Further additions were made in the "libel," which was shortly afterward
(January, 1563) presented by the French ambassador, and perfect harmony
existed between the French and the imperial policy at the council. What
decision, then, was to be expected on the crucial question as to the
relations between papal and episcopal authority? How could a recognition
of the Pope's claim to be regarded as _rector universalis ecclesiae_ be
expected from such a union of the ultramontane forces? The current was
not likely to be stopped by the papal court, which about this time Pius
IV announced on his own account at Rome; it seemed on the point of
rising higher than ever when (February, 1563) the Cardinal of Lorraine
and some other prelates waited upon the Emperor at Innsbruck. In truth,
however, a turning-point in the history of the council was close at
hand. The Cardinal of Lorraine had left Trent for Innsbruck with threats
of a Gallican synod on his lips. Ferdinand I had arrived there very
wroth with the council, and had received the Bishop of Zante
(Commendone), whom the legates sent to deprecate his vexation, with
marked coolness. The remedies proposed to the Emperor by the Cardinal
were drastic enough; the council was to be swamped by French, German,
and Spanish bishops, and the Emperor, by repairing to Trent in person,
was to awe the assembly into discussing the desired reforms, whether
with or without the approval of the legates. But Ferdinand I, by nature
moderate in action, and taught by the example of his brother, Charles V,
the danger of violent courses, preferred to resort to a series of direct
and by no means tame appeals to the Pope. The latter, indisposed as he
was to support a fresh proposition for the removal of the council to
some German town, urged by France, but resisted by Spain, which at the
same time persistently opposed the concession of the cup demanded by
both France and the Emperor, saw his opportunity for taking his
adversaries singly. The deaths about this time (March, 1563) of the
presiding legate, Cardinal Gonzaga, and of his colleague Cardinal
Seripando, both of whom had occasionally shown themselves inclined to
yield to the reforming party, were likewise in his favor. Their places
were filled by Cardinals Morone, formerly a prisoner indicted by the
Inquisition, now an eager champion of papal claims, and Navagero, a
Venetian by birth, but not in his political sentiments. Morone, though
he had left Rome almost despairing of any favorable issue of the
council, at once began to negotiate with the Emperor through the Jesuit
Canisius. The leverage employed may, in addition to the distrust between
Ferdinand and his Spanish nephew, and the ancient jealousy between
Austria and France, have included some reference to the heterodox
opinions and the consequently doubtful prospects of the Emperor's eldest
son, Maximilian.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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