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

THE SECULAR PRINCES. 377
After the fundamental lines for the renewal of life, both for
the Church and the family, had been traced, there remained
but one more field of activity for the work of reforming zeal,
the field of politics. There can be no doubt that in the
relations of the princes to the Church there was room for an
immense number of improvements, and that a very great part
of the most pressing evils was due to the fact that unworthy
proteges had been intruded into ecclesiastical positions by
secular officials and rulers ;
it was plain that Church property
had been diverted from its original purpose, and that seculars
influenced the government of the Church for their own selfish
ends. The attempt, however, to appeal to the conscience of
the princes raised a perfect storm of opposition among them.^
No other course, therefore, was possible to the Council than to
express in general terms the hope that the princes would
fulfil their duties as Catholics and as the divinely appointed
protectors of the faith and the Church, and to renew the old
laws for the defence of ecclesiastical liberties, and to exhort
the princes to observe them.^
Had it been given to the Council, by such exhortations as
these, to bring the further development of absolutism to a
standstill, then French, and with it European history, might
have been spared the era of the revolution.
The true and intrinsic success of the Council lay within the
Church itself, though even there its decrees were not all of
them carried into effect everywhere or at once. The law, for
example, concerning the provincial synods to be held every
three years, was nowhere observed, except perhaps by St.
Charles Borromeo.^ In Germany the existing conditions
made it necessary to unite several bishoprics in the hands of
the son of some powerful prince. The reform of the cathedral
chapters remained a pious wish in many places, while even
the important decree concerning the clerical seminaries was
not at once carried out everywhere. A great number of abuses,
1 Cf. supra p. 343.
^ Sess. 25, c. 20.
'He held provincial synods in the years 1565, 1569, 1573,
1576, 1579. 1582.