CONFERENCE OF BOLOGNA. THE COUNCIL AND CATHERINE DE MEDICI.
(WINTER 1532-1533.)
The emperor, having descended the Italian slopes of the Alps and crossed
the north of Italy, arrived at Bologna on the 5th of December, 1532,
somewhat annoyed at the escape of Duke Christopher, but not suspecting
that it would lead to any serious consequences. This city, afterwards
made famous by Guido, Domenichino, the two Caracci, and by Benedict XIV.,
one of the most distinguished popes of the eighteenth century, grew more
animated every day. The pope had arrived there: princes, nobles,
prelates, and courtiers filled its splendid palaces; a new world was in
motion around the churches, the Asinelli, the fountain of Neptune, and
the other monuments which adorn that ancient city. The emperor had
desired a conference with the pope, with the intention of uniting
closely with him, and through him with the other catholic princes, to
act together against their two enemies, France and the Reformation. But
Charles was mistaken if he thought to find himself alone with the pope
at Bologna. He was to meet with opponents who would hold their own
against him: a struggle was about to begin around Clement VII. between
France and the empire. Francis I., who had just had a conference with
Henry VIII., did not care, indeed, to meet Charles; but his place in
Italy was to be supplied by men who would do his work better than he
could do it himself. On the 4th of January, 1533, Cardinals de Tournon
and de Gramont, sent by Francis to Clement to threaten him with a
certain 'great injury' which he might have cause to regret for ever,
arrived in this city. Would the presence of the two cardinals thwart
Charles's plans?
[Sidenote: PLANS OF CHARLES V.]
The first point which the emperor desired to carry was the convocation
of a general council. A grave man and always occupied with business, he
possessed a soul greedy of dominion. Ferdinand and Isabella having
founded their power in Spain by restoring that country to unity, he
desired to do in central Europe what they had done in the peninsula,
that is, unite it under his patronage, if not under his sceptre. And lo!
Germany is suddenly broken in his hands and divided into two parts. Sad
humiliation! When he had crossed the Alps, after Soliman's retreat, he
had no longer that unlimited confidence in his genius and authority
which he had felt two years before, when going to the diet of Augsburg.
He had come from Spain to crush that new sect which thwarted the dreams
of his ambition; and instead of crushing it, he had been forced to
recognise it. After the retreat of the Turks, Charles found himself at
the head of a numerous and triumphant army, and men asked one another if
he would not fall upon the protestants with it; but the best soldiers of
that army were protestant themselves. Other means must be resorted to in
order to bring the schism to an end. He weighed everything carefully,
and brought to this business that nice and calm attention which always
distinguished him. Knowing that the result of an appeal to arms was
uncertain, and that instead of restoring concord he might stir up a
hatred that nothing could extinguish, he decided in favour of a council
to restore unity, and made his demand to the pope at Bologna. But
Clement VII. feared a council as much as Charles desired it. 'They would
want to redress grievances,' he said to his confidants, 'and reform
abuses, quite as much as to extirpate heresy.' Possessing great
intelligence and rare ability, vain, cunning, false, and with no
elevation of soul, Clement determined to put off this assembly
indefinitely, although always promising it. While the emperor recognised
the inefficiency of temporal arms, the pope felt still more keenly the
inefficiency of spiritual arms. Each of these two personages distrusted
the power of which he had most experience. The humble Gospel of the
reformers intimidated both Church and Empire. Clement conferred on the
subject with the Archbishop of Cortona, governor of Bologna, with the
legate Campeggio, and with the nuncio Gambara: all agreed with him, and
declared that to desire to bring back protestants to the Romish faith
otherwise than by force was a very perilous enterprise.
[Sidenote: CLEMENT AGAINST A COUNCIL.]
As, however, neither the pope nor the emperor would give way, they
desired a conference, at which each would endeavour to convince the
other. A day, therefore, was appointed, and the two potentates met in
the palace of Bologna. Charles represented to Clement, that 'a great
number of catholics desired and demanded a council as necessary to
destroy the heresy of Luther, which was gaining strength every day, and
to suppress the numerous disorders that existed in the Church.'[352] But
the pope replied: 'If we assemble a council, and permit the protestants
to be present and to question the doctrines sanctioned by the Church,
they will attack them all, and numberless innovations will be the
result. If, on the contrary, we do not allow them to speak, they will
say that they are condemned unheard; they will leave the assembly, and
the world will believe that we are in the wrong. As the protestants
reject the decisions of past councils, how can we hope that they will
respect the decisions of future councils? Do we not know their
obstinacy? When we put forward the authority of the Church, do they not
set the authority of Holy Scripture in its place? They will never
acknowledge themselves defeated, which will be a great scandal. If the
council decrees that the pope is above the council (which is the truth),
the heretics will hold another, and will elect an anti-pope (Luther,
perhaps). Sire, the remedy which you propose will give rise to greater
evils than those which we have now to cure.'[353]
The papacy in the sixteenth century had fallen into a state of inertia.
It was active enough as a political power; but as a spiritual power it
was nothing. It had great pretensions still, as far as appearances went;
but it was satisfied if certain preferences and a certain pomp were
conceded to it. It was afraid of everything that possessed any vitality,
and feared not only those it called heretics, but even an assembly
consisting of prelates of the Roman Church. And while the papacy was
thus affected with a general weakness as regards spiritual powers, the
Reformation was full of vigour and of life. It was a young warrior
attacking a decrepid veteran. Besides these general causes, there were
private motives which added to Clement's inactivity; but these he kept
to himself. When he was alone in his chamber, he called to mind that his
birth was not legitimate; that the means he had used to obtain the
popedom had not been irreproachable; and that he had often employed the
resources of the Church for his own interest ... in waging a costly war,
for instance. All this might be brought against him in a council, and
endanger his position. But as his position was dearer to him than the
unity of the Church, he would grant nothing, and so reduced Charles to
despair by his evasions.
The hatred which the emperor bore to the pope was still further
increased by the pontiff's resistance.[354] In his anger he appealed to
the cardinals. At first he succeeded, having brought powerful
inducements into play, and a consistory decided in favour of the
immediate convocation of a council. The alarmed Clement set to work to
bring back the misguided cardinals, and he was successful; for a second
consistory, held on the 20th of December, coincided with the pope. 'We
cannot think of assembling a council,' said the sacred college, 'before
we have reconciled all the christian princes.'[355] The emperor openly
expressed his dissatisfaction. Wait until Henry VIII., Francis I., and
Charles V. are agreed ... as well put it off to the Greek calends!
Clement endeavoured to pacify him. He would assemble it at _a suitable
time_, he said; and then, as he feared that the Germans, on hearing of
his refusal, would hold a _national_ council, he sent off envoys to
prevent it, at the same time hinting to the emperor that they were
empowered to prepare that nation for a general council.[356] Was
Charles V. the pope's dupe? It is a doubtful point. Clement, an
enthusiastic disciple of his fellow-countryman Machiavelli, was,
conformably to the instructions of his master, supple and false, without
conscience and without faith. But the emperor knew full well that such
were the precepts of the illustrious Florentine.
[Sidenote: ITALIAN LEAGUE.]
For some time past Charles had been silently meditating another project
which, he thought, could not fail to render him master of Italy. It was
the formation of a defensive Italian league against Francis. He
communicated his plan to the pope with the reserve and ability that
characterised him, and set himself up as the defender of Rome. Clement,
however, did not believe in his generosity, but on the contrary feared
that this confederation would give him a master; nevertheless he
appeared to be charmed with it. 'Yes!' he exclaimed, 'Italy must set
itself against the ambition of France.' At the same time he informed the
ambassador of Venice that he had said these things, not as being his own
opinion, but the emperor's. 'Report this prudently to your lords,' he
added.[357] The pontiff had always two faces and two meanings.
In reality, he did not know what course to pursue. At one time he was
ready to throw himself into Charles's arms and run the same chances with
him; and then, on learning what had taken place at Boulogne and Calais,
he trembled lest the King of France should throw off his obedience.
These two terrible monarchs made a shuttlecock of the pope, and drove
him to despair. But he remembered how Machiavelli had said, that the
world is governed by two things—force and cunning; and leaving the
former to the emperor, he took refuge in the latter. 'Accordingly
Clement determined to move softly,' says Du Bellay, 'temporising,
quibbling, waiting, and stopping to see what the French cardinals would
bring him.' They arrived just at this critical moment. It was an
ill-omened embassy for France, since no event of the sixteenth century
did more to strengthen the dominion of intrigue, cowardice, debauchery,
crime, and persecution in that country.
[Sidenote: THE FRENCH ENVOYS AND CLEMENT.]
Cardinal de Tournon, the most influential of the two ambassadors, was a
skilful priest, devoted to the pope and popery, cruel, the accomplice of
the Guises in after years, and all his life one of the greatest enemies
of religious liberty. His colleague, Cardinal de Gramont, Bishop of
Tarbes and afterwards Archbishop of Toulouse, was a more pliable
diplomatist, and had been employed in England at the time of the
dissolution of Henry's marriage with Catherine of Arragon. The first of
these two men was the more hierarchical, the second the more politic;
but both had the interests of their master Francis at heart. Their
mission was difficult, and they had many a consultation about what was
to be done. Tournon was ready to sacrifice everything, truth in the
first place, in order to unite the king with the pope. 'It is to be
feared,' he said to his colleague, 'that if we let the holy father know
all the discontent of the two kings, we shall but increase his despair;
and that the emperor, profiting by our threats, will gain him over and
do with him as he likes, which would lead to the disturbance of
christendom.' Instead of carrying out the Calais resolutions, Tournon
and Gramont determined to put them aside. They thought that Francis I.
was going wrong, and desired to be more royalist than the king himself.
To win the pope from Charles V. and give him to Francis I. was the great
work they resolved to attempt at Bologna. The emperor was there, and he
was a stout antagonist; but the two priests were not deficient in skill.
To save catholicism threatened in France, and to lay the kingdom at the
pope's feet, was their aim. 'Let us carry out our instructions,' they
said, 'by beginning with the last article. Instead of employing severity
first and mildness last, we will do just the contrary.'[358]
The two cardinals having been received by the pontiff, paid him every
mark of respect, and tried to make him understand that, for the good of
the holy see, he ought to preserve the goodwill of the most christian
king. They therefore proposed an interview with Francis, and even with
the King of England, that prince being eager to put an end to the
difficulties of the divorce. 'Finally,' they added, laying a slight
stress upon the word, 'certain proposals, formerly put forward in the
king's name, might be carried out.'[359]—'These proposals,' says Du
Bellay, 'would lead, it must be understood, to the great exaltation of
the pope and his family.' The last argument was the decisive stroke
which gained Clement VII.
Francis, even while desiring to throw off the Roman tutelage, wished to
gain the support of the pope in order to humiliate Charles V. He had
therefore revived a strange idea, which he had once already hinted at,
without overcoming, however, the excessive repugnance which it caused
him. But he saw that the moment was critical, and that, to ally himself
with both Henry and Clement, he must make some great sacrifice. He had
therefore sent a special ambassador to Bologna, to carry out a scheme
which would fill all Europe with surprise: a deplorable combination
which by uniting the pope, indissolubly as it appeared, to the interests
of the Valois, was sooner or later to separate France from England,
change the channel that divides them into a deep gulf, infuse Florentine
blood into the blood of France, introduce the vilest Machiavellism into
the hearts of her kings who boasted of their chivalrous spirit, check
the spread of learning, turn back on their hinges the gates that were
beginning to open to the sun, confine the people in darkness, and
install an era of debauchery, persecution, and assassination both
private and public.
The special ambassador charged with the execution of this scheme was
John, Duke of Albany, qualified by his illustrious birth for transacting
the great affair. Alexander Stuart, son of James II., King of Scotland,
having been exiled by his eldest brother James III., had gone to France
in 1485. His son John, the last Duke of Albany, attached himself to
Louis XII., and followed him into Italy. Being recalled to Scotland, he
was made regent of the kingdom in 1516, and again quitted his country to
follow Francis I. into Lombardy. This royal personage, supported by
Gramont and Tournon, was commissioned by the King of France to propose
to the pope the marriage of his son Henry, Duke of Orleans, with a girl
of fourteen, a relative of the popes, and who was named Catherine de
Medici.
[Sidenote: CATHERINE DE MEDICI.]
Catherine was the daughter of Lorenzo II. de Medici, nephew of Leo X.,
and invested by his uncle in 1516 with the duchy of Urbino. Lorenzo, who
had made himself hateful by his despotism, died the very year of his
daughter's birth (1519). The duchy reverted to Leo X., and subsequently
to its former masters the Della Rovera, and Catherine was left a
portionless orphan. A marriage with this girl, descended from the rich
merchants of Florence, was a strange alliance for the son of a king, and
it was this that made Francis hesitate; but the desire of winning the
pope's favour from his rival helped him at last to overcome his haughty
disgust. Clement, who held (says Du Bellay) his family 'in singular
esteem,' was transported with delight at the offer. A Medici on the
throne of France!... He could not contain himself for joy. At the same
time Francis intended to make a good bargain. He asked through the Duke
of Albany, whose wife was Catherine's maternal aunt, that the pope
should secure to his son Henry a fine Italian state composed of Parma,
Florence, Pisa, Leghorn, Modena, Urbino, and Reggio; besides (said the
secret articles) the duchy of Milan and the lordship of Genoa, which,
added the French diplomatists, 'already belong to the future husband.'
In order to fulfil these engagements the pope was to employ his
influence, his negotiations, his money, and his soldiers. Clement said
that the conditions were very reasonable.[360] He knew perfectly well
that he could not give these countries to his niece; but that was the
least of his cares. The preceding year, when he was speaking to
Charles's ambassador of the claims of Francis upon Italy, the Austrian
diplomatist had said abruptly: 'The emperor will never _yield_ either
Milan or Genoa to the King of France.'—'Impossible, no doubt!' answered
the pope, 'but could not they be _promised_ to him?'[361]... The scion
of the Medici brought to France neither Genoa nor Milan, nor Parma, nor
Piacenza, nor Pisa, but in their stead she gave it the imbecile
Francis II., the sanguinary Charles IX., the abominable Henry III., the
infamous Duke of Anjou, and also that woman, at once so witty and
dissolute, who became the wife of Henry IV., and in comparison with whom
Messalina appears almost chaste. Four children of the Medici are among
the monsters recorded in history, and they have been the disgrace and
the misery of France.
[Sidenote: PROPOSALS OF MARRIAGE.]
The pope stalked proudly and haughtily through the halls of his palace,
and gave everybody a most gracious reception. This good-luck, he
thought, had come from heaven. Not only did it cover all his family with
glory, but secured to him France and her king, whose reforming caprices
began to make him uneasy; 'and then,' adds Du Bellay, 'he was very
pleased at finding this loophole, to excuse himself to the emperor, who
was pressing him so strongly to enter into the Italian league.'[362]
Nevertheless the pope stood in awe of Charles V., who seemed eager to
set himself up for a second Constantine, and he appeared anxious and
embarrassed.
Charles, whom nothing escaped, immediately remarked this, and thought to
himself that some new wind had blown upon the pontiff. In order to find
it out, he employed all the sagacity with which he was so eminently
endowed. 'The emperor knew from the language and countenance of the holy
father,' says Du Bellay, 'that he was less friendly towards him than
before, and suspected whence the change proceeded.'[363] Charles had
heard something about this marriage some time before; but the ridiculous
story had only amused him. The King of France unite himself with the
merchants of Florence!... And Clement can believe this!... 'Hence
Charles V., thinking,' as Du Bellay tells us, 'that the affair would
never be carried out, had advised the pope to consent.'[364]
[Sidenote: HENRY'S OPINION OF THE MARRIAGE.]
Meanwhile Francis lost no time. He had commissioned Du Bellay, the
diplomatist, to communicate his intentions to his good brother the King
of England, who had a claim to this information, as he was godfather to
the future Henry II.—worthy godfather, and worthy godson! The
self-conceit of the Tudor was still more hurt than that of the Valois.
He said to Lord Rochford, whom he despatched to the King of France: 'You
will tell the Most Christian King, our very dear brother, the great
pleasure that we enjoy every day by calling to mind the pure, earnest,
and kind friendship he feels for us.'[365] He added: 'Since our good
brother has asked us, we are willing to declare, that truly (as we know
how he himself considers it), having regard to the low estate and family
from which the pope's niece is sprung, and to the most noble and most
illustrious blood, ancestry, and royal house of France, from which
descends our very dear and very beloved cousin and godson, the Duke of
Orleans, the said marriage would be very ill-matched and unequal; and
for this reason we are by no means of opinion that it ought to be
concluded.'[366] At the same time, after Henry had given his advice as a
sovereign, he could not fail to consult his personal interests; and
Rochford (Anne Boleyn's father) was to say to the King of France: 'If,
however, by this means our brother should receive some great advantage,
which should redound to the profit and honour both of himself and us; if
the pope should do or concede anything to counterbalance and make up for
the default of noble birth ... let him be pleased to inform us of it; he
will find us very prompt to execute whatever shall be thought advisable,
convenient, and opportune by him and us.'[367] Henry, therefore,
consented that Francis should deal with the pope about his godson: he
only wished that he might be sold dear. His full restoration to the
favour of the court of Rome after his marriage with Anne Boleyn was the
price that he asked. And then the royal godfather, who was at heart the
most papistical of kings, would have declared himself fully satisfied
and the pope's most humble servant.
[Footnote 352: 'Concilii, desiderati da molti, come necessarii per la
eresia di Lutero, che ogni di ampliava e per molti discordini che sono
nella chiesa.'—Guicciardini, _Discorsi politici, Opere inedite_, i. p.
388.]
[Footnote 353: 'Al contrario, remedio e piu pericoloso et poi partorire
maggiori mali.'—_Lettere di Principi_, ii. p. 197. Du Bellay,
_Mémoires_, pp. 183-185.]
[Footnote 354: 'Il papa con chi forse avea odio.'—Guicciardini, _loc.
cit._]
[Footnote 355: Despatch of the Bishop of Auxerre, ambassador of France,
dated December 24, 1532.]
[Footnote 356: Instructions for the nuncio Rangoni. Pallavicini, liv.
iii. ch. xiii.]
[Footnote 357: Despatch of the Bishop of Auxerre, dated January 1,
1533.]
[Footnote 358: Du Bellay, _Mémoires_, p. 177.]
[Footnote 359: Du Bellay, _Mémoires_, p. 178.]
[Footnote 360: The secret articles are in the Bibliothèque Impériale at
Paris. MSS. Béthune, No. 8541, fol. 36. Ranke, _Deutsche Geschichte_,
iii. p. 439.]
[Footnote 361: Bucholz, ix. p. 101. Ranke, _Deutsche Geschichte_, iii.
p. 439.]
[Footnote 362: Du Bellay, _Mémoires_, p. 178.]
[Footnote 363: Ibid. p. 179.]
[Footnote 364: Ibid. p. 180.]
[Footnote 365: Henry's instructions are in French. _State Papers_, vii.
p. 423.]
[Footnote 366: Ibid. p. 428.]
[Footnote 367: Ibid.]