XI. Guardian had informed him that the governor of Thionville BOOK would approach Metz, he fell upon the Imperialists with great fury, as they advanced in perfect security, without suspecting any danger to be near. Confounded at this sudden attack, by an enemy whom they expected to surprise, they made little resistance; and a great part of the troops employed in this service, among whom were many persons of 'distinction, was killed or taken prisoners. Before next morning, Vielleville returned to Metz in triumph. 1555. No resolution was taken for some time concerning the The confate of the Father Guardian and his monks, the framers and spirators punished. conductors of this dangerous conspiracy. Regard for the honour of a body so numerous and respectable as the Franciscans, and unwillingness to afford a subject of triumph to the enemies of the Romish church by their disgrace, seem to have occasioned this delay. But at length, the necessity of inflicting exemplary punishment upon them, in order to deter others from venturing to commit the same crime, became so evident, that orders were issued to proceed to their trial. The guilt was made apparent by the clearest evidence; and sentence of death was passed upon the Father Guardian, together with twenty monks. On the evening previous to the day fixed for their execution, the jailor took them out of the dungeons in which they had hitherto been confined separately, and shut them all up in one great room, that they might confess their sins one to another, and join together in preparing for a future state. But as soon as they were left alone, instead of employing themselves in the religious exercises suitable to their condition, they began to reproach the Father Guardian, and four of the senior monks who had been most active in seducing them, for their inordinate ambition, which had brought such misery on them, and such disgrace upon their order. their order. From reproaches they proceeded to curses and execrations, and at last, in a frenzy of rage and despair, they fell upon them with such violence, that they murdered the Father Guardian on the spot, and so disabled the other four, that it became necessary to carry them next morning in a cart, together with the dead body of the Father Guardian, to the place of execution. Six of the BOOK youngest were pardoned, the rest suffered the punishment which their crime merited *. XI. 1555. A fruitless THOUGH both parties, exhausted by the length of the negociation in or- war, carried it on in this languishing manner, neither of der to esta- them showed any disposition to listen to overtures of peace. blish peace. Cardinal Pole indeed laboured with all the zeal becoming May 21. Affairs of his piety and humanity, to re-establish concord among the Princes of Christendom. He had not only persuaded his mistress, the Queen of England, to enter warmly into his sentiments, and to offer her mediation to the contending powers, but had prevailed both on the Emperor and King of France to send their plenipotentiaries to a village between Gravelines and Ardres. He himself, together with Gardiner bishop of Winchester, repaired thither in order to preside as mediators in the conferences which were to be held for adjusting all the points in difference. But though each of the monarchs committed this negociation to some of their ministers, in whom they placed the greatest confidence, it was soon evident that they came together with no sincere desire of accommodation. Each proposed articles so extravagant that they could have no hopes of their being accepted. Pole, after exerting in vain all his zeal and address, in order to persuade them to relinquish such extravagant demands, and to consent to the substitution of more equal conditions, became sensible of the folly of wasting time, in attempting to re-establish concord between those whom their obstinacy rendered irreconcilable, broke off the conference, and returned to England'. DURING these transactions in other parts of Europe, GerGermany. many enjoyed such profound tranquillity, as afforded the Diet full leisure to deliberate, and to establish proper regulations concerning a point of the greatest consequence to the internal peace of the Empire. By the treaty of Passau in one thousand five hundred and fifty-two, it had been referred to the next Diet of the Empire to confirm and perfect the plan Memoirs du k Thuan. lib. xv. p. 522. Belcar. Com. Rer. Gal. 866. Marech. Vielleville, par M. Charloix, tom. iii. p. 249, &c. p. 347. Par. 1557. 1 Thuan. lib. xv. p. 523. Mem. de Ribier, tom. ii, p. 613. XI. 1555. of religious pacification which was there agreed upon. The BOOK terror and confusion with which the violent commotions excited by Albert of Brandenburg had filled Germany, as well as the constant attention which Ferdinand was obliged to give to the affairs of Hungary, had hitherto prevented the holding a Diet, though it had been summoned, soon after. the conclusion of the treaty, to meet at Augsburg. burg, and nand's speech in BUT as a Diet was now necessary on many accounts, Fer- Diet held dinand about the beginning of this year had repaired to at AugsAugsburg. Though few of the Princes were present either Ferdiin person or by their deputies, he opened the assembly by a speech, in which he proposed a termination of the dissen- it. tions to which the new tenets and controversies with regard to religion had given rise, not only as the first and great business of the Diet, but as the point which both the Emperor and he had most at heart. He represented the innumerable obstacles which the Emperor had to surmount before he could procure the convocation of a general council, as well as the fatal accidents which had for some time retarded, and had at last suspended the consultations of that assembly. He observed that experience had already taught them how vain it was to expect any remedy for evils, which demanded immediate redress from a general council, the assembling of which would either be prevented, or its deliberations be interrupted by the dissentions and hostilities of the Princes of Christendom: That a national council in Germany, which, as some imagined, might be called with greater ease, and deliberate with more perfect security, was an assembly of an unprecedented nature, the jurisdiction of which was uncertain in its extent, and the form of its proceedings undefined: That in his opinion there remained but one method for composing their unhappy differences, which, though it had been often tried without success, might yet prove effectual if it were attempted with a better and more pacific spirit than had appeared on former occasions, and that was to choose a few men of learning, abilities, and moderation, who, by discussing the disputed articles, in an amicable conference, might explain them in such a manner as to bring the contending parties either to unite in sentiment, or to differ with charity. воок XI. 1555. and fears testants. THIS speech being printed in common form, and dispersed over the Empire, revived the fears and jealousies of the Protestants; Ferdinand, they observed with much surprise, Suspicions had not once mentioned, in his address to the Diet, the treaof the Pro- ty of Passau, the stipulations of which they considered as the great security of their religious liberty. The suspicions to which this gave rise were confirmed by the accounts which they daily received of the extreme severity with which Ferdinand treated their Protestant brethren in his hereditary dominions; and, as it was natural to consider his actions as the surest indication of his intentions, this diminished their confidence in those pompous professions of moderation and of zeal for the re-establishment of concord, to which his practice seemed to be so repugnant. from the Diet. These inTHE arrival of the Cardinal Morone, whom the Pope creased by the arrival had appointed to attend the Diet as his nuncio, completed of a nuncio their conviction, and left them no room to doubt that some pope to the dangerous machination was forming against the peace or safety of the Protestant church. Julius, elated with the unexpected return of the English nation from apostacy, began to flatter himself, that the spirit of mutiny and revolt having now spent its force, the happy period was come when the church might resume its ancient authority, and be obeyed by the people with the same tame submission as formerly. Full of these hopes he had sent Morone to Augsburg, with instructions to employ his eloquence to excite the Germans to imitate the laudable example of the English, and his political address in order to prevent any decree of the Diet to the detriment of the Catholic faith. As Morone inherited from his father, the chancellor of Milan, uncommon talents for negociation and intrigue, he could hardly have failed of embarrassing the measures of the Protestants in the Diet, or of defeating whatever they aimed at obtaining in it for their farther secu rity. The death of Julius III. BUT an unforeseen event delivered them from all the dan ger which they had reason to apprehend from Morone's presence. Julius, by abandoning himself to pleasures and amusements, no less unbecoming his age than his charac, ter, having contracted such habits of dissipation, that any XI. 1555. serious occupation, especially if attended with difficulty, be- BOOK came an intolerable burthen to him, had long resisted the solicitations of his nephew to hold a consistory, because he expected there a violent opposition to his schemes in favour of that young man. But when all the pretexts which he could invent for eluding this request were exhausted, and at the same time his indolent aversion to business continued to grow upon him, he feigned indisposition rather than yield to his nephew's importunity; and that he might give the deceit a greater colour of probability, he not only confined himself to his apartment, but changed his usual diet and manner of life. By persisting too long in acting this ridiculous part, he contracted a real disease, of which he died in a few days, leaving his infamous minion the Cardinal de Monte March 23. to bear his name, and to disgrace the dignity which he had conferred upon him". him. As soon as Morone heard of his The nundeath, he set out abruptly from Augsburg, where he had cio sets out resided only a few days, that he might be present at the election of a new Pontiff. for Rome. nand's reasons for ONE cause of their suspicions and fears being thus re- Ferdimoved, the Protestants soon became sensible that their conjectures concerning Ferdinand's intentions, however specious, wishing to satisfy the were ill-founded, and that he had no thoughts of violating Protestthe articles favourable to them in the treaty of Passau. ants. Charles, from the time that Maurice had defeated all his schemes in the Empire, and overturned the great system of religious and civil despotism, which he had almost established there, gave little attention to the internal government of Germany, and permitted his brother to pursue whatever measures he judged most salutary and expedient. Ferdinand, less ambitious and enterprising than the Emperor, instead of resuming a plan, which he, with power and resources so far superior, had failed of accomplishing, endeavoured to attach the Princes of the Empire to his family by an administration uniformly moderate and equitable. To this he gave, at present, particular attention, because his situa m Onuphr. Panvinius de Vitis Pontificum, p. 320. 517. Thuan, lib. XV. |