refused to carry out the decree of Worms, alleging as an excuse the
danger of popular commotion. They brought forward once more the
grievances of the German nation against Rome (/Centum Gravamina/),
insisted on a General Council being called to restore peace to the
Church, and held out a vague hope that an effort would be made to
prevent the spread of the new doctrine till the Council should be
convoked.

The papal nuncio, dissatisfied with the attitude of the
representatives, withdrew from the Diet before the formal reply was
delivered to him. Adrian VI., cognisant of the failure of his efforts
and wearied by the opposition of the Romans to whom his reforms were
displeasing, made a last fruitless effort to win over Frederick of
Saxony to his side. The news that the island of Rhodes, for the
defence of which he had laboured and prayed so strenuously, had fallen
into the hands of the Turks, served to complete his affliction and to
bring him to a premature grave. He died in September 1523 to the great
delight of the Romans, who could barely conceal their rejoicing even
when he lay on his bed of death. He was an excellent Pope, though
perhaps not sufficiently circumspect for the critical times in which
he lived. Had he been elected a century earlier, and had he been given
an opportunity of carrying out reforms, as had been given to some of
his predecessors, the Lutheran movement would have been an
impossibility.

He was succeeded by Clement VII. (1523-34). The new Pope was a
relative of Leo X., and, like him, a patron of literature and art. He
was a man of blameless life and liberal views, and endowed with great
prudence and tact, but his excessive caution and want of firmness led
to the ruin of his best-conceived plans and to the failure of his