wanting in representing it as I ought to do to His Majesty in order to acquaint him with those who are most serviceable to him that so he may take care to preferr them I do heartily wish he may on this or some other occasion remember you as he ought I pray God the success may answer my wishes which if it do I am certain you will be contented Our Lord preserve you Inspurg the 19th of January A Copy of the Bishop of Arras's Letter of the 9th of November 1551 to Dr. Vargas Most Magnificent Sir I Do all I can that you may have quick Answers to your Letters but by reason of His Majesty's having so much business on his Hands as he has at present you have them not many times so soon as I do wish you had and though at this time the badness of the ways and our being so much employed in raising an Army might excuse our not doing of it nevertheless the Answers to the Embassadours do want only to be seen by His Majesty and I will do all that I am able that they may be dispatched in a few days What you write of the Legate and Presidents precipitating of things is very true who do huddle things strangely that are of the highest importance to the Church of God of which the Legate gave a clear proof in having contended so much against having the Communion Sub utraque deferred and in having determined many things in the Session which ought to have been adjourned untill the Arrival of the Protestants who are now on their way But the mischief of all is that they do all those things for purposes that are flatly contrary to the purposes they ought to have precipitating the Divines so that they have not time for arguing of matters as they ought to do His Majesty has writ to his Embassadours to have all these things remedied if it is possible The Legate may reckon as he pleaseth but I am of opinion that for all the haste he makes he will be obliged to prolong his Term of July and that for some Months There goes likewise a particular Answer to Don Francisco in relation to a Reformation The Memorial you speak of I have not as yet been able to find I imagined Velasco had had it We must therefore leave it to you to answer it as well as you can in general for want of a particular information thereof It is a lamentable thing to be so sensible of Mischiefs as to see them plainly and yet not be able to remedy them in the Circumstances we are in My only consolation is the consideration of my having done all that I was able and of all things being in the Hand of God Who many times when People do in humane Prudence despair of things puts his Hand to them and brings them about Now my being of opinion that we are at this time in such an Extremity is what raiseth such hopes in me Some of the Protestants are now on their way and some as you write are come already nevertheless by their secret workings in their own Countries I do see plainly that this is all a piece of Roguery lodged in the Hearts of their Doctours I do all the Offices I can think of with the Bishop of Imola his Holiness's Nuncio and that in order to bring the Pope to yield to some things that are necessary I do likewise sollicite the Legate that is here who being an honest Man cannot forbear acknowledging that the Affairs of the Council ought to be taken otherwise at Rome than they are Where if they would they might consent to the doing of a great many things that would be of advantage and particularly to their own Authority and that without doing any body a prejudice There is not a Soul that knows any thing of the Letter you writ to me privately nor of your having sent me the Papers which our Embassadours were so slow in sending I had heard of what had passed from a thousand particular Persons before their Letters arrived I shall take care that the good Offices you do me shall be no prejudice to you and am glad that we are so near one another that we may almost shake Hands As to your own particular Affairs I have always done and will always do you all the good Offices that are in my power I pray God they may succeed according to the good Will they are done withall I was glad to hear from you of Dr. Malvenda's having acquitted himself so well and as to the Doctours of Lovain I know they will give a good account of themselves and you will find them to be both excellent and modest Men. I have writ to the Archbishop of Sazer to make him sensible of the good Office you have done him God knows how desirous I am that all worthy Men that do service should be considered for it and of my disinterested intentions in such cases I have Dr. Malvenda for a witness so that you may rest satisfied that so often as there is occasion I shall not fail to put His Majesty in mind of the concerns of that Archbishop I have likewise writ Don Francisco an account of the Testimony you gave of his diligence and managery Our Lord preserve you From Inspurg the 9th of November 1551. The safe Conduct is come defective enough being very far from such a one as is necessary to satisfie the pretensions of the Protestants I will do all that is possible to oblige them to consent to it but if that cannot be done it must be returned to you again A Copy of part of the Bishop of Arras's Letter of the 5th of March 1552 to Dr. Vargas Magnificent Sir I Have seen all that the Embassadours have writ to His Majesty as also what you have writ at large and with great Wisdom in your Letters about the same business what you have offered is well adapted to the Terms we were on when you were here but the State of Affairs is much altered since that time for we have now no hopes of the Protestants going to the Council who having entered into a Conspiracy do seek to gain the People to their Devotion by telling them that the Council goes on without giving them the hearing and denies them many things which it might lawfully
to that will either suspend or translate the Council to the great prejudice of the Authority of such Assemblies His Majesty will write to his Embassadors concerning the Germans Pretensions He recommends Secrecy as to all things relating to the Council Pag. 218 His sixth Letter He promises to return an Answer to all the Doctor 's Letters and to do him all the Service he is able 220 His first Letter to Dr. Malvenda of the 16th of February 1552. He magnifies Vargas as an extraordinary Minister by whom he understood the Merits of Malvenda and the Bishop of Castellamar The Spanish Prelats are without a Physician 221 His second Letter He complains of the Obstinacy of the Pope's Ministers and of the Legats precipitating things so that it was not possible they could be duly discussed He was glad to hear that he had signalized himself The safe Conduct very defective 222 His first Letter to the Bishop of Oren of the 1st of February 1552. His Majesty is very much vex'd at the Absence of some Bishops from the Council His Embassador uncivil to the Prelats He commends the Bishop of Oren for his Zeal in Business 226 His second Letter of the 9th of November 1551. He complains of their being forc'd in many things to comply with the Pope's Ministers and that to desire a Reformation of the Abuses of the Court of Rome was to knock all Business on the head at once Pag. 228 His third Letter Tho he uses all diligence in what is for the Service of God yet the Iniquity of the Times is so great that what is convenient cannot be done 230 His Letter to the Bishop of Pamplona He promises to answer his Desires concerning several Affairs with all good will 231 His Letter to the Archbishop of Sazer He praises him for his Diligence in the Affairs of the Council and wishes him a sutable Reward 232 His Letter to Don Francisco de Toledo of the 6th of March 1552. He remits himself to a Letter he had writ before and wishes him all Happiness 233 Tractatus a Doctore Varga conscriptus contra hanc Clausulam perniciosam a Legato in Doctrinam Ordinis intrusam editus è Manuscripto scil Nam ut illa sub uno supremo rectore varios diversos ministrantium continet ordines ita visibilis Christi Ecclesia summum ipsius vicarium pro unico supremo capite in terris habet cujus dispensatione sic reliquis omnibus membris officia distribuuntur ut suis quaeque in ordinibus stationibus collocata munera sua in totius Ecclesiae utilitatem cum maxima pace unione exequantur Pag. 237 Tractatus alter ejusdem Vargae contra eandem Clausulam editus è Manuscripto 242 The following Letters are all addressed thus To the most Illustrious and Reverend Lord the Bishop of ARRAS of his Majesty's Council of State The Cesarean Court. The Names of the Persons mentioned in the following Letters THE Pope Julius the Third The Emperor Charles the Fifth The French King Henry the Second The King of the Romans Ferdinand Brother to the Emperor The King of Bohemia Maximilian the Son of Ferdinand The Bishop of Arras Antonius Perenottus who was afterwards Cardinal Granvil The Legat Marcellus Crescentius a Cardinal The Presidents Sebastianus Pighinus Archbishop of Siponto and Aloysius Lypomanus Bishop of Verona The Cardinal of Trent Ludovicus Madrucius the Cardinal of Jaen Petrus Paciecus The Emperor's Embassadors the Count of Monfort for Germany Don Francisco de Toledo for Spain and Gulielmus a Pictavia for Flanders The Elector of Mentz Sebestianus ab Hausenstain the Elector of Triers the Count Eysemburg the Elector of Cologn Adolphus de Schawemburg The King of the Romans Embassadors Fredricus Nasau Bishop of Vienna and Paul de Gregorianis Bishop of Agram The Envoys of Duke Maurice Wolfius Colerus and Leonardus Badehornus The Envoys of the Duke of Wittenburgh Johannes Pleniagorus and Johannes Eclin The Envoys of Strasburgh Johannes Sleidan c. The Archbishop of Sazer Salvator Alexius the Bishop of Pamplona Alvarez Moscoso the Bishop of Guadix Martinus Ayala the Archbishop of Granada Petrus Guerrero the Bishop of Venosa Alvarez a Quadra Bishop Jubin John Jubin a Franciscan Friar the Bishop of Verdun Nicolaus Psalme The Dutch Divines Johannes Groperus Ruardus Tapperus Ambrosius Pelargus c. ERRATA PAge 14. line 7. read there is P. 16. l. ult dele together P. 37. l. 5. put comma after it P. 38. l. 25. r. punished by P. 42. l. 4. no new Paragraph P. 57. l. 17. dele comma after Divines P. 64. l. 19. r. Inconveniences From P. 127 to 147. over all the odd Pages for Office of an Embassador r. Government of a Council P. 135. l. 14. put after expiring P. 147. l. 24. put a Period after Councils P. 152. l. 23. dele that P. 154. l. 31. put comma after pleaseth P. 178. l. 26. r. Sheep P. 181. l. antepen for if r. of P. 197. Run Tit. r. Letter P. 205. at bottom r. There follows P. 211. l. antepen r. ceperat P. 219. l. 27. put the comma after which P. 237. l. 3. r. intrusam editus P. 239. l. 19. put after destructionem P. 242. l. 8. r. quisquam in P. 246. l. 16. r. provinciis Episcopos NB. Dr. Vargas's Letter beginning P. 90. should have been put in before P. 108. And the Bp of Oren's Letter at P. 234. should have been plac'd after P. 194. THE Council of TRENT Plainly discover'd Not to have been a Free Assembly Dr. Vargas's Letter of the 7th of October 1551 to the Bishop of Arras Most Illustrious and Reverend Lord I Write this knowing how desirous your Lordship is to be acquainted with all that is done here and that I may have the less to write hereafter Having receiv'd his Majesty's and your Lordship's Dispatches which coming thorough your Lordship's hands were as full and well order'd as we could have wished them I went immediately to speak with the Legate The Conclusion we came to and which was pass'd yesterday in the General Congregation for such I suppose it will be pronounced to have been at the Session was that the Article sub utraque with all its dependencies should be suspended until the second Session after this that is now to be celebrated the First being to be held after forty Days and the Second on the 25th of January neither was it an easie thing for to obtain those few Days It would ask much time to relate all that has pass'd in this Affair and the difficulties that were started about it The Legate was like a distracted man and being transported beyond all the bounds of negotiating among other things he threatned to be gone immediately not being able to endure to see the Council thus affronted by having matters after they were handled and ready to be determined suspended thus He told us farther that this was done for no other end but to delay business for that otherwise the Council
him with this account I give of him that so he may be sensible how much I am his friend both in private and publick The Archbishop of Sazar takes a great deal of pains too and is a very good instrument in all disputes that happen betwixt the Embassadors and the Legate and Presidents and is besides very serviceable in the Synod at the Deputations for which reason it but just that your Lordship should shew him favour and do him all the good Offices you are able Don Francisco has I believe writ particularly concerning this and if your Lordship has with my Letters received the Sermon it is in sending it that I have done him the greatest service I kiss your Lordship's hands a thousand times for the favours and kindnesses you are always doing me in return for which I can only repeat what I have often said That I desire to live only to serve your Lordship and to pay part of what I owe you May our Lord preserve and prosper your most Illustrious Person and State for many years as I desire I do kiss your Lordship's Hands Doctor Vargas From Trent the 12th of October 1551. P. S. About twelve days ago the Bishop of Jacomelo came hither as the Pope's Commissary If he were one that had any shame in him the unworthy trick he served me both here and at Bononia to ingratiate himself with Pope Paul would have hindred him from ever having shewed his face any more in this place The Pope had need watch him narrowly he having since he came hither in order to gratifie the Emperor and to curry favour with me expressed himself much dissatisfy'd with him Of which I take no notice that I may make him sensible of my Resentment for till your Lordship wrote to me the other day concerning him I had never troubled my self with him nevertheless he has a great many Eyes upon him and God be praised for it that so great a Mischief did not succeed Dr. Vargas's Letter of the 13th of October 1551 to the Bishop of Arras Most Illustrious and Reverend Lord DON Francisco having given his Majesty and your Lordship a full account of all that passed in the Session I shall only tell you that it was very solemn and that we have been at more pains than can be imagined to bring it about Don Francisco managed all things with his customary prudence and dexterity which considering the difficulties of the Legate's creating he is to encounter withall had need be more than ordinary I can easily perceive that they understand here what part I have had therein however I did nothing but what was my Duty in making the Relation The Archbishop of Sazar made a very good Speech and much to the satisfaction of all good People he does us great Service here and is excellently well qualify'd for such affairs besides he helps Don Francisco to Intelligence in all his Negotiations It is but just therefore that your Lordship should favour him in doing him some good Office which will be taken well by every body If I can I will send your Lordship a Copy of the Acts notwithstanding Don Francisco who does not use to neglect such things cannot have forgot to do it May our Lord protect and prosper your Lordship's most Illustrious and Reverend Person and State for many years as I desire I kiss your Lordship's Hands Doctor Vargas From Trent the 13th of October 1551. In a Note inclosed in this he writes Your Lordship will receive another Letter that is something fresher than this which for a certain Reason I would not send by the Dispatch Dr. Vargas's Letter of the 28th of October 1551 to the Bishop of Arras Most Illustrious and Reverend Lord THough I am sensible how much your Lordship is employ'd in perusing the Dispatches of this Session and of your business being much increased by the late Change that has been made in the Court nevertheless since it will not be long before we have another Session it is necessary that any thing that his Majesty would have done therein should be prepared They are at present employ'd here in hearing the Divines every morning and evening upon the matters of Penance and Extream Unction They are a great many and several of them very Eminent but chiefly those who were sent from all Parts by his Majesty who in the Disputations have shewed themselves to be great Men. I was over-joy'd at Dr. Malvenda's acquitting himself so well who discoursed both learnedly and elegantly and to the great satisfaction of all that heard him They of Lovain appear to be great Scholars and for the Dean he is certainly a wonderfull Man being as Reverend for his Learning as he is for his Person who as he is the Father of all the rest so the Greatness of his Worth is so conspicuous that his Majesty cannot do less than order him to have the first place next after the Pope's Divines allotting the second place to Dr. Malvenda and for the rest the ranking of them may be left to Don Francisco They have all satisfy'd the World of his Majesty's having made a judicious Choice in sending such Persons And for Friar Melchior Canus he is a Person of so great Learning Piety and Prudence that should the Protestants come hither as it is said they intend they will meet with that in him that will satisfie them The Cardinal of Trent is informed by a Letter he has received from Duke Maurice that there are forty Horse-men on their way hither among whom are eight Divines and two Lawyers besides two from the Duke of Wirtemberg and that they may be here in five or six Days this News does not a little alarm some that are here and if it is true the Protestants must not it seems much regard the defects that are in the safe Conduct I pray God it may be so though for my own part for the Reasons I have formerly given your Lordship I shall never believe they will come before I see them here When I left Castile the Council thereof put a Memorial into my hands containing several things they desired to have redressed which together with one of my own drawing up I sent to his Majesty at my first coming to this place Since which time I have never spoke of it waiting still to see how things would go and what would be done to satisfie the Bishops in the first Session as also to know his Majesty's pleasure concerning it Let me therefore intreat your Lordship to put his Majesty in mind of it and to acquaint me with what he would have done that is whether he would have us speak and to what and when or how or if he would have us continue silent I can assure your Lordship the Legate has declared That nothing more shall be done relating to a Reformation after the next Session all the time that remains being to be employ'd about Matters of Doctrine By this your Lordship may see how
and I suppose they are not of much greater force at Rome those People having shut their eyes with a resolution notwithstanding all things should go to wrack not to understand any thing that do's not suit with their interests So that by what I can perceive both God and his Majesty are like to be very much dishonoured by what will be done here and if things should go on thus and be brought to such an issue as the Pope and his Ministers aim at and give out the Church will be left in a much worse condition than she was in before It will therefore be expedient after this Session is over and matters are become more desperate if that is possible than they are at present to set about applying some remedies by taking some other methods I am sensible of the great pains your Lordship is at in doing all good Offices both at Rome and with the Nuncio in order to inform the Pope aright and to bring him to alter his measures I pray God he may be prevailed with to do it though for my own part I shall reckon it a Miracle if he is and shall thank God for it as such In the mean while I shall after your Lordship's Example comfort my self with the thoughts of what God oftentimes useth to do when things are reduced to such a desperate estate that no humane prudence is sufficient for them which we may the rather hope for in this case because God's Honour and the Reformation of the Church are immediately concerned in it But after all God only knows after what manner such a remedy will be apply'd and whether by such ways as we think it will and desire it should As to the Protestants coming hither I do not know what to say to it only if other methods are not taken here their coming will be to no purpose and they will return worse than they came and especially if they should be such persons as your Lordship is informed they are God may nevertheless notwithstanding all their Rebellions and Determinations bring them hither to enlighten both themselves and others as to their duties for which reason as there are several that do wish they were here so there are others who cannot endure to hear of their coming and much less to see it The two Protestants that are here already do pretend to have no other business but to provide Lodgings for the rest though I rather think they are sent before as Spies The Bohemians having taken the same course at the Council of Basil who after a great many Offers would not venture to come before they were advised by two they had sent before Rem agi serio nec subesse dolum The meaning of which may easily be understood It is reported that Melancthon and the rest of them appeared obstinate and resolute in their Errors at the Assembly of Wittemburg if that is true there is but little hopes of reducing them neither will I ever believe they will come before I see them here The Divines continued their Disputations till the last day of the last month and since the second Instant the Bishops have been Voting upon the Articles that have been proposed to them So that according to the course the Legate takes they will have done in five or six days and after that the time that remains will be spent in forming the Decrees which being done the Bishops will return to give their Votes to them and pass them into Doctrines Your Lordship may see by this how they intend to employ the time that is behind though nothing is more certain than that thorough the artifices and methods that are used to ingage people and thorough the Council's having no strength left it being totally deprived of its authority and freedom by the Legate who has taken it all entirely into his own hand if a Session were to last half a year it would be the same thing as it is now so that we shall have no cause to wonder at any thing that shall be done here but shall have great cause to be thankfull for what they shall leave undone Dr. Malvenda had been very ill of a Catarrh but is now pretty well again he has not deserved to be sick and is a person for whom I have a very great kindness I kiss your Lordship's hands a thousand times for what you have done in relation to my particular affairs and I do rely so much on your friendship that I take but little care of them my self I have not as yet been able to recover the Money which was assigned me at Naples towards the defraying of my Charges the Goods which used to be remitted to me having been hindred from coming by reason of the Ways being stopt by the War so that I am and have been much pinched with want I have writ to Secretary Vargas concerning it and that he would be pleased to send me such a Dispatch as that which was sent to Don Francisco de Toledo for the recovery of his eight thousand Ducats I must beg it of your Lordship to promote this as also to write to the Viceroy to remit that Money to me immediately which tho' a small thing for him to do would be of great importance to me considering how the Times are and the Charge I live at here The Lord prosper and preserve your most Illustrious and Reverend Person and State for many years as I desire I kiss your Lordship's Hands Doctor Vargas From Trent the 12th of November 1551. Dr. Vargas's Letter of the 26th of November 1551 to the Bishop of Arras Most Illustrious and most Reverend Lord I Have already writ to your Lordship at large as I do now again our affairs requiring I should do so His Majesty's Dispatches which were very proper and such as I wished them being arrived Don Francisco has been to speak with the Legate It would be a tedious business to Relate all that passed between them for which Reason and because Don Francisco himself must have writ an account of it I shall only tell you that the Legate behaved himself on this as he has done on all other occasions and as we expected of him Perfricuit nempe frontem insigniter Your Lordship may be satisfy'd that there are not words to Express the pride disrespect and shamelesness wherewith he proceeds in these affairs for being persuaded that we act timorously and that his Majesty will be cautious how he do's any thing that may Minister occasion to any alteration or that may disgust the Pope he says and do's things that astonish the World treating the Prelates that are here as so many Slaves protesting and swearing when he is displeased that he will be gone immediately by which means he carries whatever he has a mind to And as there is no likelihood of his ever changing his behaviour so the success and end of this Synod if God by a Miracle do's not prevent it will be such as I
which have been exhibited by them not being to be endured both for the said Reason as also on the account of some Clauses that are in them namely that where it is said In eo compareant deliberent concludant indictum hoc Concilium prout multis jam habitis imperii Comitiis decretum est libere legitime Christiane celebretur And where it is said Reformationes tam spiritualium quam secularium instituantur And where it is said at last Denique alia omnia faciant omittant quae nos ipsi facere ac omittere possemus debemus idque secundum instructionem quam à nobis praescriptam habent And where it is said Quodcunque autem Consiliarii nostri supradicti nostro nomine sic agere aut perficere juverint id firmum ratumque habebimus c. Now what I have to offer and did in effect say to Don Francisco and afterwards to the Legate concerning this Affair is That a matter of so great moment ought not to be precipitated without having first given an account thereof to his Majesty that so he may order it as he shall judge to be most convenient and shall signifie to us what the Duke and the others have promised in and out of the Diets and whether the Powers that are sent by them do agree with their Promises or whether they are obliged to send others and by an express Act to submit themselves to the Council Furthermore that his Majesty may see whether by what has been concluded in the Diets and promised by the Princes he can justifie his compelling them in due time to accept of the Council and of what shall be determined therein but so that That obligation may continue though he does not urge them to do it in this place Neither can it be truly said that their Powers and the Propositions which have been made by them are contrary to the Synod since in fact they do seem to approve of it and submit to it rather than impugne it notwithstanding their having put in some Clauses which may hereafter serve for Subterfuges It is furthermore to be considered That it is one thing to admit Catholicks who must come qualify'd as such and another to admit Hereticks to whom the Council and his Majesty have granted a safe Conduct Who coming staying and going back Hereticks may treat and speak their Minds freely as the Bohemians who returned home without coming to a conclusion did in the Council of Basil which afterwards sent Legates to treat with them So that such of the Protestants as have not either in or out of the Diets obliged themselves to submit to the Council cannot be directly or indirectly compelled to do it without violating the safe Conduct and the security that has been given for to say what they please concerning their Opinions and Errors without being punished for it For to tell them that they must first acknowledge the Council to be lawfull is in effect to bid them begone and to tell the rest that they are not to come hither Furthermore Though it is but just that all lawfull means should be used to bring them to submit themselves to the Council in all things nevertheless if they will not do it they cannot if not otherwise obliged be compelled to it Now they have a safe Conduct granted them but they ought rather as there is occasion and so far as it may be done without danger for to be caressed that so they may not with the suspicions they have already have matter given them for more so as to hinder them from coming hither to the ruining of a business about which so much pains has been taken But besides this there is another difficulty in this Affair which is how the Synod their Powers being such as they are shall receive the Wirtenbourg and other Envoys and whether they shall be allowed to sit The Legate and some others having declared resolutely That unless they do submit after the Example of the Envoys of Brandenbourg they shall have no Seats granted them because the Allowance thereof would be to incorporate them into the Synod On which occasion I told the Legate that such as were received on a safe Conduct had their Peculiarities and that he could not deny them a Seat where the granting thereof was not repugnant to the Authority of the Council and of the Acts thereof as it was not at the Disputations and at the Sessions to hear what was pronounced And whereas had the Duke come in Person they would not have suffered him for to have stood but would have assigned him a convenient Seat in the fore mentioned Places the Congregations of the Bishops being excepted that he ought therefore since the Duke is a Prince of the Empire to do the same to his Envoys since it might be done without any prejudice to the Synod or without incorporating them into it for that properly speaking the Body of the Synod consists only of the Prelates who are the Judges the Embassadors not being of its Body but are only joyned to it by way of Assistance and so do neither add to nor take from its Substance being there only to make it the more authoritative and solemn Telling him farther That he ought to do all that is in his power to win and not exasperate the Protestants Of all which I reckoned it to be proper to give an account to your Lordship that so we may have a Resolution come quickly concerning it May our Lord protect and prosper your most Illustrious and Reverend Person and State for many years as I do desire I do kiss your Lordship's Hands Doctor Vargas From Trent the 7th of December 1551. Dr. Vargas's Letter of the 18th of December 1551 to the Bishop of Arras Most Illustrious and Reverend Lord I Have received your Lordship 's of the 13th Instant I had so much longed for and do hope your Lordship will be pleased to let me have your Answer by his Majesty's next Dispatch Though as things go here at present I do not know how this Synod may end Don Francisco having writ concerning Mentz and Triers being resolved to leave us and upon what terms that affair stands I shall not trouble your Lordship with it at present but shall by the next Currier notwithstanding I do not see how I should be able to give so exact an account of things as Don Francisco write you my Thoughts of them telling you what I judge to be most convenient The Legate being much altered and the time not come as yet for Pighino to have a Cardinal's Hat they declare that there is nothing to be done but to suspend the Council having I do not know what other Imaginations in their heads This if I am not deceived being the opportunity they have waited for However I hope God will provide for us and his Majesty will not fail to do what is necessary and especially in not suffering the Electors to go or at
promoting whereof he is now returned hither again and who being a Spaniard and the Son of Spaniards who were Servants to his Majesty he cannot endure his present Bishoprick which is at the provision of the Pope and which I suppose he designs for just Reasons to resign he not being able while he holds it for to do much I do therefore most affectionately intreat your Lordship for to prevail with his Majesty to bestow one of the two Churches that are now vacant in the Kingdom upon him they are the Churches of Aguila and Cotron and are worth 700 Ducats a piece for besides that he deserves it and a great deal more it will be taken well by every body that his Majesty remembers him and so it will be a kindness to a great many and will much animate those that are here Were your Lordship but acquainted with this Bishop there would be no need of recommending him to you for he is certainly both one of the ablest and best men that I have met with Dr. Velasco is able to give you an Account of him and whatever he shall say of him will certainly be true so not doubting but that your Lordship will do this Favour to all and to me in particular I will say no more only that if we did any thing when we made the Protestation at Bononia and that I escaped with my Life it was owing under God to this Bishop In which Affair he pretended to nothing but to serve his Majesty for which reason after I had made the Protestation he came hither like an honest man as he was Our Lord preserve and prosper your Lordship's most Illustrious and Reverend Person and State for many Years as I desire I kiss your Lordship's Hands Doctor Vargas From Trent the 2d of January 1552. Dr. Vargas's Letter of the 9th of January 1552 to the Bishop of Arras Most Illustrious and Reverend Lord HIS Majesty's Dispatch came as full to the purpose as could be desired or might be expected coming through your Lordship's Hands in which I do receive a full Answer to all the Letters I have writ to your Lordship which having been many and some of them very long one so employ'd as your Lordship is and especially at this time could not have answered them particularly without giving himself too much trouble An Account of what has pass'd with the Legate and on what Terms things are here having been writ by Don Francisco I shall forbear writing thereof only as to the safe Conduct I have drawn it up as I think it should be having retained the substance of that of Basil as I have also a Memorial concerning the Provisions of the Crown about which the Legate has declared he will have a tug with us They were both delivered to the Legate by Don Francisco who is now solliciting them as he do's every thing wherein his Majesty is concerned The Legate so soon as he had them dispatched them to the Pope without whose Approbation as near as the Session is he will not determine what shall be done in them and especially being so well disposed as he is for the Reformation they contain To which I take him to be so averse that he will die sooner than agree to it Nevertheless he is at present in a great streight the sight of his Majesty's determination having filled him with fears the suspension he had set his heart on so much being thereby defeated the Synod being to go on besides things are not so altered in Germany as some people desired and the Electors are to remain here and the Protestants do intend to come to this place Which last is a thing the Pope and his Ministers are not able to dissemble their being displeased withall who though I cannot tell what they may do I am certain I have often writ it to your Lordship that they will never do any thing to any purpose if not soundly pressed and terrify'd into it I pray God that may be able to do it that we may have no more strugling with them As to the matter of Benefices with Cure Janus has writ that his Majesty so that they be but well ordered will be satisfy'd without having them declared to be Patrimonial and whereas the Legate gives out that his Majesty has some design therein it is certain he himself has one and that is very well accommodated to the doing of nothing to the purpose and who will reckon he has carried his Point if the drawing up of that affair be left to him for he will be sure to lodge the provision to them in the Pope and abounding with words and sophistry will open a brave field for the future Don Francisco must have writ at large concerning this matter all that I have to say thereon is what I have formerly writ to your Lordship which is that I am not nor will ever be for having matters of so great importance and whereon so much depends handled and established after such a manner which would have no other effect but to shut a door for ever against all future remedies Whereas it is much better for us to suffer our present Grievances to remain as they are and to wait for the Remedies which God at some time or other will help us to than by being discontented with them to shut a door against them by those insignificant things the Legate has in his thoughts which so far as I can perceive are contrary to the things his Majesty desires and as is plain from a Letter I have seen that was writ to Don Francisco to what it is said he told Janus Wherefore if your Lordship is not of another opinion the thing to be done in my mind is That his Majesty must insist on having Benefices declared to be Patrimonial without descending to any particulars which if it cannot be done in this Session the Legate must be spoke to to adjourn it to the next that we may have the more time to treat about it and may obtain more from the Pope than we can expect to have from the Legate It will likewise be necessary before we come to treat thereof again to consider well what course we are to take therein for notwithstanding the Prelates are all honest Men and of great Zeal nevertheless if we do not take care to prevent it we shall have the Legate satisfying them with things which many of them do not understand and others cannot fall into the account of in so short a time as the Legate will allow them who puts every thing off to the Vespers of the Session It is furthermore convenient that we should begin now to consider what will be fit to be done at the end of the Synod whenever it shall happen and to provide against Accidents and particularly concerning some things that relate to the Authority of the Council and his Majesty's Service About which as I shall not fail to employ my Thoughts so I shall at sometime
Now is it not a pleasant thing to have people at a time when they should be redressing and removing ancient Abuses labouring to establish such things as these and to bestow all upon the Pope As it is plain they are from the passage Cujus dispensatione c. in the Clause I send you with this Now what may truly and reasonably be allowed the Pope is That he is Prince and Vicar of the Catholick Church or the first Bishop to whom all others are subject and subordinate but not so but that other Priests and Bishops do derive their Right from God and not from the Pope who without a just Cause has no Power either to deprive them or to diminish any of their Rights every Bishop in his Cure having as much Power from Christ as is necessary to the discharge of his Office though with the fore-mentioned Subordination and Subjection this is the Doctrine of St. Austin Cyprian Chrysostom Gregory Bernard in a word it is agreeable to the consent and interpretations of the Church neither was the contrary ever asserted by any but Parasites who were the People that have started all such matters of Benefices and Jurisdictions For as Paternity is an Oeconomy belonging to a person which cannot be taken away without a just Cause though the subject thereof is in subjection to a Prince so a Prelate who is a Father and Pastor is not deprived of his proper Rights by being subject to the Pope So that to go about to establish an Hierarchy in the Church upon any other bottom than this is in effect to confound and destroy it and to subject it to more inconveniencies than can be imagined Nevertheless the Pope if he could carry this Point though all things else were ruined and whatever was done in the ancient Church condemned would find his own Account in it for after that there would be no possibility of ever having any thing redressed I was the first that discovered this Plot which I communicated to Don Francisco and others as was proper by which means it is now understood by every body to be both an impertinent and pernicious Clause which ought neither to be proposed nor so much as mentioned any more Nay some of the Deputies have been so eager to have it quite laid aside as to declare that they will not meddle with any business till that is done The Legate is at work with his tricks asking all people why they are for depriving the Pope of his Power behaving himself at such a rate that some of the principal Deputies are for going no more to the Congregations that is of the Deputations since they enjoy no liberty and are affronted when they are there and the Bishop of Cologne who is one of them has said That in case the Legate should carry those Points he will destroy the Papacy thereby and he certainly spoke true in that it would run a very great risk Now if these Contentions should be brought into the General Congregation and not be remedied we shall have business enough to employ our Thoughts about I was willing to give your Lordship an account of this as in duty bound as also to let you see how necessary the Suspension of the determination of those Doctrines is as well for the sake of the Protestants as that we may have more time for to take breath for the preventing of such Inconveniencies and to keep such great Disorders and Violences from being established to the hindring whereof the Congress of the Protestants will be of no small effect who when they come may perhaps agree to do what the Legate does not think of Our Lord remedy things for there is great need of it and protect and prosper your most Illustrious and Reverend Person and State for many years as I desire I do kiss your Lordship's Hands Doctor Vargas From Trent the 20th of January 1552. The Clause of the Doctrine in the Sacrament of Order Hanc autem unam Hierusalem de coelo descendentem merito appellari posse quod per antiquam Hierusalem veteris ecclesiae ordinatissimam politiam adumbratam ad coelestis Hierusalem formam exemplar exacta fuerit nam ut illa sub uno supremo Rectore varios diversos ministrandi continet ordines ita visibilis Christi ecclesia summum ipsius vicarium pro unico supremo capite in terris habet Cujus dispensatione sic reliquis omnibus membris officia distribuuntur ut suis quaeque in ordinibus stationibus collocata munera sua in totius ecclesiae utilitatem cum maxima pace unione exequantur To the purpose of the fore-mentioned the Congregation having desired the Opinion of one of the gravest and most learned among the Prelates viz. the Bishop of Guadix concerning these Doctrines He by a Note sent them it as followeth Hesterna nocte perlegi doctrinam nam semel antea legeram in qua licet multa bene dicantur habet tamen nonnulla falsa multa dubia scatet opinionibus ob idque censerem consultius fieri si dimittatur ne dubia obtrudantur pro certis a sancta Synodo But the Legate after he had read this urging him vehemently to declare his Mind more particularly he did not care to do it any otherwise than as it is in the following Note Non est quod mihi occurrat magis clarum particulare super doctrinas quam id quod dixi scilicet mihi non placere ob causas dictas quae sufficientes particulares satis videntur de quibus poterit sacra deputatio judicare tum etiam quia cum doctrina non sit necessaria ad Synodales determinationes vix concludi possit sine offendiculo opinionum quae à Catholicis tenentur ut jam experimento didicimus non possum non refutare doctrinam prolixam hujusmodi periculis expositam ne dicam obnoxiam I forgot to tell your Lordship that the Legate has on this occasion made 20 Deputies reckoning in himself and the two Presidents which is a thing that has made a great deal of sport His Intent therein is That having already given their Votes at the Deputation they should not Vote again in the General Congregations than which nothing can be more unreasonable for notwithstanding the Deputies may be good Men and may have given the Legate some trouble nevertheless there are some of that Number who had better be heard in the Congregations than in the Deputations which is a thing every body falls into the account of Vargas besides what he writ in his Letters to the Bishop of Arras against this pernicious Clause writ at the same time a short but learned Paper against it in Latine which is published in the Appendix and from its Original MSS. Dr. Vargas's Letter of the 28th of January 1552 to the Bishop of Arras Most Illustrious and Reverend Lord YOur Lordship will be acquainted by Don Francisco's Letter to his Majesty with my being
Legates for these being the first it is of a great moment that they should have no cause of complaint or discontent given them your Lordship may believe me the Legate is upon his Tricks starting difficulties in every thing and studying how to intimidate our Ministers to that Degree that they shall not have the Courage to propose any thing that is difficult to him of whom in the most easie and indifferent things they have reason to be jealous Don Francisco takes a very good way in my mind with the Envoys of Duke Maurice in respecting and caressing them as he does in which he is assisted by Cologue and Trent It is very necessary to use Artifice with them as well as with their Master when he comes for to put them into a good Temper and to oblige the Papalins to hear them and not to hunt after pretences to drive them away And so though as I have said I cannot treat with them I shall nevertheless do all I can and being once recovered shall not be wanting in doing my Duty The Theologues fall here like leaves but the Bishops hold out well it is certain that our Nation which is the greater part of this Junto do want a Physician of their own Countrey very much a great many of them having died for want of such a one Our Lord prosper your Lordships most Illustrious and Reverend Person I kiss your Lordships Hands P. de Malvenda From Trent the 16th of January 1552. Monsieur Gallo has acquainted me with your Lordships kindness to him both in words and otherwise which favour he placeth partly to my Account but I have told him that he must attribute it to his own worth and your Lordships disposition to such as he is Dr. Malvenda's Letter of the 27th of January 1552 to the Bishop of Arras Most Illustrious and Reverend Lord DON Francisco's Letter to His Majesty will acquaint your Lordship with the great struglings they have had here with the Legate before the Session was held as well about the Audience of the Envoys of the Dukes of Wittenburg and Maurice as about the safe Conduct and the Clauses thereof Ubi in singulis est multum diuque laboratum in which as indeed in all other Affairs the said Embassadour takes much pains having with a wonderfull dexterity carried a point in the business of the Marquiss of Brandenburg contrary to the good liking of several of the Fathers In all which encounters with the Legate the Senior Fiscal has still fallen upon wonderfull Expedients who being a Person of great Learning and withall much experienced in Affairs of this Nature has not been mistaken in one single point as I am able to witness for him who though still very weak have been present at all the Consultations of the said Embassadour and Fiscal Among the things proposed by the Envoys of Wittemburg there were several great points of Reformation and I am told and do see it that a great Number of the Prelates since they are not permitted to propose any thing of that Nature themselves are glad at their having been proposed by others which they hope may give occasion to the reforming of several Abuses in giving His Majesty a handle whereby he may urge his Holiness for to consent to it by telling him that since those Abuses and Points of Reformation have been now so publickly proposed to the Council that all Christendom must ring of them the Council cannot after that with a good Conscience or in Honour so far neglect its Duty as not to redress the most important of them and which are so gross Ut in oculos etiam puerorum incurrant His Majesty ought by no means to lose such an opportunity as this of pressing home those matters and the rather because he can lose nothing by doing it though he should have a deaf Ear turned to all his Remonstrances There is one thing I cannot forbear acquainting you withall which though it ought not to be spoke of here for fear of spoiling the Game we are now playing with the Protestants ought to be treated about with Duke Maurice when he comes It is that his Envoys and Lawyers who are here do not only propose their Doctrines and the Reasons they have for believing them but do likewise propose Laws which they would have observed in requiring the Council to pronounce it self superiour to the Pope and to declare all the Prelates thereof to be absolved from all the Oaths they have taken to him c. Now if when they proposed such things as these they had at the same time promised to submit in all points to the judgment and determination of the Council when possessed of such an Authority and Freedom their having done it might then have been tolerable and not altogether unreasonable whereas for them at the same time they propose such Laws to exempt themselves from the Jurisdiction of the Council by making the Scripture the sole Judge of all their Controversies appears to be both unjust and arrogant It being a bold thing in them in my opinion and an indication of their intending to propose nothing here but what has been said by their Writers that so having given their Masters some satisfaction by their having come to the Council they may return home with the same opinions they brought giving no other Power to the Council than that of speaking to their matters I thought it convenient to acquaint your Lordship with this that if you should think fit you might treat with Maurice and the other Protestants about it The Procuratour Gualby has writ to me to put your Lordship in mind of allowing something out of the vacant Benefices of Arragon for the maintenance of Students it is certainly a very good thing and ought to be looked after so that your Lordship will do a thing worthy of your self in promoting it The Bishop of Castellamar kisseth your Lordships hands and desireth me to let you know that it is my being here and the knowledge he has of your Lordships being oppressed with business that hinders him from writing to you I must tell your Lordship that he is one of the Prelates that handles the matters of Doctrine and the Controversies that are about them with great Learning and Accuracy and who has had a long banishment here I must therefore intreat your Lordship to lay the Merits of this Prelate before His Majesty and in case he can have neither the Bishoprick of the Canaries nor that which will be voided to fill it that he may be translated on the first occasion to some Church in Spain which being His Majesty's Chaplain with so great Merits and Services he very well deserves I cannot say I am well having bad Nights still by reason of a pain in my Kidneys and I am so much broken that I doubt I shall not recover my strength quickly Don Francisco has writ to His Majesty to acquaint him with the great want the Prelates that
discontented he has locked himself up and does not care that any body should see him I am apt to believe the jealousies he has conceived of the Affairs at Rome are the chief Cause of his Illness For I am told he has received advice of the Pope's making more use of some of the new Cardinals than he would have had him Which knowing the easiness of the Pope's temper has put him into a great fright I must intreat your Lordship again to dispatch the Fiscal with all possible expedition for the reasons I have formerly given as I do also that you would send Dr. Gregory Lopez to us quickly who is every day more and more wished for here by the Prelates who are in great want of him The Electour of Triers is extreamly earnest for a licence to go home and has desired one of His Majesty if he does not feign he is very much indisposed and who though he was never very eloquent is now less than ever he was being neither able to speak nor understand a word that is said to him May our Lord preserve and prosper your Lordship's most Illustrious Person and increase your State Your Lordship 's most obliged Servant Don Francisco de Toledo From Trent the 7th of February 1552. The Bishop of Oren's Letter of the 12th of October 1551 to the Bishop of Arras Most Illustrious and Reverend Lord YOur most Reverend Lordship has just cause to thank God for your having got so able a Minister to conduct and countenance the Affairs of this Holy Council which do now begin to have some life in them neither have we any reason to fear but that God who now begins to restore his Church to life again by the Ministry of our Lord the Emperour will restore His Majesty's Health that so he may be able to do things that will force his Enemies to confess that God is on his side The Session that was celebrated yesterday was so full of Grandure and Holiness as to give us fresh hopes of which since the Embassadours must have given an account I have nothing to say but only that God did certainly inspire His Majesty in commanding the Communion Sub utraque specie and of Infants to be suspended which being things whereon so much stress is laid in those Provinces it would have been a great Errour for to have determined them in the first Session without having heard the Protestants The Embassadours of the King of the Romans have given us a great deal of trouble in this matter by having affirmed that to be of Divine Right as your Lordship must have been informed nevertheless by their having since submitted themselves to the correction of the Council that danger is over The Messengers of the Marquiss of Brandenburg have given us great satisfaction whose Master by having submitted himself in earnest to all the determinations of the Council has given a good Example so that should the Count Palatine Maurice and Wittenburg but do the same when they come we should recover perfect hopes of remedy Every thing has been done in this Session that His Majesty had ordered and in my judgment as was most convenient only one thing excepted and against which I gave my Vote which was its being declared in the last Canon that Sacramental Confession is necessary to be made before the Celebration which though in it self very just and certain nevertheless since we are in the next Session to handle Sacramental Confession and to argue whether Vocal Confession is necessary and whether it is of Divine Right and who is the Minister thereof I say since all this is then to be treated of and determined I was against having had it declared in this Session that Confession was daily necessary and the rather because it has not as yet been declared to be so annually For though it is probable that they who are to argue it pro and con may make no difficulty in that point nevertheless I was for having every thing that related to Sacramental Confession determined in the next Session First as to all its Generals and afterwards as to all its particulars whereas the Protestants will now say that there is no room left for them to dispute about it since it is already declared in this to be necessary but since my Vote did not take effect I will believe that what has been done was best As to what concerns a Reformation His Majesty's Assistance will be found to be necessary to it who must set himself about it in earnest both with the Pope and the Fathers for if he does not we shall have our Wounds only skinned over but shall have the rotten Core left to the corrupting of all quickly again for my own part I cannot see nor perceive any thing that looks like warmth for a Reformation in the Presidents On the contrary they have told us plainly that we must accept of what they will be pleased to give us without offering to speak a word for any more this is enough to let your most Reverend Lordship see what is most convenient to be done for God's and His Majesty's Service and you are to know farther that the Prelates here are all very much troubled to see with how ill a Grace People that say any thing of a Reformation are heard The Answer to the King of France and the safe Conduct of the Protestants are conformable to what His Majesty had ordered and so shall every thing be to the Commands he shall send God preserve your Lordship's most Illustrious and Reverend Person and increase your State Most Illustrious and Reverend Lord Your Servant The Bishop of Oren. From Trent the 12th of October 1551. The Bishop of Oren's Letter of the 28th of November 1551 to the Bishop of Arras Most Illustrious and Reverend Lord IN your Illustrious Lordship's last Letter to me of the Ninth of November I received a signal Favour as I shall always do in knowing that I am capable of serving your Lordship It was a great Service of His Majesty the Embassadours acquainted us withall viz. His Majesty's having ordered that nothing be treated of that shall be to the prejudice of the Prelates by which means all the Discourse that was here about Benefices is turned to other matters which they call a Reformation as your Lordship will see by the Canons which are sent by the Embassadours of which we accepted because as your Illustrious Lordship had wisely advised it is necessary we should tread warily and at present accept of what they will give us But the mischief is that they are sensible of this our patience and so do discover little or no inclination for to do any thing that deserves the Name of a true Reformation notwithstanding as your Lordship well observes several things might be done that would be of great advantage to the People and would be no prejudice to His Holiness or to his Court May God remedy things under whom unless His Majesty and
not redressed This is a thing His Majesty ought to go about with that zeal and warmth wherewith it was handled in a Congregation of this Council and the rather because as the hopes we have given us that His Majesty will take care of such things are a great comfort to us so they have kept us from making that opposition that was necessary for People who are to give an account to God of what they shall do here I do not write to His Majesty concerning this because I do not care to be troublesome and do reckon it to be the same thing to acquaint your Lordship therewith I do beg it of your Lordship that you would make use of my service since there is nothing I am so ambitious of as of serving you in all things whose most Illustrious and Reverend Person may our Lord preserve and increase your State for his own holy Service and the good of the Church D. V. S. Your most assured Servant The Bishop of Astorga From Trent the 26th of November 1551. The Bishop of Pamplona's Letter of the 29th of January 1552 to the Bishop of Arras Most Illustrious and Reverend Lord AFter having writ the Letter that goes with this as they do both with the Senior Fiscal who I am certain will deliver them My being sensible how much you delight in being kind to your Servants has encouraged me to beg some farther Favours of you The case most Reverend Lord is in Spain they demand the Subsidy which the Pope granted to His Majesty on the fruits of the Churches for the Year 1549 only which ought accordingly to have been raised out of those fruits Now most Reverend Lord in the Year 1549 I neither was a Bishop nor dreamt of being one it being the 27th of June 1550 on which day my Church was proposed at Rome before I was a Bishop Now it appears to me to be a very hard thing that they should make me pay for that that I never injoyed and that he that received it who was Don Antonio de Fonseca my Predecessour should be excused and especially considering that he has still more from the Bishoprick than I have to this they answer that I must pay the Subsidy and afterwards come upon him for it Now what reason can there be for my paying what I do not owe and if I do pay it whereon shall I have to live It would certainly be much more just considering how the Bishoprick is loaded and my great Poverty to exempt me from that Subsidy there not being a Bishop in Spain that has so many reasons for to be exempted as I have I must therefore supplicate your Lordship to favour your Servants as you use to do when there is so much cause for it Another thing is His Majesty was pleased to let me keep the Pension of Carthagena but in consideration thereof commanded me to pay 400 Ducats to one Espinola of Genoua and whereas I paid the said Ducats in broad Money the Bishop of Carthagena will not pay me but in Ducats de Camara according to their antient Value notwithstanding by an Order that I saw His Majesty commanded him to pay Don Sancho de Castilla His Majesty's Chaplain in broad Money and I am told by Dr. Malvenda likewise that he is commanded by His Majesty to pay all that he is in Arrear since he had that Bishoprick in large Ducats I must therefore intreat your Lordship to procure such an Order for me which I shall esteem as a signal Favour May our Lord prosper your Lordship's most Illustrious and Reverend Person for many Years and increase your State as your Servants desire Most Illustrious Lord I kiss your Most Reverend Lordships Hands Your Servant The Bishop of Pamplona From Trent the 29th of January 1552. The Bishop of Pamplona's Letter of the 20th of February 1552 to the Bishop of Arras Most Illustrious and Reverend Lord I Have by divers Letters acquainted your Illustrious Lordship with what has passed concerning a Dignity called the Hospitalery in the Church of Pamplona which became void by the Death of the Licentiate Don Martin de Aguierre a professed Canon of the Order of St. Austin to which Dignity in conformity to the Statutes and Rights of the said Church I did by my Vicar on the 7th of December last collate Don Martin de Sant Ander a Man of a good Life and Learning and withall a Preacher I have likewise informed your Illustrious Lordship how great a prejudice it will be not only to the said Church but to the City and whole Kingdom if that Dignity should be given to any one that is not a Canon the deceased having founded a College for fourteen poor Students who are to have their Lodging Diet and Teaching gratis which was a very necessary Work there not being a Study in the whole Kingdom The Foundation of the Colledge was laid before I left Pamplona so that there wanted nothing but his Holiness and Majesty's consent to it Now the greatest part of this Endowment being raised out of the Revenues of the said Dignity should any one that is not a Canon be preferred to it the College will come to nothing Whereas if a Canon has it it will hold Farthermore all the Dignities of Pamplona being regular should this be given to one that is no Canon he will receive the profits without doing the Church any service since without being a Canon he cannot go into the Quire and so will be as a Woolf in eating the profits without serving God Now having received information that the said Dignity is exposed to Sale at Rome to see who will give most for it a very honourable Reformation for the Council we are in I could not both for His Majesty's Service and the discharge of my own Conscience forbear acquainting His Majesty therewith supplicating him to defend his own Patronage and not to suffer the said Church City and Kingdom to have such a wrong done them on which occasion and to kiss your Illustrious Lordship's Hands I have sent this by a Servant and with it a Memorial to his Majesty in which I give him a full Account of the case wherefore I must beseech your Lordship notwithstanding the Bishop may not deserve it to let the said Holy Church and Kingdom for to have your favour and that you would not deny it to them that so they may never forget your Illustrious Lordship in their Sacrifices and Prayers as their Benefactour which as your Lordship's Servant and Prelate of the said Church I do promise you they shall not But besides the Conclavist whom I mention in the Memorial I hear that Senior Balduino Monte his Holiness's Brother pretends to give that Dignity to I do not know whom Your Illustrious Lordship would do me a great favour if you would be pleased to write to him that the Church of Pamplona and the Ordinary thereof may not be wronged which kindness would be very much inhansed if
Servant The Bishop of Pamplona From Trent the 26th of February 1552. Mr. Lanssac the French Embassadour at the Council of Trent's Letter to the Queen Mother of France Madam FOR to tell you the truth I have not met here with the Execution of the good inclinations the Pope the last time I saw him assured me of who told me he would leave the handling and determining of all things intirely to the Disposition of the Council without interposing therein himself to which I found all quite contrary Nothing being handled or proposed here but at the pleasure of the Legates and who do nothing but what they are commanded to do from Rome and who when they have proposed any thing of the sixty Bishops that are here thirty being Spaniards and the rest Italians our small handfull who in my judgment are Men of great knowledge and zeal and well affected to a thorow Reformation if they offer any thing that the Legates do not like are interrupted and their opinions not followed every thing being carried by a Majority which the Spaniards and Italians are and that a great one most of which are either the Pope's Pensionaries or interested in some Office in the Court of Rome and who do for that reason knock all the good intentions of the rest on the head being resolved never to yield to a Reformation so that I have no hopes of seeing this Council produce the Fruits that I desire unless you should be pleased to send hither a considerable Number of our Prelates and unless the Embassadours of the Emperour and King of Spain and the other Princes do speak a little more briskly than they have done hitherto Your most humble Subject and Most obedient and Most obliged Servant Lanssac From Trent the 7th of June 1562. A Passage in a Letter of Mr. Lanssac bearing date the 19th of July 1562 to the French King WE have deferr'd the proposing of the Articles of Reformation we that are here being sensible that they will never grant any thing that is prejudicial to the Profit or Authority of the Court of Rome besides the Pope is so far Master of the Council by having the Major Vote at his Devotion thorough his Pensionaries that let the Emperour's Embassadours and we remonstrate never so much they will do nothing but what they please as Your Majesty will understand by the Canons we send you as well of Doctrine as Reformation which were published in the last Session being the 16th present Dr. Xaincte's Letter to Dr. d' Espence Mr. YOU were never so inspired as you were in not coming to this place where I am apt to think the base Courses that are taken here to obstruct a Reformation might have killed you The French do carry themselves more sincerely and vertuously than the rest who do for that reason laugh at them when they see them in trouble When we arrived here they were handling the Sacrament of Order on which occasion the Spaniards pressed hard to have had it declared that Bishops were instituted by Christ and were by Divine Right superiour to Presbyters in which the French joyned with them But the Italians in order to hinder the Establishment of that Doctrine crowded no fewer than twelve Titles for the Pope into one single Canon by which they pretend that he is the only Bishop instituted immediately by Christ and that all other Bishops have no Authority but what they derive from him there is not one here that does not wish himself in the Sorbon though it were with hazard of his Life It is not possible for me to relate minutely to you all the Acts that I have seen and have been informed of in this Council From Trent the 15th of June 1563. Justinianus a Noble Venetian in the fifteenth Book of his Venetian History speaking of this last Session of the Trent Council saith Religionis causa in Tridentino Concilio parum prosperos successus habebat ob dissentientes animos coecamque Praelatorum ambitionem solus autem Cardinalis Lotharingius vir pietatis studio dicendi arte clarus quae ad Dei honorem veram Ecclesiae reformationem essent suadebat cui plerique ex Concilii patribus humanarum potius rerum quam divinarum curam habentes refragabantur variisque opinionibus sancta Synodo dissidente nil quod rectum sanctum piumque foret decerni potuit omniaque confusione coecitate plena erant tantaque praelatos ambitio coeperat ut nulla apud eos fidei Religionisque pro vera Ecclesiae reformatione ratio haberetur The following Letters though they have no Name to them being Copies and some of them no Date are plainly the Bishop of Arras's in answer to some of the foregoing Letters A Copy of a Letter of the Bishop of Arras to Dr. Vargas Magnificent Sir I Have perused your Letters of the 19th and 20th Instant and that of the 25th also with which I received a Copy of the Doctrines and of the safe Conduct and the Act of the Protestation made in the Congregation you always reason so prudently as to give us great light in what we are to do here wherein you do me a singular Favour for which as I have writ formerly I shall not fail to have a just consideration It is convenient that what you write hither should be so managed that it may not give offence to any it being a thing of great importance to His Majesty's Service that there should be a good correspondence and intire agreement among his Ministers at Trent We are waiting to see what the Embassadours will write concerning the said Session and till that is known I have nothing to add but that I am always ready to be imployed by you and to do whatsoever is convenient for such as you shall recommend for their labours in the Council who shall be acquainted with the good Accounts you give of them Our Lord preserve you Inspurg A Copy of a Letter of the Bishop of Arras to Dr. Vargas Magnificent Sir I Am informed by Don Francisco's Letters of the good Offices you do in all things relating both to publick and private Affairs The bearer hereof who is of the Emperour's Council and was his last Embassadour in France goes to Trent on no other Errand as you will understand by him but only to speak to the Electours I shall not inlarge at present in answering your Letters since no body can tell as yet what will be done in that matter to which you desire to have an Answer and it is possible it may take another way I shall hereafter advise you particularly how it will be and will return Answers to all the points in the said Letters this dispatch being in such haste as not to allow me time to do it Our Lord preserve you Inspurg A Copy of a Letter of the Bishop of Arras to Dr. Vargas Magnificent Sir YOU reckon His Majesty's having been satisfied with what you offered is a full Answer to all
great risk we shall not be able to procure it The business of the Communion Sub utraque might very well have been remedied without having made such a Noise about it or without our having writ concerning it from hence for we do not know what to write untill we have received advice of things from you and the Legate if he had pleased might have remembred that His Majesty when the Council sat formerly at Trent writ that the matters that are chiefly controverted might not be handled till a convenient time and that his Holiness writ likewise to his Legates to follow His Majesty's directions as to things of that Nature For as you know very well Papers which must be read by His Majesty before they are dispatched cannot be expedited as they might be otherwise and so the Answers to the Embassadour's Letters though they have been writ some days ago yet by reason of His Majesty 's not having as yet seen them they cannot go by this occasion but I shall take care to send them as soon as it is possible It would have had much more Authority if the Fathers had first delivered their Minds concerning matters and the decrees having been formed thereupon had been returned to them again to be voted by them than the taking the second Course you instance in but it being now too late to procure that there is no mention of it in His Majesty's Letters It would likewise considering the Necessities of the Times have been most convenient not to have had the Decrees published till the End of the Council but the contrary Custom being now introduced by their having done otherwise in the former Sessions it will be to no purpose to urge what is proposed by Cologne notwithstanding it was the Practise of all the Ancient Councils for we must be content to take things in the State they are in and make the best we can of them I was glad to hear from the Fiscal Vargas of your having signalized your self so much by the Oration you made The Divine who would have taken place of the Dean might very well have excused giving People occasion to talk of him Don Francisco has writ concerning it and has excepted you by Name His Majesty nor none else having ever imagined that such a pretence could have been started by any body it being most certain that they are all His Majesty's Embassadours as well those of Flanders as those of Spain being all equally the Servants of the same Master and sent on the same Errand I am not unmindfull of your particular business having spoke several times both to Erastus and Secretary Vargas about it so that if you have not had a return you will have one by the first opportunity I have told them often that if those returns were made by the ordinary ways His Majesty whose ceremonies and opinions you are no stranger to would be best pleased with them I cannot forbear shewing great respect to Dr. Velasco as well upon his own Account as upon your Commendation of him I have received the Book of the Decrees which have been passed in this Council for which I kiss your Hands those of the last Session were sent me by Don Francisco of which to speak the truth I have the same opinion that you have it being impossible as they precipitate matters to have them discussed in so short a time as they ought to be If there were any perswading of them to take the most convenient Courses there are several Articles ought to be deferred till the Protestants come We shall see whether what His Majesty writes concerning such matters will be able to remedy things a little for the future The safe Conduct is very defective to the purposes of bringing the Protestants to Trent and of keeping them there Our Lord preserve you From Inspurg the 9th of November 1551. We know not what to advise in case the French should return to the next Session as I suppose they will if not hindred by Varillas's departure to whom if they should say any thing an Answer may be deferred as it was before till the next Session as to an appeal I do not see any ground they can have for it since no Decree has been made to provoke them to it but only an Answer returned to them but in case they should appeal à futuro gravamine they may as I have said be answered afterwards this is all the advice we can give from hence untill we see what they have said and in what form this being a matter that will require to be considered thoroughly as to every word of it A Copy of a Letter of the Bishop of Arras in answer to a Letter of the Bishop of Oren's of the 20th of January 1552. Most Reverend Lord I Have received two Letters from your Lordship the first whereof is full of Complaints upon what His Majesty had writ to your Lordship and the second is a retractation of the suspicion you had of the Embassadour Now as there is nothing that troubles your Lordship that does not give me pain so I do assure you His Majesty's Letter to you gave me a great deal I do not say this to excuse my self who being His Majesty's Minister am bound to obey him and especially when after having endeavoured to satisfie him he commands me absolutely to do it after which I did not think fit to make any farther reply knowing certainly that if I had done it I should have made the business worse His Majesty being in so great a passion at that time that a reply would have served only to have increased his Choler The original of all this was His Majesty's having been informed that there were three of the Prelates absent from Trent at once the Bishop of Segovia having absented himself without leave and the Bishop of Placentia being gone to Venice only for Pastime Now His Majesty being zealous in all the concerns of Religion and being extreamly desirous of reaping some fruit of this Council which though it may not be so much as is necessary yet that it may be as much as can be had and that on his part and theirs who are employed by him nothing should be wanting that is necessary towards the procuring of a Reformation he commanded those Letters to be writ by the dispatch that went to the Embassadour who I do assure your Lordship never writ one word concerning that Affair to His Majesty neither am I able to tell by what way he was informed of it there being a great many People who speak to him of things upon such slight Grounds that one would wonder they are not ashamed to do it Your Lordship's Letter being come to hand I took care to communicate so much of it as was convenient to His Majesty saying several things besides of which your Servant can give you an account The Lady Dona Maria de Lara had spoke to me about it as she has likewise very well as she
can do in all things to His Majesty neither was Secretary Vargas wanting in doing your Lordship good Offices therein so that His Majesty is now satisfied who said the foundation of his anger having been the Prelates going from Trent without his Embassadour's leave since you were not concerned in that he had nothing more to say only that he will not have you nor none of the Prelates that are at Trent on his account to absent themselves from so good a Work for one Moment It amazeth me that the Embassadour who is so civil and well bred a Person in all things should be rude to you and the rest of the Prelates I can only say that upon my own account I cannot allow a certain carelessness in Behaviour to be reckoned a great fault in Men of business I my self when my head is full of business being apt to commit such Errours and when he chooses to go on foot for exercise or some other conveniency the Bishops if they please may easily rid themselves of such of his Servants as have the impudence to go where they ought not As to business it is certain your Lordship handles it with a necessary Zeal and an earnest desire of doing God and His Majesty Service for which you cannot have a better Rule than to follow what the Embassadours shall tell you is His Majesty's Will who have instructions from hence as to all points At present I have nothing more to add only to tell you that your Lordship hereafter will not have any Cause given you to complain and that in me you will always find a most affectionate Servant and whom you may freely command as such With this I end beseeching our Lord to preserve your most Reverend Lordship From Inspurg the 1st of February 1552. A Copy of part of a Letter of the Bishop of Arras of the 9th of November 1551 to the Bishop of Oren. Most Illustrious and Reverend Lord WIth your Lordship's Letters of the 12th of the last Month and the 3d instant I received the customary Favour of being acquainted with your being in health of which now we are so near I hope I shall hear frequently to my great satisfaction As I am ambitious to serve His Majesty in any thing so I am chiefly in matters relating to the Council about which God is my witness I do all that I am able and as I rejoyce extreamly at any thing that is right being done therein so I am extreamly troubled when I see things done there on purpose to obstruct the Reformation of God's holy Religion I do all I am able to bring them to be favourable to the Germans that as your Lordship in your great prudence knows very well being a thing of great moment and about which I have taken more pains than can be imagined So that notwithstanding I see things done every day that do no ways please me I comfort my self with the thoughts of my having done all that I was able having been wanting neither for will nor pains We aim all at the same mark which is to have things remedied as is necessary to which Work there are great obstacles of which though we are very sensible we are forced for fear of bringing all to ruine to dissemble our knowledge of them I have seen your Lordship's Memorial and Don Francisco's also which he sent to His Majesty upon the informations he had received from the Prelates It is not His Majesty's intention that the Prelates should lose any thing they are in possession of that is not offensive or to the prejudice of the Church of God neither do I believe it is Don Francisco's but so it is that there are many things to be wished and it would be happy if they were granted which if his Holiness were pressed to do would make a breach that would be attended with greater inconveniencies than any thing that is done it is therefore necessary that all such matters be very tenderly handled since to speak to have all the Exactions and Abuses of the Court of Rome reformed does certainly knock that and all other business on the head at once We must therefore seek and that obliquely too to get some things removed which give great offence and are of advantage only to some particular Persons but are prejudicial to the publick even of Rome it self for should we do any thing otherwise than thus that is contrary to the Gusto of the Romans they will immediately upon it put a stop to all business I cannot at present enter upon particulars but shall only tell you that we have had several Conferences upon what Don Francisco has writ concerning those Affairs The following part is lost A Copy of a Letter of the Bishop of Arras to the Bishop of Oren. Most Illustrious and Reverend Lord REferring my self to the Answer that is returned by His Majesty to the dispatches from Trent relating to the last Session I will not inlarge at present in my Answer to your Lordship's Letter of the 25th of the last Month only that I have received your Paper concerning what passed betwixt the Legate and Verdun and some other matter relating to that contention We are not wanting to use all possible diligences as we have done hitherto that things may be prosecuted with you in such ways as are most convenient for the Service of God and the publick good of Christendom But your Lordship cannot but see that the iniquity of the times and the present Posture of Affairs are such as will not give way to our doing of what is convenient we must therefore be contented and tread with great Caution and Circumspection for fear of breaking all in pieces which would be yet worse than what they do Your Lordship's prudence must needs know this better than I who am here can tell you I shall not therefore trouble you with a longer Letter but do referr you to Erastus the bearer who is able to give you a particular Account of all that offers here I cannot omit assuring your Lordship that in me you have as good a Servant as you can desire and that I shall esteem your Commands to serve you signal Favours Our Lord preserve you A Copy of a Letter of the Bishop of Arras to the Bishop of Pamplona Most Reverend Lord I Have received your Lordship's Letters of the 20th and 26th of the last Month and that also you sent to me by your Servant which is all over very fine and I kiss your hands a thousand times for it your Lordship cannot but be sensible that you need not use any Complements with me but that you may freely employ me on all occasions there being nothing that can make me more your Servant than I am already As to the injury you write they are about to do you in the matter of Hospitalery of Pamplona I will take care that all possible diligences shall be used for to remedy it I have ordered a Letter to be writ
in His Majesty's Name to Don Diego de Mendoza his Embassadour at Rome in conformity to what you desired I do not use to write to Senior Balduino having no acquaintance with him but to make amends for that I will write my self to Don Diego who alone having His Majesty's commands for it can do as much as if we wrote to them all I have writ to the Legate by this dispatch as you desired me and shall write likewise to the French Licentiate as you command me and that after such a manner as shall oblige him to use all the diligences that are in his power and if there is any thing either in this or any other Affair I shall not fail to employ my self therein with an entire good Will as to the Subsidy I will write to the Bishop of Lugo as you have desired and will take care to have the Schedule relating to Carthagena dispatched as you have directed and in order thereunto have commanded a memorial to be presented some days ago to Secretary Erastus to whom if you your self writ concerning it it would not be amiss Our Lord preserve your Lordship Inspurg A Copy of a Letter of the Bishop of Arras to the Archbishop of Sazer Most Reverend Lord I Have nothing to return in answer to your Lordship's Letter of the 2d instant but to praise the Offices and Diligences your Lordship useth in the Affairs of this holy Council as comes certified from all hands May our Lord reward your Lordship according to your deserts and put it likewise into His Majesty's heart to remember those who have laboured hard and do still continue to labour as your Lordship does at so great a Charge and Incommodities both to their Persons and Estates I do assure you I am not wanting in representing all these things to His Majesty and particularly as to your Lordship's concerns as I shall not fail to do on this occasion wishing that His Majesty may shew you as much Favour as I desire my self I shall be always whenever you shall command me most ready to serve you with an intire Will Our Lord preserve you Inspurg A Copy of a Letter of the Bishop of Arras to Don Francisco de Toledo Illustrious Lord HAving writ to you the other day by the Person who is sent by His Majesty to speak to the Electours in answer to a Letter I was in your debt and not having since heard from you and dispatching this in great haste with the resolution His Majesty is come to concerning the Affairs at Trent as you will see by the dispatch and I have nothing more to say but to remit my self to that kissing your Hands a thousand times and praying to God to protect and increase your Illustrious Person and Family as I desire From Inspurg the 6th of March 1552. A Letter of the Bishop of Oren's of the 20th of January 1552 to the Bishop of Arras Most Illustrious and Reverend Lord BEfore I went to Mantua to kiss the most Serene King and Queen of Bohemia's Hands I writ to your most Reverend Lordship for leave to go which I desired likewise of the Legate and the Embassadour Don Francisco de Toledo To whom I declared that unless he would give me leave in His Majesty's Name that I would not stir out of the Gates of Trent who thereupon granted me leave before several Prelates and other Persons commending me for going to kiss their Highness's hands to whom besides their being His Majesty's Children I owed so much Service So that had I been going to serve the King of France I could not have made more Complements nor have begg'd leave more earnestly I returned to Trent again in Eight days and having accompanied their Highnesses to Bolson was commanded by the King to officiate to him at Christmass which I did and returned to Trent again before New-years-day to the first Congregation Neither was I ever absent from so much as one Congregation from the time the Council made me a Deputy at which I have several times assisted Eight hours together to serve God and His Majesty in recompence for all which trouble and for having served their Highnesses I have an angry Letter sent me by His Majesty on Account of that absence blaming me equally with the rest of the Prelates that have been absent Who ever he was that gave this information to His Majesty must have had a strong inclination for to have me condemned having forgot to tell that he gave me leave and that I went to serve His Majesty's Children and that I have never once been absent My Lord I know very well from whence all this comes and that it can be from none but the Embassadour who is jealous of my having advised His Majesty of what has been done here about Benefices and some other things notwithstanding I never wrote any thing to his prejudice neither indeed could I do it I am nevertheless sensible that let me do never so much Service His Majesty shall never hear of it whereas if I should commit any fault I must never be pardoned for it all this I suffer in prudence which without it I should not be able to endure I have supplicated His Majesty to order your most Reverend Lordship to command an information to be taken whether I did not publickly ask leave of the Embassadour to kiss the King and Queen of Bohemia's Hands and whether he did not grant it me and whether I have taken any pains here or done any service or whether I have been so much as once faulty of which when His Majesty shall come to be informed he will be sensible how ill a thing he did who said I have nothing else to write but that three of the Prelates are absent without telling how or for what and that on purpose to make His Majesty angry with me Besides I being so much your most Reverend Lordship's Servant have cause to complain of your Lordship likewise for your having consented to my having been thus affronted in the middle of a Council and that to me who deserved favours and thanks an angry Letter from His Majesty should be delivered instead of them for it would have been just to have known first what I had to say for my self I must desire your most Reverend Lordship to acquaint His Majesty with my being certain that Don Francisco de Toledo is none of my friend though for no other reason that I can think of but because he cannot endure that any Person besides himself should advise His Majesty of any thing I shall likewise esteem it a great Favour if your most Reverend Lordship would let me know how I must behave my self in the way we are treated by the Embassadour who whenever he pleaseth commands us to go to his House and to accompany him thither on foot On which occasions he walks before and the Prelates follow him in the Croud of his Pages and Servants and as it does not look very well
Number of Prelats at Basil to celebrate a General Council 2. That that City was infested with the Heresy of the Hussites 3. That the Princes in its Neighbourhood were in War one with another And lastly that the Greeks who at present seemed well disposed to submit themselves to him were rather for having the Council at Bononia than at Basil Julianus when he first received these Orders notwithstanding he knew the Pope's Reasons for dissolving the Council to be all false seemed inclinable to have obeyed them having forborn for some days after to act as President But having observed that the Princes and Prelats that were at Basil were all resolved notwithstanding the Pope should pretend to dissolve it to go on with the Council and that the Cardinals who were fled thither from Rome would all join with them therein he did not only resume his Presidentship again but was so far from executing the Pope's Orders that he seem'd to go intirely into the Interests of the Council against him and having accordingly summoned all the Embassadors Cardinals and Prelats that were at Basil to assemble on the 7th of December in St. Leonard's Church it was there agreed that the first Session of the Synod should be celebrated in the Cathedral Church on the 14th day of the Month current of which having ordered an Instrument to be drawn up they commanded it to be affixed to the Gates of all the Churches in the City The day of the Session being come and all the Cardinals Embassadors and Prelats being assembled in the Cathedral Julianus after Mass made a long and learned Speech to them which being ended the Bishop of Coutances ascended the Pulpit and with an audible Voice read the Decree of the Council of Constance concerning the frequent Celebration of Councils as also the Instrument of the Nomination of the City of Basil together with Pope Martin and Pope Eugenius's Letters of Convocation after that they made several Orders about freedom of Speech and against such as should hinder any Persons from coming to Basil ordering likewise that the Prelats who assisted at the Council should enjoy the full Profits of their Benefices and naming the Notaries and other Officers of the Synod Eugenius who could not brook to have his Authority thus affronted thunders out from Rome a Bull of Dissolution of the Council in which besides his former fantastical Reasons he added that of the Synod's having invited the Hussites who were declared Hereticks to come and treat with them He also called a Synod at the same time to meet at the end of 18 Months at Bononia and another ten Years after that was dissolved at Avignon being content it seems to supererogate in giving the Church two Councils at the distance of some time and which were to be celebrated in Cities under his temporal Jurisdiction for one that was in being and out of his Territories upon the Bottom of the Council of Constance whose Establishment he reckoned would be broke by his having called new Councils to meet as he had now done But Eugenius after he had given this bold Stroke fearing left Sigismund whom he knew to be a great Friend to Councils and who had his Embassadors at Basil might be displeased with him for what he had done writ Letters to him of the same Date with the Bull of Dissolution to satisfy him of the Necessity there was of calling a Council at Bononia for the Greeks who seemed to be disposed to submit themselves to the Roman Chair To which Banter for it was no better Sigismund returned a severe Answer bearing date the 9th of January telling Eugenius in plain Terms That the Reasons he had given for his having dissolved the Council of Basil were all fantastical it being a Jest to put off the doing of so necessary a Work as the Reformation of the Church upon a Surmise of the Greeks who had for some hundreds of Years been Schismaticks appearing to be inclinable to unite themselves to the Roman See desiring him also to consider what would in all probability be the Consequence of what he had done the Fathers at Basil being resolved notwithstanding his Dissolution to sit and act as a Council and in so doing would be protected by all or most of the Princes of Europe concluding his Letter with this vehement Exhortation We do most earnestly beseech and require your Holiness in our Lord Jesus Christ whose Business this is that considering how what you have done may tend to the Subversion of the Christian Religion you would immediately remedy it by writing to the President and Council that they may proceed in the Name of the Holy Ghost in which they were called to finish the Work they have in hand Neither was Sigismund mistaken in treating what Eugenius alledged concerning an Union with the Greeks as a thing given out only for a Colour Eugenius having after he had made this use of it slighted the Business of that Union when the Greek Emperor's Embassadors came from Constantinople on purpose to treat with him about it which he did to that degree after it had been so far advanced by his Predecessor as to put an end to it It is true that Treaty was afterwards revived by him and that with great Zeal but when we come to that we shall see what was the Reason of it Eugenius was writ to likewise by the Kings of England France c. who upon the Synod's Nuncios coming to their Courts had all declared themselves in its Favour to revoke his pretended Dissolution of it that so he might prevent a Schism And the French Clergy having been called by their King at Bourgis for their Opinion in this Matter did unanimously declare themselves on the side of the Council desiring his Majesty to espouse its Quarrel as the common Concern of the Universal Church The President Julianus writ likewise passionately to his Master to revoke his Bull that was so universally odious telling him in plain Terms that if he did not do it and that speedily too he would raise such a Schism in the Church as had never been seen in it before concluding his Letter to him thus I have called upon Men on this Occasion till I am hoarse I will therefore now call upon Christ and beg him to look with an Eye of Pity on his forsaken Church which he purchased with his own Blood The Synod likewise which was not willing if it could have helpt it to have broke with Eugenius dispatched Nuncios to him to intreat him to revoke the said Bull and to come to them in Person or by his Legats to assist at the Reformation of the Church To all which Remonstrances Eugenius turned a deaf Ear seeming resolved to venture all rather than suffer Councils to go on on the Foot of that of Constance which tho he never mentioned it was the true Ground of his Quarrel with the Basileans and they being sensible that it was so now that they had so
Si Pergama dextra c. And tho Embassadors and especially Spaniards are not very forward to extol the Abilities of the Ministers that are sent to assist them in their Business nevertheless we have Don Francisco de Toledo who was one of the Emperor's Embassadors at Trent at the time when these Letters were writ by Vargas giving the following Character of him to the Bishop of Arras in a Letter bearing date the 1st of December 1551. What your Lordship writes concerning your being satisfy'd with the Conduct of the Fiscal Vargas gives me great Content knowing him to be one of the most Learned and best qualified Persons of his Profession and withal very zealous for his Majesty's Service and much devoted to your Lordship your Lordship is therefore bound to favour him with his Majesty and to see that he be rewarded according to his Merits and Services which I shall take as a great Kindness he being a Person for whom I have a particular Affection being much beholden to him for the Assistance he has afforded me of which your Lordship takes notice In a word he is certainly such an Original as is not to be quoted again Father de Malvenda who was likewise one of the Emperor's Ministers at Trent at that time in a Letter to the Bishop of Arras which I here publish bearing date February 27 1552 saith In all our Encounters with the Legat the Senior Fiscal has still fallen upon wonderful Expedients who being a Person of great Learning and withal much experienced in Affairs of this nature has not as I am able to witness for him been mistaken in any one Point And in another of his Letters I publish likewise bearing date the 12th of October 1551 he tells the Bishop of Arras The Fiscal is certainly such a Person as you take him to be that is a Man of strong Sense and Judgment and very serviceable in giving such Directions as are necessary about the Council Now as Charles the 5th's Kindness for Vargas whom he knew to have writ so freely of the Corruptions and Abuses of the Church of Rome and of the Jugglings of the Popes and their Ministers is an Evidence of his having when he reigned been no great Bigot for Popery so we have reason to believe that after his Retirement when he came to make the study of Religion his whole Business he had his Mind so enlightned as to discover both the Errors and Corruptions of Popery and the Truth and Beauty of the Protestant Doctrines so far as to have died in the Faith of the latter of which considering among whom he died and how much all the Monks and Friars of Spain if it had been so would have been concerned to have suppressed it tho a direct and positive Proof is a thing not to be expected nevertheless not only his Chaplain and Preacher but he likewise who was his Confessor at his Death as also the Arch-Bishop of Toledo who assisted him in his last Minutes with Ghostly Counsel being all accused as they were of being Protestants is such an Evidence of that Prince's having been of the same Religion as an impartial Mind can hardly know how to resist For 1. As to his Chaplain and Preacher Augustin Cazal who was Canon of the Church of Salamanca and is acknowledged by his Enemies to have been one of the most Eloquent Preachers that ever Spain produc'd he was taken up by the Inquisition for being a Protestant in the Year 1558 and was with 13 more who died professing the Protestant Religion burnt publickly at Valladolid in the Year 1559. the unfortunate Prince Charles and his Aunt Dona Joanna who was Governess of Spain at that time being Spectators of that barbarous Execution 2. His Confessor Constantine Poncius who was Canon of Sevil and a Person of wonderful Piety and Learning was likewise taken up by the Inquisition for being a Protestant who dying in Prison the Inquisitors know best of what Death had his Bones and Effigies burnt publickly in the Market-place of Sevil in the Year 1560 as were also the Bones of the Learned Dr. Egidius Canon of Sevil who had been named by the Emperor to the Bishoprick of Fortosa who either died or was murdered in the same Prison eighteen being burnt alive at the same time for being Protestants on which occasion the Writer of the History of the Inquisition saith That had not that holy Tribunal taken care thus to put a stop to those Reformers the Protestant Religion had run through Spain like Wild-fire People of all Degrees and both Sexes being wonderfully disposed at that time to have embraced it Nay the Author of the Pontifical History who was present at some of those Martyrdoms and particularly at that of Herrezulo saith That had those Learned Men been let alone but three Months longer all Spain would have been put into a Flame by them Lastly Bartholomew de Caranza a Dominican Friar who had been Confessor to our Queen Mary and who upon her Recommendation was preferred to the Archbishoprick of Toledo having assisted Charles with his Ghostly Counsel in the last Minutes of his Life was not many Months after confined to his Palace by the Inquisition in the Village of Tordelaguna upon suspicion of his being a Protestant from which place after a Confinement of seven Years he was removed to Rome and committed to the Castle of St. Angelo where he remained a close Prisoner ten Years and was condemned at last as one suspected of Heresy This Arch-bishop was reckon'd one of the most learned Divines of his time and as such was sent by Charles the 5th to the Council of Trent where he both preached before that Synod and writ a Treatise of the Personal Residence of Bishops and Pastors he published likewise a Compendium of all the Councils and a large Catechism in Spanish which was printed in Flanders of which Archbishop and the three forementioned Martyrs I think one may truly say that they were Persons every way qualified to have reformed a corrupted Church after the best manner But that God after he had raised up such great Men to have done so excellent a Work should suffer a barbarous and inhuman Court thus to destroy both their Persons and all the Effects of their holy Labours is a Mystery of Providence whose Ways tho always righteous are many times great Depths To these Evidences of Charles the 5th's having died a Protestant I shall only add that his Grandson Charles Prince of Spain who had lived some time with him in his Monastery was afterwards imprisoned by his Father Philip and as was generally believed was put to death by him as a Favourer of Protestants and what Mezeray a Papist saith thereof in the Reign of Francis the Second is remarkable At Philip's Arrival in Spain he caused a great many to be burnt in his own Presence at Sevil and Valladolid of those they call Lutherans both Men and Women Gentlemen and Ecclesiasticks as likewise the
longer 112 Of his Letter of the 28th of February The Spanish Bishops begin to mutiny and send Deputies to the Embassador to complain of the Legat's not acquainting them with any Business and of the Council's enjoying no Liberty The Deputies are hindred by the Embassador and Vargas from going to the Legat for fear of raising a Storm who was himself at the bottom of this Mutiny The Pope is angry with Vargas for what he had said and done at Trent who values not his displeasure 117 Of his Letter of the last of February The Legat gets some of the Prelats over to his side and endeavours to dissolve the Council The Spanish Prelats continue their Juntos and are for a Reformation The Legat was never without Powers to suspend the Council The Pope and his Ministers are apprehensive the Spaniards will join with the Protestants to procure a Reformation Pag. 121 Directions concerning the Government of a Council and the Office of an Embassador The present Council differed from the Antient General Councils almost in every thing which were all called by the Emperors and enjoy'd an entire Liberty having all the Ecclesiastical Legislative Power lodged in them the Pope had only an honorary Presidency in them his Presence at them being not judged necessary The very Being of a General Council consists in enjoying an entire Liberty General Councils are upon expiring if not already expired No Footsteps of any of the Essentials of a General Council appeared in that of Trent especially not those of Liberty and Authority Nothing could be proposed in it but by the Legat nothing was done in it but what was ordered at Rome the Pope's Pensionaries themselves could not deny but the Council was in Bondage The Legat would have the Trent Synod governed after the Pattern of the Lateran under Leo the 10th and would not suffer it to have the Title of Ecclesiam Universalem repraesentans but instead thereof had added Proponentibus Legatis which was a new thing he added likewise to the Canons the words Salva semper in omnibus Sedis Apostolicae Autoritate The Legat out of an ill Design erects three Classes to meet in different Places at the same time and makes the Bishops vote so as is most for his Purpose He votes himself very irregularly he hectors and exposes the Bishops that vote not as he would have them Vargas wonders with what Face or Conscience the Legat could use the words Dicant Patres libere Matters of Doctrine were determined without a due discussion Diego de Mendoza the Emperor's Embassador upon the Doctrine of Justification having been published in a hurry desires the Legats to consult some of the most famous Vniversities about Doctrines before they determined them which the Legats would not consent to He also complained that the Council enjoy'd no Liberty and threatned the Legats with more German and Spanish Bishops The Legats after the Decrees concerning Original Sin had passed read the Pope's Brief to confirm them Nothing done in the Council but what was ordered at Rome The Legats having pump'd the Bishops dispatched their Pretensions to Rome They seek to confirm Abuses instead of reforming them The World would have reason to thank the Legats if they did not do all possible Mischief to the Church since they did what they would at Trent They were always sure of the major Vote by reason of their great number of Pensionaries All the Officers of the Council were the Pope's Creatures and had been named by him Vargas fears the Trent Council will instead of doing any Good do a great deal of Mischief and thinks it would be better to wait God's leisure for reforming the Church than to have a Council meet which as the Pope had ordered things were able to do nothing towards it The Trent Council had no effect but to mortify Roman Catholicks and to make sport for Protestants and to destroy the Authority of all future General Councils Julius's Design in sending but one Legat and two Presidents to Trent was to make his Authority the more Monarchical The Emperor is bound as the Protector of the Church to see that the Council enjoy an entire Liberty His Embassadors at the Council are to see that the Bishops do not vote rashly and that there be but one Classis The Embassadors must be present at all the Assemblies It is well if among a hundred Bishops there are twenty that understand any thing of Divinity The most famous Vniversities ought to be consulted about Doctrines that are to be determined Votes ought to be weighed rather than numbred The Embassadors must not suffer Doctrines which are praeter Fidem to be determined The Council being wholly at Rome and only the execution of it at Trent the Emperor's Embassadors at those two Places must hold a constant Correspondence Since the Pope's Legats have always a Brief in their Pockets to suspend or translate the Council whenever they shall judg it convenient the Embassadors ought likewise to have their Instructions what to do in such a case Pag. 127 149 Dr. Malvenda's Letters to the Bishop of Arras His Letter of the 12th of October 1551. The Legat precipitates Matters strangely he puts off the Discussion of the Doctrines to the last Day that there may be no time for treating about Reformation he is absolute in the Council Whatever the Pope would have done at Trent relating to Reformation must be signify'd to others besides the Legat It is convenient for the Honour of the Council that the Legat should not receive his Orders so publickly from Rome The Legat dreads the coming of the Protestants Pag. 157 His Letter of the 8th of November Some Account of the Bishops assembling c. 164 His Letter of the 22d of November He fears the Council will do more Harm than Good The Divines are not consulted Nothing of Majesty in the Decrees of the Council A high Character of Vargas He is unwilling to believe that the Legat has Orders from Rome to do such shameful things 166 His Letter of the 19th of December The Electors of Triers and Mentz seem resolved to leave the Council 169 His Letter of the 16th of January 1552. The Envoys of Wittemburgh and Strasburgh ought to be gratified The Legat starts Difficulties in every thing Don Francisco commended for caressing the Envoys of Duke Maurice 170 His Letter of the 27th of January Several great Points of Reformation had been proposed by the Envoys of Wittemburgh The Bishops not being allowed to propose any thing of that nature desire to have leave to speak to all those Heads particularly The Legat had foisted Clauses into the Doctrine of Order which would make the Pope superior to a General Council Pag. 172 His Letter of the 26th of February The Dispatch that was brought by Vargas was extreamly well ordered The Legat will do all he can to defeat it He expects the Pope's Answer It is madness to think that there can be any Alteration
made at Trent in the Resolutions which come from Rome He wishes the Pope's Ministers a better Mind than they had hitherto discovered 178 Don Francisco de Toledo's Letter of the 1st of Decemb. 1551. to the Bishop of Arras The Legat puts off all Business to the Eve of the Session A high Character of the Fiscal Vargas The Divines speak according to their Seniority 180 His Letter of the 20th of December The Bishop of Arras is no stranger to the Legat's Methods The Electors are dissatisfied with themselves for having come to Trent and are in haste to leave it The Pope will not be sorry for their going home 183 His Letter of the 7th of February The Bishop of Vienna dies at Trent The Legat is much indisposed The Cause of his Illness was the News he had from Rome of the Pope's making use of some of the new Cardinals Pag. 184 The Bishop of Oren's Letters to the Bishop of Arras His Letter of the 12th of October 1551. The Embassadors of the King of the Romans voted that the People had a Divine Right to the Cup in the Sacrament No Zeal for a Reformation in the Pope's Ministers They had told the Prelats that they must be content with what they should be pleased to allow them and not ask for more Such as touch upon a Reformation are heard with a very ill Grace 186 His Letter of November 28. and Memorial The Matter of Benefices turn'd to a Reformation The Legat was for establishing Commendas he abuses the Bishop of Verdun for stiling the Reformation they were about a pretended one and will not suffer him to speak for himself The Elector of Cologn is much scandalized thereat He asks Oren thereupon whether he thought the Council enjoy'd any Freedom The same Elector complained afterwards of the Council's enjoying so little Liberty and of nothing being done towards a Reformation and of the Divines being so much slighted Oren fears there may be some Disturbance in the Council if the Legat does not change his Methods Nothing done for the Benefit of the People The Bishops will be blamed for not having reformed things and for having done nothing for the People tho it be none of their fault and will have reason to fear they may be stoned when they return home Pag. 189 191 His Letter of the 20th of January 1552. He justifies himself against his Majesty's Letter which blam'd him for his absence from the Council The Embassador charg'd with being the Cause of it whose Leave he had for being absent He complains of the Bishop of Arras for having consented to his being affronted The Embassador is uncivil to the Prelats 234 His Letter of the 24th of January The Embassadors of Maurice and Wittemburg proposed several good Heads of Reformation The Bishop of Oren is for answering particularly to them 195 The Archbishop of Sazer's Letter of the 2d of December 1551 to the Bishop of Arras He is willing to serve God and his Majesty in the Council but tho he takes a great deal of Pains is able to do nothing towards it 197 The Bishop of Astorga's Letter of the 26th of November 1551 to the Bishop of Arras A Session was held wherein several Decrees were passed against some new Errors Other Decrees relating to Reformation were pronounced Decrees against Heresies will signify little if the Abuses occasioning them be not redrest 198 The Bishop of Pamplona's Letters to the Bishop of Arras His Letter of the 29th of January 1552. He desires the Bishop of Arras's Favour to be exempted from the Subsidy granted by the Pope to the King of Spain and why Also concerning his paying 400 Ducats for keeping a Pension Pag. 200 His Letter of the 20th of February He writes about a Dignity in the Church of Pamplona that ought to be conferr'd only upon a Canon He is inform'd that it is to be sold at Rome to him that will give most but desires his Majesty and the Bishop to prevent it He desires to be made Captain of a Band of Pensioners in order to discharge the Subsidy He thanks him for several Favours 202 His Letter of the 27th of February He desires the Bishop to write on his behalf to the Legat to prevent his being wrong'd which in the time of a Council would be a Deformation rather than a Reformation The Pope has no right to dispose of Preferments in Navarre He desires the Bishop's Favour against the French Licentiate who abuses the Royal Authority Vargas brought word of his Majesty's being against proroguing the Council 206 Mr. Lanssac's Letter of the 7th of June 1562 to the Queen Mother The Pope promised to leave every thing to the Council but is not so good as his word nothing done in it but by his Order His Pensioners and Officers make a great Majority in the Council who are resolved never to yield to any Reformation The Articles of Reformation deferr'd and why Pag. 208 210 Dr. Xainctes's Letter of the 15th of June 1563 to Dr. D'Espence It is enough to kill an honest Man to see what Courses are taken in the Council to hinder a Reformation The French are laught at by the Pope's Creatures in the Council for their Sincerity The Spanish Prelats are zealous to have it declared that Bishops derive their Authority immediately from Christ The Papalins will not endure such a Declaration A Passage of Justinian with relation to the Council 210 The Bp of Arras's Letters to Dr. Vargas His first Letter He commends the Doctor 's prudent Conduct and thanks him for the Light he helps him to as to the Affairs of the Council He desires their Correspondence may be so managed as not to give Offence to the Embassadors p. 212 His Second Letter He magnifies the Doctor 's Abilities and Service and promiseth to return an Answer to all the Points mentioned in the Doctor 's Letters 213 His 3d Letter of the 19th of January He commends the Doctor 's great Vigilance he thanks him for the true and exact Information he gave him of Affairs and promiseth to serve him with the Emperor ibid. His 4th Letter of the 9th of Novemb. 1551. He excuses his not sending Answers sometimes The Legat huddles things strangely His Comfort when things go ill is that all is in the Hands of God He blames the Protestants He solicits the Pope's Nuncio and Legat to yield to some necessary things Their Correspondence is carried on privately He would have all Worthy Men considered for their Service 214 His 5th Letter of the 5th of March 1552. He despairs of the Protestants going to the Council The Papists being sensible that the Pope and his Ministers would never yield to any thing of a Reformation are as much as the Protestants for having the Council suspended It is to no purpose for the Emperor to embroil himself with the Pope by urging him to give way to a Reformation since no Fruit can be expected from such Endeavours The Pope if urged
their disputing here about things as if the Protestants were present demonstrate that this course ought to be taken for since most of the things have been determined by former Councils were it not on such an occasion as this it would not be lawful for Catholicks to dispute about them so that if this course is not take the Protestants will come hither to little purpose neither can they properly be said to come to a Council but to be brought before a Court. There is one thing that ought to be well consider'd of which is whether it will not be convenient when the Protestants are come not to have the Sessions so thick lest by determining of things wherein they are concerned they may be provok'd to remonstrate out of despair of not being able to do any thing And whether it will not therefore be the best way to hear both them and the Catholicks upon all the Points in Controversie between them and after that is done to have all determined in one Session as was done in the Council of Constance with the Heresies of Wickliff which course as it will make things seem to be maturely considered and digested before they are decreed so it will prevent such miscarriages as have been committed in some Matters Your Lordship may be pleased to consider what is fit to be done in this and all other Points for what-ever you shall judge to be most convenient will certainly be so I have not neglected to speak of this where-ever it was proper to do it and as I have met with several that do approve of it so it appears to me to be a very considerable thing and which may be of some advantage to us in order to defeat the Legate's Designs about the present Suspension which was the cause of my mentioning it at this time As to the French King's Protestation there will no Decree be pronounc'd upon it but the Answer they have sent to the Legate from Rome will be returned to it which I am told is very well framed and is agreeable enough to what his Majesty has writ concerning it being a mean betwixt pronouncing a Decree and being silent tho' in effect it is much the same with a Decree the Synods having thereon declared it self to be universal which to prevent provoking was in my Opinion convenient enough I am confident had we sollicited to have had a Decree that was substantial but not rigorous that we should never have been able to have obtain'd it nor to have settled the point with the Pope and his Ministers the Legate having been order'd some Days agoe not to give us any Answer about it and the Answer which is said to have been here four Days was yesterday read and approved of in the Congregation As to the Provisions they are here very busie about them I have formerly writ something concerning them and we shall now see quickly what will be done therein the Wheat is come already which has not been so dear here of late as it was last Year when I wrote to his Majesty and your Lordship about it That of the Guard is a good thing and Don Francisco will write how well it is taken here It was a good Bargain your Lordship made with the King of the Romans about Flesh it being in that and Bread they exact the most and whereof I was the most apprehensive Don Francisco takes care of this as he does of every thing else in which I give him all the assistance I am able which is something the greater by my being so much in my Lord Cardinal's favour I pray God it may succeed Your Lordship does by your daily Favours and Kindnesses and by the particular care you take of my Person and Advancement run me so deep into your debt that I can only say that I do kiss your Lordship's Hands a thousand times for it and do wish to live that I may by my Services discharge the Debt in part I am owing to your Lordship whose I am and will be all the days of my life so that your Lordship in taking care of my Concerns takes care of your own As to the success let God do what he shall judge to be most convenient and if I do not prosper let my own ill fortune or want of Merits and not your Lordship be blamed for it from whom I have already receiv'd that Kindness whose most Illustrious and Reverend Person and Estate may our Lord preserve and prosper for many Years as I desire I kiss your Lordship's Hands Doctor Vargas From Trent the 7th of October 1551. The following Paper is a Note writ with Vargas's own Hand but without his Name or any Date to it DON Francisco I believe must have writ concerning the Copy of a Letter wherewith the Legate endeavour'd with great secresie to have stopp'd his Mouth when he was urging him to give way to a Reformation in which Letter if it is true his Majesty did assure the Pope That nothing should be done in the Council but what he had a mind to have done in it and that he would oblige the Prelates to hold their Tongues and to let things pass without any opposition Don Francisco being astonished at this acquainted me therewith in great Anxiety I immediately told him that I questioned whether what the Legate had said was true or not but supposing it were it signify'd nothing since it was not to be literally understood as the Legate who made a great Secret of it pretended that Letter having been writ by his Majesty before the Pope had granted his Bull for the continuation of the Council when it was writ on purpose to bring the Pope for to grant it and instead of exasperating him to satisfie him with good words that he should run no risk thereby which his Majesty continues still to do the times being such as will not suffer him to act otherwise with him not that ever his Majesty intended thereby that the Pope should be suffered to do such things as would bring all to ruine but only to do such things as are reasonable in leaving as there should be occasion the Reformation of Matters to the Synod Now provided the Pope would do nothing but what is convenient notwithstanding he knows full-well how to do other sort of things and which are no ways profitable his Majesty might very safely offer and promise what he does in that Letter which is undoubtedly to be understood with that condition since neither could his Majesty have any other meaning therein nor could the Pope without forgetting himself desire any thing more of him What I then said I say now again and that without doubting of its truth in the least tho' at the same time I do heartily wish that the Pope may neither by this nor by any other way have any opportunity given him of taking more liberty in such matters than he already useth Quae proculdubio ad mentis aegrotationem animi morbum
5. They imagine that by delays and gaining of time they may compass their Ends and that the Council being once suspended some accident or other may intervene which may hinder it from ever meeting any more or that God as some wish may take away his Majesty which I trust in his Mercy he will not do his Life at this time being of so great importance to the Church and to all Christendom Lastly Because if they should put an End to the Council though they should be able to do it in a short time yet they cannot tell how it might succeed or whether the Pope might not be thereby hindred from doing what he judgeth to be most convenient for himself and his Court and if during that time there should happen to be a vacancy of the Holy See whether the Council might not intermeddle therein with more vigor and justice than it did the last time by reason of the doubts and differences which were then on foot Now they reckon they shall be freed from that danger by suspending the Council which will in effect be the same as to dissolve it and the Cardinals will for their own interests be sure to further a thing wherein if there should be a vacancy the Papacy is so much concerned For these and other Reasons it is that the Pope and his Ministers are so desirous of having the Council suspended nevertheless that they may not break with his Majesty nor seem to have done it themselves they do not desire to appear to have been the Authors of it and would have it thrown upon his Majesty being so far as I can perceive in great hopes that the Electors growing sick of the great charge they are at here will be for going home in a short time neither are the Legate and Presidents less desirous of having that done on account of their own private interests The Elector's design in this I mean those of Mentz and Triers For as for Cologne who is an extraordinary Person he referrs himself intirely to his Majesty is of another nature who being such great Princes and Prelates and Servants of his Majesty are willing to return home to look after their own particular Concerns the Rumours they hear of the Tumults in Germany making them judge it necessary that the Council should be suspended and the rather because without the concurrence of France they reckon a Council cannot be celebrated to any purpose or so as to be received by the Germans This makes them to be very earnest to be gone and it is probable they are at this very time solliciting to have leave What remains to be considered is Whether it will be as convenient for his Majesty as for the Pope to have the Council suspended considering the present posture of Affairs and the Rumours of Germany It appearing to be to little purpose to hold a Council for that Province which will never make such a Reformation as is necessary and that too without the concurrence of France Moreover it cannot be for his Majesty's honour that a Council should end as this will in all probability and that in a short time I say this may make it appear to be the wiser course to have the Council put off to a better time than for to have his Majesty involve himself in new difficulties This and divers other things must be well understood by such as observe them with zeal and prudence and as are desirous to direct and serve his Majesty as to which I am sure I am not wanting Now this being supposed to be a business of great moment and that has considerable difficulties and inconveniencies on both sides that must make my judgment about it to be conditional and so far doubtfull as to reckon that That will be most expedient which his Majesty shall command and which shall seem to be so to your Lordship which what-ever it is I shall always approve and follow What I have to offer if no new Matters or Necessities do arise which may require the taking of new Measures in reference to the Affairs of Germany or if no other Methods should be found out or if there be no Secrets as there are commonly with Princes which may persuade the contrary I say what I have to offer under all these Restrictions is That this is not a time to admit or so much as to speak of a Suspension it being much more convenient notwithstanding all the difficulties and disturbances in Germany to have the Council prosecuted and since the Council cannot be suspended without going backward in the present state of affairs this seems to be the best decision of the doubt Since the suspension thereof if I am not deceived will be attended with inconveniencies that are greater beyond all comparison than the prosecution thereof will be notwithstanding it should make no such Reformation as is pretended and is necessary our sins and the iniquity of the times not giving way to it In which case I still speak so as upon no terms whatsoever to give way to the Pope and his Ministers deforming under a pretence of reforming for to canonize Abuses and doing all the mischiefs I have formerly taken notice of at large to your Lordship in none of which from the beginning I have been overseen or deceived And as I have always as your Lordship very well knows urged these matters so I do it still with greater instance Now the thing that is chiefly to be attended to herein is the End of this Suspension both at present and for the future the End as the Philosopher has it being what moves the Agent To this we must apply what has been above noted viz. That as it is for the Service of God that the Council instead of doing good should not be suffered to do mischief So it is likewise for his Majesty's honour that it should not end as we have reason to fear it will which may make it seem advisable to give way to its being suspended or put off to a more convenient time This is really such a difficulty that I do not well know what to say to it only that it would have been a happy thing that this Council had never met which is no more than what I have often wished and declared by reason of the many mischiefs it has already done and is still doing But there is no undoing what is once done unless those people could be brought to recant which they will never be brought to though you should cut their Throats for refusing and as it is to no purpose to think of that so it is to as little purpose either in this or any following Age to hope for any thing of a Reformation from a General Council or for to see any better Order therein than there is in this no not though the French and all other Christian Princes were agreed it not being to be done without making a Schism or some great Breach unless God should be
his Majesty order the Session to be celebrated at the time appointed and the Protestants who were to follow the Embassadors of Maurice should not be arrived in that case they will not fail to put his Majesty in the wrong Being sensible that this is their Plot I acquainted Don Francisco with it as I did also with my Opinion about it which is That his Majesty should do neither the one nor the other but should leave it to the Protestants who have not as yet desired any thing of the Council to Petition for it And as it would be a happy thing if the Legate would but give them the hearing in such a case so if they are to do it it is necessary that his Majesty should speedily acquaint us with what he would have done in this affair as also in the business of the Elector of Brandenbourg whose Envoys as Don Francisco must have writ do begin to talk of returning home which they will certainly do if their business is delayed much longer As to the Seal which the Legate denies to give to the Synod as it is a prodigious thing so I think it is absolutely necessary to have it remedied for besides that the Protestants will undoubtedly lay hold thereof it is in it self so great nonsense for it deserves no better title as ought not to be endured As to the affair of Benefices Don Francisco has with much ado prevailed with the Legate not to propose what he intended at the next Session This is a thing that gives me no small trouble for I do see plainly that the Legate is taking that course to compass it I formerly hinted to your Lordship But the thing of all others that gives me the most trouble is the Legate's pretending that he is informed by Janus that his Majesty is contented to have the Affair setled as the Legate would have it notwithstanding the contrary plainly appears from his Majesty's last Dispatch about which I had taken so much pains his Majesty having therein by no means allowed that the Provisions to Benefices with Cure should be lodged in the Pope His Majesty's meaning in those words That they shall consider treat of and conclude some way c. and that they shall be given to such as are worthy being that it shall be done by some way if it is possible that is equivalent to their being made Patrimonial by a mature Consideration and Discussion of the Matter Now in case they were to be lodged wholly in the Pope and the Settlement thereof were to be worded according to the Legate's interpretation of Janus's Letter there would then be no need of treating or concluding any thing about it which his Majesty has ordered to be done for it would certainly be both the most senseless and prejudicial thing that ever was passed as I have formerly declared having opposed the Legate in what he would have done therein having likewise writ my Thoughts thereof to your Lordship his Majesty having commanded me to do so when there should be occasion Finally This Point we are on at present is the most substantial and dangerous thing that can be as to the coming and departing of Protestants as to the doing of any thing here to the purpose and as to his Majesty's compassing his Ends and reaping some fruit of his great Labours and as to the ruining and disgracing of all But let things go as they will I shall have this comfort That his Majesty if they do not go well will be no ways accessary to it and that it will be manifest to God and the whole World that it was the Pope and his Ministers having endeavoured to engross all to themselves without having any regard to the remedying of what is amiss that has been the Cause of it which Remedy may God himself give to his Church and preserve and prosper your most Illustrious and Reverend Person and State for many years as I desire I kiss your Lordship's Hands Doctor Vargas From Trent the 13th of January 1552. Dr. Vargas's Letter of the 25th of January 1552 to the Bishop of Arras Most Illustrious and Reverend Lord THE Session has been celebrated with the Suspension of the Doctrines but without doing any thing in the business of Reformation It being impossible to come to a conclusion with the Legate about any thing of that kind which considering how he manages and carries Matters here I do reckon to be no great damage The Legate has at last pronounced the safe Conduct and your Lordship will easily imagine what pains we have been at to bring him to it He pretended to add some Clauses and take away others which cost us a great deal of trouble Insomuch that we do reckon that we have done a mighty Business in having procured it in the form you see it in and in truth we were very near having come to a Rupture with him about it I pray God the Protestants may be satisfy'd with it since abating some things which were not convenient and others we were forced to qualifie because there was no possibility of persuading the Legate to yield to them particularly that concerning the free Exercise of their Rites which was by his Majesty's Order so qualify'd as only to amount to a Toleration so as not to be liable to be punished for any Excesses in the Matters of their Religion c. but without granting them an express License as the Council of Basil did to the Bohemians as also the manner how they were to handle their Controversies for there being no possibility of bringing the Legate to admit of that Clause of the Council of Basil we were out of pure necessity forced to let it pass as it is which I hope will give content it being said Et signanter quod causae controversae tractentur which as it implies as much as the Protestants desired so in having used only the word tractentur they will not be obliged thereby to submit to the Decrees of the Pope or to any such matters there did not want those who were very earnest to have had the word judicentur added which would have extreamly exasperated the Protestants because thereby the Council would have been made their Judges which was all that the Legate ever pretended to But this and several other such things were opposed by those of our Party Dr. Malvenda notwithstanding his indisposition behaving himself therein to admiration I say these Particulars abated this safe Conduct is the substance of all that they desired and the same with that of Basil After we had overcome these and several other Difficulties the Legate was for having the Clause that contained the Pope's promise for to run thus Pro sanctissimo Domino nostro about which after there had been a great deal of stir at last we agreed that neither the Pope nor his Majesty should be named in it but that it should run thus Pro principibus tam ecclesiasticis quam secularibus so that it was
according to custom to speak to him which he did a full account whereof your Lordship will meet with in their Letters The main of it was to undeceive the Legate as to the Suspension and to acquaint him with the Answer his Majesty would have given to the Protestants when they come and with the manner how he would have them proceed here at present in disputing concerning Matrimony without resolving and decreeing the Matters that are suspended both for fear of hindring the Protestants from coming and because it was so ordered at the last Session Your Lordship will easily imagine how the Legate resented this who going continually armed with artifices and the end he aims at would come to no conclusion pretending the time is too short to dispute about Matrimony and that without breaking Order the resolving and decreeing of what has been already handled and was suspended could be put off no longer telling us at last that he was content to wait a few days to see whether the Protestants would come or no which it is said he granted that he might have time to acquaint the Pope with that whole affair without whose Order he dares not do any thing But as to his Resolution there was no possibility of bringing him to change it nay we had much ado to keep him from concluding the suspended Matters immediately though we represented to him of how ill consequence it would be as to the Protestants coming hither and who whatever happened would take occasion from thence to excuse themselves if the first thing that was done after their Arrival was contrary to his Majesty's Order And as to the Clauses he has set his heart so much on we shall be sure to have trouble enough with him about them And whereas the thing the Legate aims at is to make this Affair subservient to his Pretensions or to some disturbance or other he told Don Francisco and me that these being Matters that were agreed on in December he must hold a Session and go on with them but in case the Protestants should come that he would then suspend every thing so that it was to no purpose to begin to dispute about Matrimony since they had not time to conclude any thing about it To which I returned him such an answer as I thought proper doing it with all the address and dexterity that I am master of With which though he seemed to be convinced he afterwards resolved to go on with what he had purposed Upon which I ply'd him very close representing to him the necessity there was of prosecuting the Council and in order thereunto to begin to dispute about Matrimony notwithstanding they should determine nothing therein not but that some Articles relating to it might be proposed and resolved leaving the rest to another Session This I would have had done that there might be nothing that looked like a Suspension to the defeating of the Legate who knows very well what he drives at he said if the Synod must do something he would have them enter immediately upon the Answer that is to be returned to the Protestants I told him I was not of his mind for that since the Protestants had not demanded an Answer there was no need of making so much haste with it telling him farther That if what was done did not appear to be what his Majesty had ordered it would serve only to provoke the Protestants and as to the course he was so much for if that were taken his Majesty would certainly be blamed for it This is the present posture of Affairs not but that the Legate notwithstanding he has his Instructions what he is to do is full of Fears and Suspicions imagining that we design to promote some things that are no ways agreeable to his Pretensions and who being armed to carry the said Clauses and against a Reformation is so far as I can judge desirous to have all things suspended in order to the having of but one Session more reckoning that by having all things decreed together he shall stave off a Reformation and promote a total Suspension which is the thing he chiefly aims at For the reason why he will not proceed at present though desired by every body is his being sensible that his Majesty is against a Suspension and would have the Synod prosecuted and what is reasonable done therein and whereas should the Protestants come hither the determination of all things would then be suspended for some time so that the next Session would be celebrated without doing any thing This though it would do well enough for the Protestants would not agree with what the Legate drives at My Opinion in this case is That since the Legate cannot be brought to do what we would have him that it would be the least inconvenient to suffer some days to pass over and not to begin as the Legate would have us and if it could be done it would be convenient that some time before the Session they should begin to dispute about Matrimony though they should determine nothing therein and in case the Protestants do come that a Session be held by all means which that it might have something to do nay employ it self about Canons of Reformation to the obtaining of which it will be necessary to ply the Pope close for if that is not done the Legate will jog on in the same beaten road he went in the last Session which will be a very sad thing and especially considering the report that is spread abroad here by the Legate and other Papal Ministers of the Italian Bishops whom they have entirely in their hands being resolved to depart Were we but certain that the Protestants would come we should easily surmount all our present difficulties your Lordship must judge what is fit to be done herein and let us have your Commands for whatever you shall order will be most convenient I have here met with a Report of the Pope's intending to translate the Council to Mantua and though I do not believe there is any ground for the Report I am apprehensive lest the Pope finding himself pressed hard by both Protestants and Catholicks may strike up a Peace with the French and I am very much mistaken if he and his Ministers are not at this time plotting some bold thing which nothing but Fear will keep them from executing For which reason it is convenient your Lordship should consult with his Majesty about an Order that so we may be provided for any thing that may happen May God direct all and preserve and prosper your most Illustrious Person and State for many years as I desire I kiss your Lordship's Hands Doctor Vargas From Trent the 26th of February 1552. P. S. I intreat your Lordship to let me know his Majesty's Thoughts of the discourse I had with him when he dispatched me and I kissed his Hands but though considering how he was prepared by what your Lordship had told him of
they be such as they are willing to have passed And as nothing can be more palpable than this so we are not to hope ever to see it remedy'd It being notorious that the Legate is so absolute in the Council that though the Pope himself should be brought to yield to the carrying of things otherwise than they are that he would oppose him in it knowing he would gratifie both his Master and the College therein Of which the difficulty he made in the suspending of the Article sub utraque was a clear instance having threatned on that occasion that he would be gone c. notwithstanding he was sensible at the same time how necessary it was to do it and had received the Pope's Order for it who as your Lordship writes appears willing to comply with his Majesty in such things In which if he is real it would be convenient that whatever the Pope is willing to have done here for the good of Christendom and the remedying of Germany may not be only signify'd to the Legate but that he be made to understand that his Majesty and his Embassadours here are acquainted with his Holiness having ordered it to be done that in case any such difficulties as the former should be started they may be known to be of the Legate's own creating who I suppose will then rather choose to yield than take the whole Odium of such things upon himself or this will at least make the redressing of such matters much easier than formerly they have been What I have to add is That though it is not fit that any thing should be done here without the Pope's being first acquainted therewith nor indeed without his consent it might nevertheless be expedient that the doing thereof should be managed with all possible secrecy in order to prevent the Lutherans if they should come to know of it reflecting upon the liberty of the Council and the freedom that the Prelates enjoy who might safely enjoy more without having any thing pass to the prejudice of his Holiness The Elector of Cologne is arrived here very seasonably who will be very usefull to us in the direction of Affairs I have already had some discourse with him and have acquainted him with the truth of the business relating to the Suspension of the Article sub utraque I have likewise in the Name of the Embassadour told the Elector of Mentz what his Majesty's mind is in relation to that matter and how necessary it is for the good of Germany and for the bringing of the Protestants hither beseeching him as a Prince of the Empire who very well understands its Wounds and desires its Cure to favour us therein at the Deputation he promised but with some difficulty to do so but has never spoke a word of it since having been frighted by the Legates threatning to be gone since the Council was robbed of its liberty by having Articles suspended after they had been handled Adding That if Matters were suspended upon his Majesty's writing to have it done that that would give some colour to what the French had said already of the Council and of its being assembled for no other purpose but to serve the Ends of some particular persons By such methods as these it is that the Legate who is a very subtil Man and much vers'd in business finding that Elector to be jealous and irresolute does so manage him as at least to make him hold his tongue But notwithstanding I did plainly perceive how it was with that Elector I did not let him know so much but on the contrary extolled his good Intentions and the Answers he gave me concerning the Progress of our Affairs and his Majesty's Service encouraging him all I could to promote and countenance them Though after all considering the Temper of the Man I do not think it will do much good upon him unless the Elector of Cologne who appears to be much more resolute and fix'd should be able to influence him I wish he may We took care to inform the Electors of Mentz and Triers of what his Majesty had wrote hither before the Arrival of Don Francisco concerning Parma and with all I knew relating to Piedmont and the taking of the Ships at Sea I did it so that they declared to me that they were of opinion that not only the Empire but all Christendom were so deeply concerned in the Evils which must attend a Breach with France at this time that they ought to lay all other business aside and apply themselves wholly to the procuring of a Peace with this domestick Enemy By this I plainly perceived how they stood affected which put me upon representing to them the French King's baseness in having broke his word by beginning a War contrary to his promise and in having called in the Turk and for endeavouring to hinder the Progress of the Council and that for no other reason but to prevent the Quiet of Germany that being the thing in the World that he dreads the most being sensible that a General Union of the German Princes must necessarily defeat all his ill designs no less than those of his Cousin the Turk this is the substance of what I told them at that time I do here send your Lordship all that is printed of the last Session what was done here yesterday your Lordship will be informed of by Don Francisco's Letters to his Majesty the sum whereof was the Decrees relating to Doctrines and Reformation the submission and reception of the Procurators of Brandenburg the safe Conduct and the Answer that was given to the French The safe Conduct I had never seen before I heard it read yesterday in the Pulpit and neither the Fiscal nor I for we were together were satisfy'd with it At night I was told by Don Francisco that the Legate had promised to grant such a safe Conduct as his Majesty should judge necessary which though it may not give content yet will make it better The Fiscal is certainly the person your Lordship takes him to be that is a very judicious and sensible Man and very serviceable in giving such directions as are necessary in a Council and he is withall much your Lordship's Servant The Answer that was given yesterday to the French so far as I could understand it by hearing it once read was satisfactory it was at least good Latine and withall gentle and paternal and for this last reason very fit and proper for a Council I cannot omit putting your Lordship in mind that when his Majesty desires that any thing should be delay'd here it will be necessary to give us timely advice thereof to prevent the difficulties which may otherwise be raised by the Legate who ought likewise to be acquainted with his Majesty having ordered some things which have been handled and treated on for to be altered This if it is possible ought to be done effectually I have been told by the Elector of Cologne who I suppose
His Majesty would write likewise to the said Baldwin about it and would charge his Embassadour Don Diego de Mendoza to look after it I beseech your Lordship to have compassion on the Bishop who is your Lordship's and that holy Church City and Kingdom 's Creature I had writ thus far when your Lordship's Letter of the 17th instant came to my Hand by the way of Dr. Malvenda with which I received a signal Favour and which is greater than I am able to express in understanding thereby how well disposed your most Reverend Lordship is to do me any kindness May God give me strength to be able to serve your Lordship as much as I am bound and am willing to serve you As to the Letters to which your Lordship has received no Answer to that which was of greatest importance I returned an Answer by the way of Dr. Malvenda and to the first by the Bishop of Oviedo and it goes to my very Soul that your Lordship did not receive them As to the Dignity having as your Lordship will see writ concerning it before I received your Lordship's Letter I have nothing to add but only to supplicate your Lordship again to do me the Favour therein that I have desired And as to the Subsidy the best way that I can think of for the payment of it is to make me Captain of the Band of one and twenty Pensioners with the seven thousand Ducats I am owing to them and with my great Poverty and the other Debts I have upon me and if this will not do for the payment of what I do not injoy I believe a Letter from your Lordship to the Bishop of Lugo might go a great way towards it to whom your most Reverend Lordship may be pleased to write that since my Predecessour Don Antonio de Fonseca received all the Fruits of those Years and who at this time receives more Rent out of the Bishoprick than I do that it is but just that he that owes it and not he who does not should pay it As to what your Lordship writes concerning the Shedule of Carthagena I do kiss your Lordship's Hands for that Favour and do beg it of your Lordship that you would command it to be done wherein your Lordship will do me both a favour and justice and that without doing any injury to the Bishop I do likewise kiss your most Reverend Hands for the Kindness you promise to do me with the Legate and with some other Persons and I do beseech your most Reverend Lordship when you write to the Legate to mention the Church of Pamplona to him and that it may not be wronged I am much pleased with the last Article in your most Reverend Lordship's Letter I pray God the dispatch the Fiscal is to bring may be for his Service and that of His Majesty and the quiet of Germany May our Lord prosper your Lordship's most Illustrious and Reverend Person and increase your State I kiss your most Reverend Lordship's Hands Your Servant The Bishop of Pamplona From Trent the 20th of February 1552. Here follows half a dozen Lines writ with the Bishop's own Hand which I was not able to read The Bishop of Pamplona's Letter of the 27th of February 1552 to the Bishop of Arras Most Illustrious and Reverend Lord BY the letter I sent to your most Reverend Lordship by my Servant I acquainted you with the wrong they are about to do the Bishop of Pamplona and to whom a greater cannot be done and not to him only but to that Church and Kingdom on an account of the College but being sensible how forward your Lordship is to do favours I cannot forbear begging of you Nam ut placet Chrysostomo petentis negligentia reprehenditur ubi de dantis misericordia non dubitatur For which reason I do return to supplicate your most Reverend Lordship for to stand our friend and since delays in such cases are very dangerous I who am your Lordship's Creature would esteem it a great Kindness if you would be pleased to write to the Legate about this Affair and to let him know how unreasonable a thing it is in the time of a Council instead of a Reformation to help us to a Deformation and especially when the Bishop of the place is serving God and His Majesty at it and at a greater expence than he is able to bear it will be necessary likewise that your Lordship should with His Majesty's Letters write one your self to the Embassadour Don Diego de Mendoza which if it is not dispatched quickly will I fear come too late And that your most Reverend Lordship may have a perfect knowledge of the wrong that will be done thereby to the Bishop the Church and the whole Kingdom your Lordship is to understand that in former times when Navarre was under petty Kings who had scarce Bread to put in their Mouths the Popes never offered to dispose of any Preferment therein and especially in the Cathedral Church in all which times there is no President of their having done any such thing and shall we now when under so powerfull a King and who is so well able to defend his Kingdoms endure to have such things imposed upon us as those petty Kings would never have suffered Now were there nothing else but this I think it is enough to engage your Lordship to defend me and that Kingdom I forgot to tell your Lordship in my former that the French Licentiate is my Enemy though I do not know for what unless it be for his being a friend to Verio who is one of the Council and besides Archdeacon and Canon of the Church This Verio having forgot that it is his Office to do justice and hinder all Violences abuseth the Royal Authority in doing them himself and in having turned a Procuratour for all desperate Causes with whom being armed with the Royal Authority no body dares contend I beseech your Lordship to write to the said French Licentiate to favour my Causes so far as they are just and not to do the contrary who being a Creature of your Lordships as I am likewise ought for that reason to do me justice I must intreat your most Reverend Lordship not to be offended with my Letters since I have no other Patron to succour me in my Necessities The Fiscal Vargas has since he arrived here been so taken up with business that he has scarce suffered any body to see him But being yesterday at the Sermon which was preached by the Archbishop of Granada he told me by the bye and in general upon my asking him what resolution he had brought that His Majesty was against any change or having the Council prorogued nevertheless we do no more since his Arrival than we did before but do still continue here idle May our Lord prosper your Lordship's most Illustrious and Reverend Person and increase your State Most Illustrious Lord I kiss your Most Reverend Lordship's Hands Your
grant by which means things are thrown into such a terrible Confusion that the Catholicks as well as the Protestants are for having the Council suspended among other things saying openly that they do not care to be judged by one Nation and that though the Council should be continued never so long it would never make such a Reformation as is necessary nor will have any other effect but the lessening of the Authority of Councils and that in case His Majesty should do his Duty in urging to have such a Reformation he will undoubtedly embroil himself thereby with the Pope But supposing there were no harm in that so long as His Majesty does nothing but what is his Duty and convenient for the Service of God The worst of all is that no fruit can be expected from any such endeavours since they will thereupon either translate or dissolve the Council as they shall think most convenient to the robbing of Councils of that Authority which is the only refuge and remedy the Church has when disturbed by Controversies about Religion it being most certain that the Germans on the Terms they are on at present will not only not receive this Council but they will pretend that they are released from the Observation of the Interim which was to last only till the definition of a Council and will impugn this and that with too much colour among their own People who are not rightly informed of the Authority of the Church for the Council to which the Controversie was remitted not having adjusted it there can be no agreement And as it is certain that they will insist on their Religion so His Majesty will die sooner than consent to it For which and several other Reasons which have been weighed by His Majesty he is come to a resolution to write to his Embassadours about it As to what you write to me particularly I have communicated it three several times to His Majesty who continues fixt not to do any thing therein without the advice of his Embassadours whom he will have to send their opinions to him in writing which considering that his Embassadours are Men of Integrity and will keep whatever is done secret he takes to be the best Course This is made still the more difficult by the present State of things in which if the resolution his Majesty has taken has its effect there will be no necessity of entertaining any thoughts of that other Course It would do well therefore that you should propose what you have to offer as a thing I had writ to you about or spoke to you of when you were here and that you should write likewise to His Majesty desiring that your Letter may be kept secret and recommending Secrecy as to all things that are done at Trent In fine now we are on these Terms you must not fail to employ all your industry and diligence that what His Majesty is compelled by the iniquity of the times to condescend to may be done as much to his advantage as it is possible The following part is lost A Copy of a Letter of the Bishop of Arras to Dr. Vargas Magnificent Sir DEsigning to return Answers to all the Letters I find my self indebted to you for when His Majesty does the same to his dispatches I shall not inlarge in this which I write only on the occasion of Secretary Erastus going to Trent to advise you of my being in health thanks to God for it and extreamly desirous to have something wherein I may serve you which whensoever any occasion shall offer I shall do with an intire good Will Our Lord preserve you A Copy of a Letter of the Bishop of Arras of the 16th of February 1552 in answer to a Letter of Dr. Malvenda of the 27th of January 1552. Magnificent Sir I Was overjoyed at my coming to know the Fiscal Vargas by sight and discourse and though I had always reckoned him a very able Minister yet I do now find him to be a much greater Man than I thought he was I have been informed by him of all the difficulties you have encountred with as well in the business of the safe Conduct for the Protestants as in the Propositions which have been made The Legate must not certainly have studied the Affairs of Germany much nor the Books that are wrote therein that he is so much offended at what they have said in the Council The said Fiscal carries His Majesty's entire resolution as to all Affairs which he knows very well how to report He has acquainted me with the pains you have taken notwithstanding your sickness would not allow you to do what you would have done otherwise I was glad to hear him speak so well of the Bishop Castellamar of whom you know I had a good opinion before That Prelate may rest satisfied that whenever there is occasion I shall not forget to represent his Merits to His Majesty I pray God it may be of advantage to him Being desirous to do something for the Study of Barcelona I ordered a Memorial to be given in about it some days ago in conformity of what the Procuratour Gualby had writ to me concerning it Before we left Ausburg I desired His Majesty to give Dr. Gregory Lopez leave to go to a place whither I would gladly have sent him but could not obtain it His Majesty alledging that the Court having no other Spanish Physician but him and Olivares could not possibly spare him and much less can it be expected now that His Majesty should give way to his going to the Council since the Queen of Bohemia has with great importunity got Olivares to go with her It is a wonderfull thing to me that so many Spanish Prelates should not have brought a Physician with them or that being so near to Italy they should not all this while have sent for some Eminent Doctour who I suppose might have made a good business of it I do assure you I have done in this all that was possible for me and I can do no more Our Lord preserve you From Inspurg the 16th of February 1552. A Copy of the Bishop of Arras's Letter of the 9th of November 1551 in answer to two Letters of Dr. Malvenda's of the 12th of October and the 8th of November 1551. Magnificent Sir I Find my self two Letters in your debt the last of which came to me since I arrived here where if any thing can make me dispense with the Commodities of this place it will be my being so near Trent that we can almost shake Hands together I am infinitely glad that the Session was celebrated with so much Authority but the thing that troubles me is the resolution they are come to about the ways of proceeding having left the old known Methods and which is worst of all there is no remedy for it for though they know well enough what would be most convenient they will never yield to it so that without running a