done without strong expressions of repugnance. The count de Luna, although he was in the habit of representing it as his sovereign's desire that discussion of the theologians should precede the establishment of decrees, was yet now contented with the remedy of abuses. Controversy could only prolong the council without credit or benefit; and the Huguenots would take advantage of such prolongation to call for national synods, which could not be done when the present council was closed, and had concluded everything. Addressing the nationality of the person to whom he was writing, he says that nothing more was wanting to complete the satisfaction and joy of the council, than that the king of Spain should cordially unite his endeavours with those of all the other princes in bringing the council to a speedy and prosperous termination; and his holiness would feel more indebted to him than to all the other crowned heads.

We have yet some short notice to take of the letters of Visconti. It would have been easy to crowd the foot of our pages with reference to collateral passages from this production; and the margin of Courayer's translation of the Venetian historian is decisive, and subsequently appearing, evidence, how well the assailed integrity of that writer is supported. But these letters are extant in print, for the period, with which this portion of our memoirs is concerned. We will therefore content ourselves with a concise reference to the rumour and alarm of the establishment of an inquisition, of the Spanish character, in Milan, and the abandonment of the brutal attempt, as referred to rather largely in letters dated the 2nd and 19th of August; to an entreaty from Germany that the Recesses* of the diets should not be included in the projected new Index of Prohibited Books, August 16; and to jarring opinions on the subject of indulgences, August 16.

The decrees and canons of the council are to be found in

*This is the most important result, or rather part, of a German diet. At the close of the diet, the resolutions are collected and reduced to writing and the act which contains them is called the Recess.

their proper place, which is far from being inaccessible; and although we have given something of an outline of the enactments of some of the preceding sessions, such is the expansive bulk of the present, coupled with their comparative nonimportance, without adding that the substance of them has been forestalled, that we feel excused from entering into a review of them any further than to say, that the good fathers seem to have determined to compensate for the abbreviation and rapidity of their preparations by the quantity which those preparations ultimately produced; and that the most remarkable article in the mass of doctrinal and disciplinarian regulations on subjects in which they have done little more than shift the absurdity and corruption from one place to another, and effectually corrected none, is that in which the hotly-disputed clause, proponentibus legatis, is explained. The day for the next session was appointed to be the 9th of December: but it was abbreviated.

SESSION XXV.

PREPARATIONS-SESSION.

Doctrine: Purgatory, Indulgences, Invocation Veneration and Relics of Saints, Sacred Images, &c., Regulars, and Nuns.-Reformation: Cardinals, Excommunication, Episcopal Sees, &c., Duelling, &c.-Index of Books, Catechism, Revisal of Breviary and Missal committed to the Pope. EVERYTHING was now tending with precipitate and almost indecorous speed to the termination of the council; and its conductors, from the pontiff and his legates to the generals of orders, seemed to be impatient of the hazards of any session. That, however, it was necessary, at least for one time more, to encounter, and the usual preparations were put in train.

Two days after the last session, twenty-five prelates of different nations, with Lorraine and Madruccio, were assembled by the legates, and addressed by the chief president upon the readiest way of terminating the council, since the

main business had been despatched, the sacraments and reformation; and his holiness was desirous of that consummation, because, while the council was in existence, many accidents might occur which would create great disturbance. The French cardinal urged a speedy close of the council, from the necessities of France, for the sake of which country eminently the council was convoked *; and because it had been determined in a meeting of the king and the states, that if the council did not terminate, a national council should be called, the evils of which might easily be anticipated. The rest agreed in this view of the case, and seemed moved to it by the contemplated possibility of the death, either of the pope or the emperor, and the dangers which would follow. The manner of attaining their object, upon which they concluded, was, to propose what was unfinished on the subject of reformation and the regulars: the doctrines remaining of purgatory, images, and indulgences, since they were sufficiently plain, and had been determined by former councils, might be expedited without disputations, which were productive of excessive delay; and it would be enough to condemn some abuses upon the subjects. Classes and a deputation were accordingly provided to facilitate despatch.

A congregation was held on the 15th of November, when an additional copy of the fourteen articles upon reformation was distributed, and Morone opened the meeting by observing, that all which was necessary had been done, and even what pertained to doctrine; but that the heretics, for whose cause the council was principally convened, became more obstinate every day, nor did any hope of their amendment remain. If more was not effected, it should be remembered, that those who pursued perfection often lost what was good. Some matters of reform still remained, among which was the chapter of secular princes, reduced to a shorter form. This the legate felt himself pledged to bring forward, and therefore could not directly set aside; he therefore

This was now the current language.

insinuated its pretermission by the observation, that the condition and state of the times required that many things should be left to the piety and religion of princes, whom, adds the president, we desire, in an especial manner, to be the defenders and executors of our decrees; and when the fruit of the council was mature, it was the time for collecting it, lest by delay it should become corrupt. His holiness, who had convoked the synod for the good of the Christian republic, now, from the urgency of public affairs, wished for its close. The same was desired by most of the ambassadors; he therefore requested of the fathers to give their opinions with the utmost brevity, and to abstain from display and elongation. Lorraine supported him, and only desired two things; a public confirmation of the proceedings of the council by his holiness, and that the French bishops should return to their country, armed with dispensations and absolutions, for the purpose of conveying consolation and joy to their flocks *. The rest of the fathers performed their duty with unusual brevity, so much so as to draw upon themselves the charge of precipitation. Many were surprised that the emperor, who had always before favoured delay, was now so urgent for despatch, that it was suspected his conduct was the consequence of a stipulation with his holiness for the use of the cup in his own dominions.

The votes of the fathers were finished on the fourteen chapters of reformation, on the 18th of November. The celebrated one respecting secular princes was the last. On this even the imperial ambassadors remonstrated with their sovereign, that if it were enforced, it would produce great disturbances in the empire. The Venetian said the same. They all apply to his holiness, that that chapter should not only be omitted, but rescinded. His holiness, wishing for

* Secundum est, ut concedatur omnibus episcopis, cum ad ecclesias suas redierint, ut possint usque ad certum diem dispensare in impedimentis matrimonii, et absolvere in foro pœnitentiæ in omnibus casibus, ut ita etiam ipsi consolationem et lætitiam animabus illis commissis possint afferre. What a picture of a courtier and a cardinal!

nothing so much as the end of the council, readily assented, and sent letters to that purpose to the council, particularly repressing the zeal of those who were its chief advocates. The chapter was accordingly reduced to an unmeaning form, as it now stands *.

A copy of the reformation respecting regulars and nuns, with six other chapters of general reformation, was supplied to the fathers.

The votes on these subjects began on the 23d of November, and finished in four days.

On the 27th of November, the count de Luna, who had hitherto been quiet, opened his opposition to the plan of expedition, alleging, that the subjects yet remaining to be settled required from their importance deliberate and patient investigation. He added, that so much precipitation appeared unworthy of such an assembly as the present, and that he wished to understand the mind of his sovereign on the subject. He therefore begged that the next session might be deferred to at least two days after Christmas. He could not obtain the assent of the legates and others, who wondered he should have delayed so grave a proposal so long.

On the 28th of November, a number of the ambassadors and fathers met the legates at the house of Morone, who laid before them the state of the council. Lorraine represented that he was called to France by important affairs, and the bishops of that nation must speedily follow; if therefore their presence in the council were of any value, the session should not be deferred; and he thought the best course for the subjects, of doctrine in particular, was to determine them by short decrees, which would afford no pretence for controversy. The ambassadors of Germany did not object to the day of session, but desired that Indulgences, which were the chief cause of the defection of Luther, should be considered; they, however, preferred that the subject should be

* Quare fuit id caput in generalem quandam formulam, et fere inanem verborum sonum redactum, prout hodie se habet, ac ab omnibus fere probatum.