of Discipline But we shall find this Answer to be a great Illusion First of all it is very hard to comprehend why the Church should be indued with an Infallible Spirit only in points of Doctrine and not in matters that should establish Order and Government For certainly it is of the Essence of the Church to be governed according to the intention of God and of Christ as certainly as it is Essential to it to be guided in all Truth Suppose it impossible to retain all the speculative Truths and therefore that Anarchy Confusion and Disorder become prevalent what sort of Church should we have But the better to dissipate this Illusion it is to be observed that there is no Point of Discipline but hath a strict Union with some Point of Right and that there are some Points of Discipline that are Points of Doctrine likewise and of the first Class too For example the Roman Hierarchy the disposition of that great and mighty Clergy distinguished into Priests Bishops Arch bishops Patriarchs Primates over whom is placed their great Head whom they intitle Christs Vicar and Lieutenant upon Earth Is not that a Point of Discipline All that respects the Guidance and Government of the Church the Persons their Characters their Charges their Dignities their Authority and Jurisdiction are they not of the Discipline of the Church If with this Pretext it should be objected to the Romanists Gentlemen your Hierarchy in the whole and in all its parts is a meer matter of Discipline the Church might possibly err concerning it and it is therefore fit to review and re-examine it What would they reply to it Methinks they would answer that it is a Point of Discipline which is also a Point of Doctrine and of Right At least the Council of Trent hath so defined it and hath treated of the Hierarchy under the head of matters of Doctrine There are indeed three kinds of Doctrine the first are purely Speculative as the Mystery of the Trinity the Incarnation and the Redemption the second are Practical respecting our Manners and of this kind are the Moral Precepts that are the Rules for governing our Life and directing our Conscience and the third are those Practical Doctrines that respect the Guidance and Government of the Church that is to say that there must be a Ministry in the Church that Believers ought to obey their Guides that the Residence of Bishops is by Divine Right that the Pastors are instituted by our Lord Jesus Christ that there must be a Lawful Call to the Ministry that so there may be a Right of governing the Church that such Government may not be Tyrannical that the Church may not withdraw Believers from their Lawful Lords in Temporal matters It is most clear that all these are Points of Doctrine respecting Discipline So that a Council that errs in Points of Discipline that have an inseparable Connexion with those Doctrinals does by necessary consequence err in Doctrine But to render this General Consideration the more sensible I will particularly apply it to some Principal Articles of Discipline wherein it is confessed that the Council of Trent hath exceeded the limits of its Power and which I will make out to be Articles of Doctrine also so that such as will confess that Council to have erred in Discipline shall be constrained to acknowledge that it hath erred in Doctrine and in matters of Faith That the Popes Superiority over Councils is a Point of Doctrine and was decided in the Council of Trent Let us begin with the Article of the Superiority of the Council over the Pope or of the Pope over the Council Few are ignorant with what heat this Question has constantly been argued ever since the Councils of Constance and Basil both of which pronounced the Pope inferiour to a General Council and the Gallican Church makes it an Article of her Faith to maintain the decisions of those Councils But I would fain be informed whether it be an Article of Faith or of Discipline yet I think there is no doubt but it will be avowed for a Point of Doctrine it having always been considered as such It is also certainly a Point of Discipline for all that respects the Form of the Churches Government may fitly be brought under the head of Discipline This important matter the Council of Trent hath decided in favour of the Pope and yet the Gallican Church still perseveres in the contrary belief She believes therefore that the Council erred in a Point of Doctrine I know it will be said That the Council of Trent hath not decided that the Pope is Superiour to Councils Men may talk as they please but things for all that will continue as they are It is true that among the Decrees and Canons of that Council there is none that says in express terms The Pope is Superiour to Councils and can be judged by none but the effect of such Decision is apparent in all the Acts and through the whole Conduct of this Council It is necessary for establishing the Sovereignty of a Temporal Prince that the States of his Country make a formal Declaration and thereby acknowledge him their Master and their Sovereign Is it not enough that they obey him that they suspend their resolutions are convened and dissolved at his pleasure that in their Acts they stile him their Lord and their King and that they own that all they do is nothing unless confirmed by his Authority I believe there are none so unreasonable as to deny this to be of equal Value with any express Declaration of Sovereignty We shall therefore make it unquestionably clear that the carriage of the Council of Trent towards the Pope hath been in all points such In order to this it is to be remembred that the fifth Council of Lateran considered by the Court of Rome as a General Council assembled by Julius II. begun in the year 1512 under Leo X. had repealed annulled and abrogated the Pragmatick Sanction which was an Abstract of the Decisions of the Councils of Basil and Constance made at Bourges in the year 1438. by Order of Charles VII in a solemn Assembly of all the Clergy of France and of the Parliaments The grand design of it was to abase the Pope and to retrench the Tyrannical part of his Power the very Basis of all the Regulations and Proceedings of this Assembly being founded upon the Principle of the Subjection of Popes to Councils But then comes Julius II. in his Council of Lateran and re-establishes the Popes Superiority over the Council declaring null and void all that had been done in prejudice of it by the Councils of Constance and Basil Twenty eight years after was the first Convocation of the Council of Trent Between these there had been no General Council nor any thing in prejudice of that Superiority that was so re-established by the Council of Lateran On the contrary there was something actually done of
When the parts that made up this mighty Body the Empire came to separate and to be formed into several distinct States Kingdoms the Bishop of Rome puts himself into the Emperors place and by pretending a spiritual power still retains those several States and Kingdoms in a spiritual jurisdiction to him that were only at first obliged by the temporal power of the Emperours By this means he continues to assemble the Bishops of those several States and to term such Assembly a general Council Let any discerning person judge whether these Assemblies thus formed by accident as is most apparent can be vested with the priviledge of infallibility There never were any Councils that could truly and properly be called General Councils But after all it is a great abuse of words to give the name of Oecumenical or General Council to a Convention of two or three hundred Bishops out of five or six Nations Euseb de vita Constant l. 4. c. 8. When the Roman Emperours became Christian their Dominions did include the greatest part of Christendom but not the whole There was in Persia a very great number of Churches and those considerable ones in whose favour Constantine wrote to Sapor King of Persia Theod. l. 5. c. 33. Theodoret gives an account of the indiscreet zeal of one Audas a Persian Bishop who in the Reign of Isdigerdes burnt a Temple of the Persian God which was Fire and by that ill managed zeal was the cause of a Persecution of thirty years continuance by which an infinite number of Christians perished there by all manner of torments Th. 〈…〉 The same Theodoret tells us that in the time of Constantine the Gospel was preached in India with success by Aeâ—… and Frumentius and among the Iberians by a captive woman It is certain that these distant Churches sent not their Bishops to the Councils that were held in Countrys subject to the Roman Emperours A Council that might deserve the name of General ought at least to be composed of the Guides of the Church of all the Learned and of all those that have attentively studied the mysteries of Religion There is no place in the world could hold such an Assembly nor were it possible to deliberate in it But alas instead of the prodigious number of Guides and Pastors of the Catholick Church a very few and those almost all of the same Nation are it seems enough to make a General Council For it is certain that the Provinces near the place where the Council is celebrated do supply it with more Bishops and Divines than all the more remote Kingdoms put together and yet this scrap of a Council must pass for the Universal Church must be supposed to be acted by her Spirit and endued with her infallibility Than which there was never certainly a more vain imagination Certain it is that there hath as yet been nothing that can be truely stiled a General Council The ancient Councils had the name of General for that they were in time generally owned by the Church The second General Council consisted of but 150 Bishops and those only of the Provinces neighbouring to Constantinople The latter Councils are composed of yet sewer Nations there are only a few Italians Spaniards French and some Germans but neither the North the South the East nor the greatest part of the West are concerned in them I would very fain learn why the Gallican Church should not be infallible should she form an Assembly of a thousand Divines as she easily may and yet becomes infallible when joyned to Germans Spaniards and Italians It is a mystery beyond comprehension It were fit to produce good proofs for the establishment of this infallibility of Councils or at least to shew they are in possession of it by a Series of examples without interruption As for such proofs they ought to be out of the Holy Scripture But I shall not stand to examine or contest the proofs for that were to enter into Theological disputes whereas we intend here no more than Historical Reflections and such we cannot omit as we conceive will overthrow the infallibility of Councils That many General Councils so called have actually erred Those that maintain the infallibility of these Assemblies that they are pleased to stile General Councils would do well to make out this Assertion of theirs from History They will produce it may be five or six Councils whose Canons are owned by the Christian World But what if we on the other side produce twice as many whose Canons are rejected by the greatest part of Christendom It were much to be wished that we had certain undoubted Characters for distinguishing of true from false Councils For we see that such of them as have established errors are the same in externals with those that have confirmed the truth What difference is there between the most holy Council of Nice which condemned Arianism and the Council of Tyre and Jerusalem which but ten years after in the year 335. condemned St. Athanasius and the Doctrine of the Church It was the good Emperour Constantine that assembled both these Councils and that the latter was General appears by Eusebius Euseb l. 4. de vita Constant who assures us that it was convened from all parts of the Empire from Africk Asia Europe and Egypt it fate first in Tyre and was after removed by Constantine to Jerusalem for the more solemn dedication of the Temple he had there built to the honour of our Saviour In this Council Arianism so prevailed that St. Athanasius was condemned and banished by Constantine to Treves What can be said of the Council of Antioch held concerning St. Athanasius in the year 340 or 341 The holy Bishop was deposed in it Socrates Hist l. 2. c. 7. George made Bishop of Alexandria in his room the Christian Faith was corrupted by it and a Creed conceived in different terms from the Nicene Creed The word Consubstantial was left out and other words were used instead of it which the Arians pretended to be of the same signification Why was not this a General Council Was it not as well as the preceding convened from all parts of the Roman Empire Bellarmine confesses it was a General Council Tom. 2. l. 1. c. 6. de Conciliis and it is clear that it was so esteemed for that the 25 Canons made by it have been received and are still reckoned among the Canons of the Universal Church Distinct 16. Can. 11. Gratian not only took it for a Lawful Council but even thought it had been celebrated by the Orthodox What shall we say of the Council of Sardica Socrat. l. 2. lib. in the year 341 the fourth General upon the Cause of Arius Sozomen l. 3. c. 10. There were present 376 Bishops some say that threescore and sixteen of them were Arians Baronius Annal Tom. 2. ann num 67. 347. and retired from the rest to hold a
his Legate at Ausbourg to make but a slight opposition to it and then to depart that he might not be present at the publication of the Interim giving him instructions in the mean time to sow Seeds of Jealousie betwixt the German Prelates and the Emperour and to alarm the Protestants by insinuating to them that it was onely an invention to oppress their Liberty and Conscience and that it was no snare laid for the Catholicks of whose faith the Emperour could not make himself Judge The fifteenth of May that Book was read in presence of the Assembly and no body durst contradict it though all were displeased None but the Electour of Mentz spoke and thanked the Emperour of his own head without any Commission from the rest and the Emperour seemed to accept of those thanks as a general approbation Farthermore on the fourteenth of June following Charles caused a Decree of Reformation to be published containing two and twenty Chapters and about one hundred and thirty Ordinances for the Reformation of the Clergy against the Plurality of Benefices concerning the Duty of Preachers the Ceremonies of the Sacraments and their Administration concerning Discipline the Clergy Schools Universities Councils Excommunication c. and very good Regulations were made in all these particulars but that Piece was as ill taken at Rome as the Interim not onely because these Regulations did in no wise jump with the interest of that Court but also because it is a fundamental Law at Rome that no Secular has any right of giving Laws to Church-men Nevertheless that Piece of Tyranny was born with because it could not be helped At the same time an Act past in the Diet commanding Provincial and Diocesan Synods to be held yearly for settling the Decree of Reformation The Diet ended the last day of June and the Edict was published wherein the Emperour engaged himself to procure the Council to be continued at Trent Much opposition made to the Establishment of the Interim After that Charles set about the Execution of the Interim but was almost every where opposed by the Protestants Frederick Duke of Saxony though a Prisoner refused to submit to it and a little Town in Germany made upon that occasion a Remonstrance which deserves to be transmitted to Posterity If our Lives and Fortunes belong to you said they suffer our Conscience at least to be God's If you were perswaded of the truth of this form of faith it would be a powerfull Motive to make us embrace it But seeing you your self look upon it as false why would you have us receive it as true For the truth is the Emperour had no design to perswade the World that he himself had renounced the Doctrines of the Church of Rome which he had either impaired or qualified in his Interim On the contrary in the Preface he prohibited all those who had till then continued in the Roman Communion to make any alteration in Doctrine or Ceremonies Though this opposition was pretty general yet some consented to admit of that Interim or at least pretended to do so But the City of Magdebourg did formally reject it and in such a slighting way too as obliged the Emperour to declare them Rebels and make War against them They maintained that War a long time and obstinately refused to surrender The Emperour had likewise expresly commanded that no man should write against the Interim and nevertheless a whole swarm of writings came forth against that Book both from Protestants and Roman Catholicks Francisco Romeo General of the Jacobins by command of the Pope assembled the most Learned of his Order and caused a smart Refutation of it to be made It had the ill luck also to stir up division amongst the Protestants of Germany that is to say betwixt those who had admitted of it and those who would not and divided them into two Sects for they who in compliance with the Emperour had allowed the re-establishment of the ancient Ceremonies in that justified their own Proceedings maintaining Ceremonies to be things indifferent But the rest objected that weakness to them as a great Crime and separated themselves from them calling them the Indifferent or Adiaphorists The Execution of the Edict of Reformation which the Emperour had made caused as great troubles for the German Prelates who stuck fastest to the Pope desired that at least he might have some hand in the business and therefore the Emperour at their Solicitation acquainted the Pope with all that he had done and prayed him to send Legates to joyn with him in his design of Reforming the Church of Germany The Pope had it least in his thoughts to become the Executor of the Orders of an Emperour whom he looked upon as an Usurper of his Rights Nevertheless that he might not absolutely break with the Germans who he feared might make a general revolt and lest in imitation of Henry the Eighth King of England Charles might declare himself Head of the Church he resolved to send two Legates not for executing the Edict of Reformation but to give Absolution to the. Lutherans who should return into the Bosome of the Church with power to grant all manner of Dispensations even as far as to allow the Communion in both kinds to those who would confess that the Church doth not err in prohibiting it He gave them likewise Authority to abrogate some of the Ceremonies of the Church and to remit somewhat of the ancient Discipline He empowred them not onely to absolve Seculars Princes and Towns but also Apostate Monks who had left their Monasteries allowing them to live abroad in the World provided that under the habit of Secular Priests they should wear that of Regulars This last seemed a pretty odd kind of an Order and a Mystery that no body could tell what to make of He caused Copies of this Bull to be dispersed that so he might thwart the Edict of Charles and retreive the possession of the power of Reforming Manners and Doctrine which the Emperour would have invaded In execution of the Emperour's Edict some Provincial Synods were held in Germany The Archbishop of Cologne called one wherein some good Acts were made concerning Discipline which were approved by Charles the Fifth but no mention at all of matters of Faith The Electour of Mentz observed not the same measures for in his Synod he made eight and forty Decrees about matters of Faith and fifty six concerning the Reformation of Discipline In things that had been decided he followed the Council of Trent and in the rest the most received opinions of the School-men except in the point of Images where he declared that Images are onely appointed for bare Commemoration and not for objects of Devotion and in that of Saints where he asserts that the honour due to Saints is an honour of Society and Dilection and not a Religious Worship The Nuncio's who were named in the year 1548. set not forward on their Journey to Germany
Convention by themselves in Thrace but others on the contrary do affirm that the whole Assembly was Orthodox However there was at least three hundred of them Orthodox that were met together from all Parts The holy Confessour Hosius Bishop of Cordoua did preside in it St. Athanasius was re-established in his See by it and the Nicene Creed was also by it explained according to truth Nevertheless this very Council has not been able to obtain to pass for legitimate St. Austin formally rejects it nor is it reckoned among the first six De. Conciliis l. 1. c 7. Bellarmine indeed so far favours it as to account it among those that are in part rejected and in part approved If the Ancients had believed that General Councils were infallible I cannot see why they should reject this it having all the marks of Universality Gratus Bishop of Carthage was present at it with five and thirty African Bishops more and yet the African Church never received it she took so little notice of it that sixty or eighty years after she had no manner of knowledge of its Canons which appears by the History of the great Contest between the Church of Africk and the Bishops of Rome in the Affair of Pelagius upon the right of Appealls Celestius a Pelagian who had been condemned by the Councils of Africk obtained of Pope Zosimus to be acquitted of all the Censures that had been given against him The Africans opposed it affirming that the Canons permitted not that one accused of Heresie should be tried out of his own Province or but by his own Synod and that the Bishop of Rome had no authority to receive the Appeals of such as stood condemned by the Bishops of Africk Zozimus produced a Canon as of the Council of Nice which permitted Appeals to Rome Tho it was not really a Canon of that Council but of the Council of Sardica The Africans were surprized at it and knew not on the sudden what to reply for in their Copies of the Canons of the Council of Nice there was no such Canon to be found so that not knowing from whence it might be taken because they knew nothing of the Council of Sardica or its Canons there was need of time to clear the mystery The fifth General Council upon the Cause of Arius was the Council of Milan held about the year 354. Ruffinus plainly says that many of the Orthodox fell into the snares of Heresie Hist l. 1. c. 20. And indeed the Bishops that held for Athanasius and the term Consubstantial were in fine banished by the Emperour Constantius Could there be a more famous Council than was that of Ariminum in Italy There were present and assisting in it no fewer than six hundred Bishops of which four hundred of the Eastern Church and two hundred of the West If we may believe Socrates Hist l. 2. c. 29. there was nothing done in this Council repugnant to the Faith of the Church But he is not in this to be credited He thought perhaps it would be a mighty service to the Church to prevaricate in her behalf and deny that this Great Council was of the number of those that favoured Arianism But it is undeniable that this Synod sunk under the violence of the Emperour Constantius and was over reached by the cunning and artifice of Vrsacius Bishop of Singidunum and of Valens Bishop of Mursa The testimony of Athanasius in the Book by him written concerning the Council of Ariminum puts the matter beyond all doubt especially when we consider the concurrent evidence of S. Austin in the fourteenth Chapter of his third Book against Maximin and of St. Hilary in his Book de Synodis adversus Arianos where we find the Letters of Liberius Bishop of Rome to the Eastern Bishops wherein he avers that the Fathers of the Council of Ariminum overcome by the Emperour and by the cheats of Valence and Vrsacius had pronounced contrary to the Faith of the Church but were again perfectly returned from their error and had each of them pronounced Anathema against the Confession of Faith made by the Council of Ariminuw We have thus already five General Councils that have erred about the same matter In the Cause of Eutiches who confounded the two Natures of Christ there were two General Councils assembled The first was at Ephesus in the year 449. convened by Theodosius the younger a Prince truly Catholick All the Patriarchs were present at it Juvenal Patriarch of Jerusalem Dioscorus of Alexandria Domnus of Antioch Flavian of Constantinople and by his Legats Leo Bishop of Rome Nothing was wanting to the Legality or Universality of this Council For to say that this Council was Illegal because not convened by the Pope and that the Patriarch of Alexandria and not the Popes Legates did preside therein is a very vain Allegation the weakness of which however in this place we are not concerned to shew For we oppose not such as make the Pope Superiour to Councils and all the Authority of Councils to depend upon the Popes Pleasure We oppose such as make the Council Superiour to the Pope and hold a Council to be nothing the less legal or less infallible for not being under the Popes direction such as look upon the Councils of Constance and of Basil as most holy Councils tho the Popes did not preside in them and such in fine as require us to submit to the Council of Trent upon its own Authority This General Council of Ephesus tho legally assembled and according to the Canons is notwithstanding a detestable Convention that justified the Heretick Eutiches confirmed his Doctrine and deposed Flavian Patriarch of Constantinople a most holy and Orthodox person About nineteen years before there had been held another General Council at the same City of Ephesus in the Cause of Nestorius who affirmed there was to Persons in Christ This Heresie was there condemned and Truth triumphed This certainly makes an essential difference between these two Councils tho otherwise there be none that I can see as to Form and Externals unless that Error was victorious in the second Council with less scandal than truth overcame in the first For it is true indeed that Dioscorus President of the second Council of Ephesus did with much facility cause the Heresie of Eutiches to prevail the Popes Legats and some few others having been only a little roughly treated whilst in the first Council of Ephesus which is the third received General Council there was a horrible Schism occasioned by Cyril of Alexandria and John of Antioch who made Parties and deposed each other Socrat. l. 7. c. 33. Evagrius l. 1. c. 4. The Emperour was forced to interpose in the matter and to make use of his Authority to appease so dreadful a Sedition It is apparent from all these Considerations that tho the Council of Trent could be considered as a General Council that would not bind us to believe it infallible nor
to the Pope had owned him for his Sovereign and had received from him the Pallium and Confirmation in his Patriarchship that he had assured his Holiness that the Religion of his People was in all things agreeable to that of the Roman Church that it used the same Ceremonies and that they had Books as old as the days of the Apostles At length he concluded that the People under the Jurisdiction of that Prelate were so numerous that they reached beyond the River of Ganges and that they were partly under the Dominion of the Turk and Sophie of Persia and partly under the King of Portugal At this last word the Portugal Ambassadour starred up and in his Master's name protested that the Oriental Bishops subjects to his Master acknowledged to Patriarch for their Superiour Afterward they read the Confession of Faith of that Patriarch and the Letter which he wrote to the Council wherein he excused himself that he could not be there because of the great Journey he had already made and was still to make but promised to submit to all that should be Decreed therein The Protestation of the Portugal Ambassadour made the truth of this story to be much doubted The Council came now to their Synodal Actions and first was read the Decree of Doctrine containing nine Chapters and as many Canons with Anathema's establishing the necessity of a perpetual Sacrifice and the truth of the Sacrifice of the Mass as being really Propitiatory They confirmed the Ceremonies of that Sacrifice the Purity of the Canon of the Mass the use of the Latin Tongue in the celebration of that Sacrifice the Masses without Communicants the Masses in honour of the Saints and the mingling of Water with the Wine To this Decree the Fathers gave their consent by a Placet except two or three and twenty who persisted to oppose that Clause which says that Jesus Christ offered up himself in Sacrifice in the first Eucharist The Archbishop of Granada the chief of those who disliked that Clause came not to the Session that he might not have the trouble to see a Doctrine pass for an Article of Faith which in his opinion was so repugnant to Truth But the Legates sent thrice for him and at last forced him to come This constraint put him into such a fret that he had a good mind to renew his opposition that he might be revenged for the Contempt that was put upon him in undervaluing his opinion and it is somewhat strange if he and so many Prelates who brought along with them a spirit of contradiction even to the Session should all of a sudden lay it aside and cloth themselves with a spirit of humility and submission So that it is clear that these Bishops The Bishops apparently ill satisfied with the Infallibility of the Council most of them Spaniards and strict Catholicks were notwithstanding very ill satisfied with the Infallibility of the Council Immediately after the Bishop who did officiate read the Decree of Reformation against the Abuses committed in the Mass which prohibited all treating and bargaining for saying of Masses the suffering of vagabond Priests who were unknown or notoriously infamous to celebrate the saying of Mass in private houses to be present at Service in an undecent habit the using of lascivious Musick in singing of Mass the making of noise speaking or walking in time of Service the celebrating of Mass out of the hours appointed for it the celebrating with unusual Ceremonies the having a certain limited number of Candles at Mass and for conclusion it contain'd an exhortation to the People to repair to Mass in their own Parish Churches at least on Holy days and Sundays In the next place the Decree of general Reformation was read consisting of eleven Chapters containing hardly any thing worth the naming onely some petty Regulations to hinder undeserving Persons from being promoted to Bishopricks It is true that in some places the Decree seems to enlarge the Power of Bishops allowing them the Privilege to enquire into the nature of Dispensations to wit whether they have not been obtained by surreption or obreption stealth or wheadling to visit Hospitals Colleges Fraternities Publick Stocks for rellef of the Poor and to have the direction and oversight of all Pious Houses and Foundations but still with this Clause of Limitation as Delegates of the Holy See The eleventh Chapter decrees that whosoever shall seize the Goods of Churches Benefices or publick Stocks of Charity let him be King or Emperour shall be excommunicated untill he have made restitution and that he may not be absolved but by the Pope Lastly the Decree of referring the matter of the Cup to the Pope was read and seeing it was a Decree that related to a Point of Faith it ought in course to have come after the Decree of the Mass but it was otherways because they could not get votes enough to make it pass as a Point of Doctrine it was an order of the Council that no Point of Doctrine could be established if a considerable Party opposed it though it had been carried by Plurality of Votes but that some casting Votes were sufficient for a Point of Reformation And the Legates who were resolved upon any terms that the matter of the Cup should be referred to the Pope finding that they could not have Votes enough to make it pass for a Point of Doctrine thought it the best way to propose it as a matter of Reformation and therefore it is placed in the Acts amongst the Chapters of Reformation This Maxime that we have been speaking of that a Point of Doctrine is not to be lookt upon as decided when a considerable Party oppose the Decision occasioned some Debates and Scruples as to that Clause of the Decree which asserts that Jesus Christ offered himself in the Eucharist because it had been contradicted by a considerable Party for though there were but three and twenty Prelates that opposed it in the Session yet it had been refuted by a great many in the Congregations and not one of them had changed his opinion The Decrees of this Session gave but small content to any the German Ambassadours indeed were pretty well pleased that the Affair of the Cup was remitted to the Pope but the Emperour himself was not at all satisfied with it because his great aim was to please the German People who had no liking to the Pope's Jurisdiction They would have much rather accepted a favour from the Council a name they did not quarel with than from the Pope whom they could not endure But the People were far more dissatisfied for besides the Emperour's reason they thought they were abused in being remov'd from one Judicature to another seeing the Pope had referred the matter to the Council and that the Council sent it back again to the Pope It was taken very ill also that in the Decree of Reformation the Power of Bishops was extended to Pious Foundations which had been
said his Carriage was lookt upon to be insolent and proud but it was born with because he was of the darling Faction The Spaniards again bring about the question of the Divine Right of Episcopacy None of those difficulties could dishearten the Spaniards they stood their ground still and Gilberto de Nogueras Bishop of Aliphe started the question again about the Divine Right of Episcopacy He confirmed his opinion by strong Arguments and then proved it to be false that the power of the Church was put into the hands of a single Person he went on and said that the Popes power did not extend to the annulling of Canons and abolishing of Laws and thereupon began to quote the Canons alledged dy Gratian wherein the Ancient Popes acknowledged themselves subject to the Decrees of the Fathers and of their Predecessours But the Cardinal of Warmia one of the Legates interrupted him saying that the question was about the Superiority of Bishops over Priests and that he digressed The Bishop of Aliphe made answer that since they were treating of the Authority of Bishops it was no digression to speak of the power of the Pope who was a Bishop The Archbishop of Granada rose up and made answer in a higher strain he said that others had talked enough of the Pope's Authority and spoke things which were not onely superfluous but pernicious He glanced at the Speech of the General Lainez who had struck down the Bishops and Council under the Pope's Feet The Bishop della Cava the hottest always of the Romish Faction made answer that they who had spoken of it spoke as became them and not as the Bishop of Aliphe Cardinal Simoneta made a sign to the Bishop della Cava to hold his peace and silence being made the Bishop of Aliphe began again But when they perceived that he persisted to cite Canons to prove that the Pope is subject to the Laws the Legate of Warmia interrupted him a second time and so he was forced to hold his tongue and give place to Antonio Maria Salviati Bishop of St. Paul in France who by an exhortation to meekness and peace endeavoured to allay the heats of those Commotions In the Congregation of the fourth of December the Cardinal of Lorrain delivered his opinion concerning the question whether Episcopacy be of Divine or Humane Right He proved by divers passages of the Ancients which made them admire his Memory that it is of Divine Right But on the other hand he alledged several instances of Bishops who had owned that they held all their Authority from the Holy See so that his discourse was so wavering and so full of uncertainty and ambiguity that it was manifest enough he had no mind to declare his positive opinion concerning that Point But the French Prelates who spoke after him were far more sincere and bold for they declared frankly for the Divine Right nevertheless they concluded with the Cardinal that according to their Judgment it was not absolutely necessary to determine that question in the Council So that the first part of their discourse displeased the Legates and Pope's Pensioners and the latter part the Spaniards The truth is the Spaniards and French drove at the same end to wit the maintaining the Authority of Bishops against the ambitious enterprises and covetous self-interessed Practices of the Court of Rome But they took different ways to doe this according to the different humours of their Countrey The Spaniards who are close and cunning were for striking at the root of the Pope's Authority by hidden Mines and were perswaded that if it were one declared that Episcopacy and Residence are of Divine Right the Episcopal Order would retrieve its Credit with the People and so they might with success withstand the attempts made by the Court of Rome upon the Persons and Rights of the Bishops But the French on the other hand who are brisk and forward have not commonly such distant Views nor are they very skilfull in those Politick fetches which are proper to the Italians and Spaniards they shoot streight at the mark and sometimes offend by too great sincerity or to word it better they many times hinder the success of their own designs by imprudent discoveries They judged it therefore necessary without farther Mystery to have it defined that a Council is Superiour to the Pope or at least to have it enacted that the Pope may not dispense with nor derogate from the Canons The Spaniards wished with all their hearts that these Decisions could have been obtained from the Council but they thought it impossible nor could they find a fair occasion to state the Question nor any Pretext to quarrel with the Pope's Authority since they admit of the Council of Florence whereas the French receive the Council of Basil which hath placed a Council above the Pope and reject that of Florence The Cardinal of Lorrain essays means to compose the Controversie about the Divine Right of Episcopacy but is slighted and the Cardinal is angry The Cardinal of Lorrain proposed a new form of Decree to try if he could put an end to that Controversie these words established by Divine Right were not in it but in place of them he put instituted by Jesus Christ The Legates dispatched a Courier to Rome with a Copy of the Cardinal's Draught and the observations of some Doctours of the Canon Law upon it The Cardinal complained of that procedure that having given them the project of a Decree before it had been proposed in Congregation they had so far abused his Confidence and thereupon took occasion to expostulate with them for the unjust Jealousies which the Italians conceived of the French and for the impertinent Proverb that was often in their mouth from the Spanish Scab we are fallen into the French Disease for so they call that foul Distemper which the French call the Neapolitan Disease The French being netled at these Railleries and besides intending to prosecute their design of bringing the Pope under the Power of a Council resolved among themselves to speak more boldly in the Congregation of the seventeenth of December Lansac who set them upon it being unwilling that the Legates should be surprised gave them a hint of it by telling the Bishop of Avranches who was to speak that he should deliver his opinion freely A free Discourse of the Bishop of Avranches and that the King his Master was powerfull enough to bear him out in it The Bishop spoke and not onely proved Episcopacy to be of Divine Right but that the Authority of the Pope differed onely in Degree from that of Bishops that it is circumscribed by the Boundaries of Canons and praised the Custome of the Parliaments of France which declare Bulls that are contrary to the Canons to be abusive and prohibit the Execution of them This Discourse was impatiently heard but it was winked at and the Pope's Party took care for the future to speak with greater
two Brothers the Duke and Grand Prior. He dealt earnestly with him also to employ his credit with the French Prelates that they would desist from pressing that the Institution of Bishops and their Residence should be declared of Divine Right But the Cardinal would not hear of it he continued stedfast in his design of staying at the Council and as he said of having matters concluded according to truth and reason Upon his return to Trent he bragg'd much how he had resisted the solicitations of the Cardinal of Ferrara but that was the last act of constancy and vigour that came from him for after that time he made so visible and considerable a compliance that he became the chief instrument which the Court of Rome employed for shaking and baffling the vigour of others However he seemed still to retain a little stedfastness in a Conference that he had with Cardinal Morone after his return from Hostia Cardinal Morone to sooth and flatter him told him that he wished he were at the helm of affairs and that he had the same Authority as the Legates had that farther more the Pope desired a Reformation and would set about it that none of the Articles which had been proposed by the several Nations were desired to be left out but those which related to the Court of Rome because the Pope would have the honour of Reforming himself The Cardinal was not catcht in that trap but made answer that saving the respect which was due to the Holy See what concerned the Reformation of the Cardinals and of the Court of Rome might be very well proposed in the Council But he continued not long in that style for the Cardinal received Letters from the Queen informing him that his presence would be far more necessary in France than at Trent she told him that there was no more good to be expected from the Council for France that all that could have been obtained from it would onely have been in order to reunite the French Protestants to the Church but that that was a thing not to be hoped for now since the peace with the Huguenots held good and that therefore the Pope was to be contented She wrote also to the Pope that she would order the French Prelates to concur in any thing that might tend to the speedy Conclusion of the Council and not to dispute his Authority any more From that time forward the Cardinal thought of nothing but of returning to France he was troubled to understand that the peace with the Protestants was like to hold for he mortally hated the Huguenots and feared the growth of the Party not so much out of Zeal for Religion as because he knew that that Party could not be Established but upon the ruines of his Family by reason of the irreconcilable hatred that was betwixt the Princes of the House of Guise and the Great men that were engaged in the interests of the Protestants He considered with himself that to support him against a Party which was like to gather new strength by a Peace he stood in need of the favour of the Pope and therefore he bent all his thoughts for the future to incline him to espouse his Interests by appearing to be wholly at his devotion A new Ambassadour from France comes About the same time the President de Birague the new French Ambassadour arrived and was received in the Congregation of the second of June But because in his Credentials he was not called Ambassadour all the Ambassadours of Princes who commonly come after those of France did not appear that they might not be obliged to take their places after him Birague presented to the Council a Letter from the King wherein he gave once more reasons for the Peace which he had concluded with the Huguenots still protesting that it was done in prospect of reclaiming to the Church those that were gone astray by a surer way than that of Arms that farther he expected that they would aid and assist him in that design by the Reformation which he had demanded and still did demand from the Council Birague's Harangue contained onely the same things somewhat more amplified and seeing the Legates knew what Birague was to say before they had heard him in the Council they were prepared to make an answer to his Speech by complements of condoleing that the King had been in a manner forced to make Peace with the Huguenots They farther added that they disapproved not what he had done exhorting him nevertheless that so soon as his Kingdom were in Peace he would endeavour all he could to cure the wound that Heresie had made in his Territories This answer was communicated to the Cardinal of Lorrain before it was given but he opposed it objecting that the Council ought not to approve the Peace which the King had made with the Huguenots seeing it was so prejudicial to the Church and that therefore they ought to take time to answer This advice was taken and the Legates made answer to Birague that the matters which he had proposed were so weighty that the Council desired time to give an answer to them but the French Ambassadours were extremely vexed with the Cardinal for this action They were about to have written to the Court concerning it but because Lansac was speedily to return they gave it him in Commission to make a report thereof to the King In the mean time the Congregations continued for Examining matters touching the Sacrament of Orders and the Prelates did not stick so closely to the point but that many times they purposely flew out into digressions In one of these Congregations the Bishop of Nimes discoursed freely enough against Annats and against several abuses of the Court of Rome amongst the rest against the Ordination of Priests who were admitted without examination or capacity In another Congregation the Bishop of Cadix a Spaniard shew'd the needlesness of Titulary Bishops whom he called figmenta humana an invention of the Court of Rome and what disorders these Bishops without Bishopricks caused in the exercise of the Discipline of the Church But seeing all the abuses introduced by Papal Authority found instantly Protectors among the Italians the Bishop of Sarzana a Tuscan rose up and defended the Cause of those Titular Bishops Another Spaniard Bishop of Lugo in Gallicia spoke against Dispensations and affirmed that it was not necessary to set Bounds to the Court of Rome as to that matter and to declare the invalidity of those Dispensations or rather that it is impossible to give Dispensations about most things that are so freely dispensed with About this time Angelo Massarelo Bishop of Tilesio in Abruzzo Clark of the Council being grievously tormented with the Stone resolved to be cut of it and desisted from officiating in Person as Clark and this removed one of the difficulties that have been mentioned which was that the Ambassadours of France and Spain having made great instances that he should