172

PROCEEDINGS OF THE COUNCIL.

[Book III. provisions derogatory to the power of Rome.32 On the other hand, the Spaniards opposed giving the cup to the laity, and the marriage of priests. Nothing could be more unpalatable at Rome than the last proposition. The celibacy of the clergy was a main prop of the Papal power; and Pius IV. had plainly declared that at the head of a priesthood who had wives, children, and a country, the Pope would soon be reduced to a mere Bishop of Rome.

The arrival of the Cardinal of Lorraine at Trent, in November 1562, accompanied by a score of bishops, and a dozen doctors of the Sorbonne, occasioned the Pope great alarm. The news, however, of the assassination of his brother, and then of the peace of Amboise, which arrived one after another in the spring of 1563, completely changed the cardinal's views. He now felt that the support of Rome and Spain was indispensable to his tottering House. Philip II. also perceived the necessity of a closer union with the Pope, and he was, besides, displeased at the independence affected by his bishops. Thus the proceedings of the assembly were decided from without by the Pontiffs and the Sovereigns, rather than from within by the debates of the assembled Fathers. Pius IV. had now only to overcome the opposition of the Emperor Ferdinand. Through the diplomatic skill of the legate Morone, Ferdinand was gradually induced to withdraw his opposition, and as the French prelates also relaxed in their demands, the sittings of the Council advanced rapidly to a conclusion. In the last three sessions, several important reforms were carried respecting ordination, the sacrament of marriage, indulgences, purgatory, the worship of saints, as well as regarding the discipline and morals of the clergy. Various shameful abuses were suppressed, and diocesan seminaries were founded, which were destined to breed up a bettereducated and more worthy generation of priests. In these reforms Pius IV. was influenced by his nephew, the pious and austere Cardinal Charles Borromeo; the only occasion, perhaps, on which nepotism has been favourable to piety and virtue. The general character of the reforms admitted, was, however, such as should neither injure the power of the Pope, nor that of the temporal sovereigns. So far from the object first contemplated being attained, the limitation, namely, of the Pope's power, his authority was, on the contrary, rather enhanced, since the Council implicitly acknowledged the superiority of the Pope, by praying him to confirm the canons it had made, by giving him the exclusive right to inter

32 The Bishop of Verdun having made a stirring speech against the Papal pretensions, the Bishop of Orvieto remarked:

"Gallus cantat." On which Danès, Bishop of Lavour rejoined: "O utinam ad Galli cantum Petrus resipisceret!"

CHAP. V.]

DEATH OF FERDINAND I.

173

pret them, and by imposing on all bishops and beneficiaries the oath of fidelity to the Roman See. It is true that these advantages were gained at the expense of shutting out of the Church half· the Christian world, and renouncing for ever the idea of effecting a union by means of a Council; but, on the other hand, it can hardly be doubted that the decrees of Trent, and the amended state of the Church to which they gave rise, wonderfully contributed to promote the Catholic reaction observable in the latter half of the sixteenth century.

The last sitting of the Council was held December 4th 1563. Its canons were subscribed by 255 prelates, but more than half of these were Italians. The earlier proceedings during the Smalcaldic war, and those under Pius IV., are distinguished by the circumstance that, while the former were doctrinal, the latter were practical. In the first was established the whole system of dogmatic Catholic theology, as still professed; and the doctrine of justification, as then expounded, separated for ever the Roman creed from the Protestant. The second assembly was employed almost exclusively with questions of discipline and practice, and by the canons of reform the hierarchy was organised anew.

The decrees of the Council were almost in every respect contrary to the demands of Ferdinand, who nevertheless accepted them. His claims in favour of the Reformers had been dictated rather by policy than conviction, and even while making them he was taking steps to repress Protestantism in his hereditary dominions. He adhered, nevertheless, to the terms of his capitulation, and faithfully maintained the religious peace of Passau.

Ferdinand I. died not many months after the close of the Council of Trent, July 25th 1564, at the age of sixty-one. By his consort Anne, the daughter of Ladislaus, who died in 1547, he had no fewer than fifteen children, twelve of whom reached maturity; namely, three sons and nine daughters. By a will dated August 10th 1555, and confirmed by the signatures of his sons, he left to the eldest, Maximilian, Austria, Bohemia, and Hungary; to the second, Ferdinand, the Tyrol and exterior provinces; to the third, Charles, Carinthia, Styria, and Carniola: thus imprudently weakening his dominions by dividing them.

Ferdinand had enjoyed a good education, the plan of which was drawn up by Erasmus. He knew enough Greek and Latin to read the classics with facility, and understood the Spanish, German, French, and Italian languages. He patronised literary men, and especially Busbek (Busbequius), his ambassador at Constantinople, who has left an interesting account of the Turks. While the

174

ACCESSION OF MAXIMILIAN II.

[Book III. Spanish branch of the House of Austria was destined to lose part of its dominions through the intolerance and bigotry of Philip II., the wise and moderate policy of Ferdinand I. helped to fix the Austrian branch firmly on the Imperial throne and to render it virtually hereditary. The chief blots on the character of this sovereign are, the extinction of the liberties of Bohemia, and the resorting, like the rest of his House, to assassination, as an instrument of state policy.

Ferdinand I. was in the usual course succeeded on the Imperial throne by the King of the Romans, his son Maximilian II.; whom, a little before his death, he had also caused to be crowned, at Presburg, King of Hungary. Maximilian, who was in his 37th year at the time of his accession, was fortunately still more forbearing in matters of religion than his father, and thus contributed to postpone those civil wars which the acrimony of bigots and zealots was preparing, and which were destined during thirty years to deluge the plains of Germany with blood. Although educated in Spain under the superintendence of Charles V., and in company with his cousin Philip, who was of the same age, yet the characters of the two princes offered a comple contrast. Affable in his manners, mild and tolerant in his disposition, Maximilian had early imbibed a predilection for the Lutheran tenets; a tendency which Ferdinand had thought it necessary to excuse to the Pope by explaining that it was through no fault of his, and that his son had received a sound Catholic education.33 After his accession to the empire, Maximilian, from motives of policy, made a public profession of Catholicism, though he always observed the most liberal toleration. But we must now return, in a fresh chapter, to the affairs of France.

33 See Letter of Ferdinand to Pius IV., and the inclosed instruction to his ambas

sador at Rome, in Le Plat's Monumenta Tridentina, t. iv. p. 621 sq.

CHAP. VI.]

TRIMMING POLICY OF CATHERINE.

175

CHAPTER VI.

CATHERINE DE' MEDICI, who was still under the guidance of L'Hôpital, did not give the decrees of Trent that unqualified approval which had been accorded to them by Ferdinand I. and Philip II. The embassy from Paul IV., before mentioned', did not indeed meet with an absolute repulse. The French bishops were authorised to execute in their dioceses such canons as were not contrary to the laws of the land; but, on the plea of the difficult and dangerous situation of the kingdom, the publication of the decrees was indefinitely postponed. Catherine, however, was not sincere in the moderation which it suited her present policy to display. It was her design to make Catholicism gradually predominant, and to overthrow the oligarchy, which, fortifying itself by the religious troubles, had again established itself around the throne. The national genius favoured her plans. The severity of the Calvinistic discipline, however it might serve the party views of the nobles, was equally repugnant to French manners and French laws. The execution at Orleans, according to the rigorous code of Calvin, of two fashionable persons for adultery, had disgusted the court, and the Hugonot preachers, instead of the monks, became in turn the objects of well-bred ridicule. Nothing could be more opposed than such rigour, we will not say to the morals, but to the policy, of Catherine, of which gallantry was one of the chief instru

She now employed it to enchain Condé, as she had before done with Antony: the prince's wife, of a feeble constitution, is said to have died of grief at her husband's infidelities. After this event, the Cardinal of Lorraine offered Condé the hand of Mary Stuart.

The years 1564 and 1565 produced few events of importance in France, and were chiefly occupied by Catherine in making a tour of the kingdom with her son Charles IX. After the surrender of Havre, the war between France and England had been confined to

1 Above, p. 168.

In 1564 it was arranged in France that the year should commence on the 1st of January, instead of at Easter. The Pascal year had occasioned great incon- .

venience, and has been the source of many chronological errors in historians in spite of the Art de vérifier les Dates of the Benedictines.

176

CATHERINE AND ALVA AT BAYONNE.

[BOOK III. piracies, and was finally terminated by a treaty of peace, signed April 11th 1564, in which Queen Elizabeth contented herself with 120,000 crowns for Calais, instead of the 500,000 stipulated by the treaty of 1559.3 The year was distinguished by the deaths of what may be termed two European potentates, that of Calvin at Geneva (May 24th), and that of the Emperor Ferdinand I. already mentioned.

The court had set out on their tour in March, proceeding first to the northern provinces. At Troies was signed the treaty with England just mentioned; at Bar-le-Duc important negotiations were entered into with some of the German princes. Burgundy, Dauphiné, Provence were successively visited, and the winter was spent in Languedoc. Throughout the journey, Catherine endeavoured to ingratiate herself with the Catholics. Before her departure for Fontainebleau she had signified her wish to meet her daughter, the Queen of Spain, when she should approach the Pyrenees; and, under this pretext, she had endeavoured to arrange an interview with Philip II., whom, as well as the Pope, she was anxious to satisfy on the subject of ber temporising policy. Philip, however did not think fit to keep the appointment. He was at that time fully occupied with the affairs of his own dominions, the insurrectionary agitation among the Moriscoes of Spain, the memorable siege of Malta by the Turks, and the commencement of the revolt in the Netherlands; but he sent his consort and the Duke of Alva, who met Catherine on the Bidassoa, June 14th 1565. Hence the Queen-mother conducted them to Bayonne, where three weeks were spent in festivities.

This celebrated interview has been the subject of much discussion. According to some historians of no mean authority an extensive conspiracy against Protestantism was here entered into, and that atrocious massacre of St. Bartholomew arranged which seven years after threw an eternal blot on the annals of France.* This much only is certain, that Alva, according to his favourite policy, which he subsequently practised in the Netherlands, exhorted Catherine to get rid of some five or six of the chief leaders

3 Leonard, Traités de Paix, t. ii. p. 318. Currency was first given to this view by Adriani, in the Istoria di suoi Tempi lib. xviii. p. 740, (ed. 1583). Although unsupported by authority, it was adopted by De Thou on the supposition that Adriani might have derived it from the papers of the Grand-Duke Cosmo de' Medici, and from that period it has been commonly accepted by historical writers.

See

Ranke, Französische Gesch. B. i. S. 270. What actually passed at the conference will be found in Alva's Letters to Philip II. from June 15th to July 4th 1565, published in the Papiers d'Etat du Cardinal Granvelle, t. ix. p. 281 sqq. Von Raumer has examined the subject at great length, Gesch. Europas, B. i. S. 112 ff.