a of an outbreak of the plague at Trent. By the
Emperor's desire, the Spanish bishops, plague or no plague, remained in
the city.

"The obstinate old man," said Charles, "would end by ruining the
Church;" and sanguine Protestants might dream of a renewal of the
situation of 1526-1527. The progress of events widened the breach
between the Emperor and the Pope. After Muhlberg Charles V seemed
irresistible, and, as he would hear of no solution but a return of the
council to Trent, there seemed no choice between submission and
defiance. Gradually, however, it became clear that he had no wish again
to drive things to extremes, and least of all to provoke anything of the
nature of a schism. Moreover, France, where the Guises were now in the
ascendant, was becoming more hostile to him; and the murder of the
Pope's son at Piacenza, followed by the occupation of that city by
Spanish troops, September, 1547, nearly brought about the conclusion of
a Franco-Italian league against Charles. But though French bishops
arrived at Bologna, their attitude there was by no means acceptable to
the Pope, and Henry II had no real intention of making war upon the
Emperor. Thus the latter thought himself able to take into his own hands
the settlement of the religious difficulty.

In the midst of further disappointments and of fresh designs, the
immediate purposes of which are not altogether clear, Pope Paul III
died, November 15, 1549. That the most generous of the aspirations which
had under his reign first found full opportunity for asserting
themselves had survived his manoeuvring, was shown by the favorable
reception, both outside and inside the conclave, of the proposal that
Reginald Pole should be his successor. But Pole refused to be elected by
the impulsive method of adoration, and in the end the Farnese[55]
interest, supported by the French, prevailed, and Cardinal del Monte was
chosen.

The papal government of Julius III (1550 to 1555) showed hardly more of
temperate wisdom than had marked his conduct of the presidency at Trent;
but he had the courage at the very outset to decide upon the safest
course. After a few conditions, most of them quite in the spirit of the
imperial policy, had been proposed and accepted, the bull summoning the
council to Trent for the following spring was issued without further ado
(November).

Yet even before the council actually reopened, _i.e._, May 1, 1551, it
had become evident that the papal view o