our guard with the Legate who is certainly a grand Architect having a strange Faculty of seeming to give something when he gives nothing and of laying up Matter for Plea which must hereafter help the Court of Rome to Money which is the main End he drives at in this Reformation The 5th Chapter which speaks of the Immunity ought likewise to be considered lest instead of remedying what the Secular Jurisdiction and Common-wealth do at present suffer thereby they by seeming to yield something destroy all by giving a Power to the Prelates to send Laicks to their Prisons and having taken cognizance of their Crimes to joyn with the Secular Judge in punishing them Now this is a fetch no Man but the Legate could ever have dreamt of What is pretended to and desired in this matter being that heinous Crimes may not be committed without being punished by the Ecclesiasticks Secular and Regular at every turn defending their Churches and the Criminals that have fled to them with Arms and a thousand other Methods Now to put down Sanctuaries wholly would appear too rigorous considering the Derivation they have from the Law of God or from the Cities of Refuge that were under the Old Testament or as Abulensis well observes that were at all Times and in all Nations that all might not be like the Laws of Draco nothing but Blood And St. Austin in his Civitate Dei observes That when Rome was taken by the Christians that they offered no Violence to the Heathens that had taken sanctuary in the Churches All this notwithstanding things are visibly reduced to such a pass that some course must be taken to prevent the manifold Disorders that flow from these Immunities that so there may be Punishments and that the Common-wealth may be preserved in Peace which is the end of Secular Magistrates For which reason the Emperor Tiberius as Suetonius relates in his Life was so much offended at the manifold Crimes that were committed under the shelter of the Sanctuaries which were dispersed all over Italy that he dissolved them all at once We are now to see how the fore-mentioned Inconveniencies may be so remedied that the Words of our Lord My House is the House of Prayer but you have made it a Den of Thieves may not be verified in this Case It is no easie thing to find a remedy for it but if Churches must still enjoy their Immunities it will be necessary that neither Seculars nor Regulars nor no Ecclesiastical Judges shall defend any Church or Offender that is in it with any other than Spiritual Arms which are the only Arms that belong to them neither must it be lawfull for them to make any manner of resistance or to lock their doors or to give any other Impediment to the Secular Judges whom they must restrain by Religion and not by Force For besides the raising of Tumults there are other Reasons why it should not be lawfull for Ecclesiasticks to defend their Churches with Arms as their not knowing what they defend or whether the Case be such as can claim Sanctuary or whether the Secular Judges may not lawfully take the Offender out of the Church there being Cases wherein they may do it without having recourse to the Ecclesiasticks It ought farthermore to be declared That no person guilty of Fore-thought Murther Wounding or any other such Crime is to have the benefit of a Sanctuary neither ought all Churches Monastries and Chappels to enjoy that privilege but only some particular Churches that shall be appointed This is what I have to offer at present concerning the foresaid Chapters As to which and every thing else his Majesty may Command what he shall judge to be most convenient and whatsoever shall appear so to your Lordship will appear the same to me Nevertheless there is one thing I will be positive in which is That we do but tire our selves here in vain since without a Miracle nothing wherein the Pope and his Court have any Interests or Pretensions can be determined here but to our great prejudice For notwithstanding they have in a manner cancelled all former Laws and under a pretence of dispensing with them have dissipated them They are not willing nevertheless that there should be any new Laws made against Abuses for fear of offering too much Violence to People's Conscience or lest that after they are made Secular Princes should oblige them to observe them Of the truth of all that has been said what has passed concerning the Exemption of Chapters which ought to have been quite taken away that so there might be something of Order and Discipline and that they who are the Head should not be made the Feet is a sufficient Evidence Which Decree of the Council will be interpreted by the Rota not to comprehend any Chapters that enjoy an Immemorial Prescription or that were exempted at the Erection of the Church or that were defending their being exempted at the Court of Rome at the time when that Decree was pronounced By which Exceptions the Decree is laid flat upon the ground being nothing in truth but a matter of Money and Law-suits for the Chapters upon a bare Allegation of any of those things without any manner of proof will be protected by that Court and such of them as were never in the solid possession of any such Exemption shall give the Bishops trouble enough if they shall offer to call them in question God knows how sensible I was of this and of what was most convenient to have been put into this Decree which as your Lordship may remember was that all those Evasions should have been pulled up by the roots that so no Gate might have been left open for tricks for I would fain know why Prescription Immemorial Possession and Erections should hinder the Church or the Legislator from reforming Abuses and from doing what is most expedient for the Common-wealth For from the time that Abuses may be defended by Immemorial Custom a door is shut against all Remedies for the future and all Sins may plead Prescription In a word the Legates acted in this as they do in every thing else that is they would not suffer the Court of Rome to be deprived of so great a profit and for that reason did according to their Custom favour the Chapters against the Bishops pretending as an Auditor of the Camara who is since made a Cardinal said once publickly That the Honour of the Apostolical See was supported by the Chapters Your Lordship may see by this how well they know what they do and what likelihood there is of having any thing redressed here I have sent your Lordship a Memorial of the Council of Castile which was made before this Council was called as also the Pragmatica of Madrid Which orders no Benefices or Pensions to be bestowed upon Strangers with several other things This Memorial was put into my hands by the Council and I sent it with another as big or bigger
he was pleased at every Turn to style Universal has never been admitted into that Number and as it was only an Oeconomical and not an Oecumenical Council so we feel to this Day of what Disadvantage it was to the Church besides Truths which have been once established by Councils namely that of Constance can never be shaken afterwards it not being possible that what was once a Truth and dictated by the Holy Spirit should ever be otherwise Now according to this reckoning our Council of Trent must be the Eleventh Synod notwithstanding neither the Pope nor his Legates are willing to have it reckoned so who at the opening thereof were in a great perplexity how to rank it This is the Account of the Universal Synod for albeit there were Councils celebrated by the Apostles and from which all succeeding Councils do derive all their Authority This reckoning commences nevertheless from that of Nice which consisted of 318 Fathers because Christians from the Time of Constantine have had the Liberty to assemble together after that of Nice from which the Canons of General Councils do commence the Councils of Constantinople Ephesus and Chalcedon were celebrated which four having been venerated by St. Austin and St. Gregory as the four Gospels does not lessen the Authority of the following Councils that were lawfully assembled This being premised the way of proceeding in past Universal Councils comes now to be observed and that in order to discover how different it was from the procedure of this present Council and how great Inconveniencies do follow thereupon the way of convocating prosecuting and finishing being quite contrary in those and this Council All the Eight General Councils having been called by the Emperours the Fathers injoying an intire Liberty in the prosecution of them and the whole Authority being lodged in the Body of the Council and if the Pope's Legates did at any time delay their coming the Council if there was an urgent Necessity did its Work without them as appears from the Definition of the Eighth Council made before the Arrival of the Legates which runs thus Having long expected the Arrival of the Vicars of the Elder Rome and it not being just to wait any longer for them it appearing to us an absurd thing to neglect the lost Church of Christ by such delays we do of Necessity denounce c. The same is to be met with in the Gests of the Second Ephesine Council which after having advertized Julius a Bishop Hilarius a Deacon and Dulcitius a Notary the Vicars of Pope Leo that the Council was to assemble next Day desiring them therefore to make haste to come to them upon their not appearing when they were expected Talasius Bishop of Caesarea said Besides that our remaining in this City is a great prejudice to the most Religious and Holy Bishops and their Churches the most Pious and Christian Emperour would have us to hasten the End of this Synod that so he may be acquainted with what shall be decreed therein Wherefore the Synod having done what was proper and convenient for it in having invited the Vicars of the most Holy Friend of God Archbishop Leo I am of opinion that since they have refused to assemble with us that we ought not to use any farther Delays This is to the purpose as to what is doing here at this time Finally whatsoever was offered and commanded to be observed by Universal Councils being for that reason of inviolable Authority it did not want the Confirmation of the Pope to give any thing of Validity to it neither was it for that but for other honest and just Ends that they first began to make use of that Confirmation there being no reason why what is determined by a General Council by the Direction of the Holy Ghost should have its Truth in suspence so as to depend on the Will of any Person for what is once true must be always so This is manifest to all but Parasites or such as seek by Tricks utterly to destroy the Authority of General Councils of which a great deal might be said had I not something else in my Eye at present I shall therefore only observe that the Argument drawn by those People on which they lay so much stress from Pope Leo and his Legates contradicting the Council of Chalcedon as to what it had ordained relating to the Chairs of Constantinople and Alexandria is not of so great Weight as they imagine and represent it to be in their Histories seeing that Council notwithstanding that Contradiction did still adhere to its Determination and which after having been observed for several Years was at last confirmed by the Sixth General Council but to return to the Direction of General Councils There was as has been already observed an entire Liberty in them their whole Authority being lodged in the Body of their Assembly as is plain from the Councils themselves the Pope's Legates having no other than an honorary Presidence in them and the privilege of voting first the Presidents Vt interloquerentur definirent being named by the Emperour and styled Judices discretivi as is plainly to be seen in the Council of Chalcedon and in the Eighth Council also in which in the first Action they spoke as follows Our Emperours have sent us their Servants and who are called his Senators to be discreet Hearers of all that shall be transacted After which the Father 's celebrated the Council and spoke and determined matters with an entire Liberty So that as we have no reason to doubt of their having been assisted by the Holy Ghost in all their Determinations we have as little reason to doubt of the Council it self having ordered and governed every thing for besides that the thing is reasonable in it self it is no more than what is of Divine Right and was expresly determined by the Council of Constance It is manifest likewise from the Council of the Apostles in which St. Peter as we see notwithstanding he was the Prince and Universal Pastor of the Church did not preside with Authority or a co-ercive Power on the contrary it is plain that the whole Power was in the Assembly and as in the fifteenth of the Acts the Determination was pronounced by James so it is said there that Peter rising up in the midst of the Brethren said c. which Action of standing up is an Argument of his not having pretended to an Authoritative Presidency for if he had he would have sate and not have rise to speak as is well observed by Abulensis though Turrecremata and others of his Stamp do interpret this as they think fit the same appears likewise from the Council mentioned in the thirteenth of the Acts where it is said when Samaria had received the Word of God they sent Peter and John c. To which and a great deal more Turrecremata Cajetan and others of their Party give a general Answer that St. Peter did that purely out of
the Authority of the Council that the Prelates should not have the courage to treat freely about Reformation they never gave them leave to treat thereof any other way than as has been mentioned it being their whole business to make a Party as if what they were about were a huckstering matter or were the compounding of a Law-suit in all which courses it is certain the Holy Ghost did not assist striving still to authorize Abuses and giving the World to understand that the Pope is gracious in granting them any thing as if all were his own taking Abuses though never so pernicious and splitting them as they thought good by which Artifice that part of the Abuse which was approved of by the Synod becomes perpetual and for the part that was reprobated they will according to their custom find ways to defeat its condemnation To which end the Legates have given the Fathers to understand that they have a Golden Bull which shall approve of all that shall be done Now let any one judge whether this be a true way of celebrating a Council or of making a Reformation for upon this foot it was debated here that the Reformation might be made at Rome as it is in effect and not by the Council nothing having been done here but what was ordained at Rome so that if every thing that is any ways prejudicial to the Council is not done here the World has reason to thank them for it But besides all this and the Synods not having the managery of it self there is nothing can be so much as to put the Vote without the consent of the Legates who notwithstanding by reason of the great Number of Pensioners which the Pope has here are always sure of a Majority do nevertheless make use of strange Tricks in their conduct of the Council Besides by having made their own Creatures the Secretaries Notaries and all the other Officers of the Council they have made it thereby a body Tot habens aedituos uti sacrae aedis custodes and without any thing of Soul or strength in it Whereas all those Officers ought to have been appointed by the Council and especially the Notaries for otherwise what security can the Council have that they will write down any thing that they do not know to be agreeable to the Pope and the Legates or at least that they will not stifle the Truth or express it so as shall amount to the same So if they who made the Protestation at Bononia had not had Notaries and Witnesses of their own they would have suffered sufficiently on that occasion This is the course that has been hitherto taken in the Council of Trent which is employed rather in strugling with the Pope and his Legates who seek to ingross all to themselves than in reforming and remedying the Evils under which the Church groans I pray God it do not increase them by the course it takes which is by Artifice and Dissimulation so far to reduce the whole Synod to the Will of the Pope that it shall be the same thing for the Pope alone to deliberate of things at Rome with his Creatures as for the Fathers here assembled to do it which is the truth of the matter the Council being really at Rome and at Trent nothing but the Execution of it The substance of all that is done here being sent hither determined from Rome and being what the Pope with the Cardinals deputed there to that purpose and who do meet together continually have determined before-hand So that it may be truly said that we are here in a Convention of Bishops but not in a Council I wish these be not the last days Whether things will continue to be carried on thus to the End of the Council I know not but I do very much suspect they will and that for this reason because they cannot be put into a better way for the Pope's purposes and his Legate's who is coming who supposing he were willing to remedy things so far as it is possible to do it by the way they are in yet considering the times and the present posture of things it is by no means convenient to run the risk of it for which reason divers are of opinion that since no remedy can be expected it would have been much better not to have celebrated a Council at this time but to have waited until God had put the Christian Commonwealth in a better disposition than it is in at present or till this period which cannot last long had been over than to have celebrated one after this manner with so little fruit to the great sorrow of Catholicks the scorn of Hereticks and the prejudice of the present and all future Councils and what makes me immoveable in such thoughts of the conduct of this Council is the very Legation that is sent hither by his Holiness being so contrived that nothing could have been invented more proper for compassing of his designs in having sent but one Legate with two presidents For which though they give another colour neither have I seen their Powers it is manifest that their design therein is to reduce all to a Monarchical Order and Authority and to have all Affairs managed by one sole confident to prevent the differences that might arise betwixt three Legates whereas since their business here is to preside had it not been for that reason they would all three have been called so It is true that the word Legate signifies an Embassadour of the Pope or of any other Prince nevertheless according to the Style of the Court of Rome and of modern Lawyers none but Cardinals are styled Legates à latere others though employed in the same business being called by other Titles as Nuncio or as these are here Presidents from their business which is to preside which Title they take care frequently to inculcate that they may be thought to observe the ancient Custom of the Apostolical See of sending three Legates to Councils notwithstanding two of them have not the same Authority with the third After the same manner the Senate sent Ten Embassadours to Caesar when he was fighting with the barbarous Nations to be Councellours to him with whose assistance and advice he did great things Pompey in the piratical War had likewise twenty Five Legates sent to him the Ancients using so to join some with those they sent to govern Provinces that it was doubtfull whether they were their partners or only their companions Of the Office of an Embassadour in the Government of a Council IN case things should be carried in the Council as they have been hitherto as we have reason to believe they will it will then be necessary to find some remedy for it and by later cares if not to revoke at least to repair things so far as may be which though it is a duty incumbent on all it is His Majesty's concern after a special manner who as he is Emperour is Advocate of
THE COUNCIL of TRENT No Free ASSEMBLY More fully discovered By a Collection of Letters and Papers of the Learned Dr. VARGAS and other Great Ministers who assisted at the said Synod in Considerable Posts Published from the Original Manuscripts in Spanish which were procured by the Right Honourable Sir William Trumbull's Grandfather Envoy at Brussels in the Reign of King James the First With an Introductory Discourse concerning Councils shewing how they were brought under Bondage to the Pope By MICHAEL GEDDES LLD. and Chancellor of the Cathedral Church of Sarum LONDON Printed for Brabazon Aylmer at the Three Pigeons against the Royal Exchange in Cornhil MDCXCVII TO THE Right Reverend Father in God EDWARD By Divine Providence Lord Bishop of VVorcester May it please your Lordship HAD your Lordship no other Relation to the following Papers which do so plainly discover the absolute Bondage the Trent Council was in to the Pope but only that of your being universally acknowledged one of the ablest Champions the Church of England or any other Church ever brought forth against Popery over which your Victories and Triumphs are numbred no otherwise than by the many Combats you have had with it that alone would have led me to the doing both these Papers and my self the honour of prefixing your Famous Name to them But when besides that the Originals of these Papers were put into my Hands by your Lordship to be translated and made publick for the Service of the Church this afforded me so just a Pretence for the doing of it that the Ambition I have of owning to the World how much I have been beholden to your Lordship would not suffer me not to make use of And having said this I will not interrupt your better Exercises by detaining your Lordship any longer but shall continue my Prayers to God that he would be so gracious to his Church whose very Foundations are at this time so fiercely attacked as to restore you to perfect Health and to grant you a long Life to defend Her against those Enemies of Hers with whom she now struggles with the same Success that you had formerly against the Papists her standing Enemies I humbly beg your Lordship's Blessing and am Your Lordship's most humble and most obliged Servant M. GEDDES An Introductory Discourse of COUNCILS Quid enim minus deest Tyrannis quam falsas pro veris causis effingere THE Letters I here publish are an undeniable Evidence of the Council of Trent's having been in such Bondage to the Pope that tho it had been never so well disposed it was not in its Power to have reformed the Church But to open that Matter better a short and faithful Account of the Incroachments that have been made on the Authority of Councils by the Bishops of Rome which here followeth seems to be no improper Introduction to the reading of them The Catholick Church being a Society instituted by Christ into which the People of all Nations having submitted themselves to him as their Law-giver were to be admitted Christ must necessarily be supposed at the same time that he erected his Church into a Society to have prescribed a certain Form of Government to it with a Power to make such Laws and Orders as should be necessary to its Preservation as also to punish such of its Members as should obstinately deny any of the great Truths or transgress any of the known Duties which upon their admission into it they did solemnly promise and vow to believe and observe Now this being supposed which of the three Forms of Government Democracy Monarchy or Aristocracy is the best in having the fewest Inconveniencies attending it about which People may wrangle to Eternity without ever coming to any Agreement is not the Question here but the true Question is Under which of these Forms of Government Christ when he founded his Church did put it As to Democracy it neither was nor could be the Form of Government under which Christ put his Church and that for this Reason because that Form of Government if it can any ways subsist must have its Subjects near together whereas Christ designed that his Church should spread it self over the whole Earth as it did over a great part of it within a few Years after it was first founded As to Monarchy it is true it might if Christ had so thought fit have been the Form of the Government of his Church but it is as certain that he did not ordain it to be its Government as it is that the Apostles did not immediately after his Ascension change the Government that he had instituted which if it is a thing not to be imagined Christ must then have put his Church under an Aristocracy it being very plain from the Scripture that that was the Form of Government the Church was under in the Apostles Days So the first time the Church after it was founded acted as a Body that we read of was when the Apostles and Elders assembled together to quench a Dissension arisen among Christians concerning Circumcision and some other Mosaical Observances Acts the 15th in which Assembly it is plain that the Church acted as an Aristocracy And tho it is most probable that St. James and not St. Peter was the President of this Council yet whoever was it is certain he did not preside therein as a Monarch but as a Fellow-Judg with the rest of his Brethren According to which Apostolical Pattern the Pastors and Governours of the Church who succeeded the Apostles as often as there was occasion used to meet together in Councils to treat about the Affairs of their respective Churches making such Laws and Canons and inflicting such Censures as the Necessities of the Church required All which was done without the least Syllable of the Church having a Monarch set over it on Earth by Christ Thus the Church was governed in all places for near 300 Years by Provincial Councils of Bishops Not that Presbyters nay nor Lay-Christians were wholly excluded from those Assemblies the Lay-Members of the Church when she is under an Infidel Civil Government being in the place of the Civil Magistrate to her nevertheless it is certain that the Bishops as of a superior Degree to Presbyters had always the chief Authority in all such Assemblies and had probably a Negative upon the rest In the 4th Century the Church being blessed with Christian Emperors began to meet by her Bishops in Oecumenical or General Councils which was an Advantage she had not before enjoy'd it not being a thing to be expected that Princes of a contrary Religion should suffer such Assemblies to meet under their Noses All which General Councils acted and were justly esteemed by all Christians to be the Supream Legislative Authority of the Church and they looking upon themselves as such condemned Heresies and made Canons about Discipline and in a word did every thing that belonged to the Ecclesiastical Legislative Power and that without ever taking the
least notice of an Authority on Earth that was superior to theirs or of the Consent of any particular Prelats as necessary to the validating of their Determinations On the contrary those Reverend Assemblies were all called by the Emperors who in their Convocation of them appointed the Place where and the Time when they were to meet sending some of the gravest of their Senators to assist at them and protect them and dissolving them when they had finished what they were called to do All which was done without any Protestations having ever been made against it by any Bishop as an Incroachment upon his Ecclesiastical Prerogative Nay those Councils were so far from dreaming of the Bishop of Rome's having that Monarchical Authority in the Church which he now pretends to have that that Prelat tho he had often and earnestly desired it could never get one of those Assemblies to meet in the West where his See was And as to the Canons and Determinations of those Bodies they were so far from thinking that Bishop's Consent to them to be necessary that they made some not only without it but contrary to it Witness the 30th Canon of the Council of Calcedon in which any one that will look into it may plainly see what the Fathers in the 5th Century universally reckoned to be the Foundation of any Primacy or rather Precedency that the Bishop of Rome had and in case that Prelat happened to be convicted by them of Heresy they condemned him with the same freedom as they would have done any other Prelat as they did Honorius All which if true as it is a clear Demonstration that those Councils look'd upon themselves as the Supream Legislative Authority of the Church so the Truth of the whole thereof is so manifest from the publick Acts of those Assemblies that there cannot be a greater Instance of an invincible Hardiness against the brightest Evidence than that the Roman Champions give in affirming the Pope to have always had the same Authority he now pretends to and that he exercised in the Convention of Trent over General Councils His present Pretensions being 1. That the Power of Calling Suspending Translating and Dissolving General Councils is solely in him 2. That he is the sole Judg when the Calling of such Assemblies is necessary 3. That he can give a Right to vote in them to Ecclesiasticks who are not Bishops and to as many as he pleaseth which he has actually done to great Numbers of Abbots and to the Generals of the Religious Orders and to such Cardinals who are but Deacons 4. That none ought to sit and vote in a General Council that have not on some occasion or other taken an Oath of Obedience to him 5. That he is to preside in them either in Person or by his Legats and that with such an absolute Authority that nothing can be so much as proposed in them by any but by him or his Legats Lastly That nothing that is done in them is of any Validity until he has confirmed it Having named these Pretensions it would be to affront the Reader to offer to prove to him that the Assemblies that submit themselves to them can have no Authority and that the Church in her Body Representative is made thereby what Cajetan saith she is the Pope's Servant or Slave and not his Mother And as it is a thing worth any ones enquiry how this great Change in the Government of the Church was brought about so to the best of my Observation it was by these following Steps that the Popes ascended to this Pinnacle of Ecclesiastical Tyranny 1. As to the Power of Calling and Dissolving General Councils the thing that brought that into his Hands was the breaking of the Roman Empire into several independent Kingdoms and Commonwealths by which means it coming not to be in the Power of any one Prince as it was formerly to call all the Bishops to a Council the Pope seized upon it and having once got it he took care to keep it as one of the chief Jewels of his Crown for the sake of which and divers other Advantages which accrued to the Papacy by the breaking of the Roman Empire into so many independent Principalities the Popes will always take care to keep those Principalities from ever consolidating again into one great Monarchy a Universal Monarchy being a thing the Popes will never trust either their Catholick or Most Christian Son withal how zealous soever they may otherwise appear to be for their Religion A second Step towards this Ecclesiastical Tyranny was the Pope's stretching that Honorary Primacy of Order that was given him in General Councils purely on the Consideration of Rome's being the chief City in the Empire to a Primacy of Jurisdiction over those Assemblies which was the easier done through that prodigious Ignorance of antient Ecclesiastical History which reigned for some Ages in the West The third was those gross Impostures of the Decretal Epistles which were forged in the ninth Century on purpose to advance the Papal Authority they being universally believed to have been written by the antient Bishops of Rome on whom they were fathered The fourth was the Western Church after its having broke off Communion with all other Churches coming to look upon it self as the whole Catholick Church by which means any Power that had been given to the Bishop of Rome as Patriarch of the West was reckoned to extend to the whole Catholick Church But the last and great Step to these and all other Papal Usurpations was the great Lands and Revenues which were bestowed on the Roman See upon the Fall of the Lombards by Charles the Great and other Princes which great Riches with the assistance of pious Frauds chiefly of that Madness the Popes and their Monks inspired Princes with who stood in the way of their Ambition of going as far as the Holy Land to destroy themselves these I say enabled that Prelat to lay both Church and Empire at his Feet the Ecclesiasticks if they had been willing not being able to cope with a Power which at one time or other had trampled on most of the great Crowns of Europe all which was to come to pass that the Scriptures might be fulfilled which speaking of the Antichrist that was to come say that after that which withheld that is the Roman Empire was taken out of the way he was to sit in the Temple of God as God that is he was to oppress the Church as a Monarch or Tyrant and was so to bewitch the Kings of the Earth by his Sorceries and the World by his lying Signs and Wonders as to be in a Condition to destroy all that would not take his Mark upon them by submitting their Souls and Bodies to his Tyranny But to return to the Popes Usurpations upon General Councils The first Council called by any Pope that had the Title of General given it by the Roman Canonists themselves was that of the
the Synod by the Archbishop of Tarentum and the Bishop of Cervina on the second of February they were after a strict Examination declared by the whole Synod to be satisfactory Eugenius having therein comply'd with every thing the Council had required of him declaring them to be and since they met to have always been a General Council lawfully assembled revoking his Bull of Dissolution and other two Bulls denying the third of the 18th of the Calends of January to have been his he also with this named Legats to preside in the Synod in his Name The Legats with the Cardinal Julianus were Nicolaus Cardinal of the Holy Cross John Archbishop of Tarentum Peter Bishop of Padua and Luis Abbot of St. Justin who having on the 24th of April taken an Oath to act faithfully for the Honour of the Council and to defend all its Decrees but especially the Decree of the Council of Constance of the Subjection of the Pope to the Coercive Power of General Councils in all things belonging to the Faith the Extirpation of Schism and the general Reformation of the Church in its Head and Members as also to give wholsome Counsel according to God and their Consciences and not to reveal to any Person how the Prelats voted nor to depart from the Place of the Synod without its Leave they were admitted Presidents but without being allowed any Coercive Power all Decrees and other Acts of the Council being to be expedited as formerly under its own Seal Here we are told a very odd thing if it is true which is that tho these Prelats were admitted Presidents of the Council as the Pope's Legats and did take the forementioned Oaths as Presidents nevertheless that they took them not in the Pope's but in their own Name a thing naturally so absurd and considering how high the Spirit of the Synod was at this time so incredible that it had need to be very well attested to be believed by any indifferent Person it seems much more probable that those who had the Acts of this Synod for near an Age intirely in their Hands might be tempted to foist such a Passage as this into them especially considering that so great a Point as that of the Pope's having acknowledged a General Council to be superiour to him depends thereon than that such an Assembly should admit Men their Presidents as the Embassadors of a Prince and at the same time allow them to take an Oath of Fidelity to the Assembly in their own and not in their Prince's Name But in whose Name soever these Oaths were taken never were Oaths worse observed than they were the Presidents from the first minute they took their Place in the Synod studying nothing but how to blow it up by creating Factions in it and gaining Prelats to the Pope by Promises of great Preferments Eugenius having been driven out of Rome at this time by the Colonna's and other Citizens to whom he had rendred himself extreamly odious the whole City crying after him Let new Taxes and the Inventors of them perish when he came to Florence writ a very kind Letter to the Council thanking them therein for having so affectionately admitted his Legats Presidents promising faithfully for the future to love them as Sons observe them as Brethren and to be bound up with them in the Blessings of the same Sweetness by a fervent Love But the Synod knowing the Man too well to rely much on any Professions or Promises he could make them now it had brought him to its own Terms would not be diverted by a few good Words from doing what was necessary to the holding of him and all his Successors to them and whereas there were some who pretended that the Pope had never given his Consent to the Decree of the Synod of Constance which declared a General Council to be superior to him they resolved either to remove that Objection or to break with the Pope again and accordingly on the 26th of June they made a Decree declaring that a General Council derived its Authority immediately from Christ and that all Christians of whatsoever State or Dignity the Papal not excepted were bound in Conscience to obey all its Determinations in all matters appertaining to the Faith the Extirpation of Schism and the general Reformation of the Church in its Head and Members To which Decree coming upon them before they were well warm in their Chairs and while their Master was in very bad Circumstances the Presidents gave their Consent so that howsoever it was before the Supremacy of a General Council had now the Pope's Consent to it The Council vainly imagining that it had by this Decree secured its own Supream Authority and that of all future General Councils since none hereafter could without denying the Infallibility of the Church call the Truth thereof in question begun to act as the Supream Church-Authority sending two Cardinals into Italy as the Legats of the Universal Church to reconcile the Princes and People thereof to Eugenius The thing that made the Synod the more forward to send this Embassy into Italy was Eugenius's Adversaries making his being an Enemy to the Council of Basil one of their chief Objections against him which the Synod now he had so affectionately and thorowly adhered to it thought it self bound in Justice to remove The Legats sent by the Synod on this Errand were the Cardinal of the Holy Cross who was one of its Presidents and John Cervantes Cardinal Sancti Petri ad Vincula the former of which is said not to have consented to the forementioned Decree which is just as likely as that of his having taken the Oath of President in his own Name and not in the Pope's it being a very incredible thing that the Synod if the Cardinal had not consented to that their darling Decree would have employ'd him so soon after as their Legat and especially in an Embassy which was to be a Precedent to all future Ages of a General Council's having Authority to send Legats in the Name of the Universal Church But howsoever that were the Cardinal with his Colleague having gone with that Character to Rome after having treated there with the Colonna's who had the chief hand in driving Eugenius out of that City he went to Florence where having caballed with Eugenius how to destroy the Council he was sent back to it again with Instructions that in a short time did its business effectually for as he was reckoned to be one of the most dextrous Statesmen of his time so his main business at Basil was to gain the Cardinals and great Prelats over to Eugenius by Promises of higher Preferments so the Cardinal Capronicus whom Eugenius had pronounced not to be a Cardinal because tho he was named to that Dignity by Martin he had not been publickly declared by him before his Death and the Cardinal Julianus the President and the Cardinal Cervantes who were the Pillars the Council chiefly stood
are here and especially the Spaniards are in of a Physician of our own Nation and with some of our Theologues having died here for want of such a one I am told he will desire to have Doctour Gregory Lopez sent hither who I believe will be glad of the Employment I need not tell your Lordship how much I am indebted to the said Doctour for the Journey he took hither at your Lordship's Command I do therefore beseech your Lordship to promote his coming hither again all you can and the rather because the Doctour is so near and the Council is not like to sit long I hope His Majesty will not deny this request which is made to him by the whole Council in a manner The Lord prosper your most Illustrious and Reverend Person and increase your State From Trent the 27th of January 1552. I had forgot to write to you concerning the Disturbance that is raised here by a Clause in the Doctrine of the Sacrament of Order into which without ever having had it disputed or so much as communicated to the Prelates they have foisted in the Authority of the Pope above the Council making as if there were no Office in the Church Bishopricks not excepted that are not of his donation and distribution in contradiction both to the usage of the Primitive Church and to the Truth of things But notwithstanding this business when it was pressed by the Legate had a stop put to it by a suspension of those matters I am informed that the Legate designs to bring them speedily upon the Stage again and particularly that Clause which will be of so great prejudice not only to Germany which after the Pope's Authority is once declared to be superior to that of Councils will never have any regard for such Assemblies but to all that part of Christendom likewise which follows the Conclusion of the Synods of Constance and Basil which the University of Paris and the whole Kingdom of France do I am of opinion that so weighty a matter as this is ought not to be handled Ex incidenti but De proposito and at the End of the Council though considering the inconveniencies which will attend its being any ways determined it would certainly be the best course not to meddle with it at all But the Legate seeing a great many Dominicans here and a great Number of Spanish Prelates who do generally follow St. Thomas he is very earnest to have it proposed again hoping he may be able to carry it in the Council It is certainly a very unseasonable thing so that it would be well if there were an Order against medling with it in this Conjuncture since the determination thereof will infallibly drive away the Lutherans and destroy the Authority of the Decrees of the Council in a great many Provinces I do suppose Don Francisco will write to His Majesty about this I do kiss your Lordship's Hands P. de Malvenda The Difficulties I have mentioned with greater which are expected upon the Arrival of the Protestants and the Legate and his Creatures customary opposition have made Don Francisco for to judge it necessary since the Court is so near to send the Senior Fiscal to it to inform His Majesty and your Lordship at large how things stand here as a Person who knows well how to do it and how to take time by the forelock I will tell you one thing that is certainly true which is that if the said Fiscal should be perswaded to take this Journey the desire he has to see your Lordship will be his main inducement to it and so I do believe he may depart from hence in two Days Dr. Malvenda's Letter of the 26th of February 1552 to the Bishop of Arras Most Illustrious and Reverend Lord YOur Lordship in what you say of the Fiscal is certainly in the right it being no more than what I have always known of him I am in his debt for the good Office he did me in reciting the Calendar to his Majesty wherein I do believe that might happen to him that is said of Cicero the Flower of Orators that he was come to the Lees nevertheless I thank him as much as if he had drawn nothing but pure Wine out of it The Resolution he has brought is extreamly well concerted and the most convenient for our affairs that could possibly have been made and it appears so to the Elector of Cologne to whom I reported it as it did also to Mentz nevertheless as your Lordship will see by Don Francisco's Letter the Legate will do all that is possible to defeat it and especially if the Lutherans should come He seems to have begun it already by having adjourned the Congregations untill he has received an Answer from the Pope and for to imagine that we shall ever have any alteration made here in any thing that comes determined from Rome is to look after the fifth Foot of a Ship I have from the Elector of Cologne acquainted the Embassadour with the Message that was sent him by the Legate which was That he believed the Council would not proceed notwithstanding he laboured all he could to keep it on foot He has begun likewise to drop some words as if the Italian Bishops would not be persuaded to tarry any longer if a Session were not held when at the same time it is manifest that it is he that hinders it by delays Pray God grant them a better mind than I have hitherto been able for to observe in them Whatever your Lordship shall do for the Bishop of Castellamar will certainly be well bestowed as will also what you shall do for Father Abbot Upon Doctour Olivares going with the Queen We gave over all hopes of having Gregory Lopez sent to us which was no small trouble to the Council in which the Bishops have distempers enough but have not one Physician to take care of their health I begin now God be praised for it to recover in earnest though I have a defluxion still that falls every Morning from my Head down into my Neck with no small pain which growing every Day less I take to be a good sign Erastus when he was here promised that when he returned from Spain he would dispatch that business of mine I must therefore intreat your Lordship to command him to remember it that it may according to his promise be dispatched by the next Currier that goes to Spain May our Lord preserve your Lordship's most Illustrious and Reverend Person and increase your State I kiss your Lordship's Hands P. Malvenda From Trent the 26th of February 1552. Don Francisco de Toledo's Letter of the 1st of December 1551. to the Bishop of Arras Most Illustrious Lord THE multitude of business we have always just before the Session and the shortness of time we are allowed to do it in hindered me till now from returning Answers to your Lordships Letters which I shall now do to them all four of
your Illustrious Lordship do labour very hard there will be no remedy left for the Church I have presumed to advise your Illustrious Lordship of what at present occurs upon your having given me leave to do it and because I am willing to prevent disturbances in this holy Junto so long as they will do any thing for the good of the Church For though I do hope there will be no such disturbance it is requisite nevertheless that His Majesty and your Illustrious Lordship should be acquainted with every thing great and small that happens here that you may be the better able to judge whether what shall be done shall be agreeable to His Majesty's Service for which I remit you to the Memorial I have sent I need not acquaint your Illustrious Lordship with the great Obligations I am under to be a most humble Servant to the King of Bohemia and how I am engaged beyond all others to wait upon him to kiss his Hand and so having after the Session was over obtained leave of the Legate and the Embassadours for six or seven Days I do intend to go as far as Mantua with the most Eminent Cardinal of Trent and though we shall not spend many Days in going and coming I thought fit to give your Lordship an account thereof to let you know that I shall not be absent above seven or eight Days during which time nothing will be treated of here May our Lord preserve your Illustrious Lordship's Person and increase your State From Trent the 28th of November 1551. There is here a Catalan Bishop for the Bishop of Giron who is called Bishop Jubin he is a very good Scholar but very poor your Illustrious Lordship may inform your self concerning him by some that know him I am of opinion a Benefice in Catalonia would be well bestowed upon him I have presumed to recommend him to your Illustrious Lordship knowing him to be a good Scholar I do likewise request your Illustrious Lordship to remember the Bishop of Vesca when Tortosa shall be disposed of he has been here a considerable time and is Son to a Servant of His Majesty's and deserves all that can be given him Most Illustrious Lord I do kiss your Most Reverend Hands Your Servant The Bishop of Oren. A Memorial of the Bishop of Oren. WHat the Bishop of Oren saith is That whereas His Majesty has ordered that in the Affair of the Provision of Benefices nothing should be done to the prejudice of the Prelates and has likewise sent hither several Heads relating to a Reformation in order to have them decreed that notwithstanding among the said Heads there are some particulars that are not very reasonable nevertheless they are such as are not of the substance of the Reformation of the Church There was one Chapter the Legate was for having enacted by the Synod which was that that ordered that no Bishoprick nor other Benefice should be given in Commendam to any Person not of full Age which though in it self a very just thing many of the Fathers were against having decreed because it would seem to approve of Cardinals Laicks and others provided they were of full Age holding of Benefices in Commendam For which reason most of us were of opinion That that Head ought not to be passed into a Decree lest under a colour of condemning Commendams we should establish them There was a certain Bishop styled the Bishop of Verdun who is a Suffragan of Triers who speaking of the Reformation said that this Chapter did not appear to him to be convenient calling it farther a pretended Reformation for which words of a pretended Reformation the Legate fell foul upon him the other day mortifying him with hard and severe words before all the Fathers telling him among other things that he did not understand what he said The Bishop was silent but having offered the other day to speak and to have said something in his own justification the Legate commanded him to hold his Tongue and not to speak to any thing but what he should command him to speak to The Bishop made answer that at this rate there was nothing of liberty and that having obtained leave of His Majesty by whom he was sent hither he would be gone the Legate told him he should not go but should do what they commanded him This passed at a Congregation at which all the Embassadours were present The Archbishops of Cologne and Mentz talked much to one another about it and he of Cologne turning about to the Bishop of Oren who sat near him said my Lord Bishop tell me the truth Do you think there is any thing of liberty in this Council The Bishop of Oren made answer Your Lordship asks me a dangerous question and which I cannot presently answer only that a Council ought to be free Whereupon he of Cologne replied My question to you is whether this Council appears to you to be free To which he of Oren answered I do beg your Lordship not to press me any farther on that point in this place promising to let him have my thoughts of it at his own House After which the Electours began to speak to one another again and as I do suppose about the same Affair The other day the Archbishop of Cologne resumed the Discourse thereof again at his own House expressing great dissatisfaction at the Councils injoying so little liberty and at there being no remembrance almost of a Reformation and at the small account was made here of the learned Men and Divines who have no hand in the Canons but by delivering their opinions in publick concerning Heresies whereas that the chief Divines should be called and advised with about the framing of the Canons is a thing that we do all desire So that it is to be feared that if in the next Session they are not more in earnest about a Reformation than hitherto they have been that either the Electours or some others who do not reckon it to be convenient to suffer things to go on thus will raise a disturbance every body being displeased at nothing being done towards the Reformation of the Church no not in such things as might be reformed without doing any prejudice to his Holiness and but very little to his Court and which would be of great advantage to the People to the great reproach of all us Bishops from whom the World expects Canons of Reformation though in truth we can give them nothing but what the Legate pleases I thought fit to advise hereof being apprehensive of what may happen if at the next Session they do not treat about more substantial matters For tho' I do not doubt but that the Electours and others will do whatsoever His Majesty shall order it is convenient nevertheless that His Majesty should be advised of such things as may hereafter be of very ill consequence and whereas the Legate when he shall come to see how much respect is paid to His Majesty's