THE POPE'S QUARREL WITH GHISLIERI.

317

sealed acts of their trial, be sent, as soon as possible, to Rome.1

5

This brief was directed against Carranza, for whose arrest the Inquisition now made preparations. Much as Philip II. was in agreement with the severe measures taken against the heretics, it was only after great hesitation that he allowed steps to be taken against Carranza, and he insisted that due respect should be shown to the prisoner.3 The archbishop took great trouble to have his case transferred to Rome, and sent a Dominican1 there for this purpose, who was received and supported by Cardinal Ghislieri. This excited the Pope, who in his impaired state of health, was always growing more nervous and violent, to such an extent that, for half-an-hour, he hurled such violent reproaches in the consistory at the hitherto highly esteemed Cardinal, that Cardinal Consiglieri remarked that it was impossible to live or have dealings with the Pope any longer. At a second consistory Paul IV. repeated his reproaches against Ghislieri, declared that he was unworthy of his position, and said that he felt remorse of conscience for having ever bestowed the purple on him. A report of August 5th, 1559, from Rome, states that it was feared there that the Grand Inquisitor Ghislieri would be taken to the Castle of St. Angelo as a prisoner 16 It was at this time that Paul IV. said to the French ambassador that heresy was such a grave crime that, were a person even slightly infected with it, there re

1 See RAYNALDUS, 1559, n. 19; ibid., n. 20, a brief to Philip II. of January 11, 1559, in which the king is requested to support the new Papal measures.

2 Cf. the *letter of the royal confessor, Bernardo de Fresneda, to Cardinal Carafa, dated Brussels, February 12, 1559 (Lett. di princ., XI., 269. Secret Archives of the Vatican).

3 See LAUGWITZ, 53.

4 Fr. Hernando de San Ambrosio ; see Colección de doc. ined., V., 505, and DÖLLINGER, Beiträge, I., 259 seq.

5 Paul IV.'s physician, A. Ricchi, lays special stress on this in his account of the last illness of the Pope (Vatican Library; see Appendix No. 60).

See Appendix No. 59.

2

mained no other remedy than to consign him at once to the flames, no matter if he belonged to the highest rank.1 It is also characteristic of him that during the last days of his life, Paul IV. bestowed warm words of praise on his old adversary, Philip II., because the latter took severe measures against the heretics in Spain. On May 21st, 1559, the first great public auto-da-fé had taken place in Valladolid. In accordance with the sentence pronounced, the greater number of the prisoners were pardoned; thirteen, among them three priests, five women and one Jew, were handed over to the secular power execution. All these unfortunates repented of their errors, with one exception, who, as a thoroughly obstinate heretic, Iwas burned alive.3

1 RIBIER, II., 815.

for

2 RIBIER, II., 814 seq. According to the *Avviso di Roma of June 24, 1559, Paul IV. summoned the Inquisitors to his room on the Thursday, and pronounced a long panegyric on Philip II., on account of his punishment of the Lutherans (Vatican Library).

3 See SCHÄFER, I., 324 seq.; RiESS, 371 seq.; S. FRANC. BORGIA, III., 505 seqq.; Atti d. Soc. Lig., XXXVIII., 104 seq.

CHAPTER XII.

SPREAD OF PROTESTANTISM IN THE NETHERLANDS, FRANCE AND POLAND.

In another part of the immense Spanish Empire, in the Netherlands, it happened, towards the end of the pontificate of Paul IV., that the Papal and royal powers found themselves united in common action in an ecclesiastical matter. The population of this country, which was highly developed both from a material and an intellectual point of view, held fast to the religion of their forefathers in the middle of the XIVth century, at least as far as the great majority was concerned.1 It had not been possible, however, completely to master the Protestant movement in a country that was so eminently cosmopolitan. The secret Protestant propaganda in the Netherlands had become all the more dangerous during the first fifty years of the XVIth century, because the revolutionary Calvinism, which had already been introduced into the southern Walloon provinces by the English and French refugees, now began to take root in the northern provinces as well.2 This change for the worse in the state of affairs did not escape the notice of Philip II., and if he contented himself at first with the confirmation of the regulations issued against heresy by Charles V., he nevertheless showed clearly that he was not going to tolerate the laxity with which these had hitherto been put into force.3

1 According to the testimony of Heinrich Dionysius 1553; see HANSEN, (Akten zur Geschicte des Jesuitenordens, Bonn, 1896, 247) and Badoer (1557; see ALBÈRI, Ser. I., iii., 291) which are in agreement, there can be no doubt with regard to this; see PIRENNE, III., 452.

2 Cf. RACHFAHL, Oranien, I., 409 seq.; PIRENNE, III., 525

seqq.

3 See Bullet. de la Comm. Roy. d'hist., Ser. 2, XI., 231; PIRENNE, III., 461.

Proceeding rightly from the point of view that repressive measures alone would not be of much avail, he sought, by the furtherance of the Catholic reformation, to remove the numerous ecclesiastical abuses, from which not the least part of the movement of defection had originated. He gave the Jesuits permission to form settlements as early as August 20th, 1556, although Viglius, the President of the Council, opposed it.1 The king also endeavoured in other ways to combat the grave abuses in ecclesiastical matters, as well as the serious defections from the Church; at length he resolved to lay the axe at one of the principal roots of the ecclesiastical state of chaos.

2

In the seventeen provinces, the population of which was greater than that of any other European country north of the Alps, there were only two real bishops of the country, those of Tournai and Arras.3 The Bishop of Liège was an independent Prince of the Holy Roman Empire in his bishopric, and his diocese also included parts of the German Empire! like the Bishop of Utrecht, he was under the Elector of Cologne. In the southern part of the Netherlands, Cambrai was dependent on a French archbishop. The same was the case in other parts of the Netherlands. These foreign bishops were too far away to understand the conditions there, and, moreover, they not infrequently exercised their powers there in an illegal manner, and to the prejudice of the sovereign. In addition to this, difficulties arose owing to the difference of the language, which were further increased when people had to go abroad to look after their rights or to appear before a judge. The native dioceses did not correspond to the political districts of the country, and they were so extensive and so thickly populated that one bishop was not able to look after them. In consequence of this, the gravest scandals, from a moral point of view, were able to creep in among the secular and regular clergy. Spiritual instruction, in the form of preaching and

1

Cf. Vol. XIII. of this work, p. 209.

2 Cf. PIRENNE, III., 358 seq.

3 Cf. concerning the organization of the dioceses before 1559 LAENEN in the Annales de l'Acad. archéol. de Belgique, Ser. 5, VI., 67 seq.

BISHOPRICS IN THE NETHERLANDS.

321

catechizing, was woefully neglected, and the sacraments very carelessly dispensed. In some places the young people grew up in a state of utter neglect.1 Even the more earnest-minded bishops were unable, in the unpractical and chaotic condition of the spiritual jurisdiction, to remedy the state of affairs.

In order to do away with this confusion, Philip II. asked from Rome a complete reorganization of the hierarchy, so that by an increase in the number of the bishops, and a diminution in the extent of the dioceses, they might be in a position to proceed, both against the ecclesiastical abuses, and the inroads of heresy. The Pope entrusted this important matter to a commission, consisting of Cardinals Pacheco, Saraceni, Puteo, Reumano, Capizuchi and Rosario. This commission recognized the good intentions of the Spanish king, who, even if he were greatly influenced by political motives, nevertheless had in view, above everything else, the futherance of the religious needs of his provinces of the Netherlands. The proposed reorganization would undoubtedly benefit them in the highest degree.2

After long and thorough consideration, it was decided in Rome, that, for the future, the jurisdiction of the German and French bishops should cease in the Netherlands, and that, in addition to the old dioceses, fourteen new ones should be established, namely, Namur, St. Omer, Malines, Antwerp, Ghent, Bruges, Ypres, Bois-le-duc, Roermond, Haarlem,

1 See JANNSEN, Über die erste Periode der niederl. Revolution des 16. Jahrh., in the German edition of the Civiltà catt. I., Münster, 1855, 34; HOLZWARTH, I., 107 seq.; cf. RACHFAHL. I., 306 seq., 610.

2 See MIRAEUS, Opera dipl. III., 523 seq.; cf. A. JANSEN, Het advies der commissie van zeven Kardinalen: Archief v. d. geschiedenis v. d. Aartsbisdom Utrecht, IX. (1881), 1-22; BRom, Archivalia, II. (1911), 147. The *Instructions for Sonnius, the envoy sent to Rome, dated Brussels, March 8, 1558, in the State Archives, Brussels. Concerning the plans of Philip II., and the justification of his proposal, see GACHARD, Corresp. de Philippe II., I., xciii. seq.; KOCH, Abfall, 44 seq.; HOLZWARTH, I., 69 seq.; PIRENNE, III., 501 seq., 504.

VOL. XIV.

21