The pope in a few months beheld the destruction of the favorite object of his secular vanity in the assassination of his son; but altho the emperor's successes were perilous to the Lutherans, who were so odious to Rome, yet as they made him also more formidable to the Vatican, we find this pontiff, in November, determining to put himself entirely into the hands of the king of France; 58 and therefore forming what, with a specious and softened term, he called a defensive league, to which he requested Henry's accession, on the assurance that it would be found the true door to an offensive one,59 whose object would be to wrest the duchy of Milan and the kingdom of Naples from the emperor; 60 and this vicar, as he assumed himself to be, of his Saviour, danger for their religion. On 4th June, Celius wrote to the constable of France, the elector of Saxony was condemned to be beheaded, but, by the interposition of Brandenburg, the emperor agrees to spare his life, on these terms,' &c. The electorate was given to Maurice. Rib. 2. p. 22. 57 On 7th September, Mervillier informed his court of the assassination of the duc de Plaisance, fils du pape.' The pope imputed it to don Ferrand de Gonzaque. 2 Rib. 61. On 31st October the cardinal Guise apprises the king that he had expressed to the pontiff, le regret que vous avez de la mort du duc Pierre Louise son fils.' p. 73. It is not usual for popes to have children. 58 Cardinal Guise, on 11th November, states to Henry, The pope said, il etoit resous de se mettre du tout entre vos mains. Il vous offre la ligue defensive.' 2 Rib. 79. 59 The cardinal added, ' By your means the Swiss will enter in this league, a quoi le pape vous prie de tenir la main.' p. 79. He wishes you to begin by this defensive league, laquelle il dit être la vrai porte de l'offensive.' 81. 60 I will tell you ce qu'il pense pour offenser. Il m'a dit, qu'il n'y avoit que deux lieux pour ce faite-Naples and Milan.' ib. p. 81. We learn from the dispatch of 27th May, that there was then a revolt at Naples, on account of the Inquisition that was sought to be established there. As it was begun, the people burst into an insurrection, and remonstrated, that they and their predecessors had always been Catholics; that the attempt grieved them both in their honor and in their property; and that such an institution had never been practised any where but in Spain, where it was notorious that there were many Moors.' ib. p. 20. CHAP. VII. II. BOOK this supreme head of the Christian world, inquired earnestly of the French sovereign if he could not get the grand seignor, the sultan of the Mahomedan faith, who had already pushed his dominions to the Danube, to quarrel with the emperor: or at least to induce him or the dey of Algiers to send to these allies forty or fifty of their galleys." Revenge or hypocrisy could scarcely carry further a christian pontiff and his most christian king. Nor was this an ineffectual advice. Such an alliance was afterwards made; and a Turkish detachment of Mussulman galleys were seen in the Mediterranean united with the French fleet, and ravaging the Christian territories that were faithful to their imperial sovereign. 62 The pope was at this time persisting in keeping the council at Bologna, where the French king, to please him, ordered his prelates to go; while the emperor demanded its return to Trent; and his agents meditated a protest which would have been almost a defiance to the papacy. 63 Paul received a proposal for surprising Genoa, and advised the French king to preserve peace with the English, that 64 61 The cardinal's words on this curious and unprincipled counsel are, 'M'ayant commande derechef le pape, de vous faire instance, pour savoir, si nous pourrions faire venir le grand seigneur en querelle avec l'empereur; ou, pour le moins, si de lui ou du rey d'Alger on pourroit avoir 40 à 50 galeres.' 2 Rib. p. 81. 62 On 30th August 1547, the bishop of Mirepoix announced to the prime minister at Paris their arrival. ib. 54. 63 The mitigating answer of the consistory, given to him in December, was, that the opinion of the whole council must first be taken. In January 1548 the language of the imperial ambassador was more strong: He called Bologna a ville suspecte à la nation d'Allemagne,' because it was in obedience to the pope. He pronounced what they should do there to be a nullity, and a protestation was preparing vers la sainteté du pape dont le langage approche presque d'un defy.' Rib. p. 102. 6And sent the proposer twice to the French ambassador. Lett. 18 Feb. p. 110. VII. his blow against Charles might be more effectual; CHAP. and, therefore, without abandoning the Scots, to act so as to keep England occupied with them, as the emperor was urging it to hostilities against France.65 It had been the leading principles of the foreign politics of Henry VIII. to watch the contending ambition of Charles V. and Francis I., to prevent either from overpowering the other; to be generally neutral; but to interfere by his forces against the latter, when he became the endangering party, as England was most interested in preventing the aggrandizement of French dominion. But the state council of Edward preferred, during his minority, to leave these disputing sovereignties more entirely to themselves, with no other intervention than diplomatic solicitations to both to unite in a cordial peace, and offers to act mediatorially to reconcile them; while their greatest exertions were directed to prosecute the reformation and new arrangement of England's ecclesiastical state; 66 some, like Cranmer, aiming only at the establishment of a true and rational system of Christian doctrines, worship, and discipline; but others, especially the lay lords, more earnest chiefly to dispossess the church of what property and possessions remained to it, and to share among themselves such booty as could be creditably wrested from the unbefriended hierarchy. Foreign affairs 6 65 Rib. 117. De Rohan subjoins, His holiness, in imitation of you, intends to compose his guard of Swiss, and therefore intreats you to keep that nation in good will towards you.' ib. 66 The president Henault remarks, that Henry's abolition of the papal supremacy only amounted to a schism; but that Cranmer under Edward changed the established worship, and introduced the Protestant religion into England. Abr. Chronol. II. BOOK this supreme head of the Christian world, inquired earnestly of the French sovereign if he could not get the grand seignor, the sultan of the Mahomedan faith, who had already pushed his dominions to the Danube, to quarrel with the emperor or at least to induce him or the dey of Algiers to send to these allies forty or fifty of their galleys." Revenge or hypocrisy could scarcely carry further a christian pontiff and his most christian king. Nor was this an ineffectual advice. Such an alliance was afterwards made; and a Turkish detachment of Mussulman galleys were seen in the Mediterranean united with the French fleet, and ravaging the Christian territories that were faithful to their imperial sovereign. The pope was at this time persisting in keeping the council at Bologna, where the French king, to please him, ordered his prelates to go; 62 while the emperor demanded its return to Trent; and his agents meditated a protest which would have been almost a defiance to the papacy. 63 Paul received a proposal for surprising Genoa, and advised the French king to preserve peace with the English, that 64 61 The cardinal's words on this curious and unprincipled counsel are, 'M'ayant commande derechef le pape, de vous faire instance, pour savoir, si nous pourrions faire venir le grand seigneur en querelle avec l'empereur; ou, pour le moins, si de lui ou du rey d'Alger on pourroit avoir 40 à 50 galeres.' 2 Rib. p. 81. 62 On 30th August 1547, the bishop of Mirepoix announced to the prime minister at Paris their arrival. ib. 54. 63 The mitigating answer of the consistory, given to him in December, was, that the opinion of the whole council must first be taken. In January 1548 the language of the imperial ambassador was more strong; He called Bologna a ville suspecte à la nation d'Allemagne,' because it was in obedience to the pope. He pronounced what they should do there to be a nullity, and a protestation was preparing vers la sainteté du pape dont le langage approche presque d'un defy.' Rib. p. 102. 6 And sent the proposer twice to the French ambassador. Lett. 18 Feb. p. 110. VII. his blow against Charles might be more effectual; CHAP. and, therefore, without abandoning the Scots, to act so as to keep England occupied with them, as the emperor was urging it to hostilities against France.65 It had been the leading principles of the foreign politics of Henry VIII. to watch the contending ambition of Charles V. and Francis I., to prevent either from overpowering the other; to be generally neutral; but to interfere by his forces against the latter, when he became the endangering party, as England was most interested in preventing the aggrandizement of French dominion. But the state council of Edward preferred, during his minority, to leave these disputing sovereignties more entirely to themselves, with no other intervention than diplomatic solicitations to both to unite in a cordial peace, and offers to act mediatorially to reconcile them; while their greatest exertions were directed to prosecute the reformation and new arrangement of England's ecclesiastical state; some, like Cranmer, aiming only at the establishment of a true and rational system of Christian doctrines, worship, and discipline; but others, especially the lay lords, more earnest chiefly to dispossess the church of what property and possessions remained to it, and to share among themselves such booty as could be creditably wrested from the unbefriended hierarchy. Foreign affairs 66 6 65 Rib. 117. De Rohan subjoins, His holiness, in imitation of you, intends to compose his guard of Swiss, and therefore intreats you to keep that nation in good will towards you.' ib. 66 The president Henault remarks, that Henry's abolition of the papal supremacy only amounted to a schism; but that Cranmer under Edward changed the established worship, and introduced the Protestant religion into England. Abr. Chronol." |