DISCUSSIONS
36
DISCUSSIONS
eloquent and conciliatory address. He pictured the
evils which had befallen Germany. " once the first of
all nations in fidelity, religion, piety, and divine wor-
ship", and warned his hearers that " all the evils that
shall come upon you and your people, if, by clinging
stubbornly to preconceived notions, you prevent a re-
newal of concord, will be ascribed to you as the au-
thors of thera." On behalf of the Protestants, Me-
lanchthon returned " an intrepid answer " ; he threw all
the blame upon the Cathohcs, who refused to accept
the new Gospel.
A great deal of time was spent in wrangling over points of order; finally it was decided that Dr. Eck should be spokesman for the Catholics and Melanch- thon for the Protestants. The debate began 14 Jan., 1541. A tactical blunder was committed in accepting the Augsburg Confession as the basis of the confer- ence. That document had been drawn up to meet an emergency. It was apologetic and conciliatory, so worded as to persuade the young emperor that there was no radical difference between the Catholics and the Protestants. It admitted the spiritual jurisdic- tion of the bishops and tacitly acknowledged the su- premacy of the pope by laying the ultimate appeal with a council by him convened. But many changes had taken place in the ten intervening years. The bishops had been driven out of every Protestant terri- tory in Germany; the Smalkald confederates had solemnly abjured the pope and scorned his proffer of a council; each petty territorial prince had constituted himself the head and exponent of religion within his domain. For all practical purposes the Augsburg Confession was as useless as the laws of Lycurgus. Moreover, as Dr. Eck pointed out, the Augsburg Con- fession of 1540 was a different document from the Confession of 1530, having been changed by llelanch- thon to suit his sacramentarian view of the Eucharist. Had the theologians at Worms reached an agreement on every point of doctrine, the discord in Germany would have continued none the less; for the princes had not the remotest idea of giving up their lucrative dominion over their territorial churches. Eck and Melanchthon battled four days over the topic of orig- inal sin and its consequences, _and a formula was drafted to which both parties agreed, the Protestants with a reservation.
At this point Granvella suspended the conference, to be resumed at Ratisbon, whither the emperor had summoned a diet, which he promised to attend in per- son. This diet, from which the emperor anticipated brilliant results, was called to order 5 April, 1541. As legate of the pope appeared Cardinal Contarini, as- sisted by the nuncio ilorone. The inevitable Calvin was present, ostensibly to represent Luneburg, in reality to foster discord in the interest of France. As collocutors at the religious conference which met simultaneously, Charles appointed Eck, Pflug, and Cropper for the Catholic side, and Melanchthon, Bucer, and Pistorius for the Protestants. A docu- ment of mysterious origin, the "Ratisbon Book", was presented by Joachim of Brandenburg as the basis of agreement. This strange compilation, it developed later, was the result of secret conferences, held during the meeting at Worms, between the Protestants, Bucer and Capito, on one side, and the Lutheranizing Crop- per and a secretary of the emperor named Veltwick on the other. It consisted of twenty-three chapters, in which, by an ingenious phraseology, the attempt was made so to formulate the controverted doctrines that each party miglit find its own views therein expressed. How much Charles and Granvella had to do in the transaction, is unknown; they certainly knew and ap- proved of it. The " Book " had been submitted l)y the Elector of Brandenlnirg to the judgment of Luther and Melanchthon; and their contemptuous treatment of it augured ill for its success. When it was shown to the legate and Morone, the latter was for rejecting it
summarily; Contarini, after making a score of emen-
dations, notably emphasizing in Article 14 the dogma
of Transubstantiation, declared that now "as a pri-
vate person " he could accept it; but as legate he must
consult with the Catholic theologians. Eck secured
the substitution of a conciser exposition of the doc-
trine of justification. Thus emended, the "Book"
was presented to the collocutors by Granvella for con-
sideration. The first four articles, treating of man
before the fall, free will, the origin of sin, and original
sin, were accepted. The battle began in earnest when
the fifth article, on justification, was reached. After
long and vehement debates, a formula was presented
by Bucer and accepted by the majority, so worded as
to be capaljle of bearing a CathoUc and a Lutheran in-
terpretation. Naturally, it was unsatisfactory to
both parties. The Holy See condemned it and ad-
ministered a severe rebuke to Contarini for not pro-
testing against it. No greater success was attained
as to the other articles of importance.
On 22 May the conference ended, and the emperor was informed as to the articles agreed upon and those on which agreement was impossible. Charles was sorely disappointed, but he was powerless to effect anything further. The decree known as the "Ratis- bon Interim", published 28 Jul}-, 1541, enjoining upon both sides the observance of the articles agreed upon by the theologians, was by both sides disregarded. Equally without result was the last of the conferences summoned by Charles at Ratisbon, 1546, just previ- ously to the outbreak of the Smalkaldic War.
The Colloquy at Poissy. — In 1561 six French cardinals and thirty-eight archbishops and bishops, with a host of minor prelates and doctors, wasted in a barren controversy with the Calvinists an entire month, which might have been spent far more advan- tageously to the Church antl more in consonance with the duties of their offices had they taken their places in the Council of Trent. The conference had been ar- ranged by Catharine de' Medici, the queen-mother and regent during the minority of her son, Charles IX. Between this typical representative of the Medici and her contemporary, Elizabeth of England, there was little to choose. With both religion was simply a matter of expediency and politics. The Calvinist fac- tion in France, though less than half a million in num- ber, was aggressive and insolent, under the guidance of several princes of the royal blood and members of the higher nobility. The fatal virus of Gallicanism and chronic disaffection towards the Holy See para- lysed Catholic activity; and although a general council was in session under the legitimate presidency of the Roman pontiff, voices were heard even among the French bishops, advocating the convocation of a schismatical national sjmod. We may regard it as an extenuation of the guilt of Catharine- and her advisers, that they refused to go the whole length of a schism and chose the alternative of a religious conference under the direction of the civil power. The pope did his utmost to prevent what, vmder the eircinnstances, could only be construed as a pub.lic defiance of ecclesi- astical authority. He dispatched the Canlinal of Fer- rara, with Laynez, General of the Jesuits, as his ad- viser, to dissuade tlie regent and the bishops. But the affair had gone too far; on 9 Sept. the representatives of the rival rehgions began their pleadings before a woman and a bo>- eleven years old. The proceedings were opened by a speech of Chancellor L'Hopital, in which he emphasized the right and duty of the mon- arch to provide for the needs of the CliLrch. Even should a general council l>e in session, a collotiuy be- tween Frenchn en convened by the king was the bet- ter way of settling religious disputes; for a general ectuicil, being, for the n ost part., composed of foreign- ers, was incapable of understanding the \\-ishes and the nee Is of France. Yet these French poUticians who refused to submit articles of faith to the decision of a
