The history of the popes, from the close of the middle ages : drawn ...

CHAPTER V.
Negotiations for the Reopening of the Council
OF Trent,
The most important, as well as the most difficult task which
the election capitulation had imposed on the new Pope was
the question of the Council, the means by which a stand was
to be made against the divisions in the faith and the abuses
in ecclesiastical affairs. It was not yet decided whether the
Council, which had been suspended in 1552, should be con-
tinued, or a new one convoked, nor had anything been decided
as to the time and place of meeting. It was not advisable
to raise all these critical questions prematurely, and it was
therefore considered sufficient to give expression, in general
terms, to the desire of the best elements in the Church.
As to the question whether the Council of Trent should be
continued or a new one convoked, the most conflicting views
were held. While the Protestants, without exception, demanded
that everything that had been decided hitherto
should be revoked, and matters gone into again from the
beginning, strict Catholics insisted, very logically, that the
dogmatic decrees already issued were unchangeable and
irrevocable, as were the canons of all other ecumenical
councils. The latter view, which was represented most
strongly among the secular powers by Philip II., was at first
shared by the Emperor, Ferdinand I. He, however, allowed
himself to be led away, later on, by consideration for the
Protestants, and he took up their claim as his own. The
French government acted in a similar manner, because their
position with respect to the Huguenots was very similar to
that of Ferdinand towards the German Protestants. ^ Pius
^ See Ehses, Schlussakt des Konzils, 43 seq.
179