READING HALL

THE DOORS OF WISDOM

A HISTORY OF MODERN EUROPE : A.D. 1453-1900

CHAPTER XIX.

FAILURE OF CHARLES V

AS the Emperor approached Augsburg the magistrates came a mile or two out of the town to meet him, and received him on their knees. He entered the city at the head of his Spanish and Italian troops, and took up his residence at the house of the Fuggers in the Wine Market. One of his first steps was to cause the cathedral, and another of the principal churches, to be purified from the defilement they had suffered by the exercise of the Lutheran worship; after which the Popish service was re-established in them with extraordinary pomp.

Had Charles been so inclined, he might now, perhaps, have rendered his authority despotic in Germany; yet he showed a wish to respect the constitution of the Empire; and all his views seemed directed to the appeasing of the religious dissensions. A marked change was observed in his appearance and conduct. During the late campaign he seemed to have become all at once an old man. His hair was grown completely grey; his countenance was pallid, his voice weak, and he was affected with lameness. The constitutional melancholy which he inherited from his mother appeared to be much increased. Already, in the year 1542, he had expressed to the Duke of Gandia, afterwards General of the Jesuits, his intention of abandoning the Court and the world so soon as his son should be capable of assuming the reins of government. It was remarked that he took no part in the festivities and amusements in which his brother Ferdinand and the other princes assembled in Augsburg indulged. He took his meals in solitude and silence; and it was seldom that the Court jesters, who at that period entertained the leisure of the great, could extract from him the faintest smile. It was to such a man, now for the first time truly Lord of Germany, that princes and nobles, and the deputies of many great and wealthy cities, came to do homage.

The Diet was very fully attended. All the seven Electors were there, as well as a large number of princes, prelates, and burgesses. After some trouble, especially with the deputies of cities, the Emperor brought the three Colleges to a unanimous decision on the subject of the Council — or rather he surprised their consent by assuming it — so that he could tell the Pope that the Electors, the spiritual and temporal Princes, and the Imperial cities, had submitted themselves to the synod at Trent. In this resolution the stress laid upon the designation of the place contained, in fact, a protest against the removal of the Council. There still remained, however, the more difficult task of persuading Paul to restore the Council to Trent; a difficulty increased by an occurrence which further widened the breach between the Emperor and the Pope.

Paul’s son, Pier Luigi Farnese, Duke of Parma and Piacenza, was a tyrant of the old Italian stamp; in cruelty a Caesar Borgia in miniature. The hatred of his subjects produced a not unusual catastrophe : Farnese was assassinated by a band of conspirators, at the head of whom was Count Agostino Landi. Ferrante Gonzaga, Governor of Milan, appears to have been acquainted with the plot; nay, there are even strong suspicions that it had received the sanction of the Emperor himself. However this may be, Gonzaga occupied Piacenza with his troops, and Charles continued to hold possession of it, on the ground that he had never granted investiture to the murdered Duke. The rage of the Pope at the death of his son and the seizure of his domains knew no bounds. He was ready to call the Turks to his assistance. Among other things, he contemplated a league with France, with the view of making the Duke of Guise King of Naples. On the 20th of September he addressed an angry epistle to the Emperor, demanding that the assassin should be punished, and that the town should be restored to Ottavio Farnese, the son of the murdered Duke and son-in-law of the Emperor. To which demand the Emperor returned an evasive answer.

These events rendered the breach as to the Council irreparable. The Pope could not, indeed, out of respect to public opinion, flatly reject the proposals respecting the return of the Council, which were laid before him by Madrucci, Cardinal of Trent; but he contrived that his answer should be equivalent to a refusal. He replied that he must consult the Fathers assembled at Bologna, the very persons against whom the Emperor protested. These declared that the first step must be the reunion with themselves of the Fathers who had remained behind at Trent. They then wished to know whether the German nation would recognize and observe the decrees already made at Trent; whether the Emperor did not mean to alter the form hitherto observed; and whether a majority of the Council might not definitively decide respecting either its removal or its termination. The Imperial plenipotentiary perceived from this answer that all hope of an accommodation was at an end, and immediately left Rome. Charles dispatched two Spaniards, the licentiate Vargas and Doctor Velasco, to Bologna, who, on the 16th January, 1548, made a solemn protest against the translation of the Council, and all that it had subsequently done, as null and void; at the same time declaring that the Emperor must now assume the care of the Church, which had been deserted by the Pope. The Legate del Monte replied, that he should answer only to God for what he had done, and could not suffer the temporal power to arrogate the direction of a Council. In short, it was a declaration of spiritual war.

The Interim, 1548

It being now evident that no arrangement could be effected with the Pope, the Emperor determined upon a scheme for the settlement by his own authority of the religious differences which agitated Germany. With this view he commissioned three divines, Michael Helding, Suffragan of the Archbishop of Mainz, Julius Pflug, Bishop of Naumburg, and John Agricola, Court preacher of Joachim II, Elector of Brandenburg, to draw up some articles which were to be observed till the questions in dispute should be settled by a properly constituted and generally acknowledged Council. The first of these divines represented the old Catholic party; the second its more liberal, or Erasmian section; while Agricola, though he had sat at Luther's table, was the exponent of the peculiar notions of his Sovereign. From their labours was expected a code that should satisfy all parties; but, as commonly happens in such compromises, they succeeded in pleasing none. They drew up a formula consisting of twenty-six Articles, which, as it was intended only to serve a temporary purpose, obtained the name of the Interim. Most of the articles were in favour of the Catholics, the only concessions of any importance to Lutheran views being the celebration of the Lord's Supper in both kinds, and permission for married clergy to retain their wives. The College of Princes adopted the opinion of the spiritual Electors : that Church property should be restored; that a dispensation should be necessary for the marriage of priests and for receiving the cup in the Lord’s Supper; above all, that the formula should not affect those who had remained in the old religion, but be applicable solely to the Lutherans. The Emperor found himself obliged to accept this last condition. On the afternoon of the 15th of May, 1548, the Colleges of the States were summoned to the Imperial apartments, where the Emperor and King Ferdinand sat enthroned. Although many wished that the subject should be fully discussed, the Archbishop of Mainz stood up after the reading of the Interim, and without any authority from his brother Electors, or from the assembly, thanked the Emperor for his unwearied endeavors to restore peace to the Church; and in the name of the Diet signified their approbation of the plan proposed. The assembly was struck with astonishment at the presumption of the speaker, but nobody had the courage to contradict him; and the Emperor accepted his declaration as a full and constitutional ratification of the instrument : copies of which were now first distributed to the States, so that there was no opportunity for discussion.

One of the first to oppose the Interim was the new Elector Maurice, whom Charles had solemnly invested at Augsburg with the Saxon Electorate. The investiture was conducted with all the ancient ceremonies : a stage, with a throne for the Emperor, was erected in the Wine Market; the other six Electors in their robes of state assisted at the solemnity; while John Frederic, the deposed Elector, looked on from the window of his lodgings with an undisturbed and even cheerful countenance. On the day after the publication of the Interim, Maurice handed to the Emperor a written protest against it. He remarked at the same time that he had been hindered from expressing his opinion; complained of the hasty and untimely speech of the Elector of Mainz; reminded Charles of the promises made to himself at Ratisbon; and expressed his dissatisfaction that the Lutherans alone were to be subjected to the new formula. Charles affected surprise at the Elector's separating himself from the other States; but he promised to consider his protest, and two days after Maurice quitted Augsburg. The Elector Palatine and Joachim of Brandenburg accepted the Interim; Ulrich of Würtemberg also caused it to be published, and enjoined his subjects to obey it. There were, however, other malcontents besides Maurice. The Margrave John of Cüstrin remonstrated against it; and the deputies of several Imperial cities alleged that they must await the instructions of their constituents. With the cities, however, Charles adopted a more peremptory tone, treating with each separately, and beginning with Augsburg, the municipal council of which was brought by the threats of Granvelle to accept the Interim. The preachers were compelled to put on the vestments appointed in that formula; and it was ordered that a mass should be said every Sunday in the evangelical churches. Granvelle proceeded in like manner with the deputies of the other cities, and he even went so far as to threaten some of the more obstinate with the flames.

With the steadfast John Frederick the Imperial minister found more difficulty. Charles was desirous of obtaining the adherence of the deposed Elector, both for the sake of his influential example and on account of what possessions still remained in his family; and with this view Granvelle, with his son the Bishop of Arras, and the Vice-chancellor Seld, were deputed to him. John Frederick kept the ambassadors to dinner; after which he caused his Chancellor Minckwitz to read to them a strong protest against the Interim, and concluded by desiring them to hand it to the Emperor. For this act of honest contumacy a paltry vengeance was taken. The ex-Elector’s servants were disarmed; his steward and cook were directed not to prepare any flesh dinners on fast days; and what annoyed him more than all this, he was deprived of his Court preacher and of his books; among which were a splendidly illuminated Bible and the works of Luther, in whose writings he found his chief solace, and which, as he expressed himself, “went through his bones and marrow”. He consoled himself, however, with the reflection that they could not be torn from his memory and heart. The Landgrave Philip, whose conduct forms a strong contrast to that of John Frederick, experienced even worse treatment. He wrote a very submissive letter to the Emperor from Donauworth, in which, although he expressed his opinion that all the contents of the Interim could not be established from Scripture, he promised obedience and implored the Emperor's mercy. But he was only treated with still greater harshness and contempt.

As the Emperor had been obliged to exempt the Catholics from the operation of the Interim, he carried out the wishes he had long entertained for the amendment of the Church by a separate edict of reformation, which was read June 14th, and published after the close of the Diet. It contained many excellent rules respecting the election of the clergy, their preaching, their administration of the sacraments and ceremonies, their discipline and morals. Pluralities were abolished, visitations appointed, the German hierarchy reconstituted, episcopacy restored in Meissen and Thuringia, together with many other regulations of the like description. Never was an ordinance of such a nature drawn up with more wisdom and moderation. Even the advocate of the Roman Curia allows that it contained much that was good; but asserts that it was necessarily abortive because a temporal Prince had presumed to interfere in spiritual affairs.

Charles also displayed his authority in this Diet by re-establishing the Imperial Chamber, by renewing and amending the Landfriede, or Public Peace, by sumptuary laws and new ordinances of police, and especially by the reconstitution of the Imperial Circle of Burgundy by the addition to it of the Netherland provinces of Utrecht, Overyssel, Gelderland, Zutphen, and Groningen, fallen to the house of Austria since 1521. Artois and West Flanders, released from French suzerainty since 1526, were also now parts of the Emperor’s Burgundian dominions. The Imperial States were not consulted respecting this arrangement, with which they ventured not to find fault, although it was regarded with great dislike and suspicion. It was plain, indeed, that the whole gain of the measure would belong to the house of Austria, and that the Empire would be called upon to defend the Low Countries against the enemies of that house. Charles proceeded still more arbitrarily with several of the Imperial cities, by depriving them of their municipal privileges and remodelling their government according to his will.

It was hardly to be expected that the Lutherans, who had just thrown off the trammels of the Pope, should quietly submit to the dictation of a temporal Prince in matters of conscience. Wherever, indeed, the authority of the Emperor prevailed, he compelled at least an external observance of the Interim, but the discontent was deep and universal. At Nuremberg, the only priest who said Mass was obliged to go to church attended by a guard. More than 400 pastors are said to have been expelled from Swabia and the Rhenish lands for rejecting the Interim; and although it was forbidden to write against it, under pain of death, no fewer than thirty-seven attacks upon it appeared, including one by Calvin, whose situation, however, did not expose him to much risk of incurring the penalty. The towns of Lower Saxony entered into a league to resist the Interim; but it was Magdeburg and Constance that chiefly distinguished themselves by their opposition. The former, as we have seen, lay already under the ban of the Empire; on the 6th of August, Constance, although it had done no more than other towns, was subjected to the same penalty; but it had always been obnoxious to the House of Austria. A body of Spaniards attempted to surprise the city on the very day of the publication of the ban; the enterprise was frustrated by an act which may be paralleled with that of Horatius Cocles. Two Spaniards were hastening over the bridge that spans the Rhine to seize the open and unguarded gate; a citizen engaged them both, and finding himself likely to be overpowered, grappled with them, and dragged them after him into the stream. At length Constance was obliged to surrender to the forces of King Ferdinand, October 14th; and though an Imperial city, it was seized by that Prince for the House of Austria. After its capture the exercise of Lutheran worship was forbidden there on pain of death. To the reduction of Magdeburg, a longer and more difficult enterprise, there will be occasion to revert. This city was now become the stronghold of Protestantism; and it was chiefly here that were published the numerous pamphlets, songs, caricatures, etc., in which the Interim was abused and ridiculed.

The Leipzig Interim

Maurice was very ill received on his return to his dominions. The States assembled at Meissen refused to accept the Interim, and seemed to be already turning towards Maurice's brother Augustus. All eyes were directed towards the Elector and his theologians, the successors and representatives of Luther, and especially towards Melanchthon, whom Maurice had recalled to Wittenberg; for the University there had been dispersed by the war. Melanchthon had published a pamphlet about the Interim, which had excited the minds of the Saxons against it; and the Elector’s embarrassment was increased by a rescript from the Emperor requiring obedience, and calling upon him to banish Melanchthon. That reformer, however, was not made of the same stern, unyielding stuff as Luther; and in this conjuncture it was perhaps fortunate that he was not so. Allowance must be made for the difficult position in which he was placed. He had to choose between the restoration of some unessential ceremonies and the appearance of an Imperial army in Saxony, which, as it had done in Swabia, might carry matters to a still greater extremity. Under these circumstances, he and a few other divines who acted with him, consented to the resumption of certain usages and ceremonies, which they called adiaphora, or things indifferent, as not involving any points essential to salvation : such as the use of the surplice, lights, bells, unction, fast days and festivals, and the like; while they retained all the doctrines which they considered of vital importance. A formula was drawn up in December, 1548, which obtained the name of THE LEIPSIG INTERIM, and was published in the following July. The concessions it contained drew down upon Melanchthon a storm of obloquy from those more violent reformers whose situation exempted them from feeling the motives which actuated him; and particularly from Matthias Flaccius, a young divine, who had some motives of personal enmity against Melanchthon, as well as from Calvin himself, in their safe retreats in Magdeburg and Geneva.

The Interim caused as much displeasure at Rome as among the reformers, and was anathematized at once by Geneva and the Jesuits. Violent treatises were published, both in Italy and France, as well against the concessions made to the Lutherans as against the sacrilegious intervention of the temporal power in the affairs of religion. The Roman ecclesiastics compared the Emperor's conduct with that of Henry VII, to which, indeed, it bore considerable resemblance; and they denounced his deed as equally guilty with that of Uzzah, who had touched with unhallowed hand the Ark of God. Paul himself, with more sagacity, perceived the weakness of the foundation on which the Emperor had built. By joining either of the parties, Charles might have crushed the other; by attempting to steer between them he lost the control of both.

Henry II’s Plot against the Emperor

Meanwhile the French party was active in Italy. In his foreign policy Henry II was directed by the Guises rather than by Montmorenci; both these parties in the cabinet were strongly anti-Protestant, but the Guises were also anti-Imperial. While persecuting the reformed religion with the most implacable virulence at home, Henry, like his father, would willingly have assisted the German Lutherans against the Emperor. That party, however, was too much humbled to attempt anything; and the French King was fain to content himself with insidious attacks upon the power of the Emperor. In the summer of 1548, Henry, surrounded by a brilliant court, paid a visit to Turin; where, by assembling the garrisons distributed through Piedmont, he might, in a few days, have converted his escort into an army. His object was to support various conspiracies against the Emperor in Italy, which had been chiefly hatched by Cardinal du Bellay, the French ambassador at Rome. Of these conspiracies, no fewer than three were directed against Genoa, and involved the assassination of Andrew Doria. The first, in which the brothers of Fiesco were concerned, with Giulio Cibó, Marquis of Massa Carrara, failed through Cibó's being denounced by his own mother. When arrested, letters were found upon him from the Cardinal of Guise, which showed that the latter was privy to the plot, and had communicated it to Henry II. The two other conspiracies, at the head of which were Paolo Spinola and a monk named Barnabó Adorno, also failed. At Parma, two plots for the murder of Gonzaga, Governor of the Milanese, were likewise discovered and frustrated, and the authors of them put to death. In their examination, these men declared that they had been employed by the sons of Pier Luigi Farnese, the murdered Duke; that the French King was aware of their designs, and had come into Italy for the purpose of taking advantage of the disturbances which might follow on their accomplishment. From a letter of Cardinal du Bellay, it appears that there was a further plot for massacring the Viceroy and Spanish garrison at Naples, and seizing that city. These enterprises had not been supported with the expected vigour by Paul III. After the first transports of rage had subsided, fear had taken their place in the bosom of the sly and subtle, and now aged Pontiff, who began to renew his negotiations with the Emperor; and after a short stay at Turin, Henry was recalled by an insurrection of the peasantry of Saintonge and Guienne, on the subject of the gabelle, or salt-tax, and the extortions and oppressions of the revenue officers. The insurgents acted with great barbarity; but though their forces are said at one period to have numbered 50,000 men, they had no competent chief to direct them, and could not venture to oppose the royal troops, under the Constable Montmorenci and the Duke of Aumale. At their approach, the citizens of Bordeaux, who had taken part in the insurrection, so far from attempting to resist, dispatched a magnificent barge for the conveyance of Montmorenci within their walls; but the rugged Constable declared that he meant to enter in another fashion, and battered down a breach with his artillery. He treated the citizens with the greatest harshness and cruelty. During more than a month, the executions succeeded one another with frightful rapidity, and without any formal trial. More than 140 persons were put to death, some with the most dreadful tortures. Bordeaux was condemned to lose all its privileges and liberties; the jurats were compelled to burn its charters with their own hands; the town-hall was ordered to be demolished, and a fine of 20,000 livres was exacted . The impolicy of these penalties, however, in case of a war with England, caused them soon afterwards to be remitted. The more prudent Aumale acquired a popular reputation by tranquillizing Saintonge and the Angoumois without enforcing any punishment. But the brutality of Montmorenci had done its work. That very year, in sight of the scaffolds erected by the Constable, Etienne de la Boetie, of Sarlat in Perigord, a young man of eighteen, the friend of Montaigne, wrote his Contr'un, or Discours de la Servitude volontaire, one of the most burning and brilliant declamations ever launched against tyranny. The doctrines there laid down regarding the true principles of civil liberty, and the right of popular resistance, are remarkable for the period, and show as great an advance in politics as the Reformation did in religion.

After the conclusion of the Diet, Charles left Augsburg for the Netherlands (August 13th, 1548), dragging with him in his train the two captive Princes. The Landgrave he sent to Oudenarde, while he carried John Frederick with him to Brussels. One of Charles's objects in proceeding to the Netherlands, where he remained till the spring of 1550, was to cause his son Philip, now in his twenty-first year, to be recognized by his future subjects in those provinces, as well as to complete his education by initiating him under the paternal eye in all the arts of government. The Emperor had also a design to procure, after the death of his brother Ferdinand, the Imperial Crown for Philip; and with this view, Philip, in order that he might become acquainted with the Germans, was directed to pass through Germany on his way into the Netherlands. Charles having secured the obedience of most part of Germany, and feeling his health declining, was anxiously considering how he might best perpetuate the greatness of the House of Austria. He and his brother now held between them Spain, the Netherlands, Naples, Milan, Hungary, Bohemia, and the Empire; but the lapse of a generation or two would sever the intimate connection between these possessions, unless care were taken to prevent such a result.

Philip’s absence was unpopular in Spain. The national spirit, however, had been considerably broken during the reign of Charles; and though some discontent was manifested by the Castilian Cortes, the opposition was neither well conducted nor persevering. The Duke of Alva, in assembling the Cortes, excluded the prelates and nobles, and summoned only the deputies of towns. It was also some satisfaction to the Spaniards, that during Philip's absence the government was entrusted to the Archduke Maximilian, the Emperor’s nephew, whom he had recently married to his daughter Mary. Charles directed his son, before leaving Spain, to remodel his Court after the Burgundian fashion, which was much more splendid and ceremonious than that of Castile. The young Prince embarking at Barcelona, proceeded to Genoa, and thence to Milan, where he spent some time in a round of festivities. The whole journey from that place to Flanders — through Tyrol, and by Munich and Heidelburg to Brussels — was performed on horseback. At Trent, Philip was met by the Elector Maurice, who accompanied him some way on his journey. The young Prince took evident pains to render himself popular with the Germans; but to conciliate affection lay not in his nature. His cold, haughty, and repulsive manners disgusted them as well as the Flemings.

Policy of the Guises

The Emperor, in order to find employment for the French arms, and prevent them from being directed against himself, would willingly have embroiled France and England in a war; and during the revolt of Guienne, he endeavored to persuade Protector Somerset to revive the pretensions of England to that province. But although the policy of France, directed by the Guises, was well calculated to provoke hostility, yet the factions with which England was then distracted, as well as the dangerous intrigues of his own family, made Somerset desirous of peace. To foment hostilities between England and Scotland was the natural policy of the Guises, as well from considerations of religion as from the far more powerful motive of family interest. After the accession of Edward VI the reformed religion had been established in England; and the views of Somerset, a zealous Protestant, were directed to extend the reformation to Scotland, where there was already a considerable Protestant party, and by a marriage between Edward VI and Mary, the young Queen of Scots, to effect a union of the two Crowns. This, however, would have been fatal to the ambition of the Guises, who were desirous of forming a marriage between their young niece and the Dauphin Francis, son of Henry II. And as a union between England and Scotland would have deprived France of a means she had often employed to harass and weaken the former country through the latter, they did not find much difficulty in persuading the French King to refuse the ratification of a treaty concluded at London, March 11th, 1547, respecting Boulogne, and for regulating the affairs of Scotland. The Scotch Parliament and the Regent Arran had also declined to ratify the previous treaty between Henry VIII and Francis I, in which Scotland had been included. Party differences in that country were hot and rancorous. The adherents of the reformed religion were for the English marriage and alliance, while the Catholics found their rallying point in France. The latter party had been led by the savage and bigoted Cardinal David Beaton, the Scottish Primate, detested by the Protestants for his cruelty, and even by the Catholic nobles for his overbearing arrogance, which at length caused his destruction. A private quarrel with Norman Leslie, son of the Earl of Eothes, led that young nobleman, with sixteen companions, to effect his murder in the castle of Saint Andrews, a little before the conclusion of the treaty just referred to. Mary of Guise, the Queen-mother, now the head of the Catholic party in Scotland, in vain attempted to secure the conspirators, who, with the aid of about 150 men who were not in the plot, succeeded in holding the Castle of Saint Andrews against her; upon which she applied to her brothers for assistance, and with the aid of twenty-one French galleys and some French troops, the Castle was forced to capitulate, July 3rd, 1547. The Protector Somerset, advancing with an army of 18,000 men, inflicted a terrible defeat on the Regent Arran, who had much superior forces, at the battle of Pinkie, September 10th, 1547.

Somerset was prevented from pursuing his victory by disturbances in England, which compelled his return; but this defeat diminished the consideration of the Regent Arran, and increased the influence of the Queen-mother. She saw no safety except in a French alliance, and through the influence of her brothers she succeeded in arranging a marriage between her daughter Mary and the Dauphin Francis. The prospect of securing the Crown of Scotland in his family had induced Henry II, although at peace with England, to assist the Scotch. Mary, the young Queen of Scots, was carried into France for her education till the time should arrive for the celebration of the marriage; and 6,000 French troops which had been landed in Scotland helped in repulsing the attacks of the English. The latter having rejected a summons to desist from these hostilities, France in 1549 declared open war. A French fleet, under the command of Leone Strozzi, a Florentine refugee, issuing from Havre de Grâce, defeated the English fleet near Guernsey. Towards the end of August Henry II in person approached Boulogne with an army, and captured some of the neighboring forts; but the siege of Boulogne itself was deferred till the following year. The French arms were helped by the distracted state of England. The Earl of Warwick and his party, who had succeeded to the power of Somerset, though they had condemned the Protector for desiring a peace with France, found themselves compelled to adopt that measure; and a treaty was signed, March 24th, 1550, by which Boulogne was surrendered to the French for 400,000 crowns, instead of the 2,000,000 stipulated by the treaty of 1546. It was, indeed, too expensive to be kept.

Persecutions in France. Death of Pope Paul III, 1549.

During this period the religious persecutions in France were continued with the utmost severity. The policy of the Guises, and the despotism which with the Constable was an instinct, united in favor of persecution; and Diana, who had been personally affronted by an enthusiastic reformer, inclined the same way. The splendid fêtes given in Paris at the coronation of Henry's Queen, Catharine de' Medici, in June, 1549, were concluded by an auto-de-fé, in which four wretches convicted of Lutheranism were burnt at a slow fire. The hunting down of heretics was profitable to the French courtiers. They were put on the same footing as usurers, and it was not unusual for a favorite to obtain a royal brevet granting him the estates of such persons, throughout an entire province. The Protestants lost about this time one of their best friends and protectors, Margaret, Queen of Navarre, who died in Bigorre, December 21st. Her daughter, Jeanne d'Albret, though evangelically inclined, was yet too young to afford them much assistance.

Pope Paul III, who had attained the great age of eighty-two, died a little before (November 10th). He may be said to have fallen a victim to his ambition, the ruling passion of so many Popes. During the latter months of his life he had attempted to mollify the Emperor by concessions; he had first suspended, and then dissolved, the Council of Bologna (September, 1549), but had obtained nothing by this conduct. Paul had, in the summer, demanded back Piacenza from the Emperor, and on Charles's refusal, the Nuncio, with a rhetoric amounting to blasphemy, cited the Pope, the Emperor, and Granvelle to appear within six months before the throne of God. Fearing that Parma would fall, like Piacenza, into the hands of the Emperor, Paul had brought that Duchy under the direct rule of the Holy See, offering his grandson, Ottavio Farnese, the Duchy of Castro, in exchange for it. But to this arrangement Ottavio would not accede, and with his brothers actually entered into a league with Ferrante Gonzaga, their father's reputed murderer, for the purpose of recovering Parma. This news threw the aged Pope into so violent a fit of rage, that he fell senseless on the floor; and, though he survived three weeks, it can hardly be doubted that the agitation of his spirits contributed to hasten his end. He had occupied the chair of St. Peter fifteen years, and was esteemed for his talent and sagacity.

The Conclave for the election of Paul's successor, agitated by the intrigues of France, of the Imperial party, and the Farnese family, lasted three months. The new Pope was at length chosen by a sort of accident, or caprice. Five or six Cardinals were standing round the altar of the chapel, dis-cussing the difficulties of the election, when Cardinal del Monte suddenly exclaimed, “Choose me, and you shall be my companions and favourites”. His election was effected, and Del Monte, who had been chamberlain to Julius II, assumed the title of Julius III. The Roman prelates of that day were not in general remarkable for morality, but of all the Sacred College, Del Monte, a profligate and a cynic, was, perhaps, the most unfit for the office to which he was called. Del Monte, who as President of the Council of Trent, had taken the lead in transferring that assembly to Bologna, was naturally obnoxious to the Emperor; yet, as Julius III, he preferred the Imperial alliance to that of France, and one of his earliest measures was to conciliate Charles by authorizing the re-opening of the Council at Trent. The Emperor had summoned a Diet to meet at Augsburg on the 25th of June, 1550, and in May he left Brussels to proceed thither with his son Philip. He was now much more embittered against the Lutherans than he had appeared to be during the Smalkaldic war; or rather, perhaps he thought it no longer necessary to wear the mask. The German reformers might infer from his proceedings in the Netherlands what they had to expect in the event of his obtaining absolute power. Before leaving that country, where he had already established a modified Inquisition, he published, at Brussels, a most cruel and tyrannical edict against the Protestants (April 29th). To buy, sell, or possess any Protestant books, to hold any secret meetings for discussing the Scriptures, to speak against the worship of the Virgin and Saints, was prohibited on pain of death and confiscation of goods. The power of the Inquisitors was augmented, and informers were encouraged in their hateful office, by receiving part of the property of the victims.

Diet of Augsburg, 1550.

The Diet of Augsburg was opened July 26th. There was a very full attendance of prelates; but of temporal princes only Duke Albert of Bavaria, and Henry, the younger, of Brunswick, were present in person; the rest sent representatives. The town was so filled with Spanish soldiers that the assembly obtained the name of “the Armed Diet”. Charles was able to announce in his speech the consent of the Pope to the re-opening of the Council at Trent. That Council, however, would be useless unless the Lutherans could be brought to submit to its decrees; and to enforce this submission was one of the Emperor's objects in summoning the Diet. He regarded most of the principalities and cities of Germany as being now either subdued, or attached to his policy from inclination; and in the latter class he ranked the Elector Maurice, who had always shown himself subservient to his views. But Maurice had now attained the object of his wishes, and was disposed to take a very different view of matters now that he no longer needed the Emperor's help to despoil his kinsman. He was sagacious enough to perceive that it was Charles’s object to establish in Germany an absolute and hereditary tyranny, as he had done in his paternal dominions; in which case the Elector's own power would dwindle to a mere name, and perhaps be entirely extinguished. He saw that Lutheranism was the chief safeguard for the political privileges of the German Princes; he had reason to suspect that the Emperor would not tolerate that faith any longer than he was compelled; in his heart, too, Maurice preferred the Lutheran faith to the Catholic. Moreover, he was not without cause for personal enmity against the Emperor. He felt that he had been deceived by Charles respecting the treatment of his father-in-law, the Landgrave of Hesse; and his pride, if not his affection for his relative, had been wounded by the neglect with which all his entreaties and remonstrances on that subject had been received. To be the head, moreover, of the Lutheran party, was a more glorious part than to be the mere lieutenant of the Emperor; and the reproaches of his brethren in religion, if they did not afflict his conscience, mortified at least his self-esteem. But he had a very difficult game to play. He was aware that he was suspected by the Lutherans, without whose help he could not hope to stand against the Emperor; while, on the other hand, any steps he might take to gain their support would be sure to awaken the suspicion and anger of Charles. Maurice met these difficulties with that uncommon mixture of boldness and duplicity which marked his character : he determined to side with the Lutherans on the subject of the Council, and with the Emperor on that of the Interim. The Saxon ambassador at the Diet was instructed to protest that his master would never submit to the Council, except on condition that the decrees already made at Trent should be reconsidered; that the Lutheran divines should be allowed a deliberative voice; and that the Pope should renounce all idea of presiding over and conducting the proceedings. Charles, however, fancied that the Elector, in thus acting, merely wanted to preserve his credit with his party. When therefore, the States, at the instance of the Emperor, made provision for the war against Magdeburg, and further recommended that Maurice should conduct it, Charles readily assented. He had neither health, money, nor leisure to begin another German war himself : and he even considered it a high stroke of policy to engage the Lutheran Princes in the reduction of a city regarded as the stronghold of their faith. The rigid divines of Magdeburg, however, looked upon Maurice as an apostate from their creed, and overwhelmed him with calumnies. Accompanied by Lazarus Schwendi, as Imperial commissary, he appeared before that town with his troops in November, 1550, and we shall revert, a little further on, to his proceedings.

During the sitting of this Diet Charles endeavored to carry out the project, that Ferdinand should procure the succession of the Infante Philip to the Imperial Crown, after his own decease, to the prejudice of his son Maximilian; although the latter, when Philip should have attained the Imperial Crown, was to be made King of the Romans, and the Empire was thus, eventually, to remain in Ferdinand's line. To discuss this important project, Queen Mary proceeded from Brussels to Augsburg, and Ferdinand recalled his son Maximilian from Spain. Ferdinand had at first given a flat refusal; but at length, after long and secret negotiations, a contract was made between Ferdinand and Philip, March 9th, by which the former engaged, when he should become Emperor, to procure the election of Philip as King of the Romans. The other part of the plan, that Philip, when Emperor, should do the like by Maximilian, was secured only by Philip’s promise, as it was thought that the Electors would not entertain a scheme founded on so remote a contingency. The recess of the Diet of Augsburg was published February 14th, 1551. The States had been brought to recognize the Council, though in very general terms, and to remit to the Emperor's discretion the question concerning the restitution of ecclesiastical property. During this assembly Charles lost his ablest minister, Nicholas Perrenot de Granvelle, his Chancellor, who died at Augsburg, August 28th, 1550. Charles bestowed the chancellorship on Granvelle’s son, Antony, Bishop of Arras, who possessed all the diplomatic ability of his father, and subsequently became a Cardinal.

Meanwhile the clouds of war between France and the Emperor were silently gathering. Besides political reasons, the French King was instigated by personal enmity. Though of weak judgment and easily governed, Henry II was constant in his afflictions and implacable in his resentments, and he had never forgiven Charles the sufferings inflicted on him during his captivity in Spain. For some time he had been preparing for war. In June, 1549, the ancient league of France with the Catholic Cantons of Switzerland had been renewed, in which also two of the Protestant ones, Basle and Schaffhausen, were included. An intimate alliance was contracted with England at the time of the peace already mentioned. Henry sent to Edward VI the collar of his order of Saint Andrew, and negotiations were entered into for a marriage between Edward and the French King's daughter Elizabeth, then only five years old; which was eventually concluded by the treaty of Angers in July, 1551. The peace was proclaimed in England May 28th, 1550. Apprehension of the Emperor's plans was a motive with the English Court to keep on friendly terms with France. Credible information was received that Charles designed to carry off his kinswoman, the Lady Mary, to Antwerp, and to endeavor to place her on the English throne by means of a domestic conspiracy assisted by an Imperial army : and the coast of Essex was strictly watched in order to prevent her escape.

The views of France were also extended towards Italy. Although the Emperor was master of the Milanese and dominant in Genoa, the possession of the duchy of Parma was still necessary to him in order effectually to exclude the French from central and southern Italy. Pope Julius III had, on his accession, reinstated Ottavio Farnese, the son of Pier Luigi, in the possession of Parma, to be held as a fief of the Church. Charles, who still kept Piacenza, offered the Republic of Siena in exchange for Parma, and even engaged to hold the latter under the Pope, as suzerain, and to pay an annual quit-rent. Julius was naturally averse to accept so powerful a vassal; but after hesitating sometime between the menaces of the Emperor and those of the French King, he at length submitted to Charles. Ottavio upon this threw himself on the protection of France, and Henry II, by a treaty signed in May, 1551, engaged to assist him with troops and money. At this news the Pope, who was now completely governed by Charles, declared Ottavio a rebel, and dispatched an army against him; while the Emperor sequestered the dowry of his own natural daughter Margaret, the wife of Ottavio; and towards the middle of June directed Gonzaga, Governor of the Milanese, to attack Parma. Two small armies of Italians in the pay of France succeeded, however, for some time in defending that city; till Henry II, weary of being merely the auxiliary of the Duke of Parma, ordered Marshal de Brissac, Governor of Piedmont, to attack the Imperial possessions, though without any previous declaration of war. On the night of September 3rd, the troops of Brissac surprised and captured the towns of S. Damiano and Chieri, but an attempt on Chierasco failed. At the same time a fleet of forty galleys under the Baron de la Garde, issuing from the ports of Provence, captured some Spanish merchant vessels, and in concert with another squadron under Leone Strozzi, prevented Andrea Dona from issuing out from Genoa. The approach of winter, however, put a stop to these operations. Another means of assailing the Emperor was to revive against him the hostility of the Turks. Notwithstanding Francis I's experience of Turkish friendship at Nice and at Toulon, it remained a fixed idea in France that the power of Charles must be checked through that of the Sultan; and hostilities between the former and the celebrated pirate-captain, Torghud or Draghut, a genuine successor of Hayraddin, afforded a pretence for inciting Solyman to take up arms.

The Turkish Corsair Draghut. Henry II opposes the Council.

For some years Draghut had been the terror of the Mediterranean. His squadron, which sometimes numbered forty swift-sailing vessels, appeared at the most unexpected points, captured richly-laden merchantmen, plundered the coasts, and bore off all the inhabitants that could be seized into slavery. An anxious look-out was kept from cliff and castle for his dreaded sails, the approach of which was signaled by columns of smoke. At length, partly by fraud and partly by force, Draghut succeeded in seizing the town of Afrikia, or Mehdia, near Tunis, where the Moors and Jews expelled from Spain and Portugal had established a sort of Republic. This proceeding roused the auger of Charles, who, with the aid of some Papal and Florentine galleys, and of the Knights of St. John settled at Tripoli, wrested Afrikia from the hands of Draghut. Baron d'Aramon, the French ambassador at Constantinople, took advantage of this incident, which he represented as a breach of the truce existing between the House of Austria and the Porte, to incite the Sultan to action; and early in 1551 Solyman dispatched a fleet into the Mediterranean with the design of recovering Afrikia. The plan failed; but after a fruitless attempt upon Malta, the Turks succeeded in taking Tripoli, which was but poorly defended by the Knights (August 14th). At this time D'Aramon, who had been to France for instructions, was at Malta on his way back to Constantinople, whither he proceeded in the Turkish fleet, a circumstance not calculated to refute the reports then prevalent of the participation of France in these affairs.

Besides all these hostile intrigues and demonstrations, Henry II also opposed the Emperor in his favorite project of the Council. After obtaining an assurance from Henry that the French prelates should repair to Trent to counter-balance the influence of the Imperialists, Julius III had published a bull for the reassembling of the Council at that place on May 1st, 1551; which was, however, on account of the small number of Fathers then present, adjourned to September 1st. At this second session appeared on the part of the French King, Jacques Amyot, the celebrated translator of Plutarch, to protest against the legality of the Council. This step was followed up by several other acts of hostility against the Pope. The French prelates were forbidden to appear at Trent; the remitting of money to Rome, or any place subject to the Roman See, was prohibited; and to obviate any censures which the Pope might fulminate against him, Henry II instructed his Keeper of the Seals to enter an appeal to a future Council. He also persuaded the Swiss Cantons to refuse to recognize the Council of Trent.

Charles, on the other hand, was straining every nerve to maintain the Council and to make its authority respected. He persuaded the three ecclesiastical Electors to proceed to Trent, and compelled several of the German prelates to appear there, either in person or by proxy. He also exhorted the Lutheran Princes to send their divines thither to explain and defend their tenets; though at the same time he was acting as if the Council had already given a decree against them; and the places of the expelled Lutheran clergy in Swabia were supplied with their most bitter and bigoted adversaries, nominated by the sole authority of the Emperor. After these acts of tyranny Charles set out for Innsbruck, in order that he might be at hand to superintend the proceedings of the Council, as well as for the sake of easy access in case his affairs should call him either into Germany or Italy.

But the French King, not content with the hostile measures already related, had also entered into correspondence with the Emperor’s domestic enemies, the German Lutherans, and Maurice, particularly the Elector Maurice. We have already mentioned that Maurice had been entrusted by the Emperor with the siege of Magdeburg, and that he had invested that city in November, 1550: yet he had sent an agent to the French King as early as the preceding July, with assurances of extreme friendship, and the allied Lutheran Princes had engaged that, on the next vacancy of the Imperial Crown, they would elect to it either Henry himself, or some Prince who might be agreeable to him. On the 3rd of November, 1551, Maurice granted the citizens a capitulation, which, though it involved the surrender of the town, was, in fact, a peace on favorable conditions. Nominally, indeed, they were to submit to the pleasure of the Emperor, and were to pay a fine of 50,000 florins; but they were assured that their liberties and privileges, both civil and religious, should be respected. Maurice entered the town November 7th, and preserved the same moderation which he had displayed during the siege; yet he managed the whole affair with so much address that Charles suspected no fraud or collusion, nor hesitated to ratify the terms of the capitulation.

Only a month before, however, Maurice had already concluded a formal treaty with France. Henry had sent Jean de Froissac, Bishop of Bayonne, into Saxony, who, as the result of some secret negotiations at the Castle of Lohe, conducted partly by Maurice in person and partly by Heydeck as his representative, signed a treaty (October 5th), of which the following are the principal articles : that Maurice should be the commander-in-chief of the German Confederates; that he and his associates should furnish 7,000 horse and foot in proportion, and attack the Emperor; that the King of France should provide 240,000 crowns for the pay of the army during the first three months, and afterwards 60,000 crowns a month; that he should seize the French-speaking towns of Cambray, Toul, Metz, and Verdun, and hold them as Vicar of the Empire; and that at the next vacancy, either he himself or some Prince whom he approved of, should be elected to the Imperial Crown. The motives assigned for concluding the treaty were to liberate the Landgrave of Hesse from his five years’ captivity, as well as to free Germany from a “bestial, insupportable, and perpetual servitude”. and restore its ancient liberties and constitution. John Frederick was also to be liberated, but on condition that before he was reinstated in the dominions still left to him, he should bind himself towards Maurice by such pledges “as the common good demands” — that is, of course, that he should not require back the Electorate. A treaty of great historical importance, especially as regards the claims of France to the towns of Metz, Toul, Verdun, and Cambray. The parties to it, besides the Elector Maurice, were George Frederick, Margrave of Brandenburg-Culmbach, John Albert, Duke of Mecklenburg, William of Hesse, son of the Landgrave Philip, and the King of Denmark. But though the King of France was already engaged in hostilities with the Emperor in Italy, the idea of attacking him in Germany caused Henry to pause before he ratified the treaty. Maurice secretly dispatched into France, under an assumed name, his friend and ally, the Margrave Albert, to persuade Henry to consent. The French King sent for Schärtlin, the former commander of the Suabian troops, who had lately entered his service; and for nearly two months consultations were nightly held at the courts of Paris, Orleans, and Blois. When the German negotiators were conducted through the rooms, the Margrave followed Schärtlin as his attendant, under the name of Captain Paul of Biberach. At length, on the 15th of January, 1552, Henry signed and swore to the treaty at the Castle of Chambord, near Blois.

In December Maurice had made another attempt to procure the liberation of the Landgrave, by sending to Charles at Innsbruck a solemn embassy, whose demand to that effect was supported not only by the King of Denmark and many Princes of the Empire, but also by the Emperor's own brother, King Ferdinand. Charles returned an evasive answer, as indeed Maurice had hoped and expected; whose sole intention in sending the embassy was to place the Emperor’s unfeeling conduct in a hateful point of view, and to obtain a plausible pretext for the blow he was about to strike. Charles on his side did not believe that Maurice was in earnest. He had seen some years before at Augsburg how little the young Elector really cared about the liberation of his father-in-law, and he and his ministers, from Maurice's dissolute life, had contracted for him a sort of contempt. Charles imagined that he only made the application in order to please the Landgrave's family, and all Maurice’s conduct was calculated to lull the Emperor into a false security. He had directed Melanchthon and other divines to proceed to Trent, with a Confession of Faith to be laid before the Council there assembled; and he carried his dissimulation so far as to order a house to be prepared for himself at Augsburg. Nay, he actually began his journey towards that place, attended by a minister whom Granvelle had bribed to be a spy upon his actions; but after travelling a few stages he pretended to be taken ill, and sending forward the minister with the intelligence that he should arrive in a few days, he mounted his horse as soon as the spy had departed and hastened back to join his army in Thuringia.

Before he actually declared war against the Emperor, Maurice made a last appeal to him for the liberation of the Landgrave, March 27th, 1552; and this time his request was accompanied with complaints respecting the proceedings of the Council of Trent, which he denounced as an unfair and prejudiced tribunal, wholly influenced by the Pope. The intention of the Allies to procure the Landgrave's release had already been declared to the Saxon States assembled at Torgau and to those of Hesse at Cassel. Early in March the Hessian troops, under the Landgrave’s son William, assembled at Kirchhain, and after an abortive attempt to surprise Frankfurt, took the high road to Fulda. Maurice meanwhile was leading his men, who had been cantoned in the neighbourhood of Mühlhausen, through the Thuringian forest into Franconia, while the Margrave Albert was advancing with a third body. All these three armies; uniting at Rothenburg, on the Tauber, took the road to Augsburg. As soon as he had openly taken up arms, Maurice published a manifesto in which he declared his objects to be the security of the evangelical religion, the preservation of the laws and constitution of the Empire, and the liberation of the Landgrave of Hesse. This manifesto was artfully contrived to secure as many adherents as possible, Catholic as well as Lutheran, the former as well as the latter being interested for the liberties of the Empire. A more violent manifesto was published by Albert, and a third by the King of France. On the last, in which Henry declared himself “Protector of the Liberties of Germany and of its captive Princes”, he had caused to be engraved a cap of liberty between two daggers : little dreaming that such an emblem would one day portend the fall of the ancient monarchy of France.

Maurice entered Augsburg without a blow, the Imperial garrison retiring on his approach. The Emperor and his Spanish troops had left a hateful memory in that city. Maurice reinstated the magistrates whom Charles had deposed, and restored the churches to the Lutheran ministers, as he had done in the other towns through which he had passed.

The Emperor, who was still at Innsbruck, was overwhelmed with surprise and alarm at the breaking out of this formidable conspiracy. The false security in which he had been wrapped seems almost unaccountable. The treaty between the German Lutherans and the King of France was known at the smallest Courts; yet it made no impression on Charles, who remarked that one ought not to be disturbed at every rumour. So far from making any provision against such an attack, he had dismissed part of his troops, and dispatched others into Hungary and to the war in the Duchy of Parma. His treasury was exhausted, the troops about him hardly sufficed for a body-guard. In this forlorn condition Charles earnestly inquired of his brother what assistance he could expect at his hands in the common danger? Ferdinand answered, what was in fact the case, that he had need of all his resources against the Osmanlis in Hungary. The Emperor was equally unsuccessful in his application to the Augsburg bankers, who refused him all advances even on the most advantageous conditions. Alarmed and agitated by uncertain counsels, Charles, who imagined a universal conspiracy against him, was utterly at a loss what step to take next. His first idea was to seek a refuge with his brother, who, however, dissuaded him from that purpose. He then thought of flying into Italy; but the war in that quarter had not proved favorable to his arms, and it might be dangerous with his small escort to venture on the Italian roads. At last he resolved to make for the Upper Rhine and the Netherlands. At midnight on the 6th of April he left Innsbruck very secretly, attended only by his two chamberlains, Andelot and Rosenberg, and three servants. On the following day at noon they reached Nassereith, near the pass of Ehrenberg; for which they set off after a short rest, hoping to find it open and so to take the high road to Ulm. On the way, however, they learnt that they would be running into Maurice's hands, who was to occupy Füssen that very day, and they were therefore compelled to return to Innsbruck.

Arrangement between Ferdinand and Maurice.

It was fortunate, under these circumstances, that Ferdinand had remained on a good footing with Maurice. Those Princes met at Passau on the 26th of May, where a truce was arranged till the 10th of June, to afford an opportunity for negotiating a peace. Charles, not much relying on the truce, had contrived to scrape together some money in the course of April, and began to arm. Troops were mustering for his service at Frankfurt, at Ulm, and especially at Reutte, the frontier town of Tyrol, where they had taken possession of the pass of Ehrenberg. The Allies were well enough acquainted with the Emperor's character to know that if he again found himself at the head of an army they should look in vain for any concessions; and Maurice determined to strike a decisive blow. Orders were given to advance; the Imperial camp at Reutte was attacked and dispersed (May 18th); on the following day the pass and castle of Ehrenberg were stormed and taken without much resistance, when nine companies of Imperialists surrendered. The allied Princes now determined, as they said, “to seek the fox in his hole”, and march to Innsbruck. But at this critical moment Maurice was detained by a dangerous mutiny of some of his troops, who claimed the usual gratuity for storming the castle; and as he had not the means of satisfying their demand, it was some time before he could appease their clamours by promising them compensation at Innsbruck, This delay of a few hours secured the safety of the Emperor. On the afternoon of the 19th May Charles summoned John Frederick into the garden of the castle, and told him that he was free, intimating, however, that he must follow the Court a little longer. At nine in the evening, Charles, who was still suffering from the gout, ascended a litter, and commenced his flight by torch-light, accompanied only by his Court and a small body of Spanish soldiers. The night was cold and wet, the mountains covered with snow; yet the little band pushed on, breaking down the bridges behind them, and after traversing almost impassable mountain roads, arrived at length at Villach in Carinthia. When Maurice entered Innsbruck May 23rd he found that the fox had stolen away. The Emperor’s effects and those of his courtiers, which had been left in the hurry, were abandoned to the soldiers; but all that belonged to the King of the Romans was rescued from the general plunder.

On the other side of the Alps, the Council of Trent had fled as precipitately as the Emperor. Already, at the first news of the rising in Germany, the Pope had decreed, with secret satisfaction, a suspension of the Council, and this resolution had been adopted by a majority (April 28th), although some of the stauncher adherents of the Emperor remained till the news arrived of the taking of the pass. Great was then the confusion. All believed that the Lutherans would march upon Trent; and not only the Fathers but the inhabitants also, took to flight in all directions. The Legate Crescenzio, though dangerously ill, also fled, and died on arriving at Verona. The prorogation of the Council, which had been for a term of two years, was afterwards extended to ten, and it did not reassemble till 1562.

Meanwhile Henry II, taking advantage of this diversion, and in conformity with his treaty with the German Princes, had ordered a considerable army to assemble at Châlons. In a lit de justice, held in the Parliament of Paris, February I2th, 1552, he appointed his Queen, Catharine de' Medici, Regent of the Kingdom during his absence; but to guide and control her actions, he associated with her Bertrandi, Bishop of Comminges and Keeper of the Seals, and the Admiral d'Annebaut: a surveillance of which Catharine loudly complained. Before he set out on this expedition, Henry caused a number of heretics to be burnt at Agen, Troyes, Lyons, Nimes, Paris, and other places; he had also established a severe censorship of the press, and a strict supervision of all books imported, especially from Geneva; and having thus done all in his power to suppress Protestantism in his own dominions, he set out to assist the Protestants of Germany. The French army, under the command of the Constable Montmorenci, being reinforced by some German mercenaries, crossed the Meuse, and summoned Toul, which surrendered without a blow. The French next appeared before Metz. This Imperial city was a sort of Republic, enjoying peculiar privileges; among which was exemption from receiving troops within its walls, whether Imperial or others. The magistrates offered the army provisions, as well as to admit the King and Princes, but not the troops. The Bishop, however, Cardinal Robert de Lenoncour, a Frenchman, persuaded the principal inhabitants to allow the Constable to enter with a guard of about 600 men, which Montmorenci increased to the number of 1,500 picked troops; and when the citizens attempted too late to close their gates, they were pushed aside, and the whole army entered. The ancient capital of Austrasia thus fell, by a fraud, under the dominion of France, and Henry made his solemn entry into it, April 18th.

Campaign in Alsace

After these successes, the French marched towards the Vosges mountains and Alsace, leaving Verdun to be occupied on their return. They passed without much difficulty through Lorraine; but in the purely German land of Alsace their insolence excited the alarm and hatred of the inhabitants. The consequence was that the country was deserted; the French were often obliged to go four or five leagues to obtain forage and provisions, and if they were found in bodies of less than ten men, they were sure to be massacred. Montmorenci, who had a great contempt for the Germans, boasted that he would enter Strassburg and the other towns on the Rhine, “like so much butter”; and he attempted to take Strassburg by the same stratagem which had succeeded at Metz. He asked permission for the ambassadors of the Pope, of Venice, Florence, and Ferrara, "just to see the town", but selected 200 of his best soldiers to accompany them as an escort, who were to seize the gates. The Strassburgers, however, were alive to his designs, and received the troop with a discharge of artillery, which killed ten or twelve, and made the rest fly. Henry penetrated as far as Hagenau and Weissenburg, which he entered. But provisions were beginning to fail; he was among a hostile population; and the news that the Queen of Hungary had dispatched from the Netherlands a large body of troops under Van Rossem, who had taken Stenai and ravaged all the country between the Meuse and the Aisne, determined him to retreat. On the 13th May, Henry began his retrograde march, pretending that he did so only to gratify his allies the Swiss, who had sent to beg that he would spare the towns in alliance with them; but, with a ridiculous bravado, he caused the horses of his army to be watered in the Rhine, as if he had accomplished some hazardous and distant expedition. The retreating army, after again traversing Lorraine and occupying Verdun, crossed the Sarre and invaded Luxembourg. The towns of Rodemachern, Yvoy, Damvilliers, Montmédy, and others fell into Henry's hands, and were treated with the greatest rigour. The booty, however, was bestowed, not on his army, but on his courtiers and captains, who were execrated at once by the inhabitants and by their own soldiers. Henry concluded the campaign by taking the Duchy of Bouillon, which the Emperor had given back to the Bishopric of Liége, but which was now restored to its later masters, the house of La Marck : after which he disbanded his army (July 16th). It appears to have been in this campaign that the French began to make geographical maps to facilitate military operations. Carloix attributes the invention to his master, Marshal Vieilleville, but he is not always to be believed on such points.

The campaign in Piedmont and the Parmesan, though it has Italian been the subject of voluminous memoirs, is hardly worth relating. The most remarkable incident was an attempt by the Marshal de Brissac to surprise the Castle of Milan, by means of men who had arrived singly through the Grisons, and had been received in the house of a traitor in Milan; but the enterprise failed through the ladders which had been prepared not proving long enough. The war of Parma and Mirandola was brought to a conclusion. The Pope, alarmed by the prodigious expense, as well as by the suspension of the revenues derived from France, the prospect of the loss of that Kingdom to the Holy See, and the menace of Henry II to assemble a General Council, had entered early in the year into negotiations for a peace, which were hastened on by the success of the Elector Maurice and the danger of the Emperor; and a truce of two years between the Pope, the Duke of Parma, and Henry II, was signed at Rome, April 29th, 1552.

Maurice, who did not think of pursuing his success further than Innsbruck, determined to attend a conference at Passau (May 26th). The Emperor seemed to have been sufficiently humbled. At a meeting at Heidelberg of the Princes of Upper Germany, it had even been debated whether he should not be deposed; but the victory over him had been achieved through a surprise, and he had still great means at his disposal. At Passau appeared King Ferdinand and his son Maximilian, the Imperial ambassadors, the Elector Maurice, Albert III Duke of Bavaria, the Archbishop of Salzburg, and the Bishop of Eichstedt; while the remaining Electors, the Dukes of Brunswick, Cleves, Pomerania, and Würtemberg, the Margrave John, and the Bishop of Würzburg, sent representatives, Maurice renewed the demands made in his manifesto, nor were they deemed unreasonable even by King Ferdinand, and by the Catholic Princes of the Empire, who feared that Charles's plans were directed not only against the Lutheran religion but also against their own civil liberties. Maurice had brought with him the Bishop of Bayonne as French ambassador, who offered no opposition to the contemplated peace. Henry II, indeed, whose only object was to create disturbance in Germany, had found another and less costly ally in Albert of Brandenburg, who, refusing to accede to the truce, had detached himself from the army of Maurice, and was ravaging Germany on his own account at the head of 8,000 men. The Emperor, however, showed at first no disposition to accede to the proposed terms. He agreed indeed to release the Landgrave, but required security for the consequences of such an act, which it was difficult to provide; and above all he would not yield on the subject of the Council. In this state of things King Ferdinand made a journey to Villach to mollify his brother; while Maurice, resorting to a rougher mode of persuasion, marched with his army to Frankfurt, where troops were mustering for the Emperor, and bombarded that city, though without much effect. At length Charles, principally from his brother's representations of the danger impending from the Turkish war, consented to more moderate terms, and Maurice having again returned to the conference, a treaty was signed, August 2nd, 1552, which, under the name of the Peace of Passau, marks an epoch in the history of the Reformation. The chief articles were in substance : That the confederates should dismiss their troops by the 12th of August, or enroll them in Ferdinand's service for war against the Turks; that the Landgrave of Hesse should be set at liberty on his promising submission for the future; that a Diet should be summoned within six months for settling religious disputes, and also for considering alleged encroachments on the liberties and constitution of the Empire; that in the meantime the Lutherans should enjoy the free exercise of their religion, engaging in turn to leave the Papists unmolested; that Lutherans as well as Catholics should be admitted into the Imperial Chamber; that an entire amnesty should be granted for all past transactions; and that Albert of Brandenburg should be admitted into the treaty provided he immediately laid down his arms. The King of France was invited to state his grievances against the Emperor, so that he might be included in the general pacification. And as it was foreseen that the coming Diet might fail in bringing about the desired settlement, it was agreed in a separate treaty that in that case the peace should remain in full force till a final accommodation should be effected. This latter agreement Charles refused to sign; but it was not anticipated that he would endeavor to disturb it.

Thus ended the first religious war in Germany, arising out of the League of Smalkald; by which Maurice, whatever we may think of his duplicity, was certainly the means of saving the liberties of the Empire, as well as the Protestant religion, from the assaults of Charles V.

CHAPTER XX

THE CLOSE OF CHARLES V’S REIGN