teeing perfect liberty, notwithstanding any statutes, decrees, laws, canons, or decisions of councils, and especially of the council of Constance, the infamous enactment of that assembly respecting the preservation of faith with heretics was declared to be superseded" for that time," an expression not obscurely intimating that the church of Rome still tenaciously clings to the sentiment contained in that abominable decree.

It seems that the fathers occupied the interval of leisure they now enjoyed, partly in hearing sermons and attending the devotional solemnities of the church, and partly in intrigue. What sort of discourses were usually delivered before the prelates we have not the means of ascertaining; but it will be confessed that there was little to promote conciliation and charity in the sermon preached by Ambrose Pelargo. His subject was the parable of the tares. The tares he understood to signify the heretics; and he taught, in open contradiction to his text, that they should be rooted up, if it could be done without injury to the wheat. When complaints were made, and the preacher was interrogated respecting his assertions, he boldly vindicated himself. It was his decided opinion, he said, that heretics ought to be exterminated, by fire, by sword, by the halter, or in any other way in which their destruction might be safely accomplished: but he had taken care to employ only general terms, not mentioning the Protestants by name, and he had said nothing in contravention of the safe-conduct recently granted by the council. This impudent excuse was accepted, and the fellow went free.* Doubtless

*Sleidan, p. 392.

the monk's sermon expressed the feelings of a large proportion of the fathers at Trent. But it augured ill for reconciliation or union that such an outrage should be committed with impunity. And small hopes of reform could be indulged, when an office in the gift of the pope was put up for sale by public auction, in the city of Rome; and that, too, while a general council was sitting, avowedly for the purpose of retrieving the lost honour of the church, by the removal of its manifold corruptions and abuses.*

Six Protestant divines arrived at Trent in the month of March; four from Wirtemburg, (Brentius was one of them,) and two from Strasburg. Notwithstanding the acknowledged deficiency of the safe-conduct, they had ventured to the council to explain and defend their confession of faith, should the fathers give them opportunity. Various ineffectual endeavours were made by the Imperial ambassadors to procure a hearing for them, but some excuse for delay was always at hand. It had been already determined that they should not be heard ; difficulty after difficulty was placed in their way; and, at length, it was so evident that there existed no sincere desire to effect an amicable adjustment of the differences between them, that the divines resolved to return home. The Protestant ambassadors had already departed, in consequence of the serious aspect

* Vargas, p. 531. Manners and morals were at a low ebb at Trent. The Imperial ambassador confesses having indulged too freely with the bottle; and the Spanish bishops had taken the precaution to secure good cooks: unfortunately, they had forgotten to provide themselves with a physician, and they suffered for their neglect. Ibid. p. 509, 547.

of political affairs, and the rumours of approaching war.

*

Charles v. had aimed a deadly blow at the civil and religious liberties of Germany. For many years he had prosecuted his favourite scheme of becoming uncontrolled despot of that country. But the day of retribution was now come.

An event

for which he was totally unprovided dissipated all his plans, and dashed to the ground the edifice on which he had spent so much time and treasure and blood, just when he expected to lay the last stone, and enjoy the reward of his toils. By detaching Maurice of Saxony from the Protestant cause, he had ensured his former success. But when that same individual, perceiving the imminent danger of his country, took up arms against Charles, and declared himself the avenger of the wrongs of Germany, he who had so often valued himself on his skill in the arts of worldly policy was foiled and overreached in the sight of all the world, and "the wise was taken in his own craftiness."

As almost every day brought fresh intelligence of Maurice's success, and his forces were known to be moving in the direction of Trent, the necessity of suspending the proceedings of the council was generally confessed. At a congregation of cardinals it was unanimously decreed, that the council should be suspended for two years. On the 28th of April, the sixteenth session was held, but with much less pomp than ordinary. No sermon was preached. Instead of the gospel for the day, the following passage from the gospel of John was chanted, "Yet a little while, and ye shall see me,"

* Sleidan, p. 395. Le Plat, iv. p. 542.

etc.

The decree was then read, declaring the council to be suspended for two years, with this proviso, that whenever peace should be restored, whether before or after the termination of that period, the suspension should be considered at an end.

Immediately after this session the prelates hastened to leave Trent, fearful lest the German forces, already at Inspruck, should proceed further. Crescentio, though very ill, was removed to Verona, where he died, May 7th, three days after his arrival.

CHAPTER VIII.

Pretended Reform at Rome-Death of Julius III.-Marcellus II.-Paul IV.-His avowed concern for Reform-His views of the Council-Pius IV.-Determination to resume the Council-Measures adopted by the Pope to induce the States of Europe to submit to it.

It was decreed that the council should be suspended for two years. Ten years, however, elapsed before it was re-assembled.

When the pope saw that he was delivered from the council, he affected to think that the best means of preventing the disquietude which the existence of such an assembly always occasioned in the minds of the Roman pontiffs, would be to set about ecclesiastical reform. With this view he appointed a committee of cardinals and prelates, to whom this important affair was entrusted. But the hindrances and objections that arose in the papal court were so great, and the opposition of interested persons so powerful, that this project shared the fate of its predecessors, and was almost entirely unproductive of good.

At the expiration of the term for which the council was suspended, a meeting of the consistory was held, and the propriety of summoning that assembly again was debated. The majority were of opinion that a dormant evil should not be roused; and that since both princes and people seemed to have forgotten the council, the best policy would be

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