that for the sake of peace he might well remit them to be examined and setled by a free Council and that by consequence upon his refusing to do it the Protestants have reason to consider as a Party and an Adversary in the Controversie that Council that the Pope hath convened wherein he presided and over which he reigned with absolute Dominion That the Church of Rome having once given Judgment upon the Controversie and an Appeal being brought she could not proceed to a second Judgment But to evince more plainly this truth That the Protestants have reason to consider the Council of Trent as their Adverse Party it is to be remarked that the matters in question were not novel but for the greater part had been already decided either by Councils or by Papal Constitutions or by a Custom universally approved by the Roman Church The second Council of Nice had decreed the adoration of Images Transubstantiation the Real Presence adoration of the Sacrament Auricular Confession had been passed into Laws by Innocent III. in the fourth Council of Lateran held in the year 1215. The Cup in the Sacrament was taken from the Laity by Decree of the Council of Constance held in the year 1414. Purgatory and the seven Sacraments were made Articles of Faith by the Council of Florence in the years 1438 and 1439. In a word there was scarce any of the controverted Points that had not been decided All that the Protestants did amounted to no other than an endeavour to be relieved from the hardships of Judgments already given Truly and properly speaking they were Appellants from the Decisions of the Roman Church to the Holy Scripture How great was then the injustice to set up that Church for Judge of a Cause against which she had already given Judgment and from which Judgment the Protestants had appealed When there arise new and doubtful matters in a Church there is no doubt but that Church hath a right to Judge of them and to assemble her Councils to that end For instance in the time of Berengarius the dispute about the Real Presence was revived which had lain buried in forgetfulness since Bertrand and Paschasius The Church of Rome having not as then decided the matter Berengarius had no reason but to hear the Judgment of the Church having first done all in him in order to the prevalence of truth Had the Church decreed unjustly in the matter he might then have refused to acquiesce in the Judgment for that the Conscience cannot submit but where it is fully convinced that the Decision is in conformity to the Word of God But when a Church hath once pronounced upon a matter and an Appeal be rightly made she hath then certainly no power to give a second Sentence in the same Cause or if she doth no consequence as of a new Condemnation can be justly drawn from it Since therefore the Church of Rome had already passed her Decree upon the Points in question before the Council of Trent we must look upon her as a Judge become a Party as having long before declared against the truth But can it in conscience be thought that the Prelates assembled at Trent came thither with intent to deliberate whether the natural Body of Christ be in the Eucharist whether the Sacrament shall have the Worship of Latria Were they not resolved already ere they came to Trent Came they not meerly to condemn the Lutherans and not upon any inquisition after truth Had they not almost all an implacable hatred to the Protestants Did they not solicit Princes to destroy them with Fire and Sword And are these qualifications to be desired in Judges If it be asked how then the Assembly should have been composed to have given content to the Protestants I answer it should have been as the Lutherans of Germany desired it The Bishops should have been absolved from their Oaths of fidelity to the Pope The Council of Basil did it in a time when there was less need than when the Council of Trent sate The Protestant Divines should have been called the more moderate persons of each party should have been chosen the Bishops should have been prevailed with to lay aside all passion and prejudice the truth should have been sought with a sincere mind and the Word of God been only consulted for it The one might have hoped that persons so qualified by such a conduct might have reached the truth reason 2 But tho we should renounce all that I have yet said tho we should own the Council of Trent for a lawful and natural Judge of our Controversies with the Roman Church 2. Second cause of rejecting the Council of Trent tho it were duly assembled in could not be infallible yet were we in no sort obliged to receive and comply with all her Decisions with an absolute resignation and a blind credulity to which nothing can move one but the fond supposition of the infallibility of Councils Not to descend to an Examen of the particular faults of the Council of Trent it is impossible to persuade ones self that a Council that is to say an Assembly in which there is no Prophet nor any man inspired of the Holy Ghost is not liable to err and for my part I very much question whether there be in the world any one person that seriously thinks so I will admit that to have recourse to an infallible living Judge would be of high importance to the World The Church of Rome strongly supports her self by the artifice of possessing the People with the belief of her infallibility But when it comes to be enquired where it is that this infallibility doth reside one knows not where to find it Some place it in the Pope alone others in the Council alone and a third sort in Pope and Council united Those that place it in the Councils seem to have greater reason than such as would fix it to the person of the Pope For Councils are indeed the undoubted Judges of controversies in the Church So that if there be any infallible Judge in the Church it should be them As it certainly is most probable that the wisdom of many in conjunction should be of greater prevalence and purity than that of any single person The Pope whose Authority is meer Usurpation cannot be an infallible Judge nor hath God given to the Bishop of Rome any power to judge of controversies in the name of the Catholick Church Yet after all that appears so much to favour the Councils it must be confessed that the opinion that fixes the infallibility of the Roman Church upon the Pope is much easier to defend than that which ascribes it to the Council For this latter opinion that makes Councils to be infallible is perhaps the most vain and empty Notion that was ever started I pass the proofs brought from Scripture for each opinion they are much of an equal weight The Text I have prayed for thee
presence of all the rest read the Decrees and the others gave no other Vote but placet or non placet A Debate concerning the Title of the Council and the words representing the universal Church Whilst the second Session was expected wherein there was nothing as yet to be done the Legates proposed a Decree for regulating the manner of living Christianly at Trent during the sitting of the Council this Decree was read with the Title of the Council the form of which had been sent by the Pope in these words The most holy and sacred Oecumenick and universal Council of Trent the Apostolick Legates presiding therein The French who had their prospects to favour the opinions that prevail in France touching the Superiority of a Council over the Pope desired these words to be added Representing the universal Church most of the Bishops were of the same opinion but the Legates opposed it because the Councils of Constance and Basil had used that clause with design to establish the Superiority of the Church and General Councils over the Pope John de Salazar Bishop of Lanciano maintained the opinion of the Legates vigorously insisting that that clause should not be added because the ancient Councils had never used it But he was also of opinion that the clause The Apostolick Legates presiding therein ought to be left out because it was not of ancient use He farther added that great and pompous Titles of Councils were not to be affected since every thing there ought to favour of Moderation and Humility The Legates took the first part of the Advice of the Bishop of Lanciano and past by the second so that notwithstanding all opposition the Title stood as it had been sent from Rome The rest of the Decree past without any difficulty for it could not be called in question seeing it contained nothing but exhortations to all to lead a Christian honest and a sober Life It enjoyned all the Members of the Council that were Priests to say Mass at least once every Sunday and in the conclusion of the Decree they Council declared that if any one in the Assemblies should speak out of his turn or sit out of his place he should not thereby sustain any prejudice nor yet forfeit nor acquire any right session 2 The seventh of January the second Session was held 1546. in the which were present twenty eight Bishops four Archbishops three Abbots of the Congregation of Mount Cassin four Generals of Orders who with the three Legates and the Cardinal Bishop and Lord of Trent made up an Assembly of three and forty Persons This company met in the house of the first Legate and from thence went in great Pomp through a lane of Musqueteers to the Cathedral So soon as the Prelates entred the Church the Souldiers drew up round the place and gave a Volley then was Mass said and a Sermon preached after which the Decree was read and all answered with a Placeâ— except the French who persisted in demanding the words universam ecclesiam representans to be added to the Title This being done the next Session was appointed to be on the fourth of February year 1546 The Legates complaine that there appeared division in the very Session and pretend to enter upon business There was no Congregation held untill the thirteenth of January wherein the Legates complained that opposition had been made to the Title of the Council even in the Session alledging that it was neither prudence nor wisedom publickly to break out into diversity of Sentiments because nothing could prevail more to bring the Lutherans to submit to the Council than the harmony union that should appear in their Proceedings Afterwards they gave it out that they intended to enter into matters of importance as the Prelates desired They proposed to them the three Heads contained in the Pope's Bull for which the Council was called to wit the extirpation of Heresies the reformation of Discipline and the restauration of Peace they asked the Bishops counsels concerning the Order wherein these three Points ought to be handled beseeching them to pray for the assistance of God in it and to come prepared for treating thereof in the next Congregation This was so much time gained during which the Legates expeded Letters from Rome They had wrote to Rome to know if the Pope would be satisfied that they should remit any thing as to the words in the Title representing the Universal Church but in particular they acquainted him that they were informed by Cardinal Pacieco that the Emperour had enjoyned the Spanish Bishops to repair to the Council and that therefore it was necessary that he should send ten or twelve trusty Italian Prelates on whom he might rely to be opposed to the Spaniards that were to come because the Italians who were then at Trent were men of no great interest nor authority The second Congregation was held the eighteenth of January where opinions were given about the method of handling the three above mentioned Heads The Germans alledged that there could be no hopes of success in the extirpation of Heresies before the Church was reformed and that therefore before all things they should set about a Reformation The others though in very small number were for taking a quite opposite Course and that they should begin with matters of Faith There was a third party of opinion that they should treat of Doctrine and Reformation at one and the same time which opinion prevailed in the Sequel but it was not the Legates intention that any thing should be concluded in that Congregation they therefore broke it up and referred the matter to another time This indeed was resolved upon that the Congregations should be regularly held twice a week to wit Munday and Friday to avoid farther trouble in calling them The Legates wrote again to Rome urging that they might at length have instructions sent them as had been promised and money for the poor Bishops because they could no longer amuse the Prelates with Preliminaries that the time of the third Session drew nigh and no body could tell what might be decided in it The Pope was in no haste the Council was least in his thoughts for he was wholly bent upon a War which Cardinal Farnese had the year before concluded with the Emperour against the Lutherans A great party of the Council are for beginning with Reformation but the Legates oppose it During these delays that party of the Prelates which was for beginning the actions of the Council by the reformation of Discipline grew strong and that was quite contrary to the intentions of the Court of Rome which aimed onely at the Lutherans and dreaded a Reformation The Legates therefore who had for a long time dextrously evaded that proposition were at length forced to oppose it openly in a Congregation of the twenty second of January and made use of this reason that stood them in great stead That the Emperour had
of July was put off till the thirteenth of January following These seven Months were spent in Disputes for the Legates loosed the Reins to the Divines and left them to that humour of jangling and contradiction to which they are most commonly too much addicted Next day after the Session that had been held the seventeenth of June the Legates called a Congregation wherein they consulted of the matter which was to be decided in the next Session The Pope's Divines presented a writing to prove that after the business of Original sin which had been then decided The subject of Grace and Justification is chosen for the next Session the next thing the Council ought to treat of was the matter of Justification and Grace because it is natural to speak of the remedy after one hath discovered the evil that Grace is the remedy of Original sin and that that was likewise the method observed in the confession of Ausbourg On the other side the Emperour's Ambassadours persisted to urge that they should not pursue the examination of Doctrine but proceed in the matter of Reformation The Legates told the Ambassadours that it was always profitable to examine matters of Doctrine that it was good to be instructed and that that examination should not engage them in a decision of controversies but that they might afterwards be delayed as long as should be desired and that whilst the Divines should examine the matter of Justification the Bishops and Canonists should consult about Reformation They concluded upon this and ordained a search to be made into the Books of Luther and other Protestants to pick out of them the Heretical propositions that ought to be condemned In the next Congregation the Legates that they might be as good as their word moved that they might consult about Reformation Residence is proposed as a point of Reformation The Cardinal of Monte proposed the point of Residence and pressed the necessity of it affirming that all the present troubles and disorders of the Church sprung from the non-residence of Bishops because the vices of the Clergy and Heresies were occasioned faith working by Charity But the Jacobins and Cordeliers that were united against him carried it nevertheless they all agreed to condemn the opinion of Justification by faith alone A Debate about the nature of works that precede Grace Ambrosio Catarino maintains the opinion of St. Austin and the Protestants Afterwards the Divines disputed of the nature of works that precede Grace and most of the Votes were against the opinion of the Protestants who affirm that all works done without faith are sins But Ambrosio Catarino undertook the defence of that opinion he maintained that it was the judgment of St. Austin and St. Thomas He confessed that he had been heretofore of the sentiment of the School-men but that he had renounced it after that he had read the Scriptures and the Fathers and proceeding he censured the vain subtilty of the School-Divines who abandoning the Scripture and the Fathers suffered themselves to be guided by the false light of Philosophy He backed his assertion with the words of our Saviour a bad tree cannot bring forth good fruit and with those of St. Paul who says To be unclean all things are unclean Dominico à Soto a great Enemy of the Doctrine of Grace opposed Catarino with so much Passion that he called him Heretick and accused him of denying free will as the Lutherans did For his part he maintained that Infidels might fulfill all the Law that is to say that they might doe all the good works that are commanded though they did them not for the ends for which they have been commanded to wit the glory of God and eternal Salvation but he maintained that it was sufficient for doing an action without sin to observe the substance of the commandment He therefore asserted that without Grace one might avoid all sins and that he might a little correct the expression which seemed Pelagian he added that without Grace one might very well avoid every sin considered separately but not all sins taken together Just said he as one may stop all the holes of a leaky Ship in a hundred places if you consider them separately yet not be able to stop them all when you take them all together because one cannot be in all places and whilst one is busied in stopping of one the water gets in by the rest The Pelagianism of the School had taken such deep rooting in the minds of many that they did not even approve that exception of Soto's they would have had it allowed without distinction that men without the assistance of Grace are able to shun all sins In the next place they examined the question A dispute about the preparations to grace and the merit of congruity if works performed without Grace are preparations for Justification If Dominico à Soto durst have stuck to his principles having with so much vehemence asserted the goodness of such works he could not but have affirmed that they were immediate preparations for Grace but he durst not because of St. Austin and especially because of St. Thomas of whose Doctrine he made profession And therefore he fell off and said for justification But the Cordeliers who preferred their own Scotus before St. Austin and St. Thomas advanced a step and maintained that they were immediate dispositions and even merited justification Scotus was the great Champion for this Merit of Congruity according to whom the School-men said that it was suitable to the justice and goodness of God to assist him that does all he can according to the Maxime facienti quod in se est Deus non deest since that time they have restrained this Merit of Congruity to works that are performed by preventing grace before the infusion of justifying grace but before the Council of Trent the School was more than Demi-pelagian and maintained that men without grace might doe all kinds of good works even love God above all things and that these works were true preparations for Justification The Jacobins would have been very willing that there had been no mention made of that Merit de congruo because St. Thomas grew out of conceit with it especially in his old age Afterwards they came to dispute of those Motions which are wrought in the hearts of men by the first inspirations of preventing grace before the infusion of habitual Righteousness Luther was accused of saying that all these motions such as the fear of Punishment and an abhorrence of sin were real sins that opinion was condemned as heretical because they had agreed that those first motions of conversions are good works The Carmelite Antony Marinier maintained that this was but a dispute about words saying that these actions done out of the state of grace were like Lukewarmness betwixt heat and cold that they were in a mean betwixt actions done without grace which are real sins and those which are performed in the
the Court of Rome who are our determined Adversaries in the Controversie It is against the Pope that the Protestants contend they dispute his quality of Vicar of Jesus Christ of supreme Head of the Church of infallible Judge of Controversies By the dictates of common sense there is nothing so unjust as to establish him for Judge of a Cause against whom the Suit is directly brought But that the Council of Trent was a Council of the Popes not of the Church is most apparent For it was convened by him he presided in it it consisted only of persons who had taken an oath of fidelity to him and were for the greater part his Pensioners And indeed he was so much Master of the Assembly that it acted nothing but as inspired or commanded by him But it will be replied that the Pope being the natural Head of the Church and having the sole right of convening Councils and presiding in them he was not bound to lay aside his Character in favour of the Protestants who unjustly attaqued him Were a King whose Sovereign Power should by some persons be disputed obliged to divest himself of his Royal Dignity submit it to the fantastick humours of men The misfortune is that we are always pester'd with similies that have no manner of similitude A lawful Prince whose rights are clear and indisputable I confess were not obliged to renounce his Royal State But a King whose rights were doubtful false and contested by a Prince of the Royal blond and by the greatest part of his Subjects were obliged for the interests of peace to be content to sit down as a private person and suffer a Judgment of the validity of his Title Is the Pope a Sovereign whose rights are unquestionable Is it acknowledged genenerally that he hath the sole right of convening Councils and presiding in them without whose Authority no Act passed therein should be valid So far from it that the greatest part of the Christian world denies it It is not believed by the Eastern Church nor by the Churches of the North and South or of the Greeks Ethiopians Cophties or Russians that their Councils are unlawful because the Pope doth neither convene them nor preside in them The Protestants may be also reckoned for something not for their number only but chiefly for their reasons For they bring a cloud of Witnesses to demonstrate that the right of convening Councils belongs to the Emperours and that the Bishops of Rome have not always presided in them The first Council of Nice was called by Constantine the Great and Alexander the then Bishop of Constantinople did preside in it The second General Council was called by Theodosius at Constantinople at which neither the Pope nor any of his Legates were present and therefore cannot be said to have presided therein There is nothing farther from truth Râ—pi l. I. ch â—5 34. than what the Cardinal du Perron is pleased to affirm that the first Council of Constantinople besought the Pope to confirm its Decrees On the contrary the Church of Rome opposed her self in all that she was able to what the Council had done She disapproved the Election of Flavius whom the Council had established in the See of Antioch in the place of Meletius who died at Constantinople while the Council sate She favoured Paulinus who had been elected Bishop by a party in the Church of Antioch in separation from the rest She could never relish the Canon of this Council that ordains That the Bishop of Constantinople should have the Prerogatives of honour next to the Bishop of Rome because Constantinople was new Rome And even in the time of Gregory I. L. Ind. 15. Ep. 131. which was in the beginning of the seventh Century the Church of Rome was not as yet reconciled with this Council For Gregory affirms that this Council was not acknowledged in the West Yet after all the opposition of the Roman Church it passes still for a lawful and General Council To this I might add the third General Council assembled at Ephesus the fourth at Calcedon the fifth and sixth at Constantinople all convened by the Emperours and not by the Popes I might add to all these many other proofs of equal weight but being fallen but by accident upon this Dispute I have no intention to enlarge farther upon the proofs Yet I cannot but take notice that Pope Vigilius being at Constantinople in the year 553. when the fifth General Council was there held he would not assist in it nor did preside therein either in Person or by his Legates and yet the Council is received both for lawful and General There is then already just cause to doubt that the Pope hath such a right of convening Councils and presiding in them as to render them unlawful if called or managed by others But this is not all for a considerable part of the Roman Church it self hold this opinion to be most false That the Pope hath the sole right of convening General Councils and presiding in them All the Gallican Church and generally all that own the Councils of Constance and Basil that is to say at least France and Germany are of this Judgment The Council of Constance could not be convened by a lawful Pope for it assembled it self at the solicitation of the Christian Princes and by the authority of the College of Cardinals for the deposing of three Popes who were then sitting the one at Rome being Gregory XII another at Bologna being John XXIII the third at Avignon being Benedict XIII Not one of these Popes could preside in this Council being all thither cited and there condemned as false Popes The Cardinal of Cambray did preside in the third Session Cardinal Vrsini in the fifth John Bishop of Ostia Cardinal and Vice-Chancellour of the Roman Church presided in the seventh and in all the rest till the Election of Martin V. John XXIII being deposed and retired the Council declared in the third Session That by the departure of the Pope the Council was not dissolved but did still continue in its full authority In the Council of Basil Pope Eugenius IV. could not possibly preside for he was there condemned and deposed and Amadeus Duke of Savoy elected in his stead In the seventeenth Session the same Council declares that during the absence of the Presidents the first Prelate shall have the right of presiding without waiting for the Popes Commission This one would imagine doth not seem to import that a Council must be only under the direction of a Pope or of those that are Commissioned by him I am not Ignorant that the Decrees of the Councils both of Basil and of Constance are had in extreme horror by the Court of Rome But I know also that that doth not hinder but that the Gallican Church and divers others do receive and approve them And that suffices to shew that the rights of the Pope were not so clear and uncontested but
they chance to agree in any opinion with us it is presently made a crime Neither is it here extremely important whether they are in the right or not It is enough for us that they zealously condemn whatsoever favours the abolition of Canonical Elections For thereby they are necessarily engaged to condemn that Canon of the Council of Trent which pronounces an Anathema against such as hold Session 23. Canon 7. that Orders may not be conferred without the consent or call of the People or of the Secular Powers Methinks Canonical Elections should be such as are made according to the ancient Canons and in the Form prescribed by the Custom and Constitutions of the ancient Church Those that have any sort of knowledge of Antiquity can never say that the ancient Canons do declare with the Council of Trent that the consent and the call of the People is not necessary to a lawful Ordination There is no going on with instances to the Primitive times for that were to oppress the Reader with the multitude as well as to convince him by the strength of Testimonies I shall therefore pass by Matthias and Barsabas who were presented to God to chuse one by Lot to compleat the number of the Apostles Acts 1.13 and their being elected by the whole Assembly of Brethren I shall say nothing of St. Cyprian's refusing to establish a Sub-Deacon or a Chanter without consulting his People Epist 33 34. 37. In the Ordination of Clerks says this holy Martyr to his People we are wont my dear Brethren to consult you and to weigh in a Publick Assembly the manners and vertues of such as are to be received It is he that says in his 68 Epistle that chiefly to the People belongs the right of electing of Priests worthy of that Vocation and to reject the unworthy It is he that describing the Canonical Election of a Bishop Epist 55. § 7. says That he is elected and chosen by the suffrages of all the People with peace that is without divided opinions and without heats and contests I shall not mention the People of Cyzicus who chose themselves a Bishop as Socrates tells us in the seventh Book of his History Chapter 28. Theodoret in his fourth Book Chapter 22. speaks of a Letter of Peter Bishop of Alexandria Successor to St. Athanasius where in accusing the Ordination of Lucius a pretended Bishop he acquaints us what were Canonical Ordinations That man was not established by the Assembly of Bishops by the suffrage of the Clergy and at the request of the People The same thing is to be seen in the Synodal Epistle of the Council of Constantinople the second General where the Fathers say Theodor. Hist l. 6. c. 9. That they have established Nectarius Bishop of Constantinople in the presence of the Emperour Theodosius and by the approbation of all the Clergy and of all the People I shall not speak of the Election of St. Ambrose Bishop of Milan which was done by the People nor shall I bring an hundred other Proofs than I am able to produce to demonstrate that the voice of the People is necessary in all Canonical Ordinations and Elections I will only say that in those Ages wherein the Discipline of the Church began extremely to relax it was yet acknowledged that according to the ancient Canons Elections ought to be made by the Votes of the People or at least by their consent Gratian who lived about the middle of the twelfth Century does in his Decretal bring divers proofs of this matter For instance in the Canon quanto there is an Extract out of the second Book of the Epistles of St. Gregory the Great drawn from Epist 30. Distinct 63. Chap. 69. wherein the Pope after the death of Laurence Bishop of Milan orders to Elect him a Successor not by the Votes of the Clergy only but of all the People And because many of the People of Milan were at that time retired to Genoa to avoid the Calamities of War Gregory requires that persons be sent to Genoa to take the Votes of the absent In the Canon Plebs Diotrensis he relates an Ordinance of Gelasius who lived in the year 492. by which that Pope declares that a Bishop is to be chosen by the suffrage of all the People Leo I. was Bishop of Rome thirty or forty years before this Gelasius In the 87. of his Epistles he says it is necessary to render an Election Canonical that the chief of the Laity do give their Votes as Gratian reports it in the same Distinction in the Canon Vota civium Again in the Canon Sacrorum we have an Ordinance drawn from the Capitula of Charlemagne and of Louis le Delonnaire his Son which declares that Bishops are to be elected and established by the Votes of the People and of the Clergy and not otherwise One might descend yet lower to the Canonical Elections made by the Votes of the People nearer to our times But it is not needful and possibly what we have already spoken of this matter is superfluous this Article not being contested It remains then only to remark that this so constant practice of the pure and primitive Church is condemned as Heretical by the Council of Trent It will without question be replied that this Canon of the Council concerns only the Ordination of Priests and not the Election of Bishops that the Council only condemns the Lutheran Opinion that Vocation depends of the People and does not condemn the Canonical Election of Bishops made by the Votes of the People But the Canon immediately following shews the vanity of this reply wherein the Council declares that such Bishops as have been promoted by the only authority of the Pope without any Assembly of Bishops consent of Clergy or suffrage of the People are true and lawful Bishops and Anathema is pronounced against all that believe otherwise Is not that a condemnation of the Sentiments of the Fathers who say that a Bishop who is not elected by his Clergy chosen by his People and consecrated in an Assembly of Bishops is not a true Bishop When the Council says that a Bishop who is neither elected by his Clergy chosen by his People nor Consecrated by other Bishops is yet a lawful Bishop if sent by the Pope If this be not to anathematise Canonical Elections there is no such thing as common sense or else it is come in fashion for things to be expressed by terms of just opposite signification How can it be that it is not intended to exclude the People from the right of giving their Suffrages in the Election of Bishops by the Canon which says that Consent and Vocation are not necessary to the validity of Ordination For if the People have no voice in the Election of a Priest how is it that they may vote in the Election of Bishops superiour to Priests If it be further replied that the Election and the Ordination
both of Priest and Bishop are to be distinguished that the People may have voice in the Election but can have none in the Ordination I answer that Ordination is but a consequent of Election and when the People vote in the Election of a Pastour they do it to the Ordination But in the Roman Church the People have no voice neither for Election nor Ordination This therefore ought to be a fixed and determined Point among all that wish for the re-establishing of Canonical Elections i. e. that the Council of Trent hath erred in destroying them It only remains to see whether it be an Error simply in Discipline or in Doctrine But this can admit of no difficulty the two Canons of the Council of Trent which ruine Canonical Elections are in the Decree of the Doctrine of the Sacrament of Orders and not in that of Reformation which relates to Discipline And indeed it is clearly a Point of Doctrine that absolutely depends upon that great Principle maintained against the Court of Rome by the Followers of Gerson that is that the Keys were given not to the Person of St. Peter but to the whole Church This says the Author of the Apology for Gerson is the principal Point of the Controversie In Prafations that this most Orthodox Doctor lays down as does St. Austin for a most strong and firm support of the Sentiments of the Vniversity of Paris that Jesus Christ immediately and by himself gave the Keys to the whole Church in General and considered as a Body to the intent that the power of them might be exercised by one And consequently St Peter and the other Prelates considered apart are in possession of the Keys but ministerially and instrumentally as representing the whole Church to which the Keys do appertain principally and in respect of dominion Vide Tract 124. in Joh. and Tract 50. It is certain that St. Austin's opinion is that Christ gave the Keys to the whole Church in general as composed of the People and of the Clergy Now it that be so most certainly the Votes both of the People and of the Clergy are necessary to a lawful Ordination For if the Keys belong to Christians in general they are not to be intrusted but by a general consent This may suffice to shew that the Council of Trent hath erred even by the confession of a great part of the Church of Rome and that it hath erred in points of Doctrine I will only add a word or two about Clandestine Marriages The Council in Session 24. hath declared them to be null This is a point of Doctrine for it is a question that directly touches the matter of Sacraments that is to say Whether the Church can invalidate an action which was till then a true Sacrament For the Council declares that Clandestine Marriages are true Sacraments and at the same time declares them to be null and void It must therefore have a Power of annulling true Sacraments And this is a question of Right and a point of Doctrine if ever there were any Nevertheless upon this point which is a matter of Doctrine the Church of Rome does not conceive her self bound to believe that the Council hath not erred Treatise of the Interdâ—â—â— of Paul V. First Propositiâ—â— The Divines of the Republick of Venice tell us that the Decree of the Invalidity of Clandestine Marriages which belongs to the matter of the Sacrament according to the universal Opinion is not obligatory in places where the Council hath not been promulgated So that it is agreed on all hands that in such places Clandestine Marriages are good To conclude it were unjust to oblige us to have a better Opinion of the Council of Trent than the very Fathers of that Council had But to consider the manner of their words and actions it is a very hard matter to think that they themselves were convinced that that Assembly was infallible There can be nothing more true and more judicious than what was said by Baptista Cigale Bishop of Albenga when the Canons upon the matter of the Sacraments were to be formed That no Man ever quitted his Opinion meerly because condemned and that when Doctors remit matters to the Judgment of the Church it is no more than a civility and should not be abused This Man spake as he thought and I am mistaken if one that talks thus be well satisfied that Councils are infallible If an instance be required of the truth of this expression of the Bishop of Albenga it is found in this very Council in the conduct of the Arch-Bishop of Granada and of the Spaniards upon the question Whether our Lord did Sacrifice himself in the Institution of the Eucharist It is certainly an important question the famous Controversie of the Sacrifice of the Mass depending absolutely upon it The Arch-Bishop and his Partizans after the decision of the matter persevered in their Opinion and even in their opposition until the very moment the Decree was published They were not in all appearance convinced that the Council was infallible but on the contrary they seemed strongly persuaded that it had erred in a point of Doctrine of great importance These are the Principal reasons brought by the Protestants to evince that they cannot with justice be obliged to submit to the Decisions of the Council of Trent They have also other Reasons that persuade them that they are obliged not to submit to it as that they believe that this Council hath established Errors that destroy the true Religion But it is not our intent to report or examine them It is manifest that the understanding of the Reasons we have produced does wholly depend upon knowing the History of this Council And consequently it is highly necessary for all such Protestants to be well instructed in this History as are desirous to be able to defend the refusal they make as Protestants to submit to the Council of Trent The difficulty may be to find a faithful Historian who may be credited in the matter For it is certain that every one is not to be believed in it We are told that the Collections that the Lutherans may have made upon the conduct of the Council can deserve but little Faith that they were Parties that Objects are strangely transformed by Passion and that a relation by the Pen of an Author partial and by assed carries with it the tincture of his Passions But it hath pleased God in his Providence to raise up even in the Church of Rome a Wise a Moderate a Judicious and sincere Man one that in a word was the greatest Man of his Age who hath carefully wrote this History He has all the Perfections required to compleat an Historian Of great Judgment and Abilities strong and clear Sense perfectly instructed in Affairs of a vast penetration and one that wanted no kind of assistance needful to the compleating his Work When this Author began to appear in the World the
the History of Father Paul because he says that that Historian makes mirth with every thing and is much too airy in so serious a subject Whereas never was any Work of a more different Character more wise more moderate more free from foolish trisling mirth So that because in the body of so large a Work there are found some few Railleries of Persons dissatisfied with the Council reported with the fidelity of an exact Historian to call this a continual drolling is willingly to expose his Reputation and his Judgment But if in this particular I was much surprized I could hardly believe my eyes in reading another Period some few Pages following in the same Book That this History is a Satyr upon the Roman Church and Religion Pag. 130. of which he exposes a train of knaveries to be revenged of the Pope for deluding him with the vain hopes of being made a Cardinal This is surprizing indeed and permission and with a Preface giving it high Eulogies of Sincerity But France is not a place where Libels and Satyrs against the Roman Church are published with approbation and permissión True it is that Father Paul lays open the very bottom of the conduct of the Roman Court and plainly shews it to be governed meerly by humane Policy Yet are his Enemies very imprudent to impute that to him as a Crime because that Imputation constrains his Defenders to make it apparent that the History of Cardinal Pallavicini is a thousand times more injurious to the Council of Trent and to the Court of Rome than is that written by Father Paul This latter indeed is accused to have expressed discontent and spite against that Court for discovering the Maxims of its Policy and shewing its aim to be onely Power and Greatness and that it had no regard to the Interests of Piety and Religion But it is most certain that Cardinal Pallavicini does expose it under that Character extreamly more than Father Paul The Father contents himself with remarking its Conduct and giving us the History of its Actions without saying much of its Maxims But the Cardinal gives us the naked View of all the Maxims of the Roman Polity shews us the very Basis of it and that it consists of humane and carnal things blended with things dangerous and criminal It is true that in proposing the Maxims of this Polity he undertakes also to defend it and makes a mighty merit of it in those that are the Guides and Directors of the Roman Church whilest those that are of contrary Sentiments pass with him for sottish ignorant and blind Zealots But in praising these Criminal Maxims he does not make them better The difference between Father Paul and Cardinal Pallavicini is this Father Paul in giving us the History of the Polity of the Court of Rome has done it in such a manner as plainly shews his dislike of it and Pallavicini represents it too as it is but wounds it deeper by his Apology than its Enemies do by their most severe Invectives For had he gone about to shew us that the Maxims of the Court of Rome and the Principles of its Morals are directly opposite to the Spirit of Christ and Christianity he could have gone no better way to work The Gospel represents the Church as a Society of People who should take up their Cross â—enounce the World and worldly Maxims and Policies and even themselves who should despise the Pomp the Wealth and Pleasures of the World and onely glory in their sufferings their Poverty their Mortification and their Good Works and who should draw Unbelievers to the Yoke of Christ by ways of mildness by humility and by the exercise of a sincere and ardent Charity But let us see after what sort Pallavicini represents the Roman Church 1. L. 1. c. 23. He confesses that she mixes in her conduct carnal and worldly Polity that her present Government is framed by the rules of this World and maintains that to be according to the intention of Christ 2. Ibidem He confesses that the Churches aim is to augment her Wealth and Glory and says that she ought to endeavour to possess the perfection of humane happiness for that Christ hath framed her in the most fit manner to enjoy such happiness and so as that if Plato and Aristotle were living they would avow that according to the Rules of their worldly Wisdom and Philosophy L. 12. c. 3. there could not be a more noble and excellent form of Republick than the Christian 3. And therefore as according to the Idea of the Wise Men of this World a Republick to be fortunate and well formed ought to be opulent flourishing in Wealth abounding in pleasures and full of Wise Men according to humanity L. 19 c. 9. L. 17. c. 10. L. 23. c. 3. Introd c. 6. L. 24. c. 12. so he will needs have it that the Church should be the same and confesses that the Church of Rome is formed upon this Idea 4. In owning that this Church makes use of all the ways accused for Simonical to heap up Money he undertakes to defend this Simony and all the means she uses to maintain her Opulence as First-Fruits Pensions Commendams Pluralities frequent Jubilees Indulgences and Dispensations given for mony 5. L. 1. c. 2. alibi passim Introd c. 10. He ridicules those that would reform the Church according to the Model and Idea that the Gospel gives us of it He terms such a Reformation an imaginary Whimsey only sought by People pushed on by blind Zeal and filled with extravagant conceptions Men that are enslaved to vulgar Opinions L. 1. c. 25. L. 16. c. 10. who know nothing of the World nor have any understanding in Affairs Pope Adrian VI. who acknowledged the corruption of the Court of Rome and was willing to have reformed it was according to Cardinal Pallavicini one of those blind Zealots who feed themselves with vain imaginations His designs were abstracted Ideas L. 2. c. 6. lovely in contemplation but whose form bare no proportion to the condition of the matter He was to blame to make so free a confession of the corruption of the Court of Rome L. 2. c. 7. it was too severely to censure his Predecessors and an indiscreet Zeal In a word such kind of People are the very Pests of publick Tranquillity 6. L. 17. c. 14. According to Pallavicini nothing is more horrid to the Church than Poverty and she ought to nourish this abhorrence in the minds of Men and her self strive to avoid this evil L. 9. c. 9. Those therefore who say that the greater part of the Goods of the Church ought to be given to the poor are the Churches Enemies and the Cardinal maintains that to do so were directly contrary to the humane happiness of the Church to Gods Institution and to Nature Ibidem He approves very well that the Goods of the Church be employed to maintain
of men un-refined gave no Entertainments with Balls and Comedies This is the Picture Pallavicini gives us of the Conduct and Maxims of the Council and of the Court of Rome And has he not given it an admirable Description Has Father Paul done any thing like it Has he ever said any thing more injurious to it Or is it possible for the greatest Enemies of the Church of Rome to give a more hideous Portraiture of the Morals by which they govern themselves at Rome Let it be no more said that Father Paul under the name of a History of the Council of Trent hath made a Satyr against the Court of Rome For a hundred such Enemies as Father Paul can never prove so injurious to it as the Illustrious Historian has who undertook its defence But let it suffice to have spoken thus much of Father Paul's Work a word or two now of our own In reading Father Paul's History one may remark two things The first that it is filled with things absolutely necessary to be known of all men but more particularly of the Protestants The second thing is that it is full of Theological Disputes and Reflections which makes it indeed most useful for Divines but less fit for others There is scarce any but a Profess'd Divine who could have the patience to read a Folio Volume of seven or eight hundred Pages of which two Thirds are most subtil and intricate School Disputes Which having already been tedious to the Bishops who were of the Audience it is not to be thought strange that they are now tiresom to the Readers So that altho this Work be exquisite in its kind yet it must needs be owned that it is useful but to a few The Original is in a Language that not many in this Country understand The Translation that we have of it is not new enough to satisfie such as can suffer nothing in our Language that has an air of Antiquity Both the Translation and the Original are full of Graces that can never decay And yet it is not to be denied but this Work hath lost some of its Beauties by changing Language For these Reasons it falls out that this excellent Book is not so much read as it ought to be It has been therefore conceived that the rendring this Work more Popular would be of great use to the World And that is the Design of the present Undertaking there being nothing of importance forgotten here yet Brevity is observed And as for the Theological Disputes you have here all that is Essential in them for the knowledge of the Nature and State of the Controversies that were managed in the Council of Trent You have the Principal Arguments made use of by the several Parties for maintaining their Opinions But the tedious Discourses of the Divines and Prelates which Father Paul reports at length and with great exactness are here omitted This History will at least serve for these two ends the one to occasion that abundance of People will inform themselves in the Conduct of this Council who had never done it if they had no other means but that of Father Paul's Voluminious Work The other to refresh the memory of those that have read that Work and let them review in little what there they saw more at large In some places there is a diversity as to Order between this History and that of Father Paul his being written in form of a Journal which is the most proper indeed for exactness but is not always so pleasing to the Reader Great Affairs very rarely happen without interruption several things intervene and one and the same day may produce divers great Events So that in observing the Order of Days one is obliged to take the Reader from a subject of which he would fain see the Issue and that makes him uneasie In this History therefore the Connexion of things is observed which in that of Father Paul are divided And tho I have here observed the Order and Number of Books yet there are many things in Father Paul's History at the end of the Books which are at the beginning here Nay there are some in a quite different Book as the circumstances of the great Quarrel between the French and Spaniards for Precedence They are dispersed in the three last Books of Father Paul but are here brought all together in the beginning of the eighth Book This hint was necessary because such as may have the Curiosity to read any Transaction at length or to compare the two Histories not finding their matter just where they looked for it might question the fidelity of the Present Historian But I begin to perceive that the length of this Discourse is a little contrary to the Design of this Work For it being composed in favour of those who have little leisure or inclination for long Reading it is to be feared they will complain we have been somewhat too tedious in the Introduction THE HISTORY OF THE Council of TRENT BOOK I. LEO. X. IN the beginning of the fifteenth Century the See of Rome being then universally acknowledged as Supreme in all the Western Provinces the state of the Church was peaceable and quiet enough There was indeed in the Valleys of Piedmont a remnant of people supposed to be descended from the Waldenses and Albigenses that retained the Opinions and Worship of their Ancestours and could neither be totally destroyed nor yet reduced to obedience and subjection but these Mountaneers being a dull and ignorant sort of people were incapable of forming any considerable party or of propagating their Sentiments amongst others and the rather because that all their Neighbours were possest with a bad opinion of them and had them generally in abhorrence and detestation year 1513 There were also in Bohemia some of the same Waldenses who went by the name of Picards and some of the followers of John Huss called Calixtins and Subutraquists because they did communicate in both kinds But these last cannot be said to have been enemies seeing in all things else they were conformable to the Church of Rome and though all these Separatists could have united and joined together in judgment and interest yet were they unable to make any great party or to cause any considerable revolutions Contests betwixt Pope Julius II. and Lewis XII of France It is true that in the beginning of the same Century the Church of Rome had been threatned with a Schism through the conduct oâ— Pope Julius II. a man of a turbulent haughty spirit and a lover of War for in the contests he had with Lewis XII of France he had proceeded even to the excommunication of that Prince Lewis on the other side made a party against Julius and the Cardinals whom he had gained to his Faction were assembled at Pisa in order to the holding of a Council and electing of another Pope but the Death of Julius happening opportunely at that time put a period to those differences
were to be followed Besides these there was a fifth Article proposed to be examined to wit if these matters should be condemned with Anathema's There waited on the Council about thirty Divines most part Monks who till then had been of no use but in making some Sermons in praise of the Pope and Council but now there is work cut out for them for they were employed to open the matters and to make the first inquiry into the controversies and hereupon they discoursed in Congregations appointed for that purpose in presence of the Prelates who afterward gave their Judgment upon what they had learnt in the Congregations of the Divines But the Divines had no Vote in consulting and forming the Decrees The heads above mentioned were therefore stated in the Congregation and left to the disputations of the Divines As to the first head that concerned traditions they were almost all very well agreed that they ought to be received as a part of the revelation of God's Will Antony Marinier is not of opinion that the necessity of Traditions should be made a point of faith But Antony Marinier a Carmelite Monk started a considerable opinion he did not think it pertinent to make that a point of Faith because for asserting the absolute necessity of Traditions one of these two things must be granted Either that God had forbidden to write the whole revelation of his will or that the Prophets and Apostles had written their books at random without design of transmitting that revelation by Scripture and that hence it was that part of that revelation had been written and the rest unwritten he urged that the first could not be proved to wit that God had for bidden to commit all his revelation to writing and that the second was injurious to providence which guided both the Conduct and Pen of these holy Writers He gave therefore his opinion that they should follow the Course of the Fathers who had made use of Traditions when there was occasion without making their necessity a matter of Faith This opinion was not at all like and Cardinal Pool one of the Legates censured it severely saying that it had been sitter to have been started in a Conference of Lutherans in Germany than in a Council Four opinions about the Canonical Books Upon the Article of the Canonical Books there were four opinions some were for ranking them into two Classes that in the first should be placed the Books which had never been contested and in the second those which had this was the Opinion of Luigi di Catanea a Jacobin who grounded it upon the Authorities of St. Jerome and Cardinal Cajetan who had both done so some were for having them divided into three Orders the first of those whereof no doubt was ever made the second of those which had been heretofore questioned but which now are received and the third of those of which no perfect Certainty was ever pretended to The third opinion was for reducing them into a Catalogue without any distinction and in a word some were for naming expresly those Books that had been controverted to the end they might be declared Canonical The Book of Baruch gave them more trouble than the rest because no Pope nor Council had ever cited it for Canonical but a certain Person made a shamefull remark that the Church read part of it in the Desk and that was enough to canonize it By the Eighth of March the Divines had made an end of their Conferences about the Articles proposed to them and next day the Prelates assembled in Congregation to consult conclude and form the Decrees They past the Article of Traditions ordaining the same Authority to be given to them Vergerio drawn over by the Lutherans at length openly declares himself as to the written word and referred to another time the point concerning Canonical Books some days after Don Francisco de Toledo the second of the Emperour's Ambassadours Collegue to Don Diego de Mendoza came to Trent and the same time Vergerio who had a Bishoprick bordering on Germany arrived there also This man was famous for many Nunciatures that he performed in Germany and several Conferences which he had with Luther and the Lutherans by Commission from the Pope But instead of convincing the Lutherans in these Conferences the Lutherans had convinced him and Vergerio had not so well disguised his Sentiments but that he had raised himself an Enemy one Fryar Hannibal an Inquisitour who stirred up a Sedition of the People of his Diocess against him He came therefore to the Council to justifie himself but was ill received and referred to the Pope Instead of going to Rome he resolved to return to his Bishoprick hoping to find the Tumult quieted But the Nuncio that was at Venice sent him orders to the contrary and was preparing to proceed against him by order of the Court of Rome In sine Vergerio took the Course of declaring himself openly and retreating into a place of safety he fled into the Countrey of the Grisons where he made a publick Profession of the Lutheran Doctrine and afterward wrote many things against the Pope and Church of Rome In the Congregation of the 15th of March it was ordained that all the Canonical Books of Scripture should be equally approved of and no distinction made amongst them but there happened great Debates about the vulgar Translation Luigi di Catanea a Jacobin was of opinion that the method of Cardinal Cajetan ought to be followed who had recourse to the Greek and Hebrew texts and had them interpreted to him word for word because he understood not the Languages This Cardinal was wont in his last days to say that they who contented themselves with the Latin text had not the word of God pure and without mixture of errours this Jacobin stood stiff for the Originals against Translations but the Plurality of Votes were for the vulgar Latin and for having its Authority to be absolutely established without any reserve And some were even for having it declared that the Authour of that Translation was guided by a Spirit of Prophecy One reason that influenced the Patrons of the vulgar Translation was that if they re-established the original Greek and Hebrew in their ancient Authority the Grammarians would for the future be the Masters of Theology and the Divines and Inquisitours be obliged to learn the Languages But there were some learned men in that Assembly who could not endure to have it said that the Latin interpreter had a Spirit of Prophecy Isidorus Clarius a Bressian Abbot of St. Benet an able man and versed in the knowledge of Languages refuted that opinion he gave a History of that version and shew'd it to be made up of an ancient Latin Translation which was called the Italick and the version of St. Jerome he endeavoured to prove that it was not the work of one man but of many and that it being made up of pieces patcht together
those religious Preachers when they offered to Preach in other Churches than those of their Order and that the Monks before they could Preach even in their own Churches should be obliged to receive the Bishops Benediction and in short that the Bishops might punish the religious Preachers and suspend them from Preaching in case of Heresie and Scandal The Generals of the Orders were not over well satisfied with these regulations but the Legates found means to appease them The Council enters upon the matter of Original sin notwithstanding the opposition of the Germans And now the Legates having received new orders from the Pope to handle the matter of Original sin set about the execution of that Commission Cardinal Pacieco a Spaniard and all the Imperialists withstood it again but all to no purpose for the matter must be so The first thing they did was to propose the errours that were to be condemned distributed into nine Articles But for the convenience of Dispute before these nine Articles were condemned it was thought fit to reduce the whole matter to four principal heads the first what was Adam's sin the second what is it that is derived from him to his posterity the third in what manner that sin is transmitted to his descendants and the last how it is pardoned and forgiven As to the first head it was agreed that Adam by his sin lost his original righteousness and innocence that by the loss of that innocence came the disobedience of the affections and the rebellion of the members which the Scripture calls Concupiscence They likewise agreed that these evils could not properly be called the sin of Adam because they are the effects and punishments of his sin rather than the sin it self So that they defined that the sin of Adam consisted properly in the action which he had committed against tho command of God and here they gave themselves the liberty to enlarge and dispute about the nature and kind of that action to wit whether it was pride or infidelity gluttony or simple disobedience They found more difficulty about the second head to wit what it is that is derived from the first man unto his posterity Hereupon many different opinions arose some followed the sentiment of St. Austin who will have concupiscence to be the original sin derived from Adam The Cordeliers were of the opinion of Anselme and Scotus who say that the privation of original Righteousness is truly original Sin and not Concupiscence because Concupiscence remains after Baptism which purgeth away original Sin Most part of the Jacobins were of the Judgment of their own St. Thomas who thinks that the privation of original Righteousness and Concupiscence made up original Sin so that the privation of original Righteousness is as the form and Concupiscence as the matter As to the third head that relates to the manner how that Sin is transmitted to the Descendents of the first Man as the matter is more obscure so the Divines found themselves more puzled about it all the various opinions of the School-men were offered and each of them had its adherents but that occasioned no great Debates no more than the fourth head which respected the manner how original Sin is pardoned and forgiven They all agreed that it is fully blotted out by Baptism and that thereby the Soul becomes as pure as the Soul of Adam was in the State of Innocence there was nevertheless some dispute betwixt Ambrosio Catarino and Dominico à Soto about the Nature of original Sin Catarino maintained that the privation of original Righteousness and Concupiscence could not be the true original Sin because these are rather the Punishments of Sin than the Sin it self and therefore he pretended that the Action of Adam was solely and properly original Sin and that that Action was transmitted to his Posterity by imputation by virtue of the Covenant that God had made with Adam at that time when he represented all Mankind and acted in the Name of all his Posterity he moreover denied that the Corruption of Sin could either be transmitted by the Soul or by the Body because the Body according to the supposition of that Divine can neither act upon the Soul nor the Soul upon the Body Dominico à Soto defended the opinion of St. Thomas and said that after the Commission of Sin there remains a stain and inherent quality and that that stain and that corrupt quality descends from Parents to their Children Whilst they were disputing about these four heads the Council at the same time were upon the censuring of the nine Articles that had been proposed in the beginning according to the relation they stood in to the four heads that were under examination The two first Articles that were proposed to be censured denied original Sin or made it onely to be derived to Children by way of imitation The Council censures the nine Articles of Doctrine which are imputed to Protestants about original Sin and were without difficulty condemned as heretical Not that they were found in the Writings of Luther but they thought that they had found in the Writings of Zuinglius that he believed not original Sin However the more intelligent and less passionate having well examined his expressions were of opinion that his design was not to deny the propagation of that Corruption nor the depravation of Nature but that he onely denied that that original Corruption could be referred to that kind of beings which are called actions reckoning them to be onely dispositions to action which is the Sentiment of the whole Church Erasmus was accused of maintaining some opinions contrary to those of the Church touching original Sin and of believing that it past from Parents to Children onely by example and imitation In one of the Articles taken out of the Books of Luther they made him say that original Sin consists in ignorance in the contempt of God and in the privation of the fear affiance in and love of God which they looked upon to be an extremity opposite to that opinion of the Pelagians So that Luther was not accused of denying original Sin but rather of making it consist in actions onely to be found in men grown up because Infants can neither contemn nor hate God this difficulty being often proposed to the Lutherans in the Conferences of Germany they made answer that by these expressions they meant inclinations to the contempt and hatred of God which shews that they onely offended in the manner of expression but because the Council was resolved to make every thing a Crime these harsh expressions were reckoned amongst their Errours The most important question that was discussed about that matter was whether original Sin remains after Baptism and nevertheless it is hardly any thing but a contest about words for all Divines are agreed that Concupiscence remains after Baptism and the question onely is then whether or no that Concupiscence be original Sin for if that be the remaining
Sentiment of the Lutherans that any Character was imprinted in the Sacraments why they might not be reiterated there was some dispute Dominico à Soto would have had it defined that that Character is founded on Scripture others were of a contrary opinion because neither Gratian nor the Master of the Sentences say any thing as to that and that Scotus confesses that it can neither be maintained by Scripture nor the Fathers but onely by the Authority of the Church And it is to be observed that that is the manner of this Authour when he would smoothly condemn an opinion It was decided against the tenth Article of the Doctrine attributed to the Lutherans that it is false That a wicked Minister cannot administer a true Sacrament Against the Eleventh that it is false that all Christians of what Sex or Condition soever may preach the word and administer all the Sacraments Against the Twelfth that it belongs not to all Pastours to encrease or diminish the Ceremonies of the Sacraments A remarkable opinion of Catarino about the intention that is necessary in him that administers the Sacrament On occasion of the thirteenth Article which regards the intention that is thought necessary for the Validity of a Sacrament there arose great Debates The Council of Florence had determined it to be necessary and that was a Knot not to be untied but Ambrosio Catarino Bishop of Minori started a very considerable opinion he strongly urged that the intention of the Priest could not be necessary because if so the Salvation of Souls would depend on the will of a man who might be so wicked as to administer the Sacraments without intention he aggravated the inconveniences of that opinion by this argument that if a Child baptised without intention should become a Bishop he not being truly baptised all the Priests that he might ordain would not be Priests and could not administer true Sacraments and that so many Millions of Souls would perish by the Crime of one single man He therefore concluded that the intention which is necessary is an external intention that may be gathered from the Ceremonies and is signified by visible actions which fully agrees with the opinion of the Protestants that overture was rejected though the Council was stunned with the weight of his reasons no man being in a condition to make him an Answer They decided against the fourteenth without any Dispute that it is false That the Sacraments have onely been instituted for the quickning of Faith There happened much less Dispute about the seventeen Articles of Baptism for without any Debate it was defined 1. That in the Roman Church there is true Baptism secondly that it is absolutely necessary to Salvation In the third place that Baptism administred by Hereticks is true Baptism and so of all the other propositions that were attributed to the Protestants which were condemned with great Unanimity The last of the Articles about Confirmation which related to the manner of administring it occasioned a somewhat greater Noise The Divines would have the Bishop onely to be the Minister of Confirmation but the action of Pope Gregory the Great puzled them This Pope permitted a simple Priest to confirm But the Cordeliers and all the School of Scotus who attribute this Power onely to the Bishop alledged that that had never been but once permitted by St. Gregory and that perhaps that action was no true Sacrament Thomas did indeed confess that properly the Bishop is the Minister of Confirmation but he said that a Priest might administer it by a permission from the Pope Whilst these matters were canvassing in the Congregation for Doctrine in the other Congregation where the Cardinal di Monte presided they treated about the means of reforming the abuses which had crept into the Administration of the Sacraments and it was ordained 1. That the Sacraments of the Church should be conferred gratis and no man allowed to take any Profit Alms or voluntary Gift upon any pretext whatsoever 2. That the Sacrament of Baptism should not be administred but in Churches and that in Mother Churches where there are baptismal Fonts and Chapels except in Cases of Necessity and when the Children of Great Princes were to be baptised 3. That no excommunicate Person should be admitted to be a Godfather nor any other under the age of fourteen and that they should not admit but of one God-father besides that there were some Orders made for regulating the Decency of Baptism but they are not very important There was not so much jangling amongst the Canonists about Reformation as had been among the Divines concerning the matter of Doctrine and yet they had much adoe to agree about the gratuitous way of administring the Sacraments The rigider sort would not have had it allowed to the Church-men to accept of any Present Alms or voluntary Offering under pretence of any contrary Custome and pressed hard these words of the Gospel freely have ye received freely give they added many Canons denouncing Anathema's out of the ancient Councils against that kind of Simony The Cardinal di Monte who otherways was not very zealous for Reformation powerfully backt that Party But others more remiss maintained that voluntary Offerings might be taken they produced for themselves a Canon of the fourth Council of Carthage which allows the taking of what is offered by him that brings a Child to be baptised above all they defended their Cause by the sixty sixth Chapter of the fourth Council of Lateran held under Innocent the third which permits it as a laudable Custome to give Offerings at the Administration of the Sacraments The Cardinal di Monte made answer that that sixty sixth Chapter of the fourth Council of Lateran ought to be understood of Offerings that have been always setled in the Church as Tithes first Fruits and Offerings that are made at the Altar and because they could not agree upon the matter they referred it to a general Congregation but the same difficulties hindred the Conclusion of that Point there also In the general Congregation they had much adoe to agree about the form of the Decrees concerning the Doctrine of the Sacraments At length they framed fourteen Canons with Anathema's concerning the Doctrine of the Sacraments in general ten about that of Baptism and three concerning that of Confirmation The Divines desired that besides the Anathema's Chapters might be drawn up as had been done in the point of Justification for publishing and declaring the Doctrine of the Church But they found it to be a very difficult matter by reason of the diversity of opinions They could not be so fortunate in this as they had been in the preceding Session when they found Ambiguous Terms that gave content to all for on the present Subject they could not hit upon Terms which did not cross either one side or other and that they had no mind to do being willing to please all Parties So that the Council resolved to rest
satisfied with Anathema's and that opinion prevailed the rather because the contrary was very judiciously opposed by Giovanni Baptista Cigale Bishop of Albinga who told them that never any man had forsaken his opinion because it had been condemned and that though all Catholicks do profess that they will refer themselves to the judgment of the Church nevertheless they do not do so but more obstinately defend their opinion when once it is condemned The Protestations said he that the Doctors make of submitting to the judgment of the Church are but Complements and terms of Civility which are not so to be abused as to be taken literally they are to be answered by a civil conduct and charitable deportment Every one was convinced of the truth of this in their own Consciences and therefore they yielded to that reason So that there was no decision made touching the questions in controversie amongst the Catholicks themselves that they might not condemn any nor give occasion to a spirit of Defection The Legates acquainted the Pope with all these difficulties and whilst they expected an answer they fell to treat of other matters In the Congregation of the twenty fifth of January the business of Reformation was proposed they came to speak of the remisness of Bishops in the discharge of their Duties and the Legates who were not vexed to see the blame laid at the Bishops doors and that they were look'd upon as the cause of all the disorders opposed nothing that was moved upon that Subject so the Prelates sported themselves with an imaginary liberty in declaming against themselves Giovanni Salazar Bishop of Lanciano was not so patiently heard because he attributed the source of all the evils to the abuses of the Court of Rome however he was suffered to speak But Cornelius Muis Bishop of Bitonto that spoke next refuted him and made it appear that the disorders proceeded from Kings who had the nomination to Bishopricks The abuse of the Plurality of Benefices and its various sources From this they went on to that thorny matter about Plurality of Benefices which was a hinderance to Residence because a Prelate who had two Bishopricks could not be in two places This Plurality of Benefices was introduced three manner of ways First under pretext that one Benefice alone was not enough for the maintainance of a Minister at the Altar more were given him and Benefices were distinguished into Compatible and Incompatible The Compatible are such as do not oblige to Residence and have not the cure of Souls the Incompatible are those that bind to Residence Though in the beginning they might make some scruple of annexing Incompatible Benefices yet they made none in joyning those that were called Compatible Now the sufficiency of a Benefice was reckoned according to the quality of the Incumbent for as a Gentleman or a Lord could not subsist at so easie a rate as an ordinary man so they allotted him more Compatible Benefices according to the Character he bore of Abbot Bishop or Cardinal The second cause of the multiplication of Benefices are Commendums Heretofore when a Benefice was vacant and for some reason as of Plague or War it was not possible to proceed so soon to the Election of a Successour he that had the right of Patronage recommended the care of the Benefice to some Person with whose prudence he was well satisfied during the time of the vacancy this Commendatary received the Fruits and was accountable for them But in progress of time it came to pass that under divers pretexts the Commendataries disposed of the Revenues of the Benefice and retarded as much as lay in their power the Election of him who ought to possess the Benefice in Title To put a stop to these disorders it was ordained that these Commendums should not continue above six Months But the Popes began quickly to grant them for much longer time and at length granted them for Life giving liberty to the Commendataries to enjoy the Profits during Life By this means a man could enjoy but one Benefice in Title but he might possess several in Commendum and even Bishopricks and smaller Cures were thus bestowed This was a very great abuse at which the Adherents of Luther complained much but the Court of Rome were so far from being ashamed of this abuse that they shew'd a prodigious instance of it at the very same time when the Lutherans most fiercely declamed against the corruptions of the Church and that was in the year 1534. when Clement VII gave all the Benefices in Christendom in Commendum to his Nephew Hippolito de Medicis for six Months to count from the day that he took possession of them with Power to take up all the Rents and to apply them to his proper use In a word the last way of evading the Canons which prohibited Plurality of Benefices was the Annexing of Benefices The Pope was wont to cast together forty or fifty Benefices and though they were in several Kingdoms yet that was reckoned but the enjoying of one Benefice according to the Canons because of many Benefices they had made but one But lest this Union of Benefices might in progress of time lessen the number of Livings it was appointed to last no longer than the Life of the Incumbent in whose favour it had been granted and that by his Death the Benefices should be reputed ipso facto disunited There was a necessity of abolishing these three abuses for hindring the Plurality of Benefices and the Prelates as to that gave their opinions with a great deal of liberty They spared not the Cardinals who possessed several Bishopricks nor the Court of Rome that by Dispensations favoured that corruption The Legates who feared that the matter might be pusht on too far seconded the overture that was made by the Bishop of Albinga of referring it to the Pope They said that it was a matter that principally concerned the Court of Rome and that it would be a disgrace to the Pope to be thought incapable of Reforming his own Court The Legates wrote immediately to Rome about it and the Pope gladly received the proposition He removed to Rome the whole affair of that Reformation by a Bull but the Legates durst not shew it because it was too ample the Pope therein taking too much Authority to himself and because the Bishops also who seemed to consent to that Reference opposed it The Spanish Bishops were so far from the opinion of referring the matter to Rome The Spanish Bishops vigorously bestir themselves for a Reformation but without success that they themselves undertook to give a model of that Reformation They drew up a censure in writing which contained eleven Articles for a very strict Reformation as for regulating the exactness that ought to be had in the examination of Bishops and Curates when they were to be preferred to Churches for obliging Cardinal Bishops to reside at least six Months in their Bishopricks for declaring
the Council was not obliged to hear him since the Letter gave not the Council the Title which belonged to them yet they would without prejudice give him Audience Vargas spoke smartly to perswade them to return to Trent But the Cardinal Legate answered proudly that he was President of the sacred Council Legate of Paul III. the Vicar of Jesus Christ that he declared the Council to have been lawfully transferred and that no threatnings could hinder him from continuing it On the contrary he threatned the Emperour that if he endeavoured to obstruct it he should incur the Penalties imposed by the Canons Upon that Answer Velasco read the Protestation wherewith he was charged which in the end came to this The Emperour protests at Rome and at Bologna against the Pope and his Council of Bologna that the Translation of the Council was null and unlawfull with all that had followed or might follow thereupon declaring that the Answer which the Pope and they had given was fraudulent and illusory and that the Emperour should not be obliged to answer for the Mischiefs that might arise from that matter Mendoza likewise on the other side having kneeled down in a full Consistory made the same Protestation to the Pope and having turned towards the Cardinals and protested also against them he withdrew leaving the Paper which he had read behind him This blow did a little amaze the Pope but he quickly came to himself again the Roman Policy was not at a stand in this Juncture they saw that matters would not long subsist in the Biass that was taken And therefore with a Sovereign and matchless Piece of Policy the Pope resolved to bring that affair about another way he well perceived that by that Act of Protestation he himself was brought in as a Party and that was an evident prejudice to the Character of a supreme Judge who can be judged by no man which he claims as his Right He therfore pretended to have understood that that Protestation was not made against him but against the Council and in a Consistory held the first of February 1548 he made answer to Mendoza that in quality of Judge he was very willing to take Cognisance of that Controversie which the Emperour had with the Council of Bologna that he removed the Cause to his own Judgment and that he had named four Cardinals Paris Burgos Pool Crescencio to make a Report to him about it but that was accompanied with long Complaints against that violent way of procedure which was never used but by those who had shaken off the Yoke of Obedience The Imperialists set light by that distinction they would not run into the noose and Mendoza declared that he had Orders to make the Protestation in the form wherein it had been made year 1548 In effect the Pope did all he could to make himself Judge of that affair that so he might not be looked upon as a Party He wrote to the Bishops at Trent that he was ready to hear them he discharged those of Bologna from entring upon any Synodal action untill the Process should be decided The Bishops at Trent answered cunningly to the Pope's Remonstrances insisted with him to remit the Council to Trent and accepted not of the Offer which the Pope made of judging in that matter The Bishops at Bologna were acquainted with the Letter that came from Trent they examined the Articles of it and made answer to them And then as if the Process had been sufficiently stated they pressed the Pope to give Judgment But he durst not because no body appeared to plead the cause of those of Trent and besides that he had no mind to clash any more with the Emperour out of whose hands he would willingly have got Piacenza He therefore bestirred himself with all imaginable care to obtain that place to be again restored to his Family but the Emperour refused to give it back This put the Pope into a Passion and made him threaten to excommunicate those that held it But Charles was not much concerned at these Menaces he briskly answered the Pope that his Conduct did infinitely displease him and that he should take notice that he could no longer suffer the Calumnies which the Court of Rome spread abroad of him as if he intended to make a Schism in the Church because he demanded the re-establishment of the Council at Trent that as to the City of Piacenza it was a Town of the Dutchy of Milan which the Popes had unjustly invaded within a few years that if the Church had any Right to it he should make it out and that he would doe him Justice The Pope essayed to cut out work for the Emperour by means of the Venetians and French but he found them in no disposition to it for he being now upwards of fourscore Years of Age it could not be expected that a League with him could either be succesfull or of long Continuance and besides his own interest being deeply concerned he was not willing to furnish the necessary expence for the War nor to part from such sums of money as he needs must lay out to make any considerable Levies amongst the Venetians The Emperour makes the Interim and a Decree of Reformation at the Diet of Ausbourg These misunderstandings and clashings having put the Emperour out of all hopes of bringing back the Council to Trent he took pretty odd measures at the Diet of Ausbourg He resolved to regulate the Affairs of Religion himself and for that end he named three Divines Julius Phlug Michael Helding Titular Bishop of Sidon and Johannes Agricola of Islebe by whose means he framed a certain Formulary of Faith about all matters of Religion to which he would oblige all the People of Germany to submit untill the Council should define them and therefore that famous Piece was called the Interim It contained thirty five Chapters wherein they endeavoured to qualifie those Doctrines of the Church of Rome which most offended the Protestants as for instance the Marriage of Priests was thereby allowed the Communion in both kinds granted the Sacrifice of the Mass was not called Propitiatory Liberty was allowed to cut off such Ceremonies as tended to superstition the Pope was onely acknowledged head of the Church for Union sake and for preventing of Schism and the power of Bishops was declared of Divine right When this Work came to Rome it met with many Opponents most part were of opinion that it ought to be opposed by the most violent means and strongest Antidotes not onely because it was an unparallel'd undertaking for a secular Prince to meddle in settling the Affairs of Religion but also because the Catholick Religion was notoriously wounded by that Interim But the Pope saw farther than all the rest he smelt out what happened that the Emperour had fallen upon the way of making both Parties against him and therefore he dissembled the dissatisfaction which he conceived at that attempt ordered
his Nuncio's in all places that they should exhort the Princes to have their Arms in readiness to constrain the Rebels to return into the bosome of the Church for it was not so much his thought to hold a Council for deciding of Controversies as to take from Princes all pretext of dealing with Protestants in the way of Lenity and Mildness The opinions of the Princes were extremely divided as to that particular The King of Spain approved both the Council and the choice of the place but the French refused the City of Trent and proposed Treves Constance Wormes or Haguenau The Emperour was of the same mind affirming that the Lutherans did abominate the Council which was begun that it would be impossible ever to induce them to come or to submit to the Council if a new one were not called He added that he could not undertake for the Empire before he had assembled a General Diet and that for his hereditary Dominions it would be hard for him to make them come to the Council if the Cup and Marriage of Priests were not again allowed them These proposals did not please the Pope he declared that he would never suffer the matters which had been already decided at Trent to be examined over again if it should cost him his life that as to the Restitution of the Chalice and the Marriage of Priests which were onely of positive right he should refer himself to the Council but that he would act nothing of himself alone though he had Authority to doe so The Assembly at Fontainebleau where it is resolved that a National Council shall be called in France and Severities in the mean time cease The Protestants multiplied in France and the dissentions encreased also The King was therefore obliged to call a numerous Assembly of the chief of the Kingdom to meet at Fontainebleau the twentieth of August in the same year 1560. Jean de Mouluc Bishop of Valence who was no Enemy to the Protestants and who wished for some Reformation in the Church gave his Judgment there for a national Council and for the forbearance of Persecution affirming that People were amazed at the Constancy of those that suffered which made them inform themselves about their Religion he was seconded by a great many more and Admiral Coligny himself presented to the King Petitions that had been delivered to him in Normandy which begg'd that a stop might be put to all Severities untill the Cause should be tried He added that having enquired whence these Petitions came they had made him answer that fifty thousand were ready to set their hands to them The Duke and Cardinal of Guise opposed these opinions and rejecting a national Council voted for the continuance of Severities The conclusion of the Assembly was an Edict ordaining the States to meet at Meaux the tenth of December ensuing and that if a General Council were not called the Bishops of France should assemble the thirteenth of January following that they might take their measures for holding of a national Council and that in the mean time Severities should cease That Assembly of Fontainebleau gave the Pope fresh Jealousies and he was the more afraid of the National Council because he found that the Protestants likewise demanded it He sent therefore orders to the Cardinal of Tournon his Legate in France to endeavour what lay in his power to prevent the Assembly of the Bishops and pressed the affair of calling the General Council He proposed it once again to the Ambassadours and represented to them the disorders that would be occasioned by a National Synod but he could not forbear discovering the true reason of the hatred which he bore to these National Synods in which he had not the absolute power They pretend said he to subject the Pope and Court of Rome to a Council but I am ready to lay down my life rather than to suffer it Pro fide religione volumus mori He would have the Ministers of Princes to give their opinions concerning that affair The Emperour's Ambassadour according to his Master's intention was of the mind that the matter should not be hastened too much that a Diet might be assembled to consult about it but the other Ambassadours consented to a speedy Convocation of the Council according to the intentions of the Pope In the mean time the Politicians looked upon all this eagerness of the Pope to be a kind of Comedy For they thought it a clear case that if he could not avoid a Council he would at least endeavour to put it off untill he had enriched his Family and his Nephews and that afterwards he would be willing to give others good Examples of frugality and moderation and bear more easily with the Reformations that might be made in the Council About the beginning of November Letters came to Rome from the Emperour's Court still pressing that the Council might not be called at Trent and that that Convocation might not pass for a Continuation of the former Council because the Place and that Continuation would be stumbling blocks to the Lutherans and would raise difficulties never to be surmounted France continued likewise in the same mind and the Union of those two great Powers in the same Sentiments put the Pope into a great deal of perplexity and made him thereupon hold several Congregations At length he resolved to pass over all these difficulties he minuted the Bull of Convocation The Pope formes the Bull of Convocation of the Council and still chuses the City of Trent and devised a form that might give content to all as well those who were onely for removing the Suspension of the Council as the rest who desired a Council to be called anew He gave this title to his Bull The Indiction of the Council of Trent which seemed to insinuate that it was to be a new Council but in the body of the Bull he said that he removed the Suspension and made use of the word Continue This middle way contented no body and displeased both parties However the Pope did all he could to perswade Princes to be satisfied and sent orders to his Ministers in France to endeavour to remove all Scruples about the word Continue because that should not hinder but that the affairs which had been decided under Paul and Julius III. might be reviewed if the Council thought it expedient year 1561 The opening of that Assembly was appointed to be on Easterday in the year 1561. And the Pope dispatcht the Bull into all places with Nuncio's to invite not onely Catholick Princes to the Council but all Protestant Princes also He sent the Abbot Martinengo to the Queen of England but she forbid him to enter her Dominions though the Kings that were in alliance with her had used all their interests to perswade her to receive him He had likewise designed to have sent a Nuncio into Muscovy to invite the Czar who is of the Greek Church to come to
January but onely with the Character of a Bishop but in the twenty fourth of February he presented his Commission and made a long discourse in praise of his Master at that meeting the Fathers of the Council were strictly enjoyned Secrecy About the same time Lewis de Saint Gelais Lord of Lansac was sent from France Ambassadour extraordinary to Rome The Pope was highly offended that the liberty of preaching had been granted to the Protestants by the Edict of January and Lansac's chief instructions were to excuse that action He cast the blame upon the misfortune of the times and the impossibility of resisting so great a Torrent because most of the great men were engaged in that Party The Pope was not satisfied with these excuses saying that he prayed God to pardon those who were the cause of so many evils The Designs of the Queen of France for Reformation However designs of afar different nature were hatching in France which would have netled the Pope much more if he had known them The Queen mother sent for the Bishops of Valence and Seez the Doctours Bouthilier Dispense Picherel and Maillard famous Divines to St. Germain that they might consult together about the Reformation of the abuses committed in the use of Images They were all almost of opinion to prohibit the making of any Images of the Trinity the rendering any worship to other Images and the carrying of any in procession but the Cross But Nicholas Maillard Dean of the Sorbonne did so oppose it that in this nothing was concluded no more than in the Conference at Poissy These Conferences were procured by the King of Navarre who favoured the Reformation but durst not advance towards it but slowly The Princes of the House of Guise the Duke and Cardinal of Lorrain entertained far contrary designs to those of the King of Navarre but by an action they did at this time they easily made it appear that what they would have had taken for Zeal in Religion was a piece of carnal Wisedom that struck at the Ruine of a Party which obstructed their way to the Crown They had a Conference at Saverne with the Duke of Wirtemberg a Protestant Prince and his Ministers In this Conference they endeavoured to engage the Lutherans in a League against the Protestants of France under Pretext that the Huguenots of France were Zuinglians and different from them in their opinion about the Eucharist These so Catholick Princes were very willing to enter into Alliance with Hereticks that did them no prejudice for the Ruine of other Hereticks who stood too much in their way as they thought but this Conduct created Jealousies in the minds both of the Pope and King of France because the King did not like that his Subjects should entertain secret Conferences with Strangers and the Pope understood not the meaning of such a Union with Hereticks and it was this interview perhaps that gave occasion to the Rumour that was spread abroad afterwards that the Cardinal of Lorrain was very favourable to the Confession of Ausburg Nay it was reported of him that after the Council of Trent he should have said that he had been once of the opinion of that Confession but that after the Decisions of the Council he had submitted session 18 February 26 the Session was held wherein there happened some Contests about Precedence betwixt the Portuguese and Hungarian Ambassadours The Ambassadour of Hungary as being a Bishop sate on the left side of the Church on the Legates right hand in the rank of the Prelates and he of Portugal as being a Secular sate on the right side where the Ambassadours and Oratours of Princes were placed So that in that respect they could have no Debate but the Quarel broke out when the Instructions of their Princes were to be read To compose this difference without prejudicing the Rights of the Parties the Council ordered that these Instructions should be read according to the order of time wherein they had been presented and so Portugal went first Then the Pope's Brief whereby the matter of the Index was referred to the Council was read for seeing Pope Paul had medled in that affair the Council thinking that the Holy See had taken the Cognisance thereof to it self would not undertake the Examination of it without the Pope's permission Last of all the Decree was read by Antonio Helio Patriarch of Jerusalem who had officiated This Decree imported that the matter of the Index was referred to a Committee named by the Council that the Council invited all who had made Separation from the Roman Church to peace and reconciliation promising in Congregation to grant them a Safe-conduct in the same form as had been formerly granted and the next Session was appointed to be the 14th of March The Legates had written to Rome to know in what form they should invite those who had shaken off the Yoke of the Church to repentance and of what extent the Safe-conduct should be The Pope judged it not convenient to grant an oblivion nor to invite Hereticks because it was his opinion it would be to no purpose and for the Safe-conduct he thought it might be granted in General terms according to the form of that which was given to the Germans in the year 1552. but he would not condescend that the same Safe-conduct should be granted to those who lived under the Inquisition Nevertheless he would not have that exception mentioned lest it might be thought that the Pope had not a Supreme Power over the Tribunal of the Inquisition and that he could not exempt any from the Rigours of the same In the beginning of March the Council held several Congregations about that point and at length the Legates brought matters so about that the resolutions of the Council agreed exactly with the Sentiments of the Pope So they adjusted the form of the Decree which was divided into three Articles In the first the Council granted the Germans a Safe-conduct in the same form as it had been granted them before In the second this Safe-conduct was extended to all places where they preached and publickly taught Doctrines contrary to the Doctrine of the Church In the third it contained this Qualification that though the Safe-conduct seemed not to extend to all Nations yet none who would return into the bosome of the Church should be excluded from the benefit of the Oblivion and that a Safe-conduct was also intended for that third sort But as to these last the Council did not perform the promise The German Ambassadours were still for pressing a Reformation and now the Emperour's Ministers desired that they would write to the Protestants to invite them to the Council As to this last point the Legates answered that that was the way to expose the Councils Letters to the danger of being used by the Protestants as the Nuncio's of his Holiness had been already served that is with insolence and indignity As to the matter of
Reformation having first twitted them with the absence of the German Prelates who of all others stood most in need of being reformed they resolved to give them some satisfaction And therefore on the Eleventh of March the Legates called a General Congregation wherein they proposed twelve or thirteen Articles relating to Reformation as concerning Residence The Legates propose twelve Articles tending to Reformation Promoâ—ions to Holy Orders Priests without a Title the Plurality of Titles and of Priests in great Parishes the annexing of Benefices that had Cure of Souls Unions made under pretext that the Benefices are two small if taken separately for the maintenance of a Curate daily Distributions the Validity of Clandestine Marriages concerning the abuses committed by Collectours or Alms-gatherers and some other matters of the like nature which shall be mentioned hereafter but a Rumour began now to be spread abroad that the Germans stirred again and levied Soldiers which alarmed the Council and for some time put a stop to all Deliberations and interrupted the Congregations so that the fourteenth of March the day appointed for the Session past without any thing done and Easter-holy-days coming on afterwards was the cause of another delay The sixteenth of March the Council gave Audience to Ferdinando d' Avalos Marquess of Pescara Ambassadour from the King of Spain and Governour of Milan wherein the usual Complements were mutually interchanged In the Congregation of the Eighteenth the Ambassadour of the Duke of Tuscany was also received in that of the twentieth of March the Ambassadours of the Catholick Cantons of Switzerland had Audience And in the Congregation of the sixth of April the Council admitted Andrea Dudicio Bishop of Tinâ—â— and Giovanni Colosvarino Bishop of Canadia the Deputies of the Clergy of Hungary The first of those two Andrea Dudicio is famous not onely for Learning but also because he turned Protestant afterward declaring that nothing had more inclined him to that change than what he had seen in the Council of Trent After the Easter-holy-days the Congregations were held without interruption from the seventh of April untill the eighteenth and therein the matters which had been proposed in the Congregation of the Eleventh of March were brought under Debate In the first place the point of Residence was argued with strange heats They enter upon the Point of the Residence of Bishops the Pope's faction essayed to put a stop to that deliberation alledging that it was a matter concluded under Paul III and that the care of putting in execution what had been decreed should be left to the People But the Archbishop of Granada and the rest of the Spaniards were for bringing the matter under examination again saying that a more effectual means had been proposed to oblige to Residence And the question if it be of Divine right is again started This Point is argued with extraordinary heat than those that were pitcht upon in the first Convocation and that was to declare it to be of Divine Right which presently put the Council into a Fermentation Paulus Jovius Bishop of Nocera who made himself remarkable by the singularity of his reasons was against the having it declared either necessary or of Divine Right He alledged that the Churches wherein Bishops resided were not a whit better governed than those wherein Bishops made no Residence and was so plain as to urge the Church of Rome it self for an instance which was full of Corruptions notwithstanding that for many ages the Pope had continually resided there He added that if Residence were declared to be of Divine Right it would prove a Source of Rebellion because when an heretical or scandalous Bishop was got into possession of a Church the Pope could never be able to punish him seeing under pretext that Residence is of Divine Right he might refuse to leave his See to come to an appearance that upon the same Principle the Curates also would find a means to decline the Jurisdiction of their Bishops alledging that by the Law of God they are placed immediate Pastours of their Flocks Giovanni Baptista Bernardo Bishop of Aiace stood up for the Divine Right of Residence nevertheless he was not of opinion that that question should be debated in the Council because that since the Council had no other aim but to oblige all to Residence it would be enough to make a Decree prohibiting all Bishops to discharge any secular office or employment in the Courts of Princes and that then he was pretty sure that few Bishops would be seen abroad out of their own Churches The Bishop of the five Churches a Hungarian vigorously opposed this overture and in a long Discourse made it out that for the space of eight hundred years Prelates had been employed in secular Affairs not onely with great Success but much Honour also to the Church and profit and advantage to States and that a custome of so long continuance ought not to be condemned Here the Bishops who were for the Divine Right of Residence made it visibly appear that their own hearts deceived them if they thought themselves prompted on by the Zeal that a good Pastour ought to have for the conduct of his Flock for they listened to the opinion of the Bishop of the five Churches with extraordinary delight and gave it great applause Nevertheless nothing could be more opposite to the design they had of asserting the necessity of Residence for it is manifest that worldly Business and Employments wherein Bishops are entangled are the greatest obstruction of Residence But both they and the Bishop of the five Churches jumpt in one and the same design to wit the Advancement of Episcopal dignity And therefore they liked any thing that made for that though it were by quite opposite courses all maintained their opinions in this cause with inconceivable heat and it was no easie matter to gather the Votes that the result might be known Cardinal Simoneta Legate held Residence to be of Positive Right and the Cardinal of Mantua thought it to be of Divine Right but durst not declare himself openly because of the Court of Rome which could not endure that opinion all that he ventured to doe was to affirm that the Plurality of Votes was on that side He had two Legates who joyned with him to wit the Cardinals of Warmia and Seripando But Altemps the Pope's Nephew was for Cardinal Simoneta who both maintained that the Plurality of Votes was for the Positive Right for determining this difference a General Congregation was held on the twentieth of April wherein the Presidents prayed the Fathers to give their Judgments upon the point of the Divine Right of Residence by a placet or non placet that that Article might speedily be decided When the Votes were gathered there were sixty eight who said absolutely placet for the Divine Right thirty three who voted absolutely non placet thirteen who said placet consulto prius sanctissimo Domino nostro and
seventeen who said non placet nisi prius consulto sanctissimo c. The Plurality was evidently for the Divine Right of Residence since there were sixty eight Votes to thirty three besides the thirteen who were for it with submission to the good will and pleasure of the Pope so that it ought to have been concluded but instead of that the Faction of the Court of Rome started great Debates and the rest of the Congregation was spent in much confusion which obliged the Legates to dismiss the Assembly and having consulted together they resolved to acquaint the Pope with all that had past and to expect his answer This was not managed so privately The Spaniards make a great bustle because the Legates will not frame the Decree of Residence according to the Plurality of Votes but that it came to the knowledge of the Spaniards who were for Residence Jure Divino they openly complained of it and said that it was a palpable oppression that though a matter had been put to the Vote and debated with all the Formalities yet they would not submit to the Plurality of Suffrages that they sent to Rome for the Decision of a point which had been lawfully determined in the Council that that violent conduct contrary to the Liberty of a Council had given ground to the blasphemous saying which was in every body's mouth that the Holy Ghost which presided in the Council came weekly from Rome in the Cloak-back of a Courrier and that nothing was more unlike a free Council than the Assembly at Trent In a subsequent Congregation they would have brought the matter about again but their minds were so exasperated that they could not be perswaded to speak with moderation insomuch that the Cardinal of Warmia who presided in it was necessitated to break off the discourse and speak of another subject To busie the Prelates he proposed that they would think of means of procuring the liberty of the English Catholick Bishops who were in Prison that they might come to the Council It was reckoned a very civil Proposal but very impossible to be effected because no body was in a condition to constrain Elizabeth and she was in no disposition to value the Remonstrances of the Council Whilst the point of Residence was in agitation other Articles of Reformation which had been proposed by the Legates were also started in the same Congregations Of Priests without Benefice The Scope of one of these Articles was to hinder the Ordination of Priests without a Title that is to say without a Benefice or an Estate of their own sufficient to maintain them because that was the cause of the vast numbers of Indigent and Vagabond Priests The Ancient Canons provided that no man should be received into the Order of Priesthood if he had not a Benefice sufficient to maintain him and a Flock also to take the cure of that Priests might not be without employment The Council of Chalcedon amongst others prohibited Ordinations of Priests who had not a call to some Church Long after that Alexander III. in the third Lateran Council held in the year 1160. ordered that no Priest should be ordained without a Title unless he had an Estate sufficient to maintain himself But all this care has not as yet been able to prevent the being of a great many Vagabond and Mendicant Priests since the fortunes of such men which are commonly very small being spent they must needs fall into Poverty The Spaniards who held Residence to be of Divine Right made it a Remedy against all Evils and alledged it would prevent the disorder they had before them because then Clerks could not be made without Benefices nor Priests in Title of Estates without a Flock and without doubt they were in the right Others thought it hard that men other ways qualified for Orders should because of Poverty be rejected and said that it was no shame for the Poor Clergy to labour with their hands in imitation of the first Preachers of the Gospel that after all the Poverty of Priests was usefull to the Church and facilitated the means of performing Offices for the Dead which the Rich Priests would not take the pains to doe seeing an Itinerane Priest without Benefice or Estate says Mass for the Dead at a much cheaper rate than they who are rich and have the cure of Souls This opinion was not well relished because it would have had Priests who wanted business in the Church to labour with their hands for a lively hood which was not thought suitable to the Dignity of the Character But another way to prevent the Poverty of Priests was proposed and that was that a Bishop should ordain no man a Priest who had not a Benefice or Fortune sufficient for his maintenance and to hinder the squandering away of their Patrimonies that it should be enacted that they could not be alienated Gabriel le Veneur a French man Bishop of Evreux did with much reason oppose this alledging that the temporal Estates of Clergy-men were subject to temporal Laws which many times appointed Alienation and that though it were not so yet such a constitution would be a fair means to make Priests remiss in paying their debts Of Free Ordinations The third Article related to the Money that is given when one receives Orders not onely to the Bishop and his Secretary but to the Clark or Notary that expedes the Orders Our Saviour said freely ye have received freely give for eluding the force of this Law about the tenth Century they hit upon a knack of distinguishing in Ordination the Collation of Orders from the Collation of the Benefice they would not own the taking of any thing for Orders because it is a Spiritual Grace which cannot be sold but they would be payed for conferring the Benefice which is a Temporal Estate and this kind of Simony got footing afterwards under the name of Annates or first fruits fees writing seals and other titles The abuse encreased by the institution of Itinerant Bishops who now-a-days are called Suffragans They are a kind of Lieutenants to Bishops who perform the Ecclesiastick and Episcopal Functions of the Diocess whilst the true Bishops in title who enjoy the Revenues are wholly taken up with the cares of the World These Suffragan Bishops having no Benefice nor Revenues were forced for a subsistence to draw Presents and take Alms from those on whom they conferred Orders The rich Bishops who could easily dispense with Alms let fly against that abuse and called it downright Simony On the contrary the poor Bishops who were present wanted not arguments to prove that they might take free gifts from those who received Orders they alledged that such as would hinder those free gifts had a design to extinguish Charity that the reasons which they made use of struck at all voluntary offerings that are made at Confession at Mass and at Funerals But the strongest of all their reasons was
by the fourth Point which concerned the granting of the Cup and for framing Decrees upon the rest reserving this till another time that they had prepared the Council to admit of it But the Spaniards suspecting that made a great stir and under Pretext that matters must be done in order they would by no means proceed to the fifth Point untill the fourth were adjusted This caused some disorder and bitterness among the Prelates which obliged the Presidents to dismiss the Assembly without doing any thing These abrupt breakings up of Assemblies were very frequent The way that Cardinal Simoneta made use of to break up the Congregations when matters went contrary to his intentions and Cardinal Simoneta with his address and cunning was the cause of all these Confusions when he perceived that matters went not according to his mind This Cardinal was intrusted with the greatest Secrets of the Court of Rome and was the chief of the Pope's pensionary Bishops who were not a few and who had orders to stand by him He had pickt out some of the wittiest and boldest of them as the Bishops della Cava and Capo d'Istria Zambeccari Bishop of Sulmona and Bartholomeo Serigo Bishop of Castellanetta who when they found that matters went cross to the intentions of the Court of Rome they interrupted those that were giving their opinions by raillery and turning their reasons into ridicule This never failed to occasion Debates from Debate they fell into Passion and so all withdrew without concluding any thing The Ambassadour of the Duke of Bavaria had been now two Months at Trent in quality of a private Person because of his pretensions of having Precedence before the Venetian Ambassadour who would not give him the Place At length he received Orders from his Master to yield and was publickly received in the Congregation of the seven and twentieth of June having made his Protestation that his condescension at present was onely for the sake of Peace and not to the prejudice of his Master and the other Princes of Germany He made a very long and a very free Speech wherein he complained extremely of the Corruption of the German Clergy and of the Concubinage of the Priests and enumerating the evils which had happened upon the retrenching of the Cup he urged hard that it might be restored to the People and demanded that Priests who had a mind to Marry might be dispens'd from their obligation to a single life The Council by the mouth of their Promooter gave him upon the spot a very civil answer The French Ambassadours took this ill and complained that the Ambassadour of Bavaria having spoken with as great liberty as they he had been notwithstanding civilly answered whereas their Speech had been refuted in a sharp and unbecoming manner The Emperour's Ambassadours finding themselves backt by the Bavarians thought it time to oppose the violence of the Spaniards who could not endure the demand of the Cup for the People They therefore drew up a Memoir upon that Subject which after the Ambassadour of Bavaria had spoken they presented in the same Congregation In that Writing they urged that Pope Paul and Pope Julius had been sensible of the necessity of granting the Cup to those who demanded it that it was the onely way to retain the Calixtins and the Kingdom of Bohemia in the obedience of the Church of Rome that in Hungary the People did already constrain the Priests to give them the Communion in both kinds by seizing their goods and threatning to kill them and that to answer those who in so haughty a manner desired to know who they were that demanded the Cup they gave them to understand that it was the Emperour himself The French joyn with the Germans in the Demand of the Cup. In the Congregation of the fourth of July the Ambassadours of France presented a Writing tending to the same end that is to say that they joyned with the Germans in the demand of the Cup. They pleaded that in matters which are onely of Positive Right too much rigour is not to be used and that it is good to comply with the weakness of those of whom we have the conduct This Conjunction startled the Legates who were afraid that things would not stop there They were pretty well inclined to restore the Cup to the Germans but they had no mind that it should extend to France also Besides the Pope's Party was alarmed at the reasons alledged by the French that in matters which are onely of Humane constitution a latitude ought to be allowed this seemed a very suspicious Proposal from the Mouth of the French who stretched that Positive Right to a great compass In effect Lansac the chief of the Embassie let slip some words in a great entertainment that he had been at some days before He hinted that the French wished that Divine Service might be allowed them in the vulgar Tongue that Priests might have liberty to Marry and that Images were taken out of the Churches so that the Legates were of opinion that for that time it was not convenient to meddle with the Point of restoring the use of the Cup. They treated about that in private with the Germans and at length brought them to consent that it might be referred to another Session and the French who stickled not much for it did not oppose the design but the Spaniards persisted to shew the aversion they had to the demand of the French and Germans However the Bishop of Lerida in Spain did not seem to be altogether against it for giving his opinion in the Congregation of the ninth of July after that he had profest that he was not of the mind that the Cup should be restored to the People he added that there might be some words inserted in the Decree for reserving to the French the privilege of giving the Communion in both kinds if they thought good that in that case the French might doe as other Nations did and amongst others the Greeks who did partake of the Cup by Virtue of an express privilege granted them by Popes which he said he had seen After the Congregation was up du Ferrier one of the French Ambassadours pressed the Bishop of Lerida whose name was Antonio Agostino very hard to tell him what Pope it was who had granted that privilege to the Greeks of communicating in both kinds The ignorance of the Spaniards in matters of Antiquity The Bishop made him answer that it was Pope Damasus This made du Ferrier who was well Skill'd in antiquity laugh and confirmed all People in the opinion that the Spaniards are very ignorant therein For Damasus lived about the end of the fourth Century when the Church of Rome was very far from giving the Cup by way of Privilege since for more than a hundred years after to abstain from it was by her lookt upon as Sacrilege as appears by the Decision of Pope Gelasus which is inserted in
Command to his Disciples but to doe precisely that which he himself had done for it is evident that these words doe this signifie doe that which I have just now done so that it is a matter of the highest consequence to know what it was that Jesus Christ did that is to say whether he sacrificed himself in the institution of his Supper for if he did not sacrifice himself neither did he command that he should be sacrificed They who held that Jesus Christ sacrificed himself maintained that it was absolutely necessary to assert that truth because the chief Argument of Hereticks against the Sacrifice of the Mass was that Jesus Christ did not sacrifice himself in the Eucharist But the opposite Party proved by irrefragable Arguments that our Saviour could not have sacrificed himself in the Eucharist They affirmed that the Mass is a Sacrifice of Commemoration of the Sacrifice on the Cross that Jesus Christ was not as yet sacrificed on the Cross when he instituted the Eucharist and that so he could not make a Commemorative Sacrifice of that which was not as yet come to pass They farther urged that neither the Canon of the Mass nor the Scripture nor the Fathers spoke any thing of our Lord 's having sacrificed himself But more particularly they said that either the Sacrifice of our Lord in the Eucharist was Propitiatory or not if it was Propitiatory that then the Sacrifice of the Cross was needless because the Sins of Mankind were expiated by the Sacrifice of the Eucharist and that if that was not Propitiatory neither can this be since it is the same that our Saviour offered In the Congregation of the twenty fourth of July it came to the turn of the Divines of the King of Portugal to speak One of them named Ataide took a Medium to prove the Sacrifice of the Mass Ataide a Portuguese Divine overthrows all the Arguments drawn by the others from Scripture for the Sacrifice of the Mass and departs which surprised many for he overthrew all the Arguments taken from Scripture in examining the several Passages he evidently demonstrated that nothing could be concluded from them to prove that the Mass was a Sacrifice he resumed also all the reasons of the Protestants and set them off in their full force and in fine concluded that the Sacrifice of the Mass was built upon no other Foundation but Tradition It may easily be imagined how this discourse was taken And therefore James Paiva Andradius a Portuguese Divine also did what lay in his Power to make amends for that fault he recapitulated all the Protestant Arguments that were proposed by Ataide and answered them assuring the Council that his Collegue had onely proposed them with design to have them refuted The Ambassadours and Portuguese Prelates endeavoured likewise to justifie him to the Legates Nevertheless within a few days after he left Trent and it is no hard matter to guess at the reason of it Amongst the last Divines that spoke was Antonino Da Valtellina a Jacobin who was not of opinion that the Council should confirm by Decree the Ceremonies of the Roman Mass and enlarged much to prove that there had been always great Diversities of Ceremonies in the Church For a proof of thâ—â— he instanced the Ambrosian the Gregorian and Roman Orders which are Rituals differing one from another the different Liturgies of St. James of St. Mark and of St. Chrysostome He mentioned also the Mozarabick Service heretofore in use in Spain into which Horses and Moresk dancing were brought in as Ceremonies signifying great Mysteries Gregory VII abolished that Service but even at the time of the Council of Trent it was still in use on certain days and in some certain places of Spain He therefore concluded that if the Roman Ceremonies were established by Decree it was to condemn those Ancient Churches who used not all those Ceremonies This discourse highly offended the Council but the Bishop of the five Churches seconded him and affirmed that they who condemned what he said were ignorant The truth is it was his concern to have that opinion pass that so under Pretext of Uniformity of Ceremonies he might not be denied that which he had demanded for Germany I mean that the Germans might not be obliged to follow the Ceremonies of the Roman Church particularly the want of the Cup and the use of the Latin tongue in Divine Service When the Congregations of Divines had made an end the Bishops assembled for forming the Decrees but the same Difficulties that were started amongst the Divines arose likewise in the Congregations of the Prolates Martin Perez Bishop of Segovia who had been in the Council which was held under Julius was of opinion that nothing was to be done but onely to 〈◊〉 what was then digested concerning that controversie Cardinal Seripando was not of that mind but alledged that the Canons and Decrees which had been framed at that time might expose the Doctrine of the Church to calumny and might give advantage to Hereticks because they were long instructions which give occasion to long refutations and against which the Hereticks find always means to make troublesome exceptions that to correct what had been done was not the way but that the Council must set to work a fresh to adjust the matters which opinion was followed They therefore fell to the making of new Decrees but they found it no easie task to pitch upon the reasons that ought to be inserted in the Decree for confirming the Sacrifice of the Mass some approving one reason and others rejecting it Cardinal Seripando one of the Legates and the Archbishop of Granada were on their side who said that it ought not to be put into the Decree that Jesus Christ sacrificed in the first Eucharist And on the other hand the Cardinal of Warmia was for them who would have that Clause to be inserted and this caused a great deal of Debate as we shall see hereafter In the Congregation of the thirteenth of August the Proxies of the Bishops of Ratisbonne and Basil were received The City of Basil was reformed and owned not their Bishop giving him onely the Title of Bishop of Porentruto but the Council strove to doe him the greater honour that they might comfort him for the loss of his Bishoprick And this being done they fell again upon the point of the Sacrifice of the Mass The Archbishop of Lanciano was of opinion that for ending all differences they should pass by the Chapters of Doctrine and onely make Canons with Anathema's as the Council had already done concerning the Points of Original sin the Sacraments in general and the Sacrament of Baptism Ottaviano Preconio Archibishop of Palermo speaking next opposed what had been said shewing that they ought not to omit the Declaration of the Doctrine of the Church nor the reasons which confirm it for fear of Hereticks because what course soever were taken they would never be quiet but that the
mentioned and demanded that it might be declared to be of Divine Right And then he vigorously proved that Bishops hold their Authority from Jesus Christ He brought a great many Arguments from Antiquity to evince that Bishops heretofore did not carry themselves towards the Pope as to a Sovereign Master that they called him their Brother and Collegue and for instance alledged the Letters of St. Cyprian and St. Austin to the Bishops of Rome He refuted smartly and in way of Raillery what the Divines of the Pope's Party said that either the Apostles were made by St. Peter or if they were made by Jesus Christ it was a personal Privilege and ought not to descend to Bishops as the Successours of the Apostles He maintained and explained the opinion of St. Cyprian touching the Episcopat that it is one but that it is divided amongst all Bishops of which every one has an entire share He said that the Pope was a Bishop as he and all others were because they were all Brethren that the Pope indeed was Chief of the College of Bishops but that notwithstanding that Headship he was still their Collegue having received his Authority from one and the same Master The Cardinal of Warmia according to the design that was laid interrupted the Archbishop of Granada telling him that they had no Controversie about that matter with the Lutherans To which the Archbishop replied that it was not so that they had Controversie concerning that with the Lutherans seeing the Confession of Ausburg puts no difference betwixt a Bishop and a Priest but what was a Humane Constitution And so the Legates could not carry the point of imposing silence on the Prelates for the Bishops insisted upon the same Subject and the Archbishops of Zara and Braganza stood stiffly up for the Proposition of Granada that it should be inserted in the seventh Article that the Superiority of the Bishop over the Priest is of Divine Right and maintained this Thesis by several Authorities that the Power of Bishops proceeds immediately from Jesus Christ Nine and fifty Prelates were of the same opinion and the number in all appearance had been much greater had not a great many been absent some because they were really sick and others because they pretended to be so that they might not be concerned in a Dispute that would produce nothing but trouble to those that should speak their mind freely as it had happened in the Debate about Residence The Bishop of the five Churches joyned with the rest in the opinion of the Divine Right of Episcopacy But above all an Hungarian Prelate a Cordelier called George Zischovid Bishop of Seigna delivered his Judgment on that particular in such a manner astunn'd all the Pope's Party For he said that it could never have entered his thoughts that a Council would have called in question whether Bishops were of Divine Institution or not and it was the same thing as if the Council it self should question the Divine Right of its own Authority For if Bishops said he be not of Divine Right the Council is onely an Assembly of Secular men wherein Jesus Christ presides not No man gives that which he hath not the whole is of the same nature with its parts and so by consequence it cannot be said that Councils derive their Authority from God He proceeded and said farther that the Bishops who made up this Council had been very bold to pronounce Anathema's if they thought their Authority to be onely from a man He prosecuted his Argument with so much vigour and made the truth of it so perspicuous that the Assembly was surprised at his Discourse The Legates found now that no means were to be neglected on this occasion they did not at first perceive what was drove at but they quickly came to understand that no less was thereby aimed at than the wresting the Keys out of the Pope's hands and the giving them to all Bishops in General they saw that the design was to make Bishops equal to the Pope onely allowing him the Dignity of Precedency This put them to their shifts how to ward that blow They set their usual Engines to work and solicited the Pope's Creatures to the end they might carry it by Faction and Parties And at the same time to quiet the Spaniards they resolved to grant them somewhat by framing a Canon in these terms that Bishops have from God the Power of Orders without mentioning the Power of Jurisdiction and sent Father Soto to solicite the Spaniards to be satisfied with that but there was nothing to be done with them This method not succeeding the Legates essayed to employ the Fathers about other matters to take their thoughts off from this and at length endeavoured to have the Decision of that Point referred to the Pope Nothing could be done in this unless they could bring over a considerable number of Votes and therefore to perswade some and to give a fair pretext of retractation to others who might be gained by tampering they set on Father Lainez General of the Jesuits This Oratour appeared in the lists with a premeditated Speech and if the truth were known composed by the four Jesuits who were at the Council and especially by Caviglione The Harangue of Lainez General of the Jesuits against the Bishops and the Divine Right of Episcopacy and what it produced That he might have leasure enough to enlarge the Legates designed him the whole time of a Congregation And therefore they made him absent himself from the last Congregation which was to be held upon that Subject and wherein he was to speak the last of all and held a Congregation on purpose to give him a hearing He spoke very handsomely for the space of two hours with a great deal of Rhetorick and Vehemence He laid down for his Point that in the Pope alone all the Power of the Church resides and this he endeavoured to prove by Scripture by the Fathers and by Reason He forgot not the Testimony of St. Cyprian who saith that there is but one onely Episcopat but he turned it into a quite different sense to that which the Archbishop of Granada had given it For he pretended that according to the Judgment of that Saint there is but one Bishop as one Episcopacy and that the Pope is that one Bishop who gives the Administration of the Power wherewith he is invested to others under him as he thinks good He maintained that Jesus Christ gave St. Peter alone the Commission of seeding his sheep when he said to him feed my Lambs and that St. Peter gave it to the rest in these words which are to be read in the fifth Chapter of his first Epistle feed the Flock which is among you that all Authority proceeds from the Pope that though Jesus Christ himself sent out the Apostles yet in that he did the Office of St. Peter that Bishops in all their Actions are no more but the Delegates and Substitutes
down the opinions and that therefore he ought to have an Assistant The Imperialists made Remonstrances much of the same nature and particularly pressed the necessity of Joyning an Assistant to the Clark of the Council The other mean low spirited Ambassadours made answer in general terms that they must continue the Council and endeavour an Union amongst the Members Whilst affairs were in this condition the Council being under a kind of suspension and no Congregation held the Bishop of Vintimiglia returned from Rome fraighted with Civilities and Complements from the Pope to all the Prelates and provisions also of Employments and Pensions which the Pope gave to some of the Council The Bishop of Aosta Ambassadour of the Duke of Savoy arrived and the Legates perceiving that they gained nothing by interrupting the Congregations and that it gave ground for murmurings and private Assemblies where the spirit of discord and faction grew dayly stronger and stronger resolved to begin Congregations again and to take the occasion of receiving the Ambassadour of Savoy They therefore sent the Bishop of Sinigaglia to the Cardinal of Lorrain to know of him if there were no means to satisfie the Bishops of France and to tell him that the terms of governing the Church Universal whereat they took so great offence are used by St. Bernard an Author which the Cardinal very much approved of The Cardinal answered steadfastly that the French Bishops did their Duty that all France fixed their eyes upon them to observe their Conduct that the French would never suffer that kind of expression which gives the Pope the Power of governing the Universal Church and that if it were again proposed the Ambassadours would not fail to protest in name of the King and of sixscore Bishops because it would overthrow the received opinion in France that the Pope ought to be subject to a Council When the Legates had received this answer they lost all hopes of gaining the French the Spaniards also grew more and more inflexible and Martin Gazdellun whom we mentioned before being lately come from Spain confirmed them in their steadfastness for having examined how all things went he said that he evidently perceived that the Council was not free and commending the Archbishop of Granada for his vigour and constancy he assured him that the King was extremely well satisfied with his Conduct and that if the Archbishoprick of Toledo came to be void his Majesty would bestow it upon him For all that they began to hold Congregations again and in one of the last of January the Ambassadour of Savoy was publickly received where he made and received the usual Complements The Congregations continued and so did their Divisions also The Pope's Party were closely lincked together and those who were not so favourable to the See of Rome on the other hand stood firm in their design of having the institution of Episcopacy and Residence declared to be of Divine Right The Legates and the rest of the Pope's Party saw that it was no time to carry it by open force they resolved therefore to let the heats cool and to tire out some so as to make them depart and to blunt the edge of others by long attendance and delay and so they took a resolution of putting off the Session They got the Cardinal of Lorrain to condescend to that delay but very aukwardly for he still complained of the Factions and private Cabals of the Italians protested that he consented to that delay onely out of complaisance The business was proposed in Congregation the third of February by the Cardinal of Mantua It was opposed but the Legates at length carried it that the Session should be Prorogued till the two and twentieth of April after Easter The Cardinal of Lorrain was nor vexed at that resolution though he seemed to take it ill For he was glad that matters might be protracted that he might see what became of the Pope who was old and always valitudinary He desired also to know how the affairs of France went that he might accordingly adjust his measures During this Interval the Legates resolved to bring under examination the matter of Marriage and though the French Ambassadours instantly urged that they might treat of Reformation they could not obtain it for the Presidents were resolved to spin out the time about matters that sew were any way concerned in Eight Articles concerning Marriage were proposed First whether Marriage be a Sacrament instituted by God or a humane Constitution They enter upon the matter of Marriage and reduce it to eight Articles 2. Whether Parents can annull the Clandestine Marriages of the Children 3. Whether it be lawfull after a man hath divorced his Wife for the Cause of Fornication to take another whilst the first is alive 4. Whether Polygamy be allowed to Christians and whether the Prohibition of Marrying at certain times be Tyrannical 5. Whether Marriage ought to he preferred before a single life or the single life before Marriage 6. Whether the Priests in the West may lawfully contract Marriage notwithstanding the Vow of Celibat or the Ecclesiastick Law 7. Whether Marriage ought not to be contracted within the Degrees of Consanguinity which are forbidden in the eighteenth Chapter of Leviticus without diminishing or adding any thin thereunto 8. Whether impotency and ignorance of what one does in contracting are the onely Causes that can dissolve a Marriage contracted and whether the Cognisance of Matrimonial Causes belongs to Secular Princes These eight Articles were divided amongst four Chambers of Doctours as those of the Sacrament of Order had been Whilst this was in agitation The Cardinal of Lorrain prepared to goe and wait on the Emperour at Inspruck The Bishop of Reims the most Christian King's Ambassadour at the Court of his Imperial Majesty cane to Trent to accompany the Cardinal to that Court and this Journey renewed and encreased the Suspicions against France The Court of Rome was sensible that the Cardinal was very ill satisfied with the Council and when he parted from Trent he wrote as much to the Pope himself and complained to him of the Factions and Conduct of the Council telling his Holiness with all that if things continued to be carried after that rate all that he could doe was to pray that God Almighty would inspire the Council It was very well known likewise that the Emperour's intentions were as far from favouring the Pope as those of the French were and that was another allarm The Spaniards also feared that the Cardinal of Lorrain might have a design of conferring with the Emperour and King of the Romans about means for obtaining the Concession of the Cup for they had good intelligence that the German Princes and French Ambassadours intended to make new instances to the Council about it The Suspicions of the Spaniards seemed to have ground enough because the Duke of Bavaria the Archbishop of Saltsburg and the Arch Duke Ferdinand were to be at Inspruck with the
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
the Emperour to be present at the Council These Articles were communicated to the Cardinal of Lorrain to the French and Spaniards But the Conferences held on that subject produced no other effect than to disgust the Pope who was informed of all by his Spies and was offended that the Emperour took the Liberty to consult about Points that were so prejudicial to his Authority He was advised to shew his Resentment by a severe and smart Brief Such as Paul III. had written to Charles the Fifth upon occasion of the Conferences of Spire But having well considered that he thought it better to wink at the matter In the mean time the Cardinals had long Consultations at Rome about the Articles of the French whether they ought to be proposed in the Council or not and it was concluded in the Negative It was alledged that seeing the French had new matters and of greater importance to propose it was to be feared that if they appeared to be so easie in admitting these it might give them the boldness to goe on with the rest About the In relation to the second question whether it was expedient at present to dispense with the Law of a single life in favour of the Priests or even to abolish it there were some Divines who maintained that it would be expedient because of the horrid disorders of the Lives of Priests and they failed not to quote that famous saying of Aeneas Sylvius who was afterwards Pope Pius II. That for good reasons the Church had prohibited Marriage to Priests but that for other and better reasons it ought to be allowed them It was carried by Plurality of Votes that a Priest might be dispensed with to marry However it was not the Pope's mind that that opinion should pass and therefore the Legates were blamed at Rome for having suffered that question to be disputed They excused themselves saying that they were obliged to have that Deference for the Ambassadours of the Emperour and Duke of Bavaria who had instantly solicited it The French perceiving that most part were of opinion that a Priest might be dispensed with to marry had some design to demand a dispensation for the Cardinal of Bourbon But the Cardinal of Lorrain was not of that mind perhaps it was not much his desire that the Heirs of the Family of Bourbon should multiply The reason that he gave why he was not for it was the difficulty of obtaining it because such Dispensations cannot be granted but upon very urgent occasions which was not to be alledged in this Case seeing there were a great many Princes of the bloud The Pope received the news of the death of the Cardinal of Mantua and if one may judge by appearances he was not very much troubled at it The Pope names two Legates in place of the Cardinal of Mantua He will not name the Cardinal of Lorrain for President for he did not look upon him as too much addicted to the interests of the Holy See He would not follow the advice of Cardinal Simoneta who could have heartily wished that no new Legate had been sent to Trent for instead of one he named two But that he might not be contradicted in that Election he made the nomination when no body expected it and it fell upon Cardinal Giovanni Morone and Cardinal Navagiero He kept that nomination secret more especially to avoid the Persecution of the French who pretended that that Dignity belonged to the Cardinal of Lorrain The Cardinal de la Bourdaisiere a French man who was at Rome moved it to the Pope who answered him briskly that the Cardinal of Lorrain was at Trent as head of a Party and that a disinteressed Person must be set at the head of the Council About the same time the Cardinal of Lorrain received at Trent the news of the death of his Brother who was assassinated before Orleans by a Pistol shot of which he died six days after The Murtherer accused Admiral Coligny and Theodore Beza as his Accomplices but he varied so much at his death and upon the Rack that he left not the least suspicion of it in the minds of honest men Both of them offered to purge themselves of that accusation before any Judges that should be appointed them This blow allarmed the Cardinal and made him double his Guards and seeing he offered at every thing Wit and Devotion as well as state Policy he wrote to his Sister-in-Law a long consolatory Letter of which his Servants to doe their Master honour dispersed a great many Copies The news of the death of this Person was received with much grief at the Court of Rome and at Trent for that Duke was lookt upon as the main Prop of the Catholick Party in France Some time before the Bishop of the five Churches had gone to wait upon the Emperour and now he returned with a Letter to the Council which exhorted the Fathers to labour for a Reformation he brought with him also the Copy of another Letter which the Emperour at the same time wrote to the Pope The Emperour writes to the Council and to the Pope in a very high strain against the Disorders of the Council This last Letter was very high the Emperour therein earnestly exhorted the Pope not to dissolve the Council because it would prove a great Scandal to Catholicks and give Hereticks occasion to scoff at the Church and its Assemblies He told him that if things went no better for the time to come the World would be assured that the Pope intended no Reformation and that every Country would hold its own National Synod to reform themselves But above all things he solicited him in very pressing terms to render that liberty to the Council which was wholly taken from it He told him that it was no free Council 1. Because before any thing was proposed they expected Orders from the Court of Rome 2. Because it was not permitted to every one to propose and that the Legates had reserved that Power to themselves by the Clause Proponentibus Legatis 3. Because the Bishops of the Pope's Parry carried all by powerfull Factions 4. And lastly because that after much and long Deliberation things must be carried contrary to the Votes of the Council just as the Legates please according to the Consultations which they receive from the Pope This Letter gave offence to the Pope and surprise to all It was wondered at that the Emperour durst offer to speak with more liberty than any of his Predecessours ever had done not excepting Charles the Fifth who with all his Power and Greatness had never ventured to be so bold and the Pope was the more vexed that the Emperour having sent a Copy of that Letter to the Cardinal of Lorrain the French had made it publick At the same time the Emperour's Chancellour plainly told the Nuncio residing at the Imperial Court that the words Universalem Ecclesiam must be left out of the Decree
of Marriage The matter of Marriage is pitcht upon In these Conferences fresh Debates arose about Clandestine Marriages The French demanded that all Marriages of Children in the Family contracted without the Consent of their Parents should be declared null The Cardinal of Lorrain seconded that Demand and shew'd the Justice of it by many reasons and Authorities But the Archbishop of Otranto who was always opposite to the Cardinal of Lorrain withstood it alledging that it was to give Lay-men Power over Sacraments though most of those who spoke in this Congregation were of opinion that the whole matter should be laid aside About the end of the Congregation the Ambassadours of Venice came in and represented that the Kingdoms of Cyprus and Candia with the Islands of Zante Corfeu and Cephalonia were under the Dominion of their Republick and that it was the Custome of the People of those Countries who were of the Greek Church to repudiate their Wives when they were guilty of Adultery they therefore prayed the Council so to frame their Decree that it might do no prejudice to the Custome of those People In the following Congregation the Demand of the Venetians was taken into Consideration and many thought it reasonable especially because the Greeks had not been cited and that it was not just to condemn People without being heard Others thought that the Greeks were sufficiently cited by the Publication and General Convocation of the Council But the Party that favoured the Venetians Demand grew stronger by the Conjunction of those who could not digest the Anathematising of the opinion That Adultery dissolves a former and gives the innocent party Power to contract a new Marriage because it had been the opinion of St. Ambrose and the Greeks Fathers The Council therefore found out a mean they did not pronounce Anathema against those who say that Adultery dissolves Marriage but against those who say that the Church errs in affirming That Adultery dissolves not Marriage This was found afterwards to be a pretty pleasant distinction The Council then returned to the Demand of the French about Clandestine Marriages and this head was as warmly disputed as if nothing had been as yet said to it Cardinal Madruccio and two Legates the Cardinals of Warmia and Simoneta held that they could not be annulled and seemed as if they intended to oppose any resolution to the contrary Lainez General of the Jesuits scattered abroad Copies of a Writing that maintained the Validity of these Clandestine Marriages and proved that they could not be annulled This Debate took up several Congregations and to encrease the Difficulty the Bishop of Sulmona maintained that it was a matter of Doctrine because the question was about the Nature of Clandestine Marriages to know whether they be Sacraments and that the Authority of the Church was likewise concerned in it to wit whether she have Power to rescind Marriages and annull a Sacrament and that by Consequence that Point could not be handled amongst the Chapters of Reformation His design was to put the French to new straits because as it hath been observed before many more Votes are required for forming a Decree about Doctrine than making a Decision concerning Reformation Others opposed this opinion of the Bishop of Sulmona and that not without Passion saying that the Power of the Church ought never to be brought into question but that it ought always to be supposed and that opinion carried it so that it was concluded that that Chapter should remain amongst the Articles of Reformation Opinions varying and each Party maintaining their Sentiments with heats Francis de Beaucaire Bishop of Mets had the honour of finding a form of a Decree which satisfied the different Parties And that was it which is in force at present All were almost content with it because it is ambiguous and every one finds his Sentiment therein for it Anathematises those who say that Clandestine Marriages are not true Sacraments and yet it prohibits such affirming that the Church hath always detested them An hundred thirty and five Votes were for the opinion of the Bishop of Mets and fifty six against it About this time the Council was in some trouble by reason that the King of Spain declared that he had a design of setling the Inquisition in the State of Milan This news allarmed all the Prelates of Lombardy and Naples also who concluded that if the Inquisition were once established in the Milanese without doubt it would likewise be introduced into Naples The City of Milan sent Deputies to the Pope to the King of Spain and to the Council for preventing of that blow The Envoys declared that many of the chief Citizens were ready to leave the Countrey because they knew very well that the Design of the Spanish Inquisition is not always the Preservation of the Faith but that its chief Aim is to drain those that are rich and hath no other prospect for most part but worldly advantage This put the Council to some trouble because of the great number of People concerned The Duke of Sessa Governour of Milan finding so great opposition and having had some Information that the Milanese hatched a design of doeing what the People of the Low Countries had done who turned Protestants to avoid the Inquisition abandoned the Enterprise In the mean time the Pope to whom the Observations and Additions which the Ambassadours had made as to the thirty eight Articles of Reformation proposed by the Legates were sent found them not at all to his mind He perceived amongst them Demands that were grievous both to himself and his Court and that made him more ardently desire that a Period might be put to the Council which obliged him to write to his Nuncio's that resided in the Courts of Europe that they would press the Princes to assist him in bringing of it to a Conclusion He wrote also to the Legates that by any means they should make an end and that in order thereunto they should grant every thing that they could not refuse But the Count de Luna stood always in the way and used endeavours to cross that speedy Conclusion he backt the Spaniards and Italians who were scandalized that Assemblies were so often kept at the Houses of the Legates where none were admitted but Cardinals the Archbishop of Otranto and some Favorites but that hindered not the Legates from keeping such Assemblies still Of the thirty eight articles of Reformation they had already left out six at the desire of the Ambassadours and moreover the Emperour's Ambassadours by new Orders from their Master and being seconded by the Count de Luna made fresh instances that the Reformation of Princes should not be proposed that Session which at length was granted so that the Articles were reduced to twenty one And Cardinal Simoneta and the Pope's Adherents took all the pains they could to shape them into such a form as might not in the least encroach upon the Authority of the
good Laws and Ordinances which were made in it After the Ceremonies were over they read the Decrees concerning Purgatory the Intercession and Invocation of Saints Images and their Worship They also read the Decree for Reformation of Monks containing twenty Chapters to which they added an one and twentieth for a shield to the Pope's Authority lest by inadvertency it might be wounded in some of the Canons of Reformation and to leave him in full liberty to dispense with all the Canons The Council therefore declares in it that all the Decrees have been made with intention that the Authority of the Holy See should remain safe and inviolate without the least encroachment upon it When this was done because it was very late the rest was deferred till next day In this second day they read the Decrees concerning Indulgences the Choice of Meats Fasts and Holy days They made and Act of Reference to the Pope about the Index Expurgatorius Missals Breviaries Ceremonials and the Care of making a Catechism At length the Council caused and Act to be read which declared that the Places that had been assigned to Ambassadours ought not to be any ways prejudicial to the Rights and Privileges of Kings Princes and States whom the Council pretended to leave in the same condition as they were before The Assembly was concluded with Volleys of Acclamations to the Praise of the Pope Emperour Kings Legates and the Fathers Heretofore in Ancient Councils these Acclamations or Benedictions were made in a humming confused manner with a low Voice But at Trent they would have the matter performed in its Formalities It was written down read and sung after the manner of Antiphones The Cardinal of Lorrain pronounced the Acclamations and the Prelates answered This action of the Cardinal was extremely played upon It could not be imagined that he with all his Dignities A mean Action of the Cardinal of Lorrain and large Characters would have condescended to discharge the Office of a Deacon or Chanter It was lookt upon as a low and mean Carriage but the French had a worse opinion of it for besides the baseness of the action they lookt upon it as a Crime of State because in the Acclamations there was no express mention made of the King of France for which the Cardinal was severely checkt upon his return At length all was summ'd up with an Anathema pronounced against Hereticks in General The Council consulted whether they should not expresly Anathematise Luther Zuinglius and the other Heads of Parties as had heretofore been practised in the Case of Nestorius and other Hereticks But the Spanish and Imperial Ambassadours opposed that representing that the Princes were rather the Heads of the Parties in that affair than the Teachers that it would offend them and oblige them to make Leagues together against the Catholick Religion The Council acquiesced to that reason and rested satisfied with a General Anathema All the Prelates were commanded under pain of Excommunication to sign the Decrees before they went away which was done on Sunday They were signed by two hundred fifty and five Hands four Legates two Cardinals three Patriarchs five and twenty Archbishops an hundred fifty and eight Bishops seven Abbots thirty nine Proxies for Absents and seven Generals of Orders The Ambassadours had been enjoined to sign also but because those of France were not there and their Hands not being amongst the rest it would have been a Declaration that they refused to acknowledge the Council all the rest were therefore dispensed with no to sign upon Pretext that it had not been the Custome of Ancient Councils This last Session of the Council gave as little satisfaction as the rest hand done for after all the fair promises of setting about a Reformation there was nothing found that could answer the Expectations of People The nineteenth Chapter of General Reformation contained a very Christian Decree against Duels which were prohibited under very severe Penalties Nevertheless it was observed that the Council herein encroached upon the Right of Kings for it declared the Emperour all Kings Princes and Lords who should countenance Duels to be excommunicated and deprived of the Dominion of the Place holding of the Church wherein Duels should be fought It was not thought in the Power of a mere Ecclesiastick Judicature to deprive Sovereign Princes of their Territories and Temporal Possessions nor to lay Commands upon them under pain of Excommunication The Permission which the Council granted to Mendicants to enjoy Lands and Real Estates was so far from passing for an Article of Reformation that it was lookt upon as a great Corruption and as a fair means put into the hands of Monks to hook in the remainder of the Estates of Christendom whereof they already enjoyed the largest share In general few were satisfied with the Acts of the Council The Spaniards were displeased at the precipitant manner and hurry of concluding it without acquainting their King and expecting his answer But France more than all others because they found therein many things which overthrew the Liberties of the Gallican Church President Du Ferrier during his stay at Venice made it his business to make a Collection of them and upon the return of the Cardinal of Lorrain into France the Cardinal was severely censured for having suffered so many things to pass contrary to the Sentiments and Customs of the Church of France It was objected to him that after he had vigorously asserted the Superiority of a Council over the Pope yet at length he had basely betrayed the Cause seeing he had subscribed to the first Chapter of the General Reformation which grants the Pope Administrationem Ecclesiae the Administration of the Church Universal It was also thought that the opinion of the Pope's Superiority over a Council was sufficiently established by the last Chapter which declares that all things have been decreed without prejudice to the Authority of the Pope which is an evident raising of the Authority of the Holy See above that of the Decrees And above all it was thought that by demanding from the Pope the Confirmation of the Council they had placed his Holiness above a Council It was likewise objected as a fault to the Cardinal of Lorrain that in the one and twentieth Chapter of the General Reformation he had suffered the present Council to be declared the same with that which was held under Julius and Paul III. after that France had taken so much pains to have that Assembly called a new Council But the Parliament of Paris in a particular manner complained that he had suffered the Authority of the King's Judges to be trampled under foot seeing the Council had so far enlarged the Power of Churchmen as made a considerable breach in the Civil Jurisdiction As for instance it allows Bishops to proceed against Laicks by Pecuniary Fines and Imprisonments These oppositions that the Council met with in France were every delightfull to those who were separated
that thy faith fail not is as good a proof of the Popes infalliblility as is this Where two or three are gathered together in my name there am I in the midst of them to prove that Councils are infallible That General Councils came into the world but by accident But if we consult the light of reason and common sense can any one endure to see infallibility ascribed to these Assemblies that they call General Councils things which have either never been at all or rarely and by accident For as to Diocesan Provincial and National Councils the pretence of infallibility reaches not to them Let us then reflect a little that these General Councils were not known in the Church till the conversion of the Roman Emperours Constantine is the first of these Emperours The Council of Nice held in the year 325. is the first of these General Councils that is to say that for three hundred years together the Church had no such thing as an infallible Judge Bellarmine says very well that the Church having continued without General Councils for three hundred years might as well have done so for three hundred more or even for six or for nine hundred Or it may be it was because there was in those days no need of any Council there were then either no Hereticks or none that openly contended with the Church but a spirit of meekness and submission prevailed among all Believers So far from it that Satan did never sight against the truths of the Gospel nor poison Christendom with more or greater Heresies than in those times The works of Tertullian of Irenaeus of St. Austin and of many others of the Fathers do sufficiently shew it Let us know a little where rested this infallible spirit during the three first Centuries if it be true that it is only to be found in General Councils there having been none during all that time But the Church possibly was not then infallible Could it be ever made out that infallibility were one of the priviledges of the Church it were much more tolerable to allow it to a See that hath been constantly supplied with an uninterrupted Succession of Bishops as that of Rome And it falls more readily under our apprehension of things for the Holy Ghost so to inspire and guide some one particular person than a numerous Assembly whereof the greater part of the members that compose it are very often either counterfeit Christians or men of restless and turbulent minds I think it will not be unworthy of our remark that these Assemblies which they are pleased to entitle General Councils have been but by accident introduced into the Church It is the conversion of the Emperours that occasioned them Let us suppose that the Roman Emperours had continued Pagan as it was very possible there had been then no means of assembling the Clergy of the whole Christian world and consequently the Church had been always abandoned to a spirit of Error The Pagan Emperours would never have suffered the Christians from all parts of the Empire and of the world it self to have met together in a body and united in a Council they would have been jealous that the publick safety might have been endangered from such kind of Assemblies It is therefore evident that the conversion of the Emperors gave occasion to them and for that reason that they are but accidental things But this will be yet more clear if we farther suppose what might also very well have hapned that when the Roman Emperours became Converts to the faith of Christ they had lost the greatest part of their Empire and retained no more than Italy or some less considerable Province It is certain that in such case they could not have assembled the Clergy of the whole Christian World For the neighbouring Princes at enmity with them would never have permitted the Bishops subject to them to transport themselves into an enemies Country lest they might there be seduced to revolt and shake off the Dominion of their new Masters From all which it is most apparent that it was very possible that there might never have been any General Council known in the Church and that what hath been is purely by accident But such things as are ordained of God for preservation of the truth cannot be said to have fallen out by accident Besides according to the order of Gods Providence in the Government of the Church Councils were designed to judge infallibly of Controversies why hath it not pleased God to remove those obstructions that hindred the forming of these Councils under the Pagan Emperours For tho it is true that jealousie of State might have proved a powerful obstacle yet it is as true that as great difficulties have been surmounted All time were not alike averse to Christianity There have been among the Heathen Emperours some that were favourable to it and what could not have been done at one time might have been effected at another nevertheless this design of a General Council came never into any mans head till Constantine Was it ever known for the first three hundred years together that the Bishops had any intent of assembling from all parts of the World Or is it so much as read in any Author that they complained for not being able to do it If it be true that these Assemblies are the unerring Guides of the Church the Fathers of the three first Centuries could not be ignorant of it if they knew it it was a most supine and wretched negligence not to use their utmost efforts for the assembling these infallible Judges to have put an end to the many differences that then disquieted the Church or if they found it absolutely impossible for them to convene them it is yet a strange insensibility never so much as to lament the affliction of such an incapacity Tertullian in his Book de Prescriptionibus tells us all the several methods by him conceived most proper for convincing of Hereticks What an astonishing thing is it that he should not speak one word of doing it by General Councils a way so sure so ready so infallible It must certainly be that the Fathers never dreamt of these infallible Judges I conclude therefore that to deal sincerely one must needs confess that the zeal of Constantine did alone occasion that Assembly that is called the first General Council and by the Model of which the rest were formed For the better determining a great Controversie he was desirous to convene as many Bishops as he could even all that were in the large extent of his vast Empire that so their Decision might be the more solemn and efficacious And this is the original of General Councils The Christian Emperours called together the Bishops from all parts of the Roman Empire That Empire was called in the stile not of the Church only but of the Apostles also the whole world and the Councils have taken from thence the name of General or Universal Councils
Bishops of France p. 8. that this Kingdom hath always made to submit to it and to several other Regulations about Discipline as being found contrary to the Liberties of this Church which the Kings the Clergy and the Parliaments of France have always so carefully preserved These Gentlemen are then persuaded that the Council of Trent hath in this point wronged the Bishops But one cannot commit a Wrong without Injustice nor do an Injustice without Error Whence it follows that it is not to be denied by these Gentlemen but that according to them the Council hath erred Yet still say they it is but an Error in Discipline And still they must give me leave to tell them that this reply is nothing but a meer illusion For it is a real Point of Doctrine to know how far the Rights of Bishops do or do not extend It is a clear Case that all the Grievances the Bishops complain of depend upon the question Whether Bishops were instituted by Jesus Christ and are the Apostles Successors For if Bishops are by Divine Right and not of Papal Institution it is manifest that the Pope cannot deprive them of a power he did not give them nor can so much as lessen that power If a Bishop does jure divino watch over the conduct of those of his Diocess there is no man that by any right can take a part of his Flock from him or forbid him to execute his Pastoral Charge in any instance for no man hath power to alter what God hath established On the contrary if the Pope hath conferred upon Bishops all the Authority they have he may revoke lessen or enlarge it at his pleasure nor could the Bishops then have any cause to complain for he may make use of his just right and power If the Pope be absolute Master of the Church and Bishops but his Substitutes he may proceed judicially against them as he thinks most fit by a Synod by Commissaries or by himself And the Bishops know it very well for the Spanish Bishops who stickled so much in the Council that the Residence and Institution of Bishops might be declared to be jure divino had no other end in it but to strengthen the Episcopal Dignity and shake off the Papal Yoke that oppressed them The Authors of those Writings that have made so much noise in the world about the affair of Signatures are likewise perfectly convinced of this truth For speaking of the wrongs done to Bishops by the Court of Rome they tell us that the Popes Ministers take delight to shew in Act and by Example what the Roman Doctors teach in their Books Circular Letter of the four Bishops p. 15. That the Pope is the absolute Master and Sovereign of the Church That Bishops are but his Vicars holding all their power from him That he either does or does not hearken to them as he thinks fit That if he makes answer when they consult him he does them grace and favour but does them no wrong if he refuse to answer To this erroneous and false opinion of the Doctors Partisans of the Court of Rome they oppose the pure truth of the Gospel that is Page 14. That all Bishops do succeed to the Apostles That the Pope by Divine Right is their Head and Superiour but not the sole Bishop That they derive their power from Christ himself That it is the Holy Ghost that hath set them over the Flock that the Great Shepherd hath acquired by his bloud that each might govern as his Vicar that portion that falls to his lot c. that they are so inferiour to the Pope as to be yet his Brethren and Collegues in that only Episcopat of which each of them holds an intire part according to the Fathers This is truly the state of the Question and can this be thought to be a mere matter of Discipline Or can it be other than a Point of Doctrine When the French and Spaniards did so mightily insist in the Council to have it declared that Bishops are not the Popes Vicars nor set up by him but established by Christ and when on the other side the Partisans of the Court of Rome opposed this design with so much violence every where preaching up the Pope to be the sole Bishop that the Ordinaries are but a succession of Commissaries holding all their Authority from the Holy See was this Controversie considered by the two Parties as a matter of Discipline Was it not considered in the Examen of the Sacrament of Orders which is a Point of Doctrine And not touched in the Chapters of Reformation to which was referred all that concerned Discipline The Bishops could not prevail to have it declared that their Order is by Divine Right but at least they hindred that no Decree was made for declaring them only the Popes Vicars Yet that is of no great service to them for in all the Decrees of the Council they are still treated as the Popes Vicars And it must needs be acknowledged that the Council in declaring that the Pope hath power to abridge the Authority of Bishops to hinder their Episcopal Functions to try them in Person or by his Commissaries hath sufficiently declared them to be no more than his Vicars So we have another Point of Doctrine wherein two thirds of Europe agree that the Council of Trent hath erred That the People ought to have part in Canonical Elections that herein also the Council of Trent hath erred by the Confession of many Roman Catholicks I go on to Canonical Elections Those persons that within thirty or forty years past have made themselves so much talked of in the World for that extraordinary appearance of zeal to restore the ancient lustre of the Church those persons I say do consider this matter of Canonical Elections as a Point of highest importance They lament that favour interest and birth are the only steps that raise to Ecclesiastical Dignities and that the custom of elevating to Prelacy by Election and Canonical ways those who are most worthy of it is now no more in use They complain of it with much grief and know not how to forgive the memory of Chancellour du Prat who is accused to have abolished the Pragmatick Sanction First Dialogue of the Parishioners of Sr. Hil. du Mont. p. 10. that is as they express it The pure observation of the ancient Canons in the Church of France and to have made the Concordat of Francis I. with Leo X. which ruined the Apostolical Discipline in France abolished Canonical Elections and subjected the Church of France to a deplorable servitude They tell us in the marginal refutations of M. d' Ambrun's Petition to the King Page 10. that in several Parish Churches there have been for a long time Publick Prayers to God for the abolishing the Concordat and the re-establishing Canonical Elections We must not say these Gentlemen have reason lest it give offence for if
came to the turn of the Spaniards and French speak many difficulties were started against the Decrees as they had been conceived by the Cardinals First this Clause was objected against that Bishops hold a chief rank depending on the Bishop of Rome that was thought to be an ambiguous expression but after some debate they who made the objection consented to have it said a chief rank under the Pope Some also did not like that it should be said that Bishops are admitted by the Pope in partem solicitudinis because that signified clearly enough that Bishops are appointed by the Pope and not by our Lord Jesus Christ but above all they stumbled at the Article of the Pope's Authority and that the Canon gave him the Pope to govern the Church Universal The French thought that by these words the Pope had a design to establish a Superiority over the Council They were nevertheless willing it should be said that he hath the power to rule all the Churches ecclesias universas but not the Church Universal ecclesiam universalem Most part fansied that to be a very nice distinction and of little solidity But the rest maintained that by giving the Pope power to govern the Church Universal they exalted his Tribunal above the Church whereas the Tribunal of the Church is exalted above that of the Pope They alledged that there was a great difference betwixt being exalted above all Churches that is to say above every Particular Church and being exalted above the Church Universal that is whole Church taken together and assembled in a Council This occasioned great debate the Pope's Party alledged the Authority of the Council of Florence which had made use of these terms and that did a little puzzle the Spaniards because their Countrey own the Council of Florence for a General Council But the French set light by that Authority and opposed to it the Councils of Constance and Basil which have defined the Superiority of a Council over the Pope Upon this occasion there arose a great contest betwixt the Italians and French for the Italians maintained that the Council of Florence was a General Council that that of Basil was Schismatical and the other of Constance partly approved and partly rejected But the French on the contrary denied the Council of Florence to have been a lawfull Council and said that the others of Constance and Basil were lawfull and General The Legates well perceived that no good would come of these contests and therefore that they might have time to sent to Rome the Censures which the Bishops on the other side of the Alpes had made upon the Decree composed by the Pope touching the Institution of Bishops and the Authority of the Holy See they employed the Congregations about the Point of Residence The Cardinals of Lorrain and Madruccio the day before had mode a Project of Decision concerning the Controversie of Residence which displeased not the Legates But the Presidents having had time to reflect upon it observed a Clause that gave them Umbrage which was that Bishops are obliged by the Command of God to guide their Flocks and to watch in Person over them They knew very well that the Pope would make a sinister interpretation of these words and think that they favoured the opinion of the Divine Right of Residence and therefore they left it out of their own heads and presented in the Congregation the Minute corrected after their own way That action choaked the Cardinals of Lorrain and Madruccio Lorrain protested that for the future he would not meddle in any thing and Cardinal Madruccio said that in the Council there was another secret Council which took all the Authority to it self The Legates finding that they gained no ground put a stop to the Congregations in expectation of an answer from Rome and the Pope's Party began to make Factions that they might break up the Council for good and all At this the Cardinal of Lorrain broke out and acted with less reserve than he had formerly done He complained that there was a design of breaking up the Council he spoke to the Ambassadours of Princes that their Masters might intercede with the Pope not onely for the Continuation of the Council but especially that it might be left to its liberty saying that nothing could be proposed or resolved upon but what pleased the Legates that the Legates did nothing but what the Pope thought fit and that Decisions even about the smallest matters must be expected from Rome that if matters went on still in that manner they would make a pacification in France whereby all should have liberty to live as they thought good untill the holding of a free Council that for his own part he would have patience untill the next Session but that if affairs went no better he would protest and withdraw and carry all the French along with him that they might celebrate a National Council at Home The French Ambassadour residing at Rome made the same Expostulations and Menaces that the Cardinal did at Trent But the Pope began to be accustomed to that noise and was not a whit startled at these Bugbears of National Synods He made answer that the Council was more than free that it was even licentious that if the Italians made any Factions and Cabals he knew nothing of it but that yet they were forced upon it if they did so by the violence of the Bishops beyond the Alpes who endeavoured to trample under foot the Authority of the Holy See The Bishop of the five Churches the Emperour's Ambassadour for the Kingdom of Hungary went about the same time to wait on his Master and to inform him of the Factions and Conduct of the Italians The Archbishop of Granada and those of his Party entreated him to procure from the Emperour a Letter to the King of Spain praying him to solicite a Reformation The Legates were informed of this and looked upon all that Conduct as an effect of the Councils of the Cardinal of Lorrain and to Countermine that League they deputed John Francisco Commendone Bishop of Zante to the Emperour under pretext of Justifying the Council in that they had not as yet proposed the Articles of Reformation which his Imperial Majesty had presented b his Ambassadours Seeing these misunderstandings grew dayly greater and greater the Legates sufficiently perplexed sent a writing to all the Ambassadours begging the Assistance of their Councils in the present Junctures The French slipt not that occasion to tell their minds freely and therefore said that the Council was made use of to encrease corruptions instead of lessening them that a stop ought to be put to those shamefull underhand dealings which were continually practised that they ought not to labour to raise the Pope above the Church Universal that the best way was to follow the Decrees of the Council of Constance And farther added that one cause of disagreement was that the Clark of the Council did not faithfully set