Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 23.djvu/567

COUNCIL.] the third of the canons, which declares that the whole sacrament is entire in each kind, it indirectly, though effectively, ruled against the grant of the chalice to the laity; and in fact the Reformed thesis that they were entitled to it by divine right, and could not be debarred from it without sin, was unanimously condemned in the previous congregation. Some unimportant decrees affecting the criminal jurisdiction of bishops, and for referring the trials of bishops themselves to the pope, were enacted at the same time; but more noteworthy was a decree for postponing the decision upon lay and infant communion, and for granting a safe-conduct to the Protestants, which was the last business transacted upon this occasion. But the safe-conduct was worded so as to excite general and reasonable suspicion on the part of those to whom it was offered, and Vargas, who was no friend to their opinions, comments freely upon its deceptive ambiguity. In the fourteenth session (November 25, 1551) decrees upon penance and extreme unction, prepared in the congregations, and embodied in twelve chapters upon the former and three on the latter topic, followed severally by fifteen and four canons, were promulgated. Some disciplinary enactments affecting the clergy, and corrective of minor abuses, were enacted at the same time, the most important provisions being the abolition of the papal dispensations exempting their holders from the jurisdiction of the ordinary, and the restriction of the action of titular bishops. But the reforming party in the council was much discontented with the inadequacy of these measures, which added little to the very small progress made so far in the revival of discipline. Although no Protestant theologians had yet presented themselves at Trent, representatives of the duke of Würtemberg arrived at this time, who were instructed to lay the Würtemberg Confession before the council, and to say that Protestant divines who could give explanations of it were waiting some forty miles from Trent, and were prepared to attend the council so soon as a safe-conduct exactly conformable with that granted to the Bohemians by the council of Basel was issued, and on the further conditions that the discussions actually going on should be suspended and all the matters so far decided be reopened, that the pope should cease to preside by legates or otherwise, but declare his own submission to the decrees of the council, and absolve the bishops from their oath of allegiance to himself in order to secure their liberty of action. The envoys refused to treat with the legates at all, and conducted their negotiations through the imperial ambassadors. Crescen/io was very angry, and refused all concession, even going so far as to abstract the couciliar seal, lest the safe-conduct might be granted; but pressure was put upon him by the imperial ambassadors, and he was forced to consent to the admission of the Protestant envoys at a private congregation to be held in his own house, though he resisted the demand for introducing them to a public session. And, when the safe-conduct was recast, it was found to differ seriously from that proposed as its model, especially by failing to give the Protestants the rights of session and suffrage, of observing their own religion in thenhouses, and of being guaranteed against insults to their creed. To the remonstrances made in consequence the legate returned a peremptory reply, refusing to make any further change, and only the instances of the emperor, then at Innsbruck, but three days journey from Trent, induced the Protestant envoys to remain a little longer, to find if any better terms could be obtained. Some more Protestant envoys from Strasburg and other cities, and from Maurice of Saxony, arrived early in 1552, and were admitted to a congregation held on January 24, where they renewed the demands already mentioned, and required also that the decrees of Constance and Basel, declaring the pope inferior and subject to a general council, should be reaffirmed. They were promised an answer in due time, and the fifteenth session was held the next day (January 25, 1552), wherein the council was prorogued, and a safe-conduct more in accordance with the Protestant demands was drawn up and published. It is remarkable, however, for one omission, and for one significant clause. The omission is that of toleration for the private exercise of their religion; the insertion is a proviso pledging the council not to avail itself, "for this one occasion," of any laws or canons whatever, "especially those of Constance and Siena," as against the Protestants. The reference is to the canon of Constance by means of which John Huss was tried and burnt, declaring a safe-conduct no protection against trial for heresy, even if the accused has come in reliance on the safe-conduct, and would not have come without it, which canon was reaffirmed at the council of Siena in 1423. While the negotiations occasioned by these proceedings were in course, war broke out anew in Germany, and Maurice of Saxony obtained considerable successes over the emperor, took Augsburg, and was marching down upon Tyrol, so that Charles V. fled in haste from Innsbruck, and the legate convened the sixteenth session (April 28, 1552) of the council, wherein a decree was promulgated suspending it for two years in consequence of the perils of war. There was a general stampede from Trent at once, and the legate Crescenzio, then very ill, had just strength to reach Verona, where he died three days after his arrival.

So ended what is styled by some historians, and correctly, the first council of Trent, for, although the usual computation recognizes only one such council, yet an interruption of ten years, a widely changed personality, and a marked alteration in tone make the resumed synod virtually another assembly, and one by no means entitled to the degree of respect which the ability and learning of many members of that first convoked won for it. When the council dispersed, Julius III. at once in consistory repeated the policy of Paul III., and nominated a committee to prepare a scheme of reform, but it never took action of any kind; and at the close of the two years suspension of the council the question was put in consistory as to the resumption of the sessions, and decided, with the pope's approval, in the negative. Julius III. died on March 23, 1555, and was succeeded on April 11, 1555, by Cardinal Marcello Cervini, one of the former legates at the council, a man of high reputation for personal devoutness and freedom from that sympathy with abuses which marked too many of the dignitaries of the time. He took the title of Marcellus II., and his first public utterance was to intimate his purpose of re assembling the council, and of carrying out a plan of thorough reform in discipline, particularly directed to abating the pomp and luxury of the prelacy. But he was in feeble health when elected, and the fatigues of his new position brought on an attack of apoplexy which carried him off three weeks after his accession. In his room was chosen, on May 23, 1555, Cardinal Giovanni Pietro Caraffa, who took the title of Paul IV. He was known to profess great austerity of life, to have actually founded the Theatines, an ascetic community, and to be a stern and implacable advocate for several measures of repression against innovators in matters of religion or impugners of papal prerogative, as he quickly showed by setting up the Inquisition in Rome, and taking care that it should pot be idle. His election consequently caused much alarm, and was especially displeasing to the emperor; and the earlier acts of his pontificate seemed to justify the estimate formed of his character and the fears of those who apprehended that he would proceed to reform discipline in a swifter and more drastic fashion than had hitherto been essayed. For in fact he pledged himself to this effect in the first bull published after his accession, following it up with a show of activity by at once setting some minor reforms on foot.

During these three years important events had taken place in Germany. By the peace of Passau in 1552, the Protestants of the Augsburg Confession were secured from all molestation, and in the free exercise of their religion and of their civil rights, and this was followed up by a decree of the diet of Augsburg, on September 25, 1555, that, failing a national council to settle the religious disputes, the emperor, the king of the Romans, and the other Catholic princes should not interfere in any way with the religious liberties of the Lutherans holding to the Confession of Augsburg, provided they in their turn would exhibit equal tolerance towards Catholics; that no penalty, save the loss of benefices, should be imposed on any Catholic ecclesiastics joining the Lutheran body; and that such benefices as the Protestants had already annexed for the support of their schools and ministers should remain in their possession. Paul IV. was much incensed at these proceedings, and used all efforts to procure their repeal, on the failure of which he openly broke with the emperor, formed an alliance with the French king against him, and imprisoned the cardinals and other personages of the imperial party on whom he could lay hands, confiscating the property of such as saved themselves by flight. He continued for a time in the measures of reform with which