the council of Conftance, A. D. 1420 §: the facra ments fixed to the number of feven in the council of Florence, 1439,- and the order of templars abolifhed. CENTURY THE SIXTEENTH. . M. Dupin in (the preface to) his hiftory of the fix teenth century obferves, that the ecclefiaftical hiftory of this age deserves the particular attention of all who have any concern for religion, there being no century in which there have been greater revolutions in the church. The pope of Rome faw, with grief, a great part of Europe forfake their allegiance to his holiness; feveral provinces of Germany, England, and Scotland, and feveral kingdoms of the North, were departed from his authority; and France, which till then had been free from fuch monsters, as he calls them, produced fome who were not lefs hurtful to the state than to the church :-" But, fays he,” “if the church catholic loft a good deal of its extent this way, it endeavoured to recompence the lofs in fome fort, by the reformation of manners and difcipline, putting a ftop to the licenfing clandeftine marriages, and by punishing scandalous crimes, according to the rights of the ecclefiaftical laws. For this purpose so many decrees and regulations were made in ecclefiaftical affemblies, and efpecially in the council of Trent, which, Dupin likewife, tells us, were to condemn errors to preferve the purity of the faith, and to labour after the reformation of difcipline. Father Walch has given us a more particular, and I prefume impartial, view of this remarkable period. He fays, That in the first part of it, the internal corruption of the church of Rome was Laval's Hiftory of the Reformation in France, Il Freeman. |||| Dupin. *Allowance must here be made for the religious tenets of this author. I have therefore made fome variations. become 171 become fuch, as to exclude all external order and decency in the middle it received fuch a fhock, as it had never before felt, by the amazing progrefs of the reformation; and the latter part of this period was employed in preferving the wreck, and reftoring, or recovering, what had been loft. This has been attended with many remarkable confequences, fome of which follow. As to the fpiritual monarchy of the pope, it was at firft greatly endangered by those who bore teftimony to the truth, in fpite of the bafe example of pope Pius II. and particularly by the proceedings of king Lewis XII. of France, and of the council of Pifa against pope Julius II. But the advantage became irreparable, when gradually a confiderable part of Germany, France, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Hungary, and Poland, befides all England, Scotland, Denmark, Sweden, and Pruffia, received the doctrine of the reformation, and withdrew entirely from their obedience to the fee of Rome.---Befides this, thofe nations, which ftill adhered to the doctrine of the church of Rome, not only admitted principles quite irreconcilable with the doctrine of an infallible head of the whole church, but alfo particularly, by the frequent complaints against the fee of Rome, and their earneft folicitations for a council, threatened it with no fmall danger; and Charles V. was even actually employed, at least in Germany, in decideing religious points judicially. Adrian VI. in 1522, fent a letter to the duke of Saxony and other princes, to extirpate the heretics, the Lutherans, by fire and fword, notwithstanding he confeffed to them, that there were great abufes in the church of Rome, and that the ecclefiaftics themselves ftood greatly in need of reformation: and even while the council of Trent were convened 1546, and denouncing their anathemas against the proteftants, the pope and emperor prepared another fort of arms against them, in order to destroy their lives, as the fureft means to to fupprefs herefy: but in this the emperor was too politic for the pope, for he took care to fell fome of the churches patrimony to defray the expence. All this incited the fee of Rome to ftudy expedients for the better fupport of the Roman catholic religion, and more especially of the authority of the pope, and to fecure it from further declenfion. About this time the order of Jefuits, by the approbation and confirmation of the pope, received its entire establishment, and became a pillar, of which the papacy stood greatly in need, in 1540. The council of Trent was very artfully made ufe of to answer these ends, quite contrary to its original defign. The Roman legates were fuffered to prefide in it, and they had not the liberty of agreeing to the opinions, or refolutions, of the fathers, without the previous confent of the pope. All the doctrines, which contradicted the Romish errors, were condemned without hearing the proteftants; and all the doctrines, peculiar to the church of Rome, were folemnly confirmed, a majority of votes was influenced to fupprefs the doctrines affented to by the greateft part of the doctors then prefent, or they were decided by an authoritative fentence from Rome, if they had the leaft tendency to the prejudice of the papal court: thofe questions, for inftance, fo fruitful in altercation, whether epifcopacy. be of divine original, and whether the pope was to be accounted the head of all churches, or of the universal church, were concluded in the affirmative without_debate; and the papal court referved and confirmed to itself, the amendment of its own abufes; and in the laft place, it was deemed the prerogative of the pope to interpret all the decrees; and it must be owned, that thefe methods had their defired effect in those provinces where the decrees of this council were açcepted without limitation: but the pope had the mor * Walch's History of the Popes, p. 272. See Remarks on the twenty-fourth Article of Pope Pius IV's Creed, by Burroughs. 2 tification tification to find that whole nations, especially France, Spain, and Hungary, either abfolutely refufed their compliance, or by their exceptions, or refervations, plainly fhewed, that their oppofition arose from the very doctrine therein contained of the fupremacy of the pope and hence, that very important diftinction betwixt the perfectly and partially obedient fons of the holy father. Council of As we fhall have further occafion to treat of the authority, the decifions, and decrees, of this great affembly, relating to points of doctrine, difcipline, and ceremonies of the Roman church; a fhort account of the feveral feffions will be fufficient in this place *. Pope. The pattern or method of proceeding in the council of Trent was taken from the latter occidental councils, and especially from the last council of Lateran, by having the feveral matters and things laid before feveral perfons appointed, which were denominated particular congregations; and then it was reported to the general affembly of bishops: and this was done with great ceremony, and the decrees read at the conclufion by one of them, each of the other fignifying his fentiments, by faying placet, or non placet. We likewife find, that many of the bishops met with a defign to establish the fuperiority of the church, and general councils over the pope to promote a reformation in the church; and likewife with moderate difpofitions towards fuch as might differ from them in sentiments, and recommended to their collegues humility and charity: but this will not hold true of the majority: the pope's legates were prefent, and had an undue influence, as will appear in the fequel. One inftance appeared even in the fecond feffion, when many of the council were for opening that feffion, with fome proposals for a general reformation; but the pope's legates opposed it, and after fome 494 * An abstract from Dr. Jurieu's Hiftory of the Council of Trent, and Father Paul's Hiftory in folio. debate debate, cardinal Pool obtained, as a proper expedient, that the symbol of the Nicene, or creed of the church of Rome, should be confirmed; fome made a jeft of that, as it had been received in the church for twelve hundred years; however, the more penetrating faw through the policy of that scheme, viz. that nothing might afterwards be propofed in oppofition to it. --The third feffion was principally taken up with the progress that the reformation made in Germany; the elector Palatine having re-established the communion under both kinds, the marriage of priests, and the fervice in the vulgar tongue; which gave great offence to the pope's legates. --- In the fourth feffion, pursuant to the order given by the pope, they proceeded to take under their confideration the fcriptures. This was reduced to four heads, chiefly relative to fuch points as were intended to be condemned in the proteftants, viz. the fufficiency of holy fcripture, and the neceffity of traditions; the second, of the canonical books and their number; the third was about the authority of the vulgar tranflation, and the neceffity of having recourse to the originals; and the fourth related to the proper interpreters of fcripture and it was concluded, that all matters and things condemned fhould be by Anathema. In the fourth feffion they also entered upon the doctrine of original fin, to which there was a great oppofition: they difcuffed fome of the fubtleties of that queftion, as, How Adam's fin, which confifted in the tranfgreffion of a law, could be conveyed or tranfmitted to his pofterity and nine articles of the Zuinglans were condemned as not expreffive, or confiftent, with the doctrine of original fin, though they admitted a depravity or corruption of nature. The prelates difpute much, but appear to be ignorant of the point, or the arguments, of the Zuinglans. This introduced a difpute concerning the immaculate conception of the Bleffed Virgin. ---The fifth feffion related to preachers, in which the mendicant monks took poffeffion of the pul 3 pits, |