IX. 1548. diamoses the council BOOK stubborn spirit of the Germans to such general submission, departed for the Low Countries, fully determined to The pope compel the cities which still stood out to receive the interim. He carried his two prisoners, the elector of Saxony and assenbied landgrave of Hesse, along with him, either because he at Bologna. durst not leave them behind him in Germany, or because he wished to give his countrymen the Flemings this illustrions proof of the success of his arms and the extent of Sept. 17. his power. Before Charles arrived at Brussels he was informed that the pope's legates at Bologna had dismissed the council by an indefinite prorogation, and that the prelates assembled there had returned to their respective countries. Necessity had driven the pope into this measure. By the secession of those who had voted against the translation, together with the departure of others, who grew weary of continuing in a place where they were not suffered to proceed to business, so few and such inconsiderable members remained, that the pompous appellation of a general council could not, with decency, be bestowed any longer upon them. Paul had no choice but to dissolve an assembly which was become the object of contempt, and exhibited to all Christendom a most glaring proof of the impotence of the Romish see. But unavoidable as the measure was, it lay open to be unfavourably interpreted, and had the appearance of withdrawing the remedy, at the very time when those for whose recovery it was provided were prevailed on to acknowledge its virtue, and to make trial of its efficacy. Charles did not fail to put this construction on the conduct of the pope; and by artful comparison of his own efforts to suppress heresy with Paul's scandalous inattention to a point so essential, he endeavoured to render the pontiff odious to all zealous Catholes. At the same time he commanded the prelates of his faction to remain at Trent, that the council might still appear to have a being, and might be ready, whenever it as thought expedient, to resume its deliberations for the good of the church. Pallav. p. 11, 72. IX. The motive of Charles's journey to the Low Countries, BOOK beside gratifying his favourite passion of travelling from 1548. The empe his son Philip in Countries. one part of his dominions to another, was to receive Phi-, lip his only son, who was now in the twenty-first year of ror receives his age, and whom he had called thither, not only that he might be recognised by the states of the Netherlands the Low as heir-apparent, but in order to facilitate the execution of a vast scheme, the object of which, and the reception it met with, shall be hereafter explained. Philip having left the government of Spain to Maximilian, Ferdinand's eldest son, to whom the emperor had given the princess Mary his daughter in marriage, embarked for Italy, attended by a numerous retinue of Spanish nobles.'. The squadron which escorted him was commanded by Andrew Doria, who, notwithstanding his advanced age, insisted on the honour of performing in person the same duty to the son which he had often discharged towards the father. He landed safely at Genoa; from thence he went to Milan, Nov.25. and proceeeding through Germany, arrived at the imperial April. t. court in Brussels. The states of Brabant, in the first place, 1549. and those of the other provinces in their order, acknowledged his right of succession in common form; and he took the customary oath to preserve all their privileges inviolate ". In all the towns of the Low Countries through which Philip passed he was received with extraordinary pomp. Nothing that could either express the respect of the people, or contribute to his amusement, was neglected; pageants, tournaments, and public spectacles of every kind were exhibited with that expensive magnificence which commercial nations are fond of displaying, when, on any occasion, they depart from their usual maxins of frugality. But, amidst these scenes of festivity and pleasure, Philip's natural severity of temper was discernible. Youth itself could not render him agreeable, nor his being a candidate for power form him to courtesy. He maintained a haughty reserve in his behaviour, and discovered such manifest partiality towards his Spanish attendants, 1 Qchoa, Carolea, 362. m Haræi Annal. Brabant. 652. IX. BOOK together with such an avowed preference to the manners of their country, as highly disgusted the Flemings, and gave rise to that antipathy, which afterwards occasioned a revolution fatal to him in that part of his dominions". 1549. Charles was long detained in the Netherlands by a vio lent attack of the gout, which returned upon him so frequently, and with such increasing violence, that it had broken, to a great degree, the vigour of his constitution. He, nevertheless, did not slacken his endeavours to enforce the interim. The inhabitants of Strasburg, after a long struggle, found it necessary to yield obedience; those of Constance, who had taken arms in their own defence, were compelled not only to conform to the interim, but to renounce their privileges as a free city, to do homage to Ferdinand, as archduke of Austria, and, as his vassals, to admit an Austrian governor and garrison. Magdeburg, Bremen, Hamburg, and Lubeck, were the only imperial cities of note that still continued refractory. » Mem. de Ribier, ii, 29. L'Evesque Mem. de Card. Granvelle, i. 21. ⚫ Sleid. 474, 491. BOOK X. BOOK X. schemes WHILE Charles laboured, with such unwearicd industry, to presuade or to force the Protestants to adopt his regulations with respect to religion, the effects of his steadi- 1549. ness in the execution of his plan were rendered less con- The pope's siderable by his rupture with the pope, which daily in-against the creased. The firm resolution which the emperor seemed emperor. to have taken against restoring Placentia, together with his repeated encroachments on the ecclesiastical jurisdic-, tion, not only by the regulations contained in the interim, but by his attempt to reassemble the council at Trent, exasperated Paul to the utmost, who, with the weakness incident to old age, grew more attached to his family, and more jealous of his authority, as he advanced in years. Pushed on by these passions, he made new efforts to draw the French king into an alliance against the emperor *; but finding that monarch, notwithstanding the hereditary enmity between him and Charles, and the jealousy with which he viewed the successful progress of the imperial arms, as unwilling as formerly to involve himself in immediate hostilities, he was obliged to contract his views, and to think of preventing future encroachment, since it was not in his power to inflict vengeance on account of those which were past. For this purpose, he determined to recal his grant of Parma and Placentia; and, after declaring them to be reannexed to the holy see, to indemMem. de Bibier, ii, 230. X. 1549. BOOK nify his grandson Octavio by a new establishment in the ecclesiastical state. By this expedient he hoped to gain two points of no small consequence. He, first of all, rendered his possession of Parma more secure; as the emperor would be cautious of invading the patrimony of the church, though he might seize without scruple a town belonging to the house of Farnese. In the next place, he would acquire a better chance of recovering Placentia, as his solicitations to that effect might decently be urged with greater importunity, and would infallibly be attended with greater effect, when he was considered not as pleading the cause of his own family, but as an advocate for the interest of the holy see. But while Paul was priding himself on this device, as a happy refinement in policy, Octavio, an ambitious and high-spirited young man, who could not bear with patience to be spoiled of one half of his territories by the rapaciousness of his father-in-law, and to be deprived of the other by the artifices of his grandfather, took measures in order to prevent the execution of a plan fatal to his interest. He set out secretly from Rome, and having first endeavoured to surprise Parma, which attempt was frustrated by the fidelity of the governor to whom the pope had entrusted the defence of the town, he made overtures to the emperor, of renouncing all connection with the pope, and of depending entirely on him for his future fortune. This unexpected defection of one of the pope's own family to an enemy whom he hated, irritated, almost to madness, a mind peevish with old age; and there was no degree of severity to which Paul might not have proceeded against a grandson whom he reproached as an unnatural apostate. But, happily for Octavio, death prevented his carrying into execution the harsh resolutions which he had taken with respect to him, and put an end to his pontificate in the sixteenth year of his administration, and the eighty-second of his age". b Among many instances of the credulity or weakness of historians, in attributing the death of illustrious personages to extraordinary causes, |
