VII. 1545. declining state of his own health, the exhausted condition of B O O K his kingdom, together with the burden of the war against England, obliged him, at present, to dissemble his resentment, and to put off thoughts of revenge to some other juncture. In consequence of this event, the unfortunate Duke of Savoy lost all hope of obtaining the restitution of his territories; and the rights or claims relinquished by the treaty of Crespy, returned in full force to the crown of France, to serve as pretexts for future wars *. UPON the first intelligence of the Duke of Orleans's death, the confederates of Smalkalde flattered themselves that the essential alterations which appeared to be unavoidable consequences of it could hardly fail of producing a rupture, which would prove the means of their safety. But they were not more disappointed with regard to this, than in their expectations from an event which seemed to be the certain prelude of a quarrel between the Emperor and the Pope. When Paul, whose passion for aggrandizing his family increased as he advanced in years, and as he saw the dignity and power which they derived immediately from him becoming more precarious, found that he could not bring Charles to approve of his ambitious schemes, he ventured to grant his son Peter Lewis the investiture of Parma and Placentia, though at the risk of incurring the displeasure of the Emperor. At a time when a great part of Europe inveighed openly against the corrupt manners and exorbitant power of Ecclesiastics, and when a council was summoned to reform the disorders in the church, this indecent grant of such a principality, to a son of whose illegitimate birth the Pope ought to have been ashamed, and whose licentious morals all good men detested, gave general offence. Some Cardinals in the Imperial interest remonstrated against such an unbecoming alienation of the patrimony of the church; the Spanish ambassador would not be present at the solemnity of his infeofment; and upon pretext that these cities were part of the Milanese state, the Emperor peremptorily refused to confirm the deed of investiture. But x Belcarii comment. 769. Paruta, Hist. Venet. iv. p. 177. The Pope dutchies of Parma and to his son. grants the Placentia VII. 1545. BOOK both the Emperor and Pope being intent upon one common object in Germany, they sacrificed their particular passions to that public cause, and suppressed the emotions of jealousy or resentment which were rising on this occasion, that they might jointly pursue what each deemed to be of greater importance". Henry of Brunswick kindles a war in Germany. 1546. The Re ABOUT this time the peace of Germany was disturbed by a violent but short eruption of Henry Duke of Brunswick. This Prince though still stript of his dominions, which the Emperor held in sequestration, until his differences with the confederates of Smalkalde should be adjusted, possessed however so much credit in Germany, that he undertook to raise for the French King a considerable body of troops to be employed in the war against England. The money stipulated for this purpose was duly advanced by Francis; the troops were levied; but Henry, instead of leading them towards France, suddenly entered his own dominions at their head, in hopes of recovering possession of them before any army could be assembled to oppose him. The confederates were not more surprised at this unexpected attack, than the King of France was astonished at a mean thievish fraud, so unbecoming the character of a Prince. But the Landgrave of Hesse, with incredible expedition, collected as many men as put a stop to the progress of Henry's undisciplined forces, and being joined by his son-in-law, Maurice, and by some troops belonging 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. As this defeat of Henry's wild enterprise added new reformation putation to the arms of the Protestants, the establishment of of the Pa- the Protestant religion in the Palatinate brought a great ac latinate. y Paruta, Hist. Venet. iv. 178. Pallavic. 180. VII. 1546. cession of strength to their party. Frederick, who succeed- BO O K ed 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 nothing, he thought Jan. 20. 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 Smalkaldea. bles at A FEW weeks before this revolution in the Palatinate, the The coungeneral council was opened with the accustomed solemnities cil assemat Trent. The eyes of the Catholic states were turned with Trent. much expectation towards an assembly, which all had considered as capable of applying an effectual 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, a Sleid. 356. Seck. 1. iii. 616. VII. 1546. BOOK 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 authorizing 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 of its jurisdiction, and saw what matter of triumph such 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. Its pro Jan. 18. THE first session was spent in matters of form. In a subceedings. sequent one, it was agreed that the framing a confession of faith, wherein should be contained all the articles 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 ne VII. 1546. cessary towards the reformation of manners and discipline. B O O K 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 b. 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 jurisdiction. The Pope and Emperor, on 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. sions of THE Protestants were not inattentive or unconcerned Apprehenspectators of the motions of the sovereign Pontiff and of the ProCharles, and they entertained every day more violent sus- testants. picions 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 caused, that a dangerous confederacy against it was |