II. CHAP. V. EVENTS PRECEDING AND LEADING TO THE COUNCIL BOOK WHEN the pope desired and sought to urge the German princes to exterminate his opposers by fire and sword,' they refused to co-operate with such unchristian measures, and suggested the better remedy of a free-minded council." They felt, what even his own confidential agent saw and confessed, that the censured heresies had arisen from the palpable corruptions of his court and hierarchy. The 3 1 The Catholic bishop Godeau, the zealous panegyrist of his beloved Saint, Charles Borromeo, must be my proof, that in these words I am not exceeding the truth. I am anxious to verify my assertions at every step I take; because it is the policy and the practice of modern Catholic writers to deny boldly every fact which they dislike. And this has been done by some in whom it could not be forgetfulness, with a hardihood, that all who love character and truth must regret. A little after, Leo X. despatched a nuncio into Germany, to the Diet at Nuremberg, and wrote a brief to the princes who were assembled there, in which he exhorted them to use the last remedies of sword and fire, to exterminate Luther, and those who followed his doctrine.' Godeau, Vie S. Charl. p. 40. So after him, Clement VII. told his cardinals, that he would try to make peace between France and the emperor, and then call a council to re-establish discipline in the church, et pour exterminer les heretiques.' ib. 45. Extermination seems to have been the unvarying idea at St. Peter's. 2 They answered him in very respectful terms, but which did not go to satisfy him in what he desired from them against the new heretics. At the end of their letter they signified to him, that, the best remedy to relieve the disorders which were multiplying every day, would be the celebration of a free council, whose authority would regulate and end all the disputes.' ib. p. 41. 3 Godeau impartially adds, In this diet, matters became more inflamed against the pope. But in his court it was not found to be a good thing, that his nuncio should have confessed that the heresy of Germany proceeded from the sins of men; and particularly of the priests and pre 4 5 V. successor of Leo, attempted to elude a reformation CHAP. of these, as to himself and the general church, by a modified acquiescence, in some corrections as to Germany, which his legate therefore began. But this palpable evasion and partial conduct and assumed authority, independent of their approbation, were considered to be invasions of the national freedom, and made them more earnest in requiring a general council." Charles V. at last concurred to urge it; and it became a general belief, that an impartial and free assembly of the most enlightened and dignified clergy of Europe, who should temperately and fairly examine the disputed points of doctrine, discipline and practice; and decide disinterestedly and conscientiously upon them, would heal the divisions, which were becoming every day more acrimonious, and prevent any schism from occurring in the great church of Europe. It was hoped that the determinations of such men would become the lights and lates; and that in the times past there had been done at Rome many things worthy of blame.' Vie de S. Ch. Bor. p. 41. Yet the next Pope Clement felt the same truth; for when he stated to his consistory the successes of the Turkish Solyman in Hungary, and the heresies which divided Germany, conclud que ces malheurs procedoient des desordres de la vie des ecclesiastiques; ib. p. 44; and declared, that he would labor to reform them, and begin by his own house; (ib.) unhappily he advanced no farther in his corrective spirit than to make this speech. Clement VII. plus habile politique que son predecesseur,' sent Card. Campegio to the diet, with instructions to consent to the reform of the abuses which concern the German ecclesiastics; but as to the things in which the Pope and Roman court were interested, he should elude them, and refer these to the pontiff himself, to be treated of with him.' Godeau, p. 42. Godeau, p. 42. 。 Ib. 7 Charles V. was in October 1526 so desirous of the council, that he entreated the cardinals on their own authority to convoke one, in case the pope should be either negante seu differente. See his Letter to them in Brown Fascic. 687. II. BOOK guides of the upright and rational; and be eagerly adopted by those who preferred to lean upon respected authority. But such a council as this, never appears for one moment to have been intended by the sovereigns of the Vatican, or by their cardinal and advising parliament. They determined to uphold the whole mass of what was attacked; and made no secret of their resolution, to those whom they considered for the time to be their friends. So early after Luther's emerging into inimical activity and success as the summer of 1530, Clement VII. declared in his letter to the emperor, that neither he nor his cardinals could consent to any council being called, but upon the condition that the heretics should give up their errors, agree to live in the old system, and return to obedience to his See. He required a previous assurance that they would return to all its rites and doctrines, until a council should alter them;" and he desired the emperor, before he promised to convoke one, that he would take security that those, for whom he has no other terms than heretics or 8 In his letter to Charles, of 31 July 1530, Clement, after mentioning, I understand from the letter under your majesty's hand, that it is the opinion of yourself, and of the electors and princes, that it is necessary to assent to the convoking of a council as demanded,' adds, that it must be with the condition, that the heretics desist from their errors, and conform themselves to live catholically in the faith, and in obedience to the mother church.' Lett. Prin. v. 2. p. 197. He says, his cardinals were of opinion that he should not put in doubt what preceding councils had determined.' ib. 9 I am content that you offer, in case you shall judge it necessary, and give a promise of a council; on this condition, however, that withdrawing themselves from their errors, they turn immediately to live catholically and to the obedience of the church, and according to its rites and doctrines, until the council shall determine otherwise.' Lett. ib. P. 198. V. malignants," should not, when they had obtained CHAP. a council, return to their former errors, because that would be a most scandalous thing." To guard against all adverse possibilities, and to bring it more completely within his own influence, he suggested that Italy, and of Italy that Rome, should be the place of their meeting.12 So steadily was the papal eye fixed on having such a council only as would resist all mutation, that two years afterwards, when urged by the emperor to convene one, Clement required first to be certain that the king of France would also be content with one of this description; 13 because if it should be assembled without his concurrence, it would have results quite contrary to what he desired, and would give the Lutherans only strength and countenance to persist more firmly in their pertinacity.1 The French sovereigns were indeed to be dreaded on this topic; for altho when Francis was about to meet the pope for his own purposes, he could talk of his desire to extirpate and root out the wickednesses and condemned sects and heresies of Luther and the others,' 15 10Nor is the time of war fit; for the heretici et maligni will take occasion to obtain something pernicious to the Catholic faith.' Lett. Prin. v. 2. p. 197. It is necessary that your majesty should take diligent care that these conditions be promised, so that we may be made secure that the heretics, when they have obtained the convocation of the council, will not return to their former errors; because that would be cosa scandalosissima.' Lett. ib. 198. 12 Ib. 13 Clement's letter to Charles, of 10th May 1532, che si contenti del concilio nel modo che noi desideriamo.' Lett. Prin. v. 3. p. 12. 14 Dare alli Luterani spalle et favore di persistere tanto piu nella pertinacia loro.' ib. 15 Letter of Francis I. to Clement, dated 23 June 1533. The abbocamento between you and us, will be to effect a secure peace in Christendom, to make provision against the Turks, and also to see quel che si ricerchera de fare per estirpare e diradicare le malvagie e dannate BOOK II. and actually concurred in plans with Rome to do so to his own dishonor; yet his son, some years afterwards, when it suited his policy to hold for a time a different language, threatened another pope with calling a national council in France, for the express purpose of opposing and disturbing the effects of the universal one.' 16 Clement was unable to procure a synod which, like a Cromwellian parliament, would only echo his will; and, therefore, tho he sent a nuncio in 1533 to the German princes, to treat about one," yet none was convened while he lived; but he was succeeded in 1534 by the cardinal Farnese, who assumed the papal dignity with the name of Paul III. a man of much experience, and of a perspicuous judgment in wordly affairs, who acquiesced in the advice of the cardinals to have a council, but who avowed his object by it to be, like those who had worn the tiara before him, not to investigate what he called heresies, and to modify his system by the improved ideas they suggested; but to ensure their extermination. 18 19 Paul III. was discerning enough to perceive that sette e heresie di Lutero e di altri.' ib. p. 13. It defers their meeting till 15th August. 16 This is expressed in a letter to J. Battista de Monti, of 3d April 1551. A few days ago we penetrated into the king's answer, that he would not desist from having Parma in hand, e che dava principio ad un concilio nationale, not only to entangle the pope about Parma, ma per dar disturbo ancora, circa il concilio universale.' ib. p. 110. Therefore his holiness dispatched Monsieur Dandino to the emperor, with a resolution to proceed not only against the Farnesi, ma contra il Re ancora, con ogni suo sforzo.' ib. 17 Godeau, Vie Cha. p. 49. 18 Beccatelli Vit. Contarini Quir. v. 3. p. 106. 19 As soon as Paul was created, he made it known to the cardinals, that of the articles they had prepared he would observe that of celebrating a council, as he judged it to be absolutely necessary to exterminate the heresies which desolated Christianity," Godeau, 51. |