rs of the Church assembled
at Trent presented itself again when the sacrament of orders had in due
course to be debated. The imperial and French ambassadors still
cooperated as actively as ever, and the episcopal party, the Spanish
prelates in particular, entered upon the struggle with a full sense of
its critical importance. If the right divine of episcopacy could be
declared, with it would be established the divine obligation of
residence. Pius IV accordingly showed considerable shrewdness in
instructing the legates at once to formulate a decree on residence,
which, while leaving the question of divine obligation open, imposed
penalties on nonresidence--except for lawful reasons--sufficient to meet
practical requirements. But though such a decree was passed by the
council, the debates on the origin of the episcopal office, which
involved nothing less than the origin and nature of the papal supremacy,
continued (November); and the critical nature of the discussion was the
more apparent when in the midst of it there at last arrived nearly a
score of French bishops, headed by the Cardinal of Lorraine. Hitherto
France had been represented at the council by spokesmen of the French
court and of the Parliament of Paris; now the foremost among the
prelates of the monarchy, whose abilities, however, unfortunately fell
far short of his pretensions, announced in full conciliar assembly the
demands of his branch of the Church. The recent January edict proved the
strength of the Huguenots in France; and though the Cardinal's first
speech at Trent breathed nothing but condemnation of these heretics, it
suited him to pose as the advocate of as extensive a series of reforms
as had yet been urged upon the council.

Further additions were made in the "libel," which was shortly afterward
(January, 1563) presented by the French ambassador, and perfect harmony
existed between the French and the imperial policy at the council. What
decision, then, was to be expected on the crucial question as to the
relations between papal and episcopal authority? How could a recognition
of the Pope's claim to be regarded as _rector universalis ecclesiae_ be
expected from such a union of the ultramontane forces? The current was
not likely to be stopped by the papal court, which about this time Pius
IV announced on his own account at Rome; it seemed on the point of
rising higher than ever when (February, 1563) the Cardinal of Lorraine
and some other prelate