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CHAP.

III.

1538.

1539.

His Com

Reforma

tion.

and the security of his capital amidst such a concourse of strangers, the pope, after fruitless endeavours to adjust these, first prorogued the council for some months, and afterwards transferring the place of meeting to Vicenza, in the Venetian territories, appointed it to assemble on the first of May in the following year. As neither the emperor nor the French king, who had not then come to any accommodation, would permit their subjects to repair thither, not a single prelate appeared at the day prefixed; and the pope, that his authority might not become altogether contemptible by so many ineffectual efforts to convoke that assembly, put off the meeting by an indefinite prorogation." 1

In the midst of these proceedings, however, mission for "that he might not seem to have turned his whole attention towards a reformation which he was not able to accomplish, while he neglected that which was in his own power," he professed to give efficiency to a commission of a certain number of cardinals and bishops, which he had three years before appointed,2 "with full authority to inquire into the abuses and corruptions of the Roman court, and to propose the most effectual method of removing them. This scrutiny, undertaken with reluctance, was carried on slowly and with remissness. All defects were touched with a gentle hand, afraid of probing too deep, or discovering too much. But even by this partial examination, many irregularities were detected, and many

1537.

the secular power, both themselves and their families: which
is so clear, that the doctors of divinity affirm, that the very
concubines of priests are of ecclesiastical jurisdiction !!”
F. Paul, 77.
2 F. Paul, 78.

Robertson, iii. 161-163.

enormities exposed to light, while the remedies, which they suggested as most proper, were either inadequate or were never applied. The report and resolution of these deputies, though intended to be kept secret, were transmitted by some accident into Germany, and, being immediately made public, afforded ample matter for reflection and triumph to the protestants. On the one hand, they demonstrated the necessity of a reformation in the head as well as the members of the church, and even pointed out many of the corruptions against which Luther and his followers had remonstrated with the greatest vehemence. They shewed, on the other hand, that it was vain to expect this reformation from ecclesiastics themselves, who, as Luther strongly expressed it, piddled at curing warts, while they overlooked or confirmed ulcers."1

To this statement, taken from Dr. Robertson, some additions must be made, which are consonant to the design of our history, though unnecessary to his.

Most of the points adverted to by the pope's commissioners were little more than of an external kind. None of the corrupt doctrines and principles of the church of Rome, which were the main source of its great practical errors, and against which, accordingly, Luther had especially directed the powerful artillery of his vehement declamation and irresistible scriptural arguments, were here touched upon. Pallavicini, who yet thinks these regularly deputed reformers in some degree "visionary," and observes, that "angelic purity is not to be expected in an administration carried on by

'Robertson iii. 88, 161-164.

A. D.

1537.

III.

CHAP. frail mortals," glories that "no charge was brought by them of false doctrine in the church, of corruption of the sacred writings, of unjust laws, crafty policy, pretended sanctity, and the toleration of vice-points on which the Lutherans were continually barking." They complained chiefly that "flatterers had debarred the access of truth to the ears of the pontiffs, and stretched prerogative too far, so as to tell their Holinesses that they were absolute lords of all things, and might do whatever they pleased; that hence had arisen inordinate abuses in granting spiritual privileges for money, whereas, the pope having received all

freely," it might be expected that he should communicate it on the same terms: that by this means persons were admitted to bishoprics, who had neither learning nor probity to recommend them, and oftentimes while they were mere boys that, in conferring ecclesiastical benefices and dignities, " the advantage of the incumbent was chiefly considered, without taking any care of the flock :" that cardinals were improperly made bishops, whereas the two offices were incompatible; that of cardinals being "constantly to attend his Holiness, and assist him in the government of the universal church; that of bishops, to feed the flock which God had committed to their charge:" and, moreover, that thus the cardinals were seen "running after princes' courts to get bishoprics, which made them servile, so that they dared not speak their minds freely when occasion required:" that "there were a great many ill examples among those styled "the religious :" that in nunneries, where confession and other

1 Pallav. iv. 5.

make

A. D.

1537.

prohibited.

religious offices where left to the conduct of the monks, a great deal of open and notorious lewdness was committed, and a scandalous example given to the encouragement of vice; so that the monks must be trusted with the management of these houses no longer: that in many places, especially in Italy, sundry ungodly questions were freely bandied about, and disputed, not only in universities, but even in churches, which custom is very much to be blamed, and must be restrained: that the same superintendence must be exercised over printers and booksellers." And here the reader will be amused to find what is the only pernicious work specified :-"There is a book commonly Erasmus's read in schools, called Erasmus's Colloquies, Colloquies in which there are many things that may a dangerous impression on the understandings of young and unwary people, and pervert a floating and unsettled age, which wants a sufficient ballast of principles and gravity to keep it steady. This book, therefore, and others of the same kind must be prohibited in all schools." They complain likewise, that persons in holy orders were frequently allowed to whereas here "rigour and restraint were the more to be insisted on, because the Lutherans allowed marriage to all persons without distinction." The sin of simony was grown "so customary and reigning in the church, that most people were not ashamed of it."-They then advert to the immediate seat of the pope and bishop of Rome; where they censure the multitudes of mean and beggarly priests, whose very appearance disgraced their profession; and the" shameless strumpets," who were permitted "to dwell in stately houses, to ride upon mules, through the most public places, at noon day,

marry;

CHAP.

III.

Observa

measures of

the Commission.

and to have part of the retinue (familiares) of cardinals of the first quality to wait upon them. Truly," they declare, "we must needs say, we never saw such marks of dissoluteness and debauchery in any other town, as in that which ought to be a pattern for all the world to imitate." 1

All this is very important as a confession, tions on the from the most unexceptionable witnesses, of the evils which prevailed: but how different the reformation at which it feebly pointed was, from that at which Luther aimed, will be obvious to every intelligent reader of this history. The pope's commissioners did but propose to remove a little of the grosser pollution from "the outside," while all "within" might remain as impure as ever: but the Saxon reformer and his coadjutors strove, by bringing to light and applying the true principles of the gospel of Christ," to purge the conscience from dead works to serve the living God." To name only one particular: the difference is strikingly manifest in the way in which the two parties treat the subject of confession, which comes under the notice of both. The former complain only of the gross licentiousness to which it was often made subservient: but all this might have been corrected, and the great complaint brought against it by the latter have continued in full force. Luther ever assails it as the "carnificina animarum," "the rack of consciences," which were harassed and tortured by it beyond endurance, in exact proportion to their sensibility and strictness-while men imagined that there could be no forgiveness of sins which were not specifically confessed, and

1 Sleid. 233-238. F. Paul, 78, 79. Seck. iii. 163, 164. Du Pin, vi. 157-159.

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