Page:Canons and Decrees of the Council of Trent Buckley.djvu/39

Rh the time; and the most serene emperor was especially urgent, representing that he had promised to those who dissent from Catholic unity, that he would interpose his mediation with us, to the end that some plan of concord might be devised, which could not be satisfactorily accomplished before his return to Germany: we, ever impelled by the same desire of peace, and by the wishes of so great princes, and, above all, perceiving that not even on the said feast of the Resurrection had any other prelates assembled at Vicenza, we, now avoiding the word prorogation, which had been so often repeated in vain, chose rather to suspend the celebration of the general council during our own good pleasure, and that of the Apostolic See. We accordingly did so, and despatched our letters touching such suspension to each of the above-named princes, on the 10th day of June, 1539, as from them may be clearly seen. This suspension, then, having been of necessity made by us, whilst we were awaiting that more suitable time, and some conclusion of peace which was later to bring both dignity and numbers to the council, and more immediate safety to the Christian commonweal; the affairs of Christendom, meanwhile, fell daily into a worse state. The Hungarians, upon the death of their king, had invited the Turk; King Ferdinand had declared war against them; a party of the Belgians had been incited to revolt from the most serene emperor, who, to crush that revolution, traversed France on the most friendly and concordant terms with the most Christian king, and with great show of mutual good-will towards each other; and, having reached Belgium, thence passed into Germany, where he commenced holding diets of the princes and cities of Germany, with the view of treating of that concord of which he had spoken to us. But since,—the hope of peace now failing,—the scheme of procuring and treating of reunion in those diets seemed rather adapted to excite greater discords, we were led to revert to our former remedy of a general council; and by our legates, cardinals of the Holy Roman Church, we proposed this to the emperor himself; and this we did finally and especially in the diet of Ratisbon, on which occasion our beloved son. Cardinal Gaspar