BOOK V. 15320 erning a reformers. The toleration granted to the Protestants at Ratisbon, and the more explicit promise concerning a council with which it was accompanied, had irritated him still farther. Charles, however, partly from conviction Negocia that the meeting of a council would be attended with tions consalutary effects, and partly from his desire to please the g neril council, Germans, having solicited the pope by his ambassadors to call that assembly without delay, and now urging the same thing in person, Clement was greatly embarrassed what reply he should make to a request which it was indecent to refuse and dangerous to grant. He endeavoured at first to divert Charles from the measure; but, finding him inflexible, he had recourse to artifices, which he knew would delay, if not entirely defeat the calling of that assembly. Under the plausible pretext of its being previously necessary to settle, with all parties concerned, the place of the council's meeting, the manner of its proceedings, the right of the persons who should be admitted to vote, and the authority of their decisions, he dispatched a nuncio, accompanied by an ambassador from the emperor, to the elector of Saxony as head of the Protestants. With regard to each of these articles, inextricable difficulties and contests arose, The Protestants demanded a council to be held in Germany; the pope insisted that it should meet in Italy; they contended, that all points in dispute should be determined by the words of Holy Scripture alone; he considered not only the decrees of the church, but the opinions of fathers and doctors as of equal authority; they required a free council, in which the divines, commissioned by different churches, should be allowed a voice; he aimed at modelling the council in such a manner as would render it entirely dependent on his pleasure. Above all, the Protestants thought it unreasonable that they should bind themselves to submit to the decrees of a council, before they knew on what principles these decrees were to be founded, by what persons they were to be pronounced, and what forms of proceeding they would observe. The pope maintained V. 1532. BOOK it to be altogether unnecessary to call a council, if those who demanded it did not previously declare their resolution to acquiesce in its decrees. In order to adjust such a variety of points, many expedients were proposed, and the negociations spun out to such a length, as effectually answered Clement's purpose of putting off the meeting of a council, without drawing on himself the whole infamy of obstructing a measure which all Europe deemed so essential to the good of the church *. and for pre- Together with this negociation about calling a council, serving the the emperor carried on another, which he had still more tranquillity of Italy. at heart, for securing the peace established in Italy. As Francis had renounced his pretensions in that country with great reluctance, Charles made no doubt but that he would lay hold on the first pretext afforded him, or embrace the first opportunity which presented itself, of recovering what he had lost. It became necessary, on this account, to take measures for assembling an army able to oppose him. As his treasury, drained by a long war, could not supply the sums requisite for keeping such a body constantly on foot, he attempted to throw that burden on his allies, and to provide for the safety of his own dominions at their expence, by proposing that the Italian states should enter into a league of defence against all invaders; that, on the first appearance of danger, an army should be raised and maintained at the common charge; and that Antonio de Leyva should be appointed the generalissimo. Nor was the proposal unacceptable to Clement, though for a reason very different from that which induced the emperor to make it. He hoped, by this expedient, to deliver Italy from the German and Spanish veterans, which had so long filled all the powers in that country with terror, and still kept them in subFeb. 24. jection to the imperial yoke. A league was accordingly concluded; all the Italian states, the Venetiaus excepted, acceded to it; the sum which each of the contracting parties should furnish towards maintaining the army was 1533. F. Paul, Hist. 61. Seckend. iii, 73. V. 1533. fixed; the emperor agreed to withdraw the troops which BOOK gave so much umbrage to his allies, and which he was. unable any longer to support. Having disbanded part of them, and removed the rest to Sicily and Spain, he embarked on board Doria's galleys, and arrived at Bar-April 22. celona". ations of against the Notwithstanding all his precautions for securing the Designs peace of Germany, and maintaining that system which and negoc he had established in Italy, the emperor became every the French day more and more apprehensive that both would be soon king disturbed by the intrigues or arms of the French king. emperor; His apprehensions were well founded, as nothing but the desperate situation of his affairs could have brought Francis to give his consent to a treaty so dishonourable and disadvantageous as that of Cambray; he, at the very time of ratifying it, had formed a resolution to observe it no longer than necessity compelled him, and took a solemn protest, though with the most profound secrecy, against several articles in the treaty, particularly that whereby he renounced all pretensions to the duchy of Milan, as unjust, injurious to his heirs, and invalid. One of the crown lawyers, by his command, entered a protest to the same purpose and with the like secrecy, when the ratification of the treaty was registered in the parliament of Paris. Francis seems to have thought that, by employing an artifice unworthy of a king, destructive of public faith, and of the mutual confidence on which all transactions between nations are founded, he was released from any obligation to perform the most solemn promises, or to adhere to the most sacred engagements. From the moment he concluded the peace of Cambray, he wished and watched for an opportunity of violating it with safety. He endeavoured, for that reason, to strengthen his alliance with the king of England, whose friendship he cultivated with the greatest assiduity; he put the military force of his own kingdom on a better and more respectable footing VOL. VI. Guic. 1. xx, 551. Ferreras, ix, 149. Du Mont Corps Diplom. tom. iv, part ii, p. 52. с V. BOOK than ever; he artfully fomented the jealousy and discontent of the German princes. 1533 particular pope. But, above all, Francis laboured to break the strict ly with the confederacy which subsisted between Charles and Clement; and he had soon the satisfaction to observe appearances of disgust and alienation arising in the mind of that suspicious and interested pontiff, which gave him hopes that their union would not be lasting. As the emperor's decision in favour of the duke of Ferrara had greatly irritated the pope, Francis aggravated the injustice of that proceeding, and flattered Clement that the papal see would find in him a more impartial and no less powerful protector. As the importunity with which Charles demanded a council was extremely offensive to the pope, Francis artfully created obstacles to prevent it, and attempted to divert the German princes, his allies, from insisting so obstinately on that point ". As the emperor had gained such an ascendant over Clement by contributing to aggrandize his family, Francis endeavoured to allure him by the same irresistible bait, proposing a marriage between his second son, Henry duke of Orleans, and Catharine, the daughter of the pope's cousin Laurence di Medici. On the first overture of this match, the emperor could not persuade himself that Francis really intended to debase the royal blood of France by an alliance with Catharine, whose ancestors had been so lately private citizens and merchants in Florence, and believed that he meant only to flatter or amuse the ambitious pontiff. He thought it necessary, however, to efface the impression which such a dazzling offer might have made, by promising to break off the marriage which had been agreed on between his own niece the king of Denmark's daughter and the duke of Milan, and to substitute Catharine in her place. But the French ambassador producing unexpectedly full powers to conclude the marriage treaty with the duke of Orleans, this expedient had no effect. Clement was so highly pleased with an honour which added such lustre and dignity to Bellay, 141, &c. Seck. iii. 48. F. Paul, 63. V. 1533. the house of Medici, that he offered to grant Catharine BOOK the investiture of considerable territories in Italy, by way of portion; he seemed ready to support Francis in prosecuting his ancient claims in that country, and consented to a personal interview with that monarch *. Charles was at the utmost pains to prevent a meeting, Interview in which nothing was likely to pass but what would be of between the pope detriment to him; nor could he bear, after he had twice and Francondescended to visit the pope in his own territories, that cis. Clement should bestow such a mark of distinction on his rival as to venture on a voyage by sea, at an unfavourable season, in order to pay court to Francis in the French dominions. But the pope's eagerness to accomplish the match overcame all the scruples of pride, or fear, or jealousy which would probably have influenced him on any other occasion. The interview, notwithstanding several October. artifices of the emperor to prevent it, took place at Marseilles with extraordinary pomp and demonstrations of confidence on both sides; and the marriage, which the ambition and abilities of Catharine rendered in the sequel as pernicious to France as it was then thought dishonourable, was consummated. But whatever schemes may have been secretly concerted by the pope and Francis in favour of the duke of Orleans, to whom his father proposed to make over all his rights in Italy, so careful were they to avoid giving any cause of offence to the emperor, that no treaty was concluded between them; and even in the marriage articles Catharine renounced all claims and pretensions in Italy, except to the duchy of Urbino". with re gard to the But, at the very time when he was carrying on these Pope's negociations, and forming this connection with Francis, conduct which gave so great umbrage to the emperor, such was the artifice and duplicity of Clement's character, that he king of suffered the latter to direct all his proceedings with regard divorce. England's to the king of England, and was no less attentive to gra * Guic. 1. xx. 551, 553. Bellay, i, 38. 7 Guic. 1. xx. 555. 2 Du Mont Corps Diplom. iv. p. ii, 101. |