pectatives, and reversionary rights, with the endless processes they led to, in the teeth of the Concordat of 1517, whereby, as the bishops told the Pope bitterly enough, all hope of reformation was cut off.1

When in 1527 that judgment broke upon Rome which, like Rome itself, stands alone in history,—when the city which time out of mind had been absorbing countless sums of money from the whole West, was in its turn plundered by Germans, Italians, and Spaniards, and wrung dry like a sopping sponge, then at last the eyes of many were opened. That very Cajetan or De Vio, who had been Leo x.'s Court theologian and factotum, who had been his instigator in the disgrace of the Lateran Synod, in his decisions against Constance and Basle, in his proclamation of the divine right of every cleric to disobey his sovereign, and had lent his pen to these objects that same man who, as legate in Germany, had embittered the Lutheran business by his insolence, and who again had induced the Pope to declare it a heresy to disapprove of burning heretics2now in 1527 wrote, after the capture of Rome, "Justly is the life of the pastors of the Church the object of 1 Baluze and Mansi, Miscell. ii. 297-300.

2 [One of Luther's propositions, condemned by Leo X., is, "Hæreticos comburi est contra charitatem Spiritûs."-TR.]

contempt, and their word neglected. We, the Roman prelates, now experience this, who by the righteous judgment of God have been given up as a prey, not to unbelievers, but to Christians, to be robbed and imprisoned. We are become useless for anything but external ceremonies and the enjoyment of this world's goods, and therefore are we trodden under foot and reduced to bondage."

Whenever the influence of the Papacy on the Church and the religious administration of Rome was discussed in colloquies and conferences between Catholics and Protestants of that period, the Catholic spokesmen were obliged to declare: "Here our apology ceases; we are conquered here, and can neither deny nor excuse." So spoke in 1519 Bishop Berthold of Chiemsee, Cardinal Contarini, the author of the Roman memorial of 1538, the Abbot Blosius, the French and Belgian theologians, Claudius d'Espense, Ruard Tapper, Gentian Hervet, Bishop Lindanus, and John Hoffmeister. There were moments when even the Popes were obliged to let their most approved servants say what in ordinary times would have led to a process of the Inquisition. Gaspar Contarini, whom Paul III. in his need suddenly 1 Raynald. Annal. ann. 1527, p. 2.

transformed from a secular statesman into a Cardinal, ventured in substance to tell the Pope that the whole Papal system was wrong and unchristian. He said that Luther had good reason for writing his book on the Babylonish Captivity. "Nothing can be devised more opposed to the law of Christ, which is a law of freedom, than this system, which subjects Christians to the Pope, who can make, unmake, and dispense laws at his mere caprice. No greater slavery than this could be imposed on the Christian people."1 Such utterances indeed produced no effect. Paul III. was not minded to swerve a hair's-breadth from his claim of absolute power, and for one Contarini there were always in Rome hundreds of Torquemadas, Cajetans, Jacobazzis, and Bellarmines.

The two Councils, the Lateran in 1516, and the Tridentine in its earlier period, had this point in common, that the speakers made avowals and charges so outspoken and of such overwhelming force that they cannot but amaze us. These speeches and descriptions reproduce in various forms the same idea: "We Cardinals, Italian bishops, and officials of the Curia, are a tribe of worthless men, who have neglected our duties. We have let

1 Epist. Duæ ad Paulum IV. (Colon. 1538), pp. 62 sqq. Cf. the Collection of Le Plat, ii. 605.

numberless souls perish through our neglect, we disgrace our episcopal office, we are not shepherds but wolves, we are the authors of the corruption prevalent throughout the whole Church, and are in a special sense responsible for the decay of religion in Italy."

Cardinal Antonio Pucci said publicly before the assembly of 1516, "Rome, the Roman prelates and the bishops daily sent forth from Rome, are the joint causes of the manifold errors and corruptions in the Church; unless we recover our good fame, which is almost wholly lost, it is all up with us." And Matthias Ugoni, Bishop of Famagusta, who also took part in the Lateran Synod, describes in his work the contempt the Italian bishops had sunk into, so that there was no infamy men did not attribute to them, while they repelled with scorn any one who so much as hinted at the need of reform and of a true Council, as disturbers of peace, and hypocrites. And the worst that had been said before of the Italian prelacy was confirmed in 1546 by the Papal legates at Trent. The German Reformers, when they wished to paint for public view the heinous guilt of the Popes and Italian bishops, had no need to do more than transcribe the words of the legates, and many similar statements and avowals let fall at

the Council.

For no words could say more plainly that the ruinous condition of the whole Church, the dominant profligacy, the applause with which the neglected and dissatisfied people, in utter perplexity about their clergy and their Church, universally hailed every new doctrine or scheme of Church-government, was ultimately due to the Italian prelacy, concentrated in the Curia, and thence appointed over the dioceses.1 They said that all which they suffered at the hands of the heretics was only a just retribution on their vices and crimes, their bestowal of Church offices on the unworthy, and the like.

§ XXX.-The Council of Trent, and its Results.

The very first speech made at the opening of the Council by Bishop Coriolano Martorano, of San Marco,

1 See Admonit. ad Synodum. 1546, in Le Plat, Monum. Coll. i. 40. "Horum malorum magnâ ex parte nos causa sumus. Quod lapsam morum disciplinam et abusus complectitur, hic nihil attinet diu investigare, quinam tantorum malorum auctores fuerint, cum præter nos ipsos ne nominare quidem ullum alium auctorem possimus. Cf. Girolamo Muzzio's Lettre catoliche (Venez. 1571), p. 27, written in 1557, on the "abominazione introdotta nella Chiesa." The bishops, themselves bad and incompetent, "danno la cura dell' anima alla feccia degli uomini." Guicciardini describes in his Ricordi how a bishopric was bought at Rome for a fixed sum, and this was the usual provision for the younger son of an aristocratic family. His relative, Rinieri Guicciardini, a bastard, but richly beneficed, bought the See of Cortona of the Pope for 4000 ducats, and with it a dispensation for retaining his benefices.-Opere, x. 59.