Maurice of Saxony was ripening his schemes of revolt, and concealing
them with the dexterity in which he was unrivalled; it was the
policy of both that Protestant theologians should take part in the
discussions—of the one, that they should there receive their sentence;
of the other, that their presence might assist in cloaking his designs.
The flight from Innspruck, followed by the Transaction of Passau,
changed the face of affairs. The Lutheran doctors rejoicingly shook the
dust from their feet as they departed from Trent, complaining that they
had been treated as criminals on trial, not as venerable members of a
body assembled to decide the gravest questions relating to this life
and that to come. Other symptoms of revolt among the Catholic nations
were visible, and on the 28th of April, 1552, the council again broke
up.[1344]
Ten years passed away; the faithful impatiently demanded the
continuation of the work which had only been commenced, and at last
the pressure became so strong that Pius IV. was obliged to reassemble
the council.[1345] His Bull bears date November, 1560, but it was not
until twenty years after Trent had witnessed the first convocation
that the holy men again gathered within its walls, and on the 18th
of January, 1562, the council resumed its oft-interrupted sessions.
The States of the Augsburg Confession had been politely invited to
participate in the proceedings, but they declined with the scantest of
courtesy.[1346]
During this long-protracted farce there were times when those who
sincerely desired the restoration of the church could not restrain
their impatience. In 1536, Paul III., who earnestly admitted the
necessity of some reform, called to his aid nine of his prelates most
eminent for virtue and piety, as a commission to prepare a scheme for
internal reformation.[1347] According to a papal historian, his object
in this was to stop the mouths of the heretics who found in the Roman
court an inexhaustible subject of declamation.[1348] For two years the
commission labored at its work, and finally produced the “Consilium de
emendanda ecclesia,” to which allusion has been made above.
The stern and unbending Cardinal Caraffa was head of the commission,
assisted by such men as Contarini, Sadoleto, and Reginald Pole. They
seem to have been inspired with a sincere desire to root out the chief
abuses which gave such power to the assaults of the Protestants, and
the result of their labors affords us a picture of ecclesiastical
corruptions almost as damaging to the church as the complaints of the
Diet of Nürnburg. As regards celibacy, they were disposed to make no
concession; indeed, they protest against the facility with which men in
holy orders were able to purchase from the Roman curia dispensations to
marry. It is significant, however, that they had so little confidence
in the possibility of purifying the religious orders that they actually
recommended the abolition of the whole monastic system. To prevent
individual cases of suffering they proposed that the convents should
not be immediately abolished, but that all novices should be discharged
and no more be admitted, thus allowing the orders to die out gradually,
as had been done in Saxony; and meanwhile they urged that, to prevent
further scandals, all nunneries should be removed from the supervision
and direction of monks.[1349] The “Consilium,” in fact, was so candid
a confession of most of the abuses charged upon the church by the
reformers that Luther forthwith translated it and published it with
a commentary, as an effective pamphlet in aid of his cause. Caraffa
himself, after he had attained the papacy, under the name of Paul IV.,
quietly put his own work, in 1559, into the Index Expurgatorius.[1350]
The changes recommended in the “Consilium” attacked too many vested
interests for Paul III., however earnest himself, to be able to give
it effect. The project therefore was dropped and only resulted in
rendering still more clamorous the call for a reform in the head and
members of the church. As, moreover, it had shown the powerlessness of
the papacy to overcome acknowledged abuses, the only hope of a radical
change, such as was needful, was seen to lie in the untrammelled
debates of a great assembly, which should meet as a parliament of the
nations; and the prospect of this grew more and more distant. While
the project of transferring the council from Trent was being matured,
it occurred to the papal court that possibly the objections to that
measure and the pressure on the council for a thorough reformation
might be averted by showing a disposition on the part of Rome to
undertake the task of cleansing the Augean stable. It was also
recognized as an important gain if the council could be confined to the
harmless task of defining questions of faith, while the substantial
powers involved in reforming the corruptions of the church could be
claimed and exercised by the Pope. Accordingly Pius III. drew up an
elaborate Bull designed to limit some of the more flagrant pecuniary
abuses which existed, and exhorting the bishops to correct the morals
of their subordinates. This was sent to the legates at Trent, but they
and their confidants unanimously agreed that, in the existing temper
of the council, the promulgation of such a document would be in the
highest degree imprudent. It was accordingly suppressed, and has only
seen the light within the present century.[1351] In its failure the
church lost but little, for it touched the evils of the time with a
tender and hesitating hand, and would have proved utterly inefficacious.
At length, when shortly afterwards the unmannerly urgency of the
Germans, clamoring for decided measures of reform, was met by the
translation of the council to Bologna in 1547, and men despaired of
further results from it, Charles V. resolved to take the matter into
his own hands, and to effect, for his own dominions at least, that
which had been vainly expected of the council for Christendom. The
“Interim,” which has already been alluded to, was intended to answer
this purpose as far as Lutheranism was concerned, in healing the breach
of religion. The other great object of the council, the restoration of
the neglected discipline of the church, he attempted to effect by means
of the secular authority of the empire acting on the regular machinery
of the Teutonic ecclesiastical establishment. How utterly neglected
that discipline had become is inferable from an expression in the
important and carefully drawn project which had been laid by Charles
before the Diet of Ratisbon in 1541, to the effect that if the canon
requiring celibacy was to be enforced, it would be necessary also to
revive those canons which punished incontinence, thus admitting that
there existed no check whatever upon immorality.[1352]
To accomplish this desirable revival of discipline he accordingly
caused the adoption by the Diet of Augsburg of a code of reformation,
well adapted, if enforced, to restore the long-forgotten purity of the
church, while at the same time it acknowledged that the degeneracy of
the times rendered impossible the resuscitation of the ancient canons
in their strictness. Thus, after reciting the canon of Neocæsarea (see
p. 51), it adds, that as such severity was now impracticable, those
in holy orders convicted of impurity should be separated from their
concubines, and visited with suspension from function and benefice
proportioned to the gravity of the offence. A repetition of the fault
was punishable with increased severity, and incorrigible sinners who
were found to be incapable of reformation were finally to be deprived
of their benefices. As concubines were threatened with immediate
excommunication, it is evident that a severity was designed towards
them which was not ventured on with respect to their more guilty
partners. Relaxation of the rules is also observable in the section
which, despite the Nicene canon, permitted the residence of women over
forty years of age, whose character and conduct relieved them from
suspicion.[1353] The imperative injunctions of chastity laid upon the
regular clergy, canons, and nuns, show not only the determination to
remove the prevailing scandals, but also the magnitude and extent of
the evil.[1354]
Nor was this all. Local councils were ordered for the purpose of
embodying these decrees in their statutes, and of carrying out with
energy the reformation so earnestly desired. Thus, in November, 1548,
about five months after the Diet, a synod assembled at Augsburg, which
inveighed bitterly against the unclerical dress and pomp of the clergy,
their habits of drunkenness, gluttony, licentiousness, tavern-lounging,
and general disregard of discipline; and adopted a canon embracing the
regulations enacted by the emperor.[1355] The Archbishop of Trèves did
not wait for his synod, but issued, October 30th, a mandate especially
directed against concubinary priests, in which he announced his
intention of carrying out the reform commanded by Charles. He could
find no reason more self-evident for the dislike and contempt felt
by the people for so many of the clergy than the immorality of their
lives, differing little, except in legality, from open marriage. “This
vice, existing everywhere throughout our diocese, in consequence of
the license of the times and the neglect of the officials, we must
eradicate. Therefore all of you, of what grade soever, shall dismiss
your concubines within nine days, removing them beyond the bounds of
your parishes, and be no longer seen to associate with loose and wanton
women. Those who neglect this order shall be suspended from office and
benefice, their concubines shall be excommunicated, and they themselves
be brought before our synod to be presently held.”[1356]
These were brave words, but when, some three weeks later, the synod
was assembled, and the malefactors perchance brought before it, the
good bishop found apparently that his flock was not disposed to submit
quietly to the curtailment of privileges which had almost become
imprescriptible. His tone accordingly was softened, for though he
deprecated their immorality more strongly than ever, and asserted his
intention of enforcing his mandate, he condescended to argue at much
length on the propriety of chastity, and even descended to entreaty,
beseeching them to preserve the purity so essential to the character
of the church, the absence of which had drawn upon the clergy an odium
which could scarce be described in words.[1357] How slender was his
success may be inferred from the fact that the next year he felt it
necessary to hold another synod, in which he renewed and confirmed
the proceedings of the former one, and endeavored to reduce the monks
and nuns of his diocese into some kind of subjection to the rules of
discipline.[1358]
The Archbishop of Cologne was as energetic as his brother of Trèves,
with about equal success. On September 1st he issued the Augsburg
Formula of Reformation, with a call for a synod to be held on October
2d. At the same time he manifested his sense of the primary importance
of correcting clerical immorality by promulgating a special mandate
respecting concubinage. He asserted this to be the chief cause of
the contempt popularly felt for the church,[1359] and he ordered all
ecclesiastics to send their women beyond the bounds of their parishes
within nine days, under the penalties provided in the imperial decree.
The synod was held at the time indicated, and, though it adopted no
regular canons, it accepted the Augsburg Formula and the mandate of the
archbishop, with a trifling alteration.[1360]
This proved utterly ineffectual, for in March, 1549, he assembled a
provincial council, in which he deplored the license of the times,
which rendered the strictness of the ancient canons unadvisable, and
he announced that it had been decided to proceed gradually with the
intended reforms. As to the morals of the clergy, he stated that
everywhere the cure of souls was delegated to improper persons, many of
them living in the foulness of concubinage, in perpetual drunkenness,
and in other infamous vices, encouraged by the negligence of bishops
and the thirst of archdeacons for unhallowed gains. The unions of
those who, infected by the new heresies, did not hesitate to enter
into matrimony, were of course pronounced illicit and impious, their
offspring illegitimate, and the parents anathematized; but for those
who remained in the church, yet submitted to no restraint upon their
passions, a more merciful spirit was shown, for the punishments ordered
by the Diet of Augsburg were somewhat lightened in their favor. The
extreme license of the period may be understood from another canon
directed against the comedians, who, not content with the ordinary
theatres, were in the habit of visiting the nunneries, where their
profane plays and amatory acting excited to unholy desires the virgins
dedicated to God.[1361] No one acquainted with the coarseness of the
drama of that rude age can doubt the propriety of the archbishop’s
reproof. Supplementary synods were also held in October, 1549, and
February, 1550, to perfect the details of a very thorough inquisitorial
visitation of the whole province.
This visitation, so pompously heralded, did not take place. At a synod
held in October, 1550, the archbishop made sundry lame excuses for
its postponement. Another synod was assembled in February, 1551, at
which we hear nothing more of it; but the prelates of the diocese were
requested to collect such ancient and forgotten canons as they could
find, which might be deemed advantageous in the future;[1362] and with
this the work of reformation in the province of Cologne appears to end.
In 1549, Ernest, Archbishop of Salzburg, assembled the synod of his
extensive province, but when his clergy understood that it was intended
to confirm the reformatory edict of the emperor, they had the audacity
to present a petition praying that the clause ordering the removal of
their concubines should not be enforced. They declared that the attempt
to do so would be attended with serious difficulty, and that it would
lead to greater evils than it sought to remove, and they asked that
the consideration of the matter should be referred to the general
council, whose reassembling was no longer dreaded. The synod, with a
proper sense of its dignity, refused to receive the shameless petition,
and listened rather to those of its members who complained of the
practice of the officials in receiving bribes for permitting illicit
indulgences, and the representations of Duke William, of Bavaria, who
asserted that the Lutheran heresy had been caused by the scandalous
corruption of the church. A canon was accordingly adopted which
renewed the regulations of Bâle and ordered the speedy removal of all
recognized and notorious concubines.[1363]
In October and November, 1548, and April, 1549, the Bishops of
Paderborn, Wurzburg, and Strassburg held synods which adopted the
reformatory measures decreed at Augsburg.[1364] These were preparatory
to the metropolitan synod of Mainz, assembled in May, 1549, which
commanded that no one should be thereafter admitted to orders without
a preliminary examination by his bishop on the subject of doctrine,
and testimonials from the people as to purity of character. After
thus wisely providing for the future, attention was directed to the
present. It was declared intolerable that, in spite of the reiterated
prohibitions of the fathers and councils, concubines should be
universally kept; the Basilian canon was therefore revived, and its
enforcement strictly enjoined on the ordinaries, who were forbidden in
any manner to connive at these disorders for the sake of profit.[1365]
The pressure was continued, for when Cambrai, which owed temporal
obedience to the emperor, while ecclesiastically it formed part of the
province of Rheims, neglected to adopt the Formula of Augsburg for two
years, it was not allowed to escape. In October, 1550, a synod was
finally assembled there under stringent orders from Charles, and the
Formula was published, together with an elaborate series of canons,
which would have been well adapted to correct abuses that were not
incorrigible.[1366]
* * * * *
Charles had thus exerted all the resources of his imperial supremacy,
and, whether willingly or not, the powerful prelates who ruled the
German church had united in carrying out his views. The temporal and
spiritual authorities had thus been concentrated upon the vices of
the church, and if its reformation had been possible, in the existing
condition of its organization, some improvement must have resulted from
these combined and persistent efforts. How nugatory were the results
may be guessed from a memorial presented in 1558, by the University of
Louvain, to Philip II., exhorting him to grant no toleration to the
heretics, but, at the same time, urging upon him the absolute necessity
of some comprehensive system of reform to purify the church, all the
orders of which were given over utterly to the twin vices of avarice
and licentiousness.[1367] The same testimony is borne by a consultation
drawn up in 1562 by order of the Emperor Ferdinand. After alluding to
the efforts at reform made by Paul III. and Charles V., it declares
that their only result has been to make the condition of clerical
morality worse than before, exciting the hatred of the people for their
priests to an incredible pitch, and doing more to inflame the ardor
of heresy than all the teaching of Christian truth can do to restrain
it.[1368]
As the failure of all efforts to improve clerical morality under the
existing rules of discipline was thus found to be complete, there arose
in the minds of thinking men a conviction, such as Erasmus had already
declared, that, since all other measures had proved fruitless, the only
mode of securing a virtuous clergy was to remove the prohibition of
marriage. At the Polish Diet of 1552 petitions praying for sacerdotal
matrimony were presented, and, though they failed in their object,
the Diet of 1556 authorized King Sigismund Augustus to address Paul
IV. with a request, in the name of the nation, to grant it as well as
communion in both elements.[1369]
The dissension thus existing within the church is exhibited in a volume
published in 1558 by Stanislas Hosius, Bishop of Ermeland, earnestly
arguing against communion in both elements, clerical marriage, and the
use of the vulgar tongue in worship. As regards celibacy, he assumes
that it had been maintained unbrokenly for fifteen hundred years, and
was not now to be abandoned to gratify a few disorderly monks. The
example of the Greek church he meets by pointing out that the Greeks
were suffered to be persecuted by the Turks; the argument that marriage
would purify the church he silences with the observation that many
married men are adulterers; and he holds it to be a doubting of God
to suppose that the gift of continence would be denied to those who
properly seek it.[1370] In spite of the logic of polemics such as
Hosius, the opinions of the innovators continued to gain ground, until
at length they won even the highest dignitaries of the empire, and in
1560 the Emperor Ferdinand himself undertook their advocacy with the
pope, after having for some years countenanced the practice within his
own territories.
Almost immediately on the consecration of Pius IV., in addressing
to him an argument for the reassembling of the council of Trent, or
the convocation of a new council, Ferdinand seized the opportunity
to ask especially for the communication of the cup to the laity, and
permission for the clergy to marry. The latter of these points he
considered to be the only remedy for the fearful immorality of the
church, for, though all flesh was corrupt, the corruption of the
priesthood surpassed that of all other men.[1371] That he had not
waited for the papal assent to favor these innovations within his own
dominions is shown by his statement that the Archbishop of Salzburg had
recently, in a synod, earnestly called upon him to put a stop to the
progress which they were making, but, he added, his long experience
in such matters had shown him what was possible, and what impossible,
and he had accordingly set forth the difficulties of the task in a
paper addressed to the archbishop, a copy of which he inclosed to the
pope.[1372]
The nuncio Commendone, in transmitting this document to Rome,
accompanied it with a letter from the Cardinal Bishop of Augsburg,
recommending the postponement of the question until the reassembling
of the council of Trent, and, as Pius answered it in this sense, no
further action was taken, though Ferdinand made haste to repeat his
demand, in view of the impatience of both clergy and people, who could
ill brook the delays inseparable from the discussion of the subject in
so unwieldy a body.[1373] When Commendone, moreover, passed through
Cleves on his way to the council, then about to be reopened, the
Duke of Cleves earnestly besought him to lend his influence to the
accomplishment of the measure, urging as a reason that in the whole
of his dominions—and he was sovereign of three populous duchies—there
could not be found five priests who did not keep concubines. In order
to secure his favor for the approaching council, Commendone did
not scruple to hold out expectations that the concessions would be
granted.[1374]
During the progress of the Reformation, when the fate of the Catholic
church of Germany had sometimes seemed to hang in the balance, no
princes had earned a larger title to the gratitude of Rome than the
powerful Dukes of Bavaria, who were the leaders of the reaction. Yet
now the influence of that important region was thrown in favor of
the abrogation of celibacy, and Duke Albert was the first who boldly
brought the matter before the council by a demand for ecclesiastical
marriage, presented on the 27th of June, 1562. To this the evasive
answer was returned that the council would take such action as
would be found to redound to the glory of God and to the benefit of
the church.[1375] During the same year the Emperor Ferdinand also
repeatedly urged its consideration. A plan for the reform of the church
presented by his delegates not only called attention to the necessity
of purifying the morals of the regular and secular clergy, but demanded
that, to some nations at least, the privilege of sacerdotal marriage
should be conceded.[1376] Another elaborate paper argued the question
with much temperate force, and declared that many priests had already
married for the purpose of escaping the corruptions of celibacy, while
studiously preserving themselves from the errors of Lutheranism. Out of
a hundred parish priests scarcely one could be found who was not either
openly or secretly married, and it was necessary to tolerate them to
prevent the utter destruction of the church.[1377]