Page images
PDF
EPUB

A. D.

1534.

made on his sisters, the queen of Navarre and the duchess of Ferrara, the gaiety of Francis's own temper, and his love of pleasure allowed him little leisure to examine theological controversies. But soon after he lost all the fruits of this disingenuous artifice, by a step very inconsistent with his declarations to the German princes. This step, however, the prejudices of the age, and the religious sentiments of his own subjects, rendered it necessary for him to take. His close union with the king of England, an excommunicated heretic; his frequent negociations with the German protestants; but, above all, his giving public audience to an envoy from sultan Solyman, had excited violent suspicions concerning the sincerity of his attachment to religion. To have attacked the emperor, who, on all occasions, made high pretensions to zeal in defence of the catholic faith, and at the very juncture when he was preparing for his expedition against Barbarossa," (a founder of the piratical states of Barbary,) "which" expedition" was then considered as a pious enterprise; could not have failed to confirm such unfavourable sentiments with regard to Francis, and called on him to vindicate himself by some extraordinary demonstration of his reverence for the established doctrines of the church. The indiscreet zeal of some of his subjects, who Persecutio had imbibed the protestant opinions, furnished inde him with such an occasion as he desired. They had affixed to the gates of the Louvre, and other public places, papers containing indecent reflections on the doctrines and rites of the popish church. Six of the persons concerned in this rash action were discovered and seized. The king, in order to avert the judgments which it was supposed their blasphemies might draw

[graphic]

CHAP.
III.

Jan. 1535.

down upon the nation, appointed a solemn procession. The holy sacrament was carried through the city in great pomp; Francis walked uncovered before it, bearing a torch in his hand; the princes of the blood supported the canopy over it; the nobles marched in order behind. In the presence of this numerous assembly, the king, accustomed to express himself on every subject in strong and animated language, declared that, if one of his hands were infected with heresy, he would cut it off with the other, and would not spare even his own children, if found guilty of that crime. As a dreadful proof of his being in earnest, the six unhappy persons were publicly burned before the procession was finished, with circumstances of the most shocking barbarity attending their execution. -The princes of the league of Smalkald, filled with resentment and indignation at the cruelty with which their brethren were treated, could not conceive Francis to be sincere, when he offered to protect in Germany those very tenets, which he persecuted with such rigour in his own dominions; so that all Bellay's art and eloquence in vindicating his master, or apologizing for his conduct, made but little impression upon them. They considered likewise, that the emperor, who had hitherto never employed violence against the doctrines of the reformers, nor even given them much molestation in their progress, was now bound by the agreement" of Nuremberg "not to disturb such as had embraced the new opinions; and the protestants wisely regarded this as a more certain and immediate security, than the precarious and distant hopes with which Francis endeavoured to allure them.....Upon all these accounts the protestants refused to assist the

French king in any hostile attempt against the emperor, The elector of Saxony, the most zealous among them, in order to avoid giving any umbrage to Charles, would not permit Melanethon to visit the court of France, although that reformer, flattered perhaps by the invitation of so great a monarch, or hoping that his presence there might be of signal advantage to the protestant cause, discovered a strong inclination to undertake the journey." 1

It appears that the posting of the obnoxious placards was occasioned by a previous change of measures, with respect to the professors of the protestant doctrine. Under the patronage of the queen of Navarre, they had been allowed to teach publicly. Their success excited jealousy in the doctors of the Sorbonne, who precured that they should be first restricted to private teaching, and then forbidden to teach at all.2

It is by no means to be supposed that the six persons committed to the flames, while the king of France himself looked on, were the only ones that suffered. "Both those," says

Sleidan," who were seized upon information, and those who were apprehended upon mere suspicion, were burned after a barbarous manner,"-some to death, and some only for torture.3 John Sturmius, writing to Melancthon from Paris, mentions that eighteen had thus suffered, and that many more were then in prison, expecting the like treatment. Maimbourg styles this a "most just execution!"5

On the subject of Melancthon's propose visit to Paris, to which he was himself inclin

1 Robertson, iii. 111-114.

3 Sleid. 175.

s In Seck.iii. 102. See Sleid 175, 178, 183, 185. Seel

A. D.

1535.

[graphic]

CHAP.

III.

and which Luther earnestly pressed, the elector appears to have exercised a more sound judgment than either of them. Not only did he feel that it would give ground of umbrage to the emperor, and that no reliance was to be placed upon Francis's professions, but he also distrusted the firmness of Melancthon in the circumstances in which he was about to place himself. That reformer had not only written to cardinal Bellay, bishop of Paris, and brother to Francis's envoy in Germany, that "their sentiments were very nearly the same," but had sent into France a paper, containing his sentiments on the way in which he thought the main points at issue might be adjusted.' Whether, therefore, the elector was acquainted with the contents of this paper, or whether he judged only from the tone and tenour of Melancthon's feelings at this time, he wrote concerning him to Pontanus in the following terms: "I much fear that, from anxiety to gain the king, Philip should propose things which Martin and the other divines would not grant, and that hence new controversies should arise. I seem to myself to perceive indications of this. It appears also not unlikely that the French do not act with sincerity towards him; but, perceiving his facility, wish to sift him, and then to reproach him as inconstant. Those in France, who appear to favour us, are rather Erasmian than evangelical."

Contrary, however, to what Maimbourg states, it appears that the invitation of Melancthon into France was no hasty measure, into which the king was drawn by his sisters, and which was no sooner adopted than rejected

1 The paper is given by Pezelius, Consil. Melanc. i.

224-237.

again, but a design seriously formed and for A. D. some time persisted in.1

1537.

Pope.

The proceedings of the Roman pontiff, some Proceedof which were of an unusual kind, deserve like-ings of the wise to be related. Soon after his accession to the papal chair, Paul III. had proposed to call a general council at Mantua; and, though the king of France disapproved the place, and the king of England, as well as the German protestants, refused to own a council, so called, as a legal and free representative of the church, he adhered to his purpose, and issued a bull, on the second of June 1536, appointing the council to assemble on the twenty-third of May in the year following. He nominated three cardinals to preside in his name; enjoined all Christian princes to countenance the assembly by their authority; and invited the prelates of every nation to attend in person. "This sum

mons of a council, an assembly which, from its nature and intention, demanded quiet times as well as pacific dispositions, at the very juncture when the emperor was on his march towards France, and ready to involve a great part of Europe in the confusions of war, appeared to every person extremely unseasonable. It was intimated, however, to all the different courts by nuncios despatched of purpose." "But some unexpected difficulties being started by the duke of Mantua, both about the right of jurisdiction over the persons who resorted to the council,2

' Camerar. Vit. Melanc. § 47, 48. Seck. iii. 107–110. 2 "The pope, a very wise man, who seldom received any answer which he had not foreseen, was much amazed, and answered the duke's messenger, that he would never have believed that his lord.... would have denied him that, of which never any made doubt before.... namely, to be supreme judge of the clergy:... that in the council none should be present but the ecclesiastics, who are exempted from

[merged small][ocr errors]
« PreviousContinue »