f its purposes remained as
widely divergent from the Imperial as in the days of Paul III. The
nomination of Cardinal Crescentio, a Roman by birth, as president of the
council, with two Italian prelates, Pighino of Siponto and Lippomano of
Verona, by his side, was in itself ominous; and the German Protestants,
upon whom the Emperor pressed safe-conducts at Augsburg (1551),
perceived the papal intention of treating the council as a mere
continuation of that which had previously sat at Trent. Still, several
of them, as well as the Catholic electors, finally promised to attend.
On the other hand, Henry II of France prohibited the appearance of a
single French prelate, and began to talk of a Gallican council. Thus the
brief series of sessions held at Trent from May, 1551, to April, 1552,
proved in the main, though not altogether, barren of results. Unless the
assembled fathers were prepared to reconsider the decrees already
passed, and to force the assent of the Pope to a religious policy of
quite unprecedented breadth, another deadlock was at hand; and already,
in the early months of 1552, the council, this time with the manifest
connivance of Rome, began to thin. When, in April, Maurice of Saxony,
now the ally of France, approached the southern frontier of the Empire,
the Pope, whose own French war had taken a disastrous turn, had reason
enough for shunning further cooperation with the Emperor. The council
dwindled apace in spite of the efforts of Charles V, who had never
ceased to believe in his schemes. Finally, however, he could not prevent
the remnants of the council from passing a decree suspending its
sessions for two years, which was opposed by not more than a dozen loyal
Spanish votes, April 28, 1552.

Charles V's resignation of his thrones (1554-1556) resulted, though far
from being so intended, in a confession of his failure. While it was in
progress, Julius III died (March 23, 1555), leaving behind him scant
evidence to support the rumor of his having indulged, at all events in
the last period of his reign, in ideas of church reformation. But the
choice of his successor, Marcellus II (April-May, 1555), shows that
these ideas were not yet extinct in the sacred college, notwithstanding
the simultaneous creation by Julius III of fourteen cardinals; for
Cervino had always been reckoned a member, though a moderate one, of the
reforming party. Far greater, however, was the significance attaching to
the election of the