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

332 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
on June 8th, that it was his duty to decide in favour of Spain,
and he expressly gave as his reason that Phihp II. must at
that time be looked upon as the principal support of the
Catholic religion.^
Above all, however, the legates were preoccupied with the
question concerning the episcopate and the primacy, which
had recently once again broken out into flame. Even the
preliminary discussions concerning the abuses connected with
Holy Orders, which lasted from May 12th to June i6ih,^ as
well as the later ones on the ordination of priests,^ which
began on June nth, made it clear that an agreement on
these questions was hardly to be expected. While the Arch-
bishop of Granada was for ever proclaiming the divine right
of the bishops, others, especially the French bishops, were
indulging in the most violent censures of the real and supposed
abuses in the Curia. The Bishop of Paris, who
wished to see the discussions on the reform of the Curia
put in the first place, recommended the restoration of the
ancient mode of electing bishops, according to which the
Pope would have to renounce his right of nomination.
According to the wishes of many, the right of dispensation
must also be withdrawn from the head of the Church, and
the election of the Pope regulated by the Council.*
In the final assembly, on June i6th, Lainez, the General
of the Jesuits, maintained with the greatest firmness that
the Pope, as head of the Church, could not be reformed by
the Council. Reform, he declared, is a return to old ways ;
there is an interior reform as well as an exterior one, and the
latter must be subsidiary to the former ; all reform must
^ See Pallavicini, 21, 8, 4 ; Sickel, Beitrage, II., 60 seq., 62
seq. ; Susta, IV., 62, 82 seq., 495 seq.
^ Cf. Theiner, II., 270-301 ; ibid., 264-70, the drawing up of
the list of abuses relative to Holy Orders, which was brought
before the fathers of the Council on May 10. See also Psalmaeus
in Merkle, II., 838 seqq. For the later proceedings, from July 10
to 12, see Theiner, II., 302-9.
^ See Paleotto in Theiner, II., 617 seq. Cf. Susta, IV., 54 seq.
* Cf. Grisar, Primat, 773 seq.