V.

calling off the imperial forces into Hungary," the СНАР. diet, that was intended to pacify, broke up in July, leaving every thing as unsettled and as discordant as before.

emperor's greatness within Germany, and feared elsewhere what might become if all the Germans were united to him, began to sow tares among the theologi collocutori. They also accused Contarini at Rome, that he was caressing the Lutherans, and granting them what he ought not.' Beccat. p. 119.

93 Ib. 119.

BOOK

II.

CHAP. VI.

THE COMMENCEMENT AND COURSE OF THE COUNCIL
OF TRENT.

THAT in a period of acute research and intelligent
criticism, when a desire that the truth in all things
should be ascertained, and made the guide both of
the thought and conduct, the decrees of the coun-
cil of Trent should continue to be the unalterable
standard of the faith and worship of the sincere and
well-informed Christian, in any country, would be
an exception to the usual progress of the under-
standing, and to the present course of human affairs.
Compelling power has hitherto made them the ab-
solute legislation of the catholic world; and has
attached criminalty, peril and death to all opposers.
But the hour of this mental despotism has passed;
its sanguinary sovereignty has been destroyed. The
reaction of the emancipating mind was one of the
agitating causes of the French revolution: and amid
the painful and revolting accompaniments of that
mighty concussion, one happy result seems to have
been secured to society-the termination of all mental
thraldom to sacerdotal tyranny. No earthly poten-
tate, under whatever title, will be again able to force
the human reason to that slavery in religious belief
and truth, which the fabricators and supporters of
the decrees of the council of Trent, wilfully and
violently imposed upon mankind. Heresy and witch-

VI.

craft have at last become obsolete as crimes. While СНАР. the papal hierarchy reigned in its power, or could make it the interest of governments to enforce its influence, heresy was the unpardonable crime; and persecution, the virtue and the duty. The attained freedom, the superior morality, and the enlightened judgment of present society, have changed this unnatural and pernicious dogmatism; and have unfolded the real truths, that persecution is the crime which, if any thing ought to be unforgiven by man, deserves to be so; and that heresy, as to its human responsibility, is no more than what the word originally designated, an error of mind, if it be a wrong deduction; and a folly that will soon draw the ridicule of our social common sense upon its author, if it be at all remarkable for its absurdity. No difference of conscientious belief can ever be the legitimate subject of any human inquisition, tribunal or punishment. It will be the greatest glory of the nineteenth century, if this universal principle of individual happiness and virtue, should be established as a permanent axiom of all political legislation.

The authority of an ecumenical or universal council rested on its being composed of deputed prelates from all the Christian churches, impartially convened, and on its decisions being their spontaneous and free and disinterested judgments. The uniting opinions of wise and good men from all parts of the world, deliberating and deciding on sacred truths, without any prejudice, passion, self-interest or overruling dictation, come with an impression on every honest mind which it is difficult and rarely desirable to resist. All the blessings of superior guidance may

BOOK
II.

be reasonably expected to accompany such judgments and the most independent inquirer would regard them as adjudications which, tho never superseding his own re-examination, would yet deservedly claim his high respect, and restrain him from any precipitate or self-confident dissent.

But from the beginning to the end of its interrupted, broken, scattered and reunited assemblages, the council of Trent never had, and never was by its several papal sovereigns meant to have, this sacred character. They and their cardinals resolved, from the outset to its conclusion, that it should be wholly governed and limited by themselves; should consist only of such persons as they should invite and approve; should discuss only what they by their agents proposed; and should decree only what they had previously determined to be the system that should be forced upon the catholic world. That these features represent its real character, the indisputable authorities of their own church, the actual words of its acting directors sufficiently testify. A few of these, in the notes to this Chapter, will illustrate this important subject; and these may be usefully preceded by the general statement of the Spanish canonist and zealous catholic Vargas, who was at the council on the behalf of his court, and who, without knowing what the ruling legates were writing, observed and reported its genuine character.'

1 After I had collected the annotations for this chapter, I met with the letters and documents of Vargas, sent by him to the famous minister of Charles V. the cardinal de Granville, which, with other correspondence, Mr. Trumbull, our resident at Brussels, for James I. and Charles I. obtained there, and brought thence in 1625, and which Le Vassor printed in 1699.

Having failed in his solicitations for a council at Mantua and Vicenza, Paul III. persevering in his purpose, took his earliest opportunity afterwards of convoking one to Trent. Here also he was again at first unsuccessful; his pontifical wishes were disregarded; but undeterred by his disappointment, in the beginning of 1545 he summoned it once more to assemble in this town, not because he liked its position, or thought it would provide satisfactorily the conveniences which his hierarchy would desire, but

2

3

He was sent to the council when it moved to Bologna, in 1548, and was with it when it returned to Trent, in 1550. He thus speaks of it to the Spanish prime minister:

In the direction of this council of Trent, no traces of the past ones, as to the essential direction, are kept; but a mode has been adopted, the most pernicious and destructive of its freedom that could have been imagined, and by which the authority of councils will be taken away.

Under the claim of directing it, the legates of the pope make themselves the rulers of the council. Nothing is done, or proposed, or determined, but what they desire, and according to the orders which they receive from Rome, and which are sent thence to them every hour. The prelates whom the pope has here, as his pensioners, cannot deny it, and lament it as well as other pious men.' These words are so important, that we will add their original Spanish: 'En la direction d'este concilio Tridentino, ninguno vestigio de los passados, quanto a la essencial direction del, se ha guardado. Y se na llevado un modo que os el mas pernicioso y destructivo de la libertad de quantos se podrian imaginar con que se quita el autoridad de los concilios. A titulo de dirigir, los legados del papa se applican todo el concilio assi: y ninguna cosa se haze, ni propone, ni discute, ni define, sino lo que ellos quieren, segun el orden que de Roma tienen, y cada hora se les embia. Los prelados que el papa tenia aqui salariados no lo podian negar, y se dolian dello con los otros hombres pios.' Mem. de Vargas, p. 14, and 34, 35.

The reader may compare this description of Vargas with the account which the legates themselves give of their own conduct and pecuniary corruption of the prelates, in notes 20, 83 and 136, of this chapter.

2 The responsio given in his name on 1 Feb. 1548, to the emperor's ambassador, remarks, that bis eodom loco concilium vocavit: bis legatos misit.' Quir. Ep. Pole, v. 4. p. 389.

3 His cardinal stated, that both Mantua and Vicentia 'longe' surpassed Trent, both in the commoditate loci et abundantia omnium rerum quæ celebrationi concilii sunt necessariæ.' Resp. 389. The angustia del luogo; the deficiency and high price of all victuals, and its chilly church, la chiesa freddissima,' were afterwards complained of by his legates. Quir. 4. p. 279.

СНАР.

VI.