BOOK of which might have retarded him long, and have required the utmost efforts of his valour and skill ". X. 1552. A mutiny of his troops re tards his march. The empe. ror flies in confusion from Inspruck. MAURICE was now only two days march from Inspruck, and without losing a moment he ordered his infantry to advance thither, having left his cavalry, which was unserviceable in that mountainous country, at Fiessen, to guard the mouth of the pass. He proposed to advance with such rapidity as to anticipate any accounts of the loss of Ehrenbergh, and to surprise the Emperor, together with his attendants, in an open town incapable of defence. But just as his troops began to move, a battalion of mercenaries mutinied, declaring that they would not stir until they had received the gratuity, which, according to the custom of that age, they claimed as the recompense due to them for having taken a place by assault. It was with great difficulty, as well as danger, and not without some considerable loss of time, that Maurice quieted this insurrection, and prevailed on the soldiers to follow him to a place where he promised them such rich booty as would be an ample reward for all their services. To the delay, occasioned by this unforeseen accident, the Emperor owed his safety. He was informed of the approaching danger late in the evening, and knowing that nothing could save him but a speedy flight, he instantly left Inspruck, without regarding the darkness of the night, or the violence of the rain which happened to fall at that time: and notwithstanding the debility occasioned by the gout, which rendered him unable to bear any motion but that of a litter, he travelled by the light of torches, taking his way over the Alps, by roads almost impassible. His courtiers and attendants followed him with equal precipitation, some of them on such horses as they could hastily procure, many of them on foot, and all in the utmost confusion. In this miserable plight, very unlike the pomp with which Charles had appeared during the five preceding years as the conqueror of Germany, he arrived at length with his dejected train at Villach m Arnoldi vita Maurit. 123. in Carinthia, and scarcely thought himself secure even in B O O K that remote inaccessible corner. X. 1552. enters that town. MAURICE entered Inspruck a few hours after the Empe Maurice ror and his attendants had left it; and enraged that the prey should escape out of his hands when he was just ready to seize it, he pursued them some miles; but finding it impossible to overtake persons to whom their fear gave speed, he returned to the town, and abandoned all the Emperor's baggage, together with that of his ministers, to be plundered by the soldiers; while he preserved untouched every thing belonging to the King of the Romans, either because he had formed some friendly connexion with that Prince, or because he wished to have it believed that such a connexion subsisted between them. As there now remained only three days to the commencement of the truce (with such nicety had Maurice calculated his operations), he set out for Pas sau, that he might meet Ferdinand on the day appointed. ror sets the BEFORE Charles left Inspruck, he withdrew the guards The empeplaced on the degraded Elector of Saxony, whom, during elector of five years, he had carried about with him as a prisoner; and Saxony at set him entirely at liberty, either with an intention to em liberty. barrass Maurice, by letting loose a rival, who might disputé his title to his dominions and dignity, or from a sense of the indecency of detaining him a prisoner, while he himself run the risk of being deprived of his own liberty. But that Prince, seeing no other way of escaping than that which the Emperor took, and abhorring the thoughts of falling into the hands of a kinsman, whom he justly considered as the author of all his misfortunes, chose rather to accompany Charles in his flight, and to expect the final decision of his fate from the treaty which was now approaching. THESE were not the only effects which Maurice's opera The countions produced. It was no sooner known at Trent that he cil of Trent breaks up had taken arms, than a general consternation seized the in great fathers of the council. The German prelates immediately returned home that they might provide for the safety of their respective territories. The rest were extremely im consterna tion. X. 15.52. BOOK patient to be gone; and the legate, who had hitherto disappointed all the endeavours of the Imperial ambassadors to procure an audience in the council for the Protestant divines, laid hold with joy on such a plausible pretext for dismissing an assembly, which he had found it so difficult to govern. In a congregation held on the twenty-eighth of April, a decree was issued proroguing the council during two years, and appointing it to meet at the expiration of that time, if peace were then re-established in Europe". This prorogation, however, continued no less than ten years; and the proceedings of the council, when re-assembled in the year one thousand five hundred and sixty-two, fall not within thẹ period prescribed to this history. The effect of its decrees. THE Convocation of this assembly had been passionately desired by all the States and Princes in Christendom, who, from the wisdom as well as piety of prelates representing the whole body of the faithful, expected some charitable and efficacious endeavours towards composing the dissentions which unhappily had arisen in the church. But the several Popes by whose authority it was called, had other objects in view. They exerted all their power or policy to attain these; and by the abilities as well as address of their legates, by the ignorance of many of the prelates, and by the servility of the indigent Italian bishops, acquired such influence in the council, that they dictated all its decrees, and framed them not with an intention to restore unity and concord to the church, but to establish their own dominion, or to confirm those tenets, upon which they imagined that dominion to be founded. Doctrines, which had hitherto been admitted upon the credit of tradition alone, and receiv ed with some latitude of interpretation, were defined with a scrupulous nicety, and confirmed by the sanction of authority. Rites, which had formerly been observed only in deference to custom supposed to be ancient, were established by the decrees of the church, and declared to be essential parts of its worship. The breach, instead of being closed, was widened, and made irreparable. In place of any attempt to reconcile the contending parties, a line was n F. Paul, 353. X. drawn with such studied accuracy, as ascertained and mark- B OOK ed out the distinction between them. This still serves to keep them at a distance; and, without some signal interposition of Divine Providence, must render 'the separation perpetual. 1552. torians of OUR knowledge of the proceedings of this assembly, is Character derived from three different authors. Father Paul of Venice of the hiswrote his history of the Council of Trent, while the memo- this counry of what had passed there was recent, and some who had cil. been members of it were still alive. He has exposed the intrigues and artifices by which it was conducted, with a freedom and severity which have given a deep wound to the credit of the council. He has described its deliberations, and explained its decrees, with such perspicuity and depth of thought, with such various erudition and such force of reason, as have justly entitled his work to be placed among the most admired historical compositions. About half a century thereafter, the Jesuit Pallavicini published his history of the council, in opposition to that of Father Paul, and by employing all the force of an acute and refining genius to invalidate the credit, or to confute the reasonings of his antagonist, he labours to prove, by artful apologies for the proceedings of the council, and subtile interpretations of its decrees, that it deliberated with impartiality, and decided with judgment as well as candour. Vargas, a Spanish doctor of laws, who was appointed to attend the Imperial ambassadors at Trent, sent the bishop of Arras a regular account of the transactions there, explaining all the arts which the Legate employed to influence or overawe the council. His letters have been published, in which he inveighs against the papal court with that asperity of censure, which was natural to a man whose situation enabled him to observe its intrigues thoroughly, and who was obliged to exert all his attention and talents in order to disappoint them. But whichsoever of these authors an intelligent person takes for his guide, in forming a judgment concerning the spirit of the council, he must discover so much ambition as well as artifice among some of the members, so much ignorance 10 X. 1552. BOOK and corruption among others; he must observe such a large infusion of human policy and passions, mingled with such a scanty portion of that simplicity of heart, sanctity of manners, and love of truth, which alone qualify men to determine what doctrines are worthy of God, and what worship is acceptable to him; that he will find it no easy matter to believe, that any extraordinary influence of the Holy Ghost hovered over this assembly and dictated its decrees. The French WHILE Maurice was employed in negociating with the endeavour King of the Romans at Lintz, or in making war on the Em to surprise Strasburg; peror in the Tyrol, the French King had advanced into Al but with out suc cess. sace as far as Strasburg; and having demanded leave of the Senate to march through the city, he hoped that, by repeating the same fraud which he had practised at Metz, he might render himself master of the place, and by that means secure a passage over the Rhine into the heart of Germany. But the Strasburghers, instructed and put on their guard by the credulity and misfortune of their neighbours, shut their gates; and having assembled a garrison of five thou sand soldiers, repaired their fortifications, razed the houses in their suburbs, and determined to defend themselves to the utmost. At the same time they sent a deputation of their most respectable citizens to the King, in order to divert him from making any hostile attempt upon them. The Electors of Treves and Cologn, the Duke of Cleves, and other Princes in the neighbourhood, interposed in their behalf; beseeching Henry that he would not forget so soon the title which he had generously assumed; and instead of being the Deliverer of Germany, become its Oppressor. The Swiss Cantons seconded them with zeal, soliciting Henry to spare a city which had long been connected with their community in friendship and alliance. POWERFUL as this united intercession was, it would not have prevailed on Henry to forego a prize of so much value, if he had been in a condition to have seized it. But, in that age, the method of subsisting numerous armies at a distance from the frontiers of their own country, was imperfectly understood, and neither the revenues of Princes, nor their |
