PAUL
580
PAUL
the general council. The extension of power which a the heretics and make no agreement prejudicial to the
re-united Germany would place in the hands of Faith or to the rights of th(> Holy See. Charles now
Charles was so intolerable to Francis I, that he, who
persecuted heresy in his own realm with such cruelty
that the pope appealed to him to mitigate his violence,
became the sworn ally of the Smalealdic League, en-
couraging them to reject all overtures to reconcilia-
tion. Charles himself was in no slight measure to
blame; for, notwithstanding his desire for the a.ssem-
bling of a council, he was led into the belief that the re-
ligious differences of Germany might be settled by
conferences between the two parties. These confer-
ences, like all such attempts to settle differences out-
side of the normal court of the Church, led to a waste
of time, and did far more harm than good. Charles
had a false idea of the office of a general council. In
his desire to unite all par-
ties, he sought for vague
formukc to which all could
subscribe, a relapse into the
mistakes of the Byzantine
emperors. A council of the
Church, on the other hand,
must formulate theFaith with
such precision that no heretic
can subscribe to it. It took
some years to convince the
emperor and his mediatizing
advisors that Catholicism
and Protestantism are as op-
posite as light and darkness.
Meanwhile Paul III set about
the reform of the papal
court with a vigour which
pa\ed the way for the dis-
ciplinary canons of Trent.
He appointed commissions to
report abuses of every kind;
he reformed the Apostolic
Camera, the tribunal of the
Rota, the Penitentiaria, and
the Chancery. He enhanced
the prestige of the papacy by
doing single-handed what
his predecessors had reser\ ed
to the action of a council.
In the constantly recurring
quarrels between Francis and
Charles, Paul III prescribed
a strict neutrality, notwith-
standing that Charles urged
him to support the empire and subject Francis to
the censures of the Church. Paul's attitude as a
patriotic Itahan would have been sufficient to pre-
vent him from allowing the emperor to be sole
arbiter of Italy. It was as much for the purpose
of securing the integrity of the papal dominions, as
for the exaltation of his family, that Paul extorted
from Charles and his reluctant cardinals the erection
of F'iacenza and Parma into a duchy for his son.
Pier Luigi. A feud arose with Gonzaga, the imperial
Governor of Milan, which ended later in the assassi-
contended that the coimcil should be prorogued, until
victory had decided in favour of the Catholics. Fur-
thermore, foreseeing that the struggle with the preach-
ers of heresy would be more stubborn than the con-
flict with the princes, he urged the jionlilT to avoid
making dogmas of faith for the present :;nd confine the
labours of the council to the enforcement of discipline.
To neither of tlie.se i)nipcisnls could the pope agree.
Finally, after endless diiheulties {\:i Dec, 1.54.5J the
Council of Trent held its first session. In seven ses-
sions, the last 3 March, l,'j47, the Fathers intrepidly
faced the most important questions of faith and dis-
cipline. Without listening to the threats and expostu-
lations of the imperial party, they formulated for all
time the Catholic doctrine
<iii the Scriptures, original
sill, justification, and the
S;icraiiients. The work of
tlie council was half ended,
^' lien the outbreak of the
lilague in Trent caused an
ailjournment to Bologna.
Pope Paul was not the insti-
gator of the remo\al of the
council; he simply acquiesced
in the decision of the Fa-
thers. Fifteen prelates, de-
\ oted to the emperor, refused
to leave Trent. Charles de-
manded the return of the
ecumcil to German territory,
t the (ielibenitions of the
CI luiu'il continued in Bologna,
until finally, 21 .Vpril, the
ipe, in order to avert a
liism, prorogued the coun-
cil iiLilefinitely. The wisdom
III the iiiuncil's energetic
- Hliiiii, in establishing thus
i:uly the fundamental truths of the Catholic rri'ed, became .sunn evident, when the em- |icior and his semi-Protes- tant advisers infiicted upon Germany their Interim re- ligion, which was despised li\- both parties. Pope Paul, who had given the emperor essential aid in the Smaleal- dic war, resented his dabbling in theology, and their estrangement continued until the death of the pontiff. Paul's end came rather suddenly, .-\fter the assassi- nation of Pier Luigi, he had struggled to retain Pia- cenza and Parma for the Church and had deprived Ottavio, Pier Luigi's son and Charles's son-in-law, of these duchies. Ottavio, relying on the emperor's be- nevolence, refused obedience; it broke the old man's heart, when he learned that his favourite grandson. Cardinal Farnese, was a party to the transaction. He fell into a violent fever and died at the (iuirinal, at
nation of Pier Luigi and the permanent alienation of the age of eighty-two. He lies biuied in St. Peter's
Piac(-nza from the Papal States
When the Treaty of Crespi (IS Sept., 1544) ended the disastrous wars between Charles and Francis, Paul energetically took up the project of convening a general council. Meanwhile it developed that the emperor had formed a programme of his own, quite at variance in some important points with the pope's
in the tomb designed by Michelangelo and erected by
Guglielmo della Porta. Not all the popes repose in
monuments corresponding to their importance in the
history of the Church; but few will be disposed to con-
test the right of Farnese to rest directly under Peter's
chair. He had his faults; but they injured no one but
himself. The fifteen years of his pontificate saw the
Since the Protestants repudiated a council presided complete restoration of Catholic faith and piety. He
over by the Roman pontiff, Charles was resolved to was succeeded by many saintly pontiffs, but not one
reduce the princes to obedience by force of arms. To of them possessed all his commanding virtues. In
this Paul did not object, and promised to aid him with Rome his name is written all over the city he reno-
three hundred thousand ducats and twenty thousand vated. The Pauline chapel, Michelangelo's work iii
infantry; but he wisely added the proviso, that the Sistine, the streets of Home, which he straightened
Charles should enter into no separate treaties with and broadened, the numerous objects of art associated
