have recourse to the most effectual expedient for securing their own safety, by courting the protection of the kings of France and England, or by joining in alliance with the protestant cantons of Switzerland, from whom they might expect such powerful and present assistance as their situation demanded. The elector, on the other hand, with the most upright intentions of any prince in that age, and with talents which might have qualified him abundantly for the administration of government in any tranquil period, was possessed with such superstitious veneration for all the parts of the Lutheran system, such bigoted attachment to all its tenets, as made him averse to an union with those who differed from him in any article of faith, and rendered him very incapable of undertaking its defence in times of difficulty and danger. He seemed to think, that the concerns of religion were to be regulated by principles and maxims totally different from those which apply to the common affairs of life; and, being swayed too much by the opinions of Luther, who was not only a stranger to the rules of political conduct, but despised them; he often discovered an uncomplying spirit, that proved of the greatest detriment to the cause which he wished to support. Influenced, on this occasion, by the severe and rigid notions of that reformer, he refused to enter into any confederacy with Francis, because he was a persecutor of the truth; or to solicit the friendship of Henry, because he was no less impious and profane than the pope himself; or even to join in alliance with the Swiss, because they differed from the Germans in several essential articles of faith. This dissension, about a point of such consequence, produced its natural effects. Each secretly censured and re A. D. 1546. VIII. CHAP. proached the other. The landgrave considered the elector as fetterd by narrow prejudices, unworthy of a prince called to act a chief part in a scene of such importance. The elector suspected the landgrave of loose principles and ambitious views, which corresponded ill with the sacred cause wherein they were engaged. But, though the elector's scruples prevented their timely application for foreign aid; and the jealousy or discontent of the other princes defeated a proposal for renewing their original confederacy, the term during which it was to continue in force being on the point of expiring; yet the sense of their common danger induced them to agree with regard to other points, particularly that they would never acknowledge the assembly at Trent as a lawful council, nor suffer the archbishop of Cologne to be oppressed on account of the steps which he had taken towards the reformation of his diocese.1 Their nego tiations with the "The landgrave, about this time, desirous of penetrating to the bottom of the emperor's Emperor. intentions, wrote to Granvelle, whom he knew to be thoroughly acquainted with all his master's schemes, informing him of the several particulars which raised the suspicions of the protestants, and begging an explicit declaration of what they had to fear or to hope. Granvelle, in return, assured them, that the intelligence which they had received of the emperor's military preparations was exaggerated, and all their suspicions destitute of foundation; that, though, in order to guard his frontiers against any insult of the French or English, he had commanded a small body of men to be raised 1 Seck. iii. 566, 570, 613. Sleid. 355. in the Low-Countries, he was as solicitous as ever to maintain tranquillity in Germany.1 A. D. 1546. at Ratis "But the emperor's actions did not corres- Another pond with these professions of his minister: Conference for, instead of appointing men of known mode- bon. ration and pacific temper to appear in defence of the catholic doctrines at the conference which had been agreed on, he made choice of fierce bigots, attached to their own system with a blind obstinacy, that rendered all hope of a reconcilement desperate. Malvenda, a Spanish divine, who took upon him the conduct of the debate on the part of the catholics, managed it with all the subtle dexterity of a scholastic metaphysician, more studious to perplex his adversaries than to convince them, and more intent on palliating error than on discovering truth. The protestants, filled with indignation, as well at his sophistry as at some regulations which the emperor endeavoured to impose on the disputants, broke off the conference abruptly, being now fully convinced that, in all his late measures, the emperor could have no other view than to amuse them, and to gain time for ripening his own schemes.2 * Emperor the Pro "The emperor, however, pursued the plan The of dissimulation with which he had set out, endeavours employing every art to amuse the protestants, to amuse and to quiet their fears and jealousies. For and deceive this purpose he contrived to have an interview testants. with the landgrave of Hesse, the most active of all the confederates, and the most suspicious of his designs. To him he made such warm March 28. professions of his concern for the happiness of Germany, and of his aversion to all violent 1 Sleid. 356. * Ib. 358, 359. Seck. iii. 620. CHAP Proceedings of the Council. measures; he denied, in such express terms, his having entered into any league, or having begun any military preparations which should give any just cause of alarm to the protestants, as seem to have dispelled all the landgrave's doubts and apprehensions, and sent him away fully satisfied of his pacific intentions. This artifice was of great advantage, and effectually answered the purpose for which it was employed. The landgrave upon his leaving Spires, where he had been admitted to this interview, went to Worms, where the Smalkaldic confederates were assembled, and gave them such a flattering representation of the emperor's favourable disposition towards them, that they, who were too apt, as well from the temper of the German nation, as from the genius of all great associations or bodies of men, to be slow, and dilatory, and undecisive in their deliberations, thought there was no necessity of taking any immediate measures against danger, which appeared to be distant or imaginary.1 "Such events, however, soon occurred, as staggered the credit which the protestants had given to the emperor's declarations. The council of Trent, though still composed of a small number of Italian and Spanish prelates, without a single deputy from many of the kingdoms which it assumed a right of binding by its decrees, being ashamed of its long inactivity, proceeded now to settle articles of the greatest importance. Having begun with examining the first and chief point in controversy between the church of Rome and the reformers, concerning the rule which should be held as supreme and decisive in matters of faith, the council, by 'Sleid. 367, 373. A. D. 1546. its infallible authority, determined, that the books, to which the designation of apocryphal has been given, are of equal authority with April 8. those which were received by the Jews and primitive Christians into the sacred canon; that the traditions handed down from the apostolic age, and preserved in the church, are entitled to as much regard as the doctrines and precepts which the inspired authors have committed to writing; that the Latin translation of the scriptures, made or revised by St. Jerome, and known by the name of the Vulgate translation, should be read in churches, and appealed to in the schools as authentic and canonical. Against all who disclaimed the truth of these tenets, anathemas were denounced in the name and by the authority of the Holy Ghost. The decision of these points, which undermined the main foundation of the Lutheran system, was a plain warning to the protestants what judgment they might expect, when the council should have leisure to take into consideration the particular and subordinate articles of their creed.1 "This discovery of the council's readiness to condemn the opinions of the protestants was soon followed by a striking instance of the pope's resolution to punish such as embraced them "-in the deprivation and excommunication of the archbishop of Cologne. "The countenance which he had given to the Lutheran heresy was the only crime imputed to that prelate, as well as the only reason assigned to justify the extraordinary severity of this decree. The protestants could hardly believe that Paul, how zealous soever he might be to defend the established system, or to humble those who 1 F. Paul, 141-152. Pallav. 206. |