Experience had furnished just grounds for this suspicion. Two nuncios were appointed to visit the numerous princes and states of Germany-Zechariah Delphino and James Commendon. Having waited on the emperor, (January, 1561,) they proceeded to Naumburg, where a meeting of the Protestant states was to be held. There were assembled on that occasion the elector of Saxony, the elector Palatine, the dukes of Naumburg and Wittemburg, the marquis of Baden, and other princes, together with several ambassadors. The nuncios were admitted to a public audience, delivered the pope's letters, and addressed the assembly, strongly urging the reception of the council. But the states refused to do so unless the former decrees were re-examined, and the right of suffrage granted to the Protestant divines; conditions which they had good reason to believe would not be granted at Rome. : On leaving Naumburg, the nuncios separated; Commendon being appointed to Upper, Delphino to Lower Germany. The former visited the elector of Brandenburg, the dukes of Brunswick and Cleves, the archbishop of Cologne, and many other princes and prelates his success was various, some receiving, some rejecting the council. Then he traversed Belgium, publishing the council everywhere. From Saxony he would have crossed over to Denmark, but the king of that country, a zealous friend of the reformation, refused admittance to any agent of the pope. Commendon spent the whole year in attending to the duties of his mission, and did not return to Rome till March, 1562. Delphino met with little encouragement in Lower Germany. The free cities, Strasburg, Nuremburg, Frankfort, Augsburg, and others, refused submission to any council called by the pope. Even Roman Catholic prelates were very lukewarm and indifferent. They promised unqualified obedience, it is true; but some pleaded their age, others their bad state of health, and few would engage to leave their dioceses to attend the council. About the same time a nuncio was sent to Switzerland, where nine cantons accepted the papal bull; the remaining five refused. "Thus," observes Pallavicini, "there was much seed sown, but a small harvest; nevertheless," he adds, "this was not the fault of the sower, but of the soil." While the nuncios were thus engaged, the pope's attention was fully occupied in making the necessary preparations for the opening of the council. Hercules Gonzaga, cardinal of Mantua, Stanislaus Osius, bishop of Varmia, and cardinals Seripand and Simonetta were appointed legates. Full power was given them to preside, direct, and manage, in the name and on the behalf of the pontiff; and authority also to grant indulgences to all who should attend their entry into Trent, and offer prayers for the success of the council. Massarelli was re-appointed secretary. * The legates Gonzaga and Seripand entered Trent April 16, 1561, but they found only nine prelates there. It would have been manifestly ridiculous to open the council with so small a number, and several circumstances combined to delay that event till nearly twelve months beyond the time first fixed. Towards the latter end of the year, the pope made final arrangements for the re-commencement of * Pallav. ut sup. c. 11. Le Plat, iv. 697. proceedings. Determined to prevent, if possible, any ill consequences to the Roman see, he furnished the legates with a bull, giving them power to transfer the council to any other place, should circumstances render such a measure desirable. Another legate was appointed, cardinal Altemps, the pope's nephew; and a congregation of cardinals was established, as on former occasions, to superintend and manage the affairs of the council. Prayer and fasting were again decreed, and ample indulgences promised to those who should observe the decree the pope himself went in procession, bareheaded and on foot, attended by his court, to celebrate high mass for the success of the undertaking. And having been informed that some of the prelates who had already arrived were disaffected, that is, inclined to oppose his arbitrary measures, he collected together a number of Italian bishops, appointed them salaries of twenty-five crowns a month, and upwards, and sent them immediately to Trent, to support and defend his interests by their votes. CHAPTER IX. The Council re-opened-Seventeenth Session-Discussion on the prohibition of Books-Eighteenth Session-Fierce Disputes on Ecclesiastical Residence- -Singular Division on the subject-Means used by the Pope to secure a Majority-Nineteenth Session-Arrival of the French Ambassadors-Opposition experienced by the reforming Party-Twentieth Session-Discussions on Communion in one Kind-Endeavours of the Ambassadors to procure the concession of the Cup to the Laity-Twenty-first Session-Decree on Communion in one Kind. ON Sunday, January 18, the first session under pope Pius IV., or the seventeenth from the commencement, was held. After mass and a sermon, the bull of convocation was read. Four other bulls or briefs were also produced: the first contained the pope's instructions to the legates; in the second and third he gave them authority to grant licences to the prelates and divines to read heretical books, and to receive privately into communion with the Romish church any persons who might abjure their heresies; by the fourth he regulated the order of precedence among the fathers, some childish disputes having already risen among them on that account. The decree was then read by the secretary, setting forth that the council was then assembled to discuss such measures as the legates and presidents should propose, and which might be adapted to alleviate the calamities of the times settle religious controversies, restrain deceitful tongues, correct depraved manners, and promote the true peace of the church. On the suffrages being collected, the archbishop of Granada and three other Spanish prelates recorded their dissent from the clause in which the legates had artfully secured to themselves the sole right of proposing the subjects of debate, and thus made themselves absolute masters of the assembly. But they constituted a very small minority, for there were present one hundred and six bishops, chiefly Italians, four abbots, and four generals of orders, besides the duke of Mantua and the legates. A new subject was introduced to the fathers after the session. It was the question of prohibited books. The revival of literature, and the invention of the art of printing, had effected a wonderful change in society; books were multiplied with unexampled rapidity, and were eagerly read. A powerful stimulus was operating on the human mind, and with a force so great, that no subject, sacred or secular, was left untouched; and, in a short time, there were as many writers as formerly there had been readers. This altered state of things was viewed by the Roman pontiffs with deep and melancholy interest. They saw that a mighty engine of attack was brought to bear on the system of iniquity, and that it would work with tremendous effect. The darkness and secrecy in which their nefarious deeds had been perpetrated, would conceal them no longer. The tide of knowledge was setting in with irresistible force; no human power could stop it. What was to be done? One method only seemed feasible. If the press could not be destroyed, it might possibly be controlled. This policy was adopted by the fifth council of Lateran, (A.D. 1515), which |