tions, and determined to keep possession of the city, together with its territories". BOOK 1547. The pope the French the Vene tians. This resolution, flowing from an ambition so rapacious as to be restrained by no consideration either of decency courts the or justice, transported the pope so far beyond his usual alliance of moderation and prudence, that he was eager to take arms king and against the emperor, in order to be avenged on the murderers of his son, and to recover the inheritance wrested from his family, Conscious, however, of his own inability to contend with such an enemy, he warmly soli cited the French king and the republic of Venice to join in an offensive league against Charles; but Henry was intent at that time on other objects. His ancient allies the Scots having been defeated by the English in one of the greatest battles ever fought between these two rival nations, he was about to send a numerous body of veteran troops into that country, as well to preserve it from being conquered as to gain the acquisition of a new kingdom to the French monarchy, by marrying his son the dauphin to the young queen of Scotland. An undertaking, accompanied with such manifest advantages, the success of which appeared to be so certain, was not to be relinquished for the remote prospect of benefit from an alliance depending upon the precarious life of a pope of fourscore, who had nothing at heart but the gratification of his own private resentment. Instead, therefore, of rushing headlong into the alliance proposed, Henry amused the pope with such general professions and promises, as might keep him from any thoughts of endea, vouring to accommodate his differences with the emperor, but, at the same time, he avoided any such engagement as might occasion an immediate rupture with Charles, or precipitate him into a war for which he was not prepared. The Venetians, though much alarmed at seeing Placentia in the hands of the imperialists, imitated the F. Paul, 257. Pallavic. 41, 42. Thuan. iv, 156. Mem. de Ribier, 59, 67. Natalis Comitis Histor. lib. iii, p. 64. 1547. The diet of for the re Trent. BOOK wary conduct of the French king, as it nearly resembled IX. the spirit which usually regulated their own conduct'. But, though the pope found that it was not in his Augsburg power to kindle immediately the flames of war, he did petitions not forget the injuries which he was obliged for the preturn of the sent to endure; resentment settled deeper in his mind, council to and became more rancorous in proportion as he felt the difficulty of gratifying it. It was while these sentiments of enmity were in full force, and the desire of vengeance at its height, that the diet of Augsburg, by the emperor's command, petitioned the pope, in the name of the whole Germanic body, to enjoin the prelates who had retired to Bologna to return again to Trent, and to renew their de liberations in that place. Charles had been at great pains in bringing the members to join in this request. Having observed a considerable variety of sentiments among the Protestants, with respect to the submission which he had required to the decrees of the council, some of them being altogether intractable, while others were ready to acknowledge its right of jurisdiction upon certain conditions, he employed all his address in order to gain or to divide them. He threatened and overawed the elector palatine, a weak prince, and afraid that the em peror might inflict on him the punishment to which he had made himself liable by the assistance that he had given to the confederates of Smalkalde. The hope of procuring liberty for the landgrave, together with the formal confirmation of his own electoral dignity, overcame Maurice's scruples, or prevented him from opposing what he knew would be agreeable to the emperor. The elector of Brandenburg, less influenced by religious zeal than any prince of that age, was easily induced to imitate their example, in assenting to all that the emperor required. The deputies of the cities remained still to be brought over; they were more tenacious of their principles; and though every thing that could operate either t Mem. de Ribier, ii, 63, 71, 78, 85, 95. Paruta Istor. di Venez 199, 203. Thuan iv, 160. IX. 1547. on their hopes or fears was tried, the utmost that they BOOK would promise was, to acknowledge the jurisdiction of the council, if effectual provision were made for securing to the divines of all parties free access to that assembly, with entire liberty of debate, and if all points in controversy were decided according to Scripture and the usage of the primitive church. But when the memorial containing this declaration was presented to the emperor, he ventured to put in practice a very extraordinary artifice. Without reading the paper, or taking any notice of the conditions on which they had insisted, he seemed to take it for granted that they had complied with his demand, and gave thanks to the deputies for their full and unreserved submissions to the decrees of the council. The deputies, though astonished at what they had heard, did not attempt to set him right, both parties being better pleased that the matter should remain under this state of ambiguity, than to push for an explanation, which must have occasioned a dispute, and would have led, perhaps, to a rupture". Oct. 9. demand. Having obtained this seeming submission from the The pope members of the diet to the authority of the council, eludes the Charles employed that as an argument to enforce their petition for his return to Trent. But the pope, from the satisfaction which he felt in mortifying the emperor, as well as from his own aversion to what was demanded, resolved, without hesitation, that his petition should not be granted; though, in order to avoid the imputation of being influenced wholly by resentment, he had the address to throw it upon the fathers at Bologna to put a direct negative upon the request. With this view, he referred to their consideration the petition of the diet; and Decem. 20. they, ready to confirm by their assent whatever the legates were pleased to dictate, declared that the council could not, consistently with its dignity, return to Trent, unless the prelates, who, by remaining there, had discovered a schismatic spirit, would first repair to Bologna, F. Paul, 259. Sleid. 440. Thuan. tom. i, 155. IX. 1547. BOOK and join their brethren; and that, even after their junetion, the council could not renew its consultations with any prospect of benefit to the church, if the Germans did not prove their intention of obeying its future decrees to be sincere by yielding immediate obedience to those which it had already passed. The empe ror protests council of This answer was communicated to the emperor by the pope, who, at the same time, exhorted him to comply against the with demands which appeared to be so reasonable. But Bologna. Charles was better acquainted with the duplicity of the pope's character, than to be deceived by such a gross artifice; he knew that the prelates of Bologna durst utter no sentiment but what Paul inspired; and, therefore, overlooking them, as mere tools in the hands of another, he considered their reply as a full discovery of the pope's intentions. As he could no longer hope to acquire such an ascendant in the council as to render it subservient to his own plan, he saw it to be necessary that Paul should not have it in his power to turn against him the authority 1548. of so venerable an assembly. In order to prevent this, Jan. 6. he sent two Spanish lawyers to Bologna, who, in the presence of the legates, protested, that the translation of the council to that place had been unnecessary, and founded on false or frivolous pretexts; that while it continued to meet there, it ought to be deemed an unlawful and schismatical conventicle; that all its decisions ought of course to be held as null and invalid; and that, since the pope, together with the corrupt ecclesiastics who depended on him, had abandoned the care of the church, the emperor, as its protector, would employ all the power which God had committed to him, in order to preserve it from those calamities with which it was threatened. A few days after, the imperial ambassador at Ronie demanded an audience of the pope, and, in presence of all the cardinals, as well as foreign ministers, protested against the proceedings of the prelates at Bologna, in terms equally harsh and disrespectful. Jan. 23. * F. Paul, 250. Pallavic. ii, 49. F. Paul, 264. Pallavic. 51. Sleid. 446. Goldasti Constit. Imperial. i. 561. IX. 1548. ror pre pares a sys serve as It was not long before Charles proceeded to carry these BOCK threats, which greatly alarmed both the pope and council at Bologna, into execution. He let the diet know the The empeill success of his endeavours to procure a favourable answer to their petition, and that the pope, equally regard- tem, to less of their entreaties, and of his services to the church, a rule of had refused to gratify them, by allowing the council to faith in meet again at Trent; that, though all hope of holding Germany. this assembly in a place where they might look for freedom of debate and judgment was not to be given up, the prospect of it was at present distant and uncertain; that, in the mean time, Germany was torn in pieces by religious dissensions, the purity of the faith corrupted, and the minds of the people disquieted with a multiplicity of new opinions and controversies, formerly unknown among Christians; that, moved by the duty which he owed to them as their sovereign, and to the church as its protector, he had employed some divines of known abilities and learning, to prepare a system of doctrine to which all should conform, until a council such as they wished for could be convocated. This system was compiled by Pflug, Helding, and Agricola, of whom the two former were dignitaries in the Romish church, but remarkable for their pacific and healing spirit; the last was a protestant divine, suspected, not without reason, of having been gained by bribes and promises to betray or mislead his party on this occasion. The articles presented to the diet of Ratisbon in the year one thousand five hundred and forty-one, in order to reconcile the contending parties, served as a model for the present work. But as the emperor's situation was much changed since that time, and he found it no longer necessary to manage the Protestants with the same delicacy as at that juncture, the concessions in their favour were not now so numerous, nor did they extend to points of so much consequence. The treaties contained a complete system of theology, conformable, in almost every article, to the tenets of the Romish church, though expressed, for the most part, in the softest words, or in |