It has already been observed that the dissolute and unchristian life of the priesthood was one of the efficient causes which led to the success of the Reformation. At an early period in the movement, the Catholic church felt the necessity of purifying itself, if it was to retain the veneration of the people; and the veneration of the people was now not merely a source of revenue, but a condition of the very existence of the stupendous structure reared upon the credulity of ages. As soon as it became clearly apparent that Lutheranism was not to be suppressed by the ordinary machinery, and that it was spreading with a rapidity which portended the worst results, an effort was made to remove the reproach which incorrigible immorality had entailed upon the church. Allusion has been made above to the stringent measures of reform proclaimed by the legate Campeggi at Ratisbon, in 1524, in which he acknowledged that the new heresy had no little excuse in the detestable morals and abandoned lives of the clergy—a truth repeatedly admitted by the ecclesiastical authorities.1319 His well-meant endeavors had little result, and we have seen that, some years later, Erasmus still urged the abolition of the rule of celibacy as the only practicable mode of removing the scandal.
Not long afterwards the Gallican church made a strenuous effort of the same nature to check the spread of Lutheranism. In 1521, before it had to encounter a hostile heresy, the council of Paris had deplored the pervading corruptions with exceeding candor. The condition of conventual discipline was such as to threaten the very existence of the system, and the customary denunciations of ineradicable abuses were freely published.1320 In 1528 the Cardinal-legate Duprat, Chancellor of France, held a council in Paris, where he condemned, seriatim, the new doctrines as heresies, and elevated the rule of celibacy to the dignity of a point of faith.1321 He also caused the adoption of a series of canons designed to remove from the church the disgrace caused by the laxity of clerical morals and manners. The bishops were instructed to enforce the decrees of the councils and of the fathers until concubinage and incontinence should be completely exterminated, and a rule was laid down which would have been eventually effectual if conscientiously carried out. No one was thereafter to be admitted to holy orders without written testimony as to his age and moral character from his parish priest, substantiated by the oaths of two or three approved witnesses.1322 At the same time similar councils were held at Bourges by the Cardinal Archbishop Tournon, and at Lyons by Claude, Bishop of Macon. To what extent these excellent rules were put in force may be guessed by a description of the French clergy in 1560, as portrayed by Monluc, Bishop of Valence, in a speech before the royal council. The parish priests were for the most part engrossed in worldly pursuits, and had obtained their preferment by illicit means, nor did there seem much prospect of an improvement so long as the prelates were in the habit of bestowing the benefices within their gift on their lackeys, barbers, cooks, and other serving men, rendering the ecclesiastics as a body an object of contempt to the people.1323 We need, therefore, not be surprised to find in the councils of the period a repetition of all the old injunctions, showing that the maintenance of improper consorts and the disgrace of priestly families were undiminished evils.1324 This description of the French clergy is most emphatically extended to the whole church in the project for reformation drawn up by order of Paul III. in 1538, and to these evils are attributed the innumerable scandals which afflicted the faithful, as well as the contempt in which the ecclesiastical body was held and the virtual extinction of all reverence for the services of religion.1325
In 1530 Clement VII. addressed himself vigorously to the task of putting an end to the scandalous practice of hereditary transmission of benefices, which he describes as almost universal. A special Bull was issued, prohibiting the children of priests or monks from enjoying any preferment in their father’s benefices, and, recognizing that the Roman curia was one of the chief obstacles to all reform, he provided that if he or his successors should grant dispensations permitting such infraction of the canons, they should be considered as issued unwittingly, and be held null and void.1326 Like so many others, this Bull seems to have been forgotten almost as soon as issued, and the pecuniary needs of the Roman court rendered it unable to abandon so lucrative a source of revenue. Even as soon as 1538 the cardinals to whom Paul III. committed the task of drawing up the project of reformation cautiously intimate that they hear of such dispensations being granted, and to this they attribute a large share of the troubles of the church and the enmity felt towards the Holy See.1327 This warning passed unheeded, and, as we have seen, in 1559 a Scottish council prayed the queen-regent to use her influence with the pope to prevent dispensations being granted to enable illegitimate children to hold preferment in their father’s benefices,1328 while in 1562 the frequency and readiness with which such dispensations were still obtained are enumerated in a list of abuses laid before the council of Trent by Sebastian King, of Portugal, as one of the matters requiring reformation by the supreme power of the council.1329 To this and other similar appeals the papal legates loftily replied that laws were not to be prescribed to the Holy See;1330 and the motive for the refusal is easily comprehended when we see that in the “Taxes of the Penitentiary” the price for a dispensation admitting the bastard of a priest to holy orders was a ducat and a carlino.1331
In Spain, the most dangerous opponent of the Reformation, Ignatius Loyola, succeeded to some extent in repressing the public and unblushing manifestation of concubinage. His biographer states that the female companions of the Peninsular clergy were accustomed to pledge their faith to their consorts, as if united by the marriage-tie, and that they wore the distinguishing costume of married women, as though glorying in their shame.1332 Scandalized by this, on his return to his native land, in 1535, Ignatius exerted himself to abolish it, together with other priestly peccadilloes, and his influence was sufficient to procure the enactment and enforcement by the temporal authorities of sundry laws which relieved the Spanish church from so great an opprobrium.1333 Yet, though this semi-authorized cohabitation may have been checked, the custom of notorious concubinage continued to flourish. Bernardino Diaz de Luco, a Spanish jurist, not long afterwards, deplores the frequency of the vice, but warns judges that they should not be over-severe in repressing it, since so few are found guiltless, and there is danger that those who are restrained from it may be forced into darker sins.1334
About the same time, Hermann von Wied, Archbishop of Cologne, undertook the reformation of his extensive diocese. He assembled a council which issued a series of 275 canons, prescribing minutely the functions, duties, and obligations of all grades of the clergy. As regards the delicate subject of concubinage, he contented himself with quoting the Nicene canon prohibiting the residence of women not nearly connected by blood, and added that if the degeneracy of the times prevented the enforcement of a regulation so strict, at all events he forbade the companionship of females obnoxious to suspicion.1335 The good bishop himself could hardly have expected that so mild an allocution would have much effect upon a perverse and hardened generation.
In 1537, Matthew, Archbishop of Salzburg, assembled his provincial synod, which, recognizing the urgent necessity of preserving the church and protecting the people, adopted a series of reformatory canons. Apparently afraid of promulgating them, however, it was resolved to suppress them for the present under the pretext that the approaching general council would regulate the discipline of the church at large, and the archbishop contented himself with a pastoral letter addressed to his suffragans, in which he urged upon them to consider the contamination to which the laity were exposed through the vices of their pastors, and timidly suggested that, if the clergy could not restrain their passions, they should at all events indulge them secretly, so that scandal might be avoided and the punishment of their transgressions be left to an avenging God.1336
Even in the council of Trent itself, the Bishop of St. Mark, in opening its proceedings with a speech, January 6th, 1546, drew a fearful picture of the corruption of the world, which had reached a degree that posterity might possibly equal but not exceed. This he assured the assembled fathers was attributable solely to the wickedness of the pastors, who drew their flocks with them into the abyss of sin. The Lutheran heresy had been provoked by their own guilt, and its suppression was only to be hoped for by their own reformation.1337 At a later session, the Bavarian orator, August Baumgartner, told the assembled fathers that the progress of the Reformation was attributable to the scandalous lives of the clergy, whose excesses he could not describe without offending the chaste ears of his auditory. He even asserted that out of a hundred priests there were not more than three or four who were not either married or concubinarians1338—a statement repeated in a consultation on the subject of ecclesiastical reform drawn up in 1562 by order of the Emperor Ferdinand, with the addition that the clergy would rather see the whole structure of the church destroyed than submit to even the most moderate measure of reform.1339
It is not to be wondered therefore that the Christian world had long and earnestly demanded the convocation of an œcumenic council which should represent all parties, should have full powers to reconcile all differences, and should give to the ancient church the purification thus recognized as the only efficient means of healing the schism. This was a remedy to the last degree distasteful to the Holy See. The recollections of Constance and Bâle were full of pregnant warnings as to the almost inevitable antagonism between the Vicegerent of Christ and an independent representative body, believing itself to act under the direct inspiration of the Holy Ghost, claiming autocratic supremacy in the church, and convoked for the special purpose of reforming abuses, the most of which were fruitful sources of revenue to the papal court. Such a body, if assembled in Germany, would be the pope’s master; if in Italy, his tool; and it behooved him to act warily if he desired to meet the unanimous demand of Christendom without risking the sacrifice of his most cherished prerogatives. Had the council been called in the early days of the Reformation, it could hardly have prevented the separation of the churches; yet, in the temper which then existed, it would probably have effected as thorough a purification of the ecclesiastical establishment as was possible in so corrupt an age. By delaying it until the reactionary movement had fairly set in, the chances of troublesome puritans gaining the ascendency were greatly diminished, and the papal court exposed itself to little danger when, under the urgent pressure of the emperor, it at length, in 1536, proposed to convoke the long desired assembly at Mantua.1340
A place so completely under papal influence was not likely to meet the views of the opposition, and it is not surprising that both the Lutherans and Henry VIII. refused to connect themselves with such a council. The latter, indeed, in his epistle of April 8, 1538, to Charles V., expressed himself more forcibly than elegantly:—“Nowe, if he [the pope] calle us to one of his owne townes, we be afraid to be at suche an hostes table. We saye, Better to ryse a hungred, then to goo thense with oure bellyes fulle.”1341 The formality of its opening, May 17th, 1537, was therefore an empty ceremony; its transfer to Vicenza was little more; and, as no delegates presented themselves up to the 1st of May, 1538, it was prorogued until Easter, 1539, with the promise of selecting a satisfactory place for the meeting. The pressure still continued until, in May, 1542, Paul finally convoked it to assemble at Trent. The Reformers were no better satisfied than before. They had so long professed their readiness to submit all the questions in dispute to a free and unbiased general council, that they could not refuse absolutely to countenance it; but they were now so completely established as a separate organization, that they had little to hope and everything to fear from the appeal which they had themselves provoked, and nothing which Rome could now offer would have brought them into willing attendance upon such a body.1342 They accordingly kept aloof, and on the assembling of the council, November 22d, 1542, its numbers were so scanty that it could accomplish nothing, and it was accordingly suspended in July, 1543. When again convoked, March 15th, 1545, but twenty bishops and a few ambassadors were present; these waited with what patience they might command for accessions, which were so tardy in arriving that when at length the assembly was formally opened, on the 13th of December, the number had increased by only five. For fifteen months the council continued its sessions, completely under the control of the pope, and occupied solely with measures designed to draw the line between the Catholic and the Reformed churches more sharply than ever.
The appeals of the German bishops and of the imperial ambassadors for some effective efforts at reform became at length too pressing, and to evade them, in March, 1547, the council was transferred to Bologna, against the earnest protest of the emperor and the Spaniards, who refused to follow.1343 At Bologna little was done except to dispute over the sharp protests of the emperor and to adjourn the council from time to time, until, after falling into universal contempt, it was suspended in 1549. Julius III., who received the tiara on the 22d of February, 1550, signalized his accession by convoking it again at Trent; and there it once more assembled on the 1st of May, 1551.
At that time Lutheranism in Germany was under the heel of Charles V.; 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
A third document is extant, without date, which was laid before the cardinals of the papal court by the emperor, in which the question was argued at considerable length and with much vehemence. After asserting that from the records of the primitive church celibacy was not then recognized as imperative, it proceeded to declare that if marriage ever were permissible, the present carnal and licentious age rendered it a necessity, for not one Catholic priest out of fifty could be found who lived chastely. All were asserted to be notoriously dissolute, scandalizing the people and inflicting great damage on the church. The request was made not so much to satisfy the priests who desired marriage as to meet the wishes of the laity, for many patrons of livings refused presentation to all but married men. However preferable a single life might be for the clergy, it therefore was thought better to give it up than to leave open the door to the scandalous impurities traceable to celibacy. Another weighty reason was alleged in the great scarcity of priests, caused alone by the prohibition of marriage, in proof of which it was urged that the Catholic schools of divinity were all but empty and the episcopal function of ordination nearly disused, while the Lutheran colleges were crowded by those who subsequently obtained admission into the true church, where they worked incredible mischief. The argument that the temporal possessions of the church would be imperilled by sacerdotal matrimony was met by indignantly denouncing the worldly wisdom which would protect such perishable interests at the cost of innumerable souls sacrificed by the existing condition of affairs. For these and other reasons it asked that marriage should in future be allowed to all the priesthood, whether already in orders or to be subsequently admitted: that married men of good character and education should be ordained to supply the want of pastors: that those who had contracted matrimony, in contravention of the canons, should no longer be ejected, seeing that it was most absurd to turn out men because they were married, while retaining notorious concubinarians, and that if, with equal justice, both classes should be dismissed, the people would be left almost, if not entirely, destitute of spiritual guides. The paper concluded by asserting that if the prayer be granted the clergy could be retained in the church and in the faith, to the great benefit of their flocks, and that the scandal of promiscuous licentiousness, which had involved the church in so much disgrace, would be removed.1378
This vivid sketch of the condition of the church, with the evils which were everywhere felt, and the remedies which suggested themselves to clear-sighted and impartial men, was as ineffectual as other similar efforts had been, for to all such arguments the council of Trent was deaf. France, too, was more than willing to see celibacy abolished. M. de Lanssac, the French ambassador, was ordered to place himself in close relations with the representatives of the emperor, and to unite with them in seeking the relaxation of all regulations which tended to prevent the reunion of the Protestants, while the Gallican bishops were commanded to show themselves reasonable and yielding in such matters; and when Lanssac reported the demands of the emperor, comprehending clerical marriage among other changes, Charles IX. assented to them in terms of warm commendation.1379 The Cardinal of Lorraine, moreover, was instructed to urge some measures efficient to reform the licentious lives of the ecclesiastics which spread corruption and debauchery among the people, while permission for priestly marriage was recommended as one of the means essential to recall the heretics to the bosom of the true church.1380 As a compromise, however, the French prelates contented themselves with suggesting that none but elderly men should be eligible to the priesthood, and that the testimony of the people in favor of their moral character should be a prerequisite to ordination, in hopes that by such means the necessary purification of the clergy at least could be effected, while the sharpest measures should be adopted to punish their licentiousness.1381
All this was useless, and, in fact, it is difficult to imagine how any one could expect a reform of this nature from a body composed of prelates all whom were obliged by Pius IV., in a decree of September 4th, 1560, to solemnly swear to a profession of faith containing a specific declaration that the vows of chastity assumed on entering into holy orders or monastic life were to be strictly observed and enforced.1382 The question thus was prejudged, and the council was more likely to listen to Bartholomew a Martyribus, the Archbishop of Bracara, who laid before them a paper containing the points which, in his opinion, required reformation, among which were the revival of the canons respecting concubinary bishops and priests, the prohibition of sons succeeding to their father’s benefices, and the excommunication of confessors who debauched their fair penitents1383—though when the sturdy archbishop in a stormy debate declared that “illustrissimi cardinales egent illustrissima reformatione,” he doubtless was held to be a most uncourtly and impracticable reformer.
Despite all the urgency from without, it was not until the 8th of February, 1563, after the council had been in session for more than a year, that the theologians at last arranged for disputation the articles on matrimony, and laid them before the council for discussion. They were divided into five classes, of which the fourth was devoted to the bearing of the subject on the clergy, consisting of two propositions artfully drawn up to justify rejection, while preserving the appearance of presenting the subject for deliberation.—That matrimony was preferable to celibacy, and that God bestowed grace on the married rather than on the single.—That the priests of the Western Church could lawfully contract marriage, notwithstanding the canons; that to deny this was to condemn matrimony, and that all were at liberty to marry who did not feel themselves graced with the gift of chastity.1384
The disputation on the various questions connected with matrimony commenced the next day, and was continued at intervals for six months. By August 7th all the canons on the subject were agreed to, except the one on clandestine marriages, which gave the fathers much more trouble than the more important decision respecting the retention of celibacy.1385 This latter, indeed, was a foregone conclusion. In the minute account, transmitted from day to day by Archbishop Calini to Cardinal Cornaro, in which all the details of internal discussion and external intrigue attainable by a quick-witted member of the council were reported, there is no allusion to the subject. No debates or diversity of opinion are mentioned, no intimation that the matter was regarded as open to a doubt, and even the appeals made by the emperor and other potentates are passed over in silence, for the very sufficient reason that the papal legates, who controlled all the business of the council, refused to allow them to be read.1386 In their reply to the emperor’s remonstrances, indeed, they declared that to have such a subject publicly broached in the council would create a fearful scandal throughout Christendom, and Pius IV. approved of their answer as the best that could be given.1387 It is no wonder, therefore, that in the correspondence of the nuncio Visconti the only allusion to the matter is a simple reference, under date of March 22, 1563, to the demand previously made by the Duke of Bavaria.1388
In fact, when, on March 4th, the 5th and 6th articles were reached, they were both unanimously pronounced heretical without any prolonged debate. Doctor Juan de Ludegna pronounced a “disputation” on the subject, the tone of which showed that the result was already decided, and that the only disposition of the council was to vilify those who desired the abrogation of celibacy.1389 A discussion, however, then arose as to the power of the pope to dispense the clergy, both regular and secular, from the obligation of celibacy, and on this point there was considerable diversity of opinion, occupying numerous successive meetings in its settlement. The majority were in favor of the papal power; and its exercise in the existing condition of the church was even recommended by those who recognized the evils of the system, but shrank from the responsibility of themselves introducing the innovation. This was promptly rebuked by the conservatives, according to Fra Paolo, with the remark that a prudent physician would not attempt to cure one disease by bringing on a greater.1390 The legates, indeed, were blamed for allowing any discussion on so dangerous a topic, since, if priests were permitted to marry, their affections would be concentrated on family and country, in place of the church; their subjection to the Holy See would be diminished, the whole system of the hierarchy destroyed, and the pope himself would eventually become a simple Bishop of Rome.1391 If such consequences as these were anticipated by the able men who represented the papal interests, we may readily believe that Pallavicini speaks the sense of the managers of the council when he remarks, concerning the princes who exerted themselves in favor of sacerdotal marriage, that they seemed to consider that the council had been convoked for the purpose not of condemning but of contenting the heretics, whom they proposed to convert by gratifying in place of repressing their contumacious desires.1392 If this be so, the Protestants were amply justified in refusing to submit their cause to a body so different in its objects from that free and unbiased œcumenic council to which they had so often appealed from their persecutors.
Yet, notwithstanding that the policy of the church was thus immutable, there seems to have been no hesitation in holding out fallacious hopes to the expectant populations. When, in the spring of 1563, the Bavarians, wearied with endless promises, rose in revolt and demanded the use of the cup and priestly marriage, their duke was obliged to make a promise to his Diet that if the required concessions were not granted in June, by either the council or the pope, he would himself give the desired permission. The threatened defection of this Catholic stronghold caused such alarm that the legates at Trent forthwith despatched Niccolo Ormanetto to the duke, to persuade him to withdraw his promised reforms under a pledge that the council would take such order as would satisfy the demands of his people.1393
These promises were soon forgotten, though it was not until the 11th of November that the canons on matrimony were finally adopted and formally published. Of these there are two relating to our subject. The first one pronounced the dread anathema on all who should dare to assert that clerks in holy orders, monks, or nuns could contract marriage, or that such a marriage was valid, since God would not deny the gift of chastity to those who rightly sought it, nor would He expose us to temptation beyond our strength. The other similarly anathematized all who dared to assert that the married state was more worthy than virginity, or that it was not better to live in celibacy than married.1394
Thus the church, in endeavoring to meet the novel exigencies caused by the progress and enlightenment of mankind, in place of making the concessions demanded by almost all beyond the narrow pale of the papal court, devoted its energies to the miserable task of separating itself as widely as possible from those who had left it.1395 Its rulers seemed to imagine that their only hope of safety lay in intrenching themselves behind the exaggerations of those particular points of policy which had afforded to their adversaries the fairest chances of attack. The faithful throughout Germany might suffer from the absence of the ministers of Christ, or might endure yet more from the unrestrained passions of the wolves in sheep’s clothing let loose among their wives and daughters, but the church militant in this conjuncture dreaded even more to lose the aid of that monastic army which, in theory at least, had no earthly object but the service of St. Peter; it selfishly feared that the parish priest who might legitimately see his fireside surrounded by a happy group of wife and children would lose the devotion which a man without ties should entertain for the prosperity and glory of the ecclesiastical establishment; and perhaps, more than all, it saw with terror avaricious princes eager for the secularization of that immense property to which it owed so large a portion of the splendor which dazzled mankind, of the influence which rendered it powerful, and of the luxury which made its high places attractive to the ambitious and able men who controlled its destiny. To put an end, therefore, at once and forever, to the mutterings of dissatisfaction among those who compared the calm and virtuous life of the Protestant pastors with the reckless self-indulgence of the ministers of the old religion, it was resolved to place the canon of celibacy in a position where none of the orthodox should dare to attack it, and to accomplish this the simple rule of discipline was elevated to the dignity of a point of belief. As the church had already been forced, in defending the rule from the assaults of the reformers, to attribute to it apostolic origin, we may not perhaps be surprised that it was made a point of doctrine, but we cannot easily appreciate the reasons that would justify the anathema launched against all who regarded the marriage of those in holy orders as binding. The dissolution of such marriages, as we have seen, was not suggested until the middle of the twelfth century, and the decision of the council thus condemned as heretics the whole body of the church during three-quarters of its previous existence.
Although the doctrinal canon threw the responsibility of priestly unchastity upon God, yet as the council had so peremptorily refused to adopt the remedy urged by the princes of the empire, it did not hesitate to employ human means to remove, if possible, the scandals which God had permitted to afflict the church. The decree of reformation, published in December, 1563, contained provisions intended to curb the vice which the Tridentine fathers, with all their reliance on Divine power, well knew to be ineradicable. These provisions, however, were little more than a repetition of what we have seen enacted in every century since Siricius. Any ecclesiastic guilty of keeping a concubine, or woman liable to suspicion, was admonished; disregarding this first warning, he was deprived of one-third of his revenue; if still contumacious, suspension from functions and benefice followed; and a persistence in guilt was then visited with irrevocable deprivation. No appeal from a sentence could gain exemption; these cases were removed from the jurisdiction of inferior officials and confided to the bishops, who were enjoined to be prompt and severe in their decisions; while guilty bishops were liable to suspension by their provincial synods, and, if irreclaimable, were sent to Rome for punishment. The illegitimate children of priests were pronounced incapable of preferment. Those already in orders, if employed in their fathers’ parishes, were required, under pain of deprivation, to exchange their positions within three months for preferment elsewhere, and any provision made by a clerical parent for the benefit of his children was pronounced to be a fraud.1396
Such were the regulations which this great general council of the Catholic church considered sufficient to relieve the establishment of the curse which had hung around it for a thousand years. There is nothing in them that had not been tried a hundred times before, with what success the foregoing pages may attest. In some respects, indeed, they were not as prompt and efficacious as the decrees which Charles V. and his bishops had promulgated a few years previous, and which had proved so lamentably inefficient. There were not wanting enlightened members of the council who bitterly felt the inefficiency of what they were doing, but the undignified haste of the closing sessions, and the all-powerful opposition of Rome, rendered them unable to accomplish more. As the Bishop of Astorga said in a letter to Granvelle—“They are not as we would have wished, to correct the abuses and scandals of the church, which cause so many to fall into error, but we have to do what we are permitted to do, not what we would wish to do.”1397 Heretics, indeed, who asserted that there was in reality no intention of suppressing concubinage, could point in justification to the curious fact that, while previous councils had provided heavy penalties against the concubines of priests, that of Trent passed them over as though they were guiltless.
Strange as it may seem, the anathema so decidedly enunciated by the council did not deter Albert of Bavaria and the Emperor Ferdinand from continuing their efforts to procure for their subjects the benefit of a relaxation of the canon. The decision of a majority of the doctors of the council favoring the papal power of dispensation suggested the mode of obtaining it. Although the form of the canons had been adopted on the 7th of August, and the previous proceedings left no doubt as to their authoritative promulgation in full session, yet, on the 26th of August, the nuncio Visconti writes that he had heard from his colleague Delfino, then in Vienna, that the three ecclesiastical electors (Mainz, Trèves, and Cologne), the Archbishop of Salzburg and the Duke of Bavaria had held a conference, in which it was resolved to unite with the emperor in an appeal for Bulls permitting the marriage of the clergy and the use of the cup by the laity.1398 Early in September the emperor wrote to his ambassadors, stating that he had called together at Vienna the deputies of the electors and princes of the empire, where, after mature deliberation, it had been determined to ask the cup and clerical marriage of the pope and not of the council; that a protocol had already been drawn up, which accompanied the despatch, but as it was a matter not yet fully settled, he desired it to be communicated to no one but the Count de Luna, the ambassador of Philip II.1399
It was not, however, until February, 1564, after the conclusion of the council, which brought its weary labors to an end on the 4th of December, 1563, that Ferdinand and Albert presented their requests to Pius IV. The two papers were essentially the same. In the name of the princes of the empire, after demanding the communion in both elements for the laity, they proceeded to argue earnestly for the other concession. Perhaps the decided opposition of the council to the principle of sacerdotal marriage had produced an influence upon them; perhaps they had found themselves obliged to yield some of their own views in order to secure the coöperation of the Teutonic hierarchy; be this as it may, their demands were greatly abated. In place of asking, as before, the privilege for the clergy at large, they now reduced their entreaties to the simple request of allowing such Catholic priests as had entered into matrimony, to retain their wives and perform their functions, which they assured the pope was absolutely essential to the preservation of the fragments of the church still doing battle with the prevailing heresies throughout Germany.1400 They likewise asked that in such places as could not obtain a sufficiency of pastors, the bishops should be empowered to ordain married laymen of approved piety, learning, and fitness.
These appeals were successful as far as communion in both elements was concerned, for, on April 16th, Pius granted that concession under certain conditions. The subject of priestly marriage, however, he still postponed, and on June 17th we find Ferdinand writing to Cardinal Morone, to express his thanks for what he had obtained, and to urge the other subject on the consideration of the papal court. He had instructed his ambassador, he said, to press it earnestly, and he besought the Cardinal to aid in so pious and advantageous a work.1401
Nor was this the only means which Ferdinand, then verging rapidly to the grave, adopted to attain the object of his unwearied pursuit. George Wicelius had thrown aside the monastic gown in 1531, to embrace the errors of Lutheranism, but had returned to the old religion. His learning and piety earned for him a deserved reputation, and elevated him to the position of imperial councillor, where his talents were devoted to the endless task of bringing about a reconciliation between the churches. George Cassander, equally eminent, had never incurred the imputation of apostasy, but had labored with tireless industry to convert his erring brethren from heresy to the true faith. Men like these might perhaps be heard when the voice of princes and prelates, actuated by motives of personal advantage, met a deaf ear; and Ferdinand applied to them for disquisitions on the subject.1402 Before their labors were concluded the monarch was dead (July 25, 1564), but his son Maximilian II. inherited his father’s ideas, and gladly made use of the opinions which the learned Catholic doctors had no hesitation in expressing.
Both took strong ground against celibacy. Cassander, while defending the church for originally introducing the rule, deplored the terrible and abominable scandals which its untimely enforcement caused throughout the church, and he urged that the reasons which had led to its introduction not only existed no longer, but had even become arguments for its abrogation, since now the choice lay only between married priests and concubinarians. He declared it to be the source of numerous evils, chief among which was promiscuous and unbridled licentiousness, and he added that the already scanty ranks of the priesthood were deprived of the accessions which were so necessary, since men of a religious turn of mind were prevented from taking orders by the universal wickedness which prevailed under the excuse of celibacy, while pious parents kept their sons from entering the church for fear of debauching their morals. On the other hand, those who sought a life of ease and license were attracted to the holy calling which they disgraced. He was even willing to permit marriage in orders, arguing that it was only a question of canon law, in which faith and doctrine were not involved. As regards the monastic orders, while fully appreciating the principles upon which the system was founded, he warmly deplored the corruption engendered by wealth and luxury. Though the convents contained many pious and holy men, still for the most part religion was forgotten in the observance of ceremonies that had lost their significance, and nothing could be more licentious and profane than the life led in many of the monasteries.1403 Wicelius was equally severe in his denunciations of the clerical licentiousness attributable to the rule of celibacy, and concluded his tract by attacking the supineness, blindness, and perversity of the prelates who suffered such foulness to exist everywhere among the priesthood, in contempt of Christ, and to the burdening of their consciences.1404
It was already evident that both the great objects for which the council of Trent had ostensibly been assembled were failures; that it would effect as little for the purification of the church as for the reconciliation of the heretics. Perhaps Maximilian felt that under these circumstances no one could deny the necessity of such changes as would at least afford a chance of the reformation that could no longer be expected of the Tridentine canons; perhaps he felt strengthened by the support of his ecclesiastical counsellors and controversialists; perhaps, with the zealous hopefulness of youth, he felt a confidence of which age and many disappointments had deprived his father; or perhaps he was encouraged by the concession to his subjects and to those of Albert of Bavaria, of the communion in both elements, not knowing that in two short years it would be withdrawn. Certain it is that in a negotiation with the Bishop of Vintimiglia, papal nuncio at his court, he lost no time in renewing, with increased energy, the effort to obtain the recognition of married priests. After the departure of the nuncio, he addressed, in November, 1564, a most pressing demand to Pius IV., in which he declared that the matter brooked no further postponement; that throughout Germany, and especially in his dominions, there was the greatest need of proper ministers and pastors; that there was no other measure which would retain them in the Catholic church, from which, day by day, they were withdrawing, principally from this cause. He assured the Holy Father that the danger was constantly increasing, and that he feared a further delay would render even this remedy powerless to prevent the total destruction of the old religion. If only this were granted to the clergy, even as the cup had been communicated to the laity, he hoped for an immediate improvement. The bishops could then exercise their authority over those who at present were beyond their control, as unrecognized by the church; and so thoroughly was this lawless condition of affairs understood that a refuge was sought in his provinces by those disreputable pastors who were banished from the Lutheran states on account of their disorderly lives.1405 His brother, the Archduke Charles, was equally urgent, in a letter which he addressed, a few days later, to the Pope, repeating the same arguments, and assuring him that the only hope for the true religion in his dominions was to find some means of admitting the services of a married clergy.1406
Ferdinand and Maximilian were actuated in these persevering efforts not merely by the desire of gratifying the wishes of their people, or of remedying the depravity of the ecclesiastical body. It had been a favorite project with the father, warmly adopted by the son, to heal the differences between the two religions, and to restore to the church its ancient and prosperous unity. In their opinion, and in that of many eminent men, the main obstacle to this was the question of celibacy. It was evidently hopeless to expect this sacrifice of the Lutheran pastors, while numerous members of the Catholic church regarded the change as essential to the purification of their own establishment. The only mode of effecting so desirable a reconciliation was therefore to persuade the pope to exercise the power of dispensation which the council of Trent had admitted to be inherent in his high office. The spirit of the papal court, however, was that which Pallavicini attributes to the council—that the heretics were to be cut off, and not to be cajoled into returning. Pius IV. himself was not personally averse to the plan so persistently urged upon him, but those around him saw greater dangers in concession than in refusal. De Thou, indeed, says that he was inclined to grant the privilege for the territories of Maximilian, but that Philip II., at the instigation of Cardinal Pacheco, fearing an example so dangerous to his turbulent and excitable subjects in the Netherlands, opposed it strenuously, and sent Don Pedro d’Avila to Rome, who persuaded the pope to elude the demand, by keeping matters in suspense, and by holding out prospects of accommodation destined never to be accomplished.1407