Emperour and his Son Maximilian now all these Princes desired that the Cup might be rendered to the People February the ninth the Legates held the first Congregation about the Doctrine of Marriage The Divines of the first Chamber examined the first two Articles and Father Salmeron a Jesuit spoke with much Pomp and for all that said but very ordinary things Having concluded that Marriage is a true Sacrament he past to the second Article that relates to Clandestine Marriages and alledged in favour of them the Authority of the Council of Florence which declares that the Validity of Marriages depends solely upon the Consent of the Parties who contract and this Oratour concluded that the opinion of those who assert that Fathers and Mothers may annull them ought to be condemned as an Heresie but allowed the Church the Power of rescinding such Marriages because she is the Mistress of the Sacraments and that it is expedient to annull them to prevent the disorders which those unfortunate Marriages cause in Families Next day Maillard Dean of the Faculty of Paris made a long discourse and concluded with Salmeron that Marriage is a true Sacrament but as to Clandestine Marriages he was not of Salmeron's opinion For he maintained that the Church had not that Power over the Sacraments as to make a Sacrament that was lawfull at one time to become unlawfull at another He alledged for proof the Consecration of the Eucharist saying that the Church could not make a Consecrated Wafer cease to be a Real Sacrament after that it had been some time kept since it was so at first He went through all the Sacraments proving that the Church hath not power to invalidate a Sacrament lawfully administred He shew'd that in all times private Marriages had been valid and that no man ever thought of annulling them His opinion took extremely well but especially the Pope's Party took great pleasure to hear the French Doctour speaking of the Pope call him the Directour and Moderatour of the Roman that is to say the Universal Church They drew great advantage from that Confession and said that it ought to be observed against the Cavils which the Prelates of the same Nation made upon occasion of the Canon about the Authority of the Pope wherein they would not suffer it to be said that he hath Power to rule the Church Universal The French said that there was a great difference betwixt these expressions rule the Universal Church absolutely and rule the Roman that is to say the Universal Church because the term Universal is onely employed to explain that of Roman and that so it ought to extend no farther It cannot be denied but that the distinction is very nice and fine spun and that the difference betwixt those two expressions is not very sensible it had been as well perhaps if Maillard had frankly confest that it dropt from him before he was aware In the Congregation of the Eleventh of February the French presented a Letter from their King wherein he acquainted the Council with the Victory that he had obtained over the Enemies of the Catholick Religion and at the same time demanded Reformation After the Letters were read the Ambassadour Du Ferrier made a Speech The King of France his Letter to the Council followed by a Speech of du Ferrier and having represented the Calamities of the Kingdom of France and the necessity of doing somewhat to remedy them he said that the proper remedy depended on the Council and that the Council in endeavouring that ought to turn their Eyes towards the Holy Scripture that Christians now-a-days were like the Samaritanes of the Town of Sichar who would believe because they saw and not barely upon the report of a Woman that every body at present studied the Scriptures That they should not think it strange if in their Proposition they had omitted the most necessary Points that they had begun with the smallest but that they had more important matters to propose that if they intended to set about the Work of Reformation they must do it in good earnest and that the Fathers who were assembled ought to consider what was the Success of those slight and weak Reformations of the Council of Constance and that which came after which he was not willing to name for fear of offending their ears He meant the Council of Basil whereof the name is odious to all the Favourers of the Court of Rome He laid before them also that the Councils of Florence Lateran and the first of Trent had done nothing for the Church and in that they did nothing they had done a great deal of hurt and given occasion to a Schism of so many People as are separated from it They gave the French Ambassadour a civil answer though in his Speech he had given several nips which touch'd the Pope's Party to the quick He said that he presented the Articles of Reformation principally to the Council These words offended them extremely because they did insinuate that the Ambassadour made far less reckoning of the Pope than he did of the Council Besides they found that by that expression he designed to have a lash at the Clause proponentibus Legatis as intending to intimate that in Quality of Ambassadour he pretended to propose his Articles to the Council himself and not by the Lagates and this perswaded them that France entertained terrible intentions against the Authority of the Pope and they were the more allarmed because Du Ferrier had said that the French had still far more important Proposals to make and that they ought to make greater advances in the work of Reformation than the Councils of Constance and Basil had done The day following the Cardinal of Lorrain parted for Inspruck taking with him nine Prelates and four Divides but he got a promise from the Legates that during his absence they should not treat of the Marriage of Priests In the mean time they continued the Congregations about the matter of Doctrine The first Chamber of Divines which we have already mentioned having heard Salmeron and Maillard unanimously condemned as Heretical the opinion that denies Marriage to be a Sacrament and in like manner declared Clandestine Marriages to be true Sacraments and lawfull Marriages But there was some diversity of opinion about the Sentiments of Salmeron and Maillard in relation to the Power of the Church in annulling secret Marriages some were of Salmeron's opinion and others with Maillard thought that the Power of the Church did not reach so far as to make a Marriage become unlawfull which was lawfull a very little before Amongst those who maintained that the Church had Power to annull Clandestine Marriages some disputed another Point to wit whether it be convenient and profitable to make use of that Power in the present time But most part thought it best that all secret Marriages should be invalidated and some went farther still and were for declaring null and void all Marriages
When the parts that made up this mighty Body the Empire came to separate and to be formed into several distinct States Kingdoms the Bishop of Rome puts himself into the Emperors place and by pretending a spiritual power still retains those several States and Kingdoms in a spiritual jurisdiction to him that were only at first obliged by the temporal power of the Emperours By this means he continues to assemble the Bishops of those several States and to term such Assembly a general Council Let any discerning person judge whether these Assemblies thus formed by accident as is most apparent can be vested with the priviledge of infallibility There never were any Councils that could truly and properly be called General Councils But after all it is a great abuse of words to give the name of Oecumenical or General Council to a Convention of two or three hundred Bishops out of five or six Nations Euseb de vita Constant l. 4. c. 8. When the Roman Emperours became Christian their Dominions did include the greatest part of Christendom but not the whole There was in Persia a very great number of Churches and those considerable ones in whose favour Constantine wrote to Sapor King of Persia Theod. l. 5. c. 33. Theodoret gives an account of the indiscreet zeal of one Audas a Persian Bishop who in the Reign of Isdigerdes burnt a Temple of the Persian God which was Fire and by that ill managed zeal was the cause of a Persecution of thirty years continuance by which an infinite number of Christians perished there by all manner of torments Th. 〈…〉 The same Theodoret tells us that in the time of Constantine the Gospel was preached in India with success by Aeâ—… and Frumentius and among the Iberians by a captive woman It is certain that these distant Churches sent not their Bishops to the Councils that were held in Countrys subject to the Roman Emperours A Council that might deserve the name of General ought at least to be composed of the Guides of the Church of all the Learned and of all those that have attentively studied the mysteries of Religion There is no place in the world could hold such an Assembly nor were it possible to deliberate in it But alas instead of the prodigious number of Guides and Pastors of the Catholick Church a very few and those almost all of the same Nation are it seems enough to make a General Council For it is certain that the Provinces near the place where the Council is celebrated do supply it with more Bishops and Divines than all the more remote Kingdoms put together and yet this scrap of a Council must pass for the Universal Church must be supposed to be acted by her Spirit and endued with her infallibility Than which there was never certainly a more vain imagination Certain it is that there hath as yet been nothing that can be truely stiled a General Council The ancient Councils had the name of General for that they were in time generally owned by the Church The second General Council consisted of but 150 Bishops and those only of the Provinces neighbouring to Constantinople The latter Councils are composed of yet sewer Nations there are only a few Italians Spaniards French and some Germans but neither the North the South the East nor the greatest part of the West are concerned in them I would very fain learn why the Gallican Church should not be infallible should she form an Assembly of a thousand Divines as she easily may and yet becomes infallible when joyned to Germans Spaniards and Italians It is a mystery beyond comprehension It were fit to produce good proofs for the establishment of this infallibility of Councils or at least to shew they are in possession of it by a Series of examples without interruption As for such proofs they ought to be out of the Holy Scripture But I shall not stand to examine or contest the proofs for that were to enter into Theological disputes whereas we intend here no more than Historical Reflections and such we cannot omit as we conceive will overthrow the infallibility of Councils That many General Councils so called have actually erred Those that maintain the infallibility of these Assemblies that they are pleased to stile General Councils would do well to make out this Assertion of theirs from History They will produce it may be five or six Councils whose Canons are owned by the Christian World But what if we on the other side produce twice as many whose Canons are rejected by the greatest part of Christendom It were much to be wished that we had certain undoubted Characters for distinguishing of true from false Councils For we see that such of them as have established errors are the same in externals with those that have confirmed the truth What difference is there between the most holy Council of Nice which condemned Arianism and the Council of Tyre and Jerusalem which but ten years after in the year 335. condemned St. Athanasius and the Doctrine of the Church It was the good Emperour Constantine that assembled both these Councils and that the latter was General appears by Eusebius Euseb l. 4. de vita Constant who assures us that it was convened from all parts of the Empire from Africk Asia Europe and Egypt it fate first in Tyre and was after removed by Constantine to Jerusalem for the more solemn dedication of the Temple he had there built to the honour of our Saviour In this Council Arianism so prevailed that St. Athanasius was condemned and banished by Constantine to Treves What can be said of the Council of Antioch held concerning St. Athanasius in the year 340 or 341 The holy Bishop was deposed in it Socrates Hist l. 2. c. 7. George made Bishop of Alexandria in his room the Christian Faith was corrupted by it and a Creed conceived in different terms from the Nicene Creed The word Consubstantial was left out and other words were used instead of it which the Arians pretended to be of the same signification Why was not this a General Council Was it not as well as the preceding convened from all parts of the Roman Empire Bellarmine confesses it was a General Council Tom. 2. l. 1. c. 6. de Conciliis and it is clear that it was so esteemed for that the 25 Canons made by it have been received and are still reckoned among the Canons of the Universal Church Distinct 16. Can. 11. Gratian not only took it for a Lawful Council but even thought it had been celebrated by the Orthodox What shall we say of the Council of Sardica Socrat. l. 2. lib. in the year 341 the fourth General upon the Cause of Arius Sozomen l. 3. c. 10. There were present 376 Bishops some say that threescore and sixteen of them were Arians Baronius Annal Tom. 2. ann num 67. 347. and retired from the rest to hold a
Duke knowing that they had not been prompted to that by a Spirit of Rebellion resolved to try fair means with them But at Rome the proposal was rejected with indignation they counsel'd him to use force which he followed and for eighteen Months waged War against these Wretches In the beginning of the same year a great Conspiracy was hatcht in France The Conspiracy of Amboise they who were engaged in the Plot were put upon it as much through interest of State as of Religion The House of Guise were absolute Masters both of the King's person and mind and this being a grievance to many they formed a Party and entered into a Confederacy for putting a stop to the fury of the Persecution and at the same time for rescuing the person of Francis the Second out of the hands of the Princes of Guise But the Plot was discovered the Court went from Blois to Amboise where there is a Citadel part of the Conspirators were taken and put to Death and so that Conspiracy of which one Renaudé was the chief was quickly dispersed and brought to naught The Protestants in the mean while encreased amidst all these Persecutions and that made the King's Council look out for other means of composing the troubles than what had been employed hitherto it was concluded that a Council of the whole Nation must be called but Cardinal d' Armagnac who was wholly for the interest of the Court of Rome and was as good as any Inquisitor against the Protestants withstood that resolution Monluc Bishop of Valence was of opinion for calling a national Synod and that prevailed This resolution was signified to the Pope but he approved not of it On the contrary he complained publickly at Rome against the King's proceedings who by a Declaration of the eighteenth of March had pardoned all who upon account of Religion had taken up Arms against him The Pope said it was the cause of God and that no Prince has power to pardon such Crimes that besides national Councils were good for nothing but to breed Schisms that there was need of a General Council and that he intended to convene it without delay The Pope solicites the King of France to take Geneva He sent into France the Bishop of Viterbo to represent the same things and that he might employ the King and take him off from thinking of that national Synod he essayed to perswade him to bend his forces against the City of Geneva He also solicited the Duke of Savoy and the King of Spain to the same Enterprise the King of Spain being a Neighbour to Geneva by the Franche Comte The Savoyard would have been very willing provided he could have kept Geneva for himself nor perhaps would the King of Spain have been against that but he knew very well that the King of France would never allow it to be in any other Prince's Possession and therefore he chose rather to suffer the new Religion to reign there than to see it in the hands of the French who were already too near Neighbours to the County of Burgundy which then belonged to the King of Spain so that that matter went no farther The King of Spain who thought it not proper to unite with the King of France for the Ruine of Geneva as he had been solicited by the Pope thought himself obliged at least to comply with the Pope's inclinations in disswading the French from holding a national Council For that effect he sent into France Antiono de Toledo Prior of Leon with instructions to offer France forces and assistance for the destruction of the Hereticks and it is certain that he could not doe more than what he did to satisfie the Pope by the Ruine of the Protestants The Court of France did not much listen to these Proposals they would indeed have been willing to have had Geneva but they feared the Switsers and the stirs that the Huguenots might raise in France during that War As to the matter of the Council they were stedfast in their design of calling a national one in France giving the Pope in the mean time assurance that nothing should be attempted in it contrary to his Authority But he could not trust too much to that he was very apprehensive of the French Prelates who were accused to be infected with Heresie and were at least prepossest with some Tenets which they call the Privileges of the Gallican Church and with Maximes that sute not with that Supremacy which is challenged by the Court of Rome The apprehension of this made the Pope absolutely resolve to call the General Council The Pope resolves to call a General Council But he was at a stand as to the place he would have been very willing to have held it at Bologna but he did not expect that the Prelates would come thither Milan was offered him but he would not accept of it unless the Citadel were put into his hands during the sitting of the Council The King of Spain for all he was so good a Catholick could not be brought to condescend to that for as to the point of worldly affairs and interests the Pope and other Princes are trusted much alike At length he concluded upon the City of Trent where it had been already assembled There happened two considerable matters which confirmed him in his resolution of hastening the Convocation of the Council the one was the Revolt of Scotland which banished Mary the Queen regent and fell off from the Church of Rome the other was the Jealousie that they had of Maximilian King of Bohemia Son to the Emperour Ferdinand Maximilian King of Bohemia and the Romans is suspected of Lutheranism who was always thought too favourable to the Protestants Paul IV. had accused him as an Abbetter of Heresie and one day he made an answer to the Pope's Ambassadours that much encreased the suspicion that they had of him The Pope's Nephew Maroo Altemps exhorting Maximilian in behalf of Pius IV. to continue a good Catholick promising him on the one hand that if he did the Pope would corroborate the pretentions he had to the Empire and on the other hand threatning that if he persisted to give Causes of Suspicion he would never confirm him King of the Romans but would deprive him of all his Territories Maximilian made answer to the promises that were made him of favour and assistance that he was very much obliged to his Holiness but that the Salvation of his Soul was much dearer to him than all worldly Enjoyments Now at Rome this kind of style was lookt upon as an infallible sign of Lutheranism and as the badge of those who were Enemies to the holy See All these reasons made the Pope on the third of June call together the Ambassadours of Princes and told them more plainly than hitherto he had done his design of re-establishing the Council at Trent ordering them to acquaint their Masters with the same He himself wrote to
to all People even to the Enemies of the Church of Rome prevailed so far by his solicitations that he obtained a Suspension of the Decrees of the Estates at Orleans and permission to execute his Legation in France giving a counter promise that he would not make use of that permission The King was willing to grant him that for formalities sake and that he might not have the disgrace of returning back without being owned for Legate The Chancelour would not sign the Brief so that it was onely signed by the King Queen and chief Officers of the Crown Suspicions of the Court of Rome against the French This demand of the Cup made by the French with the other matters that had past in France began already to beget some Jealousies of them and these suspicions were much encreased by news that came from Germany which gave out that the German Protestants had received Letters from France exhorting them to continue steadfast in their Doctrine with promises that the French would favour them in the Council The French Ambassadour did what he could at Rome to remove these suspicions but to no purpose for some new thing happened daily that revived the discontents and heartburnings of the Court of Rome as was the business of Tanquerel John Tanquerel a Batchelour in Divinity published Theses to be defended wherein he maintained that the Pope as Vicar of Jesus Christ could deprive Princes that were disobedient to him of their Dignities and Kingdoms For this he was by a Decree of Parliament sentenced to make a publick Recantation and because he had fled for it the Bedle appeared for him and made the Recantation in his name This ruined the Reputation in his name This ruined the Reputation of the French for good and all for to deny the Pope's Power over Kings in Temporals is lookt upon at Rome as a capital Heresie After many delays the Pope will have the Council opened Whilst affairs were in this condition the Legates and many Bishops had been at Trent ever since Easter expecting the opening of the Council which was put off from day to day The Pope at length being weary of these delays resolved to order the opening of it For that end he called a Congregation of Cardinals and laid before them the necessity of opening the Council of which they were very sensible and thought it not fit to make longer delay The Pope had appointed the Cardinal of Warmia to be a Collegue to the first two and to these three he added two more to wit Cardinal Simoneta a learned man in the Canon-Law and Cardinal d' Altemps his Nephew by the Sister Simoneta came to Trent the ninth of December He was a zealous Protector of the rights and pretensions of the Holy See and was therefore entrusted with all the Pope's Secrets at parting he received Orders to open the Council so soon as he arrived at Trent but upon his coming he received a Letter from the Pope which ordered him still to defer it till after New-Years day The Emperour's Ambassadour at Rome had procured this delay that the Ambassadours whom his Master was to send to Trent might be there at the opening of the Council and he hoped that they might get thither by the middle of January About that time two Polish Bishops came to the Council they visited the Legates and acquainted them that the Lutherans used great endeavours to bring their pretended Reformation into Poland that the Bishops could not leave their Churches because they were obliged continually to watch the motions of these Enemies that therefore they demanded that they might have their place and votes in the Council by Proxies and seeing these two Bishops were charged with Procurations from all the rest they required that they two alone might have as many Votes as they had Procurations The Legates answered them civilly in general terms but without determining any thing and in the mean time wrote to Rome concerning this matter The Pope thereupon called a Consistory where the Proposal was rejected because it was contrary to what had been resolved upon at the very first Convocation of the Council of Trent that the Votes should not be taken by Nations but by Heads There was danger they knew in granting what they demanded because all other Nations would have expected the same privilege So that the Italians who carried it far by number would quickly have lost the plurality of Votes which was always on their side The French were to be in the Council with their Maxims of the Sorbonne and Parliament of Paris which are so inconsistent with the Grandure of the Holy See The intentions of the Spaniards were not much more favourable to the Court of Rome for they already slyly proposed that the power of the Pope ought to be limited and the privileges of the Bishops enlarged And especially they were for taking from the Pope the power of dispensing with the Canons of the present Council because that otherwise it would be in vain to hold Councils at so great charge for making of Canons which after all would bind the Pope no farther than he should think good Hence it was concluded that if the Poles Spaniards and French were permitted to sit in Council by Proxies and Procurations there would be as many Votes as there are Bishops in those Kingdoms who would carry all by plurality of Votes and that the Italians would be too weak to hinder the Tramontani from over-ruling the Council For all these reasons the Poles got no other satisfaction but fair words they promised to doe any thing else they pleased to demand for their generous Nation but that they could not alter the Methods that were fixed by the Council of which the present Assembly was but a Continuation The Poles made no great bustle about the matter but within a few days after under pretext of business at Venice they went away and returned no more The Pope discovering more and more the designs that the Tramontani had of clipping the Wings of his Authority thought it not convenient any longer to delay the opening of the Council but that it behoved him to endeavour to break that Party before it was more firmly linkt and knit together He therefore wrote to Trent that they should open the Council so soon as the Marquess of Pescara the Ambassadour of Spain the Emperour 's and Venetian Ambassadours should arrive but that if these Ministers did not come before the middle of January it should be no hinderance to the opening of the Council THE HISTORY OF THE Council of TRENT BOOK VI. PIUS IV. year 1562 ACcording to the Orders sent by the Pope the Legates on the fifteenth of January held a General Congregation concerning the Preliminaries of the ensuing Session and of the opening of the Council They prepare for the opening of the Council In that Congregation the Cardinal of Mantua made an excellent Speech touching the necessity of holding a Council after
the Decree of Gratian. In the Congregation of the tenth of July Leonard Haller Titular Bishop of Philadelphia moved that it was necessary to stay for the Germans as a few days before Daniel Barbaro Patriarch of Aquileia had demanded that they might stay for the French to the end that the Council might be called General as being made up of all Nations for there were none but Spaniards and Italians in it and these Italians almost all of them the Pope's Pensioners who most cunningly stood up for the Interests of the Court of Rome There were even some that said publickly enough that that Council was not the Council of the Universal Church but of the Pope since he did in it what he pleased and these were those who had spoken with some freedom as to the Point of Residence The Papal Party had a great pique against them which appeared so plainly that they did not think themselves secure enough even at Trent and therefore they thought of withdrawing some of them had already obtained leave amongst whom were Egidio Foscararo Bishop of Modena the Bishops of Viviers Acqui and the Archbishop of Surriento But the Ambassadour of Portugal having represented that that would do hurt to the reputation of the Council seeing the cause of their departure was generally known they were detained by fair promises of better usage for the future However there was no notice taken of the demand that was made of waiting for the coming of the German and French Prelates In the following Congregations the Chapters of Reformation were read and some Bishops spoke with a great deal of liberty As to the Point of free Ordinations the Bishop of Vegla an Island near Sclavonia said that it would be to no purpose to lay a restraint upon ordaining Bishops not to take money if at the same time it were not Decreed that no fees should be taken at Rome for Dispensations to receive Orders out of the usual times and before the Age appointed that the greatest expence was there and that the small gratuities given at Ordinations was nothing to it He farther said that when any such Dispensations were presented to him it was his custome to ask if they had cost any money and that if he found they had been bought he rejected and did not value them As to the Point concerning those that got into Priests Orders without a sufficient Estate to maintain them the Bishop of the five Churches spoke with great freedom that it was of much more importance to prevent a mans entering into Orders without having a Church and Cure to serve than to hinder him upon the account of wanting an Estate and that it was very disgracefull to the Church to have priests who had no other Employment but to live idly and take their ease upon a good fat Benefice In one of the Articles of Reformation it was ordained that great Parishes should be divided into two that they might be the better served whereupon the same Bishop said that that was good but that it was much better to divide the Bishopricks which are of so great extent that it is not possible for one man to take the care of so many Souls These opinions pleased no body neither the Prelates nor the Presidents Afterward the Bishop of Sidonia an Hungarian took the boldness to say that all these petty Reformations of the Members of the Church signified nothing so long as the Head continued without Reformation that it behoved them to begin with the greater matters and that the lesser would pass without any difficulty This liberty was very offensive to the Legates and therefore they met to consult about means of repressing that boldness John Baptista Castello Promooter of the Council who had discharged the same office in the Council under Julius III. said that the course must be taken which had been used by Cardinal Crescentio who enjoyned the Prelates silence when they did in the least deviate from the Subject that had been proposed But the Cardinal of Warmia did not approve that conduct and affirmed that God had not blest the Council of Julius because he approved not those violent methods of Cardinal Crescentio that after all it was impossible to avoid contests in Councils The Cardinal of Mantua was of the same Judgment So that they thought it sufficient to limit every one to a certain time in speaking and to make it short that so they might not have leisure to speak many things which might give disgust The day for holding the Session which was the sixteenth of July drew nigh and the Germans who had consented that nothing should be moved in it about the permission of the Cup demanded now a great deal more and urged that nothing might be done at all that so they might give time to their Bishops to come The Legates to prevent the disgrace of being so long without doing any thing would needs have the Chapters of Doctrine and Reformation which had been minuted to be published And they must be read overagain in the Congregation before they could be published in the Session which was not done without debate In the second Chapter of Doctrine these words were slipt in that the Church might as well take away the use of the Cup as it had changed the form of Baptism Jacobo Gilberto de Nogueras Bishop of Aliphe a Spaniard starting up said that that was Blasphemy because the Church had no Power to change the form of Sacraments nor to alter any thing that is essential to them and that in effect the form of Baptism had never been changed that hint was taken notice of and the Clause left out In the third Chapter it is said that he who is barred from the Cup is not deprived of any Grace necessary to Salvation and that therefore the Church has Power to retrench it The Cardinal of Warmia one of the Legates set on by some Divines observed as to that that thence it might be inferred that the Church may wholly take away the Eucharist because it is not necessary to Salvation and desired some alteration in that Clause But Cardinal Simoneta being vexed at what had past in the Congregation told the Cardinal of Warmia that he had very imprudently suffered himself to be put upon in making that Overture and that if he would everlastingly give ear to those Doctours accustomed to the cavillings of the School nothing could be concluded in the next Session The Cardinal of Warmia submitted excusing himself in that what he had done was designed for a good end In the Congregation that was held the day before the Session there happened some Debates still as in all the rest but they were not very considerable and continued not long session 21 Now it was the sixteenth of July 16. July the day appointed for the Session and the Legates Ambassadours and Prelates went to the Church with the usual Ceremonies After Mass and Sermon the Decrees were read the Decree of