VII. that he rather promised himself a good opportunity CHAP. to dissolve the Council, and before it should do any thing to his prejudice, than that he expected any benefit or a good conclusion of it. sends Mar, invite zabeth to Council. There was nothing more puzzled the understand-The Pope ing of all men, than his sending the Abbot Marti-tinengo to nengo to Queen Elizabeth, to invite her and persuade Queen Eliher to send her Bishops to the Council; and it is send Bicertain that the Abbot had instructions to offer her, shops to the that all her Bishops should be confirmed, that the Liturgy should be in the English tongue, that the Communion should be administered in both kinds, and that the Priests should have liberty to marry; all this upon condition that she would acknowledge the Pope's supremacy, and a subjection to the Bishops of Rome. And Cardinal Pallavicini confesses, that when he was resolved to call the Council, (and without any hope of good by it,) he declared freely, that he would leave all liberty to it; so that the integrity of the articles already defined, and the dignity of the Apostolical Seat being once secured, let it determine what they thought fit; and that if he ought to make restitution to any one (understanding, as it was believed, the authority of the Bishops) he was ready to do it. In the last place, as for the laical communion under both kinds, and the marriage of Priests, they might truly in themselves be granted, as dispensations of laws merely ecclesiastical; but that it seemed not convenient to him, that those ordinances, which had been confirmed in former Councils, should be cancelled without the authority of a new Council: and this was looked upon as great moderation, to court the Protestants in Germany; as his other invitation of Queen Elizabeth was CHAP. was by many interpreted (as it might reasonably VII. be) as a censuré at least, if not a revocation, of all. the acts of his predecessors against that great Queen and all her Protestant subjects; for if they were still in force, how could he invite her to send her Bishops to the Synod? But the Queen had been too ill used by more than one of his predecessors, to make herself or her kingdoms in any degree, or for any consideration, subject to that jurisdiction: and so when the Abbot Martinengo came to Calais, he there received notice, that the Queen would not receive any overture letter or message from the Pope, and an absolute inhibition to him not to presume to come into England; which put an end to all further application or correspondence between Rome and that Queen, and to all thoughts of moderation in Council, at least if there had been any before. Proceedings I shall find it necessary to the argument in hand tion of the hereafter to reflect upon the wonderful incongruities, and disposi Council. the want of freedom, and the want of justice, in the whole proceedings of that Council, from the beginning to the end, and its disorderly and ungrave conclusion. But what I shall for the present observe shall have an authority so authentic that it cannot be doubted by any Roman Catholic, which is, the evidence of the Cardinal Pallavicini himself; and in the relation I shall use no other words than his own, (as any one must confess who will take the pains to compare it with the original,) by which it will appear how impossible it was for that body of men to do any thing with integrity, that might compose the distempers of that age, or prevent the improvement of them to greater distractions. The Cardinal declares, (I think it is, for I have not the book at VII. at present by me, in or very near page 700 of his se- CHAP. cond volume,) that he will without any dissimulation there set down the face of the Council, just as the Legates did represent it to the Cardinal Borromeo, who was the Pope's nephew, and to whom all the dispatches were made from all ministers in all places, of all matters of importance. Prelates. The Italians (he says) did esteem it as a thing The Italian both very becoming and advantageous to their na~ tion to uphold the majesty and power of the ecclesiastical government, in the which Italy doth as much surmount other countries as it is inferior to them in the want of a temporal common and native King; so that, except a few, who either by weakness, of mind or estate suffer themselves to be led by strangers, the Prelates of this country commonly aim at no other object than at the supporting and greatness of the Apostolical Seat; it appearing to them that upon that did equally depend the honour of their province, and the good of their Church; and therefore that they in so doing did at once perform the parts of good Italians and good Christians. nish Pre The Spanish Prelates and Bishops (as persons for The Spathe most part advanced either by the ampleness of lates. their churches, or by the plenty of their rents; by the eminence of their family and learning, or by their veneration with the people) did very hardly suffer the great preeminence of the Cardinals, a preferment which few of them could hope for; and as ill could they endure the great subjection to the Pope's ministers, or to the tribunals of Rome; so that they were persuaded that the highest good of the Church would consist in the bringing the Cardinals into some rule and compass, and raising Bishops to their ancient rights they proposed, that these might be incapable of VII. CHAP. of bishoprics, the best of which they at present possessed, which did much maintain them in authority and in riches; they being obliged to remain in Rome to take care of their titular churches, and to be the Pope's counsellors, without a possibility of quitting that place, excepting for some legations: they also demanded, that their entire power might be restored to the Bishops, by taking away the exemptions of persons and causes; by which they would become as Popes in their dioceses. The French The dif ferent Princes. The French Prelates, as those who possess less ecclesiastical jurisdiction, (they being, according to the use of that kingdom, brought within the compass of the secular power,) did less approve of the diminution of the power of the Roman tribunals, and did less complain of the purple's overshadowing the mitre but they were all inclined to the moderating of the Papal monarchy, according to the meaning of the modern Council of Basil, by them approved; because that, in such case, they would have had little reason to fear their prohibitions or punishments, as being able to blunt or suppress them by calling together or threatening a Council; in the which therefore they would have authority to be not only over the Pope, but full and as much in the Church. The Princes, or at least their statesmen, inclined more or less to satisfy the Prelates of their nation ; of whose advancement they were not so jealous as of the greatness and power of the Pope; which was also accompanied with the abhorrence of some abuses which remained until that time in the Roman Court. Let any man produce out of Soave, [Polano, a as the Cardinal calls him, so lively a description and a Fra. Paolo; sometimes called Soave Polano. VII. manifestation of the inequality, incompetency, and CHAP. impossibility of the Council to determine any point of religion in controversy; and we may justly say, that as we are beholden to Fra Paolo for the communicating, in so clear and excellent a style, the incomparable history of the dark intrigues and transactions of that Council; so we are indebted in many thanks to the Cardinal, for giving us so excellent a confirmation and illustration of the most important parts of that history, and for imparting to us, out of the treasure of those originals, (with which he hath had the honour to be entrusted, and which another less generous man would have. concealed or destroyed,) so many particulars of the highest moment, which add great beauty and ornament to what the other (for want of those exemplifications) could not so credibly have enlarged upon; whilst his direct and positive contradictions of the veracity of the other, and the arguments which he doth urge to control the same, I mean in matters of weight, (for whether the exact number of the voices in any congregation, or the days of the week, are rightly computed, is nothing to the truth of the fact,) are so faint, and so weakly pressed, that he rather adds vigour to what he would confute, than weakens the credit of it; of which we shall have occasion pertinently enough to insert some instances. In the mean time, we shall prosecute our observation upon the proceedings in the Council; in all or most of which we shall make use of no other authority than the Cardinal's own, which we shall faithfully cite in his own words; and by all which, as they who were in the Pope's displeasure, and whom he proposed to destroy, had no reason to acquiesce in their determinations, so it will |