THE POPE,THE EMPEROR AND THE PROTESTANTS

 

Besides the immediate motives to this peace, arising from the distress of his army through want of provisions; from the difficulty of retreating out of France, and the impossibility of securing winter quarters there; the emperor was influenced, by other considerations, more distant indeed, but not less weighty.

The pope was offended to a great degree, as well at his concessions to the protestants in the late diet, as at his consenting to call a council, and to admit of public disputations in Germany, with a view of determining the doctrines in controversy. Paul considering both these steps as sacrilegious encroachments on the jurisdiction as well as privileges of the holy see, had addressed to the emperor a remonstrance rather than a letter on this subject, written with such acrimony of language, and in a style of such high authority, as discovered more or an intention to draw on a quarrel, than of a desire to reclaim him. This ill humor was not a little inflamed by the emperor's league with Henry of England, which, being contracted with a heretic excommunicated by the apostolic see, appeared to the pope a profane alliance, and was not less dreaded by him than that of Francis with Solyman. Paul's son and grandson, highly incensed at the emperor for having refused to gratify them with regard to the alienation of Parma and Placentia, contributed by their suggestions to sour and disgust him still more. To all which was added the powerful operation of the flattery and promises which Francis incessantly employed to gain him.

Though from his desire of maintaining a neutrality, the pope had hitherto suppressed his own resentment, had eluded the artifices of his own family, and resisted the solicitations of the French king, it was not safe to rely much on the steadiness of a man whom his passions, his friends, and his interest combined to shake. The union of the pope with France, Charles well knew, would instantly expose his dominions in Italy to be attacked. The Venetians, he foresaw, would probably follow the example of a pontiff, who was considered as a model of political wisdom among the Italians; and thus, at a juncture when he felt himself hardly equal to the burden of the present war, he would be overwhelmed with the weight of a new confederacy against him. At the same time, the Turks, almost unresisted, made such progress in Hungary, reducing town after town, that they approached near to the confines of the Austrian provinces. Above all these, the extraordinary progress of the protestant doctrines in Germany, and the dangerous combination into which the princes of that profession had entered, called for his immediate attention.

Almost one half of Germany had revolted from the established church; the fidelity of the rest was much shaken; the nobility of Austria had demanded of Ferdinand the free exercise of religion; the Bohemians, among whom some seeds of the doctrines of Huss still remained, openly favored the new opinions; the archbishop of Cologne, with a zeal which is seldom found among ecclesiastics, had begun the reformation of his dioceses; nor was it possible unless some timely and effectual check were given to the spirit of innovation, to foresee where it would end. He himself had been a witness, in the late diet, to the peremptory and decisive tone which the protestants had now assumed. He had seen how, from confidence in their number and union, they had forgotten the humble style of their first petitions, and had grown to such boldness as openly to despise the pope, and to show no great reverence for the Imperial dignity itself. If, therefore, he wished to maintain either the ancient religion or his own authority, and would not choose to dwindle into a mere nominal head of the empire, some vigorous and speedy effort was requisite on his part, which could not be made during a war that required the greatest exertion of his strength against a foreign and powerful enemy.

Such being the emperor's inducements to peace, he had the address to frame the treaty of Crespy so as to promote all the ends which he had in view. By coming to an agreement with Francis, he took from the pope all prospect of advantage in courting the friendship of that monarch in preference to his. By the proviso with regard to a war with the Turks, he not only deprived Solyman of a powerful ally, but turned the arms of that ally against him. By a private article, not inserted in the treaty, that it might not raise any unseasonable alarm, he agreed with Francis that both should exert all their influence and power in order to procure a general council, to assert its authority, and to exterminate the protestant heresy out of their dominions. This cut off all chance of assistance which the confederates of Smalkalde might expect from the French king; and lest their solicitations, or his jealousy of an ancient rival, should hereafter tempt Francis to forget this engagement, he left him embarrassed with a war against England, which would put it out of his power to take any consider­able part in the affairs of Germany.

Henry, possessed at all times with a high idea of his own power and importance, felt, in the most sensible manner, the neglect with which the emperor had treated him in concluding a separate peace. But the situation of his affairs was such as somewhat alleviated the mortification which this occasioned. For though he was obliged to recall the duke of Norfolk from the siege of Montreuil [Sept. 14], because the Flemish troops received orders to retire, Boulogne had surrendered before the negotiations at Crespy were brought to an issue. While elated with vanity on account of this conquest, and inflamed with indignation against the emperor, the ambassadors whom Francis sent to make overtures of peace, found him too arrogant to grant what was moderate or equitable. His demands were indeed extravagant, and made in the tone of a conqueror; that Francis should renounce his alliance with Scotland, and not only pay up the arrears of former debts, but reimburse the money which Henry had expended in the present war. Francis, though sincerely desirous of peace, and willing to yield a great deal in order to obtain it, being now free from the pressure of the Imperial arms, rejected these ignominious propositions with disdain; and Henry departing for England, hostilities continued between the two nations.

The treaty of peace, how acceptable soever to the people of France, whom it delivered from the dread of an enemy who had penetrated into the heart of the kingdom, was loudly complained of by the dauphin. He considered it as a manifest proof of the king his father's extraordinary partiality towards his younger brother, now duke of Orleans, and complained that, from his eagerness to gain an establishment for a favorite son, he had sacrificed the honor of the kingdom, and renounced the most ancient as well as valuable rights of the crown.

But as he durst not venture to offend the king by refusing to ratify it, though extremely desirous at the same time of securing to himself the privilege of reclaiming what was now alienated so much to his detriment, he secretly protested, in presence of some of his adherents, against the whole transaction; and declared whatever he should be obliged to do in order to confirm it, null in itself, and void of all obligation. The parliament of Toulouse, probably by the instigation of his partisans, did the same. But Francis, highly pleased as well with having delivered his subjects from the miseries of an invasion, as with the prospect of acquiring an independent settlement for his son at no greater price than that of renouncing conquests to which he had no just claim; titles which had brought so much expense and so many disasters upon the nation; and rights grown obsolete and of no value; ratified the treaty with great joy. Charles, within the time prescribed by the treaty, declared his intention of giving Ferdinand’s daughter in marriage to the duke of Orleans, together with the duchy of Milan as her dowry. Every circumstance seemed to promise the continuance of peace.

The emperor, cruelly afflicted with the gout, appeared to be in no condition to undertake any enterprise where great activity was requisite, or much fatigue to be endured. He himself felt this, or wished at least that it should be believed; and being so much disabled by this excruciating distemper, when a French ambassador followed him to Brussels, in order to be present at his ratification of the treaty of peace, that it was with the utmost difficulty that he signed his name, he observed, that there was no great danger of his violating these articles, as a hand that could hardly hold a pen, was little able to brandish a lance.

The violence of his disease confined the emperor several months in Brussels, and was the apparent cause of putting off the execution of the great scheme which he had formed in order to humble the protestant party in Germany. But there were other reasons for this delay. For, however prevalent the motives were which determined him to undertake this enterprise, the nature of that great body which he was about to attack, as well as the situation of his own affairs, made it necessary to deliberate long, to proceed with caution, and not too suddenly to throw aside the veil under which he had hitherto concealed his real sentiments and schemes. He was sensible that the protestants, conscious of their own strength, but under continual apprehensions of his designs, had all the boldness of a powerful confederacy joined to the jealousy of a feeble faction; and were no less quick-sighted to discern the first appearance of danger, than ready to take arms in order to repel it. At the same time, he still continued involved in a Turkish war; and though, in order to deliver himself from this encumbrance, he had determined to send an envoy to the Porte with most advantageous and even submissive overtures of peace, the resolutions of that haughty court were so uncertain, that before these were known, it would have been highly imprudent to have kindled the flames of civil war in his own dominions.

Upon this account, he appeared dissatisfied with a bull issued by the pope immediately after the peace of Crespy [Nov. 19], summoning the council to assemble at Trent early next spring, and exhorting all Christian princes to embrace the opportunity that the present happy interval of tranquility afforded them, of suppressing those heresies which threatened to subvert whatever was sacred or venerable among Christians. But after such a slight expression of dislike, as was necessary in order to cover his designs, he determined to countenance the council, which might become no inconsiderable instrument towards accomplishing his projects, and therefore not only appointed ambassadors to appear there in his name, but ordered the ecclesiastics in his dominions to attend at the time prefixed.

 

1545. IMPERIAL DIET OF WORMS