THE GORDIAN KNOT.
Thus, then, Melancthon had failed; and his enormous concessions were found useless. From a false love of peace, he had set his heart on an impossibility. Melancthon was at the bottom a really Christian soul. God preserved him from his great weakness, and broke the clue that was about to lead him to destruction. Nothing could have been more fortunate for the Reformation than Melancthon's failure; but nothing could, at the same time, have been more fortunate for himself: his friends saw that though he was willing to yield much, he could not go so far as to yield Christ himself, and his defeat justified him in the eyes of the Protestants.
The Elector of Saxony and the Margrave of Brandenburg sent to beg Charles's leave to depart. The latter refused at first rather rudely, but at last he began to conjure the princes not to create by their departure new obstacles to the arrangements they soon hoped to be able to conclude.[792] We shall see of what nature these arrangements were.
They appeared to redouble their exertions. If they now let the clue slip, it is lost for ever: they laboured accordingly to reunite the two ends. There were conferences in the gardens, conferences at the churches, at St. George's, at St. Maurice's, between the Duke of Brunswick and John Frederick the Elector's son, the Chancellors of Baden and of Saxony, the Chancellor of Liege and Melancthon; but all these attempts were unavailing. It was to other means they were going to have recourse.
Charles the Fifth had resolved to take the affair in hand, and to cut the Gordian knot, which neither doctor nor princes could untie. Irritated at seeing his advances spurned and his authority compromised, he thought that the moment was come for drawing the sword. On the 4th September the members of the Roman party, who were still endeavouring to gain over the Protestants, whispered these frightful intentions in Melancthon's ears. "We scarcely dare mention it," said they: "the sword is already in the Emperor's hands, and certain people exasperate him more and more. He is not easily enraged, but once angry it is impossible to quiet him."[793]
ALARM IN ROME.
Charles had reason to appear exacting and terrible. He had at length obtained from Rome an unexpected concession—a council. Clement VII. had laid the Emperor's request before a Congregation: "How will men who reject the ancient councils submit to a new one?" they had replied. Clement himself had no wish for such an assembly. His birth and his conduct made him equally dread it.[794] However, his promises at the Castle of St. Angelo and at Bologna rendered it impossible for him to give a decided refusal. He answered, therefore, that "the remedy would be worse than the disease;[795] but that if the Emperor, who was so good a Catholic, judged a council absolutely necessary, he would consent to it, under the express condition, however, that the Protestants should submit in the meanwhile to the doctrines and rites of the Church." Then as the place of meeting he appointed Rome!
Scarcely had the news of this concession spread abroad, than the fear of a Reformation froze the Papal court. The public charges of the Papacy, which were altogether venal, immediately fell, says a cardinal, and were offered at the lowest price,[796] without even being able to find purchasers.[797] The Papacy was compromised; the merchandise was in great danger; and the price current immediately declined on the Roman exchange.
On Wednesday, 7th September, at two in the afternoon, the Protestant princes and deputies having been introduced into the chamber of Charles the Fifth, the Count-palatine said to them, "that the Emperor, considering their small number, had not expected they would uphold new sects against the ancient usages of the Universal Church; that, nevertheless, being desirous of appearing to the last full of kindness, he would require of his Holiness the convocation of a council; but that in the meanwhile they should return immediately into the bosom of the Catholic Church, and restore everything to its ancient footing."[798]