3-20 



ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. 



remained submissive to the pope. The numbers on 

 *"7' both sides were great; the interests jarring, yet weighty ; 

 ""' but the strength of argument, and the power of elo- 

 quence and of tmtli, belonged chiefly to t!u> Protestants. 

 They rejoiced in the exercise of their faculties, emanci- 

 pated and enlarged ; thcv published their opinions, and 

 challenged investigation. True religion is ever friend- 

 ly to inquiry ; it is error alone that hastens to hide itself 

 in darkness. Every new discovery which was made 

 in the arts, or in the sciences, and"^ every copy of the 

 holy scriptures that was printed, conveyed additional 

 light to the understanding, anil gave additional vigour 

 to the champions of reformation. 



Council of In this situation of affairs, and when religious dis- 

 i :CM. putes were about to be settled by an appeal to anus, 

 the council of Trent was unexpectedly convoked. It 

 was summoned by the authority of the pope, and sat 

 down, at the place from which it takes its name, in the 

 year 1545. Strange as it may appear, the Catholics 

 were now the most forward in demanding a general 

 council; and those oecumenical assemblies, which in tin- 

 preceding ages were the terror and the abhorrence of the 

 popes, were at length convoked, if not with greater alac- 

 rity, at least with (ewer objections. The weakness of 

 human nature had been duly estimated. The court of 

 Koine, always intriguing in its character, and rendered 

 dextrous by long pr.ictice in affairs, perceived that ge- 

 neral councils might be influenced and managed as well 

 us other bodies of men. It was easy to throw difficul- 

 ties in the way, and make it disagreeable or inconve- 

 nient for the Protestant leaders to attend ; some of the 

 members might be flattered into acquiescence, and others 

 overawed. Bribes were to betrieu in the first instance, 

 and if these were found to be unavailing, threatenings 

 might be employed. 



Death and But the cause of Protestantism, identified as we must 

 rof conceive it to be with that of true religion, suffered 

 about this time in a very different way. Luther, the 

 great father of the Reformation, died at Eisleben in Sax- 

 ony, on the 18th of February 1546. His health had 

 for some time been declining, and his constitution, na- 

 turally strong, was exhausted with incessant study, and 

 that agitation of mind to which controversy almost ne- 

 cessarily gives rise. To a zealous regard for truth, he 

 added an apostolical intrepidity in its defence. His 

 manners were pure, perhaps even austere ; his diet was 

 plain ; his whole mode of living characterized by a pri- 

 mitive simplicity. He knew nothing, and wished to 

 know nothing, of the elegancies which belong to culti- 

 vated society : he was satisfied with the emoluments of 

 his professorship, and left the preferments and honours 

 of the church entirely to his disciples. Upright in his 

 intentions and fair and direct in all his conduct, no 

 man could justly charge him with duplicity; he dis- 

 dained the crooked artifices of little minds ; but his y.eal 

 w.is often ixcessive, his temper inflexible and haughty, 

 and his language, especially in controversy, contemp- 

 tuous and coarse. ^ et there was, in this coarseness, a 

 bav'Jaric strength ; and such was the power of his op- 

 position, that it was not safe for any one who valued 

 himself ujim his literary reputation, to awuken him in- 

 to rage. IJ is piety was very great and sincere ; mid, in 

 his last moments, he discoursed to his friends of the 

 hiess of heaven, with a fervour and delight whiih 

 could result from nothing but a well-grounded hope of 

 ii>- mortality. He left a character to be imitated almost 

 in < erv thin;^ but the exces- of his zeal : nor will the 

 liiend of genuine ('hrisV.Mnly. of literature, or of liber- 

 ty, ever mention his name, but with the gratitude and 



1 



Luther. 



re\ erence which are due to the benefactors of man- Ecclcsimii- 

 kind. cmin 



\\ e return, however, to the narrative of events. When ^" ""V'' 

 the council met, in obedience to the papal mandate, it Proceedings 

 was found to consist almost entirely of the Italian and in thi-rnun- 

 Spanish prelates. In the first section, then- \\nv pn - "' ol Trcm - 

 sent only the Pope's legates, who presided, four arch- 

 bishops, and twenty-two bishops: yet this inconsider- 

 able number immediately declared themselves to be a 

 general council, and proceeded to determine controver- 

 sies, and to enact laws for the benefit of the church. 

 The subsequent sittings were better attended ; but still 

 the Italian and Spanish clergy formed by far the great- 

 er part ; and, even of these, some who were refractory, 

 and who spoke of abuses and reformations, were awed 

 into silence by the overbearing authority of the pupal 

 legates. The Protestant leaders had long ago declined 

 the jurisdiction of the council : they would not allow it 

 to be a synod properly convoked ; and far less would 

 they acknowledge it as an oecumenical assembly of the 

 Christian church. Everything, of course, was trans- 

 acted according to the despotic w ill of the holy see. 

 The case of St Peter, whom the Protestants have justly 

 described as the most blundering of all the ajxi-tles, 

 was introduced, and argued at large. In the eye of Ca- 

 tholic interpretation, St Peter was the shepherd, and 

 the Christian world were the sheep ; " silly animals," 

 as Lainez, the general of the Jesuits, expressed it, 

 " which have no part or choice whatever in conducting 

 themselves." St Cyprian, too, (observed the general), 

 compares the ajjostolic see to the root, the head, the 

 fountain, the sun ; shewing, by these comparisons, that 

 the supreme jurisdiction resides in her alone ; and that 

 it exists in others only by derivation and participation. 

 And this is the meaning (continued he) of the ancient 

 language, when it is said, that St Peter and the Pope 

 possess the plenitude of power, while others do no- 

 thing more than participate in the cure. To the argu- 

 ments of the general, no effectual reply was made. 1 he 

 authority of the Pope was confirmed in all its extent 

 and latitude. The French ambassador alone appears 

 to have spoken in favour of the Protestants, declaring 

 that, so far from being the cause of the troubles whiclr 

 existed in France, they were the injured party. He 

 plainly stated, that abuses had crept into the church ; 

 that reformations were necessary ; and that his most 

 Christian majesty, and the whole French people, ex- 

 pected nothing less than certain very considerable 

 changes. And he requested, in the name of his mas- 

 ter, that the council should not satisfy themselves with 

 enacting laws, but that the Pope and the clergy should 

 make use of their power, in order to carry them into 

 execution. " If the Fathers," said he, " should ask, 

 why France is not in peace ? no other answer can be 

 given, than that which Jehu gave to Joram of old, 

 ll'/ial pe>ice (uantkrrr fir) so long as the nhoredomsof 

 thy mother Jeze/iel and her witchcrafts an .v./ many *" 



But if the council were unwilling to reform abuses, ^^ f^^. 

 or to acknowledge their existence, they were sufficient- ^ cnacts 

 ly attentive to the security of their own rights and pri- laws for the 

 vileges. They enacted many statutes, the tendency of inli !>- 

 which was. to secure the ecclesiastical orders from all '![ L " c , c ." f '' 

 interference on the part of the civil powers. By the c 

 spirit, and even by the letter of these statutes, no cler- 

 gyman could be tried in any secular court. He was 

 responsible, indeed, in matters of civil delinquency ; 

 but, with the exception of a few cases, peculiarly ag- 

 :;r \.-ited, he was responsible only to the judicatories of 

 the church. And, even in the exccpted ca-cs. it 



