IX. 1547. BOOK 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 on their hopes or fears was tried, the utmost that they 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 submission 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 3. Oct. 9. The pope demand. HAVING obtained this seeming submission from the memeludes the bers of the diet to the authority of the council, Charles employed that as an argument to enforce their petition for its 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 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, un Dec. 20. s F. Paul, 259. Sleid. 440. Thuan, tom. i. 155. IX. 1547. less the prelates who, by remaining there, had discovered a B OOK schismatic spirit, would first repair to Bologna, and join their brethren; and that, even after their junction, 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 t. 1548. Jan. 16. THIS answer was communicated to the Emperor by the The empePope, who at the same time exhorted him to comply with ror protests against the demands which appeared to be so reasonable. But Charles council of was better acquainted with the duplicity of the Pope's cha- Bologna. racter 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 hand 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 of so venerable an assembly. In order to prevent this, 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 Impe- Jan. 23. rial ambassador at Rome 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". t F. Paul, 250. Pallav. ii. 49. u F. Paul, 264, Pallav. 51. Sleid. 446. Goldasti Constit. Imperial. i. 561. BOOK 1548. ror pre tem to serve as a rule of faith in Germany. cess It was not long before Charles proceeded to carry these threats, which greatly alarmed both the Pope and council at Bologna, into execution. He let the diet know the ill sucThe empe- of his endeavours to procure a favourable answer to pares a sys- their petition, and that the Pope, equally regardless of their entreaties, and of his services to the church, had refused to gratify them by allowing the council to meet again at Trent; that, though all hope of holding 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 dissentions, 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 treatise 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 scriptural phrases, or in terms of studied ambiguity. Every doctrine, however, peculiar to Popery, was retained, and the observation of all the rites which the Protestants condemned as inventions of men in IX. 1548. troduced into the worship of God, was enjoined. With re- BOOK gard to two points only, some relaxation in the rigour of opinion as well as some latitude in practice were admitted. Such ecclesiastics as had married, and would not put away their wives, were allowed, nevertheless, to perfom all the functions of their sacred office; and those provinces which had been accustomed to partake of the cup, as well as of the bread in the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, were still indulged in the privilege of receiving both. Even these were declared to be concessions for the sake of peace, and granted only for a season, in compliance with the weakness or prejudices of their countrymen *. It was which was THIS system of doctrine, known afterwards by the name This, of the Interim, because it contained temporary regulations, called the which were to continue no longer in force than until a free Interim, he lays before general council could be held, the Emperor presented to the the diet, diet, with a pompous declaration of his sincere intention to May 15. re-establish tranquillity and order in the church, as well as of his hopes that their adopting these regulations would contribute greatly to bring about that desirable event. read in presence of the diet, according to form. As soon as it was finished, the archbishop of Mentz, president of the electoral college, rose up hastily, and, having thanked the Emperor for his unwearied and pious endeavours in order to restore peace to the church, he, in name of the diet, signified their approbation of the system of doctrine which had been read, together with their resolution of conforming to it in every particular. The whole assembly was amazed at a declaration so unprecedented and unconstitutional, as well as at the Elector's presumption in pretending to deliver the sense of the diet, upon a point which had not hitherto been the subject of consultation or debate. But not one member had the courage to contradict what the Elector had said; some being overawed by fear, others remaining silent through and excomplaisance. The Emperor held the archbishop's declara- horts their approbation to be a full constitutional ratification of the Interim, and tion of it. x F. Paul, 270. Pallav. ii. 60. Sleid. 453. 457. Struv. Corp. 1054. Goldast. Constit. Imper. i. 518. BOOK prepared to enforce the observance of it, as a decree of the Empire'. IX. 1548. New and fruitless so for the Land grave's liberty. DURING this diet, the wife and children of the Landgrave, licitations warmly seconded by Maurice of Saxony, endeavoured to interest the members in behalf of that unhappy Prince, who still languished in confinement. But Charles, who did not choose to be brought under the necessity of rejecting any request that came from such a respectable body, in order to prevent their representations, laid before the diet an account of his transactions with the Landgrave, together with the motives which had at first induced him to detain that Prince in custody, and which rendered it prudent, as he alleged, to keep him still under restraint. It was no easy matter to give any good reason for an action, incapable of being justified. But he thought the most frivolous pretexts might be produced in an assembly the members of which were willing to be deceived, and afraid of nothing so much as of discovering that they saw his conduct in its true colours. His account of his own conduct was accordingly admitted to be fully satisfactory, and after some feeble entreaties that he would extend his clemency to his unfortunate prisoner, the Landgrave's concerns were no more mentioned. In order to counterbalance the unfavourable impression which this inflexible rigour might make, Charles, as a proof that his gratitude was no less permanent and unchangeable than his resentment, invested Maurice in the electoral dignity, with all the legal formalities. The ceremony was performed, with extraordinary pomp, in an open court, so near the apartment in which the degraded Elector was kept prisoner, that he could view it from his windows. Even this insult did not ruffle his usual tranquillity; and turning his eyes that way, he beheld a prosperous rival receiving those ensigns of dignity of which he had been stripped, without uttering one sentiment unbecoming the fortitude that he had preserved amidst all his calamities 2. y Sleid. 460. F. Paul, 273. Pallav. 63. z Sleid. 441. a Thuan. Hist. lib. v. 176. Struv. Corp. 1054. Investitura Mauritii, Memmerano Lucemburgo descripta, ap. Scardium, ii. 508. |