VIL 1546. by his son-in-law Maurice, and by some troops belonging BOOK to the elector of Saxony, he gained such advantages over Henry, who was rash and bold in forming his schemes, but feeble and undetermined in executing them, as obliged him to disband his army, and to surrender himself, together with his eldest son, prisoners at discretion. He was kept in close confinement, until a new reverse of affairs procured him liberty. the Politi te. As this defeat of Henry's wild enterprise added new re- The refor putation to the arms of the Protestants, the establishment mation of of the Protestant religion in the Palatinate brought a great accession of strength to their party. Frederick, who succeeded his brother Lewis in that electorate, had long been suspected of a secret propensity to the doctrines of the reformers, which, upon his accession to the principality, he openly manifested. But, as he expected that something effectual towards a general and legal establishment of religion would be the fruit of so many diets, conferences, and negociations, he did not at first attempt any public innovation in his dominions. Finding all these issue in Jan. 10. nothing, he thought himself called at length to countenance, by his authority, the system which he approved of, and to gratify the wishes of his subjects, who, by their intercourse with the Protestant states, had almost universally imbibed their opinions. As the warmth and impetuosity which accompanied the spirit of reformation in its first. efforts had somewhat abated, this change was made with great order and regularity; the ancient rites were abolished, and new forms introduced, without any acts of violence or symptom of discontent. Though Frederick adopted the religious system of the Protestants, he imitated the example of Maurice, and did not accede to the league of Smalkalde. A few weeks before this revolution in the Palatinate, The council the general council was opened with the accustomed so-assembles lemnities at Trent. The eyes of the Catholic states were at Trent. Sleid. 352. Seck. 1. iii. 567. Sleid. 356. Seck. 1. iii, 616. VII. 1546. BOOK turned, with much expectation, towards an assembly which all had considered as capable of applying an ef fectual remedy for the disorders of the church when they first broke out; though many were afraid that it was now too late to hope for great benefit from it, when the malady, by being suffered to increase during twenty-eight years, had become inveterate, and grown to such extreme violence. The pope, by his last bull of convocation, had appointed the first meeting to be held in March; but his views and those of the emperor were so different, that almost the whole year was spent in negociations. Charles, who foresaw that the rigorous decrees of the council against the Protestants would soon drive them, in self-defence, as well as from resentment, to some desperate extreme, laboured to put off its meeting until his warlike preparations were so far advanced, that he might be in a condition to second its decisions by the force of his arms. The pope, who had early sent to Trent the legates who were to preside in his name, knowing to what contempt it would expose his authority, and what suspicions it would beget of his intentions, if the fathers of the council should remain in a state of inactivity, when the church was in such danger as to require their immediate and vigorous interposition, insisted either upon translating the council to some city in Italy, or upon suspending altogether its proceedings at that juncture, or upon authorising it to begin its deliberations immediately. The emperor rejected the two former expedients as equally offensive to the Germans of every denomination; but finding it impossible to elude the latter, he proposed that the council should begin with reforming the disorders in the church before it proceeded to examine or define articles of faith. This was the very thing which the court of Rome dreaded most, and which had prompted it to employ so many artifices, in order to prevent the meeting of such a dangerous judicatory. Paul, though more compliant than some of his predecessors, with regard to calling a council, was no less jealous than they had been VII. 1546. of its jurisdiction, and saw what matter of triumph such BOOK a method of proceeding would afford the heretics. He apprehended consequences, not only humbling, but fatal to the papal see, if the council came to consider an inquest into abuses as their only business; or if inferior prelates were allowed to gratify their own envy and peevishness, by prescribing rules to those who were exalted above them in dignity and power. Without listening, therefore, to this insidious proposal of the emperor, he instructed his legates to open the council. The first session was spent in matters of form. In a Jan. 18. subsequent one, it was agreed, that the framing a confes- Its prosion of faith, wherein should be contained all the articles ceedings. which the church required its members to believe, ought to be the first and principal business of the council; but that, at the same time, due attention should be given to what was necessary towards the reformation of manners and discipline. From this first symptom of the spirit with which the council was animated, from the high tone of authority which the legates who presided in it assumed, and from the implicit deference with which most of the members followed their directions, the Protestants conjectured with ease what decisions they might expect. It astonished them, however, to see forty prelates (for no greater number were yet assembled), assume authority as representatives of the universal church, and proceed to determine the most important points of doctrine in its name. Sensible of this indecency, as well as of the ridicule with which it might be attended, the council advanced slowly in its deliberations, and all its proceedings were, for some time, languishing and feeble 4. As soon as the confederates of Smalkalde received information of the opening of the council, they published a long manifesto, containing a renewal of their protest against its meeting, together with the reasons which induced them to decline its jurisdictions. The pope and emperor, on VII. BOOK their part, were so little solicitous to quicken or add vigour to its operations, as plainly discovered that some object of greater importance occupied and interested them. 1546. Apprehen Protest ants. The Protestants were not inattentive or unconcerned sions of the spectators of the motions of the sovereign pontiff and of Charles, and they entertained every day more violent suspicions of their intentions, in consequence of intelligence, received from different quarters, of the machinations carrying on against them. The king of England informed them, that the emperor, having long resolved to exterminate their opinions, would not fail to employ this interval of tranquillity which he now enjoyed as the most favourable juncture for carrying his design into execution. The merchants of Augsburg, which was at that time a city of extensive trade, received advice, by means of their correspondents in Italy, among whom were some who secretly favoured the Protestant cause', that a dangerous conspiracy against it was forming between the pope and emperor. In confirmation of this, they heard from the Low Countries, that Charles had issued orders, though with every precaution which could keep the measure concealed, for raising troops both there and in other parts of his dominions. Such a variety of information corroborating all that their own jealousy or observation led them to apprehend, left the Protestants little reason Their deli- to doubt of the emperor's hostile intentions. Under this berations. impression, the deputies of the confederates of Smalkalde assembled at Francfort, and, by communicating their intelligence and sentiments to each other, reciprocally heightened their sense of the impending danger. But their union was not such as their situation required, or the preparations of their enemies rendered necessary. Their league had now subsisted ten years. Among so many members, whose territories were intermingled with each other, and who, according to the custom of Germany, had created an infinite variety of mutual rights f Seck. 1. iii, 579. VII. 1545. and claims by intermarriages, alliances, and contracts of BOOK different kinds, subjects of jealousy and discord had unavoidably arisen. Some of the confederates being connected with the duke of Brunswick, were highly disgusted with the landgrave, on account of the rigour with which he had treated that rash and unfortunate prince. Others taxed the elector of Saxony and landgrave, the heads of the league, with having involved the members in unnecessary and exorbitant expences by their profuseness or want of economy. The views, likewise, and temper of those two princes, who, by their superior power and authority, influenced and directed the whole body, being extremely different, rendered all its motions languid, at a time when the utmost vigour and dispatch were requisite. The landgrave, of a violent and enterprising temper, but not forgetful, amidst his zeal for religion, of the usual maxims of human policy, insisted that, as the danger which threatened them was manifest and unavoidable, they should have recourse to the most effectual expedient for securing their own safety, by courting the protection of the kings of France and England, or by joining in alliance with the Protestant cantons of Switzerland, from whom they might expect such powerful and present assistance as their situation demanded. The elector, on the other hand, with the most upright intentions of any prince in that age, and with talents which might have qualified him abundantly for the administration of government in any tranquil period, was possessed with such superstitious veneration for all the parts of the Lutheran system, and such bigoted attachment to all its tenets, as made him averse to an union with those who differed from him in any article of faith, and rendered him very incapable of undertaking its defence in times of difficulty and danger. He seemed to think, that the concerns of religion were to be regulated by principles and maxims totally different from those which apply to the common affairs of life; and being swayed too much by the opinions of Luther, who was not only a stranger to |
