CHAP. III.]

HE SEIZES PIACENZA.

67

gesses; for the members entitled to be present feared that they should be called to a severe account if they absented themselves. After some trouble, especially with the deputies of cities, the Emperor brought the three colleges to a unanimous decision on the subject of the Council—or rather he surprised their consent by assuming it, so that he could tell the Pope that the Electors, the spiritual and temporal princes, and the cities, had submitted themselves to the synod "at Trent." In this resolution the stress laid upon the designation of the place contained, in fact, a protest against the removal of the Council. There still remained, however, the more difficult task of persuading the Pope to restore the Council to that city; and the difficulty was increased by an occurrence which tended still further to widen the breach between the Emperor and the Pope.

Paul's son, Peter Louis Farnese, Duke of Parma and Piacenza, was a tyrant of the old Italian stamp; in lust and cruelty a Cæsar Borgia in miniature. The hatred of his subjects produced a not unusual catastrophe: Farnese was assassinated by a band of conspirators, at the head of whom was Count Agostino Landi. Ferrante Gonzaga, governor of Milan, appears to have been acquainted with the plot; nay, there are even strong suspicions that it had received the sanction of the Emperor himself.3 However this may be, Gonzaga occupied Piacenza with his troops, and Charles continued to hold possession of it, on the ground that he had never granted investiture to the murdered duke. The rage of the Pope at the death of his son and the seizure of his domains knew no bounds. He was ready to call the Turks, nay, hell itself, to his assistance. Among other things he contemplated a league with France, with the view of making the Duke of Guise King of Naples. On the 20th of September he addressed an angry epistle to the Emperor, demanding that the assassin should be punished, and that the town should be restored to Ottavio Farnese, the son of the murdered duke, and son-in-law of the Emperor. To which demand the Emperor returned an evasive answer.

These events rendered the breach as to the Council irreparable. The Pope could not, indeed, out of respect to public opinion, flatly refuse the proposals respecting the return of the Council, founded on the resolution of the Diet, which were laid before him in November by Madrucci, Cardinal of Trent; but he contrived that his .

Ranke, Deutsche Gesch. B. v. S. 11. In another passage Ranke observes: "Es wird schwerlich an Tag kommen, ob er zu der Ermordung Pier Luigis seine Einstimmung gegeben hat oder nicht."-Ibid.

p. 109. Sismondi does not hesitate to describe the murder as publiquement autorisé par le premier monarque de la Chrétienté."-Hist. des Français, t. xii. p. 139. Raynaldus, t. xiv. p. 270.

68

THE INTERIM.

[BOOK III.

answer should be equivalent to a refusal. He replied that he must consult the prelates assembled at Bologna, the very persons against whom the Emperor protested. These declared that the first step must be the reunion with themselves of the prelates who had remained behind at Trent. They then wished to know whether the German nation would recognise and observe the decrees already made at Trent; whether the Emperor did not mean to alter the form hitherto observed; and whether a majority of the Council might not definitively decide respecting either its removal or its termination. The Imperial plenipotentiary perceived from this answer that all hope of an accommodation was at an end, and immediately left Rome. Charles despatched two Spaniards, the licentiate Vargas and Doctor Velasco, to Bologna, who on the 16th January 1548, made a solemn protest against the translation of the Council, and all that it had subsequently done, as null and void; at the same time declaring that the Emperor must now assume the care of the Church, which had been deserted by the Pope. The Legate del Monte replied, that he should answer only to God for what he had done, and could not suffer the temporal power to arrogate the direction of a council. In short, it was a declaration of spiritual war.

It being now evident that no arrangement could be effected with the Pope, the Emperor determined upon a scheme for the settlement by his own authority of the religious differences which agitated Germany. With this view he commissioned three divines, Michael Helding, Suffragan Bishop of Mentz, Julius Pflug, Bishop of Naumburg, and John Agricola, court preacher of Joachim II., Elector of Brandenburg, to draw up some articles which were to be observed till the questions in dispute should be settled by a properly constituted and generally acknowledged council. The first of these divines represented the old Catholic party; the second its more liberal, or Erasmian section; while Agricola, though he had sat at Luther's table, was the exponent of the peculiar notions of his sovereign. From their labour was expected a code that should satisfy all parties; but, as commonly happens in such compromises, they succeeded in pleasing none. They drew up a formula consisting of twenty-six Articles, which, as it was intended only to serve a temporary purpose, obtained the name of the INTERIM. Most of the articles were in favour of the Roman Catholics, the only concessions of any importance to the Protestant views being the celebration of the Lord's Supper in both kinds, and permission for the married clergy to retain their wives.

The College of Princes adopted the opinion of the spiritual

CHAP. III.]

OPPOSED BY THE ELECTOR MAURICE.

69

69

Electors: that church property should be restored; that a dispensation should be necessary for the marriage of priests and for receiving the cup in the Lord's Supper; above all, that the formula should not affect those who had remained in the old religion, but be applicable solely to the Protestants. The Emperor found himself obliged to accept this last condition. On the afternoon of the 15th of May 1548, the Colleges of the States were summoned to the Imperial apartments, where the Emperor and King Ferdinand sat enthroned. Although many wished that the subject should be fully discussed, the Archbishop of Mentz stood up after the reading of the Interim, and without any authority from his brother Electors, or from the assembly, thanked the Emperor for his unwearied endeavours to restore peace to the Church; and in the name of the Diet signified their approbation of the system proposed. Although the assembly was struck with astonishment at the impudence and presumption of the orator, yet nobody had the courage to contradict him; and the Emperor accepted the declaration of the archbishop as a full and constitutional ratification of the instrument: copies of which were now first distributed to the States, so that there was no opportunity for discussion.

One of the first to oppose the Interim was the new Elector Maurice, whom Charles had solemnly invested with the Saxon electorate on the 24th of February, his birthday. The investiture was conducted with all the ancient ceremonies: a stage, with a throne for the Emperor, was erected in the Wine Market; the other six Electors in their robes of state assisted at the solemnity; while John Frederick, the ex-Elector, looked on from the window of his lodgings with an undisturbed and even cheerful countenance. On the day after the publication of the Interim, Maurice handed to the Emperor a written protest against it. He remarked at the same time that he had been hindered from expressing his opinion; complained of the hasty and untimely speech of the Elector of Mentz; reminded Charles of the promises made to himself at Ratisbon; and expressed his dissatisfaction that the Protestants alone were to be subjected to the new formula. Charles affected surprise at the Elector's separating himself from the other states; but he promised to consider his protest, and two days after Maurice quitted Augsburg. The Elector Palatine and Joachim of Brandenburg accepted the Interim; Ulrich of Würtemberg also caused it to be published, and enjoined his subjects to obey it. There were, however, other malcontents besides Maurice. The Margrave John of Cüstrin remonstrated against it; and the deputies of several of he imperial cities alleged that they must await the instructions of

70

JOHN FREDERICK REJECTS THE INTERIM.

[BOOK III. their constituents. With the cities, however, Charles adopted a more peremptory tone; treating with each separately, and beginning with Augsburg, the municipal councils of which were brought by the threats of Granvella to accept the Interim. The preachers were compelled to put on the vestments appointed in that formula; and it was ordered that a mass should be read every Sunday in the evangelical churches. Granvella proceeded in like manner with the deputies of the other cities, and he even went so far as to threaten some of the more obstinate with the flames.5

With the steadfast John Frederick the Imperial minister found more difficulty. Charles was desirous of obtaining the adherence of the deposed Elector, both for the sake of his influential example and on account of what possessions still remained in his family; and with this view Granvella, with his son the Bishop of Arras, and the Chancellor Seld were deputed to him. John Frederick kept the ambassadors to dinner; after which he caused his chancellor Minckwitz to read to them a strong protest against the Interim, and concluded by desiring them to hand it to the Emperor. For this act of honest contumacy a paltry vengeance was taken. The ex-Elector's servants were disarmed; his steward and cook were directed not to prepare any meat dinners on fast days; and what annoyed him more than all this, he was deprived of his courtpreacher and of his books; among which were a splendidly illuminated Bible, and the works of Luther, in whose writings he found his chief solace, and which as he expressed himself, "went through his bones and marrow." He consoled himself, however, with the reflection that they could not be torn from his memory and heart. The Landgrave Philip, whose conduct forms a strong contrast to that of John Frederick, experienced even worse treatment. He wrote a very submissive letter to the Emperor from Donauwerth, June 23rd, in which, although he expressed his opinion that all the contents of the Interim could not be established from Scripture, he promised obedience and implored the Emperor's mercy. But he was only treated with still greater harshness and contempt.

As the Emperor had been obliged to exempt the Roman Catholics from the operation of the Interim, he carried out the wishes he had long entertained for the amendment of the Church by a separate edict of reformation, which was read June 14th, and published after the close of the Diet. It contained many excellent rules respecting the election of the clergy, their preaching, their administration of the sacraments and ceremonies, their discipline

• Menzel, Neuere Gesch. der Deutschen, B. ii. S. 136.

CHAP. III.] BURGUNDY INCORPORATED IN THE EMPIRE.

71

and morals. Pluralities were abolished, visitations appointed, the German hierarchy reconstituted, episcopacy restored in Meissen and Thuringia, together with many other regulations of the like description. Never was an ordinance of such a nature drawn up with more wisdom and moderation. Even the advocate of the Roman Curia allows that it contained much that was good and approved of at Rome; but asserts that it was necessarily still-born, because a temporal prince had presumed to interfere in spiritual affairs. 6

Charles also displayed his authority in this Diet by re-establishing the Imperial Chamber, by renewing and amending the Landfriede, or Public Peace, by sumptuary laws and new ordinances of police, and especially by incorporating the seventeen provinces of the Netherlands with the German Empire under the name of the Circle of Burgundy. The States were not consulted respecting this arrangement, with which they ventured not to find fault, although it was regarded with great dislike and suspicion. It was plain indeed, that the whole gain of the measure would belong to the House of Austria, and that the Empire would be called upon to defend the Low Countries against the enemies of that house.7 Charles proceeded still more arbitrarily with several of the imperial cities, by depriving them of their municipal privileges and remodelling their government according to his will.

It was hardly to be expected that the Protestants, who had just thrown off the trammels of the Pope, should quietly submit to the dictation of a temporal prince in matters of conscience. Wherever, indeed, the authority of the Emperor prevailed, he compelled at least an external observance of the Interim, but the discontent was deep and universal. At Nuremberg, the only priest who said mass was obliged to go to church attended by a guard. More than 400 pastors are said to have been expelled from Suabia and the Rhenish provinces for rejecting the Interim'; and although it was forbidden to write against it, under pain of death, no fewer than thirty-seven attacks upon it appeared, including one by Calvin; whose situation, however, did not expose him to much risk of incurring the penalty. 10 The towns of Lower Saxony entered into a league to resist the Interim; but it was Magdeburg and Constance that chiefly distinguished themselves by their opposition. The former, as we have seen, lay already under the ban of the Empire;

• Pallavicini, lib. xi. c. ii. s. 1. The imperial Formula Reformationis is published in Goldasti, Constit. Imperial, t. ii. p. 325 sqq.

Pfeffel, t. ii. p. 166.

Calvini, Epistt. No. 84. Adamus, Vita Melanch. p. 344. 10 Dyer's Life of Calvin, p. 232 sqq.