VII.

CHAP. and inveighed against it with all bitterness, and not without threats what he would do upon it, and said that he would have it broken, and would assist towards it himself, and would require all Catholic Princes to do the like; and when the Emperor's ambassador excused it to him by the strength of the Protestants, and the straits that the Emperor was reduced to, having been in great danger to be himself taken prisoner, and that both the Emperor and all the other Princes in Germany were sworn to observe it; the Pope replied, that as to the oath, he did not only discharge and absolve them from it, but likewise command them that they should not keep it; for the rest, that God did not proceed by human councils and measures, and had suffered the Emperor to fall into that danger as an effect of his anger, because he had not done all that he ought to have done to reduce Germany to its obedience to the Apostolical chair; and if he had behaved himself like a soldier of Christ, without fear or worldly respects, he would have obtained the victory, as the example of former times did enough demonstrate. Those outrages of Paul are very clearly set out and described by Fra Paolo; and, not being in the least contradicted by the Cardinal Palavicini, are by all men concluded to be true, and were of a piece with all the other actions of his pontificate..

Philip II. becomes King of

Philip the Second was now possessed of all the Spanish dominions, and of whatever else had been Spain; and settled by the Emperor his father upon that crown; and shortly after Paul came to the Papacy, the Emperor abdicated the empire to his brother Ferdinand, who had been many years before King of the Romans, and had thereby an unquestionable title to

Ferdinand becomes Emperor.

succeed

VII.

succeed when the empire should be void. The Pope CHAP. refused to acknowledge the Emperor's abdication, or to declare or accept Ferdinand for Emperor; alleging, that though, as King of the Romans, he was to succeed in the empire when it was void by death, yet the Emperor could not resign without his consent; and that the King of the Romans could not pretend to a succession whilst he was living. But Ferdinand was Emperor with the approbation and general acceptation of the Electors, and all the other Princes, and cared not for his consent or allowance. Then the Pope would not consent that Charles had any power to transfer the dominions in Italy (which were feoffs of the church) upon his son; and his two nephews were so wholly devoted to France, that they did all they could to render their uncle most averse to Spain; and assured him, that they had discovered a conspiracy against his person, cherished and fomented by Philip, and that they had apprehended two persons, who, being put to the question, confessed that they were hired to assassinate him, for which they were both executed; and it is true, that there were two such men executed upon that allegation, the foulness of all which did afterwards appear.

enters into

with the

But Paul then gave entire credit to all that his ne-Paul IV. phews said to him, and from thence grew to have an a league implacable hatred against the whole house of Austria, King of and secretly entered into a league offensive and defen- France. sive with the King of France; and offered to give him the investiture of the kingdom, and to assist him in the recovery of the dutchy; and as he reserved some considerable places of the kingdom of Naples to himself, so he offered others which lay most convenient to them, and even Ravenna itself, to the Republic of Venice,

A a 3

VII.

CHAP. Venice, to draw them into the association. But that wise Republic liked not the conjunction, and thought that the neighbourhood of the French in Italy could not be recompensed by any places which could be put into their hands. And though the King, upon the advice of the lords who were most favoured by him, and more by that of the ladies, with whose advice he most concurred, greedily entered into that alliance, and accepted all the conditions, yet his wisest counsellors, and all France in general, had and declared a wonderful aversion from that war and alliance: not only because their hands were full enough, and that they could not without great difficulty resist the Spaniard from Flanders, who daily got ground upon them, but out of dislike of all that the Pope did; who, having one leg in the leg in the grave already, could not live to give above a year's assistance to an enterprise that could have no limits of time prescribed to the finishing it; and they had paid too dear for affecting a war in Italy to be much in love with the like attempts.

The Duke of Alva marches against the Pope.

Philip at this time was a sour looker on; he knew all the intrigues which had with the greatest secrecy been entered into, from the very time of the Pope's being chosen, and the whole progress they made; of which he took no notice, but spoke frequently and publicly, that the Pope had not been canonically chosen; and that he meant to appeal against it to a General Council: and he had prevailed with a good number of Cardinals, who were willing to have assembled to have given a beginning to it; but when he saw all the Pope's designs to be now published, and his league offensive and defensive to be manifest and avowed, and that he had already

com

VII.

committed the Cardinal Colonna to prison, and rais- CHAP. ed a great persecution against his whole family, (who were all under the protection of Spain,) he declined farther thought of that peaceable expedient, and betook himself to a rougher remedy, and more suitable and proportioned to the temper and spirit of the Pope. He sent orders to the Duke of Alva, his ViceKing of Naples, that he should assist and protect the family of Colonna the best he could; and restrain the Pope from giving him any disturbance in his dominions, if he discovered any inclination in him to break the peace thereof. The commission was not ingrateful to the Duke of Alva, who knew the constitution of the Pope, and much loved the family of Colonna, which he thought underwent some oppression for his sake. Therefore, as soon as he heard of troops gathering together in Rome, and in the dominions of the church, and that some French officers, who had been employed in the war of Sienna, were come to Rome, and made much of by the Pope, he began likewise to draw his forces together, and by easy marches led them towards Rome, and writ letters of expostulation and advice, mingled with menaces, to the Pope himself, to desist from farther provoking his Catholic Majesty.

the Duke

the Pope.

A. D. 1556.

There is a notable letter from that Duke (who Letter of was never suspected for inclination towards heretics) of Alva to to the Pope, which bears date the one and twentieth of August fifteen hundred fifty-six, from Naples, (and may be found amongst those dispatches which are mentioned before, and were printed in Venice,) in which he took notice of his continual disaffection to the prosperity of the House of Austria, before and since his being Pope; that in the time of Paul the Third

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CHAP. Third (upon occasion of some insurrection in NaVII. ples) he had advised that Pope not to lose such an occasion, but presently to invade that kingdom; that since his own assumption to the Holy Chair he had favoured and given offices benefices and governments to such as he knew to be rebels to his Catholic Majesty, and gave secret entertainment to many others of his enemies, that they might be ready to disturb the peace of his dominions, when he thought the season ripe for such an enterprise: he put him in mind also, that he had imprisoned and oppressed many of his Catholic Majesty's servants, whose names he mentions: and that he had often and in public used many expressions in prejudice of the King his master, which were very indecent, and not agreeable to "amor paternale del summo Pontifice," all which his Majesty had hitherto borne out of his respect to the Apostolical seat, and the public peace, and always expecting that his Holiness would recollect himself; never imagining that it could enter into his mind, that, to advance and make great his kindred, he would hinder the peace of Christendom, not without some danger to the Apostolical chair itself; especially in a time so full of heresies, which he ought rather to endeavour to correct or root out, than to apply his thoughts how he might without any cause or provocation offend and injure his Majesty but since his Holiness had thought fit to proceed in a contrary way, and permitted his Fiscal of the Apostolical chamber to make in the Consistory, "così ingiusta iniqua e temeraria instantia,” and to demand, that the King his master might be deprived of his kingdoms, to which his Holiness gave his consent, saying, that he would provide for his own time;

and