He had one meeting with the Protestant chieftains at Hagenau, and another at Worms. The pontiff sent anxiously his most able men to be nuncios there; and for the diet at Ratisbon in 1541, more alarming because more likely to be decisive, he selected the amiable, the accomplished, and the enlightened Contarini.

54

53

To the assembly at Hagenau in June 1540, the papal advisers had been decidedly hostile; " but as they could not prevent the meeting, a nuncio was sent to it. The emperor there requested the advice of the catholic princes; but they desired first to know his opinion, as they were much divided among themselves, some wishing to have recourse to arms," while others, especially the bishops, were running towards agreement, full of fears from all sides.'56 The pontifical envoy was apprehensive that the result would be a concordia half Lutheran, by which the reformers would obtain some articles to their wishes,

He complained, thro Montepulciano, to the emperor, of the prelate of Lunden consenting there alle domande injusti de Lutherani con grandissimo prejudizio della sede apostolica.' He accuses the bishop of being induced to consent to its capitola by gifts and promises; by a gift of the communita d'Augusta of 2,500 gold florins, and by a promise of 4,000 such florins every year from the fruits of his see, which a Lutheran king had seized; and that he was trying, with the queen of Hungary, to be appointed governor of her territories there; and, Omonstrum horrendum! the consummation of his iniquity! was actually thinking of taking a wife, pensi pigliar moglia.' Quir. v. 3. p. 301.

53 So the bishop of Modena affirms in his letter from Hagenau, 19th June 1540. This meeting, at the commencement, was made against the will of Farnese, their legate in Flanders, and of all the ministers of his holiness, because they saw its dangers.' Quir. 3. p. 263. Yet in the preceding year the pope directed Montepulciano to urge the emperor to have an Imperial Diet. 'It appears to his beatitudine che sarebbe che sua majesta pensasse alla celebratione d'una Dieta Imperiale.' 304.

St Paul III. Instructions. Q. 3. p. 288.

35 As more convenienti a ridurre li disviati.' Bishop. Mod. Lett. 56 Ib.

p. 263.

CHAP.
V.

BOOK

II.

58

957

and remit others to a council. By such a way Lutheranism would be admitted into all Germany." This was the great dread of Rome. Its nuncio took with him to this diet 50,000 dollars, in bills of exchange, but does not appear to have then applied them. The diet broke up after a few weeks,59 and another was appointed to assemble in a few months at Worms. The duke of Saxony, the greatest of the Protestant princes, was now in daily intercourse with France, and required peculiar terms before he attended this meeting.

60

On 11th March 1541, cardinal Contarini arrived at Ratisbon, as the papal legate to the great diet which assembled in that city." He went on the principle of conciliating the opposing reformers by his courteous manners: but he was strictly for

57 Bishop Mod. Lett. p. 264.

62

58 The letter of cardinal Farnese's secretary to Contarini, of 15th June 1540: On account of the lega Catholica, his holiness made the provision of 50,000 ducats, which in lettre de cambio' Mons. de Modena carried with him to the meeting at Aganon.' Quir. 4. p. 241. These were afterwards sent to Contarini, at the diet at Ratisbon, as the emperor's ministers had pressed for them on account of the Catholic feague. ib. 242. How they were to be used at Ratisbon, the following

note 81 will shew.

59 On 9 Aug. 1540, Card. Cervini, from Aja, in Holland, mentions to Card. Farnese its dissolution, and the preparations for a new one. Quir. v. 3. p. 223.

60 These were, according to T. Badia's letter from Worms, 28 Dec. 1540, a new form of safe conduct, That his clergy might preach in the city, and that the judgment of the imperial chamber on the ecclesiastical property should not be annulled, because he would not restore it. The writer adds, These Lutheran princes are continually strengthened in their perfidy. Every day couriers come from France to this duke of Saxony.' Lett. Quir. v. 3. p. 262.

61 His letter of 13 March, to cardinal Brandusino. He first went to a convent of Certosini outside of the city, and the next day made an 'entrato molto onorato.' Quir. v. 3. P. 225.

62 He thus states his own feeling of the necessity of this demeanor, in his letter to cardinal Cervini, on 8 June 1541, from Ratisbon, 'e semper bene usar cortesia: ma specialmente a questi tempi in Germanie e quasi necessario.' Quir. v. 3. p. 231.

63

bidden to arrange the differences with them by any concession, and was even rebuked for his mild patience and unoffending forbearance," by those whose interest it was that he should have affronted the emperor; and whose passions preferred violence and arms to either compromise or conciliation.65 So impossible was it to please the infuriate without imitating their excitation.

The directions of Paul III. to his virtuous legate at the diet, display so fully the plan and spirit on which the court of Rome and its consistory of Cardinals had decided, and ever afterwards have continued to act, that it is important to describe them in their own words, as the system and policy which, from that moment to the present, have uniformly governed the conduct of the papal cabinet. We have three pontifical documents which fully display them:

63 The instructions of Paul III. to him before he went, were express on this point: We do not send thee with the fullest power of concordani' with the Protestants, as upon the part of his Cesarean majesty has been often requested of us.' Quir. v. 3. p. 288. The official letter to Contarini from the papal cabinet on 29 May 1541, is as express: 'His firm intention is, that you do not approve of any thing, but remit it to the apostolic see. You have not in your person public authority 'definire o terminare cosa alcuna.' Letter from Rome, Quir. v. 3. p. 223. 6 The same official letter thus conveys the censure from the pontiff: 'We understand that your actions are noted in France, as full of respect towards the emperor. Hence they call them cold, saying that you not exert yourself where you ought. His Holiness is sure this is false, and doubts not that when occasions require, you will not fail to shew yourself' viva et efficace' for the defence of truth, without respect of persons.' ib. 228.

do

One of these persons was the king of France: and on 17 May 1541, the cardinal of Mantua informed Contarini, Speaking yesterday with him, his majesty informed me, that you used too much modesty, respect and taciturnity, as well in answering the emperor on religious matters, as in the aid and favor you gave the Catholics, so that they were despairing of it.' He mentioned also that the cardinal had seen a book of a doctor of Cologne, without that passion and resentment which a thing cosi brutta' required, and therefore that he had debased the good and animated the bad.' Quir. v. 3. p. 279.

CHAP.

V.

II.

BOOK the instructions of Paul III. to his legate, after appointing him to be his representative at this diet; and two letters from his official cabinet to the same minister, while exercising there his diplomatic functions.

66

He reminds his Envoy in his instructions, that he was not sending him with full powers to make any concordance, because he meant first to see if the Protestants intended to agree to the supremacy of his see; because he did not know what they meant to ask; and because what he foresaw they would require, and what they already differed with him in, were such things as no legate, and as not even himself, could so hurriedly assent to without consulting other nations, as they concerned subjects which related to the universal church." He had therefore indicated that a general council was the salutary and only remedy." But as the imperial ambassador had often intimated that the Germans wished a national council for their own country to be assembled, the pontiff ordered Contarini to take especial care to forbid such a measure. He was on no account to concede, that any one nation should discuss or decree what concerned the Roman see and the general church. If, then, a national council of this sort was required for Germany, he was steadily to prohibit it, even tho they meant to admit divines from every other country, each attending to watch their own

66 Instructions dated 21 Jan. 1541. Quir. v. 3. p. 289.

67 Ib. 294.

68 Ib. 296. It was to defeat the wish for a national council of Germany, that in 1539 he had recommended the emperor to hold an imperial diet. Q. p. 305. To all these commands was added, with

V.

With powers thus limiting him to be a mere hearer CHAP. and looker on, Contarini met the diet; and on one of the greatest topics of its theological discussions, the article of Justification, not only wrote an essay mildly explaining his own conciliating ideas on this subject, but also sent to Rome the form of a resolution, which he thought might harmonize all differences upon it.

69

At the end of May, the official secretary expressed the papal feeling on his suggestion." The pope did not chuse either to approve or to disapprove of it. He thought if it meant a catholic sense, that sense ought to be more clearly expressed. It was his firm intention and positive order, that the cardinal should neither in public nor in private, sanction any conclusion which did not state the catholic sense as expressly determined by the church, and in such words as could have no danger of any ambiguity of interpretation." No hope of concord was to induce him to consent to any determination which was not in all respects catholic." He was not to grant to the

Rome's usual policy, Keep this instruction secret, and confine it to yourself alone, et nulli alio omnino ostendes.' The cardinal was even to deviate from truth for this purpose; but when a matter presses to the contrary way, and not otherwise, you may rather say that you have received from the oracle of our vivæ vocis the things which you may be about to say or do.' ib. 298.

This essay, which he dated Ratisbon, 25 May 1541, is printed by cardinal Quirini, in his vol. 3. P. 199-212.

70 Letter of N. Ardinghello, in the name of cardinal Farnese, dated Rome, 29 May 1541. Quir. v. 3. 221-9.

71 Ib. 223. He was also reminded, 'Whenever your opinion can be alleged by the Protestants to seem to favor any of their dogmas, it could not pass without great scandal, and every loss to you, and prejudice to the truth.' fb.

72 Observing this caution on every sort of article which you have to treat of, you will not, under the hope of concord, let yourself be transported, to consent to the meaning of any determination which is