Page:A General Sketch of Political History from the Earlist Times.djvu/258

 246 THE AGE OF HAPSBURG ASCENDENCY Charles and Francis were both anxious for the support of the papacy and of England. Francis met King Henry at the The War in famous field of the Cloth of Gold, but it was Italy. Charles who got the support of England, and Charles also offered the pope better terms than his rival. When the war between them began, it appeared that Charles would sweep the board in Italy. He conquered Milan, which was handed over to Francesco Sforza. In 1523 another Medici, Clement vn., was raised to the papal throne through the influ- ence of Charles. A brief tide of victory induced Francis to invade Italy, where at Pavia he met with a crushing defeat, and was himself taken prisoner. To Charles's allies this triumph seemed to make Charles himself too powerful ; the pope and Sforza both turned against him. It was not long before England withdrew her support, presently going over to the French alliance. Charles, however, extorted from his prisoner the concession of all the points in dispute. Francis was hardly set free when he renewed the war, claiming that the promises made were not binding, as they had been given under compulsion. In Italy a league was formed against the emperor between Venice, Milan, and the pope. The emperor's forces captured Milan, marched on Rome, and being in arrear with their pay, sacked the Eternal City as Alaric himself had not sacked it, and held the pope a prisoner. Altogether affairs went badly for France, and when peace was made x she had once more to surrender nearly all her claims. In Italy Charles held the pope in the hollow of his hand, and Venice was the only really independent state left. We must now turn to the course of the Reformation during these twelve years. Martin Luther's attack on the Indulgences Luther's did not bring him directly under the ban of the Challenge. pope, but it did bring upon him an immediate onslaught of the extreme clerical party among the ecclesiastics. Luther, however, made his appeal to the lay princes, who had a strong objection to Indulgences as carrying away large sums of money out of their own dominions to fill the papal coffers. Honest religious convictions had a very large share in the Reformation; but the desire of lay princes to share or to