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BOOK IX.

A.D. 1522.

neral council:

subjects, on account of its innumerable exactions, had rendered any attempt at enforcing that edict, not only dangerous, but almost impracticable. They affirmed that the grievances of Germany, which arose from impositions perfectly intolerable, called for some new and efficacious regulations; and that, in their opinion, the only remedy adequate to the disease, or that could afford them any hopes of seeing the church restored to health and vigour, was a ge

They demand a ge- neral council. Such a council, they advised his holiness, after obtaining the emperor's consent, to assemble without delay; and they declared that it ought to meet in one of the great cities of Germany, in order that all who had a right to be present, might be enabled to deliberate with freedom, and have an opportunity of proposing their opinions with that boldness, which the dangerous situation of the religious world imperatively called for.

The nuncio evades

their demand:

Cheregat, the Pope's nuncio, was startled at the proposal of a council. He foresaw how dangerous such an assembly might prove, at a time when so many states had openly denied the papal authority, and employed his utmost address, to prevail upon the members of the

diet to proceed themselves with severity against the Lutheran heresy. But they, perceiving that he was more zealous for the interests of the Roman court, than for either the tranquillity of the empire, or the purity of the church, remained inflexible, and instead of listening to his suggestions, prepared a catalogue of their grievances, to be laid before his master.

The secular princes, before separating, drew up a list, which consisted of no less than a hundred grievances, all of which were attributed to the iniquitous dominion of the papal court, and its interference in the empire. Many of these grievances were of the same nature as those complained of in Maximilian's reign; and they concluded by a declaration, that if the Holy See did not deliver them from such intolerable burdens, they (the princes) had determined to endure them no longer, but would employ the power and authority which God had given them, to procure that relief. Instead of sanctioning the severities against Luther, which the nuncio had recommended, they published an edict, requiring all orders of men to wait with patience for the decision of that council which was to be assembled, and in the

BOOK IX.

A.D. 1522.

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mean time, not to publish any new opinions, contrary to the established doctrines of the church. The preachers were ordered to abstain from all matters of controversy, in their discourses to the people, and confine themselves, from thenceforth, to the plain and instructive truths of religion.

The Reformation gained great advantages from the discussions in this diet; these afforded the fullest and most authentic evidence, that gross corruptions prevailed in the papal court, and that the empire was loaded by the catholic clergy with insupportable impositions. In proof of the corruption in Rome, the Reformers could now produce the authority of the Pope himself; their accusations therefore were neither malicious nor ill-founded; and in respect to the burdens borne by the empire, they could appeal to the edict of a general diet, where their patrons had formed but a small minority.

The chief grievances of the state, they said, as now allowed, were those very practices of the Romish church, against which Luther and his disciples had most vehemently declaimed; and in all controversial writings,

after this period, the Reformers constantly appealed to Adrian's declaration, and to the hundred grievances, as confirming whatever they advanced concerning the dissolute manners, insatiable ambition, and rapacious conduct of the Roman court and clergy.

BOOK IX.

A.D. 1523.

the catholics:

Adrian's want of prudence, in laying open Adrian blamed by the rotten and polluted state of the sacred conclave, was considered by the great body of the churchmen, as proceeding from childishness, and want of consideration. He had departed, they said, from the wise maxims of his predecessors, and had acknowledged disorders which ought to have been concealed. He was accused of having forgotten his own dignity, by asking advice of those to whom he was entitled to prescribe laws, and, on that account, was opposed by the cardinals and the other ecclesiastics of eminence, in all his schemes for the reformation of the church.

Amazed at the obstinacy of the Reformers, disgusted with the manners and maxims of the Italian prelates, and finding himself unable to correct the one or command the other, he is said to have often lamented his having accepted of so exalted a situation, and to have looked

BOOK IX.

A.D. 1523.

back with pleasure to that period of his life, when, only Dean of Louvain, he could fulfil the duties of his office, without any thing intervening to frustrate or misrepresent his endea vours to do good.

Charles wrote to Adrian from Spain, urging him to persist in the necessary reforms; but Dies of a broken his efforts were found unavailing, and he died of a broken heart, on the 23rd of September, 1523.

heart:

Julius de Medicis succeeds as Clement VII.:

Julius de Medicis, who succeeded, as Clement VII., excelled Adrian greatly in the arts of government, but was far inferior in purity of life, and uprightness of intention. Adverse to the assembling of a council, both on public and private grounds, he soon determined to elude, if possible, the demand of the Sends his nuncio to German princes, and for that purpose, sent the Cardinal Campeggio, as his nuncio, to a diet which had assembled at Nuremburg. This prelate, without taking any notice of what had passed in the former diet, exhorted the princes then assembled, to put in execution the edict of Worms, as the only effectual means of suppressing Luther's doctrines. But these princes, without regarding his exhortations, desired to

the diet at Nuremburg:

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